Grandmother’s Foreclosure And The Book

SPEAKER_01 0:00

When Eric Maldonado was nine years old, he watched his grandmother lose a home that she had already paid off. She had worked hard, raised ten children, and owned that house for decades. But after making financial decisions without the right information or someone she trusted to guide her, the home was lost to foreclosure. That experience stayed with Eric. It helped shape the financial advisor he became. And even today, when he sits across from a client, he asks himself, What would I have told my grandmother? How could I have helped her? That question is at the heart of his new book, The Fearless Wealth Plan: A Simple Guide to Achieving Your Financial Goals Without Losing Sleep. And now, here's our conversation with Eric Maldonado.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Hi, Eric. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

Hi, Gabe. Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

So glad to have you here today and to get to talk to you. And Eric, the first thing I wanted to ask you is could we start with just telling us about yourself and your background and what led you to where you are today?

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah,

Eric’s Background And Sabbatical Spark

SPEAKER_00 1:10

I've been doing financial planning for 15 years now and I love it. It's a passion of mine to help people reach their financial goals. And I started my business about nine years ago now, and it went by fast. And I'm I'm thankful that it's it's going well and going great. And I'm thankful for this book that I get to do. It's been a long time coming to write a book at some point. I wasn't sure if I would ever write one, but I feel like now was the time. I took a sabbatical with my family in the Sierras in the California Mountains for a year in 2025. And when I came back, I felt like, all right, this is a good time to write a book and and have fun with it. And so now we're here.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Yeah. Well, I hope we get to come back to that trip with your family in the Sierras, too. But Derek, tell us about the name of the book and uh about the writing of it, who you wrote it for, and who it's intended to help. I'd love to hear about that.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Yeah, the Fearless Wealth Plan, a simple guide to reaching your financial goals without losing sleep. And it's for anybody that wants help reaching their financial goals and specifically those that might feel a little bit afraid or anxious when it comes to investing, maybe not fully confident about how to go about it. Or maybe they have invested in the past and they feel like it didn't go well. They made some mistakes, or you know, they experienced a recession or, you know, a big market drop and and they don't want to experience that again. Really is a simple way to tackle financial planning and investing and growing your money to have it last your lifetime, really.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Yeah. I love that word fearless in it, Eric. That I think that the things that you're describing, when turbulent times come up, that people do get affected by that, and it can influence the direction of the way that they invest their money or that they hold their money after that.

The Story That Shaped His Mission

SPEAKER_02 2:49

So in your book, you open with a story about your grandmother, and this is about losing her home. So could you tell me that story and how that helped to shape what you're doing today?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah, absolutely. My grandmother shaped everything about my life. She pretty much helped raise me, and she's a beautiful, amazing, tough, amazing person. She had 10 kids and raised them a lot of it on her own. And then I'm one of her grandkids. And so she had a lot of grandkids as well. And I was a direct beneficiary of her kindness and love and and toughness and super hard worker. She would walk to work at the olive plant down by her house and was uh one of the foremen, I believe, and would come back and forth and take care of her kids as well. And and she worked super hard and and she paid off her home. She had a fully paid off home and and owned it for 30 years. My mom and my brothers lived there. And then one day, you know, people came to the door, bankers, I guess. I'm nine years old, so I'm not really sure who, you know, sport coats on and briefcases. And they have they have a meeting with her. And then pretty soon I realized, okay, we have to move. And later on in life, I realized it was a foreclosure. And it's because she probably didn't understand fully what she was doing when it came to loans and maybe was afraid about making mistakes or telling other people what was happening, kept it private. And I just feel like if she had some more information, some more education, someone to help her, someone to talk to her about big decisions like that, that maybe seem small in the moment when it comes to taking a loan or being sold a financial product that might not be in your best interest. That played a big impact in my life later, just realizing, okay, she, you know, probably could have died in her home if she wanted to, all the way through the rest of her life, if she had some better education, better information, and maybe a good financial advisor. That motivates me a lot of time when I meet with people is okay, what would I say to my grandmother, or how would I help her? What would make the difference like it would have made for my for my grandmother?

SPEAKER_02 4:33

Yeah, yeah. Well

Why Fear Beats Market Risk

SPEAKER_02 4:35

said. Eric, you say that the biggest threat to somebody's financial future that it isn't those market crashes or bad investments that they've made, but it's actually fear. And so can you tell me what that fear actually looks like in the clients that you help?

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah, it looks like probably being too conservative than they need to be. They hear, okay, when I'm older, when I'm in my 60s plus, when I'm about to retire, I should put in a lot of, you know, quote unquote safe investments, bonds, fixed income, things like that. And in reality, we're trying to fight inflation and 30 plus years possibly of a two-person retirement. So that's a lot of time to make sure that your money stays in the position it needs to be to purchase a lifestyle that continues to get expensive each year. Right. And the best way to do that is to stay, you know, in growth mode, which is owning companies that pay dividends, that make profits, that are hiring people, that are making solutions happen in the world. And those companies tend to go up and down a little bit more than bonds. But in the end, you get the benefit of growth and maintaining your lifestyle. So I think people mistake safety in their investments with being able to achieve their goals. So they hear, oh, okay, if I have a nice, steady, eddy like experience, I'll be able to reach my goals. But in reality, you might not be able to because we're living longer and things are costing more. So the true safe investment feels the scariest because it's going up and down. But long term, it gives you the greatest probability of having enough money to live off.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

That really does feel fairly counterintuitive that people think that they're going to safety, and yet that could be the thing that's costing them being able for their retirement dollars to last all the way through their lifetime. And so, how do you help to ease their thoughts about it? And so they do feel comfortable with investments that are going to benefit them in the long term.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Yeah, one is just historical perspective. Where have we been? How have things played out over time? What's the trend line over a hundred plus years of the stock market or owning businesses in America, especially? And sometimes when they hear those stats, that helps. The other is just hearing what their values are, what they want to do in life, what their goals are, and then looking at what gives them the best probability to achieve those. So a little reminders, too of like, okay, we're living longer, you know, we want to live as long as we can. And also inflation is kind of the silent, you know, the silent cancer, if you will, of finance. And it's easy to forget that, okay, in 20 years, I still need to maintain a lifestyle and an independence financially that I'm used to. Those two things are the biggest. Aligning with historical perspective and a good advisor is able to do that. And then also just reminding them of what they care about most. And then what's the probability of getting those values or goals to come to fruition over decades?

Values First Before Any Investing

SPEAKER_02 7:12

I'm so glad that you brought up values, Eric, because I found that so interesting in your book that before you're even ever talking about investments with a new client, that you start with values. And so tell me, why does that come first?

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Yeah, because it connects the person's perspective, the client's perspective of life with their finances. And usually our values in life don't change a whole lot, whether it's faith, family, fun, any number of things that people find to be most important. Yeah. Oftentimes those stay pretty consistent. And then once I hear and get uncover really what drives them, what gets to the heart of why they're living life, of what money even means to them or why it matters to them. Like for me and my grandmother, I mean, I want to make sure that that doesn't happen again for other people. So that's a that's a big value system for me, or spending time with my family, like we did a sabbatical, those types of values dictate my decisions and how I spend money. So if I get a good perspective and an understanding of what they care about, then it makes the decision making, you know, easier because I can say, okay, remember this is what you told me is most important. Does this decision with your money, with your investments align with that priority that you told me?

SPEAKER_02 8:18

Eric, tell me something that surprised you when you asked about values as you were uncovering that with the person you were working with. Tell me one that stands out to you that maybe was a surprise or that resonated with you on a deep level.

SPEAKER_00 8:31

Yeah, one couple in particular, they had an early retirement scenario where they thought they were going to work a lot longer, but their company had layoffs and they just didn't feel like they were gonna find a better position. And so they wanted to explore the idea of, okay, let's retire now and can we do it? And their values were spending as much time with family as possible, spending time with each other, and then their faith, honoring God with what they have. And their goals ended up being things like taking a trip to Iceland, which they've never done before, and they really wanted to experience that and you know, dip their toes in the ocean in Iceland. And then also they had goals like do a build-out of a trailer and and drive it all the way up the California coast to Alaska and spend all that time together. And then their other goal that related to their family value was helping their the wife's dad live closer from Florida all the way to California and get to spend his last years close to them in their same on their same property. So those values really dictated their goals and and how we could help them achieve them.

SPEAKER_02 9:29

Yeah, I like that one. You have me wondering, Eric, how cold the water is if you're dipping your toes in them in Iceland, but I'd like to experience that for myself sometimes. Sounds interesting.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yeah, is that the Arctic? It depends on which side of Iceland you're on, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 9:43

Exactly. It's at least close. Yeah. I

Why Simple Investing Wins

SPEAKER_02 9:46

wanted to ask you about this because you say that simple investing, it almost always beats complex. And investing can feel complex to people. And so why do so many people, Eric, end up with complicated strategies then?

SPEAKER_00 9:58

Yeah, I think complexity cells, fear cells, things that are hard to understand or seem really complicated. Oftentimes our human nature just thinks that, okay, that must be a smart thing to do. If it, if it causes me to feel like I don't understand it, but this person does, then maybe this is something that is worth doing. Whereas in reality, the the things that we understand most, especially with investing, tend to be the most effective because we can stick with them. With investing, it's more about how long can you maintain a discipline as opposed to switching in and out to the next best thing or the next shiny object. So optimism and someone telling you, hey, if you stick with the planet, it's going to work out and things will get better to our human mind often sounds like naivete or, you know, maybe not that smart. So things like that definitely impact our desire to want to go to the more complex. And then just the sales component in general, the glossy, the things that look shiny and new and novel tend to sell because it scratches that itch that we're always trying to look for, you know, kind of something secret or uncover something that others don't know about or the new thing. And but in reality, the time-tested stuff tends to work. Same with health, you know, eating healthy, getting good sleep, drinking water, flossing, those are all things that are easy to do, but we tend to find ways to not do them. And that to me is one of the biggest values of a good financial advisor or a coach, is they help you stay on the path that you said was important to you. They help you kind of stay the course from a behavioral perspective.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

When you draw that comparison with eating healthy and exercising, that makes it so clear in my mind because you're right. These are things that we can do. And yet, why is it so difficult? And when it comes to investing, I could see if it if we're on our own, we make poor decisions with the partnership. Do you think that leads to better outcomes for people? Because now you have somebody thinking along with you.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, I think we're made to be connected with each other. We're made to have unity, to move forward together. Yeah, there's times when we do things on our own, but over the long term, people live longer when they have relationships, when they're when they're with people. And that goes the same with trying to achieve your goals, whether it's an athletic goal or a financial goal, going together with people is helpful and having a guide and someone to just encourage you. It's more fun, it's less likely to make big mistakes. It's hard to see your own blind spots and and having someone else with you, you probably get to where you want to go sooner and in one piece.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

Yeah, I think you're right. It makes all the difference in the world. Eric,

Panic Attacks And Real Empathy

SPEAKER_02 12:28

you talk about in the book some of your own battles with fear. And I think this struck me because I think that we all go through this in different ways and have to conquer it and come out the other side to feel whole. And so, can you share the experience that happened to you and how this has helped to shape the way that you serve your clients?

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, it was the first time I ever got a panic attack. It was about 10 years ago or so. And I was driving in LA on the freeway, the 101 in the afternoon, something I've done before many a time. I've been driving, you know, my whole life. And then all of a sudden, I didn't know what it was at the time, but it was a panic attack. It just felt like the sky was falling. All of a sudden, it felt like I was incredibly wrong, but there nothing had really changed around me. My mind had started to uh sound all the alarms. And then I pulled off to the side of the road or to a parking lot, really, to a place to eat. I thought maybe I was just hungry or a kit too much caffeine, maybe. And then I got back on the road and it started kind of coming up again, but I I just continued to make my way towards home. And thankfully I was able to get calm again, really. And then that that really kickstarted a whole chapter of just understanding and learning how the brain works, how the gut works, and and then how fear works really, and talking to people and trying to read and understand the triggering points and how to overcome it really.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:43

And the blessing was that I was now able to empathize more than ever with people that were anxious or that had fear or had worry. And before that encounter, I didn't really have a whole lot of events to speak to that allowed me to connect with people that were feeling a serious amount of fear or panic. So all that research, that experience, that understanding of how to get through fear, I think God really gave that to me to help people do that themselves. And so now I have some tools and some resources and really my faith was probably the biggest thing that helped me overcome that. And so all that allowed me, I think, to be a much better advisor than I was before with helping people overcome fear and anxiety when it comes to money and investing.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

I think that's so important because you lived it and you came out the other side. And yeah, so now, Eric, if somebody comes into your office and they're worried and they're feeling that fear and they're looking ahead and thinking, I don't know if I'm gonna make it through retirement, if I'm gonna be okay, if I have enough, how do you help to ease their fears and to calm them and to assure them that with the proper steps that they can be all right too?

Staying The Course Through Market Drops

SPEAKER_00 14:48

Yeah, absolutely. First I just ask, why is money important to you? What what matters to you about money? And then usually we uncover some other values. And then I say, okay, what are we trying to achieve? What are what are two or three goals? Is it, are we trying to buy a house? Are we just trying to get to a place where we can retire with X amount of dollars? And then I look at what they have and I say, okay, what this is what you have, this is where we need to go. And one of two things. One is either, okay, I think you're in a good shape. We can do a couple of things to get you there, or, you know, we have some work to do and we have X amount of years until you want to retire. So these are the things we need to put in place to do it. And then after we kind of get the values, goals, action items in place, then we have conversations about how we're going to invest and which type of portfolio gives them the highest and best option to reach their goal. And then some of those more specific questions about, you know, how often does the market drop and by how much, and then what's the reward really for staying the course and, you know, giving them that historical perspective, you know, mixed with some optimism about, you know, companies and businesses and capitalism and the entrepreneurial spirit hasn't peaked. And we can still hope and rely on the future to be better because these businesses are always working towards solutions.

SPEAKER_02 15:54

Yeah. I I like that pep talk a lot because I think, like you said earlier, we're a little bit wired to take the negative case and to think about it, dwell on it, and to fixate on it a little too much. But when you're talking about the historical perspective and the positive case for business in America and the reason why investing in it is a solid plan, I feel like that that inspires me, just with you saying it right now, Eric. Do you see other people's eyes light up in the shift in their thought after you talk them through those things?

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing is we're just wired to survive, right? We want to survive as humans. And usually acting first when something bad happens is the best way to survive. I just uh did a two-week trip with my son. He's 10 years old. We did the Camino de Santiago and we walked a bunch of miles, but there were cars along the road sometimes, and I would tell him to come towards me. And then sometimes his panic knee-jerk reaction was to go the other way. And I think that's just the survival mechanism to run, you know, when you experience some sort of fear. And so, whereas it's the it's the exact opposite when it comes to investing, you don't want to run from it. You want to stick with it and stay the course when the market drops, which it it drops by 20% or more on average, once every four years, that's when people tend to let me run for cover. And that's the exact wrong thing to do because now you sell at a bottom, you lock into losses, and then you don't get back in on the up and you kind of get hurt twice. Whereas an advisor, hopefully should be able to help you from a behavioral perspective, just be the barrier in between you and and kind of a panic knee-jerk reaction.

SPEAKER_02 17:28

This is just like you and your son on the road that you need somebody that as you start to run the wrong direction, somebody that pulls you back the right way.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

Yeah. So the big takeaway from that whole trip for us, one of his is that when daddy yells, you know, go towards me, not away from me. And that's uh, I think applicable to investing when when there's a an oncoming threat, a recession, a correction, continue to go towards the investing as opposed to run away with it, run away from

Handling Windfalls Without Regret

SPEAKER_00 17:53

it. I like that.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Eric, this was interesting too in your book that you talked about how clients they come to you after receiving a windfall or an inheritance. Maybe they sold a business or they received some sort of settlement. And I think we all have heard stories about people that come into a lot of money at once and it ends up going badly and they lose it very quickly. So, can you talk us through what makes those moments in life so complicated emotionally and trying to figure out what to do with the money? And how can you help them to make that windfall that they've received a blessing in their lives instead?

SPEAKER_00 18:28

Yeah, absolutely. I've been fortunate to help quite a few people now with an unexpected windfall. And the two that I'm thinking in particular are due to an unforeseen death and an unexpected death of a family member, a parent. And now they have this big windfall of money, but they have this loss attached to it, this grief, this terrible scenario that, you know, they'd rather have their family, of course, than the money. However, they know they want to do what's best with the investments, the windfall, the assets. And so, same thing. I just sit down with them and hear their story and try and understand, okay, what's most important to them? And oftentimes it's things like, okay, I'm just, I just want to learn. I want to be educated. I never had an opportunity to have money or learn about it. And one of the reasons why it's so difficult to do the right thing with a big windfall for people is because they didn't get to do what everyone else did as they grew money, which is kind of learn over time and make mistakes and learn from them, small mistakes, you recover. Now it's this big windfall, millions of dollars. And one mistake could be could be the only mistake they get to learn from, and then it's too late. So the education piece is really important for them. And I'm I'm big on just sitting down and talking them through okay, what are the kind of basics of investing? What are the stocks, the bonds, inflation, assets, liabilities, time value of money, things like that, and then trying to put a plan in place? That's a big piece of the education piece. And then the other piece is a lot, oftentimes they're kind of anxious in a way where they're just frozen. They don't want to make a mistake. So they keep it just in cash or in the bank account that it came in. And, you know, possibly months or years later, they didn't really get to do anything with it. And maybe it starts to get spent down and it doesn't grow. And now they're in a position where, for the right reasons, they were trying to not make mistakes, but it ended up being detrimental because the money wasn't being utilized and wasn't working for their long-term goals.

SPEAKER_02 20:06

I feel like that's a lesson that a lot of us have to learn at a certain point that you can't just protect it and just hide and try to be safe, that that never works out in the long run. That you have to have courage, you have to get past some of the fear to be able to move forward and to, like you said, let things grow.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

Yeah, absolutely. It's the parable of the talents. The ones that the parable of the talents. Yeah. The guy who buried it, he didn't get a very good response from from the master.

SPEAKER_02 20:30

He didn't.

SPEAKER_00 20:30

But the ones who doubled it and took and took risk. So it's it's taking uh wise risk, taking risk in a way that allows you to feel comfortable. I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't climb a mountain like you know, Mount Everest by myself. I would have to have, you know, a good, a good guide that I trust. Right. Yeah. So anytime someone does something for the first time, it's going to be tough. You know, you kind of need a guide, whether that's fly fishing or learning how to surf or anything like that. So that to me is is the reason why financial advisors exist.

SPEAKER_02 20:57

It's so important because you've seen these situations before. And so when somebody comes to you with a problem, Eric, more times often than not, is it something that you've seen before? And you can say, yes, there's a solution, there's an answer, and I can take you directly there.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Yeah. Thankfully, now after doing this for 15 years and hopefully another 40 plus years, yes, I get to see a lot of scenarios, you know, hundreds of conversations and and get to help see the results. And now after doing this for decade plus, I can see the benefits, I can see the rewards. You know, we can all read about it and and learn about it in textbooks and you know all the coursework we do, but yeah, firsthand, there's no there's no substitute for that.

SPEAKER_02 21:36

Yeah, I agree a hundred percent. You can't just learn it in a textbook, you have to experience it and live it in life. Yeah, absolutely. Eric,

Using Wealth With Purpose Today

SPEAKER_02 21:43

you talk about in your book aligning wealth with the values and using money with purpose. I want to ask you about that. What does that look like in practice with the people that you're helping?

SPEAKER_00 21:52

Yeah, just continually trying to help them connect the money with what they want to do with it while they're alive, while they can see the result. Know if if generosity is important, how can we give with a warm hand as opposed to giving at death? Yeah. And kind of freeing them up to do that based on the plan and the numbers. Some people maybe they didn't intend to die with as much as they did, but they didn't have anybody kind of helping them to spend it, to utilize it, to release it to the people that can use it, to family, to memories that'll that'll pay dividends later in life with their kids or grandkids while they're young. Yeah. So just giving people permission to spend when they have a a scenario where it's obvious that it's going to work out for the rest of their life.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

And now let's enjoy it. I think that's such a great idea because Eric, I've always thought of legacy and inheritances, things that I'd want to leave behind for my children as something that I'm gone and that they'll get to enjoy it. But this idea that I can experience it with them now and to see the benefits and the blessings that it can bring, I think that's a wonderful idea.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, there's some scenarios where okay, we got to be a little bit more cautious and this is the amount that we want to give. But in other scenarios where people have more than they ever expected and they can give it away when their kids need it most, because usually, I mean, if you're in your 90s and you die and then your kids inherit it, maybe they're in their 60s. It's like by the time they're in their 60s, they probably don't need the money as much as they could have used it, maybe when they were in their 30s raising kids and trying to buy homes. And so I feel like that's a really impactful way to help people.

SPEAKER_02 23:25

Yeah, I agree. I

Family Sabbatical And How To Connect

SPEAKER_02 23:27

want to circle back before we close out today, Eric, and ask you about this trip that you took with your family to the Sierras, the sabbatical. Tell us a little bit about that, because that sounds like an incredible thing that you did.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Yeah, I had to put my money where my mouth was in terms of telling people, okay, reach your goals and let's put them on paper and then let's achieve them. I had to do that myself, walk the walk, not just talk the talk. And right. So it was about a seven-year goal or time frame where me and my wife, when we started talking about, okay, what would it look like to do a sabbatical, to take a break, to invest in our family, in our kids while they're young? I have four children and now they're ages 10, all the way down to three. So, you know, we know that time kind of goes by quickly unless we take advantage of the of the opportunities. So when we started the business, we knew that, you know, there it would probably take a lot of effort and it did, and a lot of time, and and that if it worked, which it did, thankfully, that we would utilize and benefit from a break. And so we went to the mountains to a camp, uh, Hume Lake um is the name of it, Christian camp, and had a lot of just fun, met a lot of great people. And, you know, I live on the central coast, so there's not a lot of seasons, but in the mountains you get snow and fall and you know, all the real seasons. So that was just a great experience for the kids. And and we became closer as a family, closer to God, closer to each other. So it just made it all worth it. And I was energized to come back and and write this book. So that wasn't really even a part of the plan necessarily, but it was just a good benefit from hearing from God, being being obedient to that and saying, okay, this is a good time to take a break and pull back a little bit from growth mode and and just trust that it's all gonna work out.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Eric, to me, that's such a wonderful example of exactly what you're saying that you're starting with the values and seeing how high up their family is, and then going and doing something about it, creating a memory that all of you, I'm sure, are going to remember forever. So I think that's an amazing example.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Yeah, absolutely. No, we're all we're all thankful that it happened. My wife liked it so much, she didn't want to leave. And that's the risk, I guess, of taking a sabbatical. Someone might want to stay long term. But we had to come back and and do the work and and be back on on path towards helping people.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

Right. That's a good path too. Eric, for listeners that would like to reach out to you or that want to get a copy of your book, how should they do that?

SPEAKER_00 25:38

It's available anywhere on Amazon and then aquilawealth.com, AQ U I L A. AquilaWealth.com is my website. You can reach me there. And then the book, The Fearless Wealth Plan, it's on Amazon. You can get it in any format.

SPEAKER_02 25:49

Fantastic. Eric, it's been so good speaking with you today. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 25:52

Thank you, Gabe. Great to be with you.