Podcast Transcript
Speaker 1:
Welcome to Real Wealth Real Health, the show that empowers you with insights, information, and inspiration to achieve your version of financial wellness. Learn how to balance living a full life today with planning for the future. This podcast is brought to you by Alpha Investing, a real estate centric private capital network that provides exclusive investment opportunities to its members. And now here are your hosts, AdaPia d’Errico and Daniel Cocca.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Jody, welcome to the podcast. It’s so wonderful to have you here.
Jody Robinson:
Thank you. It’s great to be here. It’s nice to see you AdaPia d’Errico and hi Daniel.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yes, you and I were connected, even though we’re both in this financial industry, we were connected through means of being authors and you so very kindly sent me your book and you had included one of my stories, one of my talks in your book, and that’s how we connected. And it’s just been so wonderful to get to know you and read about your journey. So having you on the podcast today is really a treat.
Jody Robinson:
Yeah. I love when you put something out to the universe and good things can happen, but you have to try and not be stuck in fear of what might or might not happen. And I was very inspired by your Ted Talk. So I’m really so blessed that we’ve been connected.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Oh, I really appreciate that. And as you know, on Real Wealth Real Health, we talk about a plethora of things. We’re going to focus in on the finance, and the investing, and the wealth building and all that good stuff, but really what we’re after is the human story. And you have just an incredible story. So can we take a few minutes and hear about who is Jody Robinson and how did you get… Who are you also professionally and how did we get to be here on the podcast?
Jody Robinson:
Well, let me just say, I love your podcast. And I love the story about Harvey that I think it was last week. And I like him grew up in, I wouldn’t say poverty, but definitely not wealthy. I grew up in a really small town in North Dakota and creativity and moving beyond what people always told me was the way to do things was a huge drive in my life. My parents told me my first words were me do, because I didn’t want anyone else to do it for me. And if somebody told me I couldn’t do something or it was impossible, it would just make me work harder. And so for many years I equated hard work with success, but what I really found is that it’s connections, relationships, finding the right resources and enjoying life because it’s really more about the journey than the destination.
Jody Robinson:
And like I said, we didn’t have a lot of money growing up, but I was the first person in my university to study abroad with financial aid, and being from a small town and getting to go to another country was really an amazing experience. And I graduated as a teacher. My first teaching experience didn’t go so well. I bumped around for a while. It was kind of lost and because teaching was something I wanted to do since I was 16, so while I was figuring out my next steps, I rehab departments, I worked retail. I designed webpages for people. I did janitorial work. I help people with resumes. And I also worked at a daycare center. And at that point I was $45,000 in debt and I was just trying to do everything I could to make ends meet.
Jody Robinson:
But I did land a job at a company in California. They’re a financial services company. And what I learned out of that, I got to hang out with these really cool people from Harvard, people who had had their own startups and had come and worked with this company. And I felt I really lucked out because not only did I learn a lot about finances, but I was also able to just absorb some of the greatest minds in the world. And I actually met some of the folks from Google when they were first a startup, they were in a room at Intuit Campus, that was the company. And they called it the fishbowl because you could see them working in there and everybody thought they were kind of weird, but I’d have lunch with them once in a while. And it was really, really a great experience.
Jody Robinson:
I’m dating myself, but I helped with a Y2K whole transition and everybody thought the world was going to end, but it ended up being a pretty much non event. And then the tech bubble burst and my husband at the time got transferred to the Chicago area and I followed him. I wanted to focus on having a family, so I took a support position at a brokerage firm in 2003. And as I moved forward in my career, I realized that I really wanted to serve people in my own way. And I got licensed, I started my own practice in 2010, right after the great recession. And then I went through a really difficult divorce and decided to go independent in 2015, because I needed flexibility.
Jody Robinson:
It’s amazing what people are going through now with the pandemic. I kind of went through that whole situation about five years ago. And so my son was eight, and so I wanted to be able to focus on just serving my clients really well and not having that pressure from the corporate structure to grow, grow, grow. And I love my career. I love what I do. And it was actually easy for me to transition because I had already been working with people out of state on video conference. So I just shifted, and that’s the thing I’m finding right now is there’s a lot of people who are creating success for themselves by being creative.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Wow. I keep hearing me do, me do, from your first words, just like all of the things you did, just so much resilience from a young age, all the jobs, like you said, rehabbing homes and doing websites, and just this drive to… Were you driven to achieve or what was driving you then?
Jody Robinson:
My dad was an entrepreneur and I had seen his business do well. And then it didn’t do so well in the mid ’80s. And I saw my mom working at a job for many years and she was serving farmers and her job was very stressful. I used to see her come home with massively huge binders that she had to study and know by the next day so she could go in and help with these different programs. And I just had that work ethic instilled in me from a young age. And then I was a swimmer and my swim coach, who I love, love, love dearly, she always pushed me. And I think having those few people that are important in your life is really important, and finding those people.
Jody Robinson:
That was the thing after my divorce is I had to kind of figure out life all over again. And I had to find the people that filled my cup because I’d been in a situation where I didn’t have the support I needed, but I was really lucky that there was a couple of people who pulled me along. And then I found other people in my life that have just made my life fantastic.
AdaPia d’Errico:
It always comes down to surrounding yourself with people that are supportive and conducive to where you want to go and you you’re clearly very values driven. So I kind of wanted to dig into that a little bit in terms of today, you are, is it correct to say financial advisor?
Jody Robinson:
I’m actually a financial planner and a partner at Kingsview Wealth Management, and they’re one of the resources that’s been amazing for me. They talk about financial advisors, financial planners being independent, but not alone. And I feel very supported as an independent financial planner. I’m also an accredited wealth management advisor and an accredited asset management specialist. So got a couple of letters behind my name, but it’s just continuing education and constantly learning. It’s very important that you’re always filling your cup with knowledge as well.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay, good. I’m glad I asked that question because you have a very rich background here in all things finance, and especially personal financial planning. And so I know one of the things, we connected personally, and there’s obviously a lot of resonance here. And in speaking to you and getting to know you too, you operate on a set of values that are personal, that you also bring into what you do professionally. So can you talk about that a little bit, how you bring those values through, and maybe even how your firm is a container really, for those values to come forward and allow you to serve your clients?
Jody Robinson:
Well, I appreciate you asking that. I mean, ultimately I feel that life’s challenges are not the end, but it’s a door to a new beginning. And right now it’s a horrible situation for a lot of people, but I’m really committed to helping people move forward in whatever circumstances they’re facing. In terms of the values and where do we begin and how do I help clients, I start by looking at their current situation, but I also dive into the psychology of investing that that clients subconsciously hold, because that influences any future decisions that person’s going to make. And although you can kind of help shift mindset, there’s always that core belief system that I think is really important to learn about when you are in any career. If you’re working with a team of people, you’ve got to know what their talents are, you’ve got to know where their challenges are.
Jody Robinson:
And then from a very practical perspective, we look at process improvement. I was also certified as a project and program manager in the high tech world, but we look at some really pieces of framework, first, what are your fixed expenses? What are your variable expenses? What are your big, hairy, audacious goals? That’s always really important. What do you need for your business operating fund as the CEO of your life? Do you have adequate emergency funds if you didn’t have income for six to 12 months? And do you have passive income? What can you do to get that into place? And then we really take those next steps and look at how we get there.
Daniel Cocca:
And so out of the people that come to you, how many folks would you say ultimately have that six to 12 month buffer and kind of doing all these things that you talk about? I know you’re working with a variety of different people, different economic situations and whatnot, but how do you think about how people absent your intervention, how they handle this type of thing?
Jody Robinson:
It’s funny because we talk this all the time in financial planning classes. If you watch pretty much any financial guru out there, they tell you get six to 12 months of emergency funds. But practically speaking, I don’t find a ton of people who have it. Some of them maybe have two months, three months, but I really help them kind of stretch that muscle and work on that because this type of scenario that we just were in, I I’ve actually had people come back to me and say, thank you for making me do that and keeping on me and nagging on me because it really made a difference in my situation right now.
AdaPia d’Errico:
That’s amazing. It’s always one of those things, right? It’s kind of like insurance where you think, “Why am I paying for this? Why am I doing this?” And then when you need it, it’s always, “Oh, thank goodness that I had this.” It’s really amazing to hear them come back and say that.
Jody Robinson:
I think for me personally, the reason why it was so important is because when I went through my divorce, I walked away with not a lot of money. I did all the things that you’re not supposed to do when you go through divorce. And I kind of gave up a lot of things on the table. So I had to start over and I realized that I had a lot of credit card debt when we went through our divorce and I told myself I never want to be in that situation again. So I worked really hard to get that emergency saving, to get all of that debt paid off.
Jody Robinson:
And I’m sitting at a place in my life, I’m married again, my husband is amazing, but we’re working on trying to pay off our mortgage and we have a car in the next three to four years. And we’re putting a lot towards that. One thing, just kind of getting into the weeds a little bit, my biggest rule of thumb is that you should be saving and investing 15 to 20% of your net income. And that sounds crazy for some people they’re, “Oh my gosh, I can’t even imagine doing 1%.” But think about it, right now social security covers about 25 to 30% of your retirement, and that could change, I mean, that could go away, but that leaves about 70 to 75% of your own future that you’re going to need to fund yourself because for most people, they don’t have pensions anymore.
Jody Robinson:
But if you’re already not spending that 15 to 20%, your lifestyle gap now is only 50 or 60%. And because you’ve been saving that money, you’re actually, if you’ve got it invested, depending on your return, you could be wiping away that 50 to 60% as well with the investments that you’ve been doing.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Right. It seems that there’s rules of thumb that we’ve all learned to various degrees still hold true.
Jody Robinson:
Yeah, it’s something grandpa and grandma told us to do, right?
AdaPia d’Errico:
Right. Yeah. Just like we always talk when we talk to investors that come to us because they want to diversify out of the stock market and the ETFs and they’ve maxed their 401ks and… But it’s diversification across the board, that’s another kind of general rule that we hear. And I think it’s applicable in everything, is to split things up. What’s your view in general on diversification and diversifying asset classes?
Jody Robinson:
Well, I just want to say, I really loved and I hope I’m pronouncing his name correctly, you had a podcast with, I think his name is Jeff Scheinrock.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yes, Jeff.
Jody Robinson:
And he said in times of crisis people can make a lot of money and real estate’s a good investment if you’re buying good properties and you have a long time horizon, he was talking about real estate. But I think it goes to anything that you have to be willing to invest for the longterm and you have to manage risks, and using Jeff’s words there, I thought it was absolutely brilliant. I know that you guys work with investments in real estate and some people would kind of lump real estate into small cap or mid cap, so basically small size companies or large size companies that you can invest in. And I really view real estate as a separate unique asset class, because depending if you use the stock market inventions of mutual funds, exchange traded funds, or a real estate investment trust, you really have to think about, it’s not going to react the same way as say the regular stock market or the bond market.
Jody Robinson:
And if you’re investing directly into a commercial property or residential property, your diversification really depends on how you’re doing that. And you could have varying liquidity or ability to cash in, and you could have varying results as well. So I think it’s important not to put all of your eggs in one basket. Again, another rule of thumb I generally recommend if somebody is going to do real estate investing and I do have people that do that, and they do it very successfully, not to have more than five to 35% of your assets, depending on how you’re doing it and how much risk you want to take and your diversification, because you don’t want to have all of your money in real estate.
Jody Robinson:
I saw that a lot when we went through the great recession, we had the firm I worked with, we had several real estate people, construction people, mortgage people, and I saw them have some really difficult financial situations. And it was a big lesson to me that, because real estate previous to 08, 09 was 45% returns. And we’d have people come to us and say, “Why should I in the stock market at all when I’m flipping houses and I’m getting 70, 100% returns on these investments? Why should I do that?” But like everything, diversification is a risk management tool. It’s a project management tool for your life. So you just want to make sure that you don’t have everything invested in just one asset class. But I think real estate is a fantastic asset class to look at. And there’s many different ways that it can be done.
Daniel Cocca:
The allocation question, particularly in real estate, I think is very interesting and in the context of where we are in the world today, because you look back to, let’s say pre-2012, which is when the jobs that came out. And when Crowdfunding really started to get popular. And real estate access was pretty limited. It was country club, friends and family, and then you were always tied to that smaller more localized operator. And because of that across the board, we had this mass under allocation into real estate. And then Crowdfunding really started providing access to real estate and people realized, “Hey, I can get diversification. I can find relatively high yield from assets that aren’t correlated with the stock market. This makes a ton of sense, right?”
Daniel Cocca:
And then I saw a breakdown probably about six months ago of different income brackets, right? And if you look at that kind of bottom 99% of earners, their real estate allocation is close to zero, particularly if you’re excluding their primary residence, right? And then you look at that 1% and it’s still under allocated in that 10 to 15% range. But then what I found most interesting, so when you look at the wealthiest half a percent, quarter percent of people, they’re in the 40 to 50% range of real estate allocation.
Daniel Cocca:
With the thinking that over the course of time, particularly in an environment where a government is printing a ton of money, asset values will rise, right? You want to be holding assets and real estate is one of the safest ways to do that. Now, of course you need to be mindful, you need to think about risk and downside and all of those things, but I’d be interested to get your thoughts on the kind of the allocation decision as it relates to the types of individuals you work with?
Jody Robinson:
Well, and I think you have a really good point that in our industry, a lot of traditional wealth management overlooks real estate up until, I don’t know, I think it was 2009, 2010. I didn’t really see a whole lot of real estate mutual funds. There were really no real estate exchange traded funds that I was aware of. And it became much more popular. And I think as time is going on more and more financial advisors are starting to look at real estate as an additional asset class and not just part of a mid cap or small cap. But traditional investing, there’s still a lot of people out there that they’re like, “Oh, that’s not a separate asset class.” I really think it is because it doesn’t have as much correlation with the stock market and the bond market.
Jody Robinson:
So in terms of diversification, it’s great. It’s just a matter of what you can afford and not to over leverage yourself, making sure that when you’re talking about 40 to 50%, you might be including some of the leverage as well as the assets. But I generally say for somebody who doesn’t have a ton of money, you can access real estate in an exchange traded fund or a mutual fund, possibly even a real estate investment trust. But you got to be really careful with those and look at what they’re doing, because we did have problems in O7, 08 with people who bought, they’re called REITs, Real Estate Investment Trusts, and they started to lack liquidity. So that was a real problem.
Jody Robinson:
But then there’s also owning property yourself. And if you’re going to own property yourself, you also need to look at what amount of work you’re going to need to put in it. Are you working with a private equity group or are you doing it completely on your own? How much involvement is it going to require for you? How much commitment? How much control do you want? And really understand what you’re getting into. Because it is, if you’re getting into it on a bigger level, it’s more of a commitment because it’s more of an illiquid asset. You can’t just walk into the bank and say, “I’d like to cash in my commercial real estate property today.” This doesn’t work that way. So it really depends on your individual situation and that’s where having good financial people, good financial advisors, good financial planners, and good tax people, good legal advice, especially if you’re getting into it on a higher level to find that team. It’s not just you making decisions yourself by watching one YouTube video, you really got to have a team with you that’s going to help you make the right decisions.
Daniel Cocca:
Yeah. It’s an interesting question too, with respect to financial advisors, because I think one of the things that we see pretty often specifically for advisors who charge their fee based on capital, under management or under their umbrella, if they don’t have either in-house real estate transactions for their investors or have that expertise, they’re really hesitant to tell an investor to take capital outside of that umbrella and move it to a where the advisor is no longer being compensated for managing that capital, right?
Daniel Cocca:
And I think before investors started to have access through groups like ours and a lot of others out there that was always the challenge is, how do you find the deal? And your advisor is often telling you, “Hey, don’t go in this direction, keep your money here. This is what makes sense.” And you’re kind of out there on an Island by yourself. And that’s really changed dramatically, particularly in the last four or five years where there’s a real push to find real estate investments. And if you look at the current market, even in spite of COVID and all of the economic uncertainty, and the election, and what will come with that, we see record amounts of dry powder ready to be deployed into real estate. And so just a long way of saying it, and it gets an interesting kind of cycle, right? There are always things and incentives going on behind the scenes that influence the different types of advice you’re getting from different people.
Jody Robinson:
Well, and that’s where you have to be really careful about what advice you’re getting and who you’re getting it from, because someone who’s a true fiduciary should try to eliminate conflicts of interests wherever they stand. Naturally, if you have somebody who’s working on commissions or even somebody who is claiming to be a fiduciary and gets a percentage of assets under management, like I do, I’m a fiduciary, there is always that human aspect where somebody could say, “Well, if this person is taking out X amount of dollars for real estate, that’s going to be less money that’s invested with me,” which I think is really a misleading thought for financial advisors. If there’s financial advisors listening to this, I want you to think of it this way, if you have someone who has the wherewithal to invest in real estate, they’re not investing too much of their assets that they’re over leveraged. It is going to help you reduce the portfolio reliance rate later on when they’re in the distribution phase, because they’ll have a source of passive income from that property that they wouldn’t have had otherwise.
Jody Robinson:
It’s another way that you can look at passive income. I mean, like I said, in the past, people really relied on pensions. People really relied on annuities, but I think people have become, maybe I don’t want to say a little bit of maybe disillusioned with annuities because they don’t necessarily give all the promises that they say that they’re going to give and they tend to be sometimes more expensive, not that I’m against them, they have their place, but I think this is another alternative. And thinking about it as an alternative, this is not necessarily your meat and potatoes, unless real estate is your business. Then that’s a different. But even somebody who’s in real estate should look at diversifying and having a nice full plate with the meat and the potatoes and the vegetables and not just putting it all into meat, because then you’re going to end up having a heart attack.
AdaPia d’Errico:
That’s hilarious. I was wondering if you were going to go to the heart attack with the meat eating, that’s hilarious. But it’s really great advice. You’ve given so many really important insights for the listeners. I know I’ve been learning a lot also. A couple of things kind of strike me that are in the moment right now, I’d love to get your insights on this case shaped recovery, so to speak that we keep hearing about which to me, it’s always been a K. And it’s just being spotlighted that way right now, but it’s always been a K. And most recently, I think it was earlier in a Washington Post article, they were talking about how there’s different kinds of people along the upper arm that are okay for different reasons. If you’re a homeowner, you’re on the upper arm, if you’re in certain areas of the country, you’re on the upper arm. If you have an education you’re on the upper arm.
AdaPia d’Errico:
So again, to me, it just reinforces this idea that it’s not a recovery in the shape of a K, it’s society that’s in the shape of a K. I would love to hear your thoughts on that, just in terms of how you maybe speak to your clients about protecting themselves so that to whatever degree they’re on, they don’t find themselves on the lower leg of that K?
Jody Robinson:
Well, that’s where I hammer down. I hammer down on the thoughts of emergency savings, always knowing your risk tolerance again, when you’re investing in the stock market or the bond market, your losses aren’t realized unless it goes to zero, or unless you realize the gain by selling the investment that you have. So if you have good diversification, the chances of going to zero are pretty small, because if we go to zero, it means that our economy has completely collapsed, if you’ve got a balanced portfolio. And I just think education is so important. And maybe it’s the former teacher in me that I believe if anyone is stuck in a situation where they feel that their life is not working for them, everyone has, and to steal Randy Acorn’s idea of time, talent, and treasure, everyone has time, talent, and treasure that you can use to make your life better. It’s just a matter of how you are going to use those resources.
Jody Robinson:
And if you’re in a situation where your job is no longer relevant, you need to look for a new career. I mean, I’ve changed my careers three times. And for every time that you fail in your life, it’s another opportunity. It’s another chance to be successful. But when we see people that are falling off into the other direction, it is heartbreaking. But I think that out of great adversity out of great challenge can come great innovations. You just have to not give up on yourself.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yes. Thank you so much for saying that. I feel exactly the same way. That’s really beautiful. And I know that you feel very called in terms of being of service, servant leadership, being of service. And sometimes, and I know for myself personally, I struggled with this a lot in the past where I thought to be of service couldn’t be part of a financial career. And so I went through this whole phase a few years ago where I thought I was a bad person because I had pursued a career and I had done all the things to be successful in society and then really I hit a wall and I burnt out.
AdaPia d’Errico:
And so when that happened, I questioned absolutely everything and kind of put myself in this camp being a bad person. And instead I’ve come through, it’s like a dark night of the soul, right? I’ve come through that to really understand that we are being of service in a role, in a career, and even in the world of finance. ‘Cause it’s so vilified and it’s so wonderful to meet people like you who are being of service and you see it as such. I think it’s really important too, because we have, we talked about mindset, we get a lot of negative money messages as well, which I’m sure you come across with your clients. How much does that in their psychology?
Jody Robinson:
Well, I think you and I, we connected really because both of us have had a couple of those sitting in the corner moments with our head in our knees and wondering what in the world we’re going to do next. It’s a tough place to be. But when we think about our money messages, instead of telling ourselves this is hopeless, I’m completely worthless, I don’t have any way to get out of this to go, okay, today I need to focus on my self-care. I need to take that first step. And then what is the next step? And the next step after that? It’s not an overnight fix, but every person has to look at themselves and taking care of themselves first, and then they can help the wider world.
Jody Robinson:
And sometimes it can go even backwards. I mean, in my situation, when I went through my divorce, I’m a humanitarian and I do a lot of community service. And just doing that community service helped me get out of my head because it got me out of that pity party. I mean, I was using a food pantry at the beginning of my divorce. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, here I am a financial advisor using food pantry. This is pathetic.” But I would go and do community service and help other people. And I realized there’s people who had a much more difficult situation than I did and had a much bigger hill to climb and they did it. And if they can do it, I can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. It’s just taking those baby steps and then looking forward to how can you help the wider world. Because if we’re all stuck in our own little bubbles, we’re never going to advance as a society.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah. I love that. Thank you. And I know that in your book, you talk a lot about money messages. And so I would love to touch on the book. And then I know that we also want to talk about your nonprofit. So let’s talk about your book because I, first of all, like I said, I was really just blown away and humbled that you included my story in your book. And I read it and I just thought how practical, and yet at the same time really inspiring, you don’t get that a lot in finance books. So let’s talk about your book. I really loved it.
Jody Robinson:
Oh, thank you. So I wanted to… I wrote the book because my son is at an age where he doesn’t really listen to mom anymore, but I have a lot of things that I want to tell him. And I had a few people in my family that had serious health issues. I had a couple people that passed away and it just struck me, this was way before COVID, but it just struck me that if something happened to me tomorrow, what is the message that I want my son to walk forward with? I had a couple of grandparents that have really colorful stories and I used to beg them if I could record them and they never would let me. And it’s like, I think to myself, “Gosh, I just wished I could hear their voice one more time.” So that was really the goal for me in writing the book. And also during the audio book myself.
Jody Robinson:
About the subject of the book is a whole bunch of interviews and great stories. And the ultimate message of the book is it’s very simplistic. But if you don’t have freedom, you need to use your creativity to get on a path, to either more income, or to look at a way to simplify your lifestyle that you can still love your life the way it is and spend less. In all cases, you need to find resources, whether it’s education, other networking contacts, organizations, or professionals like yourself who are knowledgeable and trustworthy to support you on your journey.
Jody Robinson:
And if you want to look at that journey and how to get a freedom mindset with your money, change the messages that you tell yourself, you can find it at Amazon, or you can also connect with me and find the book at meetwithjody. And my first name is J-O-D-Y. So meetwithjody.as.me. So I hope that you guys check it out. And I want to thank you guys so much for this opportunity to visit with you. I’m just waiting AdaPia, when is your book going to come out?
AdaPia d’Errico:
Oh, I think it’ll be out by maybe around the time we publish this episode. So it’ll be out end of October, end of October it’ll be out. So I’m kind of rounding that last corner. And we’ll include links to your book, everything that you mentioned, everything that you mentioned as well. So it’s really exciting so thank you for that. And, like I said, I really found your approach to the questions that you put in your book, just like a really great way. ‘Cause I’m big into self inquiry and self reflection and I think it’s so important to be asking ourselves questions to help get to the core of, who am I, what do I want, what are my values? How do I do what I want to do? It’s a form of mental planning that then gets externalized in sort of material things. But I also definitely want to ask you about your nonprofit work, because I know you’re very passionate about that too.
Jody Robinson:
So I’m a Rotarian, it’s an organization of over 1.2 million people worldwide that try to just make the world a better place. Every club is autonomous. Some clubs have their own foundations, some use their district foundation or Rotary International, and they can apply for grants for different projects. We’ve done some amazing projects in our own community. We have about 42% of our kids, it’s probably more right now that we estimate have food insecurity in my hometown where my Rotary Club is located. And so we started a program where we provide supplemental nutrition for the weekends so they don’t come to school Monday hungry. And it just depends. Some people, some clubs focus on veterans issues. Some clubs focus on food insecurity, some focus on youth leadership. Our club also focuses on youth leadership.
Jody Robinson:
But I’m also a big supporter for Rotary International. And our club has also supported an organization called Shelter Box. Right now with issues with hurricanes and natural disasters, Shelter Box is an essential need that provides shelter, cooking supplies, and some basic essentials for sanitary, water in areas where otherwise they could not get help into them. So on an international level, there’s also so much that you can do with that organization. But any organization, whether it’s your church, Rotary, Kiwanis, Lions Club, just even your local food shelter, find a way that you can reach out, give back and get out it out of your head because I think too many people think too much about their own circumstances and right now we need all the help we can get helping each other.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I agree. And it’s been really amazing to see that happen through COVID as well. When COVID started, I personally was shocked and I didn’t know this and I live in Los Angeles, but that 40% of kids in the school districts across the County relied on schools for their food. And I don’t have kids, so I’m not as aware of these, just issues in general, but that’s just a shocking number. And there’s so much that we don’t know and you’re right, just doing something for someone else you always gets something out of it on such a deep, profound level. And it’s really important that more of us do step up and do what we can, especially if we’re in a position to be able to. So thank you for all of that, that you’re doing.
Jody Robinson:
Yeah. And thank you for connecting AdaPia. It’s been really, really cool.
AdaPia d’Errico:
This has been…
Jody Robinson:
Just so you know, I talk like a kid and sometimes people think I’m younger than I am, but I’m 48. I heard when Jeff was talking, he was saying he was 70 and when I heard him speak, I didn’t think he was 70 at all. But I think if you live a great life, if you love your life, and if you are more interested in the journey and enjoying every step on the journey, you stay younger spiritually, mentally and health wise.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, I think that is just a great place to end off. So thank you so much for being with us today for sharing your stories, and your inspiration, and so much detailed knowledge and takeaways in these nuggets about the weeds of finance too. So just an incredibly well-rounded conversation. And I’m just so blessed that we’ve been connected.
Jody Robinson:
Best of luck to both of you with the future of this podcast. I hope you continue it. The episodes that I heard are absolutely wonderful.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Oh, thank you, Jody. Thanks for joining us.
Daniel Cocca:
Thanks Jody. It’s great to have you.
AdaPia d’Errico:
Thanks for tuning into Real Wealth Real Health. We hope that you’ve enjoyed today’s episode and found it both informative and insightful. We welcome all your questions and your feedback about today’s episode, and especially we welcome your questions about specific topics that you would like us to cover. So shoot us an email at [email protected]. And if you have a moment, we really appreciate ratings and reviews as it helps us grow our online community and our interactions with you. And we’ll also be linking to a number of relevant articles on topics that we might’ve touched on during our conversations, some of them are broad, some of them are technical, but we’re always aiming to provide information that helps you better understand the mechanics of building this healthy financial foundation, especially if you’re looking to do this with real estate.
