Chat with Matthias, relationship with money and financial independence

Yasi: Today, our guest is Matthias Richter. Mathias was born in Panama and grew up in Switzerland. He has worked 12 years in private banking, Zurich and Singapore, and help the wealthy manage them. After spending years of saving and investing smartly, he has achieved financial independence. He then quit his corporate job and started his own business.

Focusing on wealth management and financial life coaching today, he will tell you what is the secret sauce of achieving financial independence? Hello, Matthias. Thanks very much for joining our podcast. Nice to have you. 

Matthias: Hey Yasi. It’s a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for the invitation. 

Yasi: Well, you pronounced my name very well.

Matthias: You know,  I studied some Chinese in the past. Yeah. 

Yasi: Well, the way we’ll get into that later, and I know that you have always been working with,  wealthy people or managing money. Have you always been working with, uh, money management since you were young? Or when did you start your relationship with money?

Matthias: My relationship with money.

Um, it’s actually, I believe it started when I was pretty young. Um, so I observed like all the little kids, they observed their parents. So you see how your environment works. And, uh, my father, he was a bad. Already from very young on, I kept wondering, what is this a magical tool money here? There was one incident.

My dad, he kept me on his arm and we went to one of the first ATM’s in the early 1980s in Basel. Then I suddenly saw how money. Um, miraculously out of a wall, it was an ATM. And that ATM is not like today that all the bank notes come at once. It’s one after another, they come like one of, then I look at my dad and say, can I have the next one?

Because I sincerely believe this is where money comes from. Then I, I helped my back to take it. And, uh, of course he insisted it’s still his. Then he started to say, it’s not that easy. And the, from then on, I got somehow curious about. But that’s probably when I have my first encounter with that from there on, I started to learn and be more curious and interested about it.

Yasi: And did you make money where you were kids by doing some work, like a side jobs?

Matthias: Yeah, indeed. There was, there was a lot of things. Uh, maybe we have our small kits. We started to collect fruits and vegetables from our garden, as well as from neighbors gardens and start to sell it in the neighborhood.

Uh, mysister and I, we also went into selling flowers, uh, selling pine cones, uh, all kinds of things. And, uh, later on, of course I couldn’t wait to get a job once I was old enough to qualify for that. So when I was. 13 years old. I asked my dad about having a TV in my room and he said, yes, you can have a TV, but, uh, you got to earn it for yourself.

Paid up for you? My mom, on the other side, she was a little bit more reserved. She said, no, no, no, no TV for you. You have to focus on your studies. But my dad, actually, he, instead of just making the dream happen, he told me, yes, you can have it. So he empowered me and said, this is how you’re going to do it.

You can get the job. So a few weeks later I was a newspaper boy and I got a route of 400 households and they have to distribute these newspapers in a. No matter it was raining sunshine or whatever the weather was. It earned me just about 500 Swiss francs per month when I was 14. That was quite awesome.

I did some other stuff along the way. I did babysitting. Um, I started to work in a bank as an intern at age 16 and so on the. Just started to feel empowered, to earn some money, make some bushes come through.  

Yasi: So talking about the wishes come true. Did you actually buy that TV? 

Matthias: Oh yeah, so it took me about three months to earn enough, to get to the point where I could buy the TV.

I liked the back then there was a huge 16 to nine. 82 centimeter rain, but it was not like the flat screen. It was, it was big. So I was in the shock. I just bought it. And then I didn’t know how to transport the thing back home. At that moment, I had to call my dad and say, Hey, that’s I bought the TV, but then he, he already forgot about our agreement that say what TV?

You didn’t know? Right? Four or five months ago. You told me if I earn enough it’s okay. I buy my TV. I bought it today. Uh, can you come and pick me up and bring the TV home and the, yeah, so I bought that TV. It was great. I put it in my room. I could play Nintendo and have my own things there on the screen.

It was awesome. But the, after a few weeks I started to realize that. The bank account was empty again. And that somehow felt interesting. I didn’t know that feeling before, so it was just all that effort and time that I put into this, uh, chop suddenly evaporated. However, I make my dream come true, but it’s somehow the happiness didn’t last.

Yasi: Yeah, it’s a short term. Uh, utility, we call it. 

Matthias: Short-term. Yes, yes. You actually think, uh, the goal is happiness, but the way is happiness, you can turn it like.

Yasi: And then how did you start your career as a banker? 

Matthias: Oh, that’s a, well, I was lucky enough before, uh, I finished my studies. I went to a TV show who wants to be a millionaire.

That’s more than it’s about 20 years ago now. And, uh, I was lucky enough to make a significant amount of money there. It was 125,000, which actually empowered me at the end of my studies to. I’d say to kind of, uh, not just go after the first best job offer, but to venture out. So I left Switzerland for Taiwan, um, when I was 24.

So I went with ICIC. It’s a great student organization. I highly rated. To all the young people here that would like to get some international exposure. Um, you can do Isaac traineeships, uh, in different fields, um, across the world. I think it’s almost 200 countries that are linked up there. Um, uh, once I was in Taipei, I started to learn Chinese and, uh, my background was economics.

So I studied economics. I networked with some Swiss people there. Back then there were about 200 people in the whole of Taiwan, 200 Swiss people in the whole of Taiwan. So in the Swiss club, they looked at me the wonder, why this guy is coming here, uh, selling electronic spec to Europe. And they say with your background, you should go into wealth management.

I mean, you can speak Mandarin. Why don’t you, uh, use your background from, from university and apply it to something that has a little bit more. Yeah. 

Yasi: And you studied economics right? From actually a very well-known school in Switzerland.  

Matthias: Oh yeah. Well, yeah, it’s um, it’s a great school. It’s the university of St. Gallen and, uh, yeah, that’s also perfect of the, what they are. Actually. They tickled my interest for Asia. I think in my third year they have a course about the world trade organization and there was the first time some people. Th from China, they came some professors from China. They came and explained the background, various China.

Now, where do they think it will go? And so on, it was highly interesting as a young person like me, that I think in the back in my family, we usually focused more on the west. So I think everything east of Turkey was kind of a. We are not really aware of that. I have to say it like this. Maybe it’s like a blind spot.

Right. They opened my eyes and my curiosity got tackled big time. So that’s why from, from this university, I think it was a door opener for. 

Yasi: And then that’s why you decided to go to Thai bay after you won this big prize. 

Matthias: Yes, correct. Uh, so I saw a lot of people. They, they were very happy of course, and who wouldn’t be right to land very good jobs after you graduate from the university.

But I figured learning languages is something that the have to say it’s a little bit more complicated, but when I was in school before, uh, I was not really the best language to. So I was not good in French. I was even not good in English. And there was even teachers telling me you don’t have talent for languages.

And if you hear that once or twice, maybe you start to believe it. And I felt my talent is more on the numbers side, on the economic side and on something else. Originally I was born in Panama. And, uh, when you were born in Panama, you got a passport. So throughout my life, I have this passport from Panama.

During my studies, I went actually there also to learn some Spanish and it was such a different thing to learn a language from scratch when you are living in the environment as compared to going to classroom studies and the, just to do it, to get some good grades. So the motivation was different. The environment was different.

And to after I discovered actually my Spanish went very fluent, very fast. I said to said to myself, why not go for Chinese? But what’s the logical next step in my mind challenge. The next challenge. Correct? I’ve done the, yeah. So that’s why I think I combined these things and ventured out to. Okay. 

Yasi: So all the things, what happened in the past and then all came together and then you made the decision to go to Taipei.

How many years were you working in the banking side? 

Matthias: Well, I, okay. I’ve worked for banking maybe half a year, and then, uh, later I, I got a very good job offer back in Syria in a famous Swiss bank to serve the greater China markets. Um, the, um, startup there in. 26, 2006 and worked for that bank actually until mid 2017.

So all altogether you can say it’s about 12 years private banking experience.

Yasi: Well, you worked also in Singapore for right. For the same bank. 

Matthias: Oh yes. Yes. That was in 2011. Usually back back then the problem was the big financial crisis. Um, stopped a little bit, the career plans of many people. I consider myself very lucky to be in a position there that I did not lose my job.

I could learn a lot of valuable lessons during the, the big sell off the instability of 2008 and nine. Um, then in 2011, I got the opportunity to go to Singapore for that bank. And the make that switch in early 2012 on state and modified five and a half years in Singapore kept serving people from the greater China area from Singapore.

Yasi: Yeah. You mentioned that. You’re very lucky. So I assume at that time you got a job, which you were very happy with. 

Matthias: Absolutely. Yes, it was a, it was, for me, it was the dream job. It was my ambition to, to, to actually go into that role and the, yeah, it all worked out all the stars aligned. I could actually travel more there.

Yasi: Yeah. And then 12 years later, you quit your job. 

Matthias: Yeah. Yeah. So once, once you do something right, you, you get better at it and you understand your clients more and more. You also understand how the industry works and, um, of course, right. You can say that, well, the bank. Brilliant direct, uh, reputation, very good brand strong brand.

That one definitely helped me to open doors. However, at the end, I think clients, the more they get to know someone clients, they don’t really, they don’t buy from corporations or organizations, people buy from people. So I think. When, when the banks, sometimes they have a research view and see something in a certain light.

Maybe I don’t agree. Or maybe my client even doesn’t agree or things are just not so aligned sometimes. I felt it increasingly difficult to serve my clients with my background skillset, to best of my knowledge, to actually to be in the middle there, uh, you are employed by someone, you get paid by someone, but you have to serve someone else.

And, uh, so in 2017 I decided to, uh, Chump, uh, to quit my job and to venture out, to try to do the consultancy wealth management business from the outside as an independent person and the, instead of getting paid by a big corporation, I get paid by the clients now.

Yasi: But how do you know that when you quit your job, everything will be fine financially you, or you can still keep your lifestyle.

Matthias: Okay, fine, financially. Um, well, so I have kept the spreadsheet throughout my life, my financial life. I started in 1999 with that spreadsheet. And, um, it’s, uh, you can say it’s a net-worth tracker. It’s also a tracker of income and expenses. You can call it a little bit, something like budgeting and the. I kept working on improving on these things until 2017 to see that my passive income, the income from my investments and the rental income and other income actually will be sufficient to cover our expenses as family.

People in the field of fire movement, financial independence, retire, early movement. They have certain rules around that. One is the 4% rule where they say you should not, uh, you should only fire yourself. If you have 4%, uh, or like 25 times your expenses in assets, or you can live off 4% of your assets every year.

Uh, then you should be safe. I actually just did it a little different. I saw that the passive income flow was sufficient with some buffer on top to sustain us as a family. And then I felt comfortable enough to give it a try. If not then when, when would I do it? The longer you wait, the harder it gets. I saw that also in banking, it’s a, it’s kind of a sweet spot in a career, especially for, for young people that might listen.

When you are young, you, you can learn a lot in big companies. You, you kind of get exposure, you get to know interesting people. Then you come into the middle of your career. I did not have a midlife crisis, so to say, but when you’re in the mid. You kind of see the end game and the, you see certain people who never actually tried what else could be possible in their life.

They are sometimes trapped. I call it the golden cage symptom. So they have a very stable position, a high salary, but they also have a very high standard of living. For them, it will be almost impossible to let go of a, of a high paid job. Um, they are income rich, but not acid rich. They cannot do the jump because they did not prepare themselves to do something like that.

So I feel that part for, for our listeners of the podcast. That would be quite interesting. So build your assets, build your passive income stream, and then you will have more options later in life. 

Yasi: So my next question. As you mentioned, that’s your spreadsheet from 1999 helped you to achieve the wealth which you have today.

Maybe you can tell the audience what is inside a spreadsheet and would do track. 

Matthias: Okay. First maybe I start with, uh, one general piece. Usually people will focus more on what they track. That’s very general. It doesn’t matter if it’s your money, your health, your weight, or whatever. It’s what you track that you will focus on.

What I started to track was the metrics. Very simply, what is your net worth your net worth? Is all your assets minus your liabilities assets? I don’t, for instance, I, I never put my car into there and never put, uh, some, uh, objects in there that are nice to have, but don’t really help anything. But it’s usually, uh, equities, ETFs mutual funds, cash, um, business holdings.

Eventually, if you have real estate, This kind of things. And I also put in my third pillar for Swiss listeners and the SRS, the retirement scheme in Singapore for, for all it matters because for me, they are also considered. On the other side that put in some kind of a budget. So it’s actually, what expenses do I have?

How much texts I have to pay and how much income I have. And then of course, when you follow that, you will, you will see that the bigger your assets get, the more passive income you will make or in our case now, Get some rental income as well. So you activate your assets and the assets actually start to work for you.

That will on the income. It’s actually likely the company. If you have a company, you have a cashflow, uh, sheet. If a lot of companies are being valued in terms of cashflow, instead of. The, the actual intrinsic value of cashflow helps you to grow. It’s like oxygen. So focus on that. Cashflow, the more comes in, the less goes out.

The bigger that difference that the faster, this thing will actually like a, like an avalanche, like a snowball will accumulate to something larger. The second thing maybe be in the spreadsheet. I didn’t just focus on what is now. I make call. Um, in my case, I did them by year, but I actually look at it every month.

And by year, what do I focus on how to grow the network then? Of course you will see today is now we are in 2020, you will have 2122. And so maybe you do 10 years forward. And then you can, if you do the Excel the right way, you actually can play around with little things. In my case, it’s ridiculous things like not going to cut my hair with a hair cutter, but cutting it myself instead of spending $40 Swiss francs for a haircut.

If I do it once a month, it’s almost 500 a year. It will be 5,000 in 10 years. But then if you invest that at maybe 10% per year, You will be surprised by H 90, just simply that one habit can make me a millionaire again. 

Yasi: Ah, so have you been cutting you off? 

Matthias: Yeah. Since three years, I’m cutting my hair myself.

Yasi: This year I started to cut my husband’s hair and I tried to cut my whole hair because I noticed that so many people started to contact on here and it’s not so difficult. And he really, you can save a lot of money, especially in Switzerland is so expensive. 

Matthias: Exactly. Yeah. A second example is maybe this summer.

Okay. We are probably fortunate to have a garden in our garden. We started to plant a lot of things, vegetables, salad, and so on. We have three kinds of salad here. And if I go to co-op or Negro that the retailers in Switzerland, you easily spend three to four Swiss francs on a bag of salad for. I like to eat salad maybe every second day, I can now go to the garden and get it all for free.

I even figured out how to take just enough leaves to feed us without letting the salad plant die. So it continues to flourish. 

Yasi: So the second advice or second, where you do it is really DIY as many as you can. 

Matthias: Yes, DIY, you always have to look at it. Um, life is a trade-off. Everything in life is a trade off.

You always have to consider the time and effort spent to you. Like it also, if you enjoy it, why not? I wasn’t forced myself into it if you don’t enjoy it. Um, but the, if you see that the effort is not overwhelming, you can achieve something. With a minimized effort and, uh, why not? In Singapore? I brought my own beer.

For instance, it was legal to brew up to 30 liters per month. I did 30 liter per month because they have a very high alcohol texts. I bought a little French, a beer growing set, and the, if you have ever been to Singapore, you know how much. Tiger beer close to you. In fair price, the retail shop, you easily spend four to $5 for one little can.

They actually broke down the cost price for like 30 liters of beer to something around $50. Um, the, the effort, it took me maybe after two or three trial runs at the end, it took me maybe two hours of actual work time and they had 30 liters of beer. And then you can calculate back how much you save, how much you enjoy the beer.

Of course you can be more creative until your own recipes and so on. Right. So I think in my life, it’s something I really enjoy to explore different. You know, things and the learn new habits and new skills. 

Yasi: So the first one is you track your net worth. The second one is to optimize your spending. What else is in this fresh?

Matthias: What else? So optimizing your cash flows, people talk about credit card point optimization, and depending where you live in Singapore, you get credit cards with extremely good rewards. So I’m talking about the, for instance, the DBS woman’s card, the DBS woman’s card is undermining. Um,

the woman’s cart. The funny thing is CBS, which is the bank in Singapore. They didn’t specify that you have to be a woman to get the women’s card I buy now because I promoted it a little bit. I know at least of 10 other men who used the DVS woman’s card and the DPS woman’s card is giving you. For Chris flyer miles for every single $4 spent online and online that can be Amazon purchases.

It could even be bills. You pay your bills. So now I pay for instance, some, uh, utility bills in Switzerland using my Singapore woman’s card, which qualifies for four miles on the dollar. Of course there is an ethics rate and the commission, but I calculated it backwards. It allowed me a tremendous value of a flight fare in the last four years, every year, at least once I could fly suites, class sweet class to Singapore, which is the first class where you have your own room.

I could fly business class for two or three times as well, because I channel my spending my cashflow. I optimize my cashflow, letting it flow through the right channels. So on my spreadsheet, it’s also like how to maximize rewards or points. Because let’s say, uh, for us, uh, we usually have around $30,000 of spending through these channels.

If I let it go to waste, I miss out on 120,000 points. And if on my business, Business expenses. I also let them flow through cards like that. So one, the 30,000 is the family spending the business expenses is the other thing, uh, which will give you again, a tremendous amount of money. And this money, I spend it anyways.

And for me, if I see the price, uh, letting them go through the credit card or just paying it in cash or by if I transfer, why not get rewarded using the right. The value on the other side, uh, just give you one example. It’s maybe the best, best deal I got was one times this week, class ticket. If I would have bought it, it costs around eight, 9,000 Swiss francs.

Of course it doesn’t bring any work the same if you, if you go for economy, class, um, redemptions, because the value of that flight is much less, uh, if you buy it directly, That’s flight. Actually, I spent 30,000. I get something back for eight, 9,000 for free. It means that anything I spent keeps me back and then an immediate discount of 30% roughly.

So that’s, that’s just one little thing how you can optimize the it’s something I don’t have to work a lot. Once you understand the rules, you’ll make it a habit. And then from then on you use the right credit cards for the right things, depending where you live, that makes sense to look through the options available to you through this, um, spreadsheets.

Yasi: Did you find a lot of insight that you can activate some of your assets in remote, passive? 

Matthias: Yes, indeed. Indeed. So expenses part, um, ex-pat life in Singapore was very expensive. We have to pay for private school tuition. Two kids, one kid easily is 30,000 a year. Two kids is 60,000 a year. It actually puts your biggest expenses.

Very, they will stand out. They will, they will. Jump at your face. If you look at the spreadsheet. So if you book it down, it will make it very easy to look at where your money is going. And if you want to optimize, it’s very good to have it black on white in front of you. And then you, you just go through item by item and decide what can be done.

Can something be done here? Uh, is it worth it to do something here or you say maybe no, a private school here. That’s what I want. I will not change. And of course that’s fine too. Right. Um, if, if you get wealthy, you can also afford certain things, but you can make choices. It empowered. In that sense. It also, if you have certain assets you can actually look at, are they income producing assets like dividends, or are they more growth assets?

Like you buy a share for the capital growth you buy other shares for dividend income. You can actually put them in different pockets. Um, On my side, the income back in the days, it was, of course the salary was very big. And then the passive income started to grow. At the more changes you make, you can see how your passive income can probably at one point in time, eventually replace your salary.

I have one, of course that’s called the crossover point. When, when, uh, passive income exceeds your expenses and it’s a double-edged thing. So you push your expenses down. You will be there for that. You put your income up, you will be there faster. If you do both at once, you will be even faster. 

Yasi: Yeah. And for the audience out there, if they want to check it out, how, how did you do with those fresh?

It is the template on your website or where can I get some more information about this? 

Matthias: Um, I’m working on that template. It should be out very soon template. Oh, yes. Please go to Facebook or follow the on Twitter. Facebook. I think I I’m more active there, uh, or, or simply go to my blog or my website once in a while.

Yasi: I also wanted to touch on the topic, um, time hacking, as you mentioned to me in the past, maybe for the audience to explain to the audience, like how does it work and how does it help you to be more productive? 

Matthias: Okay. For four time hacking, um, one point maybe just start with. There is a law it’s called the Parkinson’s law.

That’s let’s say you have a task. Maybe your boss tells you, oh, you’ll have one week to accomplish this. Most people, the average people, they will know. Let’s get started to work very hard on day one or two, right? They will, they will, maybe they one or two, they will have this task in the back of their minds.

Maybe not even start thinking about it. And then the closer the deadline gets, the more they will put effort into it. And as a result, most likely they will have it done by the end of the week. So the Parkinson’s law says Virg expands. So as to fill the time available for its completion. So if you give a task one week, most likely it will take you one week.

If you give it one year, it will take you one year. But now at the interesting point will happen. What if you say, I will get this done today? So I don’t wait. I get to work. I do this today. You actually, maybe you cannot do it today. Maybe it will take two days, but the effect it will have is. You actually will be much faster.

So time hacking or this time slipping is I compare it with the space time continuum. You have, uh, two points on a, on a sheet of paper, a and B. And then when you ask someone, how fast does it go? What’s the shortest way from a to B most people, they will think of a line, a direct line from a to B. Very little people will actually think of folding the paper together and put the amp right on top of each other.

So with a time hacking, what would that mean? Is that to simply try to find shortcuts? For most things in life, there will be something like shortcuts. So for instance, you want to land your dream job. Don’t go the normal route and try to send your CV through the normal channels. You have to get to know people that are inside the organization.

You have to get to know what are they looking for even better. If they start to get to know you, then you will have a huge advantage, a huge headstart over your competition. The same thing will be for lending contracts with clients and so on. You have to find ways to speed up the process. No go as normal.

So then you can hack time and the things that usually take much longer, they can be shortened. And the other thing is probably assets. A lot of people, they have a house or they have assets somewhere, some cash lying around, but maybe these assets are not activated. So you can be asset rich, but assets that don’t work for you.

It doesn’t really help. Right? So you can actually think of ways how to turn that around. So for me, that happened when I realized on my spreadsheet, for instance, our school for the kids, the private school in Singapore will cost every year, 60,000. For two kids per year, that you have to pay $60,000. And our house was an assets.

We have a home in Singapore, but we are living in that ourselves. But I realized if we rent it out, I could maybe generate another 60,000. So the time hacking part, there was the filter of cutting the kids’ school expenses. Plus adding, um, the income from renting out that acid and activating the vessel.

The Delta was $120,000 per year. Which allow me to time hack you. You could also say if I wouldn’t have thought of that, I probably will keep working for another five years to build up more assets. So very often there might be a shortcut in front of your nose, but you don’t see it from all your experiences.

Yasi: Do you have any advice or learning?

Matthias: Well, I think, um, one thing is a dream big. So I have a blog it’s called financial Imagineer finish financially mentioned year means something around the lines that use your imagination, engineer your life, and use money as a tool. Make your dreams happen. Dream beak. I say this first.

In my life. I have put it like that. If I’m the banker, I go to see my clients. Usually you have people that, uh, are entrepreneurs. They have built something, or you have people that inherited money, but there’s very little people who. Simply state at the nine to five job work, throw that their whole life.

There are some, yes, but it’s the minority. So dream big again. You only have one life. You don’t have to be afraid. I think. Just the try to overcome your fears. If you have something very big in your head, go try it. Especially when you’re young. I think the risk is higher. That once you are old, you might regret for not having tried it.

That that regret might be even stronger than the pain that you might feel. If you fail. People are usually afraid of failure. I think a failure is something we have to live with. It’s like when you’re a little kid, Tries to walk the first time. There’s no book how to walk. Nobody will teach you. Oh, now you have to put your foot here.

And that foot there. No, the babies. Usually they try to stand up and they will fall down hundreds of times, but one day they can walk. So hopefully entrepreneurs don’t need hundreds of attempts, but, uh, the point is there’s little things and big things you can learn. Just try it. Don’t be afraid. I think that’s number one, dream big and go for it.

I think especially maybe the second thing for people starting their careers. Um, the 21st century, it will be full of changes. Once again, humanity will keep advancing. You will see, uh, artificial intelligence coming up, uh, robotics, the internet of things will, will take over, but there’s a lot of changes happening.

Anyway, no matter what you do in order to stay relevant, you have to keep learning. So invest in yourself as well. And don’t just spend your time watching Netflix at night. Do something for yourself to build yourself into this world. If that is linked with your dreams, even better, maybe the third one, we talk a lot about money.

Money is important in this world. Yes. But money is not everything. Just the keep in mind that money should just be a catalyst. Don’t just say I want to be rich because it’s good to be rich. You have to be. Rich because of, uh, you can help someone with that or you, you, you should have something deeper, a passion, then it’s easier to hold journey.

If you just go after the numbers, it will be. Not nice your journey. I love the concept of eeky guy. It’s a Japanese concept. Eeky guy is something that people in Okinawa follow very closely Okinawa. Very interestingly has one of the highest living expectancies in the world. There were some scientists, they, they looked at blue sky.

Places where people live extra ordinarily long. And Okinawa is one that has the highest proportion of centenarians people that are above a hundred. And when they went there to figure out, of course, it’s maybe the do more exercise. They have very healthy diet, but they also figured out. People there. Let’s say you meet someone from Okinawa.

They don’t introduce themselves with their job. Oh, hi. I’m Mathias. I’m a banker. No, they say, for instance, I am Mathias. I help people with their financial lives to achieve their dreams. And that is not something that has to stop. Once you stop working for a job, it can be something that you can still do once you are retired or you can.

Young people, older people, anyone, uh, in my case, my ambition is also, I want to help people that are not given the access to services like big famous banks provide to millionaires. So some of these concepts to share with the world to help other people to get more financial literacy and the icky guy combines four things.

Very simple. What do you love to do? That’s number one. Where are you good at? So where do you have skills and talent? Number three, what does the world need? So solve a problem goal where there is something that you can apply your talent to number four last but not least. What can you get paid for? If money is involved even better, because then there is value in it.

If society values what you do, and if you will find a place that combines these four. You found actually the perfect spot of happiness. So it doesn’t have to end when you have reached your financial independence. Maybe it even starts there just looking at people like bill gates, bill gates, he super wealthy person, but he, he ventures out.

He, he tries to help the world with. With his foundation, it doesn’t stop. Maybe it’s just the beginning. 

Yasi: It’s a very nice concept. As you said, money is not the most important thing. It should be a tool. It should be a catalyst that help people to achieve their goals in life. The real purpose. It’s very interesting.

What you mentioned, those, those advice and tips. I think they’re very valuable, especially for people who just started out their career. I really agree with you about the second point. I think the second point you mentioned about keep learning. I think exactly how you get your job because. I can speak Chinese at that time.

Right. You learn Chinese, otherwise you wouldn’t be able to get this opportunity. So I think a lot of things happened partially. Yeah. Partially because of luck partially because like we ourselves, we need to learn. And then when the opportunity. Then we are ready. Yeah. 

Matthias: When preparation meets opportunity. Yeah. 

Yasi: Right. Yeah. You mentioned about that now. You want to help ordinary people with wealth creation, with, um, personal finance. How could the audience find you if they’re interested in or learning about, um, your services? 

Matthias: Maybe first and foremost, my services are not yet online. Uh, I do have a website called financial-imagineer.com.

Financial-imagineer.com. You can also follow me on Facebook or Twitter under Financial Imagineer. My services are not yet online because if too many people at once we’ll call, maybe it will be over, over, uh, I, I truly have a passion to help people.

Um, I currently also run wealth management for a Singapore setup where we help clients that’s at the moment. Passion there that’s the, this passion here. It’s something I want to open as a side project, maybe very exclusive to listeners of your podcast and going forward. Eventually I will add this on my website as well.

So if anyone that is listening today would like to have a free consultation, maybe have a half an hour or 30 minute session with me. We can do a assume call or WhatsApp, call, whatever you like, please feel free to reach out and we can see where do you stand? Where would you like to go? What are your dreams and how to get there?

Yasi: I will write your website and your email address in a description. So then people can reach out to you if they want to.

Matthias: Thank you so much.