This Nurse is the True Example of FIRE!!! Self Made Millionaire at 37! - Ep. 91
Paul Njoku is a retired nurse, dual licensed insurance agent and financial educator. Before his career in finance he specialized in the care and management of stroke patients in his former career as a nurse executive. Paul’s passion for financial education and literacy around leveraging various tax codes to provide individuals protection for both their life and money is largely in part due to the huge need for this form of education within his immediate community. He is passionate about educating his fellow nurses who would like to become financially free. He has shown that it can be done by becoming a self made millionaire at the age of 37 years old.
He is a husband and father of 3 beautiful children. He resides in Benicia, CA and runs a financial firm in San Ramon, CA.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:00] All right, Nurses on Fire. You guys are in for a treat because we have Paul Njoku of Team Elite Leadership Development here. What's up, Paul?
Paul Njoku: [00:00:13] Not a whole lot Naseema. How you doing? I'm glad to be on the call with you.
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:18] I'm doing well. I'm doing well. And I'm just blown away with what you and your wife have accomplished in a relatively short amount of time.
But before we dive into all your incredible successes, I want to talk about your nursing origin story. How did you become a nurse?
Paul Njoku: [00:00:36] Well, I'm glad he asked Naseema. From a young child , uh, growing up in Africa, I've always wanted to be going to anything medical , uh, one of my best friends growing up in Africa , uh, his mom was a nurse.
The dad was a medical doctor. So growing up in Africa , uh, my dream was to become a medical doctor, but then I had the opportunity to come to US. A freshman in college, I was already going on my track on my way to becoming a doc. And then I had the opportunity to come to US as an international student.
And then when I realized that US is in Nigeria, where I grew up in Texas years to become a medical doctor. So four years of med school, two years of residency, you are doc. And then in us, it takes about a hundred years to become a medical doctor. So I'll quickly realize , uh, that , uh, well, I don't have a hundred years to go to study for school, so I wanted to do something that I could get in and get out.
So nursing was, what makes sense at that particular point? And then , um, I graduated from Chico state. Um, any , uh, Wildcats in the house? So I was at Chico state 2009 graduates and then got my BSN from there. And then I went into nursing. Um, Nursing was a beautiful career. Um, I did it for 10 years. Um, pretty much any area that you could think of , uh, other than you know, PICU, NICU or OB GYN area. But other than that, anything you could think of in nursing I did it. I was a trauma nurse starting out. I was an emergency room nurse. I did ICU, I did oncology. I did med surg I was one of those people a year into it. I will get bored, then I'll go 'what's the next challenge. " Six months into it some of the hospitals that I used to walk. Some of the managers, they used to like me, but they used to hate me too because they will come and train me. And then off I go, right. And I want a new challenge. So what I did at, for me, that was really what I loved the idea.
That w you could come in and move from one different department and, you know, and then I did that up until 2000 and 2018. Um, a friend of mine, you know, basically share some ideas with me , uh, because at that particular time, 2018, we were in a position, my wife and I , uh, you know, what was going on in the world and new president coming in the stock market all over the place.
You know, we have some money invested with financial advisors, you know, I guess it's a Murphy's Law. Anything that could go wrong, went wrong. Right. But looking back to that was also a blessing, you know how, like they said, sometimes through adversity, you can always find a blessing.
I think that was what happened to us because if 2018 didn't happen, my wife and I will not be here talking to you today. Right. We took an adversity that happened to us from us, all this crazy thing that happened where with 401k 403b mutual funds, we basically decided, you know what we needed to basically take ownership of our life.
We did it to understand what we were doing with finance and all that. And then, you know, that's why we're here today. So yeah.
Naseema McElroy: [00:03:32] That's a great transition because in 2018 you said like Murphy's law, everything kind of fell apart for you guys financially. What happened for you to start rebuilding? What opportunity did your friend present to you?
Paul Njoku: [00:03:47] Well, 2018, when I met my friend , um, basically some of the things like you hear. I mean, that's very, you hear rich people or they do this well to people. Where would they do this? Like, it's like, you're here. Nobody really ever sits down with you and tell you, okay.
How come, they don't pay more taxes than most of us do. How come they pay less , um, rich people, they leverage their money. They make them want to work for them. Well, what does that mean? Does that mean, right? It's such a cliche. Well, I want to make my money work for me. Everybody wants to make their money work for them.
Rich people , uh, they believe in 1099 income. Well, What does that mean? So all these things that we hear, but nobody really explained it to you, but you will hear on TV. You will hear people say, and then, you know, I think Chris was a blessing to her. The guy you get that really, you know, it was a blessing because some of the things that we've been hearing, he was the one that actually said that.
Whereas I say, Paul, I've been in this country for too long. I don't care what anybody tells you. As some point, you gotta understand. That begin that when that means is an entrepreneurship, I don't care what you do, as long as the clock-in and clock-out for someone, you might be able to do that to fund your dreams.
But if you're looking for freedom, you gotta be able to think about other things that most people are not thinking about. So he was the one that kind of started having the conversation and I'm like, okay, I've been thinking about these things. But now I actually have someone that is basically we're speaking the same language.
Right? So that just being around, you know, like sometimes you meet people, they make you back. Right. You think that start thinking different. That was, is that for us? My wife and I, Chris, half Filipino by the way, have Chinese. Right. So that was kinda, that was kinda what that did to us. And then , uh, basically , uh, the, you know, that there are tests, you could do the other puzzle in a position where you don't lose money.
Because, well guess what? We just, we just went through that. So I was open I'm like, wait a minute, there's a way that you could actually save money and you don't lose it. He's like, yeah. I'm like, now you're talking to me, speaking my language. Um, do you know, there are things out there that you could do where you pay little to no taxes.
It's like, have you heard about what the top 1% in America do with their money? And I'm looking at him top 1%. What is that? So as he began to elaborate, some of the things he was saying was resonated with me because we've done it the traditional way, and we're not in traditional ways, not going to work.
I wanted to be a consumer of some of the things he was sharing and I'm like, honey, this is what we need to do because here is the thing, I have an MBA degree from San Francisco State. My wife had an MBA degree from , uh, um, from Mississippi morph is from Mississippi.
But what we realize is, is one thing to be education, which is the a book-smart. I was a dumb good nurse. Right. And like I said, I pretty much every area you could take in nursing. ICU, emergency room I could tell you scenario, disaster, what we need to do. Sometime during code I'm the one telling the doctor we need to do. Here the thing though I was book-smart, but no school in America teaches you financial education. It's one thing to be book smart, but it's another thing to be financially literate. Paul and Stephanie, prior to 2018 are educated people, but yet we were also financially illiterate.Most of the people listening to me on this group probably going, how can that be? Well think about it. Most of us went to nursing school, we educated. They ever teach you , uh, during your nursing school. Hey, this is how you manage money. Hey, this is what you do. They don't do that. They give you the degree to go be a part of people's dreams. So I think for us, what this Chris did for us was for first time, somebody actually sat down with us and gave us the basics. Most of us are playing money rule, but we don't understand the game. Imagine me coming from Africa, where we call it football. Football , in Africa means different things. Football in America is different than football in Africa, soccer, football in America. You throw it with your hands.
Can you imagine me going come into America? And I'm trying to play football with my legs. Well, what do you think I'll be successful doing that? Or can you imagine going from America to Africa to go play football with your hand, they'll be looking at you like you're crazy.
Well, some are us. We're trying to play this money game or 401k, 403B retirement, debt, savings, but we have no clue how to play the game, but why nobody has thought us. The point is , uh, you can't do it on your own. Somebody have to sit you down to really expand to you how some of these things work. That make sense?
Naseema McElroy: [00:08:30] Yeah, totally makes sense. And you hit the nail right on the head by saying, you know, financial literacy, isn't something that's taught to us. It's not , uh, it's not extremely challenging. It's just something that we just don't know.
Um, whether that's intentional or not, you know, I have my thoughts about that, but, um, You said something interesting earlier about like, how we think about money, like middle-class people versus , um, wealthy people , um, you want to like reiterate that because I think that drives that point home.
Paul Njoku: [00:09:01] Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, so for the middle-class. Uh, which by the way, that's where, we're where my wife and I , uh, up on two, three , uh, 2008, we, I was a registered nurse. My wife was a registered nurse. Um, I did , uh, pretty much , um, uh, bedside nursing and then charge nurse, my wife did Kaiser. Middle-class our idea of money is I'm going to go pick up over time. When we think of money, I'm making money with think the harder you work, then the more money you will make. That's how I used to think about money when I was a registered nurse.
To tell you how crazy I was when it comes to workaholic. One time, in my nursing career, I did a 16 hour shift, 40 days in a row. But looking back now, what was the point of that? I made money, but how much did the Uncle you know, we all have a favorite uncle, right? We all have that uncle that we are right on Uncle Sam, right. But Uncle Sam took more than half of that money. It's like, Oh, great job Paul, keep doing it.
So, but what am I trying to say though? Middle-class our understanding of money is very limited. Most of us, where do we save money? 401k, 403b, company pensions, money in the bank. But you see none of those things that I just mentioned will make you wealthy.
None of this is that I just mentioned 401k pension plan, savings account. None of those things will make you wealthy. Why? Control. Middle-class are trying to save money where they don't have control. Wealthy people are trying to save money where they have control.
Like if you have control, you will have a better chance of winning. Because then that means control mean, so to speak here, like the GPS, like you can dictate and decide which direction like, or there's a hard current I don't want to deal with that with let's ver this way..
Or if I go this way, it's going to crush. Let's ver that way versus somebody that doesn't have a control. Then if the current is going, you're going to go right into it. So that's one plan, another issue with middle-class and also the top 1% is leverage. The wealthy people understand the power of leverage I tell people, the wealthy people, their language is leverage right?
Leverage men. And they use what they have to get. They use what they have to get, what they want. You don't want to get this from me? Well, if you give me this, then I will give you this. Let's look at what I mean by that. Think of the banks, for example. Wealthy people do not put a lot of money in the bank.
They use the banks like Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank. Those banks they use them as a leverage Bank of America. They will go to them and ask them for millions of dollars or billions of dollars. Bank of America will ask them 5%. They will borrow the money from the bank. What quadruple that money give them back their 5%. Basically they're using the bank's money to make more. The middle-class on the other hand, the bank uses the middle class as a leverage. So the middle class, everything is let's go to the bank, everything, but when would go to the bank, we're going to have to ask for help. We are not going to the bank to say the bank you give us this, or we give you this. .And that's why you will see a lot of middle-class. Well, yeah, saving money for retirement, or they get a lot of Monaco. How much do you have? Yeah. Savings hundred thousand 200,000. I can guarantee you right now, average millinnials or average billionaires not have more than 10 or $15,000 sitting in your bank account.
Most of them do not even have these things. You know, why, why would they allow the bank to use their money and make all this money and then turn around and give them less than 1% of their money. Middle class on the other hand, believe that everything is the bank and that's why the bank deceives us by it a savings accounts.
But another name for savings account is lending accounts. The Bank of America, West Fargo. I'm not relying on you to put that money there. They'll be like, Hey, the money's sitting there. What they're doing is they're turning around and using that money, in your savings account to look for business owners like us.
And then, Hey Paul, Hey, Warren Buffet. Hey Bill Gates, we do you need loan and then they will use their money and give loan to all these billionaires and millionaires, and then charge them 10, 15% on the loan. And then they give you 0.1%. Right. What I just explained there, if you understand that now I'm not advocating people shouldn't have savings account.
That's not what I'm saying, but what I'm saying is we need to be smarter about what we do with our money and the vehicles that we're using to grow our money. Right. It is one thing to make the money, but it's another thing to leverage your money. Meaning how do you want to grow your money? That's really key. Most people can make it, but most people don't even know how to grow it. And oftentimes we don't know how to keep it. Right. So those are really things that, you know, we try to educate people to get them to understand, you know, it's all about moving to the next level. Right. So hopefully that answers question.
Naseema McElroy: [00:14:21] It definitely does. And I know that you are bridging the gap for financial literacy, one family at a time. And that's your model that your business is run off of. Uh, I want to know, like, What were those things that you put into place after your friend introduced you to these concepts that were also foreign to you and are foreign to most people? Like what were there those concepts and how did you then use that to actually be able to both you and your wife retire early?
Paul Njoku: [00:14:55] Right? Absolutely. So some of the concepts that my friend , um, introduced us to was really , um, some , uh, tests like. Compound interest when we had it. I didn't know what it meant. I remember taking company Chris in physics.
I've always been a nerd, but I didn't really understand pointing mat. I'm, like I said, it's like comp product up on Einstein. Speaking of Albert Einstein, his bed, there was two days ago. One of the smartest scientists who ever lived. Right. He was a German scientist. You know, he basically came up with the algorithm that talks about compound interest, simple interest.
Basically his whole thing is the idea ofcompound interest is how soon do you want your money to double for you? Never heard of it. Well, Hey everybody that on this call. Don't you think that's something that we should know if you're going to make money and save it? Don't you think it should be figured out? Do I want this a hundred thousand to double in two years?
Do I want it to double a hundred years or do I want it to double in one year? Not the thing that suddenly, because it's called wall compounded effect. For me that was a game changer because I'm like, wait a minute. First of all, I didn't know what it meant, but then once I understood it, I'm like, okay, this is not well, Paul, do you have a house?
I go, yes, I do have that house. It's like, do you have student loan? I was still paying on my student loan. I go, yeah, I do. He was like, do you have a credit card bills? Debt? I'm like, yeah, I do. He's like, well, you have things that the banks are using compound interest on you. And yet you still don't understand compound interest.
I'm like, brother, I'm like all I use, I use speaking, like, what language is this? Like, this is foreign to me. Like, what's going on? He's like, well, when you bought your house in California, How much interest was on your mortgage? I go 3%. He'd go that 3%. How much is your house worth? We bought our house, put our house for a hundred pounds.
I mean, he goes, well, that hundred thousand dollars in 30 years, how much do you think that you're gonna end up paying the bank? I didn't know. We did the math. 3% mortgage for the next 30 years, I will end up paying the bank $300,000 on that house. That, that 3% interest is compounded on the mortgage. So I would end up buying that house time 3 when his said that I'm like, okay, wait a minute.
And then he's like, well, if 3% is going to make you buy the house times three, what interests are you paying on your student loan? I didn't even know. I didn't know what interest that's to tell you how the Paul you see now. Like literally I went to like, okay, wait a minute. Now I see why we're making money.
But when I say this is by the way, this is common. This is come up. So how that student is not a bad ban, but I don't know what interest I'm paying it back on. Then I went and looked my student loan. I was paying back 8%. It's like, well, if it 3% triple over 30 years, your student loan is scheduled for you to pay it off in 10 years.
What do you think 8% would do in 10 years? And then credit card? We didn't have a lot of credit card bills, but the point is credit card bills. When you get into paying minimum payments, compound interest 22 to 25%, if 3% it's tripling in 30 years, what do you think credit card debt is compounding on you?
20 to 25% would do in a year. See, I started paying attention, just paying that attention. I paid off my student loan in one year. My student loan paid off in one year because I'm like, Oh no, we can't have this. Right. My credit card, I paid it off in two months. I'm like, Oh no, we can't have it. What am I trying to say to speak in a middle class, you will run into a lot of middle class that have a lot of money on a student loan, a lot of money on a credit card, but they got also a lot of money in their savings accounts.
Speaking of understanding, being self aware. So you all your money in a credit card, where are you going to be paying 10 or 15% in interest? You have a student loan where you're paying five, 10, 15% interest, but then you got a lot of money sitting in your savings account where you are earning less than 1% interest.
What sense does that make? You are better off paying off your depths. Reassessing and seeing where you are. It doesn't make sense to have a lot of money sitting in about where the money is growing at a lesser interest rate, but youare paying debt. Is costing you more on the debt than actually sitting by leaving that money in the bank.
So compound interest was one of them. Another one that really blew my mind. Naseema was taxes. Everybody wants to save money, but speaking on top 1%. And the middle-class the top 1% was speaking up taxes. They understand the power of leverage. Wealthy people are looking for ways to make money mitigate how much they pay in taxes. Middle-class looking for ways to make money, but they don't think about it later.
Oh, that shows what I, I just want to make enough money. So that means that they're not clocking out. I'm going to do a lot of full time. I've got to do it. They want to make more money, but the problem is W2 income and 1099 income.
And also the vehicle 401k , 403B plan is a tax code, for business owners. If I own a business, you want to work for me. I give you a job. I offer you 401k. I'm offering you that 401k to keep you happy. So you don't have to quit on me. Anything that I put into that 401k, iRS will give me that money back.
It's not costing me anything to offer you 401k. Business owners like me. I don't do 401k. There is something out there I call it seven seven zero twosub section A. That is a tax code for the wealthy people in America. That allows them to make as much money as they can.
And they don't have to pay taxes on that money. My wife and I, when we discovered this concept three years ago, we wanted to give this information out to as many people as we can. I'm not here to say that 401ks is bad. I'm not here to say that 403b is bad, but I want you to think about something.
If the goal is retirement, if this goal is already present what you already got, what if you have a vehicle that would allow you to do just that, but when you need that money, you don't have to pay taxes on. It makes sense. To me, makes sense to me, right? So these are some of the concepts. That will literally start at, you know, like Chris, Karen, where he started, then he kinda stopped breaking some of these things down.
I was like, okay. Uh, this is definitely something that not only that my wife and I need to understand more. Uh, but also we need to measure that too many people area in the community. And beyond that they really don't get educated with it as information, but compound interest. I begin, I say it and I say it is a game changer, right?
Because it allows you to stop on understanding what is it that you are actually doing? I call it assets and liabilities. What are your liabilities? How much is your liabilities costing you a year? If you've got a $20,000 debt and how much interest do you pay on that $20,000 in a year, or are you better off having to get rid of that debt?
And then at least not begin to start clean slate to really see where you can go. Right? And then obviously how money grow, you know, in. Uh, uh, everybody wants to make money, but again, it's not about making it. It's about putting yourself in a situation where. You know, you can really preserve , uh, not having to pay a tax is more that you need to , um, look at what's going on in California right now.
I live in California. Uh, look at what's going on in , uh, um, uh, federal taxes now. Um, the country is in debt. You will hear me ask many people. Where do you think this country is going? Do you think taxes will go down in the future or do you think it's going to go up? Most people, even if they don't know anything about money, they will tell you where us is going to go up.
Then what, if you think it's going to go up down, what are you doing today to prevent you so that when it goes up in the future, you don't get affected. You see wealthy people already, everything that I'm saying, they already know. So every decision they're making today, they're making it today, understanding what will happen in the future.
And they're trying to prevent themselves for whatever happens that it doesn't affect them. Middle-class the problem most of us, we are too busy, right? Going on a walk, going back, traffic, raising kids, doing all that. We're not really paying attention to what's going on, but the truth is you don't have to take my word for it.
Uh, there's a big tsunami coming, uh, and it's got tasks is going on , uh, and they will help in our lifetime. So this is something that most people don't really understand it. Then they are taken precautions to really prevent them. Right. Because too many people we'll be highly disappointed when, when they get ready to retire 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now, and now what they thought they have today, half of that, or maybe more than half of that will be going into a concern.
So you get to begin to do things a little bit different.
Naseema McElroy: [00:24:20] I hear you , um, paid off your debt. You took your money out of 401ks and 403bs and restructured how you guys were saving your money. And these are concepts that you teach people. And this is, then that was your path that you use to retirement. So can you explain from like when your friend introduced this concept to you to , um, actually retire,
Paul Njoku: [00:24:45] run up quickly, like in a matter of , um, 2000 and it's in January by a 2019 January, I was fully retired. Less than a year. How was I was, I was retired because what I realized was, yeah. And I don't want the, I know this is, I don't want nurses to take this the wrong way. I love nursing. Right. I really was my passion. Right. But for me, the idea of retiring in a year after, you know, I started doing what I was doing.
I went on to this venture. What I realized was. I had a bigger purpose. That doesn't mean nursing wasn't a bigger purpose, we know what to do. You're nurse people get sick, you come in, you train them prognosis diagnostic. And you know, we know what to do. What I like to use the analogy. Then we went from health care to wealth care.
There's a lot of people out there that are sick, they come in we take care of them. CHF patients, non-compliance, you know, we know what, you know, I just we'll get a treatment for them. Right. Your blood sugars are still high. We give you a liter of saline. We bring it down CHF.
We give the diarrhetic, you know, they should, we know what to do. We can't manage it somewhat. But what I realized from January, 2018, to December, 2018 was there's a lot of people in this society, especially in the minority communities, that their finances needed a CPR. Like somebody needed to go there and like literally like pound on the chest you know, give them some epinephrin and some dopemine, you know, come and get this then moving in the right direction. I am from Africa. My wife is from Mississippi.
Don't take this the wrong way. The point is too many people in the minority community is not that people don't want to be successful is sometime people have not been thoughts. The discipline, the financial literacy intelligence on things that they need it to. How can you be making six figure income year after year and you're still broke?
That doesn't make sense. Right? So this is literally for me when I say, well, kid, when I sit down with somebody, I'm literally trying to see, like, if you come into an emergency room, you're telling a doctor that you have headache. What the doctor's asks. When is the onset? Isit excurciating, is it normal? What do we need to do?
What did you do? What was the last activity? When I sit down with someone I'm literally going into, like, I'm trying to understand what is going on, what can we do to put you in a better financial standing. Right. Yeah, I retired like in less than a year because. The, the problems that I was seeing and the need for my expertise that I was seeing at to my wife.
I'm like, honey, I'm jumping. Right. People need what we offer. Right. And my wife, I'm going to be honest. She looked at me, she thought that I was crazy. I'm like, that's why you married me. People need what we all thought we need to go there and have. So that transition happened like about a year. But the reason why I accelerated that transition was because I saw the need for what we do.
And a lot of people out there are literally they're dying in silence. I've sat down with some people like medical doctors, professionals. But they're dying in silence. You know why? Because most people in the society are, are too busy, trying to impress people that don't even care about them.
They end up putting themselves in a financial situation. They shouldn't have never been in enforcement. I'm a medical doctor. Wonderful. Great. For you have to live in Oakland Hills, who say you have to live in Oakland Hills. I met, most of my wife is a nurse.
So we did a drive Mercedes. Well, who says that? Well, Paul you don't understand I'm a Nurse Anesthetic, you know, and then it got to be a Jaguar. We'll say how to drive it. What happened to Toyota. Well, you know, I'm a pharmacist, I'm an engineer, you know, engineer. I mean, we make a six figure income, you know, what is the status?
And I got a doctorate degree right next to my neck, you know, my name is everything. So I'm going to go buy 1 million. Well, who say you can't live in an apartment. So you basically, people are too busy. Thinking that people are thinking aboutthem. And then in the process, they're putting themselves in a situation and you look at a well, you are clocking in and clocking out and you're living in lifestyle that you can afford.
And then if they fire you, then everything collapsed. COVID-19 happened, the cut down your hours. Everything collapsed. People are trying to live their lifestyle, get into a lifestyle that 40 hours a week, clocking in and clocking out will not sustain. So they are living a lifestyle that they have to work 60 hours a week to sustain that lifestyle.
These are things that I've becauseas I work with a lot of medical professionals. So that's kind of when I understand what's going on there. Right? So, so again, this is the thing, the education that we're trying to give you cannot live the lifestyle that you can not sustain. Right. So when I sit down with her, literally we had to tell him, Hey, this is what I say, this is what's going on.
And I don't think if you keep doing this, you're going to lose your house. If you keep doing this, you're going to like something terrible is getting ready to happen. I know be I'm like, well, right now you can't sustain it, right. Until you can make money while I sleep like Warren Buffett says, right, when you start making money, passive income, that means your money is working for you.
You shouldn't go and get a lifestyle that you can afford, or you dependent on lifestyle on that over time. So these are like, literally Naseema that we we've started seeing, literally shortly six months into it. This is what I started seeing, middle class are too busy trying to impress people, but I don't care about him. I'm in the process they are getting themselves into financial ruins.
So I felt in me that I was needed in that arena. Right. Because most people that are working with a medical professional that are nurses. So, you know, when I tell them I'm telling them from experience, I'm also telling them from what I've seen. So that was really young, literally less than a year.
I mean, you know, basically our time. But now that I retired, most of my colleagues, including my manager ended up retiring. She joined me in business because she like, Brother, I see what you are doing. And even in my community, I feel the need that I need to go there and speak up. The problem is most people don't want to talk about it.
Both financially illiteracy is a disease, right? And not to someone res sit down with you and point it out, is that most people don't even know. Imagine , uh, having you're diabetic, you don't even know you're diabetic. Like you're going up to the doctor. They're like, check your hemoglobin A1C.
What a minute sister, your hemoglobin is tech, right? Like literally you're like, you better get ready to go into diabetic insiputus. Right. You didn't even know it. Right. \
Naseema McElroy: [00:31:50] So both you and your wife are retired from nursing, but you still have this Team Elite Leadership Development. . You have this business where , um, you lead mostly medical professionals into , um, a state of wealth building, right? Like you take them out of financial literacy and you help them build as well. Um, and so that's what you guys do. You both are doing, full-time now totally, totally outside of nursing, like totally retired from nursing and you guys are doing this full time.
So , um, how does your program work? Like how do people work with you if they , um, want to retire early too? Cause you know, that's what we're about. We're about nurses retiring early and um, sounds like you have the toolkit. So how can people work with you?
Paul Njoku: [00:32:33] Uh, basically , um, um, um, the financial literacy part of what we do. Yes. Uh, basically people come in here like Paul, this is what I got going on. Uh, how can you help me? Then we can look at your situations and make a recommendation and things that they need to do.
And then a lot of nurses, I'm going to be real with you guys. A lot of nurses, often time, I'm not business minded. However, I'm paying a lot of money in taxes. So how can I reduce my tasks? Well, 1099 income, 1099 income. Making $200,000 on W2. Is different than making $200,000 and 1099 income. Obviously I'm not a tax expert, but you got to understand the idea of owning your own business. And then you go from 1099 income to now S-Corp. Incorporate yourselves. Team Elite is incorporated. So that means I have a company now. And then when you incorporate ourselves, then it's even better. So they don't trip me now as Paul Njoku, they treat me now as Team Elite.
State California knows me as similar company. IRS knows me as similarly company. So now basically I have my own company. Well, by you having your own company, you have things that you can really begin to do when in terms of you, you know, running a business, payrolls, and now I know these people might be going on my God. Have a CPA.
Oh my God, what is that? Right. But my point is you have got to figure out a way we know now, Naseema, probably can agree with me with this. We know that clocking in and clocking out is not going to do it. I don't care who you are. Right. I don't care where you are. You've got to figure out what to supplement that clocking in and clocking out..
But if that's what you want to do, like wholeheartly 100% offthe time, it would be impossible to retire. Because think about the 401k idea is you make a hundred thousand dollars a year. Um, we're gonna tell you to put that away in 10 to 15% of your income every year into a 401k plan. But then, most people that are making a hundred thousand dollars a year, they're still living paycheck to paycheck.
So you make a hundred thousand. They didn't tell you to put away 15% of that, which is 15 thousand. But so 85,000 is not enough. But we are telling you to save 15,000 when you're retired. That is going to be enough. Well, if 85,000 is not enough today, what makes you think 15,000 a year when you retire is going to be enough?
So the point is, I'm not a mathematician, but we already know just from looking at it that much does not work. Right or they tell you, well, we're going to give you pension correct. Then you put out with 15,000 and then you get a pension of 15,000. Then if 85,000 today is not enough, what makes you think that it doesn't let him when you retire?
That is if everything works, but if everything doesn't work and then the year you get ready to retire, COVID-19 happened or real estate crash happened. Like it happened in 2008. Now that little moneythat you're banking on is gone. All just thinking the top, my point is.These things I've thought it through.
I've read a lot of books to know that they don't work. I'm not on PI. I'm not hitting on anybody do it, but I know we have new tech people. If the goal is to have a successful retirement where you can comfortably retire, still be able to maintain your lifestyle, then you did that begin to find out things that you could do to supplement , uh, because if you don't supplement, then you're going to put yourself in a situation where.
You know, you're gonna end up eating bologna and chicken sandwich. Right. So we don't, we don't want that. We want to maintain that lifestyle of lobster steak dinner, you know, even when you're retired, right. If you want admit, then you gotta be able to start planning for it.
Naseema McElroy: [00:36:40] How can people start working with you?
Paul Njoku: [00:36:44] Yeah, how people can start walking. And so now, so you've got the premises on the business that people will come in and then that's what we do free complimentary review. So the free complimentary review is basically where people will come in.
We'll sit down with them, try to understand more. What they're looking for. Some people might come in and be like, I want to make more money, which has caused the problem that I'm having right now is I've got some minutes it's going on, but I don't feel like I'm making enough money. And that cause then we would need to sit down with them.
So on us, not with this, they didn't want to make enough money. Can they quantify that? What is enough? Money, enough money for me. Three years ago. I want enough money for me right now is different. Right, right. Is that a different level right now? So we need to understand, what is it enough money to meaning for you?
Is that $2000? Is that $10,000? Is that, is that what I'm saying? So based on where they are, then we can understand what they need. And then what would then begin to talk about what that will look like? Right. And then, so that's really where we're getting to. Basically one-on-one or group session. And then I'll be like, okay, this is what I will have to show them some things it's specific plan that will allow them to go do that.
Who does what they want to do. Some people will come in and be like, well, I've got a child. I want to plan for college. I want a plan for retirement. Uh, I don't know where to begin. How can you help me then again, for free complimentary review, we will look at what they have, look at what they got going on.
Now tell them, okay, this is what I see. This is what I said, this is a where I think you need to go. So, but again, these are some of it things I will have to show things, not just what I said. I will have to show some visual so that people will be able to see that right.
Naseema McElroy: [00:38:20] So it's very personalized plans, depending on whatever their goals are and you help them get there. So share with everybody. Cause you have dropped so many gems already. I just want people to know, where can they get in contact with you? How can they sign up to work with you? Share your information so people can , um, follow up with you.
Paul Njoku: [00:38:42] Absolutely. So my cell phone (530) 354-7185. You can follow me on Instagram. Instagram is Team Elite Leaders.
Naseema McElroy: [00:38:54] They'll be able to click on it in the show notes. To wrap things that might just want to know since you and your wife have achieved fire. What's next for you guys?
Paul Njoku: [00:39:04] Well fire fire! Right? For us it's all about growth, right? It's all this then call life is all about growth wherever you are. You're going to begin to grow next level.
So at the time I told them like, what is the next goal? What is the next level? What is the, you know , uh, you know, some people in life. Uh, excuse me, don't take this wrong with some people in life. You know, there's nothing wrong with Toyota, right? There's nothing wrong with Toyota. Right. But , uh, you will tap it with a life.
You got to be Toyota lane, and then you got the firearm, right? You gotta tell your a lane, you got the Ferrari. So I believe go big or go home. So Amala is in the Ferrari. Right. I'm going 1000 miles an hour. Let's keep this thing going. It's going, where's the next goal? What is, you know, that's really what it takes, right?
I don't believe that life is people say life is fair. Life is not fair. I don't really believe in that. So what I'm the biggest thing for us is giving back to the community. Um, we we've been blessed. We are blessed when I say that. I don't say that to brag. My wife is from Mississippi , uh, through my foundation, our foundation, we've been able to do a lot of good in the inner cities , uh, Mississippi, where she's from , uh, uh, getting kids, putting them on afterschool program.
We got some people right now we're payingscholarship for them to go to school in Mississippi. I'm from Africa before every year, my wife and I would go to Africa to do medical mission. Even though we retired. The only year that we didn't go as last year, obviously what was going on COVID so we couldn't do that.
But six years ago, first time that I took my wife to Africa , um, she kind of hurt my feelings. Hello, this is where you from. People are dying. What can we do? We need to build the hospital and I'm looking at honey, build a hospital, how are we going to do that? And she like, well, honey, I don't know. So the point is I looked at her and I thought she was crazy because she wanted to build a hospital because to me, we didn't have the way to do it.
Last year. That's what I was saying. COVID-19 has been a blessing in so many ways, the dream of building a hospital that she wanted to do, because think about it. We go home every year to do medical mission. We trip people free healthcare. We go back and then most of them there's no maintenance program.
So some of the tests we'll give them six months later is gone, but there was no way to Sheila where my, why don't we build a hospital where these people can have follow up. So that some of these things that, you know, we have into every year, we've got to start from, you know, stage one, you've got to have a place that they can go to get regular checkups.
Then they will be in a better place, you know, position. Do you know that right now we just secured a land and we are talking to the architecture right now. Where are we going to build a hundred bed hospital in Africa? You see some people can say, well, money is the root of all evil deeds.
I know , uh, I believe like Oprah Winfrey says moneyonly reveals who you are. If you're a bad person, money is going to magnify your bad hearts to people. If you have a group as in a good kind of blessing, that one is only going to reveal that. So that's what this has really done for us back home. And Africa will probably got close to 500 families that were feeding since COVID-19 happened.
Last year, we have people that we are literally given food Sunday to Sunday breakfast, lunch, dinner. That's. Allowed us, because God has really blessed us beyond the world. You know, dreams, things that we didn't really think that we can do all because of this. I couldn't do this if I was still a nurse and that's the truth, right?
Because most of you that are on this call, you know, how much, you know, how much nurses make right. But this business has allowed us. To be able to do things that we never really thought that we can do. Right. And literally this was something that I just started because somebody shared an idea with me. I started doing a spare time.
They went from spare time to part-time. And then it went from part-time to full-time now, literally we are in a position now where money is not an issue. It's given us freedom. What is freedom? Being able to do what you want to do when you want to do it? That's really, you know, that's a big deal, right? That's more than money. Can you put a price tag to freedom? I don't think so. Right. I don't think so. So that's really what this thing has done for us. So again , um, I would love to, you know , um, sit down with some of you and maybe share some ideas and. Things that you could do to begin to, you know, start building for you and your family.
I will definitely love to do that. So again, thank you Naseema.
Naseema McElroy: [00:43:35] I know you got me fired up. I know like the audience out there is fired up. Um, like you guys, his story is just incredible, but what makes it even more special is that. We can see ourselves in you. And so it makes it possible for us.
So I appreciate what you're doing, what you've done. And I am completely floored on about like how much you're able to give back to the community, but how easy money is to you now , um, is effortless. And I tell people that money begets money. It's just those first steps that you have to take. To switch that control, like you said, it's all about control.
Once you switch that control, then the sky's the limit. And thank you for being such a positive example for our community. Thank you for doing what you're doing and thank you so much for taking time to share with our community, because these are the stories that we need to hear. And I just really appreciate you and your wife from the bottom of my heart because , um, you guys are phenomenal and we just need to hear more of this. So I appreciate you.
Paul Njoku: [00:44:38] Absolutely. I appreciate you too. Thank you for the opportunity. We've got to get the message out. So again, my wife and I just want to, you know , um, she really, she like honey, Naseema you gotta meet this wonderful lady. She's doing a lot of things, you know, she's making it happen.
And I'm like, okay, let's, you know , uh, get on her podcast. Let's make it happen. Because at the end of the day, this life. This thing called life is not an individual, even though we might come from different places, but at the end of the day, we are still one people, right?
That's really what I try to get people to understand where everybody got the same needs and wants. You want the best for your two beautiful daughters. Just like I want for my kids. You want the best in life, just as I want the best in life. It doesn't matter what ethnicity. It doesn't matter where we come from.
At the end of the day, everybody wants to send for your family, which is we want better life . So all those things, whatever it is, heart desires, that's what everybody wants when you really think about it. So then once you understand and start looking at it from that angle, what are we fighting for?
There's enough for everyone, right? It's really enough for everyone. So , uh, so with that, you know, again, we need more nurses, you know , Uh, to really come on board on this crusade of really educating, because there are too many of us that are working, changinglife, but they are not thinking about himself or too many of us that are really working, making all this money when depths automated, wasn't really working, but we can retire.
Right. Think about it. Like we are working, working caring for other people, but too many of us want to retire. Won't be able to go where there's a way to do, right. There's a way to do it. And that's really what this is all about because I truly believe that , um, we have all it takes to really go there and changes and change your community.
So, you know, so more millionaire nurses.
Naseema McElroy: [00:46:21] That's what it's all about. That's what it's all about. And so we, I am, that's my, that's my slogan. I'm here to normalize nurse millionaires. And so, you know, anybody that's on that same path as me. I mean like last team up, like you said, it's enough out there for everybody.
You having something doesn't take away from anyone else. It's an abundance mindset. So I love it. And thank you. Thank you guys so much for what you're doing. I really appreciate you.
Paul Njoku: [00:46:47] Absolutely, absolutely. Well, thanks for having us!
Hey there I’m Naseema
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