I didn’t think it was possible, but as September draws to a close, I realized it could have been the busiest month for us this year! Let’s see – this month we spent 2 weeks in various parts of CA, and then off to Atlanta, GA for 4 days, had a friend from CA visit us at our house for the weekend, and David took a day trip to AZ earlier this week. More details below…
We started the month with a Cashflow game meetup (we’ve enjoyed meeting new people and playing the game), and after Labor Day (uneventful), had a lunch meeting to do some due diligence on a deal we’re evaluating. Did I mention we love evaluating deals?
Women’s Cashflow Party
On 9/5, I (Amber) was off to northern CA on a 3-day excursion with several accomplished women, including our friend Jean who invited me to the event. All 5 women are business owners and investors and I enjoyed meeting the other 3 women (Gabrielle, Laurel, and Sandy) through Jean. Gabrielle had secured a condo right off the beach in Aptos, CA (near Monterey) – you could see the ocean and hear the waves rolling in all day/night; it was amazing!
We shared our personal and business stories, walked on the beach, ate really well at wonderful restaurants (I was probably the only amateur when it comes to fine dining), and of course, played Cashflow game together. It was funny that Sandy and I – the more “experienced” players – were lagging the newbies at the game. Lots of “creative” financing and partnering ideas came out at the game, as well as illegal “baby trading” schemes – OK, you’ll have to play the game to understand the joke 
We even got some shopping done at Carmel. All I can say is I thoroughly enjoyed myself and all these women “own their lives”, working smart and playing hard.
One interesting note is that we met a “traditional” financial planner on this trip and his ideas about investing were worlds apart from us (the 5 women). A few of us politely “quizzed” him on what he would do with a client’s investment dollars today, and he didn’t really give us satisfactory answers. To him, beating the S&P 500 by a few points was considered awesome investment performance, and yet he never asked us what returns we get on our businesses and investments. Oh well, such is the mindset of the “average” investor and investment “adviser” (read: commissioned salesman), who can only hope to get “average” returns at best, after paying lots of fees and taxes.
Our Weekend in the Bay Area
Jean, Sandy, and I left Aptos and returned to San Jose on 9/7 (Friday) afternoon. David flew into San Jose, CA that evening to join me at the hotel. We had late dinner with my friend Rudy from my college days at UC Berkeley. I hadn’t seen Rudy in person for a few years and it was great to finally catch up! We spent a few hours talking after dinner in the hotel lobby.
Since we were spending the weekend in the bay area, we maximized our time spent with friends in the area. We met Kurt and Jenny at their house in Menlo Park and played with their kids Lucy and Ben (both very cute!)
We then drove to our old neighborhood in San Jose and visited Stan and Vivian at their house – they also have a cute daughter named Karena (forgot to take a picture, darn!) It was strange to drive by our old house and see what the new owner did to the front yard. It felt like a different era when we were living there.
For dinner we met our friend Bethany from Intuit at Straits Cafe in Santana Row – food was great but unfortunately it became too “night clubby” and loud, impossible to hear each other at the dinner table. I don’t know why most restaurants are so noisy nowadays, as if nobody knows how to enjoy a meal together with just great conversation. We left the restaurant and ended up having a great conversation in the parking lot! Bethany shared with us how she became a Christian and we were so inspired and touched – it was a blessing to get to know her better.
The next day (Sunday 9/9) was jam packed as well. We met Alan for lunch in Los Altos, then met with my college friends Khang & Betty at Jean’s house in San Jose. We met Robert & Cathy in their neighborhood in Mountain View, watching their kids play with the neighbors’ kids for awhile.
For dinner we were hosted by Eric and Charlene at their house in San Jose, joined by JP (from David’s previous hockey team) and his newly wed wife Sarah. It was great hearing everyone’s personal stories, as well as sharing our own. We had a great time even though it was a very long day.
I wish we could have spent more time at each location. We feel like we’re making up for lost time with our friends, now that we’re financially free and not confined to the traditional “9-to-5 work schedule”. We really hope more of our friends join us in pursuing this freedom, which frees people up to enjoy life with their family and friends.
David always said he wanted to make sure we keep in touch with people in our wedding party, and I’m glad we were able to spend some time catching up with our bay area friends after moving away in late 2004. We didn’t make it to ballroom dancing Sat. night as planned but it was so worth spending time with our friends instead. Next year we’ll probably travel even more (!), especially to CA.
Week in Southern CA
On Monday 9/10 Jean and we flew to Southern CA – Jean is on a tour for her growing MonaVie business and we wanted to shadow her most of that week to learn from her success. David’s mom picked us up from the airport, and we were soon joined by David’s dad on his 50′ Riva boat for a cruise around the Long Beach harbor! Jean got to “drive” (OK, “pilot”) the boat in a U-turn and she pulled it off – we were very impressed, and of course took lots of “king of the world” (Titanic movie reference) and “wind blown hair” pictures to make Jean’s husband Brion jealous (Monday was a work day for him and most of the world) Seriously though, Jean deserves a break after getting herself out of the rat race in one year and very close to getting Brion out in a few months.
After the cruise we “parked” the boat and had a nice BBQ dinner on deck. In the grand Overfield family tradition, we stayed on the boat and talked for awhile after dinner. Jean told her story of being worn out by her corporate job, to the point of taking a medical leave, and how a bottle of MonaVie came to her at the right time through a friend, restoring her health and giving her an unexpected business opportunity which ended up getting her out of the rat race.
The next day (Tue. 9/11) after dropping Jean off for her first meeting, David and I had a great lunch together by ourselves. We then visited our friends Curtis and Anh (with their baby boy) at their home in Fountain Valley, before meeting David’s parents for dinner – it was a day before their anniversary and we had a good time catching up.
Somehow David managed to fit in water skiing with his parents while I was sleeping in Wed. (9/12) morning. David and I drove to San Diego area Wed. afternoon and stayed overnight. We met Jean at a team training meeting and over the next day followed her around to various locations and meeting various leaders in her team as well as people interested in getting into the MonaVie business. Ever since MonaVie was mentioned in the Fortune magazine recently, there has been increased awareness about the product, and many people are becoming distributors (adding 10,000 people a week). We were impressed by the number of business owners (spa owners, fitness club owners, cafe owners) who became distributors, and heard so many powerful testimonials it’s incredible! We came away even more motivated to grow our MonaVie business.
After a full 2 days in the San Diego area, we drove back to David’s parents’ house in Long Beach late Thu. night. David dropped off Jean at the airport early Fri. 9/14 morning, went for another round of water skiing, and we met David’s parents for lunch at an Indian restaurant. It was funny that David and I both kept saying “we learned a lot” when asked what we did in San Diego with Jean.
We flew back to TX Fri. 9/14 afternoon and didn’t get home til almost 11pm CST.
Trip to Atlanta, GA
We took off again to Atlanta, GA on Sat. 9/15 after we were home less than 24 hours from CA (just did laundry and re-packed our bags). We added this trip on at the last minute after I had received 4 free tickets to go to a workshop on Financial Fluency by Maui Millionaires. Since we had time flexibility and wanted to help our friend Chen in Atlanta who’s interested in financial freedom, we decided to go to the workshop with Chen and his wife Alisha. The event was held in downtown Atlanta and our hotel was within walking distance so we didn’t need a rental car.
Turned out some MonaVie distributors also went to the event, so we got to meet them as well. Since this was a more introductory workshop on financial fluency, it was mostly a refresher for us. However, for most people this was the first time they ever heard of the idea of financial freedom, or a different plan than the “traditional” way (work 40+ years at a job, save after-tax money, retire on half of the income from your working years, and hope you don’t outlive your “nest egg”). As usual, David Finkel did a great job teaching and we would recommend his books and workshops for people who are seriously interested in financial freedom.
I’m glad we made time to go to this workshop with Chen and Alisha – after the workshop ended on Monday 9/17 we also checked out the local real estate market and visited their beautiful new house under construction. We had not seen Chen for a few years and this was the first time we met Alisha, who is pursuing a fascinating career in opera singing and does indeed have a beautiful voice. On our last night in Atlanta, they treated us to dinner at a Thai restaurant – we had great conversation getting to know each other and the food was yummy.
As a side note, Chen and Alisha decided to join our MonaVie team a few days later and we’re so happy to work with them. It’s great that we get to pick who we want to work with in our businesses. I think Warren Buffett (whom we admire) says that he can’t believe he gets paid to do what he loves to do anyway, and he gets to work with people he likes and admires. David and I feel the same way – we’re so blessed to have this lifestyle of freedom, and we would love to help others do the same.
Late September Events
After coming back from Atlanta, I was sure my brain could not be more “full”! I’m not used to traveling so much and it usually wears me out quickly. David was worried that might happen but surprisingly I came back pretty excited (for an introvert), albeit physically tired. It’s a strange state to be in, I know. After all those years of being tired and grumpy, I could use a change
Anyway, a few days after we got back, Curtis visited us for 2 days from CA. Of course the 3 of us played Cashflow game together (his first time) — it was fun to watch someone struggle in the rat race (getting “downsized” multiple times with a few “babies” to support) and then finally get out. In fact, Curtis beat David and me and won the game!
You’d think after all the travel and events, we would slow down for the last week in September, but you’d be wrong! David took a long day trip to AZ on Tuesday 9/25 to evaluate a business we’re considering investing in. On Wed. 9/26 evening we went to a free workshop in Frisco – there are so many wealth building “education” companies out there these days. No wonder: they don’t teach you what you need to know in school, especially how to manage your finances. The sub-prime mortgage crisis, record number of foreclosures, huge amount of consumer debt and the negative savings rate in the U.S. are just a few signs of most people’s lack of financial literacy. Not all of these “wealth education” providers are good, but at least in a (mostly) free market economy, this unmet need for financial education should be served better.
Coming up…
We are going to host a cashflow game at our house this Saturday 9/29. On Sunday 9/30 afternoon we’ll meet with our local MonaVie team to discuss what we’ve learned from our CA trip and plan future events.
On my list of to-do’s is to write a series of blog posts based on a few topics, mostly relating to what we’ve learned in our journey to financial freedom over the last few years. David has been saying “someday I’ll write a book about this” but I figure we might as well take our own advice and “start small”. I hope this happens reasonably soon. If you have suggestions on topics you want to read about in our blog, please post a comment. Thanks for reading!
