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Travis Makes Money
INTERVIEW | Make Money by Combining Wealth Strategy with Purpose with Elizabeth Ralph
00:24:30
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- [00:00]
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Travis
You're listening to the Travis Makes Money podcast. What's going on everybody? Welcome back to the Travis Makes Money podcast. What's our mission to help you make more money? On this episode of the show, I have a new friend, Elizabeth Ralph. She's a former energy trader turned spiritual teacher and high, high level wealth strategist. She retired at just age 39 and is now the host of the Spiritual Investor podcast and creator of the Spiritual Investor program which is a nonlinear frequency based approach that blends financial strategy with energetic align alignment. So I'm super, super stoked to talk with her a little bit about her opinion on making some more money. Elizabeth, what's up? Welcome to the show.
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Elizabeth Ralph
Thank you. So happy to be here.
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Travis
So let's go back in time. I love asking this question because I'm endlessly curious about how people drew a Line from how they got started to where they are now. So, very first time, tell me the experience. Tell me what happened. Very first time you ever made a dollar that was, like, exciting, shocking, surprising to you. Like, it was like, I cannot believe people just paid me to do this thing.
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Elizabeth Ralph
I think that was when I remember I was in corporate. This is when I first started. I was a temporary contractor when I first got hired. And so I looked at which job I wanted, and I was like, okay, I'm just gonna sort of meander my way into that. I wasn't fully there yet with where I wanted to be, but all of a sudden I ended up getting some pretty big bonuses. And I think that I got a phone call from my boss, this was in San Diego, and he was in New York. And he said it over the phone, the number. And then I had to ask him again or say that again, and he said, yeah. And he said the number. And I was like, oh, my God, I cannot believe that I'm getting paid this to do it. Because I loved the job. Of course, this was. This was early on. I mean, I loved the job the whole time. It's just. I decided I didn't want to do that after a while, you know? So I think that was kind of like that first really great feeling.
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Travis
Yeah.
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Elizabeth Ralph
Where.
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Travis
What. How old were you at that time?
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Elizabeth Ralph
I was 32, I think so. And I was working on the financial trading floor in San Diego. We were trading natural gas, electricity, oil, all that.
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Travis
How did you get into doing that? Is that something you went to school for?
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Elizabeth Ralph
No, I actually went. I was going to go to medical school. So my degree's in microbiology. So I went to Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo. Graduated with microbiology.
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Travis
Love it there.
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Elizabeth Ralph
I know. I loved San Luis Obispo. It was hard for. Hard for me to leave. But then I went down to San Diego and I ended up getting a job as a software programmer. Cause I was really good at math. And so it was for a financial company. But then what I noticed is I was like, I don't really like this job as a programmer. Because it's like people just come in and kind of direct me and tell me what to do. And I didn't like it. So I said, what's the best job here, A financial trader? Being able to, like, actually work directly with customers and all that. And within a year and a half, I sort of meandered my way into it.
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Travis
Can you describe what it means to meander your way into a position? Like, because we're already talking about like four different things, right? Like, you go to school for microbiology, you get out, you do something different, and then you're in software working for this financial company, which doesn't make sense. And then you're like, hey, well, you know, I'm here, I may as well do the cool part of this job. And then you just do that. Like, it's funny because in your story, it's just kind of like part of what you did.
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Elizabeth Ralph
Yeah.
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Travis
But a lot of people who are listening are like, how I've been trying to get a transfer to do this other thing in my company for seven years and I can't get my foot in the door. So how, how did you do it, Elizabeth?
- [05:03]
Elizabeth Ralph
Well, I'll, I'll back up just a little bit and say that I was born with this very odd thing called, like, I have a, a massive amount of certainty. And so I don't know what it is, but once I decide that I'm going to do something, it's like I've already done it and all I'm doing is just taking the action steps to step into it. So once I decided, oh, that's going to be my job, then I thought, okay, well how am I going to do that? How am I going to get from temporary contractor, you know, who's writing software code into being someone who obviously, because I had to go back and do financial exams too, to even be able to get there, right? So I took the, that on. I ended up taking some of the, I don't know, these financial exams. I think like 2% of the people in the world passed them. So I spent years definitely studying for those. I came home, I'd come home at 6:30, I would basically just change clothes and then go to the coffee shop until midnight and I would study for those. So I did do that. I also decided as a software programmer, what is it? Because I knew I needed to sort of also excel at what I was doing currently, because if you're not really good at what you're doing currently, you're not a good candidate for doing something different.
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Travis
That's right.
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Elizabeth Ralph
So I had to bypass my, well, I don't really want to do this anymore and said, okay, I have to see this as a path. So I decided, what is the one thing that the software programmers here on my team don't want to do? And there was this old archaic system that had the worst code. It was like nobody wanted to deal with it. And so what I did is I printed out it was 2000 pages of code and I printed it out and then on the weekends I would memorize it. And so then I became, after not too long, I became the one that people would go to, I would volunteer to help. And then I became the one who. It was only two of us who actually even knew how to program the system.
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Travis
Wow.
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Elizabeth Ralph
And I be, I just made, I became valuable. And that's actually still what I do now to be honest with you, the only thing I'm doing is I'm looking at how can I, whether it's managing my energy or whatever, how can I just continue to provide more and more value at whatever ever I'm doing. And then from that place I stand on the shoulders of getting someplace else. I don't like blow up the whole system.
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Travis
There's so many lessons here. There's really only two ways to make more money. You would bring more value to your employer or you bring more value to the marketplace. That's exactly, really, that's really it, you know. And so if you're in the context of having a job, then it is your job to figure out how can I be indispensable in this organization where they have no choice but to give me a raise if I ask for a raise? Because if I leave, nobody else is going to take their time on the weekends to memorize this 2000 page document and lines of code. Nobody else is going to do the work that I was willing to do. So it makes you this indispensable part of the team. And then it also shows that if you get put into a situation where you're not 100% qualified or comfortable, that you will figure it out, that this is like, this is the track record now that you have with this organization to say that, like look, yeah, sure, maybe we have potentially some more qualified candidates coming out of Stanford that studied investments, you know, in particular and maybe they would make ideally a better trader. But we know Elizabeth and she got into this role that she didn't have a degree in and she crushed that role and did all this extra work and over performed over here. So why not trust her with this role over here? I think she probably would do the same thing like that. I mean there's so many lessons in that. I appreciate you sharing that part of the story because I think that's highly, highly underrated. I think people are just sitting around waiting for the opportunity to come to them. Like they kind of just have this like magical picture of just their boss walking up to them in the hallway. One day and being like, you've been chosen, you've won the lottery to have this awesome, cushy new position. You know what I mean? And then they don't ever take the steps to ensure that even if they did get selected randomly like that, that they would actually excel in the opportunity. And so you.
- [09:14]
Elizabeth Ralph
You're exactly right.
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Travis
Each and every single one of those steps, obviously, really, really well. So when you became a trader, was it in your mind just like, oh, yeah, of course that happened, or were you still kind of a little bit shocked?
- [09:26]
Elizabeth Ralph
No, I wasn't shocked. No. Yeah, I wasn't shocked at all because I could feel it beforehand. And I didn't go straight into being a trader either. I. There was a couple of positions in between that sort of help me learn and sort of get my feet wet and go into that. And then I became sort of a junior trader who I would take over the portfolio whenever someone would travel. But again, even in that position, what I did is I showed up even earlier to work so that I could sit and look over the shoulder of the trader at the time. And then when they were on vacation, I volunteered myself. Would you like me to take this over and da, da, da, da. Like, in other words, I. It's the same thing with. It's actually the same principle with building wealth. Everything is positioning. So all I did was I just continued to position myself in a way that's like, can I be valuable here? And then people are like, okay, that same thing with wealth. Like, you know, it's. You're not actually going to build wealth until you're positioned. And that's what happened to me. Even, you know, when, in the beginning of my wealth journey, when I started buying houses in San Diego after the financial crisis, I was positioned because at that point, I was making bonuses that I was able to plunk $50,000 down on a house or whatever. And so I was first in line to get. I was buying duplexes in san Diego for $200,000. Like, unheard of. Right. Even though. Here's what's so funny. And this is another thing. You have to ignore the world because everybody's going to give you advice, and that advice a lot of times doesn't pertain to you. So I was working with some really, really top financial people. Some of these people had PhDs in finance. I kid you not. They were telling me the worst decision in the world is to invest in housing in San Diego after the financial crisis. Because when you bought a house, people were squatting and they were staying in it and you had to cover the mortgage and get no rent and all this stuff. And I just thought, I don't think they're right. I don't think they are. And you know what? If I go down this route and end up with eight houses and they're not making any money, oh my God, what's the big deal in it? I'll just, I'll do something different. It's like I have never looked at myself as being. If I make a decision, I'm limited by that. No, it's. I make a decision, I learn from that. And I think that's probably the like
- [11:49]
Travis
a little bit this episode of the
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Travis
upwork.com of a difference. Yeah. Well, you seem to have this like, like you said earlier, this innate sense of certainty. But it's not just certainty in the result that you're pushing for, it's certainty in your ability to figure out whatever happens.
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Elizabeth Ralph
Yes, right.
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Travis
Like it's not necessarily, like if this result, like it's not, I'm 100% sure this is the result that I'm going to get. It's just that I'm 100% sure this is the path that I want to take. And then if I take that next step up the spiral staircase, then I'll just take the next available step to me at that time and it's probably going to work out okay. Which is faith in things. Working out is sort of the opposite of anxiety, right?
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Elizabeth Ralph
Yes, exactly. And you know, you're, you've, you spot, you're spot on with, people get confused. Like I'm not certain of the results, but I'm certain that I can find something about this. This is the path. I'm certain of that and I'm certain on that path I'm going to find some part of it that works. And I'm good with if it part works because then I'll just figure out the next plan. So I am certain.
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Travis
Right, right. Did you grow up religious at all, Elizabeth?
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Elizabeth Ralph
No.
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Travis
No. At what point did the spiritual investor come along? What did the spirituality aspect of this come into play?
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Elizabeth Ralph
You know, I'm glad you asked that because I also, I want to bring in that everything I, I, while I'm out here doing all this stuff, it doesn't mean that everything's rosy either. Right. And so I, when I decided that I was going to buy my way out of corporate and this was, I was, I don't know, probably three, four years into it and I thought, I like this job, but I don't know if I want to be like mid-50s and still be, you know, hammering it out 12 hours a day on a training floor with screaming around me all the time. So I was like, okay, well, I don't want to go down to zero and not have any money, so I'm just going to buy my way out of it. Well, I came up with a wealth plan and I was on track with that, actually, numbers. I was meeting it. I was going to retire in 10 years. Well, then I ended up getting really depressed. It was. I felt my. My life felt empty. I was like. I felt like I was a puppet at work. I was like, I felt like I was pretending like I was interested and I really wasn't interested. And I was like, how can I go to one more meeting and pretend I want to have this conversation when I don'? I felt like there was a part of me that was dying to be honest with you. And I would come home in the afternoons and I would lie down in front of the French doors in the bedroom because that was the last bit of sun. And I would just. I would just lie there. And I was just. So finally I was like, something's gotta change. I didn't know what it was. And I also don't choose things if I'm not. Like, sometimes what I'll do is instead of making a choice, I'll just let it lie. So I did. I just let it lie. Suddenly, I don't know how this ended up happening, but a guy got hired on the trading floor. He's from India. I was totally different than anyone who I had met. And he started arranging his stuff on the desk in a weird way because he was very religious, right? And he was, you know, had these colored statues. I was fascinated with this guy. Anyways, we started talking one day and we just had the same sense of humor. He being raised in India in a tiny little apartment with a bunch of people. Me being raised in the US and we just became fast friends. I taught he and his family how to integrate into the culture of the US and then he basically took me under his wing and every single day taught me something of the Hindu principles. And so Aurobindo or Mana, Maharshi, all these spiritual gurus from, you know, years ago, and that was like the wind in my sails. That, that did something. And there was an elevation factor to that. I then ended up accidentally combining my wealth plan with a very strong why, which was saving horses. I ended up buying a property in San Diego, turning it into a short term rental, which again, there was only Three of them. I didn't even know if this concept was going to work. We were one of the first people on Airbnb. Wow. Turned it into. And then I started donating the profits to horse rescue. So I combined a strong why from this is what I want to do in the world. This is who I want to be in the world with. Okay. I still own this property. It's probably going to do fairly well. It's a property in the historic district of San Diego. Ended up making quite a bit of money on that monthly meeting. People from all over the world who loved horses ended up getting on HGTV on a TV show. It was on Tiny House Hunters. And ended up selling that property and quadrupled my money. So once I saw wow, wait, I need to put like my myself inside of the wealth plan. It's not just about money. I'm not incentivized by dollars in a bank account. I'm incentivized by doing something big in the world. Once I combine that. When I did retire, I didn't know I was going to start the Spiritual Investor. And someone said, can you help me with my money? And I said, yeah, but I'm not going to do it the traditional financial way. I'm going to do it in this new way. Therefore, the Spiritual Investor was born. It all came together. It was like it was presented to me.
- [19:21]
Travis
So the retirement plan, as I understand it was basically make as much as you can while you have a good paying job and dump it into real estate. Were you also putting money in stocks and other places or was real estate the main asset class?
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Elizabeth Ralph
Well, my whole goal was create enough monthly cash flow to when I actually leave to be able to cover my cost of living and also have enough in long term term retirement that it would compound its way into being sufficient when I was 65 or whatever. So those are my two boxes. Basically what I did is I said, I don't really care about what anybody else's financial freedom is. I want to define it myself. And those were my two things. Once I hit that, I'm not going to question it. I'm not going to keep going three more years. I put an agreement in place with myself. When I do that, I'm done. Well, I did it in eight years instead of 10, but. And my cost of living was fairly low at the time. Right? I mean, after I left, you know, it's like that's the thing. Like, it's not like a done and dusted thing. My cost of living. I have horses my cost of living went up. I ended up creating a business. Here's the thing though, what I find is that do the best you can with here's what it needs to look like and then give up on it. Cause it's really never going to look like that anyway.
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Travis
Yeah, right. Well, that's what we're talking about earlier is not being attached to the outcome.
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Elizabeth Ralph
Yeah, it's going to look different.
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Travis
Yeah.
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Travis
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- [21:53]
Elizabeth Ralph
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- [22:08]
Travis
disclosures yeah on the real estate side, I'm curious what your opinion is on what the market looks like today. Obviously having a crystal ball going back, anybody would be leveraging their home and getting debt to the eyeballs to invest in properties in San Diego in 2010, 2011, 2012. What if you were if you Were doing it all over today. If you were starting, you know, right now, would you. Would you still go the rental property route?
- [22:36]
Elizabeth Ralph
I would incorporate some rental property because if I was looking at it from sort of the knowledge I have today, with all the experience that I've had, and blah, blah, blah, I would look at things from strictly from a point of portfolio diversification. I don't feel like you're truly financially free if you're invested totally in one asset, because then the market can change and then you're dependent on the economy again. So I would be investing. I would choose. There's lots of different asset classes, but I would choose three that you can sort of move towards and start building wealth in those. One of those for me would be real estate. One of those would be stocks. I like how they're kind of related, but not related. I like how one, like the cash flows are different in them, basically. Right. And then I would choose one wild card, you know, whatever it would be for you. It could be land, it could be crypto, it could be private equity, something like that. So I would move towards that. If I was doing it today, and I would say diversification's the number one thing, I would choose real estate, But I wouldn't do the same thing I did back then. Because you're going to choose it based on what's the opportunity presented to you. I believe every asset class, there's always an opportunity. So, for instance, like, I was buying the duplexes that I was buying back then. The mortgage would. The rent from one of them would pay the mortgage, and then the other was free cash flow. Now that doesn't exist anymore. You can't really even find cash flow in those areas anymore. However, I will. So I stopped buying real estate in California in 2019. I did kind of pivot, and I didn't buy duplexes. I did around 2015, start to buy places with a little bit more land because I had a feeling that people would start to value that. So I think that was good. I am almost out of real estate. I have one more property in California, and I'm actually moving into different areas. I bought a property a year ago here in Tennessee, and I kind of get away from the it needs to be glamorous or whatever. I'm kind of like, does it fit my model kind of thing? And does that. Do I feel like a good value? My cash flow on that Property is about $1,200. And so I would say that's pretty good in today's. In Today's market for be being able to do that. So I do think that there's stuff out there. I think you really have to be willing to go beyond the boundaries. I also for the first time hired a property manager. Best decision ever. Because I don't really want to deal with it. So I don't keep all of that. Right. I don't. Some of that I do pay for landscaping and some. Some of it I do pay for property manager. But still I'm doing fairly well on that. I own land and I'm actually going. My next endeavor is endeavor is I'm going to start to build a few properties. So really those are some of the ideas that I have. I also would. And this is what I'm telling all the students right now and the spiritual investors. Same exact thing. Which is never before have we seen an opportunity where it's so easy to make income because of AI. So I would dramatically increase the income right now and I would have a standard built in that you're going to expand 20 to 50% of that brand new income. And I would put it in the stock market or real estate or one of these assets. Like I would set your standard. I almost look at it like, what if you had to make all the money that you have to make in the next three years, what would you do?
- [25:51]
Travis
Yeah, that's a great question. I love that question. I'm start asking that a lot and give you credit. Okay.
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Elizabeth Ralph
Oh, good.
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Travis
At least the first few times, Elizabeth. And after that it's three.
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Elizabeth Ralph
I hope it helps people.
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Travis
I think so. I think so. That type of mind expanding experiment can unlock a lot of growth for people, I think because, you know, it doesn't have to be done in 40 years. No, that's the illusion they want you to believe, right?
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Elizabeth Ralph
Yeah. They want you to believe that you need to work 40 years and then enter the medical system and then you're still dependent. It's not true. None of it's true. Yeah.
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Travis
Elizabeth, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for taking the time. This is a fantastic conversation. Where can people go to get more from you and what you're working on?
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Elizabeth Ralph
They can go to thespiritualinvestor.com so you can find out all the stuff. There's a free five day series that I just did that if you want to kind of go a little bit deeper on this and the spiritual investor
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Travis
podcast, thespiritualinvestor.com as well as the Spiritual Investor podcast. Go check out some of the stuff that Elizabeth's putting out. Elizabeth, thank you so much. Appreciate you. I know you're busy woman and do not take your time for granted. Everybody else listening. Remember, money only solves your money problems, but it's easier to solve the rest of your problems when you got some money in the bank. So let's start there here on the Traffic to Makes Money podcast. Thanks for tuning in. Catch you guys next time. Peace.