Ep51: Buy Back Your Time Using These Proven Tips with Heidi McNulty

[00:00:00] Heidi McNulty
We learn a lot in school that is probably important at one point or another in our life, but we don't learn things that are important in everyone's life. I've always been pretty passionate about wanting to change that. And the first step would be to write a book, create some content, and maybe make that happen for the younger generations.

[00:00:17] Podcast Intro
You are working professional but struggling to balance the workload of your career, family obligations, and preparing for your financial future. If so, this podcast is for you. You've spent years learning your craft, and now it's time to focus on your financial future. This podcast will teach you what you need to retire wealthy and happy. Let's dive in. 

[00:00:40] Roger Jacobsen
Hello and welcome to the Retire Wealthy and Happy podcast. I'm Roger Jacobsen along with Anthony Esparza, we're your hosts. And today we have our guest Heidi McNulty. Welcome to the show, Heidi. 

[00:00:50] Heidi McNulty
Thank you. So glad to be here. 

[00:00:52] Roger Jacobsen
We're excited to have you and hear your story and hear about your book today. Why don't you start off by introducing yourself a little bit and telling us a little bit about your history? 

[00:01:01] Heidi McNulty
Okay. So I was born in Utah, but we moved to California when I was seven. So I did most of my growing up in Sacramento, California. And then I moved to Utah when I was 19. I got pregnant and didn't want to Be distracted. And so I moved to Utah where I didn't know anyone and I could just focus on being a good mom and started a career here, bought a house when I was 19, I was like really determined to make sure that my son had a good life, even though I got pregnant really young. I kept going to school and got my bachelor's degree in business management and my master's degree in accounting, and then opened my own staffing company in 2015. And I grew that to about 30 million. And then along that time, I got married when I was about 20. I just turned 20 and had two more boys. So I have three boys and they're a lot of fun, but they're growing up way too fast. And then I sold my company when I turned 35, I sold my staffing company and decided I was going to soft retire.

[00:02:07]
Retiring to me meant like I didn't have to work another day in my life if I didn't want to, but I knew I still had things I wanted to do and be passionate about, but didn't want to have to keep doing them around a somewhat nine to five, I wanted to be able to do what I wanted when I wanted. And so. I sold my staffing company in 2022. During that time on the side, I built up my real estate portfolio. I started in January, 2012 and got up to 86 doors and was flipping about 12 to 20 homes a year by the end and then retired. And two months later, my husband of 15 and a half years killed himself. He struggled with PTSD really, really bad, had multiple suicide attempts, and multiple hospitalizations. So it was kind of one of those, we knew it would happen, but we didn't know when, and did everything we could to prevent it in the meantime. So yeah, so that was actually the same day that the interest rates were raised. By the feds and the market shifted specifically in Utah I know some other states haven't had quite as much of a shift But I feel like Utah's market has shifted quite a bit and so at the time I had 12 houses under construction or on the market and I had to kind of navigate that while grieving.

[00:03:28]
And I didn't do very well at that. I definitely took time to grieve, but I wouldn't say that I responded as well as I should have to the market change and wasn't as aggressive as I in hindsight could have been, but hindsight's 2020, right? So I think we're all saying that at this point in the market. So I have a book coming out, um, March 14th, it's called buying time and it's kind of about my life story, but more so a guide to poor young people to build wealth and work on their mental health and their value system and the choices they make and, and do they align with their passion in life so that they can be fulfilled and wealthy and not just rich.

[00:04:12] Roger Jacobsen
Very cool. That's a lot. And there's a lot of questions that. The first thing that I want to point out is your staffing company was not just a temporary staff like a low level labor. It was a trades Yeah, high skilled plumbers electricians and stuff like that, which that's a extremely impressive to me You know, and you know, I look for an electrician or plumber. I'm lucky to find one or two. 

[00:04:41] Heidi McNulty
Yeah well, we were in five states and There wasn't a single state that the labor market for trades people wasn't very tight. So we had to be really aggressive and assertive with these tradesmen and provide a lot of great benefits so that they wanted to come work for us. Because like you said, there's a lot of. Temporary staffing companies that kind of do everything, but they don't do anything well, and they provide very low scale people. And so even kind of overcoming that stigma for these high end trades people is another battle we had to really get over with each of them.

[00:05:16] Roger Jacobsen
And I think you've also mentioned in the past that right when you opened the company, you also got a lawsuit. 

[00:05:21] Heidi McNulty
Yes, so before that I had opened a company in Utah. I opened their Utah location and worked for them for five years and then we presented an offer to purchase The company, and they instead fired everyone then sued us with a forged non compete, which I mean, I, I was young. I didn't realize that was a thing like that. You could even sue someone with something forged, like who would do that, but we ended up running in court and they had to pay us and our lawyer fees. And so it was a fun learning experience, but very stressful. 

[00:05:59] Roger Jacobsen
I'd say it's just one more of the many challenges that you. Accepted and overcame. 

[00:06:04] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, I definitely think I definitely have this view of life where like I can do anything But God likes to challenge that and make sure I push my limits There's times where I'm like, okay, I'm done. I can't do anymore. Please. No But you got to keep an attitude of that. You can do anything. You'll get through it We all do you know, I think even You That's one thing through this change in the market, I feel like, I don't know if, you know, I've had to sell a lot of my portfolio and I've lost probably 2 million in the last 18 months, just between all the flips that were on the market and then having to come up with the cashflow to float them. And it's been a lot of fun, but I look at it kind of like all the people that went bankrupt or struggled and lost money. Don't watch in 2008 and 2009. And it's like, they're back up at the top again, you know? And so for me, I really look at it as like, okay, this is a learning experience. So I'm going to come out a better investor, a more experienced investor. I'm going to know how to ride the waves of down markets. Cause this is my first down market. I've really only been in an upward trending market and it's very different. I'm learning a lot the hard way, but I'm learning a lot. 

[00:07:23] Roger Jacobsen
But flipping for about 16 months, I had one that was really an ugly deal in multiple ways, and that was enough to get me out of the game for a while.

[00:07:33] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. Yeah. It's hard and I will get back in the game, but I don't know that I'll ever do 12 at a time again with a change in the market and as fast as the markets change, I feel like. You know, people think it's such a slow thing when the market changes. And as a flipper, I would say it feels like it's overnight. It feels like there's an overnight shift that you can't respond fast enough to. And maybe that's just my inexperience talking, but it's definitely. Been rough to get rid of those 12 at losing on most of them and then On top of that. I don't know that I want to risk that much anymore I was really go big or go home girl for a long time And now I kind of enjoy my peace and I enjoy my home life and i'm like, I don't want to go home empty-handed. 

[00:08:23] Anthony Esparza
You had quite the journey Heidi, can you go a little bit more in depth on the last 18 months With your real estate investing, you said you mentioned you had some losses. You've had some outside factors that probably affected kind of you're navigating through that time, but go more in depth into what you've learned in this downtrending market and kind of your game plan for the next time. It's a downtrending market. 

[00:08:47] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, so I definitely chase the market down and as you know, on flip and I'll go in a little deeper in case some of the listeners don't understand when you buy flips, there's multiple ways to buy them. The way that I buy them is with hard money. So I buy the flip with someone else's money and they collect interest. And so when the flip doesn't sell in 30 days, like it has for the last five years. You're paying interest on that time. And so I had multiple flips go 12 months on the market that I was chasing the market price down instead of being aggressive and lowering the price. Enough that it would just be a hot sale and get it gone. I chased the market down, which meant that I paid virtually 12 times more in hard money than I needed to. And I think that part of that is working with a realtor that also hadn't been in a down market. But I think the other part of that was really pride on my part, like not wanting to sell it for that low and not wanting to sell it for that low and know it's worth this.

[00:09:54]
And. What it's worth and what it will sell for sometimes aren't the same. A prime example of that is I have a beautiful home in Pepperwood that we got appraised before we listed it so that we could have some backing as to our list price and it appraised for 4. 7 hasn't sold, hasn't sold, hasn't sold. We've got it down to 4. 35 million and. It's still on the market, but it's worth 4. 7. So it's hard. Cause it's like as a flipper, you know what it's worth and that's straight money out of your pocket. And so I think probably the biggest thing I learned is I've got to go down to what people are going to pay immediately instead of trying to stick with what I believe it's worth or even what it will appraise for, because I'm losing money by the month in keeping holding onto these properties.

[00:10:44] Roger Jacobsen
4. 7 million is a pretty big flip. I personally like to be in the 500, 000 area. 

[00:10:52] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, I started in the 500,000 area, but I really was doing it more out of passion and fun. It was kind of my funny money, if you will. Like I had my full-time job, I had my company, I had my income from that. I never touched any of my real estate income. So all my flips were more for fun and to kind of scratch that itch and the 500,000 You really can't do much with them like it's the same cookie cutter, flipper house, the same cabinets, the same carpet, the same everything. And it's wise to do it that way. And I definitely built up some automation with that, but it's not fun like it doesn't turn out beautiful. And like something that you can take a million pictures of and just be like, look at what I created. And so that's kind of why I decided to increase up to. The first year we were doing at the time there were like three to four hundred thousand dollar homes and then we worked our way up to like the 800 range then to like the 1.2 and then over two for most of them. 

[00:11:51] Anthony Esparza
What has a better profit margin, and what's easier the Say the half a million dollar price range or once you get into the millions? 

[00:12:00] Heidi McNulty
I don't know that one's easier than the other they have different challenges in the starter homes You're flipping them fast There are three month projects between purchase price and sale date and we just rolled through them again I think the problem with those is you're doing more at a time So you've got to really juggle your manpower from project to project to keep all of them going another problem is You It's lower price point. So you run into weird hiccups and you have to leave them like weird things that run into that aren't in the budget. And you just have to say like, we'll put it on the disclosure and disclose it, and it is what it is on the higher end homes. We really can't do multiple at a time and do them well, because. They're six months to a year long project just in construction. You're talking 12, 000 square feet, not two. And so it's essentially six homes in each one of those, plus the quality of work has to be so much higher. And so all those little details that in regular flips, you can just leave it. In high end flips, you can't leave anything.

[00:13:06]
Alright. I will say on this 4. 7 one, we did leave a few things, and Every single buyer points them out and I'm like, we knew that we should have fixed those things. But it's hard because it's like, especially hard coming from the lower-end stuff where like, they don't complain about anything. They're just happy to have new stuff. And you get to these high-end buyers that want pristine condition of everything in the home, even though it's used. And it's like, you get nitpicky buyers and you're like, okay, I should have been prepared for that. I knew better. So it's just, I feel like they're two completely different ballgames. One is very fast-paced and juggle, juggle, juggle between multiple homes and get it done as quick as possible. Whereas the higher end is quality. It's slower because it's much, you know, even paint, for example, paint in a entry-level home is maybe one, two days, three max. 

[00:14:01] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, higher-level homes. It's three, four weeks of paint. So it's just dramatically different on the time frames and I've had paint go as long as six weeks And so it's just on these other homes. I could do the whole house in six weeks, so it's definitely a different ball game altogether 

[00:14:19] Roger Jacobsen
I can really relate to that because I've done high-end construction up in Deer Valley for most of my life It was like 5 million house average, but it was always just for a buyer. The owner was specking out, this is the color, this is what I want. This is, and just do that. And it would be like, well, not money is no issue, but pretty close. Like one of my customers, he's like Roger. I don't care what's cheaper. This is my personal house. And Alan Gold during that sold his business. He had biomed realty and he sold it for 4. 1 billion. And it was like, oh, okay, well, we'll do it while you want.

[00:14:57] Heidi McNulty
It's funny with those high-end homes because they all do that. And so they all make it very personalized. And you get in there and you're just like, this is not cute, like, this is not a house that anyone else will want to buy, but they do it because they want it and they love black, so everything's black or they do it because they love zebra and there's zebra print everywhere and you're just like, why is this a zebra house? Like, what is going on here? So there's a lot of Those high-end homes that you have to kind of remodel to make them appeal to other people. 

[00:15:32] Roger Jacobsen
Exactly. We can do a very cookie-cutter job on the lower-end houses, and it's just same color. You know, if I have paint left over, it's not extra paint. It's the next job's paint.

[00:15:43] Heidi McNulty
The next job's paint. Yeah, for sure. And we totally did that. We would buy things in bulk. We'd buy tile by the pallet at Home Depot and get way good deals on pallets of tile. But again, like, it has challenges, but it's not a challenge as far as design and some of the things that we enjoy a little bit more. On this large one, we did hire a designer because We're really good at designing houses when we're redoing the whole thing but on this one We were only doing some of it and to figure out how to fit some of these designs in with new colors new ideas was Over my head. So we hired a really good designer. I don't know if you know her, Eleanor Ramirez. 

[00:16:23] Roger Jacobsen
Yeah, I do know of her 

[00:16:25] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, she's awesome. She did a great job and she did awesome at blending in the stuff that we left with the new stuff. And it turned out really good. 

[00:16:34] Roger Jacobsen
Well, you said you had 86 doors and have you sold those or do you still have? 

[00:16:39] Heidi McNulty
So I sold a few so far and then I actually I'm just listing two of my apartment Complexes. One of them is 35 doors and the other one is 19 doors, once in Idaho and once in Fillmore, and they're both do really well, but I am just at a point where I need to upload some things and kind of scale back a little. And so getting rid of those big dogs, especially the Fillmore, still requires a little more of my attention because 11 units are motel units that are rented out weekly. And then the rest of them are apartments. So it's managed by two different property managers. We have to have an onsite. We also have to have a maintenance guy on site. And so it's just kind of probably more up your alley than mine. 

[00:17:26] Roger Jacobsen
Yeah, that's something we constantly do. And I think the fallacy is always just hire a property manager and set it and forget it. And it's really our job as an asset manager is just to run the property managers. Yeah, to hold their feet to the fire, to keep them accountable. And it's constant battle that if you're doing it right, it really does take a lot of time. 

[00:17:47] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. And I think that's where for me, I'm kind of focused in different directions right now. And so I don't want to be working real estate as much as I was. And on those properties, they definitely have to kind of manage the property managers a little bit more, not the Idaho one. The Idaho one is really easy, but the Fillmore one's a little more complicated. 

[00:18:06] Roger Jacobsen
Yeah. And that's, you know, a good segue into your book, buying time. A lot of the theme in there is just to not trade your time for money, but to magnify it. 

[00:18:16] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. So a lot about investing and ways to get started investing. I think a lot of, even people that come to me for coaching say, Hey, you know, I don't have any money to invest, but I really want to one day. And I think the first step is coming up with a budget so that they realize where their money's going. It's very similar to weight loss. My husband owns a gym and the first step is documenting what you eat and knowing how much you weigh and knowing how much you need to weigh and knowing how much body fat you have. It's the exact same with finances. You've got to know what you own, where your assets are, where your liabilities are, what your budget is, how much, where your money's going each month. And when you know those things, it's a lot easier to adjust them. And I've done coaching and budgeting with quite a few people over the years. And I've only had one person that thought they spent 500 on fast food and they actually spent close to 500. Everyone else is over a thousand dollars. And people just don't realize it because it's five, 10 at a time. And it's same thing for eating. You're eating, you know, one bite here, one bite there. And it adds up and it equates to things that don't help you in the long run. And so if we even just create a fast food budget for half of these people, they just freed up 500 a month to invest. 

[00:19:35] Roger Jacobsen
And if they just prepped their meals at home, they wouldn't be spending money at the fast food place and they wouldn't be overeating. 

[00:19:40] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. And they wouldn't have to, you know, spend money on a nutritionist or a physical trainer because they wouldn't be overweight either. So it all kind of plays into each other, but it really just comes down to that discipline. So I think the first couple of principles in the book is about discipline and Setting goals and analyzing it so that you understand where you're at. And then, it works through different investments and different opportunities and different ways to invest and different ways to get into investing at low entry levels and how to build up that savings so that you can dive into the higher entry point investments later on.

[00:20:16] Roger Jacobsen
Yeah. And we talked a little bit about being more of a workbook before we started. Why don't you go into that a little bit? 

[00:20:23] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, so with my book, there's a lot of books out there that I think have really great information, or I'll speak for myself. I don't know that I learn as much from them, because it's like, it talks about a point, and then it moves on to the next thing, talks about a point, moves on to the next thing, and there's no real practice or implementation into my life, unless I go, like, this is why I have a hard time reading books, is I have to sit down and take notes, and be like, okay, I need to do this, I need to I create like my own little action plan when I read books, but a lot of people listen to books in their car and they're not creating action plans or driving. And so for my book, I really wanted it to have an action plan so that you're not just reading a book. It actually changes your life. You actually learn things. You actually reflect on yourself and on your values and on. Who you are as a person and reflect on how and where you can do better in life. And so I created end-of-chapter exercises that are in the book, but then there's a workbook that's sold separately with the book that has the end-of-chapter exercises and some extra questions. And you actually go through and fill out the workbook and do all of it in the workbook to make sure that you actually learn and you get some change in your life. 

[00:21:37] Roger Jacobsen
Yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent. I've read, well, I've listened to well over 150 books on audible and all of their reinforcement, it's like five miles away, you're going to forget what you heard and it might be in your subconscious a little bit and you might go back and revisit it, but if you actually sit down and write out a goal, a thing, whether you're going to eat differently or spend your time differently learning something or whatever you're going to do. You have to set that goal and then you have to follow through. And the follow-up is where you really get the gain. 

[00:22:12] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, the follow-up and the action is really where your life changes. Like some people say, Oh, that book changed my life. Well, They obviously took action of what they learned. And that's the piece that I think for me, I can only do that. If I'm sitting down and taking notes while I'm reading, I can't listen to books in the car while I'm driving and still have it changed my life. 

[00:22:33] Anthony Esparza
For sure. What made you write a book, Heidi? Was it just your journey through stuff and company? 

[00:22:39] Heidi McNulty
When I was younger, um, I used to always say when I retire, I'm going to teach a life class in high school. And kind of my ultimate retirement dream was to teach a life course in high schools and have the first year be about budgeting and taxes and financial literacy, the second year be about investments and ways to invest compound interest, things like that, retirement plans, self-directed retirement plans, helping people understand all those things. At a very young age and then the next two years I wanted it to be and, and I've talked about this a few different ways, maybe flip-flopping the two years and the two years but the next two years talking about coping methods and ways to Handle stress, ways to identify depression and identify suicidal behavior or suicidal thoughts, what to do with them, how to handle them. And really kind of develop like a school program that teaches mental health and financial literacy so that people coming out of high school are much more prepared for life. I think, sure. We learn a lot in school that, you know, is. Probably important at one point or another in our life, but we don't learn things that are important in everyone's life. And I really have always been pretty passionate about wanting to change that. And so I thought maybe the first step would be to write a book and then create some content and create some program that I could present to schools and maybe make that happen for the younger generations. 

[00:24:12] Anthony Esparza
I love that. I think really all educational systems is kind of lacking that. I mean.

[00:24:17] Heidi McNulty
Well, I think it's hard because like they're so limited in what they can teach because you've got all these parents that are like, don't teach my kids that. So we're expecting the parents to teach the kids that. But the problem is the parents don't know. They live paycheck to paycheck. They don't have retirement. They have less than a thousand dollars in savings. So how are we expecting them to teach something that they don't know? And so really in my mind, the only option is for it to become mandatory in the school system so that we can see an economical change. The number one cause of divorce is finances. The number one cause of child mental health is divorce.

[00:24:55]
So, we have this really negative spiraling cycle that, in my mind, all starts with financial literacy and coping methods when it comes to mental health, so that people understand how to do these things better and be happy. Tony Robbins always says, life happens for us, not to us, and another thing that he says is like, it doesn't matter what happens to us, it matters what meaning we attach to it, and I think a lot of those things are not taught to kids, because the parents don't know those principles, and if they don't know those principles, especially kids that go through hard things, like my first husband, that, my late husband, I should say, That he had a very difficult childhood, and there's no way that he could transition his mind to see that as happening for him. Whereas, if he was taught that in school, when he was young, then maybe by the time he was 30, 40, 50, he would have had a better mindset about it. 

[00:25:49] Anthony Esparza
Yeah, kind of the same repeating pattern. It's like the educational systems are In my opinion too, I think they're kind of broken in a way, like nobody, all these kids graduate high school and they don't know what taxes are. A hundred percent. Everyone has to pay taxes.

[00:26:03] Heidi McNulty
I don't know why there's not an entire course in high school about taxes. 

[00:26:09] Roger Jacobsen
Yeah, yeah. Nobody understands all of taxes. Let's be honest. There's like a general explanation of it.

[00:26:15] Heidi McNulty
Like I can't tell you how many people say like, oh, I make too much. I get too much taxes, and it's like if they understood the way the tax brackets worked and how you got taxed this much in this bracket and then the next as you escalate, I just think there's so much about taxes that people could understand better and tax deductions. Like understanding how to set up their own companies instead of just being A 1099 employee and claiming all their income because they didn't know how to deduct expenses You know how many expenses could be deducted that they don't even know about.

[00:26:49] Anthony Esparza
Absolutely. The system. Yeah, system's broken. 

[00:26:53] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. Oh get off my tangent. 

[00:26:57] Anthony Esparza
I can talk about it all day too.

[00:26:59] Heidi McNulty
I know me too. I think there's a lot of change that I believe would happen in today's society and in politics and in general, even in like the gap between the wealthy and the Middle lower class that I think would be Fixed by a financial literacy class in high school and some mental health Training in high school. Like I would love nothing more than for all high school students to go to Tony Robbins UPW, like, I think even that would be a great introduction at a very young age for kids to learn what it is. And Tony does have a teen program, but it's a teen ambassador program. So it's all the kids that already have great, you know, like my son went and it was amazing. But it's all the kids that already have parents learning about Tony Robbins. Like they're already a little bit, you know, in my opinion, better off because their parents are somewhat aware of finances and personal development. And we need that to be accessible to everyone, not just the kids whose parents are into that.

[00:27:59] Roger Jacobsen
For sure. Let's talk, you said something ways of managing stress. What are your top three stress management skills? 

[00:28:07] Heidi McNulty
So my number one, um, If I'm, like, really upset, I will always go walk or run on the treadmill or work out. Getting those endorphins going in my body helped me handle it in a more positive way. In addition to giving me some time to process it and be able to communicate better and not communicate of anger or frustration, I can take some time back and step back, own my part of it, figure out what part I'm in control of, what part I need to adjust and come to the conversation better. Another way that I handle stress is really by digging in. I think a lot of people get Stressed about finances, for example, but then they just keep not doing a budget and keep just trying to spend less, but they're still stressed. You still don't know where their money's going. If I'm stressed about a project or finances or anything like that, I sit down and create a budget and understand the numbers so that I have control of where things are going instead of just. Not knowing and not taking control or let's say it's a personal thing that I'm stressed about I'll sit down and create like a list of okay. I can control this. I can control this. I can control this I could do this different I could do this better I could adjust here so that I can really kind of approach things From a place of like this is happening for me and I'm in control not to me and I have zero control As a third one, this is probably an unhealthy answer, but I'm going to say it anyways because it's true, I'll get myself a nice coffee or a diet Dr. Pepper and just take a break and do something that I enjoy, which Bye. For me is iced coffee and diet Dr. Pepper. 

[00:29:54] Roger Jacobsen
Yeah, tell us about your Starbucks addiction. 

[00:29:57] Heidi McNulty
I actually today, oh no, I did go today. Yesterday I didn't go to Starbucks. I have gone to Starbucks every day with like the exception of maybe two weeks. In the last 17 years, like, and if I'm on vacation, like if I'm out of the country, a lot of times they don't have Starbucks, but I don't know, it's just part of my routine. It makes me happy, and I'm trying to stop again for the chance time, but I didn't go yesterday, but I went today, so we'll see, but I told you today I was really dragging but, like, I could not get up.

[00:30:29] Anthony Esparza
I go many mornings as well. Yeah, I need my cold brew. 

[00:30:33] Heidi McNulty
It's in my budget. Okay. Like everyone's like, it's not in your budget. I'm like, yes, that is a very large line item in my budget. Like it makes me happy. You guys all have entertainment, concerts, alcohol, and all this other stuff. Okay. 

[00:30:50] Roger Jacobsen
Getting out for it really cheap. Really? 

[00:30:53] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. 

[00:30:54] Roger Jacobsen
Well, I saw your wedding pictures on Facebook. Why don't you tell us about where you got married and some of that stuff? 

[00:31:01] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. So, well, when my husband passed away at first, I was like, I'm not dating. So my kids are out of the house. I'm just going to focus on my kids. And as I took time to heal, you know, we were all going to counseling, we were all working through our own issues with the situation and life in general. I eventually got to a point where I felt like, you know what, I think I could date and I'll just date while the kids are at school, so I'm not taking time away from them and go on like lunch, lunch dates. I also said I wasn't going to introduce anyone to my kids until I dated them for six months. So I was like, I'm not gonna just like, you know, be that mom that's like bringing randos home all the time. And so I dated around for a minute and just like random dates and Didn't introduce my kids to anyone and then I met Rob and within a week. I was like, I think you should meet my kids. Like for me, it was like, I really liked this guy. And I was like, if he's not good with my kids, I need to know now because that's going to be a big deal.

[00:32:04]
And he was amazing with my kids. And he does a lot of youth mentorship. He does a lot of suicide prevention, addiction recovery. He owns a fitness gym. So he's very, very good with youth. Youth has been his main focus for the last 14 years. And so he was great with my kids and we got engaged in five weeks. I knew in three weeks, but he waited two weeks cause my late husband's birthday was in the middle and he actually planned it on that day and didn't know it was his birthday. And then I told him. Like the day before, I was like, Oh, it's his birthday. And he's like, I can't propose to you on your husband's birthday. I don't think that'll go over very well with your kids. So we waited a little bit longer. And then he moved in with us at about four weeks. So we just moved really fast. But like, we knew it was, the most amazing connection I've ever had. You know, I definitely loved my late husband, but I think we had a lot of struggles and Rob has done a lot of personal development work.

[00:33:06]
He's done a lot of the mind work that it takes to be a happy, healthy person and come to a relationship, a whole person, which I feel I've done as well. And so we really don't need each other for anything. It's just such a nice compliment to our time together. And we ended up getting married to Rob, the direct descendant of William Wallace, the main character that Mel Gibson plays in Braveheart. And so we got married at the top of the William Wallace castle in Scotland. And just him and I and our siblings and parents. And well, I should say mom's dad passed away, and my dad wasn't able to make it, but no kids. And then, we just did it on Instagram live. So our kids could watch. 

[00:33:51] Anthony Esparza
Wow. That's really cool. Spectacular. So the top of the castle. 

[00:33:57] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. Well, and like they call it The Crown. So, the top of the castle of this castle, I should say is open. So there's the pillars that go up in the corner and then it's open. So you could see the clouds like coming through because you're so high up. And it rained a little when we went up at first. And so the ground was really glossy and reflective. It was so cool. I think a lot of people might have been like disappointed if it rained on their wedding day, but it made our so much. 

[00:34:26] Anthony Esparza
That's awesome. That's unforgettable. 

[00:34:28] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. Actually, I have another funny story about that too. So, we get there, and we're like, Hey, we're here for the wedding! And they're like, What wedding? And I'm like, I've been emailing, you know, I hadn't paid because they hadn't sent me the thing to pay yet. So I was just planning on paying when we got there. Well, it turns out that nine, 10, 23 and. The U. S. is October 9th. They do the dates backwards from us. So they have us booked for October 9th, not September 10th. And they're like, no, like, we don't have anyone, like, scheduled to work. Like, we were like, okay. And me and Rob looked at each other, like, we'll just go get married in the middle of the field. Like, I don't care. And she was like, hold on. And so she charged us only half because she was like we can't stay as long as you had booked, but I didn't really need that anyway So she's like I'm only gonna charge you half and we'll stay late for you So all the workers of this castle just stayed late for us on a whim Like they were so nice and so like willing to help. It was awesome. 

[00:35:34] Anthony Esparza
That's super cool. 

[00:35:37] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, I feel like that would never have happened in the U.S. People would have been like, no, I'm off. I gotta go home. They were just like, yeah, I'll reschedule my plans tonight. I'll stay for you. Awesome. 

[00:35:46] Anthony Esparza
That's pretty special. 

[00:35:47] Heidi McNulty
Yeah, it was amazing. They were so nice. 

[00:35:49] Roger Jacobsen
That's awesome. We've got a lot of, uh, good information and good stories from you so far, so. Is there anything else we should mention before we jump into the final four? 

[00:35:59] Heidi McNulty
The only other thing I'll say, I'm going to shamelessly pitch my book. It comes out March 14th. I think it will be great for anyone, especially people. I would say like 15 to 25, it still would be a great book for anyone that's older than that, that wants to get into investing or wants to be financially free. I think the process is just a little bit harder because by then you usually have a mortgage and you usually have some. aren't quite as negotiable, but I think it really will help a lot of people. And that's my main goal. I just want to help people have happier, healthier lives and financially free lives at a younger age, you know, kind of like the name of your podcast, like retire wealthy, like. And happy. I want people to Retire Wealthy and Happy and Young. I want them to have time to enjoy retirement and not just work their life away on this rat race and then be too old to travel by the time they retire. 

[00:36:55] Roger Jacobsen
Where will people be able to find your book? 

[00:36:57] Heidi McNulty
The book will be on Amazon and it's called Buying Time by Heidi McNulty and it will be available for purchase on March 14th.

[00:37:05] Roger Jacobsen
Awesome. I've read a lot of it, and I highly recommend it, so. 

[00:37:10] Heidi McNulty
Awesome. Thank you. 

[00:37:11] Roger Jacobsen
Anthony, why don't you get us into the final four? 

[00:37:14] Anthony Esparza
Are you ready for the final four? 

[00:37:16] Heidi McNulty
I'm ready. 

[00:37:17] Anthony Esparza
So, final four, question number one. What brings you happiness? 

[00:37:21] Heidi McNulty
Brings me happiness. So, that answer years ago was very different than my answer today. Years ago, it used to be money. I was very money-motivated. I was determined to be a millionaire and I grinded. Today, what brings me happiness is time with my family. After my husband's loss, I really learned that you don't get that time back. And it doesn't matter how much money you have, you can be doing Literally, we have the most fun doing Charades on our phone. It's completely free and we just play charades as a family and it's so funny and silly watching the kids act out different things. And so it's just. Like now I don't need money and luxury to have fun. It's still nice to have financial freedom but time with my family time with my kids and my husband is 100 the main thing that brings me joy now.

[00:38:09] Anthony Esparza
I love it question number two. What is your favorite book, and you can't choose your own? 

[00:38:14] Heidi McNulty
Yeah. No, I won't choose my own, that's kind of vain. Your second favorite book too. So, one is my husband's book. It's called Warrior in the Garden, and I really love his book because, again, I'm not a good reader, but his book is a page-turner. I could not put it down, and it's so good about teaching people, but especially youth, How to do hard things up front so that you have an easy life, instead of taking the easy route, ending up with a hard life. He had a really hard life, much because he made bad decisions, and really learned the hard way, and so the book goes through all of that. My other favorite book on a financial topic is, cliche, Rich Dad, Poor Dad. I've listened to it a million times, I have a million notes on it, and Every time I read it I'm at a different point in my life and so I catch different things from it and write down different goals and action items from it, so I love that book.

[00:39:11] Anthony Esparza
Nice, question number three. What is your favorite way to give back? 

[00:39:15] Heidi McNulty
Um, my favorite way to give back is also kind of changed over the years. I used to do a lot of like nice things for my employees like If they got a flat tire on the way to work, I'd go buy them a tire at lunch, stuff like that. But probably the one that's most consistent and very tradition is on Christmas Eve. We always go feed the homeless as a family. Sometimes we invite a lot of people and it turns out to be like a big thing. And other times it's just us and we just go hand out donuts and coffee and feed the homeless. This last year Rob's family came with us, and we set up tables and had coats and donations and blankets and all kinds of stuff and just kind of trying to help them have a good Christmas and then I think it really helps my kids see I'm not big on Christmas gifts, and so I like that it helps my kids see like, wow, we could have it so much worse. And just be really grateful for what they have instead of kind of getting the entitlement thing that kids get these days where they're like why I didn't get this present and I only got this like I don't want that for my kid at all.

[00:40:20] Anthony Esparza
I like that question number four. What does your future retirement look like, and or do you have a future retirement?

[00:40:28] Heidi McNulty
So technically, I'm kind of retired. I don't really have like that job. I still do a little bit of real estate I And still manage my portfolio. But I think for me, even that's changed. Like for so long, I just wanted to be a stay at home grandma. My mom was a stay-at-home grandma. And well, she's a stay-at-home mom too. But she helped me so much getting started in my career, watching my kids. I always knew they were safe and taken care of. So I'm not going to cross that one off the list yet. I still kind of want to be a stay-at-home grandma. 

[00:41:01] Anthony Esparza
Nice. 

[00:41:02] Heidi McNulty
And travel. 

[00:41:04] Anthony Esparza
I love it, Heidi. It was great getting to know you. Hopefully we can have you back on the show. Yeah, sometime in the future. And everybody make sure to go get a copy of Heidi's new book buying time, March 14th. 

[00:41:18] Heidi McNulty
Awesome. 

[00:41:18] Roger Jacobsen
Where's the best place for people to find you on social? 

[00:41:21] Heidi McNulty
On social media, I'm just Heidi McNulty on Instagram and then Facebook Heidi McNulty and Yeah, I'm on LinkedIn and some others as well, but Instagram and Facebook are the main ones that I follow regularly.

[00:41:36] Roger Jacobsen
Awesome. Thanks so much for joining the show. I will see you next time on Retire Wealthy and Happy.

[00:41:42] Podcast Outro
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