In this episode of The North Idaho Experience podcast, hosts Seth Horst and Eric Boardman are joined by guest Will Cowan, a former LAPD officer now residing in North Idaho. The conversation delves into Will’s transition from policing in a major city to the quieter, more community-oriented setting of North Idaho, emphasizing the differences in policing styles, environments, and the community’s unique characteristics.
Will shares his passion for helping fellow officers make wise investment decisions, reflecting on his own experiences and the stark contrasts in community values between Los Angeles and North Idaho. The episode touches on various light-hearted and serious topics, including anecdotes from Will’s time on the force in both locations, providing listeners with insights into the challenges and rewards of his career shift.
The discussion also explores broader themes of lifestyle changes, the importance of community support, and the personal satisfaction derived from living and working in an environment that aligns more closely with one’s values. Will’s story offers an inspiring example of adapting to new roles while maintaining a commitment to service and community involvement.
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In this episode, Eric and I sit down with Wil Cohen to discuss the differences between policing in Los Angeles versus North Idaho. We also talked about wills passion for helping other cops learn how to wisely invest their money. North Idaho is a throwback to a better time in American history, a time when values and character still mattered. From homeschool moms, hunters and homesteaders to business owners, veterans and first responders. We are a unique community held together by a common thread, a love of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. These are the stories of those who choose to call North Idaho home. Welcome to the north Idaho experience. Sometimes it gets inappropriate to statute of limitations. You keep inviting me that your father gets inappropriate early. That’s voice bro, he keeps you coming back. Yeah, I should say the first time I think I ever met Will when he was on patrol. He was like getting a feel for what North Idaho policing was like, yeah, he’s like, being all professional super quiet, which for him is really difficult is he’s phase one. FTO as a lateral and I’m the sergeant I think I was a brand new sergeant and we’re back there we were behind Adam and Eve now get this behind an Adam and Eve because somebody is back there dumpster diving for us dildos. If you want to personify rock bottom, and your dumpster diving for us dildos, that’s that’s the thing. Eric is coming in its own right here. So he’s back there so I stopped out with it. I find it so new guy shows up he’s like diving right in gonna search the car because we have plane smell, which is the thing in Idaho, but diving into the car, make sure you we get up to the front and that kind of figure out what she was doing, which is dumpster diving for us dildos. And he’s in the back searching studiously like a good phase one trainee. And while he’s back there doing it, all of a sudden, he gets struck in the chest with this big, gigantic, big, gigantic, triumphant one that I loved from from, you know, oh, yeah, hit him. And he’s just this that that just happened. Well, I knew we were cool. Yeah, I mean, I need to like right now we can play. Yeah. You know, he’s a new guy, especially from a big agency, right? I mean, you want to make sure you’re not trying to act like a big timer. No, you know, just just be humble and learn. And honestly, I was humbled when I got here. I thought I knew a lot more. You don’t I mean that I did. But it’s it’s easier to find down there. So I haven’t really learned policy procedure. caselaw Oh, yeah. I knew two of them. Now, now I know McGregor V. Jones. Yeah, so you will came from LAPD. The big, big department down south. How many years did you have on down there before you came up here? About eight and a half? That’s a pretty good amount. Yeah. Was it good Chuck? Yeah, I enjoyed it. I mean, I learned a lot a lot of great friends. I was in some hellacious calls. You don’t I mean, guy got me a lot. I learned a lot. But yeah, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Just at a time where after the riots COVID George Floyd, I don’t know what you’re talking about. But was it George Clooney? Yeah. Are the old timers used to call it the tantrum? They didn’t think those are real riots because they were around for the run. I worked. I worked with us I work that to chippies. Like, how impressed were you with CHP SRT down there clear and freeways during the riots do I’m gonna help because honestly, it was it was so chaotic because people were overflowing off the sides of the freeway like it was absolute anarchy man, so honestly, every extra body we had including the CHP guys, it was a big deal. You actually are like CHP is not tip of the spear is what is the vibe I’m getting here. I’m just saying my brother in law is a chippy. And he’s been in one use of force in 25 years, so that’s awesome. I’m proud of him. Actually. Maybe he’s really good talker. You got a house appears retiring in December. So he did it the right way. Yeah, smart move. Well, I think Seth electively uses force three times a week. I do actually trains. Yeah. It’s funny, like, on the job. I mean, like a handful. It’s crazy. But I dealt with drunk people for the most part, and like, there’s an art to it, where we’re having a good time until the cops goes on, and then we’re halfway to jail. And they’re like, Oh, damn, then they might get lucky. But, like, it’s a skill for sure of like, being able to talk people into cuffs and do that whole thing. So I gotten a lot of fights as a bouncer. I did that for a long time. But before I became a cop was like super rugby was almost like, he’s definitely the talker. I’m more of the blunt force object. I really don’t care cuz, obviously, the thing is, you know how to handle yourself and so to you. So I don’t think a lot of people want to test I’ve noticed that like, a lot of those guys that probably trained and are prepared for that sort of an interaction. They don’t end up using a lot of force because you kind of have that. They call it you know, its presence, right? Yeah. Where somebody looks at and says, Oh, maybe this isn’t the one but you’ll see other cops and we joke about it and say they are very punchable faces. Everybody’s got cops on their department that has a very big punchable face. If I turn my face sideways to the screen people can see the face of a bulldog. I used to have a really nice nose. Yes used to that got smacked. Yes, but it happens. Yeah, those are the guys that don’t get into a lot of uses of force. They’re just the ones that nobody really wants to mess with it just have a presence about him like they know what’s up. I think that was the weird part about Skid Row though, is everyone was so high. And I know you guys were talking about on a previous podcast where these people are just dead inside. Yep, it was just the mass concentration of everyone who was dead inside. So to me in on the Elliot PD people listening, I’m not comparing central to se 77, Newton, anything like that. But in my opinion, the unpredictability of transients who are high as a kite. Yeah, to me was always scarier than a gangster who, you know, someone that’s trying to jump in those pre fight indicators, like you’re saying what their experience, you kind of know, like, alright, this young gangster who I know is trying to be on the up and up, he’s, you know, probably going to start some shit. But uh, no, geez, like, I’ve dealt with this guy before I can do shit. But the guy who’s just turning the corner and just doing this. Yeah, walking towards the end. I mean, it was, I clearly remember my first experience with somebody that was like, not there. And it was terrifying, because I wasn’t used to the unpredictability of that they’re like a wild animal. Maybe worse, because you can actually predict a wild animal. It was like on this has a call of like a pet on a bridge. And people thought she was gonna jump and I showed up. And I’m like, I was like a brand new cop, middle of nowhere in Humboldt County. And I walk up and like, she looks normal, and then flip the switch and became like some kind of hyena and feral. I was like, What do I do with this? It wasn’t uncommon to be on a call and then see someone hit someone with a lime scooter. 12 feet away, and another dudes running with a machete and he’s the victim of a crime like it was. Yeah, it was completely normal damage. Give me an honest man who was That’s a good point that you don’t really think about, because it’s not like as what you would think as dangerous or gang infested, because each one of them has their fight or flight moment, like once they respond to consequential stimulus. That’s what we always talk about when we’re like training, like, how are they going to respond to that consequential stimulus when they realize it’s about to hit the fan? That’s predictable? Yep. Right. If you recognize it, and you train to that when you’re talking about Dad, I do nothing left it that is completely unpredictable. Yes. Wait, you’re just one radio call away? Yeah. That was kind of what? What’s gonna happen when I put my hands on you or yeah, you’re gonna be a zombie. Are you gonna turn around? He knows like when I first got here. Anyone involved in any kind of felony? Everybody handcuffs? Okay, how many black eyes you have? Everyone’s in cuffs. And we figured out so I was with him when I was still newer. And I think it might have been a burglary possible suspect or something becomes the hotel room immediately turn around. And what are you doing? Me What have you even? And it was the truth. It was it took me a long time to get used to talking to normal people. I mean, you saw that it was just a completely different animal. But in the best way. Yeah, but it was definitely hard like a man turn around. Okay. I don’t know what to do next. Like a rookie. Like, listening to me. But what made you make the move up here? Why? There was a zillion reasons. The riots in the COVID. The word I want to say, first of all, I love riots, by the way, like love over that poster on the wall. That’s not me. But it is me. That is cool. Just a little bit. You guys can see the poster. It’s a riot cop with a shield and this little kid painting a picture on it. It’s rad. But it’s cool. The drama with the COVID shot, shenanigans and how strict they were on the masks and everything when my buddies, they know they are they gotten a good shooting. And they got investigated, because they didn’t have their masks on. No, and I’m not a doctor, but I’m pretty sure two bullets to the chest would kill you a lot faster than COVID. Ray, you know what I mean? So But dude, and then they were so hard on it. And then you’re seven, eight of us and a six person van for 22 days, 19 hours a day. You know what I mean? Anyway, I’m watching upper command staff take knees and while my buddies are getting hit with air conditioning units and guys who are still blinded by those lasers to this day, lasers were a big deal through that was a crazy thing. But we went I was almost at my 10 year mark. So when you hit 10 years, you get your short vacation as well as your long vacation that you’ve always had. You get your longevity pay bomb. And I was next on the list for vice and vice and Central is pretty cool because it has the most ABC locations. But okay centralized more ABC locations and all the rest of LAPD combined. And I was what’s an ABC location? So any alcohol Bureau Oh, Alcohol Beverage Control? Yeah. Oh, that’s you’re talking about okay. So it’s all the prostitution with the underground gambling from Chinatown. There was training for poker and yeah, it was it was about to be pretty cool. And I waited a long time to get there but I just hated it and other old timers. And my big thing was listen to the old timers. I just I loved the wealth of knowledge and their experience because you couldn’t fake it. And they did it at an era where it was probably the pinnacle of police work right midnight stuff was just insane. So I really am a big believer in your product of your environment and everything. thing I hated about California and I pitched to my wife on the phone. None of it was going to change. And you just hit that point where you’re like, Am I just gonna sit here and pitch all the time and be frustrated and angry or can we actually do something to change it? So anyway I’m talking about you know, hey man, I was trying to wait it out provides there’s always something else there’s always something else. It’s almost like breaking up with someone like oh, what’s his birthday then? It’s Valentine’s Day right? Now. I’m sitting with a guy probably at 38 years on the job in the Crown Vic still the best police car of all time. Thank you. It’s not close. It’s not close at all. Best meals in my life on the back of krumping search property but anyway, I was talking about it with them and yeah, you don’t think about moving? He’s like, in my entire career. I’ve never seen it get this bad this fast. I know we talked about the pendulum before I think that pendulum is broken in these big liberal cities. I do not think it’s coming back or if and when it does come back. I’m dead. And I’m like, man, you know I really want to go and he’s like Alright, forget the money forget this forget longevity. Forget short. Like it’s better for your son. And it got real quiet real fast. And that Crown Vic and like, yeah, he put his hands up like that. And so on the way home that was it. We were lucky my sister in law and brother in law already lived here. Which made it easy for my wife I know that’s a big thing for people not coming up here as a I don’t want to leave family so we had that luckily and our kids are similar in age to their kids so but yeah, and then there was actually a time period where I was flying back and forth so my grandmother lives like 25 minutes away from Central Division and my we were up here already and I would go work eight or nine days in a row and and fly back. So because I knew no matter what my my family was out of there Yeah, that was the biggest deal for me but got a little nervous without cheese like hey, you need the shot to fly I was getting a little you’re gonna have to quit now be driving Yeah Did Did people on your department gives you shit really know a lot of them were super happy for him. Really. Especially the old timers. They were really like, in they were kind of like, you know, I made FTO at a pretty early age. I was a super hard worker like I love chasing bad guys. I there’s certain elements of police work like community other stuff, which is just as important. I’m not dissing in any way. Definitely not my style. You don’t I mean, I’m here to mess with bad guys. That’s my forte. I love doing it. But it was kind of that realization of like, Hey, man, these good guys who are going to promote and lead the next generation. They don’t want to do this anymore. And when they would say things like, well, when guys like you are gone. What even if you stay that type of officers that are now going to come out? Because no one wants to do this job now, right? You want I mean, forget how much you make, like how cool is your pension when you’re in prison? You know, when you get that radio call in the middle of Skid Row of like, Hey, man for 50 man with a knife, right? So out in the streets here. It’d be like okay, everyone’s inside. You don’t I mean, people will deal with it from a distance right? You know, hey, reverse 911 call. What when there’s 70 people on the foot within 12 feet of them? How do you handle that call right so if you wait, and he stabbed someone, oh, you could have stopped it or you pull the trigger too early and now you murdered him and he wasn’t really gonna do anything you know? And it’s just I didn’t want my life and my family’s future to be a radio call away the outside of your house I my hands on restaurant. What? How different is here? Oh, it’s it’s night and day difference in the sense of the proactiveness that we get to do and is actually encouraged is so refreshing. It’s so fun being a copier. I definitely found my niche in chasing sex offenders that’s been my niche I know his his obviously drugs and there’s other guys like warrants and other things, but that’s definitely my calling. But the community here absolutely loves us. I can’t reiterate that enough. They’re the most incredible citizens like I wouldn’t trade it for the world and there really is no dollar amount I go back for Yeah, it doesn’t exist. What do you think about because some of the folks listening are cops in California What do you think was the biggest adjustment for you know how hard was it? I mean, for me a little different cuz Skid Row talking to normal people was big, but a lot of the laws are so conservative, they’re almost liberal. You know what I mean? So really no one those case laws and knowing how you do stuff is actually a deal because in Cali we were talking about this earlier. Two things California Yeah, right one you could jam any parole or probation or no matter what, right one thing they got right number two, you can tow cars that were expired more than six months. That screwed up a lot of people’s, a lot of gangs and criminal activity was taken, which means Eloisa, that’s funny. It’s almost so conservative, it’s liberal. It’s I always look, I hate to constitutionalist has a negative connotation, because we always like compare that with sovereign citizen stuff. Some of that funky stuff used to drive me nuts. I’m a big fan of the Constitution protected Finn constitution right. But Idaho is a very constitutional state and that it is very restrictive on what you can stop people for I’ve noticed that with California cops, that can be an adjustment because of any equipment violation or anything, you know, one single brake light that’s out that’s cause for a traffic stop here. Nah, it’s different. California seems easier to get them. Like there’s more reasons to intervene on certain things. What do you guys call it? The 501 or 505? Whatever that under the influence? Oh, 502 No. Community caretaking function where they’re under the influence of drugs. When 5050 wants it? Yeah, no silent shoes when you take their property from being something of a knife or something. Oh, that’s the code. But anyway, But but the 5150 you could look through that Kelly cop explained to me I was on a ride along you could look through the window of a hotel and see that somebody was under the influence and 5150 I know it was not like that right under the influence of Publix the thing but as you guys learned and we testify more Here you go to court more often see gotta know your shit. Yeah, court a lot less. Yes, we did. Yes, we did it matter matter of fact this summer to or even like asking people on probation for consent to search them like that was turned around. Do you know what I mean? But yeah, but I? I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Yeah, easily the best decision of my life. And you took a pay cut, I’m sure. Oh, yeah. So sick, a pretty substantial pay cut. My wife and I both she’s been a pediatric nurse for 15 years. You know, the stereotype, bro. Works out. It was fun. We were younger without our kids, because we both work 312. So we just worked Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then go to Vegas, Monday through Wednesday, recover Thursday, and there’s good times. But yeah, it’s a pretty substantial pay cut. But I’m very big on budgeting. I’m a big Dave Ramsey guy. I think everything he teaches is really good. And it’s because I knew what, what was outgoing, and seeing versus the incoming that was there. But looking at the difference in cost of living. And when you finally did the math, it wasn’t that bad. You don’t I mean, and at some point to you always think about your wife and your kids. And your hourly rate doesn’t define who you are as a father or husband. You know what I mean? It just got got past that point on the scales where I’m like, What is my kid gonna say I made an extra 100 grand. So he’s gonna say that I’m 25. Right? You know what I mean? Or whatever that number was, you know, it wasn’t worth it. Yeah, yeah, that’s, that was a big factor for us of like, you know, what’s the best life we could give our kids? And it’s not. I don’t want, like, I wouldn’t even let me not that I wouldn’t let my wife my wife didn’t want to go downtown. And we lived in a small town in northern California, like 100,000 people, not big. But downtown was like, overrun with homeless. Like, not just not only cans getting close to Skid Row, I’m started speaking to people who grew up there, man. And it’s like, you don’t want your, like, my wife’s not equipped to deal with that my kids aren’t equipped to deal with that. Like, no, that was a big factor for us. Like we’re gonna we gotta get out, we gotta find somewhere where that does not exist. There was a lot of reasons like, you know, I was thought of like that example I had where the man with a knife, right? I’d much rather be tried by jury 12 North Idaho ones and a jury of 12 million in Southern California. Right? You don’t I mean, and another thing too, I thought of macro, big picture was you think about the spouses for your children. And they grew up here with a lot of the same values and beliefs that we had. And now you don’t have this massive infighting that you don’t I mean, doesn’t need to be there. You know, because everyone grew up the same way, believing mostly the same things, which I think I know as the best police in the country. Obviously, everyone else has. That’s why they’re moving here, right now, and that is you’re talking about a jury of 12 have a sampling of your citizens and if you’re in one of those cities where they are priming those citizens to automatically distrust law enforcement believe what they’re telling you is a lie. That’s a scary proposition. When your lives were in the hands of 12 when the gas gone reopening but adjudicated police shootings that were like five years old reopening those, right do you want I mean, I’m just I’m not No, no, dude, I had heard qualified immunity was going away I don’t know if that actually happened or not. That was close before I left. I don’t know if that went down I think was Colorado. It did before I left. I wasn’t sticking around to find out man there was just there was no dollar amount that was worth my children’s well being my wife’s well being it just wasn’t like I remember during the riots, another crazy story was so during the riots, this thing got out on Facebook, like hey, man, start trying to Google any cops name you can think of or look anybody up because every single cops work in which was the truth. We were all 24/7 on Yelp. And my son was very, very, very young at the time. And I remember I came home super overtime, I was tired as hell. My wife’s passed out and the 45 is sitting there next to the the baby monitor on the nightstand and I’m like, Man, she really has to worry about the people kicking the door and also there’s like going forever. But anytime you’re gonna send me down a rabbit hole. Alright, you invited this is your phone. Anytime go anytime immunity of law enforcement get brought gets brought up. I do not understand why there wasn’t any national attention or national push. Why do we start analyzing immunity of judges. We want to take immunity away from cops that are required to make these rapid decisions in the moment, right? tense, rapidly evolving circumstances and they’re required to rely on their training and their schema and everything else that goes into making that really quick decision. And we want to remove their we want to remove their immediate did their immediate their immunity. In those circumstances. Judges have the opportunity to look at what their criminal history is, what this person’s done historically, what that should tell them about what they’re likely to do in the future and the future victims. Why isn’t there any discussion about removing judges meeting when you put the same 30 year offender back on the street say a child predator sex offender and the rapes and murders somebody? Why isn’t that ever a discussion? We all Well that’s what drives me crazy. I get passionate about that because we’re so quick to go after cops for making a decision in the moment that a bunch of people that play video games think oh, I could have done that better. Yeah, come on now remember we had this we had the thing where we’re gonna bring out the psychologist with us to these 5150 calls Elm Street that was that failed so fast now the hilarious to watch Washington’s doing that though they’ve got somebody that goes out generally unarmed and they’re responding to the psychological calls and then are all shocked and surprised when really really bad things? Well, yeah, like we there was a guy who was like six, five to 60 just jacked and he is jacked out of his mind in the middle of street and they’re looking at us like, no, no, this is your psychology degree. You go. Go figure that out, please. Ridiculous failure to recognize those dead eyes, bro. There’s nothing left in there. They’re like, Oh, he’s gonna punch me and like, Yeah, I know. Who would have predicted that. But when he does that I have a lawful reason to go intervene against students, that place will never recover. Which sucks. Because I grew up there was a beautiful state you could do? Absolutely. I mean, you know what I mean, you could do everything you wanted. And it just, it has just been running to the ground, I think past the point of no return. Right? They might be geographically California. So free and austere. It is incredible. It is arcs out there. I think it’ll have to get worse, unfortunately, before people will change their viewpoints and things will happen. But and I don’t know what that looks like for the citizens or it sucks, right? Still a yawn. That’s true. It sounds like you probably would have your boy said since he came up. My boys down there. Yeah, yeah, there. They told me that I know, radio calls. Oh, since the last like three or four years ago. I’m 25%. Since I left me on, I mean, which is three years ago. Yeah. So we were talking about I think I’ve only gone code three here maybe eight or nine times in three years. And I can vividly remember like 2122 times in a day, flying around everywhere. Dodge and zombies are playing the video games like Grand Theft Auto arrived. It was horrible. Horrible. Sounds kind of fun. It was cool. I mean, it was funny. Like anytime a pursuit came in, usually as a chippies came flying through because they had a busted taillight or something they would pursue for transients just partied like the Red Sea. So of course, we’re trying to go to something they would just be on to the street, but then CHP came in. Yeah, they were right. They recognize the tip of the spear. Do you see that happen? Or like I am messing with that? How was that his bad ass? I literally never, never worried. Well, it’s good to know that there’s a picture out there and I don’t get why you guys are adulation. That might have been the only time I work. I just don’t understand why you guys have Green Jackets. And then blue stripes on the side of your pants. That’s what made us did the green the Green Jackets. So speaking around the king like back then yeah, CHP started that whole thing. weekday I wasn’t I wasn’t on them. They had to wear their Green Jackets, which is like the class A dress uniform to the riots. That was like a thing. And like, they didn’t have helmets at first because I was too tactical. Thankfully, that has all changed. Now, you know, like I was on the SRT team, we would roll out in blue utility uniform, like it was washable. It’s not like your classic uniform. And we had all the gear like, it was like, we’re pretty good at that shit. Now, yeah, yeah, for sure. I think patrol in general law enforcement general, as long gone, the jumpsuit, things are a little bit more functional. There’s so much room for activity. And those guys are so nice. They are love those damn things. Taxable 100% are so nice. Well, the year, part of the reason we really want to get you on here is your dude that’s had some success transitioning from California up here. That’s not always the case, it can be a tough transition. Yeah, it’s cool to give some people some info on how you were able to make that transition, because policing appears just different, right? And then, obviously, the financial shift from California where you’re making more annually, and I’ve watched you share that with a bunch of our new guys, which is cool, because that’s where you gotta get started. So give us a breakdown, like how you made that work. So I was, you know, you’re you talked about another podcast and obviously you do it at work, but the way you pay attention to guys on drugs, and you’re analyzing everything. That’s how it was at work with old timers. And so it was cool with the department so big as you saw pretty much every outcome from decisions they made throughout their career. There was some example of something either you wanted or didn’t want. And you can learn just as much from the guys who you didn’t want to be met. Guys. Yeah, you know, it is what it is the guys has been divorced four times and as alimony on six kids you want I mean, his take home pay is like he’s working. And he’s there until forever. You don’t I mean, and I always thought money was a big deal because it’s the number one cause for divorce. Being a cop, higher divorce rate, having a special needs child higher divorce rate, you don’t I mean, so what was one thing I could control, which was the money. I love making money doing nothing. I love passive income. I think it’s the coolest thing in the world. I’ve always liked numbers too, because they’re facts. It’s not feelings, like Oh, this feels cool. Or this, you know, like it was like no, if I do this, this is the outcome. You know, and I’m very analytical in that sense. But budgeting and being debt free besides that So I thought was a big part we didn’t have payments of. I mean, what’s the average car payment right now is 735 a month? I look that up today. Wow, yeah, dude. So not having stuff like that. I got really lucky to my wife when she started. She was living at home as a nurse and she invested 10% Right off the bat and never I went and left it. So that was kind of cool. When I finally got into the investing and looking into a retirement account. I’m like, Where’d you get that? Oh, started it. Like, that’s outstanding. And that was a perk. I didn’t know that when I married. That was an added bonus. But no, I think being intentional with your money and understanding where it’s going and the opportunity cost of the stuff that you buy. So the things that you spend money on now that lose value or will either fall off or give you kind of a short term gratification and what it costs you long term when you’re looking down the road when you want to retire or a prime example of that of a new officer. Okay, so actually, I wrote it because I didn’t want to do bad bad podcasting and look it up on my phone. I was doing this from my handy dandy notebook. Blue’s Clues. Alright, so if you are 20 years old, and you invest $100 A month till you’re 30 and you stop, writes, man, I hit 3030 30 Putting my stuff I’m done, right? By the time you’re 65 years $668,000. Okay. Let’s say you partied it up like most of us, that’s 100 bucks a month. 100 bucks a month from 20 to 30. And stopping at 30. God dang it. Yeah. That’s what I’m here for. I’m hoping young people listen to this, and I’m more anything. Now if you’re 30. And you’re like, Okay, now start doing 100 bucks a month? Yeah. Then you stop at 65. So you’re doing 100 bucks a month. 25 years longer? Wait 15 years longer? You only end up with 379,000? So from 668 to 370 900 bucks. Yeah. 100 bucks a month, man. So and then. So I did another one. I was because I love doing this. Where were you when I started? No. But I listened to old timers man. And they would tell me like dude, every raise, you get this money. You’re not even used to having, like, put it away. Perfect example, we got to raise coming in October, right 2%. So I did the math on that. So that’s 87 cents roughly an hour ends up being about 140 bucks a month. I’m 37. So if I invest that till I’m 65 that is$256,000 with average 10% returns. So the history of the stock market average is 10%. And that includes every World War COVID the.com bubble, you know what I mean? So the longer you’re in the game, really it’s time in the market not timing the market. Like another example? Right? So a lot of people I come in it’s an investment or election year. I don’t want to invest this year. It’s up to 16% right now. So you just lost out on 16%. Right? You know, trying to be cool. And oh man, I watch the YouTube video time in the market. Yeah, timing the market. Yeah, man. And the more the more with that compound interest and getting those dollars and those army of dollar bills to work for you. When you’re screwing around playing Mortal Kombat. Not that I ever do that, but used age to wrap out of your homeland or just got added on Mortal Kombat. Now it’s bad. It’s bad. No, but it’s, you know, like, Okay, so the average car payments 735. Like I said earlier, right? Yeah. Okay. So let’s say you’re 35. And you’re like, No, I’m not gonna do a new car. I’ll just save and pay cash. Right? If you invested that 735 a month, from 35 to 65. You have $1.6 million. Dude. Okay, let’s talk to the young guys. Right. So we all know young cops and they get off probation. I’m getting a raptor remedy all. You gotta get the rebel, right. All right. If you invest 735, when you’re 25 till the age of 65. That is $4.6 million. Dude, I don’t care how cool your car is, or your truck or whatever. 4.6 Mills a lot cooler. So and that’s the kind of stats because again, it’s it’s facts over feelings. It’s just hey, you put this in, and this is what it’ll do for you. So, yeah, unfortunately for me, I had to learn I had to get it out of my pockets. Yeah, like I just had to immediately get it out of my paycheck immediately. So I never saw it. And then it’s like, oh, God, I wish I had done this Delia 1015 Here and here. And kind of how my wife and I work with our finances. I call it for scarcity. So every single Monday, that amount that we budget that goes into those retirement accounts. I’m used to that going in because I look at my budget every month, not what’s in my savings account. You see what I mean? So the app I use, I use every dollar by Dave Ramsey, by the way, every app that I or every time that I use it, it keeps track and I have the income versus spent and I can do year to date last eight months last six months. So when we were talking about moving here, and it was like, oh, man, I’m taking this huge pay, cut, blah, blah. And then I look at my credit. Well, I saved 250 a month and guess you see what I mean, my property taxes just dropped. Like when I sold my house. The supplemental tax came to me on accident. Supplemental tax was 16 grand. Yeah. I thought that was me for a second. But they’re like, oh, no, it’s for the other homeowner that just bought your house. But that was just wow. Another cool stat idea and we talked about this earlier, but when I was talking to my wife about moving up here and you know, doing it for the kids, and you know, she was little she doesn’t like change. I love it. But you know, I totally get it. You’re uprooting your whole life. We’re making great money. We have a lot of days off. We got Disneyland to take the kids, you know, I did the math. So instead of working two days a week, she now works one day a week and at the time My son, I think was three. Now she gets six more years of time with him before he’s 18 switch into one day. And there’s no amount of money that everybody’s second time. You know what I mean? And that’s a big deal. And and, again, you’re not defined by your hourly rate, like, my sons will be able to talk about the time they got to spend with us and do things with us, as opposed to well, my dad made a lot more right or another. Another example, too, is like, you know, when my boys get older, and they’re like, Yeah, well, my dad did LAPD for nine years. Well, the only differences they’re not saying 20, right. Like the story’s already there. The scales are just not close. I’m floored more people that move here, but it is what it is. I mean, I know money isn’t really talked about as a kid. It’s one of those taboo things and with my my dad was, he still is and by the way, it’s a two month anniversary for moving here. So I’m proud of you guys and congrats. Yeah, dude, their love and add stress level I was telling him like, that’s like, I don’t know what to do with my hands didn’t like losing it. Get it? Oh, my God, He loves it. But it’s tipping point for them was when they were thinking about outline, tackle football for kids under 12. Yeah. And he’s like, Well, you can do all this other stuff to kids down here. But you can’t as a parent have the choice of like, Hey, Johnny is playing football or not. We’re just gonna take that way. But if you want to do don’t get too political, but if you want to do the other things to kids bodies that they’re doing, that’s cool. Don’t kids at that age get to decide whether or not they’re a boy or girl. I don’t even can’t play tackle football, if that makes sense. Yeah, so But um, but yeah, I mean, I I think money is something that needs to be talked about. I think it’s it’s this is the stuff that should be taught in schools. I think people say that dumbass analogy, like, whoa, teach them how to balance a checkbook and balance his checkbook student like 97 called No one’s analogy. You know what I mean? But But yeah, I think it’s super important that that, especially with younger kids, like, look at the difference, right? I mean, that’s 300 grand, that’s incredible. 15 years less, right? You want I mean, and my goal with my wife, too, is to get to the point where all the dividends were earning every year in our in our stuff. And I’ve showed you my accounts, not in a brag way. But as a hey, this is proof of concept kind of thing. You’ll get to the point where your growth every year is, is how do I say correctly? Like, your account becomes like Skynet, it doesn’t need you anymore. So that 500 600 bucks a month or 14 grand a year, whatever it is, you don’t need that anymore. Because if you’re making 90 100 grand a year, now you just gave yourself a five$600 month raise. You want me to your accountant is working for you and you don’t you know, to play in his homeland. And I feel like I say I failed. Yes, I remember I was in the academy and someone came in and you know, they talked about four or five sevens. And I was like, Great account. Yeah, I think Tuesday HSAs. Another incredible account that just the whole state health savings account was in tax free grows tax free and use it tax free. That’s one of the few accounts that gets all three. So we have we have one for us. And a lot of guys are like, oh, yeah, man, I paid this bill for 150 Did that for 200? Do whatever I’m like, Man, you are costing yourself 1000s and 1000s of dollars, because that’s what you could use to bridge the gap to pay for health insurance if you retire early. Right? You know what I mean? And that account is set up for you just waiting. You don’t I mean, it just you take the penalty now of like, man, that sucks. I had to pay 200 bucks for this. But then when you’re 58 you’re waiting to get to 59 and a half to get this stuff. You don’t I mean that you’ve saved your whole life for right. I mean, like I can bridge the gap because I just sucked it up on an app. And so I mean, I wasn’t perfect at first you I did a lot of dumb shit like yeah, you know, so I buy a new cars. Oh, do you? I did that the military thrift. You were talking about that with your academy? Thrift Savings Plan in the military. They’re like, You saved the stuff and the grows. And I was like, Yeah, I want to have so much money later. I’m not worried about exactly. That’s where and for me like it was and maybe this is me justifying? I don’t know, but it was like tight. Like, I made good money in California. But my wife didn’t work. You know, I mean, so it was like, Can I afford? Like so there were times I could not even afford 500 a month. Right, right. I did. I think I did 50 a month for and I started late. I was five years in and I was like, Well, I better probably do that. And finally, like an old lieutenant was like, Dude, what are you doing? And I finally started putting 50 bucks a month and then like, but I only did that for 10 years, not even nine years before I left. But once you get though, I guess it was 15,000. Right? It’s 5050 bucks a month. Yeah. Yeah, it’s insane. I mean, another thing I was talking about my dad on the way down here, too, was. So the freedoms Idaho, right. Like you don’t have to vaccinate your kids. If you don’t want to however everyone feels about it. That’s up to them. You don’t have to so a lot of my guys down there. They don’t want to vaccinate their kids. Well, now they can’t find pediatricians that will treat them because they’re not vaccinated or they can’t find daycares. And it’s like if you’re a dual income family and now your wife has to quit Yeah, because she has to do that how much that costs you an hour as a ferry. You see it I mean when here you have all the freedoms to do whatever you want with your kids, which is how it should be because the government’s I can tell you to do my son’s but yeah, that’s just me. Well, I think you bring up a good point like your kids aren’t gonna remember how much you made right? And how much you made truly isn’t determining what you keep? Yes, it was. It’s the wealthy you debt doesn’t determine the wealth that you accumulate. If your house is way more expensive is your insurance is more expensive if buying groceries is more expensive if everything California is free. We can expect to sucks. I still get on there for reserves like San Diego area. It’s just freakin expensive dude. Yeah, even the time you spent on the freeway like I did. I do the math on everything as you can tell, but I did the math on so some of my commutes and like going to where I lived and upland coming from downtown that was 50 miles. And that’s the 10 freeway, which that goes to Vegas. You catch that on a Friday? I’m not kidding. It take you almost three hours to get home, man. So I did the math on my TV now, which is much shorter. And it’s about two weeks a year that I get an hour’s Yeah, not just time with your kids that you don’t get back, man. You know what I mean? They’re only Disney. I give them credit. That’s advertising ever. They’re only little for a little fuck. That’s a good one. Yeah, there wasn’t it wasn’t supposed to guide our agency, the system that made a lot of sense. He’s like, Man, there was just this realization that you’ve got 18 summers, you have 18 summers, and they’re gonna, they’re out doing their own thing. And they say, for those first 18, you spend like 70 something percent of your time with them. And then after that, it drops immediately, like 2423 or something like that. I am, I am currently experiencing that with with my kit. My oldest is 16. And it’s like, wow, I barely see him anymore. He drives like, he’s got his own door out the house where he parks his car. And it’s like, oh, he’s like, super independent. Whoa, see that? Yeah, but you’ve done a good job. So he’s independent, he can take care of yourself. He’s responsible. He gets himself ready for school. He does all of those things, which you’ve been training him to do. And then you’re like, damn it. Alright, for this. Yeah, exactly. Another thing I want to touch on too, I know for sure is the different types of accounts for kids. So in Idaho, it’s really cool. Once again, you can write off up to 10 grand a year for their 529 at Idaho. So people who are looking to cut their tax amount, you could do that? Because I’d rather give it to my kids and the Joe Biden. You don’t I mean, and I think what scares people is, well, what if he goes to the military? What if he gets a scholarship? What if whatever, you can transfer all that to another child, completely penalty free. So let’s say you started with your oldest and your oldest, goes in the Air Force or whatever, I’m not gonna say navy. But although it sidenote, my great uncle did survive Pearl Harbor, though, so bad dude. Just say not summary. He’s a piece but no longer to the story. Another part of it too. And this just changed about two years ago, I think they signed into law in Congress that that money if it’s not used, I believe right now is up to 38 grand you can rollover right into their retirement. So Oh, yeah. So if let’s say it doesn’t get used, and what else is cool too, is you can use it for trade school too. So like that awesome places. That often get paid for and and the one thing you cannot go bankrupt on is student loans, can go bankrupt a million times, you still owe that money, and you meet people and talk to people who are behind on those, and how much they have, like, it’s just a weight that you’re just never going to overcome. And if you can avoid that to your, for your kids, by you just being the adult and understanding that really, once you have kids, it’s not about you anymore. You don’t I mean, and you don’t want to be that burden to your kids when you’re older. But yeah, so that’s what I do for my for my youngest one too. And so another thing, I don’t know, I’ll never shut up. But I feel like a terrible human. Just write down 549 material, it’s gotta be ideal 529 It’s got to be a certain one through Righto. So, but I just lost my train of thought, because I feel a little better, because we did start 529 for our kids, when they were very young do not like them a lot of money in there. Well think about like, if you didn’t course I didn’t prep that one. But if you have 30 grand in the bank at 18 years old and never been put in another time, I would love to see that number by the time you’re 65. And now the kids can worry about, you know, housings higher. Right? Well, now I can focus more on the downpayment or my monthly payment because I’m not having to worry as much, at least on the front end about retirement. So that’s a big deal. You have to send me that link. We’ll drop that in the video with that 25 to an Idaho ideal 529 That’d be cool. Yeah, I’m gonna write that down. Yeah. Yeah. But of course, California, you know, that wasn’t a write off. Right. You know what I mean, but simply a write off. Yeah. Yeah. And then else this I was gonna say, so obviously, people that know me know, I’m super numbers oriented, obviously. So with my kids, especially with the younger one, I have two sons. When when my younger son comes up for Christmas, or birthdays, or whatever, man, he’s only nine months old. I don’t need a $35 cheap toy from target from China. That’s gonna break when I can throw that into his account. Because your kids are still gonna want cars are still gonna want you want. I mean, these things are coming. So when people are like, Oh, I’ve waited too long. There’s still more stuff coming. Yeah, like you’re gonna get to that age. Now. Of course, comic creators tomorrow we’ll blow up. Doesn’t mean anything, but there’s nothing. That is a possible outcome. Right? But yeah, no, that’s freaking huge, dude. Yeah, having having that set aside for the kids. So I guess like, for my own well, being in my mind, like I did fail on the 457 tip, I think but the 529 thing, I think I got that covered. So then I’m pretty stoked about that. I mean, even if you just do a taxable account, like through betterman, or something like that, where you’ll get taxed on the growth for it, but you can pull that at any time. There’s no penalty on that. So we’ll get set like a target date, where you’re like, hey, let’s set it When the kid turns 18, so the closer it gets, it’ll automatically make it less and less aggressive. So let’s say the market takes a massive dump, you’re this much exposed as opposed to your entire portfolio. So do you. Do you have a money market person? Or do you do it yourself? Like, how do you do that? I do have. I have some guys right down the street right here, open, awesome. They help rollover my old pension and my old 457 and combined everything with my wife, because we were split up all over the place. So I was like, Alright, now that we’re moved, I want to get everything under one roof. And then I’m able to check it all the time. I’m weird. I checked the stock market like 30 times a day, but the average person shouldn’t literally just put it in there. Never look at it again. And then it’s money. You’re not even used to happen. And it’s just doing all the work for you. It’s good time. I really, I really love it. This is what it looks like when I’m talking about drugs. Yeah. It’s good. Yeah, it’s I just, I just think it the bigger picture, which is your wife and kids. I just, I already got to do a lot of cool stuff when I was younger. And I love that part of my life. I’m just dad. So just that 457 is kind of a cool thing. Break that down real quick. Especially somebody because we get people coming from other states where they’ve already got 15 or 20 years and honestly, the prospect of making it to retirement age nine oh, what’s the rule perceive ad may not be there. And that’s why the 457 is kind of a cool option. Yeah. So what’s cool about 457 is it’s like a basic retirement count for people but most people can’t access that till 59 and a half. Most public servants fire police. I’m not sure about military stuff of fire and police at least that I know of, you get access to that money to second you retire. So you don’t have to wait till 59 and a half. Yeah, so it’s a big, big deal. I don’t personally use one. But I’m like, again, I’m super weird and do my own thing. But overwhelmingly vast majority of people that’s that would be an outstanding account or that or you leave. So if you get terminated or if you walk away and decide to leave law enforcement which no blame for those who don’t need to do that to you have access to your 457 D Yeah, just don’t blow it like a lot of other people should not buy a boat with an animal for buying stuff. But like a four day ban, you know, like listen those old timers and be like, Man, I purchase a car. I purchased a boat that didn’t say oh, the payments this or hey, I bought that and I’ll pay it off. And you know, not everyone’s perfect you I mean, but just listen those little cues of like, what, like, stop buying stuff. You can’t afford impress people you don’t even like, right, you know what I mean? And that’s all from Dave Ramsey, but you don’t I mean, it’s the truth. Like, no one cares what like, I don’t know what truck you have. Yeah. No matter you don’t care it No, no. So if it’s the one that parked next to mine I got very, I feel very fortunate. So like, damn, I lost my train of thought to. I had a thought about that. It’s coming back. Give me a second. I lost it. performance issues. It’s like it’s gone. Fuck it. It’s gonna move on. I get weird with the numbers. Yeah, but I mean, he seemed to do it. I implore the young guys. And I do it for the Preface. People when they first started, just try to try to make sure they understand the importance of even just the smallest amount, because that compound interest and that snowball rolling is just incredible to watch. They receive it well, some do like Like, every once in awhile, I’ll get one of the younger guys that comes up like, hey, what do you say about this? Would you say about that? The biggest pushback I get is like, well, it’s in the market. I’m like, right? Well, first off a Roth IRA. Let’s say you put in 25 grand, and let’s say the total accounts worth 100. So you have 75% of interest, that 25 grand that you put in you can pull out no penalty because that’s already been taxed. So really, it’s like a second savings account. I would never condone doing it that way. But hey, man, shit hits the fan life happens. Yeah, you want I mean, like in Oh, it’s it’s caught up in the market. I’m like, What’s your guys’s profession caught up in the market? You don’t I mean, how much is groceries cost gas, all that other stuff? Like every single thing in life really is tied to the market. So when people say that I’m like, you know, what? So what are the basics people should have covered? Like, are there multiple? Like, I’ve heard Roth a lot. I don’t have one. But like, I feel like maybe I should have one? Like, how would you recommend and I know you’re not you’re not gonna call yourself an expert. He’s not an expert. I’m not like you. Clearly, this is your passion. So understand your audience, bro, you’re a skid row street cop. And you can speak intelligently to people that were the same way. Right? I mean, the Roth IRA, in my opinion, is the coolest because it grows tax free. So then once you do have access to it, you got access to all of it, and you don’t know the government a dime. So it sucks because initially you’re paying taxes on it. So it’s a lesser amount like it’s, it’s a bigger chunk of your take home pay. But the again, the long term ramifications of that are incredible. I did not do that. So I did the traditional first, which you get more in the pot. But at the end of the at the very end you’re gonna have to pay income tax on that. So you get more in the pot to grow which is cool, actually, I think is not bad when you’re younger, because you get so much early that you’re gonna have to pay Uncle Sam at some point, but at least at least you can build your your nest aid a little bit faster. You know what I mean already? Right. And like to me if you’re asking me about either one of those things, you’re already on the right track. Yeah, you know what I mean? So when guys are like, Oh, am I gonna do that? Okay, like you’re gonna be 55 Anyway, think you’re talking to new guys and young guys. You want the instant gratification. So if that number is larger, they’re going to be more likely to save their money. But did you were talking about it in our briefing, and you were so passionate about it like, Dude, you got to get in front of all the new guys, because, honestly, that’s what resonates if you get one or two and to say, yeah, it makes sense this next because we compress fast, right? So when you get here, I think you started out topped out, but yeah, we compress pretty quick. So when they get that next big pay bomb, if you can afford it, do just bite the bullet and dump it. Like we were talking about a CT, the guy we work with who’s going to be on your team. Next, I was telling him Hey, man, the second thing starts you’re gonna get a raise. Like, again, that’s money. You’re not used to having throw that stuff in there. Right? You know, when you get used to it. And then, like, I’ve shown you on my accounts, I’ll be like, Hey, man, look, I made this many 1000s and six hours, right? You know what I mean? And be like, That’s cool. Right? To me anyway, right? Like, yeah, side by sides are cool. And I’m not. I’m not talking down to people that buy experiences and stuff and buy those things, but like, just afford a man or realize the opportunity costs of that. 735 a month truck payment. Yeah, of what it could be, you know, drive the beater. You know, 2000 Tacoma. Who cares? Because when you’re rolling it 4.6 And they’re calling you guys like, hey, I want that thing. And Hauser. Yeah. Cash. Yeah, that’s way cooler than whatever truck you’re cruising around in. Yeah, five. But I guess my argument when I was younger, and it’s not a good argument, but you might hear this, who’s like, Oh, I got a good pension. Like when I retire. I’m gonna be fine. And my pension was great in California. Now, my career did not end up the way I thought, right. So here I am. Now. I’ve only got 14 years in, and I’ll get something but it’s not like my full pension. But I’m glad that happened. Yeah, I’m glad for LAPD warning invested till 20 years, and then you couldn’t collect till 55 At least on my tear. So I Yeah, 30 total years. And I would talk about with my dad, it’s called the golden handcuffs. We probably all heard it. You can track all the pension thing. And he was just like, how miserable you’re going to be if 50 you don’t I mean, 55 three years on the shot when I was just a miserable dude. And it’s suck because I love the job. And you see, I genuinely love being a cop. I do. I love messing with bad guys. And I love helping good people. But forcing yourself to go through that like what kind of stress on your body and health and mental health like you’ve talked about, you’ve talked about in other podcasts? That’s a super important man. And, again, that there’s no, it’s the most important thing. I think a lot of people forget that. Right? I I’m in retiree groups up here. So I’m around a lot of 30 year retired cops. And they’re all physically broken, right? Like all of them. Some mentally broken to right, there’s a huge toll. And I’m not saying like you shouldn’t do the job. But I’m saying like, if you’re in a position like you were and you’re not happy, like be confined a better place. It doesn’t have to be North Idaho. I’m not pitching it that hard. But but, you know, like, maybe you need to find something else. Yeah. And I was there like, I think anybody you hit you hit like, for me, it was like 10 year mark. I was like, Sir, I don’t know. I just wasn’t happy. Yeah, for sure. Always, always said, either. Gotta love what you’re doing or love where you’re living. If you can get both of those things checked off. You’re killing that life. But you gotta love where you’re living and love what you’re doing. Yeah, it’s yeah, it’s an incredible place, I think. But again, I think finances has a lot to do with it. Because like, we were talking about that sticker shock of like, oh, man, I’m going from 57 hour to 35. How am I going to survive? Right? What’s on its face? If you don’t know how much you’re spending a month and you don’t? You know what I mean? Like, of course, you just look at that number. That’s easy number to look at. But when you dig through the data, it’s like, public is sweetness you want I mean, because we don’t have all these crazy payments, because we bought a house we could afford, which is another massive thing. I think people just way overpay on houses, right. Yeah. What do you think? You know, because I hear these No, I don’t hear the numbers by here like credit card debt nationally is like an all time high crazy. Is that people not living within their means? Or is it people not getting paid enough? Like what do you think? I mean, I’m sure everyone would say that like to get paid more for what they do, or what it is. I think, again, that’s just funneling a lifestyle you can’t afford and I don’t get me again, I had I had credit card debt when I was younger. So it’s not like again, I’m not perfect with money but realizing that interest works against you the same way it works for you. So that things kicking your ass when you’re sitting on the couch, as opposed to working for you. I we switch to using a debit card primarily very few times we actually use a credit card because I think there’s something to be said for when you see every single transaction as opposed to oh, hey, we at the end of the month, it was 2500 bucks, he does pay it and that’s where you find the margin the budget for that extra 100 bucks a month right and all those other things are another tip we did and you guys can do this with your wife kind of worked. I think what’s cool is I’ll do the year I’ll go on Amazon and you go on your purchases for the year and was gear god hey my wife we’re talking about Amazon, but it’s it’s pretty cool because it has the photos next to it. So one time we were drinking in which we do a lot sorry, but I’m sorry. But you look at it as the photos next to and you’ll go through and be like oh fuck that we really use that like well yeah, like how long does it a week later? Yeah, man and it’s just like once you start looking at it that way and again, the opportunity cost of like an extra 60 bucks. could have been, you know, however much in this certain time period, so that has to be really, really annoying women with you, you’re like, hey, that 80 bucks or that 150 bucks you spent on your hair that would get $4,000 I’ve got to pick my battles. If I bring up hair all over you, I mean, you find comfort in that some people that might stress them out, I don’t know, or not stress them out, but like making me like, you know, I guess like that short term gratification. Right? It that’s hard for people. I think like some people might look at that and be like, I don’t, I don’t want to live so regimented. I want to just, you know, you only live once YOLO man. Oh, yeah. And there’s something to be said for that too. But like, part of our budget is a certain chunk for like, fuck around money is what I call it. Yes. I’m sorry. That’s, that’s part of it. He’s like, you don’t I mean, I budget for that stuff. And whatever part of that doesn’t get used gets rolled over to the next month. And then that’s how it’s like, Hey, you want to go do something? Oh, it’s two grand. Okay, when we got to find 100 bucks in the budget this month, and we hit it, you want I mean, it’s to me, there’s some cooler about being able to pay for the experiences as opposed to going into debt forum. How’s that any different than a cheat day on that? Yeah, like if you regimented and you’re taking care of your body, take care of yourself, and you afford yourself that one day a week or that one day, every two weeks to go cheat? How’s that any different? It kind of makes me think of you know, Jocko is thing like discipline equals freedom, right? There is a there is a huge amount of freedom in what you’re doing. And I think that’s what translated to us being able to move here was that discipline, I didn’t know that I needed until I needed it. You know what I mean? And that work was already done. You know? So I’m a big believer in it. Really? That’s cool, though, man. Because we talked about, you mentioned, you know, mental health. And so do you, you know, we emphasize that that’s a big part of law enforcement, but the confidence to be able to get out, you know, having the confidence in your ability to manage your own budget, and still save money and still develop some of that wealth, because cops always say, I don’t have any other skill set. Yeah, these are life skills. Yeah, truly, like, these are life skills that would span well beyond law enforcement and the comfort with going into a different, you can say this here of cops here now. Can I afford to go take a job where I get paid a little bit less hourly, here locally? Can I afford to do that? Yeah, start breaking it down like this. And if you need to bounce from law enforcement, I’ve always been the type where it’s like, Man, I get it. It’s not. It’s not me. But I mean, the stress alone of uprooting your whole life and being away from your family and your kids and everything else. On top of the fact if you’re in debt, like, I probably wouldn’t make that move either. Right? You don’t I mean, like, but like you said that, that freedom in that discipline really helps. And yes, it is very annoying to live with me, my wife can confirm. Like, should be really, really thankful. But at some point, no. And then probably is now. Yeah. And then we have like, we have another account too, for my older son, that’s, that’s a taxable account. And we don’t know what we’re gonna have to use that for. Because he’s special needs. And we don’t, you might live with us forever. But that account is still growing and growing and growing. And let’s say, he lives with us forever, but we are finally getting land. And I can build a little side house on the side. Yeah, I can pay for that with cash. And now I’m still collecting whatever retirement or whatever, and that’s paid for and now I get to, you know, do whatever I can to help my son and having that stuff paid for. So that if my younger son, um, you know, he’s going to have that burden of taking care of him possibly forever. How the hell am I going to pass down all this debt to him? You don’t I mean, when it’s like, Here, here’s everything I did and save for and everything me and your mom worked towards, like, here’s this to help you get through your next chunk of your life. You don’t I mean, that, to me is just way cooler than some of the stuff people buy. What’s like an actionable step, someone who’s like brand new, and maybe they’re 40? And it’s like, it seems overwhelming, right? Like, what’s an actionable step? What’s the first obvious step that they should take? During the budget, just in the sense of finding margin because a lot of guys would be like, Hi, I just don’t have an extra 100 bucks. I’m like, man, alright, how much you spend on Red Bulls are all cops, right? How much was Red Bulls a month? Right? How much is in how much is? Oh, man, I buy my lunch every week. You know, like, how many streaming services do we got? Like 70? You don’t I mean, like a European for Hulu live just to watch one show for 80 bucks a month. Yeah. And if there’s stuff in there, that you can, anyone can find that you just put that in. Again, a good starter one is betterment.com. That’s like Robo investing. So it takes all of it out of there. And you just set a date for when you want it. And let’s like let’s say hey, man, I gotta be purchased in 10 years, right? All right, let’s say you want you know, I don’t know, pick a number. Let’s say you want 50 grand, right? It’ll tell you Okay, well, if you want 50 grand in 10 years, based on our algorithms, this is about what you’re going to need to save. And again, it automatically the closer you get gets more and more and more conservative, so you’re not exposed to the market. And I think that’s something really cool that it’s very easy to write on your phone, I mean, and then just set those recurring payments, man and first of every month, you just don’t even miss it because you already know what’s coming. And I guess like if you’re like me and don’t maybe I’m not that smart. I don’t like to think about numbers. You know, we just hired a financial advisor. And it’s just like, you know, somebody I trusted. He’s a brown belt in jujitsu sounds like you know, we go we go there. But like, I just totally defer to him. Yeah, just kick everything to him like that. That works for me, because I’m not a numbers guy. Um, so I mean, that’s an option, right? Like, yeah, oh, let’s do it. 100%. Like, even even me, who does all this stuff, I have a financial advisor. It’s almost like a doctor having a doctor in the sense of I like that second opinion of like, Hey, man, he’s independent. Third party. Yeah. And like, and what’s cool, we can talk a little more jargon to me than probably most, but in the same sense of the word. It’s like, I’m and this is what I was thinking. He’s like, No, you don’t wanna do that? I’m like, Well, why? And he has an explanation. Right? And so for me, there’s that extra comfort in the other taking a percentage of it by the fact that it’s going to grow. I mean, again, you see myself, like the fact that it grows the way it does with their help, like I it’s worth every penny to me, but yeah, just looking at mine, like, and I had just started this very recently. And it was like, we just had a meeting with him yesterday. And it was like, almost 8% Yes, like, that’s pretty cool. Doing nothing, right? Nothing exceeds behavior with money. Really, I did not start a 457 B. I’ve been a cop locally for 10 years. I didn’t start until I got to the PD my first year. Watching the growth i Holy crap. But you know, that’s, of course, the biggest regret, but it’s never too late to start. No, I’ve watched that just explode. And I never even noticed it. Because I, I knew that if I bumped the Max and I could afford it, then it would just get more affordable. Yeah. 457 through dumontier. Nationwide, you can do it through different but there’s only so much of your income you can put in there per year. Yep. So I knew if I maxed it, it just gets more affordable as I get more raises. Right. And then I noticed that less Yeah, no. And I think the longer you wait, the longer you’re in the market to the better chance you have of doing better, right? So if the average is 10%, but you’re only investing for 10 years, maybe it’s six, maybe not could be 17. Right? Because it’s a shorter amount. But over the longer you’re in there, the more the more safe it is. Because there’s, I mean, again, the history of the stock market is 10%. Right? And that’s including World Wars, everything we’ve had, you know, yeah, it’s wild. It is and maybe you know, maybe my takeaway from this is like, Hey, maybe I can help my kids start early and plan and we you know, we did with the 529 they’ll have that my you know, my kids are fortunate unfortunate our house burned down in the campfire up in paradise. But you know, there was a lawsuit our kids got a chunk of money. And we put that with the financial advisor. And I’m like, oh, man, that’s gonna grow a lot like Oh, yeah. chunk of money, right? Yeah. So and I know some parents from that same not gonna call any names out of course, but they were like, what we’re just gonna take that money and use it sounds like a stupid like, no, kids money, man. Like, and but seeing what that can do. Like by the time they’re 50 Yeah, holy crap. No, that the again the time in the market, especially for youth is just insane. This is army of dollar bills, just marching and marching, doing the work for you. So I and you were spot on about the stupid toys like we we did that when our kids were younger to like your grandma. Put that money in the 529 My kids don’t need another frickin Nerf gun. Like, I don’t need it. Right? They already have 15 Like because I’m only in the five we’re gonna walk. Yeah. When when they were younger. My son was the first grand grand baby right? So it was just quantity just so many toys and so he never even touched. And we have to go clear it all out. That when we have babies even like baby showers and stuff. We don’t need four of these. We you know, we need one. My mom every year for Christmas. It’s like, probably the least popular but it’s all silver. It’s always less cool. Little thing, tangibles that is growing in value, right. But I think it starts to impress that lesson. My son hasn’t taken that lesson and he’s in a bunch of shit with me right now. So part of his summer routine. In order to get a cell phone back Do not give your kids cell phones until they’re friends. Just don’t just don’t do it’s impossible. I’ve taught that told him every anyways. But part of it is he’s got five books to read. And one of them was financing for teenagers like understanding the importance that’ll start to speak their language and how your money can grow and stop pissing away on shoes. Yeah, you know, I mean, like, just to show him what the value of that is probably just what you’re talking about now. What’s like, especially like, Oh, you’re buying shoes to look cool for the chicks. And I’m like, Man, he’s showing one of these accounts when you’re 20 a lot cooler it’s cool man I got them Jays. But just the value paying cash for something the answer, you’re not paying on it later on. In our industry, it always blows my mind to see that statement. When you talk about what you’re actually going to pay for that house by the time your mortgage. Paid. Oh, yeah. Dude, there’s no more painful piece of paper on the planet. Yep. So maybe no one want to strip the no more painful piece of paper than seeing what you’re actually going to pay out when you go to sign they’ve got it’s 30 years of amortization schedule. Yeah, it’s brutal. I mean, I was just looking at this. We sold our house at a 2.7% interest rate. And then we were looking at a 7% interest rate to ribeye. And you look at the difference in the interest and it was literally like $2,000 a month it was bananas we’d seen broken down on your listing with the assumable. So it was a difference between 1500 a month and 9400. Like and you’re just talking about interest. That’s just saying bank money’s going to ease Yeah, so we make double payments in our house trying to get it we pay it like a 15 year but what we do is like a visual you’d kind of like for kids. So I have one jar full of nickels, and each nickel represents$1,000. And then the other jar is what we’ve paid off in the first of every month like, right, but we gotta move nickels. You don’t I mean, I just hope through that osmosis as they get older, to see them, move that nickel and move that nickel and then have that event that’s going in my grave. I don’t care. But I love it. But just having that idea of like, yeah, we paid for this. And now, you know, you pay your house off. Which I know a lot of people, it’s very difficult, but you pay that off, you just gave yourself a $2,000 month raise. Yeah, right, because A penny saved is a penny earned. And once that really dug into my head, where it’s like, hey, if I don’t spend this, I earned it. Again, on Red Bull, whatever, you know what I mean. But imagine where that would put you now, you know, somebody’s getting into this 1015 years ago, where if you just in 15 year, mortgages, we talked a lot about that, how valuable that can be if you’re able to afford that. You know, discipline is freedom. Imagine where that puts you now where houses are actually there’s it’s a bit of a buyer’s market. I only say it’s a seller’s market, but it doesn’t seem that way. But if you’ve got all that equity, you can level up on a house because there’s limited number of buyers based on 7% interest rate, you have more freedom or move. If you’re in somewhere that sucks. If you’re making good financial decisions early, you have the opportunity to sell it, use that equity and then buy and live where the hell you want to. Yeah, that’s pretty cool. Yeah, we made the decision when we came up here, we could have got more land, we could have got some bigger, which, you know, I’d love to have been able to put down I think we put down about half. You don’t I mean, in our on 3%. Freedom. Yeah. So I’m almost at the point where it’s like, do I keep paying off the house early, or invest that extra double payment? We do. And that’s my biggest issue. And I was talking about with my dad one day, and he’s like, oh, you know, you make me feel good that my oldest son is talking to me about his biggest problem is to be paid off the house faster. You know what I mean? So he’s like, really cool. Yeah. So, but even he kicks himself because he and the whole admit to this. Dave met him actually the other day, but he was one of my guys, old school dudes, I would just hold on to cash. Right. Like he paid for everything in cash. You don’t I mean, but he just held it. Right? Just inflation just eats that away. Yeah. You know what I mean? So really getting that stuff in there making it work for you just fights inflation, and it just makes your money worth so much more. So. It’s cool. Yeah, man. I’m shocked. You don’t look like that much of a nerd. But, dude, I’m seeing it now. Yes, yes. I’ve seen it. I don’t act like in the streets. But no, definitely, definitely not. My questioning is so direct. His interactions are freaking hilarious. Skid Row cop turned financial advisor. Yeah. But he speaks the language to do to where it makes sense. We’re like, damn, okay. And I think, you know, people need to hear that right guy, a young cop. He can hear that from like, a nerdy financial adviser and you have this guy, right? Right. But he hears it from you, someone who’s done it and does the job. And it’s like, okay, this guy knows what’s up. When he’s not shy about showing his Yeah, it’s like, Hey, check this out. If I’d done it earlier would have been this. I’ve done it later. If I hadn’t done it. That goes a long way. Dude, like sometimes we’ll get a little slower in the afternoon, and I’ll show him like a dude. In the last 30 minutes. I made a grant. And this report, you know what I mean? It’s not a brag thing. It’s just a literally anyone can do like so even dumbass will can do it. You want. I mean, that’s what I tried to show him is you can do this stuff. It’s just behavior and choosing the macro picture over the short term gratification stuff and really understanding the, you know, opportunity cost of, again, you want to buy the boat and all that stuff with the kids. I totally get it. You know, I’m not against it, but who afford a man? Yeah. Okay, so So I need the HSA. Yep. And Roth. Yeah, okay. Yep. I need to get those in my game. I know that Idaho, ideal 529, five Hobbema. And that’s what I need. Yeah, that’s a good thing. I mean, and then what’s cool too, is you can set up links, anyone who anyone who’s an Idaho resident that that contributes to that can write that off to so your parents, uncles, aunts? Yeah, you don’t I mean, so if you’re trying to lower your taxable income a little bit, you don’t I mean, you can as much as I like to silver, I might say, hey, why don’t you? Yeah, check that because that’ll grow. I gotta look into that because I mean, we have our 529 I don’t know if it’s, I don’t Yeah, it took me a second when I got here because I knew you could write them off but in speaking my financial advisors like giving credit to like, no one has to be this ideal one. So cool. Yeah, so that’s a good tip. Hopefully for everybody, but you see a deal. Yeah, okay. Id EAL. Okay, yep, we’ll get that in there for sure. I should have my link dammit. So I get credit for for like recommended Give it to me I’ll put it in the show notes if you want to find me on social media I’m absolutely nowhere so good luck. I figured that would be the case I have I have the link and follow this checklist now to like so when we have people on yeah Jackie helped me with this by the way I can remember she’s great. Yeah, and I was like he’s not gonna be social media guarantee he’ll know that’s more for the business guys in LA get fired for like and stuff dude, like not gonna lose my profession and then if you get fired for somebody that can look in hired somewhere else. kind of crappy because anybody else can do it right? Like why can’t come like why can’t you separate my personal life from them? Especially when it’s just like a Like button. You don’t I mean, like, come on. You could just be chillin at home and actually hit the wrong damn thing and lose your damn job like, man, you’re gonna get me down another freaking rabbit hole. Like, there is nobody’s free speech that’s more marginalized in cops and military percent nobody. And why is it that we don’t want to hear their opinions? When we’re like the frontline of everything that wasn’t in the military, but I’m here definitely frontline military see it overseas, so they know what third world countries look like. They know what tyrannical governments look like, they don’t want communism look, communism, we know you’re answering your own question, right? Yeah. But that’s exactly. Alright, fair enough. It’s such bullshit. It pisses me off the military, because they went off on this thing where we couldn’t like we are very restricted on what it is that we can post or like, or, Oh, if you they’re going to they’re going to think a certain way. Well, at what point in time, are you going to make a thin blue line a hate speech? Are you going to make that image hate speech? And so if I posted that if I posted that seven years ago, am I labeled a racist? Right, right? And then law enforcement? Why would you not want their opinions voiced? Okay, so maybe, but no, but truly those guys see on the front lines, they see society every single day. Why is why is it we’re trying to suppress their opinions, but somebody that’s never held down a real job, right? That’s never actually been a contributing member of society. They have carte blanche to say whatever they want for convicted convicted sex offenders were allowed to have social media and contact your kids that just blows Well, this got me fired up to because CHP, like we were not allowed to display Thin Blue Line flags. But we could display pride flag right. Makes sense. So now I have nothing against I have nothing against any of that. But the double standard, there was just mind blowing to me. Right? Yeah, just like now, but those are the ones that I want to hear from. I want to hear from cops that are on Skid Row. Hey, what’s it like when you let the society run rampant with drug use? What does that actually look like? Because when all these other cities are considering it, maybe their citizens should be able to hear from the people in cities that are already doing it? Yeah. Like what do you think Seattle PD would tell you? What do you think Portland PD would tell you about letting that run roughshod to get sued as opinions? We don’t get any of this, right. So when these cities are kicking it around, and they’re saying No, it’d be this perfect utopia, and everybody will be nice to each other. I don’t think that’s going to work. But who am I right? Let’s talk to the guys that are actually down there. Yeah. What that tell us they see horrendous person scribes. And what they see is like a tortured soul. And it’s sad. Yeah, you brought up great in that other podcasts about just being dead inside. It was just everyone there was just they were just gone. They were not humans anymore. I’m trying to be sympathetic to them. But they are they were past the point of a person in there. You know what I mean? In solace? Yeah. It was just crazy. I don’t know how you fix that. You don’t? Not that at least Skid Row. I think I feel like it’s a generational fix. Like it’s not going to be a five year fix. It’s 2030 years, right? Of like, focused work on on it. Right? Are you talking about fixing the society or fixing the person? The society? Because yeah, the people like you said, like, I mean, we know that’s very, very rare. someone pulls himself out of that world, we can have all the help in the world, but they need to want it and most of them don’t. And that’s where there has to be teeth, and there has to be skin in the game. For them. That’s where I was a little different. Most of the time, they got some skin in the game before they go in and seek drug court or drug counseling or whatever. They got something hanging, that’s motivating them to do that. Yeah. And that’s the difference between there. I think what helps this area tremendously. And I think it’s unique to the entire country, really, at least in my opinion, the fact that we have somewhere to push the criminal element 30 minutes away, will forever being serious. The fact that you can go do whatever criminal activity you want to half hour away and avoid the police contacts and going to jail and all this other stuff makes this place so unique. Because I think you know, like in LA we’re going to push them to. Yeah, no, you don’t. I mean, like they they’re just going to keep staying in the same thing. They there’s something like yeah, whatever. Like you said, it has no teeth. We got teeth here. Yeah, you don’t I mean, we’ll use them, right where you can go 30 minutes away and do whatever you want, when you talked about them before Eric like, Yeah, it sounds bad, right? But it’s like, your job is to push that shit out of your community because your community is number one focus. And it does sound bad, but ultimately, that’s where I want to live. So fuck it. Yeah, you try other things, right? You hold people okay, but it’s about accountability. Idaho still has some accountability. We gripe about our court system all the time. They’ve got mostly enemies. That’s because I’m in there. But that drives me crazy. Sometimes some of the decisions of individuals However, we still have accountability here. You’re still gonna get held accountable here. And if they know that they can just do that 30 minutes away where they’re not gonna be held accountable. That’s not enough issue. Right? Our the way we police is naturally going to push people over there where they’re not gonna be held accountable. It’s just like a kid that wants a certain teacher or a certain coach. Right? They’re like, No, I want that or people on probation to want a certain po if you’re a start up if you’re, if you’re a probation officer like I know I really want that one. Maybe you have been speaking to kids earlier though, there There’s a lot of older guys whose teenagers just start mouthing off so they bring them down and leave on the corner for a little bit. Scared Straight man. I’m like, Oh, good. So then we would have other cars posted around the corner so they were watching them, but then the parent would just drive off. You just watch them terrifying as a kid. Yeah. So I mean, not younger, younger kids, but yeah, like the 1617 year olds. I thought they were cool. Oh, yeah, totally do that. Here’s where you might end up. Oh, dude, is no thanks. We’ll get you on here again, talking football, dude. Oh, anytime the belief and I know, I know where you’re at playing college. And yeah, playing quarterback down there and all that. Yeah, it was it was nuts. And the lessons that Yeah, I mean, a lot of good life lessons. Like even going back to when I worked at Outback Steakhouse when I was a young kid. And watching people bitch about something and doing nothing to change it like that was a factor and us moving here was the fact that nothing was gonna change that we were mad at you. No, no, I learned that lesson very young and was likely enough to pay attention to it. Yep. Always, you always tell kids, right? Like, why don’t you focus on the things that are within the scope of your control, and try to try to push out those things that are outside the scope of your control. Eventually, those things that are outside the scope of your control, if it is wrecking your quality of life, you don’t have an option, you’re not going to be able to control those, you can’t fix those right? And then you got to change something about your environment. Right. And I think that’s why we end up having so much interest in moving out here, on your product to your environment. So when the people you work with and the people you live around are all in good moods, you’re naturally going to be in a better mood. And yeah, no one sit in four and a half hours of traffic every day, no matter what job they have. I mean, everyone’s cool and actually spend time with you set in two weeks of traffic a year that would extra my mind. Yeah, I would add six years to my life like in rages me. So we’re gonna do live closer takeaways. We’re gonna do live closer to that track. You know what I mean? Right? So that was the trade off, right? It’s like, you know, we lived in a great area. North Apollon was awesome. Dave is familiar with a play. I mean, the the freeway therapy, I mean, there were times where it took me a half hour to get from the station to the freeway to home. Just a half hour alone, just to get and it was not that far. Yeah, but even then you’re like a merc, dude, like it. What’s different here is you even though I know you don’t live in Vegas, live in your jurisdiction, the impact that you have, is felt because there’s no walls between our communities. And honestly, our agents like, yeah, what you do here as an impact on where your kids are gonna grow up? Like, that’s still a huge difference. And it would be weird for me to like those guys that are live in Idaho, but go to Spokane? I don’t know. Yeah, just, I wouldn’t be in it. It’s like, it’s like when guys, I’m probably not. Like, even when I came up here. And everyone was like, oh, man, you know, you can live in Idaho, but make more money out in Spokane. And I’m like, if I wanted more money for liberal city, I would have stayed in LA. What was the point of the move? Obviously, you got your family out. But I just I don’t subscribe to that. I don’t understand that one at all. Yeah. But that’s I’m actually glad you brought that up. Because you, I’ve told you there has been some struggles with cops coming from other states and then coming to police here because it’s an adjustment here. And if you’re past that point of where you actually want to police, if you’ve gotten to a point where you’re just your heart’s no longer in it, and you just don’t want to do it and you’ve burned out, man, it can be a tough transition to Idaho policing, if you’re coming here to retire, man, just probably, like not and not be a cop. I mean, if you’re a lateral, if you’re coming up here, because you think it’s a small town, you won’t have to do anything. Yeah, we are one and the flip side of that, too, is coming from massive agency where like day shift alone was like 50. Guys, yeah, you could hide men the whole time or slipped on the roof. Yeah, not open. did not care. Right. You know what I mean? But here, there’s only six of us on at a time. If you’re not the dude handling calls like, or doing your job or being proactive, like you’re gonna stick out and it’s gonna, we’ve had guys, I don’t want to say their names. We’ve had guys even since I’ve been here that really struggled with that. Yes. And we’re just a cancer and it didn’t work because I think because of the positivity of the department how happy everyone was when this other person came in and was just trying to draw it down. Because of money stuff. You don’t I mean, and it was just like, dude, didn’t Google it before he got here? Yeah, that’s a huge problem. Yeah, but a lot of it was you because you were humble coming in and you weren’t like Oh, I’m a tenure cop. I already know everything article everything. It’s like blank slate. Hey, how do you guys do it? I know it’s different here. Your city is really super safe. So how do I do that tribute to that that’s a different that’s a mentality issue. Yeah, I just I didn’t want to because obviously you say the name like the names. You know, world renowned. I can go to China and say LAPD and some what’s every TV show based off of it by the rookies fake by the way. The billboard alone, right. So it’s like, oh, I got the rookie. You got full head of hair. I’m like, they’re the billboards even. My wife loves that show. It makes no sense. But anyway, I was an FTO for three years. And he’s the rookie, like, do they do that? And like Have I ever said that? When I come home from work? No. Just like, what is your undercover day? Like, what the hell are you talking about? Don’t worry. We’re sure like Boardman’s Boardman. He’s better than the puka shells, but no, but But yeah, no, it was. Yes, it was a wild time. But no, it isn’t adjustment though. But those guys that are looking at making that jump Coming up here for laterals, and it’s an open book you can talk to guys like will and several others from different states. We have them from Texas. We’ve got them Oregon, Washington, California. And you know, Canada now to Yeah, Colorado. Colorado. I’m not gonna say yeah, we got Colorado guys to but it’s important to talk to some of them get some objective that’s not a recruiter. Yeah, I think that part’s important. Somebody can shoot it real. Yeah. And I think having a good attitude in the sense of no matter how much time you’ve done, like, you might be in a car with a younger FTO, who’s been here for three years. But as grown up in this kind of culture, you don’t I mean, and if you’re not willing to listen to that, it’s not going to go well. You know what I mean? So really just got to be mentally prepared for what’s going to hit you. But it’s cool because you do have the knowledge and skills that when you do want to be proactive, like man, you can really hit the ground running once Yes, you’d like once you clarified it for me man like last summer we were was like 54 definition felonies you I mean, because he was just boom, boom, boom, and just being able to have that freedom. And like, good story. So I was I was here. I was with getting a second phase or no first phase, I got my first Sony arrest. I’m like, Alright, man, where do we get the bail schedule? Like when? Like, where’s the bail schedule? Because like even in Cali, like murder was a million people that means so there was some number. It’s like, dude, there. There’s no bail for felonies like, was incredible. Zero there. But because I remember during COVID band, there was a guy we caught a burglar jumping up. I don’t know how they only got up there. But he was five stories up on this high rise and broken this old lady’s condo, and he had a firearm prohibited possessor. And during COVID That bill was zero. It was a book and release release with a loaded firearm was a prohibited possession. And it was Yeah. And it’s like and then you know, you wonder why the guys come so disgruntled and stuff because it’s like, why would why bother? We became the fire department and we’d handle our call come back and are calling and why are you going to risk your life for that or your career man right again? How cool is your pension when you’re in prison? Oh, no, that’s me. Yeah, your life like everybody thinks you’re gonna die in a hail of gunfire and you know, brass rounds and a big pile of men. It’s not that anymore. You’re gonna get YouTube Shane, there’s gonna be people at your house, your department’s gonna disown you like that’s, that’s more likely than the hail of gunfire. And you brought that up in a previous podcast, which I loved where you were like, like you said, I think the fear of actually being killed at work by gunfire is very minimal to me. And obviously you think about it and that’s what your tactics are for. But that’s what experience is but at the same time if you’re at the stoplight and government nighter and some guy decides to go and turn and shoot you like that’s it I can right yeah, you don’t I mean like it’s just your time but you try to mitigate that risk as much as you can through training experience and obviously your tactics and everything else involved. But the fact that again, that guy with a knife in the middle of street like you’re screwed like that is a your ad. Yeah, do you and you’re just that radio call that you just happen to be free while the other old timers are sleeping on the roof. Yeah, you don’t I mean, and it’s I just didn’t want to risk that for my family and I hope anyone at a bigger liberal city understands I bet they know exactly I’m talking about but then I’m sure the old school LAPD guys was rolling over in the grave which sucks but they all live up here now. I know they do. The number one retirement for law enforcement up here. Yeah, I know they do. Yeah, it’s it’s there’s no better place in my opinion. I couldn’t recommend it higher. It’s coming from a guy who came from one of the biggest agencies in the country and just welcoming them with you guys will welcome you with open arms. But the same time to is like hey, you gotta get your shit done. Which I was actually happy to show because even had to prove something a long time because you weren’t doing anything proactive or doing anything copulated. You were just like, we just call it the parade. Man. If you got a code three call that wasn’t cop related, like a backup or help call me going 50 miles an hour. You know what I mean? Yeah, it’s called parade speed. You know how much he was? Anyway, what? What do you say? Like, does anyone ever give you crap? Like, what do you say to the people that are like, you know, oh, you’re coming from California. Like, don’t bring your crap here. Like, you ever get any of that? I think because anyone who knows me knows I’m a cop. And I think there’s a lot of political refugees that kind of like you were, you know what I mean? Like we came here with the intention of making it better and voting the same way and keeping it not what we just came from. Why the hell would I vote? Right to make it where I just came from? Yeah. When again, you could just make more money stay in there. Yeah. I mean, so when I yeah, I mean, my wife got home. I’ve done a lot with her California plates for a long time was pretty funny. But I told my parents they moved up here I’m like, I’d rather have you get a ticket for not for not having plates. Yeah. And just tell him that you’re my son or that you’re my parents. You got to get your car keyed. Which is funny because down there if you had a Trump flag, like your tires are slashed and Windows plus values Yeah, disaster but I actually get that I had a UC car once that was a BMW no but Washington place on I got flipped off like six times and afternoon downtown. It’s probably driving like but definitely yeah, that like I get that comment a lot on our YouTube stuff and podcasts like don’t California my Idaho and I’m like I used to be nice now. I’m just like, screw you know what I’m heard enough of that shit. Like, that’s just dumb. As a guy coming from down there, I understand it’s obviously much more liberal than it wasn’t people who grew up here. I can’t argue that fact. But if you think we’re anywhere close by any means to where I came from, we are light years from that. Well, I guess my because I grew up in Spokane, right, so maybe I’m part of that too. But I grew up 30 minutes from here where we post all of our shit. And my mom was a cop and Spokane and then I moved here from Miami area. So I’ll say this, and this is my son would say, I’m not glazing the two of you, right. But I challenge anybody that’s going to talk shit about people from coming from California up here. You two are contributing more to keeping our community the way that it is now than most of those people that would talk shit in a comment about people moving from California. So if you’re going to move here, from there, man, jump into the community and contribute. Like it’s a badass place to live. People come up here and visited the ones that just came up from Maryland. Right said it was awesome. Everybody was super nice, super helpful held doors forum. It’s just a different culture. It’s a 20 year throwback here. So we’re talking your shit, right? How would you keep contributing to why this place is different? Right? Or if it’s that bad, because there’s more people here. Sorry, guys. The secret’s out. It’s safe. People like to live here. Bounce. Yeah, you’re gonna mean, because it’s not the people that are moving here that are changing the culture here. Right. The fact people take take home cars and parking in the driveway. Yeah, right. My mind blows my mind. Yeah, I see that a lot. Yeah, man, it was just insane. I mean, and even to seeing kids on bikes, you know, again, the most basic stuff that you know, our parents had, or at least my parents did down in California, and I kind of grew up that way. We’re used to have to worry about that kind of stuff. And you have that here. Like you said, it’s a throwback 20 years, you know, it’s great feeling great feeling. We don’t and that’s where most of our auto burbs are unlocked, Carson still recommend you to put your gun in your house? Yes, I know. And that’s most of what we that’s probably our biggest one we get like runs on crime. That’s really kind of what we get is unlocked cars, right kids call it car hopping? Course call it burglary. We’ll go to Yeah, don’t do that. It’s just it’s always fast. Go. Yeah, seriously, car hopping is literally a felony, like, it’s just this straight up blocker cars. But when that’s when we’re still in the community where people like I don’t have to, I’m not that worried about it. Just because we’re, we’re pretty blessed. Yeah, we just have the support of our community to be able to do that, which is pretty sweet. So honestly, that was a big part of bringing you on, because I wanted to be able to talk straight to those people that are looking at making that jump, you know, because it is a lot and change is hard. Yeah, I mean, yeah, I mean, the only constant is change, really. So change is gonna hit you regardless. So you might as well be in front of it. You know what I mean? And you just got to again with the finances is just really be prepared and understand that you don’t know what that next big transaction is or that next big move, are you I mean, because again 18 months before I moved, I wasn’t gonna leave Yeah, I mean, I was able to make a bunch of money but start by going to where you have the freedom to do it right as you prepare right and that in my grandfather used to have a saying you know, it’s funny that the harder I work the luckier I got, you know what I mean? Really, you’re just you’re just working on yourself with this stuff and you’re working on your family right and then you’re paying yourself first instead of paying it’s a Chevy or you know, whoever right but yeah, I couldn’t recommend this area more I can’t thank the citizens enough I think it’s just so cool the way they interact with us and walk like I gotten to use of force here. I don’t want to get too specific but then these two older females came up to us after I didn’t know what was gonna happen to like great effing job boys where are we incredible you know they were both pack into so shake out bad those those ladies would have had your back I have had that happen here. I believe somebody stopped on the side of the road where the street was dumb on mice not great tactics. I was a young dude jumps out he goes do to sit right there I’m armed like I didn’t get his name he goes all right you good see you later drops off. I was like a little different retired cop guarantee. percent probably guaranteed and daydreaming about that. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I can’t say I haven’t either. Um, we did have a major incident I want to get to specific again, but major incident parking lot. And the fact that the citizens you know, when we tell them like Hey, I gotta rip this off your car is gonna be you know, out of commission for a while. Oh, yeah. Cool. I’ll go get margaritas. They’re not kicking anything and trying to get on Worldstar you don’t I mean, I had a guy in Skid Row man, we had a we had a homicide. And we put we ended up putting three rolls of tape like F and WWE ring, right? Because people were just ducking anything and it didn’t apply to them. And I’m standing there and one dude comes up with the blind stick I don’t know the exact term and I’m like Amen turn around. looks at me causes it with locks trying to fake that was enough to though because I’m like, Are you gonna stand out here if you want to be like I’m sitting in the car I’m gay respect game. There were some there were some fun stories, but I had a guy that a guy John 19 stories and Live. So that was the one time about seeing a zombie. What? Yes, I had a rookie with me she was, I want to say it was like two three weeks and he’d never seen a dead body and like, Oh, we got jumper from 19 stories. Oh my God is gonna be good. And what’s cool about that too is they wrote everything you don’t do the report. You’re almost like a soccer mom, you just driving them to cold. Just don’t shoot anyone and don’t do anything illegal. That’s great. So this gives us call me and we’re looking to bust the window. I’m like, oh my god, it’s gonna be awesome. So we walk up and he’s like, we had a tarps that we would have to cover people with think of like, softball tournament those pitch tents, right? So dumb anyway, so he’s like, Oh, sir, do we need to call the fire department? I’m like, oh, you know, like, I’m an obvious death. It depends, but we’ll check it out. I’m fully expecting this to to be completely dismembered. Yeah, so we get there. And I’m walking up. This dude, I have never been closer to crapping my pants in my entire life right now, it was insane. Oh my god. You want to call the fire department out here to be canceled the turf? We don’t need it. Yeah, you know, dying later. But yeah, his leg bent like down this way. And then his knee went to the right and then his ankle went up like this. That’s impressive. Yeah, like I think like eight ribs sticking out and just had all his teeth though. Which was weird. That’s facts. teeth and skin row was probably the most impressive. But yeah, I got stories. We probably didn’t feel a thing he was. He was weird. You told my friend. Oh, man, it was so weird because I even went before I got up here. Like it still hadn’t really hit LA at least in Skid Row anyway, maybe they’re offloading all their extra meth or whatever. But crack was huge. Like I got up here no one’s seen crack and like man’s all we dealt with now. Yeah, yeah, but definitely also super dangerous man. I know you had a whole podcast on it. But that to me passionate about Veritas briefing. We put people on trial. It was hilarious. Because we had we were on minimums all summer long. We had one guy don’t there wasn’t minimum was just me. Me, Grace. It’s him and two brand new guys both under your cops, which you can imagine this is exactly how he is all the time. Okay. So he messes with the new guys. Like he brings a little LAPD mentality when he’s messing with new guys. It’s hilarious all the time. But yeah, they’d have courts. We’d have mock courtroom, like walk in all rise. And I’d be the prosecutor and defense attorney and in good practice, right. Yeah. But both those dudes came back. They’re like, actually, we’re glad because we’ve been through all that before. It’s like you’ve seen it before. And that is one thing with either one and brought it up. And other ones. You guys are coming up from somewhere else manual. testifier Yeah, we’ll go Yeah, you’ll go to court. Yeah, like that prosecutor or a defense attorney. But no, and that’s what I miss about LAPD really was like the pageantry, the history, like LA owns the patent on police uniforms. That’s why there’s no patch. You know what I mean? So I thought always in like up looking at old pictures from like, the 40s. That uniforms exactly the same, right. And there’s a reason like all the rookies wear the tie and the tie bar, and usually you don’t get it taken off till you’re in your first use of force. You know what I mean? So there was just this way you had to build kind of your reputation. Yeah. But it was funny because, like you’re talking about with court, or jury trials, you don’t I mean, briefing, but in roll call in the morning, all the rookies, sit up front, and we make him stand up and recite policy. You don’t I mean, and a lot of them are like, Man, I hate to in the Senate, and an old timer in the back. I’m just screaming at the sergeant for something was like, I can’t even repeat some of the stuff that was said, and there’s so incredible, but he’d be like, dude, if you can do this in front of a bunch of aihole cops in here, how easy is he gonna be on the stand? You want I mean, so there was a method to the madness for it. And that’s kind of the part I miss. Like, you couldn’t talk as a rookie, which as you can tell was extremely difficult for me. If you said stupid stuff, and roll call, like they would make the rookies go on stand and face the wall. So like some Sergeant Lieutenant would come in and have like three or four walls like just little stuff, man. You know, I wouldn’t I wouldn’t say was hazing, per se, but it was like, Hey, you got to learn your place and earn your thing. And one thing I used to tell, rookies was the one thing all of us have in common. Every cop listening, we were all brand new ones. Yeah, every single guy was brand new, and you got to kind of work your way through and, you know, do what you can to be saved. Because at least for me, I know report writing is important. But there’s literally paperwork to fix paperwork scripts, there is no paperwork for, you know, a bad rapid decision. Yes. Done. You know what I mean? So taking that time understanding what you have, and if you don’t know, let them go. Yeah, I had that with you the other day where we had I remember I talked to you about a guy I thought I could arrest you, but I wasn’t sure. And you ended up confirming to me that I could have but in my mind, and again, if I’m getting separated right away after a critical incident, I’m like, Well, I thought I had this Oh, no, because the worst answer to have in police work everywhere is Oh, yeah, I don’t care what they’re asking you a sergeant on your days off whatever it is. You don’t want that. So just getting that experience and that reputation that repetition which here in terms of violent radio calls, we don’t really have that because it’s a great community but getting that experience that I was able to bring you on I mean of not flipping out when there’s a bunch of blood and there’s not a super valuable though because we just don’t have them as frequently you know, we get those honestly those critical instant It’s what, eight to 10 a year. If that works like a fair, it’s a good one for everybody. And you just how do you get that in the training program? We try to expose new guys to as much as we can, but we just don’t have the frequency. Yeah. So so much of it’s based on like, I don’t mind, sir. I know there’s some guys that come to my briefing stressed out, because they know I’m gonna put them on the spot and be like, hey, what case law is this? He just jokes. Listen for a couple of UFC fighters but but you know, show it I would show that I was listening and paying attention. Because when you’d see it out in the field, you don’t I mean, I was doing it correct. Not just me. But the guys who listen to you pick it up, like Yeah, I can’t recite, you know. And I tell you guys, I don’t really be very bonds. I don’t know. I mean, like, recipes. Yeah. But no, there’s some truth to that, though. Because I always say, Look, you guys are gonna be able to strike the name. Just tell me what’s up, tell me know what’s up. Because we are blunt instruments. We’re St. kosgei, I don’t need you to be a lawyer. But just be able to tell me that way. You can confidently apply that particular portion of the case law, so you don’t get hurt. So you’re confident detaining somebody right away. You’re confident controlling the movement. So pastor, whatever, that whatever that huge, like, a big thing, too, was extension of stops here, which is huge man in LA, like, oh, you speak Spanish. We in 30 minutes to get another cop to come translate this. You know what I mean? So it gets litigated here. Yeah. And it makes sense. You know what I mean, but having to learn that clock and asking conceptual questions, a different way than you would have to turn around and getting that Burbidge and kind of having to relearn. So one thing for laterals, I think is you have to have that kind of humble mentality because in a way, we’re harder to teach than brand new guys. Yeah, because we’ve been doing it for a long time. And most of us have been pretty successful. So for us to have to like, unlearn some stuff, but we begin with the stuff you’ve learned is definitely a tie rope to Well, that’s fun, though, man. That’s where I take the most pride going back and watching your videos or watching Joe’s like, dog new trick. Well, I mean, I get frustrated. We’ve heard every excuse in the book at this point, and like you are much better. He’s much better at like, the finesse and I’m gonna talk you through it. It’s like a fantastical week. That’s what he does around here. A romance novel. Right? It’s just serenading. I’m like, literally walk I’m like, is this your drugs? Like no, rush him to get to it, but in a way it kind of works in court, because what’s his defense when he’s been Mirandized? I’m like, Is this yours? Yes. Okay. Yeah, go back to whatever the romanticized I’m just trying to get a source. Attitude, man, but ya know, it’s, it’s a fun time. And you get you get that good group. And I think what’s cool too, especially about young guys, man, if you’re looking to move up here, as a young guy and start your man is that energy feeds because, you know, I’ve been doing this for while you’re talking about that burnout, really, before I started finding my passion for the sex offenders, I wouldn’t say burned out, but it was definitely it kind of wears on, he gets mundane. He did this call, okay, this lady’s calling because I want to spit on their lawn. You know what I mean? Just shenanigans. But having that young energy of guys trying to hustle and make their name and stuff, it makes it feed into it. So. But yeah, if you’ve never been a cop, and you’re trying to be a cop appear to which we obviously have many new artists that are coming in. It’s a great place to learn to do that. Because you’re not you’re being on the offense, really, with the proactive stuff. As opposed to Alright, well, this is how you don’t get fired. Alright, and this is how we don’t do this. You don’t I mean, this is how we do stuff. Right. So yeah, but I’ve heard you be positive and explaining to guys like why it works. Yeah. Like there was one in particular brothers. Same when you were talking about before that said, I’m not gonna chase meth pipes. Yeah. And I’ve heard you say, Okay, well, you move to a community where that’s what you do, because that keeps them from committing all the other crimes they’re likely to commit based on their Matthews, right? The Berg’s Melandri like that’s what we do here sometimes, because we don’t have those major crimes because we’ve run them all right. And then that goes back to almost being so conservative that it’s liberal, where if you end up do you find that meth pipe man, you had to besides Plainview, like you had to work to get that. So what’s cool is because we have teeth like your your firewall is upfront. But once we can actually break it and get through it and serenaded or whatever you want to call it. Like, once you break through that, though, man, like now, it’s like you have no defense because your defense was on the front line there. So it’s an understanding that navigating it’s pretty tough, but we spend so much time educating. So if you’re coming in, and you’re a lateral and you got a skill set, man, we got our role here, you just come in humble. Learn it, the Idaho way. And then you’ll find that role because like you said, those guys come in from places where they’ve had those hot calls and responded and have all that tactical, dude, we absolutely want that. He’s got to learn how to police it and I know first I’m really thankful that there’s deeds like you out in the community doing what you do, by the way, and I just reaped the rewards of it live in here. So thank you. Like I said, bro, you’re contributing to that she had to in other way right but cops get here. I mean, that’s all we’ve got quite a which is badass though, dude, because that’s what you want to figure out how to get paid from the sheriff’s department and the PD. That’s my next goal. You saw our building right? It’s gonna be one. Yeah. Good year by Russia. Oh, what’s the fiscal year starting late July? I hit him up and it’s been a weird year. I heard a rumor guys get days off though if they contribute to good applicants? Yeah. Okay, keep going. We got you. Um, I know a guy. Yeah. Again, you can find me nowhere. So getting those days off. So you started a financial business. That was pretty legit. I see a legit side hustle here and your future what I’ve thought of a man but honestly, it’s kind of like quitting smoking or getting in shape or whatever. Unless you want to do this, I can give you all the information in the world because again, it’s not difficult. It’s in two things that I use. Also, I forgot to mention these Dave Ramsey investment calculator and Dave Ramsey mortgage payoff calculator their websites man, you can screw with the numbers so much. So we were talking about looking at amortization schedules. Man, I’ll be up at 1130 at night because my nine month old is cannot sleep and LPCs this in a couple years and knows how irritated your energy. My house is my house is anarchy, you know, but no, but you can play in there and be like, alright, well, if I cut another 100 bucks out of BS and I put an extra 100 towards the house, you see what I mean? And it shows you breaks it down how much shorter and how much you save. And when I looked at the double payment thing, and it talks about how many months shorter? Not years, but months, it was like 194 payments. That’s it? I mean, like, it’s like, dude, how do I not want to I want to get some other stuff. But man, do the overtime, right? Like, hey, I want to buy a table saw. If you have money in your savings account, you just gonna go buy it. But when you look at how much other crap you spent, and then you’re like, Oh man, I don’t have this. And then Oh, yeah. And then oh, man, that kid gets sick. And then there’s always something you know, just come on my shift or shift you’ll get four hours. I won’t do anymore. I’m done with that. Dude, I cannot wait. Just Do you know why cuz I genuinely like teaching the kids that want to be taught. I really do. Like he’s seen it. I love trying to pass that on. Because so many people were influential early in my career disguise with, I mean, you must have a wealth of knowledge man, like just incredible cops. That really took the time to make sure I was learning what I was doing to make sure I was safe and just being awesome. Well, yeah, but being when they when they ask things about, you know, like those critical incidents that really, we don’t really get a lot of that’s something I’m able to pass on that. Not everyone can, you know, because everyone’s not going to four shootings a day and right seven stabbings and Yeah, can you I mean, just seeing the people jumping off a building, whatever, but I have some other ones too, but we’re gonna It’s coming. Kevin, come back and just tell more stories from all Yeah, dude. I’m so grateful to be on this. Like I’ve always wanted to do something. Yeah, no, I’m with you. You known earlier you were like, Man, I’m gonna I’m gonna be able to talk for long enough. We’re at like an hour and 36 minutes off. Does that blow your mind right now? I’ll be the one to kill except to go to a dance. Alright, we’ll call it will thank you. Thank you. Great to get to know you to Eric lievore. So it was a pleasure. Yeah. All right. call it that. Thank you. Yes, Jacek sense. This podcast is brought to you by your North Idaho agent. We are a full service Real Estate Team serving all of North Idaho. Our team is comprised of former first responders and veterans and we have years of experience in all aspects of real estate purchase and sales. From bare land to new builds condos, commercial and resell. We have your back. To ensure a safe, smooth and profitable transaction, be sure to subscribe to our real estate YouTube channel called the North Idaho experience and check out our website at your North Idaho agent.com. It’s an excellent resource to learn more about North Idaho. So if you’re looking to move right now, or 12 months from now, give us a call text or email. We don’t just sell homes. We sell North Idaho experience. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this podcast, the greatest compliment you can pay us is to like, subscribe and share
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