Exploring Global Finance and Personal Growth with Tristan

I think that there is a general fear that finance is just too complicated and there are financial crisis all the time, so these guys are too smart. First, I think lots of people fear to start, and then, second thing, is that they don't know where to start. My advice for these two things is don't fear, it's not too complicated, and where to start, start wherever you want. The thing is, people need to understand all these things and it's like, yeah, investing money is important and earning more money is important. At the end of the day, it's also this gap and can you control what you spend? Because you can always spend everything.

The journey to wealth is a long walk and some may walk quicker than others, but what good is sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it? On Walk to Wealth, we enlighten and empower young adults to build wealthy, abundant lives. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and your first step starts right now. This is Walk to Wealth with your host, john Mendez.

Hey everyone, welcome back to the Walk to Wealth podcast. If you're tuning in on YouTube or any of the podcast directories, make sure to do yourself one teeny, tiny little favor and give us a follow, because I don't want you to have FOMO and miss out on any of the amazing guests that I'm bringing on this year. So, without further ado, let's get right into this one. Tristan, for anyone who hasn't had the opportunity yet to get to know you, to get to meet you yet, tell us your elevator pitch who are you and what do?

you do. Hi, john, thanks for having me. So who am I? Let's say I'm an entrepreneur. I do love different things. I do advisory, consulting. I run a small media on fintech. I give classes on fintech. I also am launching another business with a few people, a couple of businesses actually, with different business partners. So let's say I keep busy, it's simple as that, amazing.

So one of my favorite questions I always like to start off with is man, take us back in a time machine. What was the light growing up? What was money like in your household? What was the light being a kid? When did this all start to come up?

I think, so I mean I grew up in moving around quite a lot around France. I lived also in Middle East, so let's say I grew up in a household that was comfortable with money, but at the same time my parents taught me about money and how to manage it and I always felt quite interested by finance and by money. That's how I ended up going to business school and studying finance and working in banking after that. I always felt it was quite cool to understand how everything works. I still don't understand everything. I don't understand how much finance, but I understand quite enough.

What was it like moving around? So you said you were in transfer a little bit. You were in the Middle East A lot of times people don't have them really experienced a move and moving countries is a big deal. So what was it like moving around when you were a child and how did that impact you as a kid?

I think it brings you different perspectives. Actually, I lived in Jordan in Middle East, between the age of nine and 13, which are years where you grow from a kid to some kind of annoying teenager. But you learn a lot of things and so, for instance, english. I learned English, which earlier than most people in France, I think. After that I felt okay, I need to live in lots of different places. So that's how I ended up also studying in the Netherlands, and then after that I lived in the UK for six years and now I live in Spain. I've been in Spain for three years. So I think it's bringing into you this kind of desire to meet new people and go to lots of different places.

So let me ask you you did a lot of moving around and then, as a child, you ended up going into finances around your early adulthood. Was it something that you had your set in stone Like I'm going to do this, this is going to be something I do with the rest of my life, or was it something like you were kind of interested in and then ended up just happening and stop, you know, go with it? Because a lot of people around that age is like they think they know what they want to do, but then they end up realizing that, hey, I actually don't want to do it. What was it like for you figuring it out, man, because you always kind of had a thing for money? So what was it like in your early adulthood?

So I guess I mean, when I was in high school I really wanted to go to business school and actually at that point I wanted to become a trader because I'd seen a few movies and I'd seen a few documentaries and movies and I was like, okay, you know what? Or to be a trader on Wall Street, so that was my goal when in high school. So that's how I decided I wanted to go to business school to become a trader. But then as I started realized actually it wasn't the type of finance I wanted to do, and then I went more into corporate finance and this is what I did. After through business school I went to do MNA in London and then after that I went into corporate finance for a bank, so internal corporate finance team, so but yeah, I think I kind of always wanted to do that. But at the same time I had some highs and lows. At some point in high school I had bad grades so I thought, okay, there's no way I'm going to go to business school and I managed to correct course the last couple of years and then I managed to get in. But I think the goal was always there but at some points I didn't believe so much in it and I thought, well, you know I'm not going to make it, but I managed to manage to core course towards the end of high school.

And so you said you didn't get. So you said there are some bad grades in high school. Was it because, like you know, you just were focused Like what was going on? Because it's one of those things where it's hard. I feel like school I know, at least here in the States is different. See, after school was something that I always found relatively easy, but it's just for me. My issue was I always had these grades, but it's like there was no motivation to do so, because it's like I knew that what I was learning was complete, like completely useless, and it was not going to help me in my life. So for me, it was hard for me to find the motivation to go. I still got the job done, but it was hard for me to say what was that for you, like what was the reason that sport didn't you know? In some of the kinds of ways, you suffered a little bit.

So I say I wasn't in the right school. So what changed is that I ultimately changed school and I got much better grades in the other one and I was in a different, and of so in France you have different programs, so focused on certain subjects. And yeah, what I did is that I completely changed that and I changed school, changed topic, and so I wasn't so interested in what I was doing you know biology and physics and all that stuff and I was just bored and then change school and I started studying marketing and accounting and more practical business stuff, because it was a different and high school degree, let's call it and then suddenly I had so much more interest in what I was learning and so that's changed completely and my grades got enough skyrocketed at that point and that helped me into getting into a good school after that. But yeah, I think it was just the environment, and sometimes it does nothing to do with your brain or whatever, it's just that you're not in the right environment. So for me that school wasn't working, for me the things I was learning weren't working, so I changed and then suddenly everything was fine. So sometimes it's just you need to change and to start from a first thought.

Definitely get a fire, and one of those things where your environment has a big factor in who you are and for school. See, that's one of the things that I think the states it'll be helpful if they picked up, because we're all given the same curriculum, at least if you go to public schools here in the States, and so it's like, regardless of whether you like you know business, or whether you like you know biology, or whether you like physics or whatever it is, we all take the same stuff and we don't all learn the same ways. We know all gravitate towards the same subjects and so being forced to take all the same curriculum is actually a disservice to a lot of people, I feel, which is why I personally don't like the school system here in the States at least, and why I relied so heavily on YouTube and books and other things like that. So, fast forward a little bit. So you pick the school that was better suited to what you actually enjoyed doing, which is more than the practical business side of things, and end up getting your financing to go on a corporate finance. So now you're in the FinTech space. So how did that come about? When did you start learning about, like you know getting into FinTech and Tell us about what you do now.

Yeah, sure. So, as I said, so I moved to London and then for an internship, actually in M&A. So I did this for six months M&A, mergers and acquisitions. So or you work a lot like helping businesses, buyers or businesses or sell whatever is it, whatever business they have. So it was quite interesting but quite intense. So what I took my first job was in the corporate strategy team Corporate, it's called corporate development, so it's an internal team in large organization that this team. What they do is that they do business planning, basically business planning, developing strategic alliances with other businesses and also whenever they want to sell a part of the business or buy another business. So you have this team. So I joined this team to work on on the IPO. So it was kind of complex situation where it was as UK subsidiary of an Australian business and they were carving out this business and doing an IPO in London. So I worked on this, which was quite interesting, and after that what's it, what's the IPO?

for anyone, it doesn't know.

It's a public listing, but yeah, one you want.

That doesn't understand business. What is that? What does that mean? So it means you go from.

You go from being a private business, so, like most businesses are private businesses, and then suddenly you're gonna list your shares on the stock exchange so anybody can buy it. So this is how you go from there. You know, like this lies a public business. Lots of businesses are lots of large businesses. I've done ICOs and are now publicly listed. So yeah, so I worked on that, which was quite cool. Then, after that, we were public business and then doing much more business planning, so trying to understand what we were as a business and what were the different things are playing in the space. So we see, we were a bank. It's still a bank, but a bank is impacted by new entrants in the market, and this slot is not a long ago, but I'm talking 2015-16, and it's when FinTechs started to appear much more. So you had a few that were starting to be very visible, and so, as part of when you're running the strategy of the business, of bank, you're like, hey, there's this new guy, there's this new guys, they're doing FX, or there's this new digital app. What the hell is going on? So, so suddenly you have lots of new entrants. So within the team, I started focusing much more on Innovation and new, new FinTechs that were coming to the market, and this is where I started developing my interest into into new businesses, new business models, innovation and and yeah, so this is what started back then and Fast forward and then launch a media to follow FinTech. And then I launched my own advisory business, working a lot with with FinTech companies, trying to help them Grow and develop better strategies.

That's amazing. So now a finances is something at least in the States. I'm not sure how it is on in Spain or France or sure the Middle East, but at least in the States is something where majority of Americans are terrible money. They're absolutely horrible. I think credit card debt just reached the awesome high. You know it's site. Consumer debt is just terrible right now. So, like, how do people start getting good with money and how does FinTech help with? You know the Help the average everyday consumer get better with their money?

I mean just a Shortly that people are bad with money everywhere. I wrote reports for FinTech company but the level, the personal financing in the UK and and I can tell you it's a terrible list as it is in in in the US and Well, I think that for me, ma, what I always tell people to get better with money, just need to, you know, get on and try to understand what's going on, try to understand basic concepts. But everybody can learn like literally Learn about how to save money, how to invest Different type of investments. It's surely not for good science. I mean when and I think you can learn the basics and then layer on is that learn the basics. You're going to learn this week how this type of asset class works. Oh, I'm going to learn exactly how to invest in real estate. Okay, let's go, let's do this, and then next week you're going to learn a new thing. And this is how you learn over time. And when I started working in finance, I wasn't an expert, but obviously fast forward almost 10 years and, yes, I accumulated quite some knowledge, but I still don't know everything. The intern years I'll be better, but because every week I want to learn new things and I dive into things and I write reports and I write articles and I get interested in things. So I said you need to be interested and you need to want to learn, and then you know it's the beginning of the journey.

So let me ask you, because it's easier said than done, right, because the information is active on YouTube. Right, information is out there on all. There's probably like a hundred thousand different podcasts on entrepreneurship and business and finances. Right, probably even more, probably like a million or something, I don't know. There's a lot of podcasts out there, and so it's like for most people, what stops them from learning? Because the information is free, like this podcast is free, youtube is free. Most books cost virtually nothing like 10 bucks in the grand scheme of things. Isn't all that much money, right? Maybe not. Like, minimum wage is just an hour of work, depending on where you live At least it's here in the States. Right, that's an hour of work. It's like why don't people invest on learning and stuff? Because the information is out there.

I think that there is a general fear that it's too complicated, you wouldn't understand. So there is this fear to get into it and out of. Finance is just too complicated and there are financial crises all the time. So these guys are too smart, but actually it's not. And so first, I think lots of people we fear to start. She's blocking them. And then, second thing is that they don't know where to start. So if you're like, okay, just too vast, and where should I start? But then you can start from anywhere, and basically you, she's going to one specific topic. Then you're going to have lots of terms that you don't know, and then, okay, I'm going to go and learn this. And then maybe some can feel like a rabbit hole, but actually this is how you get into something. So let's say, I'm on, you want to, as I said, you want to learn a lot of stocks. And then you're like, okay, how does it work? Then you're going to learn about IPO. Okay, what is an IPO? Okay, and why do people do that? What is the process? Why are the alternatives? Okay, all right, and so that's how you dive into a topic and at some point you will get around it more and then you take another one, but you start somewhere, but there is no. I mean you can take, let's say, family of topic. Let's say you say let's go for personal finance, okay, let's, let's learn about personal debt, and this is how you get into, like this particular topic, but you need to start someone. So I feel, yeah, it's this, this thing like the fear, like people don't know where to start. But my, my advice for this to say is don't fear, it's not too complicated, just go, go and do it. And where to start? Start wherever you want there are, it's endless. Anyway, as you say, there are lots of information. I mean literally, wikipedia is a great place, investopedia is a great place, there are lots of places, youtube, podcasts, but just just start one.

You need to start somewhere, yeah, and then definitely 100%. I always say, when it comes to personal finances, when it comes to, I think, just understanding money and how it works a little bit is definitely, I think, where people should definitely start understanding your money and then tracking it. Probably I need to do a better job of tracking my expenses. That's something that I've been stacking on, but then, from there, figuring out how to make more of it, how to grow your money, I think one of the things, at least for me personally everyone says I was starting investing just $5 a day, or $10 a day or something, or $5 a week or whenever you can, and it's like primarily my audience is, like people my close to my age there's there's a lot of people from all over the place, right In all different walks of life and all different ages, but for, like, the younger crowd, I feel like it's so important to just learn money and how to make more of it Because, like let's, say I invest $100 a day right. At the end of the year I have $1200, let's say 8% in that $1200, yeah, $1200 for 8% interest rate or 8% growth aside, what $1280 at the end of the years and about that, or maybe like $1300, that's a rough numbers, $1300, so I, after you know, I invest in the SFP 500 and it grows Right, so that that same money. And then I invested in a course, right, and then that $1,000 course teaches me how to make $10,000. Now I have a whole lot more money to invest and I think where a lot of people get the game wrong, it's like they're trying to save their way to success and there's a lot of people who, like in a personal finance space, I feel that teach money and say, oh, here's how you invest in this and blah, blah, blah, how you, you know, invest in your you know, roth IRA and your 401K and stuff like that, and majority of people don't become successful doing that. Right, that's just a safety planking. You're not gonna get rich on 401K or a Roth IRA, but the people teaching it, they're gonna get rich off of that because they're gonna create a course on how to invest in a Roth IRA and then have people buy the course and they're gonna get loads of money from it. While the people are investing in the Roths, are you like barely able to still get by? And they're now like they have to wait 40 years or 50 years to be able to tap into their money. So I always say, if you wanna get started, just learn you know how money works and then how to make more of it. And that should be like the sole focus. Because if you get to a point where, let's say, let's say I get to a point where I'm making $200,000 a year Right, and let's say I keep my living expenses still relatively low, well then, instead of having $100 at the end of every month to invest, I'll have. It may take me longer to get there, but I have maybe $50,000 every year to invest instead of the $1,200. But it took me a little bit of a delayed start. But let's say you have a five year head start on me and then, year five, I invest my first $50,000. Well, I already caught up to you. It probably passed you. It took me a while, but I focused on growing my income versus making a little bit of small and best savings. What's your thoughts on that?

The other thing. I mean, I agree with you that, for me, where you start, the obvious start is understanding. This is my level of income, this is my expenses, this is my savings capacity, this is my investment capacity. As you say, the thing is, of course you can save money, but it's not your avocado toast and your coffee that is gonna make you retire At the end of the day. Just calculate how much and, for instance, maybe actually it's your mortgage, so it is a bigger impact of your rent, and so, of course, tiny things are fine, but, as you say, it's not changing anything. What matters is how big the difference between your income and your expenses. Of course, saving money and investing it is important, but, as you say, also, it's how do you maximize your income? And so I think you need to balance, and for me, what people understand is this gap, and the problem is, if you earn 500K and you spend 480K, you have 20K, and if you have spent all this money not I'm saying spending, not investing it you're not rich, or something that earns 100 and spend 80. That's the reality. But the thing is, people need to understand all these things and it's like, yeah, investing money is important and earning more money is important. At the end of the day, it's also this gap. And can you control what you spend? Because you can always spend everything, and we live in a day you can have a bigger house, you can live in New York in a penthouse. It's gonna cost you money, so you're gonna need to make more money, and so it's. And I agree with you as well is that there is investing in yourself and trying to see how what you're doing now is gonna bring you further. So maybe you're gonna sacrifice. So, launching a business, at first it's hard and we're not gonna pay a lot of money, but you need to think okay, if I do it, well, where am I in two years? I'll be in a better place. Well, if you're listening as well, I'll be in a better place than if I work with someone. Working for someone, for instance, most of the time you're not gonna make a lot of money. You're working for someone. You're, you're working for him to get richer Eventually because you're growing his business. So, for instance, what it, what? What is the cut I'm taking now? So my business and this business might grow into something that is much bigger. As you're saying, five years, okay, well, you know, in five, in five years, maybe it was my job if I evolve, if I evolve a bit, oh, I'll make 200k. Cool, if I watch my business, my business goes well, grow about mom, I'll make 500k. Okay so, but first year I make zero. Do do I take this? But I, I'm taking this risk and I am, I am investing in myself and love. People kind of don't understand this. The thing is this risk reward and and investing into your future self and and the potential rewards that you might have Down the line. Well, yeah, so I I agree with you is that it's it's not as simple as Investing $100 a month for the rest of your life. Yeah, you'll have a bit of money, but maybe you have more by by doing with your sins.

Yeah, 90%. Man, I don't want to actually change the topic a little bit and because I know you have a Like a blog that you run on, you know, finance, and I can type what was your favorite blog that you've written, what was your favorite topic that you covered.

For me, if intake, I like it as a as an intersection of business and and and finance and Economics. So, and technology you see as well, because for me, if intake is not just finance and technology, because we're talking about finance you go into economics and Because I studied economics as well. So I like to see how some stuff that you might see not related are actually quite related. So, for instance, I like to look at how the central bank moving interest rates, this has an impact on on the way banks run and, most specifically, the way it creates an An advantage for larger banks like Wells Fargo and JP Morgan. It creates for them an advantage Against other guys like Shime or like new banks. So I wrote an article about this and I quite like it because for me this kind of topics are quite complex and there they are a mixture of economics, finance, technology, innovation. Yeah, I mean I've written quite a lot of stuff over the past three, well, three year and a half, but yeah, I wrote something about interest rates and new banks which I still recall as being quite Fun to write, I mean interesting.

You dropped a lot of nuggets on this episode. Man, where can we find you at? What can we connect with you if you want to learn more about what you have going on and all the FinTech stuff you're doing? So?

you can find a lot of the things I rumble about on the FinTech review dot net Now, where you can sign up for my newsletter, where every week, I talk about what's going on in FinTech. You can find me on Twitter FinTech underscore review as we'll get to, their still exists and and you can also find me on LinkedIn and where I write more about strategy, strategy Execution and more like business stuff, where there's an infant All right and now time for our famous five questions.

and Question number one what is the most impactful lesson you've given them life?

that Will not Get rich working for someone else.

What is the most Adorable trade a person can have, being a humble? What is the legacy that you try to leave behind?

I'm trying to show that you can work hard, still have fun, and that's.

Retirement is not a goal if you had to change someone's life but you only had one book to get them, which book would you recommend?

We'll give that person. It's a strategy book from Harvard. I think it's like five, the five best strategy articles or something like that. I have it somewhere. It's. It's really big.

Okay, and then last question if someone wanted to embark on their walk 12 today, what would you recommend the first step be?

I would Recommend going to Wikipedia type personal finance and dive in the topic.

You've now finished taking the first step. Now Let us help you take the next one. Subscribe to our newsletter at walk to wealth comm. That's walk the number two wealth comm, so we can keep you moving on your journey. We'll see you on the next episode of walk to wealth with John Mendez.