139: If I started over at 25 with what I know now, here's what I'd actually do

Episode 139 - If I started over at 25 with what I know now, here's what I'd actually do
===

You know, the other day my brother-in-law asked me if I could go back in time when I was 25 years old, knowing what I know now, what would I do differently? And I thought about it for a moment, and I'm like, "Well, you know, there's a lot of things that I would do differently." You know, I would, you know, either...

I don't know how old Bitcoin is, but I would either, you know, start a cryptocurrency or invest in it immediately. I would buy land. I would learn how to work with my hands, meaning how to build stuff, you know, woodworking. I would, um, probably start a homestead already. I would invest. You know, even if there was no cryptocurrency, I would, you know, put much more money into either ETFs or, you know, real estate, land, whatever the, the case might be.

Now, obviously, just knowing what I know now doesn't necessarily mean I would have the financial means that I have now, so buying land might be more challenging maybe. But I, I would probably then save more money so I could buy land as quickly as possible. Somewhere out there, you know, that's not very populated yet, knowing that in 25 years there's a good chance its, you know, values are gonna go up.

So those are a couple of things that I thought about that would really help me where I am now, right? If I already had, you know, hundreds of acres, if I had invested early, you know, everything would be way different. Welcome to the Primer Shift Podcast. Real quick, if you're getting value from this episode, now's a good time to hit like and subscribe on YouTube or leave a rating on whatever podcast app you're using.

It takes 10 seconds, and it's the single best way to help the show grow. All right, back to it. You know, you can obviously go into all of those details and figure out exactly what that would mean and how that would work and, you know, would I maybe skip, you know, my career in IT and rather, you know, get more into homesteading, maybe go to a, a...

We had actually one, one person in high school, he went to a, an agricultural school, and everyone thought he was, like, a little bit, you know, off because why would he go to an agri- why would you learn how to become a farmer, you know, if you can, I don't know, become a, an architect or a f- a scientist or an engineer, whatever.

But now in retrospect, I'm like, "You know, this guy was actually not that stupid." You know, I, I, I wish I would have learned more about agriculture and, and working the land and raising animals than, you know, instead of having every- having to learn everything, you know, at, at the age of 40. But then it occurred to me that if I had made different decisions at the time, maybe I wouldn't even be here recording this episode.

You know, if I hadn't gone into IT security or if, if I hadn't expressed interest in, in computers, if my parents wouldn't have- Bought me my first computer, an Intel 386DX, I think it was. That was the CPU at least. When I was 12, and I got into programming and network security and all of those things, that would have never enabled me most likely to start my own company when I got a little older.

Uh, maybe I wouldn't have met my best friend at the time, who was also into computers, but who was also very athletic, which then led me to, uh, becoming, uh, a track and field athlete, which allowed me to or was one of the factors that enabled me to join the army and their athletic program and, you know, go on to compete at the World Championships and all of those things.

And then later, because of my IT background, I would have probably not started my own company and failed. I would have not moved to Switzerland for a, a product manager position in an IT security company, which meant I would have not, uh, come to the US as part, you know, with that company. And if I hadn't come to the US, I wouldn't have met my wife, and we wouldn't have had our kids, and I would have likely never started homesteading.

You know, you get the idea. If, if, if, if, if I would have just made one different decision when I was twenty-five or maybe even younger, I might not be, uh, sitting here. There's a good chance that I would not be sitting here. And then maybe I wouldn't have s- You know, I started investing when I came to the US.

I-- We started purchasing property when I, you know, after I came to the US. So none of that would have likely happened. And then I thought about, well, maybe I shouldn't have done anything differently. Maybe that was just the way, you know, it, it was supposed to be. But of course, you know, taking, taking, you know, or, or ignoring for a moment that, you know, every decision has a consequence, and if I had made a different decision, I wouldn't be here.

But just from a, just from a hypothetical perspective, you know, I really think one of the major things that you ought to start doing when you are young is to-

Thank you to this episode's sponsor, Apollo Neuro!

Apollo is a wearable that delivers gentle vibrations to calm your nervous system and help your body stay in a restful state through the night. I've been wearing it for years and still notice a measurable difference — higher HRV and a lower resting heart rate on nights I use it. That's not placebo. That's my nervous system responding differently.

If your sleep issues feel stress-related — and honestly, most of them are — Apollo is worth trying.

To learn more, visit apolloneuro.com/michaelkummer and use code PRIMALSHIFT for $60 off.

Make your money work for you. Trading time for dollars or whatever currency you receive as wages or salary, you only have so much time in your life. Time is the only thing you cannot make more of, right? And so I firmly believe that doing something, spending time in exchange for money is a losing proposition.

You need to use whatever money you have and make the money work for you because the money doesn't run out of time. Yes, there is obviously also a time horizon with a lot of investments and compound interest and stuff, but the earlier you put money away and invest it wisely, so it makes more money, and I'm not saying, you know, put it under your pillow and, you know, let it deteriorate with inflation.

But leveraging your money to earn compound interest or to somehow else increase the value by buying land, by buying property, by investing in companies, whatever the case might be, is something you gotta do as early as possible. And with our kids, they are now, uh, ten and twelve, we started early on, shortly after they were born, to set up an investment account for them that regularly invests in ETFs, in exchange traded funds.

You know, it's like a... kind of like the S&P five hundred, but, you know, instead of investing into, into a mutual fund, it's, it's a lower fee or no fee version of that. Obviously, now that we have crypto, you know, you might in- invest in, in, uh, in cryptocurrency, in Bitcoin. You might invest in, in heavy-- in, in precious metals like gold.

And I am-- I firmly believe that you gotta spread, you know, your, your investments out. So we currently, not necessarily, you know, with the kids, but generally speaking, as part of, you know, our family, we have, have, um, precious metals. We invest in gold and in silver. We invest in cryptocurrency. We invest in real estate, so we have rental properties.

We invest in the land, you know, land that we live on, um, and, and also in ETFs. So there are different, you know- Different channels, different platforms. But with the kids specifically, they each have their ETF, um, that has very low fees and every, every month we-- the money that they earn from doing chores, from, you know, from is, uh, you know, the older one's business where she sells, uh, the organic salves, you know, with, with herbs that she, you know, grows or forages on our property.

You know, half of what's coming in, if they get something, you know, from parents, from fam- from us or from family or from whatever for Christmas, for birthdays or whatever, half of it, fifty percent goes into the investment account so that they start compounding. By the time they are my age, they're gonna have significantly more money than I probably ever will, and that's a good thing.

So that's one thing that I, I would do. Not, not at twenty-five. I would start it way earlier. Like I said, with our kids, you know, ten and twelve when we started doing this a couple of years ago. So the, the earlier you can, and of course in the beginning you have to rely on your parents a little bit to do that because you, you're not gonna be-- you, you're not gonna know, and you're not gonna be able to make those decisions, but hopefully your parents will guide you.

And then once you have a brain enough developed to make those decisions, and I know at age twenty-five it's a little bit challenging still. You're still, your brain works differently. It's just maturing really, and up until that point you probably have no interest whatsoever in, in investing money that you won't see or won't be able to use for the next twenty or so years.

I get it, but again, hindsight, you know, is twenty/twenty and I would do-- I would start investing, uh, sooner. I would also start as soon as I have some cash aside and, you know, as I said, fifty percent goes to investments. The other fifty percent go into an account that is readily available. That doesn't necessarily mean, you know, spending the, the fifty percent.

But part of that I wanna put aside into maybe a lower, uh, interest account, like a, you know, checking account or a savings account or something of that nature, and then use that money to buy land as soon as I can. Doesn't have to be huge, but somewhere out in the sticks maybe where there's a chance that I can add on to a round where maybe the neighbor isn't selling at some point and keep Buying land.

Land is incredibly important, especially if that land has water, if that land has other resources that you can leverage then down the line to grow your own food, to live there without being dependent on, on anyone else. And then another thing that I would, you know, certainly do is learn to build things. I mean, yes, it...

for me, it has been incredibly beneficial to be computer savvy, to be into tech and in IT security and, you know, to, to know networking and, and all of those things. All of those things have certainly helped me get to where I am, but it was a very steep learning curve for me to build things with my hands.

You know, how to use a saw, you know, a table saw, a miter saw. You know, how to, you know, lay bricks. You know, all of the things that I'm now learning when I'm 44 now and I'm, you know, learning. You know, I, I've not h- yet had a chance to learn how to weld. You know, those are all skills that I wish I had known before.

You know, if, if someone told me, "Hey, you know, we- today we need to build a shed," I don't need to go on YouTube and watch a million videos to figure out, okay, how... what is the best practice on building a shelf, to frame a roof. You know, all of those things I wish I would have learned sooner. And so that's, that's something I would invest time in learning, maybe shadowing somewhere, maybe, you know, working over summer at, you know, at, at places that build things, you know, be it woodworking or bricklaying or, you know, masonry or doesn't really matter.

So that's another, another life skill. You know, just learn a lot of things. Learn how to process animals. You know, learn how to hunt. Learn how to forage. You know, all of those things, they put you out in nature, you know. That's another benefit. You get exposure to nature. You get all of the, the things that we are artifici- or that we are trying to, to incorporate now as part of a healthy lifestyle.

If you can just make them part of your upbringing, of your, of your learning experience, you don't have to do anything extra, you know? And so that's another thing I would, I would, uh, I would certainly do. And I would also learn to be more critical of established systems. And I know this is difficult, especially if you're, you know, growing up and trying to get your bearings and, you know, trying to build your circle of friends, et cetera.

If you don't wanna be always the, the odd person out. But thinking critically and not just assuming something is correct because a lot of people do it. Most of the things that everyone do, everyone does are not good for us. You know? The way we eat, the way we live, the way we, you know, when we go to bed.

And there are so many things that if you question whether some... whether or not something is, is, is really good for us as a society or for you as an individual or for me as an individual, you'll realize that there are a lot of things that you probably ought to do differently. And it's difficult, but learning how to be- In a difficult situation, learning how to do things differently and to be inconvenienced at the time, at a time, you know, I think that's, that's also a, a very important skill to learn.

And yeah, I mean, there are probably a million, you know, other things that I could do or would do differently. I would certainly be smarter with, you know... I think I learned the hard way being money smart. I used to spend a lot of money, often money that I didn't even have yet. I remember even when I was a teenager and I would go back and say, "Hey, Dad, can you, you know, front me some money because I..."

or I, "Can you, can you, can you give me money because I need X, Y, or Z?" And I would always get it. You know, that was maybe one of the, I think, mistake especially my dad made of, of giving me money, of supporting that spending without having the money or having the money earned first, uh, because that got me into quite a bit of trouble when I was younger, where I bought expensive cars and, you know, thought I needed expensive clothing.

You know, I mean, a lot of things that you do when you're young and stupid to kind of, you know, be cool or, you know, whatever the case might be. If I had put away all of that money that I wasted ultimately, you know, I would also be in a, in a way different position. But the good news is, you know, I learned from that, and when I came to the US, actually right around the time when I was probably twenty-five, I started doing, um, a lot of those things better and right and, you know, they, they paid off in a very short amount of time.

I mean, yes, I'm forty-four now, so it actually some time has passed, but we've been financially in a fairly good position for, for a long time because we stopped doing stupid things. So that's kind of, you know, to long, long answer to a what appears to be a simple question. But as I said initially, you know, if I hadn't gone through all of those things, if I, if I hadn't committed all of those errors and mistakes, I would not be here recording this episode now.

So I guess maybe I shouldn't have done-- maybe I shouldn't do anything differently if I, if I were to go back. Um, who knows what the outcome would be, you know? You never know. But I think if, if you're, if you're younger, if you have maybe kids and you can share some of that, you know, there are, I think, certain principles that y- if you can impl-- uh, if you can make them part of your, of your life early on, I think there is a net benefit to them and you'll bypass a lot of the potentially very expensive errors that, that I have made throughout my life.

So with that, we're gonna wrap it up. I hope you enjoyed this, uh, different episode. Uh, it's, uh... But for me, it's been a-- I've certainly gone through a primal shift, I can tell you that over the last at least, you know, thirty or so years, things have shifted for me entirely. I would have never thought that I'm raising animals for food and doing what I do now.

recording a podcast, my life trajectory was entirely different. I saw myself at some point, you know, in Silicon Valley in IT, you know, starting a company and, you know, selling it or, you know... And now I'm so happy that that did not materialize and I'm, I'm living a slower life. I can go outside now, you know, take off my shirt and watch our cows graze.

That's what makes me happy while knowing that we've laid the final financial foundation to make all of this happen and possible. So I'm grateful for that. I'm grateful for you all listening and for tuning in, and I hope I'll see you in the next episode.