Miss Universe El Salvador: Crypto Advocate

How Alejandra Guajardo is teaching high schoolers about bitcoin and the benefits of organic living

Ric Edelman: It's Friday, February 23rd. On today's show, a conversation with Miss El Salvador about, well, you'll see. But first, I want to talk with you about retiring. I know that you're thinking about retiring. Well, not right now, maybe. Maybe not for some years. But I know retirement is on your mind. When should you retire? If you're a lot like other people, you're thinking maybe you'll work forever. But not very many people do that. The average retirement age is 62, and it's not just because people can afford to quit, or that they hate their job so much that they want to quit, often health forces them to quit. Either your health goes bad or the health of your spouse goes bad, or the health of a parent goes bad, and you need to become a caregiver. We've talked about that on other shows, right? Links in the show notes.  

But let's face it, you probably are in a situation where you can afford to quit, and you probably are in a situation where you don't hate your job very much, you don't want to quit. And how do I know that? It's because this podcast is mostly listened to by a pretty affluent group of people. You know, the pretty cool thing about podcasts is that we get a lot of analytics. And when I used to be doing my radio show, you know, I did that for 32 years, the only data we really had was the number of listeners, the Nielsen ratings, and even that data was suspect in terms of its accuracy.  

But with podcasts, you're using your computer and the internet, you're streaming or downloading this. That lets me know a lot about who's listening, not just how many are listening. Like the radio, we know that this is a podcast in the top 1% of all podcasts, out of 3.5 million of them. We also know that almost twice as many of you have $100,000 in income compared to the rest of the country, and my audience is 40% above median for incomes above $200,000.  

So what all that means is that if you're listening to this podcast, odds are pretty good you're very successful in your career, and that means you can probably afford to quit if you want to, or that you probably enjoy your career more than people who are, say, working in hard labor or in a dead-end minimum wage job that you don't really like. You, on the other hand, have had a satisfying and enriching and rewarding career. You're enjoying it. You don't want to quit. Working forever - It's not a terrible thought for you and for people like you. One big reason to keep working is, well, the alternative.  

If you don't spend all your day working, you're going to spend all your day doing what? That's the issue. It's the absence of an alternative option. You don't really know what to do with yourself, since your life has been largely focused on your career. 

All right. Let's try to figure out what you're going to do with yourself if you were to retire. Here are some experiments. Have you played pickleball yet? Go try it. You might love it. Is there a charity you'd like to spend time with as a volunteer? You want to study the Bible more? You want to learn how to cook. You want to become a lawyer. Go audit a college class and see if maybe you'd like to pursue a degree in that field. That might sound crazy, really. If you're already in your 60s, I'm telling you to go back to college. Become a lawyer at age 70. Well. Why not? You could be a practicing attorney for 20 years. Maybe in a field of law that's a passion since you don't have to try to climb the partnership ladder. You could really help people who need a good lawyer or support a cause that needs good representation with state regulators.  

My point is, baby steps. Try something new. Try something different. When you were a kid, did you play the guitar? But you haven't picked it up in decades? Go pick up the guitar. Really? If you haven't played pickleball, go try it. If you love to play tennis, go play tennis. Have you played bocce? Have you played croquet? Have you gone to the movies recently? Go do something that you enjoy doing. You see, if you quit your job and have nothing to do, nature abhors a vacuum. There's a whole big difference between not having to do anything and not having anything to do.  

So create something that fills that void. It's really that simple. But just take a baby step. Take your time doing this thing. Just do one thing and just do it once. I'm not saying join a club and commit to a pickleball league. I'm saying go find a friend who plays pickleball and go out with them once. Go take a class once. Go to a single lecture. Don't sign up for an entire college career. Just do one thing. Just one. A single cookbook. Play with one single recipe. Just do one thing once. No big commitments, no radical changes to your life.  

And talk about this a lot with your spouse or partner. They've got the same issues as you, and your decision is surely going to be a big deal for them. Just like their decision is going to be a big deal for you. So open conversation about what you and your spouse might do with yourselves, do with each other, post-career.  

And let me try this for you. Let me mention some words. I want you to see if any of these words are words you would use to describe yourself. Ready? Here goes: Leader. Outgoing. Social. Grandparent. Do you relate to any of those kinds of words? If so, then you're on to something. On the other hand, let me give you some other words. Tell me if you relate to these: Executive sales rep. Organized. If you key on words like that, that means you're still focusing on career for yourself identity. That could be what's holding you back from moving on to your next chapter in your life.  

And remember, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. 40% of the older adults say they plan to work in retirement. That's a perfectly good idea. You can simply cut from your 60-hour workweek to a gig that is only 10 or 20 hours a week, doing something that you're passionate about. Hey, do you love audio video gear? Go work part time at Best Buy. You'll be like playing with your toys all day and you'll be getting paid to do it.  

So just keep in mind that you really do need to be thinking about this because of three things your health, your spouse's health, and your life expectancy. Think about all three of those. Do you really want to die at your desk right now? If you're 50 years of age, you can expect 23 more years free of disability, and then you'll have eight years with disability and then you die. That's today's statistic. We think these statistics are going to be radically altered over the next several decades, thanks to exponential technologies, innovations in medicine and science. But right now, at age 50, you've got 23 more years of injury-free, illness-free life that you can expect. Do you really want to spend all of them tied to your desk in your current career, something you've been doing for the last 30 years? Now's the time for you to consider reinvention. That's pretty exciting.  

So this is a show all about your future. So I want you to start thinking about your future right now. And if you're a financial advisor, this is the very best way you can provide value add to your clients. Have a conversation like this with your clients. Help them figure out their next chapter, what it might be, how they might pursue it, when they might embark on it. Now we're getting to a real excitement. You're listening to the truth about your future.  

Have you been thinking about buying bitcoin with the introduction of the new spot bitcoin ETFs? Everybody's talking about them. They represent the most exciting new product innovation and investment management in years. But before you even think about investing, you need to know all about them and what they all mean for your portfolio and your financial future. To help you, I've created two toolkits to give you the information you need; one for financial advisors, another one for investors. Both are available to you to read and download for free. Both toolkits include a simple one-page chart that lets you easily and quickly compare all the different ETFs, so you can see how they differ. You also get several white papers I've written on what to expect in terms of asset flows for these ETFs, and all of it's free and the link to both of them, the advisor toolkit and the investor toolkit, the links are in the show notes. 

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You know, I was in Dallas where I was keynoting at the North American Blockchain Summit. I'm in my hotel getting ready to go over to the conference, and I'm in the elevator, going down to the lobby. And who walks into the elevator? Harrison Ford. I didn't say a word to him because I was busy talking to Alejandra Guajardo, Miss El Salvador 2022. And I know what you're saying. Why was Miss El Salvador at the North American Blockchain Summit? Well, let's ask her. I'm very happy to welcome onto the program, Miss El Salvador. So, Alejandra, thank you so much for joining us on the show. Tell us, what were you doing at the North American Blockchain Summit?  

Alejandra Guajardo: Hello. Thank you so much for this invitation. The reason that I was at that summit, it was because I went to give a talk as well, and it was about how I became Miss Universe El Salvador, how I started to be involved in bitcoin and also about my personal project of being self-independent in your own organic food.  

Ric Edelman: Well, let's talk about each of those then. Talk about your engagement in bitcoin in El Salvador.  

Alejandra Guajardo: Okay I don't know if you remember, but I was the one using the bitcoin address at the national costume at Miss Universe. So everyone can see the bitcoin is legal tender and that bitcoin is freedom. When the government made it legal tender, they gave $30 to every citizen of El Salvador. But of course, it was something new. They didn't know how to use it. So after Miss Universe I started going to schools educating them about bitcoin, telling them all the good things that bitcoin has, and why is it important to people to start using it? Because only the foreigners are the ones that are taking advantage of the bitcoin and not the Salvadorans. So I wanted to increase their education so they can start using bitcoin in their own country.  

Ric Edelman: And have you found the schools happy to have you give this talk to the students?

Alejandra Guajardo: Yes, I started this project of going to schools. I mostly go to high schools and universities and to be honest, kids are very receptive. They pay a lot of attention. They ask a lot of questions because that is good, because they don't know exactly how bitcoin works. They think that it's something really hard. They think that only rich people can afford it. And I'm telling them that they can literally invest $1 a month if they want instead of spending them on candies or, you know, like things that they don't need, they can start investing at least $1 in bitcoin. So I tell them that everyone can have access to it, that it's really easy because actually when you explain it to someone, they are like, is that all? They think that it's something like more difficult, but when it's not. So I tell them also with like very simple stories that I created so they can understand how the inflation works, how money, how dollars are not worth it and are not good for the future. And all of these things that you need to know to start investing in bitcoin.  

Ric Edelman: So is this your full-time occupation at this point? Providing this level of education in schools and to students?  

Alejandra Guajardo: No, this is one of my occupations. I also have a family business. We sell CBD oil for people that has several diseases and also CBD lotions for the face. Organic teas. Because we grow here cannabis, we grow our own organic fruits, vegetables and medicinal plants. So that's another business that I have on this side. And then I have another one that is shirts of bitcoin and the culture of El Salvador, because something that I saw when I was in the meetings in El Salvador is that there was not like merch about bitcoin or El Salvador, you know, like souvenirs. So I was like, okay, I'm going to design some shirts and I'm going to sell them to the bitcoiners.  

Ric Edelman: And what got you involved in all of this? What made you decide to get involved with bitcoin? 

Alejandra Guajardo: Since 2018, I used to live in Texas. I lived in McAllen, I studied in UT and my friends, they started to invest in these other coins and they started to teach me. And then when my country made bitcoin legal tender, I was like, wow, this is amazing. So I started to invest more in bitcoin. And then I went to Miss Universe and I decided to do my national costume about bitcoin. And now I'm more involved in bitcoin than ever. And I want to be an advocate not only for my country but for the rest of the world. And that's why I go to conferences. I explain them how bitcoin works in El Salvador and why my purpose of educating Salvadorans in my country.  

Ric Edelman: So what would you say are the top 2 or 3 messages that you convey to students when you're teaching them about bitcoin? What are the big important messages?  

Alejandra Guajardo: Okay. I tell them that ten years ago the US dollar was not the same amount as it is right now, like the cost of things. So ten years ago, if you wanted to buy, for example, a Coca Cola, it wasn't the same price as ten years ago as it is right now because of the inflation, because everything, it's getting higher instead of getting lower. Even though we have technology, we have everything so that things can be a lot less expensive. So I tell them that your dollars are not going to cost more in the future. And with bitcoin that is something that it's not regulated by anyone. So first I tell them a little story of two brothers that each ten years ago had $1 one put it on a piggy bank, $1 and the other one put $1 on bitcoin. Ten years later, the brother that put $1 on bitcoin now can buy literally a car if you want. And the other one, he steals has $1 and he is not even able to buy a coke. So that kind of stories I tell them so they can understand how bitcoin works, how the US dollar works and how the system doesn't want us to be free. I not only talk about bitcoin because at the end you cannot eat bitcoin.  

And for me, the most important thing is to grow your own organic food. Because if you are self-sufficient in your food and in bitcoin, then you will be 100% free because you will not have to depend on the most essential things that human beings need food and money. So I talk about those two things because I started to grow my own organic food ten years ago, and it was because my dad, he got cancer, and the doctor told us that he was going to have only one year of life. And so that's why we decided to start eating healthier and being more aware of what we eat. Because everything that we eat nowadays, it's full of chemicals, pesticides. So I tell them all of these stories and what happened to my family and why I started to do it, and how after the doctor told us that he was going to be one year, he has been with us already 11 years. Imagine 11 years now, and it was because we changed our healthy habits. So that's something very important for me that that will be the first, most important thing for me. Food and then bitcoin.  

Ric Edelman: That's Alejandra Guajardo who is Miss El Salvador of 2022. Thank you for joining us on the show today.  

Alejandra Guajardo: Thank you so much.  

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