Welcome back to the podcast where we ask the question what makes you happy? My name is Jake Pearson and our guest today is a family man, a financial advisor, and they help families not worry about money, so that they can focus on enjoying their life more every single day. Joe Okaly from Cedar Knolls, New Jersey, United States, what is up? How are you?

How is it going, Jake? Thanks so much for having me on here today. I know we are halfway across the world here, you waking up early to do this and I love it. So, thank you for being here with me today, too.

All right. Thank you for giving me your time and I will see afternoon for you, but I love waking up early. This fires me up and it sets me up for a wonderful day, so thank you for giving up your time. I know you sound like you are pretty busy. You have just come from vacation and you are trying to cram two weeks of work into one week. Is that correct?

Yeah, I mean, but Disney, Disney Worlds with the family is worth it, you come back just completely exhausted. Your kids are tired, they scream and everybody hurts. But it is a fun time and so more than happy to play catch up here this week.

Oh, beautiful. Well tell me Joe, what makes you happy?

The biggest thing that I just love doing in my life is connecting with other people out there, the world is huge. I mean I am talking to you in Australia, I am over here in New Jersey, the world that we live in is just awesome. So, connecting with other people, I get to share with them what I love what I know. So, I know about money, I know about finances, I know about having a healthy running mindset. So that you are not bogged down by just, I have to make more money, you go out there and you focus on enjoying life with money just being the tool that helps support you do that and when I meet different people, I get to hear different backgrounds, different stories, it just so energizing. I mean like five years ago, I did not meditate at all, the more we connect with people out there, we learn more, and then we can in turn, share more with other people out there and that just gets me so excited and connecting with people just makes me more happy than anything else out there.

Are you one of the types of people that just construct a conversation with anyone literally anywhere?

I am the exact opposite of that, like that this is such a learned trait for me. But over time you learn how to kind of put yourself out there and if you have the right mentors and influential figures around you that are pushing you to learn and pushing me to interact with other people, it just makes a huge difference. So, it is not something that comes natural to me. But the great part about that is it means that it does not come naturally to somebody else out there listening, you can do it, you can take these small steps and one day you too may be talking with Jake halfway across the world. So yeah, it is just something that is awesome that anybody out there can work towards.

Yes, and if you are listening to this, be a guest, we are more than happy to have you come share what makes you happy, just like Joe has for us as well. Now, Joe, let's say the listeners right now, they run into you on the street. Now I know you are not really that kind of person that would love to strike up a conversation. But let's say that conversation gets going and they are telling you that they are struggling to find happiness in their lives, whether it is because they are struggling with money, or they are just struggling with something else. What would your advice be to them, then and there?

So, for when it comes to money, money is something I would just try to really help people not feel guilty about, because we live in this world where you really get no education in school about it, they get thrown out onto the street, and they are like, hey, figure it out. So, if you feel like you do not know a lot about money, you are not alone and there are a lot of people out there to help you if you want it. So, you know, I work with middle class families, I do not work with you know, ultra-high net worth people. There are professionals out there that can help you. You do not have to get bogged down with all the different details. You do not have to feel badly about yourself that you are not an expert, how could you be an expert, if nobody taught you? You know, you have to learn from somebody. So, when it comes to money, do not get tied down in that and then just treat money as a tool. So, if you are working 60 hours a week and you are making all this money, but you are not happy, you know, money does not buy happiness then, that is a saying for a reason. So, it is really try to disconnect money from happiness, money is just a tool to help us get there and then outside of the money part of it, the biggest, most influential thing in my life, like I said, was connecting with other people. Find one thing that you like doing and join a group, find one thing that you like doing and just you know, reach out to somebody, whether it is on social media or in person, connect with other people out there, we are social creatures, if COVID taught us anything, it is that we need human interaction, we need other people in our lives to connect with and grow with. So, you know, from a happiness standpoint, we are all happy when we are talking to somebody that we like, somebody showing interest in us somebody that we can help ourselves, you help somebody else out, you feel fantastic. So, you will get out there, connect with anybody out there and you are going to feel better.

Joe, two, brilliant, brilliant pieces of advice there and thank you so much for sharing that and we really appreciate you sharing all things that make you happy as well. This has been a fantastic podcast episode.

Thanks for listening to the podcast. We hope it gives you something to think about on your quest to discover what makes you happy. Make sure to check out whatmakesyouhappypodcast.com to connect with today's guest and follow us on all our social media platforms and to stay up to date on what's happening next and what makes you happy. Don't forget to share this episode with a friend and we'll see you next time!