 This is Think Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Welcome to Out and About on Think Tech Live's streaming network series broadcast from our downtown studio, Pirate Plaza, and the core of downtown Honolulu. I'm your host, Winston Welch, and delighted you're joining us today, where we explore a variety of topics, organizations, events, and the people who fuel them in our city, state, country, and world. As a disclaimer, any views or opinions expressed by me are strictly my own and are not connected. That said, joining me in the studio in today is David Tosaka, and we're going to continue to talk about David's upcoming books and life series focusing on our health, wealth, love, and resulting happiness. And so with that, I'd like to welcome David to the show today. Thank you. Thank you, Winston. I really appreciated you being on the show last time. We absolutely ran out of time, and there's more to come than this one because there's just too many that this topic was so wide-ranging because it touches on such fundamental aspect of our lives, which are our health, our wealth, and our love life. So the first book that you have coming out, this is going to be an e-book series, right? And is it going to be released on Amazon, or how will people access it? Amazon. It'll be on Kindle. On Kindle, okay. And how would people access this book, just to get that out there right in advance? So we're going to have a website created, and it'll probably be under my name. David Tosaka. Yeah, davidtosaka.com, and that will be the portal for all of the projects. Okay. And your first title coming out is called Fat Games in a Thin World. And we were talking about this last time, and the reason for what we see as an epidemic really in, I say, would you call it weight control issues, or body consciousness issues, or how do you describe what's going on in our country today? I think we have a complex issue of using and abusing food, because we have to eat. All other addictive substances are optional. You don't have to toad, you don't have to use the needle, you don't have to do any, but you have to continue to eat unless, in the old days, there was a thing called the breatharian that lived on air. Oh, breatharians, yes. I don't think there's a lot of those around. No, I think so. So apart from people that are the breatharians and able to live on that, we're facing something that is our, as you've said, that you're doing food, or that your substance of abuse could be termed as food. Food becomes a way of coping with life, either for what you get or what you are not getting. So when people don't get what they say they want, food may be a compensatory system that they use and abuse to cope. So in our society, and when I was curious, because so many of us fight the Battle of the Bulge, and it's creeping up over the years, you know, I look at old movies or old TV shows and I think people probably, they were thinner back in the 50s, 60s, 70s. It wasn't just Hollywood. We have certainly a lot of fat discrimination in America today. You don't see a lot of fat actors, newscasters out there, but has indeed, as our problem really increasing as a society, and if so, what are the causes of that and how does that relate to us individually? Well there are many causes for the growth of the overweight population. One of them is that people don't cook that much now. They'd rather go to fast food, fast and easy and cheap and big quantity. If you listen to locals here and they're describing where to go to eat, one of the terms that comes up is good and plenty and cheap. Good and plenty and cheap. Right. The buffets here are so popular. So when we're fighting this battle of the buffet, as it were, because we have, and the food also is very denatured, like you say, people aren't cooking. You go to the store, you want something easy, but anything basically on the middle of the aisles of the supermarket is just prepackaged, GMO, a lot of it's just crap, it's just just sort of useless calories. How do we even begin to approach this modification of our lifestyle? Is it that we approach it first on a physical level or on an emotional level? I think it has to begin in the home. And because we have such a high percentage of dual working parents who have snacks for the kids when they come home, and they probably are not cooking from scratch, like a healthy meal with fresh vegetables, fresh everything. I think it's society as a whole due to a lot of factors. One of them here in Hawaii, the cost of living is astronomical. Yes it is. And so that leads into another topic that you have, which is about how do we be frugal without being, what's the word you use? Without sacrifice. Without sacrifice, which seems really hard, because I was just reading in the newspaper that a third of people here are spending more than half their income on rent. So you're spending all this money on rent, you might be living in one of these new, what are they calling them, giant homes or something where even on my street there's 16 bedrooms in this home, and they have interior hallways where they lock off, and the landlords probably make it 1500 bucks per room, and these people are working probably at minimum wage, and they have a tiny hot plate or maybe just a microwave. How can they begin to reconcile this need to eat healthily with the super high cost of living? Well that's all interconnected. Here in Hawaii we have a lot of problems, because you have a low earnings ratio to high cost of living, and my passion is to help people to become homeowners, because that's the only way that you can cap rent increases, you become the owner. I assume that you address this very well in your books that are coming out, but how can someone become a homeowner when you're making something like 40% of the population here works for minimum wage? Of course probably people have more than one job to make up for that, they might have two jobs or even three. My friend Abley, who has been in real estate for over 40 years, is a realtor, has a realty school, and now it's called Century 21 I Properties, and Abley just came out with his first book, and soon to come out second book, his first book is How to Become a First Time Home Owner, and one of the statistics he quotes is that in Honolulu or Onowahu there are 27,000 people who could qualify to buy a home, but never apply. Interesting. And there are 13,000 more that could buy a home if they cleaned up their debt. So we're talking about 40,000 people, when and if they are motivated, they could become homeowners. So if they clean up their debt? Yes. Cleaning up their debt. It's a tough one because people are living hand to mouth here. So I imagine that, I think I've read somewhere else too, we're always at the top or the bottom of socioeconomic indicators here, we're like the happiest people and the healthiest people, but we also have a large percentage of people living in multiple people living in one room or an amount of people living in a space, how do we even begin to save for a house when we're... Usually people who are living at the edge, paycheck to paycheck, have generated or have embraced a lifestyle. They actually may not be able to afford. They're eating out a lot. They may have a very expensive automobile that they are leasing or bought over seven years with a big down payment. It's all part of the American dream. You can fake it to you, make it, look, I'm driving a $50,000 SUV, I'm living in cock-a-co, luxury condo, but don't ask me about my financial. Yeah, and I remember listening to a one seminar recently where people said that, I think it was Louise Hayes, she said they would rather talk about their sex lives than their finances and that people get very angry when you bring up their finances. It is. It is a very, very sensitive area. Why is that? It's because of the shame factor. If you are an alcoholic or drug addict, you can say, hi, my name is David, I'm an alcoholic. Oh, welcome. Hi, David. Yeah. But if I say, hi, I'm David, I have $50,000 in credit card debt. There is almost a disdain. How did that happen? You must be stupid. You must be a spendthrift. You don't know how to handle money. But the truth is, people do not know how to handle money. Because if I were to ask you, Winston, who taught you how to handle money? What would your reply be? That's a really good question because both of my parents were very, and still are very tight, lipped about how their finances are and how they control their finances. But I do remember that my grandfather, who had a great influence on me, said, it doesn't quite matter how much money you make. You always seem to spend a little bit more. And I think little things like that, they get in your mind and they stick in your mind. So you think, so that becomes your truism. But I've known other people, they were able to go to college, get it paid, get graduate school paid, they've been able to buy a house, they can save a lot of money. What do you think? Say it again. Why do you think those people, were they smarter? I don't think they're smarter, but they know something, or they have different habits that produce different results. Right. I think it's a combination of things. One of them is that they think differently about money. Instead of using money for what I call fluff stuff, meaning going out to eat and drink and charging it and always falling behind, their particular thing is, someday I'm going to make it and all this will go away and someday never come. And there's a startling statistic that the majority of Americans will show up at retirement with almost no saving. So if they had a medical emergency, their car breaks down, the house needs to repair or something, veterinary bill, their dog gets sick, they don't have the money. You posted something like that, I think, just very recently about that the huge majority of people don't have, can't even come up with 500 bucks. That's right. The emergency fund has been something that has been supported by almost every financial plan. Yes. You know, Dave Ramsey and Susie Orman, that's their primary platform. You have to have three to six months of your income set aside for emergency, because if you don't, you could tumble big time. It seems completely reasonable, just like we're living on an island here and we should have a stockpile of food and water and medicines just in case we're hit by an earthquake or a tsunami or whatever it is. You see still Puerto Rico, three months after the earthquake, they still don't have electricity on that island. So it just makes sense that you would plan in advance, but why is it then that people don't even have this basic $500? Because money for many people is not a logical system. Why is that? Because they come from the, I win. I want it now. I want it now. Right. I win. Exactly. I lose. Because they're unwilling to sacrifice present consumption for future well-being. They want instant gratification right now. I think that speaks also just in our society in general, that has told us if you want it, buy it and we will finance anyone. Figure out, you come in and we'll figure out the way for you to walk away with whatever it is you want to buy. Well, there's a new trend in Japan which is startling. It's called the parasite singles. Have you ever heard of that term? It sounds like they live at home with their parents forever. It used to be common for men that they would live at home until they could get on their feet. But now Japan is experiencing a critical experience in society because you have all these women who are educated for the first time. They have this big educated female populations who are working and earn their own money. But they have this trend where they begin to mooch off their parents, live at home, don't pay rent, don't pay utilities, and these are possibly the groups of girls that you see at Palm Boulevard at Alamona Center shopping in cocktail dresses. And they're usually groups of three to six and they make up perfect and everything, all the right bags. And the Japanese government is so confused by all of this, they actually have the lowest birth rate of any country in the world. So are overconsumption and instant gratification and need to, whether it's show off or just buy right now. I think maybe we're a primary function in society sometimes is to be consumers more than anything else. And that is supported by the marketer. It's supported by everything that we see, it's absolutely commercial driven. And the classic thing is on smartphone. The iPhone X just came out, the Samsung Note 8, it's brand new, less than a month out, they're already talking about the iPhone 11. And if you don't have it, then you're less worthy than you're something to be, you're not something to be ashamed of because you don't have the phone that opens up when you look at it with your face. It's really tough. So this epidemic is not just in the United States, it's spread into the sort of consuming nations of the world that we live to consume and a lot of it needless. And I think Hawaii is very vulnerable to this because we have a culture that really is loving the children, the Ohana, and parents don't want their kids to be, to do without. Well, and I can understand that, but to what detriment, and I think we'll pick this up when we come back from a break, we are going to take a short break, I'm Winston Welch, this is out and about on Think Tech Live streaming network series. We're talking with David Tosaka and his upcoming books and life enhancement series focusing on our health, wealth, and happiness. We'll be back in a minute or so. She's sad. All the better to see you with my dear. That's so old. What are you doing? Okay. Poor. Research says reading from birth accelerates the baby's brain development. And you're doing that now? Oh, yeah. Yeah, this is the starting line. Posh. And this is over. You're dead. It allowed 15 minutes, every child, every parent, every day. Hi guys. It's RB Kelly. I'm your host of Out of the Comfort Zone, where I find cool people with cool solutions to problems that all of us face. Now the thing is, we're really cool. And I only invite really cool people, but the thing is, I think you're kind of cool too, so I think you should come and watch. That Thursdays at 11 a.m. here on OC16 Television with Think Tech Hawaii. I'm RB Kelly, host of Out of the Comfort Zone, and I will see you next Thursday. Aloha, and we're back live. I'm Winston Welton. This is Out and About on Think Tech Live Streaming Network Series, talking with David Tosaka on his upcoming book series of life enhancements in our health, wealth, and happiness. And his first book will be Fat Games in a Thin World. We were talking about the societal epidemic of not only just being overweight but over-dead it, over, we're just consuming too much. And it's to the point where it's abuse at some point. But how do we determine that abuse? How do we even begin to recognize these habits or patterns and then do something about it because they're so deeply ingrained? It's a very difficult situation because it has been around for a while and it's blooming big time now. If you look at kids, you'll see three-year-olds with a smartphone and an iPad. And if they don't have it, they're deprived. You're a bad parent if you don't provide the learning tool. When you look at it, a lot of people eat out. That's why there's so many restaurants. You have high-end grocery stores that charge maybe 40 percent more than the normal grocery store. For me, I found that it has to be a conscious decision to be fiscally responsible. And when that kicks in or what I call clicks in, then it opens up a whole spectrum of a new life in this area. Do you think that the fiscal responsibility precedes that for even being your healthy weight? Usually people gain weight, and this is my take on it, because of what people are or are not getting in life. So if a person doesn't have a relationship and they want one, they don't get one, they cope through doing food, doing drug, whatever, doing alcohol. Or it could be what they are getting, which is criticism, discrimination. So they get beat up and the substances become a way of coping and easing the pain and stuff. What that leads then to discrimination that they would give for being overweight? It's a snowball, if they're. So when you say we get clicking in for being financially responsible, what does that mean? Let's make the math easy and say I make $100 a month. What does that mean when I click to be financially responsible? I would say that my take on saving money is number one, I call myself the frugal guru. Never pay retail for anything. And how do we avoid doing that? There is a free newspaper every week called Midweek. So for food, you can look in there for all the sales. Some of the sales are significant savings because they're lost leader. The supermarket or store is actually losing money to bring you in. So the 20 pound bag of rice for $5. Because they're going to sell you a can of soup for $4. And especially during the holidays, which we're doing the show now, people go in debt because they want to sustain a culture of giving that they cannot afford. And once you set the snowball rolling, I call it the one-upsmanship gifting. You gave me a dollar gift, I have to give you $2, then I give you $4, and then all of a sudden distant friends, you're giving $20 to $30 gift. Which means that you're giving family and close friends $100, $200, $500 gift. Well and I know even here in Hawaii, and we want to send something to the mainland, just sending that medium-rate postage box, this is about $20 now for the flat-rate postage box. And you can get a jug of McNuts in there, but that's about it. So you're spending $15 for the McNuts and $20 for the postage. One thing that I've started, which has been for me very rewarding, is what I call gratitude luncheon. So my friends, rather than giving them a physical gift, I invite them to go to lunch with me, and I have a term, my presence is my present. I like that, so gratitude luncheon. Yeah. And people just appreciate that, because they're going to get a lot of gifts, they're going to have all the McNuts and tech toys, but your time is your most precious gift. My presence is my present. So maybe for those people who are still looking for a holiday gift, maybe this is your time to go out and write a card that you make yourself and say, I will take you out to lunch and just have some quality time with you. And I've done this for people that I've had issues with to kind of thank them for helping me grow. I've done it with family, which has really been amazing, because I get a chance to talk out some issues that we could never talk in a family situation. And so if there were one thing I would say that could help people, it would be be grateful and show your gratitude in a non-material way. Be grateful and show your gratitude in a non-material way. So some of the suggestions, never pay retail, give a gift of your presence. Do you give any physical gifts? I do, but they're all probably 30% to 60% off the list. Okay. And are they things that are just practical for people? Usually very practical gifts. I gave one of my friends who does the tech systems for my project, and I had bought one. It's a noise-canceling headphone probably made in China that has thousands of positive reviews. I think it's the number one selling headphone on Amazon. Bose? No. Bose is probably American name. This is, I won't give the brand, but when I loaned it to my friend, the tech genius, he put it on, his face just was so joyful. And I said, I'll wait until the thing drops again, because it's usually about $80. It dropped to $35. So again, an example where you combined giving a gift with a physical gift, in this case, I'm sure you give them your presence as well, but this is a special thank you. So don't pay retail, give your gift of time, what are the suggestions you have for people to be financially responsible? What else can we do? I would say they need to have a budget. A budget? Mm-hmm. Okay. Any templates for making a budget? Lots of them. Just go on the internet. Just go on the internet and Google budget sheet. Our financial savvy class is taught in the schools. Very, very little. Do parents teach their kids about money? Very little. So basically, people are on their own in this country. It's a self-learning process, because when you learn it on your own, you got it. And so this is something you've obviously done yourself. You were a heavy person at one time physically. You lost the weight and have kept it off for decades. Were you ever in debt as well? I wasn't in debt, but when I first moved out from home, I was able to survive and thrive on meals that were dollar each. So 21 meals for $21. Okay. So you had the frugal part down from the beginning? Yes. Out of necessity. Out of necessity. Yes. And probably you didn't have a credit card either. Well, I had some, but I was afraid to use it. Okay. And just as an aside, I learned the major lesson was when I married a woman who said she was going to gift me with $2 million. Did she? It was all bogus. But because I wanted to believe it, she was smarter in manipulating than I was. So Santa Claus wasn't coming to town. But the lessons I learned from that was that money isn't love, love isn't money. And also, yes, it's an important lesson to learn. And I think also in our disappointments, sometimes we get the sweetest lessons in life ultimately. And so how about savings and other spending? How do we determine what kind of card to buy, or how do we give ourselves some savings when we can't even afford rent? There are resources because of the Internet. You can get all the support you need if you are willing to look for it. So this is the classic example of when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. So for someone who's struggling with weight or with debt, which is crippling in our society, with a total lack of savings, living hand to mouth, you say maybe just start poking around, maybe go to the bookstore, or even go to the Goodwill and pick up books on this. Buying in thrift shop is very involved now, especially the right thrift shops. There's a wonderful one called Book Off. It's in the Old Daya in Daki Hote, and they have books that are a dollar. And I'm thinking you could buy the same book at Costco new for, I don't know, $15, $25, a novel if you're a novel reader, big, thick book, so you can buy them there for a buck. And the same thing at the Goodwill or the Salvation Army or any other thrift store. So I'm a big believer in that as well. And for Aloha shirts too, there's something nice about getting someone that's already been broken in a little bit. Aloha shirts now run about $85. It's crazy. Even in the Goodwill, they're $10 or $8. Being more frugal, being aware of all of this stuff, just uplifting your consciousness in general and saying, if I have a problem, I'm willing to look at its head on and say, there's an opportunity here for me to be happier, healthier, and maybe find some love or develop our love. And another one of your important topics is looking for love in all the right places, again, our time was evaporated immediately, but the love topic, of course, is very important. And all of these issues are interconnected with our sense of self-worth and our ability and desire to grow as human beings and to have the happiest life possible. So I hope that you will come back and join me again with that topic. And as these intertwine more and more, there's just a lot of grist for the middle here. And I really appreciate you coming down here. So today I have been talking with David Tesaka, and he is at davidtesaka.com. He's coming out with his Life Enhancements series focusing on our health, wealth, love, and resulting happiness with his first book, Fat Games in a Thin World. So with that, we are out of time, and I have to wrap it up. This is Winston Welch with Out and About on Think Tech Live streaming network series. And we are here every other week. I would like to thank our production staff here, broadcast engineer Ian Davidson, technical producer Ray Sangling, and our floor manager Robert McLean, and to Jay Fidel, our executive producer at Think Tech, who puts it all together. Please, in the spirit of giving, give to Think Tech Hawaii. You can find links on the website. We will see you here next time. So until then, have happy holidays, and we will see you later. Aloha.