Wealth On Main Street 285: Breaking Free Financially Through Infinite Banking with Riccardo Manazza
Picture having complete control over your money and the freedom to decide exactly how it works for you.
In a recent episode of Wealth On Main Street, Richard Canfield welcomed Riccardo Manazza to share an uplifting and empowering story of how the Infinite Banking Concept (IBC) can change the way you live and think about money.
Riccardo’s path is a testament to possibility and resilience.
Beginning as a mechanical engineer in a tough job market, he pivoted into contracting, cultivating a thriving farming operation, and eventually succeeding in real estate.
At every stage, his unwavering principle has been clear: live with independence, take ownership of your choices, and build systems that keep control of your future firmly in your own hands.
What makes Riccardo’s experience so powerful is how his philosophy of self-sufficiency naturally evolved from the soil to his savings.
Years spent cultivating heirloom seeds, producing his own food, and managing a self-sustaining farm taught him valuable lessons about patience, resourcefulness, and the compounding benefits of long-term planning.
These principles mirrored the core of Infinite Banking, planting financial seeds, nurturing them, and harvesting consistent returns.
Through IBC, Riccardo has replicated his farming mindset in his financial life. He uses his policies to fund projects, safeguard his family’s future, and keep his money working without surrendering control to traditional banks.
His approach demonstrates that Infinite Banking is not just about accumulating wealth. It’s about creating financial resilience, building a legacy, and empowering others to rethink how they manage money.
From Engineer to Entrepreneur
Riccardo began his professional path with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of British Columbia, bolstered by hands-on co-op experiences that took him from pasta machine manufacturing in Canada to working on cutting-edge UV laser technology in Germany.
Despite his qualifications, the early 2000s job market proved challenging. Even promising interviews, like one with a pulp mill company, ended in disappointment. Rather than wait indefinitely for the “perfect” engineering role, Riccardo decided to act on an unexpected opportunity, helping a friend build a deck.
What started as a summer job became a turning point. Within two weeks, he had purchased a van, invested in a full Ryobi toolkit, and launched his own contracting business.
Over the next decade, Riccardo’s operation expanded rapidly. He took on employees, renovated homes, partnered with his mother to buy and flip properties, and mastered the art of managing multiple projects.
His workdays often stretched to 16 or 17 hours, but they brought him autonomy and direct rewards for his efforts. This early chapter shaped his belief that freedom comes from building systems where you control the results, not relying solely on external opportunities.
It’s a philosophy that would later align seamlessly with Infinite Banking, putting the financial “tools” in your own hands to construct a secure, self-sufficient future.
Farming Roots and Self-Sufficiency
Riccardo’s entrepreneurial mindset was deeply influenced by his upbringing in Italy. After his father’s passing when Riccardo was just eight, he spent summers on his grandfather’s farm, where he learned how to plant, harvest, and care for animals.
In that rural environment, independence was not just a concept but a necessity. Food came from the fields, and everything was grown or made by hand.
Years later, feeling the strain of long commutes and city life, Riccardo and his wife decided to embrace a more self-reliant lifestyle. They moved to British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley and purchased seven acres, launching an heirloom seed business called Cessent Seeds.
Specializing in varieties with decades of genetic resilience, they cultivated crops known for their hardiness and flavor. Farming quickly expanded into animal husbandry; chickens for eggs, goats for milk, and eventually cows, horses, and llamas.
This shift wasn’t just about producing food. It was about controlling essential resources.
Riccardo reached a point where nearly everything on his family’s table came from their own land. That sense of sovereignty over food mirrored the kind of sovereignty he would later seek over his finances. Just as he had reduced his dependency on grocery stores, he would learn to reduce his dependency on traditional banks.
Discovering Infinite Banking
Riccardo’s entry into the Infinite Banking Concept began when his wife stumbled upon an online advertisement that instantly caught their attention. Always curious about unconventional approaches to finance and independence, Riccardo ordered Nelson Nash’s Becoming Your Own Banker.
In just two days, he read it cover-to-cover, captivated by its message. He saw a striking parallel between seed banking, a practice he knew well from his farming life, and Infinite Banking.
Just as a seed bank preserves genetic material to ensure future harvests, a whole life insurance policy within the IBC framework stores and grows financial value that can be accessed when needed, without depleting the principal.
In 2021, Riccardo put this concept into action by opening his first policy. He approached it with the same care and patience he applied to cultivating heirloom crops, understanding that growth and returns would come over time.
Less than two years later, he borrowed against his policy to install a mobile home on his property and connect it to power, completely bypassing traditional bank loans. His policy’s cash value continued to grow, unaffected by market volatility, while his repayment terms were entirely in his control.
This experience was transformative. Riccardo realized he could finance projects, safeguard his family’s future, and keep his money working for him without ceding control to outside institutions.
For someone deeply committed to self-sufficiency, Infinite Banking became the financial equivalent of tending his own fields; nurturing assets that would continue to provide value year after year.
How Infinite Banking Works
At its core, Infinite Banking is about reclaiming control over your finances by using a dividend-paying whole life insurance policy as your personal banking system.
You pay regular premiums into the policy, which in turn builds cash value over time.
Unlike savings in a traditional bank account, this cash value can be borrowed without credit checks, lengthy approval processes, or the risk of losing growth potential. Even while you’re using the borrowed funds, the policy continues to earn interest and dividends, meaning your money is effectively doing two jobs at once. Funding your needs today while compounding for tomorrow.
For Riccardo, the system provided an elegant replacement for bank financing in several areas of his life. He has used policy loans to invest in business opportunities, make property improvements, and even fund memorable family travel experiences.
The key lies in disciplined management.
He treats each policy loan as he would a bank loan, committing to repayment schedules that preserve and replenish the system. This creates a sustainable cycle where funds remain within his control, growing in a tax-advantaged environment and remaining available for future use.
Riccardo likens it to crop rotation on a farm using resources in a way that maintains their long-term productivity. By reusing and replenishing his financial “soil,” he ensures that his capital is always fertile, ready to support both expected opportunities and unforeseen challenges.
Freedom, Legacy, and Teaching the Next Generation
For Riccardo, Infinite Banking isn’t just about personal gain. It’s about passing on a legacy of independence. He and his wife homeschool their children, focusing on practical skills, critical thinking, and financial literacy.
“Freedom is having choices. Infinite Banking gives you those choices,” he says.
He wants his children to see firsthand that they can live without complete dependence on external systems. Even if his kids don’t yet fully grasp the “why” behind the family’s choices, Riccardo believes the seeds of understanding are being planted.
Just as his own time on his grandparents’ farm shaped his values long before he realized it, his children’s experiences will prepare them to navigate adulthood with confidence and resourcefulness.
He aims to leave them not just monetary wealth, but the mindset to manage, grow, and safeguard it.
Applying the Infinite Banking Concept in Daily Life
Riccardo applies the Infinite Banking Concept in ways that fit naturally into his daily life, treating it as a practical tool rather than a distant financial theory. His policy loans have funded a variety of needs and opportunities.
For example, he has renewed vehicle and equipment insurance without tapping into savings, preserving his liquid assets for other purposes.
In his real estate business, policy loans have financed targeted marketing campaigns, helping him attract potential buyers and close deals more effectively. He has also used IBC to cover down payments for property opportunities, allowing him to act quickly when promising investments arise.
Beyond business and investments, Riccardo has tapped into his policy to finance meaningful family experiences, like an upcoming trip to Italy. Something he considers both a personal reward and an investment in family memories.
No matter the purpose, his approach remains consistent: borrow from the policy, put the funds to productive or enriching use, and repay on a schedule he fully controls. This cycle ensures that his capital continues circulating within his own financial system, rather than enriching external banks.
By combining the foresight and patience he learned from farming with the adaptability he honed as an entrepreneur, Riccardo uses IBC to keep his finances agile, sustainable, and always aligned with his long-term vision.
Supporting Local Economies and Mutual Systems
Riccardo often compares mutual life insurance companies to local farming communities. In both systems, the guiding principle is shared benefit.
Resources are kept within the group, fostering resilience and stability.
Just as buying from local farmers strengthens regional food security, participating in a mutual insurer supports a community of like-minded policyholders. Profits are not extracted to satisfy distant shareholders but are reinvested or distributed among members, ensuring that the benefits return to those who contribute.
This approach creates trust and reinforces the value of intentional participation in systems that prioritize members over profit.
For Riccardo, aligning his financial strategy with mutual benefit is another layer of his commitment to independence. It’s not only about securing his family’s future but also contributing to the well-being of the broader community, ensuring that the wealth generated within the system stays in circulation where it can do the most good.
Conclusion
Infinite Banking is not a get-rich-quick tactic. It’s a disciplined, long-term approach to managing money on your own terms.
Riccardo's journey from engineer to contractor, farmer, real estate professional, and now self-financed entrepreneur demonstrates how aligning your actions with your values can lead to lasting independence.
His story is a call to take ownership of your financial future, plant the seeds of self-reliance, and cultivate them until they yield a harvest of freedom.
To hear Riccardo’s full story, tune in to the recent episode of Wealth On Main Street.
For more information, watch the full episode here and grab a copy of Don’t Spread the Wealth. Discover how to make the infinite banking concept work for you.
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