Podcasts about IOU

Keith discusses the pros and cons of being a hands-on landlord versus hiring a property manager.  Self-management offers cost savings, quality control, and better tenant relationships but can be challenging due to tenant and contractor management.  Keep up with inflation and market trends, by using tools like Rent Finder.ai for market analysis.  Dani-Lynn Robison with Freedom Family Investments joins the conversation to highlight their recession-resilient real estate funds offering 8-16% returns, with options for liquidity and growth.  Resources: Visit freedomfamilyinvestments.com/gre to learn more about the investment opportunity or text FAMILY to 66866 to get more information about Freedom Family Investments' liquid investment options. Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/572 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Keith Weinhold  0:01   welcome to GRE I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, being a hands on landlord versus professional property management. Which one is right for you? How often and how much should you raise the rent? Then learn how, rather than a landlord, to be a landlord and increase your income by becoming a real estate lender. Today on get rich education,   Speaker 1  0:28   since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors, and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads in 188 world nations. He has a list show guests and key top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki, get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast, or visit get rich education.com   Corey Coates  1:13   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Speaker 2  1:30   Welcome to GRE from Charleston, South Carolina to Charleston, West Virginia and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold, and you're listening to get rich education before we talk about, should you be your own landlord or not, and how often do you raise the rent? Let's get more personal. I want to get introspective with you with three questions, do you focus more on what you have or on what's missing? Yeah, and not just as an investor, but in your overall life. Do you focus more on what you have or on what's missing? As for me, it's what's missing, and that might be a shame. I'm definitely grateful for what I have, but probably not grateful enough if you also focus more on what's missing from your life rather than what you have. Maybe you need to be more grateful for what you've got too. But those like me that focus more on what's missing are often accomplishment driven people always trying striving for more. The second question is, do you focus more on your past, present or future. Now we all focus on all three, but which one do you focus on the most? For me, it's the present and then the future after that. The third question that you can ask yourself to learn more about yourself is, do you focus more on what's in your control or out of your control, I focus more on what's in my control. So there you go. Certain combinations of those questions can tell you a lot about yourself. For example, if you answered that, you're most focused on your future and what's out of your control, you could be setting yourself up for some sleepless nights. Oh, gosh, did I lock the car door or really, it's more like, Geez, how is that meeting really going to go tomorrow? I do some of that too fretting too much about the future for things outside your control that won't change your future one bit, but yet, ostensibly, that steals your peace of mind in the present. And I don't know who to attribute those questions to. Who originated them, but I heard Tony Robbins talking about them, and that helps you figure yourself out for some of what we're talking about here on today's show. I want to start off real basically here most first time real estate investors, they find themselves diving into the world of property management with zero experience and tons of uncertainty. You don't have to put management experience on a resume before you hire yourself to manage your own property. Self managing a rental property, it can be daunting in the beginning, but it also offers you some real benefits, like greater control and cost savings and some hands on learning. But self management comes with its own set of challenges, like tenant management and handling maintenance issues, so let's weigh some of those pros and cons of self landlording versus outsourcing it to a professional manager, there are about four key advantages to self managing. I think that most obvious one is the cost savings, because property management companies typically charge eight to 10% of the monthly. Rent amount for their services, along with an additional fee for placing a tenant or renewing a lease, and maybe even a fee for certain maintenance types. By self managing, you can then avoid these fees and keep more of the rental income for yourself and thereby making your investment more profitable. Say that your property is rented for $2,000 a month. That $200 management fee, because that's 10% Well, multiply that by 12, that's $2,400, a year, plus a typical leasing fee when a new tenant is placed is a half months rent. That's $1,000 in this case, now, you're probably not going to have a new tenant placed every single year, but if you did, then that's $3,400 annually to the manager in total, between the management fee and the leasing fee. Another advantage of DIY ing is quality control. Now, I think people that tend to be control freaks, oftentimes have to self manage, and they care a little too much. But when you self manage, you do have direct control over the maintenance and tenant selection and the overall condition of your property, and that is going to ensure that your investment is well maintained and that your tenants are satisfied. Property managers, they often manage multiple properties, so your rental might not get as much attention. And the most common, recurring issue that I hear from investors that use a professional management company is that they don't feel like their property is getting enough attention, or that the property manager doesn't really care that much about them after their contract is signed. And if you think that through, from the property management industry side, you know most managers, they're only making that 100 to 200 bucks of recurring revenue per month on each property they manage, and these are pretty thin margins overall. So in order to run a profitable business and pay their employees and cover their other business expenses, these property managers, they need to onboard hundreds of clients, and in turn, that's going to spread out their efforts pretty thin if you've only got a few properties with a manager. Well, their main priority sometimes ends up being their bigger clients. So the smaller you are, the further down the callback list you might be. But I'll tell you, even staying in touch with my professional managers a little bit, even the ones I only have a few properties with, I feel like I get what I need. A third advantage to managing yourself is better tenant relationships. You've got a level of control that allows you to build relationships with your residents that can lead to longer retention and less of that costly turnover, and having that direct communication that builds some trust, that builds some respect between you and your tenant, they appreciate a landlord like you is probably going to respond quickly to maintenance requests and the fact that you're approachable if an issue comes up, and also, by you being more involved in the tenant screening process, you can ensure that you select a pretty good tenant that's going to stay Long Term and really take care of your property. Another advantage to you self managing is that you do build some valuable skills. I mean, managing a property on your own that teaches you a big range of pretty versatile skills, from like handling maintenance and repairs to negotiating leases and just overall, managing your finances, these can be pretty helpful skills, not just for your rentals, but for your future business ventures. So really, those are some of the upsides of self management. Now, how about the flip side, the challenges of self managing your own rental property? Well, the problem is managing your tenants. I mean, some say that this whole discipline that's called Property Management ought to be called tenant management and handling tenant relations. That's one of the most critical aspects of being a self managing landlord. I mean, even if you try to build tenant relationships, mismanagement that can lead to vacancies or disputes or can even go into legal issues. So educating yourself on landlord tenant laws and best practices, that's pretty essential. If you want to head off problems, you've got proper tenant screening and addressing tenant concerns and ensuring that rent is paid on time. I mean, all that stuff's crucial. Most tenants are pretty reasonable, but you know, there are always going to be a few that will challenge your patients, and it really requires that you be tactful and professional to manage well, managing contractors. I mean, property maintenance, that's another key responsibility you have to. Fine and hire and coordinate contractors for repairs and upkeep and poor contractor management that could lead to cost overruns or really shoddy work and more, knowing how to negotiate contracts and oversee projects that's crucial to maintaining the tenant satisfaction and the overall quality of your property. Another downside of self management is handling emergencies, I mean plumbing leaks or electrical issues, that stuff could happen anytime. And as a self managing landlord, you might not always be available to respond immediately, which can lead to property damage or unhappy tenants. So self managers, they really need to be problem solvers. Self managing a rental property, things go fine 99 plus percent of the time, but it could get emotionally taxing, especially if those tenant relations become a problem. So you got to keep personal feelings out of it, that stuff can cloud your judgment and negatively impact your decisions. If you want to self manage, you've got to maintain professionalism and set clear boundaries and remain objective when you're dealing with tenants and property issues, so creating systems and processes help you minimize those emotionally driven decisions, and can help you ensure consistency in managing approach. And then there is that legal side you ought to keep up on that local area's landlord and tenant law. So in conclusion, on whether to be your own landlord or outsource it to professional management, while these challenges are pretty real, you should still be able to self manage your properties, even remotely, even across state lines or from 1000s of miles away. I mean, most of these worst case scenarios that you hear about, like a flood at 2am I mean that stuff just never happens. I mean, it's never happened to me, even if you don't have previous experience, you really can effectively manage your rental properties and see positive results when you got the right tools and the right mindset. And today's tech tools make remote management easier than it's ever been in human history. But any long time listener knows that I do not manage my own properties. My time is simply too valuable. As a frequent guest on the show here, Robert helm says life is too short for property management, I just feel a personal sense of freedom and autonomy and some headspace clearance by knowing that no tenant can contact me directly yet that my manager is taking care of them. I mean, it's just not worth doing it myself to get that last 2% toward perfection. When you buy in the most investor advantage areas, you should have enough margin to pay for a manager.    Keith Weinhold  13:03   All right, well, let's change topics now, and whether you self manage or you outsource it to a pro, you know, you've got to ask, how much and how often should landlords raise the rent? That is the question. Let's say you've crunched the numbers and expenses are climbing like they have these past few years, and the market is shifting and your rent hasn't changed. That really leaves you with one big question, Should you raise the rent? And should you raise it every year? And if you're new to landlording, it can kind of feel complicated. It could feel like if you raise the rent too much, you risk losing a great tenant if you raise it too little or not at all, and you might fall behind on costs then, or even undervalue your property if you don't keep your rents up there, because five plus unit property values are based on the rent, which goes into the NOI your net operating income. And really, this is one of the more common dilemmas that landlords face. But really, the good news is that there's a pretty clear way forward. So let me help you determine when a rent increase makes sense, and then figure out an amount that keeps your unit competitive. It keeps your rental income on track. Now some people, they actually believe that landlords are required to raise the rent every year and to a tenant, it might seem like that's what happens, but no, landlords are not required to raise the rent every year. They often choose to do so to keep up with inflation or stay competitive and high demand markets, and keep up with shifts in local rental trends, gradual, smaller increases can help you avoid the need for making larger jumps later, that stuff can surprise or frustrate your tenant. You want to go for those big rent jumps, but two. 19 tenancies. We've covered that part before. Now, some landlords prefer to keep rent steady, like when they have long term reliable tenants, or they're just focused on building equity over time, and they want to stay hands off, and don't really need the cash flow so much. Now, in a lot of cases, maintaining that same rent amount that sure can reduce your turnover in vacancy costs, those things are your biggest expenses, but often that is not the best approach in the long run, because you probably are a leveraged investor, meaning that you have a loan on the property. Well, then a rent increase that helps you out more than it does for the less educated, paid off free and clear property owner, because you can widen your delta faster. You widen your cash flow faster because your biggest expense, your principal and interest payment, stays fixed. Yes, you are getting leverage on both the asset value overall and the income. Yes, this is winning that third crown of GRE s inflation triple crown. So ultimately deciding how often to raise the rent, that really depends somewhat on your goals and also the condition of the rental. You got to factor in how satisfied you think that your tenant is. That's part of it, and the state of the market as well. Now, if you're unsure what the right rent price is for your area, there are increasingly sophisticated tools for helping you figure that out. Rent finder.ai, can help you. One of my property managers uses it. It's a really cool AI driven report that looks at 25 rent comparables in the area. Again, that tool is rent finder.ai.   Speaker 2  16:52   Now, when should landlords raise rent? Finding the right time to do this that helps you stay aligned with the market value all while supporting your financial goals. But there are also times where it might be smarter to hold off on hiking the rent. The most common times that you implement a rent increase are at least renewal. That's really the most common and appropriate time to raise the rent, provided that you give proper notice. You usually got to give 30 to 60 days notice. Another common time to raise the rent are after you make significant upgrades, like installing new appliances or renovating a kitchen or updating flooring. I mean, this is when it might be reasonable to adjust rent to reflect that added value. Another time is when overall market rents are rising, even if you haven't improved the unit or anything, because if rental prices in your area are up, well, then raising your rent helps keep your property in line with local rates. But you got to keep in mind that rent price increases require a well thought out strategy to avoid pushing away good tenants. Another time to increase the rent is to keep up with inflation and expenses over time, especially these last few years, we've all had higher operational costs like higher insurance, higher property taxes, higher maintenance costs. So even a small annual rent increase definitely helps offset those rising expenses, but you have got to avoid basing your rent price solely on operating expenses. When you do raise the rent for this reason, though, let the tenant know just which operating expense rose. That is going to help reduce tenant frustration. Now, on the flip side, there are times when keeping your rent steady could be the better choice, especially if you have a long term reliable tenant. I mean good tenants that pay on time and take care of the property. They are worth retaining, not all times, but sometimes avoiding that rent hike can help you maintain a good relationship. There another time to avoid it is when the rental market is soft. I mean, if there's more competition in your area, or high vacancy rates in your area, well then raising the rent could lead a tenant to look somewhere else, especially if there are vacant properties nearby that they could move into. Another time to not raise the rent is if the property hasn't changed, if you haven't made any of those improvements, sometimes a rent increase might not be justified, or obviously you don't want to raise the rent if you really, really want to avoid a vacancy. So keeping the rent the same might encourage them to renew. So factors to consider before raising the rent and how to calculate an appropriate increase if a unit is aging or needs repairs, raising the rent without improvement that could discourage renewals. So consider creating a value checklist to quantify certain improvements, like new apps. Appliances could be 25 to $50 a month in additional rent, or a renovated kitchen, $75 a month or new HVAC. That could be 30 to $50 a month. Think about neighborhood changes like gentrification or new schools or increased transportation access or nearby commercial development. I mean, all that stuff can raise demand, building a Whole Foods nearby, having a new office space with high wages nearby, that can increase your rent. Look at City Planning announcements and local news. You can help stay ahead of the trends that way, and if your neighborhood has seen a rise in new businesses or housing demand. I mean, that is justification for a moderate increase and a modest annual rent increase tied to inflation that can help offset your rise in costs. You can reference the CPI, yeah, the BLS. They don't just report national inflation, but they do this by region as well. Now, is there a limit to the amount of your rent increase? Well, depending on where your property is located, there might be legal limits to how much you can raise the rent, and they're typically defined by state and local rent control laws that can vary a lot across the US, in cities or states with rent control, or what's called rent stabilization, there are strict caps on how much you can raise the rent annually. And those caps, they're often based on the local CPI. They might range from 2% per year to 10% a year, depending on the area and if your rental property is in a place without rent control, well, then there might not be any legal limit on how much you can raise the rent really. That's sort of situation normal. So you do have to look at those local laws. Of course, here at GRE we recommend buying and owning properties outside of any rent control jurisdictions, which are often those places in big Northeastern cities or on the west coast where they have rent control. Well, your success as an investor, it has a lot to do with how much of your money you are leveraging, but funds that are leveraged into property that you own directly, they're not very liquid. Any prudent investor keeps a liquidity bucket of funds, and for me personally, I don't keep many of them in these online only savings accounts that might yield a 3% or 4% return today, because that is simply too low. What I do with my liquid funds is I get a return that's more than twice that amount. Where I am not the landlord, I'm the LEND Lord. Yes, l, e, n, d, lendlord, I'll tell you how to increase your income that way. That's next. I'm Keith Weinhold. You're listening to get rich education.    Keith Weinhold  23:03   The same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage, start your pre qual and even chat with President Chaley Ridge personally. While it's on your mind, start at Ridge lendinggroup.com. That's Ridge lendinggroup.com.    Keith Weinhold  23:34   You know what's crazy your bank is getting rich off of you. The average savings account pays less than 1% it's like laughable. Meanwhile, if your money isn't making at least 4% you're losing to inflation. That's why I started putting my own money into the FFI liquidity fund. It's super simple. Your cash can pull in up to 8% returns, and it compounds. It's not some high risk gamble like digital or AI stock trading. It's pretty low risk because they've got a 10 plus year track record of paying investors on time in full every time. I mean, I wouldn't be talking about it if I wasn't invested myself. You can invest as little as 25k and you keep earning until you decide you want your money back, no weird lockups or anything like that. So if you're like me and tired of your liquid funds just sitting there doing nothing, check it out. Text family to 66 866. To learn about freedom. Family investments, liquidity fund again. Text family to 66866,   Robert Kiyosaki  24:48   this is our rich dad. Poor Dad. Author Robert Kiyosaki, listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold. Don't quit your Daydream.    Speaker 2  25:06   If you love the income from rentals but you don't like the vetting and the tracking and the tenant calls, this episode is for you. I've openly shared with you before that I don't keep much money in a savings account, since the returns are often lower than true inflation today, it's about where I invest my own funds that I want to keep fairly liquid yet get a strong return. We're talking to who owns and runs those very funds that I'm personally invested in. She co founded freedom family investments. They're a firm with over $50 million in assets under management, and they have a 100% track record of investor payouts to those investors that include me. After building her own wealth through real estate, she made it her mission to help investors create freedom, safety and peace of mind in their portfolios. She specializes in turning hands on real estate strategies like turnkey rentals into relatively passive, scalable income. It has real estate backed returns that get fairly high. You'll see how high today. She's got a great plain English approach and focus on recession resilient, needs based assets that have earned her repeat invitations to get rich, education and other top real estate shows she and her husband flip also co wrote a great book called Get real, which I have on my bookshelf. Hey, it's great to have you back on GRE Danny Lynn Robison   Dani-Lynn Robison  26:30   thank you so much, Keith. I'm so excited to be here   Speaker 2  26:33   Danni, We'll discuss rates of return for the investor shortly, but first, I think that any prudent investor asks about that foundation, what is the investment backed by? What are the underlying assets? Tell us about that.   Dani-Lynn Robison  26:48   So that's really important to me as well. And real estate is my love and passion. So this is a fund that is based on recession resilient needs based real estate. What that means is we're really focused on the needs over economies, down economies, no matter what is going on the market, is there demand? Is there enough demand that the cash flow is going to continue on? And so our asset classes inside this fund are multifamily housing and then senior housing build to rent and self storage. And by concentrating on all of those, we're just staying aligned with the fundamental needs of American families, which is why we're freedom family investments,   Keith Weinhold  27:26   right? Okay, so, yeah, pretty staid, stable underlying assets there, like you say, these are needs based items, items that people need. And tell us more about how the investment is structured for that investor, and these investors like me, looking for predictable, passive income.   Dani-Lynn Robison  27:46   This is something that's really important to me. I'm always talking to our investors and finding out what's important to them. What are they investing in right now? How do they feel about the market? What's important to them? And out of that has come every single fund or offering that we have created. And so what I love about this one is it combines a whole bunch of things all into one place. So this fund, the way it's structured, provides diversification, because as a private money lender, you are lending on one asset, so you're dependent on that one asset actually performing and being able to pay you back. Now, as you said at the beginning of the episode, we have a 100% payout track record, and that's because I think my very first episode with you was about private money lending, and I told this story about this duplex where we lost, I want to say, over $50,000 and I talked about the importance of investor relationships to me, and that long term relationship means more to me than anything else, because if you don't Have trust, then you don't have anything, you don't have a business, you don't have you can't grow long term. So even though we had lost so much money on that duplex and made a lot of mistakes, the investor got their full principal paid back. They got every penny of interest during the time that they were owed. And that Testament has happened over and over again, and it's also why I've always preached volume, because deals like that in real estate, it's going to happen in anybody who tells you otherwise just run, because there's going to be times where you peel back a wall and there's something you know big that you're going to have to take care of, and there's times when contractors aren't going to do what they say they're going to do, and it's going to go over budget. And because of that, volume is important. So if I'm doing 10 deals a month, and two of them go bad. I've got eight that do really, really great. So that's the diversification piece that is so important to me, and therefore also important to my investors. Because we've talked about that, we've talked about those conversations. So in the fund, being balanced and diversified across those four asset classes ensures that no matter where the market is and what we're investing in, some of them could be doing really good, while some of them may not be doing as good, and we're just evening out and protecting ourselves and our investors with that separate asset classes and multiple doors. Then the other thing about that I've heard loud and clear is liquidity. And you and I were talking about this right before we pressed record, and I. Always laughed, and I was like, liquidity and real estate just don't go together. So let me figure this out. And we worked with our attorneys and figured out different ways to provide liquidity to real estate investors while still protecting just the way everything was structured, because that promise and making sure that I'm always giving that money back to the investors and paying them on time every single time, was so important, we structured a fund that allows people to invest and then get their money back in a year if they want it, but if they don't, then they get to continue investing for a period of time. And so that marriage and balance has really been a win for us and for our investors. And so I'm really excited about this fund.   Keith Weinhold  30:37   Danny Lynn, it's a little sad before our chat today, we learned about another industry professional that offered a fund to investors, and that fund imploded, for lack of a better term, and you divulged with me that you're actually familiar with that fund and with that operator that offered it. And you know you talked about how there were really some red flags, some warning signs, there, you have third party eyes on your fund for its lifespan, from beginning to end and here in the present. And the other thing is that you invest the funds in your own businesses, so you have more control over that when you talk about these four different asset types that you're involved in. So can you talk to us about that?   Dani-Lynn Robison  31:25   I've been in the room with him. I don't know him personally. We're not friends or anything, but I know him, and I know what happened as that fund progressed. And when I looked at the fund structure, I love the promissory note idea, because it's simple to understand. There's a warren buffett quote I love talking about that you shouldn't invest in something you don't understand. And I believe in simplicity. I believe in making sure that you understand exactly what you're getting into when you're putting your money on the line. And in that particular fund, it was very hard to understand the assets that you're investing in. And so it was a lot of businesses I would view them as high risk. I felt like even the monthly distributions were a little risky as well, because sometimes you just don't know if the money is going to be coming in. You know, you might be in a building phase where you actually need the capital to work on and grow and improve the business or the real estate. And so we always structure things in a way that we do two tiers. There's an income track and there's a growth track to allow us to balance everything out and be able to give the investors a lower rate of return if they want income, and a higher rate of return if they want growth, because that higher rate of return we can do that because they are allowing us to use that capital to be able to work on properties, to work on businesses have that growth trajectory, and when it comes to our businesses, I'm glad you brought that up, because he did invest in businesses, and I don't historically do that. I love real estate, but I do invest in my own businesses, because I know me. I know my character, I know my track record. I know what I promise I'm going to do, no matter how hard it is. I'm going to make sure that I fulfill those promises. And so if I have like, ownership and direct control of everything, I feel very confident in my ability to move forward. And that's really where the masternote program comes in, we now call it freedom notes, because we just love freedom so much we're just rebranding everything. So the freedom note program really does help us invest in businesses as we're growing, and it's our own businesses so super excited about that opportunity. Structured the exact same way as the flagship fund.   Keith Weinhold  33:16   You use the term promissory note there, just so that no investor is left behind. What is a promissory note?   Dani-Lynn Robison  33:23   A promissory note is really like an IOU. So I always like to compare it to bank loans. Whenever our private money lenders would come and talk to us about private money lending, and they'd say, can you explain this to me? I'd say your Bank of America like you're the one with the lien on the property, so you're in first lien position, and so if something goes wrong, then you have the ability to foreclose and get that property back. So promissory notes, essentially is a loan to this fund, and this fund is then going to use that money to purchase or acquire or invest in or do recapitalizations of those projects that we talked about. So in the flagship fund, those four asset classes, masternodes, so the freedom notes also invest in those same asset classes, but they also invest in the businesses as well.   Keith Weinhold  34:09   So we're talking about predictable passive income for the investor here, about as close to passive as it gets, hands off management. You've got the professional underwriting, the servicing and the reporting done by a third party you actually use invest next, that's the third party company that administers this. Tell us more about the investor qualifications, about the minimum investment amount and accredited versus non accredited. Tell us about that.   Dani-Lynn Robison  34:38   We have programs for both non accredited and accredited investors, and like I said, they're set up structurally very, very similar, but they are it's has to be SEC compliant, right? So for the non accredited investors, it is the freedom note program, and it's set up so your funds are in a separate bank account all by itself. It's fully tracked that way by our accounting team. And you can always go in and say, Hey, can you guys tell me where my funds are placed? And we can always track that information. So it's a little bit more work on our part, but it does allow non accredited investors to participate in something until they have the opportunity to reach a point where they do meet that accredited status and they can participate in the fund. And then the fund is the accredited vehicle. It's a 506, C, again, fully it's a Regulation D, fully vetted by our attorney. They're just actually finishing the documents right now. I didn't tell you before this, but you're actually the very first group that we're like talking to this about. And I told you how much I love our relationship and how long we've known each other, and how I just want to do more things with you. And so we're like, this is perfect that we get to actually launch it to Keith's group first. So we're excited about that as well. And then you talked about invest next. This is the piece that I think is important to me, no matter who you invest in, is what is their financial transparency look like? How are in the investments tracked? Where are the funds? Who is looking at those funds. So not only are we tracking all of the funds in house, but our CPA has to look at the funds and what's happening there. And originally we had nav, which is a fund manager. Now we've moved over to our invest next, and it probably took us six months to get onboarded with them, because of all the compliance pieces required for a company like that to bring you on board. So I just think that's one of the important pieces that makes me feel safe, because I want a bunch of eyes on the financials, and it makes our investors feel safe as well.   Keith Weinhold  36:31   For those wondering why I invest my funds here, yes, you've got that third party auditing, like you've mentioned, and you're investing only in your own businesses, so you have control. That's a big part of what makes me feel good. Well, let's talk about the fun part. Danny, tell us about those rates of return and the liquidity.   Dani-Lynn Robison  36:50   The rates of return are anywhere from eight to 14% but the 14% can go up to 16% because there's a 2% bonus upon maturity, and that eight to 16% is in two series. So there's an income series and there's a growth series. The income series is what appeals to investors who want those quarterly distributions and who want the passive income and cash flow. And so that particular series is anywhere from eight to 10% and again, depending on how much you invest, there's a 2% bonus in that series, and then the growth series is even higher. And the reason that is is because these are the long term investors who are looking to really accelerate growth in their portfolio. And that allows us peace of mind that we've got capital to be able to use for the renovations, for whatever is needed, depending on the market and how the cycles are going. As I said before, real estate is illiquid, and you have to structure and balance things based on that. And the growth series is a win for the investors, because compounding on, let me see, it's 10 to 14% returns, plus, depending on how much you invest, there's a 2% bonus that compounding adds up fast. We've done math for our investors are like, Oh my gosh, I'm never moving my money. I love this. They just love to see the growth trajectory. It's a win for us, too, because we get to use that capital as needed in order to ensure that we've got successful investments at the end of the day.   Keith Weinhold  38:21   Okay, so the income series has eight to 10% returns based on how much you invest, that pays out quarterly. And then the growth series that has those higher rates of return, up to 14 even 16% where the payout is made at the end, and how long is one waiting until the end? I know it sounds like most people want to continue that compounding and roll it forward, but what does the end look like for the groceries fund?   Dani-Lynn Robison  38:47   Yeah, I'm glad you asked that. So that's the liquidity piece, and that's the thing that we went back and forth with our attorneys about, because real estate is naturally illiquid, and so what we did is it's a recurring annual renewal. So it's an auto renewal, meaning that every single year you have the opportunity to say, Hey, Danny, hey freedom, I would like to go ahead and give you notice that I would like to get my funds back. And so that gives us enough notice be able to plan for those funds to come back to you principal plus interest. And then every year, if you choose not to ask for your funds back, it auto renews for a total of five years. I believe it is. You'll have to look at the documents just to confirm everything that I'm saying, because what I'm speaking to is our freedom note program, which is what this was built off of, because it was so popular. When given investment opportunities, everybody was just like, I want to go into those freedom notes. I like those because it gave them peace of mind, the ability to take out their cash if they needed it, but allowed for a compound or fast growth and a long term investment if they felt that was right as well.   Keith Weinhold  39:47   Okay, this freedom note program either the income series or the growth series, but we're talking about rates of return here. What's interesting is we're in a period where federal funds rate drops are. Anticipated when that happens, the return on your savings account does fall by that amount. However, these funds don't. That is correct. Yes, we're talking about, again, these funds that are backed by needs based real estate, like senior housing, workforce apartments and self storage demand that stays steady, even in downturns. And I know that you have an investor story as well. Tell us about that.   Dani-Lynn Robison  40:28   Yeah. So we have so many investor stories, and you can actually see the videos and audios on our website, and I encourage you to go check them out. But we like to call this investor story Jane, because we've heard the story so often that we call her Jane. So this is really the investors who have been investing with us as private money lenders and turnkey investors. And there they realize that number one, the in and out of investments. As a private money lender means that they always have this capital sitting and earning nothing at some point in time. And the turnkey investors, they think it's passive. And then they realize, oh gosh, there are tenant issues. I do have to, you know, manage this, the property management company. I do have to double check all the financials. I do have to approve a tenant or approve repairs, and it ends up being a little bit more work, and sometimes a lot more work than they ever anticipated. Those investors in particular, are the ones that love working with us the most, because suddenly what they thought was freedom going into the investment opportunity turned out to be a little bit different than they anticipated. And so they're like, I'm so thankful to finally, you know, be in an investment with a company that I trust, but that can be there, give me liquidity options, give me a good return, but it's 100% passive. So we call that investor Jane, because we just hear this story over and over and over    Speaker 2  41:45   before I ask about how our listeners can learn more about this, if it might interest them. Is there any last thing that you want to tell the audience? Maybe something that I didn't think about asking you?   Dani-Lynn Robison  41:57   That's a great question. The here's the thing that I always like to say, when you're investing with somebody, I think it's important to ask about the worst thing that's happened, what they did, how their investor was treated, what was the financial outcome? I think those questions are people don't think to ask that. Like, when you get on the phone with somebody, everybody's gonna tell you the rosy stories and all the good things, and this is why you should invest. And they're not going to go down the road of like, what happened, like, what are the bad things? Because every business and every real estate investor experiences bad things. So finding out the character of the person, I think, is how you find out is by asking what happened in that worst case scenario. So I think that's a really great question to ask, and you can ask us anytime I transparently tell my horror stories all the time, and just always in saying how important our long term investors are with us.   Keith Weinhold  42:46   It's just like the title of your book. Get real. If you don't have a messy story to tell, you probably haven't been in business for very long. Are there any fees in order for one to get started?   Dani-Lynn Robison  42:58   No, there are no fees. That's another investor feedback piece is the confusion. It's like they want to invest, but they're so confused by investment opportunities and what they're really making. So when you invest with us, the return that we tell you you're going to get is actually the return that you're going to get. So whether it's, you know, 8% 9% 10% whatever that is, that's the return you'll get. If there's any fees in, uh, within the fund itself, there's none in the freedom notes program. If there's any fees within the fund itself, it comes from the actual underlying properties, not from investor returns.   Keith Weinhold  43:31   Well, it doesn't take very much documentation in order to get started. This could really help you make more of the funds that you want to keep more liquid as fast as 90 day liquidity. Danny, tell our audience how they can get started, and if they just want to learn more about this to see if it's right for them,   Dani-Lynn Robison  43:50   we have done something super special this time. I think I've been on your podcast probably four or five times. Now this time, I'm going to tell you to go to freedom, family investments.com. Forward, slash, G, R, E, so it stands for get rich, education, so freedom, family, investments.com. Forward, slash GRE, what we've done this time is we're really tailoring what we do to Keith, because this relationship has just been such a great relationship we've had over time that we want to make sure that the investors that come in from your audience are just they rise to the top for our Investor Relations team so that anything that you need, we're just right there for you. We've got an investor concierge, and we're just doing as much as possible to make sure that you guys are prioritized.   Speaker 2  44:30   Yeah, feel free to let them know that you learned about this through me, you'll get the VIP treatment. Danny, thanks for being such a responsible custodian of my own funds. For years, it's been great having you back on the show.    Dani-Lynn Robison  44:42   Thank you so much, Keith.   Keith Weinhold  44:50   Look the key to most anything in business or investing is for you to provide something that's of value to someone. Else. Look for something that makes somebody else money, and then go get a piece of that for yourself. And because this is where I park my own funds for liquidity, I do need something that I can count on, recession resilient needs based real estate assets that people rely on in every economic cycle. So this is backed by, frankly, pretty plain things, with durable demand, limited supply and strong demographic tailwinds. And again, those four underlying assets are multifamily housing, senior housing, build to rent, which are new single family rental communities and self storage, which is something proven to hold up even in recessions. And what makes these funds from Freedom family investments different is that, like we said, they have third party financial eyes on them, and the control is there because the funds are invested in their own companies, and now there's no such thing as a zero risk investment or even a 100% passive investment, but this is about as close to real estate passivity as you can get. There's more of that than there is with direct ownership of turnkey real estate, they'd surveyed investors to find out what they want. That's why you can choose from again, Freedom family investments either their income series, which has eight to 10% returns, but it can be up to 12% at higher investment amounts, you get quarterly distributions, or their other is their growth series, 10 to 14% returns, but it can be up to 16% at higher investment amounts, with the option to have your funds back annually. These are fixed rates of return and a declining interest rate environment like we're in now. Cannot touch those rates of return, I think, for someone that's not in real estate and doesn't understand how real estate pays, five ways, they might find it unusual that an investment can reliably return more than 10% like this. But those that are initiated, they get it. It's pretty simple. I mean, you are going to increase your income $10,000 per year if you invest 100k at a 10% return. If you'd like to learn more and see if it's right for you, it's been made pretty easy. You can do that one of two ways. Text family to 66 866, just text the word family to 66866, yes. This is how you can, rather than a landlord, be a lend Lord with the liquid component of your investments. So you can learn more about freedom family investments, just visit freedom family investments.com/gre. That's freedom, family investments.com/gre, until next week, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Speaker 3  48:13   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively.   Keith Weinhold  48:37   You know, whenever you want the best written real estate and finance info. Oh, geez, today's experience limits your free articles access and it's got paywalls and pop ups and push notifications and cookies disclaimers. It's not so great. So then it's vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that adds no hype value to your life. That's why this is the golden age of quality newsletters. And I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor, and it's to the point because even the word abbreviation is too long, my letter usually takes less than three minutes to read, and when you start the letter, you'll also get my one hour fast real estate video. Course, it's all completely free. It's called the Don't quit your Daydream letter. It wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be easier for you to get it right now just text. Gre 266, 866. While it's on your mind, take a moment to do it right now. Text, gre 266, 866,   Speaker 2  49:53   The preceding program was brought to you by your home  

In 1949, businessman Frank McNamara was about to pay for dinner when he realized something terrible: he'd forgotten his wallet. While this scenario isn't that uncommon, McNamara's response was. Determined to ensure he'd never be caught without cash again, he invented the Diners Club Card— a wallet-sized piece of cardboard that allowed carriers to dine at associated restaurants and settle their bills at the end of each month.1949 年，商人弗兰克·麦克纳马拉在准备付晚餐账单时，突然发现一个糟糕的情况：他忘带钱包了。虽然这种情况并不少见，但麦克纳马拉的反应却与众不同。为了确保自己不再因为没带现金而陷入窘境，他发明了“大来俱乐部卡”（Diners Club Card）——一张钱包大小的纸板卡片，持卡人可以在合作餐厅用餐，并在每个月底统一结账。McNamara wasn't the first person to codify the IOU— there's evidence of deferred payment systems stretching all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia. In America's Wild West, ranchers and farmers used metal plates as credit placeholders. And just a few years before McNamara's dining disaster, many department stores and airlines had already begun rolling out reward programs and charge cards.麦克纳马拉并不是第一个把“欠条”制度化的人——早在古代美索不达米亚，就已经有延期支付的系统存在。在美国西部拓荒时期，牧场主和农民们会用金属牌作为信用的凭证。而就在麦克纳马拉“晚餐危机”的前几年，许多百货公司和航空公司已经开始推出奖励计划和记账卡。But the Diners Club Card was different. Where previous credit arrangements saw one business authorizing credit for one individual, McNamara's card gave users credit with over two dozen otherwise unassociated businesses. This decentralized credit was revolutionary, and in just one year, the Diners Club Card gained 10,000 users. Soon, several US banks recruited local merchants and launched their own credit programs. For these merchants, credit cards provided increased business and upfront financing. For consumers, the cards offered financial flexibility, allowing them to make larger purchases so long as they could pay them off at the end of each month.但“大来俱乐部卡”却与众不同。以往的信用安排是某一家商户为某一个人提供信用额度，而麦克纳马拉的卡片则让用户在二十多家互不相关的商户中都能获得信用支持。这种去中心化的信用体系是革命性的，仅仅一年时间，大来俱乐部卡就拥有了一万名用户。很快，美国几家银行也招募本地商户，推出了自己的信用计划。对商户来说，信用卡能带来更多生意和预付款资金；而对消费者而言，信用卡则提供了财务上的灵活性，让他们能够进行更大额的消费，只要月底能还清账单即可。

The Rev. Nick Lannon preaches a sermon on Paul's letter to Philemon. Jesus takes our debts onto himself, signing our IOU with his own flesh and blood.

The Rev. Nick Lannon preaches a sermon on Paul's letter to Philemon. Jesus takes our debts onto himself, signing our IOU with his own flesh and blood.

Let's Chat!A body in a freezer. A burned IOU card. Red ink that refuses to fade. Detective Grayson thought he had buried his past, but when former informant Victor Ramos is found executed with Grayson's handwriting on an IOU card left at the scene, everything changes. This noir-inspired journey through Chicago's shadowy underworld isn't just about a murder—it's about the debts we all carry and the prices we pay when they come due.What begins as a murder investigation quickly becomes a reckoning as Grayson confronts the bargain he made years ago: burning a police report to keep Ramos out of prison in exchange for information. His partner Black sees through his carefully constructed walls, delivering the cutting truth: "You're not haunted, Grayson, you're hiding." As the investigation deepens, we discover that Ramos wasn't just killed—he was audited, a balancing of books that threatens to expose everyone connected to him.The real power of this episode lies in its universal message. Ramos believed collecting secrets and debts would protect him, that leverage equals power. But as Grayson discovers, "Leverage doesn't make you free; it makes you owned." This resonates deeply whether you're navigating Chicago's criminal underworld or simply confronting your own compromised choices."You don't get peace of mind from negotiation. You get it from deletion." These words echo beyond the story as we're challenged to examine our own ledgers—the promises we've broken, the compromises we've made, and the versions of ourselves that no longer deserve to live. What debts are you still carrying? What ledgers need burning? The lies we tell ourselves don't disappear; they collect interest.The journey toward peace of mind begins when we stop writing IOUs to ourselves and finally settle accounts with who we've been to become who we're meant to be. Listen, reflect, and consider which ledgers in your life need burning."True mastery is found in the details. The way you handle the little things defines the way you handle everything."

2010 Rerun: Definition of Money: In the 1990s here at Bob Enyart Live, I wrongly claimed that justice required a return to the gold standard, whereby currency was formerly backed by reserves of precious metals. Years ago you could return a $10 bill, also called a gold certificate, to a bank and receive a certain amount of gold. After studying and thinking about money for years, reading economic texts and reflecting on the Bible, asking questions of internationally renowned economists, I now know that the definition of money is not gold or silver (although they can be used as money). But money is more like a transferable IOU. Most accurately, money is the accounting of transferable incomplete transactions. That is what money actually is. You can see the rest of this at KGOV.com/money... * Post-show Note: You're invited to also see our KGOV Political Spectrums chart and program. Today's Resource: You can enjoy one or two of Bob Enyart's entertaining and insightful videos each month, mailed to you automatically, simply by subscribing to the BEL Monthly Topical Videos service! Also, you can check out the other great BEL subscription services!

The new tax bill just passed, but will it actually help you? Let's look at who stands to benefit, strategic moves to consider now while the rules are fresh, and answer a few true or false questions about the law.    Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com Call: 844-707-7381   ----more---- Transcript:  Marc: This week on Plan With the Tax Man, let's revisit the Big Beautiful Bill conversation. But this time let's look at who it helps and maybe who it doesn't help as we digest more of the Big Beautiful Bill.   Welcome in to Plan With the Tax Man with Tony Mauro and myself as we talk investing, finance, and retirement. What's going on, my friend? How you doing?   Tony Mauro: I've been doing well. How about you?   Marc: Hanging in there. We are firmly into August already. Man, the year is just like, "Shoo," just flying by. So I hope everybody's doing well. We're on the back half of the year and we wanted to just readdress a little bit more the Big Beautiful Bill conversation. We talked two weeks ago, Tony, about some of the nuance, some of the numbers, things of that nature, but let's talk about who's benefiting and maybe who isn't, just depending on where you're at. And we'll just kind of refresh some of the rules in the conversation as we're moving along. So in your mind as a planner, as someone who helps people with their business, with their personal, not only taxes, but also financial strategies, things of that nature, who do you see benefiting from this passing law?   Tony Mauro: Well, I think there's a little bit for almost everyone in varying degrees. So I hate to say that there's no real losers, I don't think. Some people might benefit more than others, but I think that anybody could take some of this, especially with the tax rates and use it to their advantage for a while. It doesn't matter what your income is, it matters of how much that you can do to save for some things. So while I think it's a good attempt to maybe provide some tax relief all up and down the board, yeah, I mean it depends on who you listen to. High income earners are the winners because the greater tax cuts for businesses and the lower income households are losing way more than they're getting. We don't want to get into all that, but we want to at least hopefully explain a few things about this of how you can win on this.   Marc: And we talked about that a couple of weeks ago. I mean, I think retirees and pre-retirees, certainly with the expanded standard of deduction, see benefit 65 plus, right? So that's a big piece. Some above the line items we talked about for charitable people, that's definitely beneficial. I think married couples that are, I guess middle/upper I guess maybe might be the ones losing out. I think married couples between basically $250,000 of income coming into the house and down. There's quite a few benefits for those folks, right? 250 and up, I think you're not going to see some of that.   Tony Mauro: Not going to see some of that, especially if you're one of those people and you're both W2 and you don't have businesses or rentals or some things like that. And it depends on some of where you live, but there is some things in there that you might be able to take advantage of. Depending on what state you're living in with the whole SALT cap thing, you might be able to itemize where before you could not. But yeah, I think you're right with the things above 10 or 200, some of that stuff's going to phase out and you might feel like, "Well, I didn't get much out of this," but nevertheless, the tax rates are still relatively low. You still can convert Roth IRAs and do some things for retirement and things that will help you.   Marc: Clients with no business or rental exposures. They're going to miss that. A little bit, like you said, some of the lower states with the SALT, but I feel like there's a lot of strategy in here for people. So if you're being proactive, which we hope that you are, what strategic moves should savers be looking at?   Tony Mauro: Well, I think the big one would be, I'm a big Roth guy if you can do it, because way back Congress made a deal, what I call, with the devil, because they allowed these Roths, even though I think it kills them in the end because they can't get any tax on it. But they did set some limits in, but Roth conversions are big because they still allow you to convert from a tax deferred to a Roth, and you can even still do a backdoor Roth. It doesn't matter even what tax bracket you're in. And so even high income owners can start getting that money from the IOU to Uncle Sam to tax-free later on. So I think that's a huge one no matter what bracket you're in, that's the big one. Higher income earners and wealthier people, they did raise the estate and gifting strategies, but you're talking really high net worth up there, so that's not going to affect most of our clients.   Marc: Right. At least they went to an even number, what was it, 13? It was like $13 million 999 before or whatever. Now they made it $15 million, so it's like-   Tony Mauro: $15 million.   Marc: Yeah, thanks for making it simple.   Tony Mauro: And if you think about that, and if you double that, if you're for joint, you've got $30 million roughly before you have to start paying some of those taxes. I can remember in my lifetime when that exemption was like a million dollars and boy, if today it was that low, everybody would be getting snagged with that one.   Marc: Yeah, I mean that's a good thing, right? Because I mean just the home values right now would send most people over. Even I think there was talk about before this even went through of them removing that $13 million down to back down there like six or seven or somewhere in that neighborhood even that would've been easy to hit for a lot of people with some of the housing prices.   Tony Mauro: Especially in these total estates.   Marc: Yeah, so I think again, charitable deduction, charitable contributions being effective there is certainly going to benefit a lot of people. And when it comes to the estate side, you definitely want to make sure you're still talking with your strategist and hopefully an attorney and you're putting those pieces together anyway, because a lot of people just don't even bother. They hear that number and they go, "Oh, well, I'm never going to touch that, so I don't need an estate plan." It's like, well, no, everybody needs an estate plan. It's just a matter of the estate tax conversation.   Tony Mauro: Yeah, and the complexity of it. I believe everybody needs an estate plan and some of the basics. Obviously if you get up there to those numbers, then it's more complex and you really do have to do some planning to avoid those nasty taxes, but it's possible to do it.   Marc: Yeah. Well, what else might trip people up on the new landscape, Tony?   Tony Mauro: Some things would be implementation windows. Check with your advisor. I mean, we're sending out newsletters, so hopefully our clients are reading those about some of these weird start dates, so you don't do something and miss it and be mad that you don't get that particular deduction. There's that. And then I think too, I think you should check with your advisor to see overall, just you're just your tax advisor and/or your tax and or planning advisor, is, "What can I do? How can this help me?" So you don't go out and do something that you shouldn't, so you don't make a mistake.   And I'll give you an example. The car interest deduction, it's basically for lower to middle income people. It does phase out. It would be a mistake to go out and buy a car that doesn't qualify for that. And so that would really make you mad if you went out and bought a new car. Maybe you got yourself into a loan and with the hope of getting the interest deduction, you don't get it.   The other one is too though, with that one, you have to be careful, and maybe this would be more of a planning situation, is don't go out and buy a new car, maybe just for a deduction if you don't need it. Now, that's going against probably what Congress's intent is, but from a planning standpoint, as an advisor, we want you to stay out of debt as much as possible. But if you're in the market for a new car and need it, do it and maybe you can get a tax deduction that lowers the overall cost a little bit. But again, I think the big takeaway there is really check with your advisor before you implement some things. Let's put it this way, before spending money on things.   Marc: Yeah, very true. All right, well let's wrap up the program here, Tony, with just a quick true or false on some of the Big Beautiful Bill myths out there. True or false? Social security is no longer taxed.   Tony Mauro: That is false.   Marc: Okay.   Tony Mauro: They're still subject to the income tax depending on your total income, so that's not true. People are getting that confused with the extra deduction or-   Marc: Yeah, the senior deduction.   Tony Mauro: Yeah, the senior deduction. Yeah.   Marc: Well that's my next one, so that's false. Okay. True or false? The new law means tax cuts for everybody.   Tony Mauro: Yeah, not really because some of it, like the $6,000, I mean really is only for 65 plus and that does phase out if your income is too high. And then the SALT deduction really is going to help mostly people in the higher tax states.   Marc: Yeah, for sure. True or false? The tax brackets are permanent now, so I don't need to worry.   Tony Mauro: That's definitely false. You know nothing is permanent in Washington and it only means they're not set to expire. That doesn't mean the next Congress or president couldn't come in and rewrite everything, so absolutely not.   Marc: Yeah. Okay. The $15 million estate tax exemption means estate tax or estate planning won't really matter to me because I don't make that much or I don't have that much. Right?   Tony Mauro: And that's definitely false because every state has their own rules. Everybody always fixates on that big federal one. In Iowa, the rules are very different here. And so you are going to need a state tax plan even if you have a net worth say of a million bucks or more, especially depending on who you're going to give it to.   Marc: There you go.   Tony Mauro: Definitely check with your advisor.   Marc: Great point. All right folks, well hopefully the last couple of episodes we're talking about the One Big Beautiful Bill hopefully we helped you with some clarity. I know Tony sent some other things out with newsletters and different things as well. So as always, before you take any action with something you hear from our show or any other podcast or anything you see or read online, see how it relates to your specific situation with your qualified professional because every situation is going to be different. Obviously we're all affected by taxation, we're all affected by social security, we're all affected by healthcare, things of that nature. But how it rolls into and plays in your specific life and strategy is different from person to person.   So make sure you're sitting down with someone like Tony who is a CPA, who's also a CFP and an EA of 30 plus years helping people get two and three retirements. So got all the credentials, got all the stuff there, so make sure you're reaching out to Tony and his team at Tax Doctor Inc. You can find them online at yourplanningpros.com, that's yourplanningpros.com and you can also subscribe to the podcast on Apple or Spotify or whatever app you like using so you can catch new episodes when they come out of plan with the tax man. Tony, thanks for breaking it down, my friend.   Tony Mauro: Okay, we'll see you next time.   Marc: I always appreciate you. I always learn something new and we'll see you a little bit later here on Plan With the Tax Man with Tony Mauro.   Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services SM, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency. Investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional.

Welcome back for this week's episode of That Peter Crouch Podcast! We return from our summer break with a very special episode featuring reigning PDC World Champion Luke "The Nuke" Littler. At just 18 years old, Luke has taken the darts world by storm, rising from pub leagues to global stardom in record time.Pete, Chris, and Sids dive into Luke's rapid journey, from his first throws as a kid to competing — and winning — on the biggest stages.Luke talks candidly about dealing with sudden fame, staying grounded with his mates, meeting sporting heroes like Sir Alex Ferguson and Wayne Rooney, and the surreal moment he took the World Championship trophy to Old Trafford.Plus, we hear about his love for KP nuts, his driving theory test nerves, and the mindset tricks that keep him calm at the oche. Expect big laughs, surprising confessions, and a few dartboard challenges thrown in for good measure.We also catch up on the latest transfers, our first week of predictions, and issue a brief reminder to Pete that he has an outstanding IOU on a forfeit…Oh it's good to be back.Chumbawamba 00:00:00 – Back from summer break; lads catch up and talk about the new podcast format.00:04:16 – Sad news: Samira restaurant closes, with funny and nostalgic stories from visits.00:09:29 – Transfer gossip kicks off – Sunderland's announcement video, player knowledge, and awkward intros.00:12:05 – Jack Grealish to Everton rumours and how the system could suit him.00:14:33 – Crystal Palace discussion: key players, Conference League drama, and unfair rulings.00:17:12 – Will Hughes shout-out and Conference League chances.00:18:06 – Predictions segment starts with Arsenal v Man United and Tucker's 19 involvement.00:23:01 – Debate over managers coaching from opposite touchlines.00:26:21 – Tucker's 19 predictions revealed for upcoming fixtures.00:28:05 – Villa v Newcastle preview and more predictions.00:34:21 – Brighton v Fulham predictions before Luke Littler joins.00:35:54 – Luke Littler arrives – warm welcome and first dart throws with the lads.00:37:26 – Luke on going from pub darts to global fame and dealing with attention.00:41:24 – How Luke copes with media, stays grounded, and avoids showing frustration.00:43:00 – Meeting sporting heroes – Rooney, Ferguson, and surreal fan moments.00:46:05 – Luke's early days in darts, playing pub leagues from the age of 9.00:50:16 – Talking favourite legs, nine-darters, and the mental edge in competition.00:56:09 – Life on tour: food, travel, and the realities of the darts circuit.Check out Grass Gains: https://www.grassgains.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOopGnZTHnwjsjSubs2LKImqj5Zzrm2Dq5wUwqUQDbIZdF54tNgT2Follow our Clips page https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLNBLB3xr3LyiyAkhZEtiAA For more Peter Crouch: Twitter - https://twitter.com/petercrouch Therapy Crouch - https://www.youtube.com/@thetherapycrouch For more Chris Stark Twitter - https://twitter.com/Chris_StarkInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/chrisstark/For more Steve Sidwell Twitter - https://twitter.com/sjsidwell Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/stevesidwell14 #PeterCrouch #ThatPeterCrouchPodcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ann Arbor voted to create a parallel, municipal electric utility that offers only distributed renewables, and Missy Stults is the woman making it real. We explore the nuts and bolts: buying existing solar for seed revenue, building microgrids in a city still served by DTE, and why DTE is — so far — more curious than threatened. If it works, the SEU could become the blueprint for every climate-ambitious town trapped in IOU territory. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe

Web'in neden kırık olduğunu, tıklama tuzağı, yanlış bilgi ve trol ordularıyla dolu olduğunu hiç merak ettiniz mi? Sorun teşviklerde, çevrimiçi paranın teknik sınırlamalarında, kredi bazlı sistemlerin getirdiği yüksek ücretlerde ve kimlik zorunluluğunda yatıyor. Bugün web'de dikkatimiz bir para birimi gibi satılıyor ve bu durum derinliği, nüansı yok ediyor.Peki ya farklı bir yol olsaydı? Değer odaklı bir web vizyonu, bu sorunlara kökten bir çözüm sunuyor. Doğrudan dijital para (IOU'lar yerine nakit benzeri para) kullanarak teşvikleri düzeltebilir, mikro ödemeleri mümkün kılabiliriz. Bu, kimliği isteğe bağlı hale getirirken, kötü davranışlara gerçek bir maliyet ekler ve spam'i ekonomik olmaktan çıkarır.Bu yeni yaklaşım, değerin serbestçe akmasını sağlar. İçerik üreticileri doğrudan desteklenir, aracıların önemi azalır, sansür riskleri düşer. Merkezi platformlara bağımlılık yerine, eşler arası etkileşimler ve açık protokoller öne çıkar.Bitcoin'in (satoshis - sats) getirdiği olanaklar sayesinde, gerçek maliyetli eylemler ve isteğe bağlı kimlik bir arada var olabilir. Artık dikkatimizi "satmak" yerine, yarattığımız veya tükettiğimiz değere odaklanabiliriz.Değer odaklı web, dijital dünyada özgürlük, refah ve insanlığı artırmayı hedefler. Tıklama tuzağı ve gürültü yerine, kalite ve anlam odaklı bir internet hayal edin. Kazan-kazan durumu yaratan, herkese açık bir ekosistem. Bu, internet için İkinci Gün ve onu düzeltme zamanı.Kaynak

Today's guest, Bluefield Analyst Megan Bondar, joins host Reese Tisdale to unpack the growing role of investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in the U.S. water sector. From calculating market share to tracking M&A activity and geographic expansion, Megan brings fresh insights into how IOUs are positioning themselves in a fragmented market of 49,000 drinking water and 18,000 wastewater systems. Though IOUs currently serve only about 5% of the U.S. population, their influence is expanding—through acquisitions, capital investments, and shifting ownership strategies. This episode also explores how consolidation is playing out in different forms, including municipal-to-municipal deals and the rise of quasi-public entities. This episode answers key questions: Who are the IOUs in the U.S., and what's their footprint? How are IOUs reshaping the water market through M&A? What are the capital strategies behind IOU growth? What role is private equity playing in this sector? How are regional realignments and exits redefining competition? If you enjoy listening to The Future of Water Podcast, please tell a friend or colleague, and if you haven't already, please click to follow this podcast wherever you listen. If you'd like to be informed of water market news, trends, perspectives and analysis from Bluefield Research, subscribe to Waterline, our weekly newsletter published each Wednesday. Related Research & Analysis: Investor-Owned Utilities in Water: Market Share, Trends, and Company Rankings Nexus's Utility Sell-Off Goes to American Water Unitil Carves Out Water Presence via Aquarion Platform

Founder of the Raising Capitalists Foundation and previous co-host of The Real Estate Guys Radio show, Russell Gray, joins Keith to discuss the historical and current devaluation of the U.S. dollar, its impact on investors, and the broader economic implications. Gray highlights how the significant increase in interest rates has trapped equity in properties and affected development. He explains the shift from gold-backed currency to paper money, the role of the Federal Reserve, and the impact of the Bretton Woods Agreement.  Gray emphasizes the importance of understanding macroeconomic trends and advocates for Main Street capitalism to decentralize power and promote productivity. He also criticizes the idea of housing as a human right, arguing it leads to inflation and shortages. Resources: Connect with Russell Gray to learn more about his "Raising Capitalists" project and his plans for a new show. Follow up with Russell Gray to get a copy of the Beardsley Rummel speech transcript from 1946. follow@russellgray.com Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/558 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”.  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Automatically Transcribed With Otter.ai  Keith Weinhold  0:01   Welcome to GRE. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, what's the real backstory on why we have this thing called the dollar? Why it keeps getting debased? What you can do about it and when the dollar will die? It's a lesson in monetary history. And our distinguished guest is a familiar voice that you haven't heard in a while. Today on get rich education.   Mid south home buyers, I mean, they're total pros, with over two decades as the nation's highest rated turnkey provider, their empathetic property managers use your ROI as their North Star. So it's no wonder that smart investors just keep lining up to get their completely renovated income properties like it's the newest iPhone. They're headquartered in Memphis and have globally attractive cash flows and A plus rating with a better business bureau and now over 5000 houses renovated. There's zero markup on maintenance. Let that sink in, and they average a 98.9% occupancy rate, while their average renter stays more than three and a half years. Every home they offer has brand new components, a bumper to bumper, one year warranty, new 30 year roofs. And wait for it, a high quality renter. Remember that part and in an astounding price range, 100 to 180k I've personally toured their office and their properties in person in Memphis, get to know Mid South. Enjoy cash flow from day one. Start yourself right now at mid southhomebuyers.com that's mid south homebuyers.com   Russell Gray  1:54   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  2:10   Welcome to GRE from St John's Newfoundland to St Augustine, Florida and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith weinholden. You are inside get rich education. It's 2025. The real estate market is changing. We'll get into that in future. Weeks today. Over the past 100 years plus, we've gone from sound money to Monopoly money, and we're talking about America's currency collapse. What comes next and how it affects you as both an investor and a citizen.   I'd like to welcome in longtime friend of the show and someone that I've personally learned from over the years, because he's a brilliant teacher, real estate investors probably haven't heard his voice as much lately, because until last year, he had been the co host of the terrific real estate guys radio show for nearly 20 years. Before we're done today, you'll learn more about what he's doing now, as he runs the Main Street capitalist platform and is also founder of the raising capitalists foundation. Hey, it's been a few years. Welcome back to GRE Russell Gray.   Russell Gray  3:19   yeah, it's fun. I actually think it's been maybe 10 years when I think about it, I remember I was at a little resort in Mexico recording with you, I think in the gym. It was just audio back then, no video.    Keith Weinhold  3:24   Yeah, I remember we're trying to get the audio right. Then I think you've been here more recently than 10 years ago. But yeah, now there's this video component. I actually have to sit up straight and comb my hair. It's ridiculous. Well, Russ, you're also a buff of monetary history. And before we discuss that, talk about the state of the real estate market today, just briefly, from your vantage point.   Russell Gray 1  3:55    I think the big story, and I'm probably not telling anybody anything they don't know, but the interest rate hike cycle that we went through this last round was quite a bit more substantial, I think, than a lot of people really appreciated, you know. And I started talking about that many years ago, because when you hit the zero bound and you have 6,7,8, years of interest rates below half a point, the change when they started that interest rate cycle from point two, 525 basis points all the way up to five and a quarter? That's a 20x move. And people might say, well, oh, you know, I go back to what Paul Volcker did way back in the day, when he took interest rates from eight or nine to 18. That was only a little bit more than double. Double is a far cry from 20x so we've never seen anything like that. Part of the fallout of that, as you know, is a lot of people wisely, and I was on the front end of cheerleading This is go get those loans refinanced and lock in that cheap money for as long as possible, because a loan will actually become an asset. The problem is, when you do that, you're kind of married to that property. Now it's not quite as bad. As being upside down in a property and you can't get out of it, but it's really hard to walk away from a two or 3% loan in a Six 7% market, because you really can't take your same payment and end up getting more house. And so that equity is kind of a little bit trapped, and that creates some opportunities, but I think that's been the big story, and then kind of the byproduct of the story. Second tier of the story was the impact it had on development, because it made it a lot harder for developers to develop, because their cost of funds and everything in that supply chain, food chain, you marry that to the 2020, COVID Supply Chain lockdown and that disruption, which, you know, you don't shut an economy down and just flick a switch and have it come back on. And so there's all of that. And then the third thing is just this tremendous uncertainty everybody has, because we just went from one extreme to another. And I think people, you know, they don't want to, like, rock the boat, they're going to kind of stay status quo for a little bit, whether they're businesses, whether they're homeowners, whether they're anybody out there that's thinking about moving them, unless life forces you to do it, you're going to try to stay status quo until things calm down. And I don't know how close we are to things calming down.   Keith Weinhold  6:13   One word I use is normalized. Both the 30 year fixed rate mortgage and the Fed funds rate are pretty close to their long term historic average. It just doesn't feel that way, because it was that rate of increase in 2022 that caught a lot of people off guard, like you touched on Well, Russ, now that we've talked about the present day, let's go back in time, and then we'll slowly bring things up to the present day. The dollar is troubled. It's worth perhaps 3% of what it was 100 years ago, but it's still around since it was established in the Coinage Act of 1792 and it's still the world reserve currency. In fact, only three currencies have survived longer than the dollar, the British pound, the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. So talk to us about this really relentless debasement of the dollar over time, including the creation of the Fed and the Bretton Woods Agreement and all that.   Russell Gray 7:09   That's a big story, as you know, and I always like to try to break it down a little bit. One of my specialties I'd like to believe, is I speak macro and I speak Main Street. And so when I try to break macroeconomics down, I start out with, why do I even care? I mean, if I'm a main street investor, why do I even care? In 2008 as you know, is a wipeout for me. Why? Because I didn't think anything had happened in the macro I didn't think Wall Street bond market. I didn't think that affected me. One thing I really cared about was interest rates. And I had a cursory interest in the bond market. We just try to figure out where interest rates were going. But for the most part, I thought, as a main street real estate investor, I was 100% insulated. I couldn't have been more wrong, because it really does matter, because the value of the dollar, in other words, the purchasing power of the dollar, and usually you refer to that as inflation, right? If inflation is there, the dollar is losing its purchasing power, and so the higher the inflation rate, the faster you're losing that purchasing power. And you might say, well, maybe that matters to me. Maybe it does. But the people who make the money available to the mortgage community, right to the real estate community to borrow that comes out of the bond market. And so when people go to buy a bond, which is an IOU, they're going to get paid back in the currency that they lent in, in this case, dollars. And if they know, if they're making a long term investment in a long term bond, and they're going to get paid back in dollars, they're going to be worth a whole lot less when they get them back. One of the things they're going to want is compensation for that time risk, and that's called higher interest rates. Okay, so now, if you're a main street investor, and higher interest rates impact you, now you understand why you want to pay attention. Okay, so let's just start with that. And so once you understand that the currency is a derivative of money, and money used to be you mentioned the Coinage Act Keith money, which is gold, used to be synonymous with the dollar. The dollar was only a unit of measure of gold, 1/20 of an ounce. It was a unit of measure. So it's like, the way I teach people is, like, if you had a gallon of milk and you traded, I'm a farmer, and I had a lot of milk, and so everybody decided they were going to use gallons of milk as their currency. Hey, where there's a lot of gallons of milk. He's got a big refrigerator. We'll just trade gallons of milk. Hey, Keith, I really like your beef. I you know, will you sell me some, a side of beef, and I'll give you, you know, 100 gallons of milk, you know, like, Oh, that's great. Well, I can't drink all this milk, so I'm going to leave the milk on deposit at the dairy, and then later on, when I decide I want a suit of clothes, I'll say, well, that's 10 gallons of milk. So I'll give the guy 10 gallons of milk. So I just give him a coupon, a claim, a piece of paper for that gallon of milk, or 20 gallons of milk, and he can go to the dairy and pick it up, right? And so that's kind of the way the monetary system evolved, except it wasn't milk, it was gold. So now you got the dollar. Well, after a while, nobody's going to get the milk. They don't care about the milk. And so now. Now, instead of just saying, I'll give you a gallon of milk, you just say, well, I'll give you a gallon. And somebody says, Okay, that's great. I'll take a gallon. They never opened the jug up. They never realized the jug is empty. They're just trading these empty jugs that used to have milk in them. Well, that's what the paper dollar is today. It went from being a gold certificate payable to bearer on demand, a certain amount of gold, a $20 gold certificate, what looks exactly like a $20 FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE. Today they look exactly the same, except one says FEDERAL RESERVE NOTE, which is an IOU backed by nothing, and the other one said gold certificate, which was payable to bearer on demand, real money. So my point is, is he got money which is a derivative of the productivity, the beef, the soot, the milk, whatever, right? That's the real capital. The real capital is the goods and services we all want. Money is where we store the value of whatever it is we created until we want to trade it for something somebody else created later. And it used to be money and currency were one in the same, but now we've separated that. So now all we do is trade empty gallons, which are empty pieces of paper, and that's currency. So those are derivatives, and the last derivative of that chain is credit. And you had Richard Duncan on your show more than once, and he is famous for kind of having this term. We don't normally have capitalism. We have creditism, right? Everything is credit. Everything is claims on wealth, but it's not real wealth, and it's just when we look at what's going on with our current administration and the drive to become a productive rather than a financialized society, again, as part of this uncertainty that everybody has. Because this is not just a subtle little adjustment on the same course. This is like, No, we're we're going down a completely different path. But fundamentally, your system operates on this currency that is flowing through it, like the blood flowing through your body. And if the blood is bad, your body's sick. And right now, our currency is bad, and so it creates problems, not just for us, but all around the world. And now we're exacerbating that. And I'm not saying it's bad. In fact, I think it's actually it's actually good, but change is what it is, right? I mean, it can be really good to go to the gym and work out before we started recording, you talked about your commitment to fitness, and that if you stop working out, you get unfit, and it's hard to start up again. Well, we've allowed our economy to get very unfit. Now we're trying to get fit again, and it's going to be painful. We're going to be sore, but if we stick with it, I think we can actually kind of save this thing. So I don't know what that's going to mean for the dollar ultimately, or if we end up going to something else, but right now, to your point, the dollar is definitely the big dog still, but I think it's probably even more under attack today than it's ever been, and so it's just something I think every Main Street investor needs to pay attention to.    Keith Weinhold  12:46   And it was really that 1913 creation of the Fed, where the Fed's mandates really didn't begin to take effect until 1914 that accelerated this slide in the dollar. Prior to that, it was really just periods of war, like, for example, the Civil War, where we had inflation rise, but then after wars abated, the dollar's strength returned, but that ceased to happen last century.   Russell Gray  13:11   I think there's a much bigger story there. So when we founded the country, we established legal money in the Coinage Act of 1792 we got gold and silver and a specific unit of measure of gold, a specific unit, measure of silver was $1 and that's what money was constitutionally. Alexander Hamilton advocated for the first central bank and got it, but it was issued by Charter, which meant that it was operated by the permission of the Congress. It wasn't institutionalized. It wasn't embedded in the Constitution. It was just something that was granted, like a license. You have a charter to be able to run a bank. When that initial charter came up for renewal, Congress goes, now we're not going to renew it. Well, of course, that made the bankers really upset, because bankers have a pretty good gig, right? They get to just loan people money. They don't have to do any real work, and then they make money on just kind of arbitraging, you know, other people's money. Savers put their money in, and they borrowed the money out, and then they with fractional reserve, they're able to magnify that. So it's, it's kind of a cool gig. And so what happened? Then he had the first central bank, so then they got the second central bank, and the second central bank was also issued by charter this time when it came up for renewal, Congress goes, Yeah, let's renew it, right? Because the bankers knew we got to go buy a few congressmen if we want to keep this thing going. But President Andrew Jackson said, No, not going to happen. And it was a big battle. Is a famous quote of him just calling these bankers a brood of vipers. And I'm going to put you down. And God help me, I will, right? I mean, it was like intense fact, I do believe he got shot at one point. I think he died from lead poisoning, because he never got the bullet out. So, you know, when you go to up against the bankers, it's not pretty, but he succeeded. He was the last president that paid off all the debt, balanced budget, paid off all the debt, and we got kind of back on sound money. Well, then a little while later, said, Okay, we're going to need, like, something major, and this would. I should put on. I got my, this is my hat, right now, I'll kind of put it on. This is my, my tin foil hat. Okay? And so I put this on when I kind of go down the rabbit trail a little bit. No, I'm not saying this is what happened, but it wouldn't surprise me, right? Because I know that war is profitable, and so sometimes, you know, your comment was, hey, there's the bank, and then there was, you know, the war, or there's the war, then there's a bank, which comes first the chicken or the egg. I think there's an article where Henry Ford and Thomas Edison went to Congress. I think it was December. The article was published New York Tribune, December 4. I think 1921 you can look it up, New York Tribune, front page article   Keith Weinhold  15:38   fo those of you in the audio only. Russ started donning a tin foil looking hat here about one minute ago.    Russell Gray  15:45   I did, yeah, so I put it on. Just so fair warning. You know, I may go a little conspiratorial, but the reason I do that is I just, I think we've seen enough, just in current, modern history and politics, in the age of AI and software and freedom of speech and new media, there's a lot of weird stuff going on out there, but a lot of stuff that we thought was really weird a little while ago has turned out to be more true than we thought. When you look back in history, and you kind of read the official narrative and you wonder, you kind of read between the lines. You go, oh, maybe some stuff went on here. So anyway, the allegation that Ford made, smart guy, Thomas Edison, smart guy. And they go to Congress, and they go, Hey, we need to get the gold out of the banker's hands, because gold is money, and we need money not to revolve around gold, because the bankers control gold. They control the money, and they make profits, his words, not mine, by starting wars, because he was very upset about World War One, which happened. We got involved right after Fed gets formed in 1913 World War One starts in 1914 the United States sits off in the background and sells everybody, everything. It collects a bunch of gold, and then enters at the end and ends it all. And that big influx created the roaring 20s, as we all know, which ended big boom to big bust. And that cycle, which then a crisis that created, potentially a argument for why the government should have more control, right? So you kind of go down this path. So we ended up in 1865 with President Lincoln suppressing states rights and eventually creating an unconstitutional income tax and then creating an unconstitutional currency. That's what Abraham Lincoln did. And then on the back end of that, you know, it didn't end well for him, and I don't know why, but all I know is that we had a financial crisis in 1907 and the solution to that was the Aldrich plan, which was basically a monopoly on money. It's called a money trust. And Charles Lindbergh, SR was railing against it, as were many people at the time, going, No, this is terrible. So they renamed the Aldrich plan the Federal Reserve Act. And instead of going for a bank charter, they went for a constitutional amendment, and they got it in the 16th Amendment, and that's where we got the IRS. That's where we got the income tax, which was only supposed to be 7% only affect like the top one or 2% of earners, right? And that's where we got, you know, the Federal Reserve. That's where all that was born. Since that happened, to your point, the dollar has been on with a slight little rise up in the 20s, which, you know, there's a whole thing about whether that caused the crash or not. But at the end of the day, if you go look at St Louis Fed, which you go look at all the time, and you just look at the long term trend of the dollar, it's terrible. And the barometer, that's gold, right? $20 of gold in 1913 and 1933 and then 42 in 1971 or two, whatever it was, three, and then eventually as high as 850 but at the turn of the century, this century, it was $250 so at $2,500 it would have lost 90% in the 21st Century. The dollars lost 90% in the 21st Century, just to 2500 that's profound to go. That's right, it already lost more than 90% from $20 to 250 so it lost 90% and then 90% of the 10% that was left. And that's where we're at. We're worse than that. Today, no currency, as far as I understand, I've been told this. Haven't done the homework, but it's my understanding, no currency in the history of the world has ever survived that kind of debasement. So I think a lot of people who are watching are like, okay, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. And then the big question is, is when that when comes? What does the transition look like? What rises in its place? And then you look at things like a central bank digital currency, which is not like Bitcoin, it's not a crypto, it's a centrally controlled currency run by the central bank. If we get that, I would argue that's not good for privacy and security. Could be Bitcoin would be better. I would argue, could go back to gold backing, which I would say is better than what we have, or we could get something nobody's even thought of. I don't know. We don't know, but I do think we're at the end of the life cycle. Historically, all things being equal. And I think all the indication with a big run up of gold, gold is screaming something's broken. It's just screaming it right now, not just because the price is up, but who's buying it. It's just central banks.   Keith Weinhold  20:12   Central banks are doing most of the buying, right? It's not individual investors going to a coin shop. So that's really screaming, telling you that people are concerned. People are losing their faith in giving loans to the United States for sure. And Russ, as we talk about gold, and it's important link to the dollar over time, you mentioned how they wanted it, to get it out of the bank's hands for a while. Of course, there was also a period of time where it was illegal for Americans to own gold. And then we had this Bretton Woods Agreement, which was really important as well, where we ended up violating promises that had to do with gold again. So can you speak to us some more about that? Because a lot of people just don't understand what happened at Bretton Woods.   Russell Gray  20:56   What happened is we had the big crash in 1929 and the net result of that was, in 1933 we got executive order 6102 In fact, I have a picture of it framed, and that was in the wake of that in 1933 and so what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in signing that document, which was empowered by a previous act of Congress, basically let him confiscate all The money. It'd be like right now if, right now, you know, President Trump signed an executive order and said, You have to take all your cash, every all the cash that you have out of your wallet. You have to send it all, take it into the bank, and they're going to give you a Chuck E Cheese token, right? And if you don't do it, if you do it, it's a $500,000 fine in 10 years in prison. Right? Back then it was a $10,000 fine, which was twice the price of the average Home huge fine, plus jail time. That's how severe it was, okay? So they confiscated all the money. That happened in 33 okay? Now we go off to war, and we enter the war late again. And so we have the big manufacturing operation. We're selling munitions and all kinds of supplies to everybody, all over the world, right? And we're just raking the gold and 20,000 tons of gold. We got all the gold. We got the biggest army now, we got the biggest bomb, we got the biggest economy. We got the strongest balance sheet. Well, I mean, you know, we went into debt for the war, but, I mean, we had a lot of gold. So now everybody else is decimated. We're the big dog. Everybody knows we're the big dog. Nine states shows up in New Hampshire Bretton Woods, and they have this big meeting with the world, and they say, Hey guys, new sheriff in town. Britain used to be the world's reserve currency, but today we're going to be the world's reserve currency. And so this was the new setup. But it's okay. It's okay because our dollar is as good as gold. It's backed by gold, and so anytime you want foreign nations, you can just bring your dollars to us and we'll give you the gold, no problem. And everyone's like, okay, great. What are you going to say? Right? You got the big bomb, you got the big army. Everybody needs you for everything to live like you're not going to say no. So they said, Yes, of course, the United States immediately. I've got a speech that a guy named Beardsley Rummel did. Have you ever heard me talk about this before? Keith, No, I've never heard about this. So Beardsley Rummel was the New York Fed chair when all this was happening. And so he gave a speech to the American Bar Association in 1945 and I got a transcript of it, a PDF transcript of it from 1946 and basically he goes, Look, income taxes are obsolete. We don't need income tax anymore because we can print money, because we're off the gold standard and we have no accountability. We just admitted it, just totally admitted it, and said the only reason we have income tax is to manipulate behavior, is to redistribute wealth, is to force people to do what we want them to do, punish things and reward others, right? Just set it plain language. I have a transcript of the speech. You can get a copy of you send an email to Rummel R U, M, L@mainstreetcapitalist.com I'll get it to you. So it's really, really interesting. So he admitted it. So we went along in the 40s and the 50s, and, you know, we had the only big manufacturing you know, because everybody else is still recovering from the war. Everything been bombed to smithereens, and we're spending money and doing all kinds of stuff. And having the 50s, it was great, right, right up until the mid 60s. So the mid 60s, it's like, Okay, we got a problem. And Charles de Gaulle, who was the president of France at the time, went to a meeting. And there's a YouTube video, but you can see it, he basically told the world, hey, I don't think the United States is doing a good job managing this world's reserve currency. I don't think they've got the gold. I think they printed too much money. I think that we should start to go redeem our dollars and get the gold. That was pretty forward thinking. And he created a run on the bank. And at the same time, we passed the Coinage Act in 1965 and took all the silver out of the people's money. So we took the gold in 33 and then we took the silver in 65 right? Because we got Vietnam and the Great Society, welfare, all these things were going on in the 60s. We're just going broke. Meanwhile, our gold supply went from 20,000 tons down to eight and Richard. Nixon is like, whoa, time out. Like, this is bad. And so we had inflation in 1970 August 15, 1971 year before August 15, 1971 1970 Nixon writes an executive order and freezes all prices and all wages. It became illegal by presidential edict for a private business to give their employee a raise or to raise their prices to the customers.    Keith Weinhold  25:30   It's almost if that could happen price in theUnited States of America, right?    Russell Gray  25:36   And inflation was 4.4% and it was a national emergency like today. I mean, you know, a few years ago, like three or four years ago, we if we could get it down 4.4% it'd be Holly. I'd be like a celebration. That was bad. And so that's what happened. So a year later, that didn't work. It was a 90 day thing. It was a disaster. And so in a year later, August 15, 1971 Nixon came on live TV after Gunsmoke. I think it was, and I was old enough I'm watching TV on a Sunday night I watched it. Wow. So I live, that's how old I am. So it's a lot of this history, not the Bretton Woods stuff, but from like 1960 2,3,4, forward. I remember I was there.    Keith Weinhold  26:13   Yeah, that you remember the whole Nixon address on television. We should say it for the listener that doesn't know. Basically the announcement Nixon made, he said, was a temporary measure, is that foreign nations can no longer redeem their dollars for gold. He broke the promise that was made at Bretton Woods in about 1945   Russell Gray  26:32   Yeah. And then gold went from $42 up to 850 and a whole series of events that have led to where we're at today were put in place to cover up the fact that the dollar was failing. We had climate emergency. We were headed towards the next global Ice Age. We had an existential threat in two different diseases that hit one right after the other. First one was the h1 n1 flu, swine flu, and then the next thing was AIDS. And so we had existential pandemic, two of them. We also had a oil shortage crisis. We were going to run out of fossil fuel by the year 2000 we had to do all kinds of very public, visible, visceral things that we would all see. You could only buy gas odd even days, like, if your license plate ended in an odd number, you could go on these days, and if it ended on an even number, you could go on the other days. And so we had that. We lowered our national speed limit down to 55 miles an hour. We created the EPA and all these different agencies under Jimmy Carter to try to regulate and manage all of this crisis. Prior to that, Nixon sent Kissinger over to China, and we opened up trade relations. And we'd been in Vietnam to protect the world from communism because it was so horrible. And then in the wake of that, we go over to Communist China, Chairman Mao and open up trade relations. Why we needed access to their cheap labor to suck up all the inflation. And we went over to the Saudis, and we cut the petro dollar deal. Why? Because we needed the float. We needed some place for all these excess dollars that we had created to get sucked up. And so they got sucked up in trading the largest commodity in the world, energy. And the deal was, hey, Saudis, here's the deal. You like your kingdom? Well, we got the big bomb. We got the big army. You're going to rule the roost in the in the Middle East, and we'll protect you. All you got to do is make sure you sell all your oil in dollars and dollars only. And they're like, Well, what if we're selling oil to China, or what if we're selling oil to Japan? Can they pay in yen? Nope, they got to sell yen. Buy dollars. Well, what do we do with all these dollars? Buy our treasuries. Okay, so what if I got this? Yeah, and so that was the petrodollar system. And the world looked at everything went on, and the world is like, Hmm, the United States coming back to Europe, and Charles de Gaulle, they're like, the United States is not handling this whole dollar thing real well. We need an alternative. What if all of us independent nations in Europe got together and created a common currency? We don't want to be like one country, like the United States, but we want to be like an economic union. So let's create a current let's call it the euro. And they started that process in the 70s, but they didn't get it done till 99 and so they get it done in 99 as soon as they get it done, this guy named Saddam Hussein goes, Hey, I'm now the big dog here. I got the fourth largest army in the world. I'm here in, you know, big oil producing nation. Let's trade in the euro. Let's get off the dollar. Let's do oil in the euro. And he's gone. I'm not sure I should put my hat back on. I'm not sure, but somehow we went into Afghanistan and took a hard left and took this guy out.   Keith Weinhold  29:44   Some credence to this. Yes, yeah, so. But with that said,   Russell Gray  29:47   you know, we ended up with the Euro taking about 20% of the global trade market from the United States, which is about where it sits today. And the United States used to be up over 80% and now we're down below 60% still. The Big Dog by triple and the euro is not in a position to supplant the US, but I think China, whose claim to fame is looking at other people's technology and models and copying it, looked at what the United States did to become the dominant economic force, and I think they've systematically been copying it. I wrote a report on this way back in 2013 when I started really paying attention to it and began to chronicle all the things that they were doing, this big D dollarization movement that I think still has legs. It's the BRICS movement. It's all the central banks buying gold. It's the bilateral trade agreements where people are doing business outside the dollar. There's been not just that, but also putting together the infrastructure, right? The Asian Infrastructure Bank is an alternative to the IMF looking, if you have you read Confessions of an economic hitman. No. Okay, so this is a guy that used to work in the government, I think, CIA or something, and he would go down and he'd cut deals with leaders of countries to get them to borrow from the United States to put in key infrastructure so they could trade with the US. And then, of course, if they defaulted, then the US owned that in the infrastructure. You can look it up. His name is Perkins, right. Look it up confessions of economic hit now, but you see China doing the same thing. China's got their Belt and Road Initiative. And you go through, and if you want to trade with China on that route, you have traded, you're gonna have to have infrastructure. You can eat ports. You're gonna need terminals for distribution. But you, Oh, you don't have the money. We'll loan it to you, and we'll loan it to you and you want. Now we're creating demand for you want, and we also are enslaving borrower servant to the lender. We're beginning to enslave these other nations under the guise of helping them by financing their growth so they can do business with us. It's the same thing the United States did and Shanghai Gold Exchange, as opposed to the London Bullion exchange. So all of the key pieces of infrastructure that were put in place to facilitate Western hegemony in the financial markets the Chinese have been systematically putting in place with bricks, and so there's a reason we're in this big trade war right now. We recognize that they had started to get in a position where they were actually a real threat, and we got to cut their legs out from underneath them before they get any stronger. Again, I should put my hat back on. Nobody's calling me up and telling me, I'm just reading between the lines. Sure,   Keith Weinhold  32:23   there certainly are more competitors to the dollar now. And can you imagine what rate of inflation that we would have had if we had not outsourced our labor and productivity over to a low wage place like China in the east? Russ and I have been talking about the long term debasement of the dollar and why. More on that when we come back, including what Russ is up to today. You're listening to get rich education. Our guest is Russell Gray. I'm your host, Keith Weinhold, the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your pre qual and even chat with President Chaley Ridge personally while it's on your mind, start at Ridge lendinggroup.com that's Ridge lendinggroup.com. You know what's crazy? 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This is Rich Dad advisor, Garrett Sutton. You're listening to the always valuable. Get rich education with Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.    Keith Weinhold  34:52   Welcome back to get rich education. We're talking with the main street capitalists Russell gray about this long term debasement of the dollar. It's an. Inevitable. It's one of the things we actually can forecast with pretty good predictability that the dollar will continue to debase. It's one of the few almost guarantees that we have in investing. So we can think about how we want to play that Russ one thing I wonder about is, did we have to completely de peg the dollar from gold? Couldn't we have just diluted it where we could instead say, Well, hey, now, instead of just completely depegging the dollar from gold, we could say, well, now it takes 10 times as many dollars as it used to to redeem it for an ounce of gold. Did it make it more powerful that we just completely de pegged it 100%   Russell Gray  35:36   it would disempower the monopoly. Right? In other words, I think that the thing from the very beginning, was scripted to disconnect from the accountability of gold, which is what sound money advocates want. They want some form of independent Accountability. Gold is like an audit to a financial system. If you're the bankers and you're running the program, the last thing in the world you want is a gold standard, because it limits your ability to print money out of thin air and profit from that. So I don't think the people who are behind all of this are, in no way, shape or form, interested in doing anything that's going to limit their power or hold them accountable. They want just the opposite. I think if they could wave a magic wand and pick their solution to the problem, it would be central bank digital currency, which would give them ultimate control. Yeah. And it wouldn't surprise me if we maybe, perhaps, were on a path where some crises were going to converge, whether it's opportunistic, meaning that the crisis happened on its own, and quote Rahm Emanuel and whoever he was quoting, you know, never let a good crisis go to waste, and you're just opportunistic, or, you know, put the conspiracy theory hat on, and maybe these crises get created in order to facilitate the power grab. I don't know. It really doesn't matter what the motives are or how it happens at the end of the day, it's what happens. It happened in 33 it happened in 60. In 71 it's what happens. And so it's been a systematic de pegging of any form of accountability. I mean, we used to have a budget ceiling. We used to talk about now it's just like, it's routine. You blow right through it, right, right. There's you balance. I mean, when's the last time you even had a budget? Less, less, you know, much less anything that looked like a valid balanced budget amendment. So I think there's just no accountability other than the voting booth. And, you know, I think maybe you could make the argument that whether you like Trump or not, the public's apparent embrace of him, show you that the main street and have a lot of faith in Main Street. I think Main Street is like, you know what? This is broken. I don't know what's how to fix it, but somebody just needs to go in and just tear this thing down and figure out a new plant. Because I think if you anybody paying attention, knows that this perpetual debasement, which is kind of the theme of the show is it creates haves and have nots. Guys like you who understand how to use real estate to short the dollar, especially when you marry it to gold, which is one of my favorite strategies to double short the dollar, can really magnify the power of inflation to pull more wealth onto your balance sheet. Problem is the people who aren't on that side of the coin are on the other side of the coin, and so the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. Well, the first order of business in a system we can't control is help as many people be on the rich get richer. That's why we had the get rich show, right? Let's help other people get rich. Because if I'm the only rich guy in the room, all the guns are pointed at me, right? I wanted everybody as rich as possible. I think Trump and Kiyosaki wrote about that in their book. Why we want you to be rich, right? When everybody's prospering, it's it's better, it's safer, you have people to trade with and whatnot, but we have eviscerated the middle class because industry has had to go access cheap labor markets in order to compensate for this inflation. And you know, you talk about the Fed mandate, which is 2% inflation, price inflation, 2% so if you say something that costs $1 today, a year from now, is going to cost $1 too, you think, well, maybe that's not that bad. But here's the problem, the natural progression of Business and Technology is to lower the cost, right? So you have something cost $1 today, and because somebody's using AI and internet and automation and robots and all this technology, right? And the cost, they could really sell it for 80 cents. And so the Fed looks at and goes, Let's inflate to $1.02 that's not two cents of inflation. That's 22 cents of inflation. And so there's hidden inflation. The benefits of the gains in productivity don't show up in the CPI, but it's like deferred maintenance on an apartment building. You can make your cash flow look great if you're not setting anything aside for the inevitable day when that roof is going to go out and that parking lot is going to need to be repaved, right? And you don't know how far out you are until you get there and you're like, wow, I'm really short, and I think that we have been experiencing for decades. The theft of the benefit of our productivity gains, and we're not just a little bit out of position. We're way out of position. That's   Keith Weinhold  40:07   a great point. Like I had said earlier, imagine what the rate of inflation would be if we hadn't outsourced so much of our labor and productivity to low cost China. And then imagine what the rate of inflation would be as well, if you would factor in all of this increased productivity and efficiency, the natural tendencies of which are to make prices go lower as society gets more productive, but instead they've gone higher. So when you adjust for some of these factors, you just can't imagine what the true debased purchasing power of the dollar is. It's been happening for a long time. It's inevitable that it's going to continue to happen in the future. So this has been a great chat about the history and us understanding what the powers that be have done to debase our dollar. It's only at what rate we don't know. Russ, tell us more about what you're doing today. You're really out there more as a champion for Main Street in capitalism.   Russell Gray  41:04   I mean, 20 years with Robert and the real estate guys, and it was fantastic. I loved it. I went through a lot, obviously, in 2008 and that changed me a little bit. Took me from kind of being a blocking and tackling, here's how you do real estate, and to really understanding macro and going, you know, it doesn't matter. You can do like I did, and you build this big collection. Big collection of properties and you lose it all in a moment because you don't understand macro. So I said, Okay, I want to champion that cause. And so we did that. And then we saw in the 2012 JOBS Act, the opportunity for capital raisers to go mainstream and advertise for credit investors. And I wrote a report then called the new law breaks Wall Street monopoly. And I felt like that was going to be a huge opportunity, and we pioneered that. But then after my late wife died, and I had a chance to spend some time alone during COVID, and I thought, life is short. What do I really want to accomplish before I go? And then I began looking at what was going on in the world. I see now a couple of things that are both opportunities and challenges or causes to be championed. And one is the mega trend that I believe the world is going you know, some people call it a fourth turning whatever. I don't consider that kind of we have to fall off a cliff as Destiny type of thing to be like cast in stone. But what I do see is that people are sick and tired of monopolies. We're sick and tired of big tech, we're sick and tired of big media, we're sick and tired of big government. We're sick and tired of big corporations, we don't want it, and big banks, right? So you got the rise of Bitcoin, you got people trying to get out from underneath the Western hegemony, as we've been talking about decentralization of everything. Our country was founded on the concept of decentralization, and so people don't understand that, right? It used to be everything was centralized. All powers in the king. Real Estate meant royal property. That's what real estate it's not like real asset, like tangible it's royal estate. It's royal property. Everything belonged to the king, and you just got to work it like a serf. And then you got to keep 75% in your produce, and you sent 25% you sent 25% through all the landlords, the land barons, and all the people in the hierarchy that fed on running things for the king, but you didn't own anything. Our founder set that on, turn that upside down, and said, No, no, no, no, no, it's not the king that's sovereign. It's the individual. The individual is sovereign. It isn't the monarchy, it's the individual states. And so we're going to bring the government, small. The central government small has only got a couple of obligations, like protect the borders, facilitate interstate commerce, and let's just have one common currency so that we can do business together. Other than that, like, the state's just going to run the show. Of course, Lincoln kind of blew that up, and it's gotten a lot worse after FDR, so I feel like we're under this big decentralization movement, and I think Main Street capitalism is the manifestation of that. If you want to decentralize capitalism, the gig economy, if you want to be a guy like you, and you can run your whole business off your laptop with a microphone and a camera, you know, in today's day and age with technology, people have tasted the freedom of decentralization. So I think the rise of the entrepreneur, I think the ability to go build a real asset portfolio and get out of the casinos of Wall Street. I think right now, if we are successful in bringing back these huge amounts of investment, Trump's already announced like two and a half or $3 trillion of investment, people are complaining, oh, the world is selling us. Well, they're selling stocks and they're selling but they're putting the money actually into creating businesses here in the United States that's going to create that primary driver, as you well know, in real estate, that's going to create the secondary and tertiary businesses, and the properties they're going to use all kinds of Main Street opportunity are going to grow around that. I lived in Silicon Valley, when a company would get funded, it wasn't just a company that prospered, it was everything around that company, right? All these companies. I remember when Apple started. I remember when Hewlett Packard, it was big, but it got a lot bigger, right there. I watched all that happen in Silicon Valley. I think that's going to happen again. I think we're at the front end of that. And so that's super exciting. Wave. The second thing that is super important is this raising capitalist project. And the reason I'm doing it is because if we don't train our next generation in the principles of capitalism and the freedom that it how it decentralizes Their personal economy, and they get excited about Bitcoin, but that's not productive. I'm not putting it down. I'm just saying it's not productive. You have to be productive. You want to have a decentralized currency. Yes, you want to decentralize productivity. That's Main Street capitalism. If kids who never get a chance to be in the productive economy get to vote at 1819, 2021, 22 before they've ever earned a paycheck, before they have any idea, never run a business. Somebody tells them, hey, those guys that have all that money and property, they cheated. It's not fair. We need to take from them. We need to limit them, not thinking, Oh, well, if I do that, when I get to be there, that what I'm voting for is going to get on me. Right now, Keith, there are kids in ninth grade who are going to vote for your next president, right?   Keith Weinhold  45:56   And they think capitalism is evil. This is part of what you're doing with the raising capitalists project, helping younger people think differently. Russ, I have one last thing to ask you. This has to do with the capitalism that you're championing on your platforms now. And real estate, I continue to see sometimes I get comments on my YouTube channel, especially maybe it's more and more people increasingly saying, Hey, I think housing should be a human right. So talk to us about that. And maybe it's interesting, Russ, if I take the other side of it and play devil's advocate, people who think housing is a human right, they say something like, the idea is that housing, you know, it's a fundamental need, just like food and clean water and health care are without stable housing. It's incredibly hard for a person to access opportunities like work and education or health care or participate meaningfully in society at all. So government ought to provide housing for everybody. What are your thoughts there?   Russell Gray  46:54   Well, it's inherently inflationary, which is the root cause of the entire problem. So anytime you create consumption without production, you're going to have more consumers than producers, and so you're going to have more competition for those goods. The net, net truth of what happens in that scenario are shortages everywhere. Every civilization that's ever tried any form of system where people just get things for free because they need them, end up with shortages in poverty. It doesn't lift everybody. It ruins everything. I mean, that's not conjecture. That's history, and so that's just the way it works. And if you just were to land somebody on a desert island and you had an economy of one, they're going to learn really quick the basic principles of capitalism, which is production always precedes consumption, always 100% of the time, right? If you're there on that desert island and you don't hunt fish or gather, you don't eat, right? You don't get it because, oh, it's a human right to have food. Nope, it's a human right to have the right to go get food. Otherwise, you're incarcerated, you have to have the freedom of movement to go do something to provide for yourself, but you cannot allow people to consume without production. So everybody has to produce. And you know, if you go back to the Plymouth Rock experiment, if you're familiar with that at all, yeah, yeah. So you know, just for anybody who doesn't know, when the Pilgrims came over here in the 1600s William Bradford was governor, and they tried it. They said, Hey, we're here. Let's Stick Together All for one and one for all. Here's the land. Everybody get up every day and work. Everybody works, and everybody eats. They starved. And so he goes, Okay, guys, new plan. All right, you wine holds. See this little plot of land, that's yours. You work it. You can eat whatever you produce. Over there, you grace. You're going to do yours and Johnson's, you're going to do yours, right? Well, what happened is now everybody got up and worked, and they created more than enough for their own family, and they had an abundance. And the abundance was created out of their hunger. When they went to serve their own needs, they created abundance forever others. That's the premise of capitalism. It's not the perfect system. There is no perfect system. We live in a world where human beings have to work before they get to eat. When I say eat, it could be having a roof over their head. It could be having clothes. It could be going on vacation. It could be having a nice car. It could be getting health care. It doesn't matter what it is, whatever it is you need. You have the right, or should have, the right, in a free system to go earn that by being productive, but the minute somebody comes and says, Oh, you worked, and I'm going to take what you produced and give it to somebody else who didn't, that's patently unfair, but economically, it's disastrous, because it incentivizes people not to work, which creates less production, more consumption. I have another analogy with sandwich makers, but you can imagine that if you got a group if you got a group of people making sandwiches, one guy starts creating coupons for sandwiches. Well then if somebody says, Okay, well now we got 19 people providing for 20. That's okay, but then all the guys making sandwiches. Why making sandwiches? I'm gonna get the coupon business pretty soon. You got 18 guys doing coupons, only two making sandwiches. Not. Have sandwiches to go around all the sandwiches cost tons of coupons because we got way more financialization than productivity, right? That's the American economy. We have to fix that. We can't have people making money by just trading on other people's productivity. We have to have people actually being productive. This is what I believe the administration is trying to do, rebuild the middle class, rebuild that manufacturing base, make us a truly productive economy, and then you don't have to worry about these things, right? We're going to create abundance. And if you don't have the inflation is which is coming from printing money out of thin air and giving to people who don't produce, then housing, all sudden, becomes affordable. It's not a problem. Health care becomes affordable. Everything becomes affordable because you create abundance, because everybody's producing the system is fundamentally broken. Now we have to learn how to profit in it in its current state, which is what you teach people how to do. We also have to realize that it's not sustainable. We're on an unsustainable path, and we're probably nearing that event horizon, the path of no return, where the system is going to break. And the question is, is, how are you going to be prepared for it when it happens? Number two, are you going to be wise enough to advocate when you get a chance to cast a vote or make your voice heard for something that's actually going to create prosperity and freedom versus something that's going to create scarcity and oppression? And that's the fundamental thing that we have to master as a society. We got to get to our youth, because they're the biggest demographic that can blow the thing up, and they're the ones that have been being indoctrinated the worst.   Keith Weinhold  51:29   Yes, Fed Chair Jerome Powell himself said that we live in a economic system today that is unsustainable. Yes, the collectivism we touched on quickly descends into the tyranny of the majority. And in my experience, historically, the success of public housing projects has been or to mixed at best, residents often don't respect the property when they don't have an equity stake in it or even a security deposit tied up in it, and blight and high crime rates have often followed with these public housing projects. When you go down that path of making housing as a human right, like you said earlier, you have a right to go procure housing for yourself, just not to ask others to pay for it for you. Well, Russ, this has been great. It's good to have your voice back on the show. Here again, here on a real estate show. If people want to connect with you, continue to see what you've been up to and the good projects that you're working on, promoting the virtues of capitalism. What's the best way for them to do that?   Russell Gray  52:31   I think just send an email to follow at Russell Gray, R, U, S, S, E, L, L, G, R, A, y.com, let you know where I am on social media. I'll let you know when I put out new content. I'll let you know when I'm a guest on somebody somebody's show and I'm on the cusp of getting my own show finally launched. I've been doing a lot of planning to get that out, but I'm excited about it because I do think, like I said, The time is now, and I think the marketplace is ripe, and I do speak Main Street and macro, and I hope I can add a nuance to the conversation that will add value to people.   Keith Weinhold  53:00   Russ, it's been valuable as always. Thanks so much for coming back onto the show. Thanks, Keith.   Yeah, terrific, historic outline from Russ about the long term decline of the dollar. It's really a fresh reminder and motivator to keep being that savvy borrower. Of course, real estate investors have access to borrow giant sums of dollars and short the currency that lay people do not. In fact, lay people don't even understand that it's a viable strategy at all. Like he touched on, Russ has really been bringing an awareness about how decentralization is such a powerful force that reshapes society. In fact, he was talking about that the last time that I saw him in person a few months ago. Notably, he touched on Nixon era wage and price controls. Don't you find it interesting? Fascinating, really, how a few weeks ago, Trump told Walmart not to pass tariff induced price increases onto their customers. Well, that's a form of price control that we're seeing today to our point, when we had the father of Reaganomics, David Stockman here on the show, five weeks ago, tariffs are already government intervention into the free market, and then a president telling private companies how to set their prices, that is really strong government overreach. I mean, I can't believe that more people aren't talking about this. Maybe that's just because this cycle started with Walmart, and that's just doesn't happen to be a company that people feel sorry for. Hey, well, I look forward to meeting you in person in Miami in just four days, as I'll be a faculty member for when we kick off the terrific real estate guys Investor Summit and see and really getting to know you, because we're going to spend nine days together. Teaching, learning and having a great time on a cruise ship in the Caribbean. Until then, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Speaker 3  55:13   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively.   Keith Weinhold  55:36   You know whatever you want, the best written real estate and finance info. Oh, geez, today's experience limits your free articles access and it's got pay walls and pop ups and push notifications and cookies disclaimers. It's not so great. So then it's vital to place nice, clean, free content into your hands that adds no hype value to your life. That's why this is the golden age of quality newsletters, and I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor, and it's to the point because even the word abbreviation is too long, my letter usually takes less than three minutes to read. And when you start the letter, you also get my one hour fast real estate video. Course, it's all completely free. It's called the Don't quit your Daydream letter. It wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be easier for you to get it right now. Just text. GRE to 66866, while it's on your mind, take a moment to do it right now. Text, GRE to 66866   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth, building, getricheducation.com.

Lex chats with Yuval Rooz, CEO and co-founder of Digital Asset, about the company's transformation from its early institutional blockchain experiments to launching the Canton Network - a purpose-built, privacy-enabled smart contract platform designed for financial markets. Rooz shares insights into why Digital Asset was inspired by Bitcoin's financial principles rather than its technical assumptions, highlighting the importance of rethinking blockchain infrastructure rather than replicating flawed legacy models. He also unpacks the hard lessons from high-stakes projects like the Australian Stock Exchange overhaul, emphasizing why large-scale financial infrastructure must evolve incrementally to succeed. Finally, the conversation dives into Canton's unique tokenomics, where 70% of block rewards go to the developers and users who create economic activity on the network, challenging traditional validator-centric models and aligning incentives more fairly for long-term ecosystem growth. Notable discussion points: 1. Canton's innovative tokenomics: Unlike Ethereum, where validators capture most of the rewards, Canton allocates 70% of block rewards to developers and applications, creating sustainable alignment. 2. Lessons from ASX: Rooz reflects on the failed ASX blockchain migration, advocating for iterative upgrades rather than “big bang” infrastructure transformations. 3. True tokenization: Rooz critiques superficial on-chain IOU models, asserting that real tokenization must place the asset's books and records natively on-chain to unlock the benefits of DeFi and composability. MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION Topics: Digital Asset, Canton Network, DRW, ASX, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Plaid, DAML, fintech, web3, tokenization, digital assets, financial infrastructure, DeFi, onchain ABOUT THE FINTECH BLUEPRINT 

Half marathon? Hard. Full marathon? Very Hard. Ultra Marathon? Insanely hard. Ultra marathon while breastfeeding a baby and still managing to win your division? WHAT IN THE F**K?!?! Let's talk about that, IOU a rimjob Willy Wonks candy bars, accidentally spilling 70,000 lbs of bees on the highway, Joe smashing his head into the ceiling in an airplane bathroom, and more on today's episode of Can You Don't?!*** Wanna become part of The Gaggle and access all the extra content on the end of each episode PLUS tons more?! Our Patreon page is LIVE! This is the biggest way you can support the show. It would mean the world to us: http://www.patreon.com/canyoudontpodcast ***New Episodes every Wednesday at 12pm PSTWatch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/f5-70tzYJP0Send in segment content: heyguys@canyoudontpodcast.comMerch: http://canyoudontpodcast.comMerch Inquires: store@canyoudontpodcast.comFB: http://facebook.com/canyoudontpodcastIG: http://instagram.com/canyoudontpodcastYouTube Channel: https://bit.ly/3wyt5rtOfficial Website: http://canyoudontpodcast.comCustom Music Beds by Zach CohenFan Mail:Can You Don't?PO Box 1062Coeur d'Alene, ID 83816Hugs and Tugs.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

"Have you ever done something so efficient that you think you could get away with committing crimes?" With Billy Pill in the Dan seat today, we react to the Knicks vs. Pacers game with a full hour of analysis. HA! Just kidding. It's time for the high-level IOU, the peasant garage, and Sydney Sweeney's bathwater soap. Today's cast: Billy, Stugotz, Chris, Izzy, Jeremy, Roy, and Tony. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This explains the true nature of our world and its very real, tireless, dangerous predators who make no secret of what they're going to do you us and our families... If we let them.SHARE THIS with someone and then ask them if any war since WWI to present was ever in America's interest, and if the outcomes ever weakened or eliminated EVIL threats to mankind, or did it end up strengthening and expanding their reach and power?  This is a good, non-invasive way to break people out of the ether of our conditioning and programming.I NEED YOUR HELP! PLEASE FOLLOW THESE LINKS BELOW. I'm aggressively shadowbanned and blacklisted from most major social media platforms.https://www.instagram.com/drgliddenclips/https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.glidden.clipshttps://www.youtube.com/@baalbustershttps://rumble.com/c/BaalBustershttps://www.brighteon.com/channels/baalbusters/videos/allGet My Book and More here:https://SemperFryLLC.comPods & Exclusives AD-FREE! Just $5/mohttps://patreon.com/c/DisguisetheLimitsDaughter's Piggy Bankhttps://givesendgo.com/BaalBustersBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ba-al-busters-broadcast--5100262/support.

In today's heart-to-heart, we have a Special Guest - Dr Susie Mierzwik with us. Dr Susie is sharing what is like to get rid of pain without drugs. Dr. Susie is a retired teacher, and she did time in corporate finance, and that combined experience led her to entrepreneurship.Within our hour together, we walked through divorce, corporate challenges, reinforcing all along how timing is everything. Follow as long and discover how exactly A Bobble Head on a Body came up in conversation.We learned about Dr. Susie's 3 Key to success. Look In. Look Out. Look Up.We also tapped into: Coincidences Which Dr Susie doesn't necessarily believe in. However, today, on the show, we both witnessed coincidences. Were we looking for them? Or did they just appear?I do believe in coincidences. Coincidences act as validation, reassurance, and hope. Coincidences show up creatively, through conversation, music, experiences, or a message on a license plate. Then there are those coincidences that lead to serendipitous moments.Join us for some laughter and fun as we go through this conversation together.What an amazing episode, with so much to unpack!! Resources & Recommendations:Dr Susis's 3 Keys to Success - https://susiemierzwik.comYour Story Matters - a woman's self-love, self-awareness workbook - https://a.co/d/ja675wrThe Four Agreements - https://a.co/d/gSqvyftLet's learn a little about Dr Susie Mierzwik Since 2009 Dr. Susie (hc) helps her clients restore their health to a pain-free state, using phototherapy light patches that signal the body to create balance while removing toxins and inflammation. This technology enables clients to enjoy pain free living and stem cell regeneration. She is the bestselling author of “Sow in Tears, Reap in Joy. A Transformational Memoir."She also collaborated on 13 other bestselling books after retiring from teaching. Susie has received numerous awards for her work and community service and is currently serving as the co- director of GSFE Virtual Network. Dr. Susie (hc) retired from teaching after 26years. She also has an MBA and worked in corporate finance. She is a volunteer with Operation Christmas Child, and helps to assemble gifts for thousands of children worldwide.“Her keynote talk is 3 Steps to recover your Life when your Lifeboat Hits the Rapids” What you will learn:The 3 IOU's of survival: Look In for self evaluation, assessment and reflection.Look Out for support from your tribeLook Up to God/ Divine for guidance and hope Dr. Susie's clients are worldwide and she is a frequent speaker on podcasts.Connect with her at:Facebook https://facebook/SusanEMierzwik LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/SusieMierzwik Instagram https://Instagram.com/SusieMierzwik Website https://susiemierzwik.comThank you, Dr. Susie, for being on our show.xxReady to ditch the frustration and step into a life of unstoppable clarity and confidence? If you're serious about breaking free from emotional eating, boosting your energy, and conquering financial stress, then it's time to stop making excuses and start making progress. Your journey from feeling overwhelmed to absolutely unstoppable starts now. Take the first powerful step – book your discovery call today. Your brighter future awaits:Resource link, like social links, personalized assessments and upcoming events https://linktr.ee/sonyajanisse and my website www.sonyajanisse.com~ Sonya xoSonya JanisseNLP_Life Coach, HWL, PTSEmpowerment Catalyst ~ Where ambition meets transformation, and your best life begins

Hello and welcome to episode 98 of the Still Spinning Podcast. We appreciate you checking us out! You can watch the live taping every Monday at 7 PM on Facebook, YouTube or Instagram OR wait until the official podcast release on Wednesday morning. Visit our website for more details on becoming a sponsor, buying merch and check out old episodes. All of this at stillspinningpodcast.com. Maybe it is us but it seems there is a new term being used in the world almost every single week. This is true this week with the term “unbossing” which means something different to businesses than it does to workers. Basically workers no longer want to work in management roles, for a variety of reasons. Dan and Nicole both share personal stories that fall into this world. Have you ever visited a restaurant or store that is located near a high school, particularly when that high school has a lunch break or when it ends for the day? There is a McDonald's in Virginia that has a new 21 and over policy because of the behavior of the kids from a nearby school. Nicole and Dan discuss and talk about how scary kids can be. And finally, road rage has taken a turn (pun intended) and you will never believe what happened when a woman got mad and lost her shit. You can watch the (somewhat graphic) video here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DJFKE4eOjlk/ Nicole sent this to Dan but did not tell him what it was about. We encourage you to just watch it before reading anything about it. Thank you so much for checking us out! Spinners, we may have to write you an IOU on bonus content this week, we have some scheduling issues we are trying to work out. But we promise, we will load you up on bonus content as soon as we are able!

 IOU tribute to the moms in our racing world   Rick Sabo has some excellent information on you financial future   Lernerville Victory Lane Interviews with Sprint Car Winner Parker Price Miller   The very exciting Late Model Feature went to a surprised Kenny Schaltenbrand   Rex King Jr spoke about his off season in the Modified main event.   And Curtis Bish discussed his car owners and the green to checker feature.  

SPONSOR: Direct Bullion. Download your free Guide to Gold Pensions Now. (plus get a special bonus).CLICK HERE NOW: https://robmoore.directbullion.com Rob is joined by hedge fund manager Rob Gardner, who has helped over a million clients invest. He shares with Rob how he helps manage other people’s money, his investment strategies and the beliefs and principles he invests and lives by. They also talk about who they think controls the world, the power banks and investment firms hold, and their thoughts on taxation. KEY TAKEAWAYS Rob has a set of investment beliefs and principles that he uses to guide him, particularly with more difficult decisions. It can be easier to work with other peoples money than your own as it isn’t just you working on decisions, but a team, and it also keeps you clear-headed and professional. You have to maintain discipline to be able to invest calmly and safely. It’s also important to recognise that you won’t get every decision right. Rob wants to be financially free by the time he is 55, to meet this target he tries to double his money every year. When investing, it’s important to diversify across equity, bonds and properties. Investing should always be for the long term. For example, when investing in businesses, think about their longevity. Rob believes that we can still live in a capitalist society and reduce on reliance on fossil fuels. The idea of overnight success isn't real, yet people are becoming obsessed with quick results. As a society, we need to think about how we change this mindset to continue to create the entrepreneurs of the future. BEST MOMENTS “Personally I’ve always had a set of investment beliefs.” “Investment is risk, but risk is to shake people off” “I want the freedom to say I don’t want to work” “Ask yourself, if this business didn’t exist, would the world miss it?” “The world and economic growth needs cheap energy and that energy can come from other places” “People don’t realise that a pound note is an IOU” "How do we have radical reform? What is a way to fire up the UK economy again?" VALUABLE RESOURCES https://robmoore.com/ bit.ly/Robsupporter https://robmoore.com/podbooks rob.team ABOUT THE HOST Rob Moore is an author of 9 business books, 5 UK bestsellers, holds 3 world records for public speaking, entrepreneur, property investor, and property educator. Author of the global bestseller “Life Leverage” Host of UK’s No.1 business podcast “The Disruptive Entrepreneur” “If you don't risk anything, you risk everything” CONTACT METHOD Rob’s official website: https://robmoore.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robmooreprogressive/?ref=br_rs LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/robmoore1979 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The boys discuss best way to get a job, locks and IOU's

How to assess the damage that the conspiring witnesses would have caused if they hadn't been determined to be conspiring: especially with monetary cases, such as the value of a ketubah, for example. But if he were to have died, he'd only have lost the value of the ketubah, without having to pay it out. So the risk of her having been widowed becomes part of the equation - including whether someone might have been willing to buy out the ketubah. Likewise, a case where the person they're testifying against has done the thing they're testifying about - and in that case, how much damage have they caused him? Also, a caveat about whether a loan is made with a promissory note - and how the default 30 days before asking for your money back kicks in only with a formal IOU. Plus, a concern about opening a collar on a shirt - and how that would be a violation of Shabbat, in contrast to removing the stopper from a wine barrel.

In this week's episode, we'll discuss when your retirement plan is really an IOU to the IRS and what you can do about it. If you have a certain amount in a pre-tax type of account, do you really have that much for your retirement? Would a Roth conversion be a wise choice for you? How can you fire the IRS from being your partner in retirement? Isn't it time to get answers to the tough retirement questions now?Join Certified Financial Fiduciary® and bestselling author Tim Wood each week to discuss protecting your retirement dollars, guaranteeing your lifetime income, wisely planning for taxes, and more. Visit us online at www.SafeMoneyRetirement.com for more information, to join us for this week's webinar, or to get a FREE copy of Tim's bestselling book.Safe Money Retirement® - Insuring Your Retirement Dreams

Dive into the future of AI in game development with this insightful panel from GDC featuring Aaron Farr (CTO at Jam and Tea Studios) and Liam Dean (Principal Analyst, Games at Omdia). They explore AI-native games, emergent gameplay, development acceleration, and how AI is transforming both game creation and player experiences. Essential viewing for game developers, executives, and anyone interested in how AI will reshape the gaming landscape.Timestamps0:00 - Introduction and panel overview1:50 - How revolutionary will AI be for gaming?3:30 - Current limitations of AI in game development5:10 - The concept of "AI native games" explained8:00 - Retail Mage: A real example of an AI native game11:10 - Emergent gameplay with AI - The painting IOU story14:20 - AI games vs. multiplayer games comparison17:40 - The controversy around AI in the games industry18:50 - Ethics of AI in game development22:20 - Who wins and loses with AI in game development?24:40 - The "organizational meta" and how AI will reshape studio structure27:40 - AI's impact on product development velocity30:20 - How traditional game studios will adapt (or fail)34:00 - Behind the scenes of an AI-native studio36:10 - How AI dramatically reduces development time (8 weeks vs 4 years)38:10 - The AI Dungeon Master example43:30 - Practical AI applications available right now47:10 - Q&A: Examples of AI-native games in the market49:30 - Q&A: Impact on staffing and team sizes52:40 - The future of game development organizationsSUBSCRIBE TO GAMEMAKERS:- Newsletter: https://gamemakers.substack.com/

April Fool's Day is all about jokes and pranks, but when it comes to retirement planning, getting fooled can cost you real money. Today, we're uncovering the beliefs that fool retirees and pre-retirees into making bad financial moves.   Important Links: Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com Call: 844-707-7381   ----more---- Transcript:  Speaker 1: It's time once again for another edition of Plan With The Tax Man. And April Fool's Day is around us, all about the jokes and the pranks, but when it comes to retirement strategies, we want to make sure we don't get fooled in a way that can cost us any real money. So let's talk about that this week here on the show.   What's going on everybody? Welcome into the podcast. This is Plan With The Tax Man, with Tony Mauro from Tax Doctor Inc. Serving folks all around the Iowa area. If you've got some questions, some concerns, need some help, please check him out and go talk with a qualified professional like Tony online. You can get some time on this calendar@yourplanningpros.com. That's yourplanningpros.com, or you can call him at 844-707-7381. We'll have information of the podcast if you'd like to click on those as well. Tony's got 30 years of experience helping people get to and through retirement, and a great resource for you to tap into. So, Tony, it is April Fool's Day-ish at the time we're dropping this. I think we're dropping this like maybe a few days beforehand, but are you a big prankster?   Tony Mauro: I'm a huge prankster.   Speaker 1: Are you?   Tony Mauro: It's my second favorite holiday, yeah.   Speaker 1: Oh, okay. All right. So does your wife get tired of it?   Tony Mauro: My wife gets tired of it, my son, my dad, everybody.   Speaker 1: Okay.   Tony Mauro: But they play them on me too, so yeah, we have a lot of fun with April Fools.   Speaker 1: Good. That's good. Yeah, my dad was pretty bad about it when he was with us. He was always pulling something on his family members, so it was like, all right, now you had to be on guard whenever it rolled around.   Tony Mauro: Absolutely.   Speaker 1: You knew he was up to something. But let's talk about a few categories here from a financial standpoint where we don't want to get fooled, Tony. We want to make sure, and look, it's super easy right now. Right. I mean, between the news headlines, social media, the polarization of people, whether you're left or right, you like the administration, you don't like the administration. Everybody's got an opinion every six seconds of the day. Right. And so it's very, very easy to see a bunch of stuff that maybe kind of gets you all worked up. Right.   So we want to make sure that we're not just stepping in something just because we're having a visceral reaction to some sort of media bombardment or whatever. So let's start with the high returns since obviously right now, Tony, we had a choppy March, right? So the markets were choppy. I think it's easy when we find it, we all love it when it's high, right? So we all love the market when it's doing well, and we've had a pretty good market for, let's be honest, we haven't really had a prolonged downturn, right? Since 08, 09. If you think about it, we're closing in on 20 years since we've had a sustained prolonged downturn.   Now we've had blips, we've had the COVID downturn, and we had different things. 22 was rough for a little bit as well, but it's not been sustained more than a couple of months, right? So I think people that are kind of get lulled into the, Hey, the market's beating you up, let's get you into this product that's got guaranteed high returns. Be careful of that, right? Make sure you're really doing your diligence and reading the fine print.   Tony Mauro: Yeah, you do have to have that, because it is, and I always know when maybe the markets are possibly too high, when everybody, especially people that are just tax clients, aren't wealth management clients are saying, "What do you think about this stock? What do you think about that stock?"   Speaker 1: Right.   Tony Mauro: And,-   Speaker 1: Or should I get into an annuity or whatever?   Tony Mauro: Yeah.   Speaker 1: Yeah.   Tony Mauro: All that kind of stuff, because they think that because where we've been for the last 20 or so years, returns are easy and there's some foolishness to that, I would say.   Speaker 1: Some fool, yeah, fool's goal, I think that's a good way. Yeah.   Tony Mauro: Because you got to look at it this way. High returns do come with volatility and some risk. And so whether it's in a stock or you're locking yourself up in an annuity, which is a whole different type of product, then you certainly got to understand what those risks are and have that explained to you. And if that's not your appetite for obtaining that return, which we always work off, we're trying to get you the best return based on how you want to get to point B, so to speak, with the least amount of volatility and the least amount of potential tax consequences. Now that may not be, and even come close to say S&P 500 returns, but for you that might be good, but for somebody else,-   Speaker 1: Good point.   Tony Mauro: It might not be.   Speaker 1: Yeah.   Tony Mauro: But don't just say, well, I want the highest return out there because there's always something new. Nobody, in my opinion, can accurately predict what the market is going to do tomorrow in the short term. Now, a lot of them, obviously, it's pretty easy to say, well, over the long term, that the market's the place to be.   Speaker 1: Oh, the market always comes back, right? I just saw this earlier today. We were just chatting about it, you and I, before we jumped on the podcast, and it was like, people are freaking out. "Oh, I'm losing my retirement because of this 10% correction we've had in March." And it's like, okay, first of all, and the immediate comment from someone is, "Well, don't worry. The market comes back." And they freak out and they go, "Well, I don't have time to wait for it to come back." Well, if you didn't have a strategy in place and you were planning on retiring and a 10% correction crippled you, then you weren't in good shape to begin with anyway.   Tony Mauro: No.   Speaker 1: Right.   Tony Mauro: And you shouldn't have been in the market if you're ready to retire or you should,-   Speaker 1: Not at 10%. Yeah. Yeah.   Tony Mauro: Not there. So it is,-   Speaker 1: Exactly.   Tony Mauro: We constantly battle that with tempering and making people understand and get their whole plan in front of them, just so they're not so focused on what's going on today,-   Speaker 1: Right. Right. Yep.   Tony Mauro: In the news.   Speaker 1: Yep. Which is the point of this podcast this week is, the April Fools, not that it's April Fools that they're pulling a prank, so to speak, but it's just kind of being fooled into things because of the constant bombardment of the media. You and I talked on the last podcast that in the course of the same day that we were chatting, the news cycle ran from the sky is falling earlier in the morning with the market to, oh, the outlook is looking pretty good because the inflation numbers came in and were down a half a point or a point.   Tony Mauro: Yeah.   Speaker 1: So they just run with whatever's going to get them eyeballs. So just make sure we're, I think we all know that, but whenever we start to panic a little bit, that's when that little devil on our shoulder kind of creeps up and taps us and says, Hey, be worried. So let's talk about the next one, which is the tax time bomb. Getting fooled into underestimating taxes on your account. And here's the angle I wanted to take on this, Tony. So again, regardless of what your political slant is, if you find yourself, and here's, let me set this up. It's going to take a second, folks, but I think it'll, hopefully it'll make sense.   I'm one of those people, Tony, that my personal health and the family history says I'm going to probably pass away young, right, in my 70s. Now I could totally plan to liquidate and blow through all my money and have big fun and spend it all by 72 when I think I'm going to croak. But if I'm wrong, right, I'm going to be screwed. I'm going to be screwed, right, because I'm not going to have anything. Well, if you're right now, if you're all excited about the no tax on social security, no tax on tips or the conversation about abolishing the IRS or getting away with, great. Look, if that happens and they get rid, I think I'm sure we'll all be dancing in the street if they get rid of the IRS.   However, if they don't, don't you think you should have a strategy for dealing with the tax time bomb that you're probably sitting on, right? And that's my point, right? If you've got a million dollars sitting in a 401K, don't just kind of like go fool's gold and think, Hey, Trump's going to eliminate all the taxes and Bob's your uncle and you're going to get to keep all that money. Be smart in the event that you still have to pay your RMDs or whatever.   Tony Mauro: And I mean, you look back through all of history. Now, keep in mind what I tell people when they start talking like this is, tell me where you think that this, the biggest arm, the only arm almost for collecting the accounts receivable for the US government is, which is the IRS. They're going to go away. How do you think the government will function? Now, maybe they'll, like you said, maybe they'll come up with something over time.   Speaker 1: Sure.   Tony Mauro: And,-   Speaker 1: Maybe the tariffs will be the end of the solution, whatever, right?   Tony Mauro: Maybe it will.   Speaker 1: Right.   Tony Mauro: But history points to, it's probably not. And many, many of us, I can't remember how many trillions is probably in the 401Ks right now, but we have,-   Speaker 1: That's a lot. Yeah.   Tony Mauro: We all have an IOU.   Speaker 1: Oh, yeah. It's almost 40 trillion, Tony. I'm glad you mentioned that.   Tony Mauro: It's 40 trillion?   Speaker 1: Yeah. Because the debt's 36 trillion, and they're always talking about the target that is, the retirement accounts is about 40 trillion out there.   Tony Mauro: We got 40 trillion. It's all in traditional 401Ks and of course,-   Speaker 1: A lot of tax money.   Tony Mauro: A lot of tax money. The IRS wants it. We all have an IOU to Uncle Sam with that money. And they know that and they want pieces of it. Hence, they're changing rules as we speak, that nobody seems to pay attention to when somebody dies and you inherit some of this stuff because they want their money.   Speaker 1: Yeah. Oh, yeah. And look, regardless of your stance, if DOGE does a good job and gets rid of some of the debt and some of the spending and our national debt's able to come down, maybe we don't have to tax ourselves into oblivion. Maybe that's the upside, right? Instead of going, we're in historically low tax rates, right, with the TCJA.   Tony Mauro: Just going to say that. Yeah.   Speaker 1: And at the time we're here taping this, Tony, we still don't know if that's going to get extended or not, right? Maybe it does, that's the prevailing wind, but maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. But at least if nothing else, if it does, then we don't have to necessarily go up in taxes. But you're still going to have to have a strategy for being tax efficient, because that's a big chunk of your retirement money.   Tony Mauro: And that's what we focus on, is trying to be as tax efficient as possible, especially from the tax angle side, from being tax people that we want to make sure that they're not getting any more than they have to.   Speaker 1: Right.   Tony Mauro: And so you have to, especially on the distribution stage, really be strategic about it and make sure you're following the rules and that you're not overpaying just because you don't know any better. And I think that's really the gist of it. And I would also encourage anybody go out and google the history of the tax rates. And you're right, we're at historically low tax rates compared to where we were just even in the 80s.   Speaker 1: Oh, yeah.   Tony Mauro: And so,-   Speaker 1: Well, even during the prior administration. If the TCJA expires, right, we're going back to what it was under Obama administration tax code. So even that goes up a little bit, so.   Tony Mauro: But that goes up. Now one could say, well the way to fix all this is just raise taxes. Well,-   Speaker 1: And nobody wants, I mean, look how we whine about,-   Tony Mauro: Nobody's going to do it.   Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, we get all bent out of shape about the stock market dropping 10%. You want to pay 10% more in taxes? Of course not.   Tony Mauro: Yeah. No. Nobody wants that. Nobody politically seems to want that. And of course, if you can't, it's like in business, if you can't control your spending, it doesn't matter how much you bring in.   Speaker 1: Yep. That's what,-   Tony Mauro: Right. I mean,-   Speaker 1: Right.   Tony Mauro: You got to do something.   Speaker 1: Isn't it wild where we're at as a society? We all know we got to control spending, yet when you get somebody in there that starts doing it, they start screaming foul and going, why are you cutting spending? It's like, because we have to. We're $36 trillion in debt. That's crazy.   Tony Mauro: That whole thing is,-   Speaker 1: We're in the goofiest time period.   Tony Mauro: Hours.   Speaker 1: Yeah.   Tony Mauro: Yeah. It's just crazy. But we have to, as advisors and as the public, we got to work with what we have.   Speaker 1: Right. You got to play by the rules. Yep.   Tony Mauro: We got to make it try to work for us and I think that's importance of planning.   Speaker 1: Yeah. I've said forever and a day, that it's their chessboard. We have to play by the functioning rules of the chess piece, right? If we're that chess piece is able to move one step at a time, then that's all we can do, right? So,-   Tony Mauro: We're done.   Speaker 1: We have to do those different pieces. So again, no matter what your political slant is, the point of this is you don't want to kind of fall for any one thing, one side or the other. You want to have a good strategy in the event that it does come through, or the event that it doesn't come through. Because you want to make sure that you can hopefully retire as efficiently as possible in any administration or any economy or whatever the case might be. So final one, we'll wrap it up this week just on a couple of things to be careful with, because we knew these were going to be some big ticket items Tony, is Medicare misunderstanding.   We'll switch gears and go to this one. Especially for the folks that are getting close to retirement, their first time stepping into it. My brother just got to 65. He's trying to get his bearings with understanding Medicare and the different things that it does. My mom's 80, in her mid 80s and she's quite used to it, so she's trying to school him on some things, but there's a lot of miscommunication out there on what it covers and what it doesn't.   Tony Mauro: There's tons of it and it's very complex. And then you add on to the top of it the federal government bureaucracy, and it makes it kind of a nightmare for a lot of retirees. But I can tell you this, it certainly doesn't, do not be fooled, it does not cover everything in retirement.   Speaker 1: Correct. Right.   Tony Mauro: You've got to make sure that you have some of these gaps and things covered.   Speaker 1: Yeah.   Tony Mauro: And that's where what I do is I have a Medicare specialist that I consult with for clients because I can't keep up on all those rules and he helps me with clients. And now of course, if he ends up selling them some insurance they need, well, obviously that's how he gets paid. But nevertheless, he really has the ins and outs of what it does and doesn't cover. And then also, okay, if something's not covered, are you willing to spend X to get it covered? And,-   Speaker 1: Good point.   Tony Mauro: Like everything else, you got to make a decision. Do you want to keep that as a gap and take that risk, or is that risk too big? But boy, Medicare, I mean, it serves a good base, but it does not cover everything and you really need to be on that.   Speaker 1: Yeah. Even within the same category too. And don't forget that they changed the way it's set up and providers can shift too. Like my mom recently, I think in the last couple of years she's gone through three different dentists because something happens with the program and the dentist she was going to says, "Well, we no longer accept it." Right. So, which is, I didn't think you could do that, but apparently you can. So different places can accept different things at different levels. So you have to kind of see who's in network, right, and who's out, all that kind of stuff.   Tony Mauro: My dad's like that. And like I say, he's 83 and he is over insured in this area because he like buys everything just because he doesn't want any gaps. And I think he, we tried to get him not to do that and because he's actually kind of wasting a little money.   Speaker 1: Sure. Sure.   Tony Mauro: But sometimes it does work in his favor.   Speaker 1: Makes him happy, right? So,-   Tony Mauro: Makes him happy.   Speaker 1: He walks in and he's covered, I guess, so.   Tony Mauro: He's covered. Yeah, I mean, he's got coverage, but to your point, sometimes it changes and then he sees a lot of different doctors and whatnot, not because he wants to, because like the plan change covered and they say, "Nope, you got to go over here now."   Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. She sees the same thing. So a lot of misunderstandings when it comes to Medicare as well. So just make sure that you're working with some professionals who can help you. Most advisors, offices, if they don't have a Medicare person on staff, they usually have someone they refer people out to so they can kind of, especially someone who does this in and out every day, they kind of know the nitty-gritty a little bit better. So if you need some help with that, as always, make sure you're reaching or any of the stuff that we talk about, make sure that you're talking with a qualified pro like Tony and his team at Tax Doctor Inc. You can find them online at yourplanningpros.com. That is yourplanningpros.com.   Don't forget to subscribe to us on Apple or Spotify here at Plan With The Tax Man. Simply type the name of the podcast into the search box. You can find it that way. Or just go to the website, make it easy on yourself, yourplanningpros.com. We'll have links in the descriptions below. And as always, we appreciate your time. Tony, thanks for hanging out my friend. And don't be too hard on folks when you pull some pranks on them in April.   Tony Mauro: Oh, no. No, I'll just get my family and we'll see what happens. I'll let you know on the next podcast.   Speaker 1: All right. Let me know how it goes. Yeah, my dad was crazy. He would pull something that got a little mean-spirited sometimes. It's like, all right, now you need to back it off a little bit there, bud. So have yourself a good one, folks. We'll see you next time here on Plan With The Tax Man.   Securities offered through Avantax Investment Services SM, member FINRA, SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Avantax Advisory Services. Insurance services offered through an Avantax affiliated insurance agency. Investment strategies discussed in this episode may not be suitable for all investors. Please consult with a financial professional.

If there's ever been a Know Your Enemy subject worthy of two episodes, it is Elon Musk—currently the world's richest man, CEO and leader of several pathbreaking companies, ringleader of the Department of Government Efficiency, and (for now) Donald Trump's co-president. In other words, to understand what's happening in the United States during the second Trump administration, it's essential to understand Musk: what shaped him, his enduring preoccupations and personality traits, how he made his vast fortune, and why, in unprecedented ways, he decided to go all in on Trump.In this second of two episodes on Musk, Matt and Sam bring his story up to the present. After offering a few concluding details on Musk's various romantic and familial entanglements, they chart the course of his political derangement, especially focusing on his seeming addiction to Twitter—the social media platform he eventually bought and renamed "X," which also is the name he gave one of his young sons. Musk's purchase of Twitter is treated as a case study in how the billionaire now tends to operate, from his penchant for making wild claims and impulsive decisions, to the way he manages people, tasks, and money. The discussion concludes with a theory of why Trump made such a show of buying a Tesla at the White House, and how to understand what Musk is up to with his erratic, ignorant work at DOGE, with plenty of eyebrow-raising details along the way.As mentioned: Join Matt and Sam and Jamelle Bouie at Dissent magazine's fundraiser on April 8 in New York!Listen again: "Becoming Elon Musk, Part One"Sources:Kate Conger & Ryan Mac, Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter (2024)Walter Isaacson, Elon Musk (2023)Ashlee Vance, Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (2015)Ella Yurman, "Vivian Jenna Wilson on Being Elon Musk's Estranged Daughter, Protecting Trans Youth and Taking on the Right Online," Mar 20, 2025Kylie Cheung, "World's Richest Man Allegedly Refuses to Pay Appropriate Child Support," Jezebel, Mar 21, 2025Faiz Siddiqui, "Elon Musk is worth $270 billion. He'd buy Twitter with an IOU," WaPo, April 22, 2022Theodore Schleifer  & Maggie Haberman "Elon Musk Seeks to Put $100 Million Into Trump Political Operation," NYTimes, Mar 11, 20225.Eric Lipton, "Musk Is Positioned to Profit Off Billions in New Government Contracts," NYTimes, Mar 23, 2025.Jessie Blaeser, "DOGE shared its receipts — and some of them don't match," Politico, Feb 22, 2025. Hadas Gold, "Trump says he'll buy a Tesla to support Elon Musk, whose companies are struggling," CNN, Mar 11, 2025.Sam Adler-Bell, "Capital without Borders," Commonweal, Feb 8, 2017.  ...and don't forget to subscribe to Know Your Enemy on Patreon to access to all of our bonus episodes!

Sign-up for my free 20-day devotional, The Word Before Work Foundations, at http://TWBWFoundations.com--Series: Wisdom for Work from PhilippiansDevotional: 2 of 4Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. (Philippians 2:14-15)Want to “shine among” the non-Christians you work with? Paul tells you how: “Do everything without grumbling or arguing.” Apparently, working without grumbling and complaining was as countercultural in Paul's day as it is in ours.C.S. Lewis once said that, “Hell begins with a grumbling mood.” The inverse is also true. People can get a whiff of heaven through the joyful mood of its citizens. Dr. Randy Alcorn goes so far as to say that, “Happiness in Christ is one of our most powerful evangelistic tools.”The question, of course, is how can we be joyful and work without grumbling when your co-worker replies all to yet another email or your boss makes an urgent request at 4:45 on a Friday? By focusing on what Christ has done for us.Just a few verses before today's passage, Paul writes about how Christ “humbled himself by becoming obedient to death” for you and me (see verse 8). “Therefore,” Paul says in verse 14, “do everything without grumbling or arguing.”The cross is the source of our joy amidst less than desirable circumstances. Once you focus on what Christ accomplished for you at Calvary, grumbling about the smell in the office refrigerator feels ridiculous. Tim Keller once compared it to being a “spiritual billionaire…wringing your hands over ten dollars.”Grumbling is so second nature we often don't notice we're doing it. Here are three simple ways to prevent, confess, and respond to complaining.First, prevent grumbling by writing Philippians 2:14-15 somewhere you'll see it while you work. On a post-it note, your phone background—wherever.Second, confess grumbling by creating a grumble jar. And every time you or someone on your team complains, drop in a dollar (or, if you're like me and never carry cash, an IOU to tally later). My family and I did this recently to break a different habit and it was shockingly effective. We were able to kick our habit in less than a month. Finally, respond to grumbling by expressing gratitude. Think back to the last thing you complained about and thank God for something related to that thing. For example, this morning I grumbled about the house being a mess. But I then said a quick prayer of gratitude that I have children to make said mess.Do whatever it takes to wrestle your grumbling to the ground, believer. Because as Dr. Alcorn put it, “Our happiness makes the gospel contagiously appealing; our unhappiness makes it alarmingly unattractive.”

Most people think they've done everything right by saving in a traditional IRA or 401(k). But what if I told you that a big portion of your retirement savings actually belongs to the IRS?In this episode, we'll break down a recent CNBC article featuring insights from IRA expert Ed Slott, who calls traditional IRAs "the worst possible asset" for retirement.Here's what you'll learn: ✔️ Why your IRA is an IOU to the IRS✔️ How Required Minimum Distributions (RMDs) can push you into higher tax brackets✔️ When a Roth conversion makes sense✔️ The importance of building tax diversification with Roth accounts and brokerage accountsIf you want to keep more of your hard-earned wealth and pay less in taxes in retirement, this is one episode you don't want to miss.Episode ResourcesCNBC Article Don't Miss Out: Smart Retirement Savers Read Atomic IdeasWant weekly tips to make smarter financial decisions? Subscribe to Atomic Ideas, a free newsletter packed with timely market insights, helpful visuals, and proven retirement strategies.Get Atomic IdeasReady to Create Your Atomic Retirement?Take the next step! Schedule your FREE 20-minute Atomic Retirement Roadmap appointment today. What's included? Tax Return ReviewInvestment Check-UpRetirement Income AnalysisGet Your Free Atomic Retirement RoadmapShare Your ThoughtsEnjoyed this episode? Please leave a review and share it with someone who's planning for retirement.

Place your bets with these old time radio mysteries involving gamblers and the (sometimes) crooked games they play. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson find murder among the roulette tables of a French casino in "The Case of the Double Zero," starring Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce (originally aired on Mutual on November 19, 1945). Philip Marlowe tries to find a friend's stolen IOU but stumbles across a corpse during the search in "The Promise to Pay" (originally aired on CBS on May 14, 1949), and Nero Wolfe is hired to find out who dealt a deadly hand during a poker game in "The Case of the Killer Cards" (originally aired on NBC on January 12, 1951). Finally, Sgt. Joe Friday hunts for the man who's impersonating a cop to extort money from gamblers in "The Big Shakedown" from Dragnet (originally aired on NBC on May 22, 1952).

We all know the best way to overcome objections is to not have them in the first place (which we will get into how to show up better for yourself and why that's so important) but when they do happen, it's important to have some strategies and tactics in your back pocket and what I'm going to share with you today made us and our IFCA clients thousands of dollars we wouldn't have made otherwise. We'll go over the IOU strategy when it comes to referrals, prerequisites of being a great coach and salesperson in the first place, share a bonus ambassador strategy with you, and more!   Time Stamps:   (1:02) The Best Way To Overcome Objections (1:17) Our Former Company T4E Systems (4:39) Being The Leader For Your Prospects (6:39) Prerequisites For A Great Salesperson (9:04) Tom Cruise Example (10:14) Objection Handling (12:04) Referral Tactic (14:09) Bonus Time: Ambassador Program (16:44) Please Leave A Rating and Review ---------- Whenever You're Ready, Here Are 4 Ways We Can Help You (For Free)   (Community) Join the Fitness Business Secrets FB  Community to Unlock Your Free 5 Clients in 5 Days Mini-Course   (Content) Grab our exact post templates that are responsible for more than 3,500 online clients in our business Automated Post Planner   (Instagram) 3-5x Your Engagement, Grow an Audience and Generate Dream Clients from Instagram IG Playbook For Health & Fitness Coaches   (Get Clarity) Schedule a FREE No-Obligation 15-minute Call to Explore How To Add 10,000/Mo to Your Business–Guaranteed

In this episode of Leaning Into Leadership, Dr. Darrin Peppard sits down with Dr. Joe Famularo, a veteran educator and superintendent, to explore his IOU Leadership framework. Dr. Famularo shares his journey from classroom teacher to district leader, the principles that guide his leadership, and how the IOU model—Inward, Outward, and Upward Leadership—helps leaders build a thriving culture rooted in trust and continuous improvement.Key Topics Covered:✅ The IOU Leadership Framework: What it means to lead inward, outward, and upward.✅ The Role of Self-Awareness in Leadership: Why knowing yourself is the foundation for effective leadership.✅ Building a Culture of Trust: The impact of relationships and shared leadership in schools.✅ Living with Intention vs. Living by Default: How to shift from reactive to proactive leadership.✅ PH2E Life Propeller Assessment: A tool to evaluate personal and professional growth.✅ The Importance of Clear Vision and Common Language: How defining values and mission creates sustainable success in schools.✅ Leader in Me & The 7 Habits: How Covey's principles influenced his district's transformation.About Dr. Joe FamularoDr. Joe Famularo is a lifelong educator with over 34 years in the same district, including 18 as superintendent. Passionate about leadership and continuous improvement, he developed the IOU Leadership framework to help individuals and organizations create cultures of trust, purpose, and excellence. He is the author of IOU Life Leadershipand the upcoming book IOU School Leadership.

Get more notes at https://podcastnotes.org Live Below Your Means For Freedom (Listen) Episode 6* “People who are living far below their means enjoy a freedom that people busy upgrading their lifestyle just can't fathom” – Naval Ravikant* Once you start making money, keep living like your old/poorer self* When you upgrade your life as you make more money, you just stay in the “wage slave trap”* Nassim Taleb has said – “The most dangerous things are heroin and a monthly salary”* They're both highly addictive* One reason the very high marginal tax rates for the so-called wealthy are flawed:* For many people, they toil/work extremely hard for decades, and then it finally pays off with a massive payday* “Then of course Uncle Sam shows up, and basically says, ‘Hey, you know what, you just made a lot of money this year. Therefore, you're rich. Therefore, you're evil and you've got to hand it all over to us.' So, it just destroys those kinds of creative risk-taking professions.” – Naval RavikantGive Society What it Doesn't Know How to Get (Listen) | Episode 7* Get rich by giving society what it doesn't yet know how to get – at scale* Money is like an IOU from society for something you did good in the past, that you can use in the future* “Society always wants new things and if you want to be wealthy, figure out which one of those things you can provide for society that it does not yet know how to get, but it will want, that's natural to you and within your capabilities. And then you have to figure out how to scale it.” – Naval Ravikant* Creations start as just an act of creativity* Then, for a little while, only rich people have it (like a chauffeur)* Then it makes its way to everyone (like Uber)* “Entrepreneurship is essentially an act of creating something new from scratch, predicting that society will want it, and then figuring out how to scale it and get it to everybody in a profitable and self-sustaining way.” – Naval RavikantThe Internet Has Massively Broadened Career Possibilities (Listen) | Episode 8* “The internet has massively broadened the possible space of careers. Most people haven't figured this out yet.” – Naval Ravikant* The internet connects everyone on the planet* This means that you can find an audience for your product/service no matter how far away they are* “The internet allows any niche obsession…from people who collect snakes to people who like to ride hot air balloons to people who like to sail around the world by themselves…whatever nice obsession you have, the internet allows you to scale.” – Naval Ravikant* “If you want to reach 50,000 passionate people like you, there's an audience out there for you”* “Each person on Earth has different interests and obsessions, and it's that diversity that becomes a creative superpower” – Naval Ravikant* Before the internet – this didn't really matter* Your town/village didn't necessarily need your unique creative skill* But now – you can go out on the internet and find your audience and utilize that to build wealth* The space of careers has been broadened -Examples:* People are now able to upload videos to Youtube to make a living – this wasn't possible 50 years ago* Professional bloggers* Podcasters – Joe Rogan makes about $100 million per year from his podcast alone* “The internet enables any niche interest, as long as you're the best at it, to scale-out” – Naval Ravikant* Because every human is different, everyone is the best at something* “Escape competition through authenticity” – Naval Ravikant* Just do your own thing – “No one can compete with you on being you”* “The more authentic you are, the less competition you're gonna have”Play Long-term Games With Long-term People (Listen) | Episode 9* “All the benefits in life come from compound interest” – Naval Ravikant* Whether it's in relationships, life, your career, health, or learning* Long-term games are good for both compound interest AND trust* If you want to be successful, more likely than not, you'll need to work with other people* You'll need to figure out who you can trust over a long period of time, so you can keep working with them so that eventually compound interest will let you collect the major rewards* If you keep switching careers/networks – compound interest can't take effect* Add to that – you won't know who to trust and your new network won't know to trust you* “It's important to pick an industry where you can play long-term games with long-term people” – Naval Ravikant* A good analogy:* In a long-term game, everyone is making each other rich* It's positive-sum* In a short-term game, everyone is making themselves richPick Partners With Intelligence, Energy and Integrity (Listen) | Episode 10* Pick people to work with who have high intelligence, high energy, and high integrity – you CANNOT compromise on this* The world is full of smart/lazy people – this is why high energy is important* But high integrity is the most important* Otherwise, you just have a smart/hardworking crook who will eventually cheat you* How do you figure out if someone has good integrity?* Read signals* “Signals are what people do, despite what they say” – Naval Ravikant* If someone treats a waiter badly, it's only a matter of time before they treat you badly* Another tip – Find people to work with who seem irrationally ethical* “Self-esteem is the reputation that you have with yourself” – Naval Ravikant* Good/ethical/reliable people tend to have high self-esteem because they have good reputations with themselves* “Generally, the more someone is saying that they're moral, and ethical, and high integrity, the less likely they are to be that way” – Naval Ravikant* Similarly – “If you openly talk about how honest, and reliable, and trustworthy you are, you're probably not that honest and trustworthy”* Sam Altman has said – “One of the important things for delegation is to delegate to people who are actually good at the thing that you want them to do”* “I almost won't start a company, or hire a person, or work with somebody if I just don't think they're into what I want them to do” – Naval Ravikant* “If you're trying to keep someone motivated for the long term, that motivation has to come intrinsically” – Naval RavikantPartner With Rational Optimists (Listen) | Episode 11* Don't partner with pessimists* Avoid them* To create great things, you have to be a rational optimist* Rational in the way you see the world* Optimistic in your capabilities* “All of the really successful people I know have a really strong action bias. They just do things.” – Naval Ravikant* The easiest way to figure out if something is viable or not is by doing it* “You've got one life on this planet. Why not try to build something big?” – Naval Ravikant* But do know that it takes a lot of effort to build even small things* “I don't think the corner grocery store owner is working any less hard than Elon Musk“ – Naval Ravikant* Think BIG – but be rational about it* Being an irrational optimist > being a rational cynic* If you think about it, we're descended from pessimists* If two people were in a forest 10,000 years ago, and they hear a tiger – the optimist doesn't run and ends up getting eaten, while the pessimist books it and survives* “We're genetically wired to be pessimists, but modern society is far, far safer” – Naval Ravikant* “It made sense to be pessimistic in the past, but it makes sense to be an optimist today”* In society today, we're dealing with situations which have limited downside and unlimited upside* Just think – if you build the next Tesla or SpaceX you can create billions of dollars of value for society (and yourself)* If you fail, so what? A few investors lose money and you're right back to where you started.Arm Yourself With Specific Knowledge (Listen) | Episode 12* “We have this idea that everything can be taught…..everything can be taught in school. And it's not true that everything can be taught. In fact, the most interesting things cannot be taught. But everything can be learned.” – Naval Ravikant* Specific knowledge is the knowledge that you care most about* You can't be trained for specific knowledge* If it were possible to be trained for it – then someone else could be trained for it too* You'd then be extremely replaceable – by other humans and eventually robots* How do you discover your specific knowledge?* “Specific knowledge is found by pursuing your innate talents, your genuine curiosity, and your passion” – Naval Ravikant* “If you're not 100% into it, then someone else who is 100% into it will outperform you”* Look back on your own life and see what you're uniquely good at* Specific knowledge is the stuff that feels like play to you but looks like work to othersSpecific Knowledge is Highly Creative or Technical (Listen) | Episode 13* Warren Buffet once went to Benjamin Graham, author of The Intelligent Investor, and offered to work for him for free so he could learn about investing* Benjamin told him – “Actually you're overpriced. Free is overpriced.”* Apprenticeships are VALUABLE – if specific knowledge can somehow be taught, this is how* Specific knowledge tends to be highly technical or creative – on the bleeding edge of art, communication, or tech* An example of specific knowledge – what Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has done with his career* He's essentially becoming one of the most credible people in the world by making persuasive arguments and videos on Periscope* What he does will NEVER be automated* Specific knowledge can only be built by spending lots of time doing whatever you're obsessed/interested in* It can't be taught in a book or course* Career Advice – Aim to get in the 10-25th percentile of 2-3 things and then combine them instead of trying to be the very best at only one thing* Scott Adams originated this idea in this blog post* For example: Become a very good writer and knowledgeable about finance – then write about finance* Double down on what you're a “natural” at* Everyone is a natural at something* “Take the things that you are natural at and combine them so that you automatically, just through sheer interest and enjoyment, end up top in the top 25% or top 10% or top 5% at a number of things.” – Naval RavikantLearn to Sell, Learn to Build – You Will Be Unstoppable (Listen) | Episode 14* “Learn to sell, learn to build, if you can do both, you will be unstoppable.” – Naval Ravikant* Every business has someone who's building/trying to grow it* Then there's sales* But selling can mean marketing, communicating, recruiting, raising money, inspiring people, or doing PR* The great companies have a killer combo of builder + seller* Example – Apple (Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak)* Venture investors look for this combo whenever possible* If you can BOTH build and sell – it's a superpower* Someone like Elon Musk or Marc Andreessen* “The real giants in any field are the people who can both build and sell” – Naval Ravikant* “Long term, people who understand the underlying product and how to build it and can sell it, these are catnip to investors. These people can break down walls if they have enough energy, and they can get almost anything done.” – Naval Ravikant* It's much more difficult for someone skilled in selling to pick up the building skill than vice versaGo to Podcastnotes.org to read the full notes Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

Welcome to today's Wacky Wednesday episode as we start Phase 4 of the From Ashes to Destiny curriculum. This episode is from Chapter 13 of Phase 4 and deals with the story of IOU. We look at those people who trouble us and what we have learned in recovery by influencing us to turn to others ideas and reject what they told us in rehab or in the program. IOU's story ends with him waiting for the morning bus to go back to rehab, but for him the morning never came. Are you ready to stop waiting for tomorrow, for your morning bus?

Indiana basketball earned their biggest win of the season with an 84-74 home win over Rutger, who was without star freshman Dylan Harper.  Ace Bailey tried to make up for the loss with 39 points, but the Scarlet Knights could not overcome Indiana's 3-point shooting and offensive rebounding.  Todd Leary breaks it all down and previews IOU at Penn State on Sunday at the Palestra in Philladelphia. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/indiana-sports-beat-radio-with-jim-coyle--3120150/support.

In the case of one who wrote an IOU document in his own handwriting, without witnesses, then the collection can only take place from unencumbered property -- even if that same IOU was later ratified in court. A bill of divorce is brought in the attempt to argue that such a document should function as a complete IOU and be able to collect from property that has a lien on it. Though the Gemara highlights the differences in the cases instead of accepting the argument. Also, in the case of needing the collect (and pay back) the guarantor... to avoid being strangled. With praise going to one sage, even though the halakhic decision is not according to him -- because the process of halakhic thinking is part of what is needed.

“Dr. Cheryl, how can I be more present for my sweetheart?” “What's the number one gift to give my spouse?” “How do I make Christmas more exciting?” This season, remember that gifts don't have to have a monetary value. Show your partner you care by being intentional and letting them know how much they matter to you. A happy, healthy relationship involves shared rituals—why not give your lover the gift of presence? On today's classic episode of Sex, Love, and Elephants, you'll hear a rerelease of one of my all time favorite episodes where I focus on the sex and love part of Christmas and show you some special ways to make this time together magical.  Remember being a kid on Christmas morning, waking up even before the sun… overwhelmed and giddy at the idea of what Santa Claus might've brought? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to recapture that special, magical feeling—even long after we stop believing in old St. Nick? In This Episode, You Will Learn: Yes, you CAN make the holidays more romantic and sexy and avoid becoming totally burnt out by the end of the season (04:33)  It's not about the presents, it's about the presence (11:00) If you've got  little inquiring eyes and ears around, put your stocking stuffer in an envelope or add an IOU for an erotic massage (12:34) If you don't celebrate Christmas, you don't have to put your gifts in a stocking (13:52) Why not try out The 12 Days of Christmas for Couples? Instead of a partridge in a pear tree, what about dancing to a romantic song together in the living room? (18:08) Today's LoveByte (25:52) Want to learn more about Buddhism and relationships? Cheryl's book Buddha's Bedroom is a great resource! Want to rate your relationship on the three keys to great long term love? Take the Passion Quiz. Let's Connect!   Website - Sign up for Weekly LoveBytes here  Youtube Follow @drcherylfraser on Instagram 

More on people who have the same name -- and a need for a scribe to write an IOU -- with a third approach to making the deal work, including, if both parties are present at the scribe. Also, a new mishnah! When one of many (or even 2) IOUs has been paid back - and the holder of them doesn't know which of them is paid back -- the mishnah says to act stringently, to ensure nobody would be paying back twice. Also, another new mishnah! On the role of a guarantor - and how one might cheat via the guarantor, or cheat him. But what if the original signatory has the funds to pay? Plus, the supporting story of Benjamin and the cup in leaving the halls of Egypt (for a different kind of guarantor), including a biblical prooftext.

Shtaros to be careful to make sure they dont seem like sheker and an IOU chov

Everyone agrees that if the date of an IOU is the date of a Shabbat or Yom Kippur, the given assumption is that the document was post-dated, with some occasions that - despite this apparent exceptions that are the subject of a dispute between Rabbi Yehudah and Rabbi Yossi. Also, other cases of bills being dated to some future date, after the funds for that bill becoming available -- presumably for financial flexibility.

When an apparently previous owner claims he is the current owner, against the apparent current owner. What kind of proof would be necessary? All of which leads into a case and a story - to summarize the issues and the legal decision: an outstanding loan that is contested. Also, a new mishnah! The case of one who has paid a portion of his debt, what do you do with the IOU notes? How much scope for confusion - or fraud - and when do you need the courts?

Rabbi Shimon ben Gamliel prepared documents occurring to the practice of the land - regular or bound/tied - but did he have to? Certainly, the different kinds of documents are available as options. Plus, an agreement for kiddushin, based on a dinar of gold -- that turns out to be silver, with all the ramifications (except it seems to be approved). And the question of how precise people are with their words, when specifying details or conditions of a document. Also, a regular document with one witness, or a tied document with only two witnesses -- especially when combined with some other form of authentication, after debating, the sages sent the question to R. Yirmiyah in Babylonia. He demurs, but also answers. At least tentatively. Plus, a different version of what gets sent to R. Yirmiyah - with the question of whether two decisions from two different courts can combine, as it were, to be testimony. Also, a new mishnah! On claiming a lesser amount than an IOU.

Boortz tells you about the biggest scam in American hisory: Social Security. He prepares you for how social scurity IOU's will run out!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Boortz tells you about the biggest scam in American hisory: Social Security. He prepares you for how social scurity IOU's will run out!Atlanta's ONLY All Conservative News & Talk Station.: https://www.xtra1063.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you plead? Tonight's show is inspired by favors, and Frank is on his knees trying to coax Joanne into his scheme. Joanne gets settled in the catbird seat as Frank, the dog, learns to beg. Our cuties spin stories of tit for tat involving an x-rated chore wheel, a prowling cougar, a friend cashing in his IOU and handywoman ready to do some mounting. Our callers this week included the talents of Ross Child, Meghan Falcone, Pat Harvey, and Hannah Schooner. Our story editor is Aliza Brugger. Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club is a semi-improvised audio drama set in the studio of New Mexico’s 2nd-best relationship call-in show. On-air, Josie mends the broken hearts of a weekly collection of hilarious improvisers. Off-air, listeners get to eavesdrop on the life of Josie’s secret identity: shy, unassuming Joanne Holtzinger. Join Joanne and her puckish producer Frank as they navigate the pitfalls of love and fame as the show slowly becomes a national sensation. Josie’s Lonely Hearts Club is brought to you by the Good Story Guild. Keep track of us on Instagram @goodstoryguild and join our Discord. If you enjoyed the show, consider leaving a rating and/or review on your preferred podcast listening platform. Nighty night, cuties.

How do you plead? Tonight's show is inspired by favors, and Frank is on his knees trying to coax Joanne into his scheme. Joanne gets settled in the catbird seat as Frank, the dog, learns to beg. Our cuties spin stories of tit for tat involving an x-rated chore wheel, a prowling cougar, a friend cashing in his IOU and handywoman ready to do some mounting. Our callers this week included the talents of Ross Child, Meghan Falcone, Pat Harvey, and Hannah Schooner. Our story editor is Aliza Brugger. Josie's Lonely Hearts Club is a semi-improvised audio drama set in the studio of New Mexico's 2nd-best relationship call-in show. On-air, Josie mends the broken hearts of a weekly collection of hilarious improvisers. Off-air, listeners get to eavesdrop on the life of Josie's secret identity: shy, unassuming Joanne Holtzinger. Join Joanne and her puckish producer Frank as they navigate the pitfalls of love and fame as the show slowly becomes a national sensation. Josie's Lonely Hearts Club is brought to you by the Good Story Guild. Keep track of us on Instagram @goodstoryguild and join our Discord. If you enjoyed the show, consider leaving a rating and/or review on your preferred podcast listening platform. Nighty night, cuties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If you're in line, STAY IN LINE! Or come back later, most states have an IOU vote policy Listen here for real time live updates to the 2024 presidential election (recorded 2 days before and released 3 days after, but they script that shit anyway so we just asked and got an early edit)

Keith discusses the inefficiency of compound interest in wealth building, advocating for compound leverage through real estate investments. He illustrates how a $100,000 investment in a $500,000 property at a 6% annual return can yield much higher returns due to leverage (see the math below). He also explains how mortgage rates are influenced by long-term bond yields and discusses the benefits of real estate over stocks. A coaching call with GRE Investment Coach Naresh highlights the process of investing in real estate, including financing considerations and the role of a coach in guiding investors.  Here's the math on a 5:1 leveraged RE return at a 6% appreciation rate:  Year One: $500,000 x 1.06 = $530,000. Subtract $400K debt = $130,000 equity Year Two: $530,000 x 1.06 = $561,800. Subtract $400K debt = $161,800 equity Year Three: $561,800 x 1.06 = $595,508. Subtract $400K debt = $195,508 equity. GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREmarketplace.com/Coach Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/526 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  You get paid first: Text FAMILY to 66866 For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”  Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript:   Automatically Transcribed With Otter.ai   Keith Weinhold  0:00   Keith, welcome to GRE I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, make America rich again in play numbers. You'll get a fresh take today on how compound interest does not build wealth and compound leverage does. Then you'll learn about how bond market moves affect mortgage rates. Finally, you get to listening to a call between one of our investment coaches and a GRE follower today on Get Rich Education.   Speaker 1  0:33   Since 2014 the powerful get rich education podcast has created more passive income for people than nearly any other show in the world. This show teaches you how to earn strong returns from passive real estate investing in the best markets without losing your time being a flipper or landlord. Show Host Keith Weinhold writes for both Forbes and Rich Dad advisors, and delivers a new show every week since 2014 there's been millions of listener downloads of 188 world nations. He has a list show guests and key top selling personal finance author Robert Kiyosaki, get rich education can be heard on every podcast platform, plus it has its own dedicated Apple and Android listener phone apps build wealth on the go with the get rich education podcast. Sign up now for the get rich education podcast or visit get rich education.com   Corey Coates  1:19   You're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  1:35   Welcome to GRE from Altoona, Pennsylvania to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold, and this is get rich education, the voice of real estate investing Since 2014 you're going to hear some things that you've never heard before today, and some listeners tell us that GRE is unlike any real estate information they've ever heard. And with what I want to tell you today, well, again, it's information that I've never heard anywhere else, either. So what I endeavor to regularly do for you here on this show is to tell you what I wish I had known sooner make America rich again, nope, that is not my presidential campaign platform for my run in the year 2032, or anything like that. It is this, don't get your money to work for you. In fact, if you want real wealth, don't work for money or get your money to work for you. Don't make either of those things the focus anyway, avoid growing your money through compound interest, because that's not the formula either. Now you and I have covered that ground before, if you're new here, and that material makes you say what you might have thought things like that were the holy grail of wealth building, nope, and today, for the first time on the show, in over 500 episodes, I'm gonna put some real numbers to that to show you exactly what I mean. Let me explain to you how to invest to truly win in a way that you've never seen in your life. You're not gonna improve only your life, but generationally, your entire family's life. At your job, you are like a dock worker. You're trying to pull your boat up to the dock so that you can then make a short, easy hop onto the boat and get away. And you'll learn how I did that and how I would begin investing today if I could start all over again. Now, after I had graduated college and had a job, I used to think, Well, yeah, I'll invest through a 401K in mutual funds, because it's easy and it's just deducted right from my paycheck. Well, when you do the easy thing in life, there's usually not much reward. And back then, I thought, Well, why would I invest in real estate anyway? I mean, a stock and mutual fund return on investment is about 10% over time. Real Estate is more like five or 6% plus real estate has all these maintenance hassles, and in the stock market, your 10% return enjoys compound interest. I don't really know how that works over on the real estate side, all right. Well, let's look at some numbers with how this would all work anyway. Here we go with $100,000 invested in stocks at 10% after year one, it's grown to $110,000 in year two, you don't just have 120k you've got more, because the 10% compounds on the 110 10k so now in year two, you've got $121,000 and I bet that you don't see any problem in this yet, right? Hey, things are going great. And after year three, you're up to $133,100 All right, so there we are. You begin with 100k and after three years, you've got then $33,100 in profit, your gain, on top of your 100k All right, that's what compound interest does. Well, let's take a closer look at that. $33,100 first, okay, I could attack it a slew of reasonable ways, if I wanted to, we could subtract out the constant drags on that of inflation, emotion, taxes, fees and volatility. But let's just take one volatility. We smoothed out our 10% return saying that you achieved it every year in that example there, we know that does not happen in the real world. Stocks are volatile, and the more volatile the return, the lower the return. Because instead, if you were up 20% one year and then down 20% the next year, which stocks are known to do you're not even you're down your 100k would instead go up to 120k in year one and down to 96k in year two, a loss, like I've told you before, that right there is the difference between what's called the compounded annual growth rate and the average annual return. But we'll just leave stocks number right there. We'll say that despite all five drags, volatility, of which is just one, the compound interest still somehow gave you this $33,100 gain. That number is about to look really disappointing, and this is about to get really interesting.    Let's compare that to real estate, and we'll say that despite that, it only returns, say, 6% per year here. Well, how do most people buy real estate? They do it with other people's money. OPM, remember earlier that I talked to you about how you don't create wealth from getting only your money to work for you, like you did in the stock example. Yeah, here's how you ethically use other people's money to buy real estate. When you invest 100k in a rental property. That's your 20% down. You get to borrow 80% from the bank, 400k so now you control a $500,000 property. And here's the thing, its entire value appreciates a 6% all 500k not only your 100k invested, yes, so you're now about to get the return on both your 100k and all of the bank's money. 400k that you get to leverage returns from both are about to go to you. Oh, yes, let's run these numbers, instead of compound interest, you're about to get compound leverage, using those borrowed funds to amplify your own return. So with your 100k invested on a 500k property at 6% after year one, you've got 130k after year two, $161,800 and after year three, $195,508 why? Because, again, your 6% return was accumulating on the 500k property. All right, so after year three, with this $195,508 you're gonna subtract out your 100k down payment, and your gain is $95,508 All right, that is compared to your compound interest based stock and mutual fund return of just $33,100 if you'd like to see the math for that leverage. Return that is in the show notes. Look for it there. See, by employing other people's money, it's like when you were a kid and in the evening, your body cast a shadow five times taller than you actually were. That's how leverage allows you to magnify returns and appear to be a bigger, taller investor than you actually are. Yes, your 20% down payment on real estate gave you five to one leverage amplifying your returns. If you listen to the show for a while, you understand that, but you never saw that numeric dollar per dollar comparison like we just did. So after three years, how about 33k profit on stocks and 95k on real estate? Real estate returns almost three times as much. But in reality, it's probably more than a 3x win for real estate because you're 95 Gain over three years in real estate, equity is actually going to be higher, because your tenant is also paying down your principal balance on your 400k loan every single month for 36 months in this three year example, if your property is vacant, 10% of the time they paid it down for you 33 out of 36 months, and as we know, at the same time, inflation pays down your loan even faster than the tenant does. Real Estate is also more tax advantaged than your stock gain, because you never have to pay capital gains tax on your 95k profit with a 1031 tax deferred exchange. And on the downside for real estate, upon owning the property, you will need to pay closing costs of maybe four to 5% of the purchase price. All right now, in this 95k gain for real estate versus 33k gain for stocks, I did some rounding there. Yes, even if your stock return was in a 401 K type fund, well, you would still have to either pay the tax now with a Roth or later with a traditional retirement plan. So you're still paying the tax. The higher real estate return is also more likely because real estate is less volatile than stocks, and I've got more vitally important things to tell you about how you just grew wealth about three times faster with leverage than with compound interest. And yes, this is exactly the kind of stuff I wish I knew when I had just started out. Now if you think you don't have the money for a down payment. I'll get into that. But first, a big review here, and I've woven threads of this review through previous episodes. First, don't focus on getting only your money to work for you. And second, stress compound leverage, not compound interest. Optimize using other people's money. And when you take out a loan for rental property, you get to use other people's money three ways at the same time, three different entities, you're using their money. Number one, it's for the bank's loan, like we discussed. Number two, you're using the government's money for generous tax incentives. I only touched on one of the tax incentives. And then, thirdly, you are using the tenants money to pay down your mortgage loan and pay all of your properties operating expenses, like maintenance repairs, insurance, property taxes and pay your property manager to make this all mostly passive for you. I don't manage any of my own properties. I think you already know that. And on top of that, hopefully you'll have a little residual income after expenses every month, your monthly profit of rent income minus expenses, that is called cash flow. And when I talk about doing this ethically, use an experienced property manager. Never get called a slumlord. Provide housing that's clean, safe, affordable and functional, okay, some really core, enduring, GRE mantras in there. But what if real estate goes down in value? It's not common, but I did have it happen to me around 2008 we won't even talk about what happens when stocks go down in value, but when real estate values went down in 2008 it just didn't matter that my rental property's values were temporarily suppressed because my rents were higher than my expenses, I was still making income each month off the property. That's a good way to own property, if you can. I'm not motivated to sell an asset. I mean, are you motivated to sell an asset that's paying you income every month during a time when it's capital value dip, so probably not. And by the way, there is nothing new or esoteric here. You just haven't had it explained to you in this way before. This 33k from stocks and mutual funds versus 95k from real estate you haven't seen that before. This is simply buying houses with plain vanilla 30 year fixed rate loans, and it's just simply long term buy and hold. This is not flipping, as I like to say. This is not day trading. This is decade trading, as you continue along in your real estate journey, keep stacking more properties, and it's gonna go faster than you think, because you've got this power of compound leverage, and your tenant also pays you income that you can use toward buying the next property, and then as a backup, you have that trapped equity that keeps accumulating in your property. And the reason this goes faster than you think is that you can also release that equity by removing it with a completely tax free event, a cash out refinance, all while you still hold onto the asset and you. Use the untrapped equity to put down payments on more property. Now, what if you think you don't have the money to start or get as big as you want, as fast as you want? Well, I've met a lot of people that when they understand this compound leverage concept, they withdraw their 401 K funds, pay a penalty and pay the taxes, and they put those funds toward real estate. I mean, you would owe taxes on it anyway. Now that part may or may not be ready for you, but you know, once I understood this, what I did is I stopped contributing to my 401K and I instead got into compound leverage. Yeah, this is how to make America rich again. Now, what if you think you don't have 100k to invest in property like we did in our example? Well, there are perfectly good $200,000 properties at GREmarketplace.com where you could make a $40,000 down payment. But you still might be thinking, I'll just say that the real estate market is just really competitive now, and that your small down payment maybe it can't compete with a deep pockets all cash offer, because all cash buyers can close really fast, but no your small down payment can still compete with all cash offers, because Some sellers don't want a quick sale for either tax reasons or myriad lifestyle reasons that they might have, I like to say that using debt is like using fire if it's misallocated, like with 23% credit card debt, that's what the average credit card interest rate is right now, 23% well that can burn down your financial house. But if you know how to use the debt in a controlled manner, like from income property that others paid down for you, oh, that fire is contained in a stove, and that fire or fireplace will heat your home. If I could start all over again with what I know now, it would be to embrace good debt, because tenants pay down this debt for me, so use it as leverage to build a real estate empire. Think of it this way, besides the employer match, every dollar that you lock inside a 401K is $1 that you cannot use to leverage other people's money. Back when I started investing, I should not have contributed to a conventional retirement plan beyond the employer match myself. So I used leverage to pull my boat up to the dock more than three times faster and escape the day job when I was still young enough to enjoy it. And once you know the difference, why would you want to do life any other way? You might have heard that real estate has made more people wealthy than any other investment today.    You've learned how now, sometimes it is hard to stop and turn off a mindset if the same thing has been believed for a long time. I think we've all experienced that. If you believe something for a long time, well then it's hard to change your mind on that, and you might even fight and defend that core belief. That could be the case here with me, denigrating the wealth building capability of compound interest. And if you're still wrestling with that yourself, a great compliment where I discuss this more in depth and in a different way, can be found on an episode that I did earlier this year that is on GRE Podcast, episode 507 episode 507 is called compound interest is weak. I'm here to talk to you about things that are really gonna move the meter in your financial life, like what I've covered with you so far, and what I'm gonna help you learn next. You know, there's just some information out there, even real estate information, it's just not that useful. Say, for example, mortgage purchase applications were down from last week, but yet they were up month over month. Well, that might matter to certain sub industries, but it doesn't move the meter in your life with how you're going to actionably build wealth.    Hey, before we move on, I want to give a major shout out to this show's long time, steady, capable sound engineer, Vedran. He just hit the 10 year mark of filling that important role for us here. Yet 10 years almost since the inception of this show. He's been with us since November of 2014 so since about episode five, and he's edited every single episode since then, and he recently told me that he looks forward to the next 10. Congratulations, Vedran. Also, thanks to you, the listener, the follower. Here, we held three GRE live virtual events this year, webinars. You. You are really taking action. Back in June, we broke a record with 307 registrants for that event. And then our latest event that was held about 10 days ago saw another record broken, 528 of you registering, and I say thanks, because you make me feel good. You're showing that I'm helping make a difference in your life. And now maybe you're thinking these events or this platform, it's getting too well known, and if you show up to a future event that you might not get to ask a question, no, that's not the case. Not everyone that registers shows up for the event live, and then you can ask a lot of your own questions with a personal free coaching call as well. I'll let you listen into a coaching call later on, today's show. In fact, now I've shared with you a few times before that changes to mortgage rates don't follow changes in the federal funds rate that Jerome Powell and the FOMC said. I've also told you that mortgage rates closely track long term bond yields, but let me tell you about what all that really means, and this is going to help you understand and perhaps even predict the future direction of mortgage rates. In fact, it's unusual. You know, the largest market in the world is not the real estate market, it's not the stock market, it's the bond market. And What's unusual is here we are on episode 526, and we've really never discussed the bond market. Well, you're probably aware that a month and a half ago, the Fed dropped interest rates by a half point. Their next decision is in just three days. Now I don't think they should drop rates again, though they could. That's because since the rate cut, GDP and job growth have been strong. That's why I don't think they should do it. I mean, rates usually get cut to help a wounded economy, so why lower them now? I mean, recessions usually see rate cuts. But here's what even fewer people understand when the Fed cut rates a month and a half ago by a half point, why have mortgage rates soared since then? They were about 6.1% and then the Fed made their cut, and mortgage rates recently spiked up to 6.9% well, many still feel that the long term trend for all types of interest rates is lower. But you know for one thing, rates are really hard to predict. The Fed only controls short term rates. Long term rates, like the 30 year and 15 year mortgage are tied most closely to the yield on the 10 year treasury note, and here after I'll just call that the 10 year All right, so what is this and what controls it? Well, don't let that name intimidate you. This is get rich education. So let's break down each word yield on the 10 year treasury note. Yield just means interest rate. 10 years is the period of time that this loan is made for the duration the US Treasury issues them so they receive the loan and a note is an IOU. It was also known as a bond. That is what's held by the person or the entity that loaned the money, the person that loaned this money to the Treasury. It could be you yourself, or it could be a foreign nation. So you hold on to this note because you made the loan to the Treasury. That's the breakdown of every word of the phrase the yield on the 10 year treasury note. Okay, so to say it a different way, if you hold a 10 year treasury note, that is basically your receipt, your proof that you made a 10 year long IOU to our federal government and it is going to pay you an interest rate known as a yield. All right, that is the simplest explanation I can give. Well, a month and a half ago when Jerome Powell cut short term rates, the 10 year was 3.7% at that time, and at the beginning of last week, it was up to 4.2% that's the highest since July. And again, 30 year mortgage rates most closely track the 10 year all right, as you and I sort of hold hands through this together next, let's ask what made them rise. And you know, some think this is harder to understand than trying to understand why YouTube viewers constantly fall for ludicrous housing price crash videos. Okay, but relax. This is easy. When the economy gets hot, all these things tend to rise in value, real estate, stocks and also productivity rises. Employment rises. Is an inflation that tends to rise as well. Because a 10 year investor needs a real return above the rate of inflation, this yield must rise as well. That's it. You got it. You got it. So therefore, when a rosy jobs report comes out, the 10 year tends to go up. When a strong retail sales report comes out, the 10 year yield tends to go up or a high flying CPI is released, the 10 year tends to go up. And therefore, because it rose in the past month, investors have expectations for a strong economy and more persistent inflation. So conversely, expect both the yield on the 10 year treasury note and the 30 year mortgage rate to fall when the economic outlook gets more dim. It's important to understand that, like a lot of things in the stock market, yields on the 10 year they tend to be more of a reflection of future economic expectations than the current economy. And this should be pretty easy for you to remember, because when you think about it, that makes sense. Since you've lent out your money to the federal government for 10 years. I mean, you're really interested in what that 10 year future is going to look like. So yes, though this is somewhat less exciting than watching a motorcycle jump over the Grand Canyon now that you listen closely for the last few minutes. Congratulations. Now you know that the 10 year can tell you both what investors expect to happen in the future, and can tell you the direction of 30 year mortgage rates. And, yeah, I mean, this is just more the type of material that I wish someone had explained to me sooner, in a way, just like that. And you know, are you interested in doing things that at the end, they make you say, You know what, I just got 1% better this week. I mean, think about the kind of person you'll be if you make yourself just 1% better each week. Now you better understand how leverage beats compound interest and what makes mortgage rates move. Go out and vote tomorrow as far as next, listen into one of our GRE investment coaching calls. I'm Keith Weinhold. You're listening to get rich education.   Hey, you can get your mortgage loans at the same place where I get mine, at Ridge lending group NMLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than any provider in the entire nation because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. You can start your pre qualification and chat with President Caeli Ridge personally. Start Now while it's on your mind at Ridgelendinggroup.com that's Ridgelendinggroup.com.   your bank is getting rich off of you. The national average bank account pays less than 1% on your savings. If your money isn't making 4% you're losing your hard earned cash to inflation. Let the liquidity fund help you put your money to work with minimum risk, your cash generates up to an 8% return with compound interest, year in and year out. Instead of earning less than 1% sitting in your bank account, the minimum investment is just 25k you keep getting paid until you decide you want your money back. Their decade plus track record proves they've always paid their investors 100% in full and on time. And I would know, because I'm an investor too, earn 8% hundreds of others are. Text FAMILY to 66866, learn more about freedom. Family investments, liquidity fund on your journey to financial freedom through passive income. Text Family to66866.   Zack Lemaster  29:08   this is rent to retirement. Zach Lemaster, listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold, and don't quit your Daydream.   Keith Weinhold  29:22   Welcome. Back to get rich Education. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, there will only ever be one GRE podcast episode five under 26 and you're listening to it. Let's let you listen into a coaching call between GRE investment coach Naresh and GRE follower, Brenda, and then I'll be back to wrap it up at the end.   Naresh Vissa  29:41   hey, Brenda, good to Good to see you after emailing back and forth. Thanks for setting up this call.   Brenda  29:47   Yeah, thanks, Naresh, thanks for setting up time to talk to me.    Naresh Vissa  29:49   Yeah. Well, tell me what made you schedule this call, like, Why did you hit that button saying I want to talk to the real estate investment coach?   Brenda  29:59   Yeah, well, I've seen some of the newsletters that come from GRE I'm familiar with some of the podcasts, but then I had gotten into the newsletters, and then I saw that there was an option for a free consultation to talk to you. And I thought, Well, I'm not sure what this really means, or what we talk about, or how you can help me, as far as, like, the vision, or how do I set my goals? Or what is it exactly that I would do with you with GRE, like, what kind of consultation Do you provide?   Naresh Vissa  30:29   Yeah, well, so that's you came to the right place. So let me tell you a little bit about GRE, a little bit about me, who we are, how we operate. So get rich. Education is an education company. As you know, you listen to the podcast, you read the newsletter. It's free. The podcast is free. The newsletter is free. You can go to our website, read our blog, go through past podcasts. You can subscribe to our YouTube channel, subscribe to our social media, Tiktok, Instagram, Facebook, X, you name it. That's all free content available for you, and this service, the real estate investment coaching, is completely free of charge. I know that sounds kind of crazy, but you'll never pay as a dime. I'm here to help you throughout and along your real estate investment journey. Think of me as a super connector, someone who can introduce you to all the right people, whether it's specific markets you want to invest in. Providers. There, wholesalers, flippers, lenders, appraisers, although your lender will take care of the appraiser part, if you need a second lender, financing, CPAs, attorneys, anything at all, just come to me and I can introduce you to the right people, or at least point you in the right direction. I'll try my best to do it 100% of the time. I don't, or I should say, I don't, have answers 100% of the time, but I do have answers most of the time, and I can forward you and refer you, point you in the right direction. So think of me as a super connector. Think of me as your silent partner in deals, because I get any equity in the deals who you don't have to pay anything to think of me as an advisor, a consultant. Again, this is a completely free service. There's you're not going to get like, a bill in the mail saying, Hey, you talked to Naresh five times, so you owe us $1,000 for that. Now, there's none of that. So the most common question I get after telling people this or, like, well, then, I mean, you can't be doing this for free. Like, why are you doing great? Like, like, yeah, what's the catch here? And they also have, I mean, I'm sure you're wondering, how do you make money? Well, if you listen to the podcast, if you go to our website, you'll see advertisements, sponsorships. We are paid marketing fees, advertising fees from partners. So you listen to the podcast, I'm sure you hear many of those commercials. We make our money on the back end, so we can keep services like this and our newsletter and our podcast free on the front note, like I said, GRE is not is an education company. We are not a broker or a wholesaler or a flipper or a builder or an agency or a realtor service or any of that a brokerage, where we're not of that, we're purely education, education based through our educational content or free educational coaching, which I offer too. So that's what you are. Got it .we work with all those other companies. So we can refer you to all those other types of companies that can help you on your real estate investment journey. But we are not any of those. Now me, personally, I am an investor myself. I own eight properties in southeastern United States. I got started in 2017 I bought my first property in a single family home. That was rehab. Back then, rehabs are very hot. That was what you should get in, that what made sense to get into. And I scaled pretty quickly. I went from one to eight in a matter of it's been seven years since I bought that first property, but I actually went from one to eight in a matter of more, like two and a half years, I just kind of went so I bought, like I said, southeastern United States, bought my last property in 2020 I'm saving up for my next property because I personally now only, like new construction, I rehabs have their place, certainly For certain investors. And at the time, I got six rehabs, rehab properties from 2017 to 2019 so I personally, though, am now saving up because new construction is more expensive than than rehab. So I'm saving up for my next real estate property, which is most likely going to be a new construction. So that's a little bit about my investing background. I've been a real estate coach Since 2019 came in 2021 to GRE and have run the coaching side ever since. So that's a little bit about me on the real estate side, on the coaching side. Now, my background is not in real. Real Estate. I like, I said, I got in 2017 before that, and I still do work in tech. So I worked in tech from 2000 really, from 2005 and still do work in tech. So it was through my tech work that I got involved in real estate, because I would do back end tech work for real estate companies. And doing that work, I was like, Oh, I started learning about real estate, and then I said, huh, if this doesn't seem hard or difficult. And I also got an investment coach who helped me, like I said, with that competitor, they also had investment coaches or investment counselors. So I had a coach who helped me a little bit, but that's what the coaches are for there to help investors like me, especially newbie investors, or even veteran investors. They're there to help investors with the networking part, with the who are offering the best deals, special deals, special interest rates, who's honest, who's dishonest? That's what I'm here to do. So that's a little bit about GRE About me, about my background, how our coaching program works. So now, Brenda, it's all about you. I want to hear I'm sure you have tons of questions based on what I just said, but before you ask those questions, I'm just going to start out with, how much cash do you have ready to invest? Because really, I could be of most service if you're looking to invest, otherwise, I can't really be of much service. So how much cash do you have ready to go to invest? And then I'll answer, I'll say something about that, and then I'll let you ask whatever questions you want.    Brenda 36:35   Sounds good. Just a cash ready for deployment is 100,000 but I'm assuming that doesn't all have to go to one property, right? Or depending on the property?   Naresh Vissa  36:46   Yeah, so, so is that lick? So what I should have clarified my question as how much liquid cash do you have on not like a 401, K, or properties that you have to cash out refinance, or it's just if you today, if you were to take a property and and you had cash ready to do so be $100,000 Yeah, correct. Okay, so, so a few things that's very good, because with 100,000 that gives you optionality. You can either go for a rehab property, and we have rehab property right now. Our hottest provider is in Memphis, Tennessee, and you can get a rehab property. Worst case scenario, let's just say the property, the average property, is about $100,000 and so you just put down a 25% down payment. So let's just give or take, let's say $30,000 I tell our investors. I say, Look, if you want to buy your first property, or Yeah, your first rehab property, you need at least $50,000 cash, liquid in the bank, ready to go. That's just because you want that cushion. You don't want to put all your eggs in one basket. So I say, if you want a rehab property, you need 50,000 if you want a new construction, single family 100,000 because the new constructions are going to cost you at least $240,000 at least. So if you take 25% of that, plus closing costs and cushion and everything, just if you want to be a good investor, you have to be disciplined. And you have to be disciplined enough to be able to save the 50,000 or the $100,000 if you want to make it as a real estate investor. So 50,000 for a rehab property, 100,000 for a new construction. If you want a duplex, you need, I say, a new construction duplex, which is probably our hottest new construction asset class right now in Florida, 150,000 for a new construction. Down payment or not. Down Payment task, ready to go for a new construction duplex, because those are selling for about 490,000 give or pay. So it's 50,000 for rehab that you should have in the bank. 100,001 in the bank for a new construction, single family. 150,000 for a duplex. Anything beyond that, then we can talk. You know, later you wanted a squad or something else, but that's generally what I say. And I tell, I tell investors. I say, Look, if you only have $30,000 in the thing, let's connect after you get up, because I don't want you putting all that 30,000 into a rehabbed property, whereas, who knows, maybe the economy might go into a recession and it stays vacant for six months. I don't want you to have to go through that. So let's stick to those numbers. So you said you have 100,000 so you have options. You can you can get either a rehab property or you can get a new construction. So it's completely up to you. It's about your new construction. Single family, it's completely up to you. I personally, I, like I said, I started out with the rehabs, and then I've kind of graduated up to new construction. God, they the lowest risk you can take with 100,000 is by starting with a. Be just a low price rehab where you put in $30,000 and full, you know, down payment burden, costs, everything else you put that, you know, 30 grand, if it first property, you put that 25 to 30 grand in, and you treat that as a learning experience. And you go through the experience, and if everything goes smoothly, then you can buy the second property, and you can decide whether, hey, do I want to continue with this rehab, or I'd still have enough capital for the new construction single payer. But I would start small. If you're new, if you're an advanced veteran investor who has six figure, well into the six figures in the bank, ready to go. I tell those people. I say, hey, let's just go for new construction. Let's go for the new construction. Single family. Let's go for the duplexes. Some of them have 700 $800,000 in some cases, a million dollars plus. I say, hey, let's let's just go for the quad to the construction four Plex. The incentives are great, etc, etc. So in your case, 100,000 you certainly have choices. And what I'll do after this call is, well, first I want to hear, based on what I said, What are your thoughts on anything, whether it's renew, construction versus rehab, and then what I brought up earlier about coaching?    Brenda  41:12   Yeah, I actually thank you, Naresh, I really like what you said about starting small. I have purchased two single family homes in the past, their rentals, but I never went through a coach. I just kind of did it on my own, and luckily, things worked out. But certainly having a coach and starting out small, just to kind of go through the process, it's really helpful. Here's the situation that I think is just a little bit different, and I know that this would probably be something that I talked to like a lender about. But in your experience, I actually just came from an 18 year career. Actually, I was in tech myself, but I'm now transitioned from a corporate w2 into more, but 1099, what's classified as like a independent company, you know, type of income, what has been your experience with other clients that transitioned from that type? Is it easier? Is it harder to obtain loans? Is there going to be different requirements? 25% does that still stand?    Naresh Vissa  42:13   Yeah. So I could give you a full, you know, lecture on this, or something called the housing expense ratio and something called the total obligation ratio. I'm not going to get into those details, because the lenders, I can refer you to lenders, and they can explain all that, and those ratios mean a lot to getting you pre qualified. But what I will say is, unfortunately, if you are 1099, you are at a disadvantage, because it's not steady, consistent income, unless you can show two years of steady, consistent income. I mean, really is the last for your last two years of tax return. So if it's a new 1099, gig, yep, you're gonna have to wait until you have two years of consistent high income. If you've been doing it for a while, then send your last two years. And if it's, you know, if it's looking good, then, then you'll get approved. The other option, and this is, this is not a personal question or anything, but it married couples can go together on one loan. So if this actually helped me out a lot, because my wife is a high income earner, and I have my own business, and my business does pretty well, but if you're 1099 as as you know, there are all sorts of things you can do with your tax return that are completely legal and to where you pay yourself as little as possible, so that you can cut your income tax. So in any case, that's like 1099 workers are a disadvantage for mortgage because all they care about is your pay stub, your you know, how much income did you have? So there were times when I put my wife on the mortgage and she's got a high income, and so you can put a spouse on there, and you can both do it together. Now you're allowed 10 loans per person, so if you want a spouse go on a mortgage that counts, even if it's for one mortgage, one property, that counts as one for each of you. So for two working husband and wife. For a couple where both spouses are working with good income, I say look, you'll want one spouse to do 10 properties and another spouse to do a completely different 10 mortgages. That way you can do 20 combined. Now, if you do it together, then you'll only be able to buy 10 combined because you're older than so 1099, workers. We get that question a lot, and it actually it is a problem, because the standards changed after 2008 so either wait the two years and have your consistent records to show high income, or if you already have it right now, then you can get approved.   Brenda  44:54   Got it. Got it. This would be for just conventional loans. What about other loan products? Like, I think I've heard of the DSCR loan where maybe just the rental property would cover, you know, part of the I'm not sure, like, I guess you're guaranteeing that the property will make enough money to cover the payment of the loan.   Naresh Vissa  45:12   Yeah, DSCR and loans are hard to get approved. Really, what I should do is introduce you to some of our lending partners. If you're interested. DSCR is meant more so for people who have utilized you want to use those 10 loans first, so because if you go you're going to have a higher interest rate if you go with the deal. So those DSCR loans, or Portfolio loans, are meant for people who have used their 10. Their spouse has used their 10. They've got capital low rolling in their ultra high net worth. So they're fine, okay, just get me another loan. I need the tax benefit. I need the tax break. I'm fine paying a 10% interest. So they'll go for a portfolio loan or a vsdr loan. In your case, first property, your first investment property, first turnkey we want to go for a loan.   Brenda  45:58   Got it makes sense. And then another question, so this was about the financing. But another question that I meant to ask earlier is, I know you mentioned, like, you know, I am not like a realtor or anything like that, but how does it work? Like, I'm think about when I'm purchasing a home, personally, I kind of say, hey, I want to three bedrooms, four bedrooms, this many baths. Like, how does that work with you? Like, do I give you criteria of what I'm looking for, or, you know, based on my goals? Do you kind of craft a plan? How does that work?   Naresh Vissa  46:29    Yeah, so I actually sent you an email just right before this call it. I think you got the email, and it includes a link to about 20% of our inventory. It's not all of our inventory. That inventory is just there. To get you started to see the types of properties that we have available. We have some constructions and the markets that we cover, again, it's only about 20% of the inventory. If you go to our GRE marketplace, you can see all of the markets that we cover. Your biggest source will be, I send out emails. So your biggest source will be, if I email you, I'll email you like a property. It'll be, Hey, I just came across this deal. It's like, it's my VIP email list. So you'll get my, you know, VIP emails, and that's going to be your, your best source. You also get Keith white holds newsletter, which promotes properties from time to time and and we only promote the best. We there are hundreds of properties we can promote. We only distill it down to the best of the best. So don't think, oh, like, there might be another property that narration knows about. Now we promote through our social media, through my email list, through Keith's newsletter, through the podcast, through the webinars, the best of the best. So that's the best way to to find out,   Brenda  47:49   got it your inventory or what you currently right,   Naresh Vissa  47:52    and with your permission, I can add you to my VIP email list. If it's okay, yeah, that would be cool. I'll go ahead and add you, and you'll start getting those emails in real time. I only send out an email maybe once every three weeks, so I really only want to send the best of the best. I want to waste people's time.   Brenda  48:07   Great. So what if you do send me an email and I'm like, Yeah, I love it. I think this is fits exactly what I'm looking for. Do I email you back? Do I contact you? Like, how do we stay in contact?    Naresh Vissa  48:18   So email is the best form of communication, because in real estate and business in general, we want documentation of everything. We don't want any miscommunications. So if you see something you like, email me. I'm available. You have my phone number. You can text me, you can call me, you can email me. I'm very accessible, but email is preferred, because that way it's in writing, and I'll know exactly what you want, the address, everything. So let's say you see a property that you like from an email that you get from Keith or from me, and you email me to say, hey, I'm interested. What are next steps? I will get you in touch with the actual like I said, we're just an education company. I'll get you in touch with the actual builder or the broker or the agent on the property, and they'll be able to answer way more questions than I can answer way more and that that's for anything. If your question is about financing, I can get you in touch with several good, low rate lenders, and they can answer all your questions about financing. Your question is CPA Tax stuff. I can get we have, uh, several good contacts who can help you out there as well.    Brenda  49:20   Got it, got it. So then what, what does our communication look like from there? Like, do if I say yes, I want it, then you get me in contact with them, and then I kind of work with whoever it is that has this property. And then hopefully we just close on the property. And that's it, right? Am I understanding that correctly?   Naresh Vissa  49:40   Sure? So, so all correctly? Yeah, I'll refer you over to them, and they will, they will take care of you. Should copy me on all emails that way. Okay, what's going on? Copy, you remember, I'm your coach. I'm here to help you, like it's free, so copy to an email so I know what's going on. If there's a problem, I can jump in. In many cases, I hold a leverage over a lot of these. People, if a problem happens, I can step in and say, Hey, treat her better. Or, you know, you should waive this cost, or whatnot. So copy, because the people who get into trouble are the people who didn't copy me on the emails. And many, many time, time just goes by, and then they come with their problem as they Hey, if you came to me a year ago, I could have actually helped you with this. Now, the statutes expired, and it's, it's a complete mess. So always, even after you're done posing on the property and you have a tenant in there and just copy me on me.    Brenda  50:30   Got it. Okay,  So kind of bring you along the journey. Okay, so let's say I'm at the end, like, do these providers help me? I'm assuming in some of these cases, you've mentioned places that are far from where I live. So do they help provide additional resources, like, who's going to manage my property, or who's going to find me a tenant? Like, could they help me with that?   Naresh Vissa  50:51   Absolutely. So the entire point of GRE of this investment coaching program, the entire point is so that you can become what's called a laptop landlord. You can literally live free and have just take a step back and have your properties run on their own. So the idea is not for you to invest down the street and become a property manager and a landlord down the street. It's you can be anywhere in the world. Buy properties anywhere. Like I said, I live in Florida, but by Prop, I've never visited any of my properties. I've never met a tenant. So that's what you want to do, and that's what we help people do. If you want to buy a property across the street and become you can do that yourself. Go through all the loops yourself. We are here to help you invest in Ohio, in Tennessee, in Florida and Texas and all these places that you may not have even visited every other life, but you can still have a very fruitful investment journey. So we set all that up for you, the property management, every all that it's going to be taken care of, so that your hands off. That's why it's called turnkey real estateReal real estate investing.   Brenda  51:56   Got it. Okay, sounds good. And typically, how long does this process take? I mean, I'm sure it's different for everybody, but what can I expect, like from beginning, from when I talk to you, to when hopefully I have a property that I'm signing off on?   Naresh Vissa  52:12    In some cases, it's literally taken two days. In other cases, it's taken there's not even an answer, because people did end up buying Okay, yeah, so, so, yeah, in in the case of, like, our Memphis burr properties, which are rehab properties in Memphis, I recommend that you watch our burr webinar. I can send that to you after this call, if you'd like. But I had people who watched the webinar talk to me. I introduced them that same day to the provider in Memphis. They talk to their provider in Memphis, and then the next day, they pick the property, and the day after that, they sign a contract. Oh, okay, so it's all about the investor. If you're a serious investor, it can be very quick, like me, I was very serious. That's why I scaled. I bought eight and two and a half years, eight properties in two and a half years. Other people, if you want to take your time, it could, you could literally take your time and never buy any and a lot of people are doing that, because in 2019 they said, Oh, you know what, I'm gonna wait. There's gonna be a crash and this and that. And so they waited, they waited, and prices skyrocketed, and now they said, You know what, I'm I'm priced out of the market, so I'm just not gonna invest in real estate anymore.   Brenda  53:16   Yeah, it's that analysis paralysis. I've experienced that. Yeah, yeah, got it. Okay, cool.   Naresh Vissa  53:23   All right. So any other questions?    Brenda  53:25   No, this is really helpful. It's kind of good to know, like, kind of where you step in and kind of where you hand off, and again, the timeline is different for everybody, but it's kind of good to know that I could literally be standing here two days later and have a property if I want. So good.   Naresh Vissa  53:42   Yeah. So as we end this call, next step, so I told you about new construction versus rehab. Are you? Are you interested in both, or leaning towards one or the other? Right now? Just    Brenda  53:54   probably the rehabs, because I think, like what you said, I like the idea of the E step into like, let me see how this process goes first before kind of committing a bigger chunk of capital to something larger. Yeah, I agree.   Naresh Vissa  54:06   Okay, so here's what I'm going to do as next steps. I'm going to send you a link to the webinar we did for our hottest rehab asset class right now, hottest rehab provider out of Memphis. It's the Memphis Burkey webinar. I went ahead and just emailed that to you. So watch that webinar. It will answer like every question imaginable regarding the provider, how they do their process, the properties, everything. So watch that webinar and then shoot me an email after you're done with the webinar on what you're thinking just you can watch webinar today and you want to shoot me an email right after, just let me know what you're thinking, and we can go from there. I think that's would be the next step. Just watch that webinar, and then we'll, we'll reconnect.   Brenda  54:54   Sounds good? Okay, I like that.   Naresh Vissa  54:57   Okay, very good. Well, I sent that link to you, and. And that's about it. If you have no more questions like I said, you can add my phone number to your phone book and feel free to reach out whatever you want.    Brenda  55:07   will do. Thank you so much.    Naresh Vissa  55:09   All right, thank you. It was great.   Keith Weinhold  55:11   Yeah,  I hope that you found that helpful in making America rich again. Namely, you. Of course, no two coaching calls are the same. Some GRE followers will perhaps have more questions than Brenda did. There. We are here to learn your situation. We know the mistakes you've got to avoid, and we can connect you with the best income property for you across the nation. We really filter it down to the best of the best, and besides being a truly free coaching call, we don't try to upsell you to a paid course or anything like that, because we don't even have any product to sell really. So even if you wanted to buy something from GRE, I don't know if you could, maybe unless you buy a GRE logo t shirt from our website or something like that. So keep all of your funds for the property down payment. As far as now, you can book a coaching call at GREmarketplace.com and select the free investment coaching area. Until next week, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.    Speaker 3  56:21   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively,   Keith Weinhold  56:41   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth, building, get rich, education.com  

In this episode of Freshly Grounded, Faisal sits down with Mansoor Danish, a key figure at the International Open University (IOU). Mansoor shares his insights on negotiation, body language, and psychology in both business and everyday life. He breaks down the art of negotiation, drawing parallels between business dealings and personal situations, and offers practical tips on mastering body language and nonverbal communication. Mansoor also gives a behind-the-scenes look into his role at IOU, where students from over 200 countries come to learn Islamicized degrees, offering a unique blend of secular and Islamic education. Get an Education degree (and others!) from an accredited university by Muslims, from the comfort of your home: http://www.iou.edu.gm/fg

California homeowners face a complex puzzle in decarbonizing their homes: electrification without rooftop solar could increase bills due to expensive electricity, while installing solar first risks oversizing or underutilizing the system. Balto Energy, a startup founded by James Quazi, uses AI to analyze utility bills and recommend the most cost-effective clean energy strategy. In this episode, we discuss Balto's tool, its potential to empower contractors, and what California's situation reveals about the future of clean energy policy nationwide.(PDF transcript)(Active transcript)Text transcript:David RobertsHello everyone. This is Volts for September 13, 2024, "A tool that enables solar first home electrification." I'm your host, David Roberts. Californians who want to decarbonize their homes face something of a conundrum. If they electrify their cars and appliances without getting rooftop solar, they could end up paying higher overall bills thanks to California's notoriously expensive electricity and cheap natural gas. If they install rooftop solar before electrifying their cars and appliances, they could either undersize the system for their eventual needs or oversize it and over-produce and export solar power to the California grid. Thanks to California's recent NEM 3.0 decision on rooftop solar compensation, utilities pay much less for that exported rooftop solar power than they used to.The most economical strategy for most homeowners is likely to be some mix of electrification, batteries, and rooftop solar. The more a California homeowner stores and consumes their own cheap rooftop solar power, the more value they get out of that solar and the lower their total bills. It is a complex calculation, though, that most homeowners are in no position to make. That's where the startup Balto Energy comes in. Founder James Quazi, a longtime energy modeler and entrepreneur, has built a tool that can use a home's utility bills to create a model of its consumption patterns, predict what they will be as appliances are electrified, and recommend the maximally economical approach.It's part of a larger effort to help contractors and solar companies navigate a post-net-metering world. I'm excited to talk to Quazi about why his tool is needed and how it works, how it will empower contractors, and what California's present says about the future of clean energy policy in the rest of the country.With no further ado, James Quazi, welcome to Volts. Thank you so much for coming.James QuaziThank you for having me. That was a great intro.David RobertsThanks. So, you know, I sort of went over it a little quickly in the intro there. But let's talk a little bit about this conundrum for Californians who are trying to decarbonize. So, just by background — I don't even know if everyone's been following the California rooftop solar wars, I kind of assume everybody has — but just by way of background, California recently basically issued a new policy on rooftop solar, and the long and short of it is that they're going to compensate homeowners much less. It used to be that basically you could get paid the retail rate for your excess solar, and now they're just going to pay much, much less than that.On the surface, this really damages the economical case for solar for homeowners, they'll get compensated much less. This has resulted in a huge blow to the solar industry in California. There are solar companies shutting down, jobs being lost, etcetera, etcetera. So, talk a little bit about the conundrum and how you think about solving it.James QuaziYeah, so about a year ago, the net energy metering policy in California changed from NEM 2.0 to NEM 3.0, now called Net Billing Tariff. The difference is, as you mentioned, that now customers get paid on a schedule. Each hour per year is a different rate. But generally, you can think of it as between like $0.05 and $0.08 for exported energy, while imported energy for me in San Diego is between $0.38 and $0.52 an hour. So it degrades the value proposition for residential solar for a homeowner. For contractors, it's also proven really difficult. So in the past, it was really easy to have rule of thumb sizing or heuristics, or if you took annual energy over the last twelve months and you designed a system that produced around that same amount of energy, it was generally going to be a good value proposition for the homeowner.But now, what you need to understand is, like, how much of that solar production is actually coincident with the load on the house, because the export of energy is devalued.David RobertsRight. So, the economics now have shifted to make it so that, I mean, maybe this was true already, but more true now that the ideal thing for Californians with rooftop solar to do is to consume as much of the generated power as conceivably possible.James QuaziThat's absolutely correct. So, if you can think of it as, and I'm sure your listeners are familiar with the terminology, like LCOE. So, the cost of solar, residential rooftop solar, is somewhere between, let's say, $0.10 and $0.12 a kilowatt-hour to produce, whereas the retail rate is much higher depending on the IOU that you're a part of. To the extent that you can consume cheap on-site electricity, you are hugely benefited as a customer.David RobertsRight. So then the question becomes, well, there's a bunch of different ways of approaching this question, but from this sort of like, if I'm trying to sell solar, right, I need a little bit of a new pitch, right? Because before, with full retail compensation, it's kind of a no-brainer, you could make a lot of money, but now you can make a lot less money. So this changes the value proposition for solar. So, explain exactly how the sort of calculation shifts.James QuaziSure, I would actually reframe it a little bit in terms of, like, I believe so in the previous net metering paradigm. We often saw simple solar paybacks in the five to seven years. I believe that those paybacks are still available to homeowners, but it's just a different set of products and services than simply rooftop solar on the roof. So, I think our goal is to help retool the solar industries, to help look at a house as a whole, maybe converting a lot of the energy on site that we previously ignored, whether that's natural gas or gasoline, and then power that all with cheap onsite renewables, and that will drive the value proposition for that homeowner.David RobertsRight. It's still worthwhile getting solar, even maybe still a comparable payoff period, but a different approach. And basically, it's going to be a little bit more of a complicated approach. Right? Like, it's one thing just to stick solar on the roof. Like, how much energy do I use, let's stick that much solar on the roof. Pretty easy. Once you bring in the whole home, just the combinatorial, you know what I mean? Just the calculations get a lot more complicated.James QuaziFor sure. So, like, I think in two respects. One, it's more complicated for the contractor to feel confident in the system that they're proposing and the financial outcome for the homeowner. And then two, from a homeowner's perspective, it's more complicated to understand and digest and comprehend a suite of services that might include solar and a battery and a heat pump and an EV, than it is simply like panels on a roof. Our goal at Balto Energy is to sort of do the modeling and ingest the complexity and then deliver it in a way that's consumable for both a contractor and a homeowner.David RobertsRight. So, talk briefly about what your tool does. What is the outcome supposed to be? What is it trying to accomplish?James QuaziYeah, so our perspective on it is that oftentimes in the past, if you asked for a solar quote, you would get maybe one option, two options, or three options, max. Really, like, if I take my own house as an example, so I live in San Diego, I can fit up to 30 panels on the roof, which is constrained by roof geometry, area shading, what have you. So let's call it maybe 20 to 30 different flavors of solar systems that I could possibly engage in. If I layer on batteries, I could have 1, 2, 3, 4 batteries. And then EVs, one or two EVs, and heat pump or not heat pump, water heater or not water heater.And our first step in the process is to ingest an address and then interval bill data. So, we need hourly electric reads and daily gas.David RobertsAnd that, just to be clear, this is the sort of raw information that's going into the model?James QuaziYeah, that's correct.David RobertsIt's utility bills. And this, these are available from the utility. There's no, it's not difficult to get this information.James QuaziSomewhat loaded question. It should be available. I just finished listening to your podcast on "Free the energy data." I have —David RobertsThat's why I ask. I'm wondering how straightforward it is to get the raw data that you need.James QuaziI would say that having been in this industry for 20 years, it's much easier now than it has ever been before. That being the case, there are still hurdles. There's a lot of missing intervals. There's patchwork to be done. There are services that provide synthetic intervals. It's not as clean of a dataset as I would ideally like, but it's generally like the authorization, and there are a couple of third-party companies now that do it and are making it easier.David RobertsIs it notably easier in California than it is in other states? Different in California than in other states? Or is this just a utility by utility thing across the country?James QuaziOur focus is in California right now. So, I have the most depth and experience there for this problem. Even within California and the IOUs, it is utility by utility.David RobertsSo are you restricted geographically where you can sell your product based on the utilities, whether you can get these to utility information or not?James QuaziOur position is that to accurately model a home's energy use and consumption profiles, you need two things. One is you need a physics-based model of the building, and then you need to be able to calibrate that with what is actually happening in the home. I've done a lot of energy modeling, auditing, that sort of thing. I think the one definitive thing that I've learned is that the best site observed data is actually bills. It will help you ferret out how people use their home, what their preferences are, and is actually the ground truth data.So, our position as a company is because we want to be able to confidently project — like, let's say if I converted a gas furnace to a heat pump, and I want to know on an hourly basis, what is the energy input to that system. To do that accurately, I believe that you need interval data.David RobertsSo you are in some sense beholden to utilities here or dependent on utilities to be forthcoming?James QuaziYeah, I think, unfortunately. And then to "Free the energy data" podcast. Yes, this is true, and it is being in some ways held hostage, and that's not great for the industry. I would say that our success rate right now is like, it's significant enough that we see this as somewhat of a hurdle, but not a deal breaker.David RobertsRight, right. So, I mean, getting utility bills seems straightforward enough. You just ask the homeowner and they give them to you. But when you say a physics-based model of the house, you have to go do that in person. Can you construct that from publicly available data?James QuaziYes, you can. We've done this in several iterations in the past. So, the background engine that does this is an NREL product called EnergyPlus. And it has, let's say, a full set of data requirements, which you can imagine has a lot of physical attributes of the specific house. And what we do ourselves and through partners, is comb, let's say, permit record databases and MLS listings. And we can get close enough with that set of information to build the first model. And then it's really, in comparing that model to the billing data, what's actually happening on an hourly basis, that allows us to calibrate it.David RobertsInteresting. So, you don't have to do a site visit to do any of this, really. You could theoretically do all of this modeling remotely?James QuaziYep. Everything like roof geometry, shading, building modeling, tariff engines, all the things that are sort of the processes to get to an output, can be done remotely.David RobertsAll right. And so, you put all this information into the model, and then what is the model supposed to do? And here's a question I had also: Am I the homeowner, interacting with this model in any way, or is the model a tool for contractors?James QuaziOur plan, at the very start, we're working with a set of contractors, and we're in Napa and Sonoma to start, most notably Northern Pacific. Our plan is to deliver a tool to a solar contractor that they can use to propose a wide range of solutions that a homeowner might want. I think that this will become a customer-facing tool or exploratory tool in the future, but we are definitely starting with solar contractors.David RobertsInteresting. Yeah, because one of the questions I had about this is just that I'm sure I'm not telling you anything as someone who's worked in energy for a long time, but just like, people are pretty lazy, and the way people make decisions about appliances and stuff like that is generally to ignore it until it breaks and then go to Home Depot. So, like this comprehensive, long-term, holistic planning, I'm just like, wondering, like, how many homeowners are really that committed?James QuaziSo, let me give you an idea of, like, what the output of the tool is, then where I see this going. So, you know, back to my house, 30 panels, batteries, EV's, all the things. What we want to do is expand the solution set for all possible outcomes for that house. So, if I permutate those things, it ends up being a set of maybe like a couple hundred to a thousand different individual pathways. It could be 28 panels —David RobertsAnd these are like mixes of the number of panels, the number of batteries, what kind of appliances, that kind of thing.James QuaziThat's absolutely correct. And then what we've created is sort of a decision-making framework that allows you to search that space for the thing that's right for you. At first, contextualized in one of three goal seeks. So the first one being a very standard solar approach, which is "Deliver me the best financial outcome." The second one, which we're seeing a sort of increasing adoption around, is like, "Yeah, I want a great financial outcome, but I also want to power this set of critical loads or my entire house through an outage of this duration. And I'm not cost-sensitive around that."So, like, if I need to add a battery or two batteries and it provides that service, that's fine. And then the third one is a sort of immersion. Ten years ago, when I was in the solar industry, it was like there was a time when we thought we had to deliver day one savings to get adoption. And it turned out there was a segment of the population, mostly retirees or people that were about to retire, who, let's say, had a $150 utility bill. And they're like, "You know, saving money isn't as important to me as, you know, I experienced the grid cost is volatile, but always volatile in the upward direction.And if you are going to put on the system and it has a 20-year lifespan, can you lock in this $150 for 20 years? And I don't experience any increase in costs." So those are starting points. I will say that I think there's more out there. So, there are a segment of customers that could be interested in just like the environmental outcome, and there's ways to calculate that based on grid dynamics. That's where we're starting, and I think we'll kind of learn our way into the solution.David RobertsRight, so you can tweak the model depending on what your goals are, depending on what your aims are. And I guess one of the questions I had about it is, like, in California at least, grid electricity is so expensive and natural gas is so cheap, and solar compensation is now so low, that it seems like the most economical outcome for homeowners is always going to be to electrify all your appliances and put a bunch of rooftop solar to power your appliances. It seems like that's always going to be the cheapest outcome, is it not? And that's also always going to be the most environmentally preferable outcome, right?Because it's zero carbon. In other words, what if I, as a contractor, just came to you and said, "Look, I can do all these complicated calculations, but trust me, you want to electrify all your appliances and put rooftop solar on your roof. That's what it's going to end up showing you." Does it ever show otherwise?James QuaziSo, if we were to implement generalized or rules of thumb, I think that would be a good one. What I have seen is there are time when your're roof constrained, so you might not have the roof capacity to power all the things, and then you'd want to make better decisions. To the extent that you have vast plains of south-facing, west-facing roof area, we want to make sure that we're installing the right amount of solar and batteries. So, I think that there's an optimization problem there. But, I think you're right in the sense that to the extent that you can self-consume a ton of energy that you generated on-site, that will be the best outcome for you.David RobertsSo then, if I'm a homeowner and I run this model, or a contractor comes to me and runs this model, and the outcome of the model is the most economical approach for you, the homeowner, is to buy a heat pump, buy a heat pump water heater, buy an induction stove, et cetera, buy a bunch of batteries and put a bunch of rooftop solar on the roof. On the one hand, I might believe, I might find it perfectly plausible that that is the end state that will yield the lowest ongoing operating costs for my house. But on the other hand, that's a daunting upfront investment. Do you know what I mean?In a sense, if I'm a homeowner and a contractor comes to me, he's like, "I'm selling solar. And by the way, I have this fancy tool that shows me that you also need to buy a bunch of other stuff from me." I guess I'm just a little suspicious.James QuaziI think the intent of the tool is to allow a homeowner to make the best decision for them. To the extent that the best decision is, in fact, a larger PV system, more batteries, maybe a heat pump, and all of those things in aggregate end up being expensive directionally , but have great payback. I think that hits on like sort of the second vein of Balto. So the first is like, how do we create a decision framework and compute engine to give you the scenarios and help you make a decision? Once you've made a decision —David RobertsWill the model also crank out a preferred order of operations for that? You know what I mean? Not just like an end state that would be best, but like, what steps in what order are economical?James QuaziThis is getting back to the solar-led electrification vision for this. Our position is that solar and storage should lead always , and we should be building 20 or 25-year products for the future energy consumption. The tool is there to say, can we share a vision of the future and what applies and things you'll be engaged in, whether that's EVs or heat pumps or whatever. Once we have that, can we build 25-year renewable infrastructure on site to support those things over time? We think that there are interesting ways. And I'll touch on the financing in a little bit about how to transact this and make it consistent.David RobertsYeah, I want to get to the financing in a minute, but before I leave this question. So, why always solar and batteries first? Or put it this way, why shouldn't I put a little bit of solar and batteries on, enough to power my current appliances? And then, you know, when I switch out my furnace for a heat pump, just stick a couple more solar panels on the roof. Why not do it incrementally like that?James QuaziYes, I myself have a background, and then we've got some deep partnerships with contractors. They are not a fan of that approach for a number of reasons. One is if I take a five-kilowatt system and then I append a three-kilowatt system on later, that is not the cost of an eight-kilowatt system. It's much more costly.David RobertsBecause just coming out to the site again and all—James QuaziRedesign, permitting. Yeah, all the things. And then separately, depending on the time lag between system one and system two, there are at times, compatibility issues with modules that make it more difficult. I think solar's gotten inexpensive enough where if you were going to engage in one of maybe the three big electrification projects, which would be EV, heat pump, heat pump water heater, I mean, you should be sizing for at bare minimum that. And I would argue for the whole thing if that's what you intend to do, on day one. And then if you're doing other things, let's say that have a more de minimis impact on your meter or your electrical consumption, like a stove, then maybe it's fine to wait.But to the extent that, like, you're considering solar and storage and one of the other things, I think it makes a lot of sense to size appropriately for future loads.David RobertsSo, you would say to any homeowner contemplating solar that the financially smartest thing to do is to size a system for your projected total need in the future, not your current need.James QuaziYeah, no, I feel strongly that that is the case. I will take myself as an example again. I have an EV. I am considering a heat pump. I have a tankless hot water heater that is in a closet and is not easily replaceable with a heat pump water heater given form factor. But given those things, I did size the PV to the anticipated heat pump. Even if that doesn't happen on day one, it might happen on year one, three, five, or seven, right?David RobertsSo, are you not then, while you have the solar that's oversized for your current needs, are you not sort of financially losing out in the interim, in the meantime?James QuaziSo, I think that again, the export value for solar today directionally is much lower. So, there is some value, it's not a lot. I would categorize it as you're not optimizing the system today.David RobertsSuboptimal, then let's see.James QuaziBut I think that what you're really doing is putting together the infrastructure to adopt more products in the future.David RobertsRight. A contractor comes to me as a homeowner, says, "Let's look at how much solar you will need once you've electrified your home," basically, and install that amount. Do you envision these same contractors who are trying to sell solar, selling these other things to homeowners as well? Sort of like offering, like moving beyond solar to offer kind of total home electrification packages type of things.James QuaziI think there's going to be a couple of different flavors, and we'll see what sorts out. In San Diego, one of the biggest residential installers actually has historically had a heat pump division of their company. That's probably not the norm. I do see a lot of solar installers — I mean, certainly, a solar installer is now installing storage by default. A lot of them install EV chargers. I've seen some interest in heat pump water heaters as the installation is quite a bit easier than heat pumps, HVAC. So, I think that we'll see some adoption of product over time.I do believe that the heat pump is probably the one thing that is a set of expertise that is probably different than what solar providers have in-house. What they can do, and we anticipate doing, is a lot of pre-wiring work. It's taken as an industry axiom that HVAC products get replaced when they break. To the extent that that infrastructure, whether it's a 240 circuit to the existing furnace location, is not in place, it's very likely that the existing thing gets replaced with something very similar, and then we're locked into this pattern for 15 years.So, we're very interested in, again, sizing appropriately, but then also doing some of the pre-work that allows these things to be adopted.David RobertsTrey, interesting. And so, from your perspective, you're going to put the tool in the hands of contractors, and then to some extent, the contractors are going to figure out exactly how best to use it and what kind of packages to offer and stuff like that. Is Balto out being a contractor, like running this, interacting with homeowners?James QuaziNo, we are not. So, what we're doing is providing a toolset, which is computational tools, finance tools that allow existing contractors today to be more effective.David RobertsGot it. And so, talk about the financial side of this. So, I'm guessing I'm borderline illiterate when it comes to money issues. But I'm guessing that part of the promise of this is that if you can more accurately and reliably project future energy needs in a home, you're going to have an easier time financing the sort of oversized solar system that you want in anticipation of those loads. Is that right? Part of this is like giving confidence to financial institutions to finance these things, right?James QuaziYeah, that's exactly right. So, I would say that the first step is having a shared vision of what the future of this home looks like. So, what are the appliances that are on the list and off the list? EVs, whatever the case is. And then, from past learnings at Solar City and Dandelion, really what you have to do is package it in a way that people can experience the savings at the same rate as they chunk off the capital cost of these projects. And then, in terms of energy savings over time and confidence, I think the goal there is, and we could think of it as if you were getting a loan.One factor in the loan might be your debt-to-income ratio. How much debt do you have, and can you actually service this loan over time? And our position is, to the extent that these suite of products actually lowers your obligations to pay, so your utility bills, that should be factored into any financial product as well. Does that make sense?David RobertsYeah. So, it's almost like future income increases, almost like.James QuaziYeah, so if I had, like, if my obligations to pay a loan provider were $1,000 a month, just randomly, and I made x amount of income, if the obligation was less, if it was $500 a month, given all these energy savings, I would have a greater ability to pay back that loan, and that should be factored in.David RobertsOh, I see, I see. So, is the idea here just for this tool you've created to give confidence to homeowners who are going to banks and stuff, or are you getting in the finance game at all?James QuaziOur intention is to provide the financing for it as well. I mean, like, I think any time we're trying to make the process as seamless as possible. So, it's sort of like a one-stop shop in terms of assessing what's right, what's the best fit for you in terms of these projects, and then packaging it in a way that — we're hoping it incentivizes people to do more sooner, but to the extent that they want to do things over time, it is also like a flexible facility that allows you to adopt a heat pump water heater in year three, if that's what you want.David RobertsSo the contractors are the ones offering the homeowners this sort of financing package?James QuaziYep, that's correct.David RobertsRight. And the contractors are able to do it because they have this information from your tool that gives them confidence?James QuaziHand in glove.David RobertsRight. So, just having gone over all this, let's rewind and just imagine I'm a homeowner, and a contractor knocks on my door. What do you envision the contractor sort of like, what is the homeowner facing pitch from the contractor? Because there's a lot of complicated stuff going on behind the scenes for the contractor. What is the homeowner hearing? What is the pitch to the homeowner?James QuaziYeah, we see it as a stepwise process. So, because our go-to market is through solar contractors, the first step is to say, if I were any other solar contractor, and you called me for a solar and potentially storage system, what I would have done is looked at your current electrical bills and size the system this way, and this is what... "You want a five kilowatt solar array and one battery, 110 kilowatt hour battery." The next step is to say, "Hey, listen, we're actually in that world. We're only looking at one of probably three silos of energy that you're using."So, we're ignoring the natural gas side of the bill. We're ignoring everything that's happening at the pump. But, if we look at your energy spend holistically, here are a suite of options that are available to you. And this is the differential sort of financial outcome versus just a solar system, versus, like, resiliency versus bill stability kind of thing.David RobertsSo, the idea here is, I go to the contractor and say, "Hey, I've been thinking about solar and battery," and the contractor says to me, "Well, hey, what about this larger package? You could have even bigger savings, and you could have resilience," and stuff like this. So, it's a little bit like an upsell for a contractor.James QuaziYeah, I mean, I would think of it as like, being able to more holistically address energy spend. Like, that's our goal, is to say, "It's not just one flavor that we're dealing with. We're looking at the entire house and things, and we want the best solution for you."David RobertsIt makes me wonder how long it will be before homeowners think that way, or if they ever will. Because homeowners just think of products as separate products. I don't know that a lot of homeowners, especially outside our world, even sort of think of the home as a system, right? With certain energetic inputs and outputs that should be dealt with as a holistic system. Like, that's just — I'm not even sure homeowners are at all accustomed to thinking that way.James QuaziI wonder if I myself am, like, blinded by sort of a friend group or whatever the case is. But I would say that, like, I don't know of a lot of people that aren't at least considering an EV, right? Even if they're not, like, actively join in. But it's like, "Hey, listen, this is actually a real option." I don't think that heat pumps are very far behind that curve. It's interesting, like when people, like historically, when people inquire about solar, we often times have thought of that as they want bill savings. But I am not entirely sure that that is the reason.David RobertsDo we know? Have we done surveys and polls? I'm so curious. I would also assume, just out of a sort of, I guess, a low, like a background degree of cynicism, that that's going to be the dominant motivation. But is it? Like, I don't feel confident about that at all.James QuaziWell, I don't either. My belief is that bill savings are part of a decision-making process, but probably very rarely the primary driver. And that is the thing. And even if you look at, like, the funnel conversion metrics of, like, the solar industry as a whole, it's just like, for every hundred people that inquire, single-digit people actually do the things. And our perspective is like, you know, they're getting stuck somewhere in the process. And it's oftentimes with questions that cannot be answered, and that's when they stall out. And that is our reason for expanding the set to everything that's possible in your home and letting you search that, because we think we'll figure out what are the motivations. I think that there's a strong cohort of people that are just anti-utility.David RobertsThat's a piece of it. There's an environmental piece of it. There's a sort of independence, anti-utility piece of it. There's a vague mix. There's just social contagion, there's just peer pressure. You see it around you. It's the whole stew of motivations. I'd love to understand that better. So, I mean, it kind of seems like what you'd want is for your tool to be in the hands of everybody involved in any of those products. Do you know what I mean? Like, if I want an EV and I go to the car dealership, you know, it'd be cool if the car dealer could say to me, "Hey, you know, save even more money if you threw in a heat pump with this and a solar panel."You know, like if, or the heat pump, people are like, "Hey, throw in an EV and solar panels." Like, it'd be nice if homeowners confronted the idea of total electrification everywhere they looked, right? I mean, that'd be ideal.James QuaziYeah, 100%. I really think that's the vision, and that's where we're going. I think the entry point into a lot of this stuff will be varied. Like, it will be through an EV at the start, or a broken furnace that gets replaced by a heat pump or whatever the case is. I think our goal is to engage homeowners in a way where we have a persistent bill connection. I think that this is why that episode resonated so much with me. If we have an address and a persistent daily, hourly, monthly, whatever the case is, bill connection, you can drive insights over time to a homeowner at very meaningful times to intercept them.Right now, I think this business, like solar in general, is very transactional. We think of it as like, we get leads in the top of the funnel, we set them at this rate, we convert them at this rate, we install them. It's a 30% gross margin, and then that's the end. Whereas, I don't believe that that's the way the products will be adopted and people will have to, I mean, internally we call it energy literacy. Like, how do I start to understand the problem and the solutions?David RobertsRight. So, in the same way, you sort of have a financial advisor, you could have like a home advisor, basically. A home energy advisor.James QuaziAnd we also think it's got to be low impact, so it can't be like, "Hey, you've got to go do this detailed sort of appliance audit or whatever the case is." So it's bills and address, and then, you know, this is a great state of change problem where utility rates are constantly changing, prices of products are changing, incentives are changing, and there's always a chance to message. I very viscerally feel this in the sense that, like, when I took four years off and then reengaged with the industry, I was like, "Wow, we like, crossed the threshold, like, the point of no return, where electrification now makes sense for everyone," and I had missed it, and this is the only thing I'd ever done.David RobertsYeah, I mean, it's moving so quickly. I will say, though, one thing I hear from, you know, and there's been articles written about this. It's just like, it's all out there from people who have tried to do this total electrification thing. It's just incredibly difficult, just incredibly difficult to synchronize everything and arrange everything. And so, in that context, the idea of having a kind of home advisor where, like, your hot water heater breaks and you just call your home advisor, you figure out, like, what's the right approach here, what's the economical approach, where to look, what kind of thing to get?A lot of people would very much welcome having one of those, I feel like.James QuaziAnd I think that this speaks to the general funnel conversion in the industry, but generally, a lead comes in, and then what we're trying to do is furiously convert them to a sale and install as quickly as possible, hopefully within 30 days, hopefully in one set. And I just don't believe that that's the way that people will consume products. It will be through a bunch of different experiences over time. And I think that's a meaningful difference. Like, you know, we're in such a rush to do all the things. Like, I'm in a rush to do all the things at once, but I think we have to also meet people where they are and, like, engage them in some way over time so they can make a decision, so they can make another decision.David RobertsI hope it changes because, honestly, like, you know, I've thought about solar. Ten years ago, we did one of those sort of, like, online audit things, and it was like, "No, you're too shaded." But I think it's just changed since then. Uh, just like, what's possible. But, like, I know that if I got a solar contractor and sat down at a table with that person, that they would just be sweaty and desperate, you know what I mean? To sell me just like it, exactly like I feel at the auto dealership, which is just like, "Ew," kind of uncomfortable, you know what I mean?And rushed and don't feel like I have a full sense of all the pieces in play, and that I can't trust the person I'm talking to, to help me out, you know what I mean? I'm sort of, like, adversarial. I hate that whole model, you know what I mean? And just like, I would be, I don't know how representative I am, but I'd be inclined to spend more money if I just had a person who was like, had the big picture, had the model, had the data in hand, said, "You know, like whenever you're ready, this is the right first step."Just like a better environment for homeowners to deal with these things and think about these things.James QuaziYeah, no, I get it. I feel very similarly. I totally understand from the other perspective, like solar sales reps are expensive and they're hired to do one thing. I just don't know that it's the way that most people want to adopt the things.David RobertsYeah, I can't believe that it's going to go to truly, truly mass penetration running on this model. It's going to have to evolve into something else. As we near the end here, let's pull the camera back a little bit and talk about the Agile Electrification project. My understanding basically is that the NEM 3.0 decision in California threw the solar contracting world into a bit of a tizzy. And there are efforts now to organize and figure out how to move forward and how to help contractors and what the right approach for contractors is in this new world.So, tell us a little bit about what the Agile Electrification project is.James QuaziIt is an industry-sponsored project that's hosted at the Design and Innovation Center at UCSD. The genesis of it was a lot of, quite honestly, hammering around NEM 3.0. It was like if you read Canary or any of these publications, a lot of it is doom and gloom. This industry is down 70%.David RobertsYeah, there's a lot of "sky is falling" sentiment flying around.James QuaziYeah, I think there have been. And you know, a lot of people are like, "Hey, listen, a lot of the bad actors are going to get flushed out with this," which I believe. I also believe a lot of some good actors will go out of business. So this is like a real issue. In times of turmoil, there's oftentimes opportunity and there's a group of people, contractors, manufacturers, investors, who have come together in this venue where sometimes it would be competitive or driven by business interests and they're coming together to solve problems for the industry. So right now it's a series of three projects to expand from there.One is like energy modeling for the entire state of California. It's something that everyone needs. We want to do it and open source it. Another one that we touched on earlier is understanding customer motivations and understanding where they got stuck and how to unstick them, because our general sense is they want to save money. And I don't know if that's the primary motivation. And then the third one is around incentives and rebates and how to, like, it's a constantly evolving landscape and just staying on top of it is like a challenge and maybe a full-time job.So, it's how to open-source that aspect of it, and how to qualify people for rebates and make sure that they're up to date, make sure they're not over-allocated, and deliver that information to the people on the ground that are actually installing the systems.David RobertsRight. And so, I'm stuck on this point. I just wanted to reiterate one more time. So, it's your belief that, because I think this sort of popular belief is that the NEM 3.0 decision has radically reduced homeowner incentives to get solar power, that it's just not as worth it anymore to get solar power. What you're saying is, with the right holistic approach, solar power is as valuable as ever and just as worth getting as ever. Is that your position?James QuaziThat is my position, yes.David RobertsDo you think that that is widely, like solar contractors believe that, or are you having to sort of buck them up and convince them of that?James QuaziWell, I think we're in a stage right now where, I mean, we set up the simplest possible website, have done very little marketing. We've had directionally 75 to 100 contractors sign up and say they're interested. I believe that the contractors are looking for solutions. For sure. That is definitively true. I think they should believe this because it is true that there is a great value proposition in homeowners. I think the issue here, maybe the persistent issue that's undeniable, is that it's more complex. Describing the value proposition has become more complex. For sure. There's no way around that.So, we're trying to find ways to — I mean, the back-end compute engine is great. The real challenge is finding ways to deliver that information to customers in a way that's actionable.David RobertsFor sure. Final question then. A lot of this seems very Californian. The fears and the solutions and all of it seems sort of very customized to California's current circumstances. How applicable is all of this, do you think, outside of California? Would your model be helpful to a homeowner in, I don't know, like Arkansas?James QuaziYeah. So, I would take it in two flavors. One is, I think there's the expectation, for good reason, that these policies in California will get exported to other states. So, it will become hugely relevant soon.David RobertsYou mean rooftop solar compensation getting cut way back? It's already happened in a couple of other states. I mean, it's definitely a trend.James QuaziYeah. So, that's true. NEM 3.0, or like the difference between export energy valuation and import and parity, does not have to be true for this general value proposition to hold true. So, to that extent, I would say that it's portable anywhere. We chose to start in California because it is by far the biggest solar market. It accounts for about 50% of solar and there was a demonstrated need. I will say that it's a very complex problem to solve and it has geographic sides to it. So, as you move location, utilities change and their tariffs change and the way that they charge and weather changes.David RobertsThe information they make available.James QuaziExactly, exactly. So, we've tactically started it in California for those reasons and constrained it. But there's no reason why this shouldn't be applicable to, like, any other place.David RobertsRight. It's sort of interesting. The big fear, or I guess the thing that solar people used to say to utilities when warning them away from NEM 3.0, is like, "Look, if you cut compensation too much, we're just going to self-consume and then install more electric appliances and then slowly wean ourselves off the grid and then not need the grid anymore. And then you're losing customers." The much-fabled death spiral. It seems like you're organizing to make that real, to make that happen.James QuaziI have some thoughts on this. I really do think, and I don't know the answer, but at some point down the road, we're going to have a fork. That fork will be either we find a way to use essentially distribution resources to cooperate, and I think that is the best societal outcome, or we find that we can't cooperate and everyone has to be their own, like a little micro picogrid, and that we have to build the infrastructure to do it. And, you know, I think that it's probably more likely that that's going to happen, which is unfortunate, but I do think that, as always, the affluent will serve themselves first and make good decisions and the rest of the costs will be pushed on to everyone else. And actually, in my heart of hearts, what I think will happen is we'll find a way to cooperate, but only after we've sort of incurred a huge amount of pain.David RobertsThat sounds like the American approach that I know and love. We'll stumble through some disasters and then eventually get our act together.James QuaziYeah, you end up doing the right thing when you're forced to. So, I think that that's the way I see it happening.David RobertsAll right, well, cool. James, this is really interesting. I've been meaning to look into solar in California, how they're dealing with all this. And this is a really interesting approach. I mean, it's never funny. Until I sort of read about this, it never occurred to me, even though it's really obvious, that like, of course, electrifying your appliances and getting your battery and getting your solar panels are — that's like the same thing. You know what I mean? Like, that's all one. That's all one thing. Like I said, it's like a switch that kind of flips in your mind.You're like, "Oh, like, it's a holistic system." It would be interesting to try to train homeowners to think that way more. Thank you so much, James. Thanks for taking the time.James QuaziThank you. Appreciate it.David RobertsThank you for listening to Volts. It takes a village to make this podcast work. Shout out, especially to my super producer, Kyle McDonald, who makes my guests and I sound smart every week. And it is all supported entirely by listeners like you. So, if you value conversations like this, please consider joining our community of paid subscribers at volts.wtf. Or, leaving a nice review or telling a friend about Volts, or all three. Thanks so much, and I'll see you next time. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.volts.wtf/subscribe

Industrial Talk is onsite at DistribuTech and talking to Bill Cappel and Kyle Slagle with Cross Discipline Engineering about "In a rapidly changing utility market, listening and driving to a solution is key". Scott MacKenzie hosts an industrial podcast from Distribute Tech in Orlando, highlighting the importance of innovation and problem-solving in the utility and power industries. Bill Cappel and Kyle Slagle from Cross Discipline Engineering discuss their roles in addressing complex challenges such as achieving carbon neutrality without sacrificing reliability. They emphasize the need for prioritizing goals, understanding client needs, and staying updated with regulatory changes. They also stress the importance of standardization and updating outdated standards. Bill and Kyle share their backgrounds in military and utility operations, respectively, and offer their services through Cross Discipline Engineering, encouraging listeners to reach out for solutions. Action Items [ ] Reach out to Cross Discipline Engineering through their website at crossdiscipline.com or on LinkedIn. [ ] Contact Scott MacKenzie on the Industrial Talk podcast platform to promote technologies, solutions, or events. [ ] Attend conferences like Distributech and PowerGen to see innovations and network with others in the utility and energy industries. Outline Introduction and Conference Overview Scott MacKenzie welcomes listeners to the Industrial Talk Podcast, highlighting the focus on industry professionals and innovations. Scott MacKenzie mentions the current location at Distribute Tech in Orlando, Florida, and introduces the guests, Bill Cappel and Kyle Slagle. Bill and Kyle discuss their experiences at the conference, emphasizing the importance of networking and innovation. Scott MacKenzie shares a conversation with a fellow attendee, Jim, about the rapid pace of technological advancements in the industry. Kyle Slagle's Background and Role Kyle Slagle introduces himself as a Solutions Expert, focusing on partnering with clients to find solutions to their problems in the power industry. Kyle explains his background in the power industry, including his 14 years with an IOU and his role as Director of Engineering. Scott MacKenzie and Kyle discuss the evolving nature of the utility industry, particularly in grid management and matching supply and demand. Bill Cappel shares his background, detailing his 21 years in the military and his current role as Director of Field Services at Cross Discipline Engineering. Challenges in Achieving Carbon Neutrality Scott MacKenzie and Kyle discuss the challenges of achieving carbon neutrality while maintaining reliability and avoiding excessive costs. Kyle emphasizes the importance of prioritizing goals and addressing them progressively to avoid overwhelming clients. Bill Cappel highlights the need for utilities to identify their main problems and work towards solving them without sacrificing reliability. Scott MacKenzie and Kyle agree on the importance of understanding market demands and guiding clients towards long-term solutions. Cross Discipline Engineering's Approach Bill Cappel outlines Cross Discipline Engineering's four-step process: understanding client needs, anticipating solutions, communicating expectations, and executing the...