Get Rich Education

#199: He thought this show was dumb, debt was bad.

He originally listened to laugh rather than for financial education.

In 2009, Get Rich Education (GRE) listener Dustin Jones suffered a personal bankruptcy as a result of high real estate commercial debt tied to properties with declining value.

His goal was to be debt-free by age 40.

In 2015, that all changed when he began listening to Get Rich Education.

He learned that financially-free beats debt-free.

Now Dustin embraces debt again by strategically turning equity into cash flow.

He has $781,000 in debt, and hopes to have $1.1M to $1.2M by year-end. Isn’t that counterintuitive?

It’s a fascinating story of tragedy, resilience, learning, strength, and self-belief with remarkable Michigan-based GRE listener Dustin Jones.

_______________

Want more wealth?

1) Grab my free E-book and Newsletter at: GetRichEducation.com/Book

2) Actionable turnkey real estate investing opportunity: GREturnkey.com

3) Read my best-selling paperback: getbook.at/7moneymyths

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

03:47 Building a real estate portfolio in Flint, MI.

05:48 Declining property values and rent incomes.

08:46 Bankruptcies.

09:36 Calling notes due generally doesn’t happen on performing, residential loans.

12:52 Dustin thought debt was dumb.

13:56 Finding GRE in 2015 and laughing at how it first sounded like nonsense.

19:00 Applying abundant concepts.

21:33 Buying 5 properties in Houston, Memphis, and Montgomery. $1,250 cash flow.

25:46 Dustin’s other investments.

27:47 Pitfalls with providers, inspections.

32:28 Meet Dustin and I in-person Sept. 6th to 9th! Learn more at: www.GetRichEducation.com/Belize.

Resources Mentioned:

Dustin’s e-mail: delk25@gmail.com

Mortgage Loans: RidgeLendingGroup.com

Cash Flow Banking: ProducersWealth.com

Apartment Investor Mastery: BradSumrok.com

Turnkey RE: NoradaRealEstate.com

Find Properties: GREturnkey.com

GRE Book: GetRichEducation.com/Book

Education: GetRichEducation.com

Direct download: GREepisode199_1.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

#198: The five ways real estate pays you, your monthly cash flow and using HELOCs are three listener questions that I answer today.

Home inventory is so low that machine learning and artificial intelligence are being used to predict when someone is likely to sell.

ATTOM Data’s Daren Blomquist tells us where today’s housing values are compared to pre-recession peaks.

Want more wealth?

1) Grab my free E-book and Newsletter at: GetRichEducation.com/Book

2) Actionable turnkey real estate investing opportunity: GREturnkey.com

3) Read my best-selling paperback: getbook.at/7moneymyths

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

00:57 How would $1,500 monthly cash flow help me?

04:00 The “5 Ways” real estate pays you.

06:40 HELOCs.

26:16 Daren Blomquist interview begins.

29:00 Machine learning, artificial intelligence in real estate.

35:00 Higher mortgage interest rates = higher home prices.

38:18 National median housing prices vs. “pre-crash” highs.

40:30 Housing values in “stable” markets.

43:38 Get Rich Education TV.

Resources Mentioned:

www.attomdata.com

Get Rich Education TV: GetRichEducation.tv

Mortgage Loans: RidgeLendingGroup.com

Cash Flow Banking: ProducersWealth.com

Apartment Investor Mastery: BradSumrok.com

Turnkey RE: NoradaRealEstate.com

Find Properties: GREturnkey.com

GRE Book: GetRichEducation.com/Book

Education: GetRichEducation.com

 

Hey, welcome in to Get Rich Education, Episode 198. I’m your host Keith Weinhold and I’m going to answer a few listener questions today…

...about your cash flow, your total rate of return, and finally, Home Equity Lines Of Credit. Then we’re going to have one of the top real estate trend trackers in the nation join us here later.

Let’s get right into it. Ellis from Gastonia, North Carolina asks,

“Keith, Episode 188 had a great breakdown of how run you all of the numbers on an income property. The thing I’m wondering about is that your example only resulted in a positive cash flow of $150 on that property.

With the maximum of 10 conforming loans that we can get, that’s only $1,500 in monthly cash flow. How would that be enough for us to leave our job?” Thanks, Ellis.

And, of course, not everyone that listens here wants to have their passive real estate income replace their passive job income. Though many do.

...and it’s not a get rich quick thing...it’s about incrementally building up durable cash flow streams over years.

Well, Ellis, and I’m not sure how many shows you’ve listened to.

That example of the $150 cash flow was just for one SFH - and really for one of the lower-cost ones - the purchase price on that was 70-some thousand dollars. It was in Memphis.

So most of the income properties you buy will have a higher purchase price, higher figures, and often a higher cash flow.

Really, $1,500 with ten properties would be about as low as a projected number could possibly get.

So Ellis, if you’re married, both you and your spouse - you each qualify for 10 one-to-four unit properties...20 total and BTW…

...you want to put those in your individual names. If both you and your wife were on the loan, that would count as a strike against each of your limit of 10, so as you buy, alternate back-and-forth - you own the first one, she owns the second, you own the third, and so on, or something like that.

So that’s 20 doors minimum there - or I guess 19 since your primary residence is part of that formula, plus if you have some duplexes or four-plexes in there, that might be 25 or 30 or 40 doors.

So, there’s so many reasons why you would likely have substantially more than $1,500 in passive monthly cash flow.

Then there are financing programs beyond conventional ones, you might also have some 5+ unit apartment buildings, some agricultural parcels or a mobile home community, or maybe you even got a couple low-cost properties paid-off and don’t think it’s worth getting a loan for tiny amounts, so they produce cash flow although there’s no loan there…

...there are a ton of reasons why it would be way more than $1,500. Thank you for the question, Ellis. 

...And another important thing to remember there is that we’re only talking about cash flow - which is only one of five simultaneous profit centers that you typically have.

But cash flow is a key profit center because it’s the most liquid one.

Jessy from Sacramento, CA says, I love your show. It’s flipped my financial mindset totally upside-down, changed my family’s life, and changed what I thought was possible for us. 

Part of what I love hearing about is that 5 Ways You’re Paid in real estate. Ah - then he (or she?) shows me an example here in the question of 30% for leveraged appreciation + 6% cash flow , 5% loan paydown, 4% tax benefits, 3% inflation-hedging = a total return of 48%.

 

Yes, those are the five ways that real estate investors often have as profit centers.

 

The question Jessy asks about this is: “Though I get my properties from GREturnkey.com and these returns seem about right, I don’t think I’m invested in any one market that performs this way.”

 

OK, I love that question, Jessy. Few individual markets are going to perform just that way.

 

It’s a blended portfolio approach. For example, on your new purchase in Dallas-Fort Worth, you might not have any cash flow any more. It might be cash flow zero. That’s just the way DFW behaves now.

 

But it’s likely that you’ve been achieving better than 6% appreciation there in DFW (and I’m referencing that 6% appreciation at 5:1 leverage as the 30% Jessy gave in the example).

 

Then if you’ve also bought in Memphis, you’re likely achieving less-than-average appreciation - that’s just how many areas in Memphis behave, but you’re getting above-average cash flow.

 

So it’s the blended portfolio approach that can lead to “Year One” returns like what I’ve described with the “Five Ways That You’re Paid”. Multiple markets means you’re more diversified at the same time.

 

One market, however, that’s performed lately with a nearly equal measure of both appreciation and cash flow are some of the Orlando and Tampa Bay submarkets...so some markets will come close - most won’t - they’ll be weighted differently across your five profit centers.

 

Thanks for the question, Jessy.

 

The next question comes from Michael in Astoria, Oregon. Astoria is beautiful. One day, I went to the top of the Astoria column there - it’s a tower overlooking the mouth of the Columbia River.

 

Michael says, “There aren’t any cash flow markets out here on the west coast and we have substantial equity in our $1 million Astoria home.

 

We still owe $504,000 on the loan so it’s about half-paid off.

 

From listening to you and understanding that the Return From Home Equity is always zero, I also know that our leverage ratio has been cut to 2-to-1.

 

What’s the best way of removing our home equity to use for down payments on cash-flowing income property?”  

 

Well, thanks for the question, Michael. First of all, you need to decide for yourself that that’s what you want to do with your home equity.

 

Understand that doing so means that none of your equity is lost - it is merely transferred into multiple properties - and it also can produce a cash flow for you now.

 

Of course, though the return from home equity is always zero, borrowing against your home equity incurs an interest rate expense that you need to beat.

 

I’ve removed equity from my property with a HELOC for buying more investment property...and let’s drill down and unpackage a HELOC here - H.e.l.o.c. - Home Equity Line Of Credit.

 

Let’s talk about why you would use one, how it works, and both your advantages and your risks here, Michael.

 

With a HELOC - if you understand how a CC works, you largely understand how a HELOC works, except your credit limit is based on how much equity you have in your home. You can usually borrow up to an 80% combined LTV ratio.

 

So what’s 80% combined LTV really mean?

 

Now with your home, let’s just round your million-dollar home’s mortgage loan balance to 500K. This means that you could potentially borrow up to $800K total - you’ve already got a $500K lien on the property, meaning you could get a HELOC for another $300K.

 

Yes, with $300K, you could potentially put $30K into ten low-cost income properties in the Midwest and South - down payment & closing costs. Now you’ve spread your risk around because you’re invested in multiple RE markets.

 

Now to qualify for a HELOC, you'll need to document your income and employment status just like you would if you were refinancing your home, Michael.

 

People often use HELOCs for home repairs, sometimes they’re used to pay down higher interest rate CCs. But you can use the funds for anything - a trip to France, a new fishing boat.

 

The HELOC is essentially a second mortgage for you.

 

Like a credit card, homeowners can borrow or draw money on multiple occasions, usually for a period of 5-10 years, and up to a maximum amount - it would be $300K for you in this case, Michael.

 

There are two time phases with a HELOC. The first one is your Draw Period, which typically lasts 5-10 years.

The second one is your Repayment Period - which can last about 10 years, maybe even up to 20 years.

 

Now the first one, your HELOC Draw Period is a really nice time. Now you’ve got access to $300K, and you only need to make interest-only payments on it - which means you have flexibility - you can make principal payments on it if you want, but you only need to pay the interest portion monthly.

 

And your HELOC balance can be very elastic - like a credit card - you could just borrow out $150K on your $300K line right away, make extra principal payments to get it down to $120K after a few months, then months later, run it all the way up to the limit of $300K, and years later pay it back down to “0” again.

 

It’s a pretty great time for you - you’re enjoying what feels like a windfall of cash and you only need to make the interest-only payments.

 

But after this 5-10 year Draw period, the second of your two HELOC time phases begins - your Repayment Period.

 

Now, this can be a real test of how responsible you’ve been with your HELOC funds during your Draw Period - because during this repayment period which can last 10 to 20 years, you must pay both the interest and the principal amount - so your required minimum payment will be higher over all these months until you pay the HELOC balance back down to zero.

 

Usually, the repayment amount is calculated by dividing the capital you’ve accessed - call it $300K here - by the number of months in your repayment period. Simple math here.

 

Now, before you originate your HELOC - beware - occasionally, a lender requires your capital to be fully repaid at the end of your 5-10 Drawdown period all in one lump sum - which is known as a balloon payment.

 

So before you take out a HELOC, just ask your mortgage loan officer about the duration of your Repayment Period once your Draw period ends, ensuring that there’s no balloon due.

 

Now, even if you do have a 10-20 year repayment period, some borrowers still get surprised at the higher payment during the repayment period - but you won’t be - you’ve got to pay both principal and interest there. Your required payment will increase then.

 

Now, here’s a great option for you. Of course once your 5-10 year Draw Period ends, maybe you want to keep your line of credit and extend the draw period.

Many lenders will do this for you, so long as your home still has enough equity and your financial health hasn’t tanked.

Typically, a lender will “pay off” your old line of credit by simply extending you a new one.

Now that you understand Draw Periods and Repayment Periods, let’s talk about your HELOC’s interest rate.

 

HELOCs have substantially lower interest rates than CCs. HELOC interest is often tax deductible - CCs are not.

 

Your interest rate floats. It’s not fixed. HELOC interest rates are tied to Prime Rate or LIBOR plus a margin above that which is based on your credit score.

 

Your upfront HELOC costs low, Michael. A $300K HELOC cost might only be a $1K upfront cost.

 

Now, let’s talk about some risks associated with using your primary residence’s equity for purchasing rental property.

 

If you have a habit of abusing credit, maybe avoid a HELOC altogether.

 

Since a HELOC is secured by your home equity, if you don't repay it, you could end up in foreclosure. The same of which can be said for most any mortgage.

 

Let me tell you about something bad and unforeseen that happened to me with a HELOC in about 2007 or 2008….and by the way, lending guidelines were so loose then that I actually had a 90% LTV HELOC on a non owner-occupied four-plex.

 

If you can believe that!

 

But it’s not like that today, so with your HELOC based on 80% LTV on your primary residence, say, Michael, that you’re in a place during your draw period a couple years down the road and say you’ve borrowed $150K of your $300K HELOC.

 

You’ve got half of it in use.

 

Here’s what happened to me, just using your numbers to stick with your example - I got a notice from the bank telling me, essentially that they froze my HELOC.

 

What did freezing my HELOC mean? It meant that even though I was still in my Draw Period, they wouldn’t let me draw further equity from my home - it was frozen at $150K.

 

Now, they didn’t call the note due or demand any principal payments.

 

I could still make interest-only payments on the $150K, but with no further drawdowns. There was another $150K that remained unutilized.

 

...and why was that? Well, a lot of unprecedented things happened during the Great Recession of 2007 to 2009.

 

Even though the property I owned didn’t fall in value all that much ten years ago, when housing values started turning down nationally 10-12 years ago, many banks said that you can’t make any further draws on your HELOC - we’re freezing it - essentially the banks were saying that we’re worried about the value of your collateral that secures this loan that we made to you.

 

Well, I was disappointed because I still had some open funds to use on my HELOC, but access was shut off for quite a while. That was the HELOC freeze.

 

Now, I could have avoided that had I just taken all the money out of the HELOC and put it in my own liquid bank account. Of course, I would have had to pay interest on a lump that I wasn’t investing too.

 

Let me just add here, that whomever you listen to for finance and real estate investing information and education, listen to someone that been through a downturn.

 

I’ve been successfully investing in real estate directly since 2002, and the housing crisis and mortgage meltdown of 2007 to 2009 was actually good for me - as I’ve discussed on other shows.

 

Now, for you to get a gain - your HELOC interest rate that you’re paying should be the same as, or lower than, the cash-on-cash return of the income property that you’re buying with the HELOC funds.

 

That’s because it’s cash that you service the I/O HELOC payments with - and you’re really keeping an eye on that when your Draw Period comes to an end.

 

Remember that HELOC rates have been rising and they’re poised to keep rising.

 

Now, I already know what you’re thinking. You’re excited about real estate investing and building your portfolio and if you have some equity in your home, you might even be thinking something like:

 

“Even if my income property’s CCR ends up lower than my home’s HELOC interest rate, it’s all going to work out for me because when I consider that the income property pays me 5 ways (of which the CCR is only one of those five), my Total Rate Of Return will dwarf the smaller HELOC interest rate.

 

I know you might be thinking that. And you know what, you might even end up being right and it will work out for you, but now you’re tilting into a riskier area.

 

And you’re going to do whatever you’re going to do….

 

...but the Mortgage Meltdown ten years ago proved to me that liquid cash flow is what services HELOC payments.

 

The other four ways you’re often paid - appreciation, loan paydown paid by the tenant, tax benefits, and inflation-hedging - none of those profit centers are liquid.

 

By the way, and thanks for the question Michael -

 

Now, I’ve had some detractors in the debt-free School Of Thought that won’t even entertain the notion of harvesting equity from their own home and buying rental property with it.

 

But I do it...and I’m not telling you to do it...I’m saying make your own decision. But some even say things like - I bet you won’t like your decision when we have another mortgage meltdown like we did ten years ago.

 

My response is - this way, I’m better positioned in a mortgage meltdown. During the Housing Crisis, some markets even lost 50, even 60% of their housing values.

 

In a meltdown, I’m going to be really happy that I didn’t have a lump of equity all in one property just in one market.

 

Plus, during all that time leading up to a potential future meltdown, I will have had positive cash flow the entire time.

 

I’ve even had a couple people - that just don’t ever seem to want to think abundantly say - well what if things go beyond a recession and we’re in an all-out depression and everyone loses their job and Americans are massively starved for food.

 

Then the person that rents your Kansas City property won’t have their medical job to pay your rent anymore, and the Fedex employee in Memphis that rents your place won’t have a job and your cash flow will dry up.

 

Sheesh, if we’re in an all-out Depression, and the economy breaks down, no one accepts the dollar, and there’s anarchy and mass starvation and looting and Americans don’t even have clean water and everyone’s defaulted on every loan they have, then the fact that you lost the cash flow on your St. Louis rental property is not even going to be one of your Top 20 problems.

 

So...I don’t know what these people are thinking. Now...

 

When you’re running your numbers on a single-family income property that you’re thinking about buying and you get a CCR greater than 10%, you know, these days. I want you to look at that CCR with a magnifying glass.

 

Many markets have prices rising faster than rents that can keep up proportionally. You can still get 10% on a SFH, but not as easily as before.

 

And I still don’t know of a better place to invest right now than SF income property.

 

And I don’t think we’re in any kind of housing “bubble” now.

 

A bubble is defined as a price level unsupported by fundamentals. Today, supply shortage is driving demand.

 

Therefore, it is very much still a fundamental price increase, not a bubble - in these stable inland markets where we buy homes a little below the median housing value.

 

So...know the pros and cons of strategic investment moves like a HELOC origination.

 

Your goal, as a successful investor, is to maximize your ROI throughout your investing lifetime.

 

I frequently sell or refinance properties due to that fact that equity-heavy properties decrease your ROE - your Return On Equity.

 

Financially-free beats debt-free. The debt-free person asks a question like “Where do I think I can be someday?”

 

The financially-free person instead asked themself a better question - what do I have right now to make my & my family’s life better now - what tool do I have that I didn’t even know I had.

 

What knowledge do I have now, what talent do I have now, what property equity do I have now, what relationships do I have now.

 

So...thanks for the listener questions today. I only got to three. There is such a backlog of questions that I’ve got.

 

I wanted to answer three that I felt would be most applicable to the greatest number of people.

 

Well, ATTOM Data’s Senior VP Daren Blomquist is back with us today.

 

  • We’re going to discuss how among homeowners - they’re staying in their homes longer than before - but renters are not included in this - so note that this isn’t a direct measure of transiency.

 

There are so many reasons for why homeowners are staying put longer

 

  • Low interest rates that they locked in years ago often means they don’t want to leave.
  • Mortgage underwriting standards are tougher than they were pre-recession.
  • The supply of replacement properties is low.
  • To a lesser degree - our population aging - the older one gets, the less they move.
  • The supply problem is getting so bad that people increasingly are using data sets of predictive analytics and Artificial Intelligence to tell if someone is about to sell their home.

 

All that’s next, plus where the more undervalued Midwest & South housing markets are for income property today. You’re listening to Get Rich Education.

______________

 

For those figures Daren was using in comparing various metro housing market prices to their pre-recession peaks, those numbers are not adjusted for inflation. Keep that in mind.

 

So if over the last decade we had a cumulative 30% inflation over all those years, then a housing price that’s 30% greater is essentially the same. Very important distinction there.

 

Thanks again to Daren Blomquist.

 

I know that you’re a Get Rich Education listener, but are you a Get Rich Education watcher? Get Rich Education TV is developing.

 

Understand that a lot of changes are taking place there as it’s just evolving.

 

If you want free education, motivation and tutorial videos from me - just go to GetRichEducation.tv for more.

 

Let me know what you think about Get Rich Education TV. Land there directly at  GetRichEducation.tv.

 

Until next week, I’m your host, Keith Weinhold. Don’t Quit Your Day Dream!

 

Direct download: GREepisode198_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

#197: I dislike 401(k)s. They REDUCE your income. Sound investments INCREASE your income.

Most people simply do not realize that there are alternatives to “defined contribution” retirement plans like 401(k)s, 403(b)s, 457s, IRAs, and Canadian RRSPs.

Societal belief systems condition you into “Salary Reduction Plans” - which is, in fact, an early name of the 401(k)!

The man credited as the “Father” and “Inventor” of the 401(k), Ted Benna, joins us today.

He created and gained IRS approval of the first 401(k) savings plan.

Even Ted laments that they should be “blown up”. They are not serving participants in the way they were intended.

Ted & I discuss alternatives to 401(k)s.

Personally, I don’t invest in 401(k)s. Admittedly, I used to, succumbing to poor financial education and societal conditioning.

They’re not designed to begin paying you until between age 59.5 and 70.5. That’s a “life deferral plan” - awful.

Want more wealth?

1) Grab my free E-book and Newsletter at: GetRichEducation.com/Book

2) Actionable turnkey real estate investing opportunity: GREturnkey.com

3) Read my best-selling paperback: getbook.at/7moneymyths

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

02:09 What exactly is wrong with a 401(k).

06:45 Replace your “Salary Reduction Plan” with a “Salary Increase Plan”.

08:02 Similar plans like 403(b), 457, IRA, Canadian RRSP.

09:30 Ted Benna Interview begins. 1980 roots.

12:45 Reducing employee wages.

13:37 Benefits and drawbacks of 401(k)s.

18:51 Fees.

25:43 Why 401(k)s should be “blown up”.

32:02 Comparing “Get Rich Education” vs. “401(k)”.

34:44 What does Ted Benna do today?

36:01 My summary.

Resources Mentioned:

Ted Benna’s website: Benna401k.com

Ted’s charity interest: Compassion.com

Mortgage Loans: RidgeLendingGroup.com

Cash Flow Banking: ProducersWealth.com

Apartment Investor Mastery: BradSumrok.com

Turnkey RE: NoradaRealEstate.com

Find Properties: GREturnkey.com

GRE Book: GetRichEducation.com/Book

Education: GetRichEducation.com

 

Direct download: GREepisode197__.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

#196: For under $20,000, you can own deeded agricultural property. It produces cash flow from the crop harvest.

Food is an innate human need. Earth’s population grows by 200,000 people daily.

But arable land has decreased by 1/3rd in just the last forty years!

You can invest in half-acre parcels of coffee and cacao for appreciation and cash flow.

They’re deeded to you.

The parcels are turnkey-managed by an expert team including agronomists, soil scientists, biologists, a value chain analyst, and laborers.

These are higher-grade coffee and cacao varietals - specialty coffee and fine-flavored cacao.

Coffee is the second-most traded commodity in the world (oil is #1).

We discuss the benefits, risks, cash flow, and your projected ROI.

Learn more: see the Coffee and Cacao Investor Reports.

Want more wealth?

1) Grab my free E-book and Newsletter at: GetRichEducation.com/Book

2) Actionable turnkey real estate investing opportunity: GREturnkey.com

3) Read my best-selling paperback: getbook.at/7moneymyths

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

01:14 The world needs food. It’s population grows by 200,000 people daily. Arable land decreases.

06:15 Previously, this guest appeared with us on GRE Episodes 28, 60, 125, 157.

07:40 Coffee tree parcels in Panama, cacao tree parcels in Belize.

11:07 Team of farm management pros. Soil science.

18:13 On-site handling adds “single estate” value to beans.

21:16 Who is your end consumer?

27:18 Annual cash flow from annual harvests.

31:20 Trees don’t vacate property. Tenants do.

33:20 11% return plus potential appreciation.

34:00 Half-acre parcels available now: $18,900 coffee, $25,725 cacao.

35:18 Commodity prices.

37:36 Attend a coffee and cacao field trip.

39:37 The world has about 200 nations. How many do you own property in?

43:17 Learn more: see the Coffee and Cacao Investor Reports.

Resources Mentioned:

Coffee Report: GetRichEducation.com/Coffee

Cacao Report: GetRichEducation.com/Cacao

Mortgage Loans: RidgeLendingGroup.com

Cash Flow Banking: ProducersWealth.com

Apartment Investor Mastery: BradSumrok.com

Turnkey RE: NoradaRealEstate.com

Find Properties: GREturnkey.com

GRE Book: GetRichEducation.com/Book

Education: GetRichEducation.com

 

Get Rich Education is brought to you by Ridge Lending Group, Apartment Investor Mastery, Norada Real Estate, and Producers Wealth.

Welcome to GRE. From Toledo, Belize to Toledo, Ohio and across 188 nations worldwide, this is Get Rich Education. I’m Keith Weinhold.

We need to talk about what really could be one of the most important issues of our time today.

Now, we typically talk about providing residential housing in the United States here...and because shelter is an innate human need - and that need is still underserved in a lot of markets today.

Well, when you think about food, shelter, and safety - beginning with food - let’s pull back and look at the global picture.

I know this sounds incomprehensible if you didn’t already know it, but 200,000 more people are here on earth today compared to how many were here yesterday.

Yes, every single day we add 200,000 more people to the planet...and just imagine them all sitting down at a dinner table tonight - and none of them were there are at the world dining table just yesterday.

The earth’s population is expected to swell from 7 & a half billion today, and by the end of the century, we’re expecting more than 11 billion.

So the innate need for human calories isn’t just here to stay, it keeps growing fast...every day.

At the same time, in just the last 40 years, earth has lost 1/3rd of it’s arable land - and that fact alone is unfathomable to some people.

Now, it actually gets even more critical.

Among this growing population and less arable land, humans are consuming more calories on a per capita basis, and as societies develop, they demand a higher quality calorie.

So, needless to say, demand for higher-end and gourmet items is accelerating even faster than those average quality items that we would call generic or commercial-grade.

Well today, we’re talking about agricultural real estate investing - and in two products in particular - coffee, and cacao. Cacao is the base product for chocolate. Both coffee and cacao are produced on small trees in central America.

...and in both cases, it is high grade.

Now, in coffee, the high-grade term is speciality coffee - and it’s become quite sophisticated. In fact, there’s a 100-point coffee grading scale, specialty coffee must score 80 point or higher.

In cacao, the term for the higher-end...I guess...varietals is “fine-flavored” cacao. So rather than a milk chocolate bar, think about those bars with maybe 70% or 80% cacao content that come in a fancy wrapper with some gold-colored foil.

Now, can coffee be considered a food? I’m not really sure. But it sure has demand. When you’d get off a plane at the airport even at the height of the Great Recession a decade ago, you’d still see the long line at the coffee shop…

...and that line wasn’t ANY shorter - even in the face of the worst recession in 70 years...so the demand is durable.

Coffee and cacao have a production advantage because they’re non-perishable products. Just consider the risk in the inherent supply chain difficulty of producing grapes or lima beans - or something that’s going to spoil.

Now, I’m primarily a residential real estate investor - you probably are too - and a lot of my property is in the U.S. On a global scale, there are good deals here. 

Now, on a basic level, I like that housing is real and has a sustainable human demand. Well, those same things can be said for agriculture. 

In fact, agriculture seems like a rather natural thing to invest in - agriculture even predates modern housing.

One interesting distinction, I think, is that your rental housing is typically owned & consumed in the same place. For example, you own a Cleveland, OH rental house and your tenant lives there in Cleveland too - consuming that end product.

But in agriculture, you might own coffee tree parcels in Panama, or cacao tree parcels in Belize, but your end user might be consuming the product in California or the Netherlands.

Now, when it comes to a trusted team, over the last few years here, my relationship with this provider has really grown.

...and you know, it’s interesting with personal relationships or business relationships, they say that “Time will either promote you or expose you.”

….and I think that it’s promoted the provider here - and we’re going to talk about that.

I know that I’ve told you on the air before that I am an investor in this myself. (Talk in-interview that mine has appreciated.)

Today’s guest, the company Founder that provides these agricultural opportunities, was with us here on four prior Episodes #28, #60 which we did from the fringes of the coffee fields in Boquete, Panama, Episode 125, and Episode 157.

It’s been remarkable to see them grow over time and they’ve really exceeded my expectations in both industry influence and the size that they’re growing.

I have visited both places - Boquete, Panama where they grow the coffee and Punta Gorda, Belize where they grow the cacao...and it’s really been fascinating. (give years in interview)

Our guest joins us from Boquete, Panama today...

_______________

 Yeah, it really all starts with a great team there.

When you become a real estate investor, you may very well become a “collector” of real estate, and when you gain the realization that owning your collection in diverse geographies and diverse use types hedges your risk, you start to see how this might fit in.

With this, In one fell swoop, you are an Int’l RE Investor. It’s not a fund. Your name is on the deed...and at the same time, you own producing agricultural land.

The United States is a pretty big, broad place. But as a collector of diverse RE, consider that there are 200 nations in world & it makes increasing sense to be invested in something real in more than just 1 nation out of 200.

Now, you can buy an acre of farmland for less that what David talked about. Of course, you’re not just buying farmland here. You get more than the dirt.

 

You have use and operation of facilities from bean processing facilities to a cupping and grading laboratory and all of the labor and expertise like biologists, agronomists, soil scientists, a Value Chain analyst, farmers and laborers.

 

...and a few years ago, I used to think of the provider as a boutique type of operation. But with they way that they’re adding employees and expertise, I don’t think of them that way anymore.

 

You know, years ago, I thought my first int’l investment might have been in Mexico just because it is closer.

 

But I found that, it’s harder to deal with on many levels...and Mexico is really kind of the opposite of a tax haven, with more onerous tax than the US.

 

You’re probably only 1-2 time zones from Belize & Panama, or you might even be in the same time zone.

 

Now, most people participate in this opportunity...sight unseen...before they see the parcels. I know that a lot of you have visited Panama & Belize and have been on their tours.

 

I really suggest going on one of their educational field trips - they really treat you well with complimentary meals, ground transportation, excursions.

 

...and you can do that whether you’re an investor or not. I bought my parcels more than a year before I ever actually got on the ground and visited them.

 

If you go visit the Panama coffee farms, I suggest setting aside at least two extra days to see Panama City and the Panama Canal if you like. Just such a grand trip that way.

 

You’ll find the weather more pleasant and agreeable once you get up into the highlands - where they grow the coffee - in Boquete where it’s cooler.

 

Now, who would this opportunity NOT be for. It is not for you if you’re devoted to putting every one of your dollars into getting out of the Rat Race in 18 months.

 

Really, any long-term buy-and-hold real estate wouldn’t fit you then...and I think David made that pretty clear.

 

People in their 20s, all the way up to their 70s participate. David mentioned that it’s a legacy investment - some people buy it & put it in their child or grandchild’s name.

 

In fact, I’ve said before that is probably the only real estate I own anywhere - that I have no plans to sell...and I would buy it again. In fact, I might buy more.

 

When you’re thinking about investing, you might as well start from the ground up - literally - that’s just what farming is.

 

Next week, the Investor of the 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan, Ted Benna will be here with us.

 

Then after that we’re going to talk more about today’s rental housing market trends, and later, have an everyday listener like you join us on an upcoming episode - he’s from Michigan - so he can tell us how putting Get Rich Education ideas into practice has changed his life.

 

Well, today with agricultural real estate investing, we probably touched on at least a few things that you found thought-provoking and will want to know more about.

 

We are Get Rich Education, so we’re education-first and if you find the opportunities interesting, then I highly encourage you to check out the coffee and cacao Investor Reports…

 

...at GetRichEducation.com/Coffee or GetRichEducation.com/Chocolate.

 

Until next week, I’m Keith Weinhold. Don’t Quit Your Day Dream!

Direct download: GREepisode196_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

#195: If I had maxed out a loser 401(k) when I worked a “day job”, you never would have heard my name. I'd still be working.

Learn how to build multiple income streams. The average millionaire has 7 income streams.

Be frugal with your time, not your money.

I discuss the mindset around building passive income to have time freedom in your life.

If you don’t invest in real estate, then how else will you acquire wealth? Options explored.

Be yourself. When you strictly trade your time for dollars, you aren’t being yourself.

When you have more time, it makes you more of what you are.

Kim Butler of Partners For Prosperity joins us. She’s an original Rich Dad Advisor.

She & I discuss retirement, the importance of passive income, and more.

“Financial planning” has an ugly connotation. Kim & I break it down.

We discuss why people keep investing in losing 401(k)s, IRAs, and other “life deferral plans”.

Want more wealth?

1) Grab my free E-book and Newsletter at: GetRichEducation.com/Book

2) Actionable turnkey real estate investing opportunity: GREturnkey.com

3) Read my best-selling paperback: getbook.at/7moneymyths

Listen to this week’s show and learn:

00:46 You are an investor.

02:19 Your life’s cash inflows & outflows.

09:16 Be yourself.

13:01 How you benefit when you’re “halfway there”.

18:08 Kim Butler interview begins. “Financial planning” has an ugly connotation.

25:57 Why do people still invest in 401(k)s and IRAs?

28:46 Retirement.

36:04 Why every human is an investor.

39:42 The 7 Principles Of Prosperity: Think-See-Measure-Flow-Control-Move-Multiply.

42:18 Whole Life Insurance.

45:36 Book recommendations.

50:44 If I had maxed out a 401(k), you never would have heard of me.

Resources Mentioned:

Partners4Prosperity.com

Book: The Mystery Of Capital

Mortgage Loans: RidgeLendingGroup.com

Cash Flow Banking: ProducersWealth.com

Apartment Investor Mastery: BradSumrok.com

Find Properties: GREturnkey.com

GRE Book: GetRichEducation.com/Book

Education: GetRichEducation.com

Direct download: GREepisode195_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

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