Get Rich Education

We compare do-it-yourself vs. professional property management.

New home price annual sales volume spiked in June. There’s a scarce inventory of suburban SFHs.

The co-founder of Avail, Laurence Jankelow joins us. Avail.co streamlines life for DIY property managers.

Avail is free. It enables you to centralize your: rental listings & applications, tenant screening, credit / criminal / eviction reports, rent collection, maintenance tracking, and even rent price analysis.

Becoming a landlord is like becoming a parent. There’s no certification course or degree required.

You cannot violate Fair Housing Laws. Giving one tenant a break - and not another - could violate Fair Housing Law.   

Smart home technology often still does not exist for the most profitable long-term rentals.

Rent collections during the pandemic continue to be greater than most people anticipated.

Avail is best for landlords with 1-9 rental units.

There is a general minimum standard for what landlords must furnish to tenants. It’s called an “Implied Warranty Of Habitability”. 

This includes: access to clean water, heat, electricity, sanitation, rodent-free, fire-safe, and meets local building codes.

Resources mentioned:

DIY Property Mgmt. Software:

Avail.co

New construction Florida income property:

GetRichEducation.com/Orlando

GetRichEducation.com/Jax

GetRichEducation.com/Tampa

Mortgage Loans:

RidgeLendingGroup.com

QRPs: text “QRP” in ALL CAPS to 72000 or:

eQRP.co

By texting “QRP” to 72000 and opting in, you will receive periodic marketing messages from eQRP Co. Message & data rates may apply. Reply “STOP” to cancel.

New Construction Turnkey Property:

NewConstructionTurnkey.com

Best Financial Education:

GetRichEducation.com

Top Properties & Providers:

GREturnkey.com

Follow us on Instagram:

@getricheducation

Keith’s personal Instagram:

@keithweinhold

Direct download: GREepisode303_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

Learn how real estate pays you up to five ways simultaneously.

Should you be playing offense or defense as an investor now?

Learn how a return of less than 20 to 25% is disappointing.

We’ll add up all five ways you’re paid and see what your Year One return is from: Appreciation, Cash Flow, Return On Amortization, Tax Benefits, Inflation-Profiting.

See brand new construction SFRs and duplexes in central Florida at: www.GetRichEducation.com/Orlando

Central Florida rent-to-price ratios are about 0.8%. Interest rates are at historic lows.

What does late rapper Notorious B.I.G. have to do with real estate investing? You’ll see today. Kind of. 

**Complete episode transcript below. Read along as you listen.**

Resources mentioned:

New construction Orlando income property:

GetRichEducation.com/Orlando

Mortgage Loans:

RidgeLendingGroup.com

QRPs: text “QRP” in ALL CAPS to 72000 or:

eQRP.co

By texting “QRP” to 72000 and opting in, you will receive periodic marketing messages from eQRP Co. Message & data rates may apply. Reply “STOP” to cancel.

New Construction Turnkey Property:

NewConstructionTurnkey.com

Best Financial Education:

GetRichEducation.com

Top Properties & Providers:

GREturnkey.com

Follow us on Instagram:

@getricheducation

Keith’s personal Instagram:

@keithweinhold

 

Welcome to Get Rich Education. I’m your host, Keith Weinhold. There are seasons in your investor life where you either play offense or defense. What should you be doing now? … as we refresh the “Up To 5 Ways That Real Estate Simultaneously Pays You.”

 

Anything less than a 20 to 25% rate of return in buy-and-hold real estate investing is disappointing. How can that be? Today, on Get Rich Education.

______________________

 

Welcome to GRE! From Asmara, (Air-UH-tree-UH) Eritrea to Ashtabula, OH and across 188 nations worldwide. I’m Keith Weinhold. This is Get Rich Education.

 

Thanks for being here, but you’re not here for me. You’re here for you.

 

In your investor life, are you playing offense? Or are you playing defense right now?

 

Or, in general, longer-term, are you a more offensively-oriented investor, which correlates with more risk-taking for higher returns.

 

Or are you more defensively-minded - where you’d rather have less risk and lower return?

 

Are your mindset and actions aligned toward offense or defense?

 

Well, I’ve got an answer for you here, and you’re going to have a really valuable takeaway.

 

Anything less than a 20 to 25% annual rate of return in real estate is really … actually … disappointing. 

 

“What choo talkin’ ‘about, Willis?”

 

What I’m talking about … Will - is ... 

 

Really, this all comes back to how - when you buy income property the right way - you are paid up to five ways simultaneously.

 

A stock typically only pays you one way, perhaps two.

 

I think that the easiest way for you to understand the five ways you’re paid - and even celebrate these five ways you’re paid - because … this ... is ... pretty compelling - is to use an example.

 

I’ve discussed this before. So if you’re a longtime listener, I’m going to put “The 5 Ways” through a new filter for you.

 

And if you’re a newer listener, say in the last year, this could completely change your investing thought paradigm for the rest of your entire life. 

 

In fact, compound interest is lame and rarely, if ever builds real wealth in real life. I’ll tell ya what does here. 

 

And yes, I know that this is abject heresy. It is replete blasphemy to criticize “compound interest” in the finance world. 

 

I am surely guilty of committing financial profanity right there.

 

This is really fundamental stuff I’m about to share with you here - and yet the real paradox is that most real estate investors don’t even understand this.

 

This is pretty fun to do. We’re going to add up the five ways you’re paid and determine your total rate of return here.

 

Let’s say that you purchase a $100,000 property - $100K. And, no worries, if that’s too “small time for you”, this is all based on ratios, so it scales up to a $1M or $10M property.

 

(Ha!) And sometimes I wonder how much longer a $100K property will even be a feasible example as inflation makes $100K properties less common all the time. 



But with your newly-bought $100K rental single-family home, you buy it with a tenant already residing there, where the monthly rent income exceeds the monthly expenses - that’s a big part of “buying right”. 

 

With your 20% down payment, you have $20K out of pocket then, and an $80K loan.

 

The first of five ways you’re often paid is ... 

1 - Appreciation Let’s just say that your property appreciates from $100,000 to $106,000. That is just commensurate with real estate’s historic appreciation rate of 6%. But here’s the big “a-ha” moment. 

 

Your $6,000 gain is based on only your $20,000 down payment. 

Well, that’s your ROI formula - your gain divided by how much you have invested. Well, your $6K divided by $20K is a 30% return to you. Really? How did that happen exactly?

 

How do you have a 30% return from just this first of five ways you’re paid? 

 

This is because you achieved a 6% return on both your $20K of skin-in-the-game and the $80K borrowed from the bank. This is what is known as financial leverage. Financial leverage means that your return is 30%. 

 

No wonder that I’m known for saying that compound interest is lame and leverage builds real wealth. More on that soon.

 

2 - The second way you’re simultaneously paid is with Cash Flow It’s your monthly rent income minus all the expenses (like mortgage, vacancy, insurance, maintenance, taxes, utilities, management). We’ll be conservative and say that leaves you with only $100 of residual income in this case.

 

Annually, that’s $1,200 more for you, divided by your $20,000 down payment. 

 

Yes, it’s $1,200 still divided by that same $20K of skin you have in the game. 

 

This another 6% return for you. This portion is what is known as the Cash-On-Cash Return

 

So, so far you’ve got a 30% return from leveraged appreciation PLUS a 6% cash-on-cash return from that monthly cash flow & we’re still going.

 

3 - Loan Paydown Unlike your own home where you pay down your principal mortgage balance with money that you had to earn, well, here, your tenant pays the monthly principal portion of your $80,000 loan on this property! 

 

At a 6% interest rate (and you know you can do better than that today, but we’re being conservative here) on a 30-year mortgage, that’s about $1,000 that the tenant pays down your loan for you annually. 

 

Divided by your (still the same) $20K of “skin-in-the-game” means that’s ANOTHER return for you of: 5%. This portion is known as your ROA - your return on amortization. We are still going - still adding up all the ways you're often paid in real estate.

 

4 - Tax Benefit You can have a mortgage interest deduction, an ability to pay zero capital gains tax with a 1031 Exchange, and tax depreciation - which can tax-shelter part of your rent income. 

 

This is hard to measure. We’ll conservatively call your investment tailwind another 5%. There’s something else called “bonus depreciation” that can certainly make this 5% tax tailwind higher, but let’s just leave it there.

 

And the fifth and final way is what I call Inflation-Profiting. Few people understand this. 

 

Like inflation erodes the value of your lump of savings, it also degrades your mortgage debt balance. 

 

How is that? It’s because your $80,000 loan today gets easier to “pay back” as wages and prices escalate over time. Your bank only asks to be repaid in nominal dollars (while your tenant pays the interest), not real, inflation-adjusted dollars. 

 

So just say that over a few years, you had 10% cumulative inflation. Well, then rather than paying back the bank $80K, you really only need to pay them back $72K in inflation-adjusted terms.

 

Inflation has been low lately. We’ll call this benefit a return of another … just 2% to you.

 

Well, there were all five ways. Let’s add them up to see what your total rate of return is. You got a return of:

 

30% from leveraged appreciation, then…

6% from cash flow - which is that portion known as your cash-on-cash return, plus another

5% from your ROA - that Return On Amortization, where you tenant pays down your loan for you. Then another …

5% from tax benefits …

2% from inflation-profiting ...

 

And your first year total Return On Investment from this income property is 48%

 

You just achieved a 48% return - and without taking any INORDINATE risk. Now, your real-life return probably won’t be exactly that - it’ll be higher or lower.

 

A few other caveats here. I think you probably realize this example is simplified. 

 

If we had 18 spreadsheets, then we could probably get an exact number, like rather than a 48% total rate of return for you - then it might be 46.16% or something like that. …

 

… but eighteen spreadsheets doesn’t work in audio format as we’ve just broken it down here on Get Rich Education Episode 302. 

 

1) Note that in the example, we did not factor in your buyer mortgage loan closing costs (the seller can often help you pay these). 

 

Of course, risk still exists. If you buy property in a losing job market, or hire a disreputable property manager, for example, your return can erode. 

 

3) You will still have SOME inevitable problems along the way. It just happens in real estate.

 

Also, note that your property insurance premium WAS considered in the example. That hedges you from a lot of major loss types.

 

And that your management cost was considered here, meaning your income is largely passive. 

 

Also, be mindful that after your 48% return in Year One of this hypothetical example, your return typically DROPS in future years. 

 

Maybe it’s down to 38% in the second year and 29% in the third year. 

 

Why is this? Well, primarily due to the fact that equity accumulates in the property, and equity has zero rate of return.

 

Compound interest? Well, you’re typically not leveraging other people’s money with compound interest. 

 

In the example we used - you’re not just growing from the return on your own money.

 

You achieved that return because you got to use BOTH your own money plus three other parties’ money at the same time:

 

the bank’s for the leverage

 

the tenants for the income and the return on amortization … and 

 

… the govt’s for the tax incentives - plus, really the government’s policies for the inflation-profiting benefit too … if ya think about it.

 

With just a 20% down payment, you got access to getting the return on OTHER people’s money all over the place. 

 

Another risk is to be mindful of overleveraging. Overleveraging means that you’ve borrowed so aggressively that, say you get in a situation where the tenants rent income no longer meets or exceeds the monthly property expenses. 

 

That’s negative cash flow from overleveraging.

 

With these five ways ...

 

Now you understand how real estate makes ordinary people wealthy!

 

Now you know how to actually “keep score” with real estate investing.

 

Now you understand how less than a 20-25% Total Rate Of Return is disappointing.

 

This is LEVERAGE rather than compound interest.

 

Long-term, one’s hopes for compound interest get eroded and worn down to nothing after applying - something that longtime listeners can almost repeat after me - applying those deleterious effects of inflation and emotion and taxes and fees and volatility. 

 

If you understand what I just described, you understand something that Billionaire RE investors do NOT understand.

 

Billionaire real estate investors don’t understand what you now know.

 

So, when it comes down to, are you playing offense or defense as the theme for your own investing strategy? 

 

The answer is, when you’re paid five ways, you have the ability to constantly do BOTH - you’re playing both offense and defense - at the same time, all the time.

 

By the way, they say that offense wins games but defense wins championships. It was legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant that’s credited with saying some version of that. 

 

I don’t know whether that’s so true or not, but here you have multiple offenses and defenses.

 

But what I’m talking about here, is, with the 5 ways you’re paid:

 

Appreciation - That’s playing offense

Cash Flow - That’s more predictable than appreciation, and that’s playing offense too

Return On Amortization - That’s defense. It’s slow, predictable, and it builds illiquid equity

The fourth way, taxes - that’s defense too. It’s kind of built-in, predictable, and really just recurs when you do your annual taxes.

And the fifth way, inflation-profiting - That’s defense too.

 

So, there you go, with one single-family rental home or apartment building, you’ve played offense two ways and defense three ways … all at the same time. 

 

And when you’re paid five ways, if one or two stop providing you with yield, well, then you’ve still got three or four ways that are.

 

But, yeah, these return sources aren’t apparent to a lot of people. 

 

You know, I was recently doing a review of one of my larger apartment buildings with an experienced investor, because the cash flow basically dried up.

 

And, for example, this apartment building has $2,100 of tenant-made mortgage principal paydown every month. That’s $25K per year in equity buildup.

 

$25K divided by my $475K in equity is a Return On Amortization of about 5% on this particular apartment building.

 

So I think that the real takeaway here is - invest in something where you’re paid multiple ways, where you can invest in offense & defense at the same time, and it pays you income so that you can begin enjoying your life now, not “maybe someday” - which correlates with more of a compound interest approach.

 

If you think about it, a central theme of this show is how to optimize the 5 Ways You’re Paid - and avoid mistakes.

 

This is really a huge part of the compelling “why” for real estate that is so often missed.

 

You want to own the real property yourself to make sure all five of these benefits aren’t diluted.

 

You also want to be sure to have a good loan on your property to amplify your ROI over the long-term.

 

As you know, I am “pro-good debt”. I have no interest in paying down low interest rate debt, that the tenant pays down for me and inflation even further debases.

 

Instead of using that dollar to pay down debt, you could use that dollar as a down payment on another property - expanding your empire.

 

Gosh, with interest rates this low, it puts an exclamation point on the fact that you don’t want to be paying down your debt … here in the early 2020s decade. 

 

Paying down good debt is one of the last things that I would do with my money. You lose leverage every time you do that.

 

Turning a liquid dollar into equity just transferred cash into equity.

 

Financial freedom achieved when you do the opposite - when you transfer equity into cash flow.

 

The probability that I’m going to wake up tomorrow and start accelerating paydown on low-rate, fixed mortgage debt tied to this cash-flowing property - is about nothing.

 

It’s about the same as the chance is that my Dad wakes up tomorrow and starts listening to the Notorious BIG with Junior MAFIA.

 

“I chill … “ to “ … you know”.

 

Haha! Yeah, not happening!

 

Not for my Dad, anyway. Not his style. Sounds alright to me. I might drop that in during a workout or something.

 

You’re listening to a more detailed discussion about the Five Ways That Real Estate Pays You and we’re talking about it through a fresh lens of “offense vs. defensive” investing here on Get Rich Education Episode 302.

I strongly believe: It is very difficult to get wealthy without debt. Often won’t achieve freedom without debt. It’s going to be alright ... when your debt is reliably outsourced to others.

 

You know, at one point in my life, when I still worked for an employer. (The last day job I ever had was working in the QA section for a state DOT, by the way).

 

At one point, I realized that every dollar I lock in a stock or 401(k) is a dollar that I can’t use to leverage OPM. That epiphany was a real turning point.

 

Checking the RobinHood app every 15 minutes isn’t going to build real, durable wealth for you.

 

And, sometime before that, it was the realization that for me - and for you - to get more out of life, you can’t live below your means, you’ve got to expand your means.

 

To achieve financial freedom, it sure isn’t going to happen by cancelling Netflix $10 for month.

 

That’s not going to happen if you save $80 on air tickets by adding an extra layover on your trip itinerary. You just added three hours of low-quality time to your life - and you’ll never get that time back.

 

That’s cheesy. That’s unattractive.

 

It’s not about saving money on your Butterball turkeys or car gasoline.

 

I’m not saying you can NEVER do those things. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

But people need to stop being congratulated for being cheap or even focusing on frugality. Gosh, that stuff can make people miserable.

 

People that say, “I want to live frugally.”, they don’t REALLY want to live frugally. They actually want to say, “I want to live well.” 

 

But they don’t know how to do that. They don’t have a vehicle to move forward with. 

 

It’s kind of like, when we had T. Harv Eker here on the show here a few years ago - it’s about setting your mental thermostat higher, so that you can get greater wealth & freedom for yourself …

 

And with the “five ways you’re paid” like I described earlier, hopefully, I’ve charted a substantially clearer path forward for you so that you can do that.

 

Well, with “The Up To 5 Way That Real Estate Often Pays You”, that’s something that I first started talking about more than five years ago. I’ve never heard anyone else talk about it before. So, as far as I know, I guess I’ve “coined this” or whatever.

 

But since I began talking about it, I hear other people talking about it too - even other educational platforms.

 

Now, I do own three real estate trademarks, so what do I think about OTHERS now teaching the “5 Ways You’re Paid”. I’ll discuss that in just a few minutes here.

 

I’m also going to discuss who influenced ME - and give them some credit. And this includes a couple people that you’ve surely never heard about before.

 

If you would like to see the “5 Ways You’re Paid” in one easy-to-read infographic - that all fits on one sheet - so that it’s REALLY cear to understand - I’ll send you a colorful electronic “5 Ways Infographic” all you’ve got to do is go to GetRichEducation.com/Book.

 

That’s got to be one of the greatest deals anywhere. That’s where you can opt-in to get the electronic version of my int’l bestselling book, free, emailed right to you.

 

Then a few weeks later, the “5 Ways You’re Paid Infographic” is automatically sent to you too.

 

That’s at GetRichEducation.com/Book

 

More next. I’m Keith Weinhold. This is Get Rich Education.

________________________

 

Welcome back to Get Rich Education. I’m Keith Weinhold.

 

Hope you like our humorous moments to lighten up the show here. Hey, you run a little math on audio and … it begs for some embellishment to spice things up. 

 

When it comes to the up to five ways you’re paid in real estate investing. Yeah, since I first discussed this more than five years ago, I’ve noticed that other REI educators now teach the same thing.

 

I don’t know whether they credit that to me or not - and you know what - I don’t really care whether they do or not. I mean, it’s cool if they do, but …

 

… the more important thing to me is that conscientious people get the information. Share it. That is so much more important than anyone getting the credit.

 

So just … share it.

 

“Helping the people” is more important than “getting the credit”. 

 

I think that the world would be a better place - imagine if everyone put “helping the people” before “getting the credit”. 

 

I don’t own trademarks so that I can go after people that say the same stuff that I do. That’s just not in my nature. I’d rather do productive things with my time.

 

The trademarks are thre just because I wouldn’t want someone else to swoop in and tell me that I can’t use something that I might have come up with in the first place.

 

When it comes to “helping the people” and “getting the credit”, now, everyone has influences - things they learn from others. You & I are no different that way. 

 

Even those that influence you were influenced by someone else before them.

 

Well, I DO like to give credit to those that I learned from, so ... 

 

Though I know he’s a polarizing figure to some people, credit is due to Robert Kiyosaki and the Rich Dad Company. Learn more about them at RichDad.com

 

The most important lesson that I learned there is “Don’t live below means. Expand your means.”

 

It’s more important to increase your income than cut your expenses. 

 

Don’t make a budget. You’re just tearing things down. 

 

Instead, build a cash flow statement. Now you’re constructing. Now you’re making more of yourself, not less. These are really Rich Dad principles and helped develop my mindset.

 

Now, as for who helped turn this mindset into something actionable? I’ve got to give props to “The Real Estate Guys” - Robert Helms and Russell Gray. Learn more about them at RealEstateGuysRadio.com 

 

That’s the first place that I learned, for example, that in real estate, the market is more important than the property.

 

Look, you can’t very well be in your crib with your trading app and just order up real estate - even though people are building online marketplaces. 

 

But one mistake people make is that they buy property because the numbers look good based on some YT video they watched on how to crunch the numbers - but they know nothing about the market or the team. 

 

Then they buy it. Then only after they go buy it, NEXT they go looking for a PM and hope there’s a good one that can handle it. 

 

Then next, they try to figure out the market that they already bought in.

 

That does not work. They’ve got it backwards. If the market and your property manager check out, then & only then do you get the property in that market.

 

It’s sad when people get that wrong. That’s why people walk away from RE & they say that RE doesn’t work.

 

Well, no, that investor wasn’t very strategic. But you CAN understand how that happens to people.

 

And it was great to have both authors of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” book Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter - and The Real Estate Guys all here on Get Rich Education with us multiple times. 

 

Another set of influencers are two guys that you’ve never heard of before. 

 

Their names are Chris and Raj. They are simply two longtime friends of mine that bought four-plex buildings.

 

That got me to make my first-ever property that seminal four-plex building where, with a 3.5% down payment I lived in one unit, rented out the other three, and that started it all for me.

 

These otherwise “regular guys” reinforce the quote from the late Jim Rohn, “You Are The Average Of The Five People That You Spend The Most Time With”.

 

Today, I’m a collector of real estate - most of it in the United States. Being the geography guy that I am, did you know that I have a world map on the wall of our garage …

 

… and I have a little red sticker - little red dots on top of those areas where I own property. Yeah, it makes this real estate collecting kind of visual. Maybe you want to try that too.  

 

Well, one part of the world that I’ve been adding more red dots to lately is where I’ve been buying - across Florida. 

 

Areas around Tampa, Orlando, and Jacksonville all make sense from a cash yield perspective.

 

A lot of BRAND NEW construction properties have numbers that work there, especially where our Orlando provider - that’s Greater Central Florida really - have been actively sourcing brand new construction property in Sebring, Florida, among other nearby places. 

 

Sebring is pretty much smack dab in the center of peninsular Florida, south of Orlando.

 

These single-family homes that make great rentals have a metal roof, they’re 3 bed, 2 bath, and the prices really are remarkable - $179,900 and $159,900. 

 

Yes, that’s for new construction in Sebring, Florida.

 

The rent-to-price ratios are a very attractive eight-tenths of one percent or so. Quite good for new construction, plus you’ve got the tailwind of extremely low interest rates as well.

 

And when it’s new construction, the PROPERTY INSURANCE premiums are so reasonable too.

 

If you’d like to learn more about those, you can do so at GetRichEducation.com/Orlando

 

It isn’t just single-family rental homes. New construction duplexes are available too. 

 

That’s GetRichEducation.com/Orlando

 

You know that I often like to leave you with something actionable like this at the end of an episode.

 

And knowing and doing are two very different things.

 

How do we already know that? Well ...

 

Many people aren’t at their ideal body weight … and it isn’t because they don’t know what to do, they just aren’t doing it.

 

You also need time to figure out what you want to do. I like eating pizza, for example,  but it took me eating different foods in order to find that out. I had to try and do.

 

Learning is best done by trial-and-error but it doesn’t have to be YOUR trial-and-error. 

 

Learn from me. I’ll even eat your pizza for you!

 

I help give you the information you need to make an informed decision.

 

I connect you with property teams with proven track records - many of whom I invest with myself.

 

You ultimately choose your investments.

 

There’s risk with anything … anything in life. 

 

You either take the risk or lose the chance.

I think it’s helpful too, that you follow someone that’s been through a recession. 

 

I’ve been investing for … nearly 18 years … it’ll be 18 years next month … since I bought that landmark four-plex building.

 

Teach you how to fish or GIVE you a fish? Well, why not do both? You can get the fish at GetRichEducation.com/Orlando

 

Have you ever wondered where your money is? Well, the world already has your money. You just need to go out and claim it.

 

I’m Keith Weinhold - grateful, as always for your listenership. I look forward to chatting with you again next week.

 

Don’t Quit Your Daydream!



Direct download: GREepisode302__.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

Stocks, real estate, gold, oil, inflation rate, and interest rate valuations are all updated after the first half of the year.

Housing Wire tells us rents are up in: Memphis, St. Louis, Greensboro, Jacksonville, Columbus, Tampa, Cleveland, Kansas City, and Virginia Beach. I discuss where they fell.

San Francisco rents just plunged 12%.

Macroeconomist Richard Duncan of MacroWatch joins us to discuss depression chances, and inflation vs. deflation.

For a 50% subscription discount on Richard’s MacroWatch video newsletter, use Discount Code “GRE” at: RichardDuncanEconomics.com.

Fed intervention has prevented a COVID-induced economic depression (so far). We will need more to prevent depression.

Hordes of dollars can be created by the U.S. because dollars are not tied to gold. Many Americans still don’t understand this.

Recent currency creation has not caused high inflation. The Fed usually hit below their 2% inflation target.

Could consumer price deflation create asset inflation? Yes.

I describe deflation vs. inflation as a “tug of war”. 

Deflationary tugs: globalization, technology. 

Inflationary tugs: currency creation.

Bottom line: Be invested in something that pays you five ways like real estate.

Resources mentioned:

Richard Duncan’s MacroWatch newsletter:

RichardDuncanEconomics.com

Use Discount Code “GRE” for a 50% discount.

Mortgage Loans:

RidgeLendingGroup.com

QRPs: text “QRP” in ALL CAPS to 72000 or:

eQRP.co

By texting “QRP” to 72000 and opting in, you will receive periodic marketing messages from eQRP Co. Message & data rates may apply. Reply “STOP” to cancel.

New Construction Turnkey Property:

NewConstructionTurnkey.com

Best Financial Education:

GetRichEducation.com

Top Properties & Providers:

GREturnkey.com

Follow us on Instagram:

@getricheducation

Keith’s personal Instagram:

@keithweinhold

Direct download: GREepisode301_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

Homes with many small bedrooms are hotly desired today.

Why? In an economic rough patch, people need roommates. Secondly, home offices are more popular than ever.

Residents increasingly want yards today too. Gardening is popular as a hedge against disruptions in the food supply chain.

This all makes single-family homes more popular than apartments.

*The entire episode transcript is below.*

The debt-to-income ratio requirement is positioned to be removed from qualified mortgages.

Three listener questions are answered: 

1) What about CapEx expenses? 

2) What about all these property notices I get in the mail? 

3) What happened to the coffee and cacao providers?

I give you four reasons about why money is a taboo topic. 

Learn the least likely money topic that people are willing to discuss.

The most I ever made at my day job was $108,000.

People must stop equating net worth with self-worth. 

Resources mentioned:

April Home Prices Grew 5.5%:

https://www.housingwire.com/articles/u-s-home-prices-grew-5-5-in-april-despite-pandemic/

Why Money Is A Taboo Topic - Ally Bank survey:

https://media.ally.com/2015-11-24-Holiday-Tip-Most-Americans-Say-Social-Conversations-About-Money-are-Taboo-According-to-Ally-Banks-Money-Talks-Study

The Atlantic:

Why Americans Don’t Talk About Money

Mortgage Loans:

RidgeLendingGroup.com

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eQRP.co

By texting “QRP” to 72000 and opting in, you will receive periodic marketing messages from eQRP Co. Message & data rates may apply. Reply “STOP” to cancel.

New Construction Turnkey Property:

NewConstructionTurnkey.com

Best Financial Education:

GetRichEducation.com

Top Properties & Providers:

GREturnkey.com

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Keith’s personal Instagram:

@keithweinhold

 

Welcome to Get Rich Education. I’m your host, Keith Weinhold.

 

Talking about today’s hottest rental type, then my favorite guest is here on milestone Episode 300 - because that guest is you - as I help with your listener questions about your rental property operations, then “Why Money Is A Taboo Topic” (why DO people hide their salary?), and finally a little Episode 300 bonus. All today, on Get Rich Education.

_____________________

Hey, you’re inside GRE. From Phoenix, AZ to Phoenixville, PA and across 188 nations worldwide. I’m Keith Weinhold. 

 

This IS that show that’s created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world.

 

You’re listening to milestone Episode 300 of Get Rich Education. More on that later.

 

The hottest INCOME PROPERTY housing type today could very well be single-family rental (SFR) homes that have many small bedrooms

 

Four bedrooms is often better than three. Three is better than two.

 

Yeah, today, a high number of small bedrooms is being favored over fewer large bedrooms.

 

For one thing, this is because as the economy is in a rough patch, more people seek roommates to share housing costs.

 

Also, with more people working from home now, they want the extra bedroom for quiet office privacy.

 

You probably already understand that more residents prefer SFRs over apartments to avoid common areas like laundry rooms and hallways and even elevators.

 

Another reason boosting SFR demand today is something that you might be overlooking when it comes to rental property … because often, you’re thinking about things INSIDE the property like amenities, and square footage, and layout. 

 

But another reason renters increasingly want single-family rentals are yards. Now sometimes, duplexes might have a fenced yard for each side too, of course.

 

But … why are yards more desired today?

 

Well, there are a few reasons. In the pandemic, people have discovered gardening like the hunter-gatherers did.

 

Yeah, gardening as a hedge against these disruptions in the food supply chain.

 

In fact, Burpee Seed Company recently had the highest sales in its 144-year history.

 

People are gardening. In fact, the homeowner’s association in my own neighborhood recently put it to a vote among residents about “OK’ing” having a second detached building in your backyard (only 1 maximum is allowed now) and that’s because more people want to have a greenhouse today.

 

Gardens and greenhouses - these are most conducive to single-family rentals.

 

People are even buying egg-laying chickens like never before. It’s kind of a back-to-basics subculture that’s emerging.

 

Yes, humans are mammals and mammals need sustenance! Haha.

 

You need food and you need real estate.

 

In the midst of The Great Shutdown, people want to do more with their lawns. 

 

Lowe’s & Home Depot are doing really well - and they’re selling home-dwellers a lot of things like Inflatable pools, patio furniture, and trampolines.

 

Then back indoors, yeah, you may very well want to tilt your new property buys into SFRs with more small bedrooms.

 

Sometimes, older SFHs can have four or even five bedrooms. One reason for that is that families had more children generations ago.

 

Family sizes are smaller now. So if you still have a 4-5 bedroom place, it can work well for either roommates or home offices.

 

If you're the "hands-on" type, building a wall to divide a large bedroom has rarely been more lucrative than it’s been lately.

 

Now, one 300 sf bedroom is pretty big. Dividing it into two bedrooms of 150sf each is paying off more than it has in the past.

 

They are some housing trends in the pandemic - demand for SFR with more small bedrooms and a yard for a garden.

 

In the pandemic, the broader economy is getting "bailed out" more often than a bank behaving badly.

 

It's not just quantitative easing, dropping interest rates on every loan type, or loosening bank reserve requirements or putting free checks into unemployed people’s hands.

 

Many real estate investors are getting support … almost like they had opened their own GoFundMe account.   

 

Low supply keeps housing prices buoyant. Low mortgage rates keep demand high. Forbearance keeps borrowers from defaulting - so that further supports prices.

 

Now, the debt-to-income ratio (DTI) requirement is positioned to be removed from qualified mortgages.

 

This means borrowers that have higher existing monthly debt payments on everyday things like their car or their credit cards could now qualify for new mortgage loans - when they couldn't previously.

 

Well, what this does is that it creates a larger buyer pool. More people have the capacity to qualify and buy property.

 

This larger buyer pool serves to further push up real estate prices - and that’s both investment property and primary residences. 

 

Well, eliminating the DTI is great news if you want to lock up more property at these historically low interest rates.

 

But there can be too much of a good thing. It's a call-to-vigilance to be sure we don't return to those loosey-goosey days of, say, 2005.

 

That's when virtually anyone with a name and a signature could get a loan. Borrowers lied about their income on loan applications and the income wasn't checked - it wasn’t even confirmed in underwriting.

 

So then, people with historically low-paying jobs like movie theater ushers & dishwashers & pedicurists could sometimes own a fairly lavish home back then.

 

When appreciation stopped in 2007, liar-borrowers had no equity to remove for servicing the payments … and that whole thing didn't end well. 

 

We're nowhere near that point. But watch that pendulum swing. 

 

If you’re buying for resilient cash flow, you’re not so price sensitive anyway.

 

-----

 

The first one of your listener questions today comes from Chad in Saline, Michigan.

 

Keith, I like your easy-to-remember VIMTUM explanation of expenses but why are you excluding CapEx expenses from the cash flow calculation?

 

OK, thanks, Chad.

 

Let me translate if you, the listener, are uninitiated on this. 

 

The easy way to remember how to calculate your monthly cash flow is to take your rental income and subtract out your mortgage (that’s principal & interest) and your operating expenses, which I call your VIMTUM. V-I-M-T-U-M. 

 

That’s just an acronym I use for your regularly, recurring operating expenses and VIMTUM stands for Vacancy, Insurance, Maint., Taxes, Utilities, and Mgmt. V-I-M-T-U-M

 

What Chad is asking about are CapEx - which a shorthand way of saying Capital Expenditures.

 

CapEx means large, IRregular expenses that an investor or even a homeowner - often incurs with their property over longer periods of time.

 

An example is, what happens when your roof needs to be replaced? A lot of roofs have a 25-year life expectancy.

 

Now, your property’s water heater has more like a 10-year life expectancy.

 

Chad is basically asking me how I’m accounting for that when figuring cash flow. I think I addressed this on a prior episode, but it’s been a long time so I’ll bring a fresh angle to the answer.

 

First of all, I’ve mentioned previously that it's prudent to keep 3-5% of the TOTAL value of your property portfolio in a liquid side fund. 

 

So if all your properties are worth $1M, you’d have $30K - $50K in cash or cash equivalents.

 

If you’ve just got your, say first turnkey at $100K - have $3 to $5K set aside.

 

Note that when you qualify for a mortgage in the first place, mortgage loan underwriting typically requires that you have reserves already.

 

And, by the way, this liquid side fund should be in addition to any overall liquid emergency fund that you have in your life.

 

But, Chad, on your CapEx question, you might still be thinking ...

 

Yes, I want to take some of those dollars that you’ve felt compelled to put in a liquid side fund account monthly and factor THAT in to your property ROI. I get that. Here’s the thing.

 

If you follow … really … the entire wealth formula espoused here on the show, your CapEx expense should be limited. You’re going to pay less in CapEx expenses than other investors.

 

Why is that?


It’s because at the 8-to-10 year mark, which is before a lot of major CapEx items need attention, you’re going to sell your property and 1031 Exchange it into the next one - or hopefully into two at that point.

 

That is all driven by the fact that, after most any 10-year slice in the housing market, you’re going to have appreciation, hence accumulated equity.

 

As you know, home equity is unsafe, illiquid, and its rate of return is always zero.

 

So it’s really due to math and the loss of leverage that makes you move your property along before CapEx expenses kick in.

 

And with SFRs, you can sell to an owner-occupant buyer that typically get emotions behind the home and isn’t at all concerned that you were the one that enjoyed the new roof in its first ten years of use or whatever. 

 

Now, if you have substantial enquiry accumulation after 10 years on a property that performs really well and you want to hold onto it, then you might do a cash-out refi and have CapEx expenses like a new water heater.

 

So, thanks for your excellent question, Chad.  

 

One other thing I’d like to mention that a lot of real estate people don’t like to talk about are to, in general, run your cash flow projections fairly conservatively.

 

That is because, in real estate, unexpected expenses are more common than unexpected income.

 

Thanks, Chad.

 

The next question comes from Lori in Pasadena, CA. 

 

Lori says, “Keith, love listening to you. You’ve got the most relevant real estate show out there. Wow, thanks for that.  Things are going fairly well with the properties that I buy through GRETurnkey.com but with each buy, I get more & more of these various letters in the mai that I have to deal with.

 

The latest one is an annual property rental fee statement from Florida. Things like this continue to cut into my time … umm … and then Lori goes on to give another example.

 

OK, Lori. Yeah, what she’s talking about here … is that the Florida municipality - the town - where her rental SFH is located has this annoying little administrative charge.

 

They charge a whole $50 per year to Lori for this property because she’s an out-of-area investor that has the “privilege” of owning Florida rental property in their town.

 

This is basically like a tax excised by the town where she owns her property.

 

What something like this really is Lori is … a nuisance. Just reading the form, and figuring it out what it is, and seeing how that Florida town accepts the payment. It IS annoying. It cuts into your time.

 

In fact, I got a piece of nuisance mail for one of my apartment buildings just yesterday.   

 

This is from a utility provider - the natural gas provider to the building. Basically, the natural gas company is working on a high-pressure gas transmission pipeline, and the R-O-W for the pipeline is apparently within ⅛ of a mile of this apartment building of mine.

 

The letter said that the property residents should be informed.

 

Well, Lori, with the piece of nuisance mail that you received and the one that I got, here’s what you do. Get it out of your life. Get that nuisance mail out of your life.

 

Now, I don’t mean “throw it away”. This all comes down to one word - and that word is “manager”. 

 

What I did was get out my phone, I took a photo of this letter, sent the letter image to my Property Manager right away. 

 

I asked them to handle it - and also asked the manager to make sure to tell the letter sender that any future correspondence like this be sent to the manager, not me.

 

You know what we just did, Lori. We both just increased our ROTI. Yes, we just increased that all-important investor metric that’s even more important than ROI.

 

ROTI is your Return on Time Invested.

 

I’m a big proponent after having a professional Property Manager. Remember, it’s their job to handle communications with your residents like this - and it doesn’t cost you anything extra.

 

Remember to outsource these little nuisances to your PM.

 

Lori, I don’t know how many properties you have, but just say you have a total of ten rental doors. 

 

With a portfolio that size, some months, you might have what investors call “a perfect month” - that is, a month with zero repairs or maintenance in your portfolio.

 

But whenever you do, sometimes you might wonder - well, what did I pay the manager for? 

 

Well, you still paid your manager to collect the rent and pay your bills and itemize your statements, and just have the peace of mind that your tenants can’t get ahold of your DIRECTLY at an inconvenient time.

 

But ensuring that your manager handles all your nuisance notices such that you don’t even know that you got one … that increases your Return on Time Invested. 

 

Be that responsible owner. Do good in the world. You want a nuisance tax notice to get paid, you want your tenants to be informed about nearby utility work - but be sure to outsource it and keep your quality of life. 

 

Like I’m fond of saying, “Be sure your quality of life exceeds your cost of living”. 

 

Bottom line is - Use your manager. Thanks for the question, Lori!  

 

The next question is from Brian in Austin, TX. Brian says: 

 

Hi Keith,

I am an investor with $7 million in value across 32 properties. (Nice job there, Brian). I noticed you are not promoting coffee and cocoa any longer and was curious if there was concern or a reason behind it? Thanks, Brian.

 

Alright, Brian. What he’s referring to is that at GREturnkey.com - where our list of cash-flowing property providers is, there used to be a page for coffee investing there and a page for cacao investing there - and they’re both currently gone.

 

Brian, what happened is that, with the provider there - and its the same provider for both types of agricultural investment - that is, where you, the investor, get cash flow from the ANNUAL harvest of coffee and cacao is that that provider is having trouble with the deeding process where those parcels are located - namely, in Panama.

 

The provider is still delivering the land deeds to all the investors. But working with the municipality there is taking so long that this long, drawn-out deeding process was frustrating to some investors. 

 

In fact, it might have taken me … something like two years to get my deeds for my coffee farm parcels. I don’t really remember - but it took awhile.

 

Anyway, those offerings aren’t currently on GREturnkey.com because the provider is changing their model, in part because of the slow deeding process. They’re listening to your input and responding. They’re doing, really, what you would want them to do.

 

So they are moving toward a Private Placement model. That way, they can issue the share certificates in a matter of weeks, not years like it is with the deeds, and they can focus their time and effort on actually developing, growing and operating the business.

 

Another is that under the deeded model, they couldn’t accept IRA funds any longer.

 

So, expect coffee and cacao to be back on GREturnkey.com at a later time. That’s why they’re not there now. There aren’t any more deeded parcels available - and they’re changing their model. 

 

But, of course, they’re still working on getting the deeds for those that have bought those farm parcels in the last few years & still don’t have their deeds.

 

The main reason that you’ll see a provider be removed from GREturnkey.com is that they’ve run out of INVENTORY in that market. 

 

If a provider doesn’t have inventory & doesn’t actively source it, then there’s no reason to waste your time & have it there at GREturnkey.com.

 

That is all for our listener questions today.

 

Homes prices for April grew 5-and-a-half percent year-over-year despite the pandemic. Yes, real estate is slow moving and we’re still looking at April data here near mid-summer.

 

That article is in the Show Notes for you. 

 

My guess is that I wouldn’t really expect an appreciation rate that high over the NEXT year.

 

But one thing that is supporting prices are those “erstwhile” mentioned low, low mortgage interest rates that are even lower than the ocean floor at this point. 

 

Let’s look at mortgage interest rates decade-by-decade. Gosh, this is just remarkable. 

 

It gives you perspective sort of like a while ago when I played those cornball television commercial ads from the 1980s where you could finance a car for an 11% APR - and that was touted as a great deal.

 

Well, let’s look at the average 30-year fixed OO mortgage rate that was issued in the 1970s.

 

It was 8.9% then. That was the average rate. Inflation was increasing.

 

By the 1980s decade, inflation had reached a crescendo. This was the Voelcker Era - where Fed Chair Paul Voelcker famously raised interest rates to try to stomp out runaway inflation.

 

And Voelcker’s bold move WAS successful. But this helped result in a 1980s decade mortgage rate of 12.7%. Gosh, 12.7%.

 

By the 1990s, they settled down to 8.1%.

 

By the 2000s decade, down to 6.3%. Yeah, that sounds about right - I bought my first ever property in 2002 at right about that rate - it was 6-⅜%.

 

By the 2010s decade, we had low interest rates to pull us out of The Great Recession and they stayed low. In fact, the average for the 2010s decade was … 4.1%.

 

That felt unprecedented at the time. Well, today, take another full percentage point off that yet. Mortgage interest rates are 3.1% today … as we’re here early in the 2020s decade.

 

Just astonishing. 3.1%.

 

Now, interest rates correlate with inflation. So today we’re in a low inflation environment and hence, a low interest rate environment.

 

Well, coming up here on the show next week, one of the world’s most prominent economists will be on the show with me and we’re going to discuss Inflation vs. Deflation. 

 

Which side is winning … and what is going to happen next. Of course, we’ll discuss the state of the broader real estate economy and so much more as well. That’s next week.

 

I hope that you are doing well. We’ve been largely sheltering-in-place here at our home in Anchorage, Alaska. I’m coming to you from Anchorage today.

 

Next week, if all goes as planned - it’s an awkward time for cross-continental travel, but I’ll be flying into Buffalo, New York, and then spending a good chunk of this month in both western New York State and mostly Pennsylvania … as I’m visiting family.

I think I’ve told you before that I feel like I won the “parent lottery”.

 

My terrific parents have lived in the same upstate Pennsylvania home since 1974. They've also had the same phone number for all 46 years. 

 

And when I visit them, I still sleep in my same bedroom that I slept in as a baby. I love Curt & Penny Weinhold - and I am so grateful and inspired by their example of goodness and stability.

 

As far as events - if you want to meet in-person. I had hoped to do meetups in New York City and Philadelphia this summer, as well as a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania real estate field trip. But COVID has wiped out all of that.

 

Of course, as always, you can keep up-to-date on all of that GetRichEducation.com/Events

 

Some other live speaking events have gone virtual. For example, I’ll no longer be speaking in Birmingham, Alabama at the Spartan Summit this coming October. 

 

But I will be speaking at their “event gone virtual”. In fact, I’ll be the speaker KICKING OFF The Spartan Summit. Again, learn more at GetRichEducation.com/Events.

 

I hope to do some or all of the live New York City, Philly and Harrisburg events next year. 

 

For milestone Episode 300 here, do you like the Get Rich Education … theme music? Or did you at least, wonder where the now-familiar-to-you music comes from.  

 

Well, we don’t purport to be any type of music channel. This is an investing show.

 

But this one time, for Episode 300, we’re going to play all of it - it’s two minutes long - at the end of the show today. 

 

We own the royalty-free track. This show launched in 2014, and this track has been our theme music since late 2017. It’s from a DJ named Wicksford and it’s called “Cannot Be Stopped”. 

 

But first - why don’t people talk about money? Why are other people so secretive about their salary? Why is money considered a taboo topic, then anyway? That’s next. 

 

I’m Keith Weinhold. You’re listening to the wealth-building Get Rich Education. 

___________________

 

Welcome back to Get Rich Education. You are listening to milestone Episode 300.

 

We’ve been talking about some of your harder real estate investing skills today.

 

Well, what about mindset?

 

Why Don’t People Talk About Money? Why is money a taboo topic - one of those things that you just don’t talk about? It’s taboo stuff - right up there with politics, sex, and religion?

Well, if people would stop equating self-worth with net worth, then talking about money would not be this big taboo thing.

 

According to a survey conducted by Ally Bank, 70% of Americans think that it’s rude to talk about money. 

Just, get this - Research shows people would rather talk with a stranger about an STD than their salary. Oh geez.

You’d rather tell someone you have an STD than tell them how much you make?

People would rather admit to contracting gonorrhea than fessing up that they only make $54,000 a year. Sheesh!! 

Oh, gosh … and did I really just use that word on the show. Especially here on Milestone Episode 300?

So … well why this … society-wide gag rule?

Why does this taboo exist? I think that it all boils down to about four big reasons.

People don’t talk about money because, most people don’t have much money. So there’s this negative association.

Talking about money is proportionate to talking about problems. If you’ve had more financial success in life, then it can be easy to forget that so many people think this way. 

The second reason that “money talk” and especially “salary talk” is taboo is that because if you have a lot of money … you know what can happen to you? 

Someone might ask you to borrow it. Well, lending money to family or friends is a great way to strain relationships.

If they’re late to pay you back, then it’s rude for you to even ask someone when they’re going to repay you.

Another reason that there’s a prohibition of “money talk” … at least in America here … is because many Americans put a higher value on PRIVACY than other societies do.

Now, I think that there are gradations of what money TOPICS are acceptable to discuss and what are not.

I’m pretty sure that I’ve told you on a previous show - though at this point, 300 episodes, sometimes I can forget - but I’m pretty sure that I told you that the most that I ever made at my day job before quitting it more than five years ago was $108K.

At times, I had to work more than forty hours a week for that. 

Now, that might be $125K in today’s inflation-adjusted dollars, but that salary was no longer that interesting to me when my real estate provides value to people with very little of my involvement.

Now, I’m kind of a rare person for me to even mention - a past salary like that - even though it was kind of in a former life of mine.

In America, if something costs even more than a few hundred dollars, MAYBE you shouldn’t mention it. If your friend bought a canoe for the lake - you might want to know how much it cost, but you’re hesitant to ask them the question.

 

When we talk about gradations of cultural acceptance, I think that if you inquire about the cost of your friend’s lunch yesterday—that’s a transaction with pretty limited connections to the past and future—and that generally isn’t off-limits.

 

Now, in Israel, people OPENLY discuss salary. Why is that? Well, there are a couple reasons. It’s because a place like Israel historically places a lower cultural premium on privacy. 

Another reason … is that a place like Israel and other places in the world have higher levels of labor unionization. You see, “once it’s collective bargaining, it’s not as personal”.

When you’re a member of a labor union, you often know each other’s job classification and that job title is rigidly tied to a fixed and publicly-viewable salary or wage. 

And then, really another reason for the cultural “Money talk taboo” in America, is because asking someone what they earn means that you are indirectly questioning their personal worth.” 

“By contrast, in China personal worth is not primarily indexed to financial worth, but rather one’s ‘quality’ or what they call “SUZZ-eee” (suzhi). 

Your moral and ethical values cannot be reduced to economic value.” Yeah, I really respect that.

Getting back to the Ally Bank survey - what they found is that when people DO discuss finances socially, nearly one half of the survey respondents said they prefer to keep it neutral - for example, talking about price comparisons on goods and services like granola bars or a manicure, or where to find a better interest rate on a savings account."

It also found that younger people are more open about discussing money

More than any other age group, millennials (59 percent of them) acknowledged talking with others about their income, savings and debt, even though nearly two-thirds agreed it is rude or inappropriate to talk about money in a social setting. 

 

In fact, almost half say they disclose their income to others, and 62 percent say it is important for them to surround themselves with people who they feel are financially secure.

So, even kind of the second-youngest generation today, Millennials, would rather be around people that are financially-secure. Hmmm … that’s really “telling”. 

 

Now, what I found interesting is that the survey revealed that:

  • The majority of respondents said they discuss sensitive money matters with family is 69 percent, with financial professionals is 26 percent, and with friends is only 22%, while only 8% percent said they discuss sensitive money matters with work colleagues. 

That shows more there that when you to talk about it - it’s deemed to be a real breach of professionalism to discuss this stuff at work.

 

  • People are most likely to disclose their income (39 percent) over savings (30 percent) or debt (29 percent) to family and friends. That tells you that disclosing debt is the most embarrassing for people.

Of course, that’s mainstream society. 

Here at Get Rich Education, displaying the amount of good debt that you have probably says something rather positive about your real estate portfolio size.

 

Now, in WORKING-CLASS communities, the money taboo can be weaker there. 

Jennifer Silva is a sociologist at Indiana University and she researched the coal-producing region of Pennsylvania.

The bottom line is that the working-class families she’s interviewed didn’t hesitate to disclose specifics about their income, rent amount, or expenditures. 

“People would say, ‘I’m an open book,’ and they’d be straightforward, open, not ashamed.” 

They freely discussed “the challenges or even impossibilities of supporting a family on minimum-wage work” and almost acted a little proud of their resourcefulness, like “how they would make their budget stretch, such as buying ground meat in bulk and freezing portions to make it last.”

You know, from my personal vantage point, sometimes you will BE around people that you know make substantially less money than you, And you know what, you DO find yourself tilting the conversation so that person isn’t made uncomfortable.

What about when you go get your hair cut?

I mean, the 15-minute conversation that takes place between me & the person that cuts my hair … it’s like, if they ask me what I did this weekend - and I stayed in a resort and they already told me that they played basketball with their kids or something else - even though basketball with your kids might be a GREATER activity in a sense than staying at a resort … I don’t mention staying at a resort because it sounds hoity-toity … a little snobbish. Kinda unrelatable to them.

So then maybe I’ll tilt that chat to NBA Basketball or something.

Chat about something that’s not so socioeconomically stratified. You can always find that common ground somewhere. 

You know, another personal anecdote, in my life, I do a lot of these 5K running races & other events like that.

The race event makes my time publicly available. The local news outlets might even pick up those races times and publish them. 

Anyone can see it. Well, that is a measure of my fitness on that day.

There are clearly plenty of runners that rank both above me and below me.

So, that’s made public? But yet salaries are not? 

Somehow, American society does not equate physical fitness nearly to the degree that we evaluate and stratify how much money you make. I don’t know that it should be that way, but it is. I think that’s rather weird.

Revealing how much money you make, to many people,  “exposes how you’re valued by your employer and how your contribution is valued even more broadly, by the community.”

That makes an ounce of sense, sure, but why such a high value? I don’t get that part.

Few people would think “You are worthless because you haven't broken the 20-minute mark in a 5K yet.” 

But for some reason, WAAAY more people would equate you with having a lower worth if, say they learned that you only made $54,000. 

Now, Eli Cook - he’s a history professor at the University of (HIGH-fuh) Haifa and the author of a book on the topic, says that this money taboo has been going on for about 150 years in America.

 

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, he says that many Americans internalized the lessons of mainstream neoclassical economics, which suggested, through [the economist] John Bates Clark’s theory of marginal productivity, that everyone earns what they in fact produced.” 

 

So … that’s one opinion on about HOW LONG this has been taking place.

 

Really, what a lot of this comes down to is that the everyday conversations that you have with others are filled with questions about what people buy, what they do for a living, or how long they’ve been investing in real estate, and where they went to school. 

And once you know all of those things about someone else, the salary or net worth or cash flow are less important … because all of this is CONTEXT that you have about others - and these are all really proxies for class position anyway.

 

When we can stop equating net worth with self-worth, money has a chance of no longer being a taboo topic … and that really is, the big takeaway.

 

I trust that you’ve been enjoying MILESTONE Episode 300 of Get Rich Education.

 

As always, to get the Show Notes, you can go to GetRichEducation.com/300 - since that’s the episode number. 

 

In fact, this week, you’ll find the entire transcript to the episode if you would like to read along … or you tell someone else about the show and tell them about the option to read as they listen.

 

Above all, I have got to thank you for listening. I hear from so many people that tell me when they discover this show, they want to go back & listen to all 300 episodes …

 

… usually because I hear one of two things. They say it makes actionable real estate investing more CLEAR than anywhere else … or that it's changed their investor MINDSET more than anything else. 

 

Remember, if you’re interested, hang around until the very end of the show today to hear the entire uncut theme music … as a little Episode 300 bonus. 

 

More importantly, if you’re one of those people that STILL has not bought your first property. 

 

You can’t TIME the market, and you can’t make any money from the property that you don’t own. 

 

As long as you’ve been educating yourself for a while, then, if you think that inexperience is the only thing holding you back, well, then the only way to GET that needed experience and learning is to act.

 

Some people wait for ALL blue sky and everything to be perfect before they begin. Well … that really never happens.

 

You’ll either change what you’re doing … or you’ll keep what you’ve got.

 

Teach a man to fish … or give a man a fish?

 

Well, here, we do both. At Get Rich Education, we TEACH you how to fish. 

 

GREturnkey.com is our sister website where we GIVE you a fish too - with top national turnkey providers.

 

Get your mortgage pre-approval and download a provider report. We give you all 8 main steps at the top of the page there.

 

View available properties, make an offer, please get a third-party property inspection, then comes the appraisal, then sign a Property Management Agreement …

 

… have your property closing, and finally, own the property and enjoy the collected RENT that your PM auto-deposits into your bank account. Get started at GREturnkey.com

 

I’m your host, Keith Weinhold and I’ll be back next week and every week to help you build your wealth. Don’t Quit Your Daydream!

Direct download: GREepisode300_.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 4:00am EDT

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