\n<\/p>\n
Building wealth<\/strong> is about to become more challenging than ever before<\/strong>. High interest rates make many rental properties cash-flow-less, the economy could enter a recession<\/strong><\/a>, and many investors could lose their shirts<\/strong>. In times of extreme economic uncertainty, only the financially fit will be able to keep, protect, and build wealth<\/strong><\/a>. So, in today\u2019s episode, we\u2019re giving you the steps you need to not only survive but thrive in ANY economy.<\/strong><\/p>\n Who are these steps coming from? David Greene<\/strong>, the waiter turned multi-million dollar property investor<\/strong> who is not only the industry\u2019s leader in real estate investing but one of the most financially savvy people on the planet. When the gurus go left, David goes right, which is how he\u2019s been able to<\/strong> hold on to his wealth EVEN during economic turbulence<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Today, David will go over the Pillars of Wealth<\/em><\/strong><\/a> (also the name of his new book) that you must start building NOW if you want your wealth to last<\/strong>. David even gives some rare commentary on the MOST critical thing you can do to reach <\/strong>financial freedom<\/strong><\/a> faster <\/strong>and make more money (hint: it\u2019s not investing in real estate<\/a>).<\/p>\n Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: David: Mindy: David: Scott: David: Mindy: David: Mindy: David: Scott: David: Mindy: Scott: David: Scott: David: Mindy: David: Scott: David: Scott: David: Mindy: David: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: Scott: Mindy: \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Help us reach new listeners on iTunes<\/a>\u00a0by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds.\u00a0Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n Interested in learning more about today\u2019s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Let us know<\/a><\/i>!<\/i><\/p>\n Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n
Hello my dear listeners and welcome to the BiggerPockets Money Podcast where we talk to David Greene today about his new book, Pillars of Wealth. Hello, hello, hello, my name is Mindy Jensen and with me as always is my pillar of financial knowledge, co-host, Scott Trench.<\/p>\n
Well, with me as always is my arch ally in personal finance, Mindy Jensen.<\/p>\n
Scott and I are here to make financial independence less scary, less just for somebody else, to introduce you to every money story because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you are starting.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s right. Whether you want to retire early and travel the world, go on to make big time investments in assets like real estate, start your own business, or go back to the fundamentals, we\u2019ll help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way so you can launch yourself towards your dreams.<\/p>\n
Scott, I am super stoked to talk to David today, but first, let\u2019s have our Money Moment. Today\u2019s Money Moment is provided by Innago. Start saving time and money with Innago\u2019s free property management software. Find out why Innago is the number one rated property management software. As an exclusive offer to BiggerPockets listeners, you\u2019ll get $25 for using Innago at innago.com\/biggerpockets. That\u2019s innago.com\/biggerpockets.
Today\u2019s Money Moment is if you\u2019re like a lot of us who do most of our shopping online, you can be leaving major savings on the table if you don\u2019t have browser extensions for shopping. Plugins like Capital One Shopping, Rakuten, and Honey have features that can track the items on your wishlist and determine when the item is cheapest to buy. They also scour the internet for promo codes and automatically apply them to your order. And with the holidays around the corner, it can never hurt to save on every trip to an online shop. Do you have a money tip for us? Email [email\u00a0protected]<\/a>.
Before we bring in, David, let\u2019s take a quick break.<\/p>\n
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And we\u2019re back. Buckle up, this is an awesome show. You do not want to listen to this at 1.5. David Greene needs no introduction to the BiggerPockets universe, but if I had to give one, I would say that David is the host of the BiggerPockets Podcast. He runs the top producing David Greene team with Keller Williams and also owns The One Brokerage, an award-winning mortgage company with a nationwide presence.
David is also the author of several bestselling books. I think, what, five, David? Five bestselling books on real estate and investing, and he joins us today to talk about his latest book called Pillars of Wealth. David, welcome back to the BiggerPockets Money Podcast. I am so excited to talk to you today. Can you tell us a little bit about Pillars of Wealth and why you chose to write this book now?<\/p>\n
Yeah. So this one is book number six with BiggerPockets. It\u2019s like almost a thing now where every year a new book is coming out. This book is the hardest one I wrote, but in all transparency is probably my favorite. From the position that I\u2019ve got, sort of in the crow\u2019s nest of real estate, I see so much of what\u2019s happening in the whole space because you\u2019re hosting the podcast, you\u2019re talking to investors, I\u2019m running real estate related businesses.
So when you see changes in the economy, changes in the way that real estate transactions take place, I really see them before everybody else does. And I\u2019ve noticed that within our space of real estate education, there is a constant undercurrent of let\u2019s make this look like it\u2019s easier than it really is because we can get more clicks and views.
This isn\u2019t a BiggerPockets thing, this is just real estate educational space. You\u2019ll see a lot of influencers doing that. And real estate almost has been portrayed as this magic pill. I have no money, I have no job, I have no life, I have no credit, I have no skills, I have no friends, the cat never picks my lap to sit in. How do I buy real estate?<\/p>\n
You have no business buying real estate if you have none of that stuff.<\/p>\n
Yes, that\u2019s exactly right. It\u2019s irresponsible to tell somebody if their financial house is in that much disarray that you need to go add weight to this terrible foundation by owning real estate, because not only does real estate make you money, but it can cost you money. Things can go wrong and you need to have some reserves set aside in order to do this as well as some skills.
Now, that\u2019s not to deter people from investing in real estate. I really think this should be the carrot that gets you to put your financial house in order. You want to buy real estate, you\u2019re here listening to the podcast. That\u2019s wonderful. Let that be what motivates you to take certain steps to put yourself in a position that you\u2019ve earned the right to do it. Just like if you want to bench press 500 pounds, you wouldn\u2019t just go load up a bar with 500 pounds and say, \u201cWell, how do I lift 500 pounds?\u201d You would start with what you can lift and you would steadily increase it.
So this book was written to sort of be the antidote to the gurus that go out there and say, \u201cHey, you can just do it this way. Or you could just do it that way. Here\u2019s the way around the obstacle,\u201d instead of the obstacle might be a necessary part of your journey to put you in the position where you do build the skills, the knowledge, the experience, and the ability to build wealth through real estate.<\/p>\n
I just want to violently agree with you on this topic and use another example here of using a HELOC to fund the down payment on a purchase. So this is a common way that folks could try to get around the problem of not having liquidity. Well, the problem is a HELOC is a short-term debt instrument. Right now you\u2019ll see rates in 7, 8, 9% range for a lot of HELOCs. It\u2019s a second position loan against your house essentially, right?
And if you take out a $60,000 HELOC for your down payment on a rental property, relatively small HELOC for a down payment for example, and you assume it\u2019s a five-year payback, you\u2019re paying $1,000 a month in principal back against that HELOC, not to mention the 5 or $600 a month in interest. That absolutely cripples your cashflow on a deal and you\u2019re in that position where for the next five years, this property is sucking cash out of your life as you look to repay that HELOC.
And that\u2019s what the danger of getting into real estate without a strong financial position looks like. It\u2019s a pet peeve of mine with the HELOC thing. People don\u2019t think that through and they think it\u2019s going to magically turn out on the other side. No, that\u2019s a highly risky situation and you\u2019re going to be bleeding cash for a long time to get yourself out of that.<\/p>\n
Yeah, that\u2019s the reality of what we see. How do you find a property that cash flows $1,000 a month if you have the down payment? That\u2019s incredibly difficult. Everyone\u2019s having a hard time with that. Now, on top of that, you have to pay back $1,000 a month on a HELOC, which is not free money. You are still taking on debt and agreeing to pay that money back. You\u2019re amplifying the risk that you\u2019re going to be facing if something goes wrong, and you\u2019re making it a harder lift at a time when it\u2019s already hard.
And like you said, Scott, the problem is this is a very easy bullet point someone can put in a 30-second TikTok video where they say, \u201cYou got no money? Well, just use a HELOC on a previous property. Problem solved.\u201d And that\u2019s one of the reasons that I wanted to write the book because the way I built my portfolio and the way I think that you\u2019re really supposed to do it is with a slow, steady, somewhat boring approach.
You get the skill of saving money, which is the first pillar, playing defense. I know that on this podcast, that\u2019s what you guys are all about is, how are you wise stewards of the money you have? Then you build the skill of making money. That is actually a skill. That is not just a thing people are born into being able to do. It\u2019s not something you can do or you can\u2019t do. It\u2019s a thing you have to learn.
And there\u2019s several chapters on the things that people that are good at making money are good at doing, exactly what to do. And I learned those skills myself playing basketball in high school and working in restaurants. You don\u2019t have to go to Harvard or some Ivy League institution to learn these types of skills, but you do have to give your very best when you\u2019re in the position in life that you\u2019re at right now.
And then the third pillar is you have to invest that money into something where it\u2019s going to grow over time. Now, most of our audience does not need to be convinced on the third pillar. That\u2019s something that the FI space maybe needs to be sold on, or the people that are really good at making money but not that great at saving it. They need to understand you have to invest that money. The BiggerPockets audience understands that already, but I don\u2019t think they hear about the first two pillars and how they are just as important as the third.<\/p>\n
To our investors who are listening to this episode, you mentioned saving, you mentioned earning more, you mentioned optimizing and investing. What should you focus on first?<\/p>\n
The first pillar that I talk about in the book is defense. This is saving money. It\u2019s pretty obvious that I like to use the analogy of money is a form of energy, and I use the picture of water being poured into a bucket. So the more money that you can make or energy you can create is like pouring more water in a bucket. If that bucket has holes, it doesn\u2019t matter how much water you pour into it, you\u2019re just going to lose it again.
Also, if you get good at saving money in your own personal life, you are much more likely to manage the money through a business you create responsibly as well. My experience is the people that live fast and loose with their own finances tend to do that in business.
There are people in business who solve problems by looking for efficiencies, creating more accountability, having better systems, having better employees that they don\u2019t have to micromanage because that person does a good job. And there are people that just throw money at problems in business, \u201cOh, we don\u2019t have enough leads. Let\u2019s buy more. Oh, we have a bookkeeping problem. Let\u2019s just hire three additional companies to keep our books.\u201d
They\u2019re throwing money at problems which will work when there\u2019s plenty of water coming into that bucket, but what we see right now is the money is not changing hands as quickly, the water is drying up, the bucket\u2019s empty very quickly. So my personal thought is that if you can create the discipline, the delayed gratification, the ability to tell yourself no, that is a superpower that will translate into the business that you run, the short-term rental that you run, the rental portfolio that you build.<\/p>\n
And what\u2019s the framework you outlined for being able to save more money easily and how did you make it a fun challenge for yourself?<\/p>\n
Yeah, it\u2019s not about depriving yourself. I\u2019m very clear in the book. I\u2019m not saying that your life should suck and you should be in pain all the time. It\u2019s about having a plan for where your money goes. You should sit down with a sober mind and objectively look at what your goals are and say of my income, X percentage will go to these different things. If you love eating out, that\u2019s great, spend money on eating out. But if you don\u2019t really like eating out and you\u2019re doing it just because it\u2019s easy, that\u2019s just stupid. If you\u2019re not getting a lot of satisfaction and joy from that, don\u2019t do it.
There\u2019s lots of things that we spend money on because we\u2019re in a bad mood and retail therapy is going to make us feel better, or it\u2019s convenient, or like, \u201cOh, my girlfriend\u2019s complaining, I don\u2019t spend enough time with her. Let me take her to a $300 dinner to get her off my back.\u201d It\u2019s a stupid use of your money when what your girlfriend probably wants is a night of playing monopoly in the house to connect or something like that.
When you throw money at problems, you don\u2019t actually make life better. So what I tell people to do is to start with a budget, literally a spreadsheet that says, \u201cHere are the different things I spend money on. Here is how much I am choosing to allocate towards each one.\u201d Then adjust your life to fit that budget. It\u2019s the same way that if you wanted to lose weight or get in shape, you\u2019d come up with a caloric budget and then you would have to adjust your life to fit the budget, not adjust the budget to fit your life.
Once you\u2019ve done that, there\u2019s apps that you can put on your phone that will track how much money you\u2019re spending on different things that you can actually follow to make sure that you\u2019re falling in line with the budget that you\u2019ve created.
And the analogy that I use in Pillars is, it\u2019s like floating down a stream with a current, with your eyes closed. You probably don\u2019t feel the current when your eyes are closed and you don\u2019t see the landscape moving next to you. When you first start looking at what you spend money on, it\u2019s like opening your eyes and realizing, \u201cOh my gosh, I\u2019m moving this very far backwards down this stream. I didn\u2019t realize how much of my money was flowing out the door.\u201d
The next step is to put your foot down in the riverbed and say, \u201cI\u2019m not going to just let this current carry me. My spending habits are not something that are going to control me.\u201d It\u2019s only when you put your foot down in the riverbed and you say, \u201cI\u2019m not spending this money anymore, that you actually feel the weight of that current, where you realize, \u201cOh my gosh, I\u2019ve been solving problems with money,\u201d or, \u201cI\u2019ve been undisciplined with this.\u201d That is hard and that\u2019s where the challenge starts.<\/p>\n
I just want to again violently agree with David. That\u2019s the theme of today\u2019s show. If you\u2019re a $200,000 per year household income earning couple, which would put you in the upper two thirds, right on the bubble of the two third level for the income of the people who listen to this show and the real estate podcast, and you spend $10,000 a month, that\u2019s $120,000 a year, you might be accumulating 20,000 or $30,000 on top of that. I have talked to so many people who say, \u201cWell, spending less isn\u2019t my problem, I need to make more.\u201d
No, spending less has a double effect on your overall situation. First, it increases the amount you accumulate with which to invest, which can then drive returns. And second, it reduces the threshold you need to achieve financial freedom. $120,000 a year, if you want a portfolio generating $120,000 a year in passive income means you have to buy a lot of property or pay off a lot of property in order to actually generate that much cashflow.
If you can drop that spending to $80,000, you have $40,000 more after tax \u2026 It\u2019s all after tax, by the way, anything that you don\u2019t spend \u2026 and you only need a portfolio that generates $80,000 a year, that\u2019s a double whammy. That has an enormous multiplier effect on the day that you actually achieve your goal of likely financial independence. So I think wealth creation begins with frugality, and I completely agree with this as a starting point.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example that I talk about when it comes to defense and that no one thinks about and it just blows my mind that we don\u2019t. Everyone is in the pursuit of passive income. There is an obsession with I need more passive income so I can have a better life. If you can earn a 6% return on $100,000, that\u2019s about $500 a month. It is very difficult to get a 6% return on an asset that you would be comfortable owning in a good location that has some upside. It\u2019s possible, but it\u2019s not easy to do.
People will say, it\u2019s not worth doing this because I can\u2019t find it. However, if you can knock $600 a month off of your budget, that is the functional equivalent of earning a 6% return on $100,000. How hard is it to save $100,000? You are talking about years of your life that it takes to save that much money. And like you said, Scott, the money that you make is taxed. It makes it even harder to be able to accomplish that.
When times are tough, like right now, when investing is more difficult, it doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t do it, but it\u2019s just harder to make it work. Why would you not turn that same energy towards what you\u2019re spending your money on and take control of something that you can control, which is your own personal budgeting?
And that\u2019s one of the reasons that I never wrote the book on house hacking, but it\u2019s like my favorite strategy of all of them because it\u2019s hard to go accumulate $500 a month of passive income. It\u2019s much easier to buy a house and rent out a part of it and reduce my own living expenses from $2,000 a month to $500 a month. That\u2019s a $1,500 return. How much capital would I need to save to be able to make $1,500? So to your point, this is just something that needs to be spoken about more often because people have more control over that area of their finances.<\/p>\n
You have something you can cut from your budget. There\u2019s frivolous stuff. You\u2019re paying too much for stuff. I use Mint Mobile for my phone that is $15 a month and you could pay $100 a month. Why would you pay $85 a month more for essentially the same service, or exactly the same service, or lesser service, because Mint is pretty flipping good? So if you have a problem with your cash outflow, your cash inflow, look at your budget. I bet you\u2019ve got something to cut. I bet you\u2019ve got a lot of somethings to cut and it might not be fun, but it\u2019s probably not going to be that hard either.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve talked a lot about defense. Let\u2019s go to offense. What\u2019s your philosophy on offense? And by the way, I do want to call out on the last time we interviewed you on the BiggerPockets Money Podcast, we heard about your incredible journey as a waiter and all the hard work that you put in, the extra effort that you liked to put in. It wasn\u2019t quite enough to get to Red Robin Waiter of the Year status like James Dainard, but clearly you guys share the same mentality with your approach to service there. Is that essentially the underpinning of how you think about earning more?<\/p>\n
Yeah. I learned all this within the ecosystem of a restaurant now. And I think you make a good point there because I do get along very well with Jimmy. I think it\u2019s because we have a very similar approach to excellence in what you\u2019re doing.
So when I was in college, I mentioned this the last time we did the interview, my goal was to save $500 a week from tips from tables. So I had to play defense. I couldn\u2019t spend money on dumb things. I didn\u2019t go out to eat. I didn\u2019t take vacations as a 20-year-old. I just didn\u2019t understand what was so hard about life at 20 that I needed to go to Mexico with my friends and be crazy.
But I also understood that I needed to work more hours or stay an hour and a half later to close that I could double my income by being the closer of the restaurant when everybody else wanted to go home. So I started to pick up these little tips of how to be good at making money. I noticed if I can close, I can get more tables. So the question became, well, what do I have to do to be a closer?
Sometimes I\u2019d give them 20 bucks to go home early and I\u2019d stay and pick up another couple tables and make 80 bucks and I was up $60. Sometimes just being the boss\u2019s favorite. She schedules you as a closer more often because you come into work when they need somebody or you have a better attitude than other people do.
I would pick up shifts when I had nothing to do. If I was sitting at home and there was nothing really compelling, I would just start calling the other servers and saying, \u201cHey, do you want me to work for you?\u201d And there was a very good chance that if you give most people a chance to take the day off, they\u2019re going to take it.
So I was intentional and then I realized that if I wanted to wait on more tables, I had to be just better at being a waiter. I had to be faster, I had to give better service, I had to have a better attitude, I had to be more efficient. And in the restaurants that I worked at, time was your enemy.
If you get to a table and they\u2019re not ready to order and they take a long time to put their order in, your other tables are getting pissed because they\u2019re like, \u201cWe\u2019re hungry, where\u2019s our food?\u201d Or if it takes you a long time to get the information from your notes into the computer for the kitchen to start on, your food\u2019s waiting to get run out to another table and the kitchen\u2019s yelling at you. There\u2019s always stress.
And I just learned to let that stress mold me into a more efficient person. I would look at the better waiters that had done it for years and ask them, \u201cHow do you solve these problems? What happens when you end up in these situations?\u201d
And they would give me really good advice, like stop running to the kitchen to get one thing and running to the table to drop it off and running to the kitchen to get one thing. Go to the kitchen, get everything for every table and take it all at the same time. Well, I had to be more disciplined. I had to mentally drill it in my head, table three needs this, table four needs this, table five needs this, and then grab it all at one time.
Those skills actually translated very well into other things I did in life. When my real estate agent business took off and I was very busy and my clients had a lot of stress and I had a lot of moving pieces, I learned how to clump them all up into things that I could create into a system to be more efficient than what other people did.
My personal take is that you should approach every day at work like it\u2019s the last day of tryouts and you don\u2019t want to get cut. If you take this approach that I\u2019m going to the gym and I\u2019m going to work out as hard as I can and I\u2019m not going to leave until I am too tired to lift another weight, it is impossible to not get stronger. The same happens with the skills you build at work.
And what I find unfortunately is that most people have got this philosophy, and I don\u2019t know where it came from, but it\u2019s everywhere, that you\u2019re a sucker if you do that, that you shouldn\u2019t work harder until your boss gives you a raise, that you shouldn\u2019t try harder until they do something to make it worth it for you. And I just think that that\u2019s foolish advice.
I think it\u2019s foolish in a relationship to say, \u201cWell, I\u2019ll love them when they love me more.\u201d That probably never works out. I\u2019ve never heard of a married couple who said that was a good strategy. It\u2019s almost always we have to start with what\u2019s happening.
And I really believe that people need to focus much more on the skills they are building and the value that they bring to the marketplace, whether that\u2019s their job, their boss, their client, their customer, or the market as a whole depending on what environment you\u2019re in. You will start to build skills. And as you build skills, you will become more valuable.
And everyone\u2019s biggest fear is what if I do that and I don\u2019t get a raise? And my answer to everyone is like, that\u2019s the best position you could be in because now you have confidence to move on to the next job and know you\u2019re going to crush it versus, \u201cWell, I haven\u2019t been working out for the last two years and now tryouts are coming up and I\u2019m in bad shape. I can\u2019t take that next job.\u201d<\/p>\n
I have long felt that there\u2019s an interrelationship between defense and offense, where if I am spending less money, accumulating more cash, I have more liquidity, I have more passive income, I can be more aggressive and my options begin to explode and multiply in terms of my ability to earn more offensively. Do you agree with that interrelationship that there\u2019s a paradox, the less you spend, the more you can make?<\/p>\n
A hundred percent. Yeah, because if you look at the jobs that pay the best, they usually have the least security. If you go take that W-2 job, the pro is that you\u2019re guaranteed to get the paycheck. The con is that you won\u2019t have as much opportunity. The people that make the most money are some form of an entrepreneur, some kind of 1099 worker. They have some kind of sales. They have a hand in creating revenue for the company.
I refer to this as they catch the fish instead of cleaning the fish. Fish catchers will always be compensated more overall because the skill that they bring is inherently more valuable to the enterprise. The downside is they have less safety, they have less security, and there\u2019s more risk. They might not eat at all that day or make no money if they couldn\u2019t get the fish to bite or they missed setting the hook. Whereas the fish cleaners, they\u2019re going to get paid no matter what happens.
So if you want to get into the higher tier of making money, it comes at the expense of losing security, which means you need to be in a strong financial position. If you\u2019re saddled down with car debt and student loan debt and housing debt for a house that you don\u2019t need and spending habits that are poor, it\u2019ll be so much harder to make that jump into an area with less security.
And you also need to spend some time in those higher paying jobs before you learn how to do them well. You don\u2019t just get on a boat and learn how to catch fish. There\u2019s skill that has to be developed. And like you said, Scott, if you\u2019re not in a strong financial position, you just won\u2019t make the jump.<\/p>\n
Okay, David, we\u2019re going to put you on the hot seat right now. What are one to three things an investor should do today to get in the game?<\/p>\n
The first thing that they should do is read Pillars of Wealth and understand that investing is a third of the journey. It\u2019s not the entire thing. And let that be the carrot that guides them.
The second thing that they should do is look at their budget and say, \u201cWhat could I cut from this that wouldn\u2019t kill me, but would put me in a better position?\u201d
Most people, and Scott, you talk about this in Set for Life, the biggest expense they have is their housing allowance. People assume they have to pay the $2,500 a month for rent. That\u2019s just what it costs to get an apartment. And they don\u2019t think about, \u201cWhat if I rent a room from somebody else? What if I rent a room from somebody else and cook for everybody, or I do the cleaning, or I do something to add value to that relationship? What if they give me an even bigger discount on my rent?\u201d House hacking works both ways. You can own the property and rent out the rooms, or you can rent the room from someone else to help save money until you\u2019re able to own the property.
And the third thing is they should take a good hard long look at the mirror and say, \u201cDo I go to work every day like it\u2019s the last day of tryouts and I don\u2019t want to get cut? Am I giving a hundred percent of the effort that I could be giving or am I stuck in this toxic mindset that says, I want to make as much money as I can, doing as little work as I have to?\u201d
That is something that somehow has gotten into our minds and people operate that from a default level and it puts them in an adversarial relationship with their employer because their employer doesn\u2019t like someone who\u2019s saying, \u201cI want to do as little work as possible and make as much money as possible.\u201d Now, you\u2019re clashing. You don\u2019t have a partnership. What you want to have is a team environment where you doing better equals them doing better, which means that they can pay you more money.<\/p>\n
David, thank you so much for joining us today. I\u2019m picking up what you\u2019re putting down, not literally. What do you bench these days?<\/p>\n
I hit a record maybe six months ago when I was working all the time. I hit 315 and I was shocked that I did that, but I\u2019m sure it wouldn\u2019t be there right now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m metaphorically picking up what you\u2019re putting down. Really appreciate it. Really enjoyed Pillars of Wealth. And thank you for all you do to bring a lot of knowledge to the BiggerPockets community on a regular basis. Appreciate it.<\/p>\n
Thank you, Scott. Thank you, Mindy. Great time.<\/p>\n
David, I always appreciate your time. It is always fun talking to you. For those listening, he was on episode 12 of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast. Go back and listen to that because he dropped nugget after nugget after nugget of wisdom and you need to hear his entire waiter story because it is a doozy. He just hit the highlights today. David, where can people find you when they\u2019re looking for you online?<\/p>\n
They can find me at davidgreene24 on social media, and davidgreene24.com. And they can also check out the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast where we do our very best to help people build wealth through real estate every week.<\/p>\n
Awesome. David, thank you so much for your time today.
All right, Scott, that was David Greene. It\u2019s always so much fun to talk to him. I don\u2019t even know how he keeps so much knowledge in his head. I guess that\u2019s where all the hair went.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s awesome.<\/p>\n
Pushed it out with all the knowledge.<\/p>\n
No, yeah, I can\u2019t just help completely agreeing with David on a lot of these things. I think it\u2019s always for me about the basics and the fundamentals. And look, I know that I missed out on more of a run-up that I could have had over the last 10 years if I had levered up, pulled cash out, gone all in on real estate and really just ridden the wave of appreciation 5, 6, 7, 8 years ago.
But I\u2019m also happy that I haven\u2019t done that and I have a lot of cash and I have a very stable and secure position that I can consistently grow and maintain. And I\u2019m not worried about cashflow problems. I\u2019m not worried about average daily rates going down in the short-term rental market, and I\u2019m feeling very secure and confident in my long-term rental investing strategy, and will buy another one in 2024 and continue on business as usual here.
And I think there\u2019s a lot to be said for that, and that\u2019s why I\u2019m proud to do what we do every week on the BiggerPockets Money Podcast and preach the basics of personal finance. I\u2019m glad David is obviously so aligned with that and has built his business the same way.<\/p>\n
I love that. Yeah, I am always looking for my next real estate deal, but I\u2019m not frantically looking because I have money in the stock market and that\u2019s where it\u2019s growing right now because that is a more comfortable place for me in this time period.
So if you\u2019re interested in investing in real estate, start keeping an eye on the market. But don\u2019t just jump in blindly because some schmuck on YouTube told you, \u201cOh, you could totally do it,\u201d because they\u2019re not going to be there to pay your mortgage when your tenant is evicted. And they\u2019re not going to be there to fix your house when your tenant trashes it.
So do your due diligence, go to biggerpockets.com, learn everything there is to know about real estate investing through our forums, through our blogs, through our boot camps, through our books, through our podcasts. There\u2019s so much knowledge out there for you. All you have to do is read it, or listen, in the case of the podcasts.<\/p>\n
And keep your fine financial fundamentals sound. Spend less than you earn, pile up cash, and that is the major de-risker in any investment strategy you can pursue. If you\u2019re saving 2, $3,000 a month, that can wipe out or mitigate really almost any mistake on a property or two that you might purchase for a pretty long period of time. It cannot wipe out the mistakes on 10 properties purchased or those types of things.
It\u2019s investing in whatever asset class, real estate, stocks, whatever, consistently but not aggressively, maintaining a position where forever more cash comes into your life than goes out, controlling your expenses.
And look, as unsexy as it is, it starts with defense. The less you spend, the more you accumulate, the more you need in passive cash flow to fund a position of financial freedom, and the more risk you can take on in your investing strategy because you have a bigger cushion to fall back on your monthly burn rate, or monthly accumulation rate. And so it\u2019s all about fundamentals and the fundamentals will propel you through any market condition.<\/p>\n
Scott, I could not agree more. All right, I could sit here and talk forever about this, but I think we\u2019ve covered it. And David is fabulous. Where is the book available, Scott?<\/p>\n
The book is available at biggerpockets.com, where you can get a lot of bonuses associated with the book as well. And of course, anywhere books are sold, like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
All right, Scott, that wraps up this episode of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast. He is Scott Trench and I am Mindy Jensen saying, got to jet, whippet.<\/p>\n
If you enjoyed today\u2019s episode, please give us a five star review on Spotify or Apple. And if you\u2019re looking for even more money content, feel free to visit our YouTube channel at youtube.com\/biggerpocketsmoney.<\/p>\n
BiggerPockets Money was created by Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench, produced by Kailyn Bennett, editing by Exodus Media, copywriting by Nate Weintraub. Lastly, a big thank you to the BiggerPockets team for making this show possible.<\/p>\n