Ep 236 - We Asked The Money Coach

Hey, ba fam, we are five years into making this podcast that we love so much called Brown Ambition, and we could not do it without you. We've gone from me and Tiffany sneaking around my old office building trying to find places to record, and thanks to you, guys, we now have one hundred thousand downloads per month for this little show called Brown Ambition. We would love to ask y'all for a small favor as fans of the show. Tiffany, what are we looking for?

Here's what we'd love from you, guys. We already have over a thousand reviews and a five star rating on iTunes, but you know it's better than one thousand reviews two thousand reviews. If you get head on over to iTunes, go to our Brown Ambition page, scroll on down to the bottom, subscribe and leave us a five star rating and review. So subscribe, rate review. Not too much to ask, right, easypas. We love you guys, and thank you so much for making Brown Ambition what it is. The last five years

That what that was? All right? It sounded like you tripped a company. Oh man, it's too early in the show for the shade. I'm sorry.

Yeah, no, no, it's okay. I like shade. You know, a little light shade is fun.

Little friendly shade, friendly shade. Speaking of shade, I'm trying to find a segue to talk about the thing that everyone's talking about today. Did you read about Trump's texts?

Girls?

Oh lord, I mean, surprise is not the emotion I have, no because we all knew this man did not did everything he could to get out of paying chexes. My emotions are where are you at? Where are you at? I've heard from friends who are like, whatever, nothing's going to touch this man, Like they're just like so done. And I've heard from other friends who are super outraged, like where are you at?

Honestly, I was actually surprised he was as high as seven hundred and fifty dollars. I just assumed it was nothing. I was like, he cats seven hundred and fifty dollars woo, So that was I was disgusted and I don't think he's untouchable. And I think even he knows that there are things that he said. Thus, Farlow, I don't know if you've seen in some of the articles that said that he has basically intimated that he will not seed

But there are.

People who voted because they said, well, how bad could it be? Those people are like, yikes, this is how bad it could be. So I think those people are the ones that I might come on over to the other side, not because they love the other side, but because they're like, wow, this is actually way worse than I ever anticipated.

I just again, and it's like you said, and I've got family and Georgia who are pro Trump, and you can't tell them nothing. And we've tried, and you know, and I think it's worth trying, even if you're not going to get anywhere, just so that you have some other voice in their heads. But when it comes to his base, and you think about who his base is and how he really appealed to working class white voters.

They say in the New York City, like a real estate like circles, like the high level circles.

Was it?

Bloomberg was like, uh, we all giggle at him. We like you know what I mean, Like, you know, it's almost like you know, you you go to college and someone pretends like, oh, yeah, when I was in high school, I was totally the coolest. I was totally like all the girls love me or whatever, and then you go back to your college and find out like, oh, you're a loser there too. Interesting. So yeah, he he's not

Yes?

Silverstone, Yes that was.

Okay. So but yeah, I just think that it's just I'm not gonna lie every day. I'm like, okay, let's see now what now? What now? And now? So but yeah, I wasn't. I was actually surprised that he paid anything at all. And I'm glad that the New York Times did this at this moment in time. And then, you know, like you said, for some people, they can he can literally and Trump has said this himself. He can literally kill someone on national television and his biggest supporters would

Yeah, I mean the debate with By the time you guys hear this show, the debate, the first presidential debate will have been over. You know, I hope Biden takes this the ammunition and uses it. Well, for me, it's it's just the it's the hypocrisy. And it's like we were talking about last week on the show. You know, we get questions from people, so you know, how can I I hear about people not paying income taxes? Like how can I you know, what are some strategies I

Vote right, vote be ot e e.

But speaking of real estate, that kind of has to do with today's show a little bit. We talk about well, honestly, we don't talk about this too too much. You guys know about our personal stories becoming homeowners and Tiffany's path to you know, starting her real estate empire, which I'm sure is to come. We get a lot of questions actually from people who were like, you know, I'm interested in investing in real estate and want an income property.

Our fairy, our fairy financial godmother.

Yeah, yes, our money auntie. She is joining us today because Lynette has been quietly building a real estate empire of her own just across the country. It feels like her and her husband, Earl have been purchasing income property after income property, and I would like to know her secret. I would like to know how she's doing it, why she's doing it, you know what their thought process is behind it, and you know how she's doing especially in this economy as she's building up her portfolio of homes.

I'm excited because you know, I'm starting to get my little baby to owned real estate. So I can't wait to see what our very financial godmother has to say.

Yeah, I've been listening to a watching a lot of YouTube on real estate investing, and we have this house across the street that's pretty much been abandoned, just like in a pre foreclosure situation. I don't know, We're like, let's get that house. We can do that, we can do this, like, yeah, let's get a fix her upper. It sounds easy on paper, So I really want to know what Lynett's strategy has Benam decited to talk to her.

Talk on and we're back and blacker than ever. No, I'm just joking. We are blacker than ever because we have one of my favorite financial folks. She is our financial fair godmother. As we mentioned earlier, Linette Califani Cox.

You Stan, Yeah, we do.

Stand for the money Coach. Thank you so much for being with us. Lynette, No, you guys, I was totally looking forward to it.

I'm happy to be here.

I think you are a most Guested guest. If there's like some sort of trophy we could give the most, like having someone on the show that the much of the much? Can I speak words today?

Most Guested?

You've been here a.

Lot, Lynnette, totally cool.

I feel like, you know, like FNL, like when somebody gets the whole SNL, you know, and they asked them back again again and I'm like, oh, hey, okay, good, I get to come back.

One of brown ambition. Yeah, That's what I'm trying to say. Well, we were talking a little bit before the show, and we know, let's just take a who like a deep breath because we know the world's on fire literally, fingeratively politically, it seems like, but one of the silver linings, like you were just saying, is real estate. I mean, at a time when everything seems so uncertain, you know, we continue to get questions from listeners who were interested and

Well, we have been slowly but surely building since twenty sixteen, and it just got accelerated a lot in the last year. So we currently have eight properties. Are own house that we live in, which is in the suburbs of Houston. We're in the kind of the northwest section of Houston, and then seven rental properties. So I don't know where do you want to start, like how it first began or what our approach?

Yes, what was your approach from the beginning? Was it eight always in your mind? Like or were you like, let's start with one and then accidentally you had eight? How does that happen?

No?

I definitely did not have this in mind, but when the journey sort of began.

I was like, oh, okay, yeah, I think.

I want to have like ten to twelve plus, you know. So what happened was really so it's kind of a circuitous thing. And I think Mandy, we talked about this before when our oldest daughter, Aziza went off to college. You know, we were living in New Jersey. She went to college in Texas at ut in Austin, and long story short, she lost her scholarship her first year and she rebounded afterwards and you know, got her aise again and was on the dean's list and all that good.

Stuff, but by.

Line she didn't have her three point five GPA that was required, so she lost her scholarship. So as a result of that, we started looking for ways to lower her tuition because there was about three times as much the tuition, you know, a good thirty something thousand at the time per year I don't know, thirty five thirty eight something like that as an out of state resident.

So we just thought.

Time to double down on Aziza, you know, And so we ended up buying her.

This first property.

And we knew that relative to say, the northeast to New York New Jersey area, prices were very affordable, very reasonable. And so the house it was a it was a condo, I should say it is. She still lives there to this day. It was a condo that was two hundred and ten thousand dollars. We put ten percent down, so twenty one thousand dollars down. We had about four thousand

Brilliant, It's all I'm thinking is, yeah, very brilliant.

Sorry, so we would so again, we kind of like stumbled into this strategy if I'm if I'm again, if I'm honest, It wasn't like, oh, let me try to do this to start it off.

So so your first step is have your daughter lose her scholarship.

Yeah, exact, that's funny.

Sure, okay, but don't freak out become a real estate mogul.

Got it exactly totally.

So so now you know what though, you know, first of all, I can't even tell you how many students that happens to that you know that first year just kind.

Of like, yes, that was me, girl. They brought me all the way home. My parents are like, oh, okay, come back home.

Yeah.

So and the ZSA she wound up, as it turns out, instead of graduating in twenty nineteen. She actually graduated in December twenty eighteen, and she graduated one semester early, so she did.

She she bounced back and did you know, like I said, very well.

But it worked out so beautifully because again her roommates stayed. And then her last after she graduated, she had an internship and she got a job, and she's, you know, been doing very well working and she was like, Mom, I want to I want to pay rent.

And I was like, why you want to pay rent?

I did this so you could get a start, you know, I want you She's like, Mom, I've had a start for three years. I've had you know, I've had no rent. But I have to be financially responsible and blah blah blah blah. So she wanted to pay rent, and she also wanted to have one of the roommates not renewed so she could have fewer girls in there.

She was like, I went out my own room. So I was like, uh huh.

So, as it turns out, this year, in January of twenty twenty, she got married to her college sweetheart. He graduates and gets his master's degree in engineering, this in December, but they still live in that place. So now before the roommates were covering it, but then Aziza and Jacob live there now and now since January they've been collectively paying their rent, paying the mortgage on it, and paying so they cover it as their rent and so again

And it was like sixty grand there.

So I was like, no, no, no, no, no, I said, you're going to do n C State And so he's super super hahih that he did, and he again did not falter at all. You know, Dean's list also and it's done very well. But part of what I started strategizing was around I told him, I said, listen, we're going to put you on the same track. We will buy you your first property, and we will help you because we've you know, made certain commitments to our kids and told them, you know, your job is to be

So we now go into that detail because I feel like tif, you know you you purchased your property cash, right.

Mm hmmm hm. So we share that, yeah, so feel.

Free and also talk about the lending process because you're right, you took out a mortgage for the Austin property, so in Raleigh, Yeah, what happened?

Right? So well, okay, so here's the truth.

So I was working with a local bank, I have a I have an amazing real estate agent in Raleigh who I love a lot the last you know, several years, she's helped us because again, in our sort of portfolio, five of our properties are in Raleigh, and this agent has worked with us on all of them, and so I knew her and trusted her recommendations, et cetera. So she said, oh, here, this is a local lender I've

I said, not a problem.

So, because it's obviously considered an investment property with azisas because that was the first one we bought outside of our property in New Jersey at the time, it was really able to be as a from a mortgage standpoint, like a second home. They family member lived there, a ZISA herself, so it did not have an investment property rates attached to it, ignore those same requirements, which are typically a higher down payment. So that's why we able to put only ten percent down for that first one.

So we had our.

New residence here in the Houston area, which became our primary residence. Then we rented out our New Jersey property. That's another story. I'll tell you that in a minute. But long story short. When we bought Jakata's property in July, it was definitely an investment property, there's no getting around it, even though he lives there, et cetera. And the bank was,

And I was like, well, well, well, I was like why.

And so then she said, well, it's just that, you know, a different appetite for risk in the marketplace, and they want to have a high degree. I said, look, you see how much cash I have. You see what my credit score is. You see that I have, you know, perfect credit, plenty of ASCID. There's no you know, there's no you're not taking any risk here. And I said,

I said, absolutely not.

And I don't know what the you know, sort of trigger issue was, but you know, Earl and I were kind of looking at each other like are they messing?

What else are they?

You know, like is this something you know you kind of hear about crazy stories or what's going on here? So that situation continued and she was like, yeah, I talked to the underwriting and I was like, you don't have to talk to an underwriter.

Don't have to talk to me. I told you what I'm doing. You can come along for the ride or not.

You can get these you know, this point in these fees that you were going to charge me or not, or I can just close without you. So I just was like, you know, as my good friend Laterce would say, deuces, you.

Know, so you paid that property?

Okay, yeah, So I was like, you know, and then I was another reason, of course, because I was looking at the timeline, and I knew that by August that I wanted Jakata to have the house and I wanted him to have one year residency because I knew coming into this year as a junior, you have to have lived in the property for one year, et cetera. So and sure enough this year Jakata was declared the in state resident and he's going to be staying out there

We paid cash for it.

And then and again I had no intention of doing that. I felt good that we were, you know, strong enough in a position to be able to do it, because even though there was no crazy situation like with a Ziza, it was, you know, let's help her, let's you know, deal with a situation to a bit of recovery because she had a poor first semester and she was on probation and.

You know, et cetera.

But I I felt confident knowing you know, the child that she was, that she was, you know, a good student and a hard worker, et cetera. But think about all the people who either the parent doesn't have the money to keep them in school if something goes wrong, or you know, the wherewithal to make things happen. If you know, the system kind of starts messing with you. So we did that, and then about six months later,

So again I would.

Have been fine to put a twenty twenty five percent down payment upfront. So if you can kind of reverse it in your mind, we now know that that's actually a very good strategy to acquire properties. See, if I had known going in that I was going to buy that property for cash, I would have negotiated a much better deal.

I wouldn't have agreed to pay one hundred and fifty eight thousand.

I would have tried to pay you know, one forty eight or something, because I would have been able to get the deal done fast, just take it out of my account and just keep it moving.

But now I know that.

It's actually one of the strategies that you can use. If you're going to buy cash, you can go in more aggressively upfront, and you can get a mortgage on.

The back end.

Again, it's if you again, you.

Just have to kind of reverse in your mind the thinking about what the process looks like. People think, I put the money upfront ten thirty percent whatever your down payment is, then I get.

A mortgage to fill in the gap.

Well, no, you could also if you have cash, you could buy the property for cash upfront, probably get a much better price, and then get a mortgage on the back end. And it's effectively the same thing, except that you've been able to perhaps beat out other bidders or other investors, buy a property for a cheaper price, et cetera, and avoid initially certainly a whole bunch of you know,

Liked Raleigh a lot.

We saw what was happening in Raleigh and we said, this reminds us of Austin. Very strong economy, local market fueled a lot by a number of college campuses.

In this case, n C State is.

You know, twenty minutes or so from Duke University in UNC Chapel Hill. The whole research triangle area is doing quite well, and we started looking at property prices and we were like, this is pretty affordable here.

These are really good prices.

And the rents are nice and strong, and demand is there, especially because again near State, there are you know, forty thousand plus students who are attending that campus who need someplace to live because there's not enough housing on.

Campus for everybody.

So so so after that we started looking and we got two other ones in the beginning of the year, and then two.

More in this past summer.

And so those four other rentals were all this year, so two right before the pandemic and two in the middle of the pandemic, one in July and one in August.

So all in Raleigh, All in Raleigh.

I love Raleigh.

I see that. Well, you also have like the connection because I think it may be hard for people to imagine buying property in a different state, but I mean, you're it's like you had the connection with your kids

It's it's dirt sheep compared to certainly the Northeast, where you know, my house in New Jersey.

Is like six hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

But here these properties that I'm talking about, the lowest one I bought was about eighty thousand dollars. The highest one was just under two hundred thousand, so seventy eight thousand if you want to be one hundred percent exact. And then one ninety one was the last one I bought, and we bid over the asking price for that one. It was multiple offers on it. And these are four

The four bedroom units.

They're literally right by the campus. And so yeah, and again and because I know this market very well, because first of all, I'm a parent, and I know the mindset of a parent.

You're not gonna let your kid in college. You're not.

The kid is not gonna you know, we check the parents' credit, you know, more than anything else, the parents credit. And you know, anytime if the student just stays in school, there's no parent that's just going to like let the kid, you know, kind of like be out on the street. So you know, you do your due diligence in terms of you know, checking the job and the credit and all that. And some of them are independent, the students

So you buy these properties leveraging the equity from that initial property. So did you or did you pay cast?

Not at all?

No, not at all. I never took any equity out of any of these properties. So we paid cash out of our own savings and out of our trust account. We have a solo for oh one k. So let me explain something else to your audience because some of them might want to utilize this strategy at some point

Check your DTI, check your savings, check your credit, you know, you put your down payment, etc.

Three of the properties that we have in Raleigh, though, are what are we're financed by what's called a non recourse mortgage, and so a non recourse mortgage is totally different. Basically, they're just looking at the property, valuing it and saying will it have enough rental income to cover this mortgage and have a strong enough debt service coverage ratio? And so they like to see one point twenty five times.

Okay, and for taking from your four one k correct? Okay? Well what's the So I know you said you want to because right now you have eight properties and you said ideally you want twelve to fifteen yep, So what's the like, what's the end and end goal? Like, what's the do you want to sell these like you years from now? Okay?

Not at all, not at all.

So Earl and I are both super passionate about real estate. This is all just passive income streams for us. I don't want to sell anything. I want to be like how Warren Buffett is about stocks when when you ask him like when's the best time to sell, He'll say never. You know, I just want to be sitting on these properties. It's not that I might not ever sell, like our house and mountain Side. You know, we definitely have thought about it and we have no need to sell it

That's the piece I would like to talk about a little bit is you know, you guys are landlords. Now how do you so do you outsource that management? The screening of applicants? If you have like four tenants reached rental, you know in a college campus area, that's got to be a lot of work. So can you talk about like the paperwork side of it, the managerial side of it.

Sure, So we definitely have a property manager, and at first we didn't. We really kind of didn't need to. So for two of the properties that we that we bought in January, the ones that we initially did the non recourse lending with and by the way, just in case anybody is curious, I have no affiliation or anything with these companies, but I'm just telling you because sometimes people don't know.

And I'd like people to just like, like, okay, go check them out and see for yourself.

We use a lender called Peak Peak Asset Management for the first two properties, and then for this most recent one, we used a lender call First Western Federal Savings Bank. Great experiences honestly with both of them, so I you know, it was good all the way around. For the first two that we do with the non recourse loans in Raleigh, they are single units and really we kind of just didn't even need. One has a couple living there, and another one a couple which and they have a kid,

He pays.

There's no issues and really nothing to do. But the other properties, yes, we got a property manager. It's Wilson because anybody's interested who is known for managing student housing in that area. So one of their offices is like right there at the unit, and so if the students have any issues or any problem, they go to them first and they just fix it. They just handle it. If there's any bills, then they send it to us. They get our approval, et cetera. And it's worth it.

It just makes your life so much easier.

And we're so I have kind of ope tifty.

Then I just had a quick like like kind of like Jersey specific because so the house in Jersey said, it's about seven hundred thousand. You're renting that out? Is it hard to find rental school? Because I something my parents they live in Westfield, which is right next to their mountain side.

No, it's not at all.

Okay, Tiffany, let me tell you what happened just very quickly.

So in Westfield.

I know it well because, like you said, it's right next door to Mountainside, which is where we lived.

In our area.

You know, it's the little McMansions and the million dollar homes and this and that.

Our house was not that it was.

It's a very it's a it's a nice little house, but a modest house compared to all the other ones.

Ranch style home, good, good sized land, about zero point four zero point four.

Five or so acres in terms of the size, pool in the back, three bedroom, three bath, completely finished basement, but we renovated everything before we left. We did the whole kitchen, over the floors, the you know, paint, we did blah blah blah. Right, we initially and we had a real estate agent to list our property. She said, oh, you're going to get a buyer who's like coming from another state or from out of the country. Who you know you're going to get a certain kind of buyer.

As they pay our rent, you know.

So initially we asked and put it on for thirty nine hundred a month, three nine hundred dollars per month, and she said, no, that's going to be too much. That's you know, that's just way too high. I'm going to say thirty five hundred a month and blah blah blah, and Earl and I were like, nah, we think this is we know this area, we know what people want, you know. So we got a guy who was a former CEO, well actually he is a CEO. He and

We were like yeah. We were like yees.

So, I mean great credit, good tenant. And it's been no problems whatsoever. So when we're like, oh, we love these people, you know, so you don't know that market, especially because you know where we are off of the off of Route twenty two, and you know, access to New York is great, especially a lot of New Yorkers when they come and they see what they can get in the suburbs there in that part of Jersey, they're like, oh my god, a backyard and this and that.

Yes, and we have my parents have a double lot and it's five bedrooms, two full kitchens. But and it's paid off. I paid it off for them two years ago. And honestly, they're not looking to move. They love, you know, their neighborhood. But I was just thinking to myself like, oh, you know, if they ever want to move when we have to sell it. I would hate to sell our family home because I wasn't sure if we would get you know, people would pay rent. It's the house, to

Yeah, Yeah, I think Westfield has a pretty strong market and you know, even more than Mountainside, honestly because of the downtown area and a little bit more. I don't know, maybe Cache so to speak. But I've been super super happy with everything, and I think that if somebody does have, you know, stability and financial wherewithal. I'm a huge believer in real estate and I think that it is something

They do want to.

Have some income outside of their normal their their their nine to five jobs. For me, again, it's part of our long term uh and retirement strategy. I like the idea that even though you know, keep investing in the stock market, you can do other things.

I actually like hard assets.

I like tangible things because I can I can manage this risk so much better. You know, in theory, at least a stock can go to zero, a company can go bankrupt. You know, all kind of stuff can go wrong. Nothing's gonna go wrong with my real estate investment that I haven't already covered. So what's the worst that could happen? A fire could happen and literally level the thing to the ground. Well I got insurance for that. You know, a store, a storm, a tornado, or a hurricane, something

Want to do.

And you know, it's just a much more comfortable kind of positioning of being diversified.

So your strategy and like the holistic look at your retirement goals. It's interesting and I like that you made the distinction between like hard assets and stock market investing. Can you talk a little bit about how you like, I don't know if you how do you quantify when you have this many properties? I don't know how you quantify, you know, I guess you add up all your mortgages and then the value of the homes and you get your equity and that's your you know, measure of asset there.

Now, okay, so that's a great question. And the first thing that I do when I'm looking to see for acquisition purposes, I'm looking at ROI and I have pretty aggressive targets. I typically want to see like a twenty percent return.

On my investment.

However, I would be willing, you know, if I say this is a great market, I can see the prices because I always track you know, prices to see like trends and what's happened. Like literally, Jakatas, the property that we bought in twenty nineteen for one fifty eight, is valued right now about one hundred and eighty thousand, and so when I see numbers like that, I'm like, oh, okay, great, you know, let me go get.

Another one right there.

But like even today, Early and I were talking about Amazon and we keep and this is like ridiculous. But in gem, I am more comfortable investing in real estate than I am in the stock market.

And overall, like what.

I tell people, like the average person for their advice, I'm gonna literally tell them stick to mutual funds, you know, get yourself an index fund, et cetera. But again, because I have actually a pretty high risk tolerance. My husband is more fiscally conservative than I am. But he's like, okay, come on, let's go get some Amazon stock.

Let's go get you know.

And about you know, maybe a year ago, I said, oh okay, earl, let's you know, we were looking at different things to do with, you know, different buckets of money, and I was saying, I put it on paper, and I showed him my thing, and I said, you know what, we just need to buy some some Amazon and some Netflix, and you know, just call the day and just leave it in there and just don't even look at it. So every like three or four months, I've been showing him like, oh dang, look at this, look at this.

I took a stock trading class with her.

I love her.

Oh I love her too.

So literally over the weekend, Earl was like, just pull the trigger, buy the dag on thing. And just you know, so he asked me today we went out on a walk today and he was like, okay, so where is Amazon? And and I was giving him pricing and I you know, I was telling.

Him, oh no, it's up today, and.

You know, but overall, you know, honestly, I am. I like the idea of set it and forget it to a certain extent, and I do still think like it's important to keep things in just you know, a total market index fund or even if you're just like happen to be into tech or you want to be a dabbling and fangstocks, you know, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, you know.

Netflix, Google kind of thing.

Then you can just literally buy a total market index fund and you'll have very high exposure in that in that sector as well.

Oh yeah, yeh yeah, we know that. We tell people that all the time. What does Lynette do well when you get when you get like it's your main source of income, you know, from your coaching business and all of that, Like, do you have some sort of like set in stone rules. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna put thirty percent here. This is going to go in the real estate savings funds? Like yeah, sort of how do

I cannot say that I've literally attempted or intentionally designed a sort of an overall portfolio that's like okay, let me stay and you know, seventy percent stocks and twenty percent or rather seventy percent real estate, twenty percent you know, stocks or mutual funds and ten percent individual.

Stocks, et cetera.

Not at all and so if you want to know what we do just in general, yes, some investments, but the vast majority is actually in the last two years in real estate and in cash, like a ridiculous amount. And so Earl will send me these emails.

And he was like, see, it's not just me.

He'll like, he'll see an article and I don't know, in Forbes or something and says the rich are hoarding cash, you know, and it's like, and he'll send me this stuff like now during the pandemic. I'm like, yeah, everybody's hoarding cash now.

Or it's like, you know, we.

Have buckets of money for different things, right, and I in general, I don't mind having high levels of cash for just you know, emergencies, for the unexpected. And he always has a thing he calls it, quote unquote the perfect storm, meaning like, but what if everything goes to hell in a hand basket?

Who Earl is my That is my twin right there, because I always think.

Like that, wait, army already in the handbasket on the way to help. That's what it feels like.

That's what I've been saying. I've been like, can.

You know, But I'm like, I it makes me antsy to see so much cash that's not being put to use. So because I'm like I could begin a return on this that's.

Been to the That's just that's different between my husband and I. We have very different investing philosophies, and we're constantly in this tug of war. You know, he wants to do this, I want to go there. It's hard to find a middle ground. So it's good to hear that, y'all. Even y'all haven't figured it out.

Oh no, we totally.

But can I tell you this one thing, this part I have discovered. Honestly, there's almost like no wrong answer. The idea is do something, Just go for it. I'm not saying you will never have a loss. You should, you know, do your homework and do your due diligence, but just in general, trust me, you'll be so much happier later a year from now, two years from now, three years from now. It's just about prioritizing, like, okay,

I think, hold on one second, tip, did you yeah, I have to jump Tiffany has to go. Oh no, it's it's past seven, Tiffany has to go.

Okay, So do you want to do you want to do like a wrap up?

We can let me I have like one more question, Okay, okay, yeah, let's wrap up with Lynnette. And uh you guys be a fam you want to stick around with me? Lynette? Yes, of course, right, Okay, Lynnette, So we're still here, and you were just talking about sort of there's no right way to do things and how just do something, do anything.

And again, my even me sort of looking at at am on is a great reflection of that, because all of the time you spent, you know, fretting over thinking about waiting for the right time to get.

In, It's like, okay, well the stock is moving, you know, and so.

Again, and that's my own risk tolerance that's my own you know, sort of appetite and me wanting to make sure like okay, okay.

Earl, you're gonna be good, and he's like, do it already.

You know, it's good to have someone more conservative kind of holding you back. Maybe you need a little bit of that balance, yeah, or at least someone asking the questions that I'm a hot head and I like to move quickly. If someone slows me down and ask questions, then maybe I won't be so you know, quick to jump at something right.

And I really do think that like a huge part of marriage is that whole yin and yang thing where it's good to have that counterbalance because you know, two people forging going right ahead you might fall off a cliff, you know, and two snails you just kind of never get anything done. So it is necessary to have that

It's you know, it's a lot of it is in your head.

And I think, well, if we can just remind the folks this is called brown ambition. And I feel like brown and black people, especially when we're starting to build, well, we are so often the only ones or the first or you know, we don't have the benefit of a lot of people to to, you know, like an uncle or an aunt or a grandparent whatever, to sit us

Mandy, that's a great question, and I don't mind saying it at all. I turned fifty two this year. My husband is fifty six, and yes, so our oldest is twenty three, our son is twenty he'll be twenty one at the end of the year, and Alexis is fourteen. She turns fifteen in November. So it's definitely the case that our age is sort of where we are in terms of our career and our own personal timeline towards

Off to college. We've had our what we call our.

Countdown to the kids being g and g grown and gone, and so now we're at that point where we're like, wow, we can see, you know, the end of the tunnel kind of four more years, Alexis will be going off to college. So at that point, in four more years she'll go through and then she'll have you know, four years of undergrad and potentially if she you know, chooses

Don't have to work anymore. We don't, you know, we don't want to, we don't need to.

So that means to continuing, continuing to do what we promised our kids because we have other like I said.

Just paying for college.

That's a challenge, you know, to tell them, Okay, you won't have student loans. And it's all in the context of yes, we're you know, getting older.

None of us is getting any younger.

Even beyond that, though everybody has their own kind of risk tolerance and their own appetite for quote unquote going

That's a huge gap.

And so when I look at property building and wealth building and just buying a first home and then a second and a third and a fourth and a fifth and sixth and seventh and eighth, hell yeah, I'm proud of it. And I do want to blaze a path and I do want to show people that it can be done, and I do want to inspire and light a fire under people to know that it's not rocket science. It's like once you kind of learn and get the basics down, like what should I be looking for, how should I do it?

What are the bank requirements and the.

Qualifications, It's doable and so and again for me, like I said, I feel so strongly and so passionately about real estate as a pathway to wealth building. You know, I did a book years ago called The Money Coach's Guide to Your First Million, and it was obviously focused on wealth building and becoming a millionaire.

Et cetera.

But the idea there I laid out the different pathways to building wealth, and of course real estate was one of those pathways. And many you're talking to a girl who grew up you know, in Los Angeles in a two bedroom apartment my entire life. You know, my parents divorced when I was seven years old, and my parents

Teach their kids.

And I hope they excel me in every way possible and exceed, you know, far beyond what Earl.

And I have been able toccomplished.

Well, that's beautiful. And sometimes I you know, people and ask us and they come to the show, and you know,

That's right, that's right, you said it.

Well, thank you so much for coming on this show. I'm sad you are very well couldn't stay for the end. But I'm glad to have you for these little, these few extra minutes by myself, all to myself, Miss Linnette. Well, tell folks how they can find you. Where are you at these days?

Twitter, Insta, Yeah, I you know, I'm everywhere. I have Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, all of that, and then my own sites of course, my free financial advice i'd ask the money coach dot com. And then our video based platform for group coaching, et

Yeah, So We'll.

Protect yourself any way you can, and if that means social media break, that's for me. It's like throw yourself into work and you know, focus on what you can control. It seems healthy, but you're right, yeah, it's you know, we can sit here talking about real estate and then I, you know, acknowledge the craziness that's happening in the country at the same time. Well, that's why I even more am grateful for your time. Thank you, thank you, thank

Thank you, Mandy, appreciate it all.

Right, you take care and you guys check the show notes. We'll put links to the Money Coach, University and all all Lynette socials. Thank you again, Lynette for joining us.