Small Time Real Estate Investing with $Pro Chad Carson #060

stoked about bike culture. Makes me want to ride my bike, get the girls on the cargo bike right around town, hang out with you and the girls, maybe hit up a brewery. You know what I'm saying. I totally know what you're saying. And for our listeners that don't know what a cargo bike is, we should explain a cargo bike is essentially there. They make them in different forms

and fashions. There are a lot of fun and they can actually cut down on a lot of your car driving because a cargo bike oftentimes has a hard tail on the back that extends off the bike like an extra long bike for for storage. And so you and I we can put multiple kids on the back of ours, or or we can go to the grocery store and load up on stuff and bring it back. We can even go to lows and bring home some lumber, whatever

it is. You can toss that stuff on the cargo bikes, trap it down and it's just super versatile, which is which is just nice for people, especially if you live in town. I would say, cargo bikes can really minimize your car trips and and so, yeah, I like this. We'll put a link to this indieo go page specifically because I want them to succeed. Yeah, yeah, and maybe we should put a link to the cargo bikes that you and I both ride too. I ride an electric

one and you ride a non electric one. They both just I feel like, been game changers in our lives. They're super fun to ride around on. I would say that's one of the main reasons, dude, why we have been able to maintain being a one car family with three kids. We've got three three girls and sometimes skates off doing something with her friends, and that means she has the van and if I need to get somewhere with the girls, I load them up on the bike.

Oh I just thought something else, Well, have you been riding recently? I have. It's been bitterly cold. I trying to do it as much as poss it's been super cold. But we've talked about one of the reasons we love biking is because it slows you down right, because you're literally going slower than if you were zooming around in

your car. And I was riding through the neighborhood. I had your daughter on the back of the bike with my daughter, getting ready to take them home, and I saw these two fence sections over at the neighbor's house

that have been there. I know I've seen them before, but I was never going that slow because it's up a big hill, and it clicked in my mind, Oh my gosh, they're gonna throw those brand new fence sections away to eight foot long fence sections that you buy at lows or home depot, and dude, I need a

section of fence in our backyard. And had I not been on my bike slowing down, taking in my environment, I don't think I would have ever put it together that they were going to toss those And so yeah, I went over there after I dropped the girls off. She'd been meaning to put it up on next door like one of the websites, to get a neighbor to come get it because she didn't want to throw it away and she was happy to let me have it. And I brought this home. I've got I've got a

fence ready to go. There we go. Man. I love that you're you have a really good eye for finding stuff on the curb. You're like the curb alert master. And uh so I feel like everyone should kind of keep their eye out, and it is easier on a bike to keep your eye out for stuff on the curb. Right, Yeah, man, that's right. Oh man, I want to tell you just kind of a funny story about losing my keys the other day. Yeah, so I went to meet a friend at a coffee shop. Didn't get coffee. Actually, I don't

know if that's cheaper frugal. We could We're gonna play frugal cheap because I think that's a little bit cheap. It might be, but I had to I'd already had two cups that morning, so that's kind of why I avoided it. It It wasn't necessarily that I was afraid of spending the money, But you should have ordered a glass of hot water. I should have next time. But so I got out of the car and my my wife had been driving it, and she kind of left some

trash in there. So I took the trash and I tossed it in the garbage and I went in to meet my friend and so we hung out for about an hour. I had a great conversation, and then I head out to the car. I'm feel in the pocket for my keys. I don't find my keys, and I'm getting a little nervous, and I locked the doors, and so I'm looking through the window. We live in the city. We locked the doors. Honestly, I don't normally lock the doors,

so yeah, I don't. Well, I do at night, but like not during the day, not during the morning when I'm it's right out there in the packed parking lot. Heads up. If you're looking for anything that you want of Joels, you know where to find it exactly. So I was like peering through the windows to see if the key was in the ignition or in a place like in the seat or in the center console. I didn't see a key. So I'm like kind of baffled at this point that why wouldn't it be visible, right,

it doesn't doesn't make any sense somewhere. So I started looking under the car and then I realized I threw stuff in the trash, didn't I. So I go back to the trash can right outside the front door. Look in there, pop it open, and the key shining brightly on top of everything too. Fortunately for me, man, I didn't even have to dig for it. It was awesome. So key was right there. I grabbed it and I was good to go. But it made me super nervous

because you know how much locksmiths. Yeah, it could be such a difficult thing, right, just trying to find find a locksmith for a reasonable price. Man, speaking of you not ordering coffee this Barisa's are probably all right. First of all, this dude comes in, hangs out for an now or doesn't buy a coffee. Now he's thinking through the trash. Gross. I promise guys, next time, I'll totally get a latte. Okay, I will make it happen, because I don't want to mooch off the system for sure.

I definitely don't want to be that guy. So the final part of the story, I went back inside to tell my buddy I found found the key. And I gave it a kiss and he was like, dude, that was in the carbage. That's disgusting. And you know what, I was so happy. I didn't really mind. It was fine. I'm surprised you didn't get sick. Yeah, lucky me. Right. So, so it's kind of funny. Uh, you wanta introduce our

beer today? Sure? So yeah, Today on the show, we're gonna be drinking Cascade Brewing Primordial Noir, which is kind of a baller name a bourbon barrel aged Imperial red ale with cherries and spices and a listener Alex from Oregon sent this our way, so huge. Thanks to Alex for sending this beer on the show. And by the way, been a while since we've heard this sound. Matt, Yeah, fancy beer alert. I am extremely stoked because Cascade is

one of my favorite breweries. They make some amazing sours, and specifically I am in love with their blueberry sour beer. That's and the saying no are this is? I guess another one of those uh in that line, Oh smells so good. I can't wait. All right, so I see you taking that sip. I'm gonna take this picture like I do every week. Yeah, I just dove in and had a sip and Matt, this is the delicious and the word I'm gonna use to describe the beer this

week is bursting. Danga. Dude. Next time, I'm gonna go first, because that that one word is probably that was pretty close to what I was gonna say. Um, and so I will go with acidic. You know what I love to do, steal your thunder. Yeah, one of my one of my favorite things to do in life. All right, man, we'll talk more about this beer at the end of the show, but for now, let's get into the subject

at hand. We're talking about small time real estate investing, and we brought on our friend and coach Chad Carson to be the money pro today to talk about this subject. And I think it's only appropriate that when you and I finally met Chad in person, it was at a brewery. Yes, exactly right. That was our first hang. We literally drove up to a hotel and we said, get in the car, we're gonna go get and that was the first hang

we had. That's very true, and but honestly, that's the way a lot of people met us for the first time. It's kind of funny too because he is a former football player and he barely fit in the back of year MAS to five. But Chad, he's a former Clemson University football player. Man, he was a starting linebacker, so he didn't just sort of play, he legit played, and

he was the defensive captain there. He graduated college in two thousand three with only one thousand dollars in the bank, and then he spent the next year scouting properties for other investors. He you know, he was doing the legwork, doing the research, starting on the ground floor, as it were, exactly, Yeah, that's right. And then through that he was able to save up enough cash to buy his very own first property.

And his first place was a quadplex, so it had four units in it and he rented three those units out for four each, making total and his mortgage was even bucks, which means he was living for free and only that he was making a hunter bucks every single month. And that was right out of school. I love that, man. Yeah, getting paid to live, that's where it's at, right. So Chad has a lot to teach us about real estate. He has purchased over a hundred properties through the years,

and at this point in his life. He's trying to de leverage and take on a little bit less and so he is an expert on going big with real estate and then desiring something smaller. So I think he's got a lot to teach us here and I'm really excited. Yeah, he does own a bunch of properties, and so that's what kind of interesting is Like he's focusing on the fact that you can simplify and still achieve the goals that you want to achieve. It doesn't mean that you

you've got to go big. Instead, you can focus not just on getting bigger and growing your business or growing your portfolio, but focusing instead on your goals. And that's a lot of what he's gonna be talking about today is focusing on your goals. Yeah. And Chad actually wrote the book on this too, right, So he's yeah, a natural book. Right. So he's got a book called Retire Early with real Estate and I've read it and it's

a really, really thorough book. It's so good and fantastic book. Honestly, for anyone just wanting to get into real estate investing, this is a fantastic read if you just kind of want to know more and you want to plumb the depths of what real estate investing is. This one book honestly will teach you everything you need to know. For me, I learned some new things as a real estate investor reading Chad's book and identified with a lot of things

at the same time. And also in this book, Matt he profiles like two dozen people that have retired early through real estate and that's just kind of nice to see all these examples two of how people have done it, the different ways that they've done it, and so it's a it's an awesome book. Chad also has a new podcast which is really good at the same time, so he is crushing it. Yeah. What I love about his book too, is that he the way he talks and

the way he explains things, it's just chill like. He's able to do it in such a way that it connects with you on a real life level. And that's what we love. I mean, that's what we try to do with our personal finances, and Chad does that with real estate. He's able to connect on a level that just feels familiar and that feels comfortable. I honestly think that he himself will be responsible for turning so many people into real estate investors who would not have done

so had it not been for him. And honestly, he's gonna be responsible for turning people into thoughtful real estates exactly because there are so many people pitching something asking you to come to a ball room to learn a scheme or a way of investing in real estate. No money of your own right, no, no money down, And

Chad's not about that. He's talking about a realistic way to invest, which you and I talked about on the show, which is to save your money and then make a substantial down payment, to know your location, all these things that we have talked about on different episodes of Real

Estate Investing. Chad believes those very same things. And honestly, one of the reasons we brought Chad on is because we have such a similar philosophy and we love the way he approaches things and the way he talks about real estate investing just completely resonates with our experience and with our philosophy. And check out his website as well, coach Carson dot com. He has a fantastic online course that he offers to a site and personal one on

one coaching. Yeah, Matt, and ultimately My favorite thing about what we're gonna tackle in this episode is the fact that you don't have to go big. You don't have to build this massive real estate empire. And I think sometimes that's the way people think about real estate investing. Well, what's the point in just having a couple of properties? And Chad says, you know what, No, you can make

serious money by having just a few properties. You can retire early even with just a few properties, in doing it the right way. So we're gonna bring Chat on the show right off the break, and he's gonna give us five awesome minutes talking about why small time real estate investing is actually the way to go. All right, Joel, let's do this man. We're gonna hear from Chad, and right after that we're gonna break it all down. Hey, guys, thanks for having me on the show. Have you ever

heard that expression go big or go home? Sort of that macho ex rush and you here sometimes it's a sports when I played football, and here in a lot in the real estate investing space too, and it's kind of like, you know, you haven't arrived until you've made you know, hundreds of real estate deals, or until you have like ten million dollars saved up and have a huge net worth, and you have an army of like employees or operations, and you've syndicated a bunch of real

estate deals and used all these fancy words and fancy titles. You haven't arrived, and you can't kick back and enjoy life and go live on your yacht until you actually have gone big and made it. Obviously, you can tell this. This sort of bothers me a little bit. And I'll tell you why. Because when I was researching from my book, when I was looking back over my own experiences with real estate investing and using it to build wealth and retire early, you know, just getting to know people who

actually had flexibility and had time. It's a really big contrast because the people I knew had very small but very effective portfolios, and some of the people I knew who had hundreds and hundreds of properties, who are so called successful people, had no time. They couldn't go on the same trips and have the same flexibility and do the same kinds of things in life that everybody talks about.

Is so amazing, and so you know, I wanted you guys to rip on it a little bit, but I wanted to give some numbers just to make this idea a little more concrete. So let's say a couple the size they want to retire early and they want to use real estate, or even if they don't want to retire early, they just want to have some flexibility, you know, about ten fifteen years from now to do different things in life. And so they buy one rental property per year.

And let's say this is in a decent neighborhood. It could be a single family house, could be a duplex, but it's in a in a location that they're very comfortable managing themselves if they need to. And let's just put some numbers on this. Let's say the property has a gross rent or a total we're in a fourteen hundred dollars per month, and that when you pay all of your operating expenses, so like, these are all your expenses except for the mortgage, which I'm gonna talk about

why that's the case in a second. But you pay your taxes, your insurance owns your maintenance, your capital expense reserves, perhaps some management to help you manage the property. That when it's all left over after all those expenses, you have about eight hundred dollars per month left over before paying your mortgage, so about six hundred dollars and expenses. And I'm thinking of some particular properties that I owned that had those exact numbers. So this is a realistic

thing to do. And so they buy those properties, one property per year for five years. And after five years, though, they decide to take all of their cash flow from those rentals, every bit of money money they can save up on their own and they start attacking the mortgages and paying them off and doing like a debt snowball or a debt tsunami, whatever. People call that different different names for that, but they're the objective is to get

those things paid off as quickly as they can. And so let's say that takes them another ten years after those first five years to have a total about fifteen years. They were acquiring properties for five they're paying them off and manage them for the last ten years, and fifteen years later, which is a kind of amazing timeline when you think of out it to get to a really cool place in fifteen years. People don't normally talk about that.

It seems like a really fast and then retirement years they have five properties paid off, free and clear, and think about what they've done. You know, if my math is right, you guys double check me. You know, eight hundred dollars per month on each property is about nine thousand, six hundred per year, and roughly, if you say five times nine thousand six d is about forty eight thousand dollars per year. And let's just use fifty bucks. That's

a nice round number. Maybe it's appreciated a little bit. This couple now has fifty thousand dollars per year for the rest of their lives, and maybe more if they keep going up in value over time. But look at what else they've done. Instead of having this big, huge monster of a business that that takes over their lives, they have something that you guys probably know just like me. Managing five properties can be a very, very part time job.

My wife and I and our two kids went to Ecuador with many more properties than that, but you know, having some flexibility and time, and we spent seventeen months living abroad with rental properties, and so having five rental properties can give you an enormous amount of flexibility time to start thinking about, you know, what I want to do when I grow up, what I want to do with the rest of my life, If you're forty five or you're fifty years old, like if all sorts of

things you can do. And that's really the kind of the point of what I wanted to talk to you guys about with this is that you know, real estates the vehicle. The money is the vehicle. You know, what is it that people want to do with the rest

of their life what matters to them. And my contention is that a nice, small, simple portfolio that pays you the money whatever it is, whe there's fifty hundred thousand, whatever the number is, that accomplishes your goals, that keeps things simple and lets you do the other things in your life that matter to you. So I want you guys to rip on that. Let me know what you think my off base on that should not not be bothered by the go big or go home? And can we get a T shirt that says go small or

go home and start wearing that around? Thanks guys, talk to you later. Yeah, I love that, man, the million dollar T shirt idea go small or go home? You live wearing T shirt? Joel Saw, I know you'd be into that. Yeah, if he prints someone, I'll wear it. Yeah, I'm glad Chad brought that up right, the go big or go home saying right that where you haven't arrived until you've made tons of deals, millions and savings. You've

got like the fancy syndication real estate deals. That is the mindset right that keeps everyday people from investing in real estate. And that's I guess what I was talking about earlier. He's on a mission to destroy that notion, because when that notion persists, that's when real estate investing seems like it's unattainable, because you hear people talking about how, oh I'm into real estate, or you hear somebody say, oh, my father he made all his money in real estate.

Like it's a super boogie, like fancy life. You sit back in like this fancy leather chair at this enormous walnut desk. You've got the six balls hanging by the wires that bounce back and forth, like you know, like that whole thing. Actually he kicked up on the desk, smoking a cigar, wearing a fancy suit. Yeah, making phone calls. I agree. I think Chad's philosophy actually makes real estate investing feel more attained, feel more realistic, feel like it's

less shrouded in secrecy. And I think if we kind of take Chad's advice and we decide to simplify the way that we invest in real estate by having a goal of only owning and operating a few properties between five and ten ten at most, I mean, ultimately, that's something that feels possible for a lot of people out there.

And I think what's interesting too about what Chad said is that that go bigger, go home philosophy actually ends up preventing people from achieving the goals that they initially had. And so when we think about the episode that we did with Scott, the first money Pro episode we ever did creating your mission statement, Well, if we decided to take the big, go bigger, go home strategy, it might be a part of our mission statement to go big

and to be the biggest real estate investor of all time. Right, that might be it. But that's your goal, then that's a part of what you're gonna be doing. Right. But there are so many people that say I'd like to dabble in real estate. I'd like to kind of figure it out and get a couple of properties under my belt and become a mom and pop kind of landlord.

But maybe that's not good enough, Maybe that doesn't cut it, and they strive for more and more and more, and ultimately what they do is they end up creating a goal that doesn't align with their values, and they pursue something so hard at the expense of what really matters. And Chad's motto when it comes to this is invest in real estate, retire early, do what matters. Man. That's so simple, that's so easy to follow, and it's so helpful for anybody who's thinking about investing in real estate.

It's not about being the biggest real estate investor in your area or owning twenty or more properties. You know what, Go small and then you can focus on what matters most to you. And like Chad said, he isn't about going big just for the sake of going big, because the people that he knew who had time, the flexibility, they're the ones who had the small And I love that he said this. But effective portfolios, right, not the

investors with thousands of properties. And a big reason for that is that smaller portfolios are just easier to manage and you can buy better properties, but having fewer of them that can make your life so much easier, give you a lot more flexibility. It's kind of like mo money, more problems, more real estate, more problems, right, and more keys that you have to keep up with. And you're not very good at that. So that's true, So true, buddy. As we know, I'm a bad with keeping up with keys.

So I wanted to kind of give an example from my life. This is kind of the way I've thought about it. My goal for a while was to buy a home every two years, and the way I would approach it was moving into the next home and running out my previous home. And that made it easier for me to buy a new home for a couple of reasons. One,

I could put down less of a down payment. Down payment on a primary home usually get you the best possible rates with a mortgage lender, whereas if you're buying an investment property, you're gonna pay higher rates and they usually want down So for me, the goal is to move into a new house every two years and then rent out the previous property, and that's worked out really

well for me through the years. And so what I would do was every time i'd buy a new property, I would bank the savings to save up for the next down payment for the next property. And at this point, I'm working with five doors that I manage, which is three single family homes and a duplex, And you know what, I'm taking the Chad Carson strategy, and I am so happy just to sit where I'm at for the time being.

And you know what, that's not to say I'll never buy another rental property, but I'm really happy to have a small portfolio and I think it actually for me, it's easier and it's better, and I just want to like use that as an encouragement to people. Granted, not everyone's gonna be able to do it every two years. Maybe your goal is every four or five, right, And if you set that goal to buy a home every four or five years and to expand your portfolio slowly

like that, that's okay too. But for me, that two year span felt doable in my market. But ultimately, knowing my limits and knowing my goals means I don't have to be constantly looking at real estate and I can actually kind of turn it off now that I feel like I'm at where I want to be when it comes to having this this small portfolio of like Chad said,

effective properties. Yeah, I don't know what it says about me, but I've never wanted to have like a bunch of properties like I've got a few, right, We've got a few rentals. I've always known it's a great way, uh, specifically for us to bring in alternate sources of income with our come being very you know, up and down throughout the year. But yeah, man, beyond that, I don't know if that just says I'm not very ambitious or

if I'm just super chill. Part of me doesn't really connect at all with the mindset of, oh I gotta get more and more, you know, I've got to get all these properties, and there are a lot of advantages that come with scale. Uh. I don't want to discount that at all. But yeah, I'm with you, man. At this point in my life, I'm quite content with what we've got going on right now and instead really focusing in on what are our goals And that's something that yeah,

we've we've tackled previously. You mentioned Scott's episodes a few weeks ago, but I'm so glad we did that one first. We didn't really plan on it from like a philosophical standpoint, but starting with the mission statement and then from their

progressing on with these additional episodes. It's so key because when you know your mission, when you know what it is that you're doing and why it is that you're seeking after that it just informs so much and tasks that may have seen sort of like the grind or things that where you felt like you just had to do it are put in a completely different lights, and man,

that makes all the differ is in the world for me. Yeah, Man, I think that Chad strategy likens itself to the story of the tortoise and the hair, and going the route of the tortoise slow but sure you win the race, right and being the hair going as quickly as possible. There's so many potential obstacles going that direction that could mess you up. And so you know what, I want to be the tortoise in that scenario. It's gotta be flashy.

And so now let's let's talk about the numbers right that he gave the example he talks about the couple that buys a rental property every year for five years and how they each bring in about fourteen hundred dollars and rents every month with about six hundred and expenses each and that's not counting the mortgage, and really, honestly, the mortgage payment doesn't matter because what he's focusing in on there is that there are six of expenses regardless

if the house is paid off or not. He said that couple then starts paying off those mortgages as quickly as possible, which takes another ten years, so fifteen years total. And so fifteen years later they've got five properties paid off free and clear and are now pocketing about fifty thousand dollars every year. I love that, like it's an over amplification of everything at all associated or related. It's a real estate and he would admit that the same thing, right,

he would. It's not quite that simple, but it's a good example to look to, and it does help us identify the fact that that is possible in a lot of markets for a lot of people. I granted, if you live in San Francisco or if you live in Brooklyn, New York, it's unlikely that you're gonna be able to buy a little bit different. But there are ways that you can take this strategy and kind of mold it

to where you live. Chad lives in South Carolina, uh, and so it's a little bit easier there, Matt and I we live in Atlanta, and it's got a heck of a lot harder, a little bit tougher, But it depends. And at the same time, you also don't have to invest exactly where you live, right, so there are ways to invest in other parts of the country where you feel like this could work well for you. Yeah, that's right, man.

And what I wanted to point out too, is that so he mentions this as an example, and it seems like such a no brainer, like you see it on paper and you think, oh, I could totally do that, or why doesn't everybody do this? Certainly it's not that easy. The fact is it's that simple on paper, right, And it's different between it being simple on paper versus you know, you living it out in real life. Is that in real life fifteen years is a long time, you know?

And he points out he mentions how like, oh, yeah, in fifteen years in the context of retirement, that's no time at all. And it's not when you're looking at the long arc of saving for retirement, right, But fifteen years is still a very long time, especially if in your twenties you think, man, I've only been alive for fifteen plus five, like, like, that's not that's a long time. And that's what's so hard about this is keeping that in mind and not losing sight of what your goals are. Right.

It's easy to say that's this is what we're gonna do for the next ten years, Like we've worked crazy hard, We've saved up the down payments. Next ten years, we're gonna knock this thing out. But that means for the next ten years, not only have you saved five years, like crazy, saving up dollars I guess every every two years for a down payment or more, but you're now spending the next ten years paying that off. And also

during that ten years you're working really hard. You're probably saying no to nicer vacations or to like a tesla, because man, would be really nice to have a tesla. But I'm just gonna have to say no to that right now because we're focused on paying off these houses. That's what makes it so hard is actually living it out and reminding yourself of that every single day. Yeah, I think what's key, Matt. You said it's simple, and it is simple, but it's not easy. And so so

many of the best financial concepts are exactly that. They're simple, but they're not easy. To actually implement them into your life takes some fortitude, takes the ability to say no to things today so you can save and invest for tomorrow, for the future. And this is a simple strategy, something that's easy to track with and you don't have to I love what Chad said, you don't have to know all the crazy terminology that most real estate investors throw around.

And you and I we're all about that. We're not syndicating deals and we're not buying you know, massive apartment complexes, and you know what, we're just fine with that. We are more than happy to keep it simple. And it's not easy, right, It's not easy to buy a property every two years, But it is a simple formula and I love that simplicity. That's what we strive for in our lives, to keep it simple. And the more complex and investment is usually the more questions you have to

ask about the person that's selling it to you. At the same time, and Matt, I have a question for you, Chad referred to this as being a manageable part time job, and you've got a few properties. I've got a few. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Is that accurate in your experience? Yeah, man, I don't have five properties, but I've almost got five. And it's not even close to a part time job. Like what's a part time job

considered like fifteen twenty hours a week. No. I spend maybe two hours a week tops, And certainly that's averaged out because during seasons when you're going to be showing the property and you gotta get it ready for a listening, because you know you've had a tenant in there for three years, it's you're gonna spend more time on it. But don't forget those three years of that tendan being in there, not having moved, and they've paid on time,

and you just don't have to worry about them. You've got the house automated and it's being taken care of. It truly is less than a part time job to manage this many properties. And and again you and I like, we don't have management. This is something that we're doing ourselves, where we're the ones making the call we're the one making sure rents getting paid and and this is a good thing. I think a lot of times people would might hear this and they think, we'll shoot, what am

I gonna do with the rest of my time? I need to occupy myself. Well, that's what we're gonna talk about after the break. Chad talks about how when you have this additional time, you can start really thinking about what you want to do when you grow up. You know, he's kind of joking around, but I love that connotation because it's sort of like what we've done up until now is just sort of just kind of messing around. You know, you've got to earn some money. You know,

you've gotta have a job. But now, like, let's dig deep. You kind of you're talking about real estate. Earlier about plumbing the depths of real estate made me think about going to a counselor and thinking about my soul and stuff. But like, that's what you get to do once you're able to achieve the stable financial footing, because then you can truly think about what it is that you want to spend the rest of your life doing. I love that, Matt.

Let's get to the main takeaways for this episode after the break, all right, Juel, time for that main takeaway hit it. Yeah. I think what Chad is aiming for in this episode, like with his five minutes, is to tell us to focus on the things that actually matter in life and focus less on building an enormous business.

Because most of us, if we're honest with ourselves, if we take the time to think about what matters to us, what we actually want to spend our time doing, it's not that we don't want to work at all, but that it's that we would like to work a little bit less and spend more time uh with the hobbies that we enjoy, with the people that matter. Chad gave the example two of this mini retirement that he took

to Ecuador with his family seventeen months. He was able to leave this country still taking care of those rental properties from AFAR, but he was able to go cut his cost by living in a cheaper place and at the same time spend a heck of a lot more time with his family, which was incredibly fulfilling on all accounts.

From from every story he's told about being an Ecuador with his family sounds like it was an awesome time for him, and most people can't dream of doing that, but this is a strategy to kind of help you get there. Ecuador, right, Yeah, Like that was his goal for him to take his girls there and to imm ast them into the Latin American culture, for them to learn Spanish. Is it his wife that's the Spanish teacher? Yeah?

I think so, And I just think that's amazing that he was able to identify that as one of his goals and they did it. And that's the kind of thing that his family, his kids, his wife, they're going to share stories about that for the rest of their lives. That's kind of one of those like anchor moments, right, the anchor periods of time for his kids to to experience a different culture and to be immersed in a different language, and that's something that's seriously they will never

stop talking about. And for those of us who are focused on just building the biggest business possible, we're totally missing out on stuff like that. One of the things I love that Chad mentioned is that real estate is the vehicle that can get you to your goals, you know, whatever they happen to be. Again, for them, it was Ecuador dude, I love that. Right, Money, it's just a vehicle. Real estate is just a vehicle to get you to where you want to go. It's a means to an end.

It's not the end itself. And I think that's one of the ways that these folks with these massive real estate portfolios, maybe they've lost sight of what their actual end game is. They don't have that endgame in mind, and because of that, they think, oh, well, it used to make me happy when I would get another property, so I'm going to continue to do that. I'm gonna

keep growing this empire. And instead, what they're doing is that they're on this treadmill and they're just going because they've they're going and they don't know when to stop, and they're just gonna keep doing what they've done. And so, yeah, I think keeping that in mind, that real estate it's the vehicle that gets you where you want to go, it's not the actual destination. Yeah, man, I think that Chad also gives us the ability to see that real

estate can provide us what we call passive income. But at the same time, passive income doesn't mean that we don't have to work, right, So there is an idea that it is a part time job, like you said, York, a couple hours a week. There are some weeks that are more involved than others if you've got like a tenant turnover, so be prepared for that. Just know that it's not as simple as stock investing like we've talked

about before. There are more things to consider. But all that being said, it's so much less involved than a part time job, and it it does allow you the flexibility that you're ultimately looking for, oftentimes by truly focusing on what actually matters and so mad At the beginning of the show, we talked about how Chad has a podcast and there was an example that he gave in

a recent show, Oh tell Me I Haven't heard. He gave an example of three couples that decided to take a vacation together, and they all had different amounts of rental properties, and when it came time for their vacation, and one of the couple said, hey, you know what, this is a lot of fun. Let's keep going. Let's extend this for another couple of weeks. And he talked about just kind of different scenarios in which a couple

could or couldn't do it. And I think he's completely spot on that if your goal is flexibility, that you can have maybe even a little bit less income, but you could still potentially afford to extend that vacation. But you know what, the more massive your real estate complex is, it's unlikely that you'll be able to get away from it for very long. And so just know that the bigger it is, the more attached at the hip to it, you're gonna be all right, man, let's get back to

this beer. I'm gonna go first. My word was acidic, and that's because this beer was so intense, uh, I mean, just from cracking it open and pouring it, I could smell the the acidity, I could smell the flavor, the aggressiveness kind of wafting over the table. And you said bursting. As soon as you said bursting, the second world I thought of was gusher's like the gusher's candy. You know what I'm talking about? This totally, I mean, yeah, completely

resonates gushers. It has that gusher bursting mouth fields. Yeah, but I mean, and so it's got cherries in it, but it's age and bourbon barrels and wine barrels, and so it gives it this very dark fruit flavor, but the acidity, man, it brings it alive, like it adds so much zip to it. And that makes this beer one of the best I've had in the past twelve months. I might even I might even be calling this beer right now my favorite beer of twenty nineteen. Wow. Yeah,

I love it that much. This is the for me. This is a five star on Untapped Mike Drop. All Right, that's amazing. Yeah, this is completely up my alley. Yeah, I mean, I gotta be honest. This was a fantastic beer and it had this gusher like quality and it's got cherries in the beer and amazing tartness. For me, fruited sour beers are pretty much my favorites, and this was no disappointment at all. Huge thanks to Alex from Oregon for sending this one out. It was delicious, bursting

with flavor, Juli, Thank you, Alex. All Right, Matt, let's move on to our final thoughts. Final thoughts, and ultimately Chad's philosophy resonates with me in a major way because what I want to do is live simply and focus on the things that truly matter and building an enormous real estate portfolio just doesn't align with that. But building a really small and effective one actually affords me more opportunity to do the things that I enjoy, spend time

with the people that I want to. So I just want to encourage anybody out there who has thought about investing in real estate, who maybe has one property. You know what, this is a really good philosophy to go

on because it's something that almost anybody can accomplish. It's just a simple method to follow, and there is so much to be said in this world of complexity for a simple method, and so yeah, I love it for all those reasons, Edjuel, And this makes me think of our episode and old episode episode twelve, where we talked about the why behind money. Identify what your goals are, and Chad's saying how real estate can get you there. It's a vehicle that can get you to whatever your

goals are. It allows you to design the life that you want to live. And so don't be intimidated by this sort of mindset of having to amass this massive portfolio of a ton of properties. It doesn't have to be overcomplicated, and even simple guys like uh, myself and Joel, have you used real estate to help get us to

where we want to be financially? Yeah? And HDTV might be fun entertainment, but you know what, it doesn't give you principles to invest in real estate by and I thought Chad did a great job of breaking it down for us on today's episode. Alright, so thanks everyone so much for listening. Our home on the web is how to Money dot com. You can find all of our

prior episodes there too. If you're kind of new to the show and you're interested in learning more, well, we've got a whole backlog of shows, some about real estate and some about other stuff like cutting your grocery bill and saving on your cell phone. So check those out. And if you have enjoyed this podcast, we would love to hear from you. You could leave us or a

view on Apple Podcasts. And we've been doing this new show now for a few weeks, the Money Pro episode, we would love to hear from you, your thoughts on you know, our guests, the format in general. We're always looking to improve. To let us know how we're doing and leave us a review. Alright, buddy, until next time, Best friends, Best Friends Out