0:01

Hey, welcome back

0:01

to the Average Joe Finances Podcast.

0:03

I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni. And today's guest is Stephanie Walter.

0:07

Stephanie, I am super excited

0:07

to have you on the podcast.

0:10

Thank you for joining me today.

0:12

Thanks so much for having me.

0:15

Yeah, absolutely. Hey, I want to kick things off the

0:15

same way I start every podcast episode.

0:20

And me and my audience would

0:20

like to know more about you.

0:23

So if you could share a little bit

0:23

about yourself, tell us your story.

0:26

Who is Stephanie Walter?

0:29

Oh, gosh. I think I started out like

0:30

a lot of people out there.

0:33

I graduated from college and got a

0:33

regular W-2 job was working there for

0:39

quite some time, almost eight years, and

0:39

then sat down with my boss at the time.

0:45

And they said, you're doing a great

0:45

job better than, We're happy with you.

0:50

But we see, that you're going to

0:50

get a 2 percent raise this year.

0:55

And I just bought a house. And I just was bummed out

0:56

by that and went home.

1:00

Or I just bought a house and

1:00

my dad happened to be visiting.

1:04

Who is he's a big mentor in my life and I

1:04

just said, dad, this is what they told me.

1:10

I just can't imagine being

1:10

stuck making this amount of

1:14

money for the rest of my life. And my dad was like

1:16

you've got two choices.

1:18

One, you can stay and you

1:18

know what you're going to get.

1:21

There's no surprises here. Second, you can quit and be your

1:24

own boss and really achieve, What

1:29

you are ambitious enough to achieve.

1:32

And so I gave my two weeks

1:32

notice that the next day and

1:36

I started an insurance agency.

1:39

And while I was doing the

1:39

insurance agency, I invested

1:43

a lot in single family homes. I didn't have a lot of

1:46

education with them.

1:48

But I just bought where I thought there'd

1:48

be growth in the Denver metro area.

1:53

And luckily enough for me, that was,

1:53

pretty close to the time of the crash.

1:58

I was able to buy, a nice little

1:58

portfolio of single family homes.

2:03

And then I was contacted by someone

2:03

who knew I liked real estate

2:07

investing to join a bootcamp about

2:07

syndicating real estate deals.

2:13

And I jumped on that. That's when I first heard the

2:15

concept of syndication, which was.

2:20

Like heaven sent felt that

2:20

was I was meant to do this.

2:25

I love the idea of a group of

2:25

people buying something that

2:28

no one could do on their own. And so I went full on into that.

2:33

I still had my business, but I,

2:33

it took two years to really get

2:37

a good education to do this.

2:39

I completed my first syndication

2:39

in 2018 and by myself, realized I

2:46

didn't ever want to do one by myself

2:46

again and met up with my partner.

2:51

He's someone who loves to find the

2:51

deals, negotiate the deals and run

2:55

them, and I like to raise money. So together, we've closed on

2:57

about 12 deals since 2019.

3:03

We have over about a 300 million

3:03

of assets under management.

3:08

And then I had a I guess an epiphany

3:08

from working with all of my wealthy

3:13

investors that I, myself was

3:13

handling my finances the wrong way.

3:19

And so by interacting and becoming friends

3:19

and really learning about my investors,

3:24

I was able to move my money around.

3:27

And as such, I was able to sell my

3:27

agency and essentially retire in 2021.

3:34

And that's become my passion.

3:37

I've written a book about money myths

3:37

that were taught and just, yeah that's

3:43

how I got here to talk to your audience.

3:47

Yeah, Stephanie. That's awesome. So got a lot to unpack here, right?

3:51

So I was taking notes as you were going. It's just a quick recap.

3:54

So you started off, you went to

3:54

college, got the W-2 job, the

3:57

standard American dream, right? Bought the house and they said,

3:59

Oh, by the way, we're only

4:02

giving you a 2 percent raise. And you're like, hold on,

4:03

this doesn't sound right.

4:06

And then your dad gave you some great advice. Now, when you left and you started your

4:08

own insurance agency, and then you started

4:13

investing in single family homes, right? You started buying more out there

4:14

in the Denver, Colorado area.

4:17

How did you, this is just a

4:17

question I have out of curiosity.

4:21

How did you go and purchase those

4:21

single family homes when you left your

4:25

W-2 and started your own business?

4:27

Cause a lot of times, you have to have

4:27

that two years of income to show if

4:32

you're self employed or own a business.

4:34

So how did you get that to work out?

4:36

Were you able to get funding

4:36

for those single family homes?

4:39

Actually, I guess I

4:39

probably I streamlined it pretty quickly,

4:43

but I didn't start my agency in 2005.

4:48

And then it was a few years before I

4:48

started purchasing my own, but I did do,

4:53

I did a strategy similar to the BRRRR

4:53

method because I was single at the time.

4:59

And so I just, found a house, that

4:59

strategy is buying, living there.

5:05

And then renting it out and

5:05

then doing this and then just

5:08

moving every couple of years.

5:10

And that's what I was doing. So no,

5:12

you were doing like the live in BRRRR's.

5:14

Yeah.

5:15

Nice. Okay. So you would live in them, renovate

5:17

them, then move and sell them.

5:20

Or rent them out.

5:21

Rent them out was my idea. Yeah.

5:23

And then did you pull the capital back out of them to put into another asset?

5:27

Yeah,

5:27

towards the end, yes, yep.

5:30

I definitely was accessing that equity.

5:33

Yeah. So if you, so did you start buying

5:34

real estate in 2005 or was it after

5:38

the crash when you started buying?

5:40

I started buying

5:40

my first property I bought in 05.

5:44

But then after that, everything

5:44

else was dur after the crash.

5:48

Okay. The 2007, 2008, and 2009 were all

5:48

the times I bought, which were

5:53

fairly good times to be buying.

5:56

Yeah. 'cause I bought my first property

5:56

in 2007, and then when the crash

6:00

happened in 2008 and 2009 it was rough.

6:02

I was 22 years old and I had this, quarter

6:02

million dollar house that went from being

6:08

worth $250,000, actually at one point

6:08

it was up to $306,000 down to, I sold

6:13

it for $157,000 when I short sold it.

6:15

It was awful. So that definitely left a bad taste in my

6:16

mouth, which is why I was curious, like

6:21

as to when you started buying, if it was,

6:21

if you started buying before the crash

6:24

and then you kept going after the crash,

6:24

I was going to say hats off to you because

6:27

man, I don't know if I could do that. Cause I, it was rough for me.

6:30

It took me years before I recovered

6:30

and jumped back into real estate again.

6:34

That's awesome.

6:35

Yeah. The first one was in 2005 and

6:35

that one, that area just of

6:40

Denver didn't really take it. And plus I didn't sell it either.

6:43

So I didn't take that loss but yeah, the

6:43

rest of them were during the recession.

6:49

So that was it.

6:49

You were still able

6:49

to rent it out during the crisis, right?

6:52

So it's still cash flowed.

6:55

Yeah. That was the beauty of that time.

6:58

They still needed people, a lot

6:58

of people needed rentals because

7:01

they were losing their houses or,

7:04

The unfortunate thing for me, the area where I was in was not a good

7:05

area to have a property for rent.

7:09

It just wasn't a thing. So it was once I lost my tenants

7:11

that were there, I was done

7:15

and I had to sell the place. So yeah, it was unfortunate.

7:19

And even when I had tenants in the

7:19

place, I was losing $300 to $400 a month.

7:23

Just against my mortgage alone. So it was rough, but we're going to,

7:24

we're going to get past all that.

7:27

So you got into it, right? You started buying these single

7:28

family homes and then you went to, you

7:32

said it was like a bootcamp, right? And you learned about syndications and.

7:37

You said you did your first one on your own. What do you mean by that?

7:40

So did you bring in, you brought

7:40

in all the investors and you were

7:43

like the sole GP on that deal?

7:46

Yep. Yep. That one was it was a smaller one.

7:50

Yeah. So there was only, I think four

7:50

or five investors and I still

7:55

have the property to this day.

7:57

But yeah, it was incredibly stressful

7:57

process to manage all the things you have

8:03

to manage when purchasing by yourself.

8:06

So yeah, I quickly decided

8:06

that was not the route for me.

8:11

Right on. After that experience, you discovered

8:12

you, you don't want to do this alone.

8:16

You want to have partners, which is

8:16

definitely something I talk about a lot.

8:19

You definitely don't have to go it alone. You can, it's just going to be

8:21

more stressful and you're not going

8:23

to scale as quick as you could

8:23

if you did it with other people.

8:26

So you get into real estate

8:26

syndications, you discovered that.

8:30

This is where you felt like you belonged. And now you said since 2018 was

8:32

your first syndication to now

8:39

you said you've obtained over 300

8:39

million in assets under management.

8:43

Yes.

8:44

Yeah. That's really impressive. So that's, to start in 2018 to where

8:45

you're at now that's really impressive.

8:49

So great job on that. Oh, thank you.

8:52

You're welcome. And then you wrote a book, right?

8:55

And in your book you were talking

8:55

about, some of the myths that we

8:58

learn about money growing up, right?

9:01

Whatever that standard

9:01

American dream is, right?

9:04

And it's funny that, cause

9:04

the acronym for that is S.

9:06

A. D. It makes me sad when I think about

9:07

it, but when you think about the

9:10

standard American dream, right? Versus what you learned in this process,

9:12

what are some of the myths that you

9:17

felt like you busted in your book?

9:20

Oh, gosh, a lot of

9:20

myths, but and for me, a lot of those

9:25

myths were my own held beliefs too.

9:28

And actually I was raised by an

9:28

entrepreneur and I thought, Oh, I'm.

9:33

I'm doing things differently. I'm I'm better than everyone

9:35

else, but no the first one I'll

9:38

hit is the mindset difference.

9:41

The mindset between a regular person

9:41

and a wealthy person is that they view

9:47

I was viewing money in the accumulation.

9:51

Mindset, which just means most people

9:51

in this day and age have 401ks.

9:56

They let them accrue. They have very little idea of what

9:58

they're invested in, what kind of

10:01

fees they're paying, what kind of

10:01

even returns they're getting, but

10:06

the goal is just keep the money. Don't touch it and wait till they retire.

10:10

And then they'll have this nest egg. And hopefully that'll be enough to keep.

10:15

Keep them getting money. For me, I bought a lot of single

10:16

family homes and I was like, I

10:22

was leveraging to get, homes and

10:22

doing it over and over again.

10:26

I'm getting, maybe $100,

10:26

$200 out in cash flow.

10:31

Not great deal of of cash flow.

10:35

And so the same thing. My idea was hold on to these.

10:39

For 30 years, who cares what the

10:39

cash flow is in the meantime.

10:42

And then when they're all paid off,

10:42

then you can retire in 30 years.

10:47

But what the difference is the wealthy

10:47

person has utilization as their mindset.

10:52

And that just basically means that they

10:52

are in, they use their money all the time.

10:59

Their money is always working for them. I use the analogy of that.

11:03

Their money is like their employee.

11:06

That basically, what are

11:06

you doing for me today?

11:09

They look at investments in a

11:09

much different way than then.

11:14

Anyone else does as far as a 401k

11:14

and investing, they understand who's

11:18

running the companies, what their what

11:18

their goals are, what exit strategies

11:24

are what cash flow will be gotten

11:24

and appreciation in the meantime and

11:29

definitely most importantly, they know

11:29

what kind of tax ramifications are

11:34

going to be in and therefore they're

11:34

preparing for those exits With tax

11:39

strategies to handle their gains.

11:43

Yeah, no that's

11:43

huge because mindset is probably the

11:48

biggest thing that holds people back.

11:51

And I like how you describe it. It's the same way that I feel like

11:53

rich dad, poor dad explained it.

11:57

When it comes to, employing your

11:57

dollars, putting them to work and not.

12:03

Not you working for them,

12:03

but them working for you.

12:06

And I think a lot of us get

12:06

caught up in this, we get

12:09

these golden handcuffs, right? Especially if you get into a high paying

12:10

job and you feel like, okay this is where

12:13

I'm going to be at for the rest of my

12:13

life because it pays so well, and if I

12:17

just keep investing, in my 401k, then

12:17

I can retire at the ripe old age of 65.

12:23

And then. You look back at that and then

12:24

you look at the average age

12:27

of people in America, right? And right now it's, I think

12:29

what 73 or something like that.

12:32

So you work up until you're 65 to

12:32

retire, to give yourself, seven,

12:38

eight years of enjoyment of your

12:38

retirement before you're done.

12:42

And it's what why would

12:42

you do that to yourself?

12:44

Work, at this point, you've

12:44

worked for over 40 years and

12:48

and you give yourself so little. Time to recover on the back.

12:52

And that's why I felt it's so

12:52

important to push to get financial

12:56

independence as soon as possible. Then do whatever the heck you want, right?

13:00

Then focus on some other things. But once you can reach that

13:01

point of financial independence,

13:04

the world is your oyster. So you can just shuck it.

13:07

Okay. Now, you had mentioned, a lot of

13:07

times people put their money into

13:10

their 401k and they're not even really

13:10

sure what it's actually going into.

13:15

So what do you say people should actually

13:15

be putting that money into instead of

13:19

a 401k or should they still put into

13:19

their 401k and figure out where, what

13:24

stocks it's actually invested in? What are your recommendations on that?

13:28

Okay. People need to understand

13:29

the history of the 401k.

13:32

It just, came to be 30 years ago.

13:36

Okay. Things were different 30 years ago.

13:39

Our tax rates were actually, if

13:39

you can believe it, they were

13:41

higher than they are right now.

13:44

They're actually lower right now. So the idea was when you contribute

13:46

to your 401k, you get to write off

13:52

Those taxes then waited out for the

13:52

30 years and that, and then take

13:57

the money out at a lower tax rate.

14:00

Quite certainly from everything

14:00

that we know about what's going on

14:04

with our economy is we're in the

14:04

lowest tax rates we've ever been in

14:08

since the history of the country. Then on the average from when These

14:10

taxes were introduced in 1913.

14:16

The average tax rate was 58.8%.

14:21

We're around 40 percent right now.

14:23

We know there's terrible. There's a terrible debt problem and we

14:25

know in 2025, that sunsets and they're

14:32

going to come up with new tax rates. The idea of investing in a product

14:34

that in a lower tax rate environment.

14:40

And then paying the taxes later is

14:40

pretty flawed for my perspective.

14:45

But I understand that people are very

14:45

attached to their 401ks and they want to.

14:50

Possibly work and make them better. And there's certainly

14:52

lots of ways to do that.

14:54

First of all, you need to take the money

14:54

and put it into indexed products, index

15:01

funds, the learn what your fees are.

15:05

And get those fees as low as possible.

15:07

In one chapter of my book, I talk

15:07

about the difference between someone

15:11

paying 3 percent fees, 2 percent fees

15:11

and 1 percent fees and what that does

15:17

over the course of them holding their

15:17

whole working life and their portfolio.

15:21

Literally the person that has

15:21

the 1 percent fees has to work.

15:26

10 more years, basically,

15:26

so it's not insignificant.

15:29

I just want people to be more

15:29

engaged with their investments.

15:33

But secondly, I would say if

15:33

you're your company's matching,

15:37

you do the match up to the match.

15:40

And then there are many other

15:40

strategies in which you can

15:43

put the rest of that money. And those are you should be

15:45

looking for tax free income.

15:50

So either Roth, if you make too much

15:50

money for a Roth, you can move into

15:56

a cash value life insurance policy.

15:59

Lots of people turn their noses

15:59

up at that, but it's a very good

16:03

strategy for growing your money.

16:06

You grow it in a tax free environment

16:06

and you take it out tax free.

16:10

And so in 20 years $50,000 or

16:10

$100,000 coming to you tax free is

16:18

you really have to have that strategy.

16:21

In your portfolio. And then the last thing I'll say is

16:22

that a lot of people work many jobs

16:26

over the course of their lives, and

16:26

they have old forgotten 401ks that

16:30

they've literally forgotten about. But the financial companies

16:32

don't forget about them.

16:35

They get their cut of

16:35

your money every year.

16:37

And I would encourage you to take

16:37

those 401ks, you can roll them

16:42

into a self directed IRA and truly

16:42

you are able to direct that money.

16:47

It's that simple. It's a simple process.

16:49

You just roll it over,

16:49

put it with a custodian.

16:54

They'll probably charge

16:54

you 175 to set it up.

16:57

And then literally you can invest

16:57

that money wherever you want it to be.

17:02

Yeah. So you're talking about rolling it

17:03

over into a self directed IRA, right?

17:07

Yeah.

17:07

Is that's that's

17:07

pretty significant because I know a

17:10

couple of people that have done that. And one of the biggest benefits

17:11

is, they're now taking that money

17:16

that they had in the 401k that

17:16

they rolled over and now they're

17:19

able to invest it in real estate. And now part of their retirement.

17:24

Are these real estate syndications

17:24

that they were able to invest in as an

17:27

LP and all those returns that they're

17:27

getting off of that is going right

17:31

into their retirement account, right? And it's continuing to grow at a

17:32

significantly higher rate than what it

17:37

was leaving it in index funds, right? Index funds are great.

17:41

I'm not going to hate on index funds. I invest in index funds a

17:43

little bit myself just because

17:46

I like to have diversification.

17:49

But there's so much diversification you

17:49

can actually get just through real estate

17:53

alone that people don't really realize.

17:56

And for me, I look at it this

17:56

way because in real estate,

17:59

every single market is different. So if you want to diversify

18:02

in real estate, invest in

18:04

different markets, right? There's some markets that

18:06

appreciate way better than others.

18:10

There's some markets that

18:10

are much better for cashflow.

18:13

So if you're looking for, you want to have

18:13

that higher monthly payment to yourself,

18:17

Then you're going to want to invest

18:17

in those cashflow producing markets.

18:21

If you want to be in an area where it's

18:21

I want to build my wealth gradually but

18:25

in a strong manner, you want to invest

18:25

in those high appreciating areas, right?

18:31

Where the homes are just

18:31

skyrocketing in price every.

18:34

Some areas like, where I live at out

18:34

here in Hawaii, we appreciate at a

18:38

rate of, every 10 to 12 years that

18:38

the home has doubled in price, right?

18:42

So it's absolutely amazing. So now.

18:45

If you were to invest out here for

18:45

cashflow, you ain't going to get it there.

18:48

It's not happening. You know what people pay for rent would

18:49

pale in comparison to what your mortgage

18:53

would be, especially with today's rates. But if you're somebody who's

18:55

patient and can hold on for about

18:58

10, 15, 20, 30 years, right?

19:01

That one asset is going to

19:01

make you a ton of money.

19:04

I think things like that are important

19:04

for people to think about, right?

19:07

When it comes to diversification, it

19:07

doesn't just necessarily mean be in

19:11

the stock market, be in real estate,

19:11

be in all these other different

19:14

assets, have precious metals. That's great.

19:16

And yes, you should diversify that

19:16

way, but you can also diversify.

19:20

In those markets themselves, even in the

19:20

stock market, you can diversify to what

19:23

kind of funds you're putting into there's

19:23

just so many ways to go about doing it.

19:27

Would you agree with that?

19:28

Yes. Yep. 100%. I get on the email list of Tiger 21.

19:34

I encourage everyone else to as well.

19:37

I get nothing from them,

19:37

but it's a great resource.

19:40

It's Tiger 21 is a group that

19:40

accepts members in there that have

19:46

$10 Million of net worth or higher.

19:49

And every year as a part of being a

19:49

part of this group where they network

19:53

and talk about their investments, that

19:53

they will disclose their investments

19:58

at the quarterly every year.

20:01

So, they just came out with a report not.

20:04

I think it was last week and same thing.

20:07

These are truly diversified people.

20:10

Hey, they've got probably I

20:10

think they said it was slightly

20:12

increasing 30 percent in real estate.

20:15

They've got a 25 percent in

20:15

private equities, so so that

20:21

still is not the stock market. Then they've got about 20

20:23

percent in public equities.

20:27

So those would be stocks and bonds. Then the rest of it's a

20:29

hodgepodge of different things.

20:31

But those 3 are very consistent. It's always real estate.

20:35

It's the big 1 then private

20:35

equities is usually higher.

20:39

Then public equities. And yes, that when people tell us

20:40

to diversify, it doesn't mean to go

20:44

to your into your 401k and diversify

20:44

over a million different mutual funds,

20:50

just absolutely is that it's not true.

20:53

Diversification is having truly

20:53

non market related assets.

20:58

Absolutely. Yeah. So I love that. I just wanted to point that out

21:00

because I think a lot of people

21:02

might be listening and they hear the

21:02

diversification so many times and they're

21:05

like I'm in so many different stocks

21:05

or I'm, I'm in this and I'm in that.

21:09

They're true diversification

21:09

is like really knowing where

21:13

your money is for one, right? It's not oh, okay.

21:15

Yeah. I dabble a little bit here. I dabble a little bit there.

21:17

No. How much of a percent of your portfolio?

21:20

Is in each sector, right? I think that's super important.

21:24

And then figure out where in

21:24

those sectors you want that.

21:27

Cash to be. Okay. Now you had also mentioned, somebody

21:29

having a life insurance policy, right?

21:33

To be able to get tax free income.

21:36

And I've, we've talked about that

21:36

on this podcast a couple times.

21:39

We've had folks come on and talk

21:39

about how to get whole life insurance

21:42

policies and do that Now, what

21:42

makes you a fan of this method?

21:48

I am. I'm a fan of life insurance, but I'm a

21:50

fan of a different type of life insurance.

21:55

And this is because I work, like I said,

21:55

I have worked for years with wealthy

22:01

people and consistently the wealthy

22:01

people I've met all have this product.

22:06

And I actually, I saw some

22:06

survey the other day that said 40

22:10

percent of the affluent purchase.

22:13

This type of product. So it's definitely worth

22:14

thinking about it's called an

22:18

indexed universal life policy.

22:21

Now, the way that I structure it for

22:21

my people and people that have a high

22:26

net worth, or they make a fairly good

22:26

living, you can, and this is an incredible

22:32

strategy, you can leverage a bank.

22:36

To pay your life insurance premium.

22:39

Most people have never heard of this. Don't go to your state farm or

22:41

farmer's agent and ask them.

22:44

They will not know it at all.

22:47

You have to work with someone that

22:47

is a wealth advisor that is very

22:50

familiar with this, but essentially. So let's use easy numbers.

22:54

They insured person qualifies.

22:57

That's the big part. They need to qualify

22:58

for the life insurance.

23:01

They put $200,000 in over

23:01

the course of five years.

23:05

The rest of the premium is

23:05

paid by the insurance company.

23:08

It's a million dollars that they put

23:08

into this policy and we structure it

23:13

so that it's growing up for whatever.

23:16

Everyone has a different strategy. Most people like this for tax free income

23:18

because they love the idea of a bank

24:01

contributing to their that's like having

24:01

a bank contribute to your pension fund.

24:06

Who doesn't love this? So the way that it works is all of the

24:07

interest and payments are taken out.

24:12

In year 13, so essentially, you

24:12

don't have to pay the bank anything

24:18

you're getting alone and there's no

24:18

paying them or anything like that.

24:23

But at year 13, we structure it so that

24:23

they can pull the money out of the policy.

24:28

The bank can and at that time

24:28

it's running an overdrive.

24:33

And so depending on how old the person

24:33

is, they, they get this at year 20 at

24:39

year 15 or 20, whatever, whatever their

24:39

time horizon is, they get tax free income.

24:45

But the main thing is that

24:45

it grows within this tax.

24:49

It grows and gets the ups in the

24:49

market, but none of the downs.

24:54

So it's tied in a way to the

24:54

market, but it never takes.

24:57

So if there are any losses. They get zero in return.

25:01

So there's no losses in that.

25:04

This is another reason the wealthy

25:04

people love this because they never

25:07

lose any money in this product. And so then by the time they're

25:09

ready to start taking the money

25:13

could be depending on how young

25:13

they are when they get this set up.

25:17

It could be 100 grand 150 grand

25:17

that they're able to take tax

25:21

free for the rest of their lives. And it's extraordinary.

25:26

Now, for the people that don't qualify,

25:26

maybe they don't have the net worth

25:31

to qualify for something like that. Still, an indexed universal life is an

25:33

amazing product in the way that it grows.

25:40

And I want to reverse

25:40

engineer a little bit.

25:43

They tell us that we need a

25:43

million dollars to retire.

25:47

Okay. Then a few, although that was a

25:48

few weeks ago, they said, okay, to

25:53

live on that money for the rest of

25:53

your life means you take out 2.5%.

25:57

That means you take out $25,000

25:57

for the rest of your life.

26:02

And yay, good for you. Then the tax man might be who knows that

26:04

might be taking 40 percent on the low

26:09

end, maybe taking 50 or 60 percent of it.

26:13

So now that $25,000 doesn't look so good.

26:16

No, the you just have

26:16

to have tax free income.

26:20

And if you look at how these policies

26:20

and you structure them with someone

26:25

who is there to build you a tax free

26:25

income, these are incredibly great.

26:31

Resources to use and products.

26:33

Yeah that, like I said, a traditionally

26:33

wealthy person uses for sure.

26:38

And they love it. My real estate people love it because

26:39

it mimics very much like real estate.

26:45

Yeah. And then you can also borrow

26:45

from these policies too, right?

26:49

If you need to take out a loan to

26:49

put a down payment on a piece of

26:52

real estate and things like that.

26:54

That's why the

26:54

wealthy people really like them

26:56

because they're very liquid and

26:56

the money just sits in there.

27:00

And the beauty of these policies,

27:00

the IUL in particular, I'm talking

27:05

about not whole life is that when you

27:05

take money out of it, you're charged.

27:10

2 percent loan charge because we

27:10

want the IRS to know this is a

27:15

loan, but at the same time in this

27:15

IUL policy, you get a credit of 2%.

27:22

So you get a 0 percent loan on your money

27:22

to go out and invest it in something else.

27:28

So quite extraordinary.

27:30

I love that. So I actually have an IUL policy myself.

27:33

So that's why, I was asking about

27:33

that because, I know that's one of the

27:37

things I was looking at is how I can

27:37

actually borrow from it in the future.

27:40

But then also, I'd like how, around

27:40

year 15 to year 20, how I could

27:45

just get this tax free income,

27:45

which is just absolutely awesome.

27:48

I do want to supercharge it a little bit. So I am going to start putting

27:50

a lot more money into it versus

27:52

just what I have set up now. But I think, If you know how the policy is

27:54

structured or you had somebody structure

27:58

it right for you, it can be extremely

27:58

useful for anybody, whether you want to

28:03

use it as a real estate, another vehicle

28:03

to buy more real estate or just another

28:07

vehicle to get tax free income in the

28:07

future which I intend to use it for both.

28:13

Yeah. And it's great. And the beauty is, you're doing

28:14

it as you look younger than I am.

28:18

But most people wait and they wait.

28:20

And I just had a 47 year old, let me see,

28:20

48 year old that applied super healthy,

28:27

looked as healthy as could be to me.

28:29

And she got declined and, that's a bummer.

28:33

It's a bummer when you want it and

28:33

you don't have the health to get it.

28:37

Yeah, so

28:37

I got mine a couple years ago.

28:39

I'm 39 now and when I got it

28:39

they came out, they did the

28:43

blood work and everything. And I had, I used to be a smoker, right?

28:48

But I quit smoking so long ago that

28:48

they said, it doesn't even count.

28:52

And. We actually wound up getting

28:52

like the lowest rate possible

28:55

super, which was great. And the blood work came back

28:56

great because we, we actually

28:59

eat plant based in our house. So blood work was great.

29:02

Everything else is great. And now fast forward to,

29:03

I retired from the Navy.

29:06

I'm having a couple issues now. But that doesn't affect my

29:08

insurance policy, which is great.

29:10

So if I was to go get one today, They

29:10

might decline me but yeah, so it's just,

29:16

it just depends on do it young, you

29:16

have the opportunity to do it young.

29:19

So for my younger listeners, if you're

29:19

thinking about getting a life insurance

29:23

policy go do it now while you're young.

29:25

And if you're not thinking about

29:25

it, start thinking about it because

29:28

it is something that's going

29:28

to protect you and your family.

29:30

In the future and besides the added

29:30

protection, you can use it as a

29:34

income producing vehicle, right? Which is the goal, right?

29:37

That's what we're all trying to do. Okay.

29:40

Stephanie this has been

29:40

absolutely fantastic.

29:42

I'd like to transition this into

29:42

something that I call the final round.

29:45

It's where I'm going to ask you the same four questions. I ask everybody that comes on the show

29:47

and it gives us a good idea of how you

29:50

are under a little bit of pressure. So if you're ready to go

29:52

we'll get that party started.

29:54

Sure.

29:55

All right, let's do it. So Stephanie, first question of the

29:56

final round is what's the biggest

30:01

mistake you've ever made when it comes

30:01

to your finances or business life?

30:08

I think I think when I

30:08

first took over the agency or when I first

30:12

started my agency, I made some decisions.

30:16

I put, I Spent money. I didn't save enough for an upsea

30:18

moment a tax or something like

30:24

that, that I wasn't expecting. And I, my dad actually had passed

30:26

away after he gave me the advice.

30:30

And so I just had to wing it.

30:35

For me, it really taught me that you've

30:35

got to leave a cushion, whether that's in

30:41

your business or in your personal life,

30:41

in case something comes up unexpectedly.

30:49

Yeah. No, that's a great point. And very big, very big thing people

30:50

need to be thinking about, is where's

30:54

that cushion that you have in your life. And you get caught without

30:56

having that cushion.

30:59

It's going to be bad. So definitely appreciate

31:00

the transparency there.

31:03

Okay. Next question, Stephanie,

31:04

you're going to see that these kind of tie into each other.

31:07

And that is, what is something that

31:07

you've learned that you wish you

31:10

knew when you first started out?

31:14

Oh,

31:14

boy, I've learned so much.

31:16

I've had so many great mentors.

31:19

I, gosh I would say that I wish I would

31:19

have gotten into syndication sooner.

31:26

But also, the laws were in just changed

31:26

in 2012 to allow for crowdfunding.

31:35

But as soon as I could have gotten to that

31:35

party, I would have wanted to be there.

31:40

Because it's an extraordinary

31:40

way to invest syndications.

31:44

And as you mentioned, there's so many

31:44

different ways to invest that way and

31:50

truly diversifies literally you can

31:50

syndicate anything from a private jet

31:55

to to multifamily to an office space.

31:58

Yeah, it's an incredible strategy.

32:01

Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Definitely. Appreciate that.

32:04

All right, Stephanie. So this next question, again, they

32:05

tie into each other, but this is

32:09

going to help some of our listeners. Do you have any tips or tricks that

32:11

you would recommend to someone that

32:14

is just getting started out today?

32:18

Oh, boy. Getting started out in real

32:19

estate, I would say definitely you

32:25

can contact people like myself.

32:27

You can contact there's lots of people

32:27

out there, but I personally have

32:31

had a lot of experience investing in

32:31

syndications and actually running them.

32:36

But I would love to talk to people and

32:36

have them learn how to do due diligence.

32:42

I think a lot of people get intimidated

32:42

and they don't want to participate in

32:46

these alternate investments, we call them.

32:49

But these investments are so incredible.

32:52

And, you just don't be shy about

32:52

seeking out help and trying to

32:58

learn about what due diligence is.

33:01

I personally, I have some of my

33:01

very wealthiest investors are

33:05

my good friends, and I still

33:05

ask them questions about deals.

33:10

I'm looking to invest in private equity.

33:13

And, it's a whole different

33:13

due diligence animal there.

33:16

And I'm like how should I do this? How would you recommend this?

33:20

So I say, find a group of people that

33:20

are all wanting to invest, talk to them.

33:25

If you find a mentor that can be

33:25

involved in the group please, please

33:29

do that, just don't shy away from it.

33:32

Yeah, no that's huge. I definitely appreciate that answer

33:33

because networking is something I talk

33:37

about a lot, and real estate is the game

33:37

you want to get into, especially real

33:40

estate syndications and multifamily. You're going to want to surround yourself

33:42

with people that are actually in that.

33:45

You don't want to just jump into it by yourself. Feet first, cause you're going to wind

33:47

up finding out that you're jumping

33:49

onto a thin pad of ice and you're

33:49

going to slip and crack your head open.

33:53

So it's really important that you have

33:53

those other people that jump with you.

33:56

So can you break through that

33:56

layer and get into the water?

33:58

Sorry. I love analogies all the time,

33:59

but it's very important that you

34:03

actually do it with a team and

34:03

not by yourself, especially when

34:06

you're taking down such big deals. And then the other piece of that too, the

34:08

networking piece, like you meet so many

34:13

amazing people that you can learn from.

34:15

That's why I love going to real estate conferences. I love going to real estate meetups.

34:19

That's why I host a meetup out here

34:19

on Oahu every second Wednesday of the

34:22

month, and it's just, it's a great group

34:22

of people that all come together and

34:25

we talk about what we're working on. We network, we eat pizza and we

34:27

hang out, and it's just a good time.

34:31

So yeah, definitely. I love that answer.

34:33

I feel like anybody that, that

34:33

wants to get involved or get

34:36

started out, definitely find a group

34:36

of people that are like minded,

34:40

find a mentor, even find a coach.

34:43

I've paid coaches before too. I think it's saved me

34:45

money in the long run. So things like that are super important.

34:49

Okay. Enough of that. It's me asking you

34:51

questions, not me answering. Okay.

34:53

Stephanie, final question

34:53

of the final round.

34:56

And I'll preface this with, besides

34:56

your own, do you have a favorite

35:00

business, investing, or real estate

35:00

related book or podcast or both?

35:05

I have I have many

35:05

mentors that, gosh, I was, I just finished

35:12

a book last night, but my, I'll go to my

35:12

usual one, which is killing sacred cows.

35:20

I think that's a great book. It's written by Garrett Gunderson.

35:24

He it's very much a philosophy.

35:28

And mindset book about money.

35:30

And it makes you really breaks down a lot

35:30

of what I've said today, which is, the

35:35

401k really start questioning that take

35:35

responsibility for your own money, do all

35:40

of these things, super, super important.

35:43

But I've been reading a lot of also books.

35:45

I think it's called who

35:45

wants to be a millionaire.

35:48

It's a real short read for your

35:48

people that don't want to like.

35:52

Read a real long. Cause I think Garrett's

35:53

books like 300 pages.

35:56

This one I finished in a night

35:56

it's who wants to be a millionaire.

36:00

I think that's what's called by Tom

36:00

Hegna, HEGNA, another mentor of mine.

36:07

Who just, he really just breaks

36:07

it down for people in their

36:11

twenties, thirties, forties, I wish

36:11

I would have had that book then.

36:14

And it's super simple read and

36:14

you'll get a lot out of it.

36:18

Awesome. Thank you so much for those recommendations. I wrote them down.

36:21

Killing sacred cows. I think I've heard that recommendation

36:22

only one other time before, and I'm

36:26

not even sure it was on my podcast. It might've been on another

36:28

podcast I was listening to. That might be a first on this one.

36:32

And then also the other one was

36:32

who wants to be a millionaire.

36:34

So yeah, absolutely. And that was also a great TV show.

36:37

I enjoyed that. Yes. Yes. Okay.

36:41

No, Stephanie this has been awesome. Thank you so much.

36:43

I do want to ask you An even

36:43

more important question.

36:47

Okay. The final round's over, but I

36:47

have something that, you know.

36:51

My audience has been listening to this

36:51

interview and they're saying, Hey,

36:55

I really appreciate where Stephanie

36:55

is coming from her point of view and

36:59

you know what she's told us about. I also heard mentioned

37:00

that she wrote a book. So people that are listening right

37:02

now, I was like, Hey, where can I

37:04

find more information about Stephanie? So if you could share with us,

37:06

do you have a website, social

37:09

media, anything like that? And where can we find your book?

37:13

Yeah, I, you can go to

37:13

my website, which is www.erbewealth.com.

37:22

And on that, the first thing I'm

37:22

having the book on my website.

37:27

I haven't put it up on Amazon yet. But I'm offering it for free because

37:29

I think it's a great resource.

37:33

And then from there, you can be added

37:33

to a list of email that I try to

37:38

provide a lot of education and good

37:38

information to people that are on my list.

37:44

And yeah, that, that's

37:44

probably the best way.

37:46

And then you could even schedule

37:46

a call if you want to talk.

37:49

I love, like I mentioned to help people

37:49

get in the right head space to know

37:54

how they can get to the next level.

37:57

Awesome. Thank you so much for that. And you know what?

38:00

I want to ask you one more thing to close things out. Do you have any final

38:02

thoughts for our listeners?

38:07

I think that it's a

38:07

scary time for a lot of people, if they're

38:11

listening, to what's going on out there.

38:14

But I think there are so many

38:14

different, you really can't

38:19

get caught up in that space. The real estate market multifamily market

38:21

is very strong, no matter what they're

38:26

saying about commercial real estate. It's we're terribly under.

38:31

Developing housing for people.

38:34

So that's always going to be a

38:34

great place to put your money.

38:37

And in addition, think of

38:37

the rents ever go down.

38:41

No, you could actually

38:41

pull it up on the Internet.

38:44

It'll show from the 60s to now.

38:46

That there's never been really a,

38:46

there's been maybe a little bit

38:49

of a flattening, maybe a little

38:49

down, but not anything significant.

38:54

It's a great way to

38:54

inflation protect your money.

38:58

But yeah, just get more involved,

38:58

more control of your assets is

39:02

really my message for people.

39:04

And if you have problems or fears

39:04

or whatever, just, you can find a

39:09

mentor or come seek someone like

39:09

myself out who would be happy to help.

39:14

Awesome. Thank you, Stephanie, so much.

39:16

Thank you so much for that. Fantastic. And also I forgot to mention this to

39:18

the links that you gave us before.

39:22

I'll make sure that's in the

39:22

show notes for our listeners to

39:25

copy and paste or click away. The only thing I ask is that you

39:26

don't do it if you're driving

39:28

right now, please, and thank you. Stephanie, again, I want to thank you

39:30

so much for taking the time out of your

39:33

day today to have this conversation

39:33

with me and just put out so much great

39:37

information, valuable information and

39:37

golden nuggets for my listeners to

39:41

take away and do with what they will.

39:44

So appreciate you very much.

39:46

Thank you so much for having me. It was great.

39:49

Absolutely. And Hey, I also want to thank all of my

39:49

listeners for joining me and our special

39:54

guest, Stephanie Walter on the average

39:54

Joe finances podcast, go leave us a five

39:58

star review and tell us what you liked

39:58

about today's episode with Stephanie.

40:02

Aloha from Hawaii and have

40:02

a great rest of your day.