Business Innovators Radio - Rennie Gabriel Reveals the Secrets to Wealth on Any Income

Episode Date: June 13, 2024

In this episode, Dr. Tami Patzer talks with Rennie Gabriel, a financial education expert and the author of the book “Wealth on Any Income.” Rennie is also the host of the “Wealth on Any Income�� podcast, where he shares powerful insights and strategies to help individuals transform their financial situations.Rennie Gabriel is a renowned expert in the field of personal finance. With over 30 years of experience, he has helped countless individuals achieve Complete Financial Choice – the ability to choose how they want to live their lives without being constrained by financial concerns. Rennie’s unique approach emphasizes the importance of treating yourself like you matter and learning to leverage debt to create wealth, rather than relying solely on traditional investment strategies.During the interview, Rennie reveals some of the “secrets” that the wealthy know but the average person doesn’t. He explains the importance of paying yourself first, regardless of your income level, and how this simple practice can lead to significant wealth accumulation over time. Rennie also discusses the power of using debt strategically to acquire income-producing assets, as well as the value of building a team of trusted advisors to support your financial goals.This episode is a must-listen for anyone who wants to achieve true Financial Freedom. Whether you’re just starting your financial journey or you’re looking to take your wealth to the next level, Rennie’s insights and practical strategies will provide you with the tools and mindset you need to succeed. Listeners will learn how to overcome common financial obstacles, create passive income streams, and ultimately gain the complete Financial Choice that Rennie advocates.To find out more about Rennie Gabriel and his wealth-building expertise, visit his website at WealthOnAnyIncome.com. There, you can access Rennie’s free resources, including his TEDx talk and a step-by-step roadmap to achieving complete Financial Choice. Additionally, if you donate to the charity featured on Rennie’s website, you can receive a free copy of his book, “Wealth on Any Income.”Visit WealthOnAnyIncome.comSource: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/rennie-gabriel-reveals-the-secrets-to-wealth-on-any-income

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Hi, everyone. This is Dr. Tammy Patser, and today my special guest is Rennie Gabriel, and Reni is a financial education expert and the author of the book, Wealth on Any Income. He also is the host of the podcast, Wealth on Any Income. And of course, we'll give you all that information during the interview. And he's here to share all of his fabulous insights and to talk about creating complete financial choice. And to share a few secrets that the wealthy know that the average person doesn't. and he's helped countless individuals transform their financial situations. And today, he's going to share some of his powerful stories and strategies.

Welcome, Rennie. Oh, thank you, Tammy. And it was funny in the introduction, you said I was going to share all of them, all my insights. Not all of them. Maybe one or two is probably always for. So, yeah, I have a tendency to. add those all or nothing adjectives. So let's start first. I want to just get right into the meat of what you have to share. Can you talk about what complete financial choice means and why that's

important? Well, I mean, it's a great question because the word financial freedom is bandied about a lot. And people talk about being debt free, like that's going to create financial freedom. And those concepts, well, they're over talked about and people just, I think, tune out. And so what I came up with and trademark was complete financial choice, meaning if you choose to work, you're doing it because you choose to, not because you have to. If you want to donate your time to charity, great. You can choose to do that or not. If you want to travel. You can choose to do that or not. And complete financial choice means because of the income you have, you're not having to work for, you can choose to do whatever you want to do. Oh, and I think you

turned off your mic. I did. So choice is the key word there with that. So what is the first thing that someone needs to do to create this financial choice? Well, one of the first things I always say is you've got to treat yourself like you matter. And let me try it this way because a lot of times when I'm on an interview, I'll ask the host a few questions and that makes it so clear. So Tammy, have you heard of the expression pay yourself first? Yes. Okay.

you now explain it? The way that I see pay yourself first would be to whatever the income or the money that you have coming in, you should take some of that and put it to the side for you before anything else. That's correct. And you've got it. And so often a host will come up with something like, well, it means you buy your groceries first. Or if you have a company, you get the first and that's not the concept. What you explained is the correct concept. You take a percentage of the money that's coming into you and set it aside. And what you're going to do with that is you're going to invest it. You're going to keep it for the rest of your life and only use it to create a passive income for yourself that will give you the complete financial choice. And I started all over

at age 50 from broke. I was earning $5,000 a month. So, I wasn't making a lot of money, but I set aside $500 a month. And in three years, in three years, I saved up $18,000. Okay, I'm age 53, and I've got $18,000 to my name. Now, two things. One, I could have used that to pay off credit card debt, which would not have been a good idea. And instead, my wife at the time had a realtor who said, Rennie, let's buy this three-unit, you should buy this three-unit property. I said, we're in Los Angeles.

$18,000 buys nothing. He said, yeah, you're right. If you can come up with half the down payment, which was $36,000, I'll come up with half. So my wife chipped in $18,000, and the realtor chipped in $36, and three of us were able to buy this three-unit property. Had I not paid myself first, had I not treated myself like I mattered, I wouldn't have had the money to do that. And that ended up growing in value within five years. My 18,000 was now worth 125,000. And what I saw was, gosh, this is working. I went out and borrowed more money. I used debt to create more wealth. And I bought more apartments with my wife and this realtor. And we went in five years from that three-unit property, we added 47 more units. Had I not saved $18,000 and treated myself

like I mattered and I paid off my credit cards, I'd still be broke. That makes a lot of sense. And the fact that obviously it wasn't just you because the realtor was involved in your wife. and I think that's important for people to understand that sometimes it does take more than just you with this big vision to make things happen. And then that's a whole other story with trust and all the different things. But how many years did you say between the time you started with three that you added 47? Five more years. Just five years. That's amazing.

Yeah. But one of the things you said I do want to emphasize is you said it took more than one person. And I do talk about creating wealth or growing a business or anything. It is a team sport, not a solo sport. I didn't do it by myself. As a matter of fact, Warren Buffett didn't build Berkshire Hathaway by himself. He had Charlie Munger. Steve Jobs didn't build Apple by himself.

He had Steve Wozniak. And I can go on and on and on about the most successful businesses weren't created by one person. Well, even Amazon, I read that he asked his family members to each contribute $10,000. And so I think that is really important because so many people do try to go it alone. And obviously, when you add all these other people in their brains and everything, you have that synergistic effect that's really powerful. So you've written a book, Wealth on Any Income.

Why did you choose that title? And I know you also have the podcast and the website, but this whole concept, wealth on any income, you've given us a hint of what that's all about. But why did you choose that title? And what's the biggest message that that title conveys? that it doesn't matter how much someone is earning, they can create complete financial choice or become wealthy. So the wealth on any income really means, like I said, I was earning $5,000 a month and it ended up by age 58 having a multimillion dollar net worth.

The point being, I don't have to earn $2,000, $500,000 a year to create wealth. No one does. You can do it almost on any income. And as a qualifier, I do mean someone needs to be earning an income, not, you know, collecting disability payments or, you know, welfare or something like that. I mean, but actually working and earning an income. I get that. And I, for me, I look back at, you know, when I was a single mom with three kids trying to figure out

all of this stuff. And I actually did drip investing for a while because I was always trying to figure out some way to make the little bit I did have grow. And I did make a little bit. But I think like what you said, you know, like $500 a month and then you have the $18,000, $500 grows rapidly. And I remember even when I had a 401K and it was being matched, how fast. that actually grew back in the day before the stock market, of course, wiped it all out and everything. So I think that's another important thing. People need to make sure that where they invest their money is really important because you have to minimize that risk. So with that, how do you invest your profits and what's your big or best advice for others related to that?

I would say a couple of things. One of them is that if I look at the attitudes wealthy people have, one of them is that they don't give their money to someone else to make it grow, but they learn about the investments themselves, and they have control over those investments. And it doesn't matter if it's apartment buildings or office buildings or self-storage facilities or oil and gas or equipment leasing or real estate investment. trust or trust deeds or second hall.

It doesn't make any difference what it is. And the key is, I never mentioned stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. You're right. Yeah. And so there are so many investments that are available where people can be in control of it, which is not the case with stocks. You invest in a stock and you hope the board of directors or the president are doing the right things.

And you know, you don't know. Or maybe you do know or you hope. But that's an important component. We do have some money in stocks, but it's about 10 to 15% of our net worth. It's not that significant. Well, that makes a lot of sense because I think the key, what you just said,

is you want to be in control of your money, not someone else. Is that accurate? That's exactly what I'm saying. Yes, Tammy. Because I know many people, they let other people handle their money. And I think that's where you get yourself in trouble because you just don't know what's really going on. You talked about how you have to treat yourself like you matter.

And of course, you can be charitable. and I know that you have a lot of interest in making sure that you give back in everything you do. How do the principles of putting yourself first and giving back fit into financial planning? Oh, you know, that's such a great question because if you don't treat yourself, I'm going to cough, excuse me. If you don't treat yourself first like you matter and pay yourself first and set aside some money so that you're financially solvent, you can't help someone else. You can't. The expression is you can't pour from an empty cup. So I'm able to donate 100% of the profits from my books, from my programs to various animal and veteran charities because that's not income.

need because the profits from my business aren't relevant to my lifestyle. I have a passive income from the real estate and from other investments that we do so that my supporting other people to learn how to handle money effectively is not money I need. That allows me to donate 100% of the profits. That makes a lot of sense to me. Now, We've talked a few minutes. Tell me a couple of those secrets that the wealthy know that the average person doesn't. I've touched on them, but let's label them very specifically. And one of them is that people think they need to pay off debt first.

And wealthy people understand, no, you can use debt to create wealth. As an example, I didn't pay off my credit cards when I'd, saved up this $18,000, I invested it instead. And the investments ended up paying off my credit card debt. So there's one, we'll call it secret or attitude of the wealthy. Another is that small amounts of money do matter. Someone might say, well, I got $100 in. If I set aside 10%, it's only $10, that doesn't matter.

Well, $10 a day would be $300 a month. And if someone can earn 12% on it, I'm not talking about putting it in the bank, but, you know, finding some alternative investments. They can create a million dollar portfolio on $10 a day. Small amounts of money do matter. And I track my money. One of the wealthiest men in the world, John D. Rockefeller, at age 11, we're talking about the 18. 50s tracked every penny, well, a penny was worth something back then, every penny that came into his life and where he spent it. And when he was a billionaire, he still knew where his money was coming from

and where it was going. So these are some of the secrets of the wealthy. They track their money. They know how it's being spent. They recognize small amounts of money do make a difference. They recognize that debt can be used to create wealth. And one of the things we also touched on is you don't have to do it by yourself. When you hear the expression, it takes money to make money. It doesn't have to be your money. I had a real estate person and my wife contributing their money so that we could all grow together. That makes a lot of sense.

And again, I think what you were just talking about, that where you're using other people's money or working with other people, obviously you can do that. And the idea that a little bit of money can add up. I mean, if you look at, for example, going to Starbucks for a venti hot chai latte is $6.51 here in Florida. And, you know, think about that. If you had one of those a day, that's like $40, $35 a week multiplied out. And there's $100 some dollars right there that you would be able to invest in something else. So a lot of the little pieces of money that we just spend randomly for little things really do add up. I wanted to ask you about some success stories about some of the people you've helped.

Can you tell me some stories about some people you've helped? Yeah, and it's so funny, too, because when you're talking about these little bits of money, it reminded me of this husband and wife attorney team, which is different than the one I talked about earlier with you outside of the podcast. This was an attorney whose wife came to me. Like I said, she's also an attorney. She said, Rani, we need to get together. And she, this is a mild-mannered woman.

And she was going, I've had enough of this. I was saying, my gosh, what's going on, Harriet? She says, we owe $12,000 to the IRS. And David wants to borrow against the equity in our house to pay the IRS tax bill. And I'm saying, well, okay, that doesn't sound good. She said, yeah, it's the third year in a row. And so I said, okay, yeah, let's get together. So we did that.

And I said, you know, let's figure out where your money is going. Let's just guess for the time being. And I had a form. We started filling it out. And the thing that stands out for me is he said, well, we probably spend $600 a month eating out. Now, this is about 30 years ago. So $600 was a lot of money to spend eating out. Well, I said, okay, I'm going to give you a little tool.

You write down every time you spend money. You put 25 cents in the parking meter, you write it down. He says, 25 cents. I said, just for six weeks, every time you spend money, write it down, and we'll get back together and see where the money went. And he did that, you know, like he tracked meals out, which was the thing that you know, $600 a month. Well, guess what? It wasn't $600 a month.

He was spending eating out. You want to know what it was? $1,600 a month. He was off in that one category by $1,000 a month, which is the $12,000 he needed for his taxes. So in essence, he ate what he needed for his taxes. The turnaround was within two years. Not only was he current with his income taxes,

but he had paid off $120,000 of money he'd borrowed from friends, families, and banks. He was able to buy a new car. He was able to take his family on a vacation to England, all without creating more debt. And his income hadn't changed at all. So that story really pinpoints that you need to be tracking your money so that you know where you're spending it. Because it's easy to go. I know personally when I use cash, I have no idea.

It's all of a sudden it's gone and I can't remember what I did with it. But if I do have it on a card or something, I go, oh, my God, you know, we went here. and did this or I, you know, the gas. I mean, it does make you pay attention to what is happening with your money. And it also is very apparent when you go the grocery store that everything's doubled when it used to be $50 and now it's $100 and you're buying the same things. It really does make you aware of that. So you have your attorneys who all they did was track their money and they found their money to pay their taxes. Do you have any other stories about different people who've made significant increases in

their incomes working with you? Yeah, there were another husband and wife attorneys who were always paying their rent late. They were one of the renters in one of my apartment buildings. And they were always struggling to pay the rent. And they were both earning a good income. But they had no idea, like you talked about, where it was going. You know, they were just spending. And so I sat down with them and went over these same concepts and had them start tracking it.

Well, not only did they start paying their rent on time, they were able to set aside money for themselves, pay themselves first. and within two years, they were able to buy a home and no longer had to be renters. So, you know, like I said, they were earning a good income, but they had no idea what they were doing with it. So that's a couple who went from being renters to owning their own home. By the way, to a turn to say, I give a copy to every one of my new tenants of my wealth on any income book. everyone gets it so one it helps them to pay rent on time and helps me because they're paying rent on time and they also feel like I care about them which is true as an example through the entire pandemic a hundred percent of my tenants paid a hundred percent of their rent because I take care of them

anyway so I was going to talk about um another tenant who, you know, I counseled. I gave him a copy of my book. And he said, you know, I really like the concepts you're talking about Rennie. And he went from being a renter to buying a three unit rental property. Oh, you muted your mic again. I'm sorry, my phone keeps ringing. So I'm trying to do that. So how did you manage to do that? again, he was earning a good income. He recognized he didn't have to do things by himself. He started looking for some income property to buy.

And then when it came available, he had some money and he asked some family members to help him buy it. They trusted his judgment. And like I said, he went from a renter in my property to owning a three unit rental property. and again, your phone keep ringing. How can people get in touch with you? What's the best way for them to get in touch with you, running? To go to the website, Wealth on AnyIncome.com forward slash TEDx. They'll actually be able to see my TEDx talk where I talk about some of these things

and get a free nine-step roadmap to complete financial. choice and philanthropy. Wow. So thank you so much. So everyone, Rennie has a podcast, Wealth on Any Income, a book, Wealth on Any Income, a website, Wealth on Any Income. Go check that out and get that roadmap so that you can start becoming wealthy on whatever income you have. I really appreciate your time, Rennie, and I do apologize for my mute button issues, but I think that the information that you provided today was just fabulous.

I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity, Tammy. And if they make a donation to the link of the website, to the charity that's at the top of my home page, they can get a copy of my book for free. So everyone, did you hear that? If you make a donation, you can get a copy of wealth on any income free. I appreciate it.

Thank you, Rennie. Thank you, Tammy. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. To hear all episodes featuring leading industry influencers and trendsetters, visit us online at businessinnovatorsradio.com today.