KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Allocating Commission Checks to Fund Passive Income and Avoid Agent Burnout

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

Summary:In this episode, host Ali Garside breaks down a strategic cash-flow allocation framework inspired by the book Profit First to help real estate agents escape active transaction hustle and retire early. Garside details a systematic approach using five separate bank accounts to build financial discipline. Listeners will learn how to divide every commission check by prioritizing a personal fun reward, establishing a rigid tax buffer, feeding dual stock and real estate investment streams, managing fixed operational overhead, and strictly living off remaining capital.

You know, the last four years of me being an agent, I didn't reward myself. So I'm trying to figure out balance. And I know balance is such a trigger word for a lot of people. I get it. But I do think that there is some sort of balance that I could benefit from. Hello, Goldminers. You are listening to another episode of the agent gold mine. And this episode is talking to you about how to allocate every dollar of your commission check.

I am Ali Garcette. Ali the agent on all social media. I've been an agent for four and a half years. I've closed over 200 houses as a solo agent, never been fed a lead, never paid for a lead. And usually I have my amazing, beautiful co-host, host of the podcast, Shelby Johnson. She is the Shelby Show on the gram. And she's not here right now because she's like about to pop out a baby, similar to last episode. So without further ado, let's talk about money, finances, how I allocate mine. This is not financial advice, so therefore you can't sue me. This is what's been working for me. I have taken a couple of the principles from a book called Profit First. Highly recommend. It's by Mike McAulowicz. McAulwicz. I don't

know how to pronounce it. I definitely don't know how to spell it. You can do a little Google, but I highly recommend you read it. I've done a little spin-off with something that worked a little better for me and my business. And let's begin. A lot of agents work until the day they die. We've all heard the joke about, you know, real estate agents never retire. They just expire. And I don't want that to be you. A lot of us in our community at EXP are investors first, or were investors first. Myself, Shelby Johnson, everyone in our upline are investors first. We all invest in real estate. So if you join us at EXP Realty, you can be a part of our monthly mastermind every single first Monday of the month, which is investors, which is talking about investing.

That's actually how I met Shelby. It came across Shelby off of a Bigger Pockets podcast episode. I remembered feeling like I connected with her because we both had commissioned the same year into the military. I joined the Air Force. She joined the Army. She got out before I did. I was still in the Air Force. Miserable. And she had got out and had like had 74 Airbnbs at one point. Right now I have, I think, 15 units amongst a couple of different properties. But overall, what I'm trying to say is a lot of agents will just get stuck in working actively instead of turning that commission check that they're getting into passive income so that way they can retire early. That's my goal. Ever since I heard about the fire movement, financial independence retire early, I was hooked. When I was still in the Air Force, there were times in years, actually, where I was investing 70% of my income. I was only living

off of 30%. Now, the numbers are not the case right now, but I still invest. So without further ado, I get a paycheck. Whatever amount it is, I use a percentage and I pay myself first. And I pay myself first. profit first. Again, hence the book. Right now, out of every check, I take 5% and I put that into a separate bank account. By the way, this is going to be like about five or six different bank accounts. So that way you can actually maintain order and discipline for America. So 5% goes into just my profit. It may be the case that after you listen to the different percentages by the end of this episode, you may think 5% is too much for you right now and that's okay, but start at one. Like start somewhere. Don't say, don't not pay yourself some profit. And that's the first thing that that gets

allocated. 5% at the check goes straight into my income account, like from my income account where where EXP pays me. 5% goes to my profit. What is profit for? Profit is literally for fun. And trust me, I am not the best at taking my own advice when I say this, but you have to reward yourself. If you followed my journey over the last couple of months, like you probably think maybe I am reporting myself a little too hard, a little too extreme with all of my travel. But up until now, you know, the last four years of me being an agent, I didn't reward myself. And then I entered a little bit of a period of burnout. So I'm trying to figure out balance. And I know balance is such a trigger word for a lot of people. I get it. But I do think that there is some sort of balance that I could benefit from,

instead of swinging from one side of the pendulum all the way to the other. So what do I end up spending that 5% of profit on. In the beginning, it could just be like a nice dinner out myself, take your spouse out, take your kids. Over time, as the money accumulates in that checking account, it could be a flight somewhere. It could be a cruise somewhere. It could be first class tickets somewhere. But overall, make sure that you are spending it on something that you find rewarding. Otherwise, you will burn out. Ask me how I know. Next up is also, it's separate checking account. So we're already on checking account number three, right? The first, when the commission check check in, that goes into checking account number one, which I call my

income. 5% goes into checking account number two, which is profit. Now we're on checking account number three, which is taxes. We all love taxes. So I put 25% into taxes. If you're in California, maybe do 35%. If you're in, I don't know, Delaware, maybe do 15. I don't know. I'm not a CPA. I'm not, I'm not your tax advisor. I don't know shit about taxes. That's why I hire other people, I hire experts. And actually, if you are a tax professional, I want to hear from you. I would love to have you on the podcast and also love to hire you for next year. So please hit me up on Ali, the agent on all social media, ALI. But I put 25% into taxes. Now, some people will pay quarterly. And that is probably suggested, do not do as I do in this case. But what works for

me is I like paying just one time over the course of the year. I will log into my bank account and just see the tax money growing and growing and growing. And I'm like, man, this could be invested, right? It's March, April, May, June. I'm like, I have a lot of money in here, which could be making a little bit of a return. And then I start thinking greedy, you know, like, how can I make this money work for me? But in a time frame where you're going to have to deplete that entire check in a account in less than a year or up to a year, it is not worth, in my opinion, taking the money out to invest it, especially not in stocks, especially not in long-term equity, like real estate. So it hurts even though I look at the amount every time I log into my bank

account, but at least I know it's there. So that way, come tax season, I deplete it. Trust me, it still hurts, but it would hurt worse if I had invested it and then the S&P 500 went down, you know, so yeah, which leads me to investing. So so far we have 5% into profit, 25% into taxes, that's 30%. Then I take 10% at this time, I do 10% of that initial paycheck and I invest that. I invest it into two separate routes. Out of the 10%, I do 50% of that, if that makes sense. So let's just put a hard number on this. Say that 10% of my commission check was, I don't know, $400. I'll take $200 and I will invest it in stocks. I personally do VTSAX, E O, SMP 500. This is not financial advice. And then the other $200, I will put into a fourth checking account, which is saving up for my next rental property. Because like I said before, everyone in my EXP family tree, like my upline, they're all investors first. That's why I clicked with them because we're all trying to retire early. And a lot of them can retire. All of them, all of them, them can retire already, but they choose not to. So that's pretty cool. That's not going to be me.

But anyway, I don't know. People say that I will. Don't matter. That's not the point in this episode. So I'll put money away to save up for my next rental property. Then that leaves 60% of our check still untouched. So 30% goes into paying the business, operating expenses, the business expenses. It's the cost of doing business. This is my YouTube editor. This is my executive assistant, all of my virtual assistants, my thumbnail editor, my CRM, EXP's $85 a month. Actually, it's 92 if you pay with a credit card. You know, what do you do, seven bucks more, whatever it is.

The MLS fees, the continuing education, you know, everything of what it takes for the website for me to run my business, that is where that 30% goes to. And this is check an account number five. I call this OPEX, which is the investing term, operating expenses, which leaves the last percentage, 30%, the remaining 30, that is what I live off of. I pay, I live off of the scraps. You know, I purposely have this at the very end. I purposely put profit in the very beginning. So whatever is remaining, which is 30%, I will then

transfer it from my income account to my personal checking account. And that is what I pay my light bill with, my mortgage with, my food, my restaurants, my Instacart, my jewelry, my clothes, my whatever. So I, have some homework for you. In case you haven't done this and you want some more financial organization in your life. And if you have your commission checks coming into one check in account, and that's the same check in account where expenses come out of, your mortgage comes out of, your hog and da's Uber Eats at midnight comes out of, you know, like, please do yourself a favor and maybe just get one more check in account, start maybe one at a time. I did this full blast because that's how I am. I was like, I read the book and I was like, boom, let me create five more

checking accounts. It's worked for me. I'm able to easily go into my bank account and see where am I at with profit. Once I hit, you know, a couple thousand dollars, then hey, maybe I'll take a first class flight somewhere. Maybe I'll book a vacation. Maybe I'll usually right now, it's vacation. I'm literally about to go to Vietnam next week for a couple of months, three months. So I'm excited. And then yeah, you can see how much you've saved up for taxes. Again, don't touch that. That's not going anywhere until tax time, the 10% into investing and then 30% into operating expenses. maybe that'll teach you that you're spending a lot of money on a specific part of your business, which maybe you want to cut back on. Maybe you're spending $500 a month on a CRM that you don't really use

or on a website that you don't really use. Maybe you're spending too much money in your personal life and you're like, maybe I should cut back because if I'm going to only take 30% of every paycheck that I get and spend that on life, on living, then maybe I should cut back on some expenses. And that never hurts to do. So I hope that this episode has challenged you, maybe thought, helped you think of money differently, of how to allocate finances appropriately. Am I the expert? Absolutely not. Have I ever pretended to be the expert? Hell no. This is just what works for me in this season of time right now, well, for the last four years, it's been working for me. And I hope that it helps you. If it does, please share this episode with

another real estate agent that you think could benefit. Not as a slap in the face like, oh man, you need money help, but just as a different idea. Because if every person can take just one little nugget from this, you know, there could there would be less agents that fail out of the business, in my opinion. This is the kind of stuff that we talk about in our community at EXP Realty. So if your brokerage doesn't talk about this, join us at EXP, bro, switch brokerages, name me as your primary sponsor. My full name is Alexandra Gar said, yes, I'm being shameless, but this is why we put out episodes to help real estate agents, number one, and then number two, to help you even more if you decide to join our community. All of us make well over six figures,

and our weekly business brainstorm calls, you will get your questions answered. So I hope that you decide to join us. If you have any questions about what it's like joining us and you want more information. Find me on Instagram. I'm Ali the agent, ALI. Find Shelby, the Shelby show. At this time, she'll likely just revert you back to me because she's pregnant and about to pop. We'll have a Zoom call. And yes, it will be me on the Zoom call. I can introduce you to anybody that you want in the upline because they are all here to see you succeed. Because when you make money, we make money. That's how EXP works. So we are financially incentivized to see your business grow and to help you get there. If this is your first time listening, again,

My name is Ali Garcet or Alexandra Garcet. Usually I have my beautiful co-host next to me or across the airwaves Shelby Johnson. You are listening to The Agent Goldmine. Be a bro and share this show. If you're on a 50-50 split, it's time to rethink your brokerage. At EXP, the split is 8020. And once you cap, you keep 100%. We show you how to get there faster.

I'm Ali Garcad or Ali the agent. my sponsor, Shelby Johnson and I, each close over 40 deals a year. We are full-time agents actively producing, and everyone in our upline is an icon agent. When you name us as a sponsor at EXP, you get full access to all of our systems and checklists and templates, our 200K GCI playbook to help you make 200K your first year, direct mentorship and direct access to us. No huge group calls. We also help agents add another stream of income, which is RevShare. We will help you with all the tools and trainings you need to build revenue share that will help you retire early.

If you're interested in building an actual business, book a call at theagentgoldmine.com.