The Checkup with Doctor Mike - Graham Stephan Gambling With Skin Cancer

Episode Date: March 14, 2023

Watch the full video interview here: https://go.doctormikemedia.com/youtube/GrahamStep Graham Stephan is a real estate and finance guru who has built an audience of millions of people looking to improve their financial situation through smart investing and money management. A man like Graham who is so savvy with his money must also be savvy with his health, right? Well, not necessarily, as he and I uncovered some unhealthy behaviors that has followed him for years. Because of some heavy sun exposure, Graham has Atypical Mole Syndrome, a condition he initially believed to be skin cancer. He's also allowed his dedication to smart money management have a negative impact on many of his personal relationships, something that has impacted his mental health and caused him to reevaluate his life priorities. There's a ton of value in this conversation for people who are just starting their investing journey, or want to hear some of the road stories of someone who has explored a countless number of investment opportunities, with mixed results. Oh, we also talked about his Creator Clash boxing match with Michael Reeves ;) Follow Graham here: YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/grahamstephan Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gpstephan/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrahamStephan Listen to Graham's podcast "The Iced Coffee Hour" here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheIcedCoffeeHour Executive Producer and Host: Dr. Mike Varshavski Produced by Dan Owens and Sam Bowers Art by Caroline Weigum CONTACT: [e-mail]

What's the worst financial situation that's happened to? I, oh, geez. There were two. One, I would say, which was a dumb move. Dumb. Let's welcome to the channel, Graham Steffin, finance extraordinaire, money wizard. He helps us learn everything we need to know about finances. But in this podcast, we talk about his cancer scare, about the worst financial decision that he ever made, and him fighting on creator clash.

This is a really exciting conversation. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did. Let's get started with the checkup with Graham Steffen. We just started talking about it, but now I really want to dive into it. Okay, let's do it. How long have you been doing YouTube? It'll be over six years. I started December of 2016, which feels like forever ago, but it's not that long when you really think about it.

We're like four months apart. Are you serious? Yeah, we started in April 2017. No way. So almost the exact same timeline as you. You started after me? Yeah. What?

Yeah. No. Yeah. In April 2017, it was the tail end of my residency. Wow. And Dan and I met and we said, you know what? Let's do YouTube. And we're going to crush this.

And we did far from it. You did a fantastic job. The Dr. React's videos were how I found you initially. Well, that's how the channel blew up. Actually, you probably haven't heard this, but we got fired by our MCN, which is a multi-channel network that groups creators. Yes. So we got hired by one initially. they were giving us some funding and then they fired us after a year and said your channel's not successful

and we got really upset and we said we're going to prove them wrong one month later doctor reacts goes viral we get a million subscribers overnight gosh and now they're out of business it was a fantastic concept it was a great concept i mean the whole idea of reacts was already out there yeah and the whole purpose of doing the youtube channel was doing things that were already successful and making the medical. Isn't that how you started with your content as well? Yes. And by the way, my second channel of the Graham-Stefhan show was

partly inspired by you and Dave Ramsey. Dave Ramsey had the Dave Ramsey show. The Graham-Stefons show. But the Millionaire React series, which is what I started with, was inspired by your Doctor Reacts. Okay. I got Doctor React, Millionaire Reacts. And those first few videos I did in the channel, a lot of them got anywhere from

200,000 to a million views on like a brand new channel from Millionary Acts when it was like brand new. So I owe that partly to you. Wow. Okay. That's exciting. Did you, like, how did you make the decision to split up the channels from doing, like, your single channel and then creating new avenues of different channels? Yeah. Because I'm always torn on that. Yeah. Everything is algorithm oriented. So when I saw on the main channel, there was a format that fit and worked. And I know, at least for myself, when people threw everything at one channel, they tend to not watch the videos

because it might only be interested in one every four things that gets posted, and then they watch nothing. So my thought was that I'm going to do separate content on other channels, and if people are interested in that, they'll subscribe both places. But I don't want people to see something that they're not subscribed to. Got it. And if I'm a person that lives on the moon, and I haven't seen your content, what is your content about? It's all personal finance base. So anything in terms of my thoughts on investing, saving money, building wealth, real estate. It was started from anything that I wanted to see myself on YouTube, I just made videos about it. Back when, you know, I was in my 20s, mid-20s, didn't have a lot of friends who were

interested in, like, personal finance. And so I would just be on, most 20-year-olds or not. I would be on Reddit in all of these like financial independence, personal finance, subreddits, and just talking to people about personal finance. But I thought, oh, man, and I loved watching YouTube. So I just thought, how cool would this be if I could talk to other people about personal finance? And there's no other videos on YouTube that were talking about these things.

So I thought, I could do that. Were you seeing the same mistakes repeated by your friends and peers? Yeah. Oh, gosh. I had a buddy. And I won't name him. But he got a $200 bonus for Thanksgiving. Okay.

And blew it and more at the bar the same night he got the bonus. Well, that's the purpose of getting a bonus. And I was like, dude, what are you doing? You could just like invest to do a raw thire. He's like, no. Man, I got my whole. You wanted him to invest his $200. In a Roth IRA, yeah.

But his mindset was, you know what? I got my whole life ahead. I'm just going to have fun. I could do that when I'm 30, but I'm like, dude, the compound interest. If you just invested right now, that extra five years could be substantial, but you blew it at the bar. But here's the thing that I noticed with his budget is that when he had the $200, he'd be buying everyone drinks and doing this and that. When he was like nothing, he would find a way to make the nothing work as well in terms of like, you know, just buying cheaper stuff or doing this or doing, like you'll find a way to budget. So he just made use of whatever

money he had. But I just thought, man, if someone could just say, like, hey, instead of spending $200 at the bar, let's meet up at your place beforehand. We'll take an Uber down there and we'll spend a fraction of the cost. Got it. So it wasn't that he was spending his money. It was the way he was spending it that bothered you. So it bothered me.

Someril spends their money. Yeah. It did. It's just the principle of it. I don't know. It's just the idea of wasting money. How do you differentiate between wasting money and spending money? Oh, that's a great question. I think a lot of it's relative, for me personally, and I, you know, I rail on people for, I think, spending too much. But for me, it's what gets the biggest bang for the buck. And so if you could get 90% of the experience for 10% of the cost, I'd be like, that's a great deal versus chasing that little extra bit. So I've always viewed things as like, what gets the best bang for the buck and optimizing that.

And do you feel like in general 20 year olds don't think about it? that way? They're starting to. I've noticed now it's started to become trendy. Really? Yeah, to like start saving it. But maybe I'm in a weird group where it's like they're all like kind of personal finance enthusiasts. I've, I bet if I went to a college campus, maybe it would be different, but I'm finding it to be more mainstream now. And 10 years ago did not use to be the case. Interesting. And where do you think that cultural shift is happening? Because I would like to think it's YouTube. I would like to think that it's become, I think Shark Tank had had a big pull on people to think about business and becoming an entrepreneur, doing their own thing.

I think the internet, social media has really opened people up to communicating with others who are like-minded around the world. But I would like to think that YouTube had a big push and just content that's out there, that people just stumble upon usually. It's like, oh, I didn't know I should do that and open a 401K and all the benefits of that and just like trying to make it cool, I think is really important. But you did that before YouTube, before Shark Tank. So what got you into it? Well, I mean, I used to watch Shark Tank as a kid. I mean, I was 17, 18 years old. I think that show came out in 2008. And then before that, it was Dragon's Den in Canada. And I watched it. You were watching it there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because I have a lot of family in Canada. in the business world already at that age as a teenager.

Yeah, I was always just... Where does that come from? I don't know. I just always naturally, like, inclined to save money. Like, you know, as a kid, you get, like, you know, birthday money or, like, you know, Christmas or grandma would, like, send you a 20 box or something like that. I put it in an envelope. I just, like, I got more enjoyment for saving it than I would spend it.

Like, I didn't want to spend it. I just want to save it. But then as I got older, I realized, like, how tough it is to make money sometimes. There was, you know, throughout high school, I had a part-time job. And that did well for what I was doing at like 14, 15. I'd be able to make like $100 in like a weekend or something like that. But there was a moment there, like right as I was graduating high school, I worked at a gold investment firm, Santa Monica.

And I got minimum wage doing data entry. And this is like a weird point. Like my high school kind of ended around February, but we didn't technically graduate until like April. So I had this weird stint there where I was like waiting here back from colleges. and I want it to work, and I got a job like, I think it was $7.75 an hour, like $8 an hour like that. And I remember looking at the first check

after like two weeks, it was a week and a half, and after taxes being taken out, how little it was. And that just reset my gauge for like, if I buy a Starbucks, that's an hour of my time. Do I really want to spend an hour working extra to pay for the Starbucks? Same thing with going out to lunch. The lunch could be like $15.

It's like, do I want to work two and a half hours to pay for the lunch? Like, that just makes my day two and a half hours longer just to break even on that. So I just found ways to optimize. But that set my thinking at, like, how far a dollar could go. Is that because of the financial circumstances you grew up around or not at all? There were times where my parents were certainly paycheck to paycheck. I distinctly remember seeing my dad struggle with paying rent sometimes.

And I think that went into it. That was probably when I was, like, 15. well, 16, give or take, 14. I was already more of like a natural saver before then, but I think maybe that reinforced, like you got to save for a rainy day. You should always have something to fall back on. Anything can happen, even if it's outside your control.

You can do everything perfect. And you'll always be thrown a curve ball. So it's like preparing for that in advance. And I find it hard to ultimately make the decision with each circumstance whether or not something is valuable. because value is such a weird proposition when it comes to experience. For someone going to the bar might be a complete valueless experience where they're just drinking and spending all their hard-earned bonus money.

But then for someone else, it could mean finding their future spouse. That's true. So how do you balance that between, okay, I'm going to go all out and have fun and enjoy my time as a young person versus I've got to be responsible and saved? Do you ever have those two angel-demon situations? situations? I was extremely disciplined throughout my 20s. For me it was saving was

the bottom line. But I enjoyed saving. So I was like I got enjoyment and pleasure from like not doing that. It was almost like a game for me to be like how can I make $10 last? You know, there's two days and what groceries can I find? Like for me it was fun. You were making YouTube videos before that was like a concept. Right. But but my thinking was that if you hunker down for your 20s and like live below your means, do everything you can't

work nonstop and just say that you're going to sacrifice a decade in your 20s. You could really set yourself up for the rest of your life, depending on how much you make and how much you're able to save where you live, obviously. There's so many variables to that. But I think for a lot of people, if you just, I'm not saying never have fun, but I'm saying sacrifice 10 years in your 20s, from 20 to 30, live like you're broke, live like a college student with a whole bunch of roommates, work your ass off, get two jobs if you had, do anything you can. And by the time you're 30, I think what you've set up there will compound for the rest of your life. And that's kind of how I've operated. And only now am I starting to like take the foot off the gas a little bit

and like enjoy the things. But then I'm coming back to it. I'm like, man, I just enjoy it working. You know, there's nothing that I could really buy that. Like I have more fun sitting down and planning out a video or going on a podcast than anything else at this point. Sure. Because my question would be, and maybe it's partially me playing devil's advocate. Yeah. You're hungering down on you're saving the money for those 10 years for what what is the end goal in the 30s okay you have money saved up and maybe you have more flexible spending that itself doesn't buy you joy if you hate the process of saving is it worth doing it you know what it is for me it's the options i like having options of like not that i would do it but like hypothetically okay want to go to florida tomorrow

and fly first class if i wanted to i could do that and that would be okay and that would be sustainable and I wouldn't have to go broke doing it. And if I wanted to do that every day, I could find a way to make that work. I like having the options and having that freedom is just, it takes the stress off everything else, just knowing that anything is possible. Have you ever sacrificed your health for the benefit of savings? I would say yes. I would say, well, no, for savings, we could put it this way. 2020 and 2021, did not go to the gym at all. Really?

At all. And I would go to the gym, really since I turned 18, I would go four to five times a week. Was that pandemic related or work-related? Both. Initially, it was pandemic-related. The gym closed down. And so I used that time to work instead. And then throughout those next two years, there was so much going on.

And it was so crazy for my schedule that I thought, well, that hour it takes me at the gym. That's 15 minutes getting there. It's an hour and a half. well, what's my time worth right now? Oh, that hour and a half. That's an expensive hour and a half. Well, like, just make a video instead. Or I put more time and doing the podcast.

That's a better use. And I justify that for two years of just hunkering down on that. Now, you know, every now and then I'd go and lift weights or do, but it wasn't like my dedicated regimen like I had. And then also went with like, when you stop going to the gym, you generally tend to eat a little bit more. You're a little hungrier for some reason. So I put on maybe 10 pounds.

I mean, it's like on my frame, though, it's like 10, 15 pounds is like a decent amount. Maybe not 15, probably 10. But I definitely noticed I was sluggish. I did not have as much energy. I couldn't think as clearly. I was more stressed out. And it was actually Creator Clash

that got me back into it. And it was like one of the reasons, one of the many reasons I'd have said. Really? But like, kick me into shape. That's what I need to know. because that is ultimately the worst use of your time financially because it's for charity.

It's not something that is going to be good for your health, your wallet, the training costs money. There's a huge time component investment. Why in the world did you decide to get punched in the face? I thought it was too real. I thought, first of all, it's a good cause. Okay. And then I thought 20 years from now,

would I look back at like 50 years old and regret not doing it? Would I ever look back and question that decision? And the answer is yes. Like I would, if I didn't say yes, I would look back, think, what if I had done that? I never wanted to look back and think, what if? And so I said yes. Wow. And is that how you view most decisions these days?

Now it is. It didn't used to be. Yeah, I was going to say, because that doesn't fit the model that you described earlier. No. So why the shift now? I think it got to a point where overall, I think my values have changed slightly. I think my 20s, I've always just thought to myself. I'm like, really from 20 to 35, I was just going to head down work.

But now it's gotten to a point where I feel like I could start making those alternative decisions and think about just future regret of things and trying to minimize that. It's like minimizing regret of the future. And so now I kind of process everything I do through that lens of like, will I regret not doing it? And most of it turns out great. And I look back at that to think, oh, I'm glad I did that. Some of it every now and then I'm like, you know what, that wasn't worth it. but you win some, you lose some.

Oh, well, on to the next one. Yeah. Did you have any regret from your 20s? There were a few things that I was definitely, I saved too much money. Like, it says so it's weird to say, but like, there were stupid things. When I was like just starting out as a real estate agent, like I calculated the cost of gas to go and visit friends. And like, I shouldn't have done that. I'm talking like, you know, this is like maybe the first week or two.

I was working for free and I'm like trying to budget my gas and I'm like well the friend lives over here gas prices are like all time highs and I calculate it's gonna be like $6 in gas and I'm like well that would have been an hour

of me working at the previous place is it really worth it I'm gonna see him for an hour and a half and drive back so it's like it's not worth it I would literally cancel plans or does not make them because it's like well the gas would cost

more than I'm gonna get to see you it's like so stupid looking back well it's not stupid just hyper-practical Yeah. Okay, sure. I'll go with that. But looking bad, that was dumb. And I shouldn't have been to that degree. There were also a few other, like, little things. Like, there would be car meets that I got. And I bought, like, my first commission, I bought a lotus a lease. It was 30 grand. I, like, spent the whole commission on the car and the tax and all that. Super light. Yeah. And I loved it. But I was so stupid. Spent 30 grand on the car, but I wouldn't go to some of the drives because I didn't want to spend the money on the gas. It's stupid. You were like punishing yourself. But at the time, I was like, well, if I go to these ones, it's like the extra ones won't

matter that much. I do one a month instead of two. You were doing like fantasy football with your gas costs. Yeah. I really tried to maximize it. I mean, looking back, it was stupid. I didn't have to do any of that sort of stuff. But you know what?

In the moment, it made sense. Sure. It worked. I think the same could be. be said about going on vacations, I really didn't go on vacations, just because I always wanted to be on call for clients. I wanted to be a real estate agent where if someone calls me last minute, 24-7, I'll drop everything and I'll show the house. Rarely did it happen to that degree where it's like a Friday night, but I would do it and that's happened. So I've always just tried to be

available. And now looking back, doing creator clash, you didn't get the win. Michael Reeves turned out to be a beast. Monster. Yeah. Do you have regrets of doing it, actually? No, the other way around. No, I don't. Tell me about that. I would say my only regret with that is I should have trained more. That is my- Did you train, under-train you think?

I believe so. I should have prioritized it more and I didn't, and I was trying to balance the two. And I realized with Michael, he's the type where he's 110% or zero. There's no in between. And I was like an 80%. Okay.

I can't compete. Is it the number of days per week that we're talking 80%? Is it the effort you put in the training sessions, or just time in general. I think everything, even his mentality. Like, for me, I was able to block off

four times a week for an hour and a half and just train. But he was able to knock off like seven, six days a week. Wow. Live it every day. And for me,

I was trying to do that in conjunction with, like, not slowing down the momentum of, I was like trying to ramp up momentum in everything else and do that on top of it. But also, Michael was just insanely talented.

Like, the fact, like, maneuvered, like, in ways that I can't do that. Like, my back doesn't move in that direction, and he's, like, just, like, you know, going around, like, I'm very slithery. He is. I'm surprised he's not on Crater Clash, too. Did you consider doing it again?

No. Never? No. That's it. You did it one and done. Wow. So if Crater Clash three calls and says this time, it's for profit and we're giving you a million bucks, you're not doing it?

Probably not. It would have to be, it would have to be at a point where it's all I'm doing. I'd say if I had nothing going on and I had a chance just to get like six months uninterrupted where that's my only focus I would do it. Interesting. What did your loved ones family members say about you doing it?

My mom thought I was joking. When you said it initially. I didn't tell her. First of all, I didn't tell her for a long time because I knew she'd get worried. Of course. And so I didn't tell her. And I told her maybe like two weeks before.

I'm like, oh, by the way, mom, I got like a boxing match and don't ask me about it. And she thought he said, oh, okay. I'm being real. She's like, no, you're not. And I'm like, I am, but just don't ask about it. Just, it is what it is. And I think it took her a week.

She even brought it up like a week later as like a joke. It's like, no, I was being serious there. Did she come and watch in person? I told her not to watch. I told, like, all my family preferably do not watch. I didn't know how it was good. Like beforehand, I don't know how I'm going to do. And so if I win, great, I can tell you about it afterwards.

If something happens, I lose or I get hurt, I'll hear about it afterwards. So there's no point. You don't want them to be concerned. Yeah, it would make me more concerned. Like, I was so nervous leading up to it that two weeks prior, I just got so irritable if anyone brought it up to me because I was panicking on me. It's like, I started losing sleep when we were there. I have to say that.

I started losing sleep. I started having like mini panic attacks. I had nightmares, recurring nightmares about like going up on the stage and like passing out or just like having a panic attack and not being able to do it and like 10,000 people are watching. and the best way for me to cope with that was just not think about it and so anytime someone brings it up

I'd go into that state of panic sure I can't be around it so do you think maybe working with a sports psychologist would have given you more success in that situation? Potentially because a lot of success in the ring I'm sure you've heard is mental

and your approach two weeks before your rest your heart rate all of that comes from your mental health So I'm curious, if you were to do it again, would you consider doing that? Oh, 100%. I didn't even know that was a thing. I'll tell you, like, I didn't even know. Yeah, that's really big.

The reason I mentioned is because I've also considered it for myself on my last match. I experienced something similar to you in that I feel like I dissociated from my emotions leading up to my match, meaning that I was so nervous that I got into this, I'm just going to push through mentality, kind of my Russian side USSR mentality and when you do that you almost turn off all emotions and when you turn off all emotions

that means you simultaneously turn off nerves fear but also joy happiness excitement which are things you need when you're going into a ring you want to feel your heart rate go up that anxiety that you're feeling is actually your body and mind prepping yourself

for thinking quickly inside the ring so I shut all of that down and that's not good when you're going to fight a point pro fighters. Well, you know what you learn. And so are you going to continue? I'm not ruling it out. Okay. You just have to find the right person. Okay. Because I find myself in a weird scenario where I fought a YouTuber. Yeah. And now someone with a lot of fight experience, where do you go from there? Jake Paul. That's a little bit too high of a job. But yeah,

it's tough. Time will tell basically in that scenario. That's interesting. For something I wanted to touch on was how you so carefully and practically planned out your 20s to get you to your 30s, do you have any feelings of decreased happiness now that you are at the point where you wanted to be in your 20s, if that makes sense? None. I think now I'm at a point where I've got to try to figure out what's next and what's beyond it because when you have like these goals in your 20s, I feel like once you hit

them, it's like what's the next goal and it's not a money goal. It's like, where do I find the biggest happiness? Where do I get the most personal fulfillment? I'm trying to find what that is and what leads me to continue learning. Sometimes I feel like I've tapped out in terms of what I can accomplish in one area and I want to continue that

and figure out what's next. I just don't want to be stagnant. So now it's a bit of a... I'd say this is some exploring years where I could really figure out where I'm the happiest what I want to be doing and what's like what's bigger than just me.

Okay, and what is that? I don't know. I'm trying to figure it out. How are you trying? I'm traveling. This is like, I never would have come to New York in the past. Two years ago, me, would be like, no, I'm just, I got to stay at home. I got to be in my office.

If I don't do, like, this thing, I was so regimented by that. Like, even taking an hour break, I would just feel antsy because I'm like, I got to do this. Now it's gotten to a point where, like, I find more enjoyment doing these trips and, like, trying it. So this is a bit of an experiment of, like, taking five days. now we're still working like nonstop but it's it's a different sort of thing with with podcasts and traveling and getting to see new new places and people and it's all these different experiences that I did put off in my 20s do you have like a baseline level of anxiety in general would you consider yourself oh I don't think so I think I'm pretty practical I'm I would say

I'm prone to overthinking things um that's probably the worst of it is just any scenario I'll I'll it out like from best to worst and I'll prepare myself be like if this goes bad this is the worst case now and it could be anything to like the best case and I'll do that with anything and does that ever get you to a place where you're so worried about the negative outcome the worst outcome or not at all you find yourself not really there's a great book called the art of not giving a fuck and that's and yeah the subtle art yeah that's it um and it's just accepting the worst and if you could be okay with the worst you're fine and so I'll play out scenarios and it's the worst case scenario. Like, you know, if I'm buying a property, okay,

what's the worst case down? Like, really, what's the worst case? Okay, well, you buy it and there's a massive earthquake in Los Angeles. Okay, well, get insurance for that. Or you buy, the real estate market goes down 50%. Okay, what about rents? Oh, yeah. And so I run through every scenario on that. And I just accept, okay, well, that's the worst. And can I live with that? Yes, then I'll move forward. What's the worst financial situation that's happened to? I, oh, geez. there were two one i would say which was a dumb move dumb i put i think 250 grand in a robinot stock when it dropped it went from like 90 bucks to 30 something or like 28 isn't it like at 7 now or something

it was 950 that was it was stupid but by the way i'm laughing i did the same yeah in my defense before people call me irresponsible. 90% of my monies and index funds. This was like, you know, a small portion of my point, a small portion, I put it in Robin Hood. It was dumb. I shouldn't have done that. Why did you do, do you have such strong belief in?

I looked at Robin Hood. I thought, objectively, they had a strong cash balance. Everyone on Wall Street bets post Robin Hood screenshots. People hate Robin Hood, but they're still using it. And I thought to myself, they're not going away anytime soon. I thought this would be a safe, long-term hold. Time will tell, but I have sold off of it and use that to harvest losses against gains that I've made.

So, you know, it is what it is. Fair. You know, lesson learned. It was a business that I started up. I don't want to go into too much detail about it, but it lost 230 grand. But I tried it out. Didn't work, not for me, moved on,

from it okay well we all have misses because in order to make a shot you have to miss but you know what my misses i would say came from when i when i deviated from the core of like what i really wanted to do a lot of these things were like experimentation yeah and a lot of it is when we're on the podcast i get a lot of suggestions and sometimes it's hard for me to to go with my gut when people who are way more successful than me say graham you should be doing this and you should be doing this if i were in your position i would do this and I do that and I listen to him like yeah you know what they're way more successful than I like I should listen to these people and at the root of it the more I've listened and the more I've done that that you know maybe that I wouldn't have done on my own it doesn't turn out well

and so a lot of that comes to do with like you know outsourcing hiring doing this and that and you know at the core it just maybe realized like how much I enjoy just a small team working on a couch in my living room like just so simple and that's what I'm the happy and without stress. It's just doing things small. And I think that's where I've found the most enjoyment. That's at the heart of every YouTuber, right? That's how we started. And there's pressure always on YouTube to continue growing because within the algorithm, if you're not growing, you're stagnating. If you're stagnating, someone's outperforming you, and it hurts. So there's always pressure to grow, but then you don't want to grow too big where you lose control and you

give up control and stop enjoying the things you once enjoyed. It's a very tricky sort of business to maintain. But you're almost painting it in a negative light that you tried something that someone else recommended or something that wasn't exactly what you wanted. But isn't it just a form of experimentation where you needed to step outside your own gut? Part of me thinks I could have done that for a lot less. Because I look at the value that. I mean, you know, I could learn that for 50K. But you know what? It is what it is. And at the end of the day, I mean, well, we have to balance that because, you know, you talked about two. bad losses, what's your biggest win?

There's been a lot of them. I mean, are we talking about like, are we talking about like investments or we're talking about, like, just anything? Deals, investments. Oh, man. Well, one of them, well, basically, any, anything real estate related that I've done has done extremely well. All of those have been fantastic.

Two really stand out. One, one is a duplex I bought, $5,000. And it needed a lot of work. But this was a listing. It was worth $6.50 when I saw it. And the agent didn't know what they had. The guy was from out of town. No, I just put it up at this price.

It was the first one to see it. Made an offer that same night. And I told them they have to accept it at asking. Or maybe it's slightly lower. But I got him to accept it that night. And it was instantly worth like $75 grand more than I was paying like instantly. And I fixed it up. And as I was fixing it up, I'm like, I could move in this one side.

And like I started doing the math on this. And like, if I rent this out. I could build the garage out of studio and use that as tax route with the equity. It worked out to be a free place to stay. So, fixed it up, I started working out of the garage. It was a one-bedroom duplex, I made like 700 square feet. I loved this place. And it was free.

And it was like the $0 duplex because I got it reappraised and I pulled out, I did a cash out of finance from all the money I put in it out. And it's still, well, at that point it broke even. But it was basically a free place to stay. that I've had none of my own money in and I got to live there and that was like the coolest thing ever just thinking like

I get to live in Los Angeles in a place that I love with like a garage that's my studio and like it's free so I love that okay then the other place was I guess the home I'm living in in Vegas I mean that was luck but it was like

not the worst of COVID but like really when that first went down I put I think it was like 15 or 12% down on the home. And then since I had my license at the time, I was able to reroute the commission against the down payment.

And so I was in this thing, maybe like 10% down on a 30-year mortgage at 2.8% right before Vegas just took off. And I think the home went from like one and a half to maybe 2.8 at the peak. Now it's probably down to 2-2, 2-3 with the market going down.

but like I'm not going to sell it. Sure. But just putting such little money down with, like when you consider like maybe it was 100 grand, like total out of pocket, to go from 100 grand to, what was that, over a million dollars in equity in two years? I mean, that's not normal by any means. And that was a lot of luck. But it's just, that was crazy to think that you could, you know, 12x your money like

that. Have you made more money with your investments or on social media? Social media by far. Really? Oh, yeah. But the thing is it's like, I'm not working on my investment. I think a lot of people have this conception. Like, oh, yeah, it makes most of his money from YouTube.

But, yeah, I mean, that's how it works, though. Yeah. Because it's like I spent 12 hours a day on YouTube trying to do, like, trying to build the business of that six, seven days a week. And my investments, I spend nothing. I mean, maybe an hour or two a month. This year might be the first year, maybe, give or take, where my investments match what I could do on YouTube.

But a lot of it, I'm just trying to funnel. Like, everything I make from YouTube just gets funneled in. to investments. And it's just a 50-50 real estate index funds. How do you know what to invest in, I mean outside of index funds, without spending the time to do your due diligence or research? Because you're saying you're not spending much time on it. Very little. I do do research, but I just, I believe in the market long term. And I basically go off the study that over 20 to 30 years, a stock market's going to have a positive return. And I care about wealth preservation and just having some sort of growth.

And so I've seen historically a three-fund portfolio or investing in U.S. equities or a total stock market index along with international index, that should yield a return of anywhere from like 5% to 7% long term for 20 years. So I just think I'm locking up my money for 20 years. Whatever I put in here, I'm not going to touch until I'm 50. And if it makes 5%, 4%, I'd be happy with that. The real estate aspect is something I want to get more involved in

and I haven't because I've focused so much on YouTube that real estate takes a lot of work. And you have to be on there every single day looking at properties, making offers. It's very much an active income in the beginning. And I thought, well, my time is best spent on YouTube right now. But I want to get back into real estate. So for me, commercial real estate is my next investment. So I'm looking for it. But I think my thought is that the market has a little bit more room to go down for commercial.

And a lot of sellers haven't fully priced in the interest rate hikes. So I'm waiting for that to happen or when I could get a good enough deal. What advice do you give for people who would consider investing in real estate or the market? Yeah. Like general. I think it helps to buy a place for yourself to live in first because you have total control over that. As long as you're planning to live there for like seven to ten years or live in the location or own the property. I would say the biggest risk is that you buy a property with the expectation of selling it in a few years and making money.

It probably won't happen. Realistically, you should be holding for seven to ten years. I think if you know you're going to live in a location, or you don't mind renting it out and being a landlord, to buy something for yourself, preferably rent out the bedrooms or get like a duplex, triplex, fourplex, live in one of the units and rent out the others. Easier said than done in some locations, like Las Vegas,

we don't really have a lot of duplexes, but you could get a great house, rent out the bedrooms, a five-bedroom house, $350, $400,000, rent out the bedrooms for $1,000 each. Get really good people. people in there, get your friends in there. And if you do it right, you'll have a free place to stay. The average person, I think, spends like 25 to 33% of their income goes to housing. Now, imagine it's like, now you could see it as though you just got a 25 to 33% pay raise.

You're making 33% more money because you did that and made that decision. And sure, you live with roommates for a little bit. But I think it's, again, a sacrifice that you can make in your 20s. If you have a good credit score, you have stable income. And then what about for equities? I take a very passive approach personally of just index funds. I dabble every now and then with picking individual stocks. Some have done really well and some have done really bad. But I do that with like under 5% of my portfolio.

90 plus index funds because I acknowledge I cannot time the market. I just buy every day. It's like it's a stupid habit of mine where every morning I wake up I buy just the same index funds. And I do it every day. Some people could do every week or every month. It doesn't matter. But for me, it's just like a hobby going there and I buy my funds every day. It's just, it's fun. And I can have fun within the day trying to time, like what time I think it's going to be best. Sure.

It's stupid. It's just a game. Like, it makes no difference in the term. There's long term when you're thinking 20 years. What's the difference? What's the difference of like 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. And like, but sometimes I enjoy if I see the market turning. I could guess? Like, I get it out of my system in the day. It's like, it's going down, down a percent. I'm like, could it go down 1.2? Place a limit order and like see if it hits every now and then it does what's the worst financial decision you see us make like 20 30 year olds i would say not setting up a rath IRA i think it's just it's something that a lot of people could be doing that don't and it's incredibly easy so roth IRA is basically

an account that you could set it's a retirement account where you could invest money after tax so like let's say you make a thousand dollars in a you know a week or whatever um after taxes that'll be $700, $800, whatever it might be. So you're taking that $800 is left or after tax, and you're investing it in a Roth IRA or an account. And by the time you're 65, all that profit you make within the account is tax-free. So you're able to invest it in stocks.

You could do index funds or some multitude of investments that you could make. But the goal is that when you're young in doing that, you have 40 years of compound interest, where all of a sudden that $800 you invest could be worth $8,000, $5,000. and it's tax-free. And the limit, I believe, is $6,500 a year. And there are ways to get more than that

or if you're above the income limit. But for most people, it takes 10 minutes to set up an account. It's super easy to do. If you have any questions, call the broker. Vanguard is one of them. Call them up. TD Ameri or Fidelity.

Charles Schwab, anybody, call them on the phone. You could set it up in 10 minutes. And you could have a great life when you're 65 plus. Yeah. Without sacrificing much. It's $6,500 a year.

It depends. For some people, that'll be a ton of money. For others, it'll be nothing. But I think... I think after you factor in compound interest, it's going to be a good amount of money if you're doing it in your late teens, early 20s. Oh, yeah.

You could be a millionaire from this. Just doing that. If you just did $500 a month, and again, to some people, it could be a lot or a little, it doesn't have to. It could be $100 a month. Just something to get you started. From what I've seen is it usually once people get started,

they get excited about and they want to do more of it. So even if it's $50 a month, it doesn't matter. Just as long as you get started and you get to see, once you see it growing, you'll just become addicted to it. Hopefully. What's your take on the crypto and alternative asset world of NFTs and such? I never got into NFTs. I could never understand it.

I thought crypto punks were something that I could see, like, maybe one day. I think it's an interesting concept. My personal thought for NFTs is that it should be a way, to verify ownership or authenticity on the blockchain. So my thinking is that a Gucci bag should come attached with an NFT that you could probably scan and be like,

okay, this is real, and this is on the official Gucci, whatever, Rolex watches, like things like this, or maybe a house to verify ownership with that. Like, these are all content. But the idea that someone could generate like a whale image and make 400 grand for that, that's stupid to me. As far as

crypto, I believe 95% to 98% of it's probably a waste, and there's no purpose for it. If there's not a purpose, like, a lot of them I just feel like are only there to make money. I think Bitcoin Ethereum are the two that are interesting to me. Right now, I think it makes up about three, maybe four percent of my total portfolio. It's a 50-50 makes a Bitcoin Ethereum. I think at the peak, it was maybe like six or seven percent, give or take. But I figure three percent, I'll take the risk on it. If it goes to zero, fine, it doesn't matter. I'd rather take the 3% risk and be in it than not. But I could afford to do that. But yeah, if someone has, you know, a grand, it just, it has to be an amount

that you're mentally prepared to write off the zero. Like, it has to be that because it very well could. Yeah, that's the biggest fear that I see with people that talk to me about is that they get very excited by it and they're willing to put everything in. And they can't risk losing everything. And yet they do. Well, I would say the problem is that it's very easy on social media to see people making a ton of money. A ton. And most of it is BS. Would you agree with me on that? No, I think a lot of it's real. But you have these just outliers, especially, because those are the stories that, like, get the most attention. And you have these outliers that make a ton of money doing it. And you think, well, they're doing it. Why can't I? Like, there's all these other

opportunities. This is just normal dude here. It's easier for people to jump into that and not realize that there are tremendous risks in doing that. The Dogecoin millionaire was someone for me, I had them on my channel two to three times. We did a one-hour podcast, and the second half of that podcast was just trying to convince him to sell. This is someone who's making $50,000 a year, and he sold everything he had, maxed out his credit cards, and put $150, or $200,000 of Dogecoin, like a fraction of a, you know, I forget maybe like a penny or something like that. and at the peak it was worth three million dollars and this is a dude making 50 grand a year

like the life changing money after tax and we broke it down I'm like dude you will never have to work a day in your life after tax invest it in here you could pull 3% of it out every single year that's your salary you've made your salary for life if you just sell right now why take the risk and so well he didn't sell but I think people forget that like it can go down and the losses are real

so anything you do invest if you have a life-changing amount of money, it's worth it to sell. If you could write it out to zero, so be it. But it's risky. But I do believe you see the outliers because those are the people that get the most attention.

To me, I'll tell you my mindset why I think a lot of it is fake. I don't mean it's fake in that they didn't earn what they said they earned or that they had a big sale multiple times over. That's true.

But it's in the same way I grew up in the poker community in New York where you would frequently hear a guy winning huge amounts and then when you'd become friendly with this person you'd see how much they're actually losing on most days

and that their big win maybe nets out to zero with their losses that you never really hear about people's losses because no one wants to celebrate their losses and they'll quickly show you how their paper millionaires like the doge corn millionaire that you had on your show where

look on paper I'm worth this but until you sell it you're not worth anything really especially in the of Dogecoin, where this is not anything of real value. It's all speculative value. So I feel like a lot of what people see is these paper millionaires, or maybe millionaires that made a million on this project, but lost 10 million on all these other projects. And as a result, they're being misled to think, oh, this person only picks winners. That's very true. That's a great point. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong. I think it's very prevalent too when GameStop was having its

massive run up. And you saw a deep effing value on Wall Street, that's supposed to these 44 million dollar screenshots. I mean, that's a huge win. But I think a lot of people saw that. I'm like, well, if he's doing it, if he's in, I'm in. And there's that mentality that, like, we're in this together. But really, how many losses came before that one? Probably a lot.

A lot, right? Especially when you're in this volatile space, like the crypto world. I don't know. I agree. My mindset, just write it off to zero. Yeah. If it's something great, if not, it should have always been speculative and just a risk to begin with. Fair.

So make your prediction right now, 20, 2030, what is the price of Bitcoin? Oh, gosh. I don't know. I couldn't even tell you. Like, here's the thing. I wouldn't. I wouldn't hypothesize. Well, I don't, because, man, it's like either way. If I say less, it's bad. If I say more than I'm pumping it. It's either way. This is planet fitness. Judgment free zone. Well, the comments are going to judge now. It's like if I say, if I say, if I say hi, if I'm turning off the comments. If I say hi, everyone's going to say I'm pumping it. If I say low,

then I'm fudding. I don't think, I don't think there's a scenario where I could say a number where I could win. I wouldn't be surprised. You know what number you could say where you win? Whatever you honestly believe, because then it doesn't matter what the comments say. Oh, gosh. 2030? Oh, man. I don't know. I mean, my honest thought is that I wouldn't be surprised if you told me it was a million dollars. I would not be surprised. If you told me that it was banned and that they found a way around it

and it's now worth $1,000 or $100, I wouldn't be surprised either. So I would say a range anywhere from $1,000 to a million would not shock me with Bitcoin. I've been so surprised with Bitcoin. I saw it hit $1,000. I thought it was the stupidest thing in the world. I didn't get it. I thought maybe one day. And you could watch the video that I had back in, I think, early 2017, I made a video

when it first hit a thousand bucks. And I said, maybe at one point it could be used as a store of wealth. I think as a use of currency, it makes no sense at all. Could it be used to store a lot? Probably, maybe. But I thought it was silly. I didn't. I mean, the more I looked into it.

But the more I'm like, I could see its utility. I could see its purpose and why people are attracted to it. So I could go either way, man. I can't. So you're not going to give me an answer. I can't give you an answer on that. Can't clip it. Yeah.

You live in Vegas. I do. And you told me earlier that you had a scare with skin cancer. Vegas is a dangerous place for those who had skin cancer scares. Tell me about that. Yeah. So this was actually, the scare came in California when I was there. and I would usually go out

and just lay in the sun for like 15, 20 minutes try to get a bit of a tan because I work inside. So like this is my outside sort of, you know, skin. Sunlight exposure. Right. And over time, I started getting these moles. And there were quite a few of them

and they started growing bigger. And when I was in, well, I just moved to Vegas and one of them started itching. And I wasn't sure if it was less like the dryness or if it was bad. So then, of course, I go online. And when I go online, I convinced myself I had basal cell.

And everything I'm looking up, I'm looking at the pictures. I'm like, this matches perfectly. This is this. And I think it was my grandfather had it. And so it runs in the family. And I was like, this is it. And so I went to a doctor

and I was all freaked out about it. And within, I don't know, a minute. She's like, oh, you have atypical mole syndrome. And it's something to watch out for. We'll take, like, you know, biopsies. No, they didn't take it. No, they didn't do anything. She said, we'll just, we'll keep an eye on them.

We'll basically watch where they are now, but come back to us every year and wear sunscreen. And so I've done that. Part of me in the back of my mind was like, maybe I should I got a second opinion. But I look up atypical mole syndrome. And, like, it matches basically my moles, exactly. But it's something in the back of my mind. But now I stay out of the sun, or if I am and they'll put sunscreen. Sure. That's wise. The thing with atypical moles is for me, I like to investigate them and make sure

they're good. Obviously, during doing a dermoscopy, they put some kind of magnifying glass or any kind of, okay, so that's a good place to start. Because there you could see certain things that you can't see with the naked eye, because you get to see a little layer below. But I'm glad that you were diagnosed with a non-cancerous condition. That's positive. And you got a good, a active takeaway from it to wear sunscreen. Yeah, exactly. And I was never a sunscreen proponent until after that, and now I'm just better safe than sorry. Okay, that's awesome. Are there any other ways being a world-class investor that you invest in your own health? I would say, you know what, I kept up the boxing trainer. Really? Yeah, I still do that once a week. Okay. And it's something

that forces me in to go to the gym and keep it up and not lose that skill. And, And now I'm going to the gym like five, six days a week. I have a log where now I feel guilty if I don't go. Like now I try to make the game a fight where if I can go every day, it's like even better. Okay. And cardio is something. I hated cardio. Boxing got me into cardio.

What kind of cardio? Either a walk on a steep incline. Like I do the 13 incline on the treadmill with like the 3.2 speed for 30 minutes. Okay. Gets me really good. Or running, which I hated running before. I could stand it. But I got running shit.

The problem was that I was running without running shoes. I'd wear vests, thinking like, I didn't know. You're like, you're waterproof. Yeah. But then I got running shoes, I'm like, oh man, this is so much easier. Like, I was doing it wrong. What running shoes did you decide on? I don't know.

I just went to the running shoe store and they fitted it and I was off to the races. You were sold, okay? Yeah. And then do you do anything unique for your health? Do you take any kind of medicinal herbs, supplements? Maybe I should. No, no. I don't.

I don't. Oh, you know, I've been trying to get better. about drinking water. Okay. That's something I'd be terrible about. Like, I'll go all day just drinking coffee and then I get to dinner. I'm like, I didn't have any water today. Well, when you're drinking coffee, you're drinking water. But probably not as much as I should. Well, each cup of coffee is mostly water. I heard it's a diuretic, right? So it's like... So caffeine is a diuretic. Yeah. And consuming coffee kind of negates the effect of the diuretic. Okay. Because a Diarrotic makes you create urine, but you create urine from the water that's within the coffee.

Okay. So it's not a dehydrating thing per se, because it's a net neutral. But if you're having espresso shots, that can be dehydrated. I am not. Because then you're having caffeine without all the liquid. That's interesting. Okay. Yeah, I did, you know, it's funny.

It did a sponsorship with this company co-pilot. And it's like this personal trainer that they get you on the app. I work with them too. Yeah. Okay, I like it. My guy was like, probably the same guy, I'd imagine. and it was like, dude, you got to drink more water. And so he set me up on this thing where it's like,

I'm supposed to drink five water bottles a day and then track them off on the app. As I started doing it, I've not been perfect about it, but as I started doing it, it's like, this is how much water I should be drinking. Like, it's a lot. Like, I'm constantly going to be active. Well, if you're working out, you need more water, so absolutely.

Or if I'm just sitting, though, like, because I'm sitting most of the day and I'm working out at night. Yeah, but when you're working out, I'm assuming you're sweating. Yes. Yeah. That's probably, remember, you also get,

water from fruits, vegetables, foods, not just water. I can be better about eating fruits and vegetables, too. Yeah. Well, that's why- It's not the best. I mean, it's healthy, but it's like Greek yogurt. That's amazing. Like a salad. But like no fruits and like-

With a salad, that it's a vegetable. Well, I guess so. But like I'm thinking like fruits and more like healthier stuff. Yeah. But there's a lot of misinformation that exists in the world of being healthy, health and wellness. Has any of that come across your radar where you were curious about or you had questions about it, whether it's fitness related or...

I would say probably two things. One, the amount of sushi I eat. I don't know if that's good. How much sushi do you eat? Probably twice a week. Oh, that's not much. Is it? No, but they're all you can eat places.

Like, Vegas is all you can eat sushi. So it's like a lot. You're trying to maximize. Bang for your buck. $30 all you could eat sushi Neko in Las Vegas. Okay, I don't know. They're so popular now. All you can eat sushi.

I'm really nervous for what kind of quality fish are yet. It's amazing. Really? Yeah, it's funny. I talk about them all the time. And almost every time I go to Sushi Neko, there's like a subscriber there. Really? Or like multiple subscribers that are there.

And they always say, dude, we came in Vegas. We heard you talking about Sushi Neko and we're here. Wow. It's funny. Okay. So you got to be careful with your mercury. And then probably red meat. Which fish do you consume the most?

Probably salmon. Oh, well, that's like a healthier fish. Okay. Because the fish you want to avoid is like sword fish, the bigger fish, basically. They're the ones that have higher rates of mercury. Basically, those bigger fish that eat smaller fish that then concentrate the mercury. For sure. And then you said you eat a lot of red meat?

meat, steaks. A lot of steaks? Again, probably twice a week, if that. Yeah, I mean, it's not the end of the world. There's potential for it to increase some conditions, but when we're talking about increasing conditions, even when we say, you know, eating processed meats, hot dogs and all these things that are generally considered unhealthy, they can increase your risk of colon cancer by X percent.

Remember, that percent that we're talking about is off of the baseline lifetime risk. So if your lifetime risk of developing colon cancer, say 1%, the average person, and then your risk goes up by 20%. That goes up to 1.2. 20% sounds scary, but 1 to 1.2 doesn't sound that bad, right? So we have to always talk about the differences between absolute relative risk when we're talking about risk. That's interesting.

Risk adjustment. Because a lot of news articles will try and scare people. It's difficult. There was something I read online about increasing the risk of cancer by like, it was one of those statistics by like 50%. And it was, you know, it was actually on Reddit. And people were disproving that in the medical subreddit of like, yeah, but dude, it's so loaded.

It's like one out of every 10,000 people. So now it's like two out of every 15. It's like something silly like that. Well, that's why I hate those studies that are like, if you eat almonds, it'll extend your life by 20 years because they like extrapolated the figure that was found. And that's not real. And why I hate all those studies. as a primary care doctor, is when I have a patient in front of me,

there's so many risks in their life that decide whether or not they stay healthy, that worrying about that little risk is probably not worth the benefit of challenging them to overcome that risk. There's other wins to be had that have way bigger returns. But the problem right now is that that sort of stuff is going viral on TikTok. Is it like you watch one of them? And then all of a sudden it feeds you more and more and more. and you go down that wrap.

Which is why my number one series is debunking TikTok's misinformation. Is it really? Yeah, right now. That's fantastic. And it means, yeah, it's terrible. Do you find that you have a good relationship with your primary care doctor? Or do you even have a primary care doctor? I do.

And I just, I don't go to the doctor unless I bad. Like ever? Like yearly even? I go to the doctor. I did recently. Okay. So just because it was so long, I only go if I have a problem. That's bad.

We got to change that. I know. So I went. And we did the general checkup. The only thing that came back, they did full blood work, the only thing that came back was slightly above average

LDL cholesterol. Oh, okay. Good to talk about it. I don't know why. I can tell you why, probably the red meat. You think red mean? Yeah. Okay.

I have the same issue. Okay. My LDL is elevated. I did like a whole YouTube video about it. Interesting. But again, you have to factor that into a whole picture. A patient is not just one number.

Right. So you have to factor in a lot of variables before you even make decisions on where to go from there, whether it's just lifestyle changes and a few dietary changes that you could make that can easily lower that number

where we could decrease the amount of saturated fat you consume, increased the amount of fiber you consume, and that number will go away versus some doctors are very quick to start with the medicines. And we don't always need to do that, but there's sometimes real,

tangible, life-saving benefits to doing so. And that's what a good primary care doctor should be able to do on. So yeah, I did that checkup, but only because it's been so long, long. I'm like, honestly, I've just, I just only go if there's a problem, which I know is bad. But do you know why? Like, you say it's bad. Why is it bad? Because there could be something that's maybe just, I don't, I don't know. Well, that's why I'm curious. When you say it's bad,

I want to know what is in your head. It's probably, probably there could be something laying dormant that I wouldn't know about until a professional sees it. It's hard. It's, I don't know. Like, it could be anything. Like, I don't know. Well, like, give me an example, because I'm always curious why people think they should go for an annual physical. Because I have a theory. I believe that most people don't believe in an annual physical. They just treat the annual physical as a way to, oh, here's my list of problems that I'm going to bring into my annual physical. Whereas what the annual physical should be, let's talk about preventing problems. Sure. And instead it turns into here's the list of the things that have been bothering me for the longest time. Okay, well,

I'll give you an example. You're right. I ended up making the appointment because Every now and they got these weird dizzy spells. Okay. Could last anywhere from like 10 seconds to 15 seconds goes away. Okay. And there was a period there for like a month where it was like every few days. And I was trying to pinpoint it like when it would start. Am I laying down?

Did I eat that day? Was I drinking water? Did I get a good night's sleep? And I couldn't pinpoint anything. And there was one day, middle of the afternoon. So I like had eaten, was awake, got a good night's sleep where it wouldn't go away for like two minutes. And like it was just a weird thing where like the room would spin. I'd blink and then it like resets, room would spin.

been blank. And usually it goes away, but it didn't go away for a few minutes. I was like, all right, I got to go to the doctor and see what it is. Couldn't pinpoint anything. And as soon as I went, it disappeared. Like, I have not had it since then, which was months ago. So, I don't know. It fixed itself. It fixed itself. But that was the reason. That was what prompted me to go. I was like, all right, just in case. Well, see, that, I'm glad you went. Because a lot of people will postpone going and wait for the thing to become bigger, maybe more serious. Or maybe just build up anxiety around it and create other negative problems from the anxiety around it. But the reason that I recommend people to go yearly for a preventive visit is a few reasons.

One, there are specific tests that we do that have an impact on your lifespan and quality of life, like cancer screenings, like vaccinations. These are things that we do to actively catch things early. And we cannot catch all things early. Any doctor that starts ordering every test under the book, willy-nilly, is doing you a a service. There's things that we know we can catch early and act upon. And then there's things that we can catch and have no utility or maybe the test is not made for that. And as a result, we're going to get mixed signals from it. So it creates a very murky picture. So preventing all

problems is impossible. But there are certain things that we can catch early and be proactive on. And then also there's lifestyle things that happen to us, like the foods we eat, the exercise habits we have, the mental health that we're experiencing, and even something as simple as social connections that during a doctor's visit should be elucidated. Because I'll have a 25-year-old female come in, female patient, and I'll ask them if they feel safe at home and we find out they're in a domestic abuse situation or intimate partner violence, that would have never come out unless they went to a primary care doctor's office. And here we can create some strategies on how to mitigate or maybe get out of that relationship or create safety mechanisms and that's one example

then you have like sex health that's another example and there's a lot of these things that a good primary care doctor can talk to you about to prevent problems from becoming worse so it's not miraculous sure we can't catch everything early there's no like miracle see-through magnifying glass that we have but there are certain things that will create tangible benefits what should I be looking for at 32 33 I won't do it to you because I'm not your doctor, but I'll say a 32-year-old male should be looking out for prevention of early-onset cardiac disease by living a healthy lifestyle, making the necessary lifestyle changes, making sure that their sugars are in good shape, making sure that their cholesterol is in good shape, because that will set you up for success as you get older to lower your risk of heart disease. That's our biggest killer in the world, well, mostly in the United States, but worldwide it's a big issue as well. risks for sexual health, making sure that you're as safe as possible there. Do you have any family history of anything? Or does this hypothetical patient have?

Yeah, hypothetically, I would say Alzheimer's, dementia, skin cancer. I think that's it. Yeah, so skin checks are going to be valid, especially given the location of where you live. and then also behavior with alcohol and other mind-altering substances I don't just mean drugs I mean even caffeine as well like the timing of when you're consuming the beverages

how they impact your sleep your rest because the idea is to get you as healthy as possible to the older age right now so alcohol caffeine sexual health making sure your heart's in good health and then mental health those are the biggest things

let's talk about caffeine I'll usually have I think I'm pretty responsible for it, usually two cups a day. That's a great amount of caffeine. Usually never after seven. Oh, that's tight. But never after. But that's tight.

It might be like 6.37. That's tight. Yeah, if I go to bed at like midnight? Yeah, that's tight. Really. Well, you probably as someone who's been drinking two cups for a while, I presume. Yeah. Probably won't feel the effect, but it's definitely having an effect on the quality

of sleep, feeling refreshed in the morning. you would get a bigger benefit just pushing a little earlier. Really? Yeah. And what about going to the gym right before going to the bed? Because usually I'll drink

a bit of a coffee before going to the gym. So if I drink a coffee at six, I'm going to the gym at like 7.30. I don't mind that. I think that's very individual dependent. I've had patients that they work out at night, they fall asleep like a baby. And then there's patients who can't

because they have an adrenaline rush, they can't fall asleep. I'll tell you what it's like for me personally. If I have a low to moderate intensity workout, I can sleep great. even if I worked out at 10 p.m. But now if I'm doing sprints or something for like boxing training, no shot I'm going to sleep well for the next three hours.

Okay. So it depends on what you're doing, what stage of life you're in. But if it works for you, the extra is not the end of the world. Okay, cool. Yeah. So yeah, caffeine is, it's one of those things in medicine where if we look back each decade, we've had differing recommendations. Oh, it will cause cancer.

It will prevent cancer. It will extend your life. It'll shorten your life. I choose to believe it'll extend your life. Well, I think the reality two cups probably won't have the impact that you think it will. Yeah. So again, it falls into that category for me, not worth worrying about it. I see some of these things, though, that now have like 300 milligrams of caffeine.

Or there's pre-workouts that you see. Oh, yeah. I don't get those. Do you know how much caffeine is in a large, or whatever they call large in Starbucks, Grande, Blondros? A blondress. My guess is probably 75. to 85 million grams of 400 plus. What? A blonde?

Wait, explain this? Yeah, I can't. How is that specific? Is that specific? Because a cup of coffee is like 65 to 95, right? For a cup of coffee? I mean, it depends how strong the coffee, but yeah, I would say 80 to 100 is my range. Okay. What about for a, is it stronger the coffee, the more the caffeine? Well, when you say stronger, are you talking about bitterness or darkness of roast? Darkness. Darkness lower the caffeine. Okay. But what about the thick coffee? Like the, like the, you know, know, it's like a mud.

I don't know. I don't know about the muddy coffee. Okay. But the light roast, that's why the blonde roast is the highest amount. Wow. And it's 400. I didn't know it's that much. And there's people who throw espresso shots in there as well.

I didn't know it's that much. And 400 is the cap that we recommend medically to have in a day. And people are having that in one dream. What do you think the long-term effect is on the caffeine use today? I think it's, so the, the human, body works on two nervous systems. One is the rest and digest chill nervous system and repair, and then the other one is the fighter flight. We call them the parasympathetic. That's the rest of the digest. And then the sympathetic is the fighter flight activates when you see a lion. In our current

society, I think we're all sleep deprived. So we're ready we're living in that fighter flight mode to keep us awake. Because if not, we'll be falling asleep in our chairs at work. And then in order to make it easier for us to do that, we're chugging a ton of caffeine to keep us awake. And as a result, again, staying in this fight or flight state and never having the rest, repair, digest. So it feels like we're breaking our bodies down by being overcaffeinated. And I think we're going to find a link, this is speculative, a link between early dementia, Alzheimer's from the lack of sleep and overcaffeination of our society. Something to watch out for.

Yeah. Because I don't think caffeine is bad necessarily on its own for your brain. but I think if you're not sleeping and you're substituting a ton of caffeine for it, that's when it becomes bad for your brain. Okay. Good to know. Thank you. Yeah, so easy.

I'll stick with my two cups. Yeah, and two cups is great. I thought you were going to tell me a wild figure. I've had patients tell me crazy amounts. No, no, no. I probably at the peak, it maybe was like three or four, but I'd always keep it like reasonable. I've always been paranoid that I'd like build up

too much of a tolerance to it. So I try purposely not to. That's smart. Yeah. Did you drink caffeine before your boxing match? I did. Did it make you more nervous? Probably the same.

I was the same nervous for the last, like, two weeks. I didn't get more or less nervous. It was the same thing. Got it. Okay. But yeah, I downed a coffee before, and listen, it didn't help. No difference. I mean, I was so wired.

My body wouldn't have been able to tell. I mean, if anything, it made it harder because I, like, me thinking I had to go pee probably made me think that I had to go pee because I was just paranoid like what if I pee and all the gloves are on like what would happen you know that's a reasonable concern though

all right we're going to go into the lightning ground you ready I'm ready what's the one hypothetical medical product you wish you could invest in it doesn't have to exist now create it right now oh gosh probably male birth control okay that's being developed right now

in shot form pill form interesting sticker form all right um what's one thing your body does that not everybody else's body does my body does everything man uh that does it is your body unique does it do any unique functions i don't think i don't think it's unique it takes punch as well it takes punch as well i'll go with that you you were able to stand in up to that um what's one thing you could do if you couldn't get hurt I don't know.

One thing I could do if I couldn't get hurt. I'm terrified of heights, so I would say maybe bungee jumping or skydiving. Fair. Have you ever been seriously injured? Never been seriously injured. The worst was I was on a fence as a kid, third, second grade,

and a buddy of mine pushed me off the fence as like a fun little joke, and I hit my head right here on the corner. corner of the planter and it was stone. I hit my head open. I had to get like 12 stitches. Okay. Well, that puts us into the next question. What's the most physically painful thing that's ever happened to you? Was it that? Physically painful? Probably. Yeah, I would say that. But again, I was a kid, so I don't. Okay, so shots fired at Michael Reeves, not hitting you hard. Yeah. What's your guilty pleasure that you spend too much money on?

it would be my reef aquarium 310 gallons right when you walk in the front door and it is there's no expense spread on that tank how much is 310 gallon aquarium costs uh it was 50 000 for the install and then i probably spent another 15 000 on like random stuff i added up the costs uh recently i was just adding up all my expenses and i think i spent 9 grand on stuff this last year but a lot of that's fish and coral like a lot of that's discretionary so if i see a cool fish, coral, like upgrade, I'm all about it. I love it. Coral upgrade, okay. Yeah. You hear that kid, save in your 20s, buy fish in your 30s. The rare fish market is booming right now. Really? No. Do you trade fish? It's a meme. Oh, okay. It's like the rare fish market.

Do you have a personal health hack or tip that you love? Someone told me a while ago, the hardest part of going to the gym is just getting there. And so when I don't feel like going, it's just as simple as putting on your shoes and walking down there and just thinking if I could just do five minutes. But when you do the five minutes, you'll do the full thing. Oh, that's, you and Barbara Corcoran gave the same tip. Are you serious? Yeah. Oh, that's cool. Great minds. Um, and then last, but not least, have you given away Livert King's chain yet? No. I don't know. I've, I've yet to wear it because I feel like it's not me. It's so, like, flashy. Part of me thinks maybe I should wear it and like try to get that

abundance mindset. I feel like I'll know when it's the right time. I don't know. Do you have any suggestions on that? I don't. But does he make claims about the chain? He said it was given to him by, so the story behind the chain was that Steve will do it, gave it to Kyle as a gift for helping him grow his channel in his brand. Kyle gave it to Liver King on his podcast. Liver King gave it to me. liver king told me it was supposed to be to show me abundance and to believe that you know anything is possible and you could do it and uh does that advice carry less weight given the nature of what we've learned about oh gosh i mean certainly to some degree but you know what i think i think

at the end of the day i think the intention still remains just as powerful as when he gave it to me and i don't think that discounts the generosity of that gift and i think just the story in the chain, literally, figuratively, the chain of, like, you know, giving custody, yeah, you know, through multiple people. I would love to hand it off to somebody else. I'm hoping just the time presents itself. Ideally, I would love to,

I want it to be, like, really meaningful to whoever receives it and to, like, really make a difference for them. So whenever that happens, I love that. That's going to be a good story when you do. But I can't wear it. It's just like, first of all, I'm too paranoid about having something

that valuable, just, like, on my neck. But then also, it feels like too, like, blingy, like, too flashy. well it's liver king and then i have a question from sam you're a successful real estate agent pretend i'm a virus sell me on moving into your body wow well okay it's going to be cozy in here but you know what uh great well i don't get a lot of sunlight either i was about to say a lot of you get a lot of natural solid you don't get any if you like shady like cozy uh but you know what, it's not a fixer-upper, and a prime location, we'll put it that way. Okay. So,

uh, move in ready. Okay.