The School of Greatness - From Broke to Millions: 3 Experts Reveal Their Investing Secrets

Episode Date: June 20, 2025

Leave an Amazon Rating or Review for my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!I've assembled three transformative money conversations, from investors who have cracked the code on building wealth differently. Chris Camillo shares how he turned social media observations into millions, proving that ordinary people have access to information Wall Street misses. Real estate mogul Glennda Baker reveals the brutal mistakes that taught her to build generational wealth through property. And Bill Perkins challenges everything you think you know about saving money with his "Die With Zero" philosophy. These aren't your typical financial advisors - they're wealth builders who've learned that the biggest risk isn't losing money, it's wasting your life working for money you never enjoy.Chris’s book Laughing at Wall Street: How I Beat the Pros at InvestingGlennda on TikTokBill’s book Die With Zero: Getting All You Can from Your Money and Your LifeIn this episode you will learn:How to turn every dollar into a potential hundred dollars through strategic investing mindset shiftsWhy women possess better investing instincts than men but rarely act on their social intelligenceThe real estate investment strategy that focuses on cash flow over ego-driven property purchasesHow to detect market changes through TikTok comments and social media trends before Wall Street noticesWhy giving your children money at 30 creates more impact than leaving them millions when you dieFor more information go to https://www.lewishowes.com/1787For more Greatness text PODCAST to [phone]More SOG episodes we think you’ll love:Chris Camillo – greatness.lnk.to/1771SCGlennda Baker  – greatness.lnk.to/1651SCBill Perkins – greatness.lnk.to/1529SC Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy!Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

I have a brand new book called Make Money Easy. And if you're looking to create more financial freedom in your life, you want abundance in your life, and you want to stop making money hard in your life, but you want to make it easier, you want to make it flow, you want to feel abundant, then make sure to go to makemoneyeasybook.com right now and get yourself a copy. I really think this is going to help you transform your relationship with money this moment moving forward. We have some big guests and content coming up. Make sure you're following and stay tuned to

this episode on the School of Greatness. Five years making, you know, saving all your money, you invest it, and then it's gone essentially overnight. How do you get over that mental and emotional loss and stick it out and kind of keep going, you know? It's a great question. And here's what I tell people. You know, any money that you have invested in risk assets, the stock market is a risk asset.

You have to mentally, every time you check your account, reduce it by 70%. Really? Yeah, because that's your downside, realistically, just realistically, that's your downside. So from the first dollar you put in, you think your account's a $100 account, and it's a $30 account. You have to be willing to live with that risk account being 70% less, okay? Realistically, that's probably the lowest it's ever gonna go in the worst of all worst-case scenarios.

Now, but if theoretically go lower, anything is possible in this world. We can disappear tomorrow, okay? So anything is possible. But for the most part, your absolute like great depression style, worst of all worst case scenarios, I like to think of it as down 70%. So bucketing money is one of the most important things

for an investor to do. So I always talk about the fact that investors only really have two decisions to make. How much of their money they want to have bucketed in risk assets and how much they want to have bucketed in safety, being treasury bills, right, or just a treasury-backed cashing home that's paying you three, four, 5% a year, whatever. You make that decision and that decision changes over the course of your life.

So when you're young, you might have five or 10% or maybe even 0% in the safe bucket, maybe you have 20%. And when you're old, you might have 80 or 90% in that bucket, right? Everyone tries to overcomplicate wealth management. Everyone thinks, oh, it's really sophisticated. You go to a wealth manager, they'll hand you like an 80 page report

that's your like personal financial plan. You're like, dude, this is so sophisticated. It's all BS. The whole thing is BS. Like it's just a printed out load of crap to make it seem like it's sophisticated and you need all that assistance and help. Like for me, I have money that's safe and I have money and risk assets. That's it. And honestly, for most people, if you don't want to play the game of

trying to beat the market, the money and risk assets could just be in an S and P 500 ETF exchange traded fund that is basically free to buy and cost you like one tenth of 1% internal management fee every year. It's the world's like cheapest way to invest and you just put money in there every week or every month and you don't think about it. And then you open it up in 40 years and you're super wealthy, right? Like super wealthy. Right, right. And just keep it simple. Keep it simple. Like I always tell everyone, like if you are just willing to start investing, there will be a moment in your life, more than likely, when you wake up one day and you realize

that you're making more money from your investment portfolio than you are from your job. I'll never forget the day that happened to me. And I was like, what was that like? How old were you? So amazing. I was, it was probably 2008 2009 ish. Cause it was right around the time I wrote my book, Laughing at Wall Street. And I had turned $20,000 into 2 million in three years in my brokerage account. And I was making a lot of money from my job at the time.

I was making like over $200,000 a year, which back then was a lot of money. I was a sales guy, right? And that for, it just wasn't enough money for the life I wanted to live with my family and the things that I wanted to achieve in my life for other people. I'm like a very, like I have a foundation,

like I have like massive dreams of doing some really big things for in the philanthropic world and I was like I can't live the life I want to live in the neighborhood I want to live it in do this for my family and achieve that for other people on two hundred thousand dollars a year even if I grow it to three hundred thousand and I didn't really see a way to grow it to like meaningfully higher than that. And I think almost every ordinary person like substitute those numbers for other numbers, but every ordinary person is likely in the same boat where they're like making this much money and they know that if they really kill it, they can probably get to here, but almost impossible to get above that ceiling.

And that's the problem. The problem is what happens is they start thinking, I need to start a business. Okay. That's the worst thing that it price. Yes. So you get in that zone and you think, I got to start a business. I got to start flipping houses. I got to start doing this, doing that.

And it's like, I hate I hate it that that is the roadmap for almost every single person. You know what's interesting about that? Sorry to cut you off there. It's interesting and I understand it because that's what I did early on. I was like, I need to, at first I was like trying to get a job because I was broke on my sister's couch. And I was like, I just need to make some money. I need to get a job. But I had no money, and I really didn't have any expenses living on my sister's couch for a year and a half also,

that I was like, let me go try to figure out how to make money on my own. And I launched my own thing on the side, because I didn't have anything. I didn't have any responsibilities, no bills, no kids, no relationship, nothing. And I learned how to make money on my own without working in a, I guess, a career or a job. And then I've just been writing that and figuring out how to make more money.

But I don't think it is so time consuming. It's so challenging. There's so many ups and downs that, and it's rare to make a lot of money in the first couple of years of running a business. There's so many costs that you don't think about that happen that it's just like, it is hard. It's almost impossible.

I own businesses, I own restaurants. It is so hard. It's almost impossible. It's interesting you say that because that's what a lot of people think about. Let me go launch a business or a side hustle or something else when all we could do is just let me put some of my money into investments and let it make money for me without having to work harder. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yes. But it seems so scary of a thing to do for people that have never done it because it's like I don't know where this is going can I get my money out what if it goes down then I've lost my money and then it people retract right they're

like I don't want to do that I'm just gonna keep it safe and so I understand both sides this is the biggest life hack nothing comes close literally nothing comes remotely close to this life hack. Forget about everything else in life and just start investing. Period. You're done. And guess what?

You don't have to spend any time if you don't want to. You can go do all your hobbies, do all of your stuff. Just start aggressively investing. And you do not have to sweat the next 30, 40 years trying to restart yourself, your career over and over and over again, doing side hustles and, you know, lots of starts and stops and a lot of depression. And then what I think I see a lot of,

because, you know, my entire life is analyzing social media now for trends, right? That's what I do for my investing. And it's just a crap load of complaining, uh, from this generation, which I get it. I get it. If, if you don't know this life hack, I totally understand the frustration. You can't make enough money to live the life you want to live. You can't make enough money to live the life you want to live, and you see absolutely no light at the end of the tunnel

in terms of how you can make it happen. That is a really depressing place to be, and it's going to cause you to get out and start complaining. And you see other people living this rich life or posting like they have a rich life, whether they have it or not, seeming like they're happy with this lifestyle, you know, taking trips and ventures and flying private or whatever it is.

And see, that's the issue because everyone keeps talking about the income gap. Like we've heard so much about the income gap the last decade, decade and a half. How are we gonna solve the income gap? You're not gonna solve the income gap. It's not happening. You can make really small dents in the income gap if you want to, but it's a lost cause. So just stop, okay? Let's just stop.

Now the wealth gap, that's a solvable problem. That is 100% a solvable problem. How do we solve it? Getting the entire world to invest. Every single person that you're trying to solve the income gap for, just stop and just focus on the wealth gap. Instead of trying to figure out how to make that person earn three times more than they're earning, it's not going to happen.

Make small change, you know, try to help them still to maximize their career. That should all still happen. But teach them how to invest. It's not even teaching. Just convince them. You see, like, I even hate that I just had to say the word teaching. You don't have to learn. You just have to be convinced. You just have to be convinced. And every single person has money to invest, period.

Now, I know people are going to hear me say that and it's going to like result in a stream of angry comments, because they're like, this guy is just completely out of touch. And no, I don't have money to invest. Yes, you do. You don't have money to invest because you're thinking about every dollar as a dollar. But like, this is a big part of what I wrote about in my book a long time ago. When I turned 20,000 into 2 million in three years,

and I'm not saying that people can do that, that was rare. But absolutely, you could turn every dollar to $100 over a much longer period of time as an investor, just with compounding. When you realize that, once you believe that, you'll start to think of every dollars, a hundred dollars, right? And so when you start to

think of every dollar in your life is a hundred dollars, it changes everything. So I don't care who you are. There is a point to which you are not making trade-offs. You're not clipping coupons. You might clip $2 coupons, but you're not going to clip a 10 cent coupon. Well, all of a sudden, when everything's 100X, you're clipping 10 cent coupons. You're clipping 50 cent coupons. You are, you know, I don't know,

you're just doing all kinds of things differently in your life. You know, maybe you're mowing your yard now. Maybe you're making your coffee at home instead of going to Starbucks. All the things that weren't quite worth trading off are all of a sudden worth making a trade off for. Here's the difference. That money that you save by doing all of those things, right, all goes into your investment account for risk assets,

right? And so believe me, when you start thinking of every dollar is $100, and it will be $100 at some point, you start finding money in your life. I don't care what it is. I don't care. There are literally a bit. There are people on YouTube, they're actually insane with how to find money, right? Doing all these crazy things.

And you're like, that is just way too much of a hassle to make an extra $3 or $4. But for $300, I'm doing it. And it is $300. Once you understand that by taking that money and investing it in risk assets over the course of a long period of time, that $3 is 300, boom, you're making 300 bucks in the morning,

you're making 300 bucks at night doing this. Like you're clipping, like you're doing all the stuff. Right? It's like a game that in your mind, oh, how can I turn this $1 into a hundred dollars? How many $1 can I find and put away into investments today? It's just, it's a mindset change. How long does it take in a risk asset

to turn $1 into a hundred dollars? Listen, it's different. It's different for everyone. It's different for every period of time. I can't predict how the next 30 years is going to go, but I do believe that this is one of the most interesting times to be an investor because of the age of AI that's quickly coming for us.

So in one way to think about this is our human labor, to some extent, is a little bit, will for some period of time might get devalued, right? If we're creating a new industry and that industry is the industry of intelligence, historically that's come from us, right? So now there's an industry of intelligence. And if that industry of intelligence

is going to devalue human intelligence, then what do we do as humans? We want to invest in the industry of intelligence. And we want to invest in the way that that is going to impact the world positively. So this new industry of intelligence and we want to invest in the way that that is going to impact the world positively. So this new industry of intelligence that we call AI and automation and robotics and all the stuff that I'm really into right now, that is going to make our entire world incredibly more productive. Right. It's going to bring us efficiencies that we just didn't think were possible in our lifetime, meaning that enterprise industry is going to become way bigger and way more profitable than it ever has.

And we can make money off that by simply owning a piece of it. You asked me earlier, you said, what does investing mean? It just means owning a piece of the world. That's all that it means. You want to own something more than yourself, you need to invest, okay? So once we start investing, we start owning a piece of that thing that we hate and we like to bitch about, okay?

So it's like all of a sudden, you know why guys like me don't complain that much? Because I own all that stuff. So it's like, all of a sudden, you know, why guys like me don't complain that much because I own all that stuff. So it's benefiting me. But I actually want everybody to own it. I hate that I'm making all this money off of industry. I'm making all this money off of technology advancements. And all of these other people are not just because nobody like taught them or convinced them that that was something that they needed to do.

Interesting. And why did I know it? Because again, I was privileged to grow up in a neighborhood of really wealthy people that were investors and they were smart. And like, I had access to all of this. I was really fortunate. Most people were not as fortunate as me.

So now I gotta spend my entire life on YouTube trying to spread that word to every person that's not growing up in a neighborhood with multi-million dollar houses, right? That is growing up in a neighborhood where the culture is not telling you that every single day. Like, hey kid, you gotta invest. It's more on spending versus investing. Exactly.

It's more on how do I look good or how do I get the next thing that's gonna make me feel happy and be socially accepted with my peers instead of how can I hopefully live below my means for a while, use that money to invest, and then once I start making more of my investments, the profits there, and then I can buy certain things if I want to, or just keep reinvesting it.

One thing you just said was wrong. You don't need to live below your means to do it. That's the thing. Like a lot of the things that I was referencing to like make, to find money in your life to start investing with, I don't care if it's $5, you can open up account right now with like five bucks. A lot of these things were not living below your means, it's just kind of doing things like

clipping coupons is not living below your means. It's just doing things a little bit differently to find money in your life that you didn't really care about. Sure. But now with the mindset change of accumulating these dollars that are actually going to eventually be worth, hopefully $100 each. Hey, you fall short and they're only worth 40 or 50. Does it even matter? Does it even matter? The bottom line is these are very tiny dollars are going to become very big and you don't have to do anything but literally just do it and throw it in an account and just let it compound. Chris, I know a lot of your audience that you mentioned before we started is men, you know,

that are kind of in your system and your community on YouTube and Twitter who are listening to you. There's a lot of women that watch and listen to the School of Greatness and if there's man or woman in their 20s and 30s let's say who hasn't gotten into investing yet who hasn't taken it seriously what would be the strategy if someone had an extra hundred to a thousand dollars a month and they said I'm gonna start going all in in this strategy and whether it's a hundred dollars a month a thousand eventually more if they have more, what should they start doing today to set themselves up for their future success? Yeah, I've been aggressively trying to bring women into the investment world for 20 years and I'm almost at a point of giving up. I've tried so hard. I told you like when I wrote my book,

I exclusively market through mommy bloggers, right? Because my entire investing methodology is observational investing. And the ironic thing is that women are better positioned, way better positioned than men to excel at this strategy. men to excel at this strategy. Like women are so, women are way deeper into these sectors, fashion, make like, okay, like I was just telling you the world has become digital and social, right? The best investments come from change. The bigger the change, the bigger the opportunity, right? How do you detect that change in the world?

You detect that change through, you know, reading conversations. What are people thinking? What are they doing? What do they want? What are they buying? Where are they going? Where are they shopping?

Where are they eating? Who talks about this stuff more than anyone else? Like who expresses themselves? Who expresses they eating? Who talks about this stuff more than anyone else? Like who expresses themselves? Who expresses their feelings about their interest and their and what they want to own and what they want to do? Women, way more than men. Who's listening? Women, way more than men. Women actually have all of the insight. Women have all of the alpha. They have it.

They are just not convinced that they can monetize it. I've literally, like almost, like most of my biggest trades over the past 20 years have come from female and youth trends. Really? Yeah, that's most. Why? Because those are the trades where there is the maximum amount of information asymmetry, where the mostly older, whiter, wealthier men who control

most of capital markets on Wall Street, they are slow to pick up on that change that's happening to like, like I always tell the story about Jeffree Star when he did a YouTube video of the Elf primer putty makeup. This was like, I don't know, 10 years ago, Elf was a drug store brand. The cheapest, junkiest brand to make up.

And he's like, this is just as good as the $60 version. And I went to Walgreens and I just stood there all day and watched moms and kids coming in and they emptied the shelf of Elf cosmetics because of this one product. And that video got like 11 million views on YouTube. And I called the Wall Street analyst who covered cosmetics for one of the big three sell-side banks.

And I asked the person if they had seen the video. I was like, do you see the Jeffree Star video? And they're like, who's Jeffree Star? They don't even watch YouTube. They don't even know who these people are. They are so out of touch. And that ended up being a monster. This is when Elf was at seven bucks a share, right?

It went up to like 160 eventually, and now it's back down to like 50, 60, 70, whatever. Most of my biggest trades, I think probably females knew about that information long before any men. Why aren't women in general taking action on the information they see socially, digitally, and culturally? When they see a trend happening, why do you think there's a fear or hesitation behind not investing in that trend? I think just the field of finance, which is associated with the field of investing,

historically, there is a misconception that you need to be a finance head or a math head to do this stuff. Historically, the men in society have always been over that. So it's just a massive misconception. And it's just, I thought we would have come out of it 20 years ago, when I first started talking about this, but like, it takes a long time for people to break out of it. Like, look at what's happened in the workforce with women, right? Like, that happened. Like, we have now, like, massively changed, like, who is in these jobs? Like, that's happened. But it hasn't happened yet. In the investor

class, the investor class is still at least the active investor class, people that are thinking and aggressively pursuing investment accounts is still majority of men, right? That are talking about this, thinking about it, connecting dots. And it's crazy to me, man. It's just, it's absolutely crazy to me because when I like most of my insights come from TikTok comments. So for, I don't know, eight years, I've been spending three to four hours a night ingesting TikTok comments. That is most where I get most of my information from.

Before TikTok, it was Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, Facebook going back to the late 2000s. What's the best trade you made in the last four years on TikTok comments that has paid dividends for you? I mean, almost all of my trades these days, I mean, honestly, like most of them come off of TikTok. Like one of them was like the big Crocs trade when Crocs started coming back in a really

massive big way a massive that was mostly based on TikTok comments Wall Street just thought that Crocs was a fad that would come and quickly go away they've always thought that about Crocs and during the pandemic especially during the pandemic there was a huge trend for Crocs. And during the pandemic, especially during the pandemic, there was a huge trend for Crocs. And it was because of two things. One, they did, they killed it with the nursing community and the healthcare community. But then also they were doing all these big celebrity collaborations, right? So they did these celebrity collaborations, and of a sudden it kind of like made Crocs cool and it really made Crocs cool with like the middle school crowd. And so I was like reading these comments and I was like, dude, like this is crazy. Like Crocs are on fire.

How much was it that the stock at that point? I don't even, I don't remember exact numbers. But there were so many things that happened during the pandemic, honestly, because the pandemic was one of the biggest changes that we've ever experienced in like consumer behavior of our lifetime. Like all of a sudden the entire world just spent a year in their house. Right? So like think about all the change that happened when we all just went home for a year. We started, we cared a lot more about cameras

on our computers, Logitech, right? That makes all the cameras. Guess what we bought a lot more of? Printers. Interesting. Weird, right? Cause all of a sudden we're doing our school work at home now. We're having to print out something, all kinds of stuff. There were so many things. We started buying camping equipment. One of my biggest trades was Schwinn

Bicycle, which was part of a small Canadian publicly traded company. There were lines around every bicycle shop. Remember that? Interesting. Yeah. Remember that? The lines around- Outside, yeah. We bought more bicycles during that six month period than like ever. We bought more campers, camper vans. People were going camping. Remember more ATVs, more boats. I was just basically, all I was doing was I was on just reading comments on the internet, just seeing what people were buying, what they were talking about.

Right. There was more change than what we've ever experienced in our lifetime. And like people were obviously buying what they were talking about, right? Uh, there was more change than what we've ever experienced in our lifetime. And like people were obviously buying Pelotons, right? Uh, shopping at home, Amazon killed it, Shopify killed it. I mean, looking back, it's all obvious stuff, but in the moment, Wall Street was really slow, like really slow to pick up on that stuff. I can't even tell you how many phone calls I did with like literally like people that sold ATVs or like jet

skis. And they're like, we've never experienced anything like this. And I'm like, why is Seedoo not going up? Like the company, it's like Seedoo, right? That was one of my big trades. Really? Just see, like there were 100 of them. So during the year of the pandemic,

I don't know, maybe your audience doesn't know this, but during the year of the pandemic, I turned a four and a half million dollar brokerage account into 35 million. Holy. It's peak. Yeah. So yeah, just doing that, just literally doing that, not doing anything sophisticated, just like, oh my gosh, people are all buying bicycles. That company 7X, it went up 7X from where it was, 7 or 8X. So, this is not like trading derivatives or options, like the actual company itself went up 700% in a very short period of time. As did Peloton, as did so many of these companies that had never experienced that type of growth.

When do you know when to sell? So when to get in, when to sell. And if what if people are like, it just seems like a lot of time to be watching the market every day, making sure I'm getting the maximum amount of my trades. So I'll summarize for you what I do. But if you want to go in really deep, my book is very personal. It's very old.

It's like 15 years old now. Jack Schwager wrote a book called Unknown Market Wizards, where he spent, I think, a decade researching the top retail traders in the world. And I was really fortunate to be one of the five equity traders that trade stocks to be included in the book. He wrote a 35 page chapter on my methodology and he really goes in deep to my process. But at a very high list, but it's called Unknown Market Wizards. And I don't make any money when he sells books, but he spent two days interviewing me.

It was nuts. And he has interviewed every hedge fund manager in the world pretty much for the last 40 years. And he's seen it all. But if basically what I do is I surface some big change that's happening in the world, it could be a change to consumer behavior, to culture, to technology, politics, it could be a change in the weather. Like one of my big trades back in the day was a company called Beacon Roofing, because I would monitor every spring the number of people

that were searching the word roof repair on Google. And I literally would go, I'd had 10 years of history and every year it would spike roof repair, right? And one year the hail storms hit populated areas at such a high degree that the word roof repair was triple anything I'd ever seen before. Well, it takes the insurance industry, I think like a full month to print the report of insurance claims that Wall Street uses to trade companies like Beacon Roofing, they're like the largest roofing supply company in the country. But I had access that

information within 24, 48 hours of the big hail storms. And the reason why it's hard to assess hail damage is because you could have really big hail storms, but if they don't hit highly populated areas, they don't matter, right? If they hit a highly populated area and destroy a bunch of roofs, that does a bunch of roof damage, that increases sales for the company that makes most of the roofing materials

in the United States for beacon roofing. Wow. And so like, that's just one random example of a trade. It sounds like legal insider trading by getting public information. That's exactly what it is. And saying, oh, this looks like it might happen in the next couple of weeks or month.

Let me get in now. And there's never been an easier time to do it because now I could just do it from my iPhone on my recliner at 11 p.m. at night searching comments on TikTok or, you know, that's how I get my alpha now. Back in the day, I used to do what Peter Lynch used to do in the eighties, which is like literally stroll the mall

and look for what stores people were shopping at and talk to people and talk to people that worked at stores and try to assess what was hot, what was not. Like that was very time consuming. And I still do that a little bit. Like, like, you see comments all right. But, so first you have to surface the change in the world that's happening

and there's change happening every single day. The next, this next year, there are going to be companies that will skyrocket based on their sales going up because of some change that happened. So you have to find the change before the guys on Wall Street do ladies on Wall Street. Right. Once you find the change, you have to determine if that change is going to meaningfully impact or what companies that change will meaningfully impact. So this is actually where AI comes in pretty cool. Right.

You could also ask chat. So I was going to say like, you can find some change that's happening in the world and you could go in ChatGPT and say, hey, this is happening. What publicly traded companies are likely to benefit from this? That's interesting. It will actually tell you. I used to spend like four days figuring that information out of myself.

Now you can just ask ChatGPT. There's really been, I guess, three different things historically that have allowed people you just ask Jack GPT. There's really been, I guess, three different things historically that have allowed people to build a mass sums of wealth. Real estate is one. I guess investing in companies or the stock market is another. Yeah. And then starting a business would be a third.

Correct. You know, but I think it's 80% of businesses fail within the first five years and the other 20% barely are holding on or struggling. It's really rare to succeed in business and it takes a lot of kind of luck and timing, all these different things. But a lot of people, you hear horror stories in the stock market as well as in real estate for people. They went out and bought their first home and they lost all their money or it took so much time and energy, it just exhausted them that they gave up. They got excited in the stock market but they got in at the wrong time.

Two year downswing, they got scared, they lost most of their money. Business, maybe they tried to start a business, it failed and they just feel like, god, every angle I go to try to earn money, I struggle, I spend so much time and I get defeated. What wisdom can you share to someone today on whichever route they want to take, on how to emotionally and mentally overcome the obstacles that may come their way? Don't ever put yourself in a position to have to sell. If you never put yourself in a position to have to sell. If you never put yourself in a position to have to sell, you're never losing money on

real estate. I haven't sold a house in the last 30 years that hasn't sold for more if the person was able to wait and sell it when they wanted to. When you put yourself in a position, you over leverage. You buy in an area that is transitioning or that is high crime. That is a gamble. Those people, you're gonna lose money.

But when you put yourself in a position to never ever have to sell, you're always gonna make money in real estate. Now I don't know about you, but those people who bought Blockbuster, it doesn't matter how long they wait. They're never getting that money back, are they? And that's the difference between real estate and stock.

People say, oh, well, Glenda, if I put $130,000 in this stock, it would be worth a zillion dollars. Correct, but if you put down $6,500 on a $130,000 house, you only have $6,500 in it. If you lost it, you only lost $6,500. You didn't lose $135,000. That blockbuster stock, you lost all $135,000. People don't think about it from that perspective. You talk about appreciation. You bought a $150,000 house in 1975. That house is now worth a million

dollars. Guess what? You also had a place to live. Okay? Or you had an income generating asset. So that's the thing is like the last time I checked those stocks aren't doing that for you. And all I know is real estate. Like I'm old, I wanna see, touch, feel my money. When I wanna be able to get my money out, I wanna be able to get my money out. I don't wanna be at the mercy of the stock market.

So while I have stock market investments, that is not where I keep my money. I keep my money in houses where I can see, touch, and feel it. And the worst case scenario is that you have it rented out and it's renting for less than your payment. Okay? So this is the worst case scenario. Your payment is $2,000 a month and you're only getting $1,500. That's a $500 savings deposit that you're making per year into that account.

And if you keep that house and you sell when the market is high, you're going to make all of the money that you put back in it. Right. Right. What about if someone says, well, what if, you know, I've gotta fix all these things and there's all these extra costs and expenses that I have in the house over a few years and it's just, maybe I chose it wrong,

or maybe the realtor, I didn't see these things, the inspector missed something, whatever it is. And I gotta pay $20,000 for a new AC, the roof, the this, the bathroom, and it's like I'm in tens of thousands of dollars more, $100,000 more than I have or wanted to be, the bathroom and it's like I'm in tens of thousands of dollars more, hundred thousand dollars more than I have or wanted to be. Right.

And now I've got to hold on to this for 20 years to make a profit. How does someone wrap their mind around that and not feel like they're losing money, they don't have access to that cash, and they have energy invested into a house versus kind of just that money in the bank or in an index fund? Right, exactly. So, what happens is, it's critical to understand what you're buying. It's critical to do your homework on what you're buying. Not just having a great real estate agent, not just having a great inspector, but getting

in the weeds with it. And what I mean by that is driving through the neighborhood, getting lost in the neighborhood. Did you do your own recon in the neighborhood? And that's what I want people to do, is don't depend on somebody else to tell you everything. I want you to understand how to do it. And so a lot of times when I'm with buyers, I'll put them in the car and we'll just drive

around, get lost, turn off the GPS, eat in the restaurants, shop in the grocery stores. And this is such a simple thing that a lot of people don't think about. If the grocery store has great produce, that means that people are spending money in that grocery store. That means that people are concerned about what they're eating, they're probably gonna take care of their house. Nobody ever talks about stuff like that.

You probably never thought that if I have good grapes at my grocery store, it probably means that I'm living in a neighborhood that's well kept. If you're concerned about the food that you're eating, what you're putting in your body, you're probably concerned about how you're taking care of your house. Wow.

What would you say are five things people should look for when finding a great deal or an investment in real estate? The best investment in real estate, grandma's house, okay? Something that needs cosmetics, not infrastructure. Infrastructure may not sound sexy, but infrastructure is a wonderful thing to have. Number two, look for an area that is not at the top, but that is growing, that you can kind of see like, oh, wait a minute, they're doing work here,

there's a dumpster in the driveway here. And do that kind of research. Understand what direction is the neighborhood going in. Number three, I would probably say when you're looking to invest, make sure that you understand what you're buying. A lot of people don't understand, like, is this house on a two-lane street?

Is that a problem? Does this back up to the retention pond? Are there mosquitoes? It's Atlanta, Georgia. It's hot as... There's all kinds of mosquitoes. Do you understand how much less you're going to take for a house that's on a retention pond?

So, that's why I always want people to understand exactly what it is that they're buying. I hammer on that a lot. And again, I don't want you to get caught up in your ego. A lot of people buy for vanity. Really? Oh. What's the ego mean when they invest in ego? Because they want you to drive up, pull in the driveway and say, oh!

What a nice home. Oh my stars! Look at your fancy house. You don't want that. Mm-hmm. Literally. Unless you're living in it, maybe. Not, you don't even want to think you're living in it.

Literally, you want to live in the house that works the best for you and your family. Like, do you want to, like, out here in LA it's a little bit different, but in regular markets like, think about it and I'll talk about Trey Young. I love basketball. Trey Young bought a 20 million dollar house out here in LA, signed a contract for 215 million dollars, praise the Lord and passed the money, right? Do you know how much the taxes on that house are?

Six hundred thousand dollars a year. Okay. taxes on that house are? $600,000 a year. Okay? Do you know how many houses, investment properties you could buy with $20 million? Wow. So, you could have bought a fancy $5 million house in Atlanta, Georgia, which would have been the same as a $20 million house out here for God's sake. Then you could have bought some investment properties and built generational wealth. Not that his $215 million isn't gonna be generational, but ask Evander Holyfield how that works out. That's the thing.

You look at Evander Holyfield, a fighter who sacrificed his body, his well-being, his quality of life, made hundreds of millions of dollars in his career and loses his house to foreclosure. And think about that. So that's when I talk about vanity, anytime that you're trying to impress somebody else with what you have, I'm just going to ask you just let's just rethink that just for a second.

Wow. What about when did you really learn about how to manifest in your life? Was there a time or a season or a decade where you started to think a certain way when it came to either attracting the right clientele as a realtor, in terms of attracting the right homes that you wanted to buy and invest in in terms of business deals that you wanted to do. Was there a season or time that you learned about manifestation? Making mistakes was

probably the biggest teacher for me. Really? Not just making mistakes in my real estate business but making mistakes in my real estate business, but making mistakes in my personal life, cost me so much time and so much money. Because, and I think the reason that I'm passionate about it is because like, I went out and bought the Mercedes. I made $137,000 on one house. I went out and bought a Mercedes,

I went on a shopping spree, and within 12 months, I was selling my Rolex at a pawn shop. Really? Yes, really. I was selling my car, my Mercedes, I was selling that Mercedes, and buy, no, no, no, I didn't sell it first. I didn't sell it at first.

At first, sit down, it was paid off, because you know what, I made all that money. What you really don't realize- That went down in half after a few months. Well, what you don't realize is that you gotta pay taxes on all that money. But anyway, so I buy the car, and I realize I have a cash flow issue.

So what do I do? I go get a Totha note at 27%. So you want to talk about, oh Glenda, what would you do? When I talk to you, I'm just telling you straight from the horse's mouth, I made this mistake, don't make the same mistake I did. I went out and bought the fancy Rolex. That's why I have the $130 ring from Ross Simons. I mean, it looks fancy, it looks nice, it works. It matches my outfit today. So, that's what I want people to focus on is like the mistakes that I

made. Don't do what I did. Learn from me. And so,, I mean, how do you manifest it? When I see, when I, I never will forget, I saw this agent who sucked as a real estate agent and that guy was making more money than he could count. Really? What was the secret? He was a good talker but he was investing in POS houses. He was investing in these little houses and he was fixing them up and selling them and fixing them up and renting them. And I remember thinking to myself, somebody that is not as good as I am at real estate is doing a thousand times better than me.

And every time I thought about going out and pissing the money away, I thought about that guy. And it pissed me off. It made me so mad. It just made me crazy. And every time that I think about doing something that's probably, you know, impulsive or ego-driven. And I think that a lot of times you get caught up in being ego-driven because it feels good when everybody looks at you and they think that you're successful.

But for me, every single day, I focus on what moves me from here to there. And here is freedom for me. Freedom with my children, freedom with my family, freedom with my little grandchildren. My one and only goal is to be able to do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it and not have to worry about going up another set of steps, not worrying about what next house I have to sell. And what turns me on is helping people, inspiring them. And so I just say to myself every single day, my name is Glenda Baker.

Only amazing things happen to me. My name is Glenda Baker. I am a woman of action. And my name is Glenda Baker and everybody's things happen to me. My name is Glenda Baker, I'm a woman of action and my name is Glenda Baker and everybody's gonna know my name. And all I want to do is just help people build generational wealth through real estate. Wow, that's beautiful. And inspire them through my mistakes. Sure. Because we don't all need to make the same mistake. Let me have been the guinea pig.

What would you say are the three most painful mistakes in business that you've made over the last 30 plus years that really taught you an important lesson? Maybe you had to learn it over and over again. I didn't pay my taxes. That was probably the most eye-opening thing because I grew up with a single mother like I didn't have anybody explained like I didn't even know you that when you only got paid when you sold a house. I'm in real estate school and the teacher says now when you sell a house you make this much money and I'm like like you don't get paid on Friday?

Like you have to sell to make money. Like I mean I didn't know that and I don't even try on Friday? Like... You have to sell to make money. Like, I mean, I didn't know that. And I even tried to get a job as an assistant. Nobody would even hire me because, I mean, I'm barely out of high school, didn't go to college. And so, you know, I didn't understand about paying taxes. I mean, I made $137,000 on that one house for God's sakes. Like, how much could the taxes be, right?

Right. A lot. A lot. A lot. Had no clue. So, the biggest financial mistakes in business I have made have been I didn't pay my taxes. I made purchases based on ego and I let people that didn't matter influence me to make purchases that I shouldn't have. Really? Yeah.

Because- You mean people you knew or people you didn't know? I think it was a little bit of both. People that I knew and I thought, oh, well, they're doing well and they're putting all of their money in this. Maybe I should do that. Or I believed all of the hype. And I think that that was a huge mistake, just believing all of the hype that wasn't

really the truth. Not being able to discern well enough. But being distracted, probably one of the biggest money sucks of my life has been being distracted. What type of distractions over the last 30 years did you find? All kinds of distractions, but mostly for me, I've been distracted by the shiny penny. I've been distracted by feeling like that I needed to be married to somebody, to be somebody.

For many, I mean, I can remember it so like, vividly in my head that I wasn't going to be worth anything unless I was married to somebody. Really? Some big person, like, you know, like Ted Turner. Like, you know, I'm thinking like, oh, I should be married to some like big shot person. I wouldn't be worth anything without that. Where did that come from? I don't, I don't, you know, I don't know. I think about like, I think about in my head, I was the only child in my school whose parents

were divorced. Really? And I remember like seeing Mr. and Mrs. Myers and Mr. and Mrs. Bouchoir. And I remember seeing them and thinking, you know, they had the two kids, the three kids, the dog, the house with the swimming pool, like the mama stayed at home and the daddy took care of everything.

And I remember thinking to myself that I was so cheated. That I didn't have that life. And here was my mother. First off, she was old because she was 44 when I was born. Wow. So, my mom was the oldest mom. She was the only divorced mom, single mom. My dad wasn't really in my life. And so, here I am am and then on top of that I have to have this back surgery and I'm in a body cast for a year in seventh grade and just everything it just and I've got this big accent which I don't think I have but lots of people think

I do but it just I mean there was just so many things and I kept thinking that I was like the odd man out. I was like, I was different than everybody else. And rather than appreciating that difference, I worked so hard to be like everybody else. People pleasing, trying to fit in, doing whatever others do. Oh yeah, trying to fit in. I mean, I, you know, the hero was the last kid picked on the playground, and I wanted to fit in so bad.

Yeah. And I couldn't ever figure out how to get those pieces of the puzzle together. I was, and back when I was in school, I mean, I graduated from high school in 1984, you didn't call it bullying. Like today, you would say, oh, you didn't call it bullying. Like today, you would say, oh, she was bullied as a child.

She didn't call it that then. You didn't call it anything, toughen up. Suck it up, buttercup. And I think that for me, a lot of the distractions were just trying to be like everybody else, get somebody's attention and prove that I was worthy. I know that feeling. And you felt like you only had worth based on who you were with, it sounded like. Yeah.

Or who you were friends with or who you were dating or who you were married to. Yeah, who I was associated with. Who I was attached to was what defined my worth. And I think that that was huge. Once I realized that my value was determined by me, was a turning point in my life. When did you learn that? 2017. Really? Yeah, learn that? 2017. Really? Yeah, not that long ago.

What made you think that? And what made you realize and actually start to believe that? I stopped, I struggled with drinking, and I stopped drinking at the end of 2015. And I think that that really started giving me a lot of clarity. I think that alcohol had disguised a lot of issues that I had.

But I think that when I stopped drinking and I was focused on being my best self, that helped. And then I went to a Tony Robbins event and he talked about just being present in these moments, just being present and building these moments. And I went with my son. My son was really struggling at that time. How old was he then?

He was 16 years old. Wow. And he was really kind of going through a difficult season of his own life. And I took him to the UPW for him. You're right. You got more out of it than he did, probably. And we're there four days.

And at the end, and my son's tall, and he puts his arms around me and my ear is right at his heart and I can hear his heartbeat and he leans down and he says, I'm never going to forget these four days with you. And I remembered in that very second, in that moment, like here was this child watching me. He deserves it. He deserves your value. He deserves you to be worthy.

And so I left that moment and I said my life's goal is to string together moments of a lifetime, just like that one, that I could just feel. And I just, everything I do, every single thing I do is built around how I can build a moment in time for like my life, my children, and the things that the people that I love. That's beautiful, Glenna. So if someone's in their mid-20s, early-30s, right, and they're in this kind of 10-year range, how can they start thinking about this? Maybe they've just said, you know what, I'm just hustling, I'm going after money right now or a career

just to make money, that I'm spending it all. I don't really have much in savings yet, but I know I should be investing. But how can they start to think about the formula for their life in terms of maximum enjoyment or fulfillment, these memory dividends, which makes a lot of sense to me, without being broke the entire time.

Right. So, for each person in each profession, right? Like there are certain situations where people have pensions, guaranteed jobs, etc. and career progression, right? Where their salary is going to be going up and they're also going to have their own health, right? Like they're very healthy, not that healthy, etc. and what they're trying to do is thinking about, okay, what experiences in the 20 to 25 bucket or 25 to 35 or whatever, any way you want to break it up, what experiences belong now, okay, that I should be doing now and gifting the memory dividends to my future self. Interesting. Or what things am I doing now that are robbing my future self from stability and causing worry, right?

And so, there was a period in my life when I was in my twenties, I was C-song, right? I was like saving too much. I was borrowing from my poor self to give to my future richer self, which did not make any sense, right? Right. And then I went from the,

I'm gonna party and going crazy and I'm spending every single nickel I made, right? And then I went from the I'm gonna party and going crazy and I'm spending every single nickel I made, right? To creating future instability for myself by not saving. And now, so for each person, their career path, their earnings potential, etc., that will be different. But the thing is to get off autopilot and be thinking about it. Right. And maybe you're fumbling your way through it for a year or two. You're like, OK, I'm not sure what it's going to be, but I'm paying attention to what I want right now and the future. Right.

So people will have other experts, like a financial planner. A lot of times, the financial planner is about, let's maximize the money. That's not the ultimate goal. The goal is to maximize fulfillment. And so they will keep you safe, and maybe you'll save a certain amount of money. But you're the driver. You're responsible for your own life. And so, if you want to be intentional and get the most out of your entire life and each

time period, you have to think about, okay, is backpacking now through Europe, is this the period to be backpacking through Europe or is it 20, 30 years from now? Is this a trip or an experience or a charitable thing that I need to be doing now or is this something that I need to be doing later in my life? Just that thought process by ordering your life properly will help you have a more fulfilling life. Yes. What do you think is the biggest psychological crime someone can make when it comes to their money? I think the biggest psychological crime is people fear running out of money

instead of fear of wasting their life. And so, you know, they have this fear of embarrassment of like, I'm gonna run out of money and I'm gonna be broke or I'm gonna do x, y, and z. Instead of fear like, I'm gonna run out of money and I'm gonna be broke or I'm gonna do X, Y, and Z instead of fear like, I am wasting my life. I have for the two, we were talking about the 20 to 30 bucket, I'll just, you know, this is it. This is the only period I'll be 20 to 30. There are certain activities, experiences that are meant for this bucket, right?

People marketing services and products to you, you know that they're there, right? Like I don't want to do them, like go have fun, right? People, marketing services and products to you, you know that they're there, right? Like, I don't want to do them, like go have fun, right? But and you only get one shot, one go around, you know? And so, and they're worried about, you know, in the 30-40s. So, I think people worry about embarrassment, what other people think, judgment about their lifestyle or them failing in the future, etc. as opposed to worrying about like, I don't want to waste this ride. And it's not even the ride for the whole life, every single period of your life. So, if you're a parent with small children, not wasting that period with teenagers, I

know a lot of us would like to waste that period and just be like, get rid of spirit with that period and then, you know, eventually you don't have kids in the house anymore and that's a different period in your life and there's different activities and different opportunities that go. And I often say life is like Tetris, right? Like, if you were in heaven, let's assume this is heaven and you're about to come down to earth as a human being and God's like, here's the bucket of experiences. And when I say use experience, I mean choices, right?

I mean in the broadest sense, hedonistic, charitable, whatever. Yeah. And you're like, oh, the infinite bucket of experiences. I want to go hiking, I want to go tennis a thousand times, I want to have sex a jillion times, I want to do all these things. You're throwing them into the experience. Like, I want to start a business, I want to go to school, blah, blah, blah. And it's full.

And God goes, great, you can have all those, you just have to get the order right. So life is like Tetris, you know? You remember the game Tetris, so you have to get the shapes right? Life is that way. Like if you don't have the experiences at the right time, they run to interfere with each other or your ability to do them disappears. So, you can have all the money in the world, right? They run to interfere with each other or your ability to doom disappears. So, you can have all the money in the world, right?

When I was in St. Petersburg, Russia, this is before the war, beautiful city and one thing about Europe is like things they allow you to do would be completely illegal in the United States. It's not like safety laws or whatever. So, you can climb these steps, walk around the churches, and then walk around the balcony. Beautiful, it's amazing. It's like, wow, I can't believe we still get to do this.

And it was like 115 steps. I remember it was an odd number. I think it might've been 111. But, and there were like six or eight tour buses of senior citizens coming and know, coming and go see the museum and this church. Not a single one climbed those steps. Not a single one.

So their trip to St. Petersburg was entirely different than my St. Petersburg trip. Their experience, the information they got, the process, the things they got to see was totally different. I'm not saying it wasn't enjoyable, but perhaps in a city that allows you to roam around and do these things and go on cliffs and overlook type of things and you enjoy it, perhaps that trip should have been taken much earlier. Wow.

And so, you know, that's an example of getting the order right. Yes. Getting the order right and making sure you're using your money at the time where you're able to use it the most effectively, right? It's getting the most out of that tool. It's getting the most out of that tool. Right. The tool of money.

Your ability to convert your money into meaningful, fulfilling experiences decays over time. So, your brain reaches mental maturity around 28 your brain reaches a mental maturity around 28. Your body is physical maturity around 33. So, if by and large, if you were in the best shape of your life at 33, that is the top. Then you go into plateau and decline. I will never ever unless you know, new technology, gene therapy or whatever, but be in better shape than I could have been at 33, right? It's over. It doesn't mean you can't be in still great shape.

No, no, you're still in great shape. And I'm just saying my ability to do certain, like listen, I can get, I was recently- You're not playing college football anymore. No, no, no, no, no, no. Last year I was like one in like great shape. I got down to like a 9% body fat, my cardio VO2 was over, but my lazy 28 year old self will smoke myself in a race.

Really? Like smoke myself, right? Like he just- Doesn't need to warm up. No, no, not stretching, anything, right? And so, and then on top of that, if I race him, I'm sore afterwards. Like my knees hurt and I got back hurt.

You need to recover for a week. Yeah, cartilage in the back is kinda, you know, all those things, right? And he's just hopping around, you know, no sleep, able to do whatever. Yeah. He's just like, that guy, so lucky, he just doesn't know how good he has it, you know? And so, you know, I think about these things and, you know, sometimes there's very small things. Like I was at a place where my friends were going to go wakeboarding at my 50th birthday.

I was, you know, I'm generally a lazy guy, I'm laying on the beach, I'm like, I was at a place where my friends were gonna go wakeboarding at my 50th birthday. I'm generally a lazy guy, I'm laying on the beach, I'm like, I don't wanna go, you guys go, whatever. And I thought about it, I said, when am I ever gonna have a chance to go wakeboarding in the future? We're here, we're in the Caribbean, there's a wakeboard boat there, when's the next time there's gonna be a wakeboard boat? Maybe two years from now, three years from now?

And I thought about my back, you know, once your cartilage starts going, it just keeps going. I thought this may be the last time I'm able to go wakeboarding and enjoy it and I'm going to switch to another physical activity. So I got my lazy butt off the beach and said, I'm coming. I did a jump, I landed a jump, I was happy, you know, surfed and that was the last time I will ever go wakeboarding. Really?

Because of the speed of wakeboarding. And it's, so now I wake surf which is a lot slower speed and I can do it later in my life. But my wakeboarding days are gone forever. Wow. And had I not done it at that time, it would have been years and years and before but I'm wakeboarding and so I got all the enjoyment, all the memory dev it at that time, it would have been years and years and before but I'm wakeboarding. And so, I got all the enjoyment, all the memory devins of that trip hanging out with my friends etc. But that's it.

The wakeboarder bill is dead. But now you have that memory dividend. Yes. That you can tell this story to me and you can think about that story for the rest of your life. Yes. And I can also use it as a teaching tool, right? So for people who are still, you know, got all their cartilage, all their cartilage and broken bones or anything like that, like hey, you know, the time is coming where whatever

activity it is, it will be the last time for you and you'll be moving on to other activities, right? So, I'm a wake surfer, you know, maybe golf, whatever. And maybe you're just a boater eventually, right? Yeah, exactly. Your book has really taken off in the last few years since it came out. It's called Die with Zero, getting all you can from your money and your life. And I want people to get a few copies of this because I think there's been this misconception of like, make as much

money as you can and save it for as long as you can so that you can enjoy the rest of of this because I think there's been this misconception of like, make as much money as you can and save it for as long as you can so that you can enjoy the rest of your life when you retire at 64 or 72 or whatever the retirement age is, right? This kind of concept, save, save, save, invest, which I'm a big fan of saving and investing so that it will pay me dividends now and in the future and so I won't stress or have worry about money. But I think people take it too extreme sometimes and they don't enjoy their time and they get the bucket list and the time bucketing backwards.

And so, why should we be thinking about die with zero? And the idea of having nothing when you die for some people seems selfish. You know, what about leaving money for my kids or for charities or, you know, am I going to leave my family with nothing? What does that say about me and my legacy? Right. So, what is your thoughts around, you know, these 17 questions I just asked around, you know, how we should be thinking about money for retirement?

How we should be thinking about money for leaving it behind? How we should be thinking about legacy? And how does having money in the bank when you die connect to legacy? What's your thoughts on that? So, I'm gonna go first which is on everybody's mind and one of the number one questions I get is like what about the kids and there's a chapter called What About the Kids? and it's about charity and kids. And so, the same laws of physics that govern your body govern your kids body, okay? So, they're gonna grow, their brains are gonna eventually mature,

trust me parents, their brains will eventually mature. How many kids do you have? I have two. I have two. 16 and 19. Yeah. And their bodies will reach physical maturity and then they will plateau and start to decline. So if your body is unable to convert the money into meaningful experiences as you age, right?

Like your physical ability to either enjoy them or do them goes down. The same is true for your kids. So actually giving a smaller amount to your kids at an earlier age will be more impactful and more fulfilling than waiting to you kick the bucket and they're 66 or 65 or 60, right? And two-thirds or more of their life has gone by, right?

So what I advocate for is that be intentional. You want to give your kids fulfillment, a fulfilling life and choices. So whatever you're going to give them, you know, some people are like, I'm not giving my kids anything, they got to make it. I got to make it, they had to make it. But whatever you're going to give them, give it to them at the right time. Timing is important. And so, I advocate, you know, somewhere between 25 and 33, right?

Some kids are very mentally mature and they can handle money when they're younger and it's gonna be fine and some are a little bit later in life, right? But at a certain point, it's their life, right? You've done your best to prepare them to navigate the world, they're their own person. They want to light it on fire, let them light them on fire. If they want to do this and they're industrious,, let them do that, but it's their adventure and so, and that money has the most impact when you give it to them then. And also your legacy, you know, people like I'm working hard for my kids, you know, they're 60, I'm working hard for your kids, like, well, part of the legacy

and the fulfillment from your kids is spending time with you, moments for you. Not you going to work, you with them. Memory is with them. So in some situations, in a perverse way, you going to work to make more money to give your kids when you die is actually taking away from the fulfillment and diminishing your legacy.

Interesting. So we have to be really intentional and think about what are we trying to do with our kids, giving our kids money? And six-year-olds are not kids, you know what I mean? So, I think one of the most asinine things we do or the most autopilot not living with intention things we do is wait till we die to transfer assets to our kids. Interesting. Right? And that's the same thing with charity.

Like charity is now, right? People are hurting now, dying, starving, whatever the issue is that speaks to you, it is now, right? So, you know, I give kind of examples as like, imagine the people that donated to, you know, funds for polio said, I'm just gonna wait till I die and then more kids have polio, right? There's people, and I just use that as an example and even if it's into education, the returns on education or a human being educated right now far exceeds any market return that

you can make. So if you are a charitable person and you identify capital that you're not going to use before you die, now. Right. So, how do you think about this in your own life then, with terms of you know, you have two teenage kids, how do you make sure that you raise kids to not rely on you for money and you're not giving them too much personally but you also want to maximize for fulfillment and memories and you know, you have a- So, you're going on the sub question is like, do you give your kids money or not, right?

And that there's books on this like give them, there's books like don't give them anything and there's books like give them everything. How do you navigate that? Because it's all, you know, you've got an amazing lifestyle, you've got properties, you've got boats, you have planes, you got, you know, do you put them in the back of the plane? They've got a coach and you're in first class. They take a Greyhound across the street now. Like, how do you do it whether psychologically set up for success but also rich in memories

and experiences with you? So, by me quote unquote making it, right? I've made my life easier and therefore their lives are easier and they're in a bubble, right? I've made my life easier and therefore, their lives are easier and they're in a bubble, right? As much as I try and you know, the exposure, I try and get them outside the bubble. Yes. But the main thing I wanted to do is raise strong independent women who are kind, who can navigate the world. It's the best I can hope for, right? And as far, you know, the way I look at it is that I have an amount that I want to give them, right?

That is for them to do as they please when they're mature enough to get it. So, it's not my money. It's in a trust. It's separate because if Bill Perkins goes out gambling in some poker game, you know what I mean? They're not going to get my, it's not my money. You know what I mean? It's their money.

So, I don't have to worry about the risk to me, etc. They're taking care of. But they don't get to use it. It's not like a 16 year old running around in a Ferrari or something like that. It turns over to them, to their control, when they're between 28 and 33. I think mine is between 28 and 30. Yeah. And does it unlock every month a certain amount or is it a lump sum?

There's, you know, there's all, we're getting to state and trust planning but, you know, there's a board that has for health support and maintenance. Gotcha. They can trust, not me, other people can be like, okay, you're going to grad school, we'll give you a little bit of a paper grad school, whatever, but all of it unlocks to them at 30. Got it, okay. Because I've lived my life. So, I say to my friends like, me, I live my life. It's their life now.

If I'm gonna give it to them, if it's a real gift, it's theirs. Right. When they're able to handle it, you know, I'll give it to them. And they're like, well, what if they can't handle it? It's too late. It's not like at 40, it's gonna help them anymore and their health is declining, right? So, I'm just like, let them have the adventure they wanna have with the resources that I'm willing to give them.

So I don't tell people, hey, you have to give your kids money or not. I just tell them the when. The when, the when, the when is very, very important. Yeah, and it's your responsibility, I guess, as a parent to educate, teach, train them to be kind, thoughtful human beings. Strongly depends, exactly.

And hopefully they're able to make those decisions by then. And that's in some way your responsibility as well to oversee that up until 30 or whatever that time is. Well, I mean, at a certain point your job is done. And they're raising their own person. They're adults. They're not gonna listen to you anymore. They're not gonna listen to you anymore anyway, right?

Like you're on the advisory committee. I think I'm already on the advisory committee. They call you when they need money. Exactly. I'm on the advisory committee. Yes. I'm already, I think I'm already on the advisory committee. They call you when they need money. Exactly. And then they're like, I'm on the advisory committee. And you hopefully have done a good job, but your job, that part of trying to control your kids is done. You mulled through advice from that point on. And so, a gift is a gift.

And my gift is set and it's done. If I want to, if I come into a windfall and I hit the lottery and I feel like hey, I want to give more to them, I can add to it but I'm living intentionally like hey, this is when they're gonna reach a peak mental maturity, mental acuity and physical maturity. This is where they're gonna hit plateau, etc. This is when it's gonna have the most impact on their life, right? Right. It's gonna have less impact on their life because it can't even convert it into experiences They were later on their life, right? And so it's their adventure. Mm-hmm, right? Their adventure to have

I don't want to control people from the grave. Yes Rules I set forth you must do this I'm just like what kind of human being does Like, tries to control another human being with money, right? I want them, like, you've done your training, have the adventure you want to have. And so, that's how I think about that. Now, the having the zero part is, you know, one of the 17 questions is, If I spend, I have only, the only thing I have is my life energy and that's the time I have on planet, right? On this planet, the minutes, et cetera.

So if I spend that time going to work, let's say I'm just digging holes, I'm digging holes and they give me this thing called money. Could be Chuck E. Cheese, token, could be anything. They give me this thing called money. And then I just hold it and then I die with it. I've essentially wasted my time digging ditches, right? I've worked for no reward, right?

We can see on his face that that's asinine, right? Like no, you don't want to go do something that you normally wouldn't do with all the other activities you can do on this planet, right? Almost infinite choices, right? We don't want to go do that for no reward, right? So, we're going to work for something, right? And a lot of us are going to work, you know, some of it we enjoy it, we enjoy what we do, we enjoy teaching people, but that reward, when we slice up the reward part, that is for us to use as a tool in our tool bucket to maximize our fulfillment. Nobody goes into the hardware, so let me get some hammers and saws and then throws them

away, right? Well, I guess there are some people who buy hammers and saws, put them in the garage and never use them, right? But that's what happens with a lot of people is they just save, save, save, save, never use it, die. Right? And so, I'm trying to stop them from doing that and say, hey, let's think about how we can spend and use all your assets, your wealth, your health and your time, we're focusing

on your wealth before you die to get maximum fulfillment and the maximum ride. Yes. Right? And so, one of the axioms is spend all your money down to zero as close as you can before you die. Right. So you do not waste your life working for no reward. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.

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to go out there and do something great.