Jason Hartman uses this Flashback Friday to look at how Carl Richards, author, and artist illustrate complex financial concepts. He shares some sketches and why he started creating Visualized Finance. He gives us a background on how he was an accidental artist.
Announcer 0:00
just invest. It’s still a great thing to do. I know it can be scary to a lot of people. Jason’s been doing this a long time. He’s got a lot of knowledge. We’re in an age of technology and everything’s at our fingertips. You can do a lot of homework on your own. But in the end, make sure you’re talking to professionals like Jason. Welcome to this week’s edition of flashback Friday, your opportunity to get some good review by listening to episodes from the past that Jason has hand picked to help you today in the present, and propel you into the future. Enjoy.
Announcer 0:33
Welcome to creating wealth with Jason Hartman. During this program, Jason is going to tell you some really exciting things that you probably haven’t thought of before and a new slant on investing fresh new approaches to America’s best investment that will enable you to create more wealth and happiness than you ever thought possible. Jason is a genuine self made multi millionaire who not only talks the talk but walks the walk. He’s been a successful investor for 20 years and currently owns properties in 11 states and 17 cities. This program will help you follow in Jason’s footsteps on the road to financial freedom, you really can do it. And now here’s your host, Jason Hartman with the complete solution for real estate investors.
Jason Hartman 1:22
Welcome to the creating wealth show. This is your host, Jason Hartman. And this is episode number 303. Thanks for all of the nice feedback on the show. And thank you for supporting the show and spreading the word about it. I am happy to report that I just found out last week we were number 49 on iTunes. And that’s a in terms of all the business podcasts out there on iTunes. Not just real estate, not just personal finance, not just investing not just economics, all of the business category. Our show the creating wealth show is number 49. So thank you so much for making it a big success. And of course that’s a moving target that algorithm And that ranking changes constantly. So please keep spreading the word and do the good work and helping us reform the economy and the absolute nuttiness. We have going out there in the world today. But anyway, if I sound a little bit tired, it’s because I am. I drove all the way from Newport Beach yesterday, to Phoenix, my new home as of about a year and a half ago, I live now live in Phoenix, and I emptied the I just kind of had to do this myself. You know, I’ve been putting it off for a year and a half since I moved. And I emptied the last storage unit there and a whole bunch of our records storage. And you know, if you’re a business owner, especially in a regulated business, well, all businesses regulated but I mean a business that is licensed or a professional services type of business. I know you have empathy for what I’m about to say because most people they just don’t understand I sold part of one of my companies to Coldwell Banker way back in 2005 by the way, everybody says I timed that perfectly Well, that was one of my predictions that the residential real estate market would really start experiencing some difficulties in the end of 2005. And by golly it did I the sale completed november of 2005. Now that doesn’t mean for them they couldn’t make a lot of money because there’s there’s what they call a buyer’s market. a seller’s market, which most people consider a seller’s market to be a good market. I don’t know why, you know, that’s just sort of the way people look at it. And then there’s what I call a broker’s market, there’s a buyers market, a seller’s market and a broker’s market. So you know, sometimes in a seller’s market, the commonly considered good market, that’s a very difficult market, sometimes for brokers to make money because inventory is tight. And you know, there’s just a whole host of problems. So you can always adapt and figure out a way to make your business a lucrative business. But lest I get on a tangent, which I know I do sometimes, but what I meant to say to you if you’re in a licensed business or a professional services business, you have to keep records Right, and you’ll understand if you’re in one of these businesses and your listener, and I had a couple very small minority shareholders in that business when the deal closed back in 2005. And one of the things I did before I bought them back out and bought the company back myself, I, by paying them off, and most of them wanted to be out of the deal by them, because they weren’t actively involved in in the company’s new affairs. And they wondered, you know, and I remember one of them sort of questioned why I was withholding some money from the valuation and the stock and buying them out. And I said, well, because I have the burden, or the company has the burden of storing all of these records for several years. And yesterday, I went to the record storage company in Orange County, California, and I sorted through listen to this 299 banker’s boxes. I already did this exercise A few years ago once and I did it again and sorted through the remaining boxes and set a bunch of them that were within the proper timeframes away for destruction and put the rest of them in a truck that I rented and then emptied another storage unit we had there and had the movers helped me do that and I know look at I had moving companies for some of this major move which was consisted of four well really five storage units, the record storage company, my personal residence, one of our California office locations, and I had a lot of professional movers helped me but for this one, it just didn’t make sense. So I did it myself. Anyway. Suffice it to say, I was driving this rental truck home, and I flew into San Jose did an event there did a speaking engagement there, up in San Jose, and flew down to Orange County, spent the week there had several appointments, saw some old friends had doctor’s appointment, didn’t get myself a flight back Cuz I knew I was finally going to rent a truck and come back. And I did that. And I got home at about 330 in the morning. And you know, I live in kind of a young college area here in Arizona. And oddly enough, a lot of these kids were still up partying, I’m sure, but I was exhausted. So I hit the sack. And then today, the helpers came, you know, there’s these great websites you can use, like hire a helper.com, where you can just hire you know, a couple movers to just help you with small moving jobs. And so they helped me today and we moved this stuff out of the truck into into the other storage unit here in Arizona. So there you go. Anyway, it’s a lot of work. But that’s why I’m kind of tired if I sound tired. That is the reason before we get to our guest today, who’s Carl Richards, who has made quite a name for himself. He’s a wall street guy. And he’s made quite a name for himself teaching people and illustrating people illustrating investment concepts for people on little napkin style sketches. So I think you’ll really enjoy that interview. And we’ll have that here in just a moment. But two things I want to talk to you about real quickly. One is a listener letter. And you know, I really appreciate the call ins to the shows mostly those I like the best because those we can have a discussion. And of course, you can always call into the show 48078878 to three, I’ll put you on the air, you’ll get your 15 minutes of fame may only be a couple minutes, maybe 15 minutes, who knows, but this was an email and and that was from David, thank you so much for sending this. David. This is an article about Michael Bloomberg questioning basically, why does the government need taxation when they can print money? And you know, it’s a great question. And there is a famous article or book about this and forgive me, I cannot remember the name but it was written way back, I think in the 30s. And I’ve mentioned it on the show before and I don’t know who the author is, but it said it had this exact same sentiment that basically said look, if the government is in control of the printing press if the government can print fake fiat money if the government can create money out of thin air, there is simply no reason for taxation. I mean, inflation, as it’s sometimes referred to is the insidious hidden tax that robs our purchasing power that destroys the value of the money in your wallet, the money in your bank, the value of your stock portfolio, the value of your bonds, and thankfully, the value of your debt, which is Hey, you see I’ve perked right up because I get so excited about this. I no longer tired. I love this subject. And that’s a big part of our investment philosophy, destroy the value of your debt, and use that data that’s outsourced to tenants to buy packaged commodities, that hedge against inflation beautifully. It’s the ultimate investing equation. But you know, it’s a great point, the government should have only one of two options either taxes its citizens to get its revenue, and the government of course needs some revenue. So it either taxes or it prints fake money out of thin air and destroys the The value of the currency its citizens hold. It’s one or the other. Our government, though it does both. It does both at the same time. And and that’s the thing. And this article is a very good article. And it’s entitled Mayor Bloomberg, don’t panic about the sequester, and just says basically, why does the government need to tax you if it can just print fake money? It’s a great question. I couldn’t agree more. So thank you for sending that into me. Great point. David. One other thing I wanted to talk to you about is well, two other things real quickly. One is that we are becoming a little bit disappointed. Again, it’s certainly not the first time in one of our local market specialists and we may put yet you’ll see it again, we will announce it when we do it. Another area or another local market specialist on pause, we hit the pause button. Sometimes we hit the stop button and the you’re fired button occasionally that’s rare, but it does happen sometimes. But this one, I think the pause by is coming up because they’re just not delivering quickly enough and not delivering well enough. So we’ll let you know about that when the time comes, it’s probably going to come pretty soon. But what kind of give them a chance to get their act together? If they don’t, we’ll just have to hit the pause button for a while I’m on one of our markets. But it’s amazing spending the week in Orange County, in California in general last week, I’m looking here at a commercial real estate deal. And this is in Costa Mesa, California. And that’s an area in Orange County. And this you know, it’s just interesting how amazing institutional investors will accept such crummy returns on their investment. This cap rate is a it’s a bank building, it’s a Chase Bank, and think, oh, gosh, a secure tenant. The banks are basically underwritten by the government. They’re too big to fail, etc. And this is a Chase Bank, the cap rate if all of the expense projections and income projections come true, which you know, they’re likely to with a tenant like this or released close but can Rate 4.44% 4.4. I mean that that just stinks. It’s a lousy deal. And the appreciation rates on these types of properties, they are generally not very good. So I say to you, listeners, even if, if you purchase an investment property that we recommend, or at least the style of property, we recommend, and use the plan we recommend. And even if you buy it through somebody else, of course, you’d have to have your head examined to do that. But maybe you need your head examined. But if you do that, even if it doesn’t go as well as projected, even if it only goes half, as well as projected, you’re gonna beat the institutional investors most of the time, just because we have the fragmentation benefit, and you need to embrace the fragmentation and all those little hassles and all those little pet peeves that income property has where you feel the bumps in the road. That’s one thing And then of course, the other issue is because it’s a multi dimensional asset class, and it is more dimensional than a lot of these institutional investments. So keep that in mind. Keep perspective. If you don’t keep perspective, I guarantee you, you are on the road to making big mistakes as an investor. Okay, enough said, let’s get to our guest. We’ll be back with Carl Richards in just less than 60 seconds. Be sure to call into the creating wealth show and get your real estate investing and economics questions answered by me personally, we’d love to have you call in. Share your experiences, ask your questions, and a lot of other people listening, have those very same questions. So be a participant in the show at 480-788-7823. That’s 480-788-7823 or anywhere in the world via Skype, Jason Hartman ROI that’s Jason Hartman ROI for return. on investment, be sure to call into the show. And we are going to enter all of the callers in a drawing for some nice prizes as well. So be sure to call into the show, and I look forward to talking with you soon. It’s my pleasure to welcome Carl Richards to the show. He’s the author of the behavior gap. And I think you’re going to really, really love this interview, because we’re going to talk about some simple ways to stop doing dumb things with money. He contributes sketches to the New York Times on a regular basis. And he’s got a way of illustrating complex financial concepts in fantastically simple and easy to comprehend ways. And he’s coming to us today from Park City, Utah. Carl, welcome. How are you? I’m fantastic. Jason, thanks for having me. Well, the pleasure is all mine. Tell us a little bit about your background, if you would,
Carl Richards 13:57
yeah, about 15 years ago, I went to apply Apply as a as a as an undeclared major at the University of Utah I want to apply for a job that I thought was a security job, you know, like a bouncer or Mall Cop. And it halfway through the interview I found it was a securities job, not a security job,
Jason Hartman 14:15
a slight difference. That’s how
Carl Richards 14:17
I got in the industry and end up getting that job and worked at Fidelity Investments for a couple years and then went on to the brokerage world and became a certified financial planner and through that sort of experience of trying to explain complex or at least issues that people feel like a really complex I started doing everything I could to explain them visually. So I would just, you know, I had no art background, but I would just try and draw them on the whiteboard or on the yellow pad and, and from there, I got asked after a little while doing that and putting them up on my own little website called the behavior gap. I got asked by the New York Times to start doing them for for them once a week and then the book came out in February of this year, with portfolio penguin and that’s sort of where we are today. Fantastic. Well,
Jason Hartman 15:03
yeah, I mean, there’s obviously an old saying we’ve all heard a picture says 1000 words. And it really does. It’s amazing how, when something is illustrated, it can become so much easier to understand than when it’s just in in text form or audio form, you know, reading it or hearing it. I wonder why that is our mind just just work very visually, don’t they?
Carl Richards 15:24
Yeah, no, I’ve been, I’ve been blown away. And there’s all sorts of statistics floating around about how many of us are visual learners, and the number is pretty high. I mean, it seems like it’s 80% or 90% of us learn better visually, but very few of us and again, I’d be butchering the stat even make it up but very few of us are comfortable communicating visually. So I think that’s sort of where this disconnect is where we’re just starting and you starting to think see things like that, you know, the UPS commercials and all these animated whiteboard sessions you see online now. So I think it is very fascinating. I think That I would be in a classroom with somebody trying to explain a concept. And as soon as I stood up and tried to attempt to make it visual on the whiteboard, the discussion changed. And I don’t know. I don’t know why all of that. I don’t know why it works. I just know in the end, I found it made it a lot easier to communicate these subjects once I started trying to make them visual.
Jason Hartman 16:23
Well, can you kind of illustrate in quotes for us on this interview any of these concepts and help help people understand any, any any of the recent things in the news or current events? I mean, we’ve all since the financial crisis learned so many new acronyms and, and words and phrases and things that we never heard of before. Well, we call those Wall Street innovations. Right, right.
Carl Richards 16:46
No, I, one of the sketches that’s really popular and seems to resonate with a lot of people. In fact, it’s on the cover of the book, if you just imagine sort of a wave, right like a single line that goes up and then comes back down and then goes back up. And, you know, we’ve all seen that line, it looks a little bit like a stock market chart, right? Like, it goes up and down. And I’ll see that line. And what I found is that we have this natural tendency, and if you go back to 9798 99, or 2004 2005 2006, with in 2000, part of 2007 with with real estate, right, people get excited. And unfortunately, they get excited, like after the lines already gone up. So sort of at the top of this line, if you wrote, greed, slash buy, right, people get all excited at the top of markets, because they’ve heard about, it’s what’s in the news. It’s what’s good. It’s what their neighbors are doing. And they buy right and then if you fast forward a couple of years, to 2002 or 2008, nine, suddenly the markets gone down, and everybody’s selling and everybody’s nervous and we out of if you wrote at the bottom of that Have you wrote fear, sell. And then over at the far right hand side of the piece of paper you wrote, repeat until broke. You know, this is supposed to be kind of a tongue in cheek. It’s the only sort of investment so the only thing Americans buy, when they’re marked up and sell when they’re on sale.
Jason Hartman 18:19
It’s kind of like a little guy always seems to enter the game too late. They do it. They, you know, after they’ve heard a year or two of hype about something, they’re finally convinced they’re convinced too late. Would that be a fair statement? And then they and then they’re convinced to sell too late also when it’s already in the truth, right?
Carl Richards 18:38
Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a fair statement other than maybe we could have it you know, we could maybe discuss what the little guy means because it’s sure fascinated see massive institutions making the same mistake. I mean, money poured into real estate and oh, seven, money was pouring into stocks and O’s. Oh 607 money was pouring in at the top of the market in 98. Sorry, 99. So I think We all do it. We just have this natural human tendency, it’s genetic, almost, that we want more of those things that are giving us either security or pleasure. And we want to get away from those things that are causing us pain as fast as possible.
Jason Hartman 19:14
Very interesting. Well, so so that’s kind of this the market cycle if he will lower the investor cycle, and how psychology plays on it. Any other of your sort of big major illustrations that you’ve done? I mean, these are just by the way, folks, these are napkin sketches. I mean, but they’re, they’re brilliant little napkin sketches. You know, these aren’t complicated infographics with a zillion little points on and they’re a little just for the listeners, there napkin sketches, right. Is that Yeah,
Carl Richards 19:40
no, for sure. I have no, there’s certainly no art skill involved here. There’s a skill it’s taking a complex thing and making it simple but yeah, so I mean, the other one that people talk a lot about is now it’s interesting because this may look like a Venn diagram some people but I, I you know, you could argue about like there apparently There are a Venn diagram police who want like to argue about whether something’s event A technically a Venn diagram or not. So don’t worry about that. It’s, I call it a circle sketch. Okay, so in one circle, you can imagine if there was a circle and it had the words written things that matter, right in that circle, I would put, you know, whatever, if we’re talking about investing, we, you know, family and the, the amount of money you save, you know, those things that actually make matter or make a difference and the other circle and they’re slightly overlapping, let’s say the other circle says things that you can control and, or that overlap is its label. So things that both matter and you have some control over the overlap is labeled, what you should be focused on. And and what I was trying to get across here was just that so often we spend so much time worried about like the national economy or even worse, the European debt crisis. That’s totally out of our control and in fact, specifically in real estate right, so much about Real Estate is local, you could argue whether the national economy or the national real estate market even matter, you
Jason Hartman 21:06
great point, thank you for making it because I’ve been saying that for a long time. I think I think the listener is hearing it from somebody else want more impact? Maybe?
Carl Richards 21:15
Okay, so two things. Number one, you don’t control the national economy. Number two, it probably doesn’t even matter to your local. So I and when it comes to investing This is things like you know, your exposure to risk. Those are things that you have control over. And it matters like how much you have in the stock market. What’s up in bonds, cash, real estate, those things, you have control over that and they matter? We should be focused on that. And not the latest news on CNBC. Because when we’re worried about what the financial pornography network is saying, and what is going on in Europe, we have no control over it. This is no good to worry about it. So I’d much rather focus on things that we can control and things that matter.
Jason Hartman 21:52
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And I love the financial pornography network. scraped, but yeah, yeah, I find that that’s a symptom. have sort of the news junkie personality. And certainly I’ve been in that news junkie kind of mentality from time to time. And also the sort of the macro thinker mentality is that is some people spend so much time agonizing and analyzing and discussing these big macro trends. Well, there are other people out there just doing deals and making money by taking action, they will be like, sort of an excuse to become paralyzed almost. Have you seen that with your investors?
Carl Richards 22:31
For sure. It’s just you just, and it’s I mean, it’s just you get so focused on these things, and they see everything feels so much out of your control. And you just we don’t we don’t like that feeling.
Jason Hartman 22:41
Right. Right. Well, one of the things I’ve started saying in the past few years is that I used to be an optimist. Now, I’m just an opportunist. I think there’s enough to be pessimistic about and I think it’s, I think the pessimism is legitimate, frankly, you know, in a lot of ways, but, you know, as an investor, all I can do is control my own actions. And I just want to exploit the heck out of it. whatever is going on. That’s, that’s all I can do. I can’t control the Fed. I can’t control government spending. I think it’s ridiculous. I hate it. But the fact is, it is what it is. And all we can do as investors is just focus on and control our own actions and decisions. Yeah, very good point. Well, it seems like a lot of your work here and I’m just looking like, I went to your website, on behavior gap calm, and I clicked on best selling, you know, in terms of the digital sketches and the best selling ones. And I guess, by the way, I do a lot of investment firms and so forth, buy these and hang them on the wall.
Carl Richards 23:36
Yeah, it’s been crazy. A lot of a lot of investment firms. We’ve had a lot of real estate firms, a lot of attorneys CPAs You know, they’re looking for something, art quote, unquote, if you will, to hang on the wall that’s not complex and reinforces what they’ve been saying all along. So a client right walks in the lobby or the foyer or down the conference, Hall hallway. And sees things that are like, hmm. And they they end up being I like to I mean, I they end up being conversation starters. And And so yeah, it’s been it’s been actually shocking how much we’ve how much interest there has been in buying these.
Jason Hartman 24:14
Yeah, yeah, that’s great. What what I noticed, though, is that seems like you really focus a lot on the psychology of investing. And I know that is part of investing. But, I mean, do you want to kind of ferret that out for us a little bit like the psychology of investing versus maybe the the technical side of investing, you know, the, the sort of the chart, the Chartist mentality, maybe, or anything like that are some of the different philosophies of investing.
Carl Richards 24:41
Yeah, no, I mean, I think the my whole point is, there’s plenty of information and books and knowledge and wisdom out there about how to invest like the technical piece of it, whether you should buy index funds with your 401k or whether you should buy active fund like there’s plenty of that information. The dilemma of course, is you can get all of that perfect. And with one behavioral mistake, right one emotional, I gotta get out of the market now mistake, it doesn’t matter the investment process that you choose speaking of like marketable securities, like maybe your 401k, or retirement account, specifically, the investment process that you choose only matters to the degree that it influences behavior correctly. So let me give you an example. Let’s just say that you’ve got a bunch of money in your 401k. And you’ve sat down and you figured out that investing in a diversified set of index funds is the right way to go. And it’s, it’s, it’s the right way to go. you’ve, you’ve picked a diversified set that matches sort of your ability, willingness and need to take risk over the next 20 years in your retirement account. And you’ve done everything right. And then you wake up one day and you’re your portfolio is down 25% which would be normal, right? I mean, if those things happen, your portfolio is down 25% in Oh, oh, You wake up and say, I can’t take this anymore and you sell the skill, the knowledge, the wisdom that went into picking that doesn’t matter at all if you can’t behave correctly. So that’s sort of AI. Yes, we need to have a certain level of knowledge to invest correctly. But you could own in the data shows is clearly you could own an average mutual fund. And if you behaved correctly, meaning you just bought it and held on for a long, long time, even the last 10 years, like always, people would say investing hasn’t worked the last 12 years. That’s completely wrong. Investors haven’t worked the last 12 years. There’s plenty of investments, broad based index funds that have done fine. It’s just that none of us had the the sort of emotional ability to stick with it. So buying and holding still absolutely works. If you buy and hold, right, it’s just that you’re going to have to live through periods of time where it’s incredibly painful,
Jason Hartman 26:56
and you got to overcome yourself. Isn’t that a big part of it, overcoming oneself
Carl Richards 27:00
The biggest enemy is is you? Yeah.
Jason Hartman 27:02
Right. Sure. is. It sure is. He want to just talk maybe more generally for just a quick moment here about your outlook on things and what is going on with the economy and investing?
Carl Richards 27:13
Yeah, I know. I mean, I think all of those things are really interesting to talk about. But the the dilemma, of course, is I have realized over the last 16 years that I don’t I don’t know. So my view of all this, while it may be fun to talk about an interesting debate to talk about whether the economy is going to grow or not grow or jobless, jobless rate as a permanent thing, or what’s going to happen in Europe or what’s going to happen with debt. Those things may all be interesting to talk about, but the reality is, since I don’t know what’s gonna happen, and I would submit to you that no one does, I would rather not be making decisions on that I would rather decisions on my own personal plan. So if if I’ve got unique opportunities in in investment, real estate private real estate deal, I should be looking at those things that are in my control. And sure, I’ve got to make a decision like, Okay, if I buy this apartment building, what’s going to happen vacancy rates over the next 1230 to 2436? You know, 10 years, I’m gonna have to make some assumption. And if those so if that if that range of outcomes is so potential range of outcomes is so wide, that it makes me uncomfortable, then maybe I shouldn’t buy that apartment building. But if I’m relatively certain about the vacancy rates, even when I build in a healthy slice of uncertainty, right, so it makes sure I’m not being overconfident. So that’s sort of my view on things is, I would rather focus there is enough opportunity out there in any market for me just to focus on the things that I can control. And let’s say I have no interest in real estate and I don’t know how to do it. And I, somebody who knows how, and I’m just hypothetically, to say I can’t find anybody, well, then those things I can control are my long term exposure to stocks. If I decide I can’t live with any exposure to stocks, well that I need to have all my money in CDs, that’s fine too. I just need to Make a little and save a little bit more.
Jason Hartman 29:01
And that that’s just exactly what we were talking about, about not worrying about what’s going on in Europe and he can’t influence that stuff. So I hear you exactly. But it’s so interesting to talk about. Some people like to just just chomp on the hat and talk about it.
Carl Richards 29:16
Well, that’s what, like we’ve all been trained, it became sort of America’s greatest spectator sport. Mm hmm.
Jason Hartman 29:21
Yeah, it’s good way to put it,
Carl Richards 29:22
I think. I don’t think it doesn’t say it’s much more entertaining, and far cheaper to go to the movies.
Jason Hartman 29:31
Uh huh. Or even maybe to gamble in Las Vegas. That’s expensive. But But yeah, good stuff. Well, hey, any closing thoughts that you’d like to give us and please tell people give out your website and tell them where they can get the book? Sure.
Carl Richards 29:45
Yeah. I mean, the website is www dot behavior, gap, behavior gap calm. And the book is available anywhere books are sold airports, Barnes and Noble everywhere. Of course, you can always get it from Amazon and you can buy it from it. You want to get an autographed copy, just send me an email, we can sell it to you right from my website.
Jason Hartman 30:04
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much, Carl Richards. We appreciate it. And you have any plans for another book? Maybe more illustrations?
Carl Richards 30:12
Yeah, yeah, we’re working on. We’re working on something for about a year from now.
Jason Hartman 30:17
Uh huh. Good, good stuff. Well, phone us up when you do so we can have you back on to talk about it.
Carl Richards 30:21
Right. Thank you very much, Jason.
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Jason Hartman 31:57
One of the great things about the creating wealth show is that we love it when you call into the show, and you can do that at 480-788-7823. And let’s go to a caller now and answer some questions and discuss some issues. Hey, we have CJ on the line calling from New York City CJ, how are you? I’m doing great, Jeff. I’m good. Good. Good. Thanks for calling into the show. How can I help? Well, I have one question, not the fries. Question. I love your show. Just got to point that out. The rails. Cool. Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m glad you find it valuable. And I’ll keep doing it. As long as people tell me they find it’s valuable. So we’ll keep it up. Now. Thank you. And my question, just like a Quaker says that Well, my concern is that, what if I buy that investment properties? But all of a sudden, the when the government is going to just turn around and take everything that I’ve worked to build? And that’s my concern? Yeah. Well, that’s that’s a valid concern. I mean, look, the reality is, I wish I had some great answer, but the government can always do anything they want or I shouldn’t say they can do anything they want. They can do anything that The people allow them to get away with. I’ll put it that way maybe. And you know that that’s just the reality of the situation. You know, of course we have a body of laws, we have rule of law in this country, theoretically, you have a great constitution. But more and more, we see the government watering the constitution down and overstepping their limits and overstepping their rights in, you know, in my opinion and the opinions of many other people. So, this is certainly a concern, and an after another question, because I also listened to Robert, like, I’ve read his books, Robert Kiyosaki, and in his books I talked about the tax laws are an incentive that determines whatever the government wants to see get done. Right. They gear the tax law stores at sub. I mean, when it comes to housing in that respect, I guess, are we saying, like even providing housing for people? No, you question is like a GAAP the tax laws are nothing more than an incentive right? The government. So, for example that we’re used to, which is what I want to do invest in properties. Was that in alignment to what the government wanted to see get done. Yes. That is what the government wants to see get done. And here’s the thing, you know, have you ever heard CJ, the old saying their safety and numbers? Have you heard that saying, I’ve heard her? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s one of the things I really like about being a real estate investor being an income property investor. Because there is some safety in numbers. The government is much more likely as anybody to take advantage of a small weak group than a large powerful group. And so many people own real estate. And then of that group, that’s a huge group. So many people have them own income properties. And the National Association of Realtors is a huge trade lobbying organization with over 1 million members. And so these laws and these customs are very codified. into the American legal system and the American psyche. So that makes me feel very good about real estate about income property, you know, as the quality of its investment, the quality of its tax benefits and the quality of its legal protections. Because like I said before, if you think society is going to fall apart, everything falls apart. I mean, what will there be? Will the money in your wallet be worth anything? Well, will you be able to access the money in your savings account? Will you be allowed to trade gold and silver? Probably answered all those questions is no, the government can ultimately do whatever they want, because they they have the monopoly on force. But barring society falling apart, and these really sort of outlandish theories like that, that I guess could happen, but they’re very unlikely. I feel very good with income property as an investment. Okay. And last question is how do you feel about investment in other countries like Brazil because I hear their economy is booming in Brazil, because Trying to make them more or less urban, I guess like that big competence, a common number. So the economy’s actually booming because I thought about not only focusing on the US but also doing it in Brazil. Yeah. Well, I, by the way, where’s your accent from? I’m from the Dominican Republic. Okay. I’ve been to the Dr. Got to tell you a quick funny story about the Dr. The Dominican Republic. I did a speech there once. And it was funny. It was the only time I ever did a speech where it was translated into another language. And I’m wearing a microphone and an earpiece as well. So I can hear audience reaction. And it’s funny, every time I would say something or tell a joke, the audience would only get it like a minute later. It was it was funny doing that. I’ll never forget that. But yeah, so what I would say is that, you know, again, it goes back to that rule of law thing. I am very reluctant about investing in other countries. As you’ve heard me say on the show, probably I’ve traveled extensively. I’ve been to 64 countries so far. And some of those countries I’ve been to many times, and Brazil is growing, they’ve got great resources. There’s no question about it. But still, you have, I believe, a lot more corruption, and a much less stable infrastructure of property management of real estate laws have all sorts of things. And you certainly don’t have the financing and mortgage infrastructure that you have in the United States. I’ve looked at property in Argentina extensively, because I thought that was a great place to invest. I read all about it. I looked at property in Panama. I’ve never been to Brazil, mind you. But you know, I’ve certainly read a lot that Brazil, I’ve talked to many developers down there in Fortaleza, in Sao Paulo, and some of these others that I can’t even remember right now. But you know what, for me, I think it’ll us real estate is far in a way far and away the best because you don’t have the opportunity to get those 30 year mortgages in other countries. Like you do here, it’s just a, we just have a whole different system here. And, you know, our real estate prices, believe it or not, are actually relatively low. Now you can look at a country like Brazil, you can look at China, you can look at some of these countries like the BRIC countries, and they’re growing fast, but growing from where they have to grow from a long way down. Yes, the US and other highly developed industrialized countries, they may they may have slower growth rates, but they don’t have very far to grow. The population here, comparatively, is already so prosperous, compared to these other countries. They’re already way ahead of us. Ah, okay. That’s my my take on it. You got my dad actually said something like every other places is struggling, but the US is still like the best. Because I’m getting to that age like I’m 32. And most of my friends are having kids. And I’m realizing Wow, like, I want to feel some sense of stability before I can bring a child into this world. Sure. Yeah. As All I’m trying to do is educate myself as much as I can as I love your podcast, if there’s any books and like, that will be fantastic. I’m always looking for material to read. And sometimes I hear you talk about a book and I’m like, what’s the name of the book? So if you could put a section and just books that you recommend are fantastic, because I will definitely make sure that everybody does books. Yeah. Well, you know, we just talked about some of those books on the last show and any of the guests that I interview, the vast majority of them are authors. So you know, I would say that’s a great start. I love the Robert Kiyosaki books. And I think just just the guests on my show, all the books that I like, I try to interview those guests. Now I haven’t interviewed every guest that I have read, or you know, enjoyed their books, but certainly try to and eventually I usually get them on the show. So I’ll keep talking about those though, and try to provide as many resources as possible. Thank you so much, Jeff, and thank you for your time and listen you to me, you are alive on this earth, so kids know what you’re doing, trust me like I don’t call us much and But I can’t wait to go home to just listen to the podcast and you’re doing great work I really appreciate. Well, thank you so much CJ and keep on listening, and we’ll keep trying to provide value for you. And I’m glad you are a lifelong learner because that’ll get you very far in the world. So thanks for calling. Thank you. Bye bye.
Announcer 40:21
This show is produced by the Hartman media company All rights reserved for distribution or publication rights and media interviews, please visit www dot Hartman media.com or email media at Hartman media.com. Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax legal real estate or business professional for individualized advice. opinions of guests are their own and the host is acting on behalf of Empowered Investor network, Inc. exclusively.