Uncommon Wealth Podcast

Ready for a masterclass in managing the 7 sources of residual income? It’s not like today’s guest makes it look easy – but he definitely shows us how it is possible. And how you can have some fun along the way! Between real estate, owning a business, and even running a music festival – it is never a dull moment.

On this episode of the Uncommon Life Project Podcast, hosts Phillip Ramsey and Bryan Dewhurst talk with Courtney Wooge.

Courtney is a second generation owner of FCIS Insurance. He is also one of the founders of the Tree Town music festival – the premier country music festival in the Midwest – in Forest City, Iowa.

Get ready for a fascinating, wide-ranging conversation. Building wealth for you, the next generation, and where giving back is not a sprint, which makes Courtney a great coach in running a marathon.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• How it’s possible to have a hand in all 7 sources of residual income
• Diversify, diversify, diversify
• Why income property can be a great source of cash flow – and a lot of hard work
• The tax benefits and long-term wealth benefits of owning property
• Something completely different – fun and profit in running a music festival
• How to take calculated risks in service of your cash flow
• Setting up for success as a 2nd or 3rd generation business owner
• The mental shifts needed to move from managing yourself to managing a company
• Taking responsibility as an owner
• Using your cash position to leverage the interest on that cash

When the creative impulse takes hold of you, it’s hard to let go. And if you DO let go, you are likely missing out on some of the richest treasures life has to offer: authenticity and true satisfaction. These are lessons learned and shared by our guest.

On this episode of the Uncommon Life Project Podcast, hosts Phillip Ramsey and Bryan Dewhurst talk with Nadine Hawbaker. In addition to being a delightful human being, Nadine is an accomplished artist born and raised in Iowa. She studied with Dimitar Krustev, a European schooled artist, for seven years.

She has works on permanent display in the State Capitol building in Des Moines. She has been honored to have her work commissioned by the World Food Prize, along with a number of corporate and individual commissions. What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• How to fan the flames of your creativity
• The power of making mistakes
• Why, even if you cannot pursue it full time, finding ways to be creative is crucial
• The power of understanding who you are and uncovering the gifts you have
• Why boldness should by nurtured and encouraged
• Passion and heart are not the only things, but they’re far from nothing
• Opportunities don’t just fall in your lap – you have to pick them up and do something with them
• Why just wanting to sell a piece of art for a lot of money is the wrong place to start
• The importance of never flatly turning down an opportunity
• What it means to live by the adage: enough is best

What an incredible story. With less than $10,000 in the bank – credit card debt up to his eyeballs, credit scores in the toilet, and his wife pregnant with their first child, Caleb Walsh thought this was the perfect time to buy an $800,000 multi-unit property! This could have been another 99 Homes story (where huge numbers of people got underwater on their mortgage) but Caleb turned it into a story of going from zero to 500 doors.

On this episode of the Uncommon Life Project Podcast, hosts Phillip and Bryan talk with Caleb Walsh.

Caleb Walsh is a leading authority in affordable housing with portfolios spanning over 1,500 units in six states. He resides in Tampa, Florida with his wife Denise and their two children, Lincoln and Noelle. He's an economy of scale advocate, and his story involves jumping from five units to 500 units in a short amount of time.

Listen in and get ready for a spirited conversation. You’ll hear about Caleb’s mistakes and triumphs – and how he persisted until he reached his goals.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• How to leverage credit instead of letting debt leverage you
• The value of going all in – making your side hustle the main thing
• Lessons learned from trying to flip homes at the epicenter of a downturn
• How to hold on to a crazy, grandiose idea
• Why establishing passive income can take “sleep is optional” amounts of energy. No such thing as easy money.
• How to capitalize on an investment that brings in a solid return.
• Building economies of scale for even bigger returns
• Going public with goals in order to build in accountability around those goals.
• Creating public momentum increases opportunity through others buying into your vision

Of the 7 Sources of Residual Income that Uncommon Wealth Partners champion, real estate may be the most obvious source. It’s one of the first places your mind goes when you think “residual income.” But this is the Uncommon Life Project, so the way our co-hosts talk about real estate probably holds some surprises.

For Phillip Ramsey and Bryan Dewhurst, the uncommon path leads to a rewarding life. That’s why they have dedicated their financial services practice to help clients define their goals, implement a plan, create wealth, and ultimately create time freedom.

In this podcast we’ll take a close look at what rental property can do for you in terms of financial security, tax advantages, and long term financial health and freedom.

• Understanding interest rates, cash flow, and tax favorable income
• Just what exactly a cap rate is
• Tax advantages of owning real estate
• Why leveraging other people’s money – especially when interest rates are so low – can be very beneficial
• Not to downplay the maintenance and other expenses associated with income properties
• A granular level look at a 401(k) investment compared with a rental investment
• Having some sort of business entity to run these properties through – for tax savings.

• Email: [email protected]
• Email: [email protected]

Living out your values is important to most of us. We want to align all we do with our core beliefs. It seems complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.

In this episode of the Uncommon Life Project podcast we talk with Doug Shiplett, an entrepreneur, pastor and church planter who seeks to break down false divides between sacred and secular. With vision and purpose, all of life is sacred.

Doug Shiplett has been involved in the Des Moines business community since 2005. Initially through investment real estate with his company Antioch Investments, and now with his son John and daughter-in-law Hannah at Eden and Gray Design and Build, a custom home remodeling company, plus an exciting network marketing venture.

Doug's faith based work has been extensive as he serves currently as a visionary leader of Coleo Church network, a church planting network based in Ireland, California. Prior to that focus, Doug served as Executive Vice President and Director of International Partnerships at BILD International through 2012. And after serving as a Senior Pastor of Crossroads Bible Church in San Jose for nine years. What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• Living out your values in your career path
• Aligning a faith calling with career, family, finances and everything else in life
• Do you have to choose between “church work” and “business?”
• How to move away from dividing things into “sacred” and “secular” endeavors
• Putting your energy into the things you value most
• How to course-correct when you have not thought very thoroughly about your finances
• Setting passive income goals whatever stage of life you are in
• Why network marketing could be a good secondary source of income
• The low barrier of entry to network marketing has an upside and a downside
• How to plan for the future when there’s no employer providing a “golden parachute” when you retire

Keeping your financial and vocational goals in line with your faith – this is a very important aspect of living and working for many of us.

In this episode of the Uncommon Life Project podcast we talk with Justin Taylor about his career path, his work in the publishing world, and how his faith informs vocational and financial decisions.

Justin Taylor got his Doctorate from Southern Seminary. He serves as executive vice president of Book Publishing and Book Publisher at Crossway in Wheaton, Illinois. Prior to that he worked at Desiring God in Minneapolis. He and his wife, Leah, have five beautiful children. He has two blogs, Between Two Worlds and Evangelical History, both hosted by the Gospel Coalition.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• The role faith can play in vocational decision-making
• Understanding your vocational gifts and strengths as you decide on a career path
• How spiritual gifts and natural inclinations intersect
• Establishing partnerships with people of integrity
• How book royalties can be a great source of residual income
• Understanding the three-legged stool of communication: message, messenger and audience
• What it takes to be a compelling messenger
• Learning your capacity to do or not do things – even things you enjoy and are good at – during different stages of life
• Balancing the desire to succeed with other aspects of living a fulfilling life
• Being authentic as a parent, spouse and in business

Too often we expect people entering college or even into their 20’s to know what they want to do vocationally, now through the end of their days. But we all know life doesn’t work that way.

In this episode of the Uncommon Life Project podcast we talk with Adam Carroll, a financial literacy expert who helps young adults (and anyone else) gain a better understanding of money and building wealth.

You’ll learn how Adam has leveraged his passion for public speaking and financial planning into multiple projects and ventures.

Adam Carroll is a nationally recognized financial literacy expert, TED Talk speaker and documentary filmmaker. He's the author of three books on money, the most recent being "The Money Savvy Student." He speaks in schools throughout the US and has developed a widely used money curriculum.  Adam founded masteryofmoney.com as a source for high-quality financial resources for those in pursuit of mastery in these critically important topics. What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• Paying attention to those small or potentially life-changing “this is what you are supposed to do” moments
• Success is never a straight line. Be ready to zig and zag until you get there
• How to turn your knowledge or skill (like speaking or writing) into passive income
• Lessons learned from losing money
• Amortization isn’t just for mortgages. How to understand your debt load
• There are many, many paths to the Seven Sources of Residual Income
• Specific ways to sacrifice in the short term to prepare for long term financial stability
• How to teach your kids about money – have them interact with real money from a young age
• Creative ways of leveraging your skills to maximize earning potential

At the core of the practice at Uncommon Wealth Partners is what they call the Seven Sources of Residual Income. Without a doubt, that’s something we would all love to know more about. The first source of this residual income is one you might find uncommon – and has to do with the principles of banking.

In this episode, Phillip and Brian go in depth on a banking strategy involving insurance – and using cash value to the maximum advantage. When they first present this idea to clients, many want to fall asleep or run away – but when you understand the uncommon good sense of this tool, you will definitely want to know more.

Listeners will learn more about cash value insurance, how to think like a banker, and how to structure a policy to your maximum benefit. This episode will be truly eye-opening.

• How banking can be a source of residual income
• Understanding that “banking” boils down to the movement of money
• Why you should think of cash value life insurance as “uncommon banking”
• How the environment this uncommon banking creates allows you to leverage your money
• How a guy named Nelson Nash got the ball rolling using insurance for uncommon banking
• How to put your banks, insurance companies, and investments to work for you and not the other way around
• What a young Walt Disney did with a loan against his whole life policy
• How to structure a policy and payments to maximize what you can do with that money
• How to start thinking like a banker rather than a consumer
• Limitations of a Roth IRA compared with cash value life insurance

The environment that it creates is what we're after, not necessarily the product. It's about creating a way to move and manage money. That's what we want to get into today is cash value whole life insurance. – Brian Dewhurst

You're saving money and you're paying off a debt. All the while, that money is still on deposit earning a higher interest rate. It’s a mind shift. You’ve got to start thinking like a banker instead of consumer. – Phillip Ramsey

“Banking at the core is just the movement of money through your economic engine.” Brian Dewhurst

“Banking is essential to understand. Most people don't understand it. With that said, banking is comprised of multiple strategies or sources. Insurance is one of those strategies ” – Brian Dewhurst

“A typical whole life policy won't break even until you're 13 to 17 years into it depending on the carrier, and there’s usually zero cash value in the first 3 years or so. We advise trying to buy the least amount of death benefit for the most amount we can put in. That gives you the most cash value to work with.” – Brian Dewhurst

“This is the key to the whole uncommon banking concept: If you take one thing away from this, I think it's this point. Your money is always on deposit for the rest of your life” – Brian Dewhurst

“When we put this money into a policy, our number one objective is, ‘What are we doing with that cash value in that policy? What do we have access to? And what can we shore up for our clients?’” – Phillip Ramsey

“What we try to really show people is that cash value life insurance has the same tax structure as a Roth IRA, without all the limitations.” – Phillip Ramsey

“Don’t stop paying the premium. That's what Brian and I will always talk about. I think that's what differentiates us. We want you to keep funding this thing because it's just going to keep getting bigger and bigger.” – Phillip Ramsey

“You want to look for this type of insurance product from mutual owned companies, rather than publicly traded. That puts you as a policy-holder first, rather than some random shareholder.” – Phillip Ramsey

Travel, experiencing new cultures, learning new languages, meeting new people – many of us dream of this kind of life, but don’t know how to make the leap and turn those dreams into reality.

In this episode of the Uncommon Life Project podcast you’ll find out what led Drew Cutkomp to take this leap – and what it took to prepare. This isn’t somebody who just flew to Columbia with $100 in his pocket and hoped for the best. Living an uncommon life took planning. Drew has a lot to share about how planning, leaning on mentors - and some chutzpah - can go a long way in making dreams come true.

You’ll learn how Drew has evolved from working as a corporate mortgage originator where he crushed sales goals and attended award conferences to living his life traveling the globe and pursing his passions. He can be found currently learning Spanish and living the dream in Medellin, Colombia while running an ecommerce business and trading cryptocurrencies. The next stop on the journey is up to Drew!

Hopefully his story will inspire you to plan, learn, make a leap of faith and live your uncommon life dreams! What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• How there are many paths (at least Seven!) to residual income
• How following your passion can be done, backed up by a plan and good mentors
• You don’t owe any explanations. It’s your passion and your path to go on
• Why surrounding yourself with smart, supportive, positive people can make all the difference
• How Amazon’s logistics dominance can free you up to sell from anywhere
• Why multiple streams of residual income are important for more stable cash flow management

Mentors don’t often walk up to you and offer their time and expertise. Guest Joey Glenn learned early on that when you are passionate about something and find someone who has been on the same path before you – make the ask! For Joey, that meant contacting the authors of a book that changed his life -- which turned into an internship that changed his life even more!

In this episode of The Uncommon Life Project podcast, Joey Glenn talks about entrepreneurship, life/work balance and mentorship. He shares how the listeners can find a mentor and be a mentor. Both roles have been instrumental in Joey’s life and as a result of both, he and his family have reaped rewards many times over.

Hear about how Joey shaped his plan in college, how plans got altered by that book, and how having a plan plus a little bit of flexibility can be just the right combination when opportunity comes knocking. It also pays to do some knocking at opportunity’s door yourself.

Joey is a Sports Chiropractor and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. After obtaining his Bachelor's Degree in Health Sciences from the University of Iowa, Joey had an opportunity to work with Core Performance/Athlete's Performance™ in Los Angeles, California helping everyday people and professional athletes reach their highest athletic potential.

Joey continued his education at Palmer College of Chiropractic West and earned his Doctor of Chiropractic Degree and Strength and Conditioning Specialist certification. Joey worked for the Martinez Veterans Administration Hospital, treating our nation's heroes and completed his preceptorship treating professional athletes and weekend warriors alike at Water and Sport Physical Therapy in San Diego. After developing a passion for Olympic weightlifting, Joey obtained his USA Weightlifting Sport Performance Coach certification.

Joey is ecstatic to return to the Midwest and share his knowledge of health, movement and athletic development in his home state. Joey is married to his lovely wife, Hannah and is the father of three children under 3 and looking forward to adopting a fourth child from Africa by the end of 2018. What you’ll learn about in this episode:

• When it comes to entrepreneurship, if you’re not scared, you’re not doing it big enough
• Especially at the beginning of a venture, life/work balance is a huge challenge. Don’t let anyone tell you differently
• Finding great mentors does not happen every day – when you find them, don’t be afraid to ask for their help in learning
• Be willing to chase what matters
• Mentors may come and go, but learning and sharing knowledge is a life-long pursuit
• Transfer of wealth is not all about money – wealth is in the drive and knowledge and motivation our parents and others demonstrate for us
• There will be moments when you are awake at 2:00 am wondering “what have I done?” Those moments are not the last word
• Residual income and multiple income streams are the best kinds of portfolio diversity to have.
• How to find and keep good talent in a competitive job market
• There is always room to push the needle, do things a bit differently and differentiate yourself in the marketplace