Wealth Formula Podcast

It's actually not that hard to make money. Yes... I said that. And, I mean it. You see, everywhere I turn, I see opportunity. Why am I seeing things that others aren't? Well, I think it's because I'm not looking the same place that most people are. You see, there is a herd mentality amongst investors. We see what others are doing and we want to do the same. The problem is that when a lot of people are doing the same thing, it brings about competition and there is nothing that can kill a profit margin like competition. I learned this from the business world. My first business was a cosmetic surgery practice in Chicago. There is a cosmetic surgeon on every block in Chicago. It's glamorous and every surgeon wants to be famous and on TV. Luckily, I didn't care to be famous. I just wanted to make money. So, I focused on building my brand rather than my fame and that made it so I could scale past the other "famous doctors" pretty quickly. That said, if I had to do it again, I would not pick cosmetic surgery as a business. A friend of mine was telling me about his father-in-law who created an empire in the janitorial services industry. My friend asked him how he did it and his father-in-law said it was easy because "No one else was interested in the business of cleaning of shit". The businesses I started since that initial cosmetic business have been much easier to profit in because they are not glamorous. I have realized that the less glamorous the business, the easier to profit. The same could be said about investing. It's very hard to invest in apartment buildings right now because everyone wants to be an apartment investor. That's why it took me over a year to get behind a deal to present to investor club. On the other hand, no one seems to be rushing towards raw land. Yet, my guest on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast appears to be crushing it in this unusual part of the investing world. But I'm not surprised. If you figure out how to catch fish where non one else goes fishing, you're bound to come out a winner. That's pretty much what Mark Podolsky did with raw land and we will hear exactly how on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast. Buck Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [10:10] Buck introduces Mark Podolsky [10:52] Mark's background [13:57] Raw landing investing - how does it work? [20:32] Purposes of buying raw land [22:35] Websites to buy land Landsofamerica.com Landandfarm.com landmodo.com Landflip.com landhub.com [29:32] Learn how to start this business https://www.thelandgeek.com/ Email [email protected] with the subject line "Wealth Formula" and receive Passive Income Launch Kit (Originally priced at $97) for free [34:18] Mark Podolsky's podcast: The Art of Passive Income [35:44] Outro

We are living in a world that is technologically transforming at light speed and distributed ledger technology is on the cusp of that metamorphosis. Most people think of distributed ledger technology in terms of bitcoin—but bitcoin only scratches the surface of what will be the most important technological advancement since the internet. That is the reason that when my cryptocurrency portfolio dropped in value by over 50 percent, I just bought more. And now, I believe we are on the precipice of the next big move upward in this market. Behind the scenes, the big money knows this. Despite Jamie Dimon's commentary and the big banks' resistance to the movement, smart money is moving in for the kill. Institutional investors like Black Rock, Wellington Capital and billionaires like George Soros have taken note. And when they finally make their move, it will happen quickly and explosively and extraordinary amounts of wealth will be created. I truly believe this. The question is, what are you going to do? If you want to sit on the sidelines because of the speculative nature of the investment, I don't blame you. On the other hand, if there was ever a time to consider skipping the new BMW and buying some cryptocurrency instead, it might be now. If you want an introduction to distributed ledger technology, a good place to start would be episode 86 of Wealth Formula Podcast when I first interviewed Teeka Tiwari of the Palm Beach Confidential Newsletter. Lots has changed since then but I had the good fortune to speak to him again recently to catch up on what's going on in the crypto world. What you will find is that If you have a fear of missing out on the opportunity of a lifetime, it may be warranted. Listen to the interview now! Buck Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [06:18] Buck introduces Teeka Tiwari [08:00] What happened to the crypto market?! [10:34] Why is the market so volatile? [14:43] What's in store for us in the next few years? [18:21] Bitcoin dominance? [23:43] Distributed ledger technology is here to stay [27:45] How does regulation affects the crypto market? [33:20] Where does Bitcoin end up at the end of 2018? In 5 years? [41:00] Get in touch with Teeka Joinbigt.com [42:44] Outro

I know I'm always ranting and raving about the evils of Wealth Advisors but the reality is that I have learned a great deal from some of them. You see, there is a difference between Wealth Advisors who work for you and those that live OFF of you. There is also a big difference between Wealth Advisors who actually work with WEALTHY people compared to those who work with your typical professional who is just trying to do the right thing and work with a "professional". In fact, those advisors who work with the ultra wealthy are often the ones who know some of the best kept "secrets" of the ultra wealthy. We can learn a lot from them. My friend Jim Dew is one of those guys and offers some nice little "behind the veil" tips and tricks on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast. Make sure to tune in!

When I was a kid, $20 dollars seemed like A LOT of money. When I was a surgical resident making less than $50,000 per year in San Francisco, making $300,000 like my professors sounded like A LOT of money. Since embarking on my entrepreneurial and professional investing journey, I have had $300,000 MONTHS on multiple occasions. But making $10 million dollars in one year still sounds like A LOT of money. I have had the good fortune of being able to break through these kinds of mental barriers multiple times in my life to get to the next level. Hopefully, someday soon I will look back on the days when making over $10 million dollars in a single year and having a nine figure net worth seemed like a lot of money. Does that seem realistic? It does to me. Why? Because all of the barriers that we have in our lives are self-inflicted. We create our own boundaries. They don't really exist. Recognizing that is critically important if you want to continue to develop not only financially, but as a person. The other day I was trying to think of what my biggest fear in life is. It's not death and it's not dying broke. My biggest fear in life is hitting a plateau and not growing any more. It's an easy trap to fall into isn't it? Let's say you are like me and one day you decided you wanted to be a surgeon. You were on a mission. You went to college. You worked hard and good grades and test scores. Then you studied your butt off for years and finally became that person you aspired to be. But 5 years into your "dream", you started wondering to yourself, "is this it?" It seemed so much more exciting and glamorous as a dream than it does reality. Now it seems like—a job! Suddenly, that thrill of being a fancy surgeon has warn off and you didn't really think of anything past that point in your life. Even worse, now you have created a world for yourself that is highly dependent on your "high salary" and you feel like you don't have any options anymore. You are shackled to the golden handcuffs. Others can't understand why you, with your fancy titles, your fancy house, and your BMW, don't seem particularly happy. But.. I understand your discontent. You see, I believe that there is really only two states of being—growth or death. If you are not growing as a person…if you are not constantly learning and developing as a human being, you are pretty much already dead in the figurative sense. To me, to be such a metaphorical zombie, is the worst that could happen. How do you prevent that from happening to you? Well, my guest on Wealth Formula Podcast today, Michael Bernoff is an expert on exactly these types of things. So, if you don't want to be a zombie, make sure to tune in to the show! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [08:59] Buck introduces Michael Bernoff [10:42] Michael's story [13:18] There has to be more in life [24:28] Convince yourself to get out of your comfort zone/ the golden handcuff [28:42] A different kind of wealth [32:16] How to be happy with where you are at [36:30] Lean more about Michael Michaelbernoff.com michaelbernoff.com/wealthformulapodcast [38:40] Outro Wealthformularoadmap.com

One of the reasons I don't like investing in the New York Stock Exchange is that buy the time a stock become publicly traded, most of the upside is already gone. Let's take Square, Inc. for example. This is the mobile payments firm with that software that allows pretty much anyone to take credit card payments. Nice idea…sure and I don't doubt that this company has a bright future. But when you look at the stock, it's price to earnings ratio is over 1000. So what does that mean? Well, say you have a small business that makes about 500K profits per year. You decide you want to sell your business. At P/E ration of 1000, that would mean the value of your business based on your profit would be $500,000,000. Yes—a half billion dollars! Are you really going to buy a company valued like that? Well, that's the kind of stuff people buy in the stock market routinely. Private companies don't typically have those crazy valuations. For private companies, valuations are typically made by appraisals not by irrational exuberance. That's why the ultra wealthy who often are able to invest in these companies before their initial public offering often make a killing. The problem is that most of us don't have a couple extra million to play around with to speculate a little bit even on late stage private companies that are about to go public. But what if you could invest $25K into Lyft (uber's major competitor) before it goes public. Would you do it? It might make sense. The problem is that, until recently, it was impossible for accredited investors who are not worth several million dollars to participate in this world. That is until recently. I just discovered a way for high paid professionals to play in the world that used to be reserved for the billionaire boys club. It's through a business called equityzen and this week's Wealth Formula Podcast feature's its CEO and founder, Atish Davda. Check it out! Buck P.S. If you really want to start investing like the wealthy, check out Your Roadmap to Real Wealth (wealthformularoadmap.com). Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [09:07] Buck Introduces Atish Davda [09:37] Why did Equityzen begin? [11:22] How does a typical company goes from being private to public? [15:13] How does Equityzen work? [22:21] Buying and selling on Equityzen [31:45] What kind of return can you expect? [36:18] Potential changes to the accredited investor laws [39:23] The impact of cryptocurrency [42:19] Equityzen.com [44:11] Outro

I don't even watch the news anymore. The advent of the 24 hour news cycle combined with our reality television culture has changed what used to be "news" into entertainment. The fundamental problem with this juxtaposition of news and entertainment is that something that was supposed to be unbiased—just facts becomes something that has to have an angle. Plain old facts just aren't that interesting anymore. They have to be layered in commentary—commentary that sells. The reality television culture that we live in dictates that anything on TV must be controversial. If it's not controversial, it's not interesting. Think about it. Why do people watch reality TV anyway? Because of the drama—we love to watch a car wreck when we can be safe from harms way. Reality television allows for dramatic stories of love, hate and betrayal. That's what makes it addictive. Facts are not addictive. The irony of the times we live in is that reality TV culture has created a world in which there is, in fact, no reality. You see this from the highest office in the land—Trump says everything is fake news! Now, to be clear, I'm sure Donald Trump does not get the benefit of the doubt from the press but does that mean we throw out the baby with the bath water? In other words, if the news is fake, what's left to believe. Listen—this is not meant to be written as a political piece by any means. I'm a guy with strong libertarian views but I'm certainly not one to cast aspersions on politicians. I just think we need to start to return to a fact based society. If we cannot at least establish facts, then how can we ever make meaningful decisions about our future? This kind of discourse is probably no more important than on the subject of climate change. A few weeks ago, I had on Alex Epstein—author of the The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels. A lot of you were not happy about that and some of you were quite happy that I had Alex on the show. I just wanted to hear his perspective. What was funny about that show is that Alex did not actually say that climate change is not real. His thesis was actually whether or not fossil fuels are good for humanity. He also didn't say that alternative fuels were bad. But… it got people fired up on both sides—sort of like a reality show I guess. Anyway, I'm a facts guy and that's all I'm after. And my guest this week on Wealth Formula Podcast is a pretty hard core alternative energy guy although one who manages to keep his rationality. You'll learn all about the facts behind solar energy and alternative fuels and also how they might make sense to add to your portfolio. So…if you are looking for some reality, make sure to tune in to this week's show with Stephen Honikman! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [11:37] Buck introduces Stephen Honikman [14:55] Stephen's counter argument to Alex Epstein [18:54] The economic argument for alternatives over fossil fuel [24:29] Alternative vs fossil fuel – Dollar for dollar [35:22] Why solar? [38:38] Solar energy and tax [51:09] Investing in solar energy [01:00:47] Get in touch with Stephen: https://wisercapital.com For Solar energy inquiries, email Stephen at: [email protected] For other inquiries, email Stephen at: [email protected]

In 2008, when I finished my surgical residency, my net worth was about negative $75,000—not bad considering that number included education until I was 33 years old! As you know, 2008 was also the year of the great meltdown of the financial system. Doctors that I knew who had been practicing for decades with the intent of retiring soon, suddenly realized that they couldn't! Half of their money had evaporated within days! Why? The short story is Wall Street greed. You see, Wall Street has created this really profitable game for itself. Here's how it goes. You work hard to make money. You entrust your money in Wall Street through your wealth manager with hopes that your wealth will grow. Of course Wall Street charges you a lot of fees and wins whether you win or lose. They also make big bets with your money so they can make even more money for themselves. When they win, they win big but you don't get to see the money. When they lose, they are too big to fail so they get bailed out by you—the tax payer. Pretty nice gig if you can get it right? How do they get away with it in the first place? Why do we do we as professionals keep coming back for more? After all, doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity, right? What kind of financial education did you get growing up? What did they teach you about personal finance? Chances are, you weren't taught anything about investing. The educational system teaches you nothing about personal finance. And when we get out of school, what replaces the classroom? How do make up for what we haven't learned? Where do we turn to for answers when we need to learn about real life? What replaces the curriculum when you leave school? The answer?…CONVENTIONAL WISDOM! The problem is, conventional wisdom is not always right. For a lot of years conventional wisdom was that the world was flat. Conventional wisdom, believe it or not, might not even be unbiased. It might have been perpetuated by big money, big banks—wall street. Think about it. What is conventional financial wisdom? Let the experts invest your money in a diverse portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Why is that conventional wisdom? The only time my dad invested in the stock market was the during the dotcom crash and he almost lost his shirt. How many people do you know have gotten wealthy BECAUSE they invested in stocks, bonds, and mutual funds? Do you think the most wealthy families in the worlds, like the Waltons and Rothschilds invest in mutual funds? Of course not! Then why do most high paid professionals believe that investing in mutual funds is the responsible thing to do? Because it's conventional wisdom. But here's the problem: CONVENTIONAL FINANCIAL WISDOM IS THE CREATION OF SPECIAL INTERESTS! It came form Wall Street. It has been hammered into you as gospel and to stray from that line of thinking—well, it's like heresy. I can't tell you how many times I have heard from very smart, highly trained professionals confess to me that they feel sort of guilty or unnerved about investing in "alternative assets" like real estate. Does that sound like you? Even your family gets on your case—they tell you that you are going to lose all your money and that you are not being responsible. I'm hear to tell you that if you don't believe in trusting your money to Wall Street, that you are NOT an irresponsible heretic. I am living proof that wealth can be created outside of Wall Street. In my humble opinion, I will go as far as to say that it is a hell of a lot easier to become wealthy investing outside of Wall Street. But where do you start? I'm asked this question all the time. And there is no simple answer. There is a lot to learn. This is podcast number 100. We've covered all sorts of investments, tax strategies, and even asset protection. But…we've never before put it all together in one place in a COMPREHENSIVE format taught by some of the smartest financial minds in the world—something that can be studied and maybe even mastered. That is…until now. I am really proud to present to you a labor of love on which I have spent the last 6 months and over $150,000 to create. I have created a course called Your Roadmap to Real Wealth and you can learn more about it at WealthFormulaRoadmap.com The course was produced by my friend Pam Hendrickson who spent nearly 20 years producing courses for Tony Robbins to prepare for this moment—ok maybe Tony wasn't just a warm up for me. But..the point is I wanted the best of the best to make this happen. And that's what I got! Just look at some of the names on this faculty: Rich dad Advisors Tom Wheelwright and Ken McElroy. Tom's tax firm has helped me legally save literally millions of dollars of taxes in the past few years. Ken McElroy is the guy I learned real estate from and who I consider the Michael Jordan of multifamily real estate. Speaking of real estate, how about the real estate guys, Robert Helms and Russell Gray—friends of mine and some of the best in the business at teaching real estate. We've got Marco Santarelli—the turn-key rental guy and, if notes are your thing, how about Jorge Newberry, founder of American Home Preservation. Then there is Mauricio Rauld, my SEC attorney teaching you what you need to know about investing in private placements. We've even got my own asset protection and estate planning attorney Kevin Day to teach you why I sleep well at night knowing what I know and being structured the way I am. And finally, we've got the legendary Dean Graziosi teaching us about the millionaire mindset and the meaning of true wealth. How about that for all start line up? Of course, it wouldn't be my course if I didn't give you everything I personally know about personal finance and investing so I'm part of the faculty as well. Along with the course, I am also happy to announce the Wealth Formula Network which will now be the home to the Wealth Formula community. This is where I will be spending my time so I can really focus on helping people who are truly committed to take it to the next level. Again, the course is called Your Roadmap to Real Wealth and it may very well serve as the foundation for the rest of your investing life. Check it out at WealthFormulaRoadMap.com Buck P.S. This week is our 100th podcast episode so make sure to join the party! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [14:35] Question 1 [23:25] Question 2 [30:51] Question 3 [41:06] Question 4 [43:42] Question 5 [45:51] Question 6 [32:59] Outro

Before I had a clue on how to invest, I thought I could just figure it out on my own. How hard could it be? After all, it’s not brain surgery right? And to a certain extent that is true. The math is quite easy. And yes, there is a simple equation. Wealth=leverage(Mass x Velocity). […]

Before I had a clue on how to invest, I thought I could just figure it out on my own. How hard could it be? After all, it's not brain surgery right? And to a certain extent that is true. The math is quite easy. And yes, there is a simple equation. Wealth=leverage(Mass x Velocity). But the problem is, you have to believe the numbers that you plug into that equation in order for you to invest with confidence. And…to be clear, apart from concepts like Wealth Formula Banking, there really is no guaranteed return on investment in just about any opportunity. You can do all the math and due diligence you want, but at the end of the day, you have to take some leap of faith when you write that check. The first time I bought an apartment building, I did all the math right but there were many things I did wrong that caused me to lose about $300K—that was an expensive education. And boy…did I learn. In fact, I'm happy to say that I never lost money on another apartment investment since then. A big reason for that is my discovery along the way that investing is a team sport. You've heard that before I'm sure. But it's really important. In fact, I call this tribal investing. You see, with the concept of tribe, there is this idea that we can all benefit from the collective strengths of our community. Yes…learning is best done through mistakes. But…they don't need to be your mistakes. Borrow the battle scars of others in your tribe! Tribe also suggests an orderly community—one in which there are checks and balances. It is way that people create order out of an otherwise chaotic world. The same can be said for your financial tribe. Your want to have people that have your back and you want people with whom you invest to take your money personally. You want them to feel personally responsible for your money and also worry about their reputation in the community if they don't perform—that's where checks and balances come in to play. Listen, the best investors in the world lose money. There is no such thing as a deal that can't go south and even the most skilled and experienced deal sponsors will on, occasion, lose money for their investors. But if someone is in your tribe, the hope is that they believe what they are telling you to be truth and do not take the responsibility as your fiduciary lightly. That's why it is important to constantly expand your tribe. You need to be able to trust people before you can trust their deals. Some of you occasionally send me opportunities and want my opinion and more often than not I send a one liner back to you that says, "I don't know them". That's not to be curt or unhelpful. I just don't look at anything unless I have some kind of connection with the sponsor group. On the other hand, knowing an operating group well and believing in them can sometimes convince me to get past some of my own dogmas. As you may know, our accredited investor club bought into an offshore resort development last year. I don't normally invest in resort property and I normally don't invest in developments. But the strength of this team and associated brands along with their character made me look deeper into an opportunity I would have otherwise never considered. That property is Mahogany Bay Village and Beach Club and the lead developer, Beth Clifford, is my guest on Wealth Formula Podcast this week. If you have ever considered investing in developments or resort property, make sure you listen to this show as Beth will explain, from the investor's perspective, how one should approach these kinds of projects. Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [11:51] Beth Clifford's background [14:38] Golden Handcuff [18:39] Beth's take on investing in development [26:17] Mahogany Bay Village Belize [37:34] The projection of Mahogany Bay [42:49] Learn more about Beth Clifford and her work Mahoganybayvillage.com [45:42] Outro