Wealth Formula Podcast

The ideal business is not one that is necessarily glamorous. I have a cosmetic surgery business that is uncomfortably glamorous for me–I’m not a really flashy guy. Nevertheless, my plastic surgeons do a great job of making people get over their body hangups. It’s not just about changing a person’s physical appearance, it is actually more about changing their mental state. That translates into their lives as confidence. It’s a good business. Lot’s of work and competition but my team does an outstanding job and we make money. However, I cannot say that it is an “ideal” business.

In my humble opinion, the ideal business is one where everyone wins and the business makes a difference in the world. One example of this is Jorge Newberry’s American Home Preservation. AHP is one of our sponsors but I have been talking about them long before we ever had a sponsor relationship. American Home Preservation actually started out as a non-profit organization. The idea was simply to buy failing mortgages in bulk and rent the houses back to those getting foreclosed on—keeping families in their homes. What a great deed right? Eventually Jorge figured out that doing something socially responsible didn’t mean he had to be non-profit. In fact, what he found over the years is that by getting investors involved and scaling his business, he can actually do more good and make quite a bit of money for himself.

Meanwhile, the people he keeps in their homes are happy and, of course, you are happy because you are getting 12 percent annualized return on your investment as a monthly check. Oh yeah–Jorge is pretty happy too! In this scenario, EVERYONE WINS and that is why American Home Preservation is, in my view, very close to the definition of an ideal business. You can learn more about them at AhpFunding.com. Gene Guarino’s assisted living model featured in episode 29 is another example of a business where everyone wins. His model helps seniors live in homes rather than in institutions. It’s better for the individual who needs extra help with daily living but does not want to move to a sterile box. It helps the elderly person’s children feel better about where they are leaving their parents. And,  it helps entrepreneurs like Gene by making him money while giving him a sense of doing good in the world.

There seems to be an onslaught of hate in this country which is sad. For some reason, it seems like it’s okay to be hateful as long as you put an American Flag on your Facebook page. We are better than that. I was heartened to see even George W Bush speak out about it last week. This is not a political show but I will say that as a father of three little girls I am very concerned about the trajectory of our national rhetoric.

I want to stay positive and continue to promote people who are doing good things. Don’t get me wrong… I am a raging entrepreneur and capitalist. We are not gong to start interviewing non-profits on this show anytime soon. I have my own non-profit organization so of course I certainly endorse good causes. However, Wealth Formula Podcast is about making money. But, whenever possible,  I want to showcase people who are making money by doing good. In that spirit, this week’s guest on Wealth Formula Podcast is Eve Picker of Small Change.

In the 1980s, you could get double digit returns on your savings. Interest rates were that high.  That said, inflation was out of control as well so the real value of earnings might not be as attractive as it is at first glance but certainly better than today. Today’s economy punishes savers be eroding there wealth through inflation while not providing and significant interest. That’s why Robert Kiyosaki says, “savers are losers.”

In the last few decades, we have become an economy of low interest rates and debt. At first, we used these tools to fuel our economy and to create better lives for ourselves but, eventually, like most drug users, we became addicted. Now, we can’t live without debt and inflation! We need to create more debt so that we can pay off our old debt and we need inflation to devalue and erode the debt we have. What do you do in this kind of economy? As they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.” If we must have inflation to pay for our fiscal sins, ride the wave. Invest in Real assets…real estate, raw land, precious metals and art. Why? When inflation happens, it does not leave real assets behind–we inflate together.

There are few people who understand this and explain this better than this week’s guest on Wealth Formula Podcast, investment banker and author, Christopher Whalen.