307-Challenging Conventional Wisdom with the Prolific Investor – TTST Interview with Chris Odegard

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Chris Odegard is an alternative investment blogger and educator and author of Get off You’re A$$ and Manage Your Money: Why You Need Alternative Investments. Through his blog at TheProlificInvestor.net and book, Chris shows investors why alternatives are vastly superior to the stock market and the 401K highway to mediocrity.

I have a religious aversion to trading time for money

– Chris Odegard 

Knowledge Nuggets and Take-Aways

1. Having all your money in the stock market leads to losing your buying power

2. You have more control with alternative investments

3. If you want to kill a big dream tell it to a small minded person 

4. If it seems too good to be true, learn to lean into that, BUT do your due diligence

5. Plan to make work a choice and not a necessity 

6. Have 3 hobbies: Make money, exercise creativity and challenge yourself physically

Level Up! 

Fergie

Recommended Resources – Hover and Click

Visit the Prolific Investor

Book: Get off Your A$$ and Manage Your Money: Why You Need Alternative Investments

Chris’s Linked IN

Chris’s YouTube Channel

Chris’s Facebook

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Chris’s Instagram

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Our Show Sponsor Sutter and Nugent Real Estate – Real Estate Excellence 

Music Courtesy of: fight by urmymuse (c) copyright 2018 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. http://dig.ccmixter.org/files/urmymuse/58696 Ft: Stefan Kartenberg, Kara Square

Artwork courtesy of Dylan Allen

If you have great content regarding ‘LEVELING UP’ and would like to be interviewed on the Time To Shine Today Podcast Go Here: www.TimeToShineToday.com/guest

Speech Transcript (very little editing so not exact)

Chris, thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce yourself the time to shine today. Podcasts first you squad. But first, what’s your favorite color? And why?

Unknown Speaker  2:12  

Red? It just makes us red? Yeah, I did ever since I bought the red 06 He could never go back. But

Unknown Speaker  2:19  

you got the red seal. That’s awesome.

Unknown Speaker  2:21  

I got a new one on order too. Oh, wow.

Unknown Speaker  2:24  

Yeah, I’m moving away. And it’s funny because I’m from the Motor City. And I had a car one while ago. Oh six, I think. But I moved. I moved into the Tesla now. You know, okay, well, you know, I do miss, but I still have a couple of Detroit muscle cars in the garage. But like, that’s awesome. Yeah, let’s do six sweets, sweets. So no, I appreciate you coming on brother. And like this. I’m super stoked for this because your alternative. And a lot of people walked that path of what they feel a safety. But as we’ve come to know, here, pretty recently, nothing’s really safe. And I have a feeling that you can help people navigate those waters to help them level up. So if we can get to maybe the roots of your story, Chris?

Unknown Speaker  3:05  

Yeah, well, I used to you know, most most Americans are conventional investors, stocks, bonds, mutual friends, through their employer 401k, like you said, the 401k Highway to mediocrity. And that’s what most people know, that’s what most most people do. And I was that guy for longer than than I care to admit. And in 2000 2009, I had a huge illiquidity event where I lost 55% of my assets 1000s of dollars a month, and it happened to be a divorce, but it could be a bankruptcy or any number of things. And so that was in my mid 40s. And so all of a sudden, you know, this 401 K Highway to mediocrity that I was on just gotten exponentially worse, right. And coincidentally, at around that time, a friend said, Hey, Chris, you could read that you should read this book. And he I don’t even think he knew what was going on with me at the time. It was just it was just serendipitous. He said, You should read this book. And of course, the book was Rich Dad, Poor Dad by the purple book. And you know, I took the pill. And that was the beginning of a journey where I switched from, you know, conventional investments to alternatives. Today, I have 1% of my portfolio in conventional things. So 99% is alternatives. So that’s how extreme I am. And what a believer I am that but so I went from 2009 where I lost 55% of that. And then, nine years later, in 2018. I finally did what I call fire demand left my corporate job, I never have to work again if I don’t want to and it would never have happened if I had stayed on that that mutual fund path. And so alternatives are just so superior in you know, all these different ways. And unfortunately, most people, you know, we grow up friends, family, co workers. I mean, there’s I might be the first person that your listeners have ever heard, say your 401k sucks and you shouldn’t do it. I don’t care about the company match, don’t care about the tax benefits, they aren’t worth it. It’s kind of like when the first guy came around and said that, you know, the world is round. Everybody thought he was crazy. Sure. So,

Unknown Speaker  5:13  

Chris, why we know your story and mine runs so parallel to yours? Oh, 809 I lost my asks like literally. What? Why are the safe? And I’m saying that in air quotes, if you’re not watching, Scott, why are safe investments not safe?

Unknown Speaker  5:33  

Well, every investment has some element of risk, right? And and what people when, when people look at me and say what the stuff that you do is risky. And I look at their their stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and I go well, over the over the history of the s&p 500. Since its inception, the average annual return has been about 9.8%. But studies have been done in the average investor give something over a little 5%. So if you’re only getting a little bit of 5%, average return, before taxes and inflation, especially in today’s environment, that’s not safe, you’re actually you’re actually losing buying power by having your money in the stock market. And so with conventional investments, I mean, I’m routinely getting 20% Plus returns in real estate and other things. And they come with these magical things called depreciation built in tax benefits. So in a lot of cases, I’m not paying any tax on that money. And the banks are with me on this because they like conventional investments, and they will loan me money to go buy them, you can’t borrow money from the bank to go buy your, your mutual fund portfolio.

Unknown Speaker  6:40  

So so tell us what a conventional investment is.

Unknown Speaker  6:45  

So anything that’s publicly traded as a conventional investment, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and then pretty much everything else is an alternative. So every every form of real estate from single family, multifamily, mobile, home parks, self storage, you know, all that is alternatives. Cash Value, life insurance is a great alternative. All the precious metals, private equity, commodity, so all the stuff that’s not so you got this big dividing line, it’s really easy, publicly traded and non publicly traded.

Unknown Speaker  7:16  

So the alternative is the non publicly traded Correct, yes. Okay. Gotcha. You mentioned real estate, mobile homes, mobile home parks, precious metals,

Unknown Speaker  7:27  

currency,

Unknown Speaker  7:28  

crypto. Okay, gotcha. And I love that you brought up like, a lot of people that were schooled or went to school and taught by people that aren’t doing it in their real life, you know, they, you have no control over what happens, correct. I mean, there’s none, I mean, anything could happen. I live through the Black Monday, I was alive for that in the late 80s. And just seeing my dad’s look, and our neighbors and pooping their pants, kind of, you know, thing going on. And I love the alternative, because I’m right there with you. With regards to a lot of real estate, I actually have investments in mobile home parks, that are actually pretty close to where you’re that out there in South Carolina. So which one of those investments do you feel is the strongest? Or? Or is do you kind of mix the backup as long as you have control? If that makes sense.

Unknown Speaker  8:21  

Um, so and your personal personal preference, I mean, first of all, amongst a whole lot of people, people real estate is generally considered the best investment there is. I happen to like, multifamily, the most and then do a little bit of self storage. And so those are, those are my two favorites. And, and I like to do them via syndication model, where I’m a limited partner. So which means, you know, I’m not getting my hands involved, I basically hired somebody, and called the general partner or the syndicator, who’s an expert, you know, in buying, transforming and operating those multifamily places. And all I have to do is pick the right, you know, the right partner. And then I, what I like to say is I just wire off my money in about three or four years, it comes back with twice as many friends. And then we just rinse and repeat. You know,

Unknown Speaker  9:09  

I love it. I love that. And so, with that being said, You do kind of in a syndicate How much control do you have over what’s going on with with that investment?

Unknown Speaker  9:21  

I personally so I personally don’t have any control. I’ve completely put all my trust and faith in the syndicator. So if you were and that is one of the negatives, so you know, in the stock market, you don’t have any control, you’re investing your money, you’re a shareholder, and you hope that the the executive team back there does what they’re supposed to do. Now if you buy as a small duplex or four Plex or a small apartment building on your own, then you have all that control. But the question is, is that what you’re an expert at? So so if I wanted to do that, then I’d have another job which would be called you know, you know, Being the jack of all trades, running this, this this small business called a single family rental. So I don’t want to I have this religious aversion to trading my time for money, anything that sounds like work, I don’t want to do it. So that’s why I like the syndication thing I’ve just, you know, so I don’t have any, I don’t have any control in that.

Unknown Speaker  10:18  

Love it. And in that, in when you’re in that kind of syndicate, at least the ones that I’m in is, well, I do some of the same that you do. You have a little bit of say, if something comes up correctly, you can alert them and then say, Listen, something isn’t right, as maybe ownership goes on the there’s vacancies and stuff like that, and they can get the people on it, to help them level that up correctly. Because you have a little bit more saying control?

Unknown Speaker  10:46  

Yeah, well, unlike, you know, unlike if I bought shares in Coca Cola, I would never be able to pick up the phone and call the CEO, I do have access, you know, to the, to the founders, and the general partners on the deal. So, you know, I could get a hold of them, for sure. And my input if, you know, you know, if I happen to see something or know, something that’s going on in that area of the country where one of these things is or Yeah, so I do have that, you know, you know, I have the ability to reach those people, sure you

Unknown Speaker  11:16  

have the input, at least they can, you know, and make a decision on the fly if need be I love, I love the way you’re thinking because I was taught this in like 1999 By my mentor. And it’s he’s like, listen, like you can, you have, like people who will be like, building sites on their websites, they’re doing everything they can for their money, but anybody at anytime can shut you down, period, you know, you know, they can be like, Oh, we can cut off this, you’re not getting the searches, you’re not getting this, like you said, Put the money in the market, you have absolutely zero control, where with what you’re bringing up is you actually have some control a lot more than before. With that. So

Unknown Speaker  11:58  

like, I can give you one example, you know, the with this particular syndicator, and lot of them, it’s the same model, let’s let’s go into these places that maybe physically need some work have been mismanaged a little bit, we can improve them make it a better living experience for the tenants, and they’ll be happy to pay more money, if you give them more than you’ve raised the value of the building. And sometimes this is, you know, the dog park or a fenced in backyard or a washer and dryer in the unit or just a remodel. And so I saw something I just stumbled across where there was a company that was kind of like California closets, but they were doing it and coming in and do it in, you know, in apartment buildings. And they had and it was specifically designed it. And so anyway, I got a hold of the one of the general partners I said, I said, Hey, have you seen this? Here’s the information. And they looked at it. And you know, it didn’t appear to work for them. But you know, that’s just me having the ability to, you know, provide some input.

Unknown Speaker  12:54  

Right? So how much of it was for you to like find investors? And how were you able to get them on board? You join groups? Or what what’s your strategy with that?

Unknown Speaker  13:05  

So when you say find investor, so I’m not doing any syndication myself.

Unknown Speaker  13:09  

Right, right. But are you bringing people into? Do you actually find the properties? Or other people bird dog? I’m find them in?

Unknown Speaker  13:16  

No, no. Yeah, no, my job is to go out and find the best syndicator that I can find who specializes, whether it’s apartment, or mobile, home parks, and that and then I just, you know, I get on for the ride. And I can tell everybody else what I’m doing, you know, on my blog, so

Unknown Speaker  13:33  

I love that I love it. So can you explain to our audience hear exactly what a syndication is? Because a lot of them are like, how do I do what it’s a syndication?

Unknown Speaker  13:41  

Yeah. So if one of the people in your audience is driving down the street, and they you know, they see an apartment building under new management, they got the, you know, the big signs and everything. here’s the here’s our anyway, that is very unlikely that apartment building was purchased by one person with cash, or even with one person with a down payment. Right? So a syndication is, in its simplest form is when a group of people say, I would like to buy that, you know, $80 million apartment building, but I don’t have $80 million, or the down payment, let’s get 50 or 100 people together, whatever it takes, and all contribute money. So you have. And so then there’s a dividing line, you have the general partners, those are the people that are basically organizing, putting the deal together, they’re finding the properties, they’re getting the bank loan, and then they reach out to investors. And then the rest of us are limited partners. And then we put up the money, generally for the down payment, and usually for some capital improvements, and then and then we split the profit losses. It’s usually 6040 7030 with the larger portion going to, you know, the limited vectors and the smaller port going to the general partners, our partners partners, yeah,

Unknown Speaker  14:53  

right. Okay, so do you actually teach this? Nope, no. Okay. Have a very good, very good, so you’re really, you ever have anybody kind of come up to you and say, Chris, man, what do you do? And how can I get involved? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  15:09  

yeah. Well, I, I, I will take this back I did, I did a small syndication one time. One of the things that I have invested in as ATM machines and also through a syndication model, and you know, it was, it was a, it was $104,000 minimum investment. And I was talking to a handful other guys that I was working with at the time and, and they said we’d like to do that. But we don’t have 140,000. I said, Well, if you want, I’ll put together a small company syndication, they will all put in, you know, whatever we want. And we’ll share the, you know, share their profits. So we’ve been doing that since about 20. I don’t know, 2016 or something like that. And but, yeah, mostly about education. I’m about getting people off of the 401k Highway to mediocrity, and have them start looking at these other investments that are just so superior. So the articles that I write, you know, about apartments, indications, you know, why having equity a whole bunch, why have your account, your house paid off, it’s just like sticking money under the mattress, and you shouldn’t do that, you know, so all kinds of personal finance stuff that most people aren’t thinking of there. And when you start doing all these things, and adding them together, you can get to that point faster, where you can make work a choice instead of a necessity.

Unknown Speaker  16:25  

What do you think that people’s, really their biggest blind spot is into moving away from the conventional to the, to the alternative?

Unknown Speaker  16:34  

What it’s like, like I was saying at the beginning, they they’ve never heard of it, you know, every person they’ve ever come across, put your money in the form. Okay, that’s all they’ve heard. It’s, we get bombarded with the advertisements. Everybody we know was doing it. And you’re this one lone person that’s saying, hey, everybody else is wrong. And I’m right. Right, right. And so it’s, it’s the normal human nature of resistance to change and kind of that herd mentality, well, everybody’s going this direction. So I should go there, too. And we know that going opposite the crowd is usually where, by the time everybody’s going in that direction, it’s too late, you know,

Unknown Speaker  17:13  

right. So the opposite is the crowd can help them, you know, in the Enlightened level up in kind of see, like you said, the alternative. So if someone just saying, So you wrote this book, with regards to kind of getting off that 401k, mediocre highway and what not to do, like when people read this, or they see this, or they see your blogs? Is there any? Do they reach out and ask you questions?

Unknown Speaker  17:41  

Yeah, so I get a lot of, you know, on my website, I have a there’s a coffee cup, and there’s a free virtual coffee that you could have with me. So, you know, the book is designed to, you know, after I did this, and then, you know, I looked back, you know, during that nine year period where i, where i made up that money and multiplied it many times over, and I thought, wow, how could I, you know, it was one of those paths? Where was one step forward, three steps back two steps, how can I draw, you know, I know enough now to draw a straighter path, to take, first of all, introduce people to alternatives, tell them all the reasons why they’re better what they are, and how could they move in that direction. And most of it’s about education, they have to, they have, you know, you become what you think about, so you got to listen to this podcast, you got to start going to the seminars, you got to get yourself amongst these type of people. And, and then then you’ll be in a group of people that were everybody’s doing this, instead of you being over here on this side, where everybody’s talking about 401, k’s and maybe getting a 5% average annual return instead of a 25%, average annual return.

Unknown Speaker  18:46  

I love that I love it. And I remember when I was younger, I used to pitch for I don’t like 82 single family, I don’t do mall tie, I tried, I failed and just never felt comfortable with it, because I started there. And I used to approach people at gas stations and say, you know, it was like 12% return on your money, you know, see with some of the nice car and they’d be like, what, and they look at it and you know, I tell them, you know, hey, we’re going to purchase this property, you’re going to be the first lien holder, you’re going to be the first loss payee and any hazard insurance and, you know, I bring them in. That’s how I built my little mini empire of real estate investing and able to pretty much buy everybody out over time and get their their investments back. I love I love this. So is there any good question? You know that when people reach out that you wish they would ask but never do?

Unknown Speaker  19:35  

Oh, no. Well, nobody asked me what my worst investment was, you know. They haven’t all been. They haven’t all been roses, but I’m gonna go back to what you just said a minute ago when you were talking about how you approach people and you talked about being the first day you sent a whole bunch of stuff in there. That’s that’s a financial language that the average person doesn’t understand. Right? Right. Because every industry has its own its own language and so When people start talking about they start, you start talking about investing in notes and first and seconds and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And, you know, people, it’s just, it’s just, you have to learn the language and you have to get people

Unknown Speaker  20:15  

so right. Because you and I can have coffee and talk about war stories and get it and other people would be like, Why, but you know, a lot of the people is they get financially literate, if you will, for lack of a better term. They understand, like, you know, your approach, I’m gonna say, 12% of my money at that time, they’re like, what? I’m getting 3% in the market or whatever, you know, how’s that even possible? They get it, but you learn the language and do as the Romans do a few will have abundance. And see, thank you so much for saying that. So let me ask you something. If you saw the movie Back to the Future, yes. Okay, let’s get that DeLorean with Marty McFly. Let’s go back to the 20 to the double deuce. 22 year old Chris. Okay. The OJT, which is a nickname from the squat. So let’s go back to the 22 year old Chris, is there any knowledge in August so you might drop on him? That maybe not change anything? Because your journey is your journey? But you know, shorten the learning curve level up maybe just a little quicker?

Unknown Speaker  21:13  

Yeah. Well, you were talking about the when you approached the people about the single family rental and a 12%. And I know what was going through that guy’s head. It’s like, oh, well, that’s too good to be true. Yeah. So here’s the here’s the one thing that I’ve learned over the years is when something sounds too good to be true, I start moving to it instead of moving away from it. Because what if it is, what if it’s not too good to be true? And it is true, it is true? You know, when I tell people I routinely make between 20 and 30%, average annual returns? That’s that’s too good to be true. It must be illegal, immoral, or unethical. So, you know, have a childlike curiosity. And when and when somebody presents something to you, that just is completely different than you have ever heard before. Don’t run away from it, walk towards it. So that would be that would be the advice I would give to me myself if I was 22.

Unknown Speaker  22:03  

Right. Yeah, I love that. And if you don’t know something, you know, like my good friend, Leah Woodford was thinking you’re asking here, ask ask. Because if it’s, you know, you see, it’s too good to be true. But you do the your due diligence. So another technical term out there, right? You do your due diligence, and then get your asking year and ask other people that might have did it and be like, hey, and then I love that you say move towards and it’s like, it’s like my Marine friends out there. They move towards it. Love it. So then how do you want Chris’s dash? Remember that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date, your life date, your destiny? How do you want your dash? Because you do it a lot for people on the download? Right now. Okay, but how do you want your data?

Unknown Speaker  22:46  

Well, I want people do remember that he was and he was honest and ethical, and try to always do the right thing. And basically, you know, my dad had a saying, you know, and he said, Hey, just Chris, if you just don’t be a dick, you can really get far in life. You know? Be nice to be nice to everybody. Right?

Unknown Speaker  23:04  

Love it. You never know what can come wrong. So I made that mistake. You know, I come from humble beginnings. My dad worked in the light of General Motors. He’s my best friend the world, but we have such different mindsets about stuff. But I was a dick. Dude, I made that money. I started printing money. This is Oh, 304 You know, if you had a heartbeat and you said that you made $150,000 a year. Here’s your ninja loan, you know, kind of stuff and yeah, and whatnot. But it came back to me. And that’s where I learned like you said, being humble. Being curious, is always looking to level up. So thank you for saying that. Brother. So then what do you think that people misunderstand the most buttress?

Unknown Speaker  23:43  

Oh, that’s a good question. misunderstand. I don’t know, nobody’s ever asked you that question. No,

Unknown Speaker  23:50  

no, I mean, people like, oh, my gosh, that dude’s a risk taker. But they don’t realize how calculating.

Unknown Speaker  23:59  

You know, I’ll tell you what, people I think a lot of people and, and somebody said this to me one time. I mean, I think people misunderstand and go, Well, there’s no way I could possibly do this. I don’t know. You know, I talked to this one gal I used to know. He said, Well, Chris, I’ve got four grandchildren. I’m like, What the hell is that got to do with anything? Right, right. I mean, yeah. So you know, there was I heard somebody say one time that you have to, you have to have three hobbies, one that makes money, one that exercises your creativity, and one that you know, challenges you physically and people. Jim Rohn had a saying said if you work on your job, you’ll make a living. If you work on yourself, you’ll make a fortune. Yes. So if people ever want to get out of the rat race and someday where they don’t have to work or Well, like I said, where they can make work a choice instead of a necessity, they have to devote some amount of time to how are they going to make more money than what their job provides, so that they can invest and grow beyond that. So I think people misunderstood people probably look at me like, oh, yeah, well, he’s got some advantage. How did he do this? I, of course, you know, I don’t have time to do all that, well, I did all this while I was, you know, an executive at a corporation and doing a lot of work and traveling and, and, you know, so I had my nine to five job. And then I had my five to nine jobs that I did when I got home. And it was the five that it’s the nine to five jobs, paid the bills price. And it was the it was the five to nine job that created the wealth and allowed me to ditch the job, it was what I learned to do with that extra money that I had and maximize all that stuff.

Unknown Speaker  25:38  

You hear that squat is something that I preach from the purple book, quite a bit is you know, work your day job, but mind your own business, you know, and that’s that is, is huge, what Chris just dropped there. With regards to if you’re passionate about something, you’re going to do the work, you’re going to do the due diligence, you’re going to help it level up like Chris did is five to nine job with that. And that’s so paramount to whatever you want to get. Because a lot of people do go to school for a specialty, they find out the real passions out there, they see other things happen. If you do the work, you know, and mine that business, you can really grow. And that’s exactly what you did. I love it. So then what if anything keeps you up at night? Chris?

Unknown Speaker  26:20  

What keeps me up at night? Really not much. Not much keeps me up? You know, I’m a little, I guess, you know, you know, in this particular time that we’re in, you know, which is a very challenging time. There’s a lot, there’s lots of things going on, you know, I think about well, what, how’s my cash position? Should it be stronger? Right? Is this stuff that I’ve been doing for the last year, five years going to continue to work? Right, you know, so probably the kind of the same thing everybody else is, is thinking about? I don’t know that it keeps me up, but it is it is kind of on my brain. And I’ve really just been focused on increasing cash flow. It’s kind of funny how people, you know, we talk about this, you know, you become what you think about, there’s all this manifesting stuff. And, you know, since I don’t know, since probably the third or fourth quarter last year, I’ve been thinking about cash flow, and your apartment buildings. You know, it takes a lot, it takes a lot of investments in a syndication to produce $10,000 a month of, of income. So, you know, and so it’s like, okay, well, how am I going to get more cash flow. And so I have to thinking about this, and, and here we are, something’s dropped into my lap, I’ve come across something, it’s completely different than anything I’ve done before, I’m heading out first and second week of June to meet a couple, you know, business partners or try something new. And, you know, it wasn’t like I said to myself, Oh, I’m just gonna think about this and concentrate on it until it happens. But I was thinking about and so subconsciously, here, we are something completely out of the normal for me that I would have never thought I would do. Looks like I’m gonna go through and hopefully, I’ll have something to talk about it, you know, and, you know, 12 months.

Unknown Speaker  28:04  

I love it. And I affirmations are great, you know, my coaching clients, we have certain affirmations that we do, but I also, like, I believe that our minds are programmed to solve problems. I mean, it’s, it’s, I mean, it’s evolution, it’s exactly what it is. But it’s so I have them ask the high level questions of themselves, as well in a non judgmental way. And I think that you do a lot of that. Maybe even subconsciously, like, how can I do this? Versus I’m rich, I’m this I’m back. Right. So I love that you’re always asking so powerful question. So Kristin, I think I might know the answer this, but what is your definition of a life well lived

Unknown Speaker  28:49  

it’s all about relationships, you know, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, you’re going to have great relationships or you’re not and that’s just going to all depend on how you treated people all the way down the way down the path. And you know, one of the things one of the best things about this journey and building passive income is all the people that I’ve met, do have these virtual coffees going to you know, go into syndication, so matter and, and you know, there’s a, I had put a put something on Facebook, or social media or Facebook, Instagram, whatever, and it was a it was a quote and a picture of Steve Harvey and he’s the quote said, if you want to kill a big dream, tell it to a small minded person. So now I have all these large minded people in my community in my circle, I don’t call the family and friends anymore and tell them about this business idea that I was just telling you about because they you know, I call a handful or of these people that I’ve met you know, through through this journey that are you no open and big minded people. So that the relationships is really what it’s all about.

Unknown Speaker  29:53  

That’s awesome that you said that if you want to kill a big dream, tell the small minded person that’s, that is so true.

Unknown Speaker  30:00  

and those people will probably be you know, your your friends from high school and your your your siblings and your parents and right.

Unknown Speaker  30:08  

From a place of love of course, you know, usually it’s the green eyed monster that entity that they’re like, oh, you know that crab mentality. Oh, it’s yeah carry out there. Let’s pull you back in. I love it. Love it. Time to shine today podcast versus squad we’re back and oh gee, you and I are gonna have some fun your you and I are gonna meet up one day because I have some ideas and I want to collaborate with you and a couple things for sure. But I’m

Unknown Speaker  30:31  

overdue for a motor, motorcycle ride down the south.

Unknown Speaker  30:34  

You got a place to stay we good stuff. You and I will talk 1520 minutes easily but each one of these questions. But you got five seconds with no explanations. I’m sure you’re familiar the format. So Let’s rock this out. So what’s the best leveling up advice Chris has ever received? Success is about persistence. Yes, sure. One of your personal habits that contributes to success.

Unknown Speaker  30:59  

childlike curiosity, having a childlike curiosity. Yes.

Unknown Speaker  31:03  

Yes. So you see me walking down the streets? I might be Yeah, not feeling it. Maybe I’m in my doldrums a little bit other than your book. What book might hand me

Unknown Speaker  31:14  

the art of exceptional living by Jim Rohn.

Unknown Speaker  31:17  

Yes. Fantastic book. Love, Jim. You’re awesome. So when you text is there any favorite emoji that you’d like to use?

Unknown Speaker  31:25  

You know this one? I don’t know. Because usually I’d say it’s something smart. And that’s my way of telling people it’s a joke. Don’t get offended, right.

Unknown Speaker  31:35  

So other than Oh gee, my my nickname I gave you any other nicknames growing up

Unknown Speaker  31:41  

on the air. Yep. OD. Od was the

Unknown Speaker  31:43  

name. Yeah, I love it. He was the he was the dog to Garfield, I

Unknown Speaker  31:47  

think oh, there you go. And a lot of people still call me that. So

Unknown Speaker  31:50  

love it. I love that. I love it. So chess checkers or monopoly. Monopoly. All right, very cool. I figured you’d say that. What’s your go to ice cream flavor?

Unknown Speaker  31:59  

Oh, chocolate chip.

Unknown Speaker  32:00  

Ice. There’s a sandwich named the OD. What’s on that sandwich?

Unknown Speaker  32:07  

It is. It is a it is a cheeseburger with pepper jack and onions and tomatoes and bacon.

Unknown Speaker  32:15  

Yeah, bacon man candy. You and I are hanging out for sure. So you have access to a time machine for one day. Okay to go. anytime in the future. Anytime the past few you’ll come back to today. Nothing can change. But where would you go? I want

Unknown Speaker  32:31  

to go back and sit down with Abraham Lincoln during the tough times of the Civil War and just really know what he was thinking and you know, just such a difficult time. I think it would be fascinating and keep him from going to Ford’s Theater to

Unknown Speaker  32:45  

exactly exactly you know, it’s funny you say that I’m breaking my own rule here. But like one of the books that changed my life when I had lost everything in Oh 809 was a book called The Travelers gift by Andy Andrews. And Andy Andrews. fantastic fantastic author is a business parable, if you will, or life parable that the guy like is gets it loses his corporate job. His daughter’s dying. So he figures out run my car into a tree and die. And he hits the tree and all sudden he wakes up in 1945. And in front of give him hell, Harry Truman the day before we dropped the bomb in Hiroshima, Nagasaki. Yeah. Well, you know, he learned a lesson about the buck stops with me. That’s what Truman you saw. We say like taking responsibility. But then he has a conversation with Lincoln. Right before he’s about to have the Gettysburg Address. And the way that Andy wrote that chapter, you would appreciate it for just saying going back to the travelers gift. Yes, sir. Andy Andrews. Great guy. Great guy. All right. I’ll get us back on track. Is there any favorite charity and or organization like you give your time or money to?

Unknown Speaker  33:52  

Yeah, I’m really drawn to things for veterans and children. So one of them is leap missions leap. missions.org And they’re, you know, doctors that travel around the world and, you know, perform, you know, all kinds of medical procedures on people that otherwise you know, wouldn’t get them

Unknown Speaker  34:07  

get it is that elite? missions.org

Unknown Speaker  34:09  

Leap leap l EAP. Low mission. Okay, gotcha. Mission

Unknown Speaker  34:13  

study. Put that in the show notes, please. Awesome. Thank you. Last question. We’re gonna elaborate on this one as well. But what’s the best decade of music? 60s 70s 80s or

Unknown Speaker  34:21  

90s 70s? Yeah. Can I ask how old you are? 59 and a half. When you turn 60 July? Oh, your turn. will turn 60 July Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  34:35  

Oh, nice, man. Nice. I just turned 50 So we’re only a decade apart. That’s awesome. So then how can we find you, Chris?

Unknown Speaker  34:43  

Yeah, if you go to my website at the prolific investor.net And if you go to the Keep in touch page, there’s a little contact form, name, email, and if you put in their time to shine, I will send you my one hour video presentation on why you need alternative investments.

Unknown Speaker  35:00  

Love that love that and squat, that’ll be in the show notes as well. And we’re gonna do a book giveaway here as well. But get off your ass and manage your money to talk to us a little bit about your book here, Chris.

Unknown Speaker  35:11  

Yeah, so it’s a, it’s a really, it’s a real easy read. It’s just like about 120 pages. And it’s a, it’s got a bunch of color pictures and everything. And basically, you know, I, you know, there’s a little bit about my story. But then I talk about, you know, what are conventional investments? What are alternatives? What are the four asset classes, and then I created something, you can see this here, it’s called the, this is the hierarchy of investors. So the, what I do is, you know, I make fun of conventional investors, they’re in the shadow of the pyramid, where it’s dark and dingy and damp, they’re not even on and then you get on the pyramid. And that’s where all the magic happens. And then I compare alternatives to conventional is across 13 different categories. And the only advantage that conventional investments have over most alternatives is liquidity. Every other one is either neutral or in the favor of alternatives. And then I take one of my investments, I picked ATM machines, because it’s an investment, and it just gives you a fixed amount of cash every month. And I go, and I use that as an example to go across these 13 categories. I talk about, you know, the investments in general, but then I say, Okay, well, how did the, you know, how does how do ATMs perform in terms of their cash flow return on investment? Are they insurable? Can you use leverage? You know, do they have diversification? So and then, and I talked about why 401k Suck in there. Right? I couldn’t get away from that. And then it’s like, and there’s also a checklist and action guide that people can download. When they get the book and it kind of walks them through how do you get started? And unfortunately, unlike conventional investments, where you could say, oh, I You should go invest in this target Vanguard fund. I can’t tell people which alternative they should invest in, because there’s so many of them you have to get you have to get the education find out what’s some people like notes, some people like mobile home parks, some people want to do private lending, some people private equity, apartment buildings, so you have to figure that out by changing the people that you hang out with and changing what goes into your mind. And so, so that that’s what the books are all about. And hopefully at the end of it, people you know, if I did my job, they’ll go why I’m gonna get off this 401 K Highway at the very next excellent, you know, sure.

Unknown Speaker  37:34  

I love it. I love it. It’s so much squat, it’s about really education. You find that passion and knowing that there’s alternatives out there that you gotta learn it. He’s not saying Oh, it’s just easy, it’s so easy to do. But if you if you’re passionate about something, you will take the time to learn it and I want to do a book giveaway. If you put level up your money in any of the social media whether it’s Pinterest Instagram, LinkedIn, wherever our team posts this then we will get a signed copy from Chris out to you on time to shine today’s dime. Also, if you’re listening to this and I don’t know if the price will be that right now. But I have the paperback which I prefer it because I just like to still hold books by the Kindle right now is only 99 cents in it might not be that right the second because this show will drop a little bit after this recording but it’s super affordable pick up the paperback it’d be well worth your time. And help you level up and kind of maybe push you over that hump. And Chris to me one last favor,

Unknown Speaker  38:36  

go looks it looks like this. It’s a really good book.

Unknown Speaker  38:39  

Love it. Love it. It is solid. It’s a solid looking book well put together. Chris, do me a favor and leave us with one last Knowledge Nugget we can take with us internalize and take action.

Unknown Speaker  38:48  

Oh. This might be a little longer. So for those of you that are that are on this 401k highway and that is your primary vehicle to retirement or financial freedom 92% of you will never get there. Because in order to have in order to achieve the median income in retirement in the United in the median income is around $65,000 a year if that’s how you want to retire. And that’s good enough for you. That’s fine, but using something that financial planners use the three or 4% rule which you realize you have to have a multi million dollar 401 K portfolio and only 8% of Americans will ever be millionaires, much less a multimillionaire so those of you who think you’re going to get there 92% of you are going to fail. That’s your primary vehicle. And that’ll be that’ll be in the video. I’ll go through that a little bit more.

Unknown Speaker  39:49  

So wow, that’s strong. That’s the rest basically will fail just because the follow up in you’re not really in control of what’s going on where you are. With the alternatives I love that in squad we got a free masterclass here from my really good friend Chris Odegaard, the prolific investor. And you know, a lot of us are conventional investors, including me, I still have a little bit of money in the market right now. But I’ve learned to diversify into different things alternative through the years. But again, you’re not in control of, of your money. And I would strongly recommend just for a really quick crash course the Rich Dad Poor Dad book that both Chris and I used to really kind of change our mindsets and it kind of shifted to the alternative, you know, you lose your buying power by having your money in the stock market, you know, alternative investments that can you have more control over, you know, Chris had a religious aversion to trading time for money and still do everybody out there should as well. You know, work on educating yourself what a syndication is, how you can get, you know, basically Your vibe attracts your attracts your tribe, if you’re vibing out there, that you want to learn something new, and you’re putting in the work that people will show up, if you’re putting in the work, you know, a lot of the crowd they run away from alternative were people like Chris and myself and a lot of the people that I that are a part of my squad, they kind of run towards it, you know, they they want to learn and see what there is to love. Love might be too good to be true. It might not be too good to be true, there’s but you’ll never know until you really dig in. So again, go opposite to the crowd, get your Aston gear, go the alternative path. You know, if you’re working with somebody that maybe has made money in any of the investments, either the conventional and alternative side, ask them what their worst investment was. And the lessons that they learned from there’s no if they’re real, true human beings, they’re going to tell you more stories, because they’re going to see that you are genuinely interested, you know, is he’s gonna be remembered as somebody that’s honest, ethical and do the right thing. And he just wasn’t a dick. You know, you know, we have three hobbies in life, you know, make money, exercise, creativity and challenges physically. And every day is we talk about your time to shine today, you should be trained to level up and build harmony between those three, three solid, solid knowledge drops that Chris added here, you know, they can make work a choice than a necessity, work your day job, but mind your own business. You know, it’s all about the relationships, so make sure you treat people well. And he dropped this awesome. From Steve Harvey, if you want to kill a big dream, talk to a small minded person. So again, level up your tribe get out there and like only 8% of people that conventionally invest will become millionaires and squad million dollars doesn’t really take you that far as you know, through life. So you have to continue to level up I promise you if you get into alternative investments, like Chris did, like I have, you know, you will reap the rewards if you do the work and Chris, you level up your health, you level up your wealth. You’re humble yet you’re hungry. You’re curious. I love it. Man. You earned your varsity letter here at time to shine today. Thank you so much for coming on, brother. I love your guts.

Unknown Speaker  43:06  

Thanks a lot. It was It was my honor and pleasure to be on here. Appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker  43:09  

Excellent. Jesse and Chris. Take care man.  

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