Episode 157 | Paul David Thompson | Military Millionaire

00:00 - 05:00

Alex: Welcome military millionaires. I am your fabulous co host, Alex Felice, and I'm here with David who can't afford a real computer. So he's on his cell phone, but he is here. And he is growing his beard out. I've never been so happy. And we are here with the fabulous, the always wise Paul, David Thompson, thank you for being here. I'm so excited to have this show today. We have, as far as I know, no agenda. Our guests, I believe all know who Paul is, or he's been on previous episodes. So we are going to have a more casual state of the market talk and just kind of deep dive into people's lives that we already know exists. So we don't really have to do so much of a formal interview setting.

Paul, thank you for being here. How are you?

Intro: Welcome to the Military Millionaire podcast where we teach service members, veterans and their families how to build wealth through personal finance, entrepreneurship, and real estate investing. I'm your host, David Pere. And together with my co host, Alex Felice. We're here to be your no BS guides along the most important mission you'll ever embark on your finances.

Sponsor: Hey, guys, if you're looking to take your investing, business, life or just yourself to the next level, then I have something for you. The war room real estate military mastermind group is a mastermind group that meets weekly in small groups of five to six people to help you hold yourself accountable and really experience that growth. But we also have a monthly guest speaker that we bring in and we've had guest speakers talk about mindfulness taxes, we're bringing in somebody to talk about marketing, we bring in very specific topics that will adhere to very broad any kind of real estate investing, or investing or entrepreneurship that you want to do, and will really help you out. And we let you ask these speakers questions and get very personal with them. And then back to the small groups, weekly accountability for what you're trying to achieve. And just being surrounded by like minded people, and they say your network is your net worth. I know that's an overused phrase, but I recommend you check it out. So just shoot an email to [email protected]. Once again, that's w[email protected]. And we'll send you some more information.

Paul: Awesome. It's going to be a show about nothing, and it's going to be the best one yet.

Alex: I love it!

David: Me too. I'm all about it.

Yeah, Alex, if you had been here on time, when Paul and I were talking, you would know that the reason for the background and the cell phone is that I'm running 100 plus fever and been home with the flu all day, but I'm here.

Alex: The thing that I love best about David is that you can, he's got thick skin he really does but it takes him a bit if you bust his chops, his first immediate response is defense, always.

He's gonna explain himself. And so I just, I'm like a fisherman. I'm just bait bait bait, bait bait, bait. So far 100% success ratio. I've never missed

Paul: And Alex you're the exact opposite. You don't give a fine flip and everybody cares about you.

Alex: You know what.

David: You don’t want to admit it.

Alex: No, well, look, in the infamous and brilliant words of Nassim Taleb. This is good advice for everybody, especially for the internet. There are two types of people, those who try to win, and those who try to win arguments, and they are never the same.

I never tried to win arguments.

Paul: But how many times have you actually tried to win an argument and felt like you walked away? Yeah, I just got one over on that person and like your life, for one it rarely happens. And two even if it did, what's the point? Because you didn't change your mind.

Alex: Right!

So I'm not here to try to win arguments. I don't even bother. I'm just here for the bait.

Paul: And then the reaction.

Alex: And then yeah, and then I leave here you deal with that problem.

Paul: You’re just an instigator.

David: I think it is actually probably more petty because like you could just not bait and then you'd be great be great.

It was true.

Paul: To be boring, Alex is anything but boring.

Alex: Boring perhaps.

David: Poor people.

Paul: Guilty as charged.

Alex: That's a flaw. That's a flaw.

My girlfriend's heard her brother say that boring is the worst social sin that a human can commit. I do not do such a thing.

Paul: Yeah, I can say when I know Alex is around. We're gonna have a good time. There's just no doubt about that. I mean, yeah.

Can’t argue that point.

05:00 - 10:00

David: Don't do that Paul. Don't stop the ego.

Alex: Tell me what you've been going on recently?

Paul: Yeah, okay.

So I have, I was just telling Dave, I have given myself permission to not produce things like I am. I'm financially independent, I still do things for money, but I don't have to earn money in order to like, make the world's spin anymore. So I'm kind of off the hamster wheel in a lot of respects. And I podcast but I podcast as a hobby. Now, I never really did podcasts for profit. And I just have a portfolio that I tinker with. So I really Tinker more than anything now. And one of the some of the experiments that I'm running is, I have scaled back my wholesaling business significantly, something that happened to me. So that was a choice. The markets have been very competitive lately, it's really hard to find discounted deals. And I never did really like that rat race, it was kind of a means to an end, and I don't need the hands anymore.

So I'm still finding deals here. They're in my local market. But now what I'm doing is I'm having fun with my existing portfolio. So I'm taking my existing portfolio, and I'm just trying to kind of level up and like to reduce the management strain. So I have property management and everything. And then I'm doing a couple little fun experiments where I'm taking a couple of my nicer properties, and changing them from long term rentals to what I call mid term rentals.

So not short term, Airbnb, but mid term, like 30 days or longer corporate rentals. So you still, you still furnish them, right. But the management headache is way smaller, and you still may use Airbnb to market it, or furnished renders to market, but you don't turn over every two or three days and have that cycle.

Alex: I want everybody who is new to really listen to what Paul's saying, because he's saying the same thing that I'm saying, which is, if I could summarize, we're at the mature part of the market folks, the time to expand was four years ago, three years ago, the time to make what you already have worked very efficiently is now and for those that don't know, if you're new to real estate investing, or investing in general, all the real money you're gonna make in your life is gonna come from down markets, not from at the top of the market.

And so if you're, you know, lucky enough to have been in this market already, and you have some portfolio, like I have my seven, eight houses, not certainly the portfolio that Paul has, but my goal is the same sit on what I got, if maximize what I got, you know, you have to stay competitive and still play the game, but I'm not in rapid expansion mode. I am staying, I'm keeping my ax sharp for when the opportunity presents itself. And that is a common theme among those who are wise and have been doing this a little while.

Paul: Yes.

Yes. Because will this continue for three or four more years? Probably. But we don't know that for sure. And it's just so hard to find the part that is polished, what are the diamonds in the rough that you're gonna polish, right? Like, it's really hard to find discounts like the businesses that I'm in. And so what I'm doing now is changing my acquisition strategy. And I'm actually doing another little twist, where I'm going into a different market altogether, and both geographically in functional, so I'm still single family, but now I'm playing in land. And so I feel like there's an opportunity for a blue ocean strategy, where you can just right now finding single family deals in any major metro, existing built single family properties is a red ocean Shadi rally, it is super competitive, as competitive as I've ever seen it I've been doing it for six years.

So I'm going to land where it's, I'm just taking raw land that could be converted to develop single families and the demand for the growth of single families is huge. There was a huge drawback or a huge shortage of single family prior to COVID. And it has been for the last 20 years and just keeps stacking itself. COVID just made it worse, right.

So the thing about buying land is I can buy the land and I can afford to sell the land. I don't have to do anything with it, right? It's not a cash cow for me, but I'm in a place where I can afford to take it down. And I can then I'm not actually developing. I'm setting it up so a developer can buy it from me.

10:00 - 15:00

David: I like it.

Alex: I love it.

David: Yeah, I kind of inadvertently fell in that game recently when I bought a piece of land because the guy next door told me he would buy it, if I could get the title cleared, and then I got the title cleared. And now he's, you know, nowhere to be found. So I am currently playing the sitting on a piece of land the game with for sale by owner signs stuck in the front yard.

Alex: What I'm most surprised to hear you say is that you are slowing on the podcasts, more content. And here's why. Because, you know, I look at everything that I do with my time as an investment. And I look at it. Again, you know, informed by Nassim Taleb, my hero is where can I get asymmetric gain for lower risk, podcasting content, the military to millionaire, these things have very high potential returns, and very low risk. And so right now on the top of the market, we're, you know, doing flipping or doing wholesaling, which are capital intensive, high risk businesses with shrinking margins and becoming more difficult. The asymmetry of risk and return is, the gap is..

Paul: dDecreasing? Yeah.

Alex: Or it's actually going the opposite, where some people are spinning their wheels and actually, maybe breaking even in a market, that's probably not going to get much better. So I look at the content, like yeah, what's the return is very unknown, but the risk is very low. So I'm surprised to hear you say that you're.. What do you what's your response to that?

Paul: Well, I don't enjoy the cycle.

To me, creating content is way more demanding on me than it is flipping a house that is running a business.

I like the puzzle of running a business, certain aspects of it. And so that's what I'm leaning into. So my content right now is me going into the business, I'm just not going to produce a lot of content around it, I'll do. I'll post some things here and there, I'll have a Facebook story. And I'll do a little bit, but I'm not out there trying to monetize content. Because I've realized, it's not, doesn't suit my personality, I don't do really anything consistently for a long time. I find something that's a shiny object, I figured out, and then I move on, right. And I don't want to have to have the cycle, the demands on my time to have to schedule in order to build and produce and make good crispy content that's really fun to consume is that to do that, well take some thought and effort that I don't find to be enjoyable. I like to come up with ideas. I hate the production part of it.

David: Well, and to put some context behind that from what we were talking about before the show, the whole reason that conversation came up was that Paul was saying he currently works from 8:30 to 330. So when his kids go to school to when his kids come home from school, he just kind of uses content and stuff as like, a hobby that he does when he wants to, and not something that he like has to do because he's not stuck in the hamster wheel right? He's not stuck in the grind so you can afford to just lay off and hang out with the kids.

Alex: I love this because it is so important to spend time on things you like doing because if you like doing things you will do them to a high degree if you don't like doing if they're their chore, you're gonna be bad at it.

David: Yep.

Alex: David, you do a lot of content which do you prefer? Do you prefer building a business? Do you prefer doing content marketing?

David: I'm still trying to source that I like both but for different reasons. Still trying to find that out. Because I've got well, I guess three businesses but one of them's just like a holding company for all my rentals. Pretty much two businesses, right, the platform and my off market like wholesaling, one of those businesses is at a point where you know, it could self sustain it makes a lot of it does well for itself. It's whatever, it's a blast.

The other one of those businesses is just now into the like, you better pump some money into this sucker or you're gonna be stuck in, you know, mode. So it's like one of them I really enjoy working on and the other one feels more like actual work.

I'm free, right? So I'm free. And so it's like, I'm really trying to figure out which one I think that's kind of been my Crux lately is like which one do I enjoy? Then which one do I really want to lean into? I mean, honestly, I enjoy the brand, right? Like I think I think the fact that I think it's much more pliable and you can go a lot of different directions with the platform and the brand and the content. But at the same time, like building that feels much less like a business and much more like, let me film some videos, whereas building the off market thing feels much more like a business. It's like, well, I got an acquisitions guy now I'm hiring this and now I'm doing.. I guess it depends on what day of the week you catch me on.

15:00 - 20:00

Paul: I like to comment on the wholesaling business, because that's something I do as well. And I've, I'm probably at about 10% capacity as I was about a year ago. And part of that was because I had business partners that go their own way, you know, more power to him. And part of that was, do I want to rebuild, retool and do this again, I tried. And I didn't like it. And it was harder. And there is a variety of market pressures against that business being successful. There's a lot of legal pressure coming there. Oklahoma just passed a state that passed a law that you basically have to be a licensed person to wholesale, that basically made it illegal. That mail noise done that already, there are probably multiple states that either have or will pass similar laws, the real estate Commission's do not like wholesaling. And honestly, for good reason.

Alex: My personal opinion is I don't like wholesalers or brokers. I mean, I welcome the day where, you know, blockchain technology takes over titles, and then I can just buy a place from you. We can do a transaction at home and the title.

Paul: That will come.

Alex: Ofcourse.

Paul: And I don't know, I don't know how quickly, so maybe we'll table that, because it will be an interesting discussion.

Alex: But in the meantime, the cartel, the broker, the ria, commission, cartel. Especially when they're watching, wholesalers make show up out of nowhere and make more money than them.

Paul: They are making more and a lot.

Alex: Yeah.

David: Probably clarify that I say wholesaling, because people understand the business model behind that. I'm trying to buy everything that I find off market.

Paul: So you're doing the We Buy Houses marketing, in order to source your own deals.

David: Yeah, I will wholesale a deal or two to keep the doors open, but I'm trying to hold it all.

Alex: I'm not making a distinction about the two, David is saying one's worse and the other I'm just saying, people are doing transactions outside of the real estate commission. And they're making a lot of money doing that in the real estate commission's like, we have a legal grapple hold on this situation. So we're going to lean on this because..

Paul: Sure.

Alex: And the other side of that is just more realtors than ever. So they're like, you're we're getting more people we're getting more, we're making, we're getting the higher possibility of money because we have more realtors, and they're getting cut out by these non licensed brokers. And so we're gonna lean, put these pressures on, and I think both of those things are actually going to cause somebody to come in and say, we can cut out both of you guys, because you're both making too much money. We can digitize the title process. And then the rest of it is the only people who are going to need brokers are retail new buyers.

Paul: Right, so let's switch to the digitizing of titles.

I have only heard murmurings of people who are actually working on this. Do you know someone who's actually working on solving it right now?

David: No.

Paul: But it's the blockchain is like, if there were ever a place for a decentralized public ledger that made sure that it was for land?

Alex: Well, interestingly not, if you think about it, it already is right.

Paul: It is.

Alex: It's municipality by municipality, which actually is what makes it so difficult to get.

Paul: Yeah.

Alex: Because the deployment of the technology actually has to be quite centralized. Somebody big has to come along and say, city by city, we can install this, we can do this. And we can go through your records and digitize them all and it's gonna be immense progress.

So I think what's going to happen is you're going to start getting it by county, or by city, and someone's going to come in and say everything new from now on, will start being digitized. I know you're sitting in LA where they have properties that you can buy into to buy shares, because they're a digital blockchain already. So I know that some of it exists. But I think we're on a 10 year 15 year timescale for this sort of thing. My hopes are not high for this. And this is not what I'm trying to wait for. This is just me fussing about brokers for 10 years. And I'm like, finally, I think the end is near.

Paul: Yeah, because you're right.

20:00 - 25:00

David: We're in the .com bubble of crypto, like I think in a few years 80% of the cryptos that exist right now will be gone. And it'll all be replaced by a better you know, whatever, like the second iteration second wave, I don't think we'll really start seeing stuff like practical uses like that until we get into that, right? Because you're right, it'll take. I mean, like, I think of Buffalo, Missouri, where I own the hotel, right? Like, their title company. Like, good luck if you need a record online. I mean, you can go back and you can find the books that are, you know, this big and like, ah, from the 1800s that are handwritten, like, somebody's gonna have to go through that if they want to be able..

Paul: Well, because there's digitizing and there's also creating a blockchain that tracks the chain of title. It's a different thing, right?

David: Yeah.

Paul: But it takes the first to do the second.

Alex: Yeah.

To your point, David, about crypto which is different from blockchain being used regularly, I think what's interesting enough is NF T's are gonna, I think, help that because now you have scarcity on the internet, and you're starting to see it with. Again, I don't know if this is gonna last but the metaverse right, where people are now actually doing transactions with for, you know, I don't know about real assets, but to them real assets. I don't know if they're actually going to be real, but they're buying real estate on the internet. And, they're buying scarce real estate on the internet. So now you're finally starting to see use for crypto, for lack of a better term, let's just call it. I'm gonna call it crypto dollars, crypto currency. I don't know how to all shake out, nor do I..

David: Anybody does.

Paul: We're in the 1999 of the internet right now. Like, do you remember and I'm not sure I forget how young you guys are. But I was coming out of high school and in college and nine and I had a computer engineering, I was in a computer engineering program. And I was surveying what was happening in the digital space and I was kind of becoming one of those people. And I didn't see it like I just didn't see I didn't have the vision to understand just what the internet was going to become. And because it was also new like this before Google even had a browser like Yahoo, web crawler.

Like Netscape was the platform you used, there was the browser you used. So a lot of people put a lot of money in Netscape thinking it was going to be the thing. And so we're in the same place now with cryptocurrency specifically. And which one of those horses is going to win? And or what you're going to go to the top, you know, Bitcoins, like the big, kind of the 800 pound gorilla, because we all know about it, but what else is going to like, like actually move the needle and like have actual use cases where it's going to change the world? I don't know.

Alex: Yeah, I agree.

David: We talked about the, like being able to buy real estate online or whatever with the metaverse like I jumped into one of those games. Actually I jumped in about a year ago, but I didn't know what it was. And apparently, my account deactivated because of how long I was out of the game, but I jumped back in about a month ago. And I've been, you know, I probably got, like $1,200 in there, like crypto binds and properties like 12 properties or something. But it's fun. Like, it's like, I could see it actually becoming something not because of intrinsic value, although I think that's there as they like, people want to buy their house or whatever. But it's just like, it's kind of a fun little game as real estate. Like, I don't know, I've been messing around with it. I don't know what it's gonna turn into.

Alex: Yeah, that right there is top of the market mania, like, Oh, it's just fun to spend 1200 bucks. And I'm like, Yeah, at the bottom when..

David: I didn't spend 1200.

You know I mean, I spent like 200 and I've built it, you know, by buying and selling houses on it.

Alex: There's a lot of people who are doing the investing, they're pooling money into things that are fun. And you know, when it's not so fun anymore, and life gets a little painful, they're going to rush out just especially rushed in and that's the oldest story in economics.

So when and how that went and how that looks I have no idea. I have a little bit of Bitcoin and a little bit of Etherium just to make sure I knew how to buy it in case you know the next time it drops 50% I might buy some hard but for the most part I am I don't know how you guys are. I'm a very risk averse investor. I bought real estate because I said this thing's not there's no, even if the metaverse takes off, I can't replace an actual roof. So I believe real estate's gonna be around for the long haul and I'm okay with the percentages that I make and I don't need to be chasing every shiny object and the game is long.

25:00 - 30:00

Paul: Totally.

So here's the thing that I feel like I missed, I’m 43 now, when I was, you know, I don't know, early 20s, late teens, early 20s, I kind of saw the internet happening, and I missed it, like I didn't, like, I didn't have the vision of any of these entrepreneurs that made interesting things. I didn't have the entrepreneurial spirit at the time at all.

And then 2008 happened, and it crashed in, I've felt like at the time, damn it, like, this is the opportunity of a lifetime. And I don't know what to do with it. I was just like, birth. So that's when I kind of put the intention out, like, I need to learn some of the stuff so that who if and when that happens again, and it took me a long time to get started. But once I did in 2015, I started buying properties. And just stupidly, you know, like kind of the same principle of just buying something that has tangible value. It just appreciates over time. And when COVID hit my wholesaling business took off, and I made a lot of business during that time.

Alex: So weird to me.

Paul: Yeah.

Which is, I mean, I couldn't predict that at all. And even when it happened, I was I mean, I was puckering big time. And not knowing exactly how I was gonna shake out after the moratorium, the initial moratorium, real estate took off and my business took off.

Well, on top of that, the value of our properties, and nearly everybody's properties just took off and value will stick, we'll see. Feels like it will. Yeah, I can feel the same way. Alex, like, kind of thanksgiving with a won't. But there's no economic driver, I see that this indicates that that value, even if it's just inflated values, the values will remain.

Alex: Yeah.

I think it's very common for everybody. It's very common during bubbles for everybody to say, um, well, the markets are risky, but the way that I'm positioned is safe.

Paul: Yeah.

Alex: You know, like inflation's here, and it's a risk that nobody alive has ever really dealt with, certainly not in our circles. And it's gonna be a, so it's a risk that we have never dealt with. And it's a risk that has very unpredictable effects. And somehow everybody in real estate has convinced that it's going to be good for them.

What a fabulous coincidence, the biggest risk in economics that we've never had before, is that if you look at history, other than outside of the United States, inflation can have absolutely devastating effects on an economy. And yet somehow you've convinced yourself immediately before the negative effects are even here, that it's gonna be really good for you. Not you, but you know, in general narrative, and so maybe I'm wrong, but I find people to be overconfident. It is generally their problem not to be confident.

Be careful.

Alex: Not careful. Yeah.

So I looked at people. The market got hot from 2017 to 2019. And I was like, Oh, the party's over, right. Everybody's buying the details now. Yeah, like it's done. And since then, people have not become less confident, they've become more confident, as the market has gotten more difficult as competition has risen, as risk in the system has built up as we've gone to the end of the federal reserve subsidy, because that's what's happened. We're all on a big subsidy. As all of this comes to an end or comes to a peak, everybody's getting more confident, not more risk averse. And so I look at all that and say, Paul's right, the time to kind of go slow and wait, maybe not wait, but be cautious.

Paul: Right, definitely careful. So by principle, you can buy a property that can have cash flow, like if you can buy in the money? Like we think we know what this means buying the money, right? Still, that principle applies. I think it'd be really foolhardy to run out and buy something based on future valuations right now. Because future valuations are..

David: What?

Paul: Future rent increases.

Just buy based on now. And buy conservatively based on now. And one of the philosophies that has changed in my business is when I started 2015 through 2018, I was in a hyper discount buyer mode. And because I was just getting started I had, you know, a lot less capital and I just wanted to buy huge discounts that I wanted to control huge discounts that I wanted to basically, you know, secure equity value in properties. I still want to do that. But I'm more comfortable now. Buying a more premium product, not at the retail value but closer to the retail value. I'd rather buy a Class A property to be specific at a 10% discount than I would buy a Class C property at a 50% discount. Because I don't want to manage that asset. I want to manage the nice three bedroom, two bath 1700 square foot two car garage, all bricks. This was built after 1980.

30:00 - 35:00

David: Yeah, I'm calling my herd right now. I have 10 units that have stood very well over the last four years. I think I've pulled like 80k out via refinances. It's always kind of cash flowed. I say kind of because you know, it's like, not on a monthly basis, but on a yearly basis it has. But it's just a Class C, C minus it's my headache property. And so I'm taking the fact that it's, you know, no matter where we are in the market, we're in a good spot for me to offload that thing.

Alex: Time to sell your underperforming assets is right now. I sold two underperforming assets this year.

David: Yep, yep.

Paul: Yeah. And how long am I gonna last? We don't know. So sell them now.

Alex: Yeah. And I could be wrong, you know, I can watch those things go up in value. And I'm looking at that. You can't play the, you know, oh, looking back game, you have to play the what's the, what's it look like right now again.

Also, I love that you said buy A class properties, what I learned buying discounted properties in C class neighborhoods and stuff is they're good for cash flow, if you buy them cheap, but not going to get any appreciation, certainly not in my market there.

So once you have some and you have those cash flow, if you're buying cheap properties aren't going to appreciate and you're tight on cash flow right now. And you're not buying that much equity. It's like, what are you really doing friend? What are you really investing in? So if you're gonna buy a tight property, and you know what this translates to multifamily, this is kind of where I'm at with multifamily. You need to go lower mobile homes, or you need to go higher, because if you're going to buy a multifamily at a five cap, and it's a C class, no, buy up A class at a three cap, you'll get a fraction of the headache, and you'll only get a little bit less return. And you have the likelihood, especially if you're in an urban area, you have a likelihood to have appreciation because those areas are still gonna grow.

Paul: They have the highest likelihood of appreciation over time.

David: Yep.

Alex: Paul Thompson drops in mad wisdom. I'm surprised. Just kidding. Just kidding.

Paul: You know, I have been looking at multifamily since 2015. I mean, I've bought a couple of very small multifamily projects. I think at this point, I'm now other than duplexes, I'm out of multifamily entirely right now. And I'm not opposed to buying multifamily. I always have to have the management solution in place, I cannot wait to figure out the management solution afterwards, I would crash and burn. So that's always been my kind of Achilles heel is management, I have to have that solution. Because I'm a big guy. What are you doing for management on your projects?

Alex: So, you know, what I did was I had eight single family homes that were managed by one guy who was an investor. And I basically geared him up to, he managed my 24 unit, and he got a hold of it. And he did a good job. And so when I bought the 52 unit, I made him a partner, and he's managing that one as well. I do worry that he's a bit tapped out. But there's an interesting thing about multifamily at scale. And if you kind of take a broad step back, and you think about how the world really works, when you're new, you take opportunities that are kind of right in front of you, you suck, and you take kind of crappy opportunities. And that's just the way of the world and then as you get better at life you take on as you become a more sophisticated operator, and you become more competent at what you do, you take on more difficult projects. And so when you go off and you buy A class 100 unit property, it's actually easier to find higher level managers, not like a mom and pop guy, but there are companies with professional management. And a lot of times they'll buy in as a GP with you, because they're like, Yeah, we want a piece of that we know how to run it. And so when you buy more sophisticated properties, and you get to that scale, not to say that I've done this, but that I've been around it enough to see how it works. Yeah, um, as you become a more sophisticated operator, and you become and you buy more sophisticated properties, that scale, you can find more sophisticated operators to buy in with you at discounted rates. And they can, they can, they can buy in with you as a general partner. So they have a vested interest. Like if that thing fails, their money goes away too. So the structures become more integrated. Also, this is not a solicitation but I recently joined a group of operators who are more experienced than me that need a guy like me who's loud on the internet. So they have an in house property management group that they have been building and growing across a portfolio of 900 doors for the last few years. That is how this firm is going to implement new multifamily going forward. So that was very appealing to me.

35:00 - 40:00

Paul: That point you just made is my primary hesitation for not continuing consistently creating content.

Alex: What?

Paul: You are the loud guy on the internet and you provide a service to them by being comfortable about producing content, and you have name recognition, people know who you are. So many opportunities that I've had come from the networks that I've created. And the primary mechanism for me creating networks has been through content creation.

Alex: Why are you stopping?

Paul: I'm not stopping. I'm just giving myself permission to do it as a hobby. And as a business because I never monetized my content, I cared nothing about monetizing my content. That business is not my personality.

Alex: To be clear, everything I do is what I consider inbound marketing. I do not monetize content in any direct way. I don't sell any courses, right? I literally just come on the internet. And I do it out loud because I enjoy it.

Paul: Yeah.

Alex: And I'm like, there’s some feathers. And there's actually no real, I don't have that much. I don't wanna say I don't have that much on the line. But like, I don't, because I don't directly monetize. I can go on and say what I think and I can be loud and people go, Oh, that Alex guy. I just love his style. I will come do some business with you. Because I trust you. I believe in you. And so for me, I think we're saying the same thing like content for me has always been a hobby. I just happen to enjoy it to a high degree.

Paul: Yeah.

Alex: You know who's really good at it is David.

Paul: He's really good.

Alex: He's really good at doing both when he enjoys it, he provides an extremely valuable service. He does a really good job of monetizing it in a non sleazy way.

Paul: Totally great.

Alex: And one day, he's gonna realize that that's his superpower. And he'll lean into it mega hard and quick dicking around with all this other stuff. But he's not that bright. So it's gonna take him a little while to figure it out.

He's got a Military to Millionaire. He's got the War Room, he writes a book, he's got a podcast, he does good with all of it. People love him. He provides a valuable platform for people to interact and grow. And yet he's screwing around with this other stuff, half and half just to make a little bit of money to feed his ego. And buy camera lenses that he wants, again, ego. He's like Alex bought that camera lens.

David: It’s definitely not because chasing real estate deals is more of a thrill of the hunt thing than putting a video on YouTube. There's no thrill of the chase.

Alex: Wait till he gets 100,000 views on a Tik Tok video and then you see how thrilled he gets.

David: A couple times.

Alex: I know!

David: I actually just paid. I'm such a firm believer in Tik Tok now I just paid someone two grand for one-on-one coaching through the algorithm for like, eight weeks. So we'll see what happens.

Alex: I know where your future is.

David: After I had a couple things take off with that. I was like, Holy crap, this is powerful. And then a buddy of mine went from 40,000 followers to 1.1 million in six days on Tik Tok two weeks ago. And his business like, I was like, holy smokes. So like, Alright, I'm a believer, but the thing is, like, I don't wake up and think like, oh, man, I got to make a Tik Tok video today, right? But I do feel that way about negotiating a big deal or negotiating a house. And then like putting the pieces together like that puzzle piece on, real estate is like, I could totally shut the real estate out and be fine. It's just not like content is fun, but in a different way. It's not like, it's not challenging like, like a puzzle. It's not like it's not like chess, right? I kind of enjoy strategy games. And like, there is a strategy to content. But it just doesn't scratch the itch in the same way as buying real estate, which is why I'm still screwing around with real estate.

Paul: Yeah.

David: Although, while we've been talking, I've seen text messages go across that we just got an offer on a 27 unit because the seller decided they only want to cash no contingency offers. So they contend 31. They don't understand that they still get the money at closing either way. So we're gonna have some fun conversations later.

Paul: A cash no contingency offer, man. So you have to do your due diligence beforehand before you I mean, this is a way that like..

David: This knucklehead bought a property that he shouldn't have. Like, now I'm like a bad property. But just this person buys on the south side of Springfield, and they bought a bunch of stuff on the south side. And the guy who owned it was like, Well, yeah, but you gotta take this property too. And so now they're trying to get rid of this property too that they bought like three months ago, and we pretty much owned that market. So this is a 3200 population town and we own 80. Well, there's another partner in it. We got about 106 doors in that town between the four of us. And so it's like, Alright dude, like we are your comps, here's what your properties are worth. We'll give you the full asking price because he asked a fair price for it. What not the duplexes he was out of his mind for his duplexes. But, for this 27 door, he was pretty on the money for where it is right now. But the market rents are like 650. And he's rented for like, 425. So lots of upside. That we're like, okay, cool. Yeah, we'll give you the full price which you're asking for a 45 day close inspection appraisal, you know, normal purchase.

40:00 - 45:00

Paul: Normal stuff, yeah.

David: Yeah. And he just came back, it was like, No, I want to 1031. So I need it closed in 20 days for me to do that. And I need it to be cash with no contingencies. And I was like let me tell him how this works?

Paul: No, thank you.

David: You're in a small town. Nobody is going to touch that at 1.2 million cash. This isn’t in Dallas, like.

Paul: 1031? Yep. It puts you in a pickle. I mean, sometimes the tail wags the dog.

Alex: 1031 to me is, I did a little talk last night about transition to multifamily. And I exited 24 units this year, and I didn't 1031. I just sold it and paid the taxes. And somebody said, Well, why would you do that when you could 1031 it? And I was like, Well, you got to go find another property. It's not always that easy. And then what ends up happening is some other people are 1031 and guess what they're overpaying the value of the property against their tax burden. So you're competing against people who you're just competing in two very different situations. And so I sent him I'm like, You know what, it's hard to go broke, taking profits, paying my taxes, my 20% taxes and taking 80% profit is just not the end of the world to me.

Yeah, maybe people might think I'm, maybe I'm naive, or maybe I don't know any better. And I'm not saying that 1031 is bad by any means. But I'm also saying like, I'm not willing to hold on to a property that I need to dump or I need to get rid of, or I need to take the net, the winds on because I can't 1031 it.

Paul: Trying to save 20% in taxes can drive very bad behavior that ends up costing way more than 20% taxes.

Alex: You're gonna overpay by 20%, which is more expensive, the mistakes compound just as much as the tax savings, right?

David: Well, and let's be real, like, if you don't 1031 and the money hits your bank account, you're not like, oh, no, I mean, obviously, like, it's not good investment advice to be like, bro, you just made $200,000, you can go buy your dream car. But at the same time, like, if you 1031 you have to buy a property with it. And your key hold, right? Like, you're back to cash flow. But like, what if you've been doing, you know, real estate for like six years, and your goal was, I don't know, to buy a horse for your kid. And now you're like, Oh, I can't use any of that money for a horse.

Paul: Right.

David: I mean, like, there's a point where like, paying the taxes isn't the end of the world, especially if it means like, you can actually enjoy a little bit of your money, and then you can reinvest it in 10 different things.

Paul: And I think there's also a deeper point that just because that's your taxable amount right now, in your situation, there are still things you can do in that tax year that can improve your tax burden, right? I mean, there are all kinds of tech strategies that don't require you spinning silly things. You don't need legitimate investment and tax advice that you can save taxes while still paying your taxes at lower rates.

Alex: Yeah, so I paid taxes. I'm okay with it.

Paul: Yeah.

Alex: And you know what, now I have no time burden. I don't have to go to the market and buy something that, you know, under time pressure or that I think is overpriced, I'll just pay my taxes. And I just kind of look at, you know, Paul says, well, I missed this opportunity, you know, O1, and then you know, I didn't want to miss the opportunity in O8. And now I'm 43. And I'm like, okay, you know, if you start investing at 30, and you're 43 and you're gonna live till you're 90. Like you're in the beginning. You're in the first inning.

Paul: I really am.

Yeah, I'm still in the third for sure. You know, assuming I live out the years. The IRS tells me I'm going to then..

David: I guess life expectancy will go up.

Paul: Yeah. So there's a whole schedule that tells you how long you're gonna live. So just base your life around what the IRS tells you, you're probably pretty accurate.

David: They're great. They know everything, Alex.

45:00 - 50:00

Alex: Here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna live to be 120 years old. A lot of earful me coming over the next couple of decades. I'm gonna live to 120, right? And I'm 38 okay, now look, I didn't pull my head out of my ass until I was 30, right? My first 30 years I was an effing idiot. Weak dumb. I did nothing when it was my time, I wasted my time seriously. A lot of it.

I'm eight years old, right? And I got like another 80 to go. So we're just getting started like I do not have to make my, the young folks that are trying to get rich in two years are playing the wrong game. And they're competing against the guy like me, and I'm trying to get rich and 40.

Paul: Right.

Alex: And it's going to be a very stable, low stress way to get rich. So I'm not worried about being under some kind of time pressure, a six month time pressure for 1031, I can pay my taxes because honestly, all my real money's gonna come after the next crash. And actually, that's not true. All my real real money is gonna come after the next next crash, everybody's worried about this is why Taleb Anti Fragile is so good. You don't need to worry about how to make money during the next crash. You got five more market cycles to live through, you need to learn how to live through all the market cycles, not just the next one.

Paul: There are principles that apply. So here's the thing. You and I are probably anybody else out there who is prognosticating, we cannot predict the next cycle time. And we sure can't predict what that's going to be. Who would have predicted that COVID was going to be what COVID was, nobody, right? So even people who actually called it didn't call it. 100% right.

Alex: You can't call it the specificity ever.

Paul: No, right, right.

So you need to click principles, you need to collect approaches to how you deal with the market. And everything Alex preaches all the time is based on what you've read from people who have spent a lot of time thinking about this and have published very carefully crafted books talking about these principles.

David: Or they're dead.

Paul: Or they're dead. Yeah, they could be.

Alex: If they're dead and their books are still selling there is some freakin wisdom in there.

Paul: You know, I don't think you have to be all that smart to be a successful investor. But you do have to have this emotional intelligence to keep your personal psychology in check.

Alex: Buffett!

The guys who I think are the wisest walking around right now are probably Taleb and Dalio. But if you want to be a guaranteed to be rich in your lifetime, and you want to do it low stress, and I mean, you really want to guarantee it the guy to listen to as Buffett he can rattle off investing principles that are just so wise, because the thing is, the market cycle doesn't go by economics. If you're looking at financial statements and economics to learn how to market the cycle, you're looking at the wrong thing. The market cycle is driven by emotion. And it's the same cycle, Plato, Socrates predicted it 2500 years ago, you got it's basically gonna be arrogance on the way up, and then people are gonna get surprised that it didn't work out, they're going to rush out of the market, you're going to get calamity, you're going to get under caught, you're gonna get fear, right? And then it's going to slowly build back up. And then you're going to get back to arrogance. It's an emotional cycle.

So right now.

David: Over and over again.

Alex: Where are we?

David: You mean I can't buy houses with tulips anymore?

Paul: Exactly.

Alex: Yeah. So we're in peak mania.

So you know, Buffett's great on this when others are fearful, be greedy, when others are greedy, be fearful, right now everybody's being greedy. The time to be afraid is now. And what's interesting. And people forget, because they have very short memories. This is why people should read history, in my opinion, because it connects you back with how people thought during, during certain parts of the cycle.

In 2007, the stock market crashed, it took all in 2008, and it took all 2009 to get to the bottom. But even though 2009 was the bottom it's the same as being at the top, you don't know. You don't know when the bottom is. So it wasn't until about 2011 and 1012 when people started to become more confident, right? But you gotta remember 2011,12,13, the stock market was up 25%. I mean, the month the money was coming back, the housing market, it wasn't until 2012. And so at the bottom of the market that's when lending started coming back and people started getting confident, right?

What's interesting was, it wasn't until 2017 and 18, when the retail market really moved in and started getting confident. So you had like five years where savvy investors were making bank, and the retail market had no idea in 2017,18,19,20 of the retail market came in and 2021 we're in full blown mania. I mean, there's people who just got a cell phone at 18 and a bank account and they're spending all their money on crypto, they have no idea what is going on, or what happened before them. And the same thing is gonna happen. It's gonna come crashing down into calamitous fashion and everyone's gonna go oh, I had no idea. We thought the market fundamentals were such and such and such and they'll say things like the market in O8 and the real estate market in O8 was vastly different than in 21 There's no way it can crash and I've heard all these stories before and I don't know what it's gonna look like and it might be different but the money you're going to really really make in your life is going to be at the bottom when most people are afraid.

50:00 - 55:00

David: but this time it's different.

Paul: You know, it will be different.

David: Allex gonna grab a book. I knew it. I knew if I said that he'd fight. He probably had the book later.

I'm buying stuff, you know, 60-70% on the dollar. So I mean, yeah, as a risk, sure, but I'm okay with it as long as I got long term fixed rate debt on it.

Paul: Well, I'm not running around in a buying spree right now, like I just have to, I'm careful, I'm waiting for my pitch. And when the pitch comes through, I take it down. But I don't have to have a deal to make my financial future sustainable, right? Let's see if it'll focus.

David: I knew you wouldn't let me know.

Paul: You know, I read the book.

Alex

If you think this time is different. Newsflash about this book, spoiler alert. This time is not different.

Paul: I think it's the specifics that are different. But the stories you're saying, right?

Alex: The specifics of the financials are always different. Human behavior is always the same.

Paul: Right.

Alex: Do you know the two things that cause financial calamity and all societies, sometimes civilization ending calamity, you know, the two causes always are?

Paul: No.

Alex: Debt and inflation.

Paul: And we have a lot of inflation right now. And we're up to our eyeballs in debt.

Alex: We have the most debt and the most inflation that this country has ever seen.

Paul: You know, let's talk about it for a second because I am actually in the middle of that concern of shouldn't some of us. Shouldn't we have an alternate plan, because the fundamental principle that all the financial independence stuff that we follow is around the US government or the US economy, being stable and growing over time. We're still a pretty young country, and I don't know where it's gonna go. I'm not trying to be a naysayer. But it feels very unstable right now. And I think there's a reasonable thought to what we are going to do when the proverbial shit does hit the fact. Because it's primed for it.

Alex: I am in the middle of starting a new podcast. The basic premise is we are coming to a financial storm of and before seen proportions, and it's going to be combined with a political storm of unforeseen, unbefore foreseen proportions. And it is all going to hit the head during the 2024 elections.

Paul: I'm kind of with you on that one. What do you do about it? Because it's bigger. It's bigger. You know, I mean, I have a family you know, I mean, like a lot of us have people who we care about and want to take care of, and money aside isn't going to protect us.

David: Well, Paul, do you own landing guns?

Alex: Yeah. The gardening guns. What do you mean?

Pail: Yeah, the gardening gun.

Alex: The name of the podcast is the Final American Political podcast.

Paul: Okay.

David: I'm going to start the next day and then call you a fraud. Not the last one.

Alex: All press is good press.

Paul: The final final.

David: Most final. Oh, man.

Paul: Alright, so this is where Bacchus is going to discuss about teeing up the opportunity or the risk? And then are you going to talk about the solution?

Alex: No.

Paul: What was the point?

David: Alex doesn't have a solution. He's too wise.

Paul: For me, it's addressing the personal concern of hedging that risk and your risk manager, right.

Alex: Education is the best risk mitigator of all is knowledge.

Paul: Yeah.

Alex: Having your eyes open to the possibility because what you'll do is you'll start to stop making. It's like the people that are buying cars on deck, fancy cars right now are making a grave error because they don't realize the risk that's coming and they're obliging themselves to consumer debt or, or if you have credit cards right now.

55:00 - 1:00:00

Alex: So just the act of being cognizant is a giant risk mitigator because it prevents you from making unnecessarily foolish mistakes. What do I think is going to happen? From a societal perspective, I think you and I think in our lifetime, we'll see the end of the Federal Reserve as the global reserve currency. I think we'll see that which is going to change the way that credit works in this country, because that's how we have so much credit because we lend our money out to every to every other country, and when they don't want to buy that money, we're gonna have a lot less access to credit.

So that's gonna have unforeseen, unforeseen consequences. But I do think, as much as people are dumping on cash right now, I think having high cash reserves and having a light lifestyle. And I think those types of things are going to be risk meters. I mean, society will go on, that's for certain. And society will go on even if America isn't number one, just like it did before America was number one, which it did for the most of its I only the last 80 years, as America has been in first place. It's not like I mean, we're just American exceptionalism has made us think

Paul: We believe the Americans are one, we're taught from what our society just teaches.

Alex: We're number one in GDP.

Paul: Sure.

Alex: We're number one GDP per capita by a longshot.

Paul: Yeah.

Alex: But China's gonna overtake us in GDP. But I mean, look, the fact is, I mean, they have four times as many people, so they're gonna win straight up.

Paul: No doubt.

A lot of the reason we've won is because we have more people than most countries do.

Alex: We have the most people, we have two neighbors, which is like an anomaly on the planet. And we get along with both of them, which is an anomaly. And then we have a giant ocean. So it's like, even if you want to mess with us, it's like, it's not that easy. So those things will continue to be beneficial. But having four times the amount of people if they equaled our production in terms of GDP dollars per person, they're going to absolutely crushes.

Paul: Yeah.

Alex: But I also don't think, you know, we're not at war with them now, and we're not gonna be at war with them before but the likelihood that you start spending money in crypto won before the end of your lifetime is high.

Paul: Yeah.

Or some sort of, so I kind of wonder if there will be the without cryptocurrencies, this will be a different conversation, but with cryptocurrencies. I almost wonder if we're going to get to the place where we're going to choose our currency based on our values.

Alex: Oh, that's a whole other interesting thing. That could work within the metaverse because what's going to happen? I think with the metaverse there'll be more than one. Like you can hang on Facebook, you can hang on Instagram, you might pick both, but more than likely most people pick one or the other. You're gonna pick your world. Yeah, it's like the global, the national physical borders may actually matter less than the digital borders that you choose.

Paul: They already do. But we're trending towards that already.

Alex: Yeah, we're seeing it. And so you might pick the metaverse, and it'll have a currency. And you might pick this other verse, and it'll have its own currency. And in those worlds is going to come like you said, values. Yeah, it'd be very interesting how that flushes out. We could speculate about funsies, but I have no idea. But Facebook wanted to do it with the lira, right? They wanted to have their own crypto, I don't know the inner mechanics enough to know why they didn't do that. My guess is it's forthcoming.

Paul: II think when it comes to the actual Metaverse, it's gonna be less about actual cryptocurrencies, and more about so there'll be cryptocurrencies that can be supported across the metaverse. But then it'd be more about your selection of the metaverse to coincide with your values. It's your choice right now of Google or Apple, or your choice without Facebook or Instagram or Tiktok. Kind of

David: Yeah, I like it.

Paul: But the details of that and how it's actually going to play out. It's just so interesting to watch.

Alex: Yeah, but the thing that's interesting about all these new technologies is how confident people get about something that's so new. I'm like you learned crypto yesterday and now you're an expert.

Paul: I can't remember the name of it.

Alex: Yeah. Dunning Kruger.

Paul: Dunning Kruger effect like you feel like I'm guilty of it. I found myself learning something like I know this and then you really read further like oh, okay, yeah, actually, no, I don't.

Alex: This is my complaint. I'm sorry, David.

David: I was just gonna say the crypto posts in my Facebook group are usually like the most destructive thing like you read through the comments and you're just like I can't. I don't even know who to say to stop, this is just chaos.

Paul: And I think that reinforces my, you know, not well researched theory that your selection of cryptocurrency will somehow line up with your online social presence.

1:00:00 - 1:05:00

Alex: Oh, yeah, the way you said that tail wagging the dog kind of thing.

Paul: A little bit. Yeah.

But you know, people are going to compete against the theory and we're Solano or ADA or however many other versions of that.

Alex: Dogecoin?

Paul: Yeah. Which is silly, right?

Alex: I found this out when I started doing real estate, and I started learning a little bit of real estate, and I started feeling the risks, I was in it for three or four years. And I was like, Okay, I never started an education platform. But I did start blogging and telling people what I was doing. And what I started to notice, as I started, people that were doing it for fewer years than me, were popping up and teaching. And I was like, you know, less than me, how, how can you teach? And then what I started to realize was that I no longer learn real estate from people who have been doing it since only since before the crash. O8. And so I look at it like if you've only been doing it in an up market, how do you know if you're actually good? I don't know. I don't know if I'm not good.

So I don't learn from people and what they've been doing it since..

David: Hopefully this isn’t age bad.

Paul: All of us are like, crap, we sucked our portfolios are gone.

We are admitting, that possibility exists. And yeah, that we're not quite so arrogant to think that we have it all figured out.

Alex: Yeah, the more you learn, the less you should know. That's really what it comes down to. And so people who are really confident, I'm like, Oh, you don't know that much. That's why you're confident. It's very, it's like the opposite. The people who I know who are really wise, or the fastest be like, I don't know, play it safe.

Paul: Like, how many people? Do you really respect that? Don't ever ask questions?

David: Yeah.

Paul: They speak in absolutes? You know speaking in absolutes? You have a point of view, right. But you're, you're also quick to say, I don't know, it's going to be different. Like, there. You talk about principles, and you just say it in a fun way. But you're not saying I have it all figured out?

My overall advice is, I know most, what I know, most is I don't know. And there are certainly principles that go over the test of time. But they're so abstract, it's hard to be like.. It's like Buffett being fearful when others are greedy and being greedy when others are fearful that right there is a core principle of how to behave in any economic environment. The problem is when you know, when people are actually being greedy, and when are they being fearful?

David: It's even harder when you get into a circle that specializes in what you're trying to do, right? Because then you're like, Okay, well, do I feel like everyone's getting greedy? Because I'm surrounded by a bunch of real estate investors who all are thinking the same way I am, and we're all pushing? Or is everybody getting greedy? Yeah, you gotta like sweat, you gotta be able to see things in your circle out of your circle.

Paul: Well, don't live in echo chambers. If there were another principle that throughout there is how I wish I could quote somebody who has said this in a better way than I have. But like, the risk that social media, ironically, creates is extreme echo chambers. And if you find yourself camped out in an echo chamber, and you're just looking for confirmation of what you already believe, you're not going to find anything new.

Alex: The internet has allowed people I've been saying this for a few months. Now I gotta find a way to coin it real clever. But we are now experiencing mass confirmation bias.

David: Yeah.

Paul: Within our echo chambers that are created by the ability for us to self-select ourselves into these small groups.

Alex: Oh, yeah.

Everybody can go on the internet. And you can get any kind of crazy theory you want and say, Oh, the internet, I found somebody who agrees with me.

Paul: Any question that you have in your mind and you want the answer to be something you can find someone saying it already.

David: There's tons of proof that the earth is flat.

Alex: Another book that people should read is Carl Sagan's candle science as a candle in the darkness, great for dispelling the kind of things that mess with your head.

The principle there is to understand that you, your body, your brain is kind of in a way designed. This is Thinking Fast and Slow, your brain is designed to convince you that you're right. And once you understand that your brain is designed to convince you that you're right, you should spend all your time fighting against that and go on the internet and find all the things that convinced you that you're wrong.

David: Yes, I love that.

1:05:00 - 1:10:00

Paul: Go prove to yourself that the earth is not flat. Like it's not as obvious as you think. Go and prove to yourself that hey man listen to this you believe wholeheartedly that the earth is round and not flat. Go prove that scientifically to somebody.

Alex: There's a video by Carl Sagan actually coincidentally about how a guy named Eratosthenes found out that the earth was round and gauged it. He predicted the circumference to an actually fairly sophisticatedly close degree and he did it 2500 years ago. And he did it with shadows in holes in the ground. It's a very really sophisticated answer.

Paul: I'm willing to bet most people aren't going to conjure that up on their own.

David: Have you seen the breakdown of like the pyramid dimensions?

Man, I got sucked into a loophole on Tiktok, of course of all things the other day, but so who knows how accurate it is. But talking about the similarities between the like the fact that they're the Giza pyramid is like perfectly oriented to true north.

Paul: Is this about ancient aliens?

David: No, no, it actually is like, it ends with I want to say it's the height. But like, essentially, the diameter of the pyramid, like multiplied a certain number of times is like the direct circumference that like basically, the the whole point of the video was like, there's so many new coincidences, that it couldn't be a coincidence, like back then they had, you know, like, a very good idea of the size of the Earth and the direction of orientation and pretty mind blowing. It's like, man, maybe this is, I don't know.

Alex: It's a mistake to think that the people who lived before us are dumber than us. That's a mistake. The people who live before us. There's no evolutionary change. They're just as smart as us. They didn't have the same tools. But they're clever fellows. And guess what, a lot of them didn't have the distractions we do.

Paul: They won’t listen to us.

Alex: It is a grave and common error to think that people before us were dumber than us. They were clever folk. Were the dumb ones. I think. Not all definitely.

David: Paul, what's next? What are you looking for in 2022?

Paul: Okay, 2022.

So from a real estate perspective, playing in land, which is kind of like my big strategy. And my kind of small strategy is this midterm rental deal, and then buying a couple properties as they come and go. Outside of real estate, I am very much on more of this, like, whole life, millionaire approach. Life isn't all about money. Life is about my relationships with the people that matter most, that matter most to me. And I just want to make sure I get those priorities straight. And so I don't have big crazy, audacious business goals. I have much more fun, exciting goals around spending time with my children who are getting older, and will not be in the house anymore. And taking trips, COVID permitting, and that sort of thing.

Alex: I love it.

Let me ask the question, if the market tanks and an opportunity becomes abundant? Would you pivot again?

Paul: Oh yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I'm not attached to real estate. I'm not attached to it. I mean, I'm attached to opportunity.

Alex: So I love this because I have similar goals where I really want to work hard in 2022. There are definitely some real estate goals that I want to focus on. But my goals are holistic, and my goals are not valuable. They're meaningful. So I love that.

Paul: Yeah, I'm doing a lot more reading and a lot more meditating. A lot more just being very happy and present and satisfied with the now like, always be content but never be complacent.

Alex: Join my book club.

Paul: Okay.

Alex: I'm a bookaholic. Still.

Paul: Yeah, likewise.

Alex: I'm going on a hike in May.

Have you ever heard of the Camino de Santiago?

Paul: Yeah. Yes.

Alex: I'm gonna do it in May. It's a religious pilgrimage.

Paul: Yeah, I'm familiar. Yeah. It's very cool.

Alex: Similar. So I'm glad you heard that. A lot to spend a little more time this year.

Paul: Absolutely.

Oh, and I would say traveling. I mean, I've chosen to travel very much the last few years. I'm gonna make up for that a little bit this year and go to more conferences just because of the people you meet and the fun you have.

Alex: You want to go to the best ever in Denver in February?

Paul: In Denver in February?

Sure. Yeah.

Alex: I'm buying tickets today, actually.

Paul: Alright, count me in.

Alex: And then David, what are you?

1:10:00 - 1:14:31

David: I'm probably not in the right mentality to talk.

Paul: He's trying to survive his flu.

David: I'm working to figure that out. I haven't sat down and done that yet. Because a lot of things have changed this past year. So.

I figured we could do like a full show where you and I talk, talk goals?

Alex

Oh, yeah. Heck yeah, I'm down for that.

David: Although my family is home, I'm probably gonna have to roll here in a second.

Alex: I want to have Paul on again at some point next year. So let's make sure we schedule him in maybe say like October so we can get you in about a year and see, I'd love to have this to follow up and be like, what actually how things shake out because it'd be interesting.

Paul: The random shows episode two.

Alex: We're gonna get more random shows if you are listening to this. And I want to know what people think David and I have been going through structural changes in the show for a long time because interview styles kind of get tedious. It's hard and it's logistically difficult to get a new guest every week. And then we also interviewed Robert Kiyosaki. And we interviewed Grant Cardone, on the same day, we launched those in the same month, and it's kind of like, Okay, we sort of peaked a little bit. And so we want to, but we still want to add value. So we're trying to be like, hey, look, we're gonna have David and I solo shows, we're gonna have bs with our friends and kind of just have deep dives where we don't have to really tell Paul's whole story. We just want to hear what you think. And so for our guests and our listeners, for our listeners, we want to know, we want feedback. Is this better? I feel like this was a really interesting and valuable show full of wisdom and so I'm curious what our listeners feel. If they like you then we'll have you back if they don't like you then..

David: Paul's been on the show like three times it's probably more than anyone else.

Alex: But you are the host before now on the host so you know it's different.

David: That's a pitch or anything tactic where you make people wait on you to show your dominance.

Alex: Well, I'm not that kind of guy. I don't like playing with people like that. Plus, I just walk in and look at my hair. I am dominant. What do I tell you?

Paul: He’s gonna go to a pressure workout afterwards.

David: I'm gonna be honest, if there's no if there's no tagged story on Instagram of these deadlifts, I don't know that I'm gonna buy into it.

Alex: You know what, I've been slacking in the gym for about 90 days and really been struggling with it, but I'm feeling the hype back. I'm gonna go back. I have a goal. I've been deadlifting and squat my whole life, right? I have a goal that at 40 years old, I still won't be able to deadlift to squat 400 pounds each. So I don't believe that that's gonna be that difficult, but I can't not go to the gym and then do it. So I need to get back into it. Get my machine back. So I'm gonna go to the gym tonight. Maybe? And if I do, I'll tag you guys.

Paul: If he does

David: Do it.

Alright, Paul, where can people get hold of you?

Paul: Pauldavidthompson.com is the best place to go.

David: Easy.

Alright, we'll put that in the show notes. It was always a pleasure. Thanks for joining us.

Paul: Thanks for having me.

David: For tolerating my, you know, top peak performance today.

Paul: But just so long as you tell me that I surpassed any other guests that you had all the names that you just mentioned that you like the smartest guy you've had on here so far that would extol the most wisdom was me then I'll let it pass this time.

David: I mean, it was you in the last episode. I don't know if this one.

Alex: You're the best. Thank you so much for coming.

Paul: Thanks for having me.

End: Thank you for listening to another episode about my journey from military to millionaire. If you liked it, be sure to visit frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast to subscribe to future podcasts. While you're there, we'd love for you to rate the show. Give us a review on iTunes. Now get out there and take action.