Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to create wealth through franchising. I'm your host, Kim Daley.
Whether you're a CEO, a military vet, a real estate investor, or simply in career transition and ready to take ownership of your future, with each episode, you're going to learn valuable insights and hear inspiring stories from within the franchise industry.
On that note, my guest stories are their own. And as a franchise consultant, I do not make personal brand endorsements or earnings claims, but I do educate, motivate, and inspire dreams.
Now onto the show.
Welcome back to American Wealth Strategies. I am your host, Kim Daley. And today in studio is my longtime friend Chris Miles of money ripples. He calls himself the anti financial advisor. Chris, welcome to the studio of American Wealth Strategies.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Hey, so excited to be here, Kim.
[00:01:03] Speaker A: I'm excited to have you here, mister anti financial planner. Before we talk about the topic at hand today, which is going to be how to retire yourself, because in all of your little promotions on your website and on your podcast, you talk about retiring yourself two times. So I want to dig into that because I think a lot of people would love to retire themselves. But before we do that, Chris, why don't you tell the followers a little bit more about who you are, what you do, and how you help people?
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Well, you already told everybody I'm an anti financial advisor, so that just, you know, told everybody that I hate financial advisors, I guess, right? Which is kind of true, you know, I should say I hate, but let's just say that I don't agree with them. And the reason being is because I used to be one. After I was going to college, I decided to come out and understand that when I was grew up, money was really scarce, right? I always was told things like, hey, we can't afford this. We think I made it money. We don't. Money doesn't grow in trees, you know? And so when I became a financial advisor, it was very easy to adopt that same mentality, because that's exactly what financial advisors are like, right? It's always about scarcity. Yeah. Save every little penny like a little chipmunk or squirrel, and squirrel it away for the wintertime. Hopefully you have enough in those olden golden years, right? And so I was teaching that. I did that for four years. And about towards the end of that four year period, my dad reached out to me. He said, well, Chris, when are you going to advise me and understand that my dad had never shared anything about his financial life other than we don't have enough money. Right? But the guy was like the penny pinching saver. He was the guy, like Dave Ramsey would say, I want to be like him someday, right? That's what my dad was like. So I sit down with him, and he had been stuffing money in his 401K, getting the match and everything for decades. He had paid off his house in 18 years. He was totally 100% debt free. This guy did everything right. And then I had to tell him, dad, even though you're 61 years old right now, and you did everything that you're supposed to, if you try to retire today, you better hope you die in five years, because that's when you'll run out of money. He said, well, that's not what I want to hear, Chris, you're supposed to tell me how I can retiree. I said, honestly, like, I don't know, like, you just don't have enough. And that bothered me because he had done everything right, and yet it wasn't enough. Imagine everybody else who's still trying to figure it out or maybe is not doing everything right, and then they hope they might still have something that's just not good enough. In fact, my dad eventually worked into his seventies before he was forced into retirement based on health reasons, you know, and that's not the way to live. And so it was just a few weeks later after I met with him. This is in 2005, I called up a friend of mine that I trained to be a financial advisor, but then he quit to go do real estate investing, right. I called him up to see how hes doing. I was hoping to hear that he was broke, that he wanted to come back to work for me again, but that wasnt the case. He just said, chris, my life is awesome right now. My dad and I have partnered on some deals where weve doubled my dads income as a professor at the local university.
I said, how is that possible? You guys just started doing this, like, four or five months ago. That's too good to be true. My financial advisor brain can't fathom that. And he said, well, Chris, that's what's happening. He hit me, like, hard. He said, chris, how many of your clients are really financially free where they don't worry about money? I said, well, they all worry about money. They all worry about running out of money too soon. Okay, how about this? How many of you guys, as financial advisors, are financially free, not off the commissions that you're earning from these people, but actually doing these investments. And when I really was honest with myself, and I know there's guys in my office working there since the late 1970s, that could not retire yet. I knew there was a problem. I said, you know what? I got to leave this profession, right? I got to leave this industry. I'll never teach about money again. I'll just be a ballroom dancer, teach ballroom dancing on the side. And maybe I'll do some mortgages as well. Because in 2005, 2006, anybody can make money in mortgages, right? Kind of like mortgages three years ago. So that's what I was doing. And. But of course, I wanted to learn how they did it. And so later that next year, as I started to do real estate, investing, more passive investments and things like that, I got myself to the point where I had enough money coming in passively that I could pay all my bills. Essentially, I'm financially independent, where I could retire if I wanted to. And I was only 28 years old. And you said twice. The only reason was twice. Cause I screwed up the first time. You know, the recession hit. I lost everything. And then some had to dig back out of that million dollar debt hole and. And was able to get to the point again in 2016 where I was able to have enough income coming in from my investments that I didn't have to keep working. And that's really what it is. It's not really about getting people to just retire, right? Because I think less and less people want to retire. And let's be honest, I'm here right now. So obviously, I'm not just sitting on a beach doing nothing, because, you know, if you've actually got to the point of financial freedom, you'll realize that you want your life to mean something more. And so that's why I kind of refer to as being work optional, where you work because you want to, not because you have to. It might be you do that passion project. It might be that you find that next phase in your life. Maybe it's buying a franchise, right? Or whatever. It might be like you're looking for that next thing that you can do to have more meaning in your life. And ideally, not just to live fat and happy like I could have been doing the whole time, but really, like, have purpose to wherever you can use that money to actually bless more lives of those people around you. And so that's kind of what I teach people to do as well, is how can you create the same thing where, again, you have enough income coming in from your investments that you were because you want to, not because you have to.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: It's awesome. And by the way, he wasn't joking when he said, become a ballroom dancer for those of you who might have, like, what? That came out of left field, Chris, but I think that's a true statement. Right? You were a ballroom dancer.
[00:06:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I was. I was actually one of the nation's top amateur ballroom dancers. Don't put me in the professional category. Those guys would kick my butt. But I used to be one of the top amateur ballroom dancers in college.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: That's amazing. It's awesome. So that was so amazingly said. And so before I ask you a question, I'm going to interject my story. So I started meeting really wealthy people, like, people with, like, 30, 40, $50 million net worth, like, people who live, like Athenae, from where I was, like, very different lives. This was probably back in 2018.
And I had the same realization you had. I was like, these people don't do what I do, right? Like, I own a business. I did that much, but I took my extra money, and I maxed out my self employed pension plan every year, right? And then I had a bunch of money and some stocks and some mutual funds and somebody who managed that. I was, you know, no control over it at all. I had a great net worth on paper. But what did that actually mean? Right? I still, in my business, I choose to do this business, which kind of is like, trading your time for money. I mean, it's really good money, and it's. Yeah, but I'm still. I have to be here in order to make it work. And I had this feeling, I don't want to do this forever. I got to do something different. And. And that's actually how I started finding these people. I started, you know, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. And I started finding these people. They started finding me to be on their shows, on their podcast. And as I was listening to them, I felt so convicted because I was like, so I'm teaching people how to not trade their time for money by building a business in a franchise, but I'm really doing what they're doing, saving all the money in the, you know, 401k for, you know, I'm a self employed pension plan, but it's the same idea. And so I had to stop doing that. I read all the books. I started reading, you know, rich dad, poor dad, the cash flow quadrant. I got myself educated. I found good mentors, and I started to deploy my money and create that velocity of my money, and within four years, was able to retire. Kim, now, to your point, I'm still here making more money than I was making back then because it's actually freer when you're mentally free, right? It's like, funny how much passion and energy you have for what you do, and you don't have to do it for money anymore, but that's how quickly it can turn around. So, Chris, back to you. But I think it's important that people understand, like, to your point, I'm not teaching you or preaching to you to do something that I'm not doing. I'm doing it, too. I'll share all the things, if anybody's interested, with all the things that I'm invested in. But let's talk about practically, how do you actually help people?
[00:09:26] Speaker B: I'll go to that in a second. But I think it's fascinating, right, that you kind of have that same realization, right? And maybe I'll ask you this question, Kim, for you. When you got financially free, did you find it was easier to make money in your business, too?
[00:09:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So much easier. When the pressure's off, you're like, I mean, you can do anything, right? It's so hilarious how whatever you want, you keep a resistance to the wanting of it keeps it away from you. When you no longer have to want, you're open, and all of that comes back to you. It's an energy thing. It's. But that is entirely true.
[00:10:04] Speaker B: Yeah. It's kind of like Harry Potter and the sorcerer's stone, you know, if you're not America's the philosopher's stone or whatever, right? But, you know, if you remember in that book, Voldemort's trying to get the stone, right, and he can never get it. Harry Potter was able to get it because he didn't actually want it. And I find that true in business is that when you're not desperate for money, that's exactly when everybody wants to pay you. It's only when you need the money, right? When you're, like, throwing business cards at people left and right out of scarcity, hoping that somebody will call someday and make your life wonderful and at least get that one new customer or client. That's usually when you work ten times harder than you do. If you have other streams of income that are coming in passively where you realize, I don't need that one client or that one customer, and that's when they all want to come to you, right? It's kind of like someone who's desperate in dating or like, oh, I just want to get married. And that's when all the women flee, right? They're like, okay, that's a creep. Let's get away. The guy's like, hey, I'm open to whatever, but I'm really not forcing it. I really don't need a relationship. And that's what everybody flocks to them, right? Same thing. And so that's the power versus force. And. And so. Yeah, like getting granular now talking about that, because that is kind of a business hack I teach people is the best way to sometimes grow your business income is to have other streams of income, but it does not mean you never reinvest in your business. So understand, your business should be the number one investment. I find it ironic that so many people are taught to put their money in 401 ks and stocks and mutual funds investing in other people's companies, but then they want to invest in themselves, or even they do invest in their company. They think, well, now I got to take the money away from my company and put in all these other companies I have zero control over. Right. If that were the case, just throw all your money back in your company. By the way, I'm, no, I don't recommend that because the problem is, if you always reinvest 100% of your dollars back in your company, guess what? You're just in a bigger rat race. You are always stuck in that business. Yes, you can create systems, you can get people and processes in place that can help alleviate some time. But if you're always reinvesting every dollar you have back in business, well, the chances are that you're going to be stuck in that business, right? So you want to make sure you create other streams of income, especially if we have another 2020, another. Your business is now optional because it's not a necessary essential business or whatever it might be. You want to make sure you have other streams of income coming in anyways. And so on a personal level, like for example, I invest in a lot of variety of things. I like real assets. I like assets that pay me money. This is the biggest epiphany I had when I quit being a financial advisor. I was always taught, throw your money away, set it and forget it. Let it grow and accumulate and compound because that compounding interest, the 8th wonder of the world, supposedly. And then someday I'll have something.
And then of course, when you first pull out, you're not supposed to pull out more than 3%. So if you finally get to a million bucks, you're like, yes, a million bucks. Now I live on 30,000 a year in poverty, right? That's a broken millionaire. So instead, when I realized it was about the income I could produce with it, just like profit and business. You want profit with your investments. How could it produce income for me? Real income with real assets. I like real estate backed investments. Right, Kim and you and I were shopping. We were considering options. Like, hey, what allows me to buy a building and have a business right? Where I can maybe double dip a little bit and things like that, or even lease the building and then try to get rent off of it too, right? There's all kinds of options there. But I like real assets. So, for example, some of the assets I have are like, I have rental real estate that I don't manage. I personally don't manage. So I can have it anywhere in the country, but I'm not the one dealing with it. I just got an email yesterday from a property manager on a property in Memphis that I've had for just over six years that said, hey, lease renewal time. It's time to renew that lease for that tenant. We're going to bump it up 5% from, you know, 1500 a month to 1575. You cool with that? I'm like, yeah, I'm cool with that. You know, of course. Cause that just increased my cash flow, you know, and net, you know, after I pay them and everything, I'll still make another, you know, I'll go from about 8800 a year to about 9700 a year of actual profit on that property. By the way, I put $32,000 down on that property six years ago. Right, 32,000. That now is going to start cash flowing me about 9700 a year, net, after all my expenses. And I don't do anything with it other than collect the checks. And then two, I'm still getting all the appreciation, the tax benefits and everything. I've already made, like over 300% return in the last six years versus if I hadn't the money in the market, yeah, I would have doubled my money in the last six years, but that's just double. And that has no guarantee, right? So. And as a disclaimer, of course, there are no guarantees. You know, I'm not giving any investment recommendations, yada, yada, you know, to protect Kim here, so. But, yeah, that's just one example. Another thing I like to do is I like to lend my money like a bank does. Banks lend money to people all the time, but they only lend money if you notice, for things like business and real estate. They never, ever, ever lend you money to say, hey, can I throw that in the stock market or buy bitcoin? Because banks are smart. Unlike most Americans, banks are smarter than most of us, right? They know what to put money into, what not to business and real estate, which is, of course, number one what I invest in business and real estate. Right. And so in that example right there, like, I can lend my money to investors because they don't have to deal with all this headaches of banks. Theyll pay me a higher interest than they pay a bank, just for convenience. So ill easily make anywhere from ten to 15% a year on my money that I lend somebody else to do all their investing. So theyre the investor. Theyre the ones doing all the work. On the real estate side, I just get my money back because they owe me money. Theyre indebted to me. Right. You could do that. Another thing ive done recently is a raw land business. That is a partnership, where again, the partners, they're active partners, and they're 30%. I'm a 70% passive partner. I put in over 400,000, and right now it's just got over $11,291 a month of cash flow, you know, so that's like, and what is that? Roughly 135 grand a year, give or take, right? And again, hands off. You know, there's oil and gas. If I have to pay more than the gas pump, I might as well get paid on that, too. I'm getting paid from oil and gas royalties and such. So notice that some of them even have business ties, but they're again backed by some property or asset that I know we have claim to. That's the fun part. And there's a myriad of ways. I mean, there's apartments, there's self storage, there's, you know, actually car wash franchise, you know, syndications, where you can pull your money with other investors. If you can't do it all yourself, pull your money with somebody else and do a partnership and then be able to get that franchise right. I mean, there's just so many cool things you can do that I never knew was possible.
In the traditional financial advisor world, I always told people investing means mutual funds, period. Stocks are bonds. That's it. Like when I become a stock trader is like, oh, I can do options, too, but it's all paper assets, not anything real. That's not even talking about where I store my dry powder, my cash, my emergency savings, where I use like, whole life insurance to store that so I don't lose it to lawsuits, creditors, ir's. I go and get tax on money. I can store my safe money there and have it protected and still be able to leverage it and use it in my investments, too.
[00:17:07] Speaker A: Hey, daily coach, fans, if you're loving this episode, please do me a quick favor and leave me a five star rating and a short review. Your feedback fuels my growth and rankings and shows others that this podcast is valuable. Now back to the show.
It's awesome. The whole point of this podcast is to have these types of conversations, because who's having these types of conversations, right? So if you really want to break free from the w two world, I love how Chris always calls it the rat race, you know, and you really want freedom. Probably. It's not going to come just from one revenue stream. Like, if you come to me and we invest in a franchise, even in the franchise, you're probably going to realize the wealth is created through scale. It's not going to be about one truck or one team or one location. It's about leveraging your time across multiple of those. Right? But the idea in the franchise is that it's built for that leverage. The whole idea of franchise preneurship over entrepreneurship is that leverage is built in from day one. So in the same three to five years that an entrepreneurs spins around trying to figure out a business model, the franchisepreneur, with the goal of building three to five locations, can get three to five locations up and operating, because we're not figuring anything out. We're just executing from day one and moving that toward profitability. So maybe we start with a business, but then you're going to create cash flow, and now you're going to put the cash flow somewhere else. It can't just be about the business. Like my portfolio, like Chris's, is very diversified now. I have learned through trial and error, like Chris said, there are no guarantees. I've made some mistakes. I've invested in some very good real estate syndications. Are you big on syndication, or do you like the private, like, the way that you're investing in real estate, Chris.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: You know, syndications can be great, but obviously there's ebb and flow in the markets. Like right now, people say, what about apartment buildings? I'd be like, nope, not now. Like two years back. Five years ago was great, not today. So it just depends, right?
[00:19:12] Speaker A: Well, here's what you find out. You find out when you're a rookie, like I was about four years ago when I started doing this, who's really solvent in that, right? And who's over leveraged? Because in a moment like this, I have a couple of syndications where the dividends have stopped. Well, that's a bump, right? And all of a sudden, I'm like, well, I don't like this anymore. Right? Like, I want to have more control. But that's where I was four years ago. So now I know moving forward. But I will say on the other side, I have a much stronger syndication. It's kind of like a mutual fund where they collect all the money and they put a little bit into apartments, a little bit into self storage a little bit. So the total fund is always producing, even though one part of the fund may be down while another part of the fund is up. Now, that's a really good one. That one hasn't stopped, right? So I've gotten smart. Like you, I have some in oil and gas. What I love about oil and gas is the tax savings that oil and gas gives you massive tax deductions. And that feels really good because of my business here. But the long and short for me is I like business. I know business. So I want to be invested like I want to be the equity partner, but silent to business, cash flowing returns. Where other people are working it, my money is in it. A little bit of my mouth and maybe, you know, just sort of like some oversight and direction from my experience, but not my time. So you have to get in and feel it out to see what feels right for you. And as I mature, I'm sure different things will speak to me. And that's the fun part. But the idea is that you get to learn, you get to grow, you get to create actual money that comes back to you right away, not saving and diversified, and you can't touch it, and you're looking at it growing on a piece of paper. But is it really your money? When can you actually touch it? It's the fun part of this entire conversation and why I thought, I'm going to launch a new show because I help all of these people start franchises and then they find themselves looking for what's next. Well, this is what's next, right? Maybe another business, but it may not be. And, Chris, there are also people who come to me who are not ready for the franchise, because franchise needs a fair amount of money. I mean, realistically, minimally, 100,000 plus or minus, you know, but the more money you have, the more options you're going to have. And so, but there's a lot of syndicates where you can put 25 or 50 grand in and start building cash flow that you own and can control without having to go the big route to the franchise. And then that may help you get your confidence up to then come back and eventually invest in the franchise thats right.
[00:21:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Its amazing. I like what you brought up there because theres really different incomes that you can create, right? Theres active income, which your business, I mean, thats great. You should have active income. Thats like your economic engine of your life. But then theres passive income. We talk about where you get your money to pay you money, and then theres also residual income. That business can make money with you where it could be repeat business. Right. And thats where the franchise model comes in. Thats awesome. In fact, you just reminded me, I was just interviewing somebody for my show, right. And he was talking about how one thing that people keep forgetting, he's a former NFL player, right. And so he talks to other NFL players that are either forced into retirement too early. And he said most players in the professional leagues don't get paid that much, right. He's like, you hear about the ones, if they're nationally known, yes, they'll be fine for life. But most of them are scrambling, trying to figure out what to do. He's like, you may not have a lot of financial capital, although you have some of that you could invest, but you do have relationship capital because of your theme. Right? Your name that was out there. Use it. He's like, I'm surprised people don't go on LinkedIn and say, I'm a former NFL player. He's like, they'll hide it. It's like, don't hide that. Like you have a rolodex of people that you could use in a business model, whether you're actively as a partner in the business, like you were saying, right. Or even if you were someone who was just referring to another business, right. You could get paid off of that relationship. And I've actually been paid off that, too. That's one of the things that helped me retire early on is because I had a relationship with a couple companies where I would also send them business and they would send me kickbacks, right. Because my mantra is this, if I'm not going to be the best in business at something, don't do that business, right. If I can't be the best. That's why we only do two things. We only do like coaching for passive income, helping people find ways to do that, or two, doing infinite banking. Other than that, we'd rather refer to like you, Kim, which is what we do. That's why a lot of our clients would talk to you. Cause you're like, you know, they'll work with Kim. She is better at that. We don't have to become the jack of all trades refer to the best in the business, you know? And I'll tell you, most of the deals I do, I never get paid on is that. That's not the point. Point is really just there are so many multiple ways that you can conduct business and do things that you don't have to be hands on, you don't have to be active doing yourself. You can actually have systems and people and other processes or companies doing the work for you.
[00:24:02] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. So all this is a really good setup. So, Chris, what advice do you have for the listener out there today who's like, okay, this is exciting. I'm intrigued. Like, but where do I begin?
[00:24:15] Speaker B: Best ways to begin is really start looking at the education part. Right. The hardest part for most of the people when they hear this kind of stuff is it sounds great, but then the doubts come in. Like, this sounds a little bit too good to be true, or that sounds really risky, and maybe I should take the safe path that everybody else is on. I want you to really ask yourself, how are people doing on that supposed safe path, right. The path that everybody's taken, which is what my dad took. And Kim, the one you were on, that you jumped off on now. Right. And now you've seen a whole nother life as a result of it. That path that my father was on, he's already proven it, and so have tens of millions of other people been on that same path. And how are they doing today? They're living paycheck to paycheck still. They're still working longer. They're trying to save more. They always sacrifice and delay and procrastinate their life for some day to the point where their family's gone. Their family's too busy for them now. Right. They don't have that time to enjoy now. And that's kind of like, what my sign may or may not be able to see it back there is like, live your life now. Right? Well, how do you do that? It's by you create more passive income. So best way to get educated, of course, is finding those that have been there, done that, still doing it today. Obviously, we have a money Ripples podcast you can follow, of course. You know, I know Kim's show is awesome shows, I should say, you know. Cause you've done lots of great shows. But follow those people that are on that path, and it doesn't even have to be us. It could be whoever you find, but don't go for the people that are just trying to sell you crap. Right. Like, really go for those that are really educating you, saying, hey, I've done this and I'm still doing it today. Those are the people you follow as mentors.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: So I'm going to say this. I love money ripples. I listened to your show every single episode. Like the other morning, I was on the bike. I forgot to tell you this. You were interviewing the woman from the TEDx.
[00:26:02] Speaker B: Uh huh.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: Ashley. Oh, my gosh. Like, I'm totally reaching out to Ashley after I was like, I forgot to tell you that when we got on the zoom. But, um, anyway, his show is awesome. You know why I like it? Because it's like, it's kind of like the format of my show. It's like 20 minutes or so, you know, bite size. We don't have to belabor the topic, but we have to create, you know, interest and intrigue and. But actionable. And that's what you're going to get at money ripple. So you guys listening? Have got to go check out Chris's show. It's one of the best. I listened to a lot of podcasts. It's one of the only ones I listen to every single episode. True story for smiles.
[00:26:39] Speaker B: Thank you so much. I appreciate that.
[00:26:41] Speaker A: Yeah, I remember the first time I heard money ripples, I was cleaning my pool. Like, that's how much like I remember. I just couldn't stop. Like, I just kept listening episode after episode after episode after episode. And then I've been hooked ever. That was like, I don't know, four years ago probably. So it's a great show.
[00:26:57] Speaker B: Produce more. I'm bored.
[00:26:59] Speaker A: Exactly. Produce more content. Anyway, I appreciate you joining our show today and sharing your wisdom and your insights. And I hope that people will reach out to you. We will put all of Chris's contact information in the show notes below. And Chris, thank you so much again for joining us on american wealth strategies.
[00:27:15] Speaker B: Thank you, Kim.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Have a good day today. So for those of you listening, thank you again. I will see you in the next one. Again, this is american wealth strategies with Kim Daley.
You can find more content just like this on my YouTube channel at KimDaily TV. And if you're inspired to take the next step to explore franchises matched to you, please email me right now at inquireimDaily TV. That's Inquirey TV.
