Wealth Formula Podcast

If I hadn't listened to Peter Schiff, I would have made gobs and gobs of money in the past few years. Now, don't get me wrong. I like listening to Peter Schiff's podcast. He is a very smart guy. In fact, he predicted the financial meltdown of 2008. It would be even more impressive if he had not predicted the financial meltdown of every other year that there was not a financial meltdown, but he did get 2008 right. Peter has a keen sense of the economy and a very strong perspective that you have to respect. I think the problem, in general, is that if you only listen to Peter, you might be only seeing his very narrow perspective on things. Let's take bitcoin for example. I started hearing about bitcoin back in 2015 or so when bitcoin was trading for under $300. The problem is that back then I used to listen to Peter Schiff's podcast religiously and every time he brought it up he was so damn negative about it. He made bitcoin sound like a big joke. Now, you may not be a bitcoin person, but if you dig down into the concept and the economics it represents, bitcoin should have been something that Peter actually supported. It is pretty much gold—but better in theory. Anyway, he was so darn negative about it that I never bothered to take it seriously. I didn't dig any further or try to listen to other intelligent voices with a different perspective. As a result, I lost out. Even at bitcoin's low this year, I would have still been up 1000 percent had I not listened to Peter back then. Now I don't actually blame Peter for not buying bitcoin in 2015. I blame myself. I blame myself for not listening to people with other perspectives then me. There were plenty of smart people like Eric Voorhees out there that made the case for bitcoin as clear as it is for me today. But I was too busy listening to the same podcasts who basically regurgitated what everyone else in the niche had to say. No one in the real estate/real asset niche knew a damn thing about bitcoin but everyone acted like it was a joke. My story of bitcoin opportunity lost has a larger message that must be taken to heart. Stop listening to the same source of information to make all of your financial decisions. You may think you are listening to a whole bunch of different podcasts but if the same guests keep popping up all the time then maybe you are just listening to the same ideas recirculating through a closed podcast circulation—sort of like an echo chamber. I don't want to be part of that. That's why I'm trying to get people on the show to explain to me why I'm wrong for believing what I believe. One of those beliefs that I have held for many years is the idea that I don't like commercial real estate. I don't like mini-malls, office space, or restaurants? I'm a multifamily guy for the most part. I want to invest in things people have to have…not what they want to have. So, today I invited a commercial real estate guy on the show who does exactly what I have said that I don't like to make his case for commercial real estate in 2019. Make sure to listen to this show—especially if you have the same bias as me.

Bitcoin and Blockchain are not dead. In fact, if you look at the history of bitcoin itself you see that it seems to have a feline propensity for multiple lives. After being battered and beaten up so many times, why is bitcoin not dead? I am reminded of a movie that I recently watched with my nine year old daughter from the late eighties called The Princess Bride. If you happened to miss this one, you really ought to see it. It's a very funny love story based in the the middle ages with pirates, kings, and lots of sword fighting. The love story is between a farm boy called Wesley and Buttercup. The two are separated as Wesley goes off to sea and Buttercup presumes he is dead. Years later, she is chosen by the local King to marry and she agrees although she knows that she can never love again. Now this king is a bad guy and he knows that Wesley is not only alive but coming back to claim his beloved. Eventually, Wesley is caught and tortured to death by the King's minions. However, Wesley's allies need him back alive to defeat the king so, after finding him apparently dead, they bring him to a magician who was recently fired by the King. This former disgruntled employee of the King, played by Billy Crystal, says that Wesley is actually "mostly dead" but refuses to help unless there is a true meaningful reason to bring him back to life. So, he pushes air into Wesley's mouth and squeezes on his chest. What comes out of Wesley's mouth is "true love". The magician admits that this is, indeed, the most noble cause to bring him back alive but tries to get out of it anyway. But when he finds out that bringing him back will help him get revenge on his former employer, the King, he agrees and brings him back to life. OK, so perhaps my metaphor is a little overboard, but just like "true love" was worth bringing back to life in The Princess Bride, bitcoin has been brought back from the brinks of "mostly dead" several times over because of what it represents. What bitcoin represents is the ultimate storage of value. It has all the traits of gold but it's better because it is portable and can easily be transferred from peer to peer thousands of miles away from one another without the need for a central authority like a bank. Bitcoin is not hackable because it is decentralized and there is a finite amount making it "unprintable". Like many people, up until 2016, I didn't get it and maybe I don't entirely understand even now. However, this concept of eliminating the middle man is so powerful that I now believe that it CAN NOT be stomped out by anyone or any entity. That powerful message, unfortunately, has been bastardized by many like Tai Lopez and other charlatans who took advantage of people with the idea of getting rich fast because of the explosive growth of cryptocurrency. The bubble created in the frenzy of greed and subsequent popping of that bubble has led to the current round of bitcoin obituaries. That said, the concept of bitcoin and distributed ledgers in general, is anything but dead. It is actually in its early years and it is simply experiencing the growing pains of any new technology or concept that is new to the world. There is value in what is being created and people will continue to make a lot of money in the future from it. They may do so through owning cryptocurrency or through creating the infrastructure surrounding this new economy. For example, collateralized bitcoin lending services have nothing to do with investing in bitcoin, but they make a lot of money through a fairly traditional lending business model. There is so much going on out there. It's just important to make sure you are listening to the right people. One of the legitimately smartest individuals in crypto today is Nic Carter. He is not a social media figure and he does not have a newsletter. However, for those at the highest levels of cryptocurrency investing and technology, Nic has a voice to which everyone listens. So, despite the polar vortex sweeping across the cryptocurrency world, this week I urge you to listen to my conversation with Nic on Wealth Formula Podcast. Shownotes: Nic Carter's background What's is Coinmetrics How is Coinmetrics different than bits activity and other competitors Castle Island Blockchain, blockchain, blockchain… When will the impact of institutional interest reflect the market? Learn more about Nic Carter https://medium.com/@nic__carter

If I have given you the impression that my life since leaving surgical training has been all ups and no downs, I have unintentionally misled you. The first business I started which was an owner operated medical business did well quickly its true. It allowed me to start investing in real estate. But that first acquisition I did not go well and it turned out to be a $300K lesson in how due diligence should NOT be done. I'm happy to say that my fortunes with real estate have, indeed, been quite good since that time. But some of my business ventures have been up and down. A few years ago when my initial medical business seemed to be slowing down (around 2012), I started to look around for business models within medicine that could hedge my position. My first business, as some of you know, was a cosmetic surgical business that was all cash pay and it still exists in Chicago. The second business was related to a business covered by insurance. I decided I would stop being an operator on the first business and focus on this second business to create that hedge as soon as possible. That was around 2014 or so. My hunch was that with this second, insurance based model, I was on to something and that there was a window of opportunity to take advantage of it. I was right. In fact, that second model made a seven figure plus profit in its first year and pretty much made up for the lagging cosmetic business. I felt like a genius for doing what I did. In fact, not only did the new business save the old one, it seemed to some how drive a lot of energy into the initial cosmetic business. All of the sudden, it seemed like everything I touched was turning into another million dollar business. I bought some more apartment buildings around that time which was a really good move as well. But…I also ended up doing something stupid. I decided that if my cosmetic business could be successful in the third largest market in the country, I could open up a few more across the country and really kill it. I figured if I could do what I was doing in Chicago in four other medium size markets, I could potentially walk away with $40-50 million dollars. Now, that in and of itself was not a bad idea. I've seen similar things done. In fact, a company emerged at around the same time that was doing almost the exact same thing. However, they had a couple of advantages over me. First, they knew what they were doing! I knew how to dominate one city and I had the staff who could execute what I wanted them to do. I did not have the operational skill set, nor did my staff, of replicating our business model in multiple different states. My competitor was staffed with professional operators and the deep pockets of private equity making sure to guide their investment towards success. That brings me to the other major advantage of my competitor: capitalization. I was making so much money in 2014, I figured I'd do the whole thing myself. My competitor was using private equity money with unlimited pocket depth that would see the project through despite a few years of multimillion dollar losses. Suffice it to say, I lost that battle. After losing a small fortune, I retreated back to Chicago. The good news was, that despite the failure, the two Chicago based businesses were still killing it but now a lot of that money was going into paying down debt from the failed venture rather than underpriced Chicago real estate. When I think about what I could have made with that money by buying more real estate in the Chicago rather than trying to expand that business is mind boggling. Everything was on sale. A couple of the properties I did buy during that era were sold last year for returns of 500% and 600% on equity (and they cash flowed all the way through the 3-4 year hold periods) In hindsight, what could I have done differently? Well, I could have just done what I said…taken all that money and dumped it into real estate and other investments outside of my core businesses. That might have been the easiest. Given how my businesses were doing at that time, I could have also looked into private equity, at least for the cosmetic business. I could have let them buy a portion of my company and help me scale with them. That would have allowed me to take some money off the table and share the risk with an operator who understood how to scale the way I wanted (the leveraged buy-out option). Either option would have been better than what I did. The truth is that it is all easy to see in hindsight. When you are making money like I was for the first time, it's hard to see clearly and you can feel invincible. Now, going back to business two—it was a business that I knew could make a lot of money but I also knew that it was not a long term thing. It involved procedures that people needed but for which insurance companies were paying a lot of money. I knew that wasn't going to last. The insurance companies would catch up with me. It was a business that I considered as having planne

It's so strange to think of the way our politics have evolved even in my lifetime. The first president I remember (barely) is Jimmy Carter. Most of grade school for me were the Reagan years. After a bumpy start, the 1980s became the roaring 80s. It was a decade remembered for wealth and excess. Remember Wall Street with Michael Douglas and Michael J. Fox as the Alex P. Keaton on Family Ties? The Republican party, at the time, was clearly the party of the rich and made little effort to concern itself with poverty and equality. Ideologically, it was a different mind sent. The appealing nature of the 80s was that it was aspirational. It was indeed Morning in America. After the hopelessness of the Carter economy, everyone seemed optimistic. That's why even the middle class, the traditionally democratic bastion of unions and the democratic party, defected. They became Reagan democrats. The good times continued through the 90s into the Clinton years. In fact, Clinton represented a new kind of democrat who embraced Wall Street and free trade. The old democratic party seemed dead and the difference between Democrats and Republicans was minimal. Rising tides raise all ships—even if some ships are rising more than others. A recent Brookings Institute analysis found that out of the last five presidents the largest annual income gains in the middle class occurred during the Reagan and Clinton years. In general, these were good times in America. People were generally pretty happy and optimistic. Now to be clear, there is a ton of data showing that it makes virtually no statistical difference to the economic performance of the country whether there is a Republican or Democrat in the White House. In fact, I hate to say it, but there is a very slight advantage to the democrats. What I'm getting at here is that when times were good economically for the middle class, there was less divisiveness in the country. It is no coincidence that over the last 2 decades, median household incomes have barely budged, wages are declining and that this corresponds to the rise of political and demographic divisiveness and demagoguery. Almost 80 percent of Americans believe that today's children will grow up worse-off than their parents. Think about that. That isn't Morning in America. That's downright depressing. Now what happens when people are not doing well and are worried about the future? Well, it starts with blaming everyone else for our problems. Maybe that's why anti-semitism and white nationalism is on the rise? People become more tribal and insular. They stick with their own and look for scapegoats. The worst example of this in recent history was, of course Nazi Germany which followed a horrific economic period of hyperinflation following the first world war as it was paying reparations. That was extreme but we now see a lot more divisiveness in our politics and both parties are pandering to our worst instincts. I really hate that my kids are growing up in this kind of polarized country. Now most of us are doing pretty well and we've made a lot of economic gains over the past several years after the great recession so it's easy to not recognize what is underlying all this strife. But that's a mistake. Why? Because eventually when enough people are hurting, they will come for us with pitchforks. Whether that's with literal civil unrest or 70 percent tax brackets suggested by the likes of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez—it's time to take this seriously. There are a lot of smart people who you might not expect to care that recognize what is going on and who have spoken about it extensively. Robert Kiyosaki, Billionaire Charles Koch, CEO of Koch industries, and even libertarians who most people consider insensitive to the poor recognize this. Now, how to deal with the problem is another issue entirely. This week, we speak with a libertarian from the Cato Institute, Mike Tanner, who shares some common sense strategies that are more nuanced than simply raising taxes. In fact, these strategies are probably the ones that make the most sense but get the least actual political attention. Shownotes: Mike Tanner's background Inequality and poverty from a practical perspective What's wrong with the criminal justice reform system now? The effect of zoning laws Occupational licensing Unemployment insurance Cato.org The Inclusive Economy

Changing your personal financial belief system is like changing religions. Think about it. Maybe you grew up Christian or Jewish. Whether you practice or not, you have some pretty established beliefs. That's why it's not that common for people to convert from one religion to another. Maybe that's an extreme example but there is a parallel when it comes to changing your personal investment strategy. We grow up being told that the "responsible" thing to do is to find a nice financial advisor and invest in a broad portfolio of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. You see the commercials all the time, right? Well, this heretic can't stand those commercials! It drives me crazy because it reinforces the notion that there is a conventional financial pathway that is right and that it involves Wall Street. I broke away from that "religion" long ago and have followed the heretical path of real asset investing in "alternative" assets like real estate and precious metals. You gotta love the label "alternative", right? It makes you think of blue hair mohawks and nose rings—not the nice responsible looking people you see on those brokerage commercials. Now some of you know that I have been thinking controversial thoughts even within the "alternative" investing space lately. It's funny because I'm even a little uneasy about saying this but…I will come out of the closet. I no longer own gold. I know, I know. Some of you are disowning me as we speak. My own hero Robert Kiyosaki loves gold and, if he heard me say that I don't believe in it any more, he would never come on my show again. Fortunately, I'm quite confident he doesn't listen to my show so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll just wait a little while before I ask him to come back on again. For those of you who have not heard me explain my stance on gold—well, I just don't understand why I wouldn't just own more real estate instead. After all, the reason to buy gold is as an anti-dollar. Gold goes us as the dollar goes down. In other words, it's an inflationary hedge. But so is real estate. In fact, real estate also throws off cash flow and can be leveraged. It is no more volatile than gold and it has tax advantages up the wazoo. Taxes on the sale of gold, on the other hand, are worse than capital gains. Ok, so all that said, I'm still trying to keep an open mind. I'm talking to people and letting them try to convince me why I should own gold. And my guest this week makes some pretty compelling points. So, if you are trying to figure out whether or not you should own gold, listen to this week's episode of Wealth Formula Podcast. It may help you make the decision once and for all. Shownotes: Ken Lewis's background Out of all things, why gold? Gold's volatility What's gives gold its value? Owning physical gold How does Ken tie gold to blockchain? Passive income on the gold you own Real Estate vs Gold Onegold.com Apmex.com

Not everyone is that excited about blockchain. Especially these days as the market is about 90 percent down from its January highs. But remember, while the bubble was real, so is the technology. There is something here that will start to permeate our world—even if we have no desire to invest in cryptocurrencies. You see, blockchain and other distributed ledgers create a tremendous amount of efficiency. So-called security tokens essentially allow ownership of real things (just like a regular security) but allow for greater liquidity through secondary market platforms. Not surprisingly, we are starting to see blockchain projects creep their way into real estate. It's just a matter of time that title searches and escrow companies become as useful as syphilis doctors. The challenge, in my opinion, is identifying what projects are actually useful. What projects actually need a blockchain or create some additional value that is not already there. After all, it is well documented that a number of companies simply added blockchain to their name to seem more desirable in 2017. In fact, some publicly traded companies saw appreciable differences in their stock price after changing their names to include "blockchain". So, as much as I am a student of distributed ledger technology, I am also skeptical of many of the applications that I am seeing out there. In order for a project to be worth investing in, it has to create value that is not currently available. My guest today makes the case for the tokenization of real estate—specifically extracting equity from your personal residence through security tokenization instead of a home equity line of credit. He also speaks to the many other possible applications of blockchain to real estate investing. I thoroughly enjoyed this discussion with Matthew Sullivan from QuantmRE and, even if you don't care about cryptocurrency, you will find this interview interesting and useful. This brave new world of blockchain is here before us. You won't be able to ignore it.

I remember being in medical school thinking that I wanted to be a surgeon. The idea of it appealed to me very much. I certainly had the personality of a surgeon. But there was something about which I felt very insecure.You see, growing up, my dad was about as white collar as they get. I didn't learn anything about cars and never put up any shelves. The only reason to think I was any good with my hands at all was the fact that I excelled in hand-eye-coordination sports like ice hockey and table tennis (aka ping-pong).So as much as I loved the idea of being a surgeon, I had this big fear that I would be horrible at it. And, in the beginning, I kind of was! In medical school, all of the guys I liked were orthopedic surgeons. They were all into sports like me. The problem was that they were all carpenters at heart and I was NOT. I remember an orthopedic surgery resident handing me a saw to amputate a guy's leg at the VA. Having that tool in my hands wasn't pretty. Fortunately, the leg was suppose to come off anyway.Eventually, I realized that I was better at soft tissue surgery (no bones). I felt that I was better with fine movements than using power tools. That's one of the reasons I decided to operate on brains.In fact, the first time I ever used a drill, it was in medical school drilling through someone's skull on my neurosurgery rotation. I got pretty good with that drill after a while. It was the only power tool I liked.I remember getting confident enough practicing on people's skulls that I bought a drill at the hardware store to put up some shelves in my apartment for the first time. Okay…so all of this sounds a little messed up I know. But it's true. The good news for me was that there was a little bit of a learning curve getting my hands wet but pretty soon, I became a pretty darn good surgeon.In hindsight, the fear and anxiety of not being good at surgery was silly. As it turned out, becoming a good surgeon was really no different than becoming good at anything else in life—it took practice.In the case of most surgical procedures, you sort of do the same maneuvers every case. After my neurosurgery stint (which I left because of the hours), I spent some time doing cosmetic surgery. I watched the masters do hundreds of operations.There was one guy I watched that was particularly interesting to me because his results were so good and so consistent. What I noticed when I watched him carefully was that he did everything the same every single time. In fact, I counted about 6 discreet maneuvers that he did for every patient and wrote them down.When I started doing my own cases, I did those six steps and, from the very first case, my results were outstanding. During my career I did several hundred facelifts and did them exactly the same way every time.I got faster, more precise, and there were fewer and fewer wasted movements. My patients thought I was an artist. But the truth was that I was more of a robot than an artist. I am the least artistic person I know.This experience of mastery was profound for me. I felt like I had discovered a larger secret in the process of being a good facelift surgeon. The secret was that you could master just about anything if you cracked the code and did it over and over again the same way every time. That's all that mastery really is.My guest on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast is special. At a relatively young age, she has become a master at her craft and has shown the same kind of consistency with her financial outcomes as I did at my peak with surgical outcomes.Her name is Janet LePage and she is computer scientist who has cracked the code to successful multifamily real estate investing. In this episode, we will learn how she did it.BuckP.S. Don't forget to sign up for our upcoming Wealth Formula Investor Meetup in Scottsdale, AZ. Click here to learn more! Janet Lepage's background Cracking the code then sticking to it Velocity and leverage Have a lot of lemons to squeeze Affordability index Caring = profitability The We Got You Back program

You know it's been a hell of a year in terms of market volatility right? Now, in cryptocurrency, we expect that. It is a speculative asset class with binary outcomes. That's why we only invest money in money that we can lose. In 2018, we definitely lost it (who knows about 2019). But the equity markets are supposed to be where you put your retirement money! Whats up with the volatility? December has been the worst month in the stock market since 2008 and could very well be the worst December since 1932 during the Great Depression. Why? Because the fed raised rates by one quarter of one percent? Because there is a government shut down over a border wall? Why do these seemingly unrelated circumstances affect your publicly traded equities? The answer…your wealth in the stock market is not real. When people get nervous and there is a sell off in the market, your wealth vanishes. Investing in the stock market is not conservative as conventional financial wisdom has led you to believe. It gives you exposure to systemic risk that you cannot control. Now I know some of you skeptics out there will say yeah Buck the real estate market is not an uncorrelated asset either. That's absolutely true but here is the difference. You see, the money I have tied up in real estate is real. How do I know that? Well, I can see, touch, and feel an apartment building. And people have to live somewhere so they keep paying if they need a roof over their head. People sell stocks so they can pay their rent. As for the value of the building. Maybe it will go down in value for a period of time but if I'm making money from the asset now, why do I even care? I'll just cash flow for a few years and when the value goes back up, maybe I'll sell (or maybe not). These are not new concepts for this show but worth repeating because I am sensing panic out there with stock market investors and I am getting a lot of questions about where to invest or where to hold cash. Rather than be foolish and give you financial advice, let me point out that my own strategy continues to be to buy moderately leveraged real estate with value add opportunities in high growth markets (Dallas, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta). If you are an accredited investor and you want to know exactly what I'm up to, join investor club ASAP and you can decide if you want to do the same. As for where to keep cash, I'll say it again. There is only one vehicle that I know that continued to provide solid positive compounding growth and liquidity through the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the Great Recession. It's called Wealth Formula Banking and, in my opinion, this is the best risk adjusted long term investment ever. If you are tired of feeling queasy not knowing which way the market is turning, it may be time to really take a look at this option. I think we are in for some serious volatility in the next year. That said, I do not believe that we are headed for another 2008 right now. The biggest problem we have right now is that rates are normalizing (although mortgage rates remain low) and there is a tremendous amount of political uncertainty. The markets hate uncertainty. Sitting on cash in an almost certain inflationary environment may not be in your best interests either. That guarantees you lose money as inflation exceeds the nominal interest you are earning at the bank. Markets go up and down even though in good times we never seem to remember that. It doesn't mean we freeze. It means we make decisions based on what is in front of us. In this week's episode of Ask Buck, we touch on these topics and more. Start out the year with some Wealth Formula Wisdom. Don't miss this episode.

I'd like to give each and everyone of my listeners a gift this year so I'm going to do that the only way I know how—to give you some unsolicited advice (not to be confused with financial advice). Take it or leave it but these concepts have served me well. So...let us begin! Invest in people, not deals. This is just as true whether you are investing on your own as owner operator or as a passive investor. It is easy to understand from the perspective of a passive investor. Once word gets around that you might invest in a private placement, you will get a lot of garbage thrown your way. My advice…if you don't know who it's coming from, delete it. Proformas and glossy offering memorandums can be made to look whatever way you want them to look. You can make swamp land in Florida look good on paper. It's like putting lipstick on a pig. Work with people that you know, like and trust. What if you are contemplating a new venture on your own or are thinking about buying your own apartment building? Same principal here…invest in people, not deals. In this case, you have to invest in your self. You have to take the time to learn and get the help you need from mentors and masterminds. If you are going into a dark cave for the first time, bring someone who's been there before. Be careful on this one—lots of gurus out there who aren't going to help you that much. They are too busy selling their programs to be true mentors. It's better if you find a real person willing to take you under their wing who's got some scar tissue. To master anything new, you have to learn from mistakes…but they don't have to be your mistakes. Finally, remember to keep an open mind and try to learn from multiple sources. A mentor is great but should serve as a foundation for your on-going learning. Get perspectives from others. I have found that perfectly intelligent people can disagree on how things should be done and both or neither can be right at the same time. I have missed out on some big opportunities in the past few years because I kept listening to the same people crying wolf about the economy over and over. I have found that when everyone thinks the same thing, it is usually time to second guess the assumptions that are being made. So…please keep listening to my podcast and become an active member of the Wealth Formula Community. But also listen to others who have a different perspective. Tell me when you think I am wrong. But if you do, back it up rather than quoting another podcaster or blogger. On my end, I will continue and try not to let myself get boxed into one kind of thinking and to continue to provide you with truly unique and useful content that isn't just a replay of someone else's podcast. I think we have just scratched the surface. Merry Christmas!

People keep asking me the same question these days—Buck, what are you investing in given the relative instability of asset prices and the economy? Now I won't give you financial advice—that is my disclaimer. But I will tell you what I tell everyone else. In times like these, I stick mostly to multifamily real estate and life insurance related products. Why? Well, in the case of multifamily real estate, people have got to live somewhere. Paying you rent is required so they don't go homeless. What good is your apple stock if you've got no place to live? What if asset prices go down you ask? Well, as long as you are moderate with leverage and continue to deleverage by creating value, you should be just fine. Again, that's my opinion and those of you in my investor club know that I am doubling down on this. What about this whole life insurance product thing? Well, if you don't know what I'm talking about, take a look at WealthFormulaBanking.com and get a sense for yourself. You know, it drives me crazy when know-it-all doctors tell me that life insurance is not a good investment. Well, if you look at the way their policies were structured, they are absolutely right. They just aren't seeing the way the wealthy get these things structured. The wealthiest people in this country, the Romneys, the Rothschilds all use these products to create wealth. Do you think they might know more than an ER doctor with a blog about this stuff? Well, I'll leave that up to you. The good news is that the structure used by the ultra-wealthy for these policies is not just for the rich. It's about structure. You don't have to be a millionaire or a billionaire to make these things work for you. And, in unstable financial times like these, dealing with investments that have consistently paid out since before the Civil War might not be a bad idea. We talk about this stuff a lot and will continue to do so but if you have not checked out WealthFormulaBanking.com do so to get detail. I can honestly say that if you took no other action from Wealth Formula content other than to get familiar with these products, I would feel like I have done a service to you and your financial future. Today, we are going to talk about the not-so-obvious benefits of these kinds of products that guys like me don't often think about because all we care about is creating wealth. In fact, there are many strategies that we these policies can be used for other than maximizing leverage and velocity. To talk about this, I've got the best in the business back on the show this week, Christian Allen and Rod Zabriskie. Shownotes: 30 seconds summary of Wealth Formula Banking 30 seconds of Velocity Plus Wealth Formula Banking: Don't I have to pay back interest? Long-term insurance market Why would life insurance make more sense than term insurance Convertible-type policy Insurance as part of a comp package Getting a policy for your kid Common questions and misconceptions Not only to protect but to grow your wealth

How was it that some people were able to predict the 2008 financial meltdown? Were they clairvoyant? To be clear, I'm not talking about those who predict a financial meltdown every year. I'm talking about groups like ITR economics who we had on the show a few weeks ago that also accurately predicted periods of financial prosperity as well. Those who best understand how the global economy works at the macro level are the ones who can see where it is headed. Most of us are down in the weeds seeing things happen in real time wondering when to take cover or when to shoot for the moon. The good macroeconomist, though, is not guessing. He sees the financial world move in concert from a thousand feet above with its complex interactions. He understands that the economy is dynamic and, in the global economy of today, cannot be seen through the same lens that it was 50 years ago when economies were more isolated from one another. I am certainly no economist. However, I am good at surrounding myself with people smarter than myself (which isn't that hard frankly). That is a skill that has essentially accounted for all of the investing success I have had. In the world of macroeconomics, Richard Duncan is one of the guys that I listen to and he is my guest on Wealth Formula Podcast this week. If you want to know what the financial world looks like from a thousand feet up and several thousand miles away, do not miss this episode! Shownotes: Richard Duncan's story A shift in how the economy works after the gold standard Why do trade deficits matter, for both sides? With all the bubbles around, what next? Don't be stuck in a traditional mindset Trade war policies The MacroWatch Newsletter Richardduncaneconomics.com Subscribe and get 15% off for Wealth Formula listeners, coupon code: formula

When I was a kid growing up in the early eighties, I remember my parents opened up a savings account for me and let me take the interest out as an allowance. That was a pretty good deal for an eight-year-old. I remember riding my bike to the bank every couple of months and showing them my bank passbook. That's all it took to access my account at age eight! For those of you too young to remember, a bank passbook sort of looked like a passport and helped keep track of your transactions. So, I would show the bank teller my bank passbook and I would ask her (always a woman) to give me all of my interest in cash. Invariable, she would give me about $20 every time I went. I wasn't allowed to touch the principal and I have no idea how much money was in there. This was the eighties with double-digit interest rates so I guess if I was pulling out about twenty bucks every couple months, you can probably do the math. If I did the same thing with my kids today, they would probably be pulling out a nickel. Anyway, somewhere along the line, bank tellers stopped dispensing cash and the passbook disappeared—but the bank tellers did not. I say this because that was a genuine fear that people had with the advent of the ATM. They thought the ATMs would steal human jobs. As it turned out, the ATMs ended up doing the simple work of dispensing cash and the tellers just focussed on the more complex stuff and everyone was happy. The moral of the story is that every time there is a new technology, it doesn't mean the robots are going to steal our jobs. It just means that our jobs might look different. This is particularly important to understand right now as we see artificial intelligence advancing at a rapid pace. What does a world with advanced AI and blockchain look like? Driverless cars? Equity markets without investment bankers? Who knows. But I am confident that we will continue to find things for us people to still do. It will just be different. Maybe I'm overly optimistic but I look back on human civilization and realize that we are incredibly good at adapting to our own new realities. In 1798 Thomas Malthus published An Essay on the Principle of Population. In short, his theory was that human populations were going to outgrow our food supply. From where he stood, that might have been the case but it didn't take into account our technological advancements in agriculture that made it possible to feed an ever-expanding human population. Similarly, I'm hopeful that our ingenuity will bail us out of some of the other challenges we face today like sovereign debt and global climate change. Technological advancements since the advent of the internet are accelerating at a lightning pace. In the meantime, we face an increasingly insular world of nationalism and economic inequality that is more reminiscent of the early 20th century that ultimately culminated into the great wars. How all this ends up is anyone's guess but one thing's for sure. We live in interesting times (an old Chinese Curse). My guest on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast is well versed in all of the issues that I have discussed here including macroeconomics and technology. He looks at the problems of today with knowledge of the past and a keen insight into our future. His name is Diego Zuluaga and this was one of my favorite conversations on Wealth Formula Podcast so make sure not to miss it! Shownotes: Diego Zuluaga's background The forces that traditionally drive disintegration and what's going on today More economically driven than other factors Are automatic robots really taking over our jobs? The ATM Scare Diego's outlook of the future Thoughts on blockchain Should cryptocurrency be regulated The Howie Test Learn more about Diego Zuluaga cato.org

Is it just me or does politics these days resemble a reality television show? It's crazy. Take a step back for a moment. Regardless of your political preference, you have to admit that the last two years have been unprecedented. Remember when having an affair was enough to end a political career? Now, we have the president of the United States paying off porn stars and playboy bunnies! And last week we had the midterm elections and the drama that surrounded all of that. Now that the House of Representatives is in the hands of the Democrats, Donald Trump will almost certainly see a flurry of investigations and potentially subpoenas in 2019—a great way to end season two of the Trump presidency! No one is going to tune out now! One of the things I'm most curious about "next season" is what happens with this whole Mueller probe into Russian interference and questions of collusion. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress seem to be trying to protect the sanctity of the investigation. I certainly hope they do. While it does seem like the investigation is taking quite a long time, I think it is in the best interest of the country for the findings to be released to the American people. If the president is innocent, then he should have nothing to fear and I don't think it's in his best interest to attack the intelligence community in the meantime. I think it's important to remember that members of the FBI and CIA are public servants. They keep us safe. In my view, attacking the intelligence community is like attacking the military. These people are serving our country and it is important to remember that. To demonize them is un-American. Speaking of our intelligence community, I've got a very interesting show for you to listen to as we head into Thanksgiving—it's an interview with Valerie Plame. Does that name ring a bell? Remember the spy who got outed by the Bush administration? Yep…that's her! This will be a fun one for the holiday week so make sure you tune in. Shownotes: Valerie Plame, former CIA What was Valerie doing during 911 What led up to her Identity leak? What is a deep state? Is there really such a thing? What can we do for the next administration More on Valerie Plame valerieplamewilson.com spyseminars.com

Remember ARPANET? There's a good chance you don't. It was a precursor to the internet that essentially allowed researchers to access each other's data. It was actually a revolutionary technology that, as you know, ultimately led to the creation of something that fundamentally changed the world. With the rise of the internet and all the companies built on top of it, a lot of people made a lot of money quickly. During the burst of the dotcom bubble, a lot of people also lost a lot of money. People like to bring that dotcom bubble up all the time to show the classic fall from grace of a new asset class—just like tulip mania in early 17th century Europe, right? Well, not really. Tulips never really recovered. On the other hand, two of the first trillion dollar companies in the history of the world, Amazon and Apple, arose from the ashes of that dotcom bubble. If you were lucky enough to ride the wave of those companies all the way up, you'd be a very wealthy person today. Easier said than done, right? So, why do I bring this up today? Well, I think distributed ledger technology is at a similar phase in its development to ARPANET in the 1980s and I am pretty darn sure that when the dust settles on this one, the winners will come out at least as wealthy as the early internet investors. The biggest problem blockchain projects have right now is that they are not user friendly for most people. Believe me, as someone who is relatively competent around computers, it's still a challenge with multiple storage wallets, software and hardware. Wide scale technological adoption of distributed ledger technology cannot happen until it's easy to use for EVERYONE. When that happens, all of the big money will have already been made by early adopters and investors. So, if you are not technologically savvy but want exposure to this "Internet 2.0" while there is still meat on the bone, how do you do it? After all, like I said before, it's not that technically easy to custody this stuff on your own. And even technologically savvy people really don't know for sure what projects will take off and become the Apples and Amazons of the future. Well, let's try to take a lesson from history. Let's say it's the early nineties and you can either try to pick a single stock from a myriad of dotcom companies ranging from Amazon to pets.com or invest in an index tracking the the top ten biggest tech companies by market capitalization for the next 10-20 years. Which option gives you a better chance of making money? Unless you are REALLY GOOD at picking stocks, the index obviously would give you a better chance of success. An index of the top ten tech companies during the rise of the internet would have included Amazon and Apple in their relatively early days and you would have done quite well. So, let's fast forward to the current tech inflection point—blockchain and distributed ledger technology. Do you know which projects to pick? Do you even know how to buy this stuff? Well, what if we could just use our regular old US dollars to invest in the top ten crypto projects by market capitalization and just ride up that index without ANY technical skill required? Well, that's exactly what Bitwise Investments allows you to do. If you want to invest in digital assets but find it too daunting to move forward, you will NOT want to miss this interview with Bitwise Investments founder and CEO, Hunter Horsely. Shownotes: Hunter Horsley's background Big institutes getting into cryptocurrency in 2018 What's holding back the investors What's the cost if I DON'T invest Bitcoin vs everything else Bitwise Hunter's typical investors Bitwiseinvestments.com

When I go back to some of my earliest interviews, I am always shocked at how my opinions have changed over just a couple of years. When I first started Wealth Formula Podcast, I was less sophisticated than I am now. I was being overly pessimistic about the economy just like other podcasts in the real estate and alternative investing space and I was interviewing people who were raising capital without much due diligence on the offerings themselves just because what I thought they were doing was interesting. Since then, I have gotten a lot smarter and more measured in my opinions. I have expanded my own network to people with very different perspectives from those who I started out following. Furthermore, I am A LOT more selective about who I will have on the show as a guest. You see, what I didn't realize early on was that my listeners were seeing my interviews with individuals as a stamp of approval of their offerings. That, of course, was not necessarily the case. Certainly I have invested with a few of the people I had early on in the show, but highlighting a "good investment" was never my intent. Instead, I was trying to educate. When I figured this out, I mostly stopped interviewing people who were raising capital as I did not want the appearance of an endorsement—especially if I did not have one to offer! Instead, most of the shows we do now tend to feature economists and financial strategy types, thought leaders, and miscellaneous topics that I think might be useful to you (ie. beviorceuticals!). The specific investment talk typically happens in my accredited investor club (hyperlink this to accredited investor page please) Now, If I have someone on the show who is raising capital, it will typically be someone or something special. Again, that doesn't mean I'm investing with them, but the interview will have more value then just why you should invest with someone as many podcast interviews seem to do these days. Believe me, I get bombarded with people wanting to be on my show every day. Jorge Newberry Newberry and American Homeowner Preservation raise capital. Jorge was one of the first guests ever on Wealth Formula Podcast. Back then, he had no idea that he was talking to about 20 people! He had this business that I thought was the coolest one in town called American Homeowner Preservation and I had to tell everyone about it. Well, fast forward a few years and about a half million downloads later, AHP became a sponsor of the show and Jorge's business got so big that he had to hire a CEO. Many of you invested in his last multimillion dollar fund including myself and his next one is about to launch. To talk about that and to get some serious incite into the non-performing note industry, I have Jorge back on the show today alongside his newly hired CEO, Deann O'Donovan. I'm also going to tell you about a trip I took out to Chicago and my experience learning about the note investing business from Deann and her team. You're not going to want to miss this episode! Shownotes: how did the fund from our last show turned out? DeAnn's background What is "notes"? Approaches to buying notes First lien vs second lien Where can an investor buy notes? What to look for on a tape The due diligence process AHP servicing Cycle resistance AHP's next offering Ahpservicing.com Debtcleanse.com

Most people aren't trying to become ultra-wealthy. They just want to feel safe and to feel some level of freedom from the shackles of the daily grind. You see, the majority of us have one source of income and it's usually being paid by someone else. That is not a recipe for stability. No matter what you were told while you were growing up, there is no such thing as a safe job. The only reason employees feel job security is because they don't typically have transparency to the company's financials. Unfortunately, what you don't know can hurt you. To be clear, I am not here to inspire you towards entrepreneurship. In fact, small business owners have their own landmines to avoid and they can actually be even deadlier in the financial sense. Let me give you an example. One of my best friends started an IT business about 9 years ago and it was going pretty well for him. He kept dumping money back in the business and the company kept growing. He was modest in what he paid himself and his only investment was his company which seemed like a good move at the time. A couple years ago, he was thinking about selling the company and retiring into public service (he is one of the nicest guys I know). Had he done that, he would have been all set. He didn't need much to live on being the simple guy that he is and he isn't greedy like me. A liquidation event would have set him up well for the rest of his life. But he didn't do it. Instead, he kept pouring money into his business and, over the past year or so, his business performance started to decline quickly. Yet, like a faithful captain, he manned his ship even as he saw clear as day that it was heading toward an iceberg. He did what many small business owners would do in that situation. He tried to save his business and dumped everything he had into in attempts to salvage it. But he failed and because he spent his last dollar trying to save a sinking ship, he went down with it. Now he's 44, broke, and starting over. In this case, having access to the financials was not a blessing. It was a curse. His employees didn't know what was going on and when he had to lay them off at least they had socked their money away. He had the curse of knowledge and simply made the wrong choice. So, as I said, I'm not here to sell you on entrepreneurship. It has its own dangers and is not for the faint of heart. For my friend, this situation was particularly harmful because of one simple concept: single point failure. You see, as an employee, you get your paycheck and hopefully you invest wisely. Hopefully you are trying to buy other streams of income to become increasingly independent on your day job (aka single point of failure). My friend's small business was his income and his only investment. When it went down, it was disastrous. I had a similar experience back in 2012 when the only business I owned had some cash flow problems and my investments were not nearly robust enough to support my family and me. Luckily, I survived and got smarter. That's why I started my second, third, and 4th business—because I never wanted to be in a position of single point failure again. Over the past 6-7 years, like clockwork, one of those businesses has had a bad year. But luckily the others kept me flourishing. Furthermore, the money I was making from these businesses was not being used just to expand the business. Most of it was not being used to acquire assets and other streams of income. I get paid from a lot of different sources today and it makes me feel a lot more comfortable. But to tell you the truth, I never feel safe. That's part of what keeps me pushing. That's what keeps me looking for the next opportunity. I joked earlier that I was greedy. But in reality, I'm just afraid. A lot of people would look at my financials and say I was being paranoid. Maybe I am. But I remember seeing a television clip on billionaire Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and he said the same thing. It is FEAR that keeps him motivated. I bring these stories up because I think it is critical to assess your own situation. Are you in a position where you could succumb to single point failure? What are you doing about it? The time to change that is now, notwhen things are bad. For me, it was that understanding that made it possible for me to step out of a seven figure per year income generating small business, hire someone else to do the work and take a huge pay cut until my next business started throwing off money. You can't will your way into financial stability. It takes a deep reflection on your situation and massive action. When you set yourself up for massive action, it's a lot easier. In my case, I wrote a resignation letter to my COO. She thought it was a joke until I literally told her to stop scheduling any more patients for me. I had to physically take myself out of that situation to get my desired outcome. It wasn't going to happen if I kept doing what I was doing. My friend Benjamin Hardy said it bes

It's very hard to become an entrepreneur without any life experience. I know it seems like that's the way it works. After all, look at Mark Zuckerberg and the other teenage tech superstars out there who did it shortly after puberty. But in reality, most of the entrepreneurs that I know spent some time working for others after school learning the ropes until, one day, they found an inefficiency in the system that became a business idea. Or, maybe they just realized that their boss wasn't that smart and was making a lot more money than them just by being the boss. I've seen it over and over and it makes sense. We learn what we are exposed to and if we aren't exposed to it, there is no way to learn about it. So, the best chance you have at success is to be exposed to a lot of things. One of my good buddies has a multimillion dollar tile company. Why? He didn't dream of owning a tile company. He just worked for a guy with a tile company and thought he could make more money starting his own thing rather then working for someone else. He was right. Another friend worked for a Canadian company that bought energy in Canada wholesale and sold it retail to other countries. He learned the business and decided to do it on his own. He makes A LOT of money now. Then there is me. I worked for a cosmetic surgery company right after residency and realized that it wasn't a very difficult business model to understand. Advertise big, lots of procedures, and profit. Think hair club but with facelifts. I figured I'd try something similar and it worked! In all of these examples, it was just a matter of experience. All three of us are entrepreneurs, we just happened to be exposed to different things. How much we all make from our businesses actually depends a lot more on the business model that we each copied than the execution. Makes me wish I worked in the energy business in Canada as a young man. Anyway, the moral of the story is that experiences matter. The more experiences you have, the greater exposure you have to all the different nooks and crannies that life has to offer…business or otherwise. So, putting this all in perspective, what is the take home message? Well, get out there and learn something new for one thing. Do some things you've never done. Also, let me tell you how this realization affects the way I see education and the way I guide my kids. They are little but this is what I'll tell them someday. A broad academic education is important. You can never go wrong with an interdisciplinary perspective. Furthermore, after school, never look at your job as work. Look at it as paid education and quit when you have no more to gain intellectually. You don't want to be one of those people who stays in the same job for 20 years and complains about it for 18. This advice is based on my own life experience and from the life experiences of others who I know. But it is also based in science. It is based on the way our brains learn and adapt and the more aware we are of these patterns, the more we can guide ourselves towards success. No one knows more on this topic then my guest on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast, behavioral neurobiologist Dr. Kelly Lambert. Make sure to listen to this show. It will be well worth your time and your brain will thank you for it! Shownotes: Neuro Behavioral Science Which Quality means success? Behaviorial-cueticals Lifestyle is important Are Blue Collar workers more healthy? Kelly's trustfund rats Well Grounded by Kelly Lambert Kellylambertlab.com

Beware of Chicken Little. The financial podcast space is small and we often tend to start believing each other and then spreading those same opinions to our listeners as facts. General sentiment in the alternative investing communities is bearish right now. The problem is, that has been the case for the last 3-4 years. And guess what? Contrary to the opinions of the Chicken Little crowd, people who invested in real estate and equities over the past few years have done very well and the United States has not turned into Venezuela. That's not to say that I am personally a permabull. Like most people who follow the economy, I do now expect a downturn of some kind. Even Fannie Mae Economist, Doug Duncan, thinks that's going to happen. He's as mainstream as it gets. But what does that downturn look like? Is it blood in the streets or is it a recession in the industrial sector of the economy that we learn about two months after the fact? After all, most downturns look nothing like 2008. So what is an investor to do? Well, I've said it before and I'll say it again. Keep investing but be smart about it. Now is not the time to invest with a friend who's trying his hat at the real estate game for the first time. Stick with high quality assets and, if you are passive investor, stick with high quality operators with good track records. Consider hedging with non-correlated investments like life settlements. Don't over leverage and keep some liquidity on the sidelines—preferably through a Wealth Formula Banking strategy that will keep your money working for you while you wait. Hedge your position but don't act like the sky is falling…yet. As I said, it is extremely difficult to predict the financial future but one private economic firm has done it with extraordinary accuracy since the 1940s during which time they have been right almost 95 percent of the time. They predicted the 2008 meltdown 3 years before it happened and they predicted all of the upside we have seen over the past decade. Want to know what they are predicting next? I sure do and I'm taking it very seriously. If you want to know why, make sure to listen to this week's episode of Wealth Formula Podcast as I interview Dr. Alan Beaulieu of ITR Economics. Shownotes: [11:30] Alan Beaulieu and ITR Economics [17:00] 2008 in 2005 [18:30] Is the economy influenced by the insiders? [20:30] Are we slowing down? [27:00] 2030 [34:00] China [39:00] what shouldn't you hold on to? [40:00] More of Alan But I Want it! https://www.itreconomics.com/store/books/but-i-want-it Prosperity in The Age of Decline: How to Lead Your Business and Preserve Wealth Through the Coming Business Cycles https://www.wealthformula.com/resources/ Itreconomics.com

Never try to convince a fool that he's a fool. He won't believe you anyway. I hate to say it, but that's why I never talk money with people unless they bring it up with me first. That's what's great about being a podcaster. People CHOOSE to listen to you or to be on your email list. In fact, I recently invited people to attend a live webinar on some wealth strategies that I have studied extensively and am close to executing on. I thought it would be fun to have people see how I look at things in real time and add their feedback. After all, I don't know it all. In fact, the reason I am as successful as I am is because I DON'T PRETEND to know it all. I try as much as possible to look at every opportunity with an open mind and poke holes in it. Curiously, last week, I got an email from someone in telling me that all of the things I was looking at were "garbage". Of course I welcomed the dissent and invited him to join the webinar and explain why. He wrote back that he "espoused" the teaching of the White Coat Investor and Physician on Fire who did not like these products and, therefore, he would not attend. I wrote something snarky back which I should not have. Instead, I should have remembered, "never try to convince a fool that he's a fool". By the way, that product I was talking about is used by most of my nine figure net worth friends who might know a thing or two that doctors might not. It's similar to Velocity Plus. And to be clear, I'm not saying that disagreeing with me is tantamount to being a fool. What I am saying is that "espousing" others in the world of finance is stupid. I don't want any of you to follow all of my words blindly. I want you to challenge it. If I say I don't like something, tell me why I should. If I say something is a great deal, tell me why it's not. Listen to what others have to say and process for yourself. If you don't agree with me, don't just say you play for a different team and send me an article that doesn't even pertain to the product I'm talking about! I don't want lemmings like this in my community. Please unsubscribe from my list! Go die broke like the rest of them. I didn't come to you, you came to me. The stupidity drives me crazy I have to tell you. Unfortunately, it's usually the doctors who think they know it all. It's from all that positive reinforcement we got in school for getting A's. It makes us believe we are smarter than we are. The truth is, when it comes to money, most doctors could use a boost to the old financial IQ. I get fired up about stuff like this. You know what else I get fired up about? Taxes! Just like financial strategies, everyone loves to tell you that you "can't do that" when it is clear as day in the tax code that you can. I remember my first CPA out of residency who was supposed to be conservative and who most of the doctors I knew used. I might as well have used turbotax. Then I learned of Tom Wheelwright and it completely changed the way I view not only taxes, but business and investing and it is a pleasure to have him back this week on Wealth Formula Podcast. Don't miss it! Shownotes: [13:30] Buck introduces Tom Wheelwright [16:00] Employees got hammered [18:30] The 20% tax deduction for LLC [23:30] Tax your way to wealth [30:00] How it works for the bigger companies [34:00] Wealth Ability wealthability.com

It's amazing how we learn isn't it? I watch my little girls and I realize how much we, as adults, take for granted when it comes to every day things. My three year old does not know how to tie her shoes yet—in fact she puts her shoes on the wrong feet 50 percent of the time. At least she's consistent. Last weekend, my nine year old was blown away by the concept of compounding interest when I asked her to figure out how much money she would make in 4 weeks if I paid her a penny today and doubled it every day for 28 days. Actually, most adults would be blown away by the compounding interest example but the point is that it's obvious to me. Tying surgical knots is also a brainless activity for this former brain surgery resident. But I have no idea how to change my car's oil (I am ashamed to admit) and some people would find that comically easy. I've just never been taught. Over the years, I have come to believe that most everyone can learn just about anything. Some of us might have a shorter learning curve for certain things and get labelled as "smart' in school, but that doesn't equate to mastery which can only be achieved through repeated practice. I remember my first day as a surgical resident. Everything was foreign and I couldn't operate to save my life. Then, a few years later, I woke up and I was operating on people on my own. Money-talk is no different. It's just a different language. The more you hear it, the more you eventually just know what's going on. It's not brain surgery. But, you gotta start somewhere and my podcast might be a good place to do that. In the spirit of that, we back up a little bit on Wealth Formula Podcast this week with another episode of AskBuck.

I've learned a lot of stuff in my life—from the principles of neurosurgery to the intricacies of cryptocurrency. Some of this stuff is pretty complicated…at first. But, I'm going to let you in on a little secret if you don't know it already. Just about everything that appears complex at first can be broken down into simple components. If I have any God-given gift, it is the ability to simplify. And thank God for that because I'm not smart enough to understand anything that is truly complex. Any time I try to learn something new, I just try to break it down into simple little pieces. Eventually I get it. That is my framework for learning. I like frameworks. Creating frameworks helps me simplify everything. Otherwise, I would be overwhelmed with the decisions that come up in life all the time. Let me give you a couple of examples of frameworks that I use that help me from losing my sanity. The first one is make tomorrow's decisions today. That's why I moved to Santa Barbara. We had a gorgeous home in the Northern Suburbs of Chicago and great friends. Why move? Well, I noticed half the houses on my street were empty in the winter. All the retirees were in Florida. Would that be me in 25 years? With the kids out of the house in other states and subzero temperatures, would I want to live in Chicago anymore? The answer was no. Instead, I decided that if I just moved to where I might want to retire someday today with my young family, my wife and I wouldn't have to move and make new friends in our 70s. And…even better, the kids might want to come home and visit us! Another framework that I use to guide my life is the deathbed framework. This one is particularly useful. Let me give you an example of how it works. A couple weeks ago, I got an email from a college student who wanted to talk to me about whether or not he should go to medical school. I get this one a lot and I have a standard answer that seems to be pretty useful. I ask, "If you don't go to medical school, will you regret it on your deathbed?" After all, that's really the only reason to become a doctor these days. It sure ain't the money! I have, in hindsight, asked myself the same question. That is, if I knew then what I know now, would I still have gone to medical school. For me the answer is yes. Even though I don't practice anymore and I make a lot more money than just about any practicing physician that I know, I'm glad I did it. If I didn't, someday on my deathbed, I would wonder what it would have been like to be a doctor. This framework might seem over-simplistic. After all, what about the mission in life thing and all those years you would have to put into it? Well, I would argue that all of those other variables just complicate the question. Don't try to justify what you want if you really want it because, whether it's rationale or not, you will regret not going for it. Some decisions are just visceral. The deathbed framework is actually very practical and broadly applicable in many circumstances. For instance, I'm not one to spend a lot on myself. I like giving people things because I enjoy the experience of making them happy. And when I give things to people, my preference will always to provide and experience rather than a thing. For the last several years, I've given my nephew NBA tickets for his birthday because he loves basketball. If I gave him some mall junk, he'd enjoy it for a few minutes than never think about it again. But he will always have his memories of those games to cherish. For me personally, some of the most vivid memories of childhood are going to professional hockey, football, and baseball games. I remember going to see the Rolling Stones and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I remember very little about the stuff people gave me over the years. The experiences are what I will take to my deathbed and those are the things, in my opinion, that are important to splurge on a little bit and start collecting as they will always be with you. Experiences, in the end, are the ultimate currency of a life well lived. My guest on Wealth Formula Podcast today has had enough interesting experiences for multiple lives and has given others even more. His name is Steve Simms and on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast we talk about how his company might be able to enrich your experiential life. [00:07] Introduction [20:31] Steve's Story: A trigger of inspration [26:05] Early Game [29:10] Experiences Over Stuff [34:25] Bluefish Get in touch with Steve: thebluefish.com Stevesims.com Text "uglysims" to 345345 [48:18] Outro

Leverage in the form of bank debt is a double edge sword. Obviously consumer debt to buy things like televisions and mall junk can only be negative in the financial sense. However, using debt to buy cash flowing assets is perhaps the single most powerful weapon we can use to create wealth and the thing that makes real estate the asset of choice for the ultra-wealthy. The problem is that leverage is a tool that you must learn to use because, after all, a fool with a tool is still a fool. Leverage must be deployed carefully based on the asset and the market. In 2008, banks and buyers were both over-leveraged and that created a big mess. For borrowers, it was often the first time that they paid close attention to the fine print on the mortgages which they signed. That fine print often included loan covenants. A lone covenant is a promise that you make with a bank to lend you money. For example, a bank may say that they will lend you 80% of the value of a property. That means you have to come up with 20 percent. That 80 percent is based on the appraisal value at the time of purchase. So, what if your property goes down in value just because the markets dipped and the property you bought goes down in value? Well, in that case, you are violating a loan covenant. If you are violating a loan covenant, does the bank care whether or not you are cash flowing? Not really. If they find out, they are going to ask you to cough up some more money so that you are no longer in violation of those covenants. If you don't, you could lose the property. Now, for larger assets, periodic appraisals from the bank, maybe every 18 months, are standard. That means you can't hide from them. If you think that this is an unlikely scenario, I would suggest you talk to any major real estate investor in 2008. Values plummeted and regardless of cash flow, there were capital calls and people lost properties. Few serious real estate investors argue that we are not late in the cycle. Does that mean that you should stop investing for fear of covenants? I don't think so. I just think you have to be smart about it. It's impossible to time out market cycles perfectly. If you sat out the last five years of investing, you'd feel pretty foolish right now. Part of being smart later in the cycle like we are now is not to over-leverage. That means two things really. Look at the loan covenants and give yourself some cushion. If the bank is willing to lend you up to 80%, maybe you only take 70%. The other strategy is to deleverage by creating equity in the property itself. For example, in larger assets the value of a property is determined solely by net operating income. So, if you increase net operating income by adding value, you are increasing the value of the property. When you increase the value of the property, you are effectively deleveraging. That is my strategy right now when it comes to acquiring real estate. Use moderate leverage and drive up net operating income. And if you can get a bank to give you favorable covenants, that helps too. But buying a property with no intention of creating additional value in this market is a little bit risky in my view. That's my advice for the week when it comes to real estate investing. Now, if you don't believe me that you can build some serious wealth from leveraging real estate, listen to the guy I interviewed on Wealth Formula Podcast this week: Grant Cardone. He has made a few hundred million doing exactly that. Don't miss it! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [09:45] Grant Cardone's story [17:19] Breaking out of Scarcity Mentality [20:22] The Wealth Thermostat [24:41] How much is "enough"? [29:05] Getting into real estate [34:01] Grant's assessment of the current market [38:30] Learn more about Grant Cardone grantcardone.com [45:13] Outro Join our accredited investor club: https://www.wealthformula.com/join-2/invest-with-me/

Man am I tired of hearing people with a lot less money than me giving financial advice. I have to actively suppress my temper when someone forwards me an article full of misinformation that someone, that is clearly clueless and NOT wealthy, wrote on a blog! There is a lot of know-it-alls in this financial podcasting space. My advice to you—don't take advice from people who make less money than you. To be clear, I am not saying don't listen to new ideas from some young gun, but take it with a grain of salt regardless of how adamant they may seem. Now before you think I'm acting like I am the ultimate authority on matters of wealth, let me tell you that this advice comes from a place of humility rather than conceit. If you go through my one hundred and twenty something podcasts, you will almost certainly hear me contradict myself. In most cases, I identify and readily admit that I have changed my mind or learned something I did not know about on the air. You see, every day I get smarter. And when someone tells me about a new concept or even asks me to revisit one that I have previously dismissed, I look at it with a fresh pair of eyes and an open mind. If you are not willing to do that, it will be hard for you to grow both intellectually and financially. For me, I'm always looking to see what the people with more zeros on their personal financial statement than me are doing. A good example of that is the family office industry. It is no coincidence that some of the operators I've introduced to my accredited investor club are groups with whom family offices invest frequently. When you see what the family offices are doing, you are watching the centamillionaires investing habits. That is going to be a lot more impactful to our wealth than reading a blog post from a podcaster who's never even seen seven figures. In that spirit, I am delighted to have Richard C. Wilson back on Wealth Formula Podcast this week. He is the founder of the Family Office Club and the guy to know in the industry if you want to know what is top of mind for the ultra-high net worth. Shownotes: [00:07]: introduction [12:27] Buck introduces Richard Wilson [14:07] What does a home office mean? [21:37] Investing like the wealthy [30:22] The trust factor [36:45] Why do we not hear about the best strategies? [42:53] learn more about Richard Familyoffices.com [44:11] Outro

A few conversations I had with investors over the last week got me thinking that we need to talk about some basics again. First of all, let's start with why I generally prefer to own an asset (either in entirety or a fraction) as opposed to simply holding a note. What is a note or promissory note? It's basically a promise to pay the lender a certain amount of interest over a period of time with return of capital. So, let's say you loaned money to someone flipping some houses and they issued you a promissory note for 8 percent. The borrower is then allowed to keep any profits above and beyond payments to you as a lender. Regardless of how well that property does, you get 8 percent at best. I say at best here because understand that a promissory note, while legally binding DOES NOT guarantee that you will make 8 percent. Your promissory note is nothing more than a lien. Hopefully it's a first position lien and hopefully the asset value will cover the amount of debt you as the issuer lent in the first place. After all, if you lend $100K to someone and they default, you better hope that the asset is worth at least $100K so you can sell it off and recover your initial capital. Is that a guarantee? For anyone who thinks it is a guarantee, I refer you to all of the notes that were defaulted on in 2008. A lot of broken promises right? If you think that all those people who made loans got their capital back, you're sorely mistaken. There is no such thing as a guaranteed investment. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission will tell you that. Just google it. The only asset that is considered "guaranteed" is the US Treasury and that's another story entirely. If anyone tells you otherwise, it's a big red flag and you really ought to run the other way. So, if you are not "guaranteed" money and your upside is limited, why invest in debt rather then equity on any given project? I can tell you that I will always invest in equity over debt. You have way more upside, you hedge inflation, and you get tax advantages. Notes have none of these qualities nor are they guaranteed. Now, I'm not against investing in notes. I've done it myself with people I trust. However, I never do it thinking that it is safer than investing for equity. In fact, if I am investing in debt, I sure as hell better be getting more than 8 percent because the potential upside needs to justify the risk. Anyway, hopefully that makes sense. I don't do the weekly wealth widget anymore but I need to make sure I clarify things that I don't think people are quite understanding. We all want cash flow but be smart about your investments and look at them holistically. And, for heavens sake, if someone uses the word "guaranteed" in their offering, short of being the United States government, run the other way. My guest on Wealth Formula Podcast today will attest to everything I've said. And you should take his word for it. After all, they call him the Cash Flow Ninja! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [08:53] Buck introduced MC Laubscher [11:22] How does MC balance his workload [12:37] What's new? [20:21] E-commerce [23:27] How to get started? [36:12] Guaranteed money? [52:07] Outro

When I was in high school, I remember taking my first political science course. That was the first time I learned the political meaning of conservative or liberal. Up to this point, I had viewed those words as synonymous with Republican or Democrat. Of course that wasn't quite the same thing. A conservative, I learned, was someone who wanted smaller government, less regulation and emphasized the importance of individual civil liberties. I got the small government part right—that was the Republicans. But the American Civil Liberties Union was, from everything I gathered on the news, an institution of the Democrats Somewhere along the line, conservative in political slang became very different from conservative by political definition. I guess that's not hard to understand now. Look at free trade. It used to be that tariffs and trade wars were loathed by Republicans. Now, Donald Trump is the champion of global isolationism. Regardless of what you think of Donald Trump, his ideology is not that of Ronald Reagan—the quintessential conservative icon of the 1980s. So with ideology in each party being as fluid as it is, it seems odd to me that the politicians aren't switching parties all the time. How could they be part of a party that no longer represents their beliefs? What is stranger to me about American politics these days is that it is becoming more and more polarized. Most of this country is center-right. But the primary system that brings in the candidates caters to the most extreme elements on either side. For those of us standing rationally in the middle, that gives us little in the way of politicians that accurately reflect our collective sentiments as a nation. Personally, I have grown further in the direction of libertarian ideology. My intent is never to be very political on this show but I have probably leaked out some of my sentiments in the past. But rather than keep them a dirty little secret, I thought that the better approach might be to educate you on something in which I believe: libertarianism. Now you may agree or disagree with the opinions in this week's show, but you probably should listen to it. After all, everyone in Silicon Valley claims to be libertarian these days. You might as well know what the heck they mean by it. To educate you on the matter, in true Wealth Formula fashion, I went out and got a someone with some street credibility to teach you. Make sure to listen to this week's Wealth Formula Podcast with Harvard economics professor, Jeffrey Miron. Shownotes: [00:07] Intro [09:51] Buck introduces Professor Jeff Miron [11:27] Economic Libertarianism [12:56] Social Libertarianism [14:09] Why is Libertarianism drifting away from us? [21:49] Capitalism without bankruptcy is like a religion without hell [29:31] Professor Jeff Miron's policy change suggestions [32:18] Learn more about Professor Jeff Miron Cato.org Libertarianism, from A to Z [33:53]Outro

The prefrontal cortex is the CEO part of the brain. It is involved with personality, decision making, and moderating social behavior including impulse control and risk taking. You may not be surprised to learn, therefore, that this structure matures late in life. One study found that the prefrontal cortex may continue maturing late into your 40s. The brain of a teenager typically has a poorly developed prefrontal cortex—this is reflected in behaviors that you might have experienced yourself back in the day. I know I look back and think about some of the things I did and wonder how I made it out alive. It's curious to me that it takes so long for this part of the brain to develop—after all… it's where all the wisdom resides. Wouldn't it be useful as a teenager? Part of me thinks that prefrontal cortex development into our late thirties and early forties is designed to compensate for our relative physical decline. In other words, we find other ways to be useful to the tribe since we can't hunt or reproduce with the same efficiency. The tribal elders have wisdom in the form of a well-developed prefrontal cortex and it gives the rest of the tribe a reason to keep them around rather then pushing them off a cliff. Whatever the evolutionary purpose for this late development of wisdom in our lives, I can say with some certainty that I have felt that prefrontal phenomenon palpably in my own life. I have become wiser in the last 10 years and I actually feel smarter today at 44 than I ever have in my life. And to be clear, I'm not sure if I could study with the same intensity that I did in 20 years ago in medical school and I'm not sure if my recall would be quite as acute. When I say that I am smarter, I mean that in very broad terms. I see the world with far more clarity than I did in my 20s. I am a very different person. For me, the most profound change in my thinking has been the recognition of traditional paradigms and conventional wisdom. It used to be the case that I never really questioned anything—it never occurred to me to do so. These days, I like to examine my own belief systems and am not afraid to challenge them. That is very liberating. It does take some courage to do so. Our belief systems are shaped throughout our life and are so deeply ingrained in us that sometimes, when we start doubting them, it feels like we are doing something wrong. Of course belief systems permeate all facets of our life and Wealth Formula is a show about wealth so let me use a relevant example in the investing world. I talk to accredited investors every day and I often hear them talk about being "conservative investors." What does conservative investing mean? Well, conventional wisdom has drilled it into us that conservative investing is to maximize your 401K or IRA and let a wealth advisor put you in a portfolio of mutual funds. That is, after all, what we are taught is the conservative thing to do, right? But ask yourself the question, why is this conservative? Mutual funds have yielded an average of about 3 percent yield over the past 3 decades. With inflation moving at around 2 percent, that gives you about 1 percent real growth in your money every year. It would therefore take you about 72 years to double your money. What makes that conservative? Of course you could also just keep your money in the bank and make less than 1 percent. Is that conservative? Well, with inflation, you would then guarantee that you would lose money over time. What makes that conservative? Meanwhile, Wall Street has labelled real estate and other tangible investments as "alternative". What comes to your mind when you think of "alternative". Blue hair? Pierced body parts? Indeed, the language is there for a purpose. It's their to guide your thinking. After all, owning real estate and other tangible assets is what the richest families in the world have been doing for centuries—far before there was every an equity market like the New York Stock Exchange. So why are we supposed to be scared of it? Why do wealth advisors, and your own family, tell you that you are doing something wrong when you start talking about investing in anything outside of Wall Street? There is no good reason. It's just conventional wisdom and it's wrong. Your mature prefrontal cortex should recognize that. My guest on Wealth formula Podcast this week is full of wisdom in the financial realm. He also started out as a dentist and, like me, has no formal financial training. His name is Dr. David Phelps, DDS. He's a smart guy and worth listening so don't miss this episode! hose dreams into freedom. He authors a monthly newsletter, "Path to Freedom" and hosts "The Dentist Freedom Blueprint" podcast. Freedom Founders Mastermind Community grows exponentially, year by year, providing the pathway to freedom for many professional practice owners. "The greatest risk in life is doing nothing." Shownotes: [00:07] introduction [18:21] buck introduces David Phelps [19:59] David Phelps' bac

I remember being a kid in the back of my parents' car on long driving trips to Wisconsin—we used to go to a place called Wisconsin Dells which is kind of a "Las Vegas for children"—lots of water parks, go-karts, and stuff like that. We'd stay in a cheap hotel with a swimming pool and my brother, sister and I would have a great time. The only thing I didn't like about those trips is the drive. It took about 3 or 4 hours to get there from my home in suburban Minneapolis. You see, back then, we didn't have iPads on which we could watch movies. Hell, we didn't even have iPods. We pretty much had each other and the view of the nondescript, flat farmland that made up our view for most of that car ride. Now, I look at my kids and their life is so different. We take them out with us to restaurants all the time. Usually, it's only the three-year old that gives us trouble these days. And when she does, I just flip out my iPhone and find Peppa Pig on YouTube. That pretty much pacifies her for the rest of the evening. For those of you who are old enough to remember life before the internet and smartphones, just step back for a moment and compare your childhood reality to those of your children. Your children know no reality without the internet. They may not be able to talk on the phone with the demise of landlines, but they know how to text and email and that has always been part of their reality. So, in considering this, we have to understand that our entire sense of reality is actually a bit different then the younger generations. I remember hearing Randi Zuckerberg, Mark's sister, say that her son thought that his grandfather lived in a computer for the first few years of his life because he primarily saw him on Skype. Our lives are becoming increasingly connected with the internet and the line between what is real and what is not real is actually changing. You've probably heard of people buying virtual items online like crypto kitties for example. They live only on-line so why in the world would you buy one? Well, what if you spend several hours per day on the internet. Is your cyber-bling any less important than the ones we consider "real"? I have a picture of vintage Ferrari in my office that I'd like to get someday—in real life. But the generations that are coming up don't see the difference between owning that and owning something unique that only exists in this 4th dimension of cyber-reality. If you spend most of your downtime there, that's probably where you want your version of that vintage Ferrari parked—not in the "real world". I know this sounds like science fiction. But remember, just a few decades back the "Jetsons" showed video phone calls and it seemed so futuristic, didn't it? A new generation is on the rise and their perception of reality is different from ours. If you start to understand this, you will see very quickly an entire world that is unfolding quickly. Some of this is being aided by the rise of distributed ledger technology. One of these projects that I am very excited about as an investor is Worldwide Asset eXchange™ (AKA WAX). When these kinds of seismic changes occur in the technological world, there is money to be made. WAX is a project that I am convinced will become a major player in a $50 billion industry. In other words, I think holders of WAX token have a good chance of doing quite well over the next few years if they get in early. To help you understand my enthusiasm for the project, this week on Wealth Formula podcast, I have invited Malcolm CasSelle, president of WAX, to explain this strange new world and why it might make sense to invest in it. Make sure to tune in! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [13:00] Buck Introduces Malcolm CasSelle [14:08] What is OPSkins?? [16:40] Virtual Items have REAL value [21:46] Uniqueness and desirability determine the value [25:04] The inefficiency in trading online [28:15] Evolution of WAX token [33:55] An intersection between the real world and the virtual [37:04] The advantage of WAX over its competitors [41:48] Where is WAX headed? [48:52] Outro

The other day, I was listening to the radio and heard that protesters were outside of JP Morgan Chase Manhattan CEO Jamie Dimon's house protesting the bank's investment into facilities that were used to separate children from their parents at the border. Of course that story of separation has been all over the news and, regardless of your stance on immigration, you probably agree that it is not nice to keep young children from their parents. Why would Chase make such an investment, anyway? Is it because they don't like immigrant children? After all, we know the big banks are all evil. Of course not. Chase made that investment because they thought it was an attractive investment. And, as a publicly traded company with a board of directors that is most concerned with the bottom line, they probably didn't think twice about it. Furthermore, now that this investment is getting negative PR, I wouldn't be surprised if Chase made attempts at divesting from those separation program facilities. Again…bad PR could affect bottom line so that would be the reason to divest rather than a "change of heart". As individuals rather than institutions, we have the opportunity to invest our money not only with our minds, but with our hearts. Some of us might even accept a little smaller return if we could do a good deed and make a descent yield. But… we have to take a step back and look at things a little differently if we are going to change our investing habits. Let me give you an example from my personal experience. I have invested in oil and gas drilling in the past despite my over-all concern about climate change and the effects of fossil fuels on the environment. Why? Well, at the time I really liked the tax write-offs and I let my financial instincts prevail over my moral compass. And to be clear, I don't begrudge those of you who invest in oil and gas. I'm not hear to judge you. I'm just telling you about my personal conflicts with investing in things that are not compatible with my personal beliefs. I have not invested in oil and gas for years, in part, because I didn't need the tax benefits or found them elsewhere. I also realized that, for me, there is fundamentally something wrong with investing is something I think could be detrimental to the lives of my children. Listen, I love making money as much as anyone else. But what I have realized is that, if you really want to, you can invest in such a way that it is indeed congruent with your values. And the good news is that, if you look hard enough, you can often find investments that make a positive impact on the world and have a financial ROI that is even more attractive. My friend Gordy Bal of Conscious Thought Revolution not only believes that idea, but has shown it to be true. He measures investments not only in financial ROI, but also by return on impact. Gordy is a very smart young guy and someone with whom I'm happy to be friends and you should definitely check out my interview with him on this week's episode of Wealth Formula Podcast. [00:07] Introduction [10:19] Buck introduces Gordy Bal [13:53] Gordy's story [17:26] Conscious Capital [27:52] Gordy's crypto favorites [38:45] Learn more about Gordy Ctr.com ctr.ai [43:41] Outro

One thing I've learned in life is that someone is always ready to tell you why something can't be done and usually they are wrong. I had that happen with my first accountant. Years ago, I was reading some of Kiyosaki's and Tom Wheelwright's stuff and told him what I wanted to do. He told me it couldn't be done. So…instead of listening to him, I fired him and found someone who said it could. Now most people probably would have listened to the first accountant. After all, he was known as the conservative guy that all the doctors used. I found out later what that what "conservative" meant is that you might as well use turbotax and save the money. You see, everyone wants to tell you their own version of the truth—and I'm not talking about the Trump administration here. What I'm talking about is people who legitimately believe they are right. But often they aren't and it may cost you money. I've learned this many times over. So now, if someone tells me something can't be done, I take it with a grain of salt and look for someone with solutions. Most of the time, I eventually find them. Finding solutions to problems is what entrepreneurs do and so it does not surprise me that my guest on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast has found a way to give you even more freedom and make you more money with your retirement funds than you can with a self-directed IRA or solo 401K. For those of you interested in efficiently using your retirement funds and NOT paying UBIT taxes on leverage, you are not going to want to miss this discussion with Damian Lupo. Buck P.S. If I had known about this earlier, I would have told you. Sorry :(

The central theme of Wealth Formula Podcast is that there are two investing worlds. One is for the poor, middle class, and the upper middle class. The other is for the ultra-wealthy. Now the funny thing is, that many of those in the middle and upper middle classes could be investing like the ultra-wealthy but one thing gets in the way—knowledge. The world of the ultra-wealthy is hidden behind a veil that you have to actively pursue to access. That is the purpose of this show…to illuminate the secrets of the ultra wealthy and make them accessible to anyone who cares to use them to their own advantage. When I started down this path, I had no idea how little I knew and that's probably still the case. In fact, the more I learn, the less I realize I know. In 2008, when the financial crisis happened, I was just finishing my surgical residency. I was broke so I didn't lose any money. But I had no idea what was going on in the world. Meanwhile, the global elites were colluding to save the entire economy from collapsing. I didn't even realize that I should be panicking. Did you? I guess sometimes ignorance, indeed, is bliss. Now, when I read about what led up to the crisis and the inner workings of those deals, it is like reading a gory post-mortem report. Why do I read this stuff anyway? Well, I am a firm believer that history repeats itself and that knowledge is power. I also like to feel in control as much as possible. There is a lot of activity in the world that is the underbelly of the global elite and if you don't try to keep up with it, you're not going to know what hit you when the next financial crisis comes along. No one knows this more than my guest on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast, Nomi Prins. A former Wall Street insider, Nomi Prins left the dark side and now she writes about it. On this week's show, Nomi tells us about the role of the federal reserve and banks that led up to 2008 and the new world order that has ensued since then. It's a world that you and I have little access to and it's something you should not miss! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [06:56] Buck introduces Nomi Prins [12:56] Formation of the FED [27:38] Collusion: How Central Bankers Rigged the World [36:54] Nomi's thought on our current economy [43:50] Where does cryptocurrency fit? [48:59] Outro

It's no secret… Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were the biggest investment story of 2017… Stories appeared daily on CNBC, and in the Wall Street Journal, and New York Times, about people becoming millionaires practically overnight… However, since January, the price of Bitcoin has fallen 63%... And today, if you believe what you read in the press, many people think the opportunity has passed… That the cryptocurrency bull market is over… But anyone who tells you you're too late to make big money in cryptocurrencies, has no idea what's about to happen next… Remember when JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon called Bitcoin a fraud? He said any JP Morgan traders caught trading Bitcoin would be fired "in a second" for their "stupidity." The price of Bitcoin fell as much as 24% in the few days that followed. And in that period, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley emerged as some of the most active buyers of a fund that tracks the price of Bitcoin. After slamming Bitcoin at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January, calling it a "bubble," hedge fund titan George Soros gave the greenlight to his $26 billion family office to begin buying cryptocurrencies just 8 weeks later. It's interesting that Soros attributes part of his success to his understanding of what he calls "reflexivity." In simple terms, this theory states that investors base their decisions not on reality, but on their "perception" of reality. Soros once wrote: "The degree of distortion may vary from time to time… Sometimes it's quite insignificant, at other times it is quite pronounced. Every bubble has two components: an underlying trend that prevails and a misconception relating to that trend." Now, I'm not saying this is a conspiracy. But have you stopped to wonder why some of the biggest critics of cryptocurrencies – including JPMorgan, George Soros, Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg – are now investing billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies in 2018? Have you asked yourself why some of the world's richest families – including the Rothschilds, and the venture capital firm founded by the Rockefellers – are dumping other assets (including stocks) and have now committed hundreds of millions to new crypto investments? Here's the thing… Most people have no clue what's really going on in the cryptocurrency market. And most have no idea where the price is about to go next. But if you're interested in achieving true financial independence, it's important you get an understanding of what's really going on now. Which is why I'd like to invite you to attend a free online event called The Great Cryptocurrency Conspiracy… In this event, renowned cryptocurrency trading expert and former Wall Street vice president, Teeka Tiwari will join TV and radio host Glenn Beck in an exclusive live broadcast to reveal what's really going on in the cryptocurrency market today… and show you how you can still make your fortune. This is important for you. Because what they have to share could have a huge impact on your financial future. On top of that, you'll receive some gifts just for attending, including Teeka's new report, The Crypto Manifesto: Why Cryptocurrencies Are The Smartest Speculation You Can Make Today. A week of free online investment training. And on top of that, Teeka will share the name of three cryptocurrencies he believes you should buy today. This is a big deal. Because the last time Teeka publicly recommended a cryptocurrency during a live event, it went from $0.21 to $3.77 in eight weeks – enough to turn a $500 investment into $8,976. And in addition to that, you'll also have the chance to take claim a share of their exclusive $2 Million Dollar Bitcoin Giveaway. This may be the single most important online investment event of the year. I'll be there. And I strongly encourage you to attend. Click here to get all the details, and register for The Great Cryptocurrency Conspiracy of 2018 for free.

I don't know about you, but I love the 4th of July holiday. I love getting together with family and watching fireworks—that's for sure. But the 4th of July, to me, reminds of the greatest advantage with which I was born—the opportunity to grow up an American. I am two generations away from poverty in India. My dad came this country in the late 1960s on an engineering scholarship. Before long, he was possessed by the American spirit—the entrepreneurial spirit—and went on to become a millionaire. And now look at me! A buddy of mine grew up with 6 siblings and a single mother and there was not enough food to go around even with food stamps. Now he's a millionaire entrepreneur. Where else in the world does this happen? Where does such social mobility exist. England still has something called the "House of Lords" as part of their government—you have to be born into that legislative branch. Sure it's not a perfect system but there is no other country in the world that provides the opportunities to it's people the way the United States does. You can bitch all you want about this country—but remember, you CAN bitch about it because you live in this country. And for those trying to flee to other countries because you think the US economy is going down. Well…good riddance. Do you really think that if the world goes into a financial meltdown you will be better off anywhere else in the world than the United States? Do you think hiding in a third world country will serve you better than being in the greatest country in the history of the world? Ladies and gentlemen—I hope you appreciate this country the way I do. We've got it good and being an American is the biggest reason that I believe that no matter where you are today, I know you can be wealthy. Just tap into that inner immigrant and let it flow. Look at the opportunities around you. The only thing stopping you is fear of the unknown. No one is in your way. You control your destiny. That's what it means to be an American. If you disagree, go to wealthformula.com and leave a message telling me why on speak pipe (link). Periodically, we record these comments and questions for the occasional show we call, "Ask Buck". Speaking of "Ask Buck", this week's episode of Wealth Formula Podcast is one of those special shows. Make sure to listen and to record your own questions and comments for the next show. Shownotes: [00:07] Intro [09:43] Buck introduces Lane Kawaoka [12:44] Catching up with Lane [23:04] Question from Ravi [35:00] Question from Chris Eggleston [54:23]Outro

I've really been thinking about this thing lately that they call the law of attraction. I'm sure you've heard of it. Remember a few years back when that book, "The Secret" came out and they made a movie of it as well? Actually, that book was sort of a rip-off of "the secret" that Napolean Hill talks about in Think and Grow Rich which was written about eighty years earlier. The concept is simple—your thoughts become reality. Ok, so it sounds like a little self-helpish I know. But think about it—what is part of your reality today that DID NOT start out as a thought? Your job? Your kids? Your house? You thought about all these things at some point before they became your reality. In that sense, OF COURSE your thoughts became your reality. It's funny because my wife says that even when we first met—when I made $50K per year in San Francisco, I always acted like I had money. If I was out to dinner with her or another friend, I always made sure to take care of the bill. I was always a good tipper and I always KNEW that I would make a lot of money some day. Of course I was a surgical resident at the time so some might argue that making good money some day wasn't much of a leap of faith. But it was different and it is different for me than it is with a lot of people. I have a built-in abundance mind set. The idea that money and resources are limited doesn't instinctually resonate with me. I hate when people talk about living within or below their means. To me that defines a low threshold of means in the first place. I am, by no means, a spendthrift. But, despite joking about it on this show, I am not cheap—especially when it comes to expanding my means. You see, last year alone I spent about $100k on financial education and masterminds. Some might call that excessive. But I don't think so. This year alone, I will be able attribute about $1 million dollars in income directly to the information or people that resulted in that $100K total investment. Would you invest $100K this year for a 1000 percent gain next year? Well, that's what I did. Meanwhile, I have had some tell me that $197/month for my course and network is too expensive. What am I going to say to that? My $197/month course, network, and mastermind are better than MOST of the $25k/year masterminds I have joined. If you thing that's too much money to take it to the next level—then you won't. And I say that not because I'm saying you have to buy my course or be part of my mastermind calls to be successful. I'm saying that because you are not viewing the world through the lens of abundance. You see expense where I see investment. Words matter. Mindset matters. I am living proof that getting yourself in an abundance mindset is paramount if you are ever going to be wealthy. So when you listen to Dave Ramsey or Suze Orman, just remember, they are talking to poor people and those people will stay poor. Do you think Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman really live in a world of limited resources? They are entertainers and they make a lot of money pretending to think like the poor and middle class. But, guess what, with their own money they invest like the wealthy. When I speak on this podcast, I am speaking to a wealthy person. That is my avatar. If you listen to me and my words resonate with you, you likely live in a world of abundance already. Check yourself. Check your words. Check your thought patterns. Check your behavior. Do you live in a world full of fear and scarce resources? Are you worried that you will run out of money before you die? Are you afraid that if you invest your money then you will lose it? Or, do you believe that you are going to grow into someone healthier, happier, and more wealthy than you are today? A 15 year old high school dropout once said, "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." That, of course, was Henry Ford. And those words are the words of a wealthy man. But remember…the thoughts and the words come before the result. It always has to be in that order. You can change your thoughts and words consciously and I urge you to do so if you want a better life. Speaking of a better life, my guest today on Wealth Formula Podcast has some different views then me but he also believes he has found the "freedom formula". Make sure to find out what it is. Shownotes: [00:07] Intro [14:05] Buck introduces David Denniston [20:52] The freedom formula [23:11] Pile of cash vs river of income [33:49] The economy [36:38] The tax bill [40:38] Land [51:08] More of David Denniston on: doctorfreedompodcast.com [52:38] Outro Flipping or cashflowing with land: https://www.wealthformula.com/resources/

As you know, I left medicine entirely about a year ago. I still have a couple of medical-related businesses but that's about it. Without question, I have moved on. All of my physical and emotional energy are devoted to things outside of medicine. Why? Well, I used to think it was a touch of attention deficit disorder. Sort of that—"been there done that" attitude. The thing is, when I think back to when I started not enjoying medicine, it actually started in residency—as far back as my first year of surgical internship. It's sad because I was a HIGHLY motivated medical student. I was driven to succeed and my professors loved me (because I was a serious kiss-ass). But then I started a neurosurgery residency and—well…I lost my mojo. I experienced: physical and emotional exhaustion cynicism and detachment feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment I heisted these three descriptions of a person with the clinical diagnosis of burnout from a psychology journal. The physical and emotional exhaustion I figured was from the fact that I was working 100 hour weeks (before the 80 hour work week limit now enforced). Cynicism and detachment—this is horrible. I was surrounded by death in the neurosurgical ICU. When a patient died, it was not sad. It was an inconvenience. I found the paperwork irritating and it was difficult to be truly compassionate to families. That's the truth. I hate to say it, but that's the person who I had become. And, as for the feeling of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment? Well, you just need a couple of unsupportive senior residents to make you feel like crap. Surgical training in most cases is quite hierarchical and I found many residents to be of the kiss up kick down variety. Remarkably, I finished seven years of training despite my, almost immediate, distaste for the system. But it was also that dissatisfaction that, in part, made it so easy for me to go another direction. Did I have to go another direction? Was that the only way for me to feel better? I always thought so. But if you look at "burn out" as a kind of disorder like depression or even a back problem (a literal pain in the ass), then maybe there is a way to not give it all up and start over. I did start over. But, it was a little easier for me to do that than most. First of all, I didn't have much in the way of responsibilities when I first started my entrepreneurial life. My first daughter was a baby and my wife and I didn't even own a house. For others, the golden handcuffs of a high paid job and responsibilities, like paying the mortgage and for private school and colleges, makes burn-out a particularly challenging problem. In that case, it's good to know you have options—that you can possibly treat the affliction without having to either give it all up or to simply continue to be miserable. Burn out is a real problem for people who are highly successful and well paid. Most people have little sympathy for the doctor or engineer making $350K per year feeling burned out. That makes it even more difficult to deal with because you might feel like it's not ok to admit you're not happy. But, the reality is that at every level people deal with the same crap. We are all human and we have the same types of problems. Maybe you're just burned out? Maybe someone you know is burned out. The good news is that there is help out there and there's not a reason to be miserable anymore. Diane Ansari-Winn was an anesthesiologist who went through burn-out herself and now has become an expert on helping other physicians identify and cope with burnout. She's my guest on Wealth Formula Podcast this week. Of course, burnout affects everyone, not just doctors so this is relevant to just about anyone professional listening to this show. This topic may not be as sexy as making tons of money but it may help you or it may help you identify someone you care about that needs help with a very treatable condition…burnout. Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [17:08] Buck introduces Dr. Dianne Ansari-Winn [17:52] Dianne's story [24:54] What is burn out? [32:09] Happiness: Physiology vs Psychology [41:26] How to approach a burn out issue [47:56] Get in touch with Dianne http://www.dianneansari-winn.com/ www.physicianvitalityinstitute.com A doctor's Life Podcast [49:16] Outro

Everywhere I turn, it seems like someone is talking about how the market could crash any day. As I write this, I see that the Dow has taken a beating today because of the Trump "tough on China" rhetoric. Tariffs, rising interest rates, ballooned asset prices—is this baby going to blow or what? I don't know the answer to that. Last week, we had the Chief Economist of Fannie Mae on the show. He didn't know either. Jim Richards and Peter Schiff are confident we are doomed—but when don't they think we are in trouble? The reality is that, at any given time, we have no idea when there will be a correction. The only thing we do know is that what goes up must come down— that's about all. As for when, I can tell you that whether it's the housing market or the stock market, the other will follow. That's the way it works. You see, almost all of the asset markets are correlated. That means, they all follow each other. So, when one starts to tank, the others do as well. That's just the nature of the game. Now, does that mean you should stop investing? I don't think so. I think investing in quality assets will eventually lead to you coming out ahead. On the other hand, if it were possible to stay out of the line of fire—to invest in something truly uncorrelated with any market, would it make sense to do so? I think so. That's why I am an advocate of an asset class that few even know exists outside of Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and some hedge funds. This asset class is backed why one of the few guarantees in life—death. In this week's episode of Wealth Formula Podcast, you'll learn exactly how you can take part in the ultimate financial hedge. Make sure to tune in! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [10:15] Buck introduces Tim Wright [11:35] What is life settlement? [16:39] "Is it legal?" Yes! [19:43] How has life settlement evolved? [26:17] The process of buying life settlement [32:03] Mitigating risks [37:07] Projection of life settlement [42:12] Outro

If you listen to Wealth Formula Podcast, there is a good chance you listen to other shows with similar themes and opinions. In my niche, the one on-going theme is that the zombie-apocalypse is just around the corner. The zombie apocalypse is of course another financial meltdown reminiscent of 2008 or worse. And to be fair, it could be on its way. The problem is that people started saying that almost as soon as the last recovery began. A decade later, a lot of people have made a lot of money by not sitting on the sidelines. I have been guilty of this a little by myself to be honest. I have been concerned about the economy for the last couple of years and I still am. But, we also have to understand that we cannot predict the future. The next recession may very well happen next month but it may not be that big of a deal at all. On the other hand, it could be that avalanche that the likes of Jim Richards have been predicting for years. So what do you do? Well, first, you've got to listen to people outside of your own circles a little bit. This real asset investing community that listens to podcasts is a relatively small ecosystem and sometimes it's like living in an echo chamber. Everyone seems to be saying the same thing. In fact, when I met Robert Kiyosaki in April of 2017 on the Real Estate Guys Summit at Sea, I asked him what he thought of what all the speakers were saying. He told me that it worried him a little bit. When I asked him why he said it was because everyone seemed to agree too much. He said, "It makes me wonder what I'm missing". This a real phenomenon that we all should check ourselves on—including me. Tribes tend to congregate around a core set of belief systems which may become so pervasive that opinion or belief can be misconstrued as reality. In other words, make sure that you get your information from multiple sources. Listen to people with whom you disagree and try to articulate why you disagree with them. People who have taken a Chicken Little approach to investing over the past 5 years look pretty foolish right now. That's fine if you really did your research. But if you did so because you follow only one doomsday economist then you've got to start branching out. One economist who I have been following is someone you might wish to add to your repertoire. He is actually considered a mainstream voice in the financial world and one that I consider to be one of the more balanced. His name is Doug Duncan and he is the chief economist at Fannie Mae. In this week's Wealth Formula Podcast, Mr. Duncan will tell us how he sees the rest of 2018 and beyond. Make sure to tune in!

Robert Kiyosaki told me that Rich Dad Poor Dad was written to be a promotional piece for his Cash Flow board game. He really did not write it with the intent of making money on the book itself. Well, that little promotional piece ended up being the number one best selling financial book of all time—not bad! Countless people that I know have been touched by Rich Dad Poor Dad and credit it with transforming their lives including me. Yet Robert describes the work as an "accounting book". And if you go back and read it, it is! Assets, liabilities, and cash flow. That's what the book is all about. The genius of Robert Kiyosaki is that he is able to explain accounting to the masses in a way that makes sense and is entertaining.You see, accounting isn't that sexy but it is important. In fact, I believe that everyone should be required to take an accounting class in high school. Why? Because accounting is the basis of business and it also should be the basis of personal finance. Everyone should see their own personal finances as a business. You have money going in, you have money going out and what you have left is profit. Your personal financial statement should be viewed no differently than financial statements viewed by a business owner. You want to add assets and reduce liabilities and you want to make sure you have adequate cash flow. Makes sense right? If you do that, you might actually start behaving differently. Let me give you an example. I have a friend here in Santa Barbara who is a famous house designer and real estate investor. I went to his new house a few weeks ago and it was full of very expensive furniture. He also collects vintage cars like old Ferraris. Now you might think that all of this stuff is a waste of money. But…he actually buys these things because he wants to put them on his personal financial statements as assets. Think about it. If you buy a brand new Maserati today it will cost you over a hundred thousand dollars and start depreciating the minute you drive it off the lot. My friend, on the other hand, bought his vintage Ferrari for 75K several years ago and now it's worth 400K. He could have gotten brand new furniture but he chose antiques that look great AND appreciate in value. Talk about a guy who understands accounting. Even his toys are real appreciating assets! He sort of got me thinking about buying that 1960s Porsche 356 that I've always loved. Anyway, it's just another way to view the world and one that is really quite valuable. Accounting is fundamental to financial literacy. My guest on Wealth Formula Podcast this week understands this well. His name is David Norris and he's a doctor with an MBA who has made it his mission to teach others financial literacy. Make sure to listen to the show!

Why is it easier for the rich to get richer? Why is it that the "first million" is the hardest? Well, there's lots of reasons for that and I go through them in some detail in Your Roadmap to Real Wealth. But one very important reason that the rich get richer is because they have more money to invest. I know what you're thinking right now, "Wow, Buck, you are a genius!" Ok it sounds really simple. I get it. But my point is this. If you make more money, you will be able to allocate a higher percentage of your income towards investments rather than paying your bills. Right? If you make $50K per year or less in San Francisco, as I did a surgical resident, there's no money left to invest. On the other hand, if you make a few million dollars per year, covering your expenses shouldn't be that hard. Most of that cash can be used to create more wealth. You can use that money to buy things like real estate, businesses, precious metals, even life settlements. And, because you can spare to lose a few bucks, you can also allocate some money towards investments that might be highly speculative. Speculation is not a four letter word if you do it in a calculated way. I don't consider my speculative investments gambling at all. I consider them asymmetric risk investments. In other words, the upside is several orders of magnitude higher than the downside—even if the downside means losing your entire investment. For me, this is "Maserati money". I can either buy a Maserati and guarantee that I will never see that cash again, or I can take a shot down the field that has a chance to create transformational wealth. What is transformational money? Well, add a zero to your current net worth. Unless you are starting out as a billionaire, that number will transform your life. Rich people do that all the time. I've talked about this before but the Winklevoss twins (the ones who sued Mark Zuckerberg) did this by buying a big chunk of bitcoin before most people did a few years ago that took them from the ranks of mere eight to nine figure mortals to the billionaire boys club! What if you could go from six to seven figures or seven to eight? Would that change your life? Adding a zero would change mine for sure It might even be enough for me to give up my Toyota for a Maserati or a classic Ferrari. My problem is that I am cheap. A lot of people who make a lot less than me drive expensive cars. I'd just rather make more money. So, what is my asymmetric trade these days? If you listen to me regularly, you know that I am a cryptocurrency enthusiast. I am now allocating a full 10 percent of my investable assets into distributed ledger technology. Why? Because I truly believe that this may be the biggest opportunity to create transformational wealth that I will ever see in my lifetime. I have been obsessed with what's going on in this world for over a year now and have already made some extreme profits. You may also know that I have my own cryptocurrency fund which I believe is positioned very well to benefit from the trillions of dollars about to hit this market. Now, if you are brand new to cryptocurrency, it might be a good idea for you to listen to my introductory podcasts on this topic with Palm Beach Confidential editor, Teeka Tiwari. I interviewed him in episodes 86 and 104 of Wealth Formula Podcast. Today, I am going to introduce you to a project that I represents the future of distributed ledger technology. I have been following Swirlds Hashgraph since I first learned about cryptocurrency. A friend of mine, who is an insider in this world, tipped me off to the project. Since then, I have studied it and followed its progress closely. Hashgraph is the next generation of distributed ledger technology. It solves all the problems of blockchain projects such as bitcoin and ethereum. For that reason, many have referred to hashgraph as "the bitcoin killer." The reason is that the technology is so good that it serves as an existential threat to blockchain ledgers such as bitcoin and ethereum. Now here's the good news. It's not too late to invest in this project! In fact the hashgraph public ledger and token, hedera, will not be circulating until later this year. You are WAY ahead of the game. And while this should not be construed as investment advice, I would highly suggest you pay careful attention to my guest on Wealth Formula podcast this week as I interview Mance Harmon, cofounder and CEO of Swirld's Hashgraph.

Some times when I go back and listen to my podcasts from when I first started this show, I think to myself, "This guy is clueless." Of course I wasn't clueless. I still knew more than most about investing but man have I evolved. The key to that evolution has been my ability to not be dogmatic about anything. That's tough—especially in the investing world. The paper people think that real estate investors got it all wrong and real estate investors think paper is for idiots. I used to believe that permanent life insurance was one of the worst investments you can make. Why?…because some other doctors told me that. And while the policies they were looking at were likely not good investments, I had no idea that products and strategies like Wealth Formula Banking™ or Velocity Plus™ existed until I got to know some people who had a lot more money than those doctors. Never take financial advice from people who make less money than you do! People have a nasty habit of picking "camps" and defending them even if it is not in their best interest to do so. Just look at modern politics. I am a libertarian who believes in small government and lower taxes for small business. Therefore, I tend to vote conservative (although I have my limits when it comes to character). On the other hand, why are people in the working class voting for conservative candidates against their own economic interests? It's not smart to be close minded and argue against things you don't understand. At least try to understand them first! That's why I asked this week's guest on Wealth Formula Podcast, Andy Tanner to be on the show. Andy is one of Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad Advisors and happens to be an expert on investing in paper assets. It sounds almost paradoxical to use the name "Kiyosaki" and paper assets on the same page without some sort of expletive doesn't it? Well, if you listen to this podcast, it will make sense why Andy is a Rich Dad advisor. He may be an equity market guy, but he's all about cash flow. You're going to love this show and, if you already have money in the stock market, this show is mandatory listening. Check it out!

I am proud to say that I have overcome a major handicap to become a successful entrepreneur. It took me 33 years to figure out how to get past this obstacle… but I did it. I'm proud of that fact because very few people with this fate in life become successful business people and even fewer become successful investors. What was this handicap you ask? Well, you see…I was born an A student. I got good grades in high school and college and graduated at the top of my medical school class. I even got into one of the best neurosurgical training programs in the world. Did you know that more people become professional athletes every year than neurosurgeons? Yes indeed. I reveled in my academic success. I pumped out scholarly papers and book chapters like there was no tomorrow. In fact, I remember telling my dad that I was published in a journal called Neurosurgery two months in a row. You know what he said? "Congratulations. How much do they pay your for that anyway?" Silly dad, I thought. He just doesn't get it. He's too busy being a slum lord to understand my world. What I'm doing is important. It's meaningful. It's not just about the money. I thrived on academic achievement and being recognized as smart and important. It was my currency. And for those who are good at school and who constantly get positive feedback, it's addictive. The accolades create a feedback loop. With every accomplishment, award, or title there is a dopamine hit that makes it harder and harder to ever get outside of your own world. That's why I call being an A student a handicap to becoming an entrepreneur. A students don't get to experience failure. In fact, they become so accustomed to success in school that they are often unable to function without someone telling them what to do. And the idea of going into free fall as an entrepreneur terrifies them. Think of the smartest people in high school—did any of them become entrepreneurs? Probably not. Most entrepreneurs come from the school hard knocks. Life doesn't hand them an easy out and most of them weren't particularly good students. They had to wing it and develop the ability to improvise and deal with failure. That quality also happens to be the hallmark of the successful entrepreneur. That describes my guest on Wealth Formula Podcast today. Kevin Bupp went from a middle class family and little aptitude for school to starting multiple successful businesses including a highly successful venture into the mobile home park world. Listen to his story on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When I first learned about the concept of cash flow investing, it was like a religious experience. In my case, I went around everywhere proselyting the virtues of cash flow investing to my friends. I was so excited about the concept that I couldn't stop talking about it. In the process, I bored the heck out of a lot of people! But I couldn't help myself. The idea is so simple and elegant, right? Buy things that throw off monthly cash flow. When you have enough cash flow, you can "retire"! Indeed, all of this is true. But… over the years, I figured out that it's a little bit more complicated. It always cracks me up when I see someone have the cash flow revelation moment and the lights go on. They talk about their passive income goals and how they are going to retire in 5 years by buying real estate—even if they are currently broke! And the reality is that when you listen to a lot real estate podcasts out there, it might lead you to believe it is just that easy. Here's the problem though. In order to create passive income, you have to have money in the first place! It's math right? Remember, the Wealth Formula? Wealth= Leverage (Mass x Velocity). Let's just focus on mass for a second. Mass means how much money you have to invest. If you have no mass, it doesn't matter how much leverage and velocity you use. You still won't be able to create wealth. This issue isn't something that affects the broke either. I talk to plenty of high paid professionals who like the idea of replacing their W2 incomes with "passive" income. If you make $250,000 per year, that's not an easy feat! If you average 10 percent cash on cash, you have to get $2,500,000 into the machine to create that stream of income. Doable yes but most of us are not that patient. What if you want to move quicker? What are your options? Well—for one, understand that you have many options. If you want to move quicker, you might have to broaden your investing horizons beyond the real estate box. We might have to look into buying or starting businesses that produce a lot more income. These businesses can either serve as mass to accumulate more real estate or, like in my case, can serve to be stand-alone "passive" streams of income. Of course all of this can sound intimidating if you are a hard working professional already slugging it out for 50 hours per week. Who has time for all of this? But understand that in order to create more income, you really only have two options. Either you have to buy it (like real estate), or earn it with your time. If you can't afford to buy more, then you have to earn it and that will take more of your time. But taking more of your time doesn't mean that it has to be another full time job you add to your current busy schedule for the next twenty years. You can also invest a certain amount of time up front just like you put down a lump sum of money to buy a rental house. Then, you can leverage technology. Sound intriguing? Well, it should! My guest on this week's Wealth Formula Podcast is going to show us exactly how to do that. So…if you want to speed things up and get on the golf course, you won't want to miss this week's conversation with Udemy expert Jonathan Levi! Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [08:59] Buck introduces Jonathan Levi [10:20] Jonathan's journey [15:57] What is Udemy and how does it work? [17:40] Jonathan's experience with Udemy [22:49] Is Udemy the an option for YOU as a stream of income? [28:39] What are the more appealing courses from the buyer's perspective? [33:30] How do I get started? (The Branding You™ Academy) [39:43] How to reach Jonathan Levi - jle.vi [42:45] Outro

If you're heading into a dark cave for the first time, bring someone who's been there before. That's sound advice--not only for exploring caves, but also for investing your money. In fact, when it comes to investing money, it would be even better if you brought a geologist with you who had previously studied that cave extensively and had a map of it along with a great big flashlight! You see...the mistake most people make is that they believe investing is unpredictable. They are brainwashed into believing that by Wall Street. "Invest for the long term in a portfolio of stocks, bonds, and mutual funds". What does that mean anyway? It means, "Give me your money so I can pull off a bunch of fees. And when you see your account go down by 30 percent in the next correction, it's not my fault. It's an act of nature." Are we really that helpless when it comes to controlling our financial future? God help us if we are! I can tell you from my own experience that we are, indeed, not helpless. If you feel that way, you have not tried hard enough. You have not spent any time on financial education or trying to build your network--your tribe. After all, your network equals your net worth. Indeed, one of the most profound discoveries I made during my quest to understand the way that the ultra-wealthy invest is this--it's not an accident that the rich get richer. The wealthy don't rely on luck--they engineer their wealth. Wealth is created, it does not spontaneously appear. You can't expect to get wealthy by simply hoping to get hit by it. Now listen, I'm not saying that the rich never lose money. They speculate sometimes and sometimes they lose. But the bets they make are asymmetric. Wins result in HUGE wins and losses are easily absorbed. In order to make sure they have more wins then losses, they make sure they have insider information. I'm not talking about illegal stuff. I'm talking about being deeply connected with people who intimately know an industry or an asset class that have tremendous track records. Simply put…when they bet on something, they are right way more often then they are wrong. When you find people like this, you tag a long! Anyway, Broadway musicals are completely foreign to me. Yet, they can be incredibly lucrative if you invest in the right one. Frankly, I didn't even know you could invest in Broadway musicals until I met this week's guest on Wealth Formula Podcast: Erica Schwarz. When it comes to musicals, she is a true expert and she is going to illuminate this industry for us and how we can profit from it. She will be our guide into this dark cave of Broadway! Make sure to check out the show. Shownotes: [00:07] Introduction [09:41] Buck introduces Erica Schwartz [10:25] Erica's theatrical background [12:39] What does Erica's job entail [14:16] The history of Emerson Colonial Theatre [16:42] How does the theatre business function [27:43] How to approach the theatre business [44:15] Find out more about Erica and the theatre business [email protected] [46:32] Outro