The Road Less Traveled: Tony Lopes' Journey to Financial Freedom

Are you ready for the freedom that comes with financial independence? If so, we've got a powerhouse of an episode for you. We sat down with Tony Lopes, a first-generation American, real estate mogul, bestselling author, and the CEO of Dirty Boots Capital. Tony's story is an inspiring one, navigating his way from a lay-off in the defense industry to the world of real estate investing. He's sharing the hard lessons his journey taught him and how he turned a four-unit building into a thriving real estate portfolio.

Digging into the nitty-gritty, we get Tony to spill the beans on the challenges and opportunities in the real estate industry. Tony throws some hard-hitting questions your way to help you understand your motivations for venturing into real estate. He shines a light on the importance of having a financial goal and protecting our financial future, especially considering the uncertain times we live in. Tony also delves into the influences of the debt ceiling, government aid, property tax, and societal trends on housing choices.

Ever felt like you're not cut out for investing? Tony's here to change your mind. He tackles the common limiting beliefs that hold back potential investors. Tune in to hear how education, courage, and a readiness to sacrifice can catapult you into financial freedom. Tony also shares insider tips on leveraging wealth and networking for success. Join us in this enlightening conversation and get ready to rewrite your financial story. Gear up, because this episode is filled to the brim with gems of wisdom that can transform your journey to financial freedom. Here's to the road less traveled!

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:28

Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Latinos and Real Estate Investing Podcasts, where individuals just like you come to learn how to create wealth through real estate investing, entrepreneurship and business ownership. And today's guest is Tony Lopes. And Tony is a first generation American CEO of Dirty Boots Capital real estate professional bestselling author and coach and speaker. He earned his BS in mechanical engineering and an MBA from UMass. He worked in the defense industry for 19 years, managing multi-million dollar programs while simultaneously building a portfolio of residential income property, and he now owns a little over 200 doors. Tony, welcome, sir.

Speaker 2: 1:11

Martin, thank you so much for having me on today. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1: 1:14

Thank you, brother. Thank you for being here. It's my pleasure and honor to have you. We were talking a little bit of air. Why don't you tell us a little bit about this journey, right, so you are? You originally started in academia, right? You graduated, got your degrees and engineered by grade. I think that helps a lot. Being an engineer, as you know, when you're in this business, you have to logistically put a lot of things together. So when you're wired that way, I'm sure it helps. Yeah, when you're educated that way, I'm sure it helps. So tell us a little bit about yourself how you got started and how you went from academia to a great job and with the government I take it defense industry to now being an investor. You're teaching people 200 doors, doing syndication. Talk to me, yeah. Talk to me, yeah.

Speaker 2: 2:00

So it started out pretty innocently enough as I was going to college. Really, my parents, like you had mentioned, they were immigrants from Portugal. They came over here they were. I grew up in a very blue collar family. My dad was a construction worker, my mom worked in a factory, so very blue collar. I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth, far from it. And so they came from a relatively poor community in Portugal and so there they saw education as the way out, which made sense, right In their mantra was go to school, get a good education, you'll get a good job and you'll be set for the rest of your life.

Speaker 2: 2:51

And it sounds great and a lot of us can understand that, and probably a lot of the viewers and listeners, you know, grew up under that mantra. So so that's what I did. I went to school, I got a great education, I got a great job, and then I got laid off and again, that's something a lot of the viewers and listeners can probably relate to and so I sat back and I said wait a minute, this wasn't part of the mantra, this wasn't part of the plan for me, and so I wasn't financially free at that time to just go do whatever I wanted to do. I had to find another job. So it took me about three months to find another job. During that period in the economy, it took me about three months to find a job. And so I had some, some time to think about what was going on. And I am Martin. I just said to myself wait, there has to be a better way. And I knew my belief system, my values. I wanted to be free. I wanted to do what I want when I want, because I want. That was very, very deep in me. So freedom, freedom is very, very big. So I said how do I get there?

Speaker 2: 4:12

So after I landed my job, another job after being laid off, once I landed that, I started saving up to invest in real estate, because that was a. I saw a good way to create more income, create more, more freedom for myself. So I started investing in real estate. I bought a quad, a four unit building. It wasn't the best building, it's a C class building. I bought that you know number of years ago and I still own it today. But I started slowly in that way. You know, I had actually done a certain amount of refinance from the condo that I was living in refinance, pull some cash out of that. Some cash I saved from working. My job bought that four unit building from there. The market had had gone up some, so I was able to do a cash out refinance of that four unit building.

Speaker 2: 5:17

I moved into building a couple of spec homes. I sold those couple of spec homes this is all while I was working in the defense industry, by the way. So I built a couple of spec homes and I rolled that into. After I sold those, I rolled that into more multifamilies because I realized that's really where I wanted to be. I didn't want to build spec homes, make a profit and have to pay capital gains on those sales of spec homes, and that's fine. Some people are in that world and I'm not here. I'm not here to bash them. That's okay. That's a business model. But I myself I just really wanted to have more cash flow on a consistent basis. So I decided I wanted to be really in the multifamily space. So I went on and I bought a triplex which, if viewers and listeners don't know, the triplex is just a three unit building. So again, these are small buildings that I started with.

Speaker 2: 6:20

I didn't start by buying 100 units here and 50 units there. I started with four. I went on to buy three units. Then I bought a duplex and these buildings needed some amount of work. The duplex I bought there was a hole in the roof. Rain was getting in. It was vacant at the time. Rain was getting in, there was mold, there was floors that needed to be replaced, gutting down to the studs that needed to happen. So these were buildings that needed some love. But that's okay.

Speaker 2: 6:53

Part of the business, if you want to make it part of the business is sweat equity and doing some of that work yourself. It does take hard work. It just doesn't happen. It just doesn't fall into your lap. Like I said, I blew call a family and we always worked hard. So that's just where we were, where I was working hard, doing the remodels some amount myself. After I got out of work, right, I'd spent some amount of time doing rehab, but I was also dealing with contractors that I trusted. So yeah, so for me it just kind of happened slowly.

Speaker 2: 7:28

I moved on to buying five unit buildings and things like that, and then I got to the point in my life I was 44 years old and I had to make a decision whether I was to keep doing stuff in real estate or whether I had to cut the corporate job loose. And so I made the decision based on my core beliefs. That freedom was the most important thing to me. I decided to leave the corporate world and that's where I officially say you know, I retired at the age of 44. At that point, because of real estate. Real estate allowed me to cut the corporate job loose and I was. I had a. I had by that time I had a great. At 44 years old, I was making six figures. World was good. I could have kept doing that, but for me, my value system it was just more built on that freedom of wanting to do other things.

Speaker 2: 8:22

So at that point I transitioned to more so coaching others to do what I had done and also educating. I ended up writing the book Freedom at Risk how to protect your personal and financial freedoms. So that's a great tool that I use to help educate people on what's happening in the world and why they should be in real estate. And then I also started doing syndications where I could help others who didn't want to be active participants in terms of buying their own multifamily, doing renovations, dealing with tenants on and on, and they wanted to be more passive. Dealing with syndications participating in syndications was a way for them to be passive investors in real estate. So I enjoy people with that aspect Awesome, so that brings us to today.

Speaker 1: 9:15

A lot to unpack there, my friend. So you wrote this book, freedom at Risk, and I want to talk about that. I want to talk a little bit about that, something you said that really Ring true to me and I want to get your perspective on that statement you made. But before I ask you that, you know we might have a listener right now listening to this podcast somewhere around the world. That's thinking great story. I have that. I'm ready to work, pay the price, do what I have to do, what do I need to do? How can I? What steps can I start to take?

Speaker 1: 9:53

I'm in corporate America, like Paul, like Tony used to be sorry, like Tony used to be, and I want to get out of this. And that's in my value system. Same thing, that freedom, that desire to be able to do what I want, be able to travel, to be able to buy what I want. And I don't look, man, I can relate to you because that was me. I didn't see if I necessarily want to have luxury things, although I like nice things, don't get me wrong, I like nice things. But the goal was I just want to be able to pay my mortgage, my bills, food on the table, have enough money for that, like financial freedom, whatever it takes.

Speaker 1: 10:33

What are you coaching? What are you telling that person right now that had that same burning desire, that's been fired, been laid off, gone through it, and is listening to this podcast and is saying man, I love what you're saying, I'm so happy that you did it. How can I do it, man? Can you teach me, can you tell me what are the things that I need to do today to be able to get out of that? That's the first part and I think it'll wrap into the next part, which is the reason you wrote your book, as you said a moment ago Freedom at Risk, what's happening in the world and why you should own real estate. It kind of comes in together. Can you tell us about that? Well, what can I do? And what is happening in the world? Sure, your perspective and why you think people should own real estate.

Speaker 2: 11:17

Yeah, there's definitely a lot to unpack there. So I basically, when I have folks that walk up to me and say, hey, I want to get into real estate, one of the first things I do is work with them to understand their why. We talk a lot about this in real estate conferences and things we go to what is your why? And so I walk them through. The first thing I do is I walk them through what I've developed and I call my real estate personality test. This is a series of six, seven questions, super easy questions. The answers they provide help me understand why they're looking to get into real estate. They may not be thinking about it in that way, but then we jump on a con call and we talk about it and we say, hey, you rated retirement as a number five, a very high rated score, number five.

Speaker 2: 13:39

Retirement is my goal and for some folks, retirement means quality of life. It may not be like others who have legacy. Like I work with a client right now who they have four children. They're going to be having their fifth child and for them, legacy is a very important thing. They want to learn real estate to be able to pass that learning on to their kids in a legacy format. So their motivation is different than other clients I've had who you know they're not really wanting to learn the business so deep. They want to create just a greater quality of life in retirement, which may lean them more towards a different type of asset. So first we start to understand the why and we start to help them understand why certain assets are better than others for them. Just because your brother, your sister or your neighbor may have bought a duplex, that may be great for them, but a duplex and it may not be right for you. Maybe you're more suited for Airbnb or for syndication, I don't know. It's all about your why. And so we walk them through that. And then after that we walk them through another five modules, that kind of unravel the same thing, like how they should be structured, whether they should buy it in their own name, in the wife's name, in the husband's name, in an LLC, on and on. So we help them understand why they need to buy it in a certain structure. And so we just continue that and we take them along this journey and we help them find a property that works for them, for their situation. Now to roll in the why why I do this to help people get into real estate and why I'm not just buying it all myself.

Speaker 2: 15:37

I feel very strongly that our freedoms are at risk and that real estate is a great way to protect ourselves. Why are our freedoms at risk? Well, you look at some of the craziness that's happening in the world today. We have a incredible debt ceiling today and that's not going away. That's not coming down. This country continues to have to pay higher and higher interest payments on that debt. That's not going to go away and, as a result, less money, less dollars, is going to be able to flow down to the states from the federal government. So if there's less money flowing to the states in terms of government aid, those states need to make up that shortfall.

Speaker 2: 16:28

And a major way they're going to make up that shortfall is through property tax. And even though rates they can go high, they can go low, there's a lot of speculation out there. Even with low interest rates, you still have that mortgage component to deal with. And if your property tax component to deal with, and if the state and the cities and the towns need money and your property tax is going to keep going up and up, we're going to continue to have this affordability issue, with people being able to buy their own homes, which is going to force more and more people towards renting. Because even though my property tax goes up on my buildings, I am a ties that over you know, 5, 10, 100 units, so the cost increase of my property tax is less on a per unit basis, so it doesn't hurt the tenant as much when my taxes go up on my multi-families. So that's one thing that's happening out there that's going to be pushing people in society more towards renting.

Speaker 2: 17:48

Another thing that's happening is we're all so familiar with things like next day Amazon Prime delivery. People want things instantaneously Instacart. People don't even want to go shopping for their own groceries anymore. They'll rather just order it on the phone, things like DoorDash and Uber Eats. Society itself is getting very not everybody, but there is a degree of society getting lazy. They don't want to even go shopping for their own groceries, right, or go pick up their own prepared foods. They don't even want to go to the store to buy the food, to come home to prepare the food. They don't want to do any of that. They rather just order it from Uber Eats or DoorDash and have it delivered already, cooked, for them.

Speaker 2: 18:38

Oh okay, that's fine, but that's a sign. That's a signal People don't even want to take care of their own yards. They don't want to mow the lawn, they don't want to clean the gutters, they don't want to shovel the snow, they don't want to paint the trim, they don't want to take care of a house, they'd rather have somebody else do it. So that right there, that societal impact is going to push more and more people towards renting, whether it's a single family home or a condo or an apartment. That societal impact is just going to create a greater need for rentals for apartments. So there's a lot to unpack in all of this. So hopefully I'm not Martin, hopefully I'm not rambling, hopefully I'm healthy. You're good you're good.

Speaker 2: 19:28

Got any questions in any of that.

Speaker 1: 19:31

No, there's a lot there. So I know you took it into why we're going to become, why we're becoming a renter nation, which is kind of one of the thoughts I had that I wanted to discuss with you Before I go there. I wanted to ask you about what's happening currently. Right with what you said. Right, we've got people that society as a whole with technology, technology is doing this to us, where everything's door-dashed, this that, like you said, people don't want to do anything. That's one of the biggest challenges.

Speaker 1: 20:08

You, growing up and coming from a blue collar home, myself as well, first American born, first generation American, born myself from a Latino household. No-transcript. Poor people right, people that are poverty. I'm a big preacher of biggest difference within with wealthy people, rich people and poor people is that rich people have the ability to sacrifice today for a better tomorrow, continuously. They keep thinking about tomorrow, taking their money and investing it, while poor people have the inability to do that. They just instinct gratification. They get their tax payment, they wanna go buy a car, they buy liabilities for wealthy people get their money and they're thinking about how to invest to make that money continue to grow. And that's a muscle. And you're using a lot of language and I know that you're in the personal development space and you go to a lot of events because you're using a lot of language like value system and things like that, and I recognize all of this stuff because we probably travel in a lot of the same circle.

Speaker 1: 21:16

So I like to ask you you work with a lot of people and when you're working with these people with that come to you and they wanna be in real estate. What are some of the most common limiting beliefs that you deal with, with individuals coming to you saying, hey, tony, I wanna be in real estate and how do I do what you did? Became financially free and I have a job, corporate job and all of that. Well, you and I both know what limiting beliefs are. Maybe you can explain a little bit to the audience what a limiting belief is. But what are some of those common beliefs that you kinda find consistently and continuously? You know your brain identifies this pattern. Hey, this is a common one. And advice are you telling people? So those people that might be listening to us, that might be saying, hey, tony, I wanna go in real estate, and you hear this limiting belief, what is it? How do you deal with it? How do you tell them to manage it, so they can?

Speaker 2: 22:15

Yeah, that's a great question.

Speaker 2: 22:17

This is gonna be awesome. So, you know, a limiting belief really starts off real simple. Think of it as like a little seed that you tell yourself something that you tell yourself you can say you know, I can't do it. That you tell yourself that on day one I can't do it. Okay, then on day two you add another layer to that story of I can't do it. And the next layer is I'm not educated. So you say, okay, there's another layer to that. And then the third day you say people are gonna laugh at me if I fail. And you add another layer to that. Right, it's like an onion.

Speaker 2: 23:04

You keep adding to this story, to this fear, you keep feeding into it and many times it's yourself, it's ourselves that are creating this fear. That is very limiting. It paralyzes us and it starts with one simple thought and then we build on it and we build on it and we build on it. Let me tell you, I meet too many people who are 50, 60 years old who share with me Tony, I could have bought that building 20 years ago, when it was $50,000. And I say, okay, so why didn't you? You don't need me, you know that was the right thing to do. It's because they created this fear in their own mind and maybe somebody contributed to that as well where maybe there was a parent or a sibling or somebody that says, oh, be careful, be careful, real estate, that's high risk. You don't know that. And I say to them well, your sister or your sibling or your parents told you that what experience do they have in real estate investing? And I'll get that they don't have any, that they don't know their renters or they own a home or, yeah, they don't do any real estate investing. So why are you listening to them? Why aren't you listening to people like me and Martin and others and so many good free podcasts and YouTube channels and cheap books out there you can read around why are you listening to somebody that hasn't even done any of this? So I start to break that down and I start to help them understand where they're paralyzed. Is it because they're uneducated? Maybe, and I'll help them with that. There's so many people that can help them get educated on real estate investing.

Speaker 2: 25:02

Is it because they say, tony, I don't have enough money to come up with it? Down payment? I exactly, another limited belief. You're right, but I share with folks, and sometimes I hear folks say oh, gee, I have a job, I have a W-2 job, I gotta go do that. Let me tell you, I get it. I was there, I understand, I am you, I was one of you, right, I get it. And so I share with people.

Speaker 2: 25:33

Having a W-2 job is actually a great thing, because I don't have a job right now, right, I don't have a constant paycheck. And when I go to the bank to look for money, they look at me and they say, gee, tony, you don't have a job, what's your income stream look like? And it becomes a difficult conversation because my income streams are different. When a person with a job goes to a bank to look for a loan on real estate, they'll look that much more favorably than I am because they have a constant paycheck, either weekly or every other week. They get a constant paycheck. And if you've been at your job for any amount of time three, five, 10 years man, you are seeing so much more favorably than I am when you go in for a mortgage. Okay, so that's one thing that's good about having a job.

Speaker 2: 26:28

As far as dealing with the banks Also, many people have retirement plans, savings plans 401K with their employer and so again, if you've been with your employee for any number of years, if you've been there five, 10 years, 20 years, you can actually borrow from your 401K. And I'm not saying everybody should raid their 401K, I'm not saying that right, this is a case by case basis, but it is. It kind of breaks down that limiting belief of I don't have money for a down payment, I buy the way Tony.

Speaker 1: 27:05

I would. I would raid the 401K if I had one, cause I know I know how to do this thing here, but I would cause I could do much better return on my money that these hedge fund guys are doing or these mutual funds.

Speaker 2: 27:19

And you don't even have to like, like, rate it to take out permanently all that money. If, like I remember going to my 401K and borrowing like I think it was 20 or 25,000, I actually borrowed eight a loan with myself out of my 401K, where I took that that 401K money $20, $25,000, because I needed it as a down payment for a property, but I was borrowing that money from myself, from my own retirement account, and so that's one area. If you have a job and you're working and you have a 401K, that's one area where you can get money for a down payment. Okay, there's a lot of.

Speaker 1: 28:00

I want to really quick on that, just really quick to hold that thought, tony, cause I think there's something really good right there. We're something really good to help people dismantle that limiting belief. I don't have money and they feel that safety of that 401K. You borrowed $25,000. I think I pretty much I'm sure that this is the answer, but I want you to break it down for why you did it.

Speaker 1: 28:21

In the Mac, you borrowed $25,000 from yourself that you paid yourself 50 until you. We had to wait until you were 50 and a half. You borrowed it and you put it into an investment and you did the math. I'm sure you did the math and you said, okay, if I take this 25 and I put it here, this 25 is now going to generate, when I'm done executing on whatever the business plan was on that real estate. If you took it for real estate, which you did yeah, it's gonna generate XYZ amount of cash flow and the return of my investment is gonna be this, which is much better than this.

Speaker 1: 28:54

Can you break that down for people, please, because I think people need to hear that because, see, it's really simple math once you know this stuff. It's really really simple math once you know it. But the thing is people don't have the education, they don't know it, so they're scared because they have this little thing they saved up their whole life and that's for when they get older and they're like shit. If I take this money out now and I'd make the wrong move, I'm gonna be out 25k. That's gonna affect me when I'm old and I know that. If that's you listening to me right now, fear not, because all it is is simple numbers, just if you know how to add a fifth grade, sixth grade, math. Please break that down for us, tony.

Speaker 2: 29:35

Yeah, and and. So again, this is where you know, if you try, if viewers and listeners are Are listening to people who have never done real estate and are building up these fears in their head and they've never done real estate. Those are the wrong people to talk to. They've never done it. They don't know how to execute these strategies, these ideas. And so, martin, I don't I don't remember the exact like Percentages of the loans and whatnot, but basically, yeah, you're, you're right.

Speaker 2: 30:06

So I borrowed for my 401k. As a result of borrowing that money from my 401k, I needed to pay that back in terms of weekly Contributions back into my 401k. So if I borrowed $25,000, I might have had to pay back to my 401k like I don't know, like $200 a month, something like that, maybe like $50 a week I needed to put back into my 401k as a result of borrowing that 25 grand. Okay, so on a monthly basis, I was gonna have to find another $200 to put back into my 401k, and that's fine. So I look at the investment itself and I say, if that investment, I could buy it using 401k money and I can fix it up, fix up this investment on nights and weekends, put some Sweat equity into it and rent it out. And in many cases I was getting I do remember this because it was my metric I would work to get about $300 a door on for cash flow on each property. So if I bought a Three-unit, a triplex, I would look to get 300 a door or $900 a month in cash flow. So $200 of that cash flow and that's after the mortgage was paid and all the expenses, the water bill and everything Right, so that's just pure profit. For me went to my bank account. That $900. $200 went to go pay my 401k your $25,000 alone, correct, each month, right, and that went off to go pay that. Now the other $700 is Pure profit. It comes into my bank account and for for me to spend as as I choose. Now Some would say, well, you still have that.

Speaker 2: 32:02

That to that $2,500, $25,000 that you pulled out of your 401k. That's, that's true. But what? What happened? And on this particular Property that I do remember, I bought it from the bank, it was a, it was a foreclosure. At the time I was a triple-decker a 152 thousand dollars for that property which I then sold ten years later for three hundred and fifteen thousand dollars. So I more than doubled my money on that, on that property and the $25,000 that I borrowed from my 401k. I I paid that back several times over, so to speak.

Speaker 1: 32:49

I I made that money several times over our terms of the collective love it, I love it, I love it, tony. Here's what. Here is the point, right. So you took the 25,000, you put it there. Even if you did nothing, you were still netting you and you created cash flow for yourself, seven hundred dollars a month after you was paying that. Now you have control of your money, making money for you, versus a third party Somewhere, some corporate, some guy, something, charging you a bunch of fees and all this stuff, and you more than doubled your money.

Speaker 1: 33:23

And I be. I'd be curious to ask, or to To just you know, I'm just curious if there was any way in the world. So you bought it for 150. I don't know how much you put into that property to rehab. Do you remember more? I, I don't. Let's say 50. Let's just say 50. I'll just say 50. Yeah, I see, sure Are you.

Speaker 1: 33:41

But say, let's say 210, you netted a hundred. Let's say you netted a hundred grand on this deal in ten years. I say, let's just say you net a hundred grand in ten years, plus the cash flow that you had in the property during and you were paying off your 25,000, right, and you were paying that down, right the ten years paying 2,500. So at 2,500 you paid it off. If you paid it in ten years, if you paid to one a week from that, so you put the property paid it off, you netted another hundred thousand. Could that $25,000 essentially turned into 125 because you paid it off and you made it a hundred? Could that hedge fund or whatever mutual fund or whatever made you that money in ten years? No, who's me. Oh no, money in ten years and and and uh it.

Speaker 2: 34:26

The simple answer is no. The hedge fund, the Mutual fund, the ETF, whatever it was invested in it, wouldn't have done that. It wouldn't have created that wealth for me and Even more. To drive home that point right, I ended up when I sold that three unit building that Triplex. When I sold it, I did this beautiful thing. Many of your viewers and your listeners I'm sure are familiar with it. It's called a 1031 exchange Mm-hmm. Whereas when I sold the property I didn't I didn't have to pay taxes because I rolled that money into another property that next property, get this. That next property was cash flowing $7,000 a month.

Speaker 1: 35:13

Wow, wow, right, no that you. This is a jump.

Speaker 2: 35:19

Right, so these in index? Wow, and again, I share with folks. I am not. I didn't come with a silver spoon in my mouth. I don't come from any. I'm no smarter than any of the viewers and listeners out there, right, but this is possible. Right, you have to be working with and listening and educating with folks that are doing it.

Speaker 2: 35:43

Well and right and you got it to spell those fears that you built up. I can't do it. Well, why? Why are you paralyzed? And if you can't figure it out, go to Martin, go to other folks you know in your community that are doing it and have those and they'll help you break those down. They'll say, oh, you're, you're paralyzed for this reason and they'll, they'll help you work through it. So, yeah, you got to get out of that.

Speaker 1: 36:09

Yeah, one thing I share Tony, with with folks, is that, as I found, as I've gotten older and I'm sure you have You're traveling and you going to a lot of events and you're around a lot of successful, high-level people. What I found is the more successful the the individual is, the more freely and willing they are willing to help others and give the information to others, the more successful. I'm gonna repeat that the more successful the person is, the more they're doing, the more freely They'd be willing to just hey, let me show you here's what I do, here's how I do it go. They're willing to give you the information they want to help. You know there is a. There is coming from a, coming from a Poor background.

Speaker 1: 36:51

I remember growing up, tony, and I remember hearing things about rich people, limiting beliefs, talk about projections and limiting belief here. I remember hearing things about rich people. Rich people are bad. I grew up in New York City. Rich people live in Park Avenue and they have us living here in the projects in the ghetto and they, we work for them and they make all the money and we're here, I and these were things projected onto me and as I'm older now and since I was a kid, I always said I wasn't born to be poor.

Speaker 1: 37:23

I would tell my mom I'm not born to be poor, I'm born to be rich. I don't know how, but that's what I'm born to be. And now I have a lot of rich friends, a lot of wealthy friends, and man, it could not be further from the truth. Not all rich people are assholes. Not all rich. Most of them are generous, good, kind people that want to help and want to give and want others to succeed. Most wealthy people I've come across and that's what I want to attract in my universe Good quality people.

Speaker 2: 37:55

Anyways, it's so funny. I want to share a quick story. I know where time will get it, but a real quick story. So I went to this conference recently and it was a great conference on a lot of different topics. And I said to my nephew, who's 19 years old, he's not going to college, he's not sure what he wants to do. I said to him hey, I'll pay for your ticket. The ticket was, I don't know, $600, $700. I said I'm going to pay for your ticket for you to go to this event so you can get some education, some different education outside of the school system, so you can kind of see how things are working in the world and meet some really great people.

Speaker 2: 38:31

So he went to this event. He paid his own airfare and he had skin in the game. So he was there. He met some great people, he networked. There were people that I introduced him to that are just rock stars in the real estate world. He left that event with three job offers. Look at that Three job offers where these you know, passionate, kind, nice, smart rich Good values man, good value kind people.

Speaker 2: 39:08

Good people. Yes, they said come work for me, I will teach you, I will show you how to do this right. This 19-year-old kid? He doesn't know. I'll say, and I've told him you don't know shit about shit. He doesn't know shit. You're not shit, you're well under it. You don't know. You got out of high school. You know what they taught you, but you don't know the real world. So you know, come to this event so we can start teaching you and educating and blah blah and meeting the right people so you can leverage right. He left that event with three job offers. How amazing is that? When folks you know want to kick rich people in the mouth? Let me tell you they are doing exactly what you say, mar, and they are doing, for the most part, nothing but reaching their hand out to lift people up.

Speaker 1: 39:52

And yeah, that's yeah, I wanted to show that, sorry Cause I thought that was a great story, man. That's a really powerful story for people to listen to Because you know, listen. I remember me sitting in meditation in my room and thinking in my office, thinking, well, I need to change my circle Cause you hear Jim Rohn. I used to hear Jim Rohn. Now I used to hear Jim Rohn. You're probably familiar with Jim Rohn.

Speaker 1: 40:17

There's one of his speeches where he says if you want to be rich, you got to hang around rich people. Right, and the best way to be around and get around rich people is find your local country club and go and have lunch there. You don't have to know anyone. Go and have your when you go to lunch, instead of go have lunch there once a week or once a month whenever you can afford. Just go there and just be around them.

Speaker 1: 40:39

Before you know it, you're gonna start making friends. Before you know it, you're gonna start learning and thinking, and it's infectious, right, the people you start spending time with it becomes infectious. Before you know it, you'll be the sixth rich person, not because it's gonna magically appear, but because you're gonna start to learn to think, to think how they think, to learn how they invest and I would always wonder where do I go? How do I change my circle? Where are rich people Like? How do I become friends with a Tony or a Martin that can help me? Right? You got to find out where we're hanging out at. I'm telling you because I struggled with this y'all, I struggled with this stuff. Where are you hanging out?

Speaker 2: 41:16

Tony, and it's so easy. The people that I coach and ask me that type of question, I say it's so easy. Go find your local real estate investment club.

Speaker 1: 41:26

Yeah, that's the same thing. I say, brother, go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go go go, go, go, go go.

Speaker 2: 41:32

I mean the one with that I belong to. It's very expensive, martin. It's very expensive. It's $120 a year. If you can afford $120 a year To go hang out with a bunch of smart, educated people who are doing what you want to do, who are passionate about teaching others, then this might not be for you. If you can't allocate $120 a year a whopping $120 a year to go hang out with people who are already doing what you want to do, If you're not willing.

Speaker 1: 42:13

Here's my thing on that, tony. Here's what I tell people on that. I host a meetup and I host it at a church. Actually, next week we're hosting our meetup and our meetup is going to it's a topic I'm going to be teaching is how to invest in multifamily. I hosted at a church. The church charges us a fee and whatever we charge $15 at the door for people to come in. Whatever we get, if it's over, whatever the church charges us, they charge us $200 for the night. I donate the whole thing to the church For their gratitude, their kindness, for them allowing us to meet in their space.

Speaker 1: 42:49

I get people call me sometimes. Tony, you already know the call, you already know the text, you already know it. Why are you charging everyone else's fee? Like, hey, come on. If you are not, if you are not and I'm talking directly to you, listener if you are not, like Tony just said, $150, if you are not ready to invest $15 in yourself to learn a skill that's going to make you potentially millions and change your life and your future generation, like then you are not ready. Yeah, that's just that's. If you are just not ready, you just you're not ready. You really are just, you're just trying this on, you're not really wanting to do it.

Speaker 2: 43:27

Yeah, it's a mindset. It's a mindset and again, I know we're stretching on time. But another thing I get people who they'll sort of speak, beat me up or kick me relative to oh, you're going to that conference, robert Kiyosaki is going to be there, he's going to be speaking. You know, I'm all jazzed about it, right, to hear different ideas and things and learn. And they'll say you know, oh, he's just going to try to sell you something. He's going to try to sell you a book or his program or whatever.

Speaker 2: 43:54

And I think to them and I say to them do you think Robert Kiyosaki needs Tony Lopes' money? Do you think Robert Kiyosaki needs my money? Robert Kiyosaki does not need my money, he does not. Right, he is there and I can share with your viewers and your listeners. He is all about education, right, he's all about creating what him and Kim call real teachers, and I know that because I've had Kim on my podcast. Kim I consider a friend, she's great, she's an educator. They talk about real teachers all the time and that's what they do. They're not looking to grab your money, they're looking to teach and help people, just like you're saying morning 100%, brother.

Speaker 1: 44:41

One, 100%, my friend. We can go on for another 30, 40 minutes talking about this. It was my pleasure, honor, having you here on the podcast. We're going to go into the untitled round where we're going to ask you a series of questions. You don't have to justify. If you don't want to, you could. It's untitled, it's just for fun. Okay, are you ready to play, my friend? Let's do it. Real estate is a lot of fun. A million dollars is just money.

Speaker 1: 45:14

My advice to young people is grow their following. I've always wanted to travel to it.

Speaker 2: 45:26

Um.

Speaker 1: 45:28

Fiji, the president right now is fighting Family or business. Yeah, you almost took me off on that. Well, the question is I think the president right now is oh, oh, okay, I missed it, I missed Reddit. I think the president right now is Correct Family or business.

Speaker 2: 45:54

Family.

Speaker 1: 45:55

Wine or beer, wine Book smart or street smart?

Speaker 2: 46:02

Oh, that's a tough one. Wow, I'm split, I'm going to say 50-50. The food, or steak man, I love me some surf and turf.

Speaker 1: 46:14

Passion. Passion or stability, Ah, passion. Words or action Actions 100% More time or more money, more time, angry client or angry coworker?

Speaker 2: 46:38

Ah, I don't know how to answer that one. I might have to give a pass.

Speaker 1: 46:41

This is the next one. Thank you so much for coming on being such a great guest, sharing so much wisdom, so much knowledge. I mean this was awesome. Thank you so much for that, brother. If people wanted to connect with you, find you, buy your book how they connect with you. Where can they find you? Where's your soul? How do they find you?

Speaker 2: 46:59

brother. Thank you so much, martin. This was a true pleasure to be with you today. They can find me by going to my website dirtybootscapitalcom. They can also email me. I respond to all my emails. Tonyloapsatdirtybootscapitalcom. Tonyloaps L-O-P-E-S. At dirtybootscapitalcom. They can find my book Freedom at Risk how to Protect your Personal and Financial Freedom. They can find that on Amazon and Barnes Noble.

Speaker 1: 47:30

Awesome, my friend. Thank you so much again for coming out and sharing your wisdom, your knowledge, your insights. This is your home. You're welcome here anytime, my friend. Thank you, brother, appreciate you. Thank you, martin.