Today on the show we have Howard. Awesome dude. We chat about how to become a millionaire while working a 9-to-5 job tips and tricks on how to save and pay down your debt and use good debt to grow your wealth! We even get into pickle ball. I didn't even know this was a sport and he explains this to me. All around good thought-provoking and mindset show today.
if you enjoyed the show be sure to check out my info:
https://app.wingcard.io/ROB3SA64
Today on the show we have Howard. Awesome dude. We chat about how to become a millionaire while working a 9-to-5 job tips and tricks on how to save and pay down your debt and use good debt to grow your wealth! We even get into pickle ball. I didn't even know this was a sport and he explains this to me. All around good thought-provoking and mindset show today.
if you enjoyed the show be sure to check out my info:
https://app.wingcard.io/ROB3SA64
so I don't forget it. So what did you do before you retired and came back to teach people finances?
howard dekker:I, you know, I, I got a long story, you know, ever since. You know, I was born in Detroit tool and dye factories where my dad worked. And my dad had five kids. And I used to go with my dad and look at businesses because he wanted his own business. But then whenever he saw something, he always had the excuse, use the same excuse every time. Oh, I can't, I can't afford to do this. I got, you know, five kids. So he never did anything. And so I knew from an early age that I was going to own my own business. I just didn't know what to do. So I built multiple businesses. And I had actually built 18 businesses sold two of them. The rest of them, I just phased out because I wasn't making enough money at him. And my last 120 years ago, I started medical imaging centers. I had consulted at MRI center. I don't know, do you know what an MRI is? Yeah, magnetic resonance imaging. And I consulted them. And I really liked the business. So I learned it from them. And then I went started my own imaging centers. It took me 20 years to build that, and I did really well at it. And I sold it to a publicly traded company three years ago. So between that, and the plan that I teach everybody that I started, you know, maybe 35 years ago, I just became a multimillionaire. And all of a sudden, I wasn't working, and I was bored out of my tree. And I needed to figure because I've always been a goal. Notice the book right behind me thinking grow rich, very good book. Yeah, I've always been, I've read that right out of college 10 times. I've always been driven by goals, and things to do lists and calendars every day. And all of a sudden, the only thing on my calendar was pickleball. I played pickleball every morning. And but I was bored. I was like, Man, I can't do this. I don't like this retirement thing. So I put a presentation together. I had a 17 and 18 year old at the time, PowerPoint presentation to teach my kids how to become multimillionaires. The way I did it, and the way my dad did it. And before they before I presented it to them, I says I want you to invite some of your friends and tell him I'm going to teach him how to be a multimillionaire. And so that I Ted kids show up and I did my first presentation about three years ago now. And I blew him away of how easy it is to become a millionaire at some time in the future. It's not hard. It's easy. But what blew me away was nobody's teaching us this in school. I figured it out. I got lucky because my dad knew I had the plan. So I kind of learned it from him. So that's when I said, Man, I love this. And I have passion for it. So I put a course together and you know, it's online. I've been doing that for about the actual online course is about a year, year and a half. And it's great. I love it. I travel in my RV is my RV is set up where I pulled out one of the couches. It's it's a big RV. It's a 43 footer, okay. And I got my big screen TV, I mean, my big screen monitors, and my laptop. So I can run my business right out of my RV. So I'm having a ball, I travel the country. I meet a lot of people, a lot of people get involved with my program, but I play a lot of pickleball and every city I go to perfect. So that's kind of how I got to where I'm at. You know, it started out I just needed something to focus on I need, I needed passion for something and I found that
Josh Bolton:Oh, and it's really funny for me. A lot of my co workers were like, Oh, you're gonna be successful this and that. I'm like, Yes, I will be. Now of course, that's a different question. But they're like, Oh, what are two like one book? I said, Well, I'll give you two you can read these two. I know you will be successful thinking grow rich, but also the richest man in Babylon.
howard dekker:How to that? Sounds like a tune that I recommend?
Josh Bolton:Yes. If you can get through those two, even if it's by the audio book, I said, then you know all the foundations and it is the world is your oyster set in Chile?
howard dekker:Right? Oh, there's another one that I had in there. It's the greatest salesman by Augmon. Dino.
Josh Bolton:Okay, that is the like third person in the last month, greatest salesman in the world, that's the greatest salesman in the world, I'll go buy an audio copy of that I prefer my books, audio.
howard dekker:And that. So those are the three. I actually for years, whenever somebody graduates from high school, I send them a letter, and I don't send them money. And the letter tells him, this is what I want you to do. You know, I want to teach you how I became a multimillionaire, I want you to go out and buy this book. And then I want you to outline it, send me the outline, and then I'll give you $500. So that's thinking grow rich. So some of them take me up on it, most of them are too lazy to take me up on it, but some of them have, and it's been pretty cool.
Josh Bolton:You know, what is the the caveat for them for the$500?
howard dekker:They got it they? Well, if they read the book, and they send me an outline of the book, and then there's something else in there and tell me how this book, you think this book can change your life? And so there's no caveat. It's just, if they want to do it, their gift for me for graduating is $500. But if they're not willing to do the work, go to the beach. Go do whatever the hell you want to do. You know, you and I both know that for anybody to become wealthy. We got to work. Oh, yeah. It's, it's Nothing's easy. You just we just got to make the decision to do a few simple things, and then go to work. And you know what I teach, I teach people how to become a multimillionaire in the background of life because it's set up once and then every month something happens. And as we go through this, I'll let you know exactly what my plan is so
Josh Bolton:perfect. But I want to say before we get too deep into it, Howard, I want to say I'm liking this energy can you give us out is Decker right.
howard dekker:Deckard, Steve k k e r s okay, so
Josh Bolton:can you tell me a little about pickle but before we go into that, I never heard of it till now.
howard dekker:Oh, no fooling. Oh my god. Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America. Okay, it's now. They've now have pickleball tournaments all around the country. And the number one female as a 15 year old girl who's unbelievable. The number one male is actually the number one female is Anna Lee waters. The number one male is 24. And he's bend Johns. And it is the only sport where you can go to the park. Put your racket in a system. And you'll be playing it's a double sport. But it's combination of tennis and ping pong.
Josh Bolton:Yeah. The court it looks like but there's there's two courts repricing one. How's that work?
howard dekker:Well, you can get two carts out of one tennis court. Okay. So there's a lot of parks around the country that are they got all these tennis courts and nobody's using. So they're converting it. It's turning into some really big business, that 15 year olds making a half a million to a million dollars a year already. And you know, because it's just like tennis, and they're superstars. And, but what I love about the sport, is it keeps me active. I meet a lot of people, and when you play this game, everybody's laughing. Everybody's smiling. Everybody's having a great time. And they don't have to be good. You know, they have different levels. You know, I'm an intermediate to advanced. But I play with beginners now and we have a ball. So so it's an all you got to do is Google closest pickleball courts to me, find a couple of courts. And what you want to do is find About one open players, and it's usually every day of the week. Like, eight. You want to get there somewhere between eight and 10 in the morning? Yeah. Or if there's lights five to 10 at night, but once you play you get hooked if you actually become addicted, it's it's a crazy, fun sport. And you know, we're always supposed to stay active. I was running for a while and I hate running. I hate it. I tried swimming. I hate it. You know? So it's like an I hate running on a treadmill. Okay, it's so damn boring. It is. Pickleball you'll go for an hour to two hours straight playing. And it is so healthy for you. It keeps you young. And as long as I play pickleball I don't gain weight. Perfect. And soon as I quit playing pickleball I gain weight. Wait,
Josh Bolton:we can probably burning a lot of calories too when you're doing that.
howard dekker:Yeah, well, I try to get 10,000 steps a day. I get somewhere between eight and 12,000 steps every day. I burn about 25 to 3000 calories a day. And I know that because of my Fitbit
Josh Bolton:cozy. I looked like we had the same one. Oh.
howard dekker:I love that. You got a Fitbit. Yeah. I love the fact that. You know I wear hearing aids. So at night I take my hearing aids out. And so I can't hear an alarm clock. What I love about this the silent alarm. Do you use it? The sound? Yeah,
Josh Bolton:the vibrate? Wanted.
howard dekker:Oh, I love it. I love it.
Josh Bolton:Yeah, I've been deepened asleep. And suddenly I just I slept through all my alarms. And I said emergency one on here. And it just went off. And I'm like, Oh, wow. Like I need to kick Boyd kind of thing. Yeah. This so what is the basics your plan for people? Let's say someone just joined and watched your your 30 Minute video? What would be some of the steps you start showing of their?
howard dekker:You mean if they sell if they go to my website and watch my half hour video, what is the next step is? What do I teach them? Yeah, like
Josh Bolton:what do you teach? Okay.
howard dekker:The first thing we got to understand is almost everybody is illiterate when it comes to finances. Because we're not taught, we're not taught in high school. 78% of the people in the country are living paycheck to paycheck. And there's no reason for it. So the first thing I do is I teach them how to do a budget. And it's not boring. I have I've developed a one page Excel spreadsheet that's plug and play. So even if somebody hates numbers, or hates never did a spreadsheet in the class, they learn how to use it. Now once they have it filled in, which is going to show their income and everything they're spending their money on. And it's not that difficult. Now I teach him how to massage it. Because in this budget, it has a forced saving and tree in it. Meaning if they're making $5,000 a month, take home. Okay? I want them to save 10% Now do they have to save 10% of that every month know, they can pick the number that they want to start with whether it's $50 $100 $200. So so now they got first thing they have is the budget and they understand how much money is coming in and how much money is going out. Then what I do is I show them how to find two to$500 a month that they don't even know they had and take that money. And that's going to be part of your plan. And I'll tell you a couple of the ways we're going to find that money in a minute. But once we decide, okay, I want to be a multimillionaire 30 years from today. Okay, we're going to start the plan. We're going to set it up one time, where we're going to take $50 $100 $200 $500 Whatever that there are a number it is going to come out of their checkbooks and it's going to go into a brokerage account that I'm going to help them set up in the class. And I like Fidelity it, and then so and they own it, nobody else owns it, nobody's gonna trade it in and out of it. It's an account that is designed to accumulate money. So the $50 a month is gonna come out, it's gonna go into fidelity, let's say the second of every month, the fourth of every month that$50 is going to buy an index fund that averages 10% return. Okay, index funds, just just to give you real quick index funds. My favorite one of my favorite ones is the Standard and Poor 500. Yes, this is 500 of the largest, most successful companies in the United States. So with the money being in there, we have the opportunity from growth of those companies. And it averages 10%, it's average 10% for 50, somebody five years. So then that works, set it up one time, in the background of life, the only thing that person has to get used to is they have to know the second of every month, this $50 is coming out of my checking account or this $500 It's coming out of my checking account. So they just got to make sure the money's in there. So the next question is, well, I make$5,000. But there's no way I can save 10% I mean, I'm, you know, I'm spending everything and I'm still using credit cards. Okay. Yeah. So that's where I start showing them how they have to look at how they're spending their money. Typically, in, in our country, the reason why so many people are living paycheck to paycheck, is we want more, okay? We want the nicer car than a nicer house, when we get a raise, we might go buy this or buy this. So we buy and we don't keep anything other than the stuff that we buy. So I've got to show people. This is what you're doing. Now. Let me show a few change. Just a couple of things. How you can be a millionaire 30 years from today. And this is the one of Starbucks. This first one is, you know, Starbucks is one of the most successful companies in the nation. And your typical college kids go in there five times a week, four or five times a week and they're spending $5 every time they go there.
Josh Bolton:It's more like eight now here in California.
howard dekker:Okay, so there you go. So, for my example, I'm going to use so you're spending$100 a month with Starbucks. So basically what you're doing at that 5000 You said I'm gonna give Starbucks 100 of it. So for five cups of coffee, or four cups of coffee, whatever it is, so this is what I want you to do. I don't want to change your life. I don't want to cut out your Starbucks because I know you love it. I want you to only give Starbucks $50 a month. That's two cups of coffee a week. Okay, yeah. And I want you to put that 50 In your fidelity 10% Fund. In 30 years, you will have invested you will have invested 1200 a year, okay. It will be worth 113 $114,000 in 30 years, two cups of coffee. Get rid of it. You'll have 114,030 years which will be part of your financial freedom. Fun. The next one and this is where they can make a lot of money is a car. There's a ton of people that have 678 $900 A month car payments. And if you ask them why they'll say well I can afford the monthly payment. So this is what I tell them using$650 car payment as an example. I want you to sell that $650 A month car and I want you to buy another car and only pay 325 a month. So instead of given 650 a month to the bank, I want you to give 325 to the bank. And then I want to take 325 automatically we set it up one time. We set it up in class and it goes into fidelity, that will grow to$741,000 in 30 years. So just changing two things, two cups of coffee, and bringing that car payment down, I just found them close to $1,000,000.07 100, almost $900,000, doing two things, and then we'd go through a whole group of those things. So it's simply a matter of being motivated to one day, being able to do what you want, when you want, and how you want. It's that simple. Anybody can do this. Now, another nice thing about this class, it's simple. They don't have to be highly educated. They're not let or they're not learning how to do puts or calls or options or anything like that. They're simply learning how to take it from your checkbook and put it into a brokerage account that they own. That earns at least 10%. And I'll show them how to become a multimillionaire sometime in the future. So that's basically the plan.
Josh Bolton:So I'm just curious, because you keep looking to the side, do you have like a whole spreadsheet of like, this ever equals this? Yeah,
howard dekker:I have a because I talk numbers, right. And I want to make sure that, you know, sometimes you talk and I've done this before, where I'm talking about one thing, but I'm using a different example. And I screw it up. So I have a cheat sheet in front of me. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it's show I've got it all broken down, I've got it by a power of compounding is one of them. This is big. And most people don't know this, this is I love this number. If a person puts $10,000, one time, in a savings account, that $10,000 Because savings account pays so little, like point zero 3%. But 00 3%, in 35 years that $10,000 In that savings account will grow to $10,108. But if they take that $10,000, same 10 and put it into their fidelity brokerage account, or whoever they want to use, and it earns 10%, in 30 years, that 10 grand will be worth $320,000, they did nothing other than take it out of the damn savings account and put it in an account that stays way ahead of inflation, which is 10% index funds. So that's a cool one, you know, 100,000, and that account will grow to $3.2 million in 36 years. And they did nothing, but except put it in that account. So
Josh Bolton:no, okay, my only thing this is just a technical question. How do you calculate in the 2% fee for that the SP y for all that compounding? are you assuming the SP s&p 500? Is 12%?
howard dekker:No, I'm assuming 10%. Okay, so then you got more of 8% growth? No, no, the numbers that they show you are after commissions, you know, they're paid in the background. So so they're averaging 10% plus. And that's what I'm averaging actually. 12.2%?
Josh Bolton:Yeah. So when you say more, the s&p 500 It's, like 11 to 13%. More realistically.
howard dekker:Yeah, but I use 10%. Simply, yeah, I mean, 30% I show this 100,000 probably grown to 5 million. But, you know, I think 10% is doable. You know, my dad did it. You know, and I'm, I'm at 12.2% right now. And that's over 30 years. 30 some years. So. Okay,
Josh Bolton:I was just curious, because I know, like, at least the spy ETF they take a percentage a year.
howard dekker:Right? So um, I forgot where I was going with that. Oh, where was I going with it anyways, whatever.
Josh Bolton:So it's all good. So I'm just curious when you see fidelity, do you also encourage him to do a Roth account?
howard dekker:Oh, absolutely. That's the first thing I want. Number one in my book is if your company offers a 401 K, and it's a match and then match it, I want you to put first part of that 10% In that 401 k up to the match, and then everything after that a Roth, everybody should be putting $500 a month into a Roth IRA, everybody, because it is the most amazing account. Because with an IRA, you know, I got, you know, a million million and a half in an IRA only because the Roth IRA didn't exist back 35 years ago. Okay, so I have to start taking money out of that Roth IRA, when I turned 72, I mean, a regular IRA when I turned 72. And that's because the government wants their 30%. Okay, they're gonna force me to start taking money out of that. So a Roth IRA, you don't ever have to take the money out of it, if you don't want to see I'm fortunate. I'm also have some real estate investments that throw off enough cash, where I don't ever want to touch my Roth IRA. Okay, I don't need to I just want to watch it continue to compound and grow. So definitely number one is 401. K, and we talk about these in class. Number two is a Roth IRA. And Max it, you know, if they're under 50, they can put in 5000, was 6000 a year, which is 500 a month. If they're over 50, they can put in $7,000 A year into a Roth IRA, and then it will grow tax free. You know, and we never have to pay the government on that money. And that's beautiful stuff.
Josh Bolton:It really is. And that that's the one thing I tell people. And then they all look to me like, well, that's not on Robin Hood. I'm like, Okay, well, Robin Hood's not the best place to make financial decisions, per se.
howard dekker:Right? You know, I'm old school, you know, you know, then I've got students saying, You're gonna teach me how to do crypto.
Josh Bolton:I was my next question is, what's your crypto?
howard dekker:I'm not the guy to teach anybody on crypto. But what I will say is this, I'm also not the guy that is going to tell you not to do it. Okay, if somebody wants to see the reason why I like the market, and index funds. Now I'm also into dividend paying stocks, okay. But I teach index funds, because it's simple. And most people aren't smart enough to pick the good stock, and there's a lot more risk in it. So man, I'm losing it. Today. Twice. I lost it. What was it? What the hell was I saying?
Josh Bolton:index funds? It's not easy for them more simple.
howard dekker:Yeah, oh, crypto. Let's go back to crypto. So this is what I tell him. I said, look it if you really feel that you want to gamble on crypto, okay. Then instead of putting 10% If that's your number, into index funds, put 8% into index funds and say 2% for doing stuff like that. You know, I hear so many people talking about, I'm going to be a multimillionaire on crypto. They're hoping, you know,
Josh Bolton:they're they're buying one of those meme coins and hoping for the best.
howard dekker:Yeah, it's, you know, they just had a one of the largest in the country. It's actually it's going right now, I think today's the last day a crypto conference in Miami, which is what it's probably 45 minutes from me. And I was listening to one of the people who put it together. And he was asked why he put this together. And he said one of the big reasons is because when there's something new that isn't regulated, big time yet, there are scam artists everywhere. And they're all figuring out how to rip you off. He said so what I'm trying to do is bring people to this conference and introduce systems that aren't a scam or whatever. So you don't have to gamble on these other things because you really don't know. No, I mean, it's so new and I'm not saying it's bad. I'm just saying somebody is sitting here telling us it's the most secure thing. on the planet,
Josh Bolton:no one's hacked Bitcoin in 12 years that, yeah, give it, give it a few and someone will figure it out.
howard dekker:So think of that think of that statement. It's like, it's all digital. You know, it's, it's, it's what happens when whoever's managing all of that they get hacked, they get a ransomware attack.
Josh Bolton:This one firm, they were like a crypto video game, they got hacked and all their money was just taken. It was a rule within the cryptocurrency that they built. And the guy just flipped a switch and they sent it all to his wallet.
howard dekker:Isn't that amazing? See, see, I'm not ready. I don't want to gamble. I don't believe I'm gambling if I'm in something that's been working for 100 years, okay, right. Now, if a what do you call that? Electromagnetic pulse bomb goes off and destroys everything digital. Are you gonna get your money? You're not gonna get your money from anywhere. No matter where it is.
Josh Bolton:The funny thing is about the regulations and the money. I actually so Google has been giving me a lot of ads for gold and silver because they know I've been looking up inflation. So I bought this cool like, one ounce silver bar. Have you seen Mandalorian ever seen my the Mandalorian on Disney? No. Okay, nevermind. Well, those listening I bought the silver that looks like the Mandalorian six steel. And it was just one of those an hour later they called me into like, Oh, were you was it a crypto scam this and then I'm like, No, I just saw this really cool piece of silver and I just bought it for 200 bucks so I can get free shipping. And a lady like kind of pauses how's that that's actually kind of cool. It's one of those Silver's one of those is a great hedge and plus it just looks cool. So I'll be like Sure enough to everyone like this kind of thing we had and that was one of those my co workers said like what's a good hedge for air quote inflation for a guy like me and I'm like, technically stock market. But if it gets really explosive inflation like the 70s I'm like, just hope there's not too bad.
howard dekker:Right? You know, it's it's like it's like there's so much fear mongering going on all the time. And people listen to that in you know, today, mom down in the market and gotten 25,000 Yesterday I was down 30 The day before I was down 35 You know, but the bottom line is I'm averaging 12.2% But it doesn't scare me. i When I hear the markets down I've got certain companies that I want to buy more of their stock when it gets into a buying rage. You know AT and T went down at&t pace has been paying a great dividend it's been paying like eight and a half percent that's being cut in half but it's still a great dividend like 4.2% Sounded $19 Today
Josh Bolton:well they also did a stock split to I just got Warner Brother media stock at&t Yeah, T
howard dekker:ticker T Yeah T
Josh Bolton:Yeah, I mind job too. But I also got Warner media stock.
howard dekker:Oh, yeah. It wasn't a split it was Vegas. Merge that off they merged it off. Yeah. But AT and T Oh, so that finally happened? Yeah. I didn't even notice
Josh Bolton:you say it's somewhere in your portfolio. Oh, yeah. Um, something W I can't I can't wait to look at it. Yeah, and that's where I saw the same thing I'm like oh my god it dropped but then my my think it's swim said oh, you now own Warner Brother discovery media.
howard dekker:Ah, that's why it went down to 19. Yeah,
Josh Bolton:whatever the equivalent is, it was I own like, I bought 10 Will compounding I got 11. So it gave me two shares of Warner media for each five shares of TNT. So yeah, check that out. And that one's written like crazy right today, too.
howard dekker:Is it really? Yeah.
Josh Bolton:Yeah, that's, that's an error when I tell people like the stock market is just as great because it's one of those cuz it's like the crypto guy. It's so regulated. They pretty much have to tell you everything with it. right or not?
howard dekker:Right? Exactly, and Kryptos, they're gonna have to get there with crypto, they have to. I mean, they have to, it's like, because scam artists will be everywhere. So even though it was like that in the stock market, you know, the 1929 crash that everybody talks about the Great Depression. You know, there were so many, it wasn't rent regulated, there was no regulation. And there were tons of pump and dump schemes where people would, and they were hurting everybody. And also, and I see this happening with crypto 80% of all stocks being bought, in the 20s, were being bought on borrowed money, people were going to the bank, taking out loans and buying into the stock market. So when the market crashed, they not only lost all their money, but they still owed the bank 10,000 $100,000 That's why people were jumping off the skyscrapers. And so the lesson is, don't buy on margin. Don't borrow money to invest for the future. Now a lot of people do it. Crazy.
Josh Bolton:Oh, and that's like my Roth account. When they first formed, it was margin than they didn't tell me. And that's where then I got a margin call. But it was like one I think it was, like 100 bucks. So I just told my right here, I'll pay it. At least not terrible. Like$100,000 call, right? I told him like cut that margin, though. I did not know that was there.
howard dekker:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No. Well, you know, maybe 35 years ago, I was playing with margin and a little bit, but I got rid of it completely. Yeah, eventually.
Josh Bolton:Like for me, I'm I am learning how to trade the futures market. And with options, and I only buy and it's one of those like, for my paper trade account, I sell naked options because I hypothetically at 50k. So I'm like, Okay, I'll sell half of that. So the whips I'm okay. And a and it's one of those. Because it's paper. I'm not too worried. But it's like the if this is real, and like, I wouldn't be sleeping, I wouldn't know what to do with myself. Right? Like, I'm not going to actually do this in real life. And
howard dekker:so what are those plants to your right, so those are lucky bamboo. Lucky bamboo. Lucky. Yeah, lucky bamboo. Okay. I was trying to figure out whether it was pot. I thought it might be new.
Josh Bolton:I'm experimenting with these to figure out how to grow plants in water, and it is doing pretty well.
howard dekker:So that's like a fish tank full of water. Yeah. So that grew from the bottom. Wow. That's cool.
Josh Bolton:Thank you. I liked her. I was one of those. I was at PetSmart near hearing my town. And it was like $10 for one of those. So I went to like a local nursery. And I fell in one for like two bucks. Like a like you had to buy five of them. It literally totally This is so much cheaper in the PetSmart I kind of went home with them.
howard dekker:So what are they called? Lucky bamboo. Lucky bamboo. Oh, that is really cool. How big will they get?
Josh Bolton:They just keep going. I had like I had to constant cut them. Like that guy by the filter. I probably gonna have to kind of again, that's been a month. Do you have
howard dekker:fish in there too? Yes. Okay,
Josh Bolton:they're all scattered about. Nice. So then let's say I came back to the market for the average investor, and you tell him that index fund buying but from this see someone is a little more savvy understands the P E ratio and all that what would be then some some things you show him for that? I wouldn't. Really I
howard dekker:wouldn't know I'm, I'm I'm not. First of all. I'm not a financial planner. I'm not a licensed financial adviser. I'm just a guy who has a system that works. And I don't I really don't believe most people want to be educated to all of the increases of the market. I think they just want a plan that will help them get here. Now what happens if they don't hit 10% and they only average 8%. Why would you rather have 800,000 than nothing? Or would you rather have 500,000 So you You know, I have friends that are doing my plan. But I also share with them some stocks that I get into, but I don't want to complicate anything for students, I want them to get used to taken out of their checkbook and paying themselves first. And then later on, if they want, I can show him how to pick some stocks. I'm not smart enough, I belong to newsletters, okay. And I read a lot of these newsletters, like one of my favorite ones is called the dividend machine. And I've bought some, and I've done great with with these people's picks. So what I'm teaching is people how to accumulate money, because most people aren't accumulating anything. Right? Okay. Now I've taken for myself it a step further, I've not only accumulated money, but I'm also building a dividend machine. Okay, my, here's a perfect example, my dad never earned more than $35,000 a year, he worked from age 20 to 55. And retired, he put a total of 122,000 in the market. Today, it's worth $3 million. And he gets $85,000 a year in dividend, and he hasn't worked in 40 years. So I'm building that. And I'm doing that through regular stocks that pay dividends. Now, I'm also building real estate income, you know, I own three Walgreens properties, and I make great money off those properties. I'm now investing into short term rental homes. Okay. So, you know, I've got a couple of storage units. So everything at the beginning was all the market. And then as I had extra money, and I did, I started diversifying the money into other areas. And I'm not ready to teach people that I'm ready. Yeah, I'm ready to teach them one thing, get your damn financial freedom plan set up and running. And then experience it for a little bit. And then if you want to venture into a couple of stocks that pay dividends, get a couple of newsletters or whatever, right, you know, and, you know, so So I, you know, finances is too complicated for most people. You know more about finances than 90% of the people out there, because you're experimenting with the options now, or futures or whatever the hell you said it was. Yeah, you know, most people don't want to know this stuff. They just want to be a millionaire. Sometime in the future. So
Josh Bolton:yeah, so I'm just one thought that kept coming to my mind. And it's probably what a lot of people are thinking. They're like, Okay, that's great, Howard, but how do I get more explosive growth? Do I need to start my own business? Do I need to save more? Let us all kind of thing.
howard dekker:You know, unfortunately, most people don't want to start their own business. But if they did, and they're successful. I mean, that's, obviously that's a way to get rich a lot quicker. However, a lot of people who own businesses, and I was one of them in my 20s and 30s. I was making three $400,000 a year, and I wasn't saving anything. I was living paycheck to paycheck. I had a house on the intercoastal I had all this stuff. And then I realized in my late 30s That man, what happens if my business goes bankrupt? Or what happens if a law changes? I'm going to be 60 years old and bro. So that's in my late 30s. I started the plan. And I started have 10 to 20% and going into Fidel, I've been with fidelity for a long time. And it works. It works.
Josh Bolton:Oh, it does. So now this is just a question for me. Let's say someone has an idea for business, but especially with the law landscape, how would you recommend them? Hypothetically coaching like you to go about marketing their business?
howard dekker:Depends on the type of business. First of all, you know, one of the things that I'm realizing is, in nowadays, social media is great if you're willing to put in the time, and here's the perfect example, me. I have a whole marketing team behind me, marketing management team, they do everything in the background. They did. And you know, like, so anyway, how they got me? Yeah. And, um, man, I keep losing it. Oh, my God.
Josh Bolton:My Lucky Bamboo must be confusing you.
howard dekker:She's, where was I going? You have a whole
Josh Bolton:marketing team behind you. And then of
howard dekker:social media. They keep telling me, okay, we want to put your students on hyperdrive. We want you to do one posting, at least every day, we want you to start doing webinars. And I'm telling them no, I'm, I No, I don't, I don't need to do this to make money. Okay? I don't want another job. I'm retired, I don't have to work. And I have more money coming in than I've ever had coming in. Okay. So I refuse to do what it takes to become the super big dude on the internet. Okay. So if you're willing to do what it takes, and you're a young guy, you might be absolutely social media. But what you got to do is you got to build an audience. Because the audience are your buyers. It's a noun. So I've always built businesses where I had to go out and sell something. Okay. And I really liked that kind of business, you know, why I'm doing these short term rentals now? Is I have to go out and find the house, okay. And somebody else a management team has to keep it full. Okay, and you have to pay 20% of your revenue. For me, I'll do it. Now. I'm not going to have to go and do a post. I'm not going to have to do what it takes to be sick, I'm successful. Somebody else is going to do that. So what financial freedom because it's me, I have to do it. I don't want to do it. So it depends on your idea. You know? It all depends on what your idea is to make money. But one of the things you got to realize it like I told you, I bet at businesses, the most important thing you have to do is start one, if that's really what you want. It doesn't matter whether you hit or miss. What matters is you start it. Because what you're going to find is when you start this business, it leads you to the next one somehow. And then all of a sudden, you do this one. It Lee and all of a sudden, you find yourself. I'm not a doctor. I owned medical imaging centers. I had radiologist, I was hiring I had technologist I had 155 employees when I sold my company, and it blew my mind when a radiologist would walk in my office and ask for a race. It was like, how is it that all of these doctors are working for me? Yeah, I knew nothing about health care. Other than a business is a business is a business. You got to treat people. Right? And if you treat people right, and with respect, and you're fun, you know, and you make it fun for everybody. You know, eventually you'll get to wherever it is. So if you've got an idea for a business do it
Josh Bolton:now figure it out. And that's the reason I was asking because I love hearing different people's take on it and yours is more kind of what I was aiming at. So long story short, essentially I got asked by when I used to work security had a truck eat. And I'm was very observant and this guy really knew it. So, context there was a guy with like a Hells Gate tattoo of fire and demon spawn coming out of it on his neck. And we'll call him Chuck. I don't really remember his name, but Chuck was coming in and he pretty much wished to shatter his leg and go home for six months instead of working one day at the warehouse. It was one of those I just showed him. Okay, that's interesting. And the guy, his name is Kirk, essentially. Do you know that the logistics company and FYI? No, okay, big companies like JB Hunt, but they're private. Essentially, he comes up, he's like, Hey, why is my warehouse feeling like why this is my baby that got me to where I'm at. management wise, I said, well, that gives that guy with the Hell's Gate Tatsu with the demon spawn, pretty much wished pain, bodily harm instead of coming here and like steal the word morale has more power than what's going on here. Like this. You're too far up the chain, you've forgotten what it's like to be in the trenches. And so it's just one of those games, simple techniques that you said, make it fun. We humans love games, even we're not competitive gamify it? I said, Can you afford to put $500 aside a week for just $100 gift card for your employees, like the top five with no injuries, best production, all that they get 100 bucks kind of thing? He's like, Oh, yeah, that's like to stick dinners. And like, well, wherever you go, I want to try that place out. You're paying though. And essentially, within a month and a half. He I gave him some extra techniques. And they're stealing went down to production went up. They went from the laughingstock of the company, to like, everyone suddenly is calling him saying, Wait, you were the Joe asin of every joke. What happened? Like, oh, yeah, the security guard just gave me some tips. So he literally like, month and a half later said, Okay, how much do you want for your services? And I'm like 10 grand. And now afterwards, I did some questioning. So he went from 300,000 a day to 1,200,000 a day. And now I'm sitting here going, damn it. I shouldn't ask for more.
howard dekker:Did you get your 10 grand? Yes, I did. Wow. So what's the business?
Josh Bolton:Which is like a consulting coaching business. Okay. Because I've gotten so many requests for that, that and how to podcast. I have like, Well, I've been I've been doing this like almost a year and a half. But I'm not like Joe Rogan raking in millions of dollars just sitting there. But I can show you the basics of what I know.
howard dekker:All right. So see even even what you're doing what you're doing. Everybody keeps telling me why aren't you doing your own podcasts? You know how much work is in what you do right now? Oh, yeah. And I don't want a job. See, if I was your age, I'd be doing what you're doing, I'm sure. But I'm not. You know, I've already had the kids married, and you know, divorced, and just loving life. And I'm not willing to do what it takes. This new real estate company, though is easy. So
Josh Bolton:be able to say you just hand him the check and say alright, figure it out.
howard dekker:Well, now they give me a check every month. Oh, my Walgreens, I have three Walgreens. And each one was $4 million.
Josh Bolton:Did you buy the pad or the actual lot
howard dekker:of the lot in the building? Okay, now there's Walgreens done on their own property, somebody that people like me. So I get $25,000 a month, deposited in my checkbook every month from those three Walgreens. Nice. And how did I get there? I got there. Because I sold my company. Okay, I became successful. I had to figure out all of a sudden, you get all of a sudden you have millions of dollars sitting here. And you don't know what to do with it. So I had a friend who owns a company that owns like 120 Walgreens, as so he brought me in and I bought three Walgreens and
Josh Bolton:he handles everything. But he's the one that handles everything, all the maintenance and stuff.
howard dekker:I don't do anything. I don't do. I don't do one thing. He makes 20% of the rent. He makes like 9000 A year from each of my store. So he makes 27,000 a year managing it. And, you know if the roof needs to be fixed or replaced, his staff handles it. Don't do anything. It's the same thing with short term rentals. You find a good management team who manages knows how to Get keep them for and they get a nice percentage every month of the deal.
Josh Bolton:Yeah, Howard. I wouldn't say I love this and we could go a long time. How long do I have you for? Or do you have someone that after this?
howard dekker:No, I'm okay.
Josh Bolton:Okay, I'm just making sure because it wasn't last time I had. So when we were going like this this last second, like, I do have to go
howard dekker:through it. And I do that. No, no, no, no, I'm, I don't, I don't have anything going on after this. Cool, cool, I guess relax,
Josh Bolton:cast, you get to once they replayed your pickleball earlier, I was even gonna play again.
howard dekker:Now. When you get older you even though you're addicted. You got to really manage it because I want to be out there every day. But you start getting these aches and pains and say I really got to manage my pickleball playing.
Josh Bolton:This sounds like it's like it isn't addiction, but it's like the semi healthy addiction.
howard dekker:Oh, it's now it's it's great. It's a great addiction. Health wise, but you just got to be careful. You you could do it seven days a week and you would have nothing to worry about me I can't do that anymore. Yeah,
Josh Bolton:it's funny so I do martial arts and my martial arts instructor like oh, the day you turn 30 Everything's gonna go downhill Mike, you sure about that? Said I'm more active than you were in your 30s at 30 music and you suck so what I'm going to ask more specifically on real estate is well this is just like more high level they what is what is the let's say an average Joe trying to get in and they they buy a house and they have an extra room? Should they Airbnb it in your point of view.
howard dekker:I have a friend in Nashville that does just that. He has a big house. And he says he's doing really well with it. How much? I don't know. But it's a beautiful place he belt you know, the reason why I'm doing it is I live in a vacation area. You know, I live on the coast. You know Boca Deerfield Beach popping on Fort Lauderdale, people are flying in here all the time just to hang out on the beach. So there's a market for Airbnb rentals. So you can buy a home, convert it to an Airbnb. And you can make 30 $40,000 a year on one, Airbnb. You know, that's nice. So, you know, I'm just getting into this. So I'm not an expert on it by any means yet, I'm still putting together my team for that. And that's another nother thing we're talking about is to be really successful in a business, you have to be able to put a mastermind team together. You know, some of them you're going to have to offer. When I put the medical company together, I knew what I knew. And I didn't know a lot about medical. So I've it took me a couple of months. But I literally gave 10% of the company to a guy that had been in medical imaging for like 20 years, 25 years. And he became one of the key players on my team. And then I found the best radiologist in South Florida. And I paid him more than anybody else would pay him. So now he was on my team. So now I had a guy who totally understood the medical end of the business. And I had a radiologists that physicians would want reading their patients scans. And then I just had to find key technologists. So you've got to put together a team, because you can't do it all.
Josh Bolton:So here, here's a side question and then we'll try to get back to that. So let's say for someone still, they're making money, but it's not worth like, like for me I know it's not worth quitting my job. How would it but I know I'm at that point. I need a team but I don't have the cash flow. What point would you say? Consider it and how would you find that person?
howard dekker:Well, it depends on what you're willing to do. You might have to offer him some stock in the company. Okay, you know, and Did they're willing, they understand that look at, I'm barely making anything from it now. And so as we go forward, you know, eventually the goal is to make this much. Do you know how to do spreadsheets like projections?
Josh Bolton:Sort of?
howard dekker:Yeah, well, you need to learn that. And you can learn that pretty easily. That up tonight. Yeah. And that will excite some people that you're trying to attract, show them what you're building. And, for instance, way back what I had learned, in 1995, I went into consulting, I have a business degree, I wanted to consulting. And I let everybody know, that knew me, I had, I had sold a company that had 100 employees, so I was moderately successful in that one. And I let them know that I'm looking for another business opportunity. And if they have any friends, or family that own a business, and they're struggling, let them know that I'm available. And they might want to meet me, and we can see if we can put some sort of deal together, where I'll help them achieve whatever they want to achieve. So I got a call, I lived in Detroit at the time, from a friend whose cousin owns an MRI center. And I, I was in Detroit, I told him, I'd fly in for two weeks and shadow him. And I did. And that's how I got in to the medical imaging, you know, it, I was led there and buy a little one page business plan. So it all boils down to if you put projections together, okay, now, the business, I already knew what I was looking for. It was a business that if I was successful, I want to be able to pay my sales reps, 100,000 a year. And I wanted to make 100,000 a month. And I want the business to make 100,000 a month. So when I built my projections model, which you're going to learn how to do when you do projections, it's like, okay, if I sell this many, this is how much I'm gonna make. If I sell this many, and just different level, you might find that whatever your business idea is, you're not going to make enough money in it, you know, all you're going to find that, wow, this looks great. Because I can make a lot of money, a partner or two can make a lot of money, and there's still going to be money left at the end, you follow me? So I think one of the big problems that people are mistakes people make when they're opening up their own business is they don't really understand where they'll be. Once they're successful. They hope they'll be someplace where they can make a lot of money, but they just it's a dream. Right? So when you put your forecasts or projections together, you will say, if I sell 1000 of these a year, this is my bottom line. Okay. Now, in the projections, you might say, I'm going to need five sales reps. So sales rep one, you know, make maybe makes 50,000 a year salary, and he can make 50,000 a year in commission. So that's 100,000 sales rep too. So you have to build all of these costs in the projection. And then when it's all done, you'll see it's either worth by time or it isn't because you have to find a business that is highly profitable. Unless you build it a hobby, which I don't think you are, you know, you know, I made a mistake picking medical imaging, even though I made millions of dollars and I would do it all over again. There's so many businesses where you can make hundreds of millions of dollars a year. We just can't find it. But some people start businesses, and they just happen to get into the right business, you know, so just make sure that you can make great money. And that's how you can get somebody excited to join you and your partnership, show them look at, I think we can do this, you can make this much money, because you got them slotted into your projection, follow me, it's not going to be right away. But once you get to these numbers, because you're, you know, anybody who's going to join you, is doing it for their future. You know, they're gonna need to make some now money. So maybe they can start out doing whatever they're doing and helping. So that's one of the ways I would try to attract somebody to my team. I told you, I gave Claude 10% of the company. He never put a nickel into the company, I put all the money in. He brought nothing.
Josh Bolton:He was just the mastermind that knew all the rules and regulations and ran it helped you mostly run it
howard dekker:he uh, he knew all of the modalities, you know, I did MRC T, nuclear medicine, ultrasound, mammography. I had free standing clinics where the physicians would send to me I had 10 or 12 sales reps, you know. And, you know, I'd have weekly meetings, and Claude was always the expert. On the medical end of it, I was the expert on the business end of it, and the motivation and, and the fun and event because people want to have fun. When they're working, they want to laugh.
Josh Bolton:Yes. says they do? That is that's one thing that I've told many different businesses and owners as I've gone on their shows, I said the thing that I don't know what, where or when it switched, but it's like, it seems around the eat is just became only numbers, no more fun, no more personality. And I said, and that's kind of when everything kind of slowly slipped down, stocks went up, that's great. But the people, the more out just doesn't exist, right. And I said, Those who said, Those who figured out how to make it fun, safe and productive. I said, those are the ones. It may at first not seem like they're making a lot of money, but they're going to pay off in the long run, because there shouldn't be people willing to work harder, than instead of saying I want to raise, it's like, I want to I want to make sure this job continues because I like where I'm at.
howard dekker:Kind of thing. Right? Right. You know, one other piece of advice I have for anybody who wants to make more money is, and I learned this as an early age, always go the extra mile and everything that you do, always everything, it opens up opportunities that we're not aware of that are open. And just give you an example. Let's say you're working at a company. And there's always a couple of superstars at these companies. They're in the same job. But they're like, they're always working and, and there are people that are always going the extra mile. Those are the people you want on your team. So let's say you were starting a business, which you are, and you're looking to attract some good people which you are, who's the best people to attract people that were going the extra mile. So now you're going to this person that has demonstrated going the extra mile, and you're offering them a partnership. Had they not been going the extra mile, they never would have gotten that offer. I'm not saying they have to take it. But going the extra mile in everything opens up doors we're not even aware of and it opens up income opportunities within the company. Because the bosses, the owners are looking for great people, because they get like me. You know, you get to a point in life where you don't want to do everything. You want to surround yourself with people that go the extra mile that make stuff happen. You just want to keep everybody focused in the organization. See, I really believe the definition of a CEO which I was for 3040 years is the CEO is the person that keeps the focus of the mission statement of a company and as always, Dr. yet, and reminding people what we're all about. And hopefully, in my case, it was good medicine first profit second, you know, always being there for our physician always been there for our patients. And if there's a problem fixing it, now, problems get fixed today. They don't faster. So go the extra mile.
Josh Bolton:No, that's literally what I've picked up on. And it's funny, I was just thinking through the whole thing. We were saying that one of my co workers, he wants to grow, go to a different company get paid more. And I said, and he totally ignored me. It was funny, because one of the guys listening, and he said, No, you should ask Josh. That question. He talks to CEOs for fun. Like he could tell you exactly what they're thinking. So he asked me, like, how do I stand out? I'm like, I'm trying to grow within the company quickly. And as I told him, I said, personally, that's fine and dandy and all. But how long were you with your previous company before? stators? She's like, two years, and I went up promotions. And I got Twitter piqued. And I leave, I said, okay, so you're saying you gave me about a four year so all I know, for you, what you just told me, you'll go for about four years, you'll hit your peak, and then you're gonna dip to someone else. I said, that's, I wouldn't hire you just because of that. Because then I only have a four year lifespan, I need to get as much as I can. And he just looked at me, I said, if you want to grow in a company, I said, first things first, when they say put a reference, I'm actually going to call it to see if that reference is real. And I said, Don't put your neighbor or your cat, or whatever, put a co worker that's been with you in the trenches, because I'm gonna say, hey, you know, I'm calling about Julio is the Oh, yeah, I remember, Julio is he is the hard working guy. Oh, yeah. He breaks his back every day more than you should? Is it right there, I would hire them. The rest is nice, that I would hire. And he's like, certainly, he started asking around for references. And I told him, make sure you were you referenced someone, because maybe you'll leave and go somewhere else. But they'll remember you in two days. So that's another important thing, because a lot of my co workers they'd like you have a conversation, completely forget it. And gone. I said, make sure you have someone that's willing to remember you even five years out, is that call could be the one that gets you the 100k your salary. And that's what he just said, then you say, Wow, that's very valuable knowledge, by the way. So good luck with that.
howard dekker:Mm hmm. Cool.
Josh Bolton:Obviously, did I miss something and explaining it to him? Will Save coming from you for 35 years of experience?
howard dekker:It No, no, not at all. But he's just got to have a story. Right? He's got to make she got to know that. A smart owner is gonna say, Well, why were you only here two years? Why were you only here one year? Why he's, he's, you know, we're all salespeople. I don't care what we're what we're doing. We're all salespeople. They just got to have a good story. That makes sense. And hopefully, that boss is going to accept potential boss is gonna buy it. Because it's, it's all sales. It says,
Josh Bolton:an anthro told him I said, it's also the name of the game is more who you know, not what you know. And maybe you have no experience in whatever field but your aunt's cousin who knows you is like, Oh, I'm tight with the CEO of this place. Hey, let me set you up a meeting a coffee, you have to pay. I said that coffee, that 10 bucks, and whatever to drive out there might be worth millions in the future. But you had to be willing to take that opportunity. And he just kind of sat there and it was just one of those, Mike. I'm just saying, man. And so is there anything else?
howard dekker:You want to talk about Howard? No, just if anybody wants to find out more about my program, just go to Howard. decorous.com de que que ers.com. And there's a free training on there.
Josh Bolton:And is there an interview is really good. What's it your 30 Minute video is really good, by the way. Oh, well. Thank
howard dekker:you. And, you know, I strongly urge people to start this program and follow this program, especially if you're not on a financial freedom plan. Because 30 years from today, you're either going to be in the same position you are today. Or you're going to be in the position to be able to do what you want, when you want how you want and it's all up To the people. I mean, it's, it's the decisions we make in life that determines our destiny. So make the right decision. And whether it's my program or somebody else's get started. So that's all I had to say.
Josh Bolton:Perfect and I will link your website in there of the description for them. Sounds good. absolute honor and a pleasure to finally talk to you, Howard.
howard dekker:Hey, it was great. Josh always enjoyed this zoo.