Discover Your Investor DNA: The Framework That Stops Kids From Making Your Money Mistakes | Russ Morgan

#081. What if the best investment for your kid has nothing to do with what worked for you?

In this episode, Justin sits down with Russ Morgan, co-founder of Wealth Without Wall Street and host of the Wealth Without Wall Street Podcast, to unpack one of the most overlooked concepts in building family wealth — Investor DNA.

Russ grew up in a home where money was scarce, watched his mom freeze her credit cards in a block of ice to avoid spending, and stumbled into the financial advisory world just in time to have everything he thought he knew blown up by the 2008 financial crisis. That reset sent him on a mission to find a better path — one that doesn't require waiting 30 years to start living.

In this conversation, Justin and Russ explore:

• Investor DNA — why every person, including your kids, is wired to invest in different ways, and how discovering that early can prevent decades of costly mistakes
• The financial freedom formula — passive income greater than monthly expenses, and how to use that simple scoreboard to make smarter decisions with every dollar
• The "just try" mindset — why imperfect action beats perfect paralysis, and why the best investors hit singles, not home runs
• Real-world passive income for kids — from vending machines to short-term rentals, how to get your kids building income streams before they even leave high school
• Why passive doesn't mean hands-off — the front-end work that separates successful investors from disappointed ones
• The family time you can't get back — why financial freedom isn't just a money goal, it's a parenting one

Whether you're just starting to think about building passive income or you're already on that path, this episode will give you a fresh framework for how to think about money — and how to pass the right lessons on to your kids before the wrong ones take hold.

Resources mentioned: WealthwithoutWallStreet.com/moneydad

Show notes and more at:

https://moneydadpodcast.com/session081

Transcript

Justin: . [00:00:00] Today's guest is Russ Morgan, co-founder of Wealth Without Wall Street and host of the Wealth Without Wall Street Podcast, Russ helps individuals, families, and business owners break free from the traditional paycheck to retirement model by building passive income that supports real life, more flexibility, more options, and more time with family.

Justin: He's known for a simple action oriented motto. Just try. And today we're gonna talk about how that mindset applies, not only to money and investing, but to raising financially confident kids who know there's more than just the paycheck path.

Justin: Russ, welcome to the Money Dad Podcast, 

Russ: man, Justin. So, , excited to be here with you. I love what you're, , talking about and definitely near and dear to my heart. 

Justin: So excited to have you here. , So much I wanna get into with you and, and what you're doing. , Want to start off maybe just, you know, from, from your childhood actually, what were some of the earliest moments or memories of money growing up and , how did it shape the way you think about now about financial freedom as a dad?

Russ: Well, it's, it's [00:01:00] interesting, like the, the path that I grew up in was a very, , poor home. So my, my, my parents divorced when I was early, uh, like in the first grade. And my mom was a school teacher, had to go back to school in order to be able to get her degree to be able to, you know, teach school. And my dad was kind of blue collar construction worker.

Russ: So my experience early on with money was probably very scarce, right? Like there was not a lot around. And I, you know, I probably learned a lot of the wrong lessons, right? My mom putting her credit cards and a Tupperware dish and putting water in 'em, and then putting 'em in the freezer so that way she wouldn't spend money or watching my dad go down to the pawn shop and pawn his rifles in order to be able to get enough money to, you know, go buy the materials for the next job that he was doing on a remodel or something like that.

Russ: And I didn't know much about money and when I went to college, I, I didn't know what I was gonna study and I decided finance would be a good idea. So went down this finance management route. And my, , first job outta college. I started working for a company called [00:02:00] Enterprise Rental Car. I started managing , , rental car, , offices across, uh, you know, the United States.

Russ: And it taught me a lot about how to manage money. And so after four years, I decided the best way to really learn about money is getting the financial advisory industry. And that's what I did. I became a financial advisor in 2004. I became a certified financial planner in 2006. At this point, I, the market's going straight up for those of you who remember those days, and I thought I was a financial expert, and it wasn't until late 2008 when the market started crashing.

Russ: The great financial recession was sitting then and I realized I was a moron. I knew very little about money and all the experts and mentors that I had in my life up to that point. Didn't really understand why the markets were crashing and all the models that we had been taught were broken. And it sent me on a path in 2009 to go seek what other ways we could create wealth and build true freedom that had nothing to do [00:03:00] with investment accounts and having money, you know, building up or accumulating.

Russ: And that really kind of set me on this path that ultimately we created the company called Wealth Without Wall Street. 

Justin: That's amazing. You know, you talked about initially yeah, the, the learning some wrong lessons in your, in your childhood. And I remember same thing here in terms of that scarcity mindset.

Justin: And you know, for me I had to break free from that, , mindset in my early thirties, , to changing that to an abundance mindset. So it's really important to really start to. Try to learn some of those lessons early on, , from a young age, , so that you don't have to unlearn, , some, , that you have,, you talked about, yeah, that path to create, , wealth, , and financial freedom and trying to figure out ways to do so, so that wealth without.

Justin: Wall Street, , really challenges that traditional paycheck to retirement model, right? Mm-hmm. Teaching us to stop trading our time for money. 'cause that's what inevitably a lot of us do. We, we go to school, we get a job, we trade our time for money. And instead, , you're talking about strategies to build [00:04:00] financial freedom.

Justin: Why is that path to financial freedom so important now, especially now for families raising kids today? 

Russ: Yeah, I, the thing is, is that we've been taught to get a good job to go to work, work for 30, 40 years, save all the money, and at that point in time, we live the lifestyle that we supposedly want. But as we know as parents, our kids are growing up in those early years there, and those are the most.

Russ: Valuable moments maybe in our kids' life, what they're, what they're going to learn, right? Is set in somewhere around age five or six. I think the studies say, and are they learning those things from us? Are they learning from someone else? And what are they learning about how mom and dad operate if we're constantly gone?

Russ: Now, it doesn't mean that you don't learn how to work hard. That was definitely something I learned from my parents, right? I didn't learn good money habits, but I learned working hard. That was important, and I think resilience, but what I see. You know, the, the people that come into our community who tell us, man, the [00:05:00] thing that I want is be able to.

Russ: Eat breakfast with my kids every single day. Yeah. Pick 'em up from the bus stop every single day. Like I don't want to have to be traveling for work all the time and missing out on the opportunities. Those were the things that really resonated with me because I saw that with my kids, right? Like I have a kid now that's in college and I mean I, I'll tear up if I start talking too much about it because there's all of these.

Russ: Things that no longer I can do with them. And if we postpone life until a point in the future, you're like, oh, well, you know the things that the kids wanna do with you today. Right? Like, I have a 13-year-old, like he wants to go camping with me today. My, my assumption is when he is 25, he's not wanting to go camping with me.

Russ: Like, that's not gonna be a high priority for him. Or maybe if it is your daughter who wants you to push her on the swing, like. Think about that 20 years from now, those moments don't exist. Well, do you have the opportunity to do that? Do we? Do we get to work because we want to and not because we have to.

Russ: And everything I've been taught as an advisor [00:06:00] was to separate people from their money. Take their, you know, their savings, their investing, tell them to keep working and wait 20 or 30 years, postpone their time of access. Well, as we know that financial freedom is when passive income exceeds monthly expenses, and we've seen people achieve that goal when they understood that was the goal within months, years, right.

Russ: And now they can start living that lifestyle with the people that they love so much immediately as compared to in 30, 40 years from now. 

Justin: Yeah, you, you nailed it. Like it's one of those things where that time with our kids is so precious, right? , There's that, I mean, there's a great book, , out there, , the 18 summers or you realize you only have 18 summers with them before they're gone away.

Justin: , , , and it makes me realize, , one of the things I value so much is having that, that financial freedom and the freedom to be able to, you know what, drop my kids off at school. Pick them up, , be able to spend time with them after school and, and have dinners with my family and just [00:07:00] together and go away on trips.

Justin: It's one of those things that feeling that you're not, you're right, you're not gonna be able to get back when they are 20, 25, 30 years old and they're off, , doing their own things and having their own lives. Right. So you're right about, you know, the importance of understanding that path of financial freedom can happen, , early, and you can develop that.

Justin: Those strategies to have, make sure that your passive income is more than your monthly expenses. , You know, a lot of the times many kids grow up believing that the only path is to, you know, quote unquote get a good job. How do we as parents really just start introducing the idea that money can work for us, that we can develop those.

Justin: Passive income streams and , what are some of the ways that you would suggest, , parents start to, , build those passive income streams? 

Russ: Yeah. Well, there's a, there's a lot of things. I think one, just having the conversation, right, like you're miles ahead by having a conversation about money.

Russ: , You know, I think there's this old myth that you don't talk about politics, you don't talk about religion, and you don't talk [00:08:00] about money inside the house. And I, I'm gonna put those other two off to the side for the second, just for the focus of our conversation and say. , Definitely talk about money.

Russ: Always talk about money, right? Like the thing that you don't talk about. That's the thing that becomes scarce. And the unknown. Like where would you want kids to know? So like if, if my kid comes up to me and asks me how much money I make, I tell 'em. But also, I think the other part thing is to understand that.

Russ: We create value in the world. And when you create, the more value you can create, the more money that you can make, right? And I think oftentimes people think about, oh, I go to work, I trade time for money. And it's like, oh, well you can trade time, right? So I'll teach my kids like, if you want to, you can come up here and I can pay you per hour to do a job.

Russ: Or you can think of the value of doing something for me with. And come up with the value of what that would look like and tell me, I'll do this thing for you [00:09:00] 'cause I think it will create this much value and here's what I would like to charge. 

Justin: Hmm. 

Russ: And I'm like, okay. So that job could actually be done in a short period of time.

Russ: It could be outsourced to someone else. Yeah. And if so, you can make the difference. And so I've tried to teach my kids kind of one how money works, right? Giving them money, helping them understand like. As soon as I could start paying them from our business, I did giving them their, their own accounts, helping them understand what that money could be used for.

Russ: We make them pay for all of their expenses so when they, you know, join Juujitsu or they go cheerleading or swim or soccer, they pay for it out of their. Money. Now those are dollars as parents that we were going to pay for, for their e extracurricular activities anyway. But the difference is, as we know, at least in the US, is that if I pay them outta my business and have a, an opportunity for them to, you know, do a job in our business and, and get paid, well, if I keep 'em below a certain threshold, they don't have to pay income tax on it.

Russ: Right. So I, yeah. I have the same thing here in Canada. So now, yep. [00:10:00] Yeah. So now the thing, the same thing I was going to pay for with after tax dollars. I'm paying in a sense with pre-tax dollars and I teach 'em that. I teach 'em how taxes work. I want 'em to be a part of every discussion possible. So when we've gone and talked with our state attorneys, we've talked with our, uh, tax accountants, I have a brought them into those conversations.

Russ: Not that they understand what's being said necessarily. But that they're becoming more used to it so that it's not so foreign. Because I think most of the times it's that it's just foreign to kids. They don't understand what it is. And so as they grow up, then they are more likely to make the mistakes that we made early on because they didn't understand, as compared to no, oh, there's people that are experts.

Russ: I need to go reach out to this expert. This is who my, my, my dad and my mom has used in the past. And I'll ask 'em these questions. 

Justin: , We absolutely need to normalize the conversations about money with our kids. It's so important to get, , them to, , , open up and ask questions. And for us to, to be able to make sure that, that [00:11:00] there's a, , there's that forum, that there's that, , platform that they can ask, feel comfortable asking those questions and, and for us to share.

Justin: And you're right, like it's, it's about exposing them to, . You know, maybe they don't understand. Yeah. All the concepts that are being talked about during that meeting with your tax accountant or your advisor or you know, an advisor, but they, they get exposed to it and then it does become normalized to them so that it doesn't seem so foreign.

Justin: You're, you're right. I love that line you had there where, you know, we absolutely, um, or what you don't understand, you end up, it feels scarce. You, you don't understand it. So, , . . If you had to boil it down to some money lessons that every child should learn before the age of, you know, 16 years old about money, , what would you suggest are the main or important ones and why?

Russ: Yeah. Well, I, I don't think lessons for kids should be any different than lessons for adults. There's so many adults that are out there that haven't learned these lessons either. And I, you know, we, with our kids, we read The Rich Dad Poor [00:12:00] Dad for Teens book. 

Justin: Mm-hmm. 

Russ: Right? And Robert Kiyosaki's Rich Dad for teens books, talks very simply about the same things he talked about in the quote unquote adult version.

Russ: Just he tried to make the concepts more relevant to kids. It's that we need passive income assets that create more, that create income that exceeds the monthly expenses. So I teach kids about budgeting, right? What does budgeting look like? So they have an account, we're gonna look at their account. What are they spending money on?

Russ: Uh, create percentages. I love the book, the Richest Man of Babylon that talks about living off 70%. And you know, like the more money we make the, that that 70% can grow. Create So, uh, an allotment that says, Hey, we don't, we're not gonna consume everything we make, but also now we have to do something with these dollars.

Russ: And I teach them that the goal should be to buy assets, to produce passive income. And so for a while, about three years when we were running live events. We had an investor in training group, [00:13:00] which was for 13 year olds up to the, , early twenties where we actually taught them investing strategies and we taught them, , that all of us have what's called an investor, DNA.

Russ: And I think that's a unique conversation for both adults and for kids, is that we're going to want to invest in things , that appeal to our nature and who we are. And I didn't learn this early on. I actually made the mistake of believing that, oh, just because Justin is investing in real estate and has success in real estate, then I can invest in real estate and have success in real estate.

Russ: I don't believe that to be true because I didn't, I don't possess the same resources, the networks, the knowledge base, all the different things that maybe you do for that specific area, but I've, I made that mistake. I went and invested in real estate and it was horrible for me. It was not a good fit for me, 

Justin: right?

Russ: It wasn't that real estate was bad, it just didn't connect with my investor, DNA, and I didn't know what that was. So we actually have our kids and the adults that go through our [00:14:00] community. Take a personality assessment and that personality assessment tells a lot about who we are and the things that we're interested in.

Russ: And then we have a matrix of all the different passive income assets that we've personally done. Now, again, it's not inclusive of every different investment out there, but then it tells you if you take your your profile and you match it up against that. Then it will tell you the pros and cons for your profile.

Russ: Mm-hmm. So it allows kids to actually get interested in things that they would normally be interested in, but it also tells 'em early on, here's the cons, here's the things that your profile would not like, and so they can avoid making the mistake. I. I know that this conversation can go in lots of different ways, but we talk about college and one of the biggest mistakes in college is that kids go and waste 2, 3, 4 years trying to figure out what they wanna do with themselves, 

Justin: right

Russ: and I, I'd say the best thing to do is go figure out all the things you don't wanna do before you go spend that money. Well, the same thing's true with investing. Figure out all the things that you don't wanna do before you actually ever [00:15:00] invest $1 and take the things that you're naturally aligned with and then go deep into that area.

Russ: And so for us, I'll give you an example. So I mentioned for me personally, my profile is very influencer nature. I like hands-on type things. I like being involved in things. And so my first investment was investing in real estate. That was in, uh, you know, hundreds of miles away from me. Mm-hmm. So I couldn't be involved in the thing.

Russ: Right. And like, didn't matter how much money it made or didn't make, it just didn't really fill me up. And I didn't understand why it didn't like it. But I knew there was something there. It wasn't until we kind of uncovered this investor DNA concept that I was like, oh, to me that's boring, right? Like, if I didn't like one, I don't want a hundred of them.

Russ: But then we actually, we moved into, started doing some short-term rental stuff. And by the way, I was not running it personally, but it was in our town. We built, um, a business to from zero units to over 25 units [00:16:00] within 18 months. Wow. I was hands-on with an operator. I was like helping them market it. I was teaching them business concepts, things that it really appealed to my nature.

Russ: I loved every bit of it. Right. And so I was, I was invested in the process, which again, we grew it significantly, we're making 20, 25,000 a month. , At the height of it. And I was like, oh, this makes total sense. This is my investor profile. This is my investor, DNA. So we teach kids that, you're going to invest in things based upon the way you see the world.

Russ: And so the, the quicker you can learn, Hey, I'm naturally gifted and focused on these sort of things. Go down that path. If I'm not, you know, like getting what my creative daughter, investing in real estate, for instance, that would be so boring to her. 

Justin: Right 

Russ: but if she wants to go out and find like a, a Pinterest site and go, go buy, you know, an online, digital website for instance, that she can then go in there and do different things with it, use her creativity and go get affiliates and, and make money [00:17:00] that way, that like would be right up her alley.

Russ: So I'm trying to teach her to think like. How does the world connect to your personality? And then how can you add that value to then make the result and money from it? 

Justin: I love that. Yeah. So it's not just a blanket, here's the asset class, you know, real estate, or here's the asset class, you know, whatever that is.

Justin: Just, it's really about matching . What's your investor, DNA, what you love to do? What lights you up and connecting your interest and passion in that to, , to whatever the, the asset is that generates that, that passive income stream. So that , , there's that, , whether it's an emotional connection or just emotional interest, , that aligns with your investment or what you're doing.

Justin: I hadn't thought about that from that perspective of, creating, , what is your investor DNA and then matching it up to, , the different passive income streams. , You talked about, , passive income math, the one number that ends the guesswork.

Justin: Can you just, and, and maybe that comes back to the, [00:18:00] you know, making sure that your passive income is more than your monthly expenses. But Can you just talk about what that, that framework, you know, whether it's a freedom number or, , what that math is. 

Russ: Well, well, right now if I went out to 10 people in the world and I say, how close to financial freedom are you? Eight of 'em would look at me like, what are you even talking about?

Russ: Right. Yeah. They haven't even considered the concept of financial freedom. That's a beyond their comprehension, right? Like they're just living day to day. Let's give, you know, credit to the other two that says, oh, well, you know, I've been investing money in my company's qualified plan, and I've been putting in this amount.

Russ: It's getting this return. I'm thinking, if I keep doing this for the next 20 or 30 years, it'll have x seven figures. And then if I use that, you know. 4% rule that, you know, they're, they're gonna come up with some sort of math equation, but they're like, but I don't know, again, I don't know what inflation's gonna do, what return's gonna [00:19:00] do.

Russ: So they, they're really fuzzy. 

Justin: Yeah. 

Russ: And I'm like, okay. How do, how do you feel about that? Like, not really knowing. How close you are, does that help you in life? Does that, and I like, it's kind of frustrating, but yet the person who follows the framework, that passive income greater than monthly expenses is financial freedom.

Russ: Then it gives them a, a scoreboard and it can tell them exactly where they are in relationship to that goal. And so I can say, well, Justin, how much passive income do you have? Right now, and pretty quickly you can add that up, right? Like, well, I have a couple rental properties and maybe I've got some affiliate stuff coming in.

Russ: Whatever your thing is. 

Justin: Yep. 

Russ: And all right, well, roughly how much do you have in monthly expenses right now? And they can come up with that fairly quickly, right? I mean, not everybody's gonna be accurate, but, oh, I got a thousand a month of passive income. I got 10,000 a month of monthly expenses. I could say, okay, take the number on the left and so, and divide it into the number on the right.

Russ: Take a thousand, divide it into 10,000. They're like, oh, that's 10%. I go, okay, so you're [00:20:00] 10% of the way to financial freedom. 

Justin: Yep. 

Russ: They're like, oh, I, well, you know, again, that may be a frustrating number, but they know the number and now they can start making decisions. And so every financial decision someone makes, they ask me, well, is this good or bad?

Russ: I say, well, I don't know. Is it producing a passive income? And they go, no. And I was like, well, is it gonna help you reduce the monthly expense? They say, no. And I was like, well, do you think it's a good financial decision? They're like. Well, no. And I was like, okay, but if, if the opposite is true, if either one of those answers were yes, I would say amazing, right?

Russ: Mm-hmm. So this is what we just weren't taught in school. Yeah. There was no personal money talk that was given to us, not handed out by our parents, not taught in any of the schools that we went through. And if it was, it wasn't this. And so people have not been given simple frameworks. The, the simpler we can make things, the easier we can attack it, right?

Russ: So if you know the goal. Like a confused mind does what? 

Justin: Nothing. 

Russ: Nothing. Yeah. And so many people out there are so confused [00:21:00] about what to do, and so I, I say, forget all of the ways in which you can make money and do things. Let's simplify the process to the decision you're doing with the dollar. Is it gonna produce a passive income or is it gonna reduce a month expense?

Russ: And if it will, that's getting you closer to financial freedom if it does exceed you further from, and now the, you know, the next phase of that is when people say, well, I have an option that will produce a passive income, or I could go pay off a debt. That will do reduce a monthly expense. Which one do I do here?

Russ: And I go, well, which one is greater? Right? I mean, it is that simple, right? Right. Like it is that simple. And so when you start using frameworks like that and teaching your kids those frameworks, like when you make these decisions, it's not about accumulation, it's not about speculation. That's what the world of investing has become.

Russ: It's no longer investing, it's gambling. Yeah. They don't know what the future's going to hold and fear of missing out on whatever that return is on that thing keeps [00:22:00] people locked into, okay, I gotta stay on this hamster wheel rat race working because I don't want to sell this asset. And so we've made it very clear in our world that we're only going to buy assets that produce.

Russ: Passive income. We're not looking for accumulation. If I can get both, great, but if it doesn't produce passive income within a very short window of time, my business partner is like in a quarter, he won't invest in it. I'm willing to go out as far as three years, right? Like if there's a pathway to invest in an asset that's maybe it's, you know, we see the growth to get it to there.

Russ: I'm willing to go that far out on the scale. He won't do that. It's funny, but that's the thing that we teach is like if you understand that score board, then you can know if every decision you're making is getting you closer to or further away. 

Justin: , I love that concept, that scoreboard of, , passive income, , greater than monthly expenses, and just using that as your guide to make decisions around, , whether things make sense or not.

Justin: Yeah. Whether [00:23:00] it, it increases the passive income or decreases the monthly expenses. And you're right. No, most. The majority of the people do not think in those terms. , And if they did, the world would be a much different place and a much, , probably less stressed out, uh, you know, as opposed to people, , having these vague ideas as to how much money they think they should have and they think they need to build up, , generating enough passive income to, to cover their monthly expenses and, and then you're financially free.

Justin: , You know, let's dig a little bit into that. Let's say passive income. 'cause in a lot of ways, you know, I mean even just the term passive income, is there really truly passive income? And a lot of times, you know. Each of these different passive income streams can be as passive or active as you want it, right?

Justin: Like you can outsource, , these passive income, , streams to others to help manage free, whether, you know, let's say it's a short term rental way where you, yes, you partner with an operator who can take care of that for you, but maybe talk to us about, you know, 'cause, 'cause some people get the idea or, or think about, okay, well you know what, I don't wanna be a [00:24:00] stressed out landlord.

Justin: Um, and, and they think they have to manage, , rental properties themselves when they can outsource that. But maybe just talk about, you know, what does passive income truly mean, and is they're really such a thing called, you know, as passive. 

Russ: Yeah. Well, I always say default to rule number one, make sure it fits your investor, DNA, right?

Russ: So if it doesn't fit your investor, DNA, you should not invest in it. That's, that's going to reduce a lot of the stress, right? Like I, I can look at people's investor, DNA, I see the empathizer, the people that just love people, and I'm like, the one thing you should never invest in is real estate where you're actively managing it because you're just gonna give it away every time somebody has.

Russ: Uh, you know, oh, they lost their job. A kid got sick, like, you're just gonna keep giving it away. My father-in-law was that guy, right? Yeah. It's like, please don't do that. That's a bad, bad thing for you to do. But as far as like, is there truly passive income, I think the one mistake that people make is believing that they can just hand [00:25:00] off something and it's gonna have a great result.

Russ: And so what I would say is passive income doesn't mean uninvolved. Right? Mm-hmm. Uh, one of another one of my friends will say, passive income is just prefunded income. Prefunded. Like, I had to be active to make the money to invest in it. Yeah. Or I had to be active on the front end of the investment to understand how to create it to be passive.

Russ: And so one of the things that we teach is actually how to become a good investor. And Robert Kiyosaki, again, just using him as an example, has a great phrase. It says There's no good or bad investments. There's only good or bad investors.

Russ: And for most people, they've never learned to become a good investor.

Russ: They don't even know what a good investor would look like. Right. Do you understand your investor DNA, do you understand what your investor buy box is making these decisions before you ever put a dollar in place? Right. Have you learned what those things are? Have you practiced. Before you go do Right. So many people make the mistakes of doing [00:26:00] first, right?

Justin: Yeah.

Justin: Taking 

Russ: action, you know, what is it, ready, fire, aim, kind of thing. 

Justin: Yep. 

Russ: Yep. And, uh. So how many reps can you get in before you actually do the deal? So that way you've already made the decision, you already thought through all this stuff. So the results will be more in line with what you have planned because you actually plan to do it.

Russ: So when I talk to people about the passivity of investments, yes, there are plenty of people out there you can invest in that will go do the thing for you. Right, but if you haven't done all of your research on the front end, you haven't done the due diligence, you haven't understood what your buy box was, you haven't understood what your investor DNA is, you haven't understood the outcome of the investments you're going to invest in and how they match up with the goals that you have set for yourself.

Russ: Don't do the deal. 

Justin: Right, 

Russ: right. So there's plenty of syndications, there's, I mean, there's someone out there with their handout waiting to take your money all day long and will say, you have nothing you have to do. But if you haven't done those early [00:27:00] active things. I think the results are going, you're gonna meet, have disappointment, right?

Russ: Disappointment is nothing more than unmet expectations. So when you've done all that early work, you've set an expectation, you know what it should be. And I think that that's where people make, make the mistake in passive investing. They start treating it like we're wealth without Wall Street. They start treating it like Wall Street.

Russ: I, I think Wall Street is more of a mindset. Yeah. Right. I know it's Bay Street, I think, in Canada, correct? Yep. It, I, I think it's a mindset, not necessarily just the investment, it's that I could just delegate right, or abdicate even better word to someone else that they're going to do this on my behalf and I'm just gonna go over here and stay in my lane.

Russ: It's like, no, nobody's gonna care about it as much as you do. So you better be involved to a level where you understand what should happen. And so that way that, you know, on those quarterly calls, I understand what should be coming back to me. And if it's not, I can ask educated questions so [00:28:00] I know. Ahead of time what it should play out to be.

Russ: So I think that that's the part where I would say people make the mistake with passive income is they believe it's completely uninvolved. And I don't believe that's true at all. And I think some is gonna be, you know, again, it's, it's a trading time and money, but somewhere along the way you're having to be active in order to get to that passivity.

Justin: , No one's gonna care more about my year money than you. So you need to make sure you remember that and that you, yes, you cannot just completely hand off something to someone else and not do the upfront work. And, , research to know the types of questions and understand how, what you expect, , from this types of, from this type of investment.

Justin: So I think you're right. A lot of people miss out on that. And they just say simply, okay, you know what? I'm gonna invest here, go take care of it, and, and, and just kind of have a more hands-off approach. , , , you have to have the right mindset to make sure that you, put yourself in a position to succeed too.

Justin: 'cause if you, . If you don't, then, um, [00:29:00] then things can go wrong, things can go bad. , So I love that. Um, I wanna get into just some of the things, you know, we had talked about a little bit before we started recording was just some of the different, , passive income streams that you talked about that you do with your kids.

Justin: So, , whether that's. , Vending machines, whether that's short term rentals, maybe talk about and give us a flavor of how parents, you know, maybe what you know, specifically what you're doing and how parents can use that, , approach when they're, , helping their kids learn about that. 

Russ: Yeah, I, so, because I'm in the, you know, the financial education business, right?

Russ: We teach people how to build passive income that exceeds their monthly expenses. I have. You know, the benefit of taking my kids to a lot of these events, letting them sit down and listen to podcasts, be on podcasts, all these things. And we've tried a lot of different things. We've tried short-term rentals, we've done the Touro.

Russ: , My business partner, , some of his daughters are doing digital websites, have done, . [00:30:00] Land flipping businesses. And one of his daughters and one of mine right now are, are doing the vending machine business. And that was one of those areas where we had that investor in training course. We, we, we had, I dunno, four or five different speakers go through.

Russ: And they talked about midterm rental, they talked about self storage, multifamily, and vending. And these two daughters came out of that conversation and they came to us immediately, said, we wanna do the vending. 

Justin: Hmm. 

Russ: It's like, well, why? They're like one, it's amazing. Dads like, this is the opportunity.

Russ: Everybody's got these old school vending machines with like the coke machines and the candy machines, but now it's all AI operated, you know? And that was like really excited to them. 

Justin: Yeah. 

Russ: And they're like, and you can put in there whatever you want to, you can put in there like face wipes and like shampoos and you could just put in anything you want to, and like, they're just like all excited about the creativity, right.

Russ: Of how they can design the machine. And, and I'm like, okay, [00:31:00] well let's talk about this and like going down this road and. It's funny. Another one of my good friends, he had an adult son that was there, it was in his twenties. 

Justin: Okay. 

Russ: And his adult son took this vending machine business, went back to his hometown, which is Las Vegas, and actually within 18 months have grown that business over 10,000 a month net profit to him.

Justin: Wow. 

Russ: Working like 10 hours. A week in it. Now, we have not had that success yet. Our daughters are starting their third location. Okay. And it, it is been a little slower because my daughter's 15 and his daughter's 17. So only one of the two of 'em can drive at this point. And so it's all about, you know, it's learning though.

Russ: It's learning the business. They have to learn how to go. Talk to these different locations. You know, they're trying to get into, , big, huge corporations or an apartment complexes and they're having to have these conversations. So we're teaching themselves, we're teaching them, um, you know, supply and demand within the facilities that they have already.

Russ: Yeah. And we're, , teaching them [00:32:00] inventory management. I mean, there's so many lessons, 

Justin: right. 

Russ: Of how to manage this process. And also teaching them margins. Like there's certain things that are just not selling, and either, A, you have to reduce the price, or B, you have to replace it because nobody wants it.

Russ: And just because you are excited about it doesn't mean someone else is gonna be. And so it's just been a really great conversational piece for them. And I'm just, I, I'm seeing like, hey, if we teach these lessons when they're 15 to 17 years old. What are, what are they learning now that in five years, 10 years from now, are they going to have at their disposal?

Russ: Like the things that I didn't learn until I was in my mid to late twenties about some of these investments and how money works, they're learning so much quicker. So then everything, the scale, like the hockey stick of, of knowledge is, is so much faster at that age. And so I'm super excited about it. Like, you know, yes.

Russ: I mean, they see our passive income report, we've shared. Every single month for the last, I dunno, five and a half years. And we've [00:33:00] invested in so many different things, but I keep telling them that, you know, you have to invest from your investor, DNA, you have to line it up to what, you have the capability, right, with the, the finances, right?

Russ: Like, so buying a, a vending machine business, like buying one of those. Coolers, it's about $3,500. Okay. A piece. And then having, you know, three to $400 worth of inventory is like, okay. So we can see how that works. Yeah. And you can fit that into your capability. And then as that cash flow starts coming in, and then now we can go get another one.

Russ: Go get another one. 

Justin: That's awesome. . I love those examples of, , I mean, yeah, your daughters. Bringing their creativity to, to that business. Right. You know, figuring out how to stock it, which ones are gonna sell, and yeah, there's so many different, , skills that they're picking up from it.

Justin: Sales negotiation, , yeah, inventory management, I love. So all of that stuff, which will, you know, you know, it's one thing to be able to learn. On paper in theory, but it's another thing to do it in your own real life breathing kind of [00:34:00] dynamic,

Justin: way, , through a business like a vending machine, , 

Russ: operation.

Russ: So those are 

Justin: great. Some great examples there. . You talked about earlier, , people taking action, , first without doing the reps and, and putting in, uh, the work, but sometimes action is, you know, action.

Justin: Even as imperfect as it is, is, is so,, so important. , Why is action whether it's imperfect or not so critical when it comes to money and family life and, and how does that just try? Mindset really apply to hear kids learning about entrepreneurship or investing, , in that nature? 

Russ: Yeah, I, I, I think that it would've been easy for me with my background to say, man.

Russ: I don't know anything about money. How in the world could I be teaching other people about money? Right? And I think so many people would say, well, I'm not smart enough to do that. I have to abdicate that responsibility to someone else. Like I wasn't professionally trained in the space. I was an engineer.

Russ: I was an accountant, I was an attorney, whatever they're thinking. And I would [00:35:00] say, Hmm. It's not true, right? The same, the same hard work that you put in to do that could be applied here. And I, I think education is good as, as long as it's applied into the right areas. But for me, trying, going out and doing the thing, right, like there's, guess you're gonna make mistakes.

Russ: So I, I'm not like, hey. You need to just, , practice for, you know, years and years and not take action. That's not what I'm saying. , If you're going to take action, take it in small bits and pieces early on, but do lots of it, right? Mm-hmm. The, the most successful business owners and investors in the world are not necessarily just so much more IQ smart than you are.

Russ: Probably not at all.

Russ: But they just have hundreds or thousands of more reps than you do. And the, the faster you can try, the faster you can get those reps. So like, just don't make mistakes like to, that are detrimental. Like, I've seen people that get into our space and they hear it and they're [00:36:00] so excited and they've done nothing and they've accumulated all this money and they go invest half a million dollars, million dollars into one transaction.

Russ: I'm like. Ooh, that's not what I mean, right? Yeah. Like you, you, you need to, you need to take small bite-sized pieces because you, if you're doing a lot of it, you're going to, you're gonna fail, right? This is just part of it, right? Like you're gonna have failure within it, and you don't want it to be so detrimental that.

Russ: It sends you back to the other path. So for me, I just say, just try, just, just get into it and know that you have the capability to learn the things. And if you follow the steps, I mean there's steps of becoming financially free. You just don't skip steps. You have to build systems. , You may have heard this phrase, I, I love it, is that we don't rise to the level of our goals.

Russ: We fall to the level of our systems, and most people have never built the right systems. So go ahead and build those systems. And so once you have all of those systems in place, going out and trying and doing things. Won't be [00:37:00] so scary. And to be honest, you'll reduce the level of mistakes to really small areas because you've already preplanned it.

Russ: You've already, you've already done the hard work on the front end. So for me, that's what I teach is like just with my kids, no matter what, just go do it. Don't be so afraid. Don't sit there and just analyze it over and over. Go try it. 

Justin: Yeah. 

Russ: But only after we've done some of that pre-work, that pre-funded work, right?

Justin: Yeah. 

Russ: That they know, oh, this makes sense for me to go into this area. 

Justin: Yeah. . Like the most successful people out there are not necessarily the most smartest. They have the reps, they put in the time they have the reps, and it's the ability to, . To stay in the game really, to be able to keep, keep going and not have something so detrimental that it, it buries them that they keep going and they learn from their mistakes and they keep trying.

Justin: And that's, that's, that's the mindset you need to have. 

Russ: I, I'm, I'm gonna add this last thing. I know, uh, Toronto is where you're from, right? You guys have pretty good, , good year in baseball this year. Oh, almost 

Justin: so 

Russ: close. [00:38:00] But I mean, again, when went all the way to the World Series, right? 

Justin: Yep. Yeah. 

Russ: And I, I tell people that oftentimes in investing, people think about the home runs, right?

Russ: They think about investing in the one thing that 1200 Xed, and they're always looking for that. They're swinging for the fences. But the opposite side of trying to hit home runs all the time is what? A strikeout, right? 

Justin: Oh, sure. Yeah. 

Russ: A strikeout is the opposite, right? The big home run hitters, right? The ones that usually have the highest number of home runs also tend to have the highest strikeout rate, 

Justin: right?

Russ: And so what I tell people, I was like, think about this, is that when you strike out. You're, and I was a baseball player. You walk back to the dugout and you're so frustrated, you're so down on yourself. It's really easy to allow that to impact everything else. In baseball, you go out in the field and you make errors because you're still focused on the strikeout.

Russ: Mm-hmm. In our life, it's, we come home and we let it impact our family's life, which is terrible. Right. But now [00:39:00] apply the An out is an out. Right. Especially in baseball, there's 27 outs. 

Russ: But think about the person who strikes out. As compares to the person who hits a line drive 115 mile an hour, screamer at the shortstop gets out.

Russ: What's the mindset of that person walking back to the dugout? Is it completely down on themself like, I'm so bad, or is it like, man, I smoked that pitch. I'm mad that that it didn't get past 'em, but man, the next time. I'm gonna crush it. And so with that person trying to hit line drives, was trying to hit a single.

Russ: And the most successful investors I've ever met are always hitting singles.

Russ: Sometimes they hit doubles. Rarely triples, never home runs. And so I just, I encourage you as parents, , teaching your kids not to think in the world of home runs, thinking about the Moneyball approach to getting on base.

Russ: Yeah. Singles. Because when you have a mistake, that mistake's gonna be small, but it's gonna be like, man, it was calculated. It's like that line [00:40:00] drive. You're like, I got out, but you know what? It, I crush it and the next one I'm gonna get 'em. 

Justin: . One of the things I love about the Blue Jays approach, I mean, is they, so they got, it was such a fantastic, phenomenal, magical run, but the thing that they value in their hitters is that, you know, they, they got some guys that can hit home runs, but they have a lot of guys who don't strike out a lot and they make contact and they get the ball and play and they try to get singles.

Justin: Doubles. They, they have people getting hit for power, but rarely, or their strikeout rate is one of the lowest in baseball. So, and that's analogy maybe kind of coming back to what you were just talking about there, where yes, you don't need to necessarily go for the home runs every single time you're going for consistent singles, doubles, getting on base , to score runs that, that, that can win the game.

Justin: So, love that analogy. I didn't know you're a baseball player. 

Russ: Well been, been a long time. 

Justin: , So maybe as, uh, as we kind of [00:41:00] close here, , if there's a parent listening today and that wanted to take one action this week toward passive income that you know, that we talked about, what would you suggest it should be?

Russ: Yeah, so we, we built a resource called the investor, DNA. It's an ebook, and I would encourage you to go read that ebook and to, to learn like what your investor DNA is, right? Like, if you can apply it to yourself, then you probably can have that conversation with your kids, right? Like and, . Those, those conversations I would add up like we created, go to wealth without wall street.com/money dad, and there's lots of ways to get access to our free resources, but in, in there, I think there's a, you can get to the resource guide that will allow you to, to pick that one.

Russ: That'd be an easy one that if you don't know already what your investor DA is apply, like apply that process. And, , I, I think teaching your kids from that perspective will be easier for you. 

Justin: Amazing. Yeah, we'll have the, , those links in the show notes as well. And that's a great, , tangible takeaway that I think any parent [00:42:00] listening to this conversation right now should be, , thinking about to do and can take action towards.

Justin: , Any other, um, ways of people want to kind of follow what you're doing, , or, , stay in touch. How else could they find you? 

Russ: Yeah, well if you go to that what wealthwithout wall street.com/money Dad. Not only can you get access to this free resources, you can join our community.

Russ: So we have over 10,000 investors. It's a free community that you can be a part of. Ask questions inside of there. You can actually look up my name. You can DM me. I don't respond to, to messages in any other place. But there, so like that's a, a real tangible place. But also you could be around other people who are seeking what you're trying to accomplish.

Russ: I think the hardest thing in life is that. A lot of people around us are not trying to do this thing, right. They're not trying to teach their kids about money. They're not trying to be financially free themselves. They're just trying to survive. Yeah. And not that you need to get rid of those friends, but it is, you know, the saying that you're.

Russ: The average of the five people you spend the most [00:43:00] time with. And if you don't have people seeking this, then how do you get it? So get yourself in communities where you can be lifted up to a new level. Right. And through this community, that was our whole objective. We don't spend, you know, we intentionally didn't put it on Facebook.

Russ: 'cause we know how easy it is to go to Facebook to go to some group and then get sucked into all the political rhetoric and all the cat memes and all the other things that could be on the internet. 

Justin: Yeah. 

Russ: So we, we we're very focused. This is a, a way to talk about money, talk about ways that uh, we can grow, uh, our own financial IQ so that way we can be maybe the financial bloodline changers for our family, right?

Russ: Maybe you, you're like me and didn't have it passed down to you, but you don't want that to be the legacy of your family from this point forward. You want to change it, and that's kind of our objectives here at wealth without wall Street. 

Justin: I love that. And yeah, and community is so important. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people, , trying to row in the same direction that you're rowing, uh, is so important.

Justin: So yeah, I encourage everyone to check, check out, check that out. , Russ [00:44:00] you know, this has been such a great conversation. Um, a lot of really insightful takeaways for people to really dig into and think about, whether that's the investor, you know, knowing your investor, DNA, , calculating their financial freedom number.

Justin: Um, ensuring, , passive income is greater than monthly expenses. And thinking about, , investments or their actions in that framework and that mindset, whether or not it gets them closer to their goal, , of financial freedom. , So, so many, so many great tidbits there. So thank you so much for this.

Justin: , Anything that we didn't touch on that you want to make sure that we cover off here before we sign off? 

Russ: Oh, man, you know, we, we, we need to probably have another episode at some point. Glad to do it. There's, there's, there's a lot again, lot to cover. 

Justin: Yeah. 

Russ: Yeah, absolutely. But thank you so much for having me on.

Russ: It's been a pleasure. 

Justin: Thanks so much, Russ.