The Matt Chambers Show
Welcome to The Matt Chambers Show, where we explore the world of traveling, living and doing business internationally. Hosted by Matt Chambers, this podcast connects people, places, and ideas, offering inspiring stories and practical insights to help you design a life beyond borders. Whether you're seeking adventure, remote work tips, retirement ideas, or entrepreneurial guidance, each episode brings you closer to turning your global dreams into reality.
The Matt Chambers Show
Escape The Rat Race: Achieve Financial Freedom
Transform your understanding of success and freedom as we bring you personal stories from our inspiring guests who left the high-pressure world of tech and IT to pursue real estate investing. Discover their journey from burnout to fulfillment, and how they redefined wealth beyond just financial gain. Learn about their strategic approach to purchasing properties every two years, and how couples can make the leap into real estate without needing a fortune to start. This episode promises insights into the mindset shift required for those craving a path less traveled and a life redesigned by intention.
Communication is more than just a buzzword—it's the cornerstone of building wealth and legacy with your partner. We delve into the art of fostering open dialogue and alignment in financial planning, sharing stories and strategies that highlight the power of being on the same page. Our guests reveal how understanding the 'why' behind wealth-building can lead to better investment choices, like selecting long-term rentals over short-term gains for peace of mind. By aligning financial decisions with personal comfort levels, they achieved the ultimate goal: time and location freedom that truly enhances well-being.
Balancing the demands of work, family, and entrepreneurship across different time zones can be a logistical nightmare, but it doesn't have to be. We tackle the complex dynamics of juggling schedules and parenting while traveling globally, offering practical advice for effective financial communication within a family. By intentionally carving out space for regular discussions about finances, relationship dynamics, and family goals, couples can manage hectic schedules and strengthen their relationships. We invite you to explore more of our insights and resources on Discover Life by Design, your gateway to mastering wealth through intentional living.
Hello and welcome to Matt Chambers Connects, a podcast hosted by Matt Chambers. This is the podcast that transcends boundaries, empowers cross-cultural connections and fosters a more connected world. I'm your host, matt Chambers, and I invite you to join us on this quest to expand our understanding and build bridges between my two favorite places on the planet Latin America and the United States. I've been traveling, living and doing business in Latin America for nearly two decades. All right, guys, how are you? Everything good.
Speaker 2:Everything's great, good, good.
Speaker 1:Super excited to have you guys on the show, so welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having us. We're excited to be here.
Speaker 1:Awesome, so glad. So why don't you just you guys start with telling me a little background about what you guys were doing previously and then what led to this transformation and jumping into this, this new business?
Speaker 2:Sure, so I was. I still am a part-time, a senior project manager in it. And so when I was in the corporate world where I got burnt out, it was just it was a company that got really big really fast and they didn't. There was like cowboys running the show. I'm going to say how it was. They had no, really big really fast and they didn't. There's like cowboys running the show. I'm going to say how it was. They had no clue what they were doing. And then they gave me eight projects, which isn't realistic for any project manager, and I had one, uh, team member so I'm used to having three to four projects with fully staffed teams and so I just thought I could do it.
Speaker 2:And so I just crushed through, working 50 hour weeks, barely sleeping, didn't even know what my kids were up to. And then my body, just because I wasn't listening to it, it shut me down. And I had about two months. I was pretty much bed rest because I was dealing with things I didn't ever experienced before migraines or nausea, didn't want to eat. So that was my body saying you took on too much, you can't handle it, why don't you take a break? And so after I recovered from that we decided that I wouldn't go back right away to another contract because he was still working full-time. What I'll, which I'll let him get into at that time and I would take some time to figure out my why, like what do I really want? Because I thought for years I just wanted the money, and then I got it and I was like okay, this isn't the
Speaker 3:life I want this is what it takes, so what do I want?
Speaker 2:and so I took some time, uh, to think on that heel, and while he was still working, I'll let you elaborate on what you were doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So for me it was the opposite of her. She was kind of like a fast burn and out. I was a really slow burn and out. It probably took me more like five to eight years as compared to the five to eight months that it took her, and for me I was just in the wrong environment.
Speaker 3:Once you start getting into the real estate space and you start getting into those networking rooms, there's just such a level of abundance out there, and I was in the tech space where there is very much the opposite. Everything has to be done in a very particular way and there's only so many ways you can do things. So it's kind of like a scarcity mentality in that industry and my brain couldn't exist in both places at the same time. So she had her burnout and then shortly after that I was. I was done with a whole lot of stuff too. It just kind of kind of came within a close three to six months of each other and we both decided to go off in different directions that were totally not involved with the corporate world Awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I totally can identify with that. You know, the money just doesn't matter. At some point, right, when they're just squeezing the squeezing everything out of you and you're really not getting anything for it, and even if they are giving you more money for it, you're like you know what? What is this even worth it, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no.
Speaker 1:Freedom's everything. And when you're working for someone else, and especially in big business, you know they're just squeezing everything they can out. Yeah, and you're paying high taxes because you're on WT, yeah, really pissed at the end of the month when you, uh, you've paid 50% in taxes. So how did you guys um, how are you guys leveraging real estate investing? How'd you, how'd you get into that world? And you know, as a, how are you, how are you leveraging that as a cornerstone for wealth building? And what advice do you have for other couples who'd like to start investing? I know a lot of people that get into real estate. They have this mindset that they need, you know, insane amounts of money to get in and how would you guys?
Speaker 1:guide someone that's trying to make that same transition or similar transition.
Speaker 2:So we got in back in 2009, when we actually were first dating.
Speaker 2:It was kind of our first business deal before we even got engaged or married. And I just, I always loved the concept of real estate and just didn't understand how it fit my world, cause I knew I didn't want to be a realtor or mortgage broker, um. So we found a little condo that we invested in together, knowing it would be um for investment purposes, cause we already had our own place that we were living in. And from there I got so excited that I decided, uh and I didn't share this with him at the time, but I decided that every two years I'm buying another property, and I kept on that momentum until 2016. And by then we'd had two little boys. So we had our first one in 2013,. Second little guy in 2015. And one day he came home and he said that's it, he's had enough, he can't manage any more properties. And again in my head I said, yes, you can, and I signed him.
Speaker 1:So you became the corporation that burns you out, trying to burn him out.
Speaker 2:So I signed him up for a networking like a real estate investment networking group, and while he was not happy with me and I share that very clearly he went begrudgingly and when he came home he was on a whole new level he totally understood what I couldn't articulate and didn't articulate.
Speaker 2:And then from there we just kept going into rooms with other realtor or real estate investors and they kept asking us, like how do you guys do it together? My wife's not interested, or my husband doesn't care, or, and so after a few years of hearing that we just went okay, we've got something here, let's help couples invest together.
Speaker 2:And so we built our business on it, and from there we just kind of went okay, we start with the foundation, because if you're not on the same page which is communication, which is something I really had to learn to do with him and once you've got that foundation, then we start building it up. Okay, what's your plan? What does it look like? And then let's get you into action.
Speaker 3:Do you have more to add?
Speaker 1:So are you guys still actively investing in real estate on your own, and then, additionally, you're helping other people get in.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so yeah, I just drove by a property the other day just to check it out and see if it was worth it. Plus, along the way after I got into those real estate rooms, I ended up getting a license in the alternative investment space, because we would encounter people you're asking like how do people start in real estate? We were encountering a lot of people going into real estate rooms, networking, meeting people, and they didn't have $150,000 to buy a property, renovate it, put a basement suite in it, which is kind of our main game is a suite of properties.
Speaker 2:Which is like a duplex.
Speaker 3:A duplex yeah, it's like a duplex, yeah, has a basement suite and people didn't have that amount of money. So we needed an alternative investment and that was basically REITs and other smaller fund-based real estate based things that you can start with as low as $10,000. So we opened up the amount of different options that we had and also that we can offer clients to get into real estate faster.
Speaker 1:And are you also? You know, I know, I think the US has. I think it's inarguable that the US has a massive problem with just the majority of the population lacking financial education. Right, and you guys I mean I was in the same position because you get out of school, even if you go to get an undergrad degree or master's degree in college, whatever it is, they're still not really teaching you what you need to know about financial education. So I find that to be something that's really lacking. What do you guys do to kind of teach people that?
Speaker 3:they don't need 150 grand to get in.
Speaker 3:Yeah, primarily just share our experiences. Show them how money works like how it really works. We work a lot on like debt mindsets because so many people are living into the future of buy a house, pay it off. Then you start saving your money and trying to manage for retirement. But the reality is that everybody who's rich got rich generally off of debt and the fact is that if you can borrow money and make money on that borrowed money, you will go way faster, way farther than you could if you tried to scrimp and save everything. So that's one of the main things that we target with our clients is just trying to shift their money mindset so that they don't come from generally their parents' mentality. Yeah, I'm assuming you've read Rich Dad.
Speaker 1:Poor Dad, yeah, yeah, robert Kiyosaki, yeah. So I love that book and I talk about it all the time. I probably read it three or four times and he's always talking about you know, a house or a real estate investment is not a house is not an investment, it's a liability if you're living in it, right? But if you invest in it and you can use debt just like you said, which is the best way, and then get someone else to pay that off for you.
Speaker 1:Now it becomes an asset because it's cashflow tax breaks and all this other stuff, and I think that's that's kind of what you just said, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, perfect yeah. Our, our, our mantra is you're buying a hundred percent of something for 20% of the price, so it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker 1:And then as long as someone else pays that bad boy off then you have gotten a house for 20% of what the original value is.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of people in any type of investing and you just indirectly said this a minute, retiring on the increased value of that investment and I think, if you well, I mean Grant Cardone's done it a million times, robert Kiyosaki does it when you really do the math on that, like even if you buy a half a million dollar house and it becomes a million, million and a half 20 X amount of years from now, when you really do the math on it, you really didn't make any money if you lived in it, right.
Speaker 1:But again, if somebody, somebody paid that off for you, it's a little bit different. But what steps at at you know, if someone's just start with you? What steps can couples take to to start building that sustainable personalized wealth strategy?
Speaker 2:What do you so? We? We always recommend first have the conversation, because generally it's one partner has more interest in in maybe building their wealth, their legacy. The other partner we find is either afraid of it, they don't understand it, they feel maybe inferior because they're maybe not educated. So we say start with a conversation and make it an open dialogue, like be interested in what your partner wants. So it could be a joint effort. And we always like to say phrase it as how questions instead of why, which are very accusatory.
Speaker 2:And it can go a lot further, you know, and if your partner says they want to invest, say, in real estate, and instead of being, you know, fear based, which I find a lot of people can be, just you know, how does that work in our family? What does that look like to you? As opposed to, why would you do that? What about the risk? Like there's just so much that that fear that can feel like an attack and the people shut down and the conversations don't go anywhere and then your wealth goes down the hole with it. Right, but start having those conversations to see what both you and your partner long term for your, your family, for your legacy, for your wealth and what does that look like? And it's not always about money. It's like you, you nailed it it's time, freedom, it's freedom.
Speaker 2:That's our big one it's like we want to have more time for our kids to be able to be there for them. We want a location. We want location freedom so we can work from anywhere, go anywhere. But that costs money. So you still have to build your wealth to be able to do those things. But if that's what you want, then we say break it down. Okay, if your big goal is time freedom and you're stuck at a nine to five downtown in an office, what do you need to do to break away from that?
Speaker 1:you're, you're reverse engineering it for them. Essentially do you need reliable shipping across latin america, and the caribbeanShippercom specializes in delivering from the US straight to your door in Colombia, panama and Argentina. And yes, they also serve the Caribbean, from Turks and Caicos all the way down to Trinidad. Right now, they're rapidly expanding in Medellin, colombia, and quickly growing their presence in Panama and Argentina. With door-to-door tracking, insured shipments and seamless customs handling, they've got your shipping needs covered. So, whether you're a digital nomad, a retiree or a business scaling internationally, caribbean Shipper is your trusted partner. From consolidating online orders to shipping full container loads, they ensure your packages arrive safely. So register today at caribbean shippercom slash register and let them take care of your shipping needs throughout latin america and the caribbean yeah, we, we focus on communication and and like communication and the relationship system first.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because most relationships that we come across it's like two horses pulling in the opposite direction, right, and they're generating zero force. And our very first goal is to get the relationship and both partners pulling in the same direction so that they get all their energy and all their efforts going the same way. And then we start introducing the actual products and systems and ways that they can go about, like taking a dollar and starting to make a dollar or two dollars out of that dollar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a great example from us actually is because we've been investing in real estate since 2008 for him, 2009 for me, and we always agreed we loved real estate, it was our game. But, as I mentioned in 2016, 17,. He wasn't quite on the same page as I was, and then, when we got on the same page, we ended up buying three more properties in 18 months. It just we weren't, we didn't, he didn't understand my vision, right, and so we weren't aligned. But even though we were still investing in real estate and agreed to that, when we became aligned on our wealth, vision and our goal, that's where we just went whoop and just instantly our portfolio went up yes, I'm assuming, just from the sound of it, you're investing solely in single family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we are now.
Speaker 3:We are now yeah, we had a variety of different things at one point, but now it is purely just real estate based funds and then our own portfolio of single family homes.
Speaker 1:And you're just putting long-term renters in there, your Airbnb in them. We're kind of mixing it up.
Speaker 3:No Airbnb. So this is where we teach people like what's your sleep at night factor, right? So, like you gotta be in real estate and you gotta have an investment that allows you to sleep at night. Things like Airbnb and commercial don't allow us to sleep at night. They don't, and so we don't invest in those. Yeah, airbnb goes against our time freedom. You know, we're going to have to work harder, work more at that. Airbnb and commercial. What we don't like is generally the long-term vacancies until you find your next tenant. We don't like is the is generally the long term vacancies until you find your next tenant. We don't want to carry that cash flow over to the next tenant. So for us, having two suites in the same property and having a lot of different properties means that if we have a vacancy, it's not a big deal, right, like we can, I work hard to keep those full, but like, if it happens it, it doesn't kill the bottom line, it doesn't change much about the portfolio and that allows us to sleep at night.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we just have one property and someone leaves. You're panicking at night.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Mortgaging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so one of the things we do is we get people on the same page to help them sleep at night, so that the whole relationship and their portfolio and everything is like making them comfortable and that they're actually happy with their investment.
Speaker 1:So how have you set this up? You mentioned time freedom and obviously time freedom and location freedom. How do you set this up to where? If you guys wanted to go to, you know, I don't know China for a month, how is that? You know who handles that for you and how would you recommend someone set that up to where they can have the same thing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, the you know, the biggest challenge is time zones. So even for us nowadays it is a challenge because some of us have to be in the nine to five in the sort of American time zone, like somewhere between Pacific and Eastern. And so if we go to even like we're looking at going to the Caribbean in November we we're going to be four hours out, which means that, like our what, where, where our meetings are, are going to be shifted so significantly that we have to be very careful about it. So, and then when you go to Europe or to say Asia, you're even farther out. So to me, the biggest challenge is time zones. Like how are you going to manage your sleep? How are you going to manage your schedule? How are you going to manage with us, the kids? Generally, you're not living in a bigger house. When you're going on these vacations, you're two-bedroom, three-bedroom apartments maybe, so the kids are a lot tighter in and it makes it a little bit more difficult to work. Those are the biggest challenges. That's, the biggest challenge is just time zone.
Speaker 1:You got to really wrap your head around it. Yeah, and Asia is hard too, because, God, it's almost impossible. Sometimes I used to import furniture and mattresses and stuff out of Asia, Even going over there for three or four weeks. You're working at night just to be able to answer phone calls and answer text messages because you're 12 hours different. So Asia is hard. But I was going to ask how the heck are you managing all this with two young boys running around?
Speaker 2:That's a job in itself.
Speaker 1:Right, it's 40 hours a week. For for Jessalyn it's probably 80 hours a week being a mom Right.
Speaker 3:That was one of those questions that we get all the time, where where we knew we had something it's like, well, how are we doing it? And we had, we actually had to break it down and and like, ultimately turned into the program that we created?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was. Uh, you know, I always say this, you know, being a mom is the hardest job in the world and also, to me, the most important job in the world. And then, when you add that to also being a very successful entrepreneur and real estate investor, wow, I can't even imagine the uh, the uh, the headaches and uh, yeah, you're you the headaches, and you're burning on all ends for sure, 24 hours a day so.
Speaker 1:I admire you for that. It takes work. It takes work, no doubt about it. What advice do you guys have for I think you just answered this question but that struggle to communicate about their finances I think you said that earlier where you kind of set them down and have a chat?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So one of the biggest pieces of advice we always give is to actually be intentional about it and then set it up as a reoccurring timeframe in your calendars. So like, for example, for us, every Sunday we have it in our calendars to have a discussion on finances, a different discussion on relationship, and then we have what we call a family intention setting, where we bring the boys in and we talk to them about their goals for the week or what they want to accomplish and see. But it's reoccurring every week and what that does is it gives you the space to know what's coming right. So if you're, you know you've got hectic schedules and you really want to talk to your spouse, but you just you don't want to impede on what they're working on. You know there's a space coming, yeah, but then it's also you know there's a space coming. So be prepared that you're going to have that financial conversation on Sunday and that you're now it's a regular thing, so it doesn't get that build up like where.
Speaker 2:I would just hold on to things for weeks or maybe months, and then it's an explosion, right, it's like god, why didn't you do this now? It's like, okay, here's what I've come up with or come across, let's talk about this. So it makes it a lot smoother conversation to have as well yeah, yeah financial.
Speaker 1:Sorry about that.
Speaker 3:Go ahead, brian oh, I was gonna say it's like releasing the dama every so often know. So a typical relationship kind of builds up until the anger or the resentment like hits a level where, like it just pours out and all of a sudden the dam busts. And that's why we have it on a regular weekly basis and inside of those conversations we also have very specific questions we ask, and that way it allows us to get a measure of like how things are going and where we need to adjust, without letting it build to a festering point and then all of a sudden like exploding into some nasty situation.
Speaker 1:Wow, this is incredible. So you guys aren't just teaching people how to invest, you're literally mentoring them in many ways, ways being a counselor to get them to come together on all this stuff. And I think financial problems is the number one reason for divorce, right? It?
Speaker 2:is so.
Speaker 1:not only are you helping, people build their wealth, but you're also helping people stay together and wow, that's really incredible. I admire what you guys are doing. That's, that's awesome. Is there anything that I've missed today that you guys really think is important to get out there, that you want the world to hear?
Speaker 2:I mean, there's a lot of things we teach in our program, but I'm always a firm believer in the why, like, why do you want to do it? Like, yeah, we all I think we all have a reason for wanting to be wealthy. It can do so many things for you, but the why, you know and I say that because, like I mentioned earlier, like I was always chasing the money and he'd always be like when are you going to stop and smell the flowers? I'm like no one's got time for that. I'm going to get rich, right? Yeah, I've had it got to a point where it's like I need to smell the flowers.
Speaker 2:What was I chasing, and then he goes. But you want millions of dollars, Jess, but do you know if you even need that much money and what? Are you doing with it? I'm like, well, I want to do this and this and this and this yeah so he went and did the budget and was well, do you know, this is what you need per year for that. I'm like that's it.
Speaker 3:It was much less than what she thought, yeah, and and actually nowadays, like over, especially over the last year she's really the one who's who's stopping to smell the flowers and I'm like what are we doing? Like let's go, let's get going on this business. But but luckily that, like in the past, that would have caused a lot of like conflict between us. But because now we have like that solid foundation of communication and we sort of know what all the agreements are like. They're not, they're not like hidden or like these unknown expectations anymore, and then we have regular communication. The fact that she's now like going this way and smelling the flowers and I'm trying to build the business up that way, which is the opposite of where it was, like four years ago, it is totally cool. Like there's there's a, there's an acceptance and I like, yeah, I'm with you here and you're with me there. So like let's just keep going and if it works for us, we'll have a conversation about it, and if it doesn't work for us, we'll change something about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and another thing I noticed you guys have a free guide right that you give to people as a kind of explains what you, what you do, Do they just go to your website and sign up for that?
Speaker 3:Yep, you bet Yep. It's the three common mistakes that prevent people from prevent relationships, specifically from building their wealth Awesome.
Speaker 1:And that gives all your contact information, all that if they want to reach out to you. You got it you bet perfect and do you want to? You want to talk about your website, or what is your website?
Speaker 2:it's discoverlifebydesignca and in there it explains about our program. And then, of course, when you get in at the top, you can go get, download the free wealth guide and you can connect with us. Discover life by design is also our social media handle, so we're on all socials at this point.
Speaker 2:For the most part, you can find us there, and Life by Design is our podcast, where we give free tips and advice on how to get your relationship on board, how to get your partner on board for investing in real estate and how to invest in real estate.
Speaker 1:Is it the two of you or is an interview style podcast?
Speaker 3:Right now two of us, but we got interviews coming up.
Speaker 1:Oh cool, and how often are you planning to launch an episode?
Speaker 2:Every two weeks. Every two weeks, oh nice.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Matt Chambers Connects. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes where we'll dive deeper into these two fascinating worlds. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, matt Chambers Connects. You can also find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts, youtube Music and many other major podcast platforms, so you don't miss the show. Also, please join us on our social media channels so you can connect with other listeners and ask your most pressing questions and also tell us what types of guests you'd like to see on the show. Thanks again, and I'll see you next time.