First and Future

The Money System That Builds Wealth | Stop Chasing Quick Money & Start Building Assets (Ep. 7)

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0:00 | 46:03

What actually creates long-term wealth? In Episode 7 of First & Future, Darryl Dibbs and Liam dive into the money habits that separate people who build wealth from those constantly chasing the next big win. From taking profits in the stock market to investing in real estate, Bitcoin, the S&P 500, and building a personal money system, this episode is packed with practical financial conversations and honest lessons learned from experience. 

They also discuss opportunity cost, debt-free living, leverage, the psychology of investing, cryptocurrency, the U.S. national debt, inflation, real estate appreciation, and why money should always be viewed as a tool instead of the end goal.

Whether you're just starting your investing journey or looking to improve your financial strategy, this episode will challenge the way you think about money, assets, and building wealth over time.

⏱️ Timestamps

00:00 – Welcome to Episode 7
 00:10 – Swing trading, taking profits, and simple investing
 01:05 – The underrated feeling of becoming debt-free
 02:32 – How creative writing improved AI prompting and communication
 03:37 – Why most people never get started
 05:11 – Self-taught financial education and learning through mistakes
 06:12 – Disney World vs investing: Understanding opportunity cost
 09:04 – Spending money without guilt when you have a system
 10:07 – Michael Saylor, Bitcoin, and sticking to a money strategy
 11:29 – Stop chasing the next big investment
 13:30 – Building a money machine through leverage
 15:15 – Spending money on experiences that matter
 16:28 – GameStop, AMC, options trading, and Robinhood lessons
 20:48 – Crypto regrets: Dogecoin, XRP, Ethereum, and Solana
 22:22 – CBDCs, digital currencies, and the future of money
 23:07 – Capitalism, prosperity, and modern living
 24:12 – Helping the homeless and unexpected consequences
 27:38 – FHA lending restrictions explained by a mortgage broker
 30:13 – The $39 trillion U.S. national debt discussion
 33:09 – The U.S. dollar, BRICS, and global reserve currency concerns
 38:12 – Following the money behind markets and politics
 39:05 – FAANG stocks, investing discipline, and trusting your research
 40:20 – Inflation, why the system feels broken, and asset ownership
 42:03 – Scarcity, Bitcoin, gold, and perceived value
 43:21 – Why real estate remains one of the best wealth-building tools
 45:07 – The biggest lesson: Money is a tool, not the goal

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SPEAKER_02

Welcome back to First in Future Finance at Interest Only Studios. Episode seven. Seven? Yeah, seven. Siete. Alright. I had no plan going into this today. I had a couple things I talked about yesterday with my buddy. We were talking about some stocks. He's up like 20 grand in the past couple months from just stock trading. Not even options, just buy and sell. Swing trades. Yep, exactly. Two stocks as well. I feel like it's easy to overcomplicate. And he just bought low and he sold high. He didn't get greedy. He took the money out when he had profit to take. And he put a little bit back in when it went down and bought the dip. And he's up. Never go broke taking profit, bro.

SPEAKER_00

Nothing fancy. That's as simple as it gets. When you when you've made money, pull it out. Realize that gain. All right. Need a net zero. Oh man. That's an underestimated flex. Um being debt free, being a net zero. It's it's something something crazy. I've been there a couple times in my life and always managed to fuck it back up. Yeah. But it's but it's a great feeling. Like having no bills, no real like expenditure for your cash flow. Yeah. It's a different ride, man. The first time I paid my student loans off, um I celebrated it uh by buying an Audi. Ooh. I took Putting yourself in debt. That's that was I was like, okay, I got no more debt. Let me go back into debt. Let me go get a car. I gotta, I gotta, that was the way to do it. Um went back to school, you know, tried it again. Went in more debt. Went yeah, went more debt. Got another student loan out. Because it was it was simple. It was like, okay, yeah, I'm interested in that class. You guys will finance it for me. And they make it so easy. Yeah. They make it so easy. It's like click here, send in your tax returns, click a couple buttons. Yeah, yeah, we'll give you some money to take uh, you know, to take a spinning class. Why not? And a cooking class, and uh and uh what else did I take that semester? I think I tested out of the math. Okay. So I took a uh oh, creative writing.

SPEAKER_02

Ooh, okay. Yeah. Do you think that benefits you with your AI prompt writing now? Absolutely. Okay.

SPEAKER_00

So there's there's been a cost benefit. There was some benefit to it. So yeah, so it did teach me how to you know structure things, make things more clear when I'm writing it on paper. Because generally I write how I talk. If I'm if I'm speaking to you, I'll I'll write it down the same way that I presented it to you to make it make sure there's no misunderstanding. Yeah. I want to, I want you to understand what I'm saying, and I might say it two or three times in two or three different ways. So I make sure.

SPEAKER_02

I feel like I overexplained because I do exactly that. I feel like I say, especially on the phone, I was just selling a deal. Um he signed. And I think I do exactly that where I say the thing and then I say it again and again to like, all right, wait, I I get it. I understand. I'm gonna sign in here, you know. I do too much almost.

SPEAKER_00

Because I I despise having to repeat myself, yeah. Um especially on something simple. Yeah, like there are people that ask me over the years for advice, right? And what I've learned is to give them one step at a time. Yeah, come back to me after you've done this, and then we can move on to the next thing. Because if I give it to you all at once, you're not gonna do any of it.

SPEAKER_02

That actually reminds me of what I kind of wanted to talk about today. Um, the importance of like getting started. Of we didn't know how to do a podcast. Like, yeah, you had one in the past, you had some ideas, but we didn't know fully how to do this. And as we've been going, we've been tweaking things and improving and getting better. And I think it's so easy to just not start because everything's not perfect, it's not where you want it to be, where you think it can be. But how are you gonna get there if you didn't start somewhere to get it there? You're just like, oh, I'm gonna put it off until I know I can set it up to be perfect, but that doesn't help you, I don't think. You know? I feel like that's over that's very common. I think that happens a lot.

SPEAKER_00

You know, you know what we take for granted speaking, reading, walking. Yeah, real simple stuff. Simple stuff that that to a baby is damn near impossible. They have no experience. Fresh out of the womb, you're not a you're not a you're not a deer, you're not a giraffe, you're not walking day one out of out of mama's gut. Yeah. Right? You have to learn these things and you have to try and fall down, but you don't even remember falling down. You just walk now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Because you and I, I would say, on our whole financial journeys are almost entirely self-taught. Like I went to school, but it was all online, it was self-guided. It wasn't like I had a teacher doing lessons, it was just here's some stuff, read it, figure it out. Like, we went through all of our failures and bought stupid shit and messed up to get the experience to be able to talk about it and do a job in it, you know.

SPEAKER_00

Bro, I had to learn through those like being broke is one thing, right? But once you realize like being broke is temporary. Yeah. I think that's where the real superpower is. Like, I'm not afraid of going broke. I'm not afraid of not having money because I know how to make money. Getting money is not the issue, it's the it's the keeping it part. Yeah, keeping it in your pocket, making sure that you don't what did we talk about last week? Uh making sure you don't buy any Polaris uh slingshots when you do get the money. Yeah, retaining your wealth. You know what I calculated the other day? A Polaris slingshot. No, no, but the but something similar, the same cost of a Polaris slingshot. So 30 bands in 2023. I took my family to Disney World. Okay um in like I can't remember if it was July or August that summer. Took my family to Disney World that summer. I spent probably about 30 bands. And I just got curious in the car this morning, yeah, and was like, what if I put that 30 bands in with my investments? How much would I have today? Yeah, and that $30,000 in an SP 500 index. Just sitting there. Any of them. No buy and sell, just sitting there. No buy and sell. Um, just just that one time influx would be worth uh about $56,000 today. So I would have made $20,000 in almost three years. Yeah, $25,000. So really like just for the money sitting there. Yeah, not doing anything. So I could have gone to Disney World twice this year with the same money I spent back there. And it's just like that type of hindsight, it's not that it messes with my mind, but I always find it funny that I still make the choices that I do knowing what I know. That's true.

SPEAKER_02

But do you think it matters like that you could have had that extra money if all of your bills are paid, you got your cash flow, you have investments. Not to say you can't have more investments, but if you're already diversifying all the places you want to be in and you have a a fair amount of like what you deem for yourself to be a good amount in there, and going on that trip at the time didn't affect your bottom line, doesn't matter. That's just the opportunity cost of I feel like exactly the experience you want to have and what it costs. Like, I want to go to Japan next year. I'm I've got the whole thing planned out already. I already know what I'm gonna spend, where I'm gonna go, really. Yeah, I could put that 10 grand into a lot of other things though. But will that experience and potentially connections I make? Because you know I'm gonna bring my DJ board, you know I'm gonna try and set something up. Will the connections I make and the opportunities I create be worth that 10 grand? Or would I be better off just putting it in the market or something?

SPEAKER_00

Well, so and and that's the like you said, that's the opportunity cost. What are you missing out on? And in this case, I missed out on $18,000 in gains. But taking my family, taking my wife, my kids down to Universal Studios, Disney World, Epcot to see the look on their faces, building their own uh droid at the at the Star Wars uh park. Yeah, that's dope too. Those are sweet. Like I can't I can't put money on that.

SPEAKER_02

I don't regret spending the money. Yeah. What would you do with 18 grand right now if you had if you did do it? Or 25 grand in the market?

SPEAKER_00

All right, so yeah, doesn't change anything. Doesn't change a thing. But but that's what I'm saying. When you have a when you have a money system that you abide by, that's that's so you can do things like that.

SPEAKER_02

Are you I won't say scared, it might not be the right term, but like reluctant to spend money on things, even if you have all your bottom line, your bills are paid, you're diversified. Do you ever find yourself like hesitating to buy nice things?

SPEAKER_00

Not anymore. When uh and and we've talked about this before, like an abundance mindset takes really training yourself to be like, hey, this is what it's for. There's not there's no reason to hoard money. Yes.

SPEAKER_02

You're either gonna spend it now or spend it later, or not spend it at all, and someone else is gonna take it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, like, so so you got your you got your floor, right? You got your living expenses. And then you have your investments. That's money that's you know, it's growing, right? Um, there's a guy, there's a guy that takes all his extra money and puts it in Bitcoin.

unknown

Right?

SPEAKER_00

Michael Saylor. So I've his philosophy, although I don't agree with it, he has a strict money system where all the money he sells, uh, you know, he sells items online, takes that cash, invests it in the market, takes those gains, and he buys Bitcoin with it. So I like that. So I mean, so over the last 10 years. Oh yeah, he's uh probably up like crazy. Bro, I'm I'm like, I'm like, I can't 10 years is a long data set to say that, hey, that's a dumb idea. True. So he's been doing this for 10 years, he's to the point now where, you know, like I don't even know what the what the financial word for it is, but where he believes Bitcoin is going is a much farther upside. Expected value. Yeah, like where he's expecting it to go, he's got more upside risk. There we go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's got more upside risk in putting all his eggs in the Bitcoin basket than if it went to zero tomorrow. Yeah. That's that's how long he's been investing in that's crazy vehicle is that he he would have more to gain than to lose, still doing what he's doing.

SPEAKER_02

I feel like the problem I have that I run into all the time with everything is like I'm always looking for like the roundabout way to do it. Like, not even cutting corners, but just more of like I'm finding my way to do it and like investing in all these other things, diversifying, finding the next stock that I think could blow up or whatever. Yeah. If you just and like my comparison to this is like gambling, all like you're looking for like Chinese basketball or something, trying to hit a big parlay. If you just put Messi for two goals, Holland for two goals, and Bappe for two goals the other day in the World Cup, you would have hit a three leg and Ronaldo for two goals. Best players that, like, yeah, you're not gonna just bet on the best player. Well, they're not always gonna score. They all got two goals. You would hit a four-legged parlay. I don't even know the odds on that, but I know people I saw stuff on Twitter, people won big off that. That's the simplest bet you can make. That's investing in the SP 500 of gambling in soccer. And it's like, it doesn't have to be sexy, it doesn't have to be a random thing.

SPEAKER_00

You can just throw your money in the SP. I get your point. It's just it's like it's like uh it's like if somebody was gonna pay you to say the sun's coming up tomorrow. Yeah. I'll give you I'll give you a penny a day for every day the sun rises. All right. Okay? All you have to do is give me one dollar.

SPEAKER_02

Like once?

SPEAKER_00

Or like yeah, one time. One time. You give me one dollar, I'll give you a penny every day the sun comes up.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

That's gambling. I mean, I agree. I mean it is technically gambling. It's technically gambling, but at the same time, you know it's gonna happen. You know the sun is coming up. Yeah. So I'm I'm guaranteed a penny every day that the sun comes up. When you have something that's that certain, yeah, that has a proven track record over billions of years. Yeah, that oh, you know what? Every day the sun comes up.

SPEAKER_02

I have a good bet on this.

SPEAKER_00

I have a good, I have a good bet on this, and I have a guaranteed outcome.

SPEAKER_02

And then you could take the winnings of your pennies and then parlay that into going on polymarket and betting on the weather for that day, the over-under on the temperature. Have you seen that bet? And then, you know, leverage cycle, like we talked about.

SPEAKER_00

Leverage cycle. I have a money machine. I gave this guy a dollar. I'm gonna break even in a hundred days. I'm gonna have a hundred pennies after a hundred days of the sun coming up. Yep. After a year, I've tripled my money. Yeah. I've tripled it after a year. And if I do that for 30 years, how much is that? That's not 30 bucks. No, 3,000? 3,000, right? 365. I mean, the number I gave was way too small for the example. Yeah, 365.

SPEAKER_02

The point is, if I make 1% a day on my money. That's 10,000 days. Yeah. So 10,000 cents.

SPEAKER_00

10,000 cents. So what's 10,000? That's a that's 1,000 on the internet. 10,000 in pennies or or 10,000 pennies. 10,000 pennies. 10,000 pennies. Yeah, you have 10,000 pennies. I had to make that clarification.

SPEAKER_02

We're licensed to sell people loans for their homes. We we can't figure that out.

SPEAKER_00

No, but it words mean things, man. Words mean things. You put that I I and and by the way, the answer is you take 700,000 in pennies. It's 700,000. Yeah. Okay? Not 700,000 pennies. 700,000 in pennies. Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Way better. Yeah. Way better deal. Way more money.

SPEAKER_00

Listen to the mathematicians. But I mean, like, I I definitely um am for uh known outcomes.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

If I can predict something or if I can see a pattern in it, then I'm comfortable investing in that. I'm comfortable buying that. I know Disney World is gonna make my family happy. Yeah. So I'm happy to pay for it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00

Things that I enjoy. That's the only thing that I'm gonna use money for is either to get more money or to enjoy myself.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

What else are you what else are you gonna do?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, you're not gonna spend money to like not enjoy yourself. I mean, you might unintentionally. Or video games. I was just talking to my buddy about this yesterday. He wanted me to get Dark Souls. I'm like, why would I pay $30 to just hate myself for six hours? Like I'm not gonna enjoy myself at all.

SPEAKER_00

Man, video games. I remember when when video games were like 20 bucks. I could go to Best Buy, pick up 2K5, play it on PlayStation 2, uh, and and then take it back a year later and get three bucks. Yeah, can't do that anymore.

SPEAKER_02

No, now they don't even give you three bucks. No, and the game is like $80 for $80 and store credit. Oh, yeah, it's gotta be store credit.

SPEAKER_00

Man, what a ripoff, man. That's why GameStop stock is falling.

SPEAKER_02

That was, I think, I don't know if we talked about this before. That was did you know that was when I got into stocks? Was when that was happening? So my first experience in the stock market was AMC and GameStop on like riding that wave up. Oh, you're spoiled. Yeah, that was my first feeling. So I that's why I think crypto was so normal to me. It was just like, oh, things just move up and down. This is how it goes.

SPEAKER_00

So uh when that was going on, again, pattern recognition. No stocks super inflated, tight squeeze on the market. I'm like, this is coming down. Yeah, this is coming down, and when it comes down, it's gonna come down hard.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, GameStop is not worth $400 a share. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

So I put uh I put a uh a put option, which means I bet on it to come down on uh on AMC. Okay. And I'm talking about it came down, bro. It came down. It was a $200,000 trade that I made.

SPEAKER_02

I remember because I bought it over, I want to say I bought like $11. Uh, this one I was buying stocks on Cash App. So I bought like $11. I wrote it up to $50. I sold, made like three, four grand or whatever, and then I watched it. I didn't know about put options then. That was even an idea in my mind.

SPEAKER_00

So that's what I was saying. Like the spreads were were ridiculous, man. I'm talking about like the spreads on these things had they were like five dollars apart. So I spent uh or I tried to spend $200 on 10 contracts. Wow, it would have paid out uh $200,000. And where I was working at the time, the signal wasn't that good. So I put the order in thinking it was gonna be executed. I come back, check my phone, like I'm walking out, I'm leaving.

SPEAKER_02

You're thinking you're about to have 200 grand in your pocket.

SPEAKER_00

No, I'm I'm I'm I'm like literally walking up and down the aisles talking shit. Like I'm gone, I'm out.

SPEAKER_02

Y'all let me see this.

SPEAKER_00

Bro, everything I opened my I opened my Robin Hood back up and everything was gray. I'm like, what is this? What is this? It was like trade is not executed. Uh uh, it wasn't a market hall, it was something like I think it was something with the signal in the building or something.

SPEAKER_02

That situation of the market hall you're talking about, that is exactly why I don't use Robin Hood anymore. Is the last day because I was trying to buy because I got AMC first and then I saw the GameStop stuff, and I still saw GameStop was on the up, so I'm like, I'll buy some. Yep. Market hall, I couldn't buy any. I'm like, why do I even use this app?

SPEAKER_00

That was my last day on Robinhood when I found out that they do not own the shares that they are selling you. They are a middleman, they're they're they're whole retail stock brokers.

SPEAKER_02

On everything, on everything. Because I know they were making like SpaceX, like they had SpaceX shares like a year ago, but you weren't buying any stake in the company.

SPEAKER_00

No, but think about this. Robinhood lets you trade for free. No transaction fees. Why is that?

SPEAKER_02

Because you're not buying a stock, you're not buying anything. You're not buying anything, you're buying the speculation of the price of it.

SPEAKER_00

This is the thing. Robinhood is building their fees into the stock price that they show you on the app. If I log into e-trade and I see GameStop for uh I log into Robin Hood, I'll see GameStop for 402. Okay, I log into e-Trade. Why is this trading at 398?

SPEAKER_02

Yep, those fees are just built in.

SPEAKER_00

They're built into the app. They're built in. The reason you can trade for free on those apps is because you're being charged when you purchase the stock.

SPEAKER_02

We're never getting sponsored by Robin Hood now.

SPEAKER_00

I don't want to be sponsored by Robin Hood.

SPEAKER_02

Agreed. Agreed. They've hoed me enough. My Robin Hood got hacked by a Russian guy last month.

SPEAKER_00

Somebody tried to hack my wife's Robin Hood the other day. She hasn't been active on that account since I left. Oh, yeah. Man, I've deleted everything. I was like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I haven't touched it.

SPEAKER_00

I I that was that was very disappointing.

SPEAKER_02

The Russian guys got in my account. They saw one cent in Dogecoin. That's all I had left in there.

SPEAKER_00

I saw Doge before the uh before the skyrocket. Yeah, me too. I had like 7,000 Doge. Um, I think I sold it for 30 bucks. And then I don't even, I don't even think it was a week. Might have been a month later at the most.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Hey, we up. We up. Did you check your your doge?

SPEAKER_02

I did that with Dogecoin. I did with Solana. I did with Ethereum. I saw Ethereum at 200 bucks, bought it, went up to 4K. Or no, went up to 2K that first round. Oh man. Didn't buy a single stock. I was just watching it, watching it.

SPEAKER_00

So many missed opportunities. I remember me and my boy was uh we had the laptop open. We we had it set up. We were gonna buy Ripple day one. Okay XRP.

SPEAKER_02

Damn.

SPEAKER_00

Day one, bro. We had the laptop open. Jim and I was ready. All we had to do was wire the account and hit execute.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

He's like, hey, let's let's get a game of 2K in. We start playing 2K. We playing 2K for like six, seven hours. Laptop dies. I think Ripple opened up at like.001 and went to a quarter.

SPEAKER_02

That's actually you just reminded me as well. Um, because yeah, I remember I was buying uh XRP about 50 cents. You were still ahead of me even buying it a quarter.

SPEAKER_00

No, we were day one.

SPEAKER_02

Day one's insane. Um, but yesterday, um R L U S D uh XRP stable coin uh went live in Japan. Nice, which is very cool in the current. Crypto prices down, so I'm not seeing any gains from that.

SPEAKER_00

But I I don't trust it because it's so stable. Yeah, because that's the point back by the government.

SPEAKER_02

True.

SPEAKER_00

Is it gonna turn into another dollar if it ever does get adopted?

SPEAKER_02

Speaking of that, they also are in the process of passing a bill right now, I saw yesterday, um, of making in the US a central bank digital currency illegal until 2030. Now, is that illegal or is that we can't have this until then because that's when we're allowing it to happen. We're preparing for it to happen then. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Once we figure out how to make money off of it, then you guys can have something.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we're putting it off for a couple years. It is gonna happen, but we're just gonna say it's not gonna happen until this time.

SPEAKER_00

That's the as soon as they sell me it's not gonna happen, then I start researching into why and when are we gonna get it?

SPEAKER_02

Agenda 2030, uh, you'll own nothing and be happy, that whole thing. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00

There's a lot of uh hey, you can't be mad at capitalism, man. We we live here.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, we we live here. We're profiting off of capitalism. Absolutely. So as much as like, even if you're at the bottom of capitalism, you're still profiting off of capitalism more than someone that lived in like the 13th century as a peasant. You know what I mean? Even like the the peasant class now is living way better than they did 10 centuries ago.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, 10 centuries ago, sure. Yeah, like thirty.

SPEAKER_02

I'm talking like 13th century, like, yeah. So so uh even the French Revolution, like that, like like what 400, 300 years ago.

SPEAKER_00

So our poppers are better than your poppers. They they're at least brushing their teeth.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, our bread and circus is better.

SPEAKER_00

I don't know, man. I don't know. That's a tough one. I don't know if I could quantify that.

SPEAKER_02

It's tough. It's tough. I mean, it's like we have plumbing, indoor plumbing, air conditioning. They didn't have that. We have microphones and a screen in front of us right now. I mean, uh the a Victorian child could never comprehend a talkie. You know what I mean? Yeah, they're in every gas station here. We're spoiled.

SPEAKER_00

We uh I I do have to make a uh service announcement. You know, there's a there's a bridge that there are um some homeless. It's like a homeless community under a bridge on on a on a street here. And like here, here like Detroit? Yeah, okay. And we we stopped yesterday. We we gave this lady some money, um, gave her some bottled water.

SPEAKER_02

This is off eight mile. I think I know exactly what you're talking about. Okay, yeah, right there under that bridge. And is that Woodward?

unknown

No.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, 75, 75, right? No, it's Woodward. It's Woodward, yeah. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So um we stopped there and we didn't even think about the optics. Uh this lady's like walking after we pull off, the lady's like walking around, she's eating food, she's got cash in her hand, and you know, a sign that says help me, but in front of the sign now, she has a Saratoga water. Like, and I'm like, like, damn, did we just like mess up the rest of her day? Like, are people really good? Are there are is anybody else gonna stop for her after seeing her with a Saratoga water and a water cash in her hand?

SPEAKER_02

Man, I saw um this is a while ago. I was driving through Birmingham, I saw a guy with a sign, I'm assuming he was homeless, with like a new pair of Tim's on. I wasn't giving him money. See, your shoes are worth more than mine.

SPEAKER_00

What do you mean you're they had to they they gonna they they should have they they had to swap her out after that because that was a bad look.

SPEAKER_02

You cost her money. I'm pretty sure I did.

SPEAKER_00

I'm pretty sure I did. I feel bad. So I apologize if if she has a way to watch this. Um I have to go back and get her some more. You owe her for that for sure.

SPEAKER_02

I saw a thing a while ago that like homeless people in New York, and I say that in air quotes because apparently there's like whole professions in Times Square where begging is a job.

SPEAKER_00

I'm not talking about the people that are like the professional vagabonds.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I'm not talking about the people who perform, I'm talking people who just like go up begging for people. Apparently they make like 100k a year in Times Square.

SPEAKER_01

Damn.

SPEAKER_02

That's a good job. Uh you're making a good chunk of must be. You make it 100k a year, capitalism. Scaming people. Capitalism.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my goodness. I mean, like, think about that. If you just walked around downtown and asked people, like, can I have a dollar? Can I have a dollar? It's gonna hit. You just have to be good at sales.

SPEAKER_02

You could hit.

unknown

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02

Are they salesmen? I mean, technically, right? I'm selling you on why you should give me a dollar right now. If I just ask for it, then you give it to me. Right, but I'm gonna ask what? I'm gonna ARP you. You think I'm just gonna say no and move on? I'm gonna ARP you once or twice. What do you need it for the bus? I need food. You got a dollar? Oh, what do you what are you trying to buy with it? Uh bus? All right, all right.

SPEAKER_00

No, you can keep that. Man, I'm uh I'm like, I'm bugging because I really thought today was Wednesday.

SPEAKER_02

I know you did. I pulled up to you and was like, hey, podcast today, or like, oh, that is today. I was like, what?

SPEAKER_00

I lost a day somewhere between here and the weekend. Yeah. And I don't know when it happened or how it happened, but I fully walked in today thinking, like, oh, hump day. I'm gonna get in, I'm gonna get an application, and you know, I'm I'm I'm I was gonna sell some shit today. Yeah. And I walked into a canceled loan, um finding out that FHA has halted loans in certain regions for EPM.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, did that affect you? Uh directly, that was one of your clients. I saw that email.

SPEAKER_00

I'm like, uh what was going on here? Researched it a little bit more. What did happen with that? I was gonna ask. So apparently, when a lender uh, and we're not lenders, by the way, we're mortgage brokers. Okay, so we connect you with lenders that will give you a money.

SPEAKER_02

We make your application look pretty.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the money. We have them fighting over your business. This particular lender, um, equity prime mortgage, and this has been going on for like a year now. Oh, really? Yeah, so it's affecting different areas when they lend out money and the people they lend the money to don't pay them on the note, they don't pay the loans back or they go into default. Yeah, when that default rate gets over a certain limit, the uh housing administration will pull your funding. Is that not redlining? Kind of. No, no, no. I mean, like no, they're not getting paid, but like no, you're not paying the bill, so it's like and it's and it's just specific to that lender, right? But apparently, this can happen to any lender that has a default rate.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, so that lender gave too many loans in that area.

SPEAKER_00

They gave too many bad loans. Wow, they gave too many bad loans that were coming from that area. Interesting. So the area doesn't have anything to do with it, it's strictly hey, you sent us this bundle of loans, we bought them back from you, and we did not get paid. So now, until your until your credit gets better, lenders have credit too, until your credit gets better, we're not gonna give you any more loans in that area. Wow, that's crazy. And it's because they weren't paying, not because we didn't give you the money.

SPEAKER_02

So, what happens to all those loans that are in process there? Do they just get sold somewhere else? Yeah, you gotta take them somewhere else. You gotta take them somewhere else. That's the that's FHA, that's Fannie Freddy, right? That's the government buying the loan, right? Correct?

SPEAKER_00

FHA is uh Freddie Mack, yep. Right. So the government said no to you. Yeah, government's like, no, we're not touching that. And like I said, it might not have anything to do with your borrower, it has any, it has to do with previous borrowers from that lender, right? So they have a bad rep. So I can have an 800 score in that area and just and they're gonna say no.

SPEAKER_02

Wow, as long as it's FHA.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Also, that just made me think because I'm thinking, wow, the government turning down debt. I looked up the debt clock because I haven't looked at it in a while. Where do you think our U.S. national debt is at right now? Ooh, six trillion. Uh, we're cusping 40 trillion. We're at 39. We're at 39 trillion dollars right now. Oh no. 39, 300, oh my god, 300 billion.

SPEAKER_00

So it's five times what it was in 2010. Because that was the last time I looked at it. You haven't looked at this in 16 years? Because once I figured out that it didn't matter to my everyday life, yeah, I just had to figure out what they were willing to go into debt for to figure out how I was going to play my my game.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I didn't see we have a debt to GDP ratio as well. Yeah. Uh, we're at 121% jet to GDP ratio. If they were a borrower, they cannot get a loan from us right now. The US government cannot get a loan. We're also spending over a trillion dollars in interest alone on that debt yearly. That's more than the defense budget. Yeah. Like these aren't real numbers, though. Like, imagine a trillion of anything, let alone yearly, let alone 39 trillion of something. Like, and this is my whole thing of how has the market not fucking collapsed yet? $39 trillion is owed, and it's just like it's not getting paid back. We know it's not getting paid back. You have to what's happening?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you have to think of it in in you know, bigger than the macro, right? You you gotta think of it in okay, we owe this much, but we also control how we pay it back. Like, it's like if if you're thirsty, right? And you borrow a cup of water from me, I have infinite water to give you. Like the the planet's 80% water. Yeah, I can get you water from anywhere. So if I say I'm gonna pay you back in dollars, and all I have to do is go into my dollar well to bring more dollars to give you, yeah, I'll never run out of money. I'm I I can make more of what you want.

SPEAKER_02

That's true, and make more of what I want. I need water too.

SPEAKER_00

I can go, I can go into I can go into infinite amounts of debt because I have infinite dollars to pay you in. As long as I'm paying you in something that I can create and make, then that number's fake. That's true. I can't, I can never be in more debt than money I have because I make the money.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I invented. It's my this is a tangent I've actually been wanting to go on on the podcast for a while, but like that US debt in theory is only held up by our reputation. It's either one, our protection from communism, I guess, still. I think that's what we're saying still. Yeah, our protection from communism by having military bases everywhere. That's one angle of it is we will you stay on the US dollar and fund your whole life with us as the reserve currency on the US dollar. Yes. In return, here's a military base, we're gonna protect you from communism. So we're still going off that whole route. If we stop protecting everyone from communism, or if maybe the threat is no longer communism, or maybe they find something else more important than the US dollar. Like Iran just transacted, I want to say 3.8 billion through a crypto um marketplace to avoid US dollar sanctions.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

So if people are like BRICS Nations, especially, if they're finding ways out around our dollar where they don't need us anymore, we don't need to have the reserve currency status. What value does our dollar have?

SPEAKER_00

What happened to the last person that tried to do that?

SPEAKER_02

Uh, what was that? Gaddafi?

SPEAKER_00

No, it was one after him. He's still in custody.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, um Maduro? Yeah, that did happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So when you try to circumvent, when you try to circumvent the dollar and remove the the US's uh stronghold on the world, yes, you get dealt with.

SPEAKER_02

But what if everyone does it? What if China decide to do it and BRICS? If everyone says, hey, we don't need your dollar anymore, and we're gonna make a crypto coin like a BRICS token or whatever it ends up being, then what can the US say besides going to war with everybody? Because it's gonna have to get violent at one place.

SPEAKER_00

Let's go back to Maduro. Okay. Maduro uh had operatives in his own government working against him, the current acting president of Venezuela. Yeah. Um is he still current? Like is he still the she conspired with our government and Donald Trump to come into power. She gave up Maduro and his wife.

SPEAKER_02

No, I'm saying is Maduro still technically the current president. Or they they haven't like found anyone. He's been in custody for a while.

SPEAKER_00

So, you know, to to his whereabouts unknown, um, they're hoping people forget about him. I forgot about him for a second. Yeah, they're gonna hope people forget about him. She's gonna become, you know, until they have an election and install democracy or whatever down there, they've got all those oil reserves. You know who the number one buyer of those oil reserves were? Us, right? China.

SPEAKER_02

Okay, yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00

So when when China doesn't want to play ball, hey, we're gonna call your loan due. You guys owe us money. Yeah, we want our money back. Okay. We'll print some. Well, no, we can't print anymore. They're like, no, we want we want you to pay us in full. We're not even gonna, we're not even gonna take your US dollars. What are we gonna do? Okay, so this administration decides what does China need the most? They need fuel to run their economy. Different forms of currency. There you go. We're gonna go take over what they're trying to use and sell it back to them. Yep. So now the U.S. controls those oil reserves and the price. And the price in Venezuela. China can't stop buying their, you know, they can't just cut off their own legs to try and spite us for a couple for some pocket change. Yeah, I'm gonna stop buying oil.

SPEAKER_02

They need it still.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. So we're gonna pay them back in something that they're already buying, so it doesn't come out of our reserve.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

Which was, you know, that's the way it works. That's the way leverage works.

SPEAKER_02

That's true. It is just leverage, it's all leverage. Everything is leverage.

SPEAKER_00

But I mean, like, you know, had any other president done this? I'm not even gonna give him the credit. Congress. He's a figurehead. It's uh but like this is like when people when you understand how the money flows, how it works, who is the beneficiary to uh policy decisions, policy makers, and and when you understand who owns the senators, yeah. Who owns what? That's when you can start to make sense of oh, okay, I should vote for this guy because he supports this. I should go for this guy, he's funded by these people. They're gonna do X, Y, and Z. And then you can start looking at the markets in that way. Right. Markets, oh, these people are backed by these three senators who go to lunch with this uh political action committee who are backed up by these lobbyists who just funded that project.

SPEAKER_02

Nvidia, Oracle, OpenAI giving each other a hundred million dollars. It was the same hundred million dollars. You just had moving it.

SPEAKER_00

So, and that's what I'm saying. Like when you follow uh not even following the money anymore, but you follow the decisions that create the money, yeah, and follow the patterns in the market of where that money went and how it was dispersed and who was involved, it's the same players and everything. You know the 80-20 rule. Yeah, you got 20% of the people doing the work, or 20% of the people are doing 80% of the work. So when you start seeing the same names and faces attached to things, this is why we have six oligarchs at the top of the country. Yep. Tech oligarchs now. Yeah. Yeah. Those fang stocks did pretty well over the last 10 years. Yeah, they have. Do we have to define that? Are we doing uh I mean we can't we might as well, right? So you got Facebook, Apple, uh NVIDIA, NVIDIA, Google, Google. There's one more. There's two A's, right?

SPEAKER_02

Oh, it is AMD. Yeah, it was Amazon A. Amazon was the other one. AMD though. That pisses me off, bro. I was buying AMD baggage, $180 a share, $160 a share. I sold a little bit. I needed some money at the time. I look now. I was looking yesterday because I'm like, oh, I have a nice check. I'm gonna buy some $550 a share. No, I'm so mad. AMD Mike Ryan, let's go. So fi. I knew that was gonna happen too. I knew it was gonna happen. I didn't have enough money to buy at the time. I should have let it.

SPEAKER_00

No, see, that's the thing, man. And you can't be you can't be down on yourself. When you write, that's a that's a that's a signal to follow your gut the next time. True. Can't be scared of losing money because you know, it's investing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00

It's not always gonna go up.

SPEAKER_02

Well, you know, you know, at some point it will.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you own something long enough, you're gonna make money.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Uh I don't know. I didn't go on that rant for hours. The dollar's losing value, I think. Like it's gaining and losing value because it's a market, it's it's the whole thing. But the current system, I feel like can't keep happening. More people are not happy with how the system's going, let alone happy. A lot of people can't survive in the system. There's 630,000 more sellers and buyers in the housing market right now, and people are still buying, which is crazy. But if things keep getting expensive and people are still buying, they're enabling the system that isn't working to keep working for a little bit, preventing the change that needs to happen. Yes. Because I do think change needs to happen at this point. Not even like, I'm not talking politically or nothing, like financially, there are like so many cracks that just need to be fixed. Like, why is the Fed's goal for our money to lose 2% a year? Why is that a goal? Shouldn't it be to gain value every year or for everyone to earn money?

SPEAKER_00

Well then you you gotta ask, what's the purpose? Why do they want us to lose value every year? Control? That's my theory.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know anything. No, I mean we don't know.

SPEAKER_00

We don't know for sure, but yeah, wouldn't it make sense that because if money becomes too valuable and everybody has some, then it doesn't, it's worthless in that sense. There you go. You lose, you're gonna lose the value anyway, because an abundance of something, if you it too much of a good thing can't be a good thing.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, that's why I like designer brands.

SPEAKER_00

If you drink too much water, you drown. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Designer brands run the exclusivity thing, and then when too many people get too much access to it, it's not exclusive, it's not luxury, it's not as important, and then the quality drops. And Gucci. Why would you buy a Gucci linen tea for $400 or a Gildan tea for $400?

SPEAKER_00

Limited availability. Perceived. Why do you think that guy is buying Bitcoin?

SPEAKER_02

Limited availability.

SPEAKER_00

There's limited availability, they're not making any more. Why is gold so valuable? I mean, we can find more. We can definitely find more gold. Yeah, but the the the effort that it takes to find more gold. Like, no, matter of fact, like gold's made in the earth. We we don't predict when gold nuggets are gonna be popping out. We just have it, it's there. Yeah, we mine for it, right? Yeah, so right now there's a finite amount of gold until the earth decides to produce some more. Yeah, that's why it's what 6,000 an ounce or whatever. What is it now?

SPEAKER_02

You just went down a bunch, it's that 4,000 an ounce right now.

SPEAKER_00

Oh man, I haven't buy it.

SPEAKER_02

You should buy right now. It's a great buying opportunity. Not financial advice. I personally believe, because I my average is a little bit higher. This is a great time to buy for me and my portfolio.

SPEAKER_00

There you go.

SPEAKER_02

Don't take my advice.

SPEAKER_00

I wouldn't start with gold. Like I said, I would start with some some real estate. This desk, right? This is real estate. This desk. Let's let's just use this as a physical representation. This is a house. In 30 years, this will still be a house.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

But how many, how much did you pay for it? What did you pay for it? Did you get it for free? Did you pay 250,000? Have you earned money on it? Has the value gone up? That's what I'm saying. Has the value gone up? But it's still a house. It is, yeah. Nothing's changed. Nothing's changed. My gold bar is still a gold bar. Exactly. But the the amount of money that it takes or the amount of dollars that it took to buy this, that's has either gone that that's what's changing.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Different forms of currency. I can't say it enough. Like that's what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_00

That's more dollars in 30 years to buy this than it does today.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And you can trade that in. Say, all right, I'm gonna give it back to you for double what I paid for it. Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Rent it out, cash flow, leverage it. Leverage it. Buy more, buy another desk in another town.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's how that's how appreciation works, and that's how they want everything to be. I want more of something. Uh you know, I don't want equal exchanges anymore. Nobody barters.

SPEAKER_02

No.

SPEAKER_00

Right? I'm not gonna give you this table for that laptop. No, you know, and that's there's a dire need for it. You get what I'm saying? Like it's you you have to find the value in something. Yeah. But this this uh this house's value is in its purpose. Yeah, money's value is in its purpose. True. To buy things to store it in.

SPEAKER_02

Money is a tool. It is not the end goal. If money is your end goal, you have lost the end goal already. It's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00

So yeah, so let's let's yeah, let's let's define that.

SPEAKER_02

So like we have 30 seconds.

SPEAKER_00

That's fine. I just want you guys to take this one thing. You get money, you find something to store it in so that it grows in value. Okay? Yep. Is that the is that the message for today? I like it. Get money, buy assets, let it grow in value.

SPEAKER_02

Leverage those assets.

SPEAKER_00

Leverage those assets to get more money, to buy assets, to leverage it again.

SPEAKER_02

To then sell those assets and buy the things that give you purpose, like you're talking about going to Disney, whatever. There you go. Use that money for yourself.

SPEAKER_00

Lesson of the day.

SPEAKER_02

Man, we're spitting.

SPEAKER_01

All right, see ya.