Wealth Formula Podcast

The most common question I get from investors these days is how increasing interest rates will affect the performance of our real estate holdings. There is often concern, for good reason, that as rates go up our net operating income will go down. The good news is that things aren't that simple. Rate increases don't happen in a vacuum. Remember that the reason the Fed is increasing interest rates i...

I have started a number of small businesses over the past decade. I know that a number of you run your own business or are thinking about some kind of new entrepreneurial endeavor. So, let me tell you about some of the things that I have learned. First, fewer variables make businesses easier to run and, in most cases, more profitable. You can see examples of this with big business all the time. Ev...

My kids are little. My oldest is 12 and her sisters are 9 and 6. Admittedly, I've spent no significant amount of time trying to teach them about money as of yet. If anything, I have taught them a little bit about the burden of taxes by eating half of the cupcakes and ice cream and metaphorically blaming the IRS. That one seems to get the point across! When they get older, you can be sure that I wi...

You would think from the vilification of capitalists in recent years that we are nothing but a waste of space on earth. "Pay your fair share capitalist pig!" That's what you hear these days from popular politicians on the left. Of course, in reality, without us, the government would be broke. What makes America great and what has made the world the place that it is in terms of technology and healt...

Money has taken on many forms throughout history. In the last couple of centuries gold has been the dominant form of money recognized globally. In 1912 J.P. Morgan himself said, "Money is gold, and nothing else". Yet the relevance of gold has really come into question since Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard in 1971. That move has been vilified by Austrian economists and others who treasu...

I write this on the "Ides of March" one day before the Federal Reserve meets to discuss the economy and its plans for the near future. The 900-pound gorilla in the room is inflation although the war in Ukraine may be a mitigating factor for the impending hawkish moves anticipated. By the time this post is published and podcast recorded, you'll already know what happened at that meeting. Let me gue...

Americans have always enjoyed the advantage of geographic isolation from much of the Western World. It has allowed us, in many ways, to look at many of the world's conflicts from a relatively disinterested distance. Who knows if we would have gotten involved at all in World War 2 if not for the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, the implications of major conflicts like the one currently happen...

In June of 2008, I graduated from my surgical residency program, got married and discovered Robert Kiyosaki. 14 years later, I'm no longer a practicing surgeon nor am I married anymore. However, the impact of Robert's books defined the course of my life. It's really extraordinary when I think about how a single book that I stumbled upon in a dingy Mexican airport could have just profound implicati...

Distributed ledger technology is revolutionary and creates some problems for the old guard—specifically banks and the traditional financial markets. The young guns creating all of this technology are really shaking things up. But you can bet that the traditional guys who have been making millions of dollars off the old system aren't giving up easily. The old guard also has something else on their...

Disruptive technology always creates casualties. I still remember a few years ago walking in a city with my oldest daughter who was about five or six at the time. We passed an old phone booth and she asked, "Daddy what's that?". Think of all the technological dinosaurs that have been forgotten in your lifetime. Records and compact discs? Typewriters? The Yellow Pages? Technological innovation is s...

If you were an alien from another planet visiting who got stuck on earth and had to figure out how to get by you would quickly realize that you would need some money. This would probably lead you to a job which would not be difficult given your extraordinary intelligence. In fact, it might land you a high-paying technical gig with Google or Facebook. You might enjoy the work at first but the long...

I still remember listening to the Peter Schiff podcast seven years ago when I lived in Chicago. I was at the tail end of my Austrian Economic phase and so I believed in everything Peter had to say. One day I was sitting there at my computer listening to him make fun of something called bitcoin which was making some waves at the time. The way he made it sound made bitcoin seem like a completely rid...

People listening to the show for the first time often feel a little overwhelmed by the basic terminology and concepts that we use as the basis of our conversations. We throw words like bonus depreciation and cost segregation analysis around like everyone knows what we are talking about. The Ask Buck shows that we have a great place to build the framework for understanding the Wealth Formula altern...

This week's show marks the 300th episode of the Wealth Formula Podcast. That means about six years' worth of shows. Wow! How did that happen? What started out as a little time to speak to myself (I had no listeners) has become a show with well over a million downloads and an extraordinary community. When I reflect over the last six years, I'm really encouraged. I see the incredible progress that I...

Why is it that the rich get richer? Well, for one thing, they have money to invest. Think of how many people out there live paycheck to paycheck. Meanwhile, people with money like you and me are able to invest our money and get it working for us. Remember the mathematical Wealth Formula? Wealth=Leverage(MassXVelocity) Velocity is the rate that you get your invested capital back in your pocket to r...

Okay—let's talk about debt. I bet at some point in your life, someone has told you that you need to pay it all off. On TV, you see the likes of Suzie Orman and Dave Ramsey telling you that you have to get rid of it before anything else. They aren't entirely wrong. They are just talking to the masses. The masses aren't a group of sophisticated real estate investors like you, who are distinguishing...

Happy New Year! I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to another profitable year in the roaring 20s. If you have been investing in real estate for the last several years, you are obviously doing very well. The big question on everyone's mind seems to be whether or not the market is too hot to continue investing. There is no one right answer to this. In fact, when we talk about the "real...

Technology is great but the burdens of technology are significant. Think of all your accounts and all your passwords. You may have cryptocurrency and might be trading on cryptic DeFi platforms. What if something happened to you today? How much of your money would be a giant mess to the family you left behind? There's a New Year's resolution for you. Make sure your house is in order! Meanwhile, whi...

Inflation is running at about 6-7 percent right now. That is significant. In fact, we haven't seen those numbers in about 4 decades. On this week's show, we will talk to an economist to explain what this means at the macro level and what may potentially be the long-term outcome. I'm not an economist. I am a professional investor and the way I see things right now is at that level. Let me tell you...

A number of people told me that they really enjoyed last week's podcast interview with William Green, who spoke about what we can learn from the greatest investors of all time. One line that still haunts me is Sir John Templeton saying that the four most dangerous words for an investor are "This time it's different". Why does it haunt me? Listen, the economy is in a massive boom right now. There i...

Asset prices are booming. We have more than doubled price per door costs on acquisitions made in some markets just two years ago. That's just what our investor club has seen in real estate. To look at rising asset prices on steroids, just look to the crypto markets. A guy who works out at the place I work out bought $400K of gala token under 1 cent and is now sitting on a couple hundred million bu...

When you are trying to figure out how to become more successful in life, don't try to re-recreate the wheel. Success stories aren't all the same, but they often rhyme. My first two successful businesses were nothing other than me ripping off other successful business models and giving them a twist of my own. I knew the concepts already worked in other markets and there was, in my view, no reason w...

It's been 2 years since Covid-19 first became the major global topic. I must admit, if you told me back then that we'd still be wearing masks and living our lives with Covid-19 precautions every day, I would have never believed you. So much about this period in time is extraordinary. It's hard to really appreciate that as we continue to live in the moment while this chapter in history continues to...

At the core of every individual's subconscious there is a wealth thermostat. What sets the temperature is a combination of nature and nurture. Once it's set, it's difficult to change it. But if you know you have a thermostat, it's a lot easier to change your mindset. What do I mean by this? Well, think about yourself for a moment. Are you $200K/year type? $500K or a million/year type? Now, try to...

Last week I did an emergency podcast to make sure everyone is aware of an upcoming change related to the whole life policies we use inside of Wealth Formula Banking. It all revolves around recent changes made to IRC Section 7702, with is the IRS code that dictates how life insurance policies are taxed. Since the 1980's, the code mandated insurance companies who offer whole life to offer a 4% guara...