Wealth Formula Podcast

As I mentioned last week, we had a lot of questions piled up in the "Ask Buck" file that I need to get answered. As a result, we ended up with multiple shows. You can listen to the latest episode HERE. The good news is that this format seems to be quite popular. I really do enjoy these virtual interactions and encourage you to keep those questions coming! Now, in the interest in maximizing your we...

Ever since this COVID-19 thing started, it seems like there is no other news. Maybe what that tells us is that most of the news we ordinarily get on a daily basis is worthless. But seriously, doesn't it seem like the world has just frozen into a COVID-19 coma? My ER doc friends joke that everyone stopped having heart attacks and strokes since this pandemic started. As a podcaster, I realize that i...

"It's hard to make predictions—especially about the future." That's one of my favorite Yogi Berra quotes. It's funny but also incredibly true. Think about what is happening now with COVID-19. Social scientists make predictions based on assumptions. The epidemiologists are making projections on the spread of the virus even though they have no significant knowledge of what they don't know. We are le...

Last episode we talked about the realities of COVID-19—what it is, what makes it so challenging and how dangerous it really is. We also talked about potential medical treatments. In this episode, we go into vaccinations and economic impacts of COVID-19.

What a strange time we live in where even public health issues are politicized. The wingnuts on the right want to downplay a virus that has already taken the lives of more people than the Vietnam war. The wingnuts on the left want to demonize anyone who even suggests an alternative approach to dealing with the pandemic outside of staying at home in perpetuity. They want us to completely ignore the...

What are notes? Well, for simplicity, let's call them mortgages. You owe the lender money when you take out a mortgage. However, that lender can sell that mortgage to someone else. That's what it means to buy or sell a note. Notes can be performing or non-performing. Non-performing notes are simply those that have had trouble paying on time in the past. So, if you buy one of those, you either pay...

As expected, the government roll out of the multi-trillion dollar stimulus program to save the economy has been sloppy and slow. People who need to tap into unemployment insurance can't get through on the phone. Businesses who need money can't get the money they applied for and, when they do, the terms are very unclear. Some businesses have given up. Rather than take a big loan from the government...

I have to admit, I did not think that this Coronavirus thing was going to hit us this hard. To be clear, I'm not just talking about how deadly this pandemic has turned out to be in terms of human life. A month ago, if you told me that just about every small business in America would be shut down, I'd have thought you were crazy. I guess I had become accustomed to hearing about scary diseases like...

Remember a month ago when this whole Corona-thing was sort of a theoretical issue? After all, we only had 15 cases reported in the whole country and no one had died. Sure, we were starting to see the news in China and Italy but they were so far away. Even the president said it would just disappear! But then every day things got substantially worse—exponentially worse. And now, even those who mocke...

A few days ago we had the worst single day loss in US stock market history. The next day we had the single best day seen by the Dow Jones Industrial average in 80 years. I have no idea what kind of volatility there will be between the time I write this email and when you actually read it but it's kind of ridiculous. Don't you think? This volatility is exactly why I have stayed away from stocks thr...

What we are experiencing right now is truly a black swan event. Even those who predicted a recession had no idea how badly the global economy could be crippled in just a few weeks. Hopefully it will be short-lived. But frankly, even a few months of people staying at home and not buying anything will have extraordinary repercussions. The fiscal and monetary tools we have to combat our situation are...

We live in a world where things can change fast! A couple of weeks ago, it seemed like this novel coronavirus was some exotic disease in China. Before you know it, it became a big enough problem in Italy to cause a national lockdown. Then last week, the NBA season in the United States was suspended. What's going to happen by the time I release this podcast? Who knows? I'm sure you are getting info...

"People tend to overestimate what can be done in one year and to underestimate what can be done in five or ten years." That's a quote with unknown origin that I've heard a few times and one with which I cannot agree more. All you have to do is to look at my podcast to see that. It's been about four years now since I began Wealth Formula Podcast. The first several shows that I did had no listeners....

* In case you are wondering—I didn't get a chance to finish episode 200 yet so we are going to call this one episode 199.5! One of the great things about Wealth Formula Network is having a community where people can share what they know including who to stay away from. For example, through our collective knowledge, our group learned pretty quickly last year when a high profile turn-key home provid...

"Be careful what you wish for, lest it come true!" The origin of this saying is Aesop's Fables (circa 260 BC), not a modern country singer as some might think. Either way, it is a powerful statement when it comes to financial wealth. You see, I talk to hard working, high paid professionals every day and many aspire to retire. They believe that they would be much happier if they could make enough m...

Yogi Berra once said, "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future." He was a wise man. No wonder they named a cartoon character after him. The problem is that everything we do in finance ultimately relies on some kind of belief of how the future will play out. As a result, we often search for prophets who can help us make a profit. Of course these prophets, otherwise known as econ...

If you are part of our Wealth Formula Investor Club you know that we do a lot of multifamily real estate. In fact, 95 percent of what we do is working class, value-add multifamily real estate with the same two operators. Some of you have invested literally millions of dollars into these deals. I've got my own money and my dad's money in this stuff too so I'm not doing anything different. I know it...

I don't really like basketball and have never watched a full game in my life. Despite that, I knew who Kobe Bryant was and was shocked by the news of the tragic accident that took his and his daughter's life. His passing actually reminded me very much of Princess Diana dying in a car crash in 1997. I remember that I was at a bar attending a medical school new student orientation event when the new...

People send me real estate deals to look at all the time trying to get an opinion on whether or not they should invest. Usually it's some glossy executive summary showing nice pictures and impressive proforma numbers. "What do you think?", they ask. My answer is pretty much always the same. "I don't know these people so I can't comment". You see, real estate is not like publicly traded stock. If I...

I have a question for you. Did you make any significant New Year's resolutions or set some serious 2020 goals for yourself this year? I bet when you set those goals, you likely felt a lot of energy: "This time I'm going to do it!". You felt like nothing was going to stop you. Now, four weeks into the year, are you losing steam on that goal? If so, why do you think that is? Personally, I think we h...

Our private group, Wealth Formula Network, has a biweekly zoom video call to discuss anything and everything about personal finance. These calls are a lot of fun for people like me who like to geek out on money stuff. If you are the only one in your social network who likes this topic, Wealth Formula Network is a great way to get your fix through an on-line community instead. On our most recent ca...

Happy New Year! This is my first podcast of 2020 and I'm looking forward to another great year. I don't know about you, but I get very reflective this time of the year and it is usually pretty helpful. I have a suggestion for you. Write down where you are today and where you would like to be next year. This exercise can really help to focus in on what is NOT working. You see, it's easy to focus on...

Last summer I had a drug reaction that made me pretty sure I was going to die. There was nothing terribly remarkable about the day it happened. I was with my wife and kids visiting my parents in Minnesota. On our last evening there, I stayed up a little later to chat with my parents. The children were already asleep. By 11PM or so I headed down to bed. I felt a little funny walking down the stairs...

The end of the year is a good time for giving. Of course we are already in the mood with the holidays. Buying presents has a way of greasing up the credit cards and making it easier to pull the trigger. The end of the year is also a good time to give to charity. Even if you are a kind hearted human being, I'm sure it's not always easy to part with your hard earned money. However, at the end of the...

If you are struggling about finding the right Christmas present for your loved ones this year, I have a suggestion for you. Think EXPERIENCE. Last week I snuck my ten year old daughter out of school and drove her down to Los Angeles to be part of a live studio audience. It was for her favorite Nickelodeon show called All That—sort of like a kids Saturday Night Live. She was on cloud nine the whole...