3 Steps to Freedom Through Passive Income with Joey Mure

I need accountability. I need somebody who's going to meet me at the gym every day and make sure I do my workout right. I mean that we don't do that. I'm using the analogy of, hey, financial freedom. So important. I want somebody to show up and make sure I'm getting there.

Welcome to the Next Level Income show where it's our goal to take your income, your investments and your life to the next level. I'm your host, Chris Larsen. If you haven't yet, get a copy of our book for free at our website, next levelincome.com. that's www.nextlevelincome.com. just click on the book link and I'll even send you a copy if you put your address in. On today's show, we have my good friend Joey Murray. Joey is a serial entrepreneur co founding businesses like Wealth Without Wall street and Wake up in Birmingham. He is the co author of the Amazon best selling book Wealth Without Wall Street, Three steps of Financial Freedom through Passive Income and the top rated podcast Wealth Without Wall Street. Joy got his start in the financial world as a mortgage loan originator shortly after graduating from college in 2003. After 11 years in the industry and seeing personal financial success, Joy left to found found Wealth Without Wall street in 2014. Besides helping thousands of people build their own paths to financial freedom, Joey and his partner Russ Morgan lead from the front, reporting on their own passive income portfolio each month, which has grown from $2,500 per month in July of 2020 to well over $50,000 per month today. Joey's true success is found in his marriage of 18 years to his wife Jessica. Great name for a wife and in being the father of five beautiful daughters. His hobbies include golf, travel and reading. Financial freedom for Joey means he can impact the world for Christ in giving, sharing and spending quality time with his family and others. He lives by the simple idea that to trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on on your own understanding in all your ways. Acknowledging him and he will direct your path from Proverbs 3, 5, 6. Joey, welcome back to the show, my friend.

Dude, you're my brother from another mother. I'm excited to be here.

Oh, it's always so good to see you and you join the prestigious ranks of. Oh man, maybe we've had one guest that's been on here three times besides you. And you know what? You know what really makes me happy is that you're doing it by yourself without Russ. So you get all, you get all the Glory, you get all the glory.

It's gonna be so much better, I promise.

You gotta make sure we tell Russ that. But you have been on, you've been on episode 55. You've been on episode 114. And if you're listening today and you have not heard episodes specifically, go back and listen to episode 114. I know I mentioned in the intro, Joey, that you and Russ in, in four years took your income from $2,500 a month passive income to $50,000 a month. And you know, listeners, you know, we work with our coaching students listeners, they're like, well, what do you like? What's the best first thing I should do? How should I do this? You know, should I make an investment? And it can be really overwhelming. And then you see guys like you that have 50,000amonth in passive income coming in and it's like, what do I do? And I look in the mail and lo and behold, I get this beautiful book, Wealth Without Wall Street. Three Steps to Freedom Through Passive Income. I said, we gotta have my man Joey, come on and explain your new step by step process to listeners how that they can do the same thing. But first, Joey, share a little bit about your background and really what was the inspiration for, for you and Russ to write this book?

So, really quick background is I was in the mortgage business for 11 years. And during that time I saw incredible income increase. And when I say that very specifically, my active income went up and my time was being traded at more than I really wanted it to be traded. So it ended up being 40 hours a week, 50 hours a week, 60 hours a week to that higher income. And I realized that wasn't the formula to what I was looking for. And I know you talk to tons and tons of people in the same boat. They've achieved really high results in their, in terms of their corporate career, but they don't have the result that they want. And that's more time, freedom, the ability to pull up their calendar and fill it with what they want instead of what somebody else is dictating to them in order to maintain the hamster wheel of that high income. And I knew, you know, my daughter was probably three at the time when she started asking me, dad, can you pick me up from school today?

Yeah.

And I had to answer, no, I have to go to work. I just started to challenge that thinking and saying, why did I say that to her? Why was I forced to tell my daughter I can't hang out with her this afternoon? Is because I Don't have passive income to exceed my monthly expenses. If I. That the answer was absolutely, let's go hang out.

Yeah.

And I, you know as well as I do that time is the ultimate objective day is when my daughter wants to hang out with me 30 years from now when I'm in my 60s and 70s, she doesn't want to hang out with me. She doesn't have the time. So I had to buy that back through passive income. And then this book, you asked, why do we have. This book is the culmination of looking backwards and saying, huh, there's a lot of things we did wrong. There's a lot of things we did right. What would be actual formula if someone wanted to shortchange and turn our, you know, 10 years into days, into months? Right. That's. That's the purpose of the book. And, you know, we have a podcast. It's over 500 episodes. If you don't want to listen to all 500, just read the book. It summarizes the CliffsNotes, so love it.

And the podcast is a blast. I've been on it. I've had you guys on the show. And, you know, Joey and Russ, you guys are. You guys are authentic. You, you, you, you do what you talk about, and that's, that's what I love the most, is that, you know, you guys put your money where your mouth is. You guys make the investments. You guys have gone through this process and done this yourself, yourself and walk the walk. And, you know, I think that's what makes you all unique. And it's interesting because it's wealth without Wall Street. But Wall street is the opposite of you guys. It's filled with people a lot of times, salespeople that don't have the passive income and don't have the freedom to do what they want to do yet. They're. They're quote, unquote, teaching others to do that thing, that. Trying to do that thing. I was just. We were talking before the show, Joey, that I just got back from 10 days with my son in Colorado. And, you know, we were coming back into town two days ago on Sunday, and I was just like, hey, you know, Ethan, how. This is my older son, Ethan. He said, hey, you know what you think? He goes, this was like one of the best trips of my life. And what's interesting is we were out there for lacrosse. We made some stops, Joey. We had barbecue. We saw some friends along the way. We saw my uncle out in Colorado, did a couple bike rides. It. It wasn't exceptional. In terms of the, the activities that we did, we did some cool stuff. We saw the Civil Rights Museum in, in Memphis. You know, we had the best barbecue in the country in Bentonville, Arkansas. Those things are pretty cool. But I, it wasn't like when I rafted down the Grand Canyon in terms of like, you know, those sorts of things, but it was the time that I got to spend with my 14 year old son, like you mentioned. So let's, let's go through and share a little sneak preview for listeners that maybe they want to get, you know, get the, the Cliffs Notes before they pick up a copy. But let's talk about the steps and some of the things that you have learned on your journey to creating this, this financial freedom through passive income. Joey.

Yeah, really. You know, it, it boils down to a very simple concept if you think about it. In order to achieve a destination, we. What do you use today? I mean everybody pull up your phone, you put in the, the address.

Yep.

And now you know two things. Where you are located today in conjunction with where you're headed. The destination and you know, where the origin. And then it tells you step by step exactly the most efficient means necessary to get the destination. Everybody knows gps, right?

Yep.

But the concept of getting to financial freedom through passive income, you're like how I like, sounds great. Like I'd love that. But there's gotta be some way. Just follow that. And so the GPS is exactly the basis of our book. Right. You have to have a goal, you have to have a plan, you have to have support. And those things really simple until you start to break down each step. And I'm happy to dive into those individually but man, having a system gives you the confidence to take the step into the unknown.

Yeah. And I love that. And you know, you mentioned, you know, kind of knowing where you are and I think that's something that, it can be uncomfortable for people. Right. They say, well, look at Joey, you know, look at Chris, he's, he's doing this. But you need to look in the mirror. You need to say, hey, what, first off, what's your. Why you know, and I know you, you say what is financial freedom to you? And that's, that's what is financial freedom to you. If you're listening today, I think that's important to know and like what are your ultimate goals? And then you have to break it down and say where are you today? And I think that's a fantastic first step.

Yeah. You think about under that goal heading, we, we have a tool we call the Financial Passport. It's a course and it's designed to help you figure out who do I want to be, what do I want to do, what do I want to have when I get to financial freedom? And you think, well, those, again, those are simple things. Like Joey and Russ are not blowing anybody on with their like, literary prowess here. I promise it's simple stuff. But here's the thing that I know is true. As you listen to this, you. When was the last time you dreamed about what that would look like? And, and I'll tell you, if you, if you say that's kind of hard for me, you're not alone. Because most adults, especially high paid individuals, have almost kind of resolved to what they are already doing and just trying to do it at the next level, like a little bit higher, a little bit better. But if they're honest with themselves, if they step back and they really dreamed and they say, I don't really love this part of my life. I don't really love having to be on these conference calls all the time or having to go in on a Saturday because we're having an audit on Monday and I have to be the one that does whatever that is for you. I don't know what it is, but if you're honest with yourself, you would, you would write it up differently, like your script would be different. But you turn that off and said, well, I guess this is how it is. I guess this is what I have to do. And what that passport does is it says think about this for a minute like and get with your spouse. Right? We encourage the spouses to go through this process. What, who do I want to be, what do I want to do and what do I want to have when I'm financially free? And it only when you can kind of really give yourself that, that picture and it just, it, it results in like desktop wallpaper, if you will, like a, a vision board of these three, these pieces. Once you have that now you can back up and say, okay, well what's the plan that's going to get me there? So that's why it's in this order that we do this. But the plan then helps you organize right, everything behind that goal in that mission.

I love that, I love the vision aspect and that's one thing that I'm really big on, is painting that vision. We do a three year vision and my wife's in on it, I'm in on it. We've been doing it for, oh geez, I think a decade now. Joey. And you know, my own story, I can relate because I used to be in Northern Virginia and people say I can't leave the D.C. area. I couldn't do what you did. And you kind of resign yourself. You stop looking for that alternative path. Right, right. So, you know, you start, you stop seeing that. I was, I was presented with the opportunity to interview for a VP position several years ago. And you know, as, as Americans, we're, we're big on like, oh, what do you do? Right, what do you do? And it's like that's, that's what defines us. And I think as men, you know, it, it's. And you know, we can, you know, we can pretend like there aren't differences between genders, but culturally, you know, I think men wear that even more proudly than women. A lot of times we define ourselves by what we do. So you get wrapped up in that. And I just remember thinking, oh, wow, cool vp. Like there's going to be a VP on my card, you know, and you're thinking about that. And then I stopped and I said, is this really what I want to do? And I went back to my three year vision and I looked on there and it had time with my family, you know, it had trips that I was going to do with my wife. It had, you know, me spending time with my son, watching him play lacrosse because my son, my father died when I was five. I never got those experiences from the other side. I didn't get those things. It talked about celebrating birthdays. Nowhere in there did it say anything about me being a vice president of a medical device company. And I said, oh man, that's right, this isn't really what I'm going for. And I actually called my VP at the time. Actually, no, I saw him in person. I waited till I saw him in person. I told him, I said, this isn't a good fit for me at the time. And it allowed me to be on the path that I'm on today. So if you're listening, take Joey's advice. Think about, you know, dream about maybe go for a hike, maybe, maybe take some time with your spouse. You know, if you guys have a trip coming up or on a vacation, you know, take it, take a couple hours away and allow yourself to kind of fantasize and dream about what your ideal life looks like. And then instead, instead of saying, I can't say how can I make this happen?

100%. Yeah. And it's, it's really, really powerful. I mean, that your experience to be able to Turn down an amazing offer. Now you've solidified the vision that you're going. Because you just said no to a really good thing for the best thing.

That's right.

And. And I think that's another takeaway for any, you know who. You're listening. There's a lot of good things that we resolve to take advantage of when we could have the best. And, man, it's. It's super powerful. I'll tell you this really quickly before we. I know we got to get into, like, the other pieces, but I had a similar experience where I was a manager of a mortgage company and I was seeing the next levels up or area manager. And then there's like this regional manager and all the stuff. And manager was probably, I don't know, 15 to 20 years older than me. I got to somehow personally to spend some time with him. I got to see how his family interacted with him. They were not fans of him. Just personally, like, the people in his household didn't respect or care for him. Yeah. And I didn't like that about it. And I was like, I wonder, you know, maybe it's just a guy. I don't know. But the second thing that jumped off is he was at a conference for our company and died on the treadmill.

Whoa.

Literally had a heart attack and died. And he was young, 50s maybe. And I thought there's just not. Not the plan. This is not the goal. Like that vision. I knew what I didn't want. I probably couldn't have written down all the things I'm talking about here with this passport, like the B do haves. But I knew that wasn't on my list. And I thought, okay, there's a different path here. So I just reiterated what you're saying.

Yeah. Wow. That is. Yeah. That really highlights. And look, there's. If you're listening today and you're on that metaphorical treadmill, you know, it's not. It's not too late to step off of it and really figure out what you want to do. In the second part of the book, you talk about having a plan. Joe, you talk about budget. You and Russ write about being smart with debt. But one thing that I'm a huge fan of is, and you guys have built your business around is infinite banking concept. And a lot of listeners on the show have heard us talk about this. And what I love is in the book, it's about passive income. But this comes first. Can you share a little bit about what the infinite banking concept, or IBC is? And why it's so important to the strategy. Are you a high income business owner or professional earning 2, 300,000 or even more a year but still feel like you're living paycheck to paycheck? Are you comfortable working until you're 65 or 70 to retire? Or do you want to achieve financial independence and live life on your own terms? You could join myself and Matt4 and learn how we both became financially independent in our early 30s. We will teach you how to make, keep and grow your money, teaching you strategies to maximize your earnings, keep your income that you've earned through tax strategy and legal structures, and ultimately teach you how to grow it by determining your personal investing strategy as well as teach you how to analyze investments so you can grow your passion passive income to the point to live life on your own terms. Our coaching clients reliably do this in seven years or less. To learn more, check out our coaching program at nextlevelincome.com forward/coaching. That's nextlevelincome.com forward slash coaching.

Well, I'll tell you where it fits for me is especially if this is like new, this whole way of thinking is for you.

Yeah.

You've been told to put money in certain places because they're to your benefit. 401ks IRAs, SEPs, you know, 529 plans, all the Alphabet soup that Wall street wants to give you, right?

Yep.

And you start to think, well, those things are not designed for financial freedom. Why? Because they limit your access to the funds. Chris, I know you have amazing opportunities that you invest in and you like, invite people to invest along with you. I've invested along with you on a project here just recently, some mobile home parks. And it's super exciting to be a part of that and, and to see the fruits of that. But if I've always put money into things like 401ks IRAs, those are deals I never can take advantage of.

That's right.

And they create cash flow today like those deals that you're talking about. So if I'm learning this, wait a minute, maybe I've been duped into thinking retirement is the idea that I should go after. So when I'm 65, I actually free up and I start living. I'm telling you what Chris is backing me up on is like start living today by creating more passive income than monthly expenses. So in order to do that, I have to replace not only the mindset that I've been given of this retirement, this false lie of retirement, I now have to rep the location in which my cash is located so that I can leverage it towards freedom. Yes, that is, I mean, we could go into like all the nitty gritty of what Infinite Banking is and does, but ultimately what it boils down to is it's your home base, it's your place that all of your cash resides, that then you leverage towards investing in deals that Chris has. He says, hey, I'm doing. You want to invest with me? It's, it's taking access to that capital and starting a business. It's taking access to that capital and invest with your kids on their next venture. Like, my 18 year old has a land flipping business because of infinite banking. My 16 year old has a blog business that we started together because of Infinite Banking. And I can tell you none of that happens without having a place that's safe, that's growing tax free, that gives me access 247 for whatever purpose I want and allows me to have a generational wealth component that never existed with any of those other qualified plants. So that's the best way I know how to. I mean, we have tons and tons of resources on this in our podcast website. Everything else but that to me was the game changer in my financial world.

No, it, it's, it's amazing. And again, like I, I got an MBA in portfolio management. Like that's, that's as traditional as you get when it comes to the financial world and you coming up through the, the mortgage industry and then you learn about this and you say, wait a minute. You know, I'll never forget when my, my former agent said to me, he's like, oh, I wish everybody was doing with their life insurance policies what you're doing, Chris. And it's like, well, why, why aren't they? And as I started to read through what Nelson Nash had and you know, started to look at podcasts like your guys. I'm sorry, resources like your podcast, Joe, you start to, you know, have your eyes opened and say, wait a minute, you know, I can have, I can have a guaranteed rate of return. You don't hear that in the investment world, I can have a guaranteed amount of money if my kids want to go to college or start a business. That, that's incredible. I can leverage it, you know, as an, as an asset. I can have a guaranteed generational wealth plan where I can create, you know, this guaranteed plan for, for my children, for even my grandchildren. That is, you know, really breathtaking when you look into it. No other, no other tool that I've seen is able to do that. And it's fun to, it's fun to talk through this with traditional financial planners and they're like, oh, that doesn't matter. Unless you want to do this stuff that Joey's talking about and Chris is talking about, then it makes a lot of sense. It's like, well, if it makes sense for us, if it makes sense for ultra rich families, how come it doesn't make sense for everybody? And that's what I love that you guys talk about and doing that. Your step three in the book and this is what I think, you know, I admire the most about what you guys have built is just an amazing community and we're going to share a great website for you guys here in the show notes and at the end of the show that you can access this. But I circled this in the book. Step three, find a support system of like minded individuals.

So critical. If you're like me, like Chris, you start to learn this and you're on an island immediately because the people at the water cooler you this up and they're like Chris, what are you thinking man?

Like you're not going to go back into the bushel.

Yeah. They want to pull you back down the crabs, the crabs barrel, whatever they call it. And the reason is because they can't even imagine what we're talking about. Right. They can't even imagine being different. They've, they've resigned themselves to just put up with what I'm given.

You don't want to own a mobile home park. What if you get shot trying to collect rent? Chris, that's crazy. That was an exact quote from a, from an aunt. And here we have 20 now. I still haven't been shot at in the mobile home parks. I've been shot at on my bicycle, but she didn't tell me to stop riding my bike. That's kind of, that's a story for another day.

But, but it, it is, it is a concept that we all know is true.

Yeah.

But if you don't congregate with the right people, your way of seeing the world is shifted. Not in the way in which you would want it to be shifted.

Right.

And so I mean you're a part of our mastermind. There are people in our group that are at a lower level mastermind. They are just a part of our online community. They're people that engage with us at whatever level that they're at. Some of us are actually working with our Apex coaching group that they get one on one with the person because they Say, you know what? So important I need accountability. I need somebody who's going to meet me at the gym every day and make sure I do my workout right. I mean, that we don't do that. That I'm using the analogy of, hey, financial freedom. So important. I want somebody to show up and make sure I'm getting there alongside them. So I love that. Yeah, we. Wealth without Wall street exists to educate, expose, and then to support people in this. Super, super important. Probably the most important thing in life is to create freedom, and we do it through all these means that we've talked about today.

No, it's phenomenal. And I like to say it's important to have the information. It's important to have the plan. But the most important piece of the puzzle is the accountability. We have so much information in the world today. Wealthwithoutwallallstreet.com has a phenomenal amount of information. 500 podcast episodes. You can listen to anything you want. You know, you can have somebody put the plan together, but having somebody there knowing that they can help you execute that plan is super powerful. And if you can expedite that plan, it can be. It can be great if, if you're interested. First off, Joey, let's. Let's talk about, you know, what's the best way to get a copy of your new book here?

Well, so anybody listening to your podcast, Chris, can go to wealthwithoutwallstreet.com next level. So wealthwithoutwallstreet.com nextlevel. I got a. Yeah, they can purchase the book directly on that page. You can go on Amazon if it's easier. But that page also has access to other ways to communicate with us, connect with us, be a part of the community, whatever, whatever resonates you, where you're at today, you can find it all there.

I love it. You can take your investor DNA, which I've done. Yes. Through the Mastermind, you get a copy of this, this fantastic book. And I got to tell you, this is. This is like, this is a super nice cover. So it's just nice to hold in your hands and then also learn more about the IBC strategy. You know, what is the core of not only Joey and Russ's plan, but also the core of our plan as well. So check it out. Wealth without wall street.com next level. We're going to have that in the show. Notes. Joey, I love having you on more than I love having Russ on. It's okay having both of you on together, but this has been so much fun. And I'm going to see you here in, in just a matter of weeks in Nashville, where I'll be bringing my son Miles again to hang out with a great crew. Yes.

I'm excited. Miles is my hero, so that's going to be awesome.

I know. It's like, you know what? Miles is like, my, my. I'm like Russ. And he's like, he's like, Joey, everybody likes Miles more than, more than me. So. And you know what? I guess I'm doing something right if, if he's my son.

Right? For sure.

For sure, my friend. Thank you so much for joining us again today on the Next Level Income show. Again, check out Joey and russ@wolfwithoutwallstreet.com check out their great podcast, get a copy of the book and all of their website, website and resources@wealthwithoutwallstreet.com Next Level. Hey, Chris, here again. I hope you found this episode valuable. Now I have one more thing to gift you. We have a page for my coaching clients where you can get a free copy of my book as well as much more from previous guests on the show. Just check out nextlevelincome.com coaching to get a free copy of my book, audiobook and much more. I'll send you a copy of my book and cover all the shipping costs as a thank you for listening to the podcast. Also, please like share and take just 90 seconds to give us a rating on Apple Podcasts.