Why Traditional Financial Advice Doesn't Work for Entrepreneurs & Investors

Welcome to the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast, your source for actionable, real-life, practical investing advice. Each week we help you make a quantum leap somewhere in your business, your finances, and/or your life. Subscribe, leave a rating and review, and learn more at smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com. All right, welcome to the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast where we cut through the noise and we show you how to actually get the Deals done in today's market. Most importantly, I'm Chris Prefontaine, and if you're serious about creating income with wealth through real estate, you're in the right place. Today we're going to hang out with Chris Miles. Now, Chris, if I look at my notes, was on the show back in like '23. I love it because he's a bit, I'll say, I'll borderline say controversial because he's not in the standard box, sort of like us in the real estate world. Chris is a cash flow expert. And an unapologetic anti-financial advisor. He helps like high-income earners break free from the grind and achieve financial freedom. Now, Chris built multiple streams of passive income and he retired twice before he was 40. Again, lots of reasons why I love having him back. He's the founder of Money Ripples. He's the author of Work Optional Blueprint, and he's the host of an awesome podcast that I've been on several times called Money Ripples podcast. Guys, this is a must-write-downer for you for his show, and, uh, can't wait to dive in here with Chris. All right, Chris, with that as a little bit of a backdrop, welcome back to the show, my friend.

Hey, Chris. Yeah, I'm so excited to be back here again.

Yeah, we gotta not wait 3 years, uh, this time, but the good news is we probably have a lot to talk about. So welcome back.

For sure.

Um, let's do this just for the perhaps the new smart listeners, a little little behind the green curtain, kind of your background in addition to the short intro I did, just to maybe bring them up to date or how you landed here, and then we can dive into some topics.

Yeah. So how I landed here is because, you know, obviously I'm known as the anti-financial advisor. Well, that's because I used to be a financial advisor about 25 years ago. I was a traditional financial advisor, the guy that told you to set and forget it, slave and save away, you know, and lock away for 40, 50 years, and then you should be able to retire a multimillionaire someday, right? And after doing that for 4 years, and I was drinking the Kool-Aid, I was doing it myself, you know, and I was teaching everybody that was the path, that was the way of the Mandalorian, right? And as I was teaching on that, about that same time, my dad reached out to me. He says, well, Chris, are you going to advise me at some point? Understand that my dad was 61 years old at the time. He was the penny-pinching saver. I mean, this guy made Dave Ramsey look like he was a crazy spender, right? I mean, my dad bought everything on sale. In fact, he would never buy anything unless it was on sale. You know, he would, I mean, I remember eating Cap'n Crunch for an entire year straight because he got a case lot sale on that. And so I have the scars on my roof of my mouth to prove it. You know, luckily we went to Fruity Pebbles the next year to give my mouth a break.

Nice.

You know, but it was just like, you know, that's just the way he was, post-depression era mentality. And all he taught me to do was save, which is why it made it so easy to adopt and really accept being a financial advisor and everything they teach. Well, anyways, I go to sit down with him in his house in Oregon and I'm looking at all his finances for the first time in my life. And as I look at everything, I was like, okay, dad, you are 61 years old. If you try to retire today, even though you're debt-free with your house being paid off and everything, even though you've been stuffing money in that 401, getting the company match, You would have to die in 5 or 6 years if you try to retire right now because you'll run out of money. He said, well, that's not what I want to hear. What do I do? I don't know. Keep working, saving, and hopefully someday soon you'll be able to retire. And I remember seeing, like, I remember even looking at his house saying, well, you got a paid-off house, you got equity, but you can't put that in the stock market. That's illegal. You know, you literally signed a waiver saying you will not put You will not borrow money to put in mutual funds, you know? And so I was at a loss and I was really disappointed by that, especially because he was the guy that did everything right, yet it wasn't working. And I was on the same path as him and everybody else I was teaching was to do what he just did. And a month later, I'm talking with a friend of mine who went into real estate and he's telling me, Chris, my dad and I have partnered on some real estate deals and we've now doubled his income as a professor at the local university. I said, wait, wait, hold on a second. You've only been doing this for like, what, 4 or 5 months? That's impossible. That's too good to be true. No way. Is that possible? He says, well, Chris, how many of your clients are really financially free where they don't worry about money every day? I said, well, even the retired ones worry about money every day because they worry about running out of money too soon. So, I mean, none, none of them are financially free that way. Okay. I didn't expect you to be honest. Good job. He's like, well, how about this? How many of you guys as financial advisors are financially free, not off the commissions, but actually doing these same mutual fund investments? I said, well, I don't know. There's been guys working here since the 1970s. This is in 2005. Like there's guys been working here since the 1970s. So I would say none. He's like, well, there's your problem. And it got me to be open enough to say, all right, show me more. And I started going down that rabbit hole. I took the Matrix red pill of real estate, right? And I started going down a rabbit hole and pretty soon I realized I had a choice. Either I stay in financial advising and keep doing what I'm doing, or I leave and keep my integrity intact. And so I chose the latter. I said, I'm out. I'll never teach about money again. I'll just be a mortgage broker. Because 2006, anybody could be a mortgage broker, right? Everybody was buying houses and stuff. And then of course I would be teaching ballroom dancing on the side. And so I was doing that. But I also learned about real estate, eventually got in. I turned my starter home into a rental. Actually, I sold it to an investor at full appraisal, leased it back, and then I subleased it to a renter, right? To try to make cash flow on it while stripping out all the equity. I started like learning I could lend money and do things that way. And next thing I know, later that year in 2006, I had enough income coming in from my investments, passive income that I could retire. And I was like, wait a minute, I'm 28, almost 29 years old. This is crazy. Like I was hoping and praying I could save enough to do it by the time I'm 40 by accumulating like whatever your financial advisor teaches. But here I am, I did it this way, you know, because I only needed like $3,500 a month to live on back then. And so I was like, holy cow, I did it. And of course people want to know how I did it. So I came out of retirement, so to speak, in 2007 to coach people on how to do it. Which of course at that time, especially because a lot of our people were real estate flippers, that was like the worst time to start a business. And so at the same time we launched a business, our business is going broke. I cut off some different income streams to go all in on that business. And the next thing I know, now I'm in the hole like $16,000 a month and over $1 million in debt by 2008. And of course I'm drowning fast. I literally went from financially free to literal welfare on food stamps.

Sounds familiar.

Yeah, I know. I know you, you know that for sure. And like you, like I did avoid bankruptcy because I'm just too damn stubborn, you know, like that's the only reason I did it. But trust me, it would've been easier to go bankrupt. It would've been easier to just hit the reset button, but I just insist. I'm like, no, I'm going to pay it back. And eventually I pivoted in my business. I stopped teaching people to get out of the rat race when I was back in it. So I started teaching people how to find money and get creative and find cash. And even if it's like tax savings or it's like creative ways to pay off debt or whatever it might be, just creative strategies that way. And eventually that became a life of its own and it eventually became a system and a business that was able to help rejuvenate our business by the end of 2009. And eventually things started to come back to where I was able to start paying off my debts and digging myself out of the hole doing exactly what I was teaching. And finally, by 2016, I got back in the real estate game to create passive income and was able to be financially free the second time by the time I was 39 years old. So I had to prove it twice, not because I'm amazing, but just because I screwed up the first time. I had to do it again. But that's really what I show people what to do with Money Ripples is how do you actually create that kind of passive income where You become work optional. You work because you want to, not because you have to.

You know, it doesn't matter if you're brand new to real estate or if you've been doing this for several years or a whole bunch of years. I learned the hard way back during the crash that doing creative deals is much better. It's a much better path in real estate in general than let's call it the old way, getting paid once, using banks, signing personally, 3 paydays, getting paid 3 times on a deal. It's better 3 ways, not one. Money now, money over time, and money long-term. And I don't care if you're in an up, down, sideways market, it doesn't matter. You can and should operate with the utmost confidence. There's literally nothing I love more than helping people create systems and simple systems and processes to become massively successful with our 3 Payday System. In doing so, in literally any market and doing it geographically, literally anywhere. So if you've been learning and learning and listening and studying and not taking action, I'm telling you, after going through it myself, It's costing you tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars, by not taking action on the 3 paydays the way you should be getting paid. Many of the people that were brand new, just like you, that joined our community have fast-tracked their startup. Now, I mean, wouldn't that be ideal if you said, okay, should I go fast or slow? Should I take action now or later? It's costing you too much money to wait. Each one of you are at a point in your life, I'm sure, Where you want things to be easier, you want things to be better for you and your family. You probably realize that you not only want more, but you deserve more in this life. So, to be able to give your family everything they want, build a legacy for you personally too, and to have time freedom to start enjoying life, frankly, whatever else you're seeking. And for some of you, now's the time, for example, to just focus on security. Maybe it's building a big solid bank account for retirement. We take these things super, super seriously. And it's my life's biggest reward to help you achieve them. I want to give you a free discovery session with our team. It's free. It's 15 or 20 minutes. You have zero to lose and everything to gain. And to understand how you might fit into the 3 Payday System that we've done now in over 80 markets as of this filming, go to smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com/discovery for a free call with our team.

smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com/discovery.

Because it's not whether or not you can do it or whether or not you fit. You can do it. It's whether or not you'll take action and do what it takes. And we can guide you through that process. smartrealestatecoachpodcast.com/discovery. We'll see you soon. So who, for the people listening, Chris, who, if you painted the ideal, who is your ideal, you know, potential client listening right now?

It's the person that's, they're either working a job, making decent money there, or they're making money in their business and maybe they want to retire, maybe they don't, but they definitely want to be hands-off with their investments, right? Where I know you teach 'em how to do a great job hands-on. I teach people like, you want to be hands-off and just keep doing what you're doing and not get distracted. Great. But again, like how do we create enough passive income that you do become work optional? Because I find a lot of people that they actually say, they're like, you know, I don't want to go into like a full-on retirement boat where I just do nothing. I just want to get to a point where I just have enough passive income that I have choices and options. For example, I had a guy that I talked to that he was literally just turned 59 and a half that month. And he had, of course, on his mind is the retirement accounts. He'd been a good little boy saving like crazy into those retirement accounts to the tune of about $1.9 million is what he had in his retirement account. What's crazy is his Vanguard financial advisor would not tell him when he could actually retire. And he was getting frustrated. He's like, I, I, he's like, I want to retire. And I said, well, what kind of cash flow do you need every year or every month to get where you want to be? What's your goal? He says, I want to be at $200,000 a year. I said, well, that's why he won't give you an answer. Because if you're 59 and a half, because people talk about the 4% rule, which is so antiquated, that rule doesn't even work anymore unless you're in your 70s. Right? Not in your 60s. I was like, it's actually a 3% rule. I said, so that means you've got to have almost $7 million to then live on less than the interest if you're going to keep your money in mutual funds. I was like, so one of a few things has to happen. Either you've got to save up a lot of money because guess what? Vanguard came out last year saying they only predict the stock market to do between 2.8% and 4.8% average per year for the next decade. So pretty much you can be in a CD and make more money than the stock market is what they're predicting. And that's their optimistic viewpoint. So I said, you're going to have to really save hard to basically more than triple your money in the next 10 years. And this is what he said. He's like, Chris, I don't mind working till I'm 70. I just want to have to feel like I have to work till I'm 70 to finally get this kind of freedom. And I told him, I said, well, here's the answer. Here's the other way, the other method you can look at because this is what the financial advisors won't do. And I told him, I was like, by the way, the financial advisor, if he did know the answer, he's probably too scared to tell you. But it's possible he just doesn't know the answer because really they tell you great strategies of how to save, but not really how to live on it. Right. And you have to like overdo it. I said, but here's the thing, like, let's just say, for example, like you want to lend your money to real estate investors, right? I know you do the whole 3 returns thing that could even get them bigger money. But I was like, let's just keep it simple for you. Simple math. Let's just say that you lend your money and usually at minimum, we see people get, make at least 10% a year on lending their money. What's 10% of $1.9 million? He's like, that's $190,000 a year. Right? What's your goal? $200,000. I'm like, you got it. So what you could do is you can make $190,000 a year and take that money, reinvest that, and you'll be over $200,000 next year. So you can actually retire when you're 60, not Hope and pray when you're 70. I was like, but guess what? Better yet, you also told me you have a rental property. Is that correct? He's like, yeah. What's your cash flow? $300 a month. Okay. How much equity do you have in it? $800,000.

Man.

I said, you know, your return on equity sucks. Like you could, you could sell this property, put in a CD and make more money than that. Not saying you should. I was like, but let's just say that you do sell property and you profit $700,000 after all fees are All in, right? That's $700,000. Then you would then say you lend that at 10%. Guess what? That's $70,000 a year plus $190,000. You're at over a quarter million dollars a year this year. I was like, you could actually do it this year, not hope and pray by the age of 70. And that's really the difference of what I teach people to do is it's like, no, you can actually create that freedom today. You don't even have to worry about like, well, based on the dollars and inflation, I probably have to have this much by 10 years from now. It's like, I know, you know, if you can do it now, you can do it with speed and do it quickly. It's acceleration, not accumulation. That's the secret.

And has anything changed? Like, as you're going through that, I'm thinking, has anything— well, since you and I talked, let's go with that. In the last 2 or 3 years, not has anything, I know it has. What has changed? What are one or two things that have changed the most that maybe you tweaked or improved or anything come to mind?

Absolutely. There's a few things. I mean, one, obviously the strategies have shifted and changed because I mean, heck, 5 years ago, turnkey rentals were awesome. You were going for that 1% a month. Now you're like, you hope you make 1%, depending on the market and where you're going. And so it's a little bit trickier in that game. So definitely, like, as I mentioned, lending has become a better thing and there's some other strategies that's still working, but I would definitely say what's nice, and this is what Warren Buffett says, right? It's when the tide rolls out, you find out who's swimming naked. What's nice is, and not nice, is that there's a lot of people that have, their businesses have gone under or they've pivoted away from their business. And it's nice to see who's still standing. I mean, you're obviously, you know, you're a living example of that, you know, that you still see who's still in the game and that helps weed out a lot of the people that really shouldn't have been in there in the first place, you know?

Yeah.

So that's a big thing. So definitely strategies have shifted and moved a little bit differently. Not that real estate's not working, but obviously multifamily got kicked in the teeth the last 3 or 4 years. So that's been a tough one, although that's making a comeback. What's also changed, and my own tune of what I have to teach people is being liquid with cash.

Yeah.

It's that really I'm telling people to build a war chest more. It's not that they stop investing, but it's almost like it, like in my own life, for example, because I still invest, I'm still doing the same thing. I'm a passive investor. If, you know, it used to be like as quickly, if you think of like 2021, 2022 when things were hot, as soon as you got 50 grand, boom, you're trying to get out to deploy and invest it, you know? And now if that 50 grand comes in, you know, it's more like, okay, 30 grand might go out, but I might keep 20 grand on the, off the side to shave off some profit here to store and build up more cash. Because I really feel like some of the best opportunities are still coming. You know, and especially right now, it's, it just keeps getting better in so many ways. And I, and the problem I'm seeing is a lot of people don't have cash. So like, for example, I knew that in 2022, everybody kept talking about how you've got to get every dollar deployed. You got to get every dollar out there because you don't want to lose to inflation. Remember that? Because we're talking about dealing with literally double-digit inflation. Well, when people said don't hold cash, And I knew the mainstream were saying that. I've learned that whenever the mainstream says something, do the opposite.

Yeah, we talked about this in your show. It's like, it's almost predictable. Just do the opposite.

Exactly. Like you're going to become wealthier by doing the opposite of what the mainstream suggests because the mainstream are broke. Let's be honest. I mean, and I didn't even say broke because that guy with $1.9 million was still broke, even though he was in the top 1 to 2% of all savers. in retirement accounts in the US today. But still, that's not enough, you know, especially when those things are going. So when everybody's saying don't hold cash, I realized March of 2022, I should start holding cash. And so now I could keep it in a savings account. It would do well. But what I've done more of is I've actually been using my life insurance policy, my whole life insurance policies, using that to store more cash because there I'm making like 6% a year tax-free. I I can still access it to use it whenever I want, but at least I'm not losing it to the bank and I'm not getting taxed on the money either. And so that's something that, because even though I teach about infinite banking as one of the strategies to help augment what you're doing with your passive income, the thing is a lot of people are teaching it to get it out, keep turning it and using it and use it to invest. And it's sweet. It's awesome to make money in 2 places at once, even when you're an active investor. But I've been telling people, I was like, you could do that, But I would be very, I'm like, I would much rather use this to store more cash and get rid of all your bank money. Like use your bank money. It's not going to make any money anyways. And just store cash, build up more cash there while you're investing with your bank money instead. So that's what I've been doing. And I've been kind of encouraged people more is just keep building more cash, get more liquid because I mean, even if things, whether things get harder or whether there's a bigger opportunity, especially if you're an active real estate investor, I think right now, like if you're liquid with cash, you're going to make all the rules, right? It's the golden rule. Whoever has the gold makes the rules. And I think that's where you're going to start seeing the real players come out in the real estate game, or those that have cash ready to go.

Couldn't agree more. I'm jotting down notes. You saw me looking down. We talked on your show a little bit about association at the very end of your show. What are your thoughts on I'll call it networking, association, exposure, proximity, whatever you want to call it. What are your thoughts on that? How important is that in your world personally and for your clients in your opinion?

Oh, it's everything. And I mean, it's so important that I have experienced this firsthand because I spent the last month or so going to different masterminds, including running my own regional event. I swear I felt like I lived in Florida in April. But I figured if I was going to be there speaking, I might as well go and do my regional event there with my group as well. And I'll tell you what was fascinating with my— and I learned this with my own group, but also in other masterminds I'm a part of as well, is that what's so interesting is that one of the biggest benefits of a community, I mean, other than the whole African proverb, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. Watching my community talk with each other, It's one thing when you're like the figurehead or the guru, so to speak, right? But when you can get people together, especially in this space right now, AI has created an interesting opportunity for a bigger need for relationships because of AI. You know, like you can't ever tell what's true or what's not true anymore, right? I mean, there's seen Brad Pitt fight Tom Cruise on a rooftop. It's pretty freaking real looking, you know? And there's a lot of crap being put out now because it's easy to put out content and crap and information and, and quote unquote education, even though it might be the wrong education. Yeah. But when you get face to face, you can't fake that. You can't fake the face to face. And especially even on Zoom rooms, like I, I don't mind doing Zoom. We do Zooms all the time with our group, but when they get together face to face, different. There's a different conversation that happens than on Zoom because on Zoom it's very like, Surface level, very basic. But when you get face to face, now you're having the deeper conversations because now you're on a break, you're talking to each other or over lunch or dinner or wherever it might be. Like you're going deeper and you're trying to get more information. And what I'm finding is people are not having so much of a block when it comes to their strategies as it is of what's going on in their head.

Hmm.

And be able to talk that out and be able to help say, hey, have you experienced this too? And then for them to say, Yeah, me too, is something that you just can't buy. You know, it's huge. So I'm seeing that the community, like it's massively important to have that community type of relationship and those relationships to be able to, one, feel like you're not alone. That's what our clients feel like. They feel like their friends and family don't understand what they're doing. They're crazy to be doing real estate stuff, right? But to get together with other people that are doing the same thing, you're on the same path, the same journey. It's like having a pace setter. I'm a marathoner. It's like when you run with the other people, there's a different level of accountability, but there's also a different level of excellence and fun that comes with it too. And it makes you feel like, hey, I'm not alone, right? From a business standpoint, I think it's also important because one, that can also be a benefit too, because if somebody else has experienced what you've experienced or knows how to overcome a certain situation, that's good. But even from the standpoint of just The right connections. I'm seeing that partnerships are way more important in business than even like running ads, you know, and yeah, we've done all the above, but again, like people, there's a trust deficit going on right now. It's not just a trade deficit, it's a trust deficit where because of the online virtual AI world, people are saying, well, how do I know who to trust? Well, they're trusting people that they trust, that those people trust, right?

Yeah.

It's borrow credibility. And so if you're somebody who's in business, one of the best things you can do is get in with people that do have a community and say, listen, like this person's the real deal. You should listen to them. And then that borrowed credibility is what really gives you those connections in business. So I think relationships are everything. Anytime I want a problem solved, it's relationships. I think even being in mastermind groups and whatnot, like it's so amazing that if I have a problem, instead of me trying to find and seek out coaches. I can just go to the whole group and say, great, who can help me with this? Yes. Defend that. You know, like it's just, there's so much benefit to having a community and those relationships and that relationship capital is everything. I mean, that's really where the millionaires become billionaires and so on. It's because of your community and the relationships that you can succeed and prosper.

Yeah. I love that you went there because I think I said in your show, I, if I look back in 30-something years in real estate, I can pinpoint and go, Yes, that breakthrough because of that association, that breakthrough because I was in that different room, that breakthrough for that. And for that reason, I don't think we talked about on your show, we now have Deal Lab. Deal Lab for us is all the new people get to come in and do deals with us, like in person. It's not a course. And Deal Room is all our present members get to come in and have like advanced training and mastermind. So 100% agree with you. We're tracking this as usual. We went through the crash as a similar, and we're tracking on what we should do now together, you and I. For sure. Chris, how can these guys reach you? Because we could talk for hours. I want to give them, you gave them some great nuggets and kind of, I hope, open their eyes to, okay, here's why your out-of-the-box thinking and success works and should work for them too. So how do they reach you? Anything you want to share? Any links? Anything?

Yeah, I mean, money, anything that's Money Ripples, whether it's moneyripples.com, we've got everything from videos about the passive income investments to infinite banking and things like that. We've also got our Money Ripples podcast that we've now in our 13th season that we're going on. And @MoneyRipples for social media if you want to follow us there.

Nice. Love it. You guys, it'll all be in the show notes. Chris, it was good hanging out. Let's not wait 3 years this time, but thanks for being on. And guys, make sure you subscribe to Chris's podcast and share that because we want to make sure that we're not going with the sheep mentality. We want to stay out of the box. Make it a great week. We'll see you next week.

Thanks, Chris. Thanks.

All right, guys, no fluff, no theory, just real-world stuff. I hope you got some nuggets out of that. If you're ready to implement what you're hearing, head over to smartrealestatecoach.com. We're going to help you build this business the right way. Make sure you get a hold of Chris and dive into his material, and he'll keep you out of the box. See you next week. All right, guys, super cool announcement. On the 27th through the 29th of September, We have our 3 Paydays Live. I'm talking no gurus there, no fluff, just a proven system that builds wealth, literally. Join us on this 3-day event, guys. It's in person. There'll be no virtual. We're gonna show you literally step by step how deals are constructed, how we negotiate and solve challenges for sellers, and how we close those deals without banks or credit. Super important when I came out of the crash. You'll see real deals, real numbers, and exactly how the 3 Paydays model creates multiple streams of income from just one deal. I'm talking averages of $45,000 to $350,000 per deal, all 3 paydays. Just one or handful of these can change your year, guys, and certainly create a total breakthrough by the year 2027 for you. You're going to leave this event super clear and confident about how to speak with sellers, how to structure offers that are win-win, and how to think through deals literally in real time. We've made some really cool adjustments this year too. We've built in hands-on workshop learning experiences and extended the Q&A after each section and some other really cool experiences so you can actually do deals when you leave, not just conceptually understand it, but do deals. And lastly, we've removed all outside speakers, back to our roots, just the family team. You're going to hear from people who have recently closed deals and how they made it happen, and that's important because association with others And proximity really, really matters and can and will change your trajectory. If you're serious about totally replacing your income or adding a really cool supplemental income and building some long-term wealth, this is where it becomes real, guys. 3 Paydays Live. It's led by our family team and our coaches, all who are in the trenches every single day, every single week. Again, no outside speakers selling you stuff. None. Just go to 3paydayslive.com for All right, thanks for tuning in to the Smart Real Estate Coach Podcast. If you got value from today's episode, guys, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a future episode. It literally takes one nugget to access some of the things we're doing, and when you're talking the amount of— the size, rather, of the paydays, it's an opportunity cost that you can't let go. So don't miss an episode, and for goodness' sake, share it with Someone who needs to hear it. If you're ready to find your best path for getting started on your real estate investing journey in general, head over to smartrealestatecoach.com/getstarted. We're going to help you take the guesswork out of your next steps. See you in the next episode.