Taking Ownership of Your Finances!

Good morning. Good morning, folks. I am Robin Binkley, and I'm here with my partner, Courtney Moeller. We are Ladies Kicking Assets, and we have an amazing guest with us today. We have Ronnie Scheb, who is a ER physician by trade, but incredible entrepreneur in her new life. And so we want to talk about that shift and all of those things and how you can get in touch with her. But before we get started, we wanted to just let you know that we are not your CPA and your legal team. We do ask that anything we talk about that you might run by those exper in your life and get direction. We also ask that you'd like and subscribe to Ladies Kicking Assets. We'd love for you to be a part of our community and share us with your friends. So welcome. Ronnie, we are so excited that you are here and cannot wait to hear you tell us about your painstaking background as an ER physician and all the freedoms that you have now and what you're working on, new projects. So welcome, welcome.

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with y'.

All.

Yes. Yes. Oh, we all have something in common. We are all in this amazing book. Courtney, where's your book? There we are. Next level. This is so powerful. Kyle Wilson put this compilation of stories together. I just encourage you all to obtain a copy and just read about these incredible stories. It's super powerful, and It's a number one bestseller on Amazon in a slew of categories, over 30 categories and internationally. So congratulations, ladies, on being in that. A group of number one bestsellers. It's exciting.

Very exciting.

So, Ronnie, tell us about your background and how you juggle that with your family.

Yeah. So I am an ER physician by training. I was working for 16 years with patients at the bedside. And after many, many years of being part of the worst day of the patient's lives, I decided to step away. Part of that. Part of it was just the pandemic that was. I mean, I remember when I was in the er, in the pandemic, I was double masking when I was just seeing patients with a ankle sprain. Forget the fact that I was in the. In the emergency room. The administrators had cut our staff and they said, you know, it's getting very dangerous, so we're not going to give you an assistant anymore. And, you know, a lot of the doctors that are the specialists don't want to go into the rooms, so you'll have to go in and if they need to be. Need to have to be put on a Ventilator, you know, you're going to be going in. And. And here's a trash bag. You're going to be totally safe.

No worries.

You'll be. Just go in there. Nobody else wants to go in there. You'll be fine. Here's a trash bag, and here's your mask that you've been wearing for a week. And we are rationing the masks, but you'll be fine. Don't wor. Worry about it. There wasn't even there. So, I mean, I, I was like, you know, they don't care about us at all. In fact, you know, our administrators told us if you have Covid, you are going to go to work. Like, unless you're on a ventilator, you need to go to work. So I was. I mean, at that time, there were physicians that were so scared of bringing it home that they were. They were staying in apartments, like, away from their families, just so they could. Who knew it was going to last three years? You can't be away from your families for three years.

Yeah, well, we could go off on that subject matter really hardcore. I don't think we should.

But that's surprising that they would want you to continue to coming work, you know, knowing this was such a contagious, you know, deathly virus and they still wanted you there. And in the beginning, there were so many uncertainties and so many unknowns.

That's right. That's right.

And I just knew that they didn't care. Like, you know, they, they.

The.

The hospital administrators, all they cared about was their bottom line. That's the only thing they cared about. They cut and cut and cut our resources. And, you know, there's days where I was the only doctor. The hallways were full of patients. Ambulances just kept coming in. Like, I'm dealing with people that can't breathe, heart attacks, strokes, all at the same time. And I'm looking around and I'm the only doctor. And, you know, I. You have no choice. It's like this. You're in the trenches and, you know, they'll come. The administrators, you know, might come by and. And is there anything you need? Would you like, you know, something to eat? And I'm like, I need more nurses. I need. I need more help. I need. They just. We need masks. We need gloves.

Yeah. You need basic supplies. You need staff. And I can support what you're saying because as we had chatted earlier, my. My daughter is an ER nurse. And at that time, there were not enough nurses. There was a lot of fear and they were also putting nurses into hospitals who had not finished their clinical rotations. It was, that was your clinical rotation.

Right?

You, you, you're going and it's, and they, you know, out of fear, are just following what they're being told because there wasn't enough staff. But yet then they'll go and hire agency staff and pay agency staff two to three times more than what the hospital rates are for RNs. And so it's, you know, it's a bit discouraging in that. Oh, forget, literally, I could go on and talk about this.

I mean, those agency nurses were making more than the physicians.

Yes, yes.

Yeah, for real.

It's terrible. I mean, everybody should be paid more. So I'm, I'm, I'm not against that, but I am against the, in the disparity between it all and your nurses who have been working for a couple of years in a hospital and then suddenly, because you've got vacancy, they're hiring, you know, agency nurses and it's like they're paying them three times more, which does equal more than what they're paying anyway. So, anyway, it was a hellacious situation for you and you were exhausted and.

I'm sure the morale was probably really low just because of all these, you know, combined people.

The morale was low. We were scared. We, you know, I was, I was scared to take off my mask because that's when you get contaminated or whatever. So, like, I wasn't eating, I wasn't drinking. I was going 12, 13, 14 hours and I was like, this cannot be my life. Like, I don't, this is not, this isn't what I want. And you know, and years before I would have been like, too bad. Like, there's nothing, you know how to do. Yeah, you have no other options. This is what you've trained. This is your income. Your family's relying on you. You have to suck it up. And that's what I did for many, many years. But I was really fortunate that I found real estate investing and I was able to create multiple streams of income. And I could say, hey, I have options. Like, this isn't, I don't have to keep taking this abuse. I don't have to be putting myself in this amount of like traumatic stress environment.

Yeah, no, yeah, the stress of it, the traumatic stress affects your health, your mental well being and all. So in the, in the book you really talk about your story and I thought it kind of interesting that you, if I read correctly, really got into the world of syndicating and real estate. Not that many years ago, it was of a friend who kind of shared his ownership in some projects. And so really, if you wouldn't mind expounding on that, because I think this is where like, so many of us kind of go. Like you. Well, this is all I know. This is all I've ever done. This sounds amazing. Yeah, I'd love that life. But I don't know how to do the in between. How do I. How do I make that shift, you know?

No, and it's interesting that a lot of this kind of kicked off and, you know, light started going off during COVID because I've got several friends that are physicians and as well that are. Kind of went down that same path that you did during that same time frame.

Yeah. Because, I mean, we became. We were like, you know what? This isn't what we signed up for, to be abused, to be taken advantage of our altruistic nature. And then, you know, so. But what's interesting is that I never knew about this world, Right. I was told, you save your money, you pay off your house, you put your money in the 401k and you'll be fine. 65, you'll be able to retire.

Retirement to where you can retire and hopefully have enough money there to live.

Off of, you know, not in your Social Security.

Right. So then I'm like, wait a minute, how am I going to even make it to 65? I can't be in this job for till 65. And then I'm like, the stock market's going up, it's going down. I'm losing 20%, gaining 5% going. You know, it's just the volatility of it stressed me out so much, but I said, that's all there is. And that's when we started, like, looking around. Like, we seeing. We're seeing people doing other things. We don't know what those other things are. And that's when we started exploring with our. One of our friends owns a piece of like over a hundred seven elevens. And I was like, what is that? How do you. I don't even. I couldn't like, grasp that concept. Like, what does that mean, fractional ownership of seven elevens? And he's like, I don't do anything. Just put the money in, the money comes out. And so we were like, let's try it. I mean, he drives a Lamborghini. He must be doing well, right? Like there must be. And so we. We tried it and we actually started in 2014, doing a lot as a limited partner. In various syndications, in the commercial real estate space. And we really tried everything. We did triple net leasing, industrial warehouse, self storage, retail centers, RV parks, mobile home parks. And then we started doing apartments. And we really started really loving the idea of providing homes. You know, everybody needs a house and a roof and when they're shopping online, they're doing it from their home. And then when they're working remotely, they're doing it from their home. So we felt like that was a very safe space. And we had been passive the whole time and we said, you know what, like, I think we can do this actively. Like after doing all of that, we see what it takes. During that time, we educated ourselves. We went to conferences and joined masterminds and mentorship programs and read books. And so we started off small. We bought three duplexes and we renovated them and we put tenant, we had tenants in them. They were making income. We, we refinanced them. We were like, wow, like we don't have any money in this particular thing. And, and we're just making money. It was just groundbreaking, right? Your mind was blown. And I was like, well, how do I 10x this? And that's when I started looking into apartments, not just duplexes, not doing small multifamily, but doing large multifamily. And really over the last three years we've expanded into multiple states. And actually now we're expanding to back out of the niche of just apartments, back into the different commercial asset classes. And we are also expanding into different alternative assets. And really my goal is to help physicians and burnt out healthcare professionals that are really never heard of different options and just showing them like there are other options. You can still do the stock market if you want, but there's other options and ways to diversify. And a lot of it is being very strategic with your tax advantages and which accounts you're using for which investment and, and how you're, you have to really be involved.

Really good. So what are some of the other alternative asset classes that you're, you've sort of circling back to? I mean, I know you're getting back into the commercial space, but what are some of the other alternative asset classes that you're looking at or entertaining or are involved in?

Yeah, we're doing oil and gas investments and we've actually shifted our, our personal portfolio over the last two and a half years into oil and gas. We have some, some of our own wells that we own and operate. We have a, we've partnered with someone that understands the, the Space really well and helped us find someone that was selling their wells, and we just kind of took it over. I think it's a little bit more work than we thought it would be. It like, rains and. And you can't pick up the oil, and then the pump falls apart. So you got to. You have to be kind of just like in apartments, you know, you need to understand that space. So we. We have that. We've bought royalties, we've bought into various funds where they're developing land and they're developing the oil wells. We are kind of diversified. We always. That's kind of how our mo. How we start off. We start off as passive investors and we're trying to understand the space. And then when, like, okay, we understand it now. I can bring. I can talk about it, and I can bring it to my investors as.

Bring other people in.

Yeah, so I'm doing that. And. And I'm actually looking at tax lien investing as well.

That's something I have looked at.

What is.

What is tax lien invest.

Yeah, talk about that.

You know, it's really very interesting. But you can buy. When someone doesn't pay their property taxes, you can buy. You can loan the county because the county needs the money. They're paying for the teachers, and they're paying for the fire departments, and they're paying for everything that keeps the county running. So they still need that money. When someone doesn't pay their property taxes, you can go and loan the county that money. And that county pays you between 10 and 25% interest and your first position. So it's like, it's. If you heard today that you could put your money in a CD that was giving you 25%, would you do it? Yes. And Illinois pays 36%.

And I would imagine that the county is a pretty solid, you know, payment source.

Correct. And if, you know, no one pays that loan back because a lot of times the property owners, they pay the county, like, they're like, okay. It's usually the. One of the last bills they pay because they're paying their credit card bills, they're paying other things with higher interest, but then they don't want to lose their house, so they'll pay it. Okay. If they don't pay it, if there's a mortgage, the bank pays it. Bank takes the thing. They pay the back taxes. If the owner doesn't pay and the bank doesn't pay, you can take the property and then you can sell it. So there's just. It's. It's One of the least risky things. The only thing is it's very complicated because there's thousands of counties in all of them have different rules and different redemption periods and how long you have to wait. And you know what? So I'm, I'm. That's right now my focus is learning all of that. And so it's very interesting. Again, there's so many ways to make money.

Totally taking leave on this.

Yeah, it's. It's incredible.

Well, there's so many opportunities out there. It's just a matter of kind of submersing yourself into different things and figuring out what those opportunities are and kind of thinking outside the box.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. If you are pulled along and told what to do, you won't be as successful financially as you educating yourself, learning by your, like reading and just devouring information and learning how to do things and then taking ownership of your own financial world. You know, people like to just give it to people. Here, here's my money. It's just so much easier. Here's my. To my financial advis. Like here, you know, yeah, sure, take 1%. You know, just give me a good. But if you learn that stuff and you understand it, you can vet different opportunities, you'll do so much better for yourself financially.

Yes, I don't disagree. I mean, it's such a cultural norm. I mean, it's, it's, you know, rooted in our parents and our grandparents. I mean, you know, you work hard, you retire, you save you. If you're fortunate enough to even have a job that has a 401k or a pension. And then if you've got some savings and you, you stick that in the stock market. I mean, that's been the American way. You know, you buy your house, you pay your house off, you buy your car, you pay your car off. I mean, it's, you know, it's the. Dave Ramsey. Yeah, yeah.

Well, we're taught that debt is bad, but as actually can be a really good thing. You know, it can be utilized to really, you know, acquire more assets. It just needs to be done correctly and strategically.

Absolutely.

And that's where it's really important. I love that you said earlier, you know, you got into that oil and gas space. There's some caveats here and things that you're learning along the way and, and that's true of any asset class, no matter what you get into. There's some things I, I want to get into, but I still don't know what I don't know. So I'm still kind of figuring it out and navigating that. Those spaces.

Definitely, definitely. You said another piece too. You know, as you get into a new asset class as a passive investor, you try to learn all that you can in that space. And if it works well, then you'll bring your investors along with you instead of just jumping head first into something because it sounds like, oh my God, okay, that's great. But you don't know anything about it. You don't know anything about the people. You don't know anything. Because there can be some surprises along the way. As we all know in our investment backgrounds, you know, like you mentioned, with multifamily, there's a. And in oil and gas, it's a lot more work than you realize. You don't realize what goes on in the management of that asset. As, as a, as a fund manager for a particular asset. It's, it is not easy in any asset. You have to, it's. It is a job, you know, and.

Then it's definitely a job.

It is a job. It's a job.

The only time it's not a job is when you are a passive investor.

Right.

When you're a passive investor. You know, and I honestly, like, my goal is to be a professional passive investor.

And there's, and there is a lot of money to be had in being a passive investor. You know, there's some great investments out there. Again, it's like everything else. You have to be strategic and look at what it is that you need in your portfolio. Mix and align the need with the asset investment. Is that not true for ourselves personally, but for our investors, you know, not every deal is for everyone. You know, you've got to really know your, your investors and what their needs are. You know, because life shifts so fast.

Absolutely. And a lot of the investors don't even know what their needs are. They think it's like, well, I just need cash flow. Is that really what you need? Because, you know, you have a job and you have, you have all these other things. Maybe you just want money when it sells like a big pop at the end or, you know, you have. I need tax advantages. Well, do you like, to me, I think everybody needs tax advantages. But you know, some people don't think that that's that big of a deal.

I think most people just don't know that there are things that they can invest in that will offset their other income. I think there's just a lot of, just like that goes hand in hand with the, the lack of financial education is the, the lack of those tax advantages and how they can be and how they can really make a difference.

Sense. It's true.

People just know, you know, death and taxes, that's the biggest thing that you have to pay or you can't avoid it. But there's some ways you can. You know, you have to decide, you know, if it's better to pay on the seed. Right. Do you want to pay on the seed or do you want to pay on the crop?

Yeah.

Well, I can remember listening to Brad Somerock standing on stage and I can remember him being, oh, I was so excited I was gonna have to pay a million dollars in tax this year. And, and then once he figured out that, wow, there's actually a way that I don't have to pay that and I can keep that money and reinvest it into something else, which is where that strategy and, you know, tax education, you know, really comes in and is really important.

Absolutely. I, I think I was at that talk. Yes.

I do believe we've been in some of the same circles.

Yes.

Which is, which is awesome because you, you did mention that. So let's talk about that real quick. You know, as a part of your strategy for investing, you, you conveyed heavily. Educate yourself. I mean, you're really responsible for your destiny. So educate yourself, read, attend conferences, be involved in masterminds. Surround yourself, you know, with the right environment and the right people that are going essentially the same direction you are. So how have you weaved that into your life? You know, because you've still got a relatively young family, I think, you know, your kiddos are pretty young compared to mine. Courtney and I have like, adult kids. I mean, Courtney's still got some younger kids than I do, but, you know, you, it's. You have to figure out your travel and your stuff and groups that really fit you well with what you're about. And so how have you done that in your investment?

Like, you know, it takes a village. I am so thankful for my parents and my in laws. And we have to decide, right? Like, we are going to join this because it's this group or this mastermind because it's going to help our family. So we know ahead of time those dates, you know, takes a village. I have one grandma taking them to school and one of them is sleeping at the house. One of them's picking them up. One of them, they're. It's like a puzzle piece getting the child care. I know it's gonna be, it's important because it's a value that I'm teaching my children, like, being around like minded people. I'm telling my kids, you know, who your friends are is so important.

Yes.

Who you're surrounding yourself with. And so I'm showing it as, as my example for them. And not only that, but like education doesn't end in school, it continues throughout your life. And I'm an, I'm an adult learner. I've, you know, as a physician, you continuously are learning and, and you know, I just am a voracious, I have a voracious appetite for, for anything. I'm learning about the gut microbiome and longevity health and I'm learning about finance and tax liens and, and different accounts that you can use. I'm just, and I'm so excited to learn that kind of stuff and I just love sharing it and I'm telling it to my kids and they're like, okay, mom, we get it. Invest, you know, and I'm teaching my, my, my fellow physicians, I'm teaching my investors. And so this is just something that I'm just so excited about that.

It.

Doesn'T feel like it's hard to navigate the, the child care issues.

Like it just.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Happening.

Are you still working as a physician?

No. No.

Okay, so you have totally retired from your card.

Flipped it.

I am completely out. Yeah. I mean, it's in my back pocket, in case. Right.

And all of that.

And honestly, I'm excited because this is the first year ever I'm gonna go on a medical mission. Trip. Trip to Africa. Oh. So I'm still gonna, you know, I get to help people in so many ways, which excites me so much because, you know, for so many years I helped them with their physical health.

Yeah.

Now I'm helping them with their financial wellness. And I still get to go and make an impact.

And you can do it on your terms.

On my terms? Yeah, on my terms without the risk of litigation and different administrators. I'm going to a third world country where people are like appreciative and they're waiting six, six to eight months to see a doctor. You know, it's just going to be such an incredible experience.

When are you going?

I'm going in September.

Oh, wow, that's amazing.

Oh, it really is. It really is. Well, you have shared so much with us today. We are somewhat coming to a close for our viewership. We really try to keep this in the 30 minute range. But, Ronnie, how can our listeners and viewers get in touch with you? Should they have any other questions? Need Some guidance from you. What's the best way for them to reach out?

Absolutely. Really? Emailing me. I answer every one of my emails. So it's Ronnie. R O N N I E AT shall win properties. S-H-A L W-I N properties dot com.

Perfect.

Love that. And I love the fact that you personally answer all your emails.

I do.

That's great. I really do like that. Well, thank you so much, Ronnie. This has been pretty powerful. I think that you just have. I mean, you embody all of the qualities that, like, our. Our average individual is, you know, relating to. You've been a professional physician. You worked hard at that. That was your dream. It's what you knew. And then you stepped out and took risk, but you did it doing the same way. You became a physician. You voraciously read, you educated yourself, you took it seriously, and then you put it into practice. Like, you really took action. And so that's sometimes the fear marker of. You know, Courtney and I have heard, like, repeatedly from folks. Well, they do all this stuff, but then they don't really, like, pull the trigger. Well, nothing happens unless you really do something about it.

You have to lean into the fear.

Yes.

Growth happens when you're uncomfortable.

You gotta get comfortable being uncomfortable.

Yes, yes. So if you are feeling uncomfortable, you might be doing something right, because you might be a different person on the other end of that.

Well, I just love that you are. You know, I think so many of us have this, you know, physicians and attorneys and everybody that's, you know, the success goal that people want to achieve, but you have actually found another way to. To do that and take back control of your time. Because really, you know, time and health really is true wealth, you know, along with that, the. The financial component of that. So I'm really excited for you. I'm really. I love. I love hearing these kind of stories.

I know, I know. They make me feel good, you know, because they're true.

And.

And it gives me. It gives me hope, and it shows even me. Oh, my gosh. I learned something today, you know, which I. I continuously love. Well, thank you so much, Ronnie. And you've shared with us how our listeners and viewers can get in touch with you. And again, folks, we're Ladies Kicking Assets. We ask that you like and subscribe to our channel and share this interview with your friends and family. It's pretty powerful, what we've talked about today. So till. Till our next interview, folks, where Robin and Courtney Moeller with Ladies Kicking Assets and our amazing guest, Ronnie Shalab.

Thank you so much for having me.

You bet.

Thank you.