Birth to Net Worth with Debbie Liu - Episode 3

Okay. Good afternoon and welcome to Birth to Net Worth Episode three. Jesse, how you doing, bro?

Dude, I'm a freaking amazing. It's Thursday. We've had a fantastic week. We've got a very special guest lined up for today. I'm super excited to introduce her. She is from Arizona. I got to go down to Arizona and hang out with Tristan and our guest for about a week a couple weeks ago, and it was absolutely amazing. Got to know her a little bit more and she is an amazing woman, entrepreneur, investor, and mother. And I'm really excited to have her on. Please welcome Debbie Lu.

Debbie Lou.

Hello.

How are you?

Good. I'm doing fine. How are you guys?

Very well, thank you. Thanks for taking your time to join us today. It's great, great to see you always.

Thank you for having me.

So tell us a little bit about your background, Debbie.

So I originally immigrate from Taiwan and when I was 14 without speaking any word of English and first food was pizza, so. So I have to adapt to the new environment to start from zero to, you know, be able to understand the language. So that's when I was 14, so.

Well, that's awesome. That's. I came here not speaking a word of American either, but I soon picked it up and I got kind of an accent now. So I do try and translate to the locals sometimes, but I try not to do that. So you got here when you were 14? Tell us about your. Tell us about your background. Do you have kids? Do you have no kids? Tell us about that.

I have three lovely daughters. Serena, Michelle and Rachel. All of them are. I think I can honestly say I am blessed to have those. I never have to worry about them like school, work wise. And they have became very independent woman and with entrepreneur mind too, so.

Yes, that's really good. And I heard they. They've all got a really cool middle name. Is that right?

Yes, like Debbie.

Wow.

My background there.

That's the most cool middle name. And, and there's some inspiration with that, with your logo. Is that right?

Yes, correct.

D3 Investment Group. Man, that is. That's awesome. It's got a. Just a jingle to it, man.

My.

I freaking love that.

That's for my apartment investing specifically just for that passive income local.

I love that. That's amazing. So you mentioned that your. Your girls have a. An entrepreneurial mindset. Where did that come from?

Definitely from their mother. Yeah. Because when I was little, I actually already started with my little business when I was like, I remember like when I was 3 or 4 because we live in Taiwan. We're very close, like, kind of like condo style residential. So I always try to find something in my house and then try to sell to neighbors. So that came. That just came when. When I. I don't know if that's natural, but I think I got that from my. My dad. My dad is a businessman, so I think I got that from him.

Oh, wow. Amazing. So what kind of things are you. Are you teaching your kids? Like, what do you mean when you say they kind of have an. An entrepreneurial mindset? What does that. What does that mean? What does that look like?

That means independent wise. They always have to like my. They always look at me as independent businesswoman that I don't depend on anybody for income. I just go out and get it. So my second daughter actually is her own boss right now, just because. Inspiration from me. But my oldest one is a. She's attending PA school right now. Physician assistant.

Wow.

So eventually I wanted to talk to her and maybe open up her own little practice maybe eventually. And my little one actually is still at school right. Right now, like up in Northern Arizona. NAU University. And her goal is to open her own coffee shop. Same thing.

Is she gonna do it in Alaska? There are coffee shops literally all over Alaska. It's the weirdest thing. You're driving around, you think you're in the middle of nowhere. There's like trees and mountains and everything, and all of a sudden you have a random ass coffees hut right there. And they're just killing it, man. You need to send her up here.

Because it's dark for nine months of the year, Jesse. People have to stay awake when they're driving, even at midday.

That's what it is, man.

Her goal is to start one and then eventually branch out.

Got it. Okay, so. And then your youngest is how old?

20.

Your youngest is 20, right? You're not old enough to have three girls with the youngest that's 20 years old.

I just. I just. Yeah. Asian. We don't.

We look fantastic. I love it. So is this something like, have you intentionally gone out of your way to, like, do you sit down with your kids and. And like, go through different things, or is this something that they've kind of seen you do and just kind of picked up naturally or what? What does that kind of look like?

I think they picked up naturally from me because I. I got divorced when they were little, so I have to find a way to support them by my. By myself. So I pick real estate. It's because it's more flexible. And I had my nanny back, back then, so I was always out making money. Always. Yeah. So they probably just seen their mother, you know, always independent and making money and bring back food on the table. So, yeah, I think they learned from, from seeing me doing it.

So I think your Instagram should be D Hustle.

Maybe.

So that's what, that's what your kids have seen you do when, when they were growing up, what did you see your parents doing? What, what kind of background did they have as far as careers and, and where they're employed or. You said your dad, you know, at a few things going on. Tell me about how that backs up to where you are to then where you've described with your kids. This would be like a Tarantino movie going back and forth.

Right. So my dad is a businessman, so he, he's always working as well, so I think I picked up from him a little bit. My mom is a teacher, elementary school teacher. So her schedule wise is she's more like, I can say more stable. But my dad is always on commission, so he has to hustle to get more money to, to bring back home and then afford. We have like, he has four kids, like Jesse. Four kids. It's not easy to support four kids. So I think I picked that from him always seeing him. He actually, I remember very clearly brought back this $300,000 check. NTNT dollar Taiwanese dollar. So that's about 10,000 US dollar. But back then, 10,000 is a huge check. So that moment I was thinking, oh, okay, so if you work hard, you can definitely make more money. So that. I think I, I learned that from my dad when I was little. That's why I went out and then start talking to neighbors, starting wanting to make commission or make money from selling stuff.

So is that what you did? Did you go right into sales or. I mean, like, because I, I'm just trying to think like how a lot of people, you know, how they grow up is just in that, in that mindset of, you know, may, maybe I get divorced and I've got to go, I've got, I've got kids that I've got to go raise. I've got to go get a job. I've got to go get a 9 to 5. I've got to go get something, you know, that's, that's secure and that's safe and that I can rely on and know that I'm going to get a check. Like what, what was your mindset when you approached that? Like, what made you Go the opposite way. Because I think I'd love to hear that story. I think that'd be very interesting. I think a lot of people listening would love to hear kind of what your mindset was going through that. Because when you look at what the 1% is doing, clearly they're doing something that nobody else is doing that 99 of people are not doing, which is what you did. So I'm just curious to hear kind of like what is your mindset going into something like that? Like how do you, how do you find yourself in that position when you're like, I've got to support my girls, I'm going through divorce and they're depending on me. And you're like, I'm gonna go freaking make this shit happen and I'm gonna be inspirational to them. Like, sorry to go ahead and tell me about that.

Oh no. I. So I actually graduated with interior design major. So that's always been my passion. So I picked that major. But I didn't ended up working toward that, you know, industry because I got to know my ex husband. They had a family business, important exporting business. So that got me started learning how to become a salesman. So that's where I picked up the sales skill from that back then because I have to, I handle everything. I handle all the employee. We have about 13 employees in California warehouse and then we have about 500 employees in China in the factory. So morning I handle the California side, nighttime, I have to handle the manufacturer side. So I learned everything from A to Z. I even have to clean the toilet. So I do, I do A to Z job. So but back to your question about why did I pick that 1%? Just because I learned from. When I was little, I learned about like commission. My dad make that commission. I learned from doing it myself. I can make more money. So when that environment, environment of me with three kids, I have to support another nanny that pushed me to be. I want to be different. I don't want to be ordinary woman making that $2,000 a month. That's not going to support my kids. Yeah, I want to support. Yeah, I want to be able to, to send them to good college and then, you know, not buying, not, not spoil them, but at least have them have a stable like environment to grow up. So that's why I chose that 1%.

Wow, that's really interesting. I, I love the fact that you, you just took the bull by its horns and, and just decided what you were going to do, where you're going to go and, and Just knock it out. It's, you know, with a nanny, that's, that's the who, not how philosophy is, how can I delegate? Obviously they kids. So it's not delegating a job per se, but it's delegating your time to put your time to more valuable resources during that period of the day where you're out selling products or ideas to people, taking care of that business and, and making much more of a, an impact on your family's life than just going to getting W2 or working down at a grocery store or whatever it is. You know, some people are either restricted or doing or are unaware that they could do otherwise. So I think that's a great, great endeavor. An example that you're setting to your kids.

Right. Also, you know, people around me, there are some women that they got divorced and they don't know what to do because they have no skill. Yeah.

There's a lot of people in life, male and fema, they're just victims. Something happens to them and then they just give up. It's a lack of accountability and responsibility and they just give up. They don't see that there's another way out because that's all they've seen in their life. So why would they believe otherwise?

Right, right.

Well, not only, but it just adds to the fact that how important is teaching financial education and having your kids become financially literate by being able to include them in what you're doing and allow them to see the fruits of your labor and how it's changing your family's life. Like, like, Debbie, like, you know, growing up, you got to see your, your dad and what he was doing in business and how successful he was as a businessman. And because of that, that was ingrained in you. So when you were in that position, you know, your first thought was, oh, well, naturally it only makes more sense for me to go this other route because that's what's going to make my family most money. Yeah.

Right, right. And I've seen people where, I've seen people like got divorced. They, they, they chose that fixed income. And that got me thinking, if I choose that route, I probably won't be able to afford my three kids and plus nanny. So I think because of them kind of motivate me to go out and think what do I need to do to provide more.

Yeah.

To my family.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's a great segue. Debbie, back to now, we've gone through your, your story a bit about what your dad did tell us about attitudes to money, the mindset towards money. Because some cultures are very much giving with money. They, they do good things with it. And, and there's a lot of people that do great things with money when they don't necessarily give, give much of it away. I know a lot of religions tithe other, other cultures will put money away for a rainy day or they'll save it because they want to accumulate money. How was it growing up with you? Is there a cultural norm that your, your father and you then followed during your early to midlife or you know, tell us about how that went and how that's name may be changed in, in recent years and what changed.

So my parents are very traditional. So when I was little or with my siblings when we were little, they always say that you have to save money just in case. And when you borrow money from people, you always return right away. So that's, that's how I, I grew up that way. But my dad is very like, he doesn't like to borrow money at all. He says if you save him enough money, you never have to borrow money from people. But I switched that mindset when I got involved with like I can say it PACE program. I can. I started to think creative. How do I use my money to make more money now? Not just save money, put it there and then making a little bit of interest. So I actually was thinking if I have this money, I use it as a vehicle to make more money. For example, if I have $50,000, I used this vehicle to lend it to other people, make interest. Right. And then I, the end of the day, I still have that money. This money will never go away. Yeah, right. So I was teaching my girls, like, look, if you use this money to buy a car, make sure. I mean, sorry, if you want to buy a car with let's say 500 monthly payment, make sure you have $50,000 in the account to make 500 per month passive income to afford your car. If you don't have that 50,000, go make it first.

I think that. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, go ahead.

No, then guess what? When three years or four years or five years, the payment is done, the 50,000 is still there, then you continue to, to make more money to bring in more interest income. Yeah. So that's, that's how I teach my kids. And then they finally got it. So they actually are investing with me with their money.

Oh my gosh, that's amazing. That is super dope. I, I was actually having a conversation with somebody today that is right along the Lines with exactly what you just said. If you have somebody who's got $50,000, a lot of, you know, if somebody goes and sells their house, for example, you got a lot of people obviously, selling their house and make, you know, 50 grand, 100 grand or whatever. So they've got this money that they've never really had before. And they only have because the market's doing what it's doing. And so their first thought, instead of going and putting that money to work, they think, oh my gosh, I should take 40,000 of this and go buy a brand new truck, you know, and go along with what you were just saying. Like, if you were, if you were to teach your kids to invest that properly, to think about money a little bit differently. It's not to say that the 1% doesn't have liabilities. You know, that's what a Lamborghini is, that's what, that's what a yacht is, you know, but they're putting that money into assets that are paying for their liabilities. Yeah. And then they still have that $40,000 like you said. Actually, as a matter of fact, they have that $40,000 plus whatever, you know, whatever their, whatever the house is appreciating as well.

Yeah, right.

That's a whole different way of thinking about it.

Absolutely. Yeah. So what, what is your recent. Since joining Pace's program, what have you started to do differently than, you know, you worked in real estate for, for quite some time you bought and hold sold homes for other people. Were you buying other homes for yourself to Cash Flow before joining Pace's program, or is that something that you've only begun to do since? Because I'm sure that you bought and sold properties for people that had multiple properties, had portfolios, were landlords, and were actively growing their wealth and, and supporting themselves through cash flow. What did that look like for you before, during and after, you know, the last two or three years?

Yeah, before joined in, I, I really didn't have that mindset of creative financing. It's more like a traditional side of it. But I need to qualify with the bank first in order to buy the house. So it's very limited. Not until I got involved with Pace program, I start buying them. I, I can buy any number of property that I want. As long as I structure the deal well, then I can buy as many as I want. And that actually led me into multi family, because if I'm gonna buy multiple, I might as well buy. Just buy everything in one, structure everything together. It's easier to Manage and then I can continue to buy in different location.

Are you doing this alone or are you doing that with other people? Because the bigger the asset, I would imagine there's more money involved, potentially more risk. But I think, you know, as we know, consolidating doors in, in a single building with multiple doors is maybe a lot more cost effective and there are some benefits and efficiencies there. Are you playing this as a solo sport or are you doing this with.

Other people for the multifamily? It's definitely, it's not a solo game. It's definitely team, team sports. So that I'm still trying to find a good team to work with. Possibly maybe both of you, maybe we can talk about like, you know, partnering up in the future. But for the single family, right now I'm doing it solo just by myself.

Debbie, if you come to Alaska, just, just say it.

Just say it.

We welcome you to buy some, buy some apartment complexes.

No, we welcome you to, to join us in Phoenix.

Yeah, I love it.

Right, so what have you, what have you got in your arsenal at the moment? What have you got in your, in your entities right now? Because I think that I heard that you'd got some property with or for your daughters somewhere.

Yeah, I have one in Jacksonville, Florida, site unseen. I bought it. It's a subject too. So. So right now I'm doing the cash out refi just because it's got enough equity so I'm able to pull all my money back and then cash flowing continuously. So that one I'm very happy and then the other one is up in Flagstaff. Originally I just want to buy a condo for my daughter to live in because she goes to the school nearby. And then. Yeah, and then one of the SEPTA student actually brought me this deal because there's no cash flow for him. So I said I'll take it. So what I, what I did is I, I least want, I rent out one room and then to my girl on my daughter's high school girlfriend. So she's paying half of the mortgage right now.

Beautiful.

So which is a win win situation. And then I'm part of the 28 units multi family down in Tucson as a limited partner. So just to learn, eventually I like to be general partner.

So what are the types of partnerships in there? I've heard LP and gp. And are there any other P's around there or.

The key principle. That's where you sign in document. Yeah. So general partner basically is the one that actually go out and acquire properties Manage the property and then does all the financing so they do all the work for you. And limited partner is basically just silent partner, money partner. You invest with them and then just ride along with them.

Got it, Got it. Are there similar levels of return? I'm sure every investment is different depending on the group of people you bring to the table. But they're. Is it similar, similar takeaway? Obviously managing management probably takes a bit more of the bread there because they're managing it day to day. Or is it because you're a limited partner? It's more than just a lender on the situation. You're a partner, you're taking a bit more. Is that the way it works?

No, we're actually partnered with them, but they are actually taking 20%. 20%? It's like 20 80.

Yeah.

And then probably takes about, I mean the holding period is a little bit longer, probably five years and you'll get your money probably double. And then within two to three years, if there's opportunity, then they'll. We'll do cash out, refi, bring back. We can take our capital back, initial capital back, and then continue to cash flow until we sold the property. But you know, amazing.

So with this one in Jacksonville. Real quick, so essentially you, you bought it sub 2 and then you cash out, refi it.

Yes.

So you, you got paid to buy a multi family property in Florida.

It's a single family.

Oh, Jacksonville.

Oh, got it. Okay.

But you're right, you just remind me, yes, cash out that money. I actually is able to buy multifamily. So I get to buy multifamily because of this initial.

So for those who are listening, who, you know, don't know anything about PACE or about creative financing or anything like that, and they're sitting here saying, well, I can't get started or I can't teach my kids how to do this because I don't have the money to invest in real estate. Debbie, you just, I just want to make sure I understood you right. You got paid. It did not, it did not only not cost you to buy this property in Jacksonville. You made money purchasing this property. You got paid to own this property.

Actually, let me, let me reverse a little bit. I did pay to get into the property because there's always entry fee to buy property. Sure. Because I have, it's a pre foreclosure property, so I have to pay the rear. That's about 20 grand. And then there's closing costs and all that. But guess what, there's appreciation since 2020. I bought that December 2020, it appreciate. So I was able to cash out the money.

Yeah.

And take my money back. So literally, I. I can say I went into that property with zero dollar.

So can somebody who doesn't have 20,000, they could go borrow that money from somebody, right?

Correct.

So somebody still be in it. No money. And then pay that person out at a later time or. Or squat up or JV with somebody else and bring the money.

Right. As well as you. You have that. You have that wheel. Wanted to do it. You can make it happen.

Amazing. Well, congratulations. That's awesome.

Thank you.

I want. Sorry, I just wanted to highlight that real quick in case anybody who's listening who is unfamiliar with creative financing or the possibilities out there. This is awesome. Debbie. Debbie Loose sitting here doing it and she's teaching her kids how to do it. There's no reason, there's no excuse for anybody listening to not be able to do this stuff.

Yeah.

If you have no money, that's okay. Maybe talk to me. We can structure a deal and then maybe I can fund a deal and then we'll. We'll JV together.

There you go. If you're listening to this, Debbie Lou said, hey, if you have no money, come hit me up.

Right.

And we'll figure out the way forward.

We'll figure it out. We'll figure things out.

Amazing.

Everything is. Everything is possible.

Everything is possible indeed.

You just have to take action. You have to take action. So I learned how to do sub to you. You do it. You learn by doing it.

That's right.

I think that's how you learned life really, isn't it, Debbie? Seem to have taken a lot of action at every stage of your life and you've just got into something new. And again, you just. You just springboard and take action right away and you get results. The consistency and just being in front of people, doing what you need to do, inquiring, communicating and networking and building that. Building that network.

Yes. Networking is very important in life, in everything you do. Right.

Yeah, for sure. So got a couple of minutes left. Debbie, what would you leave us with as far as a bit of wisdom, bit of advice for whether it's other parents or whether it's kids out there or just not necessarily parents, but just changing, changing mindsets, changing ideas on things and really looking at what. What we can do to make a little ripple in the world to make the next generation's life a little easier without spoiling them. You know, I certainly would love to see my kids have the choice to Whether they want to work or not, just through having cash flow through, you know, what we set up for them. You know, my idea is to try and do a few flips with some money of my kids, build them up reserves, start building them, building up cash flow and properties by the time hopefully they leave high school or soon after, and then put them in a position where they're either house hacking, they're doing things that avoid them having to necessarily get a job, but they can go and do things that they're really passionate about. What would you see from your perspective of what you would impart on others?

Honestly, for me, I actually just, whenever I do project right now, I have my girls involved and learn with me together just like this, multifamily things. I actually share with them all the flyer. Exactly. Summary numbers and ask them if, if they do not understand any single part of it, I need to know. So I actually have them come up with questions and then if I don't know, I'll go find out for, for them.

Yeah.

And then the best part is they now understand the passive income side of it and the benefit of it. They are very interested in investing in real estate right now because you have to make sure they, they understand the concept that will pique their interest. And guess what? Next thing you know, they're asking for investing with you, like as a parent.

Is what they say. A woman convinced against her will is of the same opinion still. Right?

Is that right? Is that right, Jesse?

So, so where was the, where was the, you know, what were your kids like with money up till the point that you got into this and started sharing with them the change of your mindset towards money were they, money comes in, money comes out, or even in some cases, money's gone out before it comes in as far as they're planning deployment of capital, but not in the cash flow sense. How are they before that and have they changed massively or is it just, just a slight change of course for them just to see this is a different way of doing things. But you know, how did that work?

No, my girls are pretty like in the beginning of the show. My girls are very independent and they know, they watch me like working super hard. So their perspective to money is very conservative. Yeah. So they don't go, go out and just buy whatever they want. So. So I'm pretty blessed about this. And then until I brought the idea of passive income and how to make your money, how to work easy, I mean, work smarter and not work harder, they started to touch to, to to have that. I don't know. You can see from their eyes. They're like, holy moly. This is like brilliant idea. I actually can save money and then this num, this money will never go away.

Yeah.

So I think I, I, I, I'm very, very happy to see that result and then I'm very excited to see their like, future in investing in real estate. Right.

So Celeste, reverse do the Tarantino effect. Has this changed if you, I'm not sure if your dad's still with us or not.

Yes.

Is that something that you've kind of imparted on him? Obviously he's entrepreneurial, doing different things. Is that something that you reflect into him? What, what changes have occurred in your life? Is, is he any interest in doing these things? Is that something he's done since learning about what you're doing? Not necessarily investing in property, but a change to the, you know, putting, putting money away in case you need it to. Maybe putting that out there for what can be done with it in a generational wealth sense where you, your siblings, his grandchildren can then have a different, different outcome and he can maybe have a more fun, less frugal life between now and that succession event. Is there been any changes there or is that conversations you haven't really had?

I don't really have that conversation with him, but I think my dad has set a example, a very good example when I was little because same thing. If anything changes like emergency that we still have to have certain funds like liquid fund.

Yeah.

To take care of like my, my girl's dad, my ex husband actually passed away in a car accident.

So.

Car accident. So that moment make me realize, yeah. Not only I have to have passive income, I also have to have reserve for something like this happen. Like you have to. I can't really deploy all my money out. I have to have some. So this came from my dad. Like I set aside some savings for emergency funds. So I think my dad is still. Yeah. He said a really good like not. I can't really credit to my dad. My mom too. They actually set a great example for, for their kids.

Yeah. Wonderful. Well, perfect. Is, is there anything else you want to share with us before we, we wrap up?

No, I think we pretty much cover the basic for the, for the young kid, young generation. So Jesse, you have questions?

Oh, I've got, I've got tons of questions, but I want to, I don't want to, I don't want to keep this going. We'll have to. Maybe we'll do another episode we'll have Debbie on a little bit later, but if anybody has any questions for you, Debbie, like where can everybody reach out to you at? Where, Where's a good place? Where, where can they contact you at the best place?

Probably just like my ig like on the screen.

A top lady boss, right?

Yeah. So you can feel free to reach me if you guys have any question. I am more than happy to answer the best I can.

Fabulous.

And you've got it.

And you'll have a calendar link somewhere in your bio, is that right? So that people can set up a time to speak with you.

I am going to set it up because I've been dm. I've been DM by many people lately, so I think I need to set it up.

You're a popular gal.

Just trying to help. Yes.

Yeah. You're amazing. What Real, real quick. What markets are you working? Like if somebody comes to you deal in Alaska, is that something you're interested in or.

I am actually focused just in Arizona right now for the multifamily part. But if you have anything outside of Arizona, I have. Yeah. Network that I can help you.

Okay, perfect.

Yeah.

Sound well. Thank you so much, both of you. Thank you, Debbie, for spending some great time with us this afternoon and passing wisdom, your experience. And we look forward to maybe a follow up in a few months. Maybe one of your girls or maybe all your girls can join us and kind of share a different perspective from what they see that the changes have been in their approach to things and learning from you, learning from the family and you know, when we're a bit down the road, you know, when you own 6,000 doors with, with a team that you've put together, certainly love to be part of that team and own some doors with you for sure. So sure.

Absolutely.

Fantastic. Well, thank you, Jesse. Thank you, Debbie. I wish.

Thank you.

Thank you. Bye. Bye.