Birth to Net Worth with Scott Evans

Join us as we unravel our deep-rooted relationship with money, from earliest memories to eureka moments and building wealth. Birth to Net Worth with me, Trystan Trenberth. Welcome to this week's edition of Birth to Net Worth. This week we have an amazing human being we met through a mastermind, um, of high-conscious go-getters. We are also in a real estate community together, and he's really top, top 20 mortgage originator loan officers in the United States. He's been number 1 VA loan originator in the United States many times during his career and target to be the number 1 mortgage officer in the United States. Let me bring to the stage Scott Evans. Scott, welcome to Birth to Net Worth. Thanks for spending some time with us.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Awesome. So, Scott, give us a little bit more about your background. They gave us a brief intro there. You know, what else can you share about yourself, family, that kind of thing?

Where should we begin? Grew up in South Florida, Boca Raton, Florida. Born there and made my way to Atlanta, Georgia. I was a computer science major. I went to school at Georgia Tech. Yeah, in Atlanta and graduated in the dot-com crash where it was such a great time to become a computer programmer where it was nothing but saturated with programmers. Right. I bartended all throughout college. Yeah, I had a good friend that was living in Monterey, California. I was going to the postgraduate school there. And if you're a programmer, you're looking for a job. You would move to close to San Jose. So he's like, come live with me. You could live on the couch and go look for a job. So I packed everything up, moved out to California and was bartending, got a job working at Pebble Beach, various places. And that was right when the real estate market was taking off from '03 to '05. And I had a bunch of clientele that were real estate agents and mortgage people coming into the bar, dropping a lot of money. And I got very intrigued. So that's how I got into the mortgage industry. January 1st, 2006 was a great time to get in.

Right at the peak almost.

Yeah. But, you know, I didn't have any business to lose and I didn't have any bad habits to break. So I just put my head down and grinded and been able to build a great little business.

Yeah. You've been in it continuously ever since, it seems.

Ever since.

Yep. Great, great.

Well, awesome. So let's go back to the genesis of, of your relationship with money, your experience of money. I mean, Birth to Net Worth, it talks about how, how we became aware of money. Maybe there was an experience, a memory that we had. What was your first recollection of a reference to money or an experience having money or money being spent, a cost of something? Tell me about where, where that lands in your memory.

Yeah.

When I think of—

I mean, I just remember just growing up, growing up where my mom was always complaining about not having any money. And that's like, that's what I connect to growing up was just that, you know, don't have enough money to pay the bills. And yeah, it's just super stressful. My dad was completely— it was blind. So he did— he didn't work. So he was a stay-at-home dad.

Wow.

And before this call, I was actually thinking about some things that kind of drove me. And I think I look at how connected my dad— not bringing any money— that, hey, you weren't a man if you didn't make money. So then that was like, I think, a driving force to propelled me to, I gotta make money to be a man. Yeah. So it was, uh, I just was thinking about that before this call.

Yeah. So your mom, you know, worrying about maybe not having enough money, your dad in a very different position where he just couldn't work, um, didn't, didn't fit the normal sort of, uh, you know, role models in the home. How, how was your dad's awareness. Obviously, Dad used money regardless of the fact he, you know, was blind. How did your parents have similar or different views, and how did that shape your initial opinion of money, what it meant, you know, its value and all of those things?

Yeah, my dad used to be an engineer, but his eye disease kept deteriorating. So eventually it was when I was at an early age, was forced to like, they let him go because they were afraid he was going to slip and fall. He worked at GE or I can't— something like that. He was afraid he was going to slip and fall or something was going to happen. So then he just became just a stay-at-home dad. And, and I think that, I mean, he was always doing little side jobs, trying to bring in some money to help out, but there wasn't— it was not much he could really— it was a lot of times just on the phone calling, talking to people. So I mean, he still hustled, I guess, in a way.

Yeah.

But what was the, the question?

So how do your mom and your dad's opinion or perspective towards money kind of help form yours? It was Your mum was obviously quite frugal. She was trying to make things, make ends meet from what she was bringing in. Your dad obviously had experience with money through life. Must have been a very different experience than that, that you may have seen with your friends, having maybe the father being the breadwinner primarily, and, you know, maybe the mum being the stay-at-home mum, or both parents working. How, what, what kind of formed your perspective of money there?

Yeah, man, it's forcing me to like go back and think about things.

Um, so I grew up in—

I don't know if you're familiar with, with Boca Raton, uh, Florida, or, you know, familiar with Boca Raton, Florida.

I've been there once. I worked in Palm Beach for a couple of months in '94.

So yeah, Boca has— I mean, when you bring up, you know, there's a lot of really rich Jewish people there too growing up. So there was a— we were very extremes where people, if I said Boca Raton, they're like, oh my God, you must be loaded. Or, you know, that thought process. But I mean, I think it wasn't so much of my parents as I was thinking I was always looking at all of my friends that all had money and at the schools I went to, and I think in a way jealous of but other people had.

And but my mom always seemed to—

like, I didn't— it was like still a good childhood. Like, when I look back and think about the overall childhood, I mean, I don't think I ever felt I didn't have what I needed. I haven't really thought about the— their values and the differences.

Oh yeah, I don't know.

I, I, I don't know the answer. I gotta like really dive in deep and think about it.

Yeah, I mean, it's, it's so interesting how, how different people there are, you know. A lot of, a lot of experiences where there's a lack of money, there's no money, there's fights over money, which are the first memories so many people have. And like You know, in some people's experience, that's like you said, that's the driver to make— I'm never going to be in that position again, you know, and that drives people to, you know, an extreme opposite end of success, you know.

Yeah.

I mean, I was always hustling throughout. I mean, I was working when— as soon as I could get a job, I mean, I mean, I was mowing lawns, I was doing everything to make money.

When you start mowing lawns, I think I started about 10 or 11 years old.

10 or 11. Yeah, I was doing that. I was doing work, side projects for my mom, for like— she was a bookkeeper, would do projects on the computer, bookkeeping, worked at like ice cream shops scooping ice cream. I was always working. So I felt like I had to just take it on my own and make my own money.

Yeah, yeah. So when you looked at your friends and you saw the sort of the difference in what you had or didn't have and what they had, were you aware of generosity and kindness around money in some of those situations where there might be abundance rather than scarcity?

Oh, that's— oh yeah, that is probably some of the best qualities I got from my parents was the generosity, just not about so much with money, but their time. Because they were very active helping other blind people every weekend. My mom was active in Girl Scouts, so they didn't have money to give, but they gave their time. I think that's actually probably the one of the best qualities that I've— they instilled on me is, is my generosity and helping people.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was like my dad, that those are my vivid memories of my dad just talking with people that were just becoming blind and not how, like all these little, like tricks that he's learned to figure things out that just people that are not used to being blind, all of a sudden now they're blind and they don't know how to navigate. And so he was just kind of always walking through it. Just, I just remember him always be on the phone talking to people, helping them, helping them through the transition and Yeah, yeah.

I mean, it brings to, it brings to mind a very different expression of the blind leading the blind, and that's a very powerful example of that, you know.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like within any business, when it, when you learn anything, any skill, you have to have somebody that has experience in that to help you along, whether that be financially, you know, whether it's working in life and living life with reduced or, or no sight. I think there's so much that people realize and they gain over time that, you know, like we will help each other in business to get those little nuggets to learn from other people's, um, I won't say mistakes, but the experiences of other people to shortcut that, that growth. And, you know, acceptance of these things because, you know, whether it's, whether it's a resistance to having money because we grew up in an area of scarcity where there was you know, rich people are bad, they're, they're, they, they worship the devil, or whatever the, you know, the story is that the family's built that gives us that perspective. It really allows us to be more embracing of those things and understand that that's just one perspective. And when we look at some of the greats in, in medicine, in, in life, the philosophers, it's really just a shift on perspective that allowed a huge, you know, gain from certain things. I mean, I remember the X-ray, um, I believe that was, that was a result of X-ray in concrete. And then somebody realized that, hey, what if we did that on a body and see how that's— they were looking for fractures in concrete. When— how, how well have we tuned that? And how has that revolutionized medicine? Over 60, 100 years, you know. So yeah, in a way, with, with blindness, I can imagine that it's a huge, um, a huge, you know, aha moment for so many people that your dad was able to share with. Hey, when you do this, be aware of that. I mean, I'm just— I have never had the experience of being blind other than being blindfolded. But how your other senses become so much more tuned and alert when you're in those situations. And when we're with money, when we're looking at scarcity, we're tuned on one thing, we're looking in one direction. But when we turn around into abundance, our focus changes completely and our, our whole perspective, our whole context change, our whole context changes when we see the abundance instead of the scarcity. So, yeah, so, you know, you obviously took on jobs very early on to, um, you know, work through your own availability of funding your own, you know, adventures and your own, you know, acquisitions of whether it was toys or experiences along the way. When did, when did that kind of transform to the next level rather than being, you know, a few cents or a few dollars for few jobs here and there. When did it kind of level up and you realize that there was a much more— there was another level to money as a young person, which began that transition to, let's look at responsibility, bills, cars, houses, all of those other things that came later on in life? What was that kind of next step for you, seeing the different context of money and how it could be used as a As a teenager, you know, as a youth.

Yeah. I mean, I had to, you know, bought myself a car in high school, worked at the local like Cheesecake Factory as a busboy and server and, you know, bartender all throughout college, worked for, I mean, the NBA as like a a person like a ball boy, worked for Delta Airlines. I mean, I was so many crazy jobs doing that, but I still, I don't know if I definitely, I mean, I was still, I was paying all my bills, but my mom was helping me out. It wasn't until when I got out of school, I was so broke and then I was, you know, moving up to California and it was when I really, I started bartending Poe Beach, and I started making way more money.

Yeah.

There and at the different places. And that's where my first success of having some money— it wasn't really that much money looking back, but it felt like a lot. Yeah. Yeah.

Here.

And then eventually I took, you know, eventually my career took off and yeah, I made— I'm now millions and millions and millions of real estate. So, so that was a different type of mindset.

Yeah. For money.

I mean, it wasn't until probably like 5, 6 years ago where it just really just started stacking for me, just personally. That wasn't really the question, but yeah, I just wrote down some really audacious goals. And I've been able to hit them. And now that's why my goal is just to be number one, one officer in the United States. I'm like, why not? I keep hitting all the other goals.

Yeah. So, um, I get—

I do— when I dream bigger, my mind comes in, it's like, oh, that's too big, you know, like the, the drunk monkey starts creeping in, telling me that you can't do that, that's not possible. But can I be, uh, have worth $100 million? I mean, my first goal is to be worth $30 million net worth. Hmm. So I just keep checking along.

Yeah.

So, um, the, the meaning of money is, is now, you know, just so different for you and, and me from when, when we were both young. How old are you now, Scott?

40— 43. 43, turned 44 next month.

So do you have kids?

Yep, I have 3.

So looking back at your mom, working with your mom and helping her out as a bookkeeper, was there any of those skills that kind of helped you with how you looked at money when you started working, or was that just a side hustle and you didn't necessarily relate that to what you were doing from, from that point onward? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think I— it was just my mom never had any money to give me, so I— everything was all I work in the side house. So this was just for me to be able to, you know, keep up with the other kids that were going out to the movie, like just to try to fit in with all the rest of the kids where I lived at.

So did, did you learn any skills of bookkeeping that you managed to apply to your life which helped management of money, or— yeah, definitely through you and to you.

Yeah, um, I didn't—

my mom was great at making things last, um, and very good at budgeting. Um, so I don't think I developed that habit. I think I did the opposite of just spending all the time. Um, it wasn't until maybe like 7 years ago when I finally— someone truly taught me how to save money and the lesson skills that they taught me. But I was looking at it all wrong.

Yeah.

But yeah, the bookkeeping, it was just to keep my— I was always wanting to solve things and it was just, you know, be— keep busy during growing up.

So it's just, yeah, that's the math.

I love the math. So yeah, it was fun to just play with numbers.

Fantastic. So back, back to California and the mortgage career, 2006, when you really got into that, you said you made a lot of connections through, you know, bartending, people in the real estate business that, you know, really gave you the vision that there was something there for you. It was quite an interesting climb, I'm sure, in the business world at that point. And then obviously 2009 came through. Walk us through that progress and what you saw around you with the other, you know, the other loan officers around you and how they handled money compared to how you handled money. You've stayed in the business throughout. A lot of people in real estate agency and loans, even in the last year or so, just disappear. Same thing in the crash. A lot of people have disappeared because they were riding the wave, and now they stayed on the wave too long and it crashed on them. You've obviously ridden the wave, you've, you've jumped off the wave while it's coming along, and you've, you've paddled along in the, in the trough. Tell, tell me about this last 15 years. I'm sure that's incredibly interesting.

Yeah, so in 2006 Well, I feel like I would always— I would self-sabotage myself all the time.

Like, I would—

you did really well in school, but I would do something stupid that would, you know, I would— like, it was a recurring thing. So sure enough, before I moved from Northern California down to San Diego, I self-sabotaged my, like, stuff. And then I had to put my head down and work. So working 7 days a week. For 5 years. I mean, when I got— I was working 2-night at 2 nightclubs in San Diego while I was doing on the mortgage. So I had to make it work because I had no one else. My parents couldn't bail me out.

Yeah.

Um, I bought— someone talked me into buying houses right before I got into the business. I got stuck with those homes. Like, everything was kind of like, you know, um, closing in on me.

Yeah.

So I just put my head down. I think People react to, you know, different ways when the stress is coming in. For me, the anxiety just creates me to do and take action. So I was just working all the time. Yeah. Which I think benefited me in the sense, one, I couldn't buy a property when the crash was happening in 2006 when I got in the industry. So I wasn't able to buy a house until 2009 or so. But I was working very, very hard whereas everyone else that was in the industry developed all the bad habits. So they were—

it was just falling out.

I think that's what's happening again right now in the industry is all these people that were just coasting in the mortgage world, 2020, 2021, 2022, are just crumbling. And I mean, I have people literally this last week that have been working for me since '06 that can't pay their mortgage and they have to quit because they got to pull their 401 out. Wow. Two, two people.

Wow.

Literally just— so I see there's, um, yeah, I mean, it's hard to remember back then in 2006 about what people were going through. I just remember it was like a revolving door and I just was just focused on what I had to do. And then 17 years ago, I can't really— it's hard to remember back then.

Yeah.

Now I am— I love this market. I love how hard it is. It's forcing me to evolve as a person. I'm getting better and better and better every single week. You don't want that. I don't want it to change. I like how it just keeps getting harder. So it's— it's— there's a better version of me that's coming out right now. So once again, it's a different type of situation, you know, from my 2-on-6 where I, did some stupid stuff. And here it's now like the industry is the environment as a whole. So people, I could have kept my head down or I could just evolve, and that's what I'm doing right now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think we're fortunate to be in the community that we are, and, you know, in a business, in a, in a greater business community that is very much set on, you know, personal growth and evolving ourselves to, to better and adapt. Um, but it's amazing how, you know, there's a lot of resistance out there to change, whether it's change around them or like, like you're saying, you're accepting the change, you're evolving with the change, and, and, you know, growing with that change rather than resisting it. And, you know, bad habits are stuck and they can't change from the habits, and then they fall away.

So yeah, it's, it's interesting where some people, when like shit hits the fan, they're like, I don't know how people are, are just folding. I, I don't know. I guess that the— I can't— for me not to pay the bills and pay what I have to do and, and like I'll just work my way out of it in a way where that's how I saw how my parents were, where I don't— there's people I know that just to like not do anything. So I don't— it's weird how I guess people have their own mechanism when it's— that's pulling out, if that, if that makes sense. Yeah, this is what I'm just observing happening around me, and I don't— it— I can't get why they're not actually taking action or doing something.

Yeah.

Were you ever in that position that, you know, before getting into this industry where you kind of, you know, almost sounds like people freeze? They get stuck.

I've seen it now multiple times and I just— I'm not wired that way. And it's just once again, it goes back to— I mean, watching my parents, they were never— they're always doing something. I mean, granted, they were not barely making ends meet, but it's just that's what I got from them. Yeah. So I don't know, I want to say lazy, but yeah.

So, um, you know, we talked a little earlier about, you know, your massive success. You know, from my perspective looking in and what you're describing, your massive success in the mortgage business, how else are you— how else have you talked about, you know, making money? Now you're multiplying money, you're stacking it. Real estate investing, I believe, is in, in your past and present and likely future. How has that come into your overview in the beginning. How did you get introduced to that? You said you bought a number of houses earlier that you were kind of trying to keep going by, by just, you know, working all of those hours to keep things afloat. How has that experience transitioned into your recent experience of acquisitions and, you know, how you're now looking at acquisitions in the future?

Yeah.

It's, it's wild how how much I was— yeah, I was able to really increase my net worth in a short period of time over the past few years. There's, I guess, tailwinds that, you know, throw someone forward or throw them backwards. And I was in one of those industries that blew us up tremendously.

Yeah.

So I rode that wave and yeah, bought a whole bunch of different properties. Currently still buying property. You just learn a lot more about, you know, tax advantages, things like that.

Yeah. And, man, I'm—

I just— I never thought I would be able to have as much as I have now that just I felt like I should have dreamed. Looking back, I wish I would have dreamed bigger. Yeah, I didn't. I never thought I would have been able to have like this different properties. Now it's like, why not dream bigger and go bigger?

It just—

I, I, I'm shocked about what I've been able to do, I guess, in my lifetime. And I'm only 40. So now I just like, why can't I keep going?

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, on that, on that curve, what is your, what is your perspective on your, your management of wealth at different levels? I mean, T. Harv Eker speaks about your financial thermostat, that you can, you can earn more money, but unless you change your perspective on money, your relationship with it, change your relationship with it, you're still going to drag yourself back to the previous level. How did you, transcend those levels? And I mean, not specific levels of numbers, but how do you transcend not making enough at home in the mind? As you got to these different places, you had a bit of a struggle in, you know, the mid-2000s to then, you know, getting through the recession. And now the last few years, like you said, you've been aligned with the wind, aligned with the tailwind to grow. How is your evolution with that relationship and understanding dealing with bigger numbers and how that can be impactful to you.

Yeah, now, I mean, now, I mean, from last year to this year, my income's down 90%, so it's down significantly.

Um, but you know, which I'm—

I feel like now it's a blessing because it's forcing me to get back where I was becoming like careless. I was like just printing money, right? And just I was not looking at expenses. It just didn't matter. There's so much coming in that it didn't matter whatever the expenses are. So I'm actually, I guess more of a— now it's like retention, keeping the money that I have right now, making smart moves. What before I was just, you know, learning. I mean, I was buying properties with other people, investing with partners. And there's all these different things that I've learned. With, with buying with other people too, because now they're in situations, right? And then people start making— and when they get strapped with cash, start making poor decisions too. So navigating through some of these partnerships right now. So there's definitely learning some, some new things. Yeah, I'll be able to get through it. Right now I've been setting my intentions, putting it out there in the universe. Everything's flowing exactly what, you know, surprising me on how everything's unfolding. But it's a different mindset right now too. I'm trying to also keep the money that I have and just be more disciplined again, because I got a little, I went back to the habits of, oh, just, I'll keep spending money, you know, it's just going to continue to come in. So I just had to shift. Now that I have twins. I mean, I have twins that are a year old. They literally just turned a year.

Yeah.

Which we manifested. So now I have this manifestation muscle that, like, if I can manifest twins, I could do whatever the heck I want. That's where the goal of being the number one loan officer in the United States, like, why not?

Yeah.

How far down the line are the quintuplets that you're gonna manifest?

I don't know about that. I think we'll start with the twins.

Yeah, yeah. So, you know, setting yourself up and your family for a legacy of wealth, um, you know, what are you going to— obviously your parents' situation was the situation they grew into through their life. You've got a lot more control, you've got a lot of flexibility in what you have, um, in your life that you've, you've manifested to this point. How How do you foresee creating stability, structure for your children, for your wife, for your later life, your retirement? So many entrepreneurs never really retire because it's just changing what you do that becomes much more enjoyable than maybe something you've done through life. But it tends to be with entrepreneurs, the successful ones, that they make— they find things that are enjoyable and solve problems in those areas. How do you see the next, you know, 50 years of your life, 60 years of your life where your kids are going to grow up? You've had experiences of, I say scarcity and the lack of money. Your kids will probably never experience that which you did. How do you feel that you can convey to them the experiences that you had? Which become meaningful, impactful to them and the way that they handle money. They handle relationship with money and understand how money's viewed by other people, which may be differently from you and your family compared to people who might be more in alignment with your early experiences in childhood. There are people of all that different, you know, financial demographic out there. Your child is probably gonna be the more generous child out there in the school that may be helping other kids because you have more means, they have more awareness of the lack of around them and the abundance they have. How do you see you yourself bringing awareness and respect towards money and the understanding of how to create their own legacy and their own management of your wealth coming forward?

Man, just, I had chills all over my body as you were talking, just thinking about—

because I have a 12-year-old.

And so, you know, with the previous partner, and, um, '05 is when we broke up. And so then I was, you know, going back, uh, I mean, I think I was Disneyland dad. And so now I look back like, where— what was instilling on him? Like, he's had just got everything, whatever he wanted, right? And I'm seeing how he's, you know, from that 5 to now he's 12, but what I'm doing to him, right? Where the, the, in a way, like, I'm grateful for my parents, the stuff that they taught me, and I guess the drive that I had, uh, that they gave to me, where now it's, um, it's different for him, where he doesn't even You know, I'm— I think he has a totally different, uh, mindset, like a view on, on money. He doesn't have the same work ethic, working with— working hard, persevering. Um, I feel like I've at the moment kind of messed up with him, like what I've instilled, and now trying to unwind that.

Um, it's funny, I was talking to last week's guest, Devin, and he was talking about his daughter and, you know, some low experiences he had, and, you know, how that kind of relates to him conveying his relationship to money with her so that she has an understanding and respect of money. And, you know, looking back, my relationship's very different with money than it was. You can't give the kids the same experiences we had because we're different souls on the planet, we have different experiences. Um, but it's, it's certainly interesting to see You know, do we share struggle with our kids? I kind of hid struggle from my kids emotionally and financially over a number of years. And I look back and I think, well, although everything's perfect and complete as it is, how different would it be for these kids to see that, oh, there's a shining light at the end of the tunnel, although there's some winter seasons, then the summer season after the spring comes along. There's retooling, like you said, now. Sounds like you're in a bit of a fall season or a winter season with your income. Now you're looking about how we can put nutrients down, how we can sow the fields in the coming spring to create the next summer and, you know, the harvest of abundance, you know, at the end of that one during that season.

Yeah.

So I think kids in their lives have so many different things they see around them. You know, I would have liked to take my kids to volunteer at different places. Wasn't something we had some alignment on, but we got a different cause that we're, we're looking to create some impact with, which is around teenage mental health. But I think exposure and service, like you said with your parents, did a lot for other people, you know, in, in the world of the, the blind and the, you know, la— you know, low levels of sight. My parents helped a lot with the church, the congregation there. They gave a lot of their time, um, and I think that it's It's definitely a perspective that's very helpful. Whether money isn't something you can give, that there's always something we can give.

Yeah, it's—

I mean, we were— my son, yeah, we would volunteer during the holidays, my son and I. I think that's his favorite. He actually really, really, really enjoys that. Yeah. And giving, giving back during holidays or just feeding the homeless and just doing stuff.

Um, yeah, there's—

I wish— yeah, that's the thing I struggle with because I don't want to just give everything to him. I want him to be able to work for it as well.

Um, yeah, this—

it's a little— that's definitely, um, a challenge. I, I see what I'm— that what I want to instill, like hard work. I guess, putting in it, getting that— like, I love that quality about me, and that's what I look for is for other employees that have hard work.

Yeah.

So yeah, I didn't know what to do about it.

It's funny, Devin was saying as well that in Europe, generational wealth can last, you know, just is pretty much perpetual. In the United States, generational wealth generally disappears after 2 generations. You know, it's not clear why, but I think the different economy here, the different perspective, and you know, like you're saying, we want to give our kids everything we can, but it doesn't necessarily set up generations ahead for the ongoing education of money because we can change, we can change our kids, future generations by educating our own kids in money. Educating our own kids around the energy of money and how it can flow. Because if they learn it when they're a kid, they're naturally going to share that with their kids when they have kids. But if we don't teach our kids anything, they go through thinking that there's nothing to learn and shit, why are there money problems? Like, everyone's got money problems except, you know, why, why have these people not got money problems? But, you know, that's why we have these conversations, is as a banking product called GravyStack that's based in Arizona. They're creating a banking product for teens, the kids. So it's a gamified experience of putting the money in the bank, doing some little, you know, some, um, submissions as they call it, to go and find maybe TV subscriptions or other subscriptions family have got that they don't need anymore. Kind of tidying up in that winter to, you know, lower expenses whilst allowing a bigger return on their money. And, you know, looking into you know, maybe investment opportunity later on. It's not primary part of that. Another, another people, another couple of guys we interviewed last year, which was, um, Toilet Paper Hands. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the Diamond Hands expression for stockbrokers when they, or when they make a lot of money. Um, they had this character that was over the cubicle that was saying, oh, you need to buy these shares. So this other guy was buying the shares and pushing up his value of shares So it was really metaphorical. And then when he was done selling his shares, he wouldn't tell the other guy and all the share values would go down. So he had toilet paper hands, he'd lose a load of money. So he was kind of not having the experience that, you know, somebody in the same office or the same town was having. And they're creating financial literacy resources for teens, kids to learn from, you know, from their perspective. How the relationship to money is. And I think they've got some UN support on that as well. They're based down in Nicaragua, I think, if I remember rightly. But there's more and more resources coming out, thankfully. Even, you know, Mike Michalowicz that wrote Pumpkin Plan and Profit First, he wrote a book called My Money Bunnies, which was for, you know, kids probably, I'm thinking probably about 5, 6, 7 years plus. Not a very long book, but just had 3 jars: today money, someday money, and one day money. So it was kind of categorizing things into a little bit of money to spend anytime now, some for the medium term where you might save up for, I don't know, a sketchbook or something that was a bit more meaningful. But they had a long-term goal for saving as well. So it set the mind into, you know, 3 different timelines for what money might be used for. So kind of goal setting and, you know, like we work with Matthew, I want to manifest this or better. Because often by the time you got to the amount of money that you wanted to save for that one thing, there was something else out there that was, oh, I'm glad I saved this. Now I want to save a bit more. My daughter's saving up for these American Girl doll things that were out, you know, a few years ago. Yeah. You know, she, she would save her money and do some chores around the house. And, you know, in, in a period of time she'd save something up and she could go and buy what it was, but it generally wasn't exactly what she was looking for in the first place because of that timeline. So, you know, I'm all about exploring different things and different ideas people have to, you know, share their experiences, bring kids on a, you know, almost like a drive-along financially, you know. Yeah, I think there's certain things that kids can have the capacity to understand. There are things beyond their capacity at different ages, but I think the more we can help them understand that, you know, it's, it's, it's all more about the money you keep than the money you make. And that's, you know, the turn for me was, you know, Rich Dad, Poor Dad and Cashflow Quadrant.

Yep. The, yeah, credit.

Yeah. Yeah.

Now I'm, um, it's about as much money I can keep. It's, it's, yeah, it's ebbs and flows. So I feel like this is a harder, this is a harder market now for me. It's the first time my business has not ever increased since 17 years. Every single year I had my best year ever. So yeah, so I was, I mean, I was coasting. I wasn't just, I wasn't doing it. I was just not doing anything. 2020, 2021, it was just coming in. Yeah. Now it's like, all right, who— I got a different person, a different version of me.

Yeah. Now it's, it's, it's definitely— it's good where I mean, I definitely, I need to—

you triggered some stuff that I didn't think about where doing the bookkeeping, like with the spreadsheets and all that type of stuff that my mom had me do. Like I was introduced to stuff at an earlier age, you know, with numbers and looking at stuff where my son is 12. I think I was easily doing on the computer. I think I was programming stuff on the computer.

Yeah.

At his age, like on just kicking around.

Yeah. So it's Yeah, it's definitely—

so you— where there's people that are worried that their relationship to money, where it's just constantly manifesting and employing money in all the time, where that— that— I mean, is that what you're— the relationship that people have with money as far as birth to now?

It's really just understanding every person's journey from birth And, you know, when they grow net worth, what we've just filled in those gaps between your mum not being able to afford things, you help them with the bookkeeping and having your own jobs to where you are now and where everyone is today is very different. So it's really understanding how that journey occurred and, you know, what we've, what we can look back and reflect on and take into the future for ourselves and also potentially future generations as well.

Got it. Got it.

So yeah, it's been amazing. So let's, um, let's wrap up shortly. And what have you— know, you've obviously shared a couple of takeaways here. I mean, I think the bookkeeping's incredible. You know, it's an incredible skill if somebody understands what it is they're looking at and why that makes an impact to the business. I've certainly learned so much about ways we can offset tax or use the tax code to lower our tax liability. And even the simple things like financial literacy of, you know, balancing your checkbook. Nobody has really a checkbook these days to balance. It's just plastic. Nobody understands the value of pieces of paper that have different numbers on them. And it's, it's now just a lit, you know, it's just a, an electronic flow of numbers. People don't respect the physical currency. Yeah.

Um, and I still like writing checks. Yeah, I still like writing checks. I like, I like how there's another thing my mom taught me, just how to do, you know, write checks. And, um, I, I just like having a checkbook, man. I know I can be able to pay for something if I need to. Or, uh, yeah, that is Sorry, I didn't mean to cut up, but I just— I don't— yeah, no one really has checkbooks anymore.

Yeah, yeah. And you know, you know, the bookkeeping skills I think are great, but also just the basics of what is it to fill out a tax form? How do you do your taxes at 16 years old if your parents aren't doing them for you? Or maybe instead of us just, you know, I've got my kids' W-2 over here, Maybe I shouldn't have just picked that up and given it to my CPA and said, oh, can you, can you do the taxes? I'm going to go through with my kid for the tax return so that she knows what goes on it, what's in it, how it works, and where I might be able to use some of my depreciation potentially to offset some of her tax. Or if I can bring her in on a property this year that I can potentially use some of her some of her investment of maybe it's $100, maybe it's $500. I can allocate an estimated amount of depreciation on another property that I buy this year to her so that next year she pays no tax, but she's a part owner of that property. But she can understand that, oh, it's not just that I never pay tax, but this is why I didn't pay tax this year. And next year when I earn more money, This is why I need to invest another $500 or $1,000 in my dad next time, or that I can set her up to have her own investment somehow with some or none of her own money in the deal. So then she's maybe buying cash flow and she's also buying depreciation, maybe a cost seg at some point where she can actually benefit from that. And then the rest of her life is just the more she earns, the more, the more write-offs, the more, the more opportunities she has to find ways that she can reduce the tax liability and hopefully never pay tax.

I mean, that was also a big aha when someone shared, you know, because my wife is considered a real estate professional, I'm W-2, so I get— I've been getting crushed on my W-2 since I've been, you know, to be in the mortgage industry, you have to be a W-2. Well, you work at a big mortgage company. So I'm in W-2 for a long time, so just getting absolutely crushed. So once someone shared with us how to— the cost seg and the depreciation and, and I mean, that's been a game changer. That changed my cash flow significantly. Yeah, 2020, 2021, 2022.

Sounds like that was heavily related to the big gain that you've, you've managed to realize.

In the last year. Yes, that was a catalyst of what, yeah, because then I was not, my tax, I went from 50% paying in taxes to nothing. So once I realized that was a whole, that's been a whole new game. So I've now been learning a lot about tax law and education.

Yeah, fantastic. Game changer. So what do you see the next couple of years? I mean, obviously we don't know where the market's going, but you You know, you're going to continue to strive and build.

I'm continuing to— I'm building my real estate portfolio, continue to buy real estate and just work hard right now, develop the great habits. But I continued my— what I like, just real estate. So I'm just going to— that's what I know and just buying real estate.

Yeah. Yeah. Perfect.

Yeah. Well, Scott, I'm so pleased that we connected the other week. I mean, not just through, you know, real estate, but obviously, you know, the Mental Journeys of Millions and Matthew Ferry. I think it's just great to have conversations with, you know, similar people and in very different places and just talk about things that is often taboo in this world. We rarely talk about money. I mean, one of my friends was going through the Dave Ramsey program a few years ago. And, you know, we were talking about, well, when people go out to the bar every week or 2 or 3 times a week and they're just going out because that's what they do every month or every week, why can't people have the confidence to say, hey, I just don't really have the money to be able to do that? So instead of spending money they don't have to do things that aren't really necessarily healthy or beneficial for them regularly, that they just say, hey, I'm a bit short this month. I'm now going on a— I'm going on my journey to, you know, reduce debt or eliminate debt, that type of thing. How much that would impact the other people around that, that then gives them the courage and the confidence to say, yeah, you know what, same for me. Thank you. You know what I mean? And impact the way that the consumerism just takes us out and it's pride that we need to be seen. We need to be around these people and picking up a cocktail or a beer or whatever it is on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, whatever the days are. That people often go out. Even just the coffees in the morning. I was reading something on, um, I think it was either Bethany or Ash— Bethany's feed this morning from Brandon Turner. He said it's not the coffees that, that make the difference, but it's the way that we don't see that investing that amount of money in something in real estate or something other asset instead of the liability every morning. You know, a lot of the young— and I would consider myself young as well— in in, in many ways. Um, it's a generation that's leaned into Starbucks and all of those conveniences and those, those sweet treats and those types of things, whether it's actually Starbucks or coffee or something else which becomes habitual. It just means that, oh, I always drive past this place. The advertising is stuck in people's brains. The convenience, the habit, the behavior is just stuck. And imagine how much money just goes out the door. And like we were talking about looking how, how can we housekeep on the expenses? How can we cut back on the things that we really don't need that just became an exuberance or, you know, a luxury or an unnecessary thing that we either bought or, you know, kept paying for. And I think that, I think that's one of the biggest lessons we can learn is just live below our means.

Yep.

And put what we can into something beyond where we can see ourselves today. And just know that it's a very long-term, not an emotional investment like so many of these crypto people the last few years is they see something heading to the moon, buy, buy, buy, and then they're too late when it's on the way down and they've, they just lost out, you know.

Uh, but yeah, that was also crypto definitely brought my emotions with investing out though, when— because I could see how I was feeling when that would happen. The fear of missing out or like the— like I was scared when things are going down to invest. I was paying attention to how I was feeling. Actually, I enjoyed— I mean, now I don't invest in crypto now, but I was enjoying doing it, just watching how I was feeling as I was investing and noticing the different emotions that were coming out. And, um, it was, it was, I mean, I guess it was evolving as a, uh, uh, you know, as an investor, I guess.

Yeah.

So, but, well, thank you for having me on.

You're welcome. Thank you so much, Scott. Well, um, look out for a couple of links of Scott, his Instagram, and do you have a YouTube channel, Scott?

Scott Evans Loans.

Perfect. We'll see a couple of links in the closing credits shortly, but thank you for sharing this time with us, Scott. It's been a great pleasure. I've learned a lot from you, and I'm sure the listeners will learn a lot too. So appreciate your time, and see you guys next time on the next episode of Birth to Net Worth. Follow Scott's links below. An incredible lender. He'll be able to help you out in all of your lending needs. Please follow the links and check Scott out on Instagram, on, on the web. Incredible conversation. See you on the next edition of Birth to Net Worth.