March 22, 2022

My ears have been burning all week and I thank you for it. I thank you because I know you’ve done the work for yourself and that lots of emotions and energies were stirred up going through the given ‘homework’ from last week.

As human beings, we are ultimately largely controlled by our emotions first and foremost. Have you heard of the saying: people won’t remember exactly what you’ve done to them, but they’ll always remember how you’ve made them feel? It’s even MORE powerful when you’re the cause of your own emotions. And our why’s, our purposes and our self-identified value of existence become the BEST emotional anchor for why we do what we do. As kids, we asked the WHY questions all the time. As we grow up, we’ve learned to box ourselves in — thinking that the less ‘why’ questions we ask, the wiser we’ve become somehow. That, to me, has always been instinctually incomprehensible. I sincerely hope that you recognize that fact and share in the same perception moving forward to start questioning behaviours, facts and motives — especially those that come from ourselves. After all, I’ve been saying that adults are just kids with bills to pay.

Speaking of ‘bills to pay’, that’s now the trap.

This quote tends to hit home for many that I’ve encountered over the years especially if you’ve been in the work force for some time. That usually means that we’re getting to the roots of some of the old money mindset that’s no longer serving us. Most commonly — scarcity. That’s the idea that holds us back. And that idea could’ve been as easily created by hearing our parents complaining about not having enough money to pay the bill ONCE. ONCE! That’s how easy these fearful ideas and take roots. Hence, many of the examples given in Part 1 come from a place of “not having enough”. Yet, “not having enough” often times get translated into “not being enough” when our ego gets in the way. Remember, we are human BEINGS first and foremost. Stop letting materialistic possessions and century-old societal limitations tell you that you’re not enough. YOU ARE ENOUGH. It’s the simple idea that you believe in that statement that’s brought you here and made you read this.

WE ARE BORN ENOUGH. We just need to acquire better tools as we go through life to deal with different challenges that come our way. That — is the hard truth.

I often say to my students that, at the end of the day, what they’re learning (as I have and am doing my darnedest to pass down) is ultimately financial education. Financial education = how money works. Taking it one step further: investing = how money works itself to create more money. We simply choose to leverage real estate investing strategies as the main tool to demonstrate the principles here.

To quickly latching onto where we left off, here’s what you can do next: have your list in front of you. This list should now contain the new “altered reality/desired outcomes” you’d like to be living in. That’s now the new starting point. If you haven’t done it yet, do this now: DREAM out loud on every item on that list. I’ll give you a few examples:

• In 2 years, I would like to take my entire family to Disney World on a no-expense-spared vacation for the kids’ spring break. We’re going to stay at the Grand Floridian — Concierge level with VIP tickets to bypass lines for rides. We will also be doing their premium dining package so we don’t have to worry about going to Costco and Walmart to haul groceries back every other day. (I’m not paid for using Disney as an example. Full disclosure, I do have 4 Disney timeshare properties if you’re interested in chatting about that.)
• Next year (in 15 months), I want to be able to update our beater cars and have the cashflow from 2 properties cover the monthly payments.
• I would like to be able to donate $1,000/month to my favourite charity (this is where you come in and insert the name of your favourite charity) using my passive income.
• I would like to tell my boss to pound sand in exactly 30 months from today because I’ll have achieved financial freedom #2. If you need some support for what that means, you can watch this video and have a conversation with a Strategy Coach about how to get there. (Side note: this is important as many of our WHYs will evolve over time as we reach each new goal.)

• I want to be able to pay for my 3 kids’ university education while growing and preserving assets properly. (Less specific and nonetheless powerful.)
• I want to prove to many people that I didn’t fail school. The education system failed me and I’m right to follow my intuition and trust my own ability to create a better life for myself — one that doesn’t follow the typical path.
• I want to be able to go on a 12-month around-the-world cruise with my wife/husband and not have to worry about money.
• I want to support my parents in their old age.

As you witnessed here, some pictures are very vivid and deadline driven, and some are purely emotional. No right or wrong here (and you’ll hear me say that A LOT in almost everything I put out there.). The point is that you honour your true self. Notice how the last few statements all start with “I want”? Dig and dig deeper. Let it come from a place where it’s truly what you desire.

Here are also some guiding principles to help you (as they’ve helped me) further crystallize your picture:

• There may come a time in your pursuit for better financial wellness (aka — make more money and have more financial resources) where you experience a negative event or setback. (You will hear about how I lost $1M overnight in 2016 and went into negative net worth at a later time and how I made it back many times over in a short amount of time). The point is — this can be a common occurrence for most businesses. However, learning to adapt to these occasions will be key. Understand that these sorts of things happen and are to be expected is the first step. The second step NOW is to also realize WHY we do this mindset bit first. For example, people who want to get in better shape. If the fundamental purpose of getting in good shape is one that matter, one that — if not achieved — would be unbearable, unthinkable and completely undesirable. When that happens, they won’t let excuses such as: “well, I had to order something from the unhealthy menu when I was out with friends last weekend even though nothing on the menu would contribute to my goal.” Or, “I’ve been traveling for work non-stop for 3 weeks straight and there was just no time to exercise or look after what I was eating.” Or, “It was the holidays”, “I was on vacation”, “But I don’t have that much of it”, or “It made me happy at the time” (the most dangerous of it all). Frankly, exercise and diet is an easy target combo to demonstrate this point. And that point is PRIORITY. The sub-point here is DISCIPLINE.

A couple of my favourite quotes on these 2 words that I’ve heard (hard to pin point exactly who said them FIRST) that I’d like to share here:

PRIORITY — if it’s important to you, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.

DISCIPLINE — it’s choosing what you want most over what you want now.

• We are not the first to leverage real estate investing to build a business. This fact alone should provide motivation, confidence and the belief that this can be done, and by you. The proof of concept has already been proven. The best example I can think of is Roger Bannister — the man who ran a mile in under 4 minutes when NOBODY thought it was humanly possible. The cool part about that is that, 6 weeks later, that record was broken by John Landy. I’m completely floored just by sharing the fact over and over again. And, while my name has not been printed all over mainstream media (and I’m happy to keep it that way), my personal dream is to help as many people achieve financial freedom as I have. If an immigrant from Taiwan moving to a completely foreign country with little to no English at 17 can eventually create financial freedom in 25 months and end up with a 8-digit net worth by simply following the footsteps of others before him, so can you. (This is only the 2nd time I have shared the net worth thing publicly to demonstrate 2 things: One — when done right, leveraging “real estate investing is never a get rich quick scheme, it’s a get rich for sure plan”. I have Ryan Carr on the Trust Your Talent Academy team to thank for that quote. Two — it’s utterly uncomfortable to share something like this. However, I’m asking you to be completely authentic with yourself as you journey through my articles, it would be unfair and simply hypocritical to dilute the truth or adapt the ‘lie by omission’ approach. It may continue to grow, it may not. It’s powerful knowing that it’s entirely up to me. I started wanting time and money freedom. It was never about chasing after a certain level of wealth. However, the happy side effect is the financial resources you’ll build. Either way, I’m not Elon Musk nor Jeff Bezos, or one of the Sharks or Dragons on TV, or maybe even one of your rich relatives. If that number inspires you, thank you. If it doesn’t, thank you. I’m still me.
• Most people’s reason behind getting started as an investor is to provide more time freedom in their lives — more time to spend with family and friends and less time spent in meaningless activities. Real estate investing can provide a path in which you get to choose how much time you spend working or being away from home. As I’m writing this, we’re living in peculiar times. Particularly talking about the end of COVID…that ‘forced’ us to spend a lot of time with our families. It’s one answer that I hear lots when I asked them “WHY do you want to learn how to invest in real estate?”. COVID proved that it’s not the amount of time we want to spend with our family, but the quality of the time we spend together that matters the most. I’ll just leave it at: quality over quantity still applies here and “quality” tends to come with a price tag.

With all that, here are the action items for this week on this subject:

1. Create a dream board (or vision board). YES, I’m old school. This is where you get to go back in time and treat yourself like a 6th grader for a show and tell. Except that the only audience and the biggest fan of this project is YOU. Find images of your “desired outcomes” — in magazines, online, on Instagram, etc., and print them out and put the on the board. (Quick notes: you don’t have to fill the entire board right now if you don’t have enough. The purpose is to start getting you to visualize in a very real way. EVERY picture you put up there should at least bring a smile to your face, if not make you completely emotional and even break out into tears. That’s how powerful these images need to be!)
2. Next, put a price tag and deadline next to each image. YES, this sounds crass to some of you. However, this is what we are dealing with here, aren’t we? Money is, after all, the most commonly used measurement and currency to exchange services and goods in the modern world. For example, if you’re wanting to take a family vacation (whatever the images you choose to use), do a guestimate or you can price everything out now online if you want to go the extra mile. I’ve had many students do that. Or — if you’d like to drive a certain car — go for a test drive, sit down with the sales person to discuss purchasing options and then bring that number back and put it on your vision board.
3. Watch the videos suggested (link included here again) and speak to a Strategy Coach.

We will be wrapping up the ‘mindset’ portion after Part 3 and there will be lots more coming as we dive into more financial education content and leveraging real estate investing to help your dream board come true!

April 5, 2022

Sorry, and not sorry for the intended pun!

Since we started in personal budgeting and went through 3 weeks of ‘mindset’ focusing on finding emotional anchors (or ‘defining our purpose in life’), this is the fittest next step to take: understanding the Wheel of Wealth. Many so-called real estate investors (mostly property collectors, or people who only have taken training on buying 1 or 2 types of properties, or people who simply were never exposed to financial education) DO NOT achieve the results they thought they would despite the extra time, effort and money spent.

The Wheel of Wealth (or the circle of wealth — somehow, I have the opening song of The Lion King playing in my head now) is a brilliant way to recognize where the holes are to patch if we want a smooth financial journey in life. You may wonder: what exactly is it? Here’s a quick illustration for you.

It’s comprised of 3 income buckets: earned, passive and portfolio.

If you’d like, you can also call earned income “active income”. This is where the most commonly known saying of “time is money” comes from. The phrase is simply to depict the “trading hours for dollars” routines for many who have not been properly financially educated otherwise. Exhibit A — single source of earned income from a job. Or, as I’ve had the misfortune to witness before: 3 jobs.

Just like earned income, you can also call portfolio income “equity income” or even “capital income”. However, this is the income bucket that can get tricky. For many, if it grows, it’s like the piggy bank that you don’t want to open until you absolutely have to break it. And, when you do, there is this thing called the ‘capital gain tax’ that will take a good chunk of it out. Contrarily, for some, it’s literally the piggy bank you cannot open — ie. home equity from a principle residence that has gone up in value by so much, yet you don’t have the sufficient qualification to utilize any of it. The most common seen portfolio income streams include: home equity that has grown over time, stock portfolio, retirement funds, savings and other investment vehicles (perhaps previous metals like gold and silver or some new-age options like NFTs).

Now, I’m not an accountant. But, I will tell you — there tends to be some grey areas differentiating earned vs portfolio incomes at times. It does largely depend on who (or better yet, what legal entity) is conducting the investment activity and transactions. With that said, in case you’re already wow’d by this concept and want to credit me for introducing you to something new or just a different perspective, don’t! I didn’t come up with the 3 income buckets — our beloved tax authorities did. It’s simply the big umbrella terms of how the governments decide to tax the hard earned dollars we make. This is why we offer Asset & Income Protection as part of the Mentorship Programs at Trust Your Talent Academy. At the end of the day, “it’s not how much you earn, but rather, how much you keep that matters.”

Lastly, most real estate investors’ favourite income bucket: passive income. Some view it almost interchangeably as residual income. For now, I’m going to say they are NOT the same. Also, at the risk of sounding like a boring best man’s speech, passive income is simply defined as “income that requires minimal effort to earn and maintain”. Alright, I’m just joking.

For educated investors, passive income actually requires massive effort upfront to earn and minimal effort to maintain. Why? Simply because educated investors learn to deploy different strategies when looking at a real estate investment opportunity. That means a typical process of:

1. Validating the viability of a potential opportunity (does it fit our financial goal to begin with — remember the last few articles?)
2. Conducting proper due diligence (gathering and verifying all available information)
3. Analyzing the numbers — from worst to best case scenarios and everything in between

The main difference here is that educated investors take calculated risks in every deal.

(Quick side note: what separates a deal from an opportunity is the 3-step process I just mentioned above. Don’t ever let ANYBODY sell you on a deal when it’s really just a listing (aka. an opportunity to buy). Educated investors have clear goals and business plans to achieve. Blindly acquiring properties is for the amateurs. That is also the ultimate difference of how educated investors can achieve the same results as the amateurs in a much shorter timeframe. Plus, we haven’t even started on the acquisition process yet!)

Back to the main topic: the Wheel of Wealth. An average person typically would somehow fill the earned and, if diligent, the portfolio buckets. This is what it looks like:

• The earned income bucket comes from a paycheque that’s delegated to paying bills. Part of the bills can include either mandatory or voluntary contribution to building a portfolio income.
• The portfolio income then includes savings, government pension plans, private retirement funds, etc.

What is missing here?!

Passive income. Unless you’re the voice of Darth Vader or Mufasa, this is probably not an income source that a regular Joe (or Jane) has. Wait a minute…I thought we said that they are not the same. In this case, I actually do think they are given the definition I gave earlier. Regardless, I personally believe that effort and expenses are spent somewhere and on someone so that Mr. Earl-Jones can continue to collect these income streams.

The point is: many of us go through life with a giant gap in our ‘wheel’ of wealth and we wonder why it’s so tough to catch a break or get ahead despite how hard we work our butts off!

Fortunately (and I hope you’ll see it as I did 12+ years ago), through real estate investing strategies, we all have equal opportunity to patch up our own wheels. (By the way, another side note: I personally do not believe that there’s a “one-size-fits-all” solution when it comes to each person’s quest to financial success. This is the main reason why I wanted to create a financial education academy that covers as many strategies applicable to our market places as possible.)

We will now look at a list of hard strategies:

1. Distressed Properties & Flip (physical buy and sell of a property)
2. Wholesale & Assignment (paper buy and sell of a property)
3. Lease Options (physical or paper buy and sell of a property)
4. Short-Term Rentals: vacation, executive, student and rooming houses
5. Private Lending & Creative Financing
6. Income Properties: single family
7. Income Properties: multi-unit residential
8. Income Properties: commercial, mixed use and industrial
9. Infills and Land Development

Here’s a list of soft strategies:

1. Asset & Income Protection
2. Business Fundamentals: business planning & goal setting, bookkeeping, systemization, networking, etc.
3. Portfolio Management: tenant management & management of the physical asset
4. Raising Capital
5. Creative Financing: small to large scale partnerships

Maybe you’re looking at this and feeling excited. Or, maybe you’re looking at this and feeling exhausted and scared. I know I fell into the first group there. In the beginning of 2010, I had just lost ALL of my savings. Working for an average 80 hours a week, that was incredibly devastating. (Now, you might wondering: didn’t he also mention something about losing $1M overnight in 2016? Yes, you’re absolutely right about that!) This might be a good time to share 2 things here with you all:

1. In 2009, I had pulled out all my money from all my deadbeat investments — savings account, private retirement funds (RRSP if you’re Canadian, 401K if you’re American, Superannuation if you’re Australian, and ‘individual defined contribution’ if you’re Japanese), and company stock options. All of them plummeted in value — some quickly and some gradually. Despite the ‘matching program’ my employer had at the time, nothing beats a downward market with forces beyond anyone of us — other than my CEO. When the company declared an annual loss of $360M, he gave himself a $8M bonus that same fiscal year while all middle management had their bonuses cancelled. (It’s a fact now I share, the energy is no longer there in case you’re wondering.) Long story short, like many people, after GFC (global financial crisis), I took out all my money from all the traditional investments that my parents and society told me were good, and into a real estate development deal. Well, as fate would have it, the developer took everyone’s money and ran. From that, witnessed 70 year-olds crying and yelling in a law firm boardroom: “That was my entire life’s work, how am I going to live? How am I going to put food on the table? I might as well go jump off a bridge!!!” Without a doubt, that had to be one of the top 3 most heartbreaking moments in my life so far. I realized then that, if I didn’t know what I was doing with my money, this could happen to me — 20, maybe 30, years down the road, too, after I’ve busted my hump working long hours for decades. I decided to take my financial future into my own hands and learn. That’s why, when I learned how many ‘strategies’ there are for professional investors, I lit up like a Christmas tree and the pain of losing my savings all of a sudden became very small. I realized that I gambled. I realized what I did was “letting the blind leading the blind”. Most importantly, I took full responsibility of my loss and said “this ends here”. On that note, this is why I often joke to my classes: what you’re learning from me really is a collective ‘what not to do’ so that you don’t lose the money like I did. Real estate investing is great and lucrative when you know what you’re doing. The other side of the coin also stands: if you don’t know what you’re doing, it can be detrimental to your financial future. Like any asset class, really.
2. In 2016, a partner company had a lot of internal issues that they were not transparent about. In short, they filed for bankruptcy without even a heads-up and we were left picking up the pieces. By the time it was all said and done, we were just over $1M in the hole. This is fun story — will share in more details later on. The real lesson I want to share is this: I’ve been reading and following many successful entrepreneurs for many years — both living and historic. One of the things that always intrigued me that they all seem to have in common is something like this: “I know if I lost it all tomorrow, I’d be able to make it all back…and then some.” Not until this incident happened to me, I had a hard time believing it. Trust Your Talent Academy is exactly born out of this confidence and experience. I realized that my financial education (and the one that I so passionately and desperately want to share with the world) is the foundation that NOBODY will ever be able to take away from me. Businesses may come and go. Properties may peril. The economy can shift and the world can shut down (wait, all of these happened and still happen on a daily basis!). Even the most clever thief cannot steal what’s in the 6 inches between my ears.

Above all strategies, many people (myself included) have found tremendous value in having mentors holding my hands through not just my first deal, but my journey in real estate investing. As I’d like to say, I don’t know everything and I’m ok with admitting that. At the same time, I’m willing to share everything I know.

In the next article, I will share with you how you can start leveraging each strategy by categorizing them into the 3 income buckets. If you’re too impatient to wait, here are 2 ways you can fast track your learning:

1. Attend the free Bootcamp Trust Your Talent Academy is putting on this weekend (April 9 and 10) from 12–6pm EDT, or
2. Speak to a Strategy Coach now to start getting some tailored suggestions.

Last but not least, here’s a quick video to also give you a jump start!

See you next time!

Ps. Thank you for your suggestion. To stay connected, you can:

• Follow me on Instagram using @theTimTsai
• Follow me on Facebook @theTimTsai and @theOnlyTimTsai
• Email me with feedback & questions directly at Tim@TrustYourTalent.ca

(Written at the Fairmont Chicago, Millennium Park.)

April 26, 2022

Before we go any further, my goal this week is to clarify a few things here and leverage it as the foundation for what’s to come.

Way too many misconceptions and misinterpretations exist out there in the world today — particularly implemented by ignorant marketers who are not financially free, worse yet — financially educated, themselves.

Admittedly, from the very beginning, I could’ve click baited everyone with buzz-word driven titles and I chose not to (and will continue to choose not to). Helping others create a new blueprint for a better financial future is a higher calling, a serious undertaking and I take it seriously.

I often say: when it comes to someone’s finances and financial future, I don’t f**k around. It’s like what Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker (Spiderman): With great power comes great responsibilities. As much as I value ‘freedom’ in almost all aspects of life, this is the one area where I personally believe that definitions matter. They matter in the sense that it can help us set clear goals and paths initially. It also helps us weed out unnecessary and wasted efforts while devoting ourselves to building a healthier and stronger financial future.

As a continuation to the Wheel of Wealth articles, financial freedom comes ONLY from the passive income bucket. With that said, there are 3 levels of financial freedom usually:

1. Financial Freedom #1 — when there’s enough passive income to cover all of our basic expenses.

Remember the expenses that you recorded during Personal Budgeting? If you haven’t done so, now’s a good time to go back and review your list of expenses. While doing that, you also want to trim down all the unnecessary expenses (this exercise is extremely personal because we all have different definitions and personal circumstances that dictate what’s necessary and unnecessary). For example, I live with 5 autoimmune disorders daily. In addition to managing my symptoms, mobility and pain levels through diet and exercise, I am using a biologic prescription drug. It’s an injection that happens once per month on average (and yes, I have to jab myself with a needle every month). This drug runs ~$1,700/month. Living in Canada and Alberta in particular, I’ve purchased 2 health insurance policies that would add up to $245 per month and it would cover 100% of this prescription. As a result, $245 is part of my current basic expenses. (I say ‘current’ because I’m hopeful that I can ween myself off it one day.)

If you’re currently looking at your personal budgeting worksheet as provided, really examine your expenses. Some fixed expenses may be difficult to change or cut. This is where you’ll need to really differentiate ‘needs vs wants’ for yourself. I remember having to move out of our 2,600 sq. ft. house and into a 1,350 sq. ft. one. That was an easy decision based on numbers — I was cutting down on my expenses maintaining a liability. In reality, it was a hard one on my ego and personal sanity. I hated the smaller space, the lower ceiling and how crammed everything felt. I also hated being judged by my friends and family who didn’t understand why we’d downsize. The natural assumption was that “I’m not doing well financially” and my very basic human reaction is to my myself feel either angry, misunderstood or lesser-than. Thankfully, I had several role models and mentors supporting my decision.

In reality, I never compromised too much on my living standards in the first 5 years of my investing career — never lived in a shack nor drove a beater car, or ate sub-standard foods. However, I did make sacrifices elsewhere — particularly in the beginning. Less traveling and made budget-driven travel decisions. Clipping coupons, collecting loyalty points from necessary expenses as much as I could, and measuring all expense-prone activities (such as usage on internet, cellphone, landline, home securities, home utilities and other subscription-based services).

The point is, Financial Freedom #1 is when you have enough income coming from the passive income bucket ONLY to cover all your basic expenses. This means that you do not have to go get a job for the pay checks just to pay bills. Most people HAVE TO work to survive. When you’ve achieved Financial Freedom #1, you effectively have freed yourself from having to: get up (at least Monday to Friday), go to work for 8 hours (or more including commute time), collect a pay check once every so often to pay for your bills. You have now freed up at least 40+ hours a week to do what you’d like to do with your time (and life!). Imagine what you can do with that time.

This number varies from person to person, family to family as you can probably tell. The goal is to truly understand what this number is for you before you can move forward with the S-M-P process.

So, what’s your Financial Freedom #1 right now? Are you able to make that number easier to achieve?

2. Financial Freedom #2 — when there’s enough passive income to cover your active job income.

This is really where most people want to be when they first embark on the journey to financial freedom. Our jobs — and for argument sake, I’m just going to use it as a dirty word right now — usually stand in the way of what we really want to do with our time.

Time on vacation to enjoy the beautiful scenery and food around the world. Time spent with our loved ones. Time to build healthier habits — body, mind and soul.

However, we are often trapped (or feeling trapped) because these jobs tend to pay us just enough to pay our bills and afford ourselves a bit of a lifestyle. As a result, the time we want to spend doing what actually want to do get shrunk and, for some, become non-existent over time. This is why we also call a job “just over broke” or the classic “golden handcuffs”. We have been trained to think that this is the norm and it’s just part of life. The truth couldn’t be further from this soul-sucking ideology passed down to us from the Industrial Age!

So, what’s your Financial Freedom #2 right now?

3. Financial Freedom #3 — the do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, with whomever you want and for as long as you want.

Mouthful? I know! However, I just wasn’t sure how most people would react to the term “F U Money” here.

In all honesty, I have never met anybody personally that has said “Oh, I’ve achieved financial freedom #3”. Yet, I see it in their way of living. More importantly, in their way of being.

The logic and reality, in essence, is that you know how to reach Financial Freedom #2 and #3 if you’ve learned and applied to achieved #1. Most of the heavy leaning and lifting is in the beginning stage. Creating more income and wealth through real estate is a process of duplication. Yes, we can always do bigger deals (and there’s hardly an end to the size of a deal), but does it serve you and contribute to your goals directly in the most efficient way possible?

As I’m writing this article, I’m sitting in the den in our Four Seasons Whistler Residence where we are for a week on this leg of the trip. I’m sharing not to brag nor to impress you. From the Four Points to the Four Seasons, the journey seemed long but it really isn’t. These days, I travel approximately 4–6 months every year. They are partly for work and mostly for fun. The line’s really blurred now and I LOVE IT. It’s something that I’ve spent the last 12 dedicating my resources to create for myself. I’m ‘working’ and I’m not. I’m also on vacation and I’m not. The fact that this is the 3rd Four Seasons Resort stay in the last 10 weeks (1st in Belevery Hills to check off a bucket list, 2nd in Ko Olina, Hawaii simply because Disney Aulani next door was booked full) is also an ah-ha moment for me. I once heard this from my mentor: if you can’t buy it twice, you couldn’t really afford it in the first place. That lesson really stuck with me. The lesson here is discipline. The discipline to delay gratification. Here is one of my all-time favourite quotes on discipline:

To conclude the definition of financial freedom, it basically means that all the income sources need to come from the passive income bucket. It’s then a matter of how much passive income you want to create over what amount of time. Or rather, which Financial Freedom # you want to achieve.

Know the difference

Incontrast, Financial Independence is easily defined based on the Wheel of Wealth: you have enough income streams coming in from BOTH the active and passive income buckets without relying on any single source of income to survive and thrive.

Here, I’ll use ‘job’ as a positive word. This is actually my true belief these days now as “nothing inherently has meanings; all meanings are assigned”. I don’t quite recall where I heard that brilliant line from and yet it’s so applicable in almost everything. In this case, for many of us, we actually don’t hate our ‘jobs’. We only hate them WHEN we feel restricted: want to go on a longer vacation and get denied our full access to our allotted vacation time; need to go to a wedding or a funeral and only can get a limited amount of time off; want to buy a nice place, vacation, car, cellphone or computer (or just something nice or nicer in general) only to realize that there’s not enough. For so many people that I’ve witnessed over the years — especially the ones that have built a career (meaning that they’ve spent the time, money and resources going to school to trained for a certain skills based on their identified interest and maybe even passion) — we actually don’t hate our jobs. We just hate them when we are not feeling enough. This is one of the main reasons why I’m perpetually excited to teach and share and help people create better financial resources in life. Again, money isn’t everything. It just affects everything we do everyday. It’s just an effective tool for measurement and transactions for all mankind.

It’s been said that the average millionaire has 7 sources of income. When leveraging real estate as an investment vehicle, anyone can easily create more than 7 sources of income. However, the point and my personal belief that I want to share is this: true financial security, freedom, happiness and sustainability is built on multiple streams of income. Period. Having been in negative net worth twice — both before and after financial education (sounds funny to say after but the cutoff is 2010 here for me), this is probably the BEST advice and share I have today.

For my dedicated readers, I thank you for your support and feedback. If this is the first time you’re reading one of my publications, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learned a thing or two.

For those of you who prefer watching videos, here is the YouTube channel where some of my work (very raw) has been shared.

(Written partly at the Four Seasons Whistler Residences, and partly at home in Edmonton, AB)

May 17, 2020

(WARNING: COLOURFUL LANGUAGE IN CONTENT)

This one is the hardest piece I have had to write to date. Like most experienced investors who have gone through the ups and downs building their portfolios, overtime our ‘what not to do’ list is actually much bigger than the ‘what to do’ one. This is done all in the hopes that the deal quality gets better and better. I joke with full truth a lot about this: if your first deal is your best deal, you’re doing it wrong! So…without going into too much of a tangent, here’s part 1.5/2 on the top 3 deal breakers for me when choosing a REI mentor these days.

For the record, I have a very deep appreciation for those brave enough to offer any kind of real estate investing training these days. Real estate, while being the most tried and tested asset class in human history, is also a moody animal. Training people on real estate investing can sometimes feel like training people on lion taming. Moreover, I also share the utmost respect for anyone courageous enough to offer financial education. It’s definitely the path less travelled. And, the mission of “creating financial independence one person at a time” is definitely one that requires more than just Trust Your Talent can accomplish. For that, I am grateful that there are others in the same industry.

On that note, it would be prudent to define what ‘industry’ that I am/we are in for doing what I get to do everyday. Like the titles of all of my published articles on this platform so far have suggested: financial education or financial education through real estate investing. Often times, people ask me about ‘competition’ in our industry and in the marketplace, my reaction has always been: there really aren’t that many — globally. Fortunately, I always say that “results always speak louder than words”. Usually, when people get to meet someone from and/or trained by Trust Your Talent, the question answers itself.

With that frame of mind, here’s my list of the top 3 deal breakers when choosing my next REI mentor:

To begin, borrowing from the previous article:

I stand for leveraging real estate investing strategies to achieve financial freedom because that was my goal and is my passion. I know some others may choose a mentor based on a single strategy, a market or a certain type of property. The importance is that you and your potential mentor align on your goal.

1. Misalignment in vision

For me, the purpose of putting my work and journey out there from day 1 is first and foremost to help others create financial independence or financial freedom through financial education. (Side note: it’s very uncomfortable to share a lot of the things I’ve been sharing. However, my mentor did tell me that I’d have to face my own fears and focus on the bigger picture. So here I am, stepping out of my comfort zone.).

What financial education has done for me is beyond what I could comprehend some days still. Yet, I feel it in my bones everyday that more people need to at least hear about it, if not allow themselves to start on it. Exemplified by one of my favourite quotes here, while traditional school (with a very pricey tag to my somewhat middle-class parents) bought me a poor mindset, a major clinical depression and my 3rd heart attack; financial education bought me time and money freedom, and later on, the ability to execute on my personal vision to help others achieve the same.

Ever since the first Wheel of Wealth article was shared, I’ve gotten very encouraging feedback from many of my readers. Perhaps it’s because it struck a chord — whether you’re a new grad from college/university, a highly trained professional (MD/PhD, engineer, accountant, nurse, marketer, programmer, etc.) or have simply fallen into the rat race.

As mentioned in the SMP Philosophy, it wasn’t always around when I first started learning and applying as an educated investor. It took time, more mentorship and further knowledge to distill the process. I firmly believe that if you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up where you don’t want to be. Investing is very much like that. Over the years, I’ve seen people acquire properties and grow their portfolios only to end up with a 2nd job. It was shocking at first. However, when I dug deeper into these people’s stories, it was unsurprising to see how they end up where they are despite having numerous rental properties. Like one of those singing competition shows, it’s a constant balance between advancing one week at a time and still with a clear end goal in mind. I have hardly come across people admitting wearing the name badge of a Real Estate Investor that go into it with the goal to add more stress and to-do lists to their plate. Yet, so many do.

I, myself, and the creation of Trust Your Talent stand for the ideology of total wellness. This ideology is composed with wellnesses in 5 major areas in our daily lives: financial, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. We are currently in Phase 1 of carrying out of the grander vision of “elevating human potential by living a strategically positive life” by offering tools to help with people improve their financial wellness. These are the same tools that have helped me greatly in my quest toward time and money freedom.

Further to that, mounting statistics and researches around the world have shown that “financial wellness” remains a front and centre determinant of one’s quality of life and state of mind. Forget statistics and research results, if we are to take an honest look at ourselves and the people around us, most (if not all) of us can relate to one of these statements or situations:

• The number one factor that breaks up any couple is money. I saw that happen to my parents and many other relationships in my lifetime so far.
• Stresses and worries about money have directly contributed to people’s mental health. I know I was there myself despite making a relatively healthy job income.
• The pressure to maintain and get ahead financially in life has directly caused physical symptoms and illnesses in the modern world.

The list goes on and on. Even a simple Google search on this topic alone was shocking and chilled me to the bone. The positive, though, is that it gave me a much needed dose of confidence and belief of what I stand for these days: increasing the level of financial education to help better people’s financial futures. Truthfully, this has never been about real estate or even real estate investing strategies (shocking, I know). This has always been about leveraging the right investment tool to take care of one very important aspect of our day-to-day lives: money. The most commonly used currency these days that allows us options in life.

I believe that people who are simply looking to buy more real estate aren’t simply the right audience for me or Trust Your Talent. Those who are seeking time and money freedom as a personal vision and a way of living are the ones that will resonate with these messages.

As a result, after bumping around for 4 decades with numerous mentors in my life, I look for those who understand that real estate investing is a means to and end. Those who create financial results through real estate investing to contribute to a bigger vision — in their own lives and into the world. Those who stand for anything less than that…well, they are simply not good enough anymore.

To be completely blunt, there are those who “teach” enough so that I either become their OPM (other people’s money) or have to solely rely on their ‘other paid services’ (ie. legal) in order to completely execute on any deal is a clear red flag. The purpose of offering financial education and elevating a person’s financial intelligence in my LOUD AND OBNOXIOUS opinion should aim at giving them the required tools for independent thinking and decision making when presented with an opportunity (for differentiation between opportunity vs deal, refer back to this article).

THIS quote above (or an ageless wisdom) is always the end goal. That’s why when I seek help these days, it’s to acquire resources, tools, new perspectives and new knowledge to become as good as my Mentor, if not better. I have no problem saying that because I know a few of my students definitely have gone on to doing bigger projects than I have. That is an amazing feeling when the shared vision is not on the size of the deal nor the amount of profit, but the ability to be autonomous and living life on our own terms.

Clearly asking them what their personal vision and mission for offering training and mentoring is a quick and easy way to determined whether you align. There should be ZERO hesitation for true go-giver to explain their purpose and intention being a mentor.

To be continued…

Tomy dedicated readers, I thank you for your support and feedback. If this is the first time you’re reading one of my publications, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learned a thing or two.

For those of you who prefer watching videos, here is the YouTube channel where some of my work (very raw) has been shared.

And if you’re looking for the quickest way to understand what “financial education through real estate investing” means, we run 1-Day Bootcamps as an introduction. And yes, full disclosure, you’ll have the opportunity to pursue advanced trainings during the Bootcamp if you wish.

(Written at home in Edmonton, AB.)

May 31, 2022

Sofar, this topic has generated the most responses and, frankly, I’m not surprised. The best part, however, is that it’s given me the opportunities to further the dialogues with some of you and I so appreciate that. Many have thanked me for sharing while some accused me of ‘sitting on my high horse’ and preach. One way or another, I appreciate your time and effort. To those who have said that these articles are making a change in their lives (you know who you are), I am extremely happy for you and I thank you for allowing me to be authentic.

Every piece of writing I have created is meant to be positive, and even inspiring. This quote has been my guiding light for the last 8+ years of why I still teach and mentor.

More importantly, for the same reason why I write in the first place — to help people think about certain things ahead of time. After so many years, I do see many people WASTE away their talent, their drive, their ambitions, their money, their time and their goals as a result. Unfortunately, many of these cases have much to do with mindsets that do us a disservice. Fortunately, it’s given me the chance to share here.

Inthis article, I will conclude this now 4-part topic with the last deal breaker for me when choosing a real estate investing mentor.

3. Misalignment in values

Let’s define what value means in this context first. Here’s a high level thought process:

1. My personal values are health, sustainability, joy, fulfillment and impact.
2. When I’m choosing a mentor, I want to get a sense that we align on at least 2 of them. For example, health is an overarching value that covers beyond physical health. It also covers mental and financial health. If someone is financially successful and yet completely out of shape physically, I know there is a misalignment. While I’m all about leveraging money as one of the greatest tools in the world, I personally do not believe that it should come at the expense of my health in other areas.
3. Sustainability is a huge one. I’ve witnessed too many investors, entrepreneurs and ‘mentors’ (yes, using the quotation marks to be sarcastic here) come and gone over the years. Some as short as 6 months, some as long as 8 years. For example, we all know that what we focus on grows. A bodybuilder will tell you that the exercise and diet regimes are not a sustainable lifestyle. An high-level executive can only work so many hours for so long before a burnout happens amongst other long-term health implications. Staying power is key. And that power comes from having the right mindset, the required tools and the attitude.
4. When I interview new mentors in any areas of my life, I simply as them these 2 questions: why did you want to be a mentor in this area and why have you continued after so long? What I’m really looking for is the passion and the energy they exude. More so, the joy and the fulfillment that they get from doing what they do should show up in their voice, their eyes, their words and their body language. I want to feel their joy and their sense of fulfillment. Because I believe that nobody can (nor should) pour from an empty cup. If their desire to help others success is overflowing, we can pick up on that usually right away.
5. Impact — circling back to aligning on vision, I want my mentor to have a greater vision for their purpose, their life and their business other than just making some money from telling others what to do.

With all that said, here are the last few thoughts that I’d like to share here:

Real mentors don’t need your money to invest in their deals in any way.

They’ve built successes before you and without you. If the true intention is to teach you how to fish so you can eat for a lifetime, they should not treat you as OPM. At least, not at first. I remember one of my earlier mentors wanting to connect me with another student investor to potentially do a deal together in my early days. Very quickly, I found out that she was the “silent partner” in that business venture and also the licensed realtor for all his “deals”.

Real mentors encourage you to be authentic and honour your journey.

While you do have the support of a mentor (and maybe even a community at large), be honest and open about where you are in your journey. The whole “fake it till you make it” idea (while I understand it’s used sometimes to combat imposter syndrome) tends to do more harm than good. I believe in “face it till you make it”. If people judge you based on how green you are in the first place, that means you are already misaligned on some core values. It’s easier to move on from that than to dwell on it.

Watch how you are (or might be) mentored in the way you approach deals/opportunities and especially with people. Some industry professionals can sniff a newbie from mile away. If you’re trying to pull a fast one on them, it’s the fastest way to put giant speed bump on your journey.

Whenever I am out conducting in-field work with my mentees, I always ask them to be honest and truthful in everything they say. Sounds like a basic requirement for being an investor with solid values and integrity, doesn’t it? Yet, you’d be surprised at how many are taught to puff up their chest and embellish their knowledge, skills and experience level.

Don’t get it twisted here! I do encourage my students to use the line “I have invested in my education and have a mentor guiding me through my first few deals” when necessary. After all, leveraging our results and systems is part of the education. Doctors and surgeons all have mentors at different levels, we are no different here.

Real mentors do the work with you behind the scenes.

Thanks to social media, ‘progress’ is loitered all over everyone’s feeds without context. While it’s good for marketing purposes, note that a real mentor does the work and often goes unrecognized. Countless calls, texts, in-person and video meetings we do are just part of the process we do with our students. Some mentors these days post every single chat and screenshots of a coaching call. This brings me to 2 questions that challenge me daily: Are you busy or productive? Are you creating real results or creating a facade?

This is obviously a very grey area these days. We want to celebrate wins — big and small — because it creates positive reinforcement internally. We also want to leverage the wins as much as we can for marketing purposes. However, many have focused on the marketing rather than doing the work themselves. I recall meeting a “newbie” (his word, not mine) about 18 months ago. He admitted that he focused on 1 single strategy and only had done less than a handful of deals at the time (oh, and in 1 city only). To my surprise, he started a podcast and became popular during the pandemic. Less than a year ago, he started “coaching” others on strategies that he told me he knew nothing about nor had the interest for. Unfortunately, he’s not the first person like this I’ve known over the years. It’s just that, social media (especially) has made it even harder to tell the difference upon first look these days. On a positive note, results is always the one thing that we fall back on especially on the quest for financial independence and financial freedom. Results is what give a few of the mentors the staying power to stay in this industry.

Lastly, some random and final thoughts here:

A mentor is part of your power team, both a short- and long-term business partner.

Real mentors help you pull the different ingredients together to cook up the results YOU WANT (vs pushing certain outcomes on you).

Many groups, clubs, coaching programs — both online and live- masquerade “buying” as “investing”. Learn to tell the difference. I’m really hoping that my previous articles have shed some light on how for you. If not, you’re more than welcome to reach out to me directly: tim@trustyourtalentacademy.ue1.rapydapps.cloud anytime for a chat.

Like vs respect — I want to be able to respect my mentor first. This one took me a while to grasp. A mentor is someone I look up to and respect from the get-go. I don’t always have to like them as a whole (I know this sounds terrible right now) because I’m wanting to be mentored for a specific set of skills initially. If we end up liking each other and form a relationship beyond the mentorship, great!

Mentors should have mentors. I need to know that they consistently invest in their own growth — professionally and personally. To be more specific, networking, signing up for club memberships and attending a few webinars for market updates here and there do not count as professional development. I want to learn that they are going into programs and full curriculums to further their growth. After all, that’s why I want a mentor.

Tomy dedicated readers, I thank you for your support and feedback. If this is the first time you’re reading one of my publications, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learned a thing or two.

If you’re wanting to be a part of a community of real estate investors from around the globe, here is the T.A.L.E.N.T.ed Investors Facebook Group. It’s a place where people come together to share experiences, knowledge, successes and challenges, and money making opportunities!

For those of you who prefer watching videos, here is the YouTube channel where some of my work (very raw) has been shared.

Lastly and definitely not least, Bootcamp! If you prefer the live interaction and delivery to help you build some foundation, our next Bootcamp is just around the corner. Go ahead and register for a session for either June 11 or June 12 to help you further your financial education.

(Written at home in Edmonton, AB)

July 5, 2022

(WARNING: COLOURFUL LANGUAGE)

“Alright, Tim’s gone mad.” is probably the thought that some of you had when seeing this title. “Either that, or he’s delusional.” is probably another thought you had.

Hear me out here…

While sharing about financial education, building businesses and creating financial successes is something that speaks to the entrepreneur in me, sharing with you how some of the habits I’ve dedicated myself to building over the years speaks to my soul.

With all the uncertainties happening these days — the economy, the interest rates, the bond yields, the stock market and the real estate markets — fear and negative self talks rear their ugly heads in all of us. Yes, in me too. However, this is the time when we have to remind ourselves that EVERYTHING IS CYCLICAL — especially the different factors mentioned here.

I am not here to compare myself to anyone else when I say “staying power matters” since I can only say that I’ve been truly entrepreneurial for about 20 years, and have found any substantial financial success in the last 10. For that reason, I will always have respect for any entrepreneurs that have lasted decades regardless of their current reputation. They’ve done something (or many things) to keep them in the game through the changes and cycles over time.

Like everything we do, mindset is huge and arguably the ultimate determining factor of the successful vs the unsuccessful. Note — it’s not the successful vs the failed. But how we feel about what we do is often times neglected in the business world. Everyone wants the ‘how to’. From the yellow dummy books to the gazillion searches on YouTube for how-to videos, we forget that most of us only do what we want to do most of the time.

Learning about and managing my energy level and mental state daily are what I attribute the exceptional growth during uncertain times to— especially in the last 5 years between the regional recession in my home province and a global pandemic.

Asa business owner and a real estate investor, I can quickly and easily default to sharing business tactics and strategies, and even step by step guides on what I’d do in any given situation when there’s a problem to be solved.

Here, I want to start with something between mindset (abstract) and strategy (concrete): habits.

While I’ve consumed books, speeches, and taken countless personal development courses and 1-on-1 coaching sessions, there will be no empirical data nor science shared other than personal experiences and perspectives. Remember: something between mindset and strategy.

1. Unsubscribe

Welive in a world where we’re conditioned to seek information quick and easy. It’s even easier if it’s just fed to us regularly without having to lift a finger for the second time.

Starting today, unsubscribe from 1 thing daily. I honestly do not recall if I learned this somewhere or just got completely fed up with the amount of junk and spam emails one day. I started by unsubscribing to mailing lists first. You know — the kind that takes time and mental space, and sometimes even your hard earned money for no good reason.

Perhaps you ‘subscribed’ initially because you were actually seeking a particular service, product, a piece of information, etc. However, if it’s not contributing to your day-to-day efficiency or functionality, unsubscribe now. It’s ok to search for it again later when you actually need it again (thanks, Google!).

For me, this is as simple of taking a couple of minutes a day and hitting the unsubscribe buttons — travel sites, newsletters, retail stores and even search lists set up with real estate agents in a market that you once were interested in. Some days, it’s a more drawn out process of saying goodbye to ‘friends’ that I’ve actually never exchanged words with online. It’s drawn out because I would often times send a quick message first before removing them altogether. After all, I’m not a robot. At some point in time, I’ve either sought out to connect or they did — for a reason. I’d like to honour that reason. Perhaps I was the one that dropped the ball initially on making any kind of meaningful connection.

If you do this for the next 30 days, I can promise that you will feel so much lighter mentally, emotionally and maybe even financially and spiritually.

2. Diet & Exercise

“OH GOD! Now he’s gone too far!”

“This (topic) AGAIN?!”

Let’s not forget that this is about me sharing what’s helped me everyday to stay consistent and persistent. Of course, with that in mind, if anything sounds applicable to you, make sure you consult with your physician(s) first.

You might be surprised to know that I don’t follow any particular diet plans. Naturally, that is not what I’m sharing here. The only ‘diet’ that I would consider myself to be on is intermittent fasting. As one who’s always had trouble gaining QUALITY weight, I fought this idea for as long as I could remember. However, when COVID lockdowns forced me to completely redo our business plan for Trust Your Talent Academy (because we launched in January 2020), I found myself needing more time to work starting March 2020 so that we wouldn’t close our doors in 2 short months (not even a global pandemic could stop this passion project!). As a result, the idea of skipping breakfast became more of a practical measure rather than a 100% voluntary one (at first). Growing up in Taiwan, breakfast is not only the most important meal of the day, it’s a whole culture in itself. Undoing nearly 40 years of THAT was even harder than the idea of losing more weight from not eating.

Admittedly, intermittent fasting gave me results that I couldn’t have imagined:

• Better and more even energy level throughout the day
• Improved mental clarity to tackle tasks and projects
• Helped me reach my ideal body fat percentage (and maintained my muscle mass)
• More time in the morning to complete my routine (it’s become very convenient and a huge time saver not having to worry about making or seeking out for breakfast)

You may have your own views or traditional beliefs about fasting. Whatever it is, I’m not here to promote it. I’m simply sharing. If you’re interested, look up the different ways you can incorporate intermittent fasting into your daily life. I was pleasantly surprised. These days, I usually fast daily between 13–16 hours (in case you’re wondering).

When it comes to the exercise part…I’m not talking about the ‘let’s go sign up for a gym membership and hit the weights everyday’ kind of exercise. It’s probably really more fitting to just say ‘move your body for at least 30 mins a day’ or ‘stand up half the time during your waking hours’.

This is purely coming from my personal experience of how I manage my energy level daily to deal with the good and the bad. By that, I mean this has nothing to do with getting pretty looking muscles that make you look good in your clothes. Of course, if that’s where you want to take it as a happy by-product, that’s up to you.

Also, unlike ‘do it as one of the first things in your day’, I simply just want to encourage you to move more and stand more.

For any of you who might be interested, here’s what I do for exercise (changing things up and keeping things interesting is important to me:

• Pilates
• Hot flow yoga
• Weight training
• Walking — outdoor or treadmill

If you do this for the next 30 days, I can promise that you will feel so much more energetic physically, mentally, emotionally and maybe even better financially and spiritually.

3. Meditate

Ok, this one is something that I really picked up during lockdowns as a result of COVID in 2020. We’ve all heard how great meditating is these days. It’s the new drug. It’s the new dance. It’s the new catch word worldwide.

For me, meditation at first (almost without fail) turned into either “I’m bored after 30 seconds” or “Oh sh*t! I fell asleep”. Then I found these lovely guided meditation tracks on Spotify. You may have another platform or even specific app that you can and prefer to use. The point is — start. Start with just 1–5 minutes a day with a guided meditation track. Test many of them and start bookmarking the ones that have made a positive impact on you after.

These days, I still use guided tracks. I’ve had people tell me that ‘guided meditation’ is a bit of an oxymoron. But hey, I’m looking for results here. So, whatever you find that works for you, do it and keep doing it until you have to pivot.

Meditating in particular has helped me at grounding myself on a daily basis. We get pulled from different directions all the time. And if you suffer from ‘over achieving’ like me, this one is even more critical to get incorporated into your daily routine.

If you do this for the next 30 days, I can promise that you will feel so much lighter physically, mentally, emotionally and maybe even financially and spiritually.

4. Laugh

This one seems almost silly, isn’t it?

At one point in the last 10 years, I realized that I have become SO SERIOUS about things and life in general. I mean, how could I not be? I’m an investor by trade and am responsible for taking care of people’s hard earned money. That is a serious responsibility! So, honestly, that hasn’t changed much. I’m actually proud of that. Because I know my profession demands my highest attention and responsibility.

What changed is that I would seek out things daily that would make me literally LOL (that means ‘laugh out loud’ for some of you). This can be purposely seeking out comedy clips or memes on social media or making the time to watch a sitcom episode for me. Sometimes, it’s from connecting and catching up with friends and trading stories. However, be careful of the whole ‘misery loves company’ thing here as that will actually drain your energy more than adding to it. After all, I’m seeking laughter to boost my energy level, my focus and my overall spirit.

For me, this can also include daily play time with my dog. Once in a while, I will throw in singing out loud in the shower or a full-on at-home karaoke party. Party for one, please! Nothing makes me laugh out loud at myself like when I know I’ve butchered a song badly. And it also makes me smile when I’ve sung the same song for 20 years well. The point is this — find ways to tickles yourself till you put a smile on your face or give yourself a great belly laugh.

If you do this for the next 30 days, I can promise that you will feel so much better physically, mentally, emotionally and maybe even financially and spiritually.

5. Create

This can be journaling your own deepest and most private thoughts into a diary to creating something you can and want to share with the world.

The idea is that you get joy through the process of creation. It doesn’t even have to be the same thing every time. I remember making a seasonal wreath with a friend of mine one day 4 years ago, and that wreath is proudly hung up on our front door during the spring and summer months every year still.

Also, the process of creation surprisingly can also come from the process of destruction. I’m specifically referring to plucking weeds from our yards here. It’s not my favourite thing to do around the house — full disclosure. Yet, through removing the weeds, I create a much more pleasant yard to look at. Interestingly, I see cleaning the house through the same lense as well.

The point is this: find a way to express yourself everyday. We are human beings that often get confused as human doings because we take on so much. We feel things daily. And we ARE all those feelings. And some of those feelings need an outlet to be expressed.

You may not be as random as I am, and may already have a hobby that allows you to express yourself daily — writing, visual art, gym, yoga, running, music, singing, gardening, building a business, etc. That is why this quote also speaks to me so much:

If you do this for the next 30 days, I can promise that you will feel so much lighter physically, mentally, emotionally and maybe even financially and spiritually.

Tosum up, here’s a short list of resources that have helped me tremendously over the last few years:

• High Performance Habits (book by Brendon Burchard)
• No More Mr. Nice Guy (book by Dr. Robert Glover)
• The Ultimate Jim Rohn Library (recordings by Jim Rohn) — PERSONAL FAVOURITE OF ALL TIME
• The Meaning of Mariah Carey (book by Mariah Carey)
• PSI Seminars (www.psiseminars.com) for personal development
• Eva Medilek (www.evamedilek.com) for 1:1 high performance life coaching
• Athlean-X on YouTube

This list can easily get pretty long and I’m happy to share more if you’d like to reach out to me directly: Tim@TrustYourTalent.ca 🙂

Tomy dedicated readers, I thank you for your support and feedback. If this is the first time you’re reading one of my publications, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learned a thing or two.

If you’re wanting to be a part of a community of real estate investors from around the globe, here is the T.A.L.E.N.T.ed Investors Facebook Group. It’s a place where people come together to share experiences, knowledge, successes and challenges, and money making opportunities!

For those of you who prefer watching videos, here is the YouTube channel where some of my work (very raw) has been shared.

If you prefer the live interaction and delivery to help you build some foundation, our next Bootcamp is on July 23 and July 24. Go ahead and register for a session for either day to help you further your financial education.

Lastly, I just want to say thank you for your continuing support.

I aim to be authentic and adding value to your life.

I invest to build a life. I build business to create better life experiences.

It’s ultimately about LIFE and I appreciate you coming on this journey with me!

(Written in Edmonton, AB)

July 12, 2022

First of all, there are economic vs perceived definitions of what constitutes a recession. After many searches, it’s become weirdly clear to me that everyone agrees on what a recession is:

• “During a recession, the economy struggles, people lose work, companies make fewer sales and the country’s overall economic output declines (Forbes.com).”
• “A recession is a period of declining economic performance across an entire economy that lasts for several months (Investopedia.com).”
• “In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity (Wikipedia.org).”

Of course, an economic recession can be of any scale — even on a personal level — and it doesn’t necessarily need to be impacting a whole country or even the rest of the world (like the one we seem to be facing at the moment). However, city-wide recessions (such as the City of Detroit in the US) to worldwide recessions (such as the one induced by COVID-19 lockdowns back in the year 2020) still occur once every few decades or even centuries. Remember: everything’s cyclical.

One of the key reasons why I also call it a ‘perceived definition’ is because none of the (what I would call) experts seem to agree with each other on the length of time it takes to clearly define a period of ‘overall economic output decline’ as recession. I don’t know about you, but I personally prefer to look at things this way since I fundamentally believe in not only the possibility of surviving through an economic recession but thriving through one regardless of how long a recession is.

As usual, this article is written largely based on my personal definition and experience, and I’m officially calling what’s happening in the general economic environment a recession (at least, in Canada).

2008

In2008, when global financial crisis was at its peak, I was still only about 18 months into the work force as an economist would call it. Proud of my 6-figure job as a 26 year-old, I thought I was invincible as long as I worked hard and work even harder when I needed to.

Of course, my strategy to trade more hours for dollars didn’t work. More hours, yes. More dollars, no. The shrinking results from my elevated efforts to maintain a pay check and lifestyle forced me to learn some of the “what not to do’s”:

• Cut spending on everything (which I later on learned is actually quite stupid in the grand scheme of things),
• Pay down my mortgage and car loan faster (which I again learned was a financially illiterate move), and
• Put more money into savings and company stock options where they would match 25% on every dollars I put in (which literally makes me angry right now even just writing about it).

What I learned from living through the 2007–2009 global financial crisis set the foundation for how I’ve built everything today.

The real lesson is this:

Spend and invest — but only on necessities and assets especially during an economic downturn. Cost and values have a very direct correlation. Like a bad cell connection on a long-distance call, they are connected but often have lags.

If you don’t know what to invest in, invest in yourself in anyway possible. We are our biggest income generating asset. Many people think investing means that you have to pick a stock, a type of crypto currency these days, some sort of real estate, or (god forbid) savings. That cannot be further from the truth. Nothing will yield good returns if you don’t first decide for yourself if it’s a good investment tool for you. Like all tools, if you don’t know how to use it, it might end up hurting you. I’m pro any type of personal development and financial education (as long as you’re not simply learning how to ‘buy’).

People ask me if real estate is a good investment. I would say: It depends. Are you educated enough to make it a good investment?

People ask me if stocks are a good investment. I would say: It depends. Are you educated enough to make it a good investment?

People ask me if precious metals are a good investment. I would say: It depends. Are you educated enough to make it a good investment?

I think you get the idea. I know for a fact that a newly licensed but trained carpenter can use a hammer more effectively than me.

If you asked me in the beginning of 2010, I would say investing in real estate is horrible!

I became an ‘accidental/traditional’ landlord in 2009 when I moved from my first property. Like many, I rented out the first property because I could afford to carry the ‘expense’ (aka negative cashflow) and the carrying costs of the new one. I also got into a commercial syndication through the referral of a coworker who ‘parked’ her money in real estate in 2009 thinking it would at least do better than my shrinking portfolio in mutual funds, savings and company stock options. Little did I know, I was the last batch of people they took the money from before they gave up on the project. I never saw my hard earned money again.

However, it gave me the kick in the butt that I needed to learn to grow my money and protect my own financial destiny.

Today, I can share with you why I love real estate for days on end as you know. The biggest lesson I took away was this (and still is everyday):

2016

The perfect storm that almost took everything I built.

From 2010–2016…

• Lost all my savings in a commercial real estate syndication
• Began my financial education leveraging real estate investing
• Had my 3rd heart attack and a major depression
• Diagnosed with the 1st of my 5 auto-immune disorders
• Started applying my financial education
• Declared financial freedom (#1) on July 25, 2012 (same day I was laid off from my soul sucking corporate job)
• Declared financial freedom (#2) in December 2015
• In September 2016 — lost $1 million dollars (in cash value) overnight that “almost” lead to a bankruptcy (corporate & personal)

While I thought I was on top of the world at the beginning of 2016, my portfolio was not strong enough to take on the regional recession (in Alberta) that started in 2014. This is why when I teach and mentor these days, it’s not just about cashflow anymore. It’s about cashflow, cashflow management and cashflow mindset. 3 big topics that I plan to write about later.

I’ve learned to indulge and enjoy life the way I want over the years. It can be very unsettling at times when it’s not something you grew up with. For example, I have a 3-hour rule when it comes to flying these days. That means: any flight that is longer than 3 hours, I will pay to fly business or first class. This wasn’t always the case. On smaller planes, I used to walk by the nicer seats and dream that — one day, I would be in it all the time and not have to walk the long way down into “cattle class” (as a British friend of mine puts it). On the bigger planes, I wanted to take the other bridge to board or turn ‘left’ instead of right when entering the aircraft. In the early days, I would upgrade myself with points or ‘get lucky’ and get upgraded because I had some loyalty status with the airlines when some flights were overbooked.

Then, with better financial resources (and mindset), I started with a 6-hour rule. It’s now evolved to the 3-hour rule as I’ve shared. This is not a brag nor a status symbol. Rather, it’s the lesson of taking care of what’s important: health. One of my conditions is called Ankylosing Spondylitis. Feel free to look it up. While I took a huge loss in 2016, I learned to manage and balance my cashflow to maintain a certain lifestyle to honour my top value: Health. More importantly, I learned to be a value-based spender.

People who know me these days know that I have no problem pulling the trigger on a multi-million dollar real estate investment deal when the numbers are good, and yet have a hard time buying a new piece of furniture for the house for a few thousand dollars. Admittedly, a part of me is already ready for the ‘worst’ to happen again and I want to stay alert and be ready.

I once learned that a best and highest-paid boxer would move to a shack 3 months before a major match because he wanted to sharpen his skills and instincts rather than staying in the lap of luxury he’s created for himself from his financial successes. That has spoken to me — deeply.

Everything is cyclical. This recession taught me to be ready for the worst at any time. To capture the moment, to seize the opportunity and to be disciplined and patient daily. My lesson can be summed by with this quote:

2020

AKA the COVID-19 recession.

Recalling what it was like in March 2020 without looking at charts and analysis of what was happening economically, I was both scared and excited. And this little quote came into my head:

Since the beginning of COVID lockdowns…

• Started Trust Your Talent Academy with many of my trusted and educated investors
• Acquired more cashflowing properties in 1 year than the last 5 combined
• Experienced the 2 financially best years in 2020 and 2021 in my life
• Travelled 9 out of the last 18 months (and counting…) when people felt restricted and fearful to do so

Forgive me if you feel that I’m overly excited about the ‘recession’ that we are in or going into. Because I really am. Of course, it sucks to see some people get hurt and it is not about that. It’s about seeing the human spirit during any sort of ‘downturn’ and how we learn and grow from it for the better each time.

Here’s what I realized what I did back in 2008 was utterly and incredibly stupid:

• Cut spending on everything — to get the economy going, spending needs to happen. Money is a currency. Like a current, it needs to flow. When it flows, it connects and revitalizes parts of the economy needed to function and grow. Think of spending like pumping blood into our veins. What happens when that slows down or even stops?
• Pay down my mortgage and car loan faster — “throwing good money after bad” is a good way of looking at this. As inflation rises, your debt obligation shrinks. Read that again. While our money devalues, so does our debt. The point is NOT to pay down debt faster, but to leverage debt even more to acquire income generating assets during times like these.
• Put more money into savings and company stock options where they would match 25% on every dollars I put in — unless you’re the CEO or have insider trading information, I have no other comments other than maybe cash out and tape your money to the back of your toilet at this point. No joke.

Technically, the pattern is simple and can once again be summed up with: everything is cyclical (3rd time’s a charm!).

The financially educated know that there’s another great opportunity coming. I have never personally witnessed 2 economic recessions happen so close to each other. I personally believe that we were headed for a recession right before lockdowns started due to COVID. The global initiative from governments creating aids (aka printing money) coupled with the resulting supply chain issues are making this one seem scarier than it really is.

Not only me, but friends in my circle also experienced some of their best financial results in 2020 from investing in other vehicles — stocks and businesses. The lesson carry through: nothing you choose will create the financial results if you do not first choose to master your own knowledge in it. Moreover, how you DECIDE to come out of this recession will largely determine how you ACTUALLY come out of it.

So, here you have it: my 3 lessons:

1. Invest in myself — my financial education, my personal development, my physical health and my mindset
2. Honour my values through the good and bad times so I never have to ask “what am I doing it all for?”
3. Stay alert and stay humble. Expand my means responsibly.

Gratefully, each ‘recession’ has further helped me define who I am as a person in addition to creating better financial results. I hope it will start to do the same for you.

Tomy dedicated readers, I thank you for your support and feedback. If this is the first time you’re reading one of my publications, I hope you’ve enjoyed it and learned a thing or two.

If you’re wanting to be a part of a community of real estate investors from around the globe, here is the T.A.L.E.N.T.ed Investors Facebook Group. It’s a place where people come together to share experiences, knowledge, successes and challenges, and money making opportunities!

For those of you who prefer watching videos, here is the YouTube channel where some of my work (very raw) has been shared.

If you prefer the live interaction and delivery to help you build some foundation, our next Bootcamp is on July 23 and July 24. Go ahead and register for a session for either day to help you further your financial education.

Lastly, I just want to say thank you for your continuing support.

I aim to be authentic and adding value to your life.

I invest to build a life. I build business to create better life experiences.

It’s ultimately about LIFE and I appreciate you coming on this journey with me!

(Written at the Fairmont Royal York in Downtown Toronto, ON)