Fred Moskowitz - Investing in Alternative Investments

[00:00:01] Welcome to Business Finance and Soul. My name is Shaun Enders, and I'm a Curious Entrepreneur. I love exploring business, personal finance and consciousness. I'll jump around topics, offer my opinions, and occasionally interviewing interesting people. Looking forward to going on this journey. Let's be curious together!

[00:00:21] Welcome back to Business Finance and Soul. I am here with Fred Moskowitz. Fred is an author, educator, and thought leader in the field of alternative investments. He's a fund manager and investor, alternative investment expert, and Fred teaches others how to build true wealth.

[00:00:45] Fred's book, The Little Green Book of Notin Vesting, is a guide on how to get started in Notin Vesting. Today we'll cover a few areas including how Fred started his journey toward alternative investments and his view on where the real estate and mortgage market has headed.

[00:01:03] If you're interested in creating passive income streams, you most certainly want to listen to Fred. Fred, welcome to Business Finance and Soul. Thank you, Shaun. It's great to be here. I appreciate your time. I wanted to start things off. Sometimes an origin story sets the table quite nicely.

[00:01:19] I know you've started your career as an engineer. The analytical side of that really dovetails nicely into finance, both personal and corporate. Can you tell me a little bit about when you started to get interested in financial freedom and

[00:01:37] I'm curious. How did that play a role in where you are today? Yeah, that's a great place to start. I'll tell you Shaun. I had a really successful career working as a computer engineer. I spent many years working at different technology companies,

[00:01:59] start-up companies, and an interesting thing that happened early on is I lived through the .com boom. I watched my entire industry get flipped upside down because we went through the bursting of the .com bubble. And then at the same time we had the September 11 terrorist attacks.

[00:02:25] And so there's all this turmoil in the world. And that through my industry, it was in shambles. It wasn't shambles. Companies going under, going bankrupt. Tech companies, not making it. And through all that turmoil, all that uncertainty,

[00:02:47] I realized that I was way too dependent on the income from my job. The only income I had was my paycheck. And I loved the work I was doing, but my job was just so full of all these circumstances completely

[00:03:05] out of my control. And what I learned, Shaun, was that no matter how talented of an engineer I was or how valuable of an employee I was, the bottom line is that if things were not going well financially

[00:03:19] at the company or in the industry that I could quickly lose my job through no fault of my own. And this brought me to the realization that I needed to have other sources of income. So I would not be so dependent on the paycheck for my job.

[00:03:39] And so with that, I wanted to start diversifying my income. And I turned to investing and specifically, I turned to alternative investments because what I really liked about that was that with alternative investments you're buying and building assets that you can own and control and manage.

[00:04:03] And they generate income for you. So while you own them, you're getting paid while you wait. And this is very different than traditional investments where you might invest money and you're waiting for appreciation for value to go up. But you don't make anything along the way.

[00:04:23] And I was looking for income so that I could work and do the work I loved. But also have other income sources coming in, whether I worked or not whether the economy was good or bad, it didn't matter because the income would keep coming in.

[00:04:45] And that's really what got started. I started with real estate investing real estate rental properties and then after a few years I discovered the power of investing in mortgage notes which is really a cash flow strategy and that has taken off from there.

[00:05:06] That's pretty exciting. Now I'm curious where your parents, talented investors or who did you model after were you a Kiesaki guy, jumping into the quadrants and going after real estate from that perspective. Where did this come from?

[00:05:21] Yeah, definitely I've always been a fan of Robert Kiesaki and Sharon Lector that impactful book Rich Dad Poor Dad. Yeah, but really so many of those concepts that were taught in that book, but specifically about building building assets.

[00:05:42] That's what that's where I learned because when I grew up, my parents also were of the mindset of get a good job, get a stable job, work had a good company.

[00:05:56] That's where my father did for his whole career, but I realized that that was no longer working for my generation in the times I was coming up.

[00:06:08] And so the only guarantee that I could have is batting on myself on my own skills and abilities and taking my own action and not leaving it in the hands of someone else.

[00:06:23] Yeah, it's really smart that you went after the cash flow mindset. Right, you know, I know that's pushed a lot now, but when we're talking 20 plus years ago, it wasn't something that was front and center.

[00:06:35] I mean, the distribution of information is so much greater now, so we hear cash flow. We've got, you know, really a lot of evangelical voices out there, specifically for cash flow.

[00:06:49] But it is easy to become asset rich and cash poor, which it sounds like you really made a pivot from that to not just go. Let me look for alternative investments like could be art, could be collectibles, you know, could be currencies.

[00:07:08] But you decided specifically to look for an alternative investment that provided cash flow.

[00:07:14] What do you remember kind of where that stem from or where you said, gosh, I'm going to go this route and was it a mentor or did you just kind of go down a rabbit hole?

[00:07:25] It was it was throughout my education in real estate investing that I started to see that there's some individuals did well with real estate and then they pivoted into investing in the debt side of the transactions.

[00:07:44] And I found that very intriguing and someone that I was learning from early on taught this that real estate is a great way to build up wealth when you're first starting out because you're using a lot of leverage.

[00:08:06] You're investing a small amount of money relative to the property value.

[00:08:11] And so that's really powerful, but after a few years if you're in for a long term perspective after a number of years you build up equity and if you have a way you can take that profit and redeploy it into debt.

[00:08:28] What happens is it really cranks up your rate of return on your investment and becomes so much more efficient.

[00:08:37] And so it's all about that concept of the velocity of money, you make the money and then you take it redeploy it into something else where it's always highest and best use of capital. And now you're really creating a snowball effect and building momentum much faster.

[00:08:57] I love that idea of compounding and it's how powerful it really is time in the market and and watching what happens to that original investment over time.

[00:09:10] So what I'm curious about you Fred is is a lot of times when we hear stories of success and we hear the methodologies and strategies we always want to know, okay, hold on, wait a second, how does this pertain to my life?

[00:09:26] And you know, if you could take take us through really when this started as a side hustle for you before the the term side hustle is the thing because I would imagine you were still working your job saving money on the side and looking at where do I deploy this extra money that I have.

[00:09:48] How long were you working your traditional job Monday through Friday while you were building some real estate assets and did those real estate assets initially start in the East Coast area because I know you you live on these coast.

[00:10:07] Yeah, they did initially started on in the in the northeast and it was it was for many years, many years I was doing investing. What I love to how real estate is I would buy a couple of properties and then.

[00:10:27] Through the process of doing my taxes and tax return. I started to really like all the depreciation and tax benefits, I said wow this is really powerful so then what's the next thing that happens oh I just got dropped into a lower tax bracket now.

[00:10:46] Now I have to go back to my employer and say hey please withhold less for my paycheck every week.

[00:10:54] And so that's powerful because what does that do that puts extra money in your pocket and now you can take that's what you have to work with to go reinvest I could go buy.

[00:11:06] You use it as a down payment on my next property or use it to buy notes and so that's that compounding effect you become more tax efficient.

[00:11:18] And then now you have more money left over, which you can put back and reinvest it and I love the concept of seeing money as energy.

[00:11:30] And so when you have it the best thing you can do is put it back out into use put it back out into the world invest it buy and I said build a business whatever you want to do whatever resonates with you.

[00:11:44] But then that compounds and really builds momentum when you do that. Yeah, I love that and you know what I love about you really where you're going which has been one foot in front of the other taking action.

[00:11:59] Seeing how this plays out, but still having a north star of what you wanted to achieve, which is of course to build momentum and replace your nine to five or eight to five income that you were receiving.

[00:12:14] How long were you running parallel strategies before you went all in and we're able to leave your your your day job. It was about 15 years. Yeah, yeah for about 15 years. That's great.

[00:12:30] Yeah, and prior to that I always loved the work I was doing, but Sean they're definitely came a day. There came a day where I realized that I was bringing in enough cash flow and income for my investments that it covered all my living expenses.

[00:12:55] And I was still working to so what that made me realize was that there was. At that from that point forward, I was now going to be working because I wanted to and not because I had to.

[00:13:10] Yeah, when you go through that it's a major pivot, a major mindset shift, right in what you're doing and it really significantly changes how you approach your work.

[00:13:24] So huge distinction because I think there's this mindset that within the financial independence or the financial independence retire early, you know, areas the fire, the fire area that people are running from a job and so that by.

[00:13:41] By that definition, you'd think that most everyone hates their job but the more people that that I communicate with and speak to on a daily basis.

[00:13:51] The more I find that people don't actually dislike their job, they dislike the idea that they're forced to do their job and so there's still there's passion there but the mindset that you are there it's kind of like working on a Saturday.

[00:14:05] You know in the back of your mind, I can close my laptop at any time and I'm done. Yeah, power and that freedom allows you to actually get into a flow state because you're not.

[00:14:15] Feeling like your punching of clocks, so sounds like that for you that it you just really kind of found a renewed sense of energy and passion for everything you were doing because you essentially established financial freedom.

[00:14:28] Absolutely and it really it really changes your your energy, it changes the way you show up in the world. It changes the way you approach your work and what you do and gives you a different sense of purpose.

[00:14:43] Yeah, I I subscribe to that and when I think about you know, it was looking at a little green book for for note investing and you know something that struck me is that any time you get into more.

[00:14:57] Get into more niche areas that that and I guess this can be defined on what corporate media or mainstream media picks up and puts out there as far as advertising.

[00:15:10] But I don't think no investing gets a lot of exposure and so I wanted to talk a little bit about first the platforms.

[00:15:18] I'm sure they've evolved over time, you know the the last decade have brought a lot of platforms to the table that have enabled us to make trades easier get access to things that once institutions could only invest in.

[00:15:33] You know those have brought those down into accredited and non accredited investors alike. You know we can invest in crypto now with our IRAs and 401Ks and and it's pretty substantial.

[00:15:46] Yeah, what did you start with? What was the platform you started with with note investing and how has that evolved over the years to what you use now for. Customers or consumers to to find that marketplace. Yeah, that's a great question Sean.

[00:16:07] Not investing at its heart it's a relationship built business whether you're building relationships with investors or building relationships with those that are active in the note marketplace in the note industry.

[00:16:28] It really takes individual connections to be able to get access to buy notes to find find notes to buy people always comes to me with that question Fred I love note investing.

[00:16:43] But it's hard to find notes where I find them you got to get out there there's not it's not like there's an MLS like there is for real estate you can just go and look.

[00:16:54] So you have to build relationships with with other investors we we buy notes from investors we buy notes from note funds from hedge funds there's different all these different entities and companies out there.

[00:17:10] And the way to build those relationships you got to get out go to events go to industry conferences. And meet people that's that's how it also that's how I got started in note investing was through people I met and build relationships with them and it still continues today.

[00:17:31] And so building building connections and relationships it's an important skill for sure it's it's necessary and important in note investing but I would expand that to say for any investor.

[00:17:48] Building relationships that's how you get access to deals that's how you find the good opportunities I've had so many opportunities come to me both in the notes space and outside of that.

[00:18:02] Through relationships relationships with attorneys on working with with my CPA that brought something to me with another investor that contacted me about a transaction that was going on that's how you you expand your world and expand the opportunities that come to you and so that's been very important now back to your original question about.

[00:18:30] Which was more about the tech side of it right the platforms so where I've seen the biggest shifts for those it's in the data the data and research side everything that we use for performing due diligence.

[00:18:45] There's so much powerful new tools available that we have access to that we can enjoy vendors that we can subscribe and sign up for their services and subscriptions that really give us a better handle on doing research doing to diligence evaluating a deal.

[00:19:06] And so that all helps in the efficiency of our business of investing. So to break this down for me let's say that. Because there is obviously when when we talk about note investing it's really the paper is the debt on property.

[00:19:25] I would imagine there's people that are in the the hard money lending area that are note investors on short net. And so that's very relationship through of it and be very lucrative.

[00:19:39] What I'm curious about Fred is is when someone like myself I go out there identify a property that I'm interested in this could be a multi unit or it could be a single family home but identify it.

[00:19:54] Traditionally people are going through and sending an application through a broker or bank directly and then they're getting approval on the banks underwriting it.

[00:20:03] Are you saying that you're trying to get first in line on those loans to underwrite from the get go or are you waiting for the secondary market to produce those notes once banks or credit unions actually want to.

[00:20:23] Get these off their books or sell them on the secondary market. I focused on the secondary market.

[00:20:32] So we're buying notes that are already originated the lender originated them maybe they they're hold it for a limited amount of time and then they turn around resell it on the secondary market.

[00:20:48] Guess this is the question that comes up all this time why do banks and lender sell notes well the reason why is because.

[00:20:59] Lenders will sell sell their notes to the secondary market so they can recapitalize and then they'll turn around the very next day and originate a new loan for someone else and that's their business model.

[00:21:13] But for any investors what we buy notes from note funds from hedge funds the reason is always the same why do they sell notes it's because they need liquidity their recapitalizing so that they can get into their next deal.

[00:21:30] It's not necessarily that there's something wrong with the note or there's a problem. There could be but that's usually not why it's you the main reason is recapitalization and the need for liquidity.

[00:21:44] And so for us as investors if we're well positioned with the relationships in place we're able to evaluate and perform due diligence when an opportunity comes up we can step in. And a choir assets that way and so that can be really powerful.

[00:22:04] Yeah, I think you hit the nail in the head human nature is to be suspect anytime someone wants to sell something you know well wait a second. It's like you go and view a house and you say well if it's so great where are you moving.

[00:22:17] And if the story makes sense then people get more comfortable. Oh you got to job out of state okay well I guess this house is all right but if you just say I don't know I just want to go rent an apartment you're like, what's wrong with this house so.

[00:22:29] I do I think that the story makes a lot of sense I'm glad that you clarify that I'm curious about notes in a high rate environment.

[00:22:37] I don't say high I mean I use that based on relative terms you know that you've been in a very very low rate environment for a decade and so for a big. A big tranche of investors or buyers this is this is what they've been accustomed to.

[00:22:54] I've got to imagine this is more lucrative now in a higher rate environment and have you reap the benefits yet because it's been a relatively short period of time so.

[00:23:05] A lot of these loans would have had originate in the last 18 months or so to 24 months I guess to where we're actually getting good return so do you like this environment we're in right now.

[00:23:20] That's that's a great question. The interest rate environment it impacts notes most that are being originated today and for us we're buying notes that were originated several years ago and so it's an interesting mix now sometimes notes.

[00:23:42] I have a fixed rate fixed interest rate and then there's variable rate and so you end up with a mix because we're buying we're buying loans in pools.

[00:23:53] And so it's always a mixed or a shortment so the loans with the variable rate they're they're just adjusting to the current marking conditions but what typically happens when notes are bought and sold they're treated at a discount.

[00:24:11] And so it's not when a loan is discounted you're purchasing it for less than the amount owed and so that discount can really drive up the rate return for the investor.

[00:24:26] And so there's a lot of different factors factors at play but definitely interest rate environment impacts pricing on current notes and it's always going to change it's always going to go up or down and we don't know. How that's going to look moving moving forward of course.

[00:24:49] But if you think about it, Sean an interesting statistic in the United States is that the average lifespan of a residential mortgage note is between five to seven years even though it's a 30 year note or 15 year note.

[00:25:06] People end up moving or they want to downsize their house or upgrade their house or moving to a better school district or moving across the country for work reasons all these things happen.

[00:25:20] And so you never know when a note is going to pay off right but usually it's way before the maturity date of the loan and so. That's something that always happens when you're investing in notes buying notes, you always have money coming back in from pay off.

[00:25:39] They're unexpected on planned and it's great to get capital and the infusion of capital coming back but our job as investors is to like I said earlier turn around and redeploy that capital back in the new assets as quickly as you can.

[00:25:59] Keep keeping all the money in play. Well now I've got two questions here because I think it's great when you pull the money your your money together with I'm assuming that you're doing this with other investors to get a bigger. A pot of.

[00:26:18] Notes to get that to acquire you have you done this now and in where.

[00:26:24] Like I said, that's a great point a great point Sean is buying notes in bulk quantity it really opens up for negotiating better discounts and better access to notes so that that can always be beneficial.

[00:26:42] Yeah, but note funds in general that's how they operate they raise capital from investors.

[00:26:50] They pull it together and then they'll go out to the secondary market and buy notes in larger bulk quantity and now all the investors in the note fund gets a benefit from those those discounts and better access to notes and the expertise and experience of the fund managers and analyzing.

[00:27:11] Those notes and so really has some interesting dynamics that make for win wins scenario. That's a bit about how that works there's a lot of different note funds out there I mean I speak with a lot of investors and.

[00:27:27] There can be note funds that focus on residential mortgages there's note funds that focus on hard money lending and cater to real estate investors they're doing maybe doing a little more on the origination side.

[00:27:43] And so you have these very different business models and is it is it set up somewhat like a real estate syndicator and where you have a general partner that.

[00:27:53] And it ends up managing the overall collection of debts and distribution of margin also monthly distributions I would imagine it's monthly not quarterly, which makes it appealing.

[00:28:07] And so you have a general partner that essentially takes that and then builds in a management fee into a lot of these funds and. And yes, that's a very common model. Yeah, and you'll see that out there.

[00:28:27] The fund managers will manage a portfolio focus on acquisitions and pay out return cash flow and yeah it can be monthly it can be quarterly or it could be on some different time schedule.

[00:28:45] There's no right or wrong answer for that it's really down to the business model of what they're doing. No, why did you become passionate about educating.

[00:28:58] Really the the the public about this specific niche area is it something in where are you establishing and or perhaps kind of pushing to have your own fund of where you go out and and would like to attract investors.

[00:29:17] And so I'm to yourself of where you become the general partner on the acquisitions of these notes or or kind of where did your passion stem from to go this route. Yeah, really came from a few different places I.

[00:29:33] I've spent a lot of time and had the fortune of many great opportunities of speaking conferences teaching education. I found that I love it. I found that I love it a lot and from speaking with a lot of investors, they come to me and they say hey Fred.

[00:29:52] I love what you're the concepts you're teaching and and what you're doing and it seems really interesting really intriguing, but it also sounds like there could be a lot of pitfalls if you don't know what you're doing. And so I saw this great need for. For financial leadership.

[00:30:15] And so that's a big part of what I do is speaking and educating teaching others and as well as growing and being active in the investment business that I'm in.

[00:30:29] But it's teaching and sharing of those concepts to others and that's really what was the premise of writing my book. Why did I why did I write that book? I wanted to share my knowledge and expertise and some of the financial concepts and financial leadership with.

[00:30:53] I'm in progress from all walks of life because I found that you know Sean is funny working in the. tech industry, I talk to so many people where all they know about investing is the 401k

[00:31:09] plan that they have at work and maybe it'll have like a half dozen investment options to choose from but guess what? It's all 100% in the stock market and so someone could invest in their 401k. They think they're diversified because they're spread out on all these investments

[00:31:29] but they're truly not. It's 100% in the stock market and many people that just don't even know that and so part of my mission is to really a financial leadership of changing that and sharing the idea about alternative investments that anyone has the opportunity to go out

[00:31:52] buy and build assets and start really having a portfolio that's diverse and stable and it generates income for you so that you have financial stability in your lives. I think that's something that's really lacking in the world today.

[00:32:12] I think because of the marketing that goes on on a regular basis, people think of diversification of like you said being diversified in industries all within the same pool which is

[00:32:25] the S&P or the total market fund and so that feels like they're diversified but like you said that's just one pot that everybody has their money in and so you know I've taken a rule of

[00:32:41] a certain percentage of my portfolio. I'm a big fan of multi-family. I think it's great. Yeah, I think it's a great asset. I think it's obviously right now the deals are far and

[00:32:56] fewer between to get those cap rates that we think are, we'll pencil out but it had been good for a long time and it will be a good again you have to be patient and investing but I've had in my

[00:33:09] a certain percentage of my portfolio. It started with 10% in alternative investments I feel a little bit more comfortable at that 15 to 20% area. Do you have a rule of thumb or are you

[00:33:24] some people are like hey I'm a crypto guy and I'm 100% bullish and you're like okay it looks good now but you know it's very volatile. What's your percentage of your portfolio and and do you have a

[00:33:36] recommendation of where people should be in terms of dermatification? Yeah that's a very very individualized question. My own allocation is yeah this is very univisfer others this is you know it's every one has a different experience but mine is divided between real estate

[00:33:57] both real estate that that I own and control also real estate through syndications where someone else is it's professionally managed. Yeah notes is a big part of it as well as other alternative investments and stock market right a percentage but

[00:34:20] it shifts I mean like you said when you start maybe you'll say hey I'm comfortable with 10% I'm going to put in an alternative investment well after a couple years and you look at how it is

[00:34:33] and you get a little more familiar with it. You say hey I like this and so I want to bring it up to 30% or 40% it's wherever you're comfortable it's just like the conversation about what your

[00:34:48] rich tolerance it depends it depends on your age it depends on your family situation it depends on your income situation and over time it's a very dynamic and so what the best thing

[00:35:02] you can do is it's constantly review and revisit that periodically so that you can make adjustments over time and you'll find that okay you're liking maybe you really like real estate because you're in a high tax bracket and you need the deductions great well focus on that

[00:35:25] maybe you have a lot of money in a retirement account and Roth let's say you have an or Roth or a retirement account where tax liability is not a consideration for you and you say hey

[00:35:40] I want to do no investing because no investing generates a lot of tax liability there's no right-offs or deductions so if you can partner that together by doing it in a retirement account it's

[00:35:54] powerful really powerful and so that might be someone else's situation so they're going to heavily skew towards that type of investment when it comes to their Roth or retirement account and so these are these are the conversations I always have within investors there's never a

[00:36:14] strict right or wrong answer and it all comes down to taking into account all the factors and finding what's right for you and your individual situation so I always speak about this and teach about this I encourage everyone every year right around Thanksgiving time meet with your

[00:36:37] CPA your tax advisor to do tax planning do it before the end of the year so you can assess what's my tax liability going to be this year and are there any steps I can put into place

[00:36:51] to get a tax strategy and minimize that and you do that when you have one or two months left in the year so that you can get things done by year end something that's super valuable to do

[00:37:04] and make it part of your annual practice ever something you do every year see you you've taken a very proactive approach that's I always encourage I think sometimes people tend to you know you

[00:37:19] think about money and you think about spending it and then the dreaded word of budgets investments sometimes you know unless you really and it's step by step unless you've taken a role of where you get excited and empowered with learning about investments sometimes people just want to outsource

[00:37:36] that completely right you know I get into an advisor and I don't even think about it and if you do have an advisor that's that's wonderful I don't I don't have a problem with that at all but I do

[00:37:47] think your advice is sage which is you know taken active approach to having a conversation at least on you know an annual basis to say hey what can we do with the money that I've saved you know I've

[00:38:01] got this money it's in one asset class you know what what other options exist out there you know I heard this podcast about note investing or syndications in real estate or multi-family wow with that look yeah and I think everybody's goals change based on you know where you're

[00:38:20] out within the curve of life do you want to exit and you need more liquidity and lower risk you know are you in an aggressive state in your hiring years in your 30s and 40s are you having kids

[00:38:31] you know all of these things are very individualized but I think as a broad brush stroke you're giving some some great some great feedback and information to get people excited about investing in

[00:38:42] general I'm curious just for you as a as a human you know and going through your own financial journey have you fallen victim to lifestyle inflation over the years as you know I know it's easy

[00:39:00] in the beginning to say like hey I want to either retire earlier get financial independence or freedom but how do you stay disciplined what's your Norse star when it comes to not finding yourself playing

[00:39:14] on your heels yeah one of the biggest the biggest ways for me is the environment that we're in who are the people I surround myself with what are they doing learning from them if I had a mentor

[00:39:36] really impressed this on me that the best way for you to get to where you want to be is to find someone else that's already sitting there and go ask them for help and spend time with them

[00:39:52] and so it comes down to the concept of who's who's in your immediate orbit right you have that famous Jim Rhone quote of you become the average of the five people you spend the most time with

[00:40:04] that's so true but when you surround yourself with people they're operating on a higher level then you are that's going to naturally pull you up because you're going to be learning from them you're

[00:40:19] going to be observing you're going to be having conversations conversations that are at a higher level problems to be solved there are more complex and so that's what you learn in expand

[00:40:35] and so for me that's been a biggest Nord star is the proximity and the people I'm spending time with and if you find yourself ever that you're not happy with the where you are in life

[00:40:54] whether it's financially or in any any area could be fitness it could be family any area if you don't if you're not satisfied with where you are and you want more well find people

[00:41:08] that already are experiencing that and learn from them spend time with them bring value to them learn for each other have those conversations let that energy rub off on you as well and what will happen over time is that you're going to start to grow and expand

[00:41:31] and approach that next level and the best thing you can do Sean is once you've made it there you turn around and send an elevator down to help someone else and bring them up and continue that cycle it's so powerful but it really works

[00:41:49] that humility and curiosity is key I love what you said there because I think there is a culture that's built on us first them right now and a lot of that is you know it's just embedded

[00:42:04] in the politics so we'll tax the millionaires and billionaires and you know they're stealing they don't pay their fair share you know it's it's a lot of rhetoric that floats around and sometimes

[00:42:15] we pick it up energetically and so I love what you said there there's a story reminds me of the story there was a young man that was delivering an appliance to we're having our house remodeled and

[00:42:29] this was a few years ago in 2019 and he's delivering an appliance and he drops out the appliance and before he leaves he goes I hope you don't mind if I ask you because I'm 20 years old I'm just curious

[00:42:43] what do you do for a living to live here and what advice would you have for somebody that wants to aspire to more and I was just so taken back because those exchanges are so rare

[00:42:57] where you have someone who's not in judgment that's actually in a space of curiosity and humility and wants to absorb but I think a lot of times with our friends you see somebody that's

[00:43:08] you know driving a nice car they maybe they live in a nicer neighborhood these are external factors you know we can't see people's bank accounts I can't see if they're financially free or not

[00:43:18] so it's finding that balance of how do you ask friends or you know acquaintances you know hey I see you you appear to do really well for yourself you know just curious what propelled you

[00:43:31] to this space you know do are you an active investor did you build something on the back end you know to really propel you financially to where you're at today I think if we were breaking down the walls

[00:43:46] having these conversations we might be able to be a little bit more open and send the elevator down to help others where people could actually be ready to pick it up because I think that

[00:43:54] there's a lot of still shame about where people are within their journey sometimes you see somebody that has something now and you don't feel like you're worthy enough because you don't have it now but

[00:44:04] we're all different places I mean somebody listened to this today you know in 10 years from now could 10X or 20X they're net worth because of something that was said here today and they're

[00:44:16] on that now path so I love that you highlight that and I love the humility in that mindset around surrounding yourself around the great people yeah thank you it's something that's always served me well and let's face it Sean successful people they're always willing to share share

[00:44:35] their experience and like you said when someone comes for a place of curiosity, genuine curiosity and you're more than willing to open up to share maybe make some suggestions some resources happy always happy to do that that's something that I do on a constant basis you know something

[00:45:02] that I've adopted in my life Sean is that I have a goal that I want every interaction that I have with another person I want them to walk away feeling better off and being better off than

[00:45:17] they were when we count first encountered and so that's what I keep top of mind and always strive to do that and it really works and so this has a ripple effect as you do it because the other

[00:45:33] person is going to be inspired to do the same for someone else and so on and so on and so it can be really impactful that way absolutely it's a perfect mindset to have in every interaction that we have

[00:45:49] throughout you know even when we don't want something we don't need something we're just energetically putting that out there another feel that and it just continues to revert rate

[00:46:00] now I'm curious if we had a crystal ball Fred and you know we look at the next now this is the lecture here I get it there's there's a lot going on but if we look at the next

[00:46:12] 12 months cycle within the overall market within real estate within rates there's a lot of conversation and a lot of speculation given inflation and given with the you know the feds I guess

[00:46:30] tight rope that they've had to walk for a while and continued after walk where do you think we're headed what's your opinion as an active investor what are you going to be paying attention to

[00:46:41] and where do you think things are our headed specifically from a financial market perspective? Yeah that's a great question I love this and here's something interesting that happens is we're in an election year and so that has a dynamic of its own there are pressures for things

[00:47:06] to get reported a certain way and it doesn't matter which side you're on politically there's some manipulation that goes on so we can't control that and you have to accept that you have to accept

[00:47:22] that every four years it's a new election cycle and half of the time the person you like or the person you support is going to be in power and office and then the other half of the time they're

[00:47:40] and so get over that quickly right what you can do what all of us can do as investors is watch what's going on and position ourselves for being able to take advantage to take note

[00:47:58] of new opportunities that come up and so are you in the best best position to take advantage to be ready because there's always a lot of turmoil and confusion and with confusion it creates opportunities so think about that about being ready being positioned having your knowledge your

[00:48:23] education your skills all developed and in a good spot so that when opportunity comes up you're able to take action quickly so you're sitting are you sitting more in cash right now and

[00:48:39] kind of waiting for things to unfold or when do you feel like you're you're going to pounce and kind of take it out of that 5% you know high yield space right now no we're always looking

[00:48:55] for for opportunities all all the time you're scouring yeah yeah absolutely and if you see a deal tomorrow you're going after it yeah you can't it's it's very difficult to predict what's

[00:49:10] gonna happen in the future the fed may have a certain policy about interest rates great but you never know if at any moment is the government can step in and kick a can down the road or put

[00:49:27] in a new stimulus plan or do any of these different different activities are they going to restrict property ownership rights that prevent property owners from evicting like they did during the pandemic like any of these things can happen that we can't control and so it's important to

[00:49:53] watch pay attention and be ready and being nimble because the one thing that's for certain is there's always going to be changed and so how do you read reposition and adapt and put yourself in the most

[00:50:08] optimal scenario to take advantage of that yeah it sounds like you have a macro strategy that you hold true to and as you're looking on the day-to-day you're kind of at that micro space of where you

[00:50:23] you kind of double click into the investments that pencil out that provide the margin that you're looking for that have a timeline that are favorable for you to where you can get the cash flow

[00:50:35] your tying up your money for you know how long you're comfortable with but you have a strategy that you're consistently deploying regardless of the environment politically or regardless of what's happening within the stock market or the feds decisions you're just going to continue to work

[00:50:52] your strategy which is served you well for the last several decades yes yeah that's great that's exactly what I subscribe to I think that there's another marketplace for day trading and you know taking advantage

[00:51:05] of you know what what political landscape looks like and how things are manipulated based on pricing structures but all in all we can't know what's around the corner so we've got to make the

[00:51:17] decisions based on today and you don't want to get stuck in analysis paralysis where you just can't make a move at all yeah yeah that's very true very true very good whoa for it as we wrap things up

[00:51:30] you know I'm curious your book is you can find this on Amazon the little green book of note investing this is on Amazon it's got great reviews already people are obviously enjoying this space and the way that you've laid out your book where else can people find you

[00:51:51] where you'd like them to go first yeah thank you for asking Sean best police to connect with me is to visit my website which is Fred Mosco it's dot com perfect and here's the thing if any of you

[00:52:05] prefer a little bit of an easier spelling you can visit gift from Fred dot com and we'll take you right to my website once you're there you can connect with me send me a message you can request a

[00:52:21] special report that I have on note investing happy to email that to anyone that would like it and always I always love connecting with investors and building relationships it's a big part of what we do

[00:52:36] and so I invite any of you listeners visit the website connect with me and if you're interested really getting into the details of note investing check out the book little green book of note investing

[00:52:52] where we have a great high level overview of how note investing works in introductory look at the industry and how to get started and whether you want to be an active investor passive investor there's all these different strategies and approaches and so that's what we've covered

[00:53:15] excellent I'll put those in the show note gift from Fred dot com along with Fred Moscoids dot com and Fred I appreciate your time you've given a lot of information great information I appreciate you

[00:53:25] sharing a little bit about your life too and being vulnerable here on the show so until next time thank you so much