From Pumping Gas for a Living in Ontario to Moving to Edmonton as a Full Time Investor and Opening a Bank With Wayne Hillier

Subscribe to get updates on future podcast episodes, articles, videos and more.
I had a friend send me an article titled “Martial Law in Quebec” which is incorrect as the police are not under orders by the military but rather an elected government. Never forget the media is there to get your attention. The more attention of yours you give, the more advertising space they can sell. I know because I have experience creating and running Facebook and Instagram ads. Anyway, I personally revisit my goals, focus on my business and investing to continue to support my community, enable more people to create multiple six figure side hustles. For example, I’m doing free Stock Hacking demonstrations. We had over 500 folks register for the one last week, thankfully a few didn’t show up as the cap on Zoom is exactly 500. Lockdowns won’t hinder my ability to Stock Hack. I made 9% in both of my accounts last week. Also last week, we closed on refinancing three of my investment properties for under 3% interest, we’re taking out a bunch of money and depositing it into my corporate Stock Hacking account. We also moved those same three properties from being personally owned to our corporation, freeing up my personal credit for more mortgages. Financially, I have no complaints. I hope all of you out there are trucking along as well. If you’re new to the world of investing, we offer free training in real estate and stock hacking. I believe one needs both… Real estate to build wealth, stock hacking for cash flow. Over the past four weeks, I’ve cash flowed over $20,000 US with the same amount of capital to invest in two houses. I’m not looking to brag but instead to express to you what a game changer Stock Hacking. For free training in the number #1 investment strategy real estate: www.investortraining.ca To learn how to stock hack, we’ll share Joel Arndt’s story on how he stock hacks to earn 4% cash flow per month: www.stockhackeracademy.ca/demo
Then my gym was shut down… call it quits right? Nah, I rented a bunch of equipment from Dan and Rachael, owners of Radix gym, filled out a questionnaire, had a body scan done now they’ll customize a workout program and meal plan for my weak stomach and fasting schedule. I’m such a pain in the butt! One thing I did do well during this ongoing pandemic was I kept the fat off by intermittent fasting. In the mornings, I only have coffee and water then I’ll snack around 10 or 11 am, eat a big lunch and a good sized dinner. My weight is the same and based on the body scan results, my recommended fat loss is 1.1 pounds. Not bad. If you too are looking to improve your health and fitness, I encourage you to do so. Covid has taught us a lot about our health. Age we can’t control but we can control our fitness and what we eat. That’s health covered. Only this morning did I realize I hadn’t spent much time making education plans for 2021 after watching a youtube on a guy who is part of THREE big ticket masterminds. I thought to myself I need to keep up, I’m such a slacker… Then, I reminded myself I have a Realtor coach, real estate investing coach, I have three Stock Hacking coaches including best selling author of Get Rich With Options, Lee Lowell, our partner in delivering Stock Hacker Academy. I just finished a level 2 advanced option traders course and also renewed my membership with my two masterminds, one for real estate investing and a separate 7 figure entrepreneur mastermind group. Cherry and I have lots of organization systems plans for 2021 as well. As always, continuous improvement and continued education is a core value of ours. Judging by the interviews of successful investopreneurs on this show, they share the same value.
For Christmas, I wanted to get the family something nice as it’s been a great year for wealth hackers, those who invest smartly and strategically in things like cash flowing real estate and stock hacking. Anyone can be a wealth hacker, we all start somewhere. We have a certified financial planner coming up in a few weeks in Kathleen Van Den Berg. I’d consider her smart money so I’ll hold off giving any advice and let you hear from a certified professional. I’m not a financial planner but I am a professional Realtor and real estate investor and we did just have a record year in helping everyday Canadians with their investment real estate outside the greater Toronto area with a heavy focus on cash flow. If you’re read anything in the news or listened to the steady stream of successful wealth hackers on this show, then you know this was a great year for smart investors. Building wealth is an open book test. The real test is who is reading the book. Our government and the one in the US is planning for more record stimulus. Cash will be printed therefore cash in our savings accounts will be devalued. Economic theory and best practice as has been proven for some time is to hold hard assets like real estate. Preferably cash flowing real estate so someone else pays the bills. From a quick search of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver, Nov 2020 prices for detached homes is up 28.6% from last year. Over the same time period, the Toronto Real Estate Board is reporting detached prices are up 13.3%. How’s that for inflation that doesn’t make the mainstream media. Living costs more than ever. Hopefully you the listener already owns hard assets or have plans to acquire more. Knowing what a great small business owning real estate is, I started investing in real estate in 2005 and started in 2010 what became iWIN Real Estate to help every day, hard working Canadians build wealth. This is why we teach the number 1 investment strategy FOR FREE… exactly how our clients and ourselves invest in cash flowing real estate just outside the GTA. That’s for beginners. For those who want to continue deeper, we offer monthly iWIN meetings for a nominal fee and 100% of proceeds go to charity. Clients attend for free. We normally would do both in person but there’s this virus going around so we’ll host the meetings virtually for now. This January, Cherry is presenting on whole life insurance, something we just got for ourselves. Together with insurance expert Jayson Lowe, they will explain the concept of infinite banking, how we can own insurance so our kids aren’t overburdened with taxes when we pass on to them a ton of assets but also how we can leverage the whole life insurance to invest more assuming you have means to earn more than the paltry interest rate of 6%. We’ll also have Anna Scott, a professional real estate investor and Mortgage Agent sharing a behind-the-scenes look at real private lending deals and we have my lawyer Hussin Kadrati reviewing social media posts from people looking to raise capital and the possible implications by the Ontario Securities Commission. I know lots of people successfully raising capital over Facebook and Instagram, make sure you do it without getting in trouble! If you’re interested, you can get more details at www.investortraining.ca to get on my email list and you’ll find out about all our events. Also, you will find the presentation I gave to almost 1,600 investors on how I personally invest for my kids so they don’t have to go into crazy debt to go to university or buy their first home. www.investortraining.ca Cash-flowing real estate in my experience is for building wealth. For cash flow, I’m stock hacking and our students of the Stock Hacker Academy are just killing it. In classic Canadian fashion, no one likes to brag on social media but my DM’s are full of thanks and screen captures of their returns. One of my most conservative clients and past guest of this show, Nick Ditomaso has made 35% in nine months. My cousin Chubby had his best month with $6,700 in returns. A business mentor of mine cleared $30,000 this month and another student of ours has what I call stock hacker problems. He made too much in his personal trading account and wants to open a corporate account to minimize his taxes going forward. Cherry and I averaged 10% in December alone, far way more cash flow than our entire real estate portfolio! The past students are calling this a game-changer and if you’d like to learn more, I’m giving free demonstrations in January. Simply go to www.stockhackeracademy.ca/demo to register. As the way of the Wealth Hacker, my work funded my real estate purchases. My real estate investments were refinanced to invest in more houses. My real estate equity gains funded my stock hacking bankroll. My greatest source of cash flow is funded by “house money” and I’m not trying to impress but rather express what this newfound cash flow can do. My one week of cash flow last week paid for my Christmas present to the family and my mom. Both a Disney World and Disney Cruise vacation in 2022. For those who know me, I’m really frugal and this is the most we’ve ever spent on a vacation. Flight of course will be paid for with my travel points because I’m still frugal but I’m able to convince myself the expense is ok as it’s only one week’s cash flow.
I have this one listener, a chiropractor who took up stock options after listening to this show. He was at crossroads whether to open a second practice or build his investment portfolio around stock options. This was before the pandemic and I don’t think I have to tell you which investment was better. Hindsight is 2020 of course and I’m speechless with the kind words that continue to pour in. Who would have thought that in the middle of a pandemic, so many have created six-figure side hustles with limited effort?! Yes of course you need money to make money but I’ve never experienced such efficient means to make money with money. I’ve posted a couple of messages on my social media on Facebook and Instagram if you’d like to read them. My name is Erwin Szeto, just search if you’d like to be social media friends. Yes, the pandemic and lockdowns kinda suck but if I wasn’t locked down, I wouldn’t have put so much effort into learning a new skill that is Stock Hacking and built a program in partnership with best selling author of “Get Rich With Options” the godfather of stock options in order to share what I’ve learnt and help other hard working Canadians learn a new six-figure side hustle! I’ve mentioned it before, my guess is 80% of real estate investors are failed stock investors, I was one of them. Who doesn’t want to make money sitting at a desk or from a smartphone? It wasn’t until I met people who could make consistent returns that I opened my eyes to the opportunity. This brings us to this week’s guest, the lovely Khatera Osman.
How do we get on the same page? It starts with Cherry being just as driven as I, She’s quite bright. Cherry was honour roll at Waterloo University, top 60 in Canada in the UFE exam (exit exam for all Accounting students) and the first honour rollee in the history of the firm she worked at. Cherry is also ambitious. I’d argue some days she is more ambitious than me in pushing even me for higher levels. It was her idea to register the charity so we could level up both our legitimacy and increase our fundraising by providing charitable receipts. It was my crazy idea to host a conference with Grant Cardone as the headliner but Cherry shocked even me when she was on board at the hop. We support one another and have regular mastermind meetings on business, investment and personal. We rarely say no to one another. For example, Cherry wanted to move our home closer to work to cut down our commute so we could spend more time with the kids. That comes with a big price tag and bigger mortgage payments, something that’s against my core values but when I saw the house and Cherry reminded me it was her dream to have a view of water, something switched inside me, all bets were off and I was negotiating the offer to win. Losing was not an option. We weren’t even actively looking as we are switching over a bunch of our investment properties out of our personal names to a corporation so we can get more mortgages for more properties. Crazy eh? That brings me to a learning lesson I’d like to share. Be cautious of who you accept investment advice from. A mortgage agent advised a real estate investor we know that Accountants just want to sell corporations to make money. The flip side however is some mortgage agents can’t offer you a mortgage in a corporation. It’s a tricky situation as corporations do come with costs but you know what? All the rich people I know personally invest in real estate and stock hack in a corporation. This is hardly advice, I’m just sharing my opinions and observation of my rich friends.
It’s a funny thing to move homes! My kids were born here and my vision was to leave this house to our kids for when they want to settle down but plans change. I look forward to the challenge of maximizing the sale price of our home to minimize the size of the new mortgage. Because I don’t practice being a realtor on a regular basis, I will enjoy the opportunity to practice my sales skills like I did when I listed our investment property and sold it for over asking, firm last month. As a concerned parent, I’ve asked some friends about kids moving schools including super apartment building investor Brian Pulis of Pulis Investments. A REIT of apartment buildings. Anyways, one of the silver linings of the pandemic is my kids can’t play with the neighbour’s kids and only half the students of their class actually attend in-person classes as my kids do. Now, the new house has a pool, the parks are bigger and closer to home, and the rear pond freezes in the winter for pond skating so we’ll have lots of fun things to do at the new house. As the year 2020 is winding down, I’ve done a lot of reflecting with Cherry and my team on how this year went by fast and at the same time, I think we aged at least three years. I’m looking forward to slowing down in December to recharge as it’s been quite a sprint. Even without doing a conference this year, we still did a bunch more than we had planned to do. We delivered a series of emergency webinars with tenant management experts, Cherry a government subsidy expert, Diane Digiandomenico my super property manager friend. Thankfully the government stepped in with CERB and rental income started coming in. We talked several investor clients off ledges. I had one client tell me his mentor sold all his investment properties and he was asking me why I wasn’t doing the same… in hindsight, we got lucky and we had our best year for price appreciation. Stock Hacker Academy in partnership with Lee Lowell was a massive success. We have one more proven method to help hard-working Canadians create a six-figure side hustle aside from investment real estate. We actually had feedback that Cherry and I’s big hairy audacious goal of helping 10,000 folks create six-figure hustles for themselves was too low. LOL. The website is www.stockhackeracademy.ca. I know many of you are skeptical which is totally cool. I was too and just like real estate, the most common regret among stock hackers is why didn’t they start sooner. It’s not the worst thing to wait, our last course was the best we’ve delivered to date and our next will be the best as well as we roll out additional education modules to ensure the success of our students. 2021 will be a big year for our wealth hacker community and I hope you’ll be a part of it. Fingers crossed we can deliver a live and in-person conference late 2021 and if not then, early 2022. I’m already working on another major keynote speaker and stupid excited about it.
In my experience, learning from the rich is a great way to become one of them…. If you’re on my email I’ve included a link to a CNBC article: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/19/heres-where-the-wealthiest-investors-are-finding-opportunities.html Spoiler alert: The top three weightings in order are, real estate, public equities (aka stocks and stock options hence we stock hack) and private equities. Personally, I’m way more real estate heavy but otherwise, I’m inline because of my stock hacking and the private equities I invest in for real estate developments and apartment buildings for more diversification within real estate and within Ontario. LOL I know that sounds kind of funny. I’m pretty sure any real financial planner would not call that diversification. However, in my experience, the returns are tough to beat. If you want to email us for a referral of where I personally invest for real estate developments and apartment buildings please feel free to. For those looking for something to read, one of my mentors recommended that I read “Who Not How” by Dan Sullivan, the famous coach to entrepreneurs. I listened to the audiobook at 1.5X on my commute to work. It’s not a heavy technical read so I found the audiobook easy to consume. I now find myself saying who not how a couple times each day to team members, my kids, Cherry, etc… The book is about how we as investopreneurs often focus too much on trying to learn how to do something versus who already has the skills, experience and know-how… I mean that’s how we built iWIN real estate. Our clients are mainly from the GTA, regular Canadians with have busy careers, kids and family. They don’t have 10,000 hours to master real estate investing and build a team like we have. Hence we are their who. They leverage us as their who to help them hack their wealth vs the folks who read 50 books and watch or listen to thousands of hours of YouTube and podcasts. Their focus is on the how. In my experience, I’ve had a lot of success hiring experts to either teach me or do the job for me. Like my golf coach who shot +1 when we played 9 holes together on the weekend. I’ve locked him up for the next two months for coaching. The cool part is less than one day of my stock hacking returns paid for it. Just like my last week’s returns will pay for next year’s golf membership. That is what I’ve learnt from the rich when the cash flow from your investments pays for your expenses. So whatever part of wealth hacking you’re interested in, feel free to sign up for my newsletter and see what we have going on. For Example, January 23rd is our next iWIN meeting, the cost is $20 and it all goes to charity. Clients attend for free. Cherry and our insurance guy will be presenting on the subject of infinite banking, a common practice by my rich friends. My lawyer Hussein will also be in attendance to give any legal perspectives and I’ve sent him a bunch of screen captures I’ve taken from social media from people trying to raise capital. I’ve asked my lawyer Hussein to comment from a securities law perspective so we raise capital safely without massive investigations and fines. If you are interested in getting more information, go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca, enter your name and email to subscribe and you’ll be informed about all our upcoming events and how to get in touch with my team that’s taken me well over 10,000 to assemble. It is our goal to be the who for generations of future wealth hackers, owners of multiple six-figure side hustles.
Anyway, one of my mentors is investing heavily into Bitcoin which has been on a tear. Personally, I’ll wait for a pullback before getting in but I did purchase some Ethereum and I’m up around 60% ROI in just a week. I also own some gold and gold miner stocks. When smart people who have an extensive track record of making money share advice with me, I listen, research and take action. Saying no is also action… I say no way more than I say yes plus I have Cherry to vet my ideas since she sees hundreds of tax returns. She knows where people make and lose money. It’s that simple. And by track record, I mean at least ten years. With great references… And not because they have a youtube channel or a podcast. This week we’re going to the mailbag to answer some questions. “Hey, Erwin! Love the real estate podcast but I’m also interested in the stock hacking side as well. Just curious on average what amount of money is invested for these kinds of returns?” A: No different than real estate, returns vary between real estate investors. For example, this week’s guest Mat Piche makes more money on his investments than I do. Our appreciation might be the same but he has his own construction crews, own home staging, etc… From what guests have shared on this podcast, Joel Arndt who works for me is averaging 4% per month since June and just did a 7% cash return in November. Ron Esteban, a school teacher who will be returning to the show is averaging a couple thousand dollars per week. Kris Lewis is averaging 1-2% per week since April I think. Michael Bugg, a veterinarian was averaging just over $3,000 per week. Of course, the past does not predict the future. My real estate client Andrew is an outlier as he’s shared with me he’s returned 200% as he correctly invested in mostly electric vehicles manufacturers and some stay at home stocks. I honestly don’t even want to share these grand slam returns my friends are getting because it’s crazy but it’s the truth. Myself, it’s been a great month, I’m up 20% in November. I realized $4,200 US today. Follow on question: “have about 5k at the moment I’m willing to invest, do you think it’s better spent on education or learning what I can now and taking action? I understand you have multiple stock hacker courses at different levels. Where would you recommend I start?” Answer: The answer depends. When I was younger my focus was first on maximizing my job income so I can save more and get more credit for mortgages hence I invested in my own training. I have consumed a lot of Brian Tracy’s books and programs including Psychology of Success and Psychology of Sales. I soon after switched roles in my company from Operations to Product Management and received a 40% pay increase as I was taking more responsibility. A few years later, I became a successful Realtor very fast. I started in the summer of 2010 and in 2011 I earned six figures in commissions. Both the increased salary and career in real estate allowed me to become a much better real estate investor and qualify for more credit” I don’t mind answering questions from listeners, just please don’t ask me to mentor you, I have kids and team members and clients I’m responsible for. On to this week’s guest in Mat Piche… I invited Mat to come hang out, record a podcast, I showed Mat and his excellent videographer Tyler how to Stock Hack. We went to Virtual Galaxies to shoot zombies in virtual reality where we walk around with game controllers shaped like guns, a headset and headphones, and a battery pack in an empty room but the game is displayed on our headsets. It’s super cool. We were joined by fellow investors Seth Ferguson, Andrew Hines, Ron Esteban, Charles Wah and Kevin Huynh – All six and seven-figure real estate investors and professionals. Needless to say, we had a blast, a lot of laughs, I may have made a comment about how visible minorities never make it out alive in horror movies so our fair skin friends would lead the way, get between us and the zombies. It worked out as Ron and I got the top scores. We went for dinner afterwards where the conversation of course covered real estate, private lending, flipping, and stock hacking. There are few things I enjoy better than hanging out with like-minded, successful people. You never know what you’ll learn. If safe to do so, I recommend you all do the same. Our collective mental health has suffered during this pandemic. I hope you’re all taking care of yourselves. Grab some friends, go for dinner, go for a hike, preferably with like-minded success seeking people. Not sure where to find such people, our iWIN meetings are publicly available. In-person is for clients only. Online is available to anyone. The January 23rd meeting will feature a market update, what we are seeing on the streets of investment properties and a feature presentation on infinite banking by our guest and Cherry Chan. We’ll have Hussein my lawyer on hand as well so attendees have a comprehensive understanding of this secret of the rich. A personal friend of mine was magically able to obtain 3-4 more mortgages after running into a wall. If you’re on my email newsletter, you’ll have the links to register. Go to www.truthaboutrealetateinvesting.ca, enter your name and email address on the right and you’ll receive updates on the podcast, the show notes and event happenings including Stock Hacker Academy. Quick stock hacking update: I’m up 20% return in the month of November and last week I cash flowed $3,000 US. Today $4,200 US. This is my new normal. Growing my real estate businesses and four figures of cash flow per week as a side hustle with plans to golf a lot more next year. www.stockhackeracademy.com for anyone interested in purchasing the course. If you buy today, you get all the resources, recordings and can attend the next live-streamed course in March. Personally, I would want to learn this asap, maybe even over the holiday because if you follow US politics at all, the new President promised a whole bunch of stimulus. I’m not a particularly smart person but I’ve done a job of getting in front of monetary trends. www.stockhackeracademy.com
Speaking of presentations, at my mastermind with fellow 7 seven-figure entrepreneurs, I was asked to give a presentation on how I’ve learnt to build a mindset of positivity, optimism and gratitude to a group of entrepreneurs… I’ll be sharing the same presentation to a group of investors at the upcoming Nov 28th iWIN meeting. I’m not always happy though, I just make sure I’m working and investing smart and my gratitude outshines the dark moments. If you’re on our email newsletter then you’ll read about our upcoming meetings. Our upcoming Nov 28th meeting includes guest talks from Jay Gabrani who decided to not grow his online business and instead focus on having more free time, personal real estate development investments, and stock hacking. Jay will be sharing how he came to this decision and how he’s developing his investment properties and Stock Hacking. We also have Anna Scott who will be sharing her stories and experiences being on all sides of real estate deals: as the silent money and credit pattern, as the real estate expert, as a private money lender, borrower and now brokering private money deals as a Mortgage Agent. Our iWIN meetings are publicly available again… For non clients, the cost is nominal and all proceeds go to charity. Anyone who subscribes to my email newsletter will be notified when we host events both real estate and stock hacking. To get on my newsletter which comes with being notified of new episodes of this podcast with show notes, go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca. Enter your name and email address on the right side and that’s it! Quick update from the stock hacking competition between Cherry and I. Because our stock hacking is going so well and with our plans to upgrade our home, we are closing the personal account and consolidating to trade in only the corporate account. I’ll manage the trading going forward as Cherry will focus more on growing her business and my businesses. Between the two accounts, we are averaging a 42% return and well into six figures. Not bad for a beginner, after a market crash, and a bagillion mistakes eh? I’ve learnt a lot this year and the future for our stock hacking couldn’t be brighter. With the holidays approaching, I’m receiving all these requests for my office address for hate mail and Christmas cards and to be honest, from people wanting to express their appreciation for what this podcast or real estate or Stock Hacking has meant to them. I appreciate all the kind words and what I really enjoy is reading positive reviews on iTunes. Reviews also help new listeners decide on what podcasts they listen to and I would like to help them like we’ve hopefully helped you. So if real estate, Stock Hacking or this podcast has helped you, kindly leave a review, by simply googling “iTunes truth about real estate investing”, go to reviews, 5 stars, of course, is preferred and let me know how this show has helped.
As with anything in life, business, health, investing, I view it all as an experiment. When the pandemic hit, the first thing we were allowed to do was golf so I took up the sport. 2020 is the first year I’ve played more than twice in a season so I think that qualifies me as a beginner. This past Friday I had just my fourth golf lesson with Chris and finally made some massive improvements, the most improvement I’ve made all season. Right after my lesson, we played nine holes and I proceeded to have my best 9 holes of the season highlighted by landing my ball 12 feet from the hole on a 193 par 3 with my 5 iron. That’s about 30 yards farther than I normally hit my 5 iron and I made the putt for my first birdie of the season. The next day, I was golfing with Cherry and ten other friends and I had one of my better rounds of the season include 3 pars and a birdie on the front 9. What is the point of all this? After the round was over I couldn’t help but kick myself how if I could do it all again, I would have invested more heavily into coaching near the beginning of the season as much of the practice I did this season was kinda wasted. This was yet another experiment that proved to me the value of coaching. Practice and youtube and reading articles online as much as I did… those tens of hours did not compare to the 4 hours of coaching I’ve received. Going forward I will be taking weekly lessons as it is one of my Stock Hacking goals to afford me a nice golf membership. In my experience, I pay tens of thousands each year for coaching and the investment has returned. My question to the listener is where can you fast track your success by hiring a coach? I’ve wasted a lot of time in all areas by not having a coach. Please don’t make the same mistakes I did. This week’s guest, 26-year-old Joe Costanza was smart and worked with Coach Tammy Ditomaso from my IWIN Real Estate team to begin his real estate journey. If you’re interested in learning for free the same strategy implemented by young Joe who’s increased his net worth by over $300,000 in just 20 months then go to www.iwinrealestate.ca and enter your contact information to be notified of our next free training class on the #1 investment strategy in real estate. On to this week’s show!
My costume arrived late but it’s a bit of an evergreen costume, so I’ll do a reveal at a later time. My kids dressed as Batman of course and Captain Marvel but more exciting than Halloween for me was the kids had their belt grading at kickboxing the morning of Halloween. This the first athletic test they’ve done and it’s the first time our club has allowed non-students to watch. Thanks to Covid, I’m stuck waiting outside in the car while the kids are in kickboxing class. I was totally surprised by how much the kids have learnt. For the grading, they had to demonstrate boxing, kickboxing and even Karate style punches and kicks. I personally appreciate a cross-discipline approach, no different than I invest in real estate and Stock Hack. Our club is open-minded to teach different styles of striking. For any mixed martial arts or UFC fans out there, you know the importance of multiple disciplines. The kids both passed and I couldn’t be more proud. We celebrated with ice cream that I bought on sale at Loblaws 🙂View this post on InstagramHappy Halloween from our family to yours!!
A post shared by Erwin Szeto (@erwinszeto) on
Shout out to Scott Dillingham and Matt Green for being amazing donors and for making us work for #1. Practice makes perfect, right? Well no, according to my daughter, she taught us the other night, practice makes progress. Practice makes perfect describes a finish line but all your wealth hackers know, there is no finish line. We strive to be 1% better each day or be better than the person we were yesterday, the week or month or year before. If you don’t believe me, did you know Tiger Woods did a complete overhaul of his golf swing? After just a few months and winning one in every four tournaments including winning the Masters by 12 strokes, Tiger wasn’t happy and worked with his coach to create a new golf swing. That would be the first of a couple times the greatest golfer and one of the greatest athletes of all time would decide his historical dominance of the sport was not enough. He could always improve. It truly is fascinating to study the super successful. For example, I am asked quite regularly on the benefits of coaching. To continue with the Tiger Woods example, his first two coaches as a professional golfer are widely consider the #1 and #2 coaches in the sport. Don’t worry folks, I’m not offering coaching. I take my work too personally and prefer more control or sometimes lack of control when it comes to my own golf game 😛
In all seriousness, I want to bully proof my kids, especially my daughter should she ever have to teach a boy their manners. As the saying goes, two black belts are better than one 🙂 Don’t worry though, we’re not letting the kids have all the fun… Our kickboxing gym is expanding so they’ll have adult class for Cherry and me to take while the kids have their classes. I’ll need all the practice I can get to postpone that day where the kids can beat up their old man 😛
Speaking of back to school, we are back to our publicly available iWIN Networking Meetings to be live streamed via Zoom. The cost to attend is nominal, the presentations will be world class as always and our guest speaker is exactly the speaker we need for these special times. He is a Police Constable, a victim of systemic racism, and at last check he holds 21 investment properties. He is none other than Constable Jules Mackenzie. If you enjoy stories of inspiration like I do then you don’t want to miss it. Saturday morning, Sept 19th. Here’s the link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/iwin-monthly-meeting-19-sept-2020-tickets-115917948705 These are special times however with back to school that usually coincides with back to business after a quiet August but these are special times, the August real estate market was on fire!! Average prices in Hamilton were up 21.2% year over year for August and day on market were down from 29.6 days to 21.9 days per the Realtors Association of Hamilton-Burlington. If you like to know what’s going on with your real estate then you don’t want to miss our first publicly available meeting in 2020. Did you pick up new hobbies during the pandemic? Because of government regulations, I defaulted to golf as I was dying to socialize with real people outside of my house. Now here is how I use golf or any hobby as an experiment on learning and wealth hacking. The experiment is to see how quickly I can improve as a beginner. This year is the first year I’ve golfed more than twice in a summer, I believe that qualifies me as a beginner. Last year I shot a 136 at the Hamilton Golf and Country Club. Here are some best practices I’ve picked up in other areas of my work/investing I’ve applied to golf:
Hello, fellow wealth hackers!
I trust everyone is well!! From people I speak to who are investing in stocks and real estate, the response is overwhelmingly positive with bumps along the way.
Nothing is ever perfect.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Erwin Szeto (@erwinszeto) on
In one of our student rentals, we installed an air conditioner in the attic and the students are happy except for one – The student who’s bedroom closet has the attic hatch.
Well, they’re not happy at all because dust got onto their furniture and they feel they weren’t given enough notice even though my property manager emailed them a week in advance of the installation and cleaners were in the house not even five minutes after the AC installer left.
I know because I was there.
The cleaners pulled into the driveway as I was leaving.
We offered to send the cleaners back but the student’s mom wants to be present to check if the workers and my handyman are wearing masks.
She asked to hold off on any other renovations so she can work it out in her schedule to be on hand but she didn’t want to take responsibility for the delays in letting the other student tenants know the cause of the delays.
Cherry and I are big on customer service hence we already gave a roughly 10% credit for the summer months which the students accepted and to send the cleaners back at our expense or to pay the disgruntled mom to clean herself if she preferred to keep the cleaners from returning.
What does she want? A four-month rent credit?
She also asked that I be present for her to vent her frustrations when my property manager is already present and authorized to represent me.
I’m pretty busy between family and business and investing so that wasn’t going to happen. Plus I’m not a fan of confrontation.
We have already offered the student and mom out of the lease as there is no satisfying her and as the saying goes, “How you do anything is how you do everything”, we’d like to avoid any future drama.
Such is the importance of having multiple streams of income.
Our portfolio can handle a hit to cash flow to make everyone’s lives easier. Life is too short to handle the drama from someone who wants thousands of dollars of compensation for dust on bedroom furniture.
This whole COVID thing is responsible for some special times.
I’ve seen my brother once since January. He came to my house to pick up a cooler for camping, he didn’t touch anything as he’s a biologist by education and studied infectious disease at school so he’s more cautious than most.
I miss him and my niece who’s only three years old but that’s what being responsible and respecting other people’s wishes is all about. Families, tribes, society, etc… don’t get along without well, getting along.
Then I see all the toxicity on social media. It’s crazy.
I generally don’t engage in it like discussing politics and religion on social media. From anyone who’s read How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, you’ll recall no one wins in an argument, there are only losers.
Often both parties walk away angry at each other with neither being convinced to change their views and sometimes strengthening their resolve.
So what’s the point? It’s a waste of energy in my opinion.
Then there is one of my favourite tips from the super awesome Tim Ferriss, best selling author of the Four Hour Work Week.
In his book Tim gives the example of an upcoming election, how he saves time and energy, he simply asks a couple of people who have similar values on how they will vote and why and makes his decision from there.
In my experience, I’m lucky enough to be the son of a medical doctor and one of my best friends from school basically got perfect all through elementary, high school, university, and medical school.
I ask Dad how to protect his grandkids and he gives his advice. Dave my doctor friend now works in a hospital so I ask him what he does for him and his three kids who are around the same age as mine.
For me, that’s good enough for my family and me.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a qualified opinion. No different than when I say the Leafs need to trade for a defenseman. I have no idea who’s available or who would be good on our team but yeah, I have an opinion.
You’re more than welcome to ignore it but just don’t argue with me 😛
We should already know this.
But too often we forget it.
You never know what’s going on in somebody’s life; what they’re dealing with.
So be kind. Be an ally. Be a friend. Be better. Don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say it at all.
If anyone out there needs help feel free to reach out, I’m not hard to find.
Last week we lost one of Toronto’s finest. Nearly a decade with the Toronto Police and just over a decade with the Canadian Armed forces. He was lost to suicide due to depression. Someone who on the outside had it all.
I just wish he had said something and I’m pretty sure we all feel that way when these things happen.
Rest in peace Constable. I hope you’re in a better place, you should have seen your funeral, there were so many people there to say goodbye.
On to this week’s guest, Lynne Tham.
She was nervous to come on the show which is not uncommon. Public speaking by some surveys ranks higher on the lists of fears above death itself….
Lynne’s kids including my friend Simon told her to just do it and she did!
I’ll post Lynne’s full bio on our website, www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca.
It’s a wonderful Canadian success story of a teenager immigrating to Canada, falling in love with the greatest country in the world.
Started a family, stayed at home to raise the kids, picked up a side hustle in multi-level marketing, excelled, became a single parent, became a Realtor, had a wake-up call at age 55 that she needed a retirement plan.
Invested in real estate, de-invested in real estate and now a pretty successful stock hacker.
I know we have several full time professional, uber-successful real estate investors like Ryan Carr and coming up next Leslie and Jamie Collard and their 160 units but for the investor who wants to take it easy and be a bit more passive…. Well, it worked out for Lynne.
Full bio:
Proud mom of two successful adults (Simon and Melanie) who form our family real estate team (we do between 40 – 50 deals per year as a team).
I’m a constant advocate for personal growth in my own life and determined to create my own financial future goals of being able to live, travel and work from anywhere in the world.
My own story – came to Canada by myself as an 18-year-old, without knowing anyone, from the UK, to be a nanny, in 1978. It was supposed to be a one to two-year work stay. Fell in love with the country, got married at 21 and became a Canadian citizen.
Being a stay at home mom I was recruited to sell Tupperware in the ’90s and this was the beginning of personal growth for me. I realized that I was a salesperson and loved motivating myself and other people to reach goals.
I was with them for 10 years and ended up owning a distributorship with them in the Toronto area.
After becoming a single parent in the ’90s, I had a five-year stint in the car business, being a business manager and selling cars, but long hours and very little personal satisfaction, motivated me to take my real estate license.
I became an agent in 2006 with the desire of being able to have the ability to increase my income and have the flexibility to travel to see my kids, who were both now living in the U.S. (Melanie on a gymnastics scholarship at Iowa State University and Simon modelling in NYC).
After building my business for six years it was a welcome addition to have my Mel join me in the business after she graduated university and then Simon, two years later.
Both of my kids did not have real estate as a career goal but they kind of fell into it after realizing that it was a great way to earn good money and also be able to pursue other passions (not to mention my daughter’s teaching degree did little to generate an actual job in teaching and Simon realized that modelling looks don’t last forever – but as his mom, I would disagree 🙂 and he’s still modelling now)
Five years ago, at age 55, I was staring at my future and realizing that I needed more of a retirement plan – at that time, my net worth was basically the equity in my Mississauga townhouse (at the time, worth around 775k, and I had a mortgage of $300k on it) and I had $200k in RRSP’s and that was it.
When I looked into what the Canadian pension was, if I waited until 65 to draw it, it was a wake up call.
This started my journey into how to build a consistent income of at least $10k a month within the next five years.
I had met with an investment guy from a reputable company, regarding what to do with my RRSP’s, who told me he could generate me a guaranteed 8 – 10% annually with their various investments.
It sounded a lot better than the 2% than my Scotia funds were generating, but luckily, I was introduced to investing in second mortgages by profunds in Burlington and decided to put my money there (it has now grown by over $100k in four years).
Simon had introduced me to your podcasts and it opened up a new world of exploration.
Around this time, I was invited to an event at my Keller Williams brokerage, put on by two agents who were representing, Brian Pullis’s project in Orillia.
They were offering an investment opportunity to purchase a townhouse in an older complex that had been refurbished and all the interiors gutted and renovated.
The homes were offered at $247k, and they were offering a $7k builder incentive and on top of that, my 2.5% real estate commission, so essentially I could buy one of these homes for $235k.
Again, embarrassingly, I hadn’t realized that I could take an 80% line of credit against my primary residence to take the down payment for an investment property, and I had always had the mindset that I needed to pay off my mortgage before doing so.
I got the line of credit and purchased my first property.
The type of property fit me well as it was easy to manage, (one-year property management was offered for free), and it cash flowed ($1400/month in rent).
This was a great first experience and it encouraged me to buy a second property in Orillia, which I had realized through listening to one of your podcasts (and Jules McKenzie), was listed in REIN’s top 10 cities in Ontario to invest in.
The second property was easy as it was new construction and the builder was only requiring $20k down. I closed on it a year later and after buying it for $345k and putting $20k into it, it attracted good tenants and covered itself.
I sold the first property 3 years later and made around $70k net, and I just sold the second one (closed yesterday) and made $145k in three years.
Last year, I had looked into the possibility of buying another investment property (at the time, I owned only one of the Orillia properties), but it had become so much more difficult to qualify for a mortgage and I was approved to buy at $600k, with B lender financing and it would have to be a legal duplex, generating $3400/$3500 monthly for it to work.
I realized that it was too much for me at this point in my life, to drive to Oshawa (where it seemed like the only opportunities to do this, existed in this price range).
In the summer I attended your IWin meeting where the discussion came up about the upcoming stock hacking course. I was so inspired by Adriano’s story and I had been listening to your increasing interest in doing it yourself and was following your progress.
Unfortunately, I was in Portugal in September when the first class was offered but as you know, Simon attended and he seemed to be quite inspired and impressed.
What sealed the deal for me was hearing Habib’s podcast with you, in the late fall, and I knew I had to sign up.
Since taking the two day course in December, it has changed my life.
No other words for it.
I started with $150k from my HELOC and then added $40k two months later. Since just before Covid, as of today, I’m up $54k, which is nicely falling into my goal of $10k/month and is opening up my future.
I plan on taking the profits from the sale of my investment property and adding it to my account, with the goal of making $15k to $20k a month consistently.
I am constantly amazed at how options trading is not only something that I could grasp but is so easy, enjoyable, flexible and unlimited.
I now find myself talking real estate clients (especially the ones around my age) out of buying their first investment property and doing options trading instead.
As you always say, there’s a place for both and they go hand in hand, but for me personally, and others in my situation, looking at retirement and how to fund it, in my opinion and experience, this is an incredible option.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lynne.tham/
On October 3rd & 4th, you can join the next Stock Hacker Academy Live Introductory Course. Learn the foundations that have helped Erwin and Cherry make upwards of $2000 USD a week. Stock Hacker Academy includes:
If you want to see this in action, click here to register for the next FREE Trading Demonstration.
After all the Youtube videos, books, and forum posts, you’re probably still left with questions. Starting in real estate is a tricky thing.
Frustrated beginners often ask how a legal basement suite conversion actually works. Most of the time we can only give general answers. But now, we get to dive in.
At this in-depth, free class you’ll learn how to take your first steps as a real estate investor.
Nothing is held back. Everything from analyzing basement suite conversion deals, to renting out your first property at a profit, and even how to refinance and do it all again!
More secrets you’ll uncover are:
If you’re frustrated, unsure of how to get started, this is for you.
Sign up now for the Invitation List and be one of the first to get an invite to the next class.
Sponsored by:
Infinity Wealth Investment Network – would you like to know how our investors returned 341.8% on positive cash flowing real estate over the last five years? On average, that was 68.4% per year, just imagine what winning in real estate could do for you. If you would like to know how we did it, ask us how by calling 289-288-5019 or email us at meaghan@infinitywealth.ca. Don’t delay, the top markets we focus in are trending upward in price, so you can pay today’s price or tomorrow’s price.
Till next time, just do it because I believe in you.
Erwin
Hamilton, St. Catharines and Toronto Land Development, Real Estate Investor, and soon to be builder.
W: erwinszeto.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/erwin.szeto
IG: https://www.instagram.com/erwinszeto/
We will definitely be getting our money’s worth this month between the emergency dentist visit, upcoming cavity repair, private room at the hospital, and now massage therapy as we have been having an RMT come into the office to massage the staff. Does that sound right? Hopefully you’re all taking care of yourselves and enjoying all the returns you’re making from your real estate and stock hacking. Never forget, life is short so do enjoy the fruits of your labour. I’ve spoken to many of you, including yet another newer real estate investor and a good friend of mine yesterday who’s real estate is fully tenanted. Everyone is paying rent and he’s cash flowing on average $2,000 per week via stock hacking. Have a wild guess if he cash flows more from his real estate investments or his stock hacking. Yet again, real estate for wealth creation, stock hacking for cash flow. Speaking of cash flow and stock hacking, here’s a quick update on Cherry and I’s she trader vs. he trader. Two weeks ago Cherry beat me by a whopping $40, but a win is a win and last week I won. I believe the score is around 16-6… I’m not sure what the lesson is here, but ladies, you can stock hack just as well or better than men. I spoke to a single mom of two this week who has taken the original and as well as the new and improved 2.0 version of Stock Hacker Academy, and her weekly returns average is $2,500. I hope more single parents out there have the tools to do the same. The lesson for the men? I don’t know. Maybe you can get lucky like me and have your partner out earn you. I personally have no problem with my wife making more $$ than me. I’ll make Cherry pay for our next round of golf together as she had yet another four figure day today. She had a deep in the money call option on Apple for those who know stock hacking. If you’re interested in learning more about stock hacking, I’ll be hosting another demonstration over Zoom. We almost broke the system last time as we had over 500 people register, but capacity is 500. We will not be making a recording available for privacy reasons so make sure you’re there on September 10th, 8pm EST. I’ll have several friends and family attending as well. I’ve been asked to give the same demo several times each week but unfortunately these are covid times, I’m really busy and protective of my gym, golf, Raptors and family time. The link to Zoom is ridiculously long so go to the website www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca and you’ll find the link there. Link to register for the demo here!!! https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_kOWSraJaQKOmaUDiPn7HRg Or in my bio on Instagram and Facebook. This is totally free and it’s a much better demo than I gave my kid cousin Chubby who is averaging over $1,000 per week in cash flow or 28% return on investment in 2020. FYI He’s a musician by trade.
Next day, there’s no improvement, so off to Emergency Bruce and Cherry go. In Covid times, only one parent is allowed in Emergency. Bruce gets admitted and stays the night at McMaster Children’s Hospital. Cherry stays with him and I’m just a ball of stress. Thankfully McMaster Children’s Hospital is just fantastic, including their pharmacy. They work their magic and we’re home on Monday with a plan for 8 more days of an antibiotics cocktail that Bruce likes thanks to the pharmacy. Even with the good news, I had a terrible headache. Boo hoo, I know, when compared to all those parents with kids who spend extended periods in hospital. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, investing in real estate and stock hacking is waaaaay easier than being a parent. I’d gladly trade all my houses for the health of my kids. Thankfully, this will only cost Bruce two weeks in the summer and the lesson as I’ve reminded him before, no socks in the house if he’s running. For you wealth hackers, I’m hearing from many of you that this has been an extremely profitable summer both in your real estate and for Stock Hackers. The Toronto Real Estate Board reported a record number of transactions in July and average prices are up 16.9% from July of last year. Hopefully those of you trying to time the market got in March or April. The markets where we operate, west of Toronto, we’re seeing multiple offers everywhere and outside of student rentals and condos, our clients are not reporting any significant vacancies. For those who own real estate, you’re doing great! For Stock Hackers, I’m receiving regular feedback from students who are achieving four figures per month and some four figures per week in cash flow, which is super awesome! It’s why we provided the courses taught by best selling author, Lee Lowell. Our very own VP of Coaching, James Maggs is averaging between $2,500 to 8,000 per month on $120,000 and only investing about four hours per week. Not bad! It’s more than CERB and that’s more cash flow than a piece of real estate that requires an equivalent investment of $120,000. But just ask any Stock Hacker how they funded their bankroll, almost everyone did with real estate profits or home equity lines. Real estate to build wealth, Stock Hacking for cash flow. Last Tuesday I delivered a demonstration via Zoom, a bit more of a polished demonstration vs. the one I gave my kid cousin over Thanksgiving last year. He’s a musician by trade and he too is cash flowing over $1,000 per week. Anyways, over 500 registered for the demo which is pretty awesome. Hopefully the nearly 500 who attended can reproduce the same results as my cousin, Chubby. In case you missed the demo, sorry you couldn’t make it. If you’d like to be informed of the next one and receive notification of when these podcasts come up, simply sign up for my email newsletter, go to www.truthaboutrealestateinvesting.ca and type in your name and email and that’s it. This is summer and we’re trying to enjoy what’s left of it, so no more demos till September and no, we’re not sharing the recording. If these were not covid times, I’d invite you into the office for a live in person demo. Then you could all look over my shoulder and see how I trade on my phone, but we’re in a different normal. On to this week’s show featuring another successful wealth hacker!
Quick she trader vs. he trader: last week I won by a pretty wide margin and this week Cherry has a slight lead on me. So I think the score is 13-6 but at the end of the day, it’s a five figure week in US dollars of cash flow this week and last and probably the last eight weeks. Needless to say it’s been a great market for stock hackers no different than this week’s guest, Cody Yeh!
That was Saturday morning, by 11am, I was there to have a look and talk to my tenants with a $50 gift card for each student, plus one for my property manager Terry. The water had since drained but it went over an inch high so a bunch of drywall, trim, doors, flooring, etc… will have to be replaced. Our tenants are younger so they asked if our insurance covers their belongings. It doesn’t because that’s what tenant insurance is for. Here’s your friendly reminder to require your tenants to have tenant insurance. We had a flood which sucks, but we have a client who’s basement tenant improperly disposed of a cigarette and caused a fire so the main floor tenant with a new baby is now without a home at no fault of their own. Thankfully, the basement tenant has insurance as the home’s insurance will likely go after the person who caused the fire. Unfortunately the main floor tenant does not and will have to come out of pocket for a hotel or AirBnb till they find a new home. Speaking of AirBnb, I had a friend who specializes in AirBnb asking me about Stock Hacking. He was saying he didn’t want to invest and learn something new as he makes so much money running AirBnb’s. I shared how in my experience, multiple streams of income is the winning formula. We have small businesses, a portfolio of cash flowing real estate, and both Cherry and I do Stock Hacking. My deductible for the flood is $5,000. Well, I made over $5,000 USD this week already from stock hacking, so while it sucks to have an expense of $5,000, I can afford it. A reminder to have a buffer and why having multiple streams of income is best. The opposite is true as well, I’ll have a crappy day or week in the stock market and am grateful for my real estate. No one is better than the other. Having both in my experience is the ideal. Thank goodness my insurance specific for investment properties covers sewer back up. Now this is twice it’s saved my bacon. You may want to check if your policy includes it too. Quick Stock Hacker update of Cherry vs. Erwin. She beat me again last week so I think it’s 12-4 in Cherry’s favour. On the plus side, we combined for a five figure week in USD cash flow. Sorry for repeating this so many times, but I’m grateful to have learned this skill and that Cherry is willing to trade as well. Also interesting in our real estate world is we had another tenant have a disagreement with her housemates so they want to break the lease. To some that’s terrible news. To us, this property generates the least rental income so it’s our chance to improve that by renting it to students. We have that option or we could sell it in this complete sellers market we are in right now. This house we own with a JV and have some of our own money in it, so the return could be better if we owned it 100% or had zero capital invested in the deal. Or we may just sell it and turn it into a pool 🙂 For the longest time, Cherry and I have wanted a pool for the kids to enjoy and to entertain our friends and family. In my experience, the best way to pay for luxury items is to have our assets pay for it, so here we go, our investment and returns will now become a pool. An investment that was born out of a home equity line of credit over six years ago. Compare that to what friends I have who used their home equity line of credit to pay for a pool. To each their own, I just have a lot of future plans for early retirement and helping my kids pay for their education and a home. Speaking of education, I was talking to one of my neighbours about how their daughter wants to be a dentist. They have RESP’s to cover some of the undergraduate tuition, but she didn’t know tuition costs for dental school. I’ve googled it before so I was the bearer of bad news as I’ve seen it at 40,000 per year. I don’t think anyone saves that much nor wants to be saddled with that kind of debt. On to this week’s show!!
Health wise I was near my heaviest weight just two weeks ago at 191 pounds, and that’s not muscle. I was getting skinny fat. Cherry bought herself a scale that I found in our closet, I found it and hopped on it. 191. This morning I was down nine pounds at 182 after intermittent fasting the last two weeks. My intermittent fasting is simple. I basically don’t eat after dinner and for breakfast I only have coffee with a bit of grass-fed butter, 1-2 tablespoons. The fat keeps me from being hungry and I’ve been feeling pretty good, but I really can’t wait to get back into the gym. Speaking of gyms, sadly my friend Denise who owns a gym announced this week she is closing her doors. She is an amazing athlete and an even better trainer. Her energy and passion are something to be witnessed, but even with all that talent, the business didn’t work. I could be wrong, but I think the lesson is to own the real estate one’s business occupies. The BDC has been very accommodating from my experience, allowing mortgage holders to pay interest only during these extraordinary times. The more control the better, is my saying. It’s why we chose to buy our office location instead of renting. Commercial tenancy laws are heavily in favour of the landlord, so I’m not interested in being in a position of weakness when we can afford to buy. One of the reasons we can afford to buy is because we have a residential real estate portfolio. One of the biggest lessons from this pandemic is the government will support those in need, which includes our tenants so they can make rent. In a poll of iWIN members, rent collection for June was typical, many reporting 100% collected, but commercial business tenants are having all sorts of problems. And with Prime Minister Trudeau’s announcement that he will extend the CERB, the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit, it looks good for residential real estate investors. Combine that with a hot market for the properties our clients and iWIN members hold, we continue to be really lucky and in great shape to ride this out. Quick update on the stock hacking world, with the US Fed committing even more money to prop up the US economy, many stock hacker students are reporting great results. Cherry continues to kick my butt and we combined bring in over $4,000 US cash flow per week. Cherry beat me last week but I have a lead this week so I think the score is 11-2 for Cherry. At the end of the day, I hope you’re all improving your cash flow positions through small business, real estate, stock hacking, bitcoin, I don’t care what as long as you’re making money and making a difference in your community. Speaking of making a difference, we have an author on today’s show, an old friend named Roger Auger. I don’t have a bio for Roger so I’ll read you the description of his new book ‘No Excuses’ available on Amazon:
On the positive side, with all the rioting and violence going on the south of the border, I’m reminded yet again how grateful I am to be Canadian and grateful for stock hacking and real estate. All are opportunities equally available to anyone no matter the colour of your skin. As a minority growing up in Canada, my family was one of the early Chinese to come here fleeing Communism. When I was in elementary school, there were three Chinese kids in the whole school. There was my brother and I plus another Chinese boy who everyone assumed was also my brother. Investing has enabled those considered poor to enter the top 10% and even top 1% and we’ve had many of those folks on this show and we’ll have many many more. The investing community as I know it, is inclusive to all backgrounds and unfortunately a lot of assholes too, but we’ll do our best to only have cool people on this show, including today’s guest in Diana House. Before we get to Diana, a few updates from our parts: For the 2nd time in 11 weeks, I beat Cherry in our weekly stock hacking competition. It took a personal best by me: a five figure week, all USD in cash return which is great and all, but Cherry still maintains an overall lead of five figures. It will be tough to catch her in the overall race as we’re both adding to our accounts after our most recent refinance. We successfully refinanced that house that Cherry was mad at me for buying, sight unseen, no conditions, which I do not recommend to beginner and intermediate investors. This house had a leaky basement, black mold on all foundation walls, and a cockroach infestation. We found a dead mouse in the electrical panel and the whole house was knob and tube electrical: a known fire hazard and because of it’s proximity to a University, no bank would give us A rates. On top of that, we’re buying with a corporation and we’re a weee bit stretched on credit. In the end, we renovated top to bottom and I’m beyond ecstatic with the 2nd appraisal. The first appraisal sucked, the second was $40,000 higher after I provided the 2nd appraiser extensive details of the costly renovations plus a quality comparable sale of my choosing 😊. The plan is to reinvest the real estate profits via stock hacking, which is my favourite thing to do, have profits reinvested for more profits, reinvest again two more times, then eventually we can pay for a new pool next year paid for with profits. None of this would have been possible without: A) Being Canadian and B) Investing in whatever. I don’t care what you invest in, just that you invest and exit the rat race. On to this week’s show! This week we have Diana House!
“Man, you have no idea how much this means to everyone learning this. It’s literally something we’ll all be doing until the very end and will benefit our families. My premiums right now are helping my parents who have lost their jobs because of Covid. Many many thanks.”At the end of the day, those who put in the work will be the most successful. I know hundreds of people who lost money in real estate. I have too, but my clients and I have made a whole lot more money to make up for the losses. It’s why I ask guests about what works and what doesn’t, so we as a community may rise up and create better futures for ourselves, our families and communities we live in. Speaking of supporting our communities, there are sectors of our local economies that are really suffering, restaurants, services, and tourism. If you’re able too, they could really use our patronage. Emma’s Back Porch in my own city just announced that, after 30 years, they are closing. Same with Crocodile Rock in downtown Toronto. I really hope those business owners also own the real estate they are located in. The former is right on the lake, Crocodile Rock is downtown. There is a chance owning the real estate is a better investment than operating the business. As a friendly reminder, that’s McDonald’s real business. Even though they’re a burger chain restaurant, they own most of the real estate their restaurants occupy and they often have great locations while they collect rent from the franchisees.
To register go to www.stockhackeracademy.ca/specialoffer.
All the details are there and prices go up April 23rd so don’t delay. The timing couldn’t be any better as Lee predicts the bottom of the stock market at only a few weeks away. Needless to say, my Stock Hacking game has improved 10X. The skills I’ve learned let me use strategies that I’ve refined while dialing down my risk. Lee loves to teach and share his experience and he’s invested through THREE major economic meltdowns and recoveries before the Covid19 related correction we’re in now. I honestly don’t know anyone I’d rather learn from right now. In real estate, I’ve always said, a real estate expert has invested through a full cycle. I’ve been through the credit crisis 12 years ago. Lee has been through THREE economic cycles, hence his experience in managing risk through the current down turn and how to maximize returns during the eventual recovery has me beyond excited to maximize returns during this recession. Yes, I love real estate. It’s the best investment in the world, however, the stock market dropped by close to a third and the real estate market in my target areas are on pause as physical showings and open houses have virtually stopped. Personally, I’m taking this social distancing time to learn a new skill that will make me money from home. We’re all stuck at home anyways, may as well learn how to maximize returns while we’re here. I can’t even mow the lawn at my investment property right now if I wanted to. As always, I love learning something new and sharing, especially with stock prices being so cheap right now and I’m beyond excited to announce the all new Stock Hacker Academy version 2.0 in partnership with Lee Lowell. The course is entirely rebuilt from scratch in my vision. I’ve taken in all the feedback and lessons from the first course and 10X’d the new 12 month program in order to give our students the highest probability of success. This isn’t for everyone. Those who want to learn and are willing to commit to practicing will succeed. Lee and I are here to provide the education. Only those willing should enroll, but knowing many of you came a long way in your real estate journeys, Stock Hacking is a brilliant complement. My wife Cherry and I are trading HELOC money from our investment properties. All you need to do is take the course and own a smart phone. As part of the 12 month program you get:When sports are back on, I’ll have an 8 foot projector screen to watch the game with friends, talk real estate and stocks. It will be legendary. Anyways, my kids will grow up thinking it’s normal to invest in the stock market, real estate, commercial real estate, etc… They’ll understand economics, sales and marketing, risk management. All the basics of being an investopreneur. They’ll grow up thinking being one’s own boss and owning assets is the path to financial peace vs. going to university and get a good job and pension. There’s nothing wrong with that path, my baby cousin is on the path as he’s now a member of our Canadian Armed Forces as an aircraft mechanic and I couldn’t be more proud. However I’m raising renegades who will have no boundaries. On to something about investing! We are finally turning around our stock hacking investments. I am down close to $40,000, however last week was neutral. I just transferred more cash to my trading and account and we had a wonderful surprise, my wife Cherry funded her account and made a nice and tidy four figure return in USD, all realized profits. We are having a friendly competition of he vs. she trader and she’s ahead of me this week as well. It is anyone’s guess which way the stock market goes from here. My best guess is we are a few weeks away from the bottom, things could get worse, yet I have positions that will profit in all markets, including having bought shares in a little company called Zoom. A lot of you working from home are likely now familiar with the company. More on the all new Stock Hacker Academy version 2.0 with the Godfather of stock option investing next week. Quick announcement, we have moved our highly demanded free training sessions on the #1 investment strategy in real estate online. Normally we sell out in hours of an email going out. The room we reserved can only hold 50, as per fire code. However the show must go on. This strategy, that will protect you in down markets and accelerate your returns in up markets, is a must know. For now these classes are free, social distance friendly and I personally attend them so if you want to come by say hi, learn the #1 investment strategy that is practiced by all the top investors I know including today’s guest then you’ll want to sign up at https://www.investortraining.ca/freeclass In the real estate world, the top 2 concerns are tenants not paying rent and to defer mortgage payments or not to defer. Our JV partner went ahead and deferred one of our mortgages for six months with one of the major banks. All she did was phone in. Wait times are long but it was pretty easy. Please do be sure to read and understand what you are doing. The best terms I’m hearing is the deferred mortgage payments are spread over the remaining years of your entire mortgage and not just the term, which to me is fantastic. All lenders are different, so get your info directly from the lender. I’m lucky to be part of the iWIN community, so I’ll get all the real world updates. Do keep in mind your other expenses: property taxes, utilities, phone, car. I’m hearing deferrals available everywhere should you be in financial distress. Take care of your mental health, yes, however, taking care of your financial health will greatly improve your stress levels.
I don’t know how we last three weeks. And who knows when we get back to school 🤣🤣. I’m not complaining. It’s always been a gift to be able to work from home as much as I do. I’m sorry I keep saying it but what historical times we live in… Just an hour ago I had to talk an iWIN client and member off a ledge as his parents are advising him to stop using debt to renovate and add an income suite to his 2nd investment property, to avoid risk and hoard cash. Let’s call him Joe. Joe is like a little brother to me and even though I owe him a duty of care as our real estate client and iWIN member, I didn’t mince words. I told him to get the B**** rented. Risk? What risk is there if the place is rented and you’re cash flowing let alone making mortgage payments. You want to talk about risk, how about only having a single income as a job, to me that’s risky. And worry about inflation. Everyone saw the Bank of Canada cut interest rates again. For those who kept reading the news, they’ll have noticed that OSFI, the government agency that regulates our banks, reduced their capital requirements of the big six banks so they could effectively lend out another $300 billion dollars. Cheap money and more money means inflation so grab a hold of your hard assets. Some gold and silver is great as insurance, no different than having some US dollars and cash of the paper variety. There is also real estate, of course. Yes, there are definitely those out there who are fearful as they experienced high interest and hyper inflation. I personally don’t expect it here as that would cripple our economy and bankrupt a lot of Canadians. Something no politician wants to do. My final words to Joe were that this is the time to double one’s efforts. Vacancy rates are so low I even suggested he start advertising the apartments right away so he may collect rent sooner. Speaking of doubling efforts, my team is not sitting back. We are innovating and moving what we can to online, including creating our own virtual tours with permission from sellers of listed properties. Our free training classes of the #1 investment strategy will be online. On a positive note, we can admit a lot more people into the webinar because we have less restrictions on room sizes and fire code. Our monthly iWIN meeting will be moved online as well and I will still pay our AV guy Angelo because he’s a great guy and he just had his baby. I’ve asked him to still DJ the online event. I don’t know how that will work but if I’m paying, I want him to work 😊. Our coaches will still be showing properties and looking for investments for our clients. Our real estate board was kind enough to send out tips on how to stay safe. Besides investor Joe, there are investors out there shopping or who are ready to shop. One of our clients was offered 2.6% variable rate mortgage on an investment property. I would take that all day. lol!! For the passive stock investor, there are already many great deals out there. One friend of mine is buying stocks, 10,000 dollars at a time each week as he is a long term investor and he’s not trying to time the bottom like I am. I’m a long term real estate investor as timing the market has cost a lot of people a lot of money, so I buy houses when I have capital. I made more of an effort in 2017 when the real estate market was soft right after Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan came into effect. My guess is we’ll experience the same very soon as people are staying home and not shopping for property. Quick update on my stock hacking, I’m down over one third of my initial capital so you’d think, ‘don’t throw good money after bad,’ right? Not us! Cherry’s account is now funded so we are both day trading which has been working out great as we are implementing strategies for a down market and we’ll be eventually moving even more line of credit money for bullish trades on Canadian dividend aristocrat stocks and the S&P 500 index. Yes it does suck to have lost as much as I have, but I’m really excited for these next few weeks, maybe months, for the eventual reversal and ride the wave back up. I missed out in 2008/9 which I regret, but this is also why we started and rushed out Stock Hacker Academy as I knew this was coming and I’ve never been more prepared. I’ve said many times, those with cash and credit win in downturns. I’ll add to that, know how and hustle. It’s why Cherry and I continue to invest in our education and receiving coaching… On to this week’s show!