Latest / The Capitalizing Your Life Podcast / Cellphone Salesman to Multi-Millionaire
Transcript
- Introduction 00:00:03 Welcome to the Millionaire journey hosted by Glenn Yaney. Each week, Glenn sits down with his guest to take a deep dive into their current financial allocation and hear their journey to becoming a millionaire. Through personal stories of failures and successes, you'll have the road map you need to improve your financial situation and increase your net worth. Glenn 00:00:26 Hello everyone. I'm Glenn, your host of the millionaire journey. The goal of this podcast is to guide and empower you on your journey towards financial independence. Today my guest John Henry with Millennial Wealth. Welcome, John. John 00:00:43 Hi Glenn. Thanks for having me. Glenn 00:00:45 I'm excited to interview you. I have been following you on Twitter and conversating and I think you'll have a great story. To get started, I guess just tell us a little bit about your financial journey and how you got to where you’re at today. John 00:01:02 Well, do you want the whole story Glenn or the shortened version? Glenn 00:01:06 We'll say the 30 second to maybe 90 second version of it we'll see how it goes. John 00:01:14 OK, well, I grew up with a single mom. So, I became aware of money and you know the effect it has on us when there's a shortage early in life. I know my mom struggled with that. So at an early age, I became very interested in money. So the short story really is, I pretty much became obsessed with reading about money and finance and made as much as I could in my 20s and 30s and bought 4 properties in my 20s, bought 2 properties in my 30s, and over the long term that pretty much set me up financially. Just doing those things early on and practicing the right behaviors early on. Glenn 00:01:56 Awesome. So, I guess we can break that down a little bit kind of towards the, I guess what was your first, I guess, career job that would help you buy those properties? John 00:02:08 Well, when I got out of high school, I got a scholarship to go to the state school. And I went. It was an hour away from my home. I went for about two months and quit and moved back home, sent the money back. My mom wasn't happy about that. So I got a job in the mall selling cell phones, so, it's kind of crazy thinking back but selling cell phones in the mall is how I bought 4 properties in my 20s. So I quit school early because it just didn't feel like the right path for me. I wanted to work. So I worked a bunch of different jobs and I realized that I enjoyed sales. So selling phones in the mall and ended up doing that for 12 years, not something you really brag about. But between 2000 and 2010, you could make 6 figures selling phones in the mall. So a lot of my friends that went to school and graduated and came out and got a job making 50 grand, I was doubling what they were doing. Well, a friends and family said, "John, why don't you get a real job?" But most of the people that said that were making half of what I was making. So that's kind of the story of my 20s, so that enabled me to buy property. Eventually I hit my 30s and decided I should probably do something else, but that's kind of the short version of my 20s. Glenn 00:03:30 So you're saying that there's no college degree? You left college, and then we you went to start the cell phone sales. And how how did you go about buying that first property? John 00:03:46 I bought my first one, the four properties I bought were all in Seattle. I bought my first one in 2004, so that was when you could actually get 100% financing. So I got an 80% loan and a 20% loan. So I just had to come in with the closing cost. It was a condo. So I can't. There's not many options to do that these days, but and so I purchased my first property. Then, if we're just kind of going through that. Two years later, I sold the property and made 100,000. I thought I was a genius, right? So I bought a house for 400,000 in 2006. And that was right before the great financial crisis. So a couple later, a couple of years later, my $400,000 house were 250. I wasn't feeling too smart then. Glenn 00:04:38 Where where the houses at? John 00:04:38 But I bought 2. In Seattle. Glenn 00:04:43 Oh, OK. John 00:04:45 But I bought two more properties. So at that point. Glenn 00:04:49 So you could buy those houses in the recession - during the recession? John 00:04:55 And so I bought the house in 2006. I bought the first condo in 2008, and then I bought the second condo in 2009. So I, probably yeah, I pretty much bought all the properties right before the Great Recession. So you see through the Great Recession wasn't fun. I lost my job. All four of the, all three of the properties that I had had were underwater. But it was a long term plan to hope, yeah. Glenn 00:05:25 That you had fixed finance, financing on those and was able to hold on to them? John 00:05:29 Yeah. Yeah. And so it was always a long term plan. Buy a property. Put a renter in there and have them pay off the mortgage. And it was a long term retirement type plan for me. So I sat through it, which was hard. Glenn 0:05:44 When you - so with those houses - do you still own them? John 00:05:48 Uhm, I sold two of the Seattle properties. I still have the two condos. So the two condos up there I've had for like 15 years now. Glenn 00:05:56 Well, so I'm assuming they're not underwater anymore. John 00:06:01 No, glad I stuck with it. I saw a lot of friends and family let their stuff go. But that's the thing about investing is it's not a straight line type of thing and it's always best to have a long term outlook, especially with property. Glenn 00:06:16 So after your 20s, we after you've I guess, 2008, 2009 tell us a little bit more about your finding like your trajectory of professionally or investing and everything along with that. John 00:06:34 So, I lost my job in 2009, the end of 2009. I didn't work for nine months. So this was definitely this was the hardest time for me financially because my 3 remaining properties were underwater. I had 55,000 in credit card debt, so at that time I decided I wanted to go in a different direction. So I started working in banking. So that's something I've always been interested in finance and real estate. So I was a banker for a year and then I moved into mortgage finance and I actually did that all of my 30s. So just to recap my 20s, I averaged around 100,000 a year selling phones in the mall. Who would have thought you can do that? I don't think you can these days, but and then in my 20s I average around, I'm sorry, my 30s, I averaged around 180 a year doing mortgages. So in my 30s I bought two more properties in California and my investing strategy really was make as much as I can. I saved 15% in my 20s and my 30s into my 401K. In my later 30s, I started to save outside my 401K because I was maxing it out and really that was my strategy, was just save invest in my 401K buy property that I planned to hold for a long time and eventually I hit the $1,000,000 mark when I was 36. Just between my property and my savings and then around 40, I hit the two and a half million dollar mark and that's when I decided, well, I've been in corporate 20 years I might as well leave and you know, try to do my own thing and I became more interested in other types of investing outside of you know typical 401K and property, so that's where I'm at these days. Glenn 00:08:27 So what other investing is that? John 00:08:30 Property and investing in your 401K is pretty much kind of the beginner stages. Over the past few years I've been looking into other things like private placements where you can invest in private businesses and, you know, it's not for everybody and it's definitely if you're more sophisticated and you are interested in those sort of things, it's definitely something to look into. If you know, but, not so much for the average, the average person. But that's something I'm still exploring? I wouldn't, I wouldn't claim to be an expert in investing in private business. This is - It's my current journey. Glenn 00:09:06 How did you get tied into that? How did you? How do you invest in something like that? John 00:09:11 Usually you have to have a certain net worth, I believe. To be able to invest in private companies. Glenn 00:09:16 Credit investor. Is that what that is? John 00:09:19 Yeah. Yeah. There's more and more available these days. I think the rules changed a few years ago, where the average person can invest in private companies and they don't have to be accredited. It just depends. That's something you definitely need to research and think hard about. I wouldn't recommend that early in anybody's journey as far as investing and budgeting. Just the basic blocking and tackling is the most important for most folks. Glenn 00:09:44 So with the business that you invested - in what what kind of business is that? John 00:09:50 Well, I've invested in over 10 private companies and with the ---- Glenn 00:09:52 Wow. And what's the minimum investment for each one? John 00:09:56 It just depends really. So if it's if you need to be accredited, I mean. It really is up to the company that's raising the funds. So normally if you need to be accredited, the minimum that I've seen is usually 10,000, so. Glenn 00:10:13 So has any of them really taken off or done well? Or have you seen anything to come back? John 00:10:19 I'm still in the beginning stages of that, so I just started exploring that in 2000 or 2021-2022. So it's not something you'd necessarily do early on in your investing journey. Glenn 00:10:32 Yeah, yeah. So - John 00:10:34 But I was going to say investing now it's it's just one of those things, financial knowledge. It just builds. You know you have a budget and then you save your money and then you buy a property and then you have a significant amount of money saved over a long period of time. So it's just it's something that grows as your knowledge grows you become more and more interested in other things that you wouldn't necessarily be interested in earlier on in your journey, you know and everybody's risk tolerance is different, so some people are more comfortable with certain things than others. Glenn 00:11:05 Yeah. So the, I guess nowadays you are a financial coach or is what what are you doing today? I think - I am just going off of what I've seen on Twitter. John 00:11:15 Yeah, well, I left. I decided to leave banking after 10 years, so I left banking when I was 39 and I thought, you know, I need to, I want to do my own thing, but I don't know exactly what that is. But after sitting in a cubicle for 20 years, I thought I, you know, there has to be more out there. So I left at the end of 2019 planning to do my own thing, and then the pandemic hit. So after doing mortgages for 10 years during the pandemic, my phone was just ringing like crazy. Everybody wanted to refinance. So I worked part time for a broker and I did loans for another two years. And then the end of 2021, everything started to slow down. So that's when I decided well, now's the time where I can start pursuing something new. Since I was John, the phone guy in my 20s, John, the loan guy in my 30s. So I thought, well, now's a good time to. turn a new leaf. So I decided I wanted to start an online business that was focused on financial education and Millennial Wealth is the newsletter that I started that comes out every Saturday, and I imagine I'm talking to my younger self basically just kind of sharing and talking about the things that would have interested me in my early 30s, later 20s. So my plan basically is just to build a community of folks that are interested in this, this type of stuff. Paying off debt, building wealth, looking into different investments, just growing financial knowledge. That's how we connected on Twitter. Glenn 00:12:44 Yeah and I feel like we have a lot of the similar views. I think with, if you could, I guess, what is something that you, I guess, with you talking to your younger self, what would be that one thing that you could change or how what would give you a better start? Or like what would be the one thing that I guess you would change with your financial journey that you could have done instead? John 00:13:11 I would say just to become more aware of money sooner. So an analogy I always think of is everybody loves Tesla, right? Every quarter, Tesla reports how much they made, what their expenses were, what their profit was. I wish earlier I became more serious with that and I probably would have got to where I'm at maybe five or eight years sooner. So just be aware of the money that's coming in and the money that's going out every month. Think of your personal life like you're running a business like Tesla. They need to make a profit to stay in business, so the average person they need to keep floor, they need to know what's coming in every month and what's going out every month. And if you're just hoping and wishing and you don't have a process of keeping score that doesn't usually end very well. Glenn 00:14:00 So I guess we've all made made the mistakes. So what's what's your biggest money mistake that you've made? John 00:14:07 When I was 30 and I didn't work for nine months and had almost $60,000 in credit card debt, that's a mistake you don't forget. I think it's one of those things we all learn the hard way. Glenn 00:14:18 So how did how did you get out of that hole? John 00:14:22 Working in mortgage, mortgage tends to pay really well, so I tell the average person, my younger self make as much money as you can in your 20s or 30s. If you're going to work for someone else and you're going to make 40 grand a year, it's hard to get ahead, especially with inflation being 20% over the last 3 1/2 years. Literally the last 3 1/2 years, inflation is 20%. You can't make 40 grand a year and get ahead, you know. It's hard and so you really need to think about how you can make as much money as possible and for me I realized that I liked sales. And sales is one of the few roles where you can make 6 figures and not have a degree, and you don't necessarily have to be a stereotypical salesperson. I'm an introvert. I'm not an average stereotypical salesperson. Most people are surprised when they learn I was in sales for as long as I was, but it's a skill most people that are stereotypical don't remain in sales. Because people don't like to be sold to. Glenn 00:15:21 So is there like any creative ways, that you were - or I guess - ways that you've sacrificed that obviously you might not be doing today, but before that point, you had to sacrifice to whether it's work more or some way of paying off that debt. Like what were some things that you had to do? John 00:15:44 I'm in my 30s I worked. A lot. I mean, I worked like 60 hour weeks, so eventually you realize that there's only so much time in the day and you start to think, how could I work smarter not harder? How could I make more and not work 12 hour days? And I think. I remember in my 20s if you worked 12 hour days, you were bragging about it, but really it's not a very smart, scalable way to go. So high income skills in my opinion, are the best way to make a lot of money. So there's lots of different types of high income skills out there that you don't necessarily need a degree to acquire. So I would really tell somebody to focus on making as much as they possibly can. A sacrifice I made, besides working too much in my 30s, always when I bought property I always had a roommate. And I know a lot of people like to live alone, but looking back over 15 years, I probably saved 180,000 by just having a roommate over 15 years. So just thinking about stuff like that makes a big difference over the long term. Glenn 00:16:51 Yeah, that's super underrated. I know that I know a few people that have done that and really put them on a upward projectory with their finances. If you just get rid of that one expense of your housing it just opens up the floodgates where you can be able to save and pay off of a big, you know, big loan they have. Like you did. When I was reading your your website, I was thinking do you do financial coaching? John 00:17:20 ` I'm set up on my website to do financial coaching, yes, and I'm not doing it right now just because I'm focused on building out my audience. But it's something I'll likely do in the future more, just to get a better idea of what folks need as far as what would be helpful. for them. My longer term goal is to create digital products that I can offer. Possibly on budgeting or buying your first rental property. So financial coaching is great to help people and to get an idea of what people need and want as far as how I can help in the future with those things. Glenn 00:17:54 Cool - is there is there anything you think that we should touch base on with your financial journey? Or here's a question I was actually thinking before the podcast and I thought cause I think about my own personal story and what was the, I guess the unintended consequence of becoming financial independent like something that happened to you that you ended up benefiting from somehow had no idea that that it was going to happen. John 00:18:23 This is a terrible example, but my mom passed away when I was 34. And that I think whenever a parent passes away or somebody that's close to you, it just causes you to really think hard about life and what you're doing and what you maybe want to stop doing or start doing. And for me, when I was 34 and that happened, that's when I really thought, you know, I'm, I'm killing myself, working so much and there's there's so much more to life than you know, working hard, working too hard. So I'd say for me that was the biggest pivot point when I was 34 is when I decided I needed to leave corporate and plan my exit and I didn't leave for another five or six years. But that's when I really doubled down. As far as my savings. Glenn 00:19:09 Yeah when it comes to the financial story, I had the similar stories, you know, just started. I mean, I started around 27, but then around I really started getting into the financial independence. And started learning about the benefits of a high savings rate and the lower you spend, the more you can, the easier it is to get to that that destination. I guess would you have? Any questions for me or? John 00:19:36 I don't think I do at this point. I know you. Glenn 00:19:37 Put you on the spot. John 00:19:39 I've read about your journey online a bit, so I kind of have a general idea. Sounds like you were a real estate guy too, so I haven't asked you too much about that, but it'd be nice to know more. Glenn 00:19:51 Yeah and I think the main thing that me and you connected with was the the main focus on, I mean, I understand, like I agree that the the savings rate has to be high, but the way to get to the savings rate is pressed down on the expenses, but then also increase the income. And I think that we agree on a lot of the strategies of, you know, investing into income producing assets and stuff like that and that was the one thing that really, really made me interested in wanting to interview you. And I'm really excited to see your growth in the financial industry just as a good example of what it what it takes to have a good savings rate. I guess we could just wrap up the interview. I guess what I'll do is I'll put ways to contact John in the the description below. If you have any feedback for the podcast. You can leave comments, review thumbs up if you like the podcast and it's this is the inaugural podcast. So we'll we'll have a lot changing constantly, but we look forward to having more guests like John to interview and thanks for listening. John 00:21:08 Thanks Glenn. Glenn 00:21:09 Thanks. 00:21:10 Outro Thank you for listening to the Millionaire Journey podcast. We appreciate your support and hope you found today's episode inspiring and valuable. If you enjoyed the show, please take a moment to like, comment, rate, and subscribe.