First and Future
Your paycheck is the fuel; ownership is the destination. Join us on First and Future as we explore the strategies, mindsets, and investments required to bridge the gap between earning a living and owning your future.
First and Future
Cash Flow, Escrow & Money Systems Explained
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Liam just bought a car with straight cash — no loan, no monthly payment. In Episode 8, we break down why that decision was about CASH FLOW, not fear of debt, and how the same thinking applies to your mortgage, your escrow account, and your entire money system.
We get into:
🚗 Cash vs. financing a car — the real opportunity cost math (9% loan vs. 11% market returns)
🏠 Escrow explained — why you might be giving your mortgage company a free loan
💰 De-escrowing an investment property to fund your next down payment
📊 The $1,500/month conversation — making savings REAL for clients, not just a number
🔄 Why your emergency fund doesn't need 6 months (and what to do instead)
🧾 How bad tax prep kills mortgage approvals — and the fix
🏗️ Vertical integration: how one problem-solving business turns into five
The four things every business needs: a problem, a solution, a price, and people who know about it. That's it.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
0:00 – Intro
0:47 – Why Liam paid CASH for his car
2:17 – Dibbs' car note era (3 notes in 1 year)
8:46 – Escrow: the free loan you're giving the bank
11:15 – De-escrow one property, buy another
13:02 – The opportunity cost of a $20K car
15:50 – Stop asking "how low is the payment"
18:48 – Saving $1,500/month vs. a higher rate
20:05 – Making the numbers REAL for clients
24:29 – You need a money system, not a wish
26:51 – Problem solver, not serial entrepreneur
29:35 – The 4 things every business needs
31:11 – Vertical integration: agent → taxes → lending
36:40 – Investing is mandatory
38:35 – Pay yourself first
42:38 – The 6-month emergency fund myth
46:45 – Building businesses that outlive you
48:29 – Wrap up
💳 Need your credit fixed before you buy? → darryldibbs.com (Credit Club)
🏠 Ready to get pre-approved? → darryldibbs.com/mortgage
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Ay yo hey yo. Alright, cool.
SPEAKER_00Can you hear me now? Yep.
SPEAKER_01We're recording. Everything's working. This is getting smoother every week.
SPEAKER_00I know, right? We came in, we saw it, we conquered. I don't even think you know the interest-only owners um have used their studio. We are getting more use out of this space than they are.
SPEAKER_01I don't think they realize when we're here sometimes either. I don't think they've realized we're on episode eight right now of First and Future Finance. I don't think they even know we're on episode eight.
SPEAKER_00So shout out to them for letting us use the space. Hopefully, you know, they don't start charging us rent or anything like that. Well, what's going on in the world, Leo?
SPEAKER_01Um shit. I just got a car. That's pretty cool in my world. I don't really know what's going on in the world. I live under a rock. Um I probably also shouldn't have sworn it's been a minute, so no more YouTube monetization.
SPEAKER_00But did did uh well the the car you got, did you finance it?
SPEAKER_01Hell no. Cash money. Cash. I don't want that insurance payment, bro. That shit's expensive.
SPEAKER_00So, like, what's the like so that's gotta be a pro of buying a car cash, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00Just lower insurance. Was that like your only motivating factor?
SPEAKER_01That was the main one. Also, I just hate monthly bills. Like, if I have an emergency fund set up and I have money to where I know I'm good, I have my investments, I have liquid cash, I want to have as little bills as possible to maximize my cash flow. That way it's like if I do get a bad month or I have a great month, whatever the case is, I can put my money to what I want to put it towards and what I need to put it towards.
SPEAKER_00What's that like? I haven't been bill free in a minute.
SPEAKER_01Like, I'm the closest you can be to bill free without having actual passive cash flow.
SPEAKER_00Damn.
SPEAKER_01Or being homeless either side of it.
SPEAKER_00Gotcha, gotcha. So I'm like, what is what does a money system look like when you don't have bills? Like you get your check and you go buy a car.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Every check I buy a car. Yes.
SPEAKER_00Every check, a different different SUV, different vehicle to lower your insurance bill.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00You bundle it all together and save.
SPEAKER_01Yep, exactly.
SPEAKER_00That's that's lovely, man. I remember the lowest I've been was probably like 2017, 2018. All right. My rent was like 800 bucks a month. I was uh I was staying with like my my family owns properties, right? Nice, okay. I was staying in one of those. Um and they were they were very generous with with how much they were charging me. Um so 800 bucks a month, didn't have a car note. I was driving this beater around. It was actually my sister's car. I was driving around like this this beater of a neon. It just got me from A to B.
SPEAKER_01Okay. Oh, the neon was an SRT. No, no. I love the neons, bro. It was just throw the neon. Yeah. You have the spoiler on the back at least. I did have a spoiler on the back.
SPEAKER_00There was a there was a spoiler. It was it was cherry red. I was about to ask. Cherry red, and I still wrote the window down like this. So no no power window, no power steering. Different time. Four wheels and a motor. Like, but I like I said, it's been a long time since I've been that because once my real estate business took off, I was able to start leveraging the cash I was making. Yep. Bro, I think I had I think I had three cars in the span of a of a year. Like three notes that I that I was I was leasing one and then I had two car notes in less than a year after that driving that neon. That's crazy. Did you get anything cool though? What'd you get? Oh, um, so I had an Equinox. All right. I had a BMW.
SPEAKER_01Is that the one you just showed me in Carvana? The came down thing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I put the coin in the machine and it came down to vending machine. I drove that thing maybe a month before I took it back. Um overpromised and under-delivered, man. This is so BMW is probably not gonna sponsor the podcast now.
SPEAKER_01That's okay. I have a Toyota 400 now. I want Toyota to sponsor the podcast.
SPEAKER_00There we go. Because there's no uh like there was, I just I just felt like a luxury vehicle should have more tech than the one that I had.
SPEAKER_01I feel like you also kind of shot yourself in the foot a little bit. I like cars, so I can go on this rant a little bit. Hopefully, people watch us like cars. Um out of the German cars, you probably got the sportiest car. If you wanted more of like a luxury style thing, which I'm guessing when you were looking for, you should have got like an Audi or a Benz.
SPEAKER_00Well, guess what? When I turned in the BMW, what'd you get? I ended up with an Audi cool. All right, yeah. I got an A5, it was a 2021. Um had all the tech in there. Fucking like the the dashboard was all digital. Yeah. Um I could I could switch it to like manual mode, it had a speed mode in there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh man, I drove the shit out of that thing.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Like, I'm talking about on the freeway.
SPEAKER_01What engine was in there? Do you know? Uh was it their V6? The Turbo 5?
SPEAKER_00It was the Turbo 5. Yep.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, their Turbo 5 is fucking.
SPEAKER_00So it was the so there's the A5, and then they've got the S5, which is the one that's right up under the R, uh, the R5s. Yep. So I had the the in-between version, but what I'm talking about, this is the fastest car I've ever driven. I bet. With with control. Oh yeah. Because I had a Saturn that I used to do numbers on. Oh, yeah. It was a manual, stick shift, stick shift, and I'm on 696, man, floating. Oh, yeah, I bet. But you put a puddle, you just man, I was under, I was not in control in that car. That was like a dumb teenager move, me driving that.
SPEAKER_01That's my C bring. I mean, pretty much. That's the thing. I'm just flying. It's it's an auto, but it's still I'm just flying until I'm not.
SPEAKER_00Bro, the Audi though is is yeah, that's that's my favorite car that I've owned.
SPEAKER_01I miss my Audi. I only had a four-cylinder turbo, the Q3, my 2018. Man, you got the truck, yeah. Like the small one, like the crossover, you know. But that dude, that shit was so nice. I like big bodies. I also like really small cars, but like I feel like I don't want a small car every day. Yeah, like I split up my cars into this is also more high-level stuff we're talking. If we're going into the financial this side, but perfect world. I have like a three-car solution of like I have like my big body utilitarian, which can be my forerunner, and then I get a two-door, like a coupe of some kind for my fun car.
SPEAKER_00So you can play with it.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. But then I also I want a classic of some kind. I don't know what yet. I've been looking at like the DeVilles, stuff like that. I just want something old, big body. I can put on some spinners, some like 22-inch rims. I think that'd be really dope.
SPEAKER_00I'm not, I'm not a fan of the uh like I'm not a car buff. You know what I mean? I just like to go fast. I like to get where I'm going and arrive in style. Like, I do like when I turn my lights on, people like do this. They like, oh, yeah. What's he got? What's he driving? Who's in there? Yep.
SPEAKER_01I like that a little bit, but I don't I don't care how fast I go. Like I want to get a car four speed, but I like cruising. If I can get just like an old big body car, just you know, hand up on the the giant wheel, I'm happy, you know.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think I need to travel more. I've driven to the furthest place I've driven is like Savannah, Georgia, then down to Florida. Um, but like for a long road trip like that, then yeah, yeah, I'll get the I'll get the cruise, I'll put the super cruise on where it follows the car behind you. Oh, yeah. That is like the best feature. So that's like Chef Kiss. Um, if I get an SUV or if I get a uh a pickup truck, yeah, it's gotta have the super cruise in there where I can just hit the button, take my foot off the pedal and steer.
SPEAKER_01I don't know if my car is cruise control. I didn't even check that yet. I I pick it up Monday, so I don't know, I haven't been in it yet.
SPEAKER_00If it doesn't have it, give it back and get the get the. I'm telling you it's worth it.
SPEAKER_01I mean, I've driven those before, they're nice, but like it's weird. I find myself not using cruise control too much. I kind of like driving. Like, I enjoy the feeling of like getting my pedal in the right spot and holding it somewhere, like you know, getting up to speed, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00I like vibrations of the road that excite you. I think so.
SPEAKER_01I like feeling the car, yeah. I like feeling like in full control. Not to say I'm not in control with the cruise control, but like I just kind of like it, you know? It's enjoyable. Oh, you dropping shit, man.
SPEAKER_00But yeah, like that, so yeah, that I'm so far removed from like not having bills, that they've just become like normalized in my life. Okay. Um, but yeah, if I could go back to it, remove car notes, remove, I'm not gonna say remove mortgage, but like the escrow. Yeah, you know what I mean? I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking about removing my taxes and insurance from my mortgage payment.
SPEAKER_01I've always wondered what is the benefit to doing that? Because you have to save that much money anyway. Yeah. What's the benefit of doing that if you're gonna put that money aside every month anyway? Is it just because you have it liquid? Cash flow, yeah. But what if you're not disciplined enough in your money system?
SPEAKER_00Then you should not do that.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah. All right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so the here's the here's the the catch 22 with it. Like you have to pay the property taxes, even if you don't have a mortgage.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's the same amount, whether it's escort or not.
SPEAKER_00Like, so so would I rather pay, you know, $1,700 a month, knowing that $700 of it is just gonna go to, you know, they're just saving it for me to pay it out later. Or would I rather have that $700 in my pocket? You're giving them more.
SPEAKER_01You're giving them a free loan. That's true. Okay, question then. Do you escrow investment properties? No. Interesting. Because I would think you almost would, because you don't want to think about it, but also then you have like a fucking $50,000 tax bill, I'm guessing, at the end of the year if you have a bunch of properties, and like it depends.
SPEAKER_00So it's it's um and this is why the research, having a good real estate agent on your team that can kind of guide you, or a real estate agent that is an investor, okay, that knows what you're gonna be hit with once they once they buy the property. I would like to you want to have an agent that's also buying in that neighborhood. Right. Right? Or at least somewhere around it. Yeah. Um, if they're not gonna take the deal for for themselves, then they need to be calling you first and saying, hey, I got this property, I'm over-leveraged right now. Can you take it on?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so at least they know once you buy the property what your taxes and insurance will be, and then you can decide, do I want to escrow that money with my mortgage or do I want to qualify for more? Because sometimes it becomes a strategy. A DTI thing. Yeah, it's a positioning thing. So if I want to use, if I want to get the lowest interest rate or an investment property, I need to go conventional.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Just a traditional full doc conventional rather than a DSCR.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. You can be a percent higher.
SPEAKER_00Yep, and a lower down payment.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, way lower. So 20%.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So you're talking about strategically making my mortgage. If I buy a hundred thousand dollar property, that's a $600,000, a $600 a month obligation versus $1,300. Yeah. So now I'm cash flowing that $600. I could use that $600 to buy a whole nother property. Yep. And now I have two cash, you know, now I have two cash flowing properties that are gonna pay my taxes eventually.
SPEAKER_01Right. I see what you mean. And then it's and it's on you because then you can get that cash flow, put in high yield savings by I'm doing an HEI for a guy today, uh, a home equity investment for those who don't know. Um, he's taking 100K out, 110, 40k, uh, and I didn't even bring this up, so I got really gassed when we started talking for 20 minutes. Not even my client, I was just trying to close him. Uh, he was like, Yeah, I'm gonna take 40k at this to go buy a bunch of silver. And then me and him got real deep in conversation about that. Um so you can actually use your money correctly, you can wisely invest and do good things if you have more cash flow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's all about your rate of return. Yeah, right. So if I'm gonna get a mortgage for 7% on an investment property, what can I use that other $600 that I'm gonna put in escrow for my taxes and insurance? Yeah. $600 a month is what? Like $6,000, $7,200 a year? Yeah. So $7,200 a year is a down payment on a $75,000 house.
SPEAKER_01That's a down payment on uh I just closed up my first purchase. When we talked about a couple weeks ago and I rang the bell. Uh that was a $121,000 loan. He was out of pocket, $7,300.
SPEAKER_00There you go. So the escrow and one investment property allows me to buy a primary duplex for $7,200 with the same money that I would have just had sitting in my with my mortgage company.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I like that. So you you know, I weigh opportunity costs all the time.
SPEAKER_01So like that was my big thing with buying this car, and that's I feel like that's uh why I brought it up, why I wanted to talk about was the opportunity cost of having your money parked in a car. Because if you get, let's say, a $20,000 car, what could that $20,000 be doing for you if it's not sitting in that car? Because cars are all depreciating assets, which I think is the dumbest term ever, by the way, as a liability. It is not they're toys.
SPEAKER_00Yes, they are. If I went and bought a Buzz Lightyear from from uh from Toys R Us, which is that that's not even around anymore. I don't know where kids get their toys.
SPEAKER_01I think there's like one in Toronto. I think I've seen one.
SPEAKER_00So it's a relic. But if I if I go buy a toy, I'm not expecting uh that Buzz Lightyear is gonna be you know worth $5,000 when I paid $30 for it. Right.
SPEAKER_01Maybe, who knows? But probably it should be enjoyed.
SPEAKER_00I spent my money to play with it. Yeah, I didn't buy an Audi because I I needed transportation. Yeah, I already had a car, I wanted the fun car. I wanted the fun, I wanted to go fast.
SPEAKER_01So I that's the thing, and that is where I was kind of weighing my opportunity cost of like I bought the Forerunner because I know they hold their value well. Um and um I know that I could have this car for the next five years and I'll still make at least let's say what I bought at is 100%. I'll sell it for at least 6570. If I treat it right, definitely in five years, I'm getting at least 65.70% out of it, which is crazy in cars. That's really good. Um but I don't know. Like for me, it was I don't I wanted the lowest cash flow or I wanted the highest cash flow possible. I wanted as little money out of my pocket as possible every month so that way I can do what I want to do with it, and and that also helps with my insurance. Like I spend money on my insurance every six months. I don't do it monthly because I want cash flow. I want I want to hold that money and pay it when I pay it. Um for me, the opportunity cost was like I want cash flow, I don't want to owe money to people.
SPEAKER_00Did you compare it to a loan?
SPEAKER_01No, only because everything I was getting offered was the the base rate I got was nine percent. So I already knew if like, well, at that point, I should just put my money invested. Like if I put my money that was if I were to get a loan invested in the market and let's say an average rate of 11% returns, I'm losing money because of inflation. So if I'm gonna lose the money anyway, because at 9%, you're still negative. I don't care if you're making 11 a year with inflation that 2% target, which we're over, I'm losing money anyway. If I'm gonna lose money anyway, I'd rather have cash flow.
SPEAKER_00Yep. So that and and that's where that's where I think a lot of people, almost no one does that. No one looks at the the cost, they're like, how low can I get the payment? Yeah, how low is the payment? What am I paying per month versus how long do I make the payment? If I'm if I'm paying $700 a month for five years, you know, that's that's gonna cost me way more than just paying for it up front.
SPEAKER_01And something that's losing value too. Like uh especially in a car, like yeah, forerunners hold their value well. I'm still gonna lose money on it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but see that that's where I don't feel like it's a loss because you're getting the use. Yes, you're using it. So you let just simple, simple math. You're using it to get to and from work. Yep. So you're using it to earn money, that's that's the difference. And if you out earn what it costs you to get the car, then it wasn't a waste.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00That's that's how I like to look at it.
SPEAKER_01If you use it, especially like this where it kind of goes back to being a toy. It's like if you get your value out of the car, like I'm gonna put a tow hitch on and keep a bike on it at all times, kind of like cycling. Yeah, I'm gonna go places in that car and cycle. I'm gonna get my enjoyment out of that car. Where things I couldn't do as easy if I had my C bring. You know, so I feel like that's where I feel like people get stuck too. And we talked about this last week, I think, where How do I word this again? Like some people won't make decisions because of the cost of the decision, but they're not weighing that against anything. They're just like, oh, that feels like it's too high of a payment, or that rate feels too high. But in reality, if you said you wanted 50k in your pocket right now, but you don't want to pay $300 a month to get it, you don't want $50K. You don't want $50K. Yeah. But what were you gonna use that $50K for? It probably wasn't that important then if you don't want that $50K.
SPEAKER_00They're they're emphasizing the downside.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00The downside is I have to pay $300 that in my mind I don't have right now or don't want to. Um, but you're not weighing the upside risk. When's the last time you had $50,000 just sitting in your bank account? That's nice. What that like you can't even measure, you you're not making a full decision because you can't even measure what it would be like to have $50,000 in your account. Yeah, I don't care if you put the extra $300 a month, you can pull it out of the $50,000 that I'm giving you. But most people aren't wired to think that way. That's where, you know, that's that's where we have to bring it out of them to present the the the solution.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely.
SPEAKER_00And you know, that's one of the most challenging things is taking someone's belief, pulling it out of them, like completely obliterating it and then replacing it with a new one.
SPEAKER_01Especially when like it is objectively wrong. Some of these people's beliefs, I hate to say it, are objectively just bad, bad takes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you just have to, you just have to conveniently swap it out with a better idea.
SPEAKER_01Yep. Like I forget who it was. Uh it was someone that worked here. They had a deal, they were paying off someone's debt, a bunch of debt. They were saving about $1,500 a month, but their mortgage rate was going from a two and a half to like a six and a half because conventional rates, such as where it was, they didn't have the best credit. The rate shouldn't matter at all if I'm saving you fifteen hundred dollars a month cash flow. Like that's huge. You can do so much more with $15,000.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. What could you do? But see, and that's and that I think that's the next level of the conversation that they probably didn't get to.
SPEAKER_01What would you do with that $1,500?
SPEAKER_00What would you do with an extra $1,500 a month and then let them kind of play in that hypothetical?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because me telling you you're saving $1,500 a month is a lot different than hey, I got other bills. We look at we look at credit reports, we look at the liability or what's coming out, but sometimes we don't look at the full picture of what they're actually paying. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, you're saving me $1,500 a month, but I'm losing X.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Or I have to pay Y to do that. And they haven't really gained anything because they haven't in their head put that $1,500 towards anything.
SPEAKER_00It's not real yet. Yeah. It's not real. So your job is to make it real for them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And and really explain, hey, I'm saving you $1,500 a month. You, you know, you said that your kid just went off to college. How many books does that buy for that for that semester?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. How many meals does that buy them?
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? Like, so making it real versus just having a number, I'm saving you fifteen hundred dollars a month, yeah, is you know, one of the best closures because uh you're gonna sell yourself. I don't know your life. You do, you know your area better than I do.
SPEAKER_01You know the specific specificities of your life way better than I could ever tell you.
SPEAKER_00You know what would you spend $1,500 a month on? What would you do with $50,000 in your pocket right now? Yeah. And just dream with them. I might buy another car. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01Like maybe, oh, I'll take my own. Audi's only $30,000.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You buy Audi, you still got $20K left.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh, I'm going on vacation. So we have one guy right now, uh, I'm doing a loan for. Um via cash out going to 100% of his uh loan of value. Just want to pay off some debt, get some money in his pocket, do home improvements. And um I'm like, yeah, I'm getting you like 40 grand, man. He's like, oh nice, I can use that to pay off my truck. I'm like, oh no, that's after we're paying off the truck. He's like, oh man, I'm going on vacation. Like he sold, he immediately started signing, didn't even care. And he's like, but that's the thing, like, he got out of his own way. He can still afford the payments. He knows he can, because he wouldn't even be qualified if he couldn't. He can afford the payments. He's got money in his pocket. So even if he can't afford the payments, he can put it towards the payments and we can and we're gonna refi him in six months anyway. Because VA Earls, you know, you get your six-month window, you're gonna get a low rate no matter what. So I don't want to cut you off. People are so focused on the 30 year because we're in a 30 year mortgage, you can pay that shit off tomorrow. I don't care what you do. You can get a refi in six months, and that rate's down. This isn't a permanent eight percent. You haven't even done the math on it, but go ahead.
SPEAKER_00I'm that's just what I was just coming back full circle. It's the same conversation you have about the escrowing.
SPEAKER_02I'm
SPEAKER_00Going to save $600 a month de escrowing my accountant and only paying the mortgage. But is it kicking the can down the road? And that's where you have to kind of kind of empathize with them that they don't speak mortgage. Yeah. We have to break it down into regular terms of hey, you don't have to make your truck payment anymore. It's gone. And your insurance goes down, free and clear title, like we just talked about. That's what I'm saying. This is gonna save you so much more, but the money that you're worried about paying is already out of your budget. We're talking about money that is coming back into your account because you're not you're no longer going to be spending it. Yeah. And I think that's the like that's where you have to live when when you're when you're like selling the loan. Yeah. But I mean, like, so many people just don't even know what's coming out. So they're like, where am I saving $1,500? I'm not paying $1,500 a month.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah, because that's how that's why you have 10 lights on this credit card, because you haven't been paying.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. But that's a reality too.
SPEAKER_01And that's why your credit's bad.
SPEAKER_00If I already haven't been paying the bill, then what are you saying me? Like, what are what are you saving me if I already have not been just ignoring those debts?
SPEAKER_01Oh, well, you know the credit score that you're complaining about because you got a high rate. I'm fixing that by paying this off. So that problem doesn't exist for you.
SPEAKER_00Now that's what you sell.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Now you're telling them, hey, we got a different problem then. If you're not paying these bills, we're gonna fix it to where all of this resets.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you need a hard reset.
SPEAKER_00You need a hard reset. We're gonna get you from the low fives all the way into the high sixes or even the seven hundreds once we get rid of all this bad debt for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And that's why I think is really crazy too, is like I feel like that does come from a like lack of knowing, but people think they can get everything they want all at once in finances. And it's like you can't just get a mortgage to pay off all your debt and get the low rate and get the payment you want. You put yourself in a hole. We need to get you out of there first, then we can get you what you want. Yeah, but it takes time. It's the same with investing, it's the same with any type of money thing. It's not like I'm just gonna put 200k in the market and I'm gonna be a millionaire in a week. It doesn't just happen.
SPEAKER_00You you have to have a system. We talked about this in in past episodes is having a money system, something that you believe in, uh getting your money, whether that's through refinance, through work, through selling things, a business. You get your money, you find something to store it in that's going to gain value. And in this case, the value is your credit score going up. Yeah, once your credit score goes up, we can get you better terms, which saves you more money. Yeah. Which is what you want to do.
SPEAKER_01Your goal is to save money. It's gonna take you six months to do it, eight months, but you're gonna do it.
SPEAKER_00You're gonna do it by default. Yeah, you don't have to do anything but keep paying your mortgage like you've been doing. Do you think a lot of people have a plan? Or a goal?
SPEAKER_01Not even. Like a hard goal. I feel like a lot of people are wishing.
SPEAKER_00A lot of people are wishing something happens. I hope that this goes well for me. Or I I'm I want to do this. Yep. They're not planning to do anything or or just doing the thing. I don't I don't have to announce that I'm starting a business. I'm just gonna start one.
SPEAKER_01Yep, I don't need the validation. I need to just do it.
SPEAKER_00You know what I mean? I see a problem and I solve it. That's that's the way that I'm wired.
SPEAKER_01And that's business.
SPEAKER_00That's that's just the business.
SPEAKER_01People will pay you if you're really solving enough people's problems, they will pay you to continue solving those problems.
SPEAKER_00I'll give you a perfect example. We were having an issue with our credit repair, right? You know, deals weren't getting closed. So I went and sourced where, you know, how how do you repair credit? What do you need to do? And we're gonna have um a guest on pretty soon.
SPEAKER_01Darrell dibs.com as well.
SPEAKER_00That's gonna that's gonna break it down. But I got so tired of the funnel like breaking down between uh between recommending somebody to credit repair and not hearing back from them or not getting the appointment, that I started my own company and eliminated the middleman.
SPEAKER_01Do you know how many companies you have right now? Oh uh including LLCs you just have, like just every LLC you have open.
SPEAKER_00If if I counted them all, probably it's in the teens. Teens, yeah, it's in the teens.
SPEAKER_01I have I don't have I don't think I have 20. Would you describe yourself as a serial entrepreneur? No, you don't like the TikTok words you see, just like you wouldn't want that plastered on you.
SPEAKER_00No, I I wouldn't call myself a a serial entrepreneur. I do uh like I said, I'm a I'm a problem solver. Yeah, so if there's a there's a problem to be solved and I can make money on it, that's what I'm gonna do. Yeah, um, and I I don't know why that comes like naturally to me. Like I don't I don't think I have any like ability above anybody else, other than I see problems clearly and I see solutions clearly. Why not merge them together and help everybody out?
SPEAKER_01Yep. See, I'm really similar in that same sense. I just haven't fully figured out how to profit off of it yet. My mind is the same way. But how do you make the system look pretty to make it like, oh yeah, I'll pay for that?
SPEAKER_00It doesn't need to be pretty. This is what I'm talking about. So you just put that limitation on it needs to look pretty for me to make money. Yeah. Who told you that it needed to look pretty for you to charge somebody? I could walk up to you right now for this information. Hey, you know what? If you want the rest of this plan, give me 30 bucks.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Hey, that sounds pretty good. I've got $30. Here it is.
SPEAKER_01I could start doing that.
SPEAKER_00That's that that's it.
SPEAKER_01But how do you like now you have a business? Do you not need to be, let's say like our our podcast, our financial business. So if we were to do one-on-ones with people or really give someone a money plan or a money system, how would you charge for that? Not even dollar amount, just like how would you make it look? Because it's not just gonna be, would it be like per your time?
SPEAKER_00Are you talking about like people on like if somebody on YouTube wanted to like consult with us?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, like how would you charge for that? How would your your business model look for that? Because it's not just like, hey, here's 50 bucks, tell me what I'm doing. It's gonna be like, would you charge per system? Would you charge for just an hour of your time? Like, how would you charge to give the information to someone?
SPEAKER_00So that depends on what problem I'm solving. Okay. If see the the thing is I have to see the problem. Yeah. If somebody has bad credit, that's one problem. Yes, that's one problem. I have a solution for that. You go to Darrelldibs.com, you click on the credit club. All right. It looks good. Super, I mean, that's a super simple process, but what you're talking about is like how do you get it there? All it is is I know this is how long or how much it's gonna cost me to solve that problem. Right. Right? So I have the solution already. But the solution is gonna be behind the paywall. This is how much it costs me to solve this problem.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. If you want the problem solved, here it is.
SPEAKER_00Here it is. You're gonna pay for it for me solving your problem.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So now we've got now we got the problem, we've got the solution, and now we have to figure out what we're charging. Okay. Once we have those three things, we have a business. Right. Okay. Now the only thing that you have left to do is getting in front of people with that problem.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, definitely. How would you go about doing that?
SPEAKER_00Well, number one, we have a podcast called First in Future Finance.
SPEAKER_01Subscribe.
SPEAKER_00If you have, like, you know, you get on platforms.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00You just start telling as many people that you know. Word of mouth is like still the biggest. Yeah. You know, still the biggest. We we do it every day. Referrals are how our business lives. Actually, though, yeah. So, so you know, social proof, which is people that you've helped telling other people that need your help.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they're like, oh, you have this problem.
SPEAKER_00I had that same problem. You gotta go talk to my guy. And and that's the that's the the the thing. That's your business. Those four things. So you got a problem, a solution, a cost, or a price, and then you gotta go tell people about it. Yep, and then the execution of that, like making sure you actually I know. I like that's the solution. Yeah, true. So that's the solution. I already got I got the problem, I fixed the problem, I charge for fixing the problem, and now I gotta go tell find people with this problem.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. That's kind of where I'm going on like a little segue now, but like that's like where real estate comes in. It's like, oh, I need a house. Oh, I know how to get you in a house to write up the contracts. I'm a licensed realtor. Uh, I know how I own the house and I can do a mortgage if you want to go buy one in a couple years. If you know the pipeline, the solution's right there. Vertical integration. Which also today, yeah. Today I'm about to sign up uh for my realtor license. Like officially, yeah. Oh, congratulations. We're here.
SPEAKER_00We are doing it.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna sign under you eventually.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'll actually get the license first, but you know I'm gonna show you something because I'm I'm really excited to uh announce some stuff that I got coming. It's not it's not ready yet.
SPEAKER_01Okay, I was about to say we're out the platform to do that right now for some future finance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, platform's not ready yet, but um, yeah, I'll show it to you when when we're done taping.
SPEAKER_01Awesome.
SPEAKER_00And um, but yeah, man, like vertical integrations, like and that's how it started. Like when I I didn't just start all these businesses by accident, right? Right. I started off as a uh real estate agent that was coming to unqualified borrowers, right? Or unqualified clients. People were either credit score was too low, they hadn't done their taxes, their income was messed up or wasn't documented. Yeah, so I started filing taxes to help those people get qualified and file their taxes the right way. Okay.
SPEAKER_01Um did you start LLCs for each of these as you kept going? Okay.
SPEAKER_00No, this was just um my buddy Dylan, who's also a or was a real estate agent down in Florida. He was a referral partner of mine. I sent him business down to uh Florida. He sends me business up here in Michigan.
SPEAKER_01Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_00And um, he called me up one day and said, I'm starting a tax company. I want you to come on with me. You're real good with the numbers, you understand the language, but I'm having the same issue you are with qualifying these people because they tax is not done right. They they claim in podiatry businesses and they actually work in a factory. They wrote off all their income. I can't get them qualified. Oh my gosh. So we started doing the uh the tax preparation side of it to help people get qualified, making sure they're write off just enough to where they can still qualify for whatever they're trying to qualify. Just making sure making sure their taxes were filed properly. Yeah, that was the that was the the the gist of it.
SPEAKER_01Like, oh, you made 200k on paper last year, but you only actually have a taxable income of $14,000. What happened?
SPEAKER_00Yep. They were writing off all their income. Yep, committing, you know, and it's the preparer's fault for not educating these people. Yeah, but so we were fixing that. That was our business. We were we were getting real estate clients, and this was just like on the side. Like, okay, you are your taxes filed right if you're not a W-2 employee. Yeah, that was our stick, helping business owners get into I'm gonna need your help with my taxes as well.
SPEAKER_01So okay, cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, helping business owners get into um uh you know, get everything filed right so that they could get a mortgage.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00So we had a lender, he was telling us people were not qualified because of their taxes. So we're like, we're gonna fix this. Before we send you another lead, we're gonna make sure any tax is done right.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That evolved into okay, their taxes are done right. Um they don't have any money saved. Okay. So then we created a uh financial services group. We started doing webinars um helping people save up for their down payment. So now we've got a full financial service. We'll do your taxes, we help you get a house, we're gonna show you how to save for the down payment.
SPEAKER_01Actually, question on that because uh me and Drew were talking about this yesterday because I helped him like build a full budget out. So he just opened a high yield savings with your SoFi link, I believe. Um you guys should too. And um yeah, the high yield savings with SoFi, and then he opened a Merrill Lynch account to start investing, and he's got just to like put money in stocks, and then he's got a checking account. So I never realized this because I've always had a money system, just intentionally. I've just like I've been like, I have a checking, I have a savings where it started, and then it went checking savings, credit card, checking savings, gold, silver, whatever it is. Um I had my system just it naturally kind of came to me. I didn't know people didn't have systems. Like, I like that was like one of the first things I really saw. Like, I obviously I kind of realized it from doing this job, like seeing it in real time of really asking someone their in-depth money system. It was crazy me seeing like people don't have that sometimes.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I uh right now doesn't even know what he gets paid. He sent me his paycheck, and he's like, Yeah, I don't know what I make an hour, you know. I just get paid. Like he gets raises every year. So his his that's once a year you got a check, though. That's what I'm saying. Your contract, he he's a contract worker, not a contract worker, he's W-2, but they negotiated his salary for him. He's in the union. Okay, so um he just goes to work. He goes to work, they pay him every Friday. He's like, I don't know what my what my rate of pay is right now because he's working like overtime and and he just gets a check at the end of the week.
SPEAKER_01Okay.
SPEAKER_00I was always the type of person I knew what my check was going to be to the penny, but everybody's not wired that way.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, 100%.
SPEAKER_00So a lot of people are just going to work, getting their paycheck, and then whatever bills come out of their account, they go in there and pay it. If there's not enough money, they wait until the next check.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And I know that this is this is the data set from from clients that I've worked with and I've helped build their money system out. Okay. So this is the I've been doing this for 10 years. Nice. Okay. This is my first one. So I'm gonna see how you do it differently. I'm curious. So um, you know, the first thing that you do have to identify is what's coming in. Yep. Once we learn how much income you're making, then we can start distributing it into different buckets uh where you can save. Like SoFi has the vaults. I'm a big fan of the SoFi vault. Yeah, those are really cool. And we talked about this, I think, on the first episode. Investing is mandatory now. There's no that there's no, I can't afford to invest. You can't afford not to.
SPEAKER_01You'll never survive off just your W-2 income in a checking account. You never will.
SPEAKER_00No. So you can't save your way to wealth, people. That's that's number one.
SPEAKER_01You can't just knock it Starbucks and think that $7 is gonna invest.
SPEAKER_00I don't care if you're making $10 an hour right now, $3.50 of that $10 need to be going into a savings and investment account.
SPEAKER_01Yep, that's why I was telling him too. And this is what goes back to what we said last week. People don't get started. I don't need you to put two grand into an uh investment account, into a single stock, just $10 a week. Like, I still like through every job I've ever had, $15. I don't care how much or little I'm making, I have an auto pay of $15 going to my stock account every week. It's not much, but it guarantees that $15 goes there. Because I also I don't need it to be more because I throw too much money at investments. I over-leverage myself, and it's a problem. So I but I make sure there's a minimum moving there. So even if there's days I'm not investing or I'm not thinking about it, it's still going there, you know.
SPEAKER_00I got a friend, and this probably will, I mean, I'm it's it's gonna happen again, but this is a this is an overstated example. I got a friend who started an account from zero in 2020. Okay. January 2020, he's like, I'm opening this brokerage account up, I'm gonna start depositing, you know, 200 bucks a month.
SPEAKER_01And then a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic hit two months later.
SPEAKER_00Tanked his account, man, after three months. But he kept he stuck to it. He kept putting the 200 bucks in and to stop loss, yeah. Like today, that account's got over a half million dollars in it. And it's been six years. It's been six years. He's got a half million dollars in six years depositing $200 a month into that account. That's nothing, really, when you think about it, too.
SPEAKER_01You know what I'm saying? Like, it costs a lot of money for sure, but to save and pay yourself, that's also like not to cut you off, yeah. That's like uh reframing it. It's not you're saving money, it's you are paying yourself first. It's not because really when you take your money, your checking account, you're swiping your card everywhere, you're just paying other people. Like, yes, you can say you're spending your money, but no, you're you're paying other people, it's going to other people. You putting money in your brokerage account and your savings account in your crypto wallet is you paying yourself first and making sure that you invest in yourself, you know, future you. Exactly. Because you don't know where he's gonna be at, where he or she's gonna be at.
SPEAKER_00Like, if if past me selling real estate with, you know, I think I think that year, I I probably it was like 2018, 2019. There was a point where I got like six W-2s, three 1099s. Like I was working.
SPEAKER_01Did you do your own taxes that year? I did. That sucks.
SPEAKER_00I did do my own taxes and it was I wasn't good at it. Like, but at the same time, it was like, okay, I made all this money. Where do I put it? Like, I I never had that much money at one time, right? So I had to, I created a system out of necessity. Like, yeah, I can't just let this fall through the cracks. And fanDuel wasn't even a thing yet. You know what I mean? Like, so it's it's what it wasn't like I had a uh, you know, I wasn't going to the casino with this stuff. It was just getting spent as things popped up.
SPEAKER_01I should start factoring in fanDuel into my monthly budget. I should like put $15 a month or $15 a week in the FanDuel the same way I do my stock account.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we call that uh uh a splurge account.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So so if you're gonna splurge on something, and I think everybody should have a splurge account, even if you're making 10 bucks an hour, you should put at least two bucks for yourself. Yep, you know what I mean? Like you you have like the psychology of a person, you're not going to I've told you this before. I don't believe in suffering. Yeah, like why? Oh no, I don't have money for DTE this month. Um, unless they're about to cut it off, right? And you've only got you know 200 bucks in your account, there's no reason for you not to eat to pay your DTE bill. Yeah, I don't believe in that.
SPEAKER_01Nah, I I won't say I don't believe in it, but I've done that. You're not DT specifically, but like I've definitely been like, I'm going to sleep at 8 o'clock tonight. Let's sleep for dinner. You know, like I don't say, I don't even want to say it's like a belief or disbelief. It's just more of like, I think if there's shit I know I need to do, like I need to pay my rent, I need to get it done. Yep. I'm okay with I won't even say suffering, but like prolonging the happiness that I should be having a little bit to get that taken care of, to get my shit taken care of. You know what I mean? That's different.
SPEAKER_00So there's a difference between gratification, yeah. That's what I was looking for, and suffering.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'm sorry. Like, bills are not going to win against me eating.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. True.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And I'm not saying that you need to go get Chick-fil-A. Uh, I'm just saying, like, if you're down to your last 200 bucks, you have to have a hierarchy, a system, and uh a ranking in which things get paid. And you know, utilities are down the list behind, you know, food and shelter. Yeah, 100%. 100%. So you gotta have you gotta eat to live. Okay. So you're eating, you're paying for your housing. Yep. All right. Food and shelter. Food and shelter.
SPEAKER_01That's the bare minimum.
SPEAKER_00Bare minimum. So food and shelter, bare minimum. Then you can go to utilities, insurance, um uh insurance.
unknownI hope we never get some insurance.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and investing. Those are your things. Like, that's your rainy day fund. I don't, like I said before, I don't believe in like keeping a whole bunch of cash liquid.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because what emergency am I really gonna have?
SPEAKER_01Where I need two thousand two hundred thousand dollars. Yes.
SPEAKER_00What do you what are we even talking about?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I know people with you know 100k savings accounts. And I always ask them, why do you do that?
SPEAKER_01Why?
SPEAKER_00Why isn't that money invested in the market growing until something happens?
SPEAKER_01That's what I was uh telling Drew yesterday. I was like, okay, you you put three to five grand, whatever you deem would make you feel comfortable for an emergency fund, no more than 10 for sure. Five grand in a savings account that's sitting there, that's your liquid emergency fund. Every dollar you make over that is being put into something.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_01Everything. That's how I run things. That's my money system. I have my minimum emergency fund, got my checking account where like that's my spending money, and then I got every dollar over that is being diversified somewhere.
SPEAKER_00Real world example. Uh I had a Ford Fusion. Okay. Um and my wife drove me somewhere. She dropped me off. And as soon as she dropped me off, she hits a pothole. Both tires blow out on that side of the car. Called AAA, told him to come get her. They took her right the bell tire. And uh they found something else wrong with the car. It was like a defender or something. Cost me 2,000 bucks to fix it. So I already had this money sitting in my account. So, you know, what would have been like A panicked moment for her, everything was already taken care of and paid for because I had that money set to the side. Yep. So, you know, it's it's if you can replace if you have enough money in your account to replace four tires at once or whatever you deem to be like a problem you run into. Yeah, like just have money set aside just for that. Because it's gonna happen. It will, right? Something's going to happen, but your emergency fund doesn't need to be any bigger than that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I always hear people talk about like, hey, I need to have six months in my emergency fund. And I'm like, why? Well, what if I lose my job? You're gonna be out of work for six months?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you're not gonna make a single dollar for six months. Exactly.
SPEAKER_00For six months, you're not gonna do anything and deplete six months. Like one month of, and I think you probably should keep this in a in a checking account.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's got some type of interest-bearing benefits. Keep your bill money in there.
SPEAKER_01But also, I can understand the six-month rule when I feel like the average person as well isn't thinking like us with like, I'm I'm paying off my car for cash flow because they want to see big number, because big number better person in their account, you know? Um, but like the average person, I think, wants six months because they are so tight on their debt to income. Like, you need six months when you have a car, a house, and all of your other bills are coming out to $2,000 a month and you make three. Then one month you're cooked, yeah, you're done. So I see where the six-month thing comes from because it's normalized that we need to be over-leveraged. You know, we need to be in debt. We need to have the newest car.
SPEAKER_00That's gonna sting, but my advice for those people is increase your income.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You you can't be complacent with only making 30% more than what your life costs. Can't do it. You're gonna lose that in taxes at the end of the day. Or matter of fact, you're not even making enough to pay taxes, so you should be getting a refund that gives you the six months. Yeah, like that gives you the six months. If you if you are making somebody that's making $3,000 a month, you don't have a tax responsibility. Yeah, true. That's that's a credit that you should be getting. And if you're not, you need to go to darrelldibs.com. Let me do your taxes. Let me do your taxes. Have my have my one of my preparers, my good partners over at Kenlocks, will help you get that refund and get the biggest return that you that you deserve. So um that's my plug for that.
SPEAKER_01I like it. We do a lot of plugs on here. I love it. Uh, we have a lot of things to plug though, too. I still got actually I got nothing to plug right now. My album's still coming soon. It's coming up. It's it's it's coming up.
SPEAKER_00We're building you up, man. Yeah, we're getting there. Building preparations. When I'm when I'm long gone, my business, my companies are still gonna be running because they don't need me to operate. Yep. That's the that's the goal, is like creating jobs for other people is like that's that's an entrepreneur's job. Yeah, that's so that's why when I say I'm not a serial entrepreneur, is because of that reason. Most of these things I'm doing myself. So I'm like, I'm self-employed, I'm not an entrepreneur. Yeah, they they create jobs for other people. I have some some tasks that I can assign.
SPEAKER_01But not like a full job.
SPEAKER_00It's not a it's not a full company we're hiring people, like you know, I can present the opportunity to others to do the same thing, but you know, you're not working for me. No, we're we're partners, I would say. This isn't even an LLC yet, but we're partners. You know what I'm saying? Like, so so no, I don't meet the definition for a serial entrepreneur yet because I don't feel that I've created enough jobs. Okay, but when I do and I start getting that tax break, I don't need people demonizing me because I tried to bring you along with us. That's true.
SPEAKER_01That's the big thing. I will not hear, we have one minute, by the way. I will not hear any sort of bullshit that we don't try and put people on ever. I am so open about telling everyone everything, teaching people about money. You're the same way. Like, no one can ever say that we don't try and put people on. So it's documented now.
SPEAKER_00When we've done this before, it's documented. This is this is this is my way of putting it out there.
SPEAKER_01Yep. And you're gonna see me break down all my finances one day. We're gonna grow together, we're gonna do everything. So it's gonna happen. I'm already knowing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Is that it?
SPEAKER_00Are we out of here?
SPEAKER_01We need you to like and subscribe. Yep, comment, refer, everything. Questions, get a loan from us.
SPEAKER_00You know what I'm saying? Um whatever it needs to be. See ya.