Myths Financial Advisors Fail to Mention
On this episode of Next Level American Dream, Abigail and Sean are joined by Chris Miles. Chris retired as a Financial Advisor at the age of 28 and started a new career as a coach for small businesses to increase their cash flows in a way traditional financial advisors simply cannot. During the episode, Chris touches on a few areas of financial advising where he had made mistakes, but now teaches businesses to steer clear from those areas, while also teaching them how to use his newly learned strategies to increase their wealth.
Key Topics
Past as a Financial Advisor
What he's learned
New Strategies to Increase Wealth
Connect with Chris Miles:
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SUMMARY KEYWORDS
money, people, financial advisor, financially, pay, Chris, teach, year, income, business, mutual funds, cash flow, retire, started, focusing, free, month, podcast, credit card, Dave Ramsey, wealth
SPEAKERS
Chris Miles, Sean Thomson, Abigail Thomson
Sean Thomson 00:01
Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast brought to you by Thomson Multifamily Group. Your hosts, Abigail and Sean, will discuss how you can take your American Dream to the next level through real estate investing, business practices, and personal development. Join us as we share our experiences as a father daughter duo who are trying to accomplish our goal of financial freedom. We hope you learn more about how to define and achieve your American Dream. Here's another episode of Next Level American Dream. Welcome to the Next Level American Dream Podcast. We have a wonderful guest for you today, but first please make sure you have subscribed if you have not already. We also love getting your feedback through likes, comments, ratings, and reviews. Today, Sean has a discussion with Chris Miles. Chris retired as a financial advisor at the age of 28 and started a new career as a coach for small businesses to increase their cash flows in a way a traditional financial advisor simply cannot. During the episode, Chris touches on a few areas of financial advising where he had made mistakes, but now teaches businesses to steer clear away from those areas, while also teaching them how to use the newly learned strategies to increase their wealth. If you found any value from today's episode, then please share it with a friend and help us grow. For more information on our sponsor, visit www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com to start taking your American Dream to the next level through passive investing. Hi, Chris. Thanks for being on the Next Level American Dream Podcast. How you doing?
Chris Miles 01:32
Great, Sean! Glad to be on.
Sean Thomson 01:34
Good, good. Let's start by just sort of giving everybody sort of a background of who you are and where you come from and where you where you are today.
Chris Miles 01:41
Yeah, so I started out, I was actually going to become a business consultant about 20 years ago, right? Kind of like our friend, you know, Gary Harper, a little bit, but as I was going down that path, I should have real life business experience before I just come out with an MBA. So right before I got my bachelor's, I dropped out took a sabbatical. And as I was trying to figure out what kind of business I could do or start, well, the opportunity came up to become a financial adviser, not knowing that they take anybody that could basically have a heartbeat and pass the test, right? Yeah. So I was I was like, really nervous, I was trying to interview and and really impress them on to find out, all I had to do is just say, hey, I want to go on board. And so I end up doing that. And I ended up staying there, I end up staying dropped out of college and never went back because I realized a sociology major with a triple minor in ballroom dancing, Japanese and psychology. You know, I wouldn't get paid as much as what I can make as an entrepreneur. Right, right. So I went down that path, I was kind of living that American dream, right. But the thing is, it was kind of a nightmare, you know, because you're starting a business, like I didn't know how to be a business owner. And they tried to train us to do that. But everything was coming from a perspective of scarcity, right? And scarcity just drives money away. So I was really struggling trying to, you know, make ends meet, especially because I had a young family though, starting at the time. But eventually, you know, I started to gain a lot more experience and, and education in that field. And I did it for four years. And about three to four years in, I started to see those weaknesses in financial advising, right, because, you know, I like to see that there's evidence, I'd like to know that things work. And, and I noticed that a lot of times when I got clients that inherited from decades of advice, they weren't financially free yet. Even though we would teach them pain, 3040 years, you can be financially free. They were still pretty far away from it. And and so I thought, well, that's interesting, but it's okay, maybe they did it wrong. It's their fault, not mine, right, just kind of putting those blinders on. Well, time went on. And I remember I had a friend named Doug and Doug left, I trained him and be a financial visor, but he left to go do real estate investing. And so him and his dad teamed up and they were doing deals together doing like flips and things like that. And I called him four months after you left it was like it was the end of 2005 is right after Christmas time I thought I wish a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And and see if he's, you know, broke. So then I can bring him back on board again, start working for me. I got the exact opposite response. Right? He, I call them up like how things going. He's like, man, things are awesome. Like my dad has already doubled his income as a professor at the local university. I was like, what, wait, double his income. And I knew what how much his dad made because his dad refused to become a client after we decided to do real estate investing. I was kind of mad, a little bit bitter about that. And I thought, No, that's too good to be true, right? No way. And so we got this debate about what's better stocks real estate, and he finally stopped me say, Chris, how many of your clients are financially free where they don't worry about money? And I thought about even the retired ones who were retired, but again, they were still worried about running out of money. Right? So I said, well, none. He's like, Well, good job, Chris. Way to go. So how about this, Chris, if anybody's got this figured out, it should be you guys as financial advisors. So how many of you are financially free, not of the Commission's that you're earning but actually doing these investments you've been recommending, like these mutual funds, right? And as I thought and kind of thought of different guys around the office, including guys have been working there since the late 70s. And I thought, none, maybe one, you know, maybe one guy was I found out later he wasn't either. And he said, there is your problem. And I said, we'll give you the answer. He's like, Chris, I don't want to give you the answer, because I don't think you're open to it. He just got in an argument with me. I said, Listen, you got me to admit I'm wrong. Give me something. He said, Listen, I don't think you're serious. But if you are noticed, he had great reverse psychology on me, right? I was, I was like, eating out of his hand and he had nothing to sell. That's the crazy thing. He was just pissed. But he's like, Listen, if you're really serious, get this book by Robert Kiyosaki called who took my money, which is a lesser known rich dead book, right, which it says mutual funds stink. That's basically the whole premise of the book, and then listen to the am talk radio show, because of course, 2005, this is pre podcast era, right, right. You know, listen to Sam talk radio show these two real estate investors. And so I started listening that show for a couple months, and funnily enough, even though my business started to grow, because I stopped going to their trainings, the financial visor trainings, you know, I stopped going to that I just started to, you know, take on the new things I was learning and applying with my clients. Eventually, I just by March of Oh, six, I couldn't do any more, I said, I'm done. I can't teach this kind of stuff and stay in integrity, I just can't make these two worlds work. Because they're really in opposition to each other. That's why so many real estate investors make fun of financial advisors and planners, right? Because they know that they're, they call them brokers, because their broker than you and I are, you know, and, and so I left so I'll never go back to teach about money again, I'm done. I will just, you know, be a mortgage broker, and I'll teach ballroom dancing. And so that's what I started doing, right? Well, Flash forward a few months, I it drove me nuts that these guys knew things I didn't know. So I decided to try to get mentored by one of them. And by later that summer, I found myself financially independent, working only a few hours a week, you know, and, and that blew my mind. Now, granted, I only needed 3500 a month to become financially independent. It wasn't much back in those days, you know, now, it's like, multiple, five figures, I need at least 20,000 a month to make sure I'm out of the rat race still. Right. But But that was the thing is that, you know, I was really just shocked. It was that easy, you know, and it shouldn't have been, I mean, it was just was a mind blower, because, you know, for example, in the in the financial advising world, they always teach you about accumulating money, right? You know, spend nothing, save everything, think of like Dave Ramsey, and that horrible life that you have to live, right. And in hopes of financial freedom. I always love Dave Ramsey fans, because they're like, yeah, I'm gonna be financially free. And in 15 years, I'm gonna be debt free. And like 15 years, you're not even there yet, you're already excited, you know, I get people that we should, again, be financially independent, and five to 10 years, and they're like, Oh, I have to wait that long. You know, that's the difference there. But you know, so anyways, like, you know, it's always that same kind of Dave Ramsey type of mentality is, you know, pay off our debt, save everything and let it accumulate, just ignore it, turn your brain off to what's in those mutual funds, don't watch the market waves, because that just drives you nuts. And eventually, if you're in it for the long haul long enough, you might be able to be financially free, right, you might have enough to retire. But again, like I said, I proved it with the numbers. Even when I tried to run the numbers as a financial visor and never worked, you literally have to save just about whatever you want to you want to live on per year, you almost have to save that much per year or more to live that kind of lifestyle, you know, and that's just not cool. So, so that's kind of where I went. And eventually, after a while, you know, in 2017, I did come out of retirement, you know, had the recession hit me, I started gambling, my real estate little bit too much. And so I went from millionaire to upside down millionaires over a million dollars in debt. So I was back in the rat race, stop teaching people how to gather at rest at that point, because I want to stay in integrity. And instead of start teaching people how to be resourceful how to find money, free up the resource, so they can, you know, have, you know, more per month, right, so then I was living paycheck to paycheck. So I start, you know, pivoting at that point. And then eventually, as my life got better and dug myself out, I didn't file for bankruptcy. But man, I mean, I was over a million in debt. I mean, I had horrible credit score of like, 488. So I had, you know, no money other than just income savings was gone, we had to move out of our house foreclosed on our house, you know, and all that kind of stuff. So I went from financially independent to financially broke and even beyond broke, you know, and dug back out of the hole of five, by the end of 2016, I was able to be financially independent again. And that's when I started to teach people more about getting out of the rat race once again, cuz now I was out of the rat race, I felt I have the authority to teach it to.
Sean Thomson 09:38
So, there's quite a lot there. I'm going to reverse a little bit. So I want to talk about you, you you did the downturn. And see, I guess you learned a lot of lessons in that downturn that you could then share with the people that you're that you're working with. Oh, yeah. What were some of the mistakes that you made? I guess let's say you were I guess you were building your financial freedom in real estate?
Chris Miles 10:00
Yeah, between business. Yeah, business and real estate were the two places, right creating, trying to create residual, more kind of like, like passive streams of income through real through my business, but then also trying to create it through real estate. So my business like, you know, like, for example 2006, one thing that happened is that people kept asking me financial questions, but remember, I quit being a financial advisor. So one of my friends that was mentoring me, he said, Well, Chris, let me ask a question. You're doing mortgages, your mortgage broker, do you like doing mortgages? Because he would always ask question, if you were financially free, what would you spend your time doing? Right? If you didn't, if you didn't have to worry about money anymore? What would you spend your time doing? And it was a good question, because I was like, travel. Yeah, I'll travel a lot more. He's like, seriously, Chris, you're gonna travel 52 weeks of the year, like, Well, okay, now that's exhausting. He's like, what would you really want to do? I said, Well, maybe I'll teach ballroom dance thing. He said, Well, what about the mortgages like, well, I like teaching, I like giving people those, the help there. But you know what, the thing I really love is I love just give them the results and teaching and but I hate paperwork. So that's the thing I hate. He said, Chris finds me to do all the paperwork for you. So you send the things that you love. So you basically are doing what you love. Yeah. And then voila. Well, I decided to split that with a guy 5050. And I was like, I'd spent maybe half an hour to an hour with client, and then I'd see a check for 1000 1500 bucks come in the mail. And I thought, Wait, I work way harder than that, as a financial advisor to do that kind of thing. Could I do that elsewhere? Could I refer and be a connector. And so I actually start connecting with different companies, even like jeweler jewelers, like some wholesale jeweler where someone's like, I'm gonna get married, my great don't buy your ring at the mall, buy it here, you'll save like, you know, you buy it for a third of the cost, right? You know, that kind of thing. And I get checks from them. So I started doing kind of more like basic organic referrals with a few companies. And I start bringing in rental real estate, like I took my first home I starter home turn that basically the bur method, right, actually sold it at full appraisal to an investor, leased it back from that investor, and then sublease that, you know, to get rent off of that. And so I started doing the real estate game after that point, too. And so between those things, that's where I was able to become financially dependent the first time. But here's what I did wrong. Right? As 2007 came along, you know, I got invited by a few of these guys that were also financially dependent, saying, hey, let's create a company and teach people how we did what we did. I thought, No, that sounds fun. I love teaching. That's the thing that I love to do, regardless, even though I'm financially dependent now. That's why I do my podcast show. That's why I still keep teaching, right? Because that's the thing that fires me up, it gets me out of bed. Well, so I'm like, Yeah, let's do it. You know, and it sounds great. You're like, Alright, great, well, we're gonna put our own money in and you know, basically, like, this is not an employee position. We're all business owners working together financially, you know, financially independent of each other or whatever, but obviously a lot of costs and overhead. So I start running those things up after my lifestyle was starting increase to on top of that they started saying, Chris, I know you're making all these multiple streams of income. But for our mission, we really want you to be focused just here. So Mistake number one is I cut off my multiple streams of income to focus on one main stream of income which was completely stupid consider teaching people how to become financially independent you think I would live what I preach right but I was trying to be a team player so that didn't work out so well. So we ended up happening is cut off the streams of income to the market we were focusing on we're real estate investors, but their real estate investors banking on appreciation, what was going on my personal you know, not only to come off my streams of income other than the real estate, but with the real estate I started trying to gamble a little bit more because I thought man, everything I'm touching is turning to gold not realizing it market conditions help with that. Right? So I started thinking you know, if I bought $100,000 property and that appreciates 10% I make 10 grand, but if I buy a $500,000 property appreciates 10% I make 50 so let's go bigger, you know, let's keep making a bigger because there's appreciation and of course you can have stated income loans you know, you don't have to prove anything so if you're negative cash flow for a little bit doesn't matter. So I wasn't focusing on cash flow I was focusing on appreciation which is a huge mistake I've even seen people do today they're getting sloppy and lazy because they're thinking well appreciation can cover up my mistakes you know if you're flipping or your whatever you might be doing even in the wholesale market so that was a mistake I was making so pretty soon I have all these negative cash flow properties and then also our business is negative cash flow because you know where we got all these expenses and then the incomes drying up because these real estate investors are also drying up right? So by enter 2007 and into 2008 we're in a world of hurt I found myself in the hole like $16,000 a month you know that was short between my personal and my business expenses. So ran through credit really fast because I maxed out my credit cards you know, I even borrowed money from from family and friends and that didn't work out so well because I was like Hey, I got equity in my house. Then of course the same time the real estate market took a hit I had a larger House of so that one you know when you have bigger price homes, they tend to fluctuate a A lot more than one got knocked down big time. So the last equity was basically equity was all lost in there. Right? So I found myself self in a big hole, you know, trying to figure out what to do.
Sean Thomson 15:11
Yeah, but those lessons, I think those lessons give you perspective now, that that changes everything for you for the future. Right. So how did you start to so you? How did you start to unwind that I guess you kind of had to hit bottom a little bit, and then start to rebuild. But you started to focus more intentionally on what you were targeting? I'm guessing. Right. So how did you start to rebuild?
Chris Miles 15:32
Yeah, it was a big mental game. It was a huge mental game, because, of course, I'm supposed to the guy had it figured out and I'm in the hole, right? You know, I'm, I'm basically in the rat race once again. So I pivoted again, because I realized that you have to stay in integrity with whatever you teach. But so I had people that came to me and they said, Chris, I would love to pay you for your services, but I just can't find the money. And I remember thinking, I know what their money looks like, after we just had a little conversation and their situations way better than mine. I wouldn't say this to them. Or I wouldn't say hey, I'm way more broke than you. But I knew that their situation was better. I said, Man, if I were in your shoes, I'd find a lot more money. And that was the the mindset I was in. I was getting really scrappy, right? I was trying to figure out how to be, you know, I start really tracking my money becoming more wise, a wiser steward of my money, right? Really focusing on like, do I pay off debt or invest? I create a whole, you know, formula for determining whether I should pay off debt or not, or, or not pay it off at all right? So I was getting really creative on finding ways to create cash flow. So I would tell him, I said, Listen, if I can help you find the money to pay me, would you pay me? He said, Well, of course. I said, Alright, here we go. And, and that was kind of like the beginnings of my cash flow process, right? Like just finding people money, helping them free it up, not even investing it, just freeing it up. You know, whether it's paying off inefficient debts, or refinancing them, whether it's tracking their money, figure out where they're spending, I tell you, the one time I knew I had something interesting going on was I had this young woman just fresh out of college. And she was doing all right, but she was pretty much paycheck to paycheck. And we're looking at her car loan, I was looking at her credit card and everything and, and I was using my formula to figure out like, how much she's paying on which. And I said, I said, Listen, you're gonna think I'm really crazy right now. But I'm going to tell you to basically pay your monthly expenses by running up your credit card, a couple grand, and then that cash, you didn't spend that you ran up on a credit card, use it to pay off your car, you'll free up 250 bucks a month, like he, and she's like, wait, you want me to charge my credit card to pay off my low interest car? I said yes, exactly. You do that you'll free up 250 bucks a month, you can always add it to your credit card. But the great thing is, if you have a bad month, at least you're not committed to the extra 250 a month, so you're actually in a safer position. And you'll still end up paying that credit card off, which will free up another 100 bucks a month. And she's like, Alright, I'll guess I'll do that. And, and that's when I knew like I was I was onto something really cool, like sometimes really creative. And the great thing is like 2010 2009, the last quarter 2009 was, you know, I went through about a year and a half of just trudging just, you know, little bit of glimmer of hope and then crash glimmer of hope and crash, right. And finally, you know, as I really perfected that process, a one of the partners, he started getting connected with the dental on the chiropractic markets. And he said, Hey, Chris, here's some, you know, chiropractic coaches, or these dental guys, you know, do what you do, like, I don't even understand what you do, but do that whatever you're doing with them do it. You know, and, and when we found like, I remember one guy, we found like an extra 50,000 years overpaying in taxes, you know, and then, you know, and others that we freed up like, three, four or $5,000 a month in cash flow, just in their situation, figuring it out. I remember one one of those guys even cried, he was just like, holy cow. I can't believe I've been overpaying this much, you know, and again, I don't try to get people to live on rice and beans, right? It's not that's not the point. It's not living in scarcity. It's still having a good lifestyle. But again, just finding those money leaks. And and that's and that, of course eventually led me down the path where gradually over time as I launched money ripples, we broke part 2012 we parted ways. And then I launched money ripples. And then few years later, I really started focusing more on the passive income aspect to combine with that. So now we have freed up cash and these investments to be able to help accelerate your progress towards financial independence.
Sean Thomson 19:28
Yeah, I you know, I consult people all the time to just sort of as friends and family, people are always asking me, you know, what should I do about these things? Or I'm in this situation, a lot of times people come to me and they're in a situation and I'm like, well, let's, let's figure out what you're doing. And the hard decisions that people have to make sometimes are the best decisions but they don't they either resist it, they don't think it's real or they they just they don't want to do it right. You know, sometimes you have to you have to sell off your investment to pay down debts that are just weighing you down. You can move forward, you know, and get that cash position back in place. And like you said, cash flow going again. So there's all kinds of things that people do. And I think one of the mistakes people make is once you start to once you've learned how to make money or free up money in your life, like you're talking about, then it then it becomes about acquiring assets. Yeah, you know, assets, whether they're businesses or properties, or whatever it is, if you're acquiring assets that can pay you, that's really the secret sauce to the leveling up and being financially free, I think. And I'm always, I'm always consulting people on Look, you're focused on making money. And you should be focused on acquiring things that pay you money, right? That's right. And so it's, that's kind of the that's, that's the second step. I think, once you've kind of figured out, okay, I can make money and my life is going okay, and I've got some, some sustainable financial model here, what what can I do to take it to the next level? And I think that's it, right?
Chris Miles 20:53
Yeah. And you're right, it's really as more of a mindset game, you know, like, there's more of its education and getting people to really undo all the programming that we've received, right, from really financial advisors, and financial experts, right, who all were for the same financial institutions are trying to sell you their products. Now, the reason that you're told that a 401k is awesome, is because that's what the mutual fund companies have been selling. And the politicians came right in behind said, Hey, we support it too, because now you don't have to set you know, melkus from the social security as much, right? You know, people still are because the 401 K's aren't doing it, the mutual funds aren't doing it right. Even with the match, the match really adds an extra 2% per year compounded rate of return on your money. So it's not that much even we get 100% match all that stuff, right? Like people just don't realize we've been sold this bill of goods like that's the way to go. Getting them to reverse it is huge. You know, give me example, I remember there's a chiropractor was in Minnesota, he was he was 62 years old by this point, right? He'd been working well, he'd made good money, but then is over the last few years, his practice had started to really lose revenue, right? To the point where now he was kind of just breaking even just bringing home a basic income. And he was burned out. He's like, if this keeps up, I will work forever. And I don't want to do that. And so I'm looking at a situation and I said, You know what? The big resource you have here is you got a half a million sitting in IRAs. He's like, yeah, that's my retirement. I said, Go with me here. Follow with me on this, I'm like, what I'm going to have you do is I'm going to have you take 100,000 this IRA out, because this is the only place you have the money, right? But consider take out 100,000 from your IRA, pay off these certain loans, refinance your house, because during the recession, right, or right when they were pulled out of the recession, so the house values weren't great. I was like, you know, if you pull out some of my pay off some of these loans, and even pay a little bit extra principal on your mortgage, and then refinance, it will free up in total, about 4200 bucks a month. Right. So about 50,000 a year. He's like, you have a Chris, how am I gonna retire? I said 100,000 to guarantee 50,000 a year. That's a 50% rate of return. Yeah, but how am I gonna retire? Like, what are you not getting here? You know, and finally, after a while his wife came in, because it's usually the wives that figure it out first. She's like, honey, listen, we still have $400,000. This makes sense. Let's try it. Alright, I'll do it. So he did it right. And within a few months, freed up exactly, like I said, 4200 bucks a month. And then here's what's interesting. And we also found like, maybe another 15 20,000 year of taxes, he was overpaying too, you know, so then after that, what was interesting is that now he's freed up 70,000 a year, he goes back to the office, and now the pressures gone, because that's, you know, 6000, almost $6,000 a month, he's not paying out anymore. So the pressures lifted, he goes the office, when a new potential patients are coming in, he's getting a higher close ratio, because now he's just enjoying, he's happier, he's lighter. So now he starts going to higher conversion ratio, his revenue starts increasing by about two or $3,000 a month. So the next thing, you know, really is like, wow, when all is said and done, like this guy, is now freed up like 80 to $100,000, between revenue increased, and, you know, and this freed up cash flow that he wasn't dealing with before, you know, and, and that shift right there. And that does include the fact that we didn't do anything so far with that IRA, that $400,000, they could also generate passive income. And now he's at that extra, you know, 80,000 plus per year, he could also add to it and be able to get himself financial dependents so much faster than saying I got a half million my IRA which, by the way, if you only pull out that, you know, there's the whole 4% rule, they say, like you're supposed to pull out 4% and not run out of money. That's an old rule. Now, rule works when people didn't live as long. You know, in fact, even even when I was a financial advisor, you know, almost 20 years ago, we were questioning the 4% rule saying is that too high? Is that too aggressive? If it's even two or 3% think about it. He has $500,000 sitting there he live on Two or 3% a year, that's 10 to 15,000 a year. Do you think he's gonna have any hope or glimmer of financial freedom if he had just gone down that traditional path? Right? Of course not. So that's the thing is that, like you said, you got to be able to purchase real assets and especially asset that cash flow, does that same 500,000. I know we can get that in for people who want to be passive investors, which most of my clients are with turnkey properties or even doing lending or syndications, wherever might be, we can easily get at least 500,000 to pay you 50,000 a year, if not more than that. So it's like that is a massive difference compared to 10 or 15,000. A year with that same money.
Sean Thomson 25:36
Right. You can park 500 grand in a syndication and you're making 50 grand, probably. yeah, pretty, pretty simply, it doesn't you don't have to do anything for that, you know?
Chris Miles 25:46
Yeah, you can make at least 40 grand just not a preferred return not including the growth, right, you know, that kind of stuff. So Exactly. Yeah, it's, it's such a different mindset. That's the thing that got me hope, like when I left in 2006, from being a financial advisor, and why I rejected that world from that point on is because it wasn't about accumulating money. It's about accelerating money and creating actual income, cash flow, passive income, right? That's why I have a shirt that says, you know, cash flow equals freedom, you know, because it really does like, that is the real key that gets people to be there. And so many people miss that point.
Sean Thomson 26:19
Yeah, then it's, we're surrounded by this stock by stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and 401 K's, you know, I was talking to my wife the other day, she, we're trying to figure out a few things on her because she just left corporate America. And I said, I just said, I don't know what you're worried about, most of that is not even yours anyway, you're gonna have to pull that, you're gonna have to pull that money out, and you're gonna have to pay taxes on it, when you pull it out, it doesn't matter, she was worried about, you know, losing some or something like that. And I said, the mistake you're making is that most of that are only part of that money is yours. You know, you can use it right now, as long as you have it. But as soon as you start to need it, or take it out, the government's gonna take some of it away from you anyway. So it's like, what are you worried about losing some of it for because it's, most of its most of its gonna be gone later anyway.
Chris Miles 27:02
most people don't realize that the government is the controlling partner in that money, like, they can decide whenever to change the rules of which you're gonna get taxed. Everything, even if you invest in alternative investments with like, a self directed IRA or something like that. That's still a pretty big gamble. You know, when people say, Hey, Chris, like, should I do a self directed IRA is that well, what's your you know, what's your timeline when you want to retire? Well, by the time of 55, well, then that's a dumb idea. Why would you do something have to wait till you're 59? Half or 60? and put your money there and say, Well, I made it 55 Oh, I can't have to wait another five years. That's just not the right vehicle. If you want to wait till you're 65, great, then that could work. But still remember the government's your partner. And, you know, we talked about, you know, he talked about the American dream, right? Like, I think the American Dream is all about hope, and freedom, and be able to take control of your own destiny, you can't do that if somebody else has control of your own money, you've got to take control of your own money, and your own destiny and get it to work for you. So you don't have to keep working for it.
Sean Thomson 28:00
Yeah, and those traditional models just are not geared that way.
Chris Miles 28:05
They're failed. They failed completely. And nobody talks about that. That's there's so few people, let's talk about how bad you don't want to stop. Our only average on the actual s&p 500 is only averaged about 8% for the last 30 years. 8.3 to be exact up to the date of this podcast. But I mean, for the last 20 years, it's less, it's more like 5%, you know, so depending on what your time horizon is, it could be better or worse. You might think, well, this is ridiculous. Why am I putting my money here for high risk and mediocre returns when you can take lower risk at higher returns, doing things like in the real estate game?
Sean Thomson 28:38
Yeah, no timing, too. So I had I've had friends that tried to retire when we were in a down cycle. And it just devastated their life, their life savings, it just because you can't, they had to go back to work to ride out the clock to keep their money in play. Because they just because their their assets dropped so dramatically. They couldn't retire you know. So it's yet yet you counting on the market that's that volatile or fluctuate like that. And having that system, it's just it's crazy to me.
Chris Miles 29:07
And like I said, I witnessed it firsthand. You know, my I started right after 9/11. Right. And I can't tell you even all over the years, how many people that actually just put money in and let it sit right now, people that added money because you kind of lose a sense of reality when you add your own money to make up for those losses. But for those that just put it in SAT, it wasn't till 2015 or 2016, that people said, I finally now have the same amount of money I have, or I had back in the year 2000. It took 15 to 16 years for them to even get back to zero. But the average return that they were claiming was at least four or 5% a year. They're like I don't know how to make it four or 5% a year when I just broke even like that's because once you have a negative year that average versus actual returns separate and we won't have time to get into that but just know that the numbers have been manipulated to make you think that you're making more money than you actually are.
Sean Thomson 29:58
Right. Well, I know you got to get going. So we should maybe have you back on the show because I think we just sort of like scratched the surface of a conversation here. But uh, yeah, I think tell people kind of before I let you go tell people how they can kind of reach out to you to find out more. I know you've got a great podcast, lots of information. Where can people go?
Chris Miles 30:17
Yeah, definitely welcome to follow my podcast. It's called, "The Chris Miles Money Show." I know really original title, you can find on iTunes, YouTube, or wherever. Or you can go to my website, www.moneyripples.com -- And now also got podcasts on there. We got a free ebook, "Beyond Rice and Beans" that talks about how those people found found a freedom cash flow. So you can check that out.
Sean Thomson 30:41
Yeah, if someone's interested, kind of exploring some non stock mutual fund opportunities and how to free up cash in their life, they can reach out to you and kind of get that process started. Absolutely. Right. Well, we'll have you back on. We just kind of talked about stuff. I'd really like to kind of dive into some of the strategies and things like that, maybe down the road, maybe give some people some advice on how to kind of start looking at their life a little bit differently. That'd be great. We'll figure out a time to get you come back on the show. Okay?
Chris Miles 31:08
That sounds great.
Sean Thomson 31:09
Well, thanks, Chris. We'll talk to you soon.
Chris Miles 31:11
Thank you, Sean.
Abigail Thomson 31:12
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Next Level American Dream. If you would like to learn more about what we talked about today, want to contact the team directly, or are interested in passively investing and being a part of our deal room, head over to our website at www.thomsonmultifamilygroup.com -- Before you go, please leave a review! Your comments help us create more episodes for you to enjoy.