All Forum Posts by: Corey Conklin

Quote from @Marcus R.:

Great thoughts.  This is a new topic I'm learning and still have much to learn.  

A qoute I read that I really liked is "leave your kids with enough so they can do anything, but not so much they do nothing".  So far that is going to be my approach.  This could change though depending on my childen's lives (special needs, major accident/setback, etc...)

I agree that the the knowledge is way more important that the wealth.  The data supports this as well as I think most wealth doesn't make it past one generation.  I would love to do it well enough that the students become the teacher and I'm able to invest in their endeavors!

A good place that helped me get started was Dave Ramsey's legacy journey book.  He did help me get started on my personal finance education and I think like most on this site we've tweaked our position as our education grew but it was a great place to get started so I recommend it.  Lots of good points on why just giving your wealth to charity is a bad idea, never occurred to me before.

 @Marcus R. I've never read that book so I'll have to put it on the list. I'm still working to come up with the best solution on what to do with assets/wealth when I pass. I'm not a huge fan of blindly giving it to charity like you mentioned.

I've got a few plans but they are far from normal so I'm still working through all of the details. Still a lot to figure out!

@Sam Ganden I would buy the house. It's turnkey and is in a good location that historically rents well. That's a good way to get your start into RE investing. 

Quote from @Jim K.:

Quote from @Corey Conklin:

@Jose Vazquez They will never admit to how hard it is to get that portfolio. If they told you that they had to bust the butts and work 80 hour weeks, who would buy their $1500 seminar? They have to sell how easy it is to do. This then gets people to buy their seminar and creates easy money for themselves. Full circle, just like you mentioned.

I like your shovel example. Find a way to actually provide value to people and you will do just fine. Unfortunately people need to understand that to provide value, you need to work!

Not in a million years will they tell you about the blood you're gonna sling. It's all work ON your business, not IN your business. But in the end, Corey, if I had to do it all over again, I would. It really does beat living paycheck-to-paycheck.

@Jim K. Not only would I do it all over again I would have started sooner! Unfortunately I'm still in the grind of a 9-5, acquiring/managing real estate, and being a family man. It is a lot to juggle but it's definitely worth it.

There is no better feeling than working your tail off and seeing the results of your hard work especially when you reap all of the reward and not some company CEO. 

@Jose Vazquez They will never admit to how hard it is to get that portfolio. If they told you that they had to bust the butts and work 80 hour weeks, who would buy their $1500 seminar? They have to sell how easy it is to do. This then gets people to buy their seminar and creates easy money for themselves. Full circle, just like you mentioned.

I like your shovel example. Find a way to actually provide value to people and you will do just fine. Unfortunately people need to understand that to provide value, you need to work!

This is something I hear real estate investors talk about all the time. Their goal is to build generational wealth for their kids, grandchildren, great grandchildren, etc. They believe by building a good real estate portfolio and acquiring assets they will create generational wealth for their family. I believe I have a controversial take on this stance. I 100% disagree with this line of thinking!

There are stories of family’s that have had multiple generations build wealth through owning land, real estate, oil, etc. that have lost it all in 1 generation! Wealth is incredibly hard to obtain and 10x harder to keep. Just because you are able to hand over your children and grandchildren wealth doesn’t mean that they will know how to keep it. They have to know how to handle the wealth if they are going to keep it. My focus will be on teaching them how to create and keep wealth, not handing it over to them.

How I will focus to create generational wealth will be the complete opposite of what most people want to do. My kids will not be handed anything in life, they will EARN everything. I will not give them money, instead I will be there to teach them what they need to know to get their own money. I will teach them what I’ve learned in my life that they can use to create their own success. When they need advice, I’ll be sure to provide it. When they are struggling through the rough times, I’ll be there to support them. My goal is to create kids who are good people. If I can do that, they won’t need my wealth, they will have their own.

What are your thoughts about creating generational wealth?

Quote from @Marcus R.:

@Corey Conklin - Love it!  That's some great insight.  I'm on board with your line of thinking.  And the more I think about it, it really makes sense.  Lots of other class 2 assets that take work but can make money and aren't traditional assets - trading cards, sneakers, purses, watches, and even education.  

This is ridiculous but I read a story about a guy who bought a shipping container worth of toilet paper early in the pandemic when it was scarce.  I don't remember the numbers but he made a crazy return and most certainly none of us would consider TP to be an asset but he turned it into a class 2 asset and hustled to make it work. 

And completely agree, the idea that you can become rich or even financially free without working is a lie.  And it's a lie that makes the other person rich because folks paid $99 for his/her course.

 @Marcus R. There are so many ways that you can get into class 2 assets like you mentioned. It's something I think not enough people focus on these days. They all want to live the easy life and get their mailbox money by focusing on class 1 assets.

There has been so much focus on real estate and class 1 assets it's becoming less and less lucrative. While all of the focus has been on that I've been working on seizing the class 2 asset boom that I believe is going to happen over the next 5-10 years. 

After hearing the TP story I'll be sure to keep that opportunity in mind! Haha

Quote from @Jim K.:

@Corey Conklin

I HATE trash like that. Leave a cat and kittens behind, that's total scum, and there are a lot of them out there.

I hope you also picked up a valuable lesson about lying agents, too. As long as the closing goes through and they get their commission...

I still have a nice scar on my hand where I was savaged by a tenant's cat. But to be honest, I should have been smarter.

I have cleanout stories that include, er, soiled marital aids and VHS collections of fat-fetish titles, such as Life in the Fat Lane 2: The Heavy Load. Typically, in those relationships, there's a feeder and there's an eater, the tenant was the eater. I recently saw the feeder walking around my neighborhood, cursed him out loudly on the street. Made my day, really, even though the worthless SOB still owes me $650. I took some satisfaction out of the fact that the little guy was pushing a boy's bicycle with 20-inch wheels up a hill, obviously really going places in his miserable life.

It's awful to see how little a human can care about others, especially towards animals. 

I learned a lot of lessons on that house but it also came with stories I'll be telling for a while.

I think more stories like these need to be told so people can get a better reality of RE investing and learn from some of our hard learned lessons.

@Jim K. This is exactly why I have gotten fed up with real estate podcasts, forums, etc. It's all a bunch of sales guys trying to sell you "financial freedom" by spending $2,000 on their seminar. Or how easy it is to make a million dollars in 90 days starting from scratch. It's ludicrous.

When I bought my second rental property I was called by my agent about a week before closing and said he had an odd request from the seller. The seller (an older, recently widowed man) asked to stay in the house for 3 days after closing since he needed the money to pay for his next home.

My first thought was, absolutely not! I knew that would make it easy on him to leave any trash or belongings he didn't want behind for me to handle. My agent said that he would help (which he never did), my brother (who was a partner at the time) said what harm can this old man do? We were getting an pretty good deal on the house so I thought, Ok I'll help this gentleman out hoping he would do right by me for being decent.

Fast forward to the day I get the house. I open the door to trash left everywhere, food left out, furniture that was left behind, a garage completely full of old junk. I knew I shouldn't have done this and I was kicking myself.

But that's not even the worst part. I came back a few days later to start the renovation on the house and started emptying the house, my brother was there to help. After about 30 minutes I hear a loud yell from my brother with a handful of cuss words, so I run to where he was at. On my way there I was meet with a pissed off black cat hissing at me! The old man left a black cat trapped inside the house that my brother let loose when he opened a cabinet door! Since it was in a small town there is no such thing as animal control so I had to figure out what to do. Anytime we would get near the cat he would hiss and try to attack us. This cat had all of its claws and was able to climb up door frames and walls, it was wild!

It took us a few days before we could get it out of the house as it refused to leave but we were finally able to get it to leave the house on it's own. While all of this was going down we also found a litter of kittens hidden in a box in his overgrown back yard that we had to figure out what to do with as well.

Needless to say, don't be an idiot like me and let a seller stay in the home after you close or you may get attacked by a pissed off cat!

Quote from @Marcus R.:

Lots of good thoughts and great points on both sides.

In its literal definition I think a primary house is an asset.  

But for the sake of this argument, I view it as more of a tool.  Could be good or bad depending on how its used. No different than a car - Could be a mode of transportation, a weapon, a hobby, a status symbol, a family heirloom, etc...

A primary house when used correctly could be a wealth generator, safe place, home business, community gathering place or it could be a financial drag, a source of stress, etc...

Depends on the user and how it's used

I agree with you on your take.

I like to break down assets into 2 different categories. Let's call them class 1 and class 2 assets.

Class 1 assets are those that provide income without you needing to work i.e. rental properties, stocks, bonds, etc. This is what you see a lot of investors focus on, Robert K. especially.

Class 2 assets are tools/instruments that allow you to maximize your income. A hammer is an asset to a carpenter but a liability to a lawyer. A car is an asset to a delivery driver but becomes a liability when you start collecting them.

I see investors only want to invest in class 1 assets because it means little to no work for them. For experienced investors they get the luxury to do this sort of thing. For myself and many other up and coming investors we also need to focus on and make smart choices on our class 2 assets. I see a lot of people want to bash on class 2 assets because they have to actually work to make it an asset. It may mean work but to think you don't have to work hard on your way to becoming rich is a lie that needs to stop being sold. 

Quote from @Ben Lin:

RK suggested you buy your primary with cash like his rich dad. I would rather rent and build wealth until I can buy a primary with cash. Renting also makes you hungrier to build wealth. When I was young I didn’t care where I was living I just wanted to build wealth as fast as I could. Owning a primary with a high mortgage will definitely slow down your financial goals. 

I would argue renting can be cash flow. Just calculate how much is your holding cost of your primary, buy a rental that produces the same amount, and lastly rent something cheaper than your rental income 😁. 

You bring up a point that almost everyone overlooked. Whether you rent or you buy it's critical that you don't strap yourself with a large mortgage or rent payment. The focus should be on acquiring real assets and not keeping up with the Joneses.