How The Rich Invest Their Money (Alternative Investing Strategies)

My experience has been the vast majority of financial advisors, people working with financial services, recommend something that they themselves do not invest in. I would struggle taking health advice from someone who doesn't seem like they're taking care of themselves, right? Well, when you're thinking of your money, has the person that you're talking to had financial success? If you're talking about finance, right? And the answer to that in my mind should be yes. And then are they doing exactly what they're saying? And both those answers should be yes. Or why are you working with them? That's right. If you can't show me a, that you're invested in the same things that you're sharing with me and B that you've actually created a lot of wealth doing what you're talking about. I have no interest. What's up, Scott. Good to have you on the show again. Good to be here. Good to see you. Thanks for having me. Oh, this is great. Well, you and I got a chance to really get to know each other really just a little bit before the first time we had you on the show. And there's only a handful of people that I've brought on for a second time. And, uh, you're, you're one of that, uh, small percentage of people because the message was great. Um, we're in alignment on so many levels and, uh, what's fun this time around is you're actually formally a lifestyle investor mastermind member, which is really cool. Yeah. Yeah, it is. I'm excited to catch up and excited to be a part of the group, right. And learn more and just felt aligned when we connected, felt aligned in the presentation that we gave, it just seems like a great group that I definitely can learn from and then ideally, hopefully share some things that are useful as well. And by the way, in between the last podcast and this podcast, you actually came on and did a feature teaching session with the lifestyle investor mastermind community, and, uh, this obviously is going out to our much larger audience, so it'll be fun to get into some of those specifics. You know, we're not going to get into everything that the lifestyle investor mastermind gets, but I do want to explore a handful of the topics that we discussed that are just so relevant, uh, for our listeners and for those that tune in and watch us every week. So I'm excited to dig in. Yeah, I'm happy to do it. Look, it's what I've developed and being in wealth management for 30 years. So, uh, I don't know a lot about a lot of things, but this piece, I've learned some things along the way and it's what I personally do. So I'm happy to share. I love it. Well, before we dive into some of the content, I'd love to hear from you. I mean, you're a new member, so you haven't had all that much time to jump in yet. We've got our big annual retreat coming up, which is, uh, I mean, we basically have 95% of our active members that show up to this and they, you know, most of them bring their spouses. So it's the biggest event that we do. It's only available to mastermind members. So, uh, there's no way to get in if you're not a member. So it's, it's really a special thing. So you're, you're joining at the right time. Um, but I'm curious, even without having been in it that long, what were some of the reasons why you did join or some of the things that you're excited about with the community so far? Yeah, well, really, uh, the, the group aligns with my thinking and that is investing in things that you are your greatest investment, investing in things that you know, um, private deals that aren't, uh, necessarily publicly traded, having access to that, focusing on preserving capital and for them focusing on income and then having a growth component where you can swing for the fences. And as you know, that aligns exactly with the way to wealth and how I think about money. So very, uh, aligned there. And then it felt like values alignment. It just felt like the group were good people. There was a sense of humility that I sensed from the group that it's not like, Hey, I got to have all the answers now. We just want to have a good time and get to the best answer. And yeah, at the end of the day, it's all, this really isn't all that serious. So let's have a good time doing it and getting there together. So I sensed that that's my belief system. And so it just felt values aligned. Um, you know, and you're thinking when it comes to wealth and money was, uh, felt similar as well. So, yeah, it felt right. Well, so much alignment on so many levels and you know, you're the perfect fit for our community. So I'm excited about that. Um, and I'm excited for you to really dig in, you know, as a, as a new member. I mean, you've only scratched the surface, so I can't wait till you actually, you know, dive in and meet all the people and go to your first event. Um, but. I think that there's a lot of truth to what you said in the, uh, number one, the alignment of values and mindset. And then number two is just, we have this incredibly humble group of highly successful people, which is atypical. That is an abnormal thing. Uh, but we have built a community around that. And so it's special and it's where I like to spend the majority of my time. If I'm not with my family, this is the community that I want to be with because I'm a student first. I, you know, I, I may facilitate it and I may have the name on it and behind it, but I show up as a student, you know, just like anyone else in the community sitting in the front row. Yeah. Well, you can, it exudes so well done because it really does. And I know that this isn't, you're not wanting necessarily to take the credit for it, but in some ways you, you, you do and should, and it's also the credit to this, the people who've joined because there's, it's a, there is a like-mindedness and that, that humility yet at the same time, having had a success in the business and entrepreneurial realm, uh, that's a unique combo. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. And I'll, you know, I'll dish all the praise and, um, appreciation to the members, cause I do think the members, uh, are who make the community what it is. So, you know, we've got some pretty important, uh, I guess, uh, frameworks around who gets in. So, uh, you know, I, I definitely compliment our team, uh, because we have never had to remove someone. Um, but you know, it's, it's just, it's getting the right people in and magic happens when you have amazing people. Hopefully I won't be the first. Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's, we're going to have some fun. It'll be good. Well, I want to dig in, uh, you know, one other thing you said that I want to touch on, you had talked about investing in alternative investments and private deals. And I think most people don't realize that, you know, 25 years ago, there were 10,000 companies on, you know, the stock exchange, publicly traded companies that people could invest in, uh, because of the regulatory environment and because of all these restrictions and just, it is tough to be a publicly traded company. So that has dwindled down to 4,000, around 4,000, actually probably a little under 4,000 companies. And that's such a small percentage of the number of companies. I mean, we're talking tens of millions of private companies in the U S and hundreds of millions of private companies in the world. So the, the stock market is like less than 1% of the total available investment opportunity in these companies. And I think that's worth noting, right? Yes, completely. And, and look, you know, it's, it's part of, I wrote a paper all seasons investing and it's part of our, my allocation belief is to have a chunk in alternatives. And I have a, an allocation we can get to, if it makes sense, as far as publicly traded, cause it has its benefits of liquidity and diversification, et cetera, and different than the alternative space. And so that's, what's so interesting that what big believer happy to dig into that. Um, but you're aligned. I know, right. It's, it's part of lifestyle investor is what getting access to these, these deals. And look, let's just think about it like this. And I I've done wealth management since like 91 is when I started my career. So if nothing else, I'm getting old, but this show experience and ideally wisdom. And one of the things that clearly I've seen is when people really create wealth, um, and we can define what wealth is, of course, but if we just look at it from a monetary standpoint, where are they doing that in a big way? Some have done really well in real estate. But the majority of the big wealth that's been created or the large amount is private business owning private business. Right. And so this is what this is giving you access to, uh, I'm a big believer in your own and then outside of that alternative investments, one slice of that in my mind is owning these privately held companies that aren't publicly traded at this point. Yeah. I'd love to dig into that because I think asset allocation is important and it is just to this. I mean, at this point in time, it's almost comical to me that these financial advisors, most of them are so out of touch with the reality that people want alternative investments. They want cash flowing investments. They want passive income, but most of, of the financial services industry is stuck in the past thinking people want a 60, 40 stock to bond split. And that's what diversification is. And that's the furthest thing from the truth. And, and you know, this idea that everyone has the vast majority of their wealth in the stock market. So in less than 1% of the companies available in the world that you could invest in a limited pool, uh, bound by all kinds of restrictions and highly volatile. Yes. And here's what I'll say to that. I'm in agreement and you know, I'll say if I'm not, I am totally in agreement. And here's the thing. I think there's a reason this thing plays out. And so I'll give you the, why does this happen? Why did financial advisors, which is my space? How does this happen? That this is what you recommend. It's the 60, 40 split and use publicly traded. Well, it's because it's what you're taught. So just a comparison would be our medical industry. Okay. So if you go to traditional medicine, what's going to happen? Well, they're going to say what's happening to you. Oh, here's this drug, take this. And you're going to be, this is good next. Then you come back and you do it all over again. And if that's the path you take, so be it. Why does that happen? Well, it's because it's what's taught, right? So it's this scope where. If you really were just focusing on what's the root cause and then what works. And if you really just care about what works and if the pharmaceutical works, cool, take that, but let's get to the root cause and let's be open-minded enough to not just be shoehorned into this way of thinking, because it's been taught for 60 years. If it's not working, let's look for an alternative. That's right. So what would you do? You may look for use your traditional medicine doctor, but maybe you consider a functional medicine doctor, and maybe you consider someone an alternative medicine, et cetera, et cetera, right? That's going to look at the root cause going to look at you as a holistic and, and, and not going to really have a dog in the hunt, so to speak. And it's going to be open architecture. What's the same in financial services. There's a lot that we're going to just shoehorn into 60, 40. This is the answer because it's what they've been taught, but just know it's a big world out there. There's a lot of other opportunities, which you're well aware of that. Deserve your recognition and looking into. And if your current advisor is not doing that, don't use me. Find one that does though, that is going to be more holistic in their looking at the root cause and let's look at all the options that are out there. Well, and I want to give a hats off to you and to several of our other members, you know, a couple of them I've had on the podcast and, and these are big time players, including yourself in the financial services space, and I just love that we have just a good handful of people that are like, Hey, I don't know alternative investing the way that the people in this community do or the way that Justin does, and I want to be involved. And so, you know, big time kudos to so many of our members that are saying, Hey, financial services actually needs to be different. We need to adapt with the times we need to provide and offer things that, that people want today. And we need to be good at what we do. You know, we need to have an alternative investment platform and we need to shift maybe the allocation. Uh, and so hats off to so many of you that are like, Hey, we need to innovate. We need to stay relevant. We need to be cutting edge. Um, and not that you weren't already. Right. You know, but I think it's cool. Anytime someone's willing to get outside their box, outside of conventional financial education. Um, so big time hats off to you. And I think the more that we can learn what the family offices do. And, and I know this is your world. I know you work with family offices, uh, and we see the asset allocation that they have. I think that's a powerful start that, you know, if you look at, uh, you know, it's funny, I actually have, uh, JP Morgan, um, their, their private bank. You know, I actually went, I'm just, you know, to this, this event. So I'm holding it up here. Um, and, and we went through a bunch of their stats and I get their annual report. I get their family office report. Same with, um, UBS and Goldman and KKR does one, and a bunch of these family offices do them. And really the range is, uh, this is based on 2023 numbers. So end of the year, 2023 is you've got about 45 to, um, 59% of the wealthiest family, so single family offices with money and alternative investments, like that's the percentage of their portfolio that's in these alts or alternative investments, 45 to 59%. That's a, that's a big shift from years ago, even three, four, five years ago. It's massive. And by the way, I actually think the percentage is going to grow once we get the 2024 numbers, which will come out sometime, may, you know, Q2 of next year. Yes. What? Yes, totally. Do what was, what's the rest of the allocation? Did they have it on the 23? Yeah, you generally have, I mean, so the breakdown is. Each one's a little bit different, you know, by, you know, a few different percentage points, but usually it's around 15 to 25% public equities. You've got, uh, 15 to 20, maybe probably 15 to 20% real estate. Some, some of these groups will actually go a little higher to 25% and tiger 21 is a highly real estate, um, oriented group that I'm part of, and they often skew even up to 30%. Um, but I, I like including those numbers because there's another group that, uh, that I looked into that is only, I mean, and these are all centimillionaires and above, and it's only 5% in public equities, which is interesting. And, and, you know, a little larger share in real estate. Um, but overall is a general consensus. You know, you've got, um, you know, probably 20 to 30% in private equity. So, you know, 15 to 25% public equity, 20 to 30% private equity, 15 to 20% real estate, uh, you've got five to 15% fixed income, five to 15%, uh, cash or cash equivalent, um, you've got one to 5% crypto and more specifically, probably Bitcoin, um, you know, I'd say probably like 90 to 95% of that crypto allocation being Bitcoin, right. Yes. Um, and I think, oh, and probably five to 15% private credit. Yes. Makes sense. The, and the only one I did in here that I talk about a bit, cause that all resonates with me and, and, and, you know, allocations may be tweaked a little bit, but what you're saying, yes, is hedged equity, you know, two to 6%. Yeah. So, uh, but I'd love to hear your numbers. I, you know, I, I would, I want you to talk about the way to wealth, right. Your company. And I want you to talk about, you know, some of your allocations. Cause I love it. Cause yours actually skews to a lot more of a cash, comfortable and confident position where you can really make some strategic moves when the time is right. So I really like what you do. It does. It, it, it, it does, uh, Justin, and it does align with what does, you know, what do family offices do? What do institutionals do? And so really, you know, this research came out of a couple of things. One is how would I manage the entire wealth as a, as my family and as my family office, that's where the way to wealth came from and then out of that. Okay. What, how do we then allocate capital? Cause the way to wealth is really the complete wealth management process of looking at asset protection and tax reduction strategies and insurance, uh, strategies and cash, the whole wealth management. And then once done, how do you deploy capital? Well, that's where I wrote a paper called all seasons investing, and we can share it with anyone interested. Uh, the paper was based off of research and looking at the Harry Markowitz in the 60, 40 portfolio, looking at Ray Dalio and what does, what was he doing with his all weather portfolio and looking at, uh, the libertarian, uh, Harry Brown and his permanent portfolio. So all of this 30 years of being in the industry had me synthesized down into what would I do with my, I mean, what is the highest and best use of my capital? And I was thinking about it through Ray Dalio's lens. So if I'm no longer here, just like he thought, how's this going to be managed for my family right into perpetuity? Well, I developed this portfolio to do just that, to, you can, you can base this as a map and then someone could allocate it based off of it. So it's four things, it's four quadrants. And it's basically thinking of a four quadrant system. And I simplified it 25%, 25, 25 in each one of the four quadrants. Well, all seasons is what's the weather you have to navigate. This is a little bit off a Ray Dalio's thought process of all weather portfolio is a growing market with rising interest rate, a in inflation, rising interest rate, falling interest rate. And also you have inflation with, with the falling interest rate. And so they're the, they're all four seasons. Well, what do you deploy? Where do you put the capital? So the top left, if it's that kind of market stocks is going to be the place to be top where, so I put 25% of my capital in stocks and it's allocated about what we were talking about. So about 15% a piece. So that's about 25, 30% in private and public. Then when you go to the far upper right, this is a, this is navigating a rising interest rate and inflationary type environment. This is where alternatives come in. So this is where, you know, you could look at crypto or Bitcoin. You could look at gold. You could look at various alternatives to include real estate in the upper right. That's how I allocate. Then the bottom, this is really how do we protect capital? So this is when you're talking at falling interest rates, a more recessionary type environment, which we have, right? The markets are cyclical. The recommendation strategy is short-term bonds or long-term bonds. So the bottom left quadrant, and you'll see this in the paper is short-term bonds, bottom right, long-term. So you could consider cash being part of that short-term environment. Well, my favorite tool to use there. And you know, this Justin is the infinite banking concept, which is where you're using dividend paying whole life to allocate the short-term and long-term bonds. And gosh, I could spend hours telling you why I would do that. And by the way, I hate that. That's the answer, to be very honest, battle every time you go there. And I started my career 30 years ago in insurance and got a complete disdain from it. I'm like, ah, I I'm representing these companies. Then they get a claim, then they don't want to pay it. And it's like, ah, I wanted, I turned my back on it. So here I am all these years later now embracing it, but that's after reading like close to 70 books on Austrian economics and dividend paying whole life with a mutual company. So I am all in on this strategy because I understand it. Right. I think that's key. And by the way, just to throw out there, I totally agree with the whole life falling in the fixed income category. And that being a very, you know, it's a liquid portion or component of, cause you can borrow against it at favorable rates. So it's, it's beautiful. Yeah. And it's not an investment, right? This is where you're, we're, we're storing wealth to deploy, uh, and looking for safety of capital, a good rate of return and giving us access. That's right. So, so the overlay of the quadrants, and this is what Justin was talking to was the banking piece for the bottom. We were just talking. That's the overlay on the bottom. The overlay on the top is the way to wealth DNA, whereas our friend Garrett has caught an investor DNA. And there's a book on the shelf years ago, that's called financial DNA. The point is to me, you know, what you're investing in, meaning you have a unique skillset here. So anywhere you're allocating, I think the bottom quadrant, you could use infinite banking or any other cash alternative there, short-term, long-term bonds, the top, when you start looking at stocks publicly traded or private equity, or you start thinking about gold, silver, crypto real estate, what's your unique skillset that you can bring to manage that risk and capitalize on any Delta that may be there in any rate of return, because of your unique skillset of all your upbringing and years of experience that you have, that you can bring to it. And, and just for clarity sake, I want to make sure everyone understands this, the bottom two quadrants are 25% each and 25% on the short term, 25% long-term, but they're there, you know, this is the fixed income, uh, and liquid bucket, right? So I just want to make sure that everyone understands the 25% in each category, but the, the bottom of this being, you know, more fixed income, whether it be bonds or treasuries, a whole life, we can put Bitcoin in there as well, I'd love to hear your thoughts on that as well. And by the way, side note, your white paper's incredible. So, uh, I love it. And if you have not read it, read it. Uh, that thing is amazing and it's worth everyone's time, you know, take you, uh, probably 15 to 20 minutes to read 30 minutes tops. It's incredible. Yeah. It's it's thank you, Justin. I, I do totally believe in it clearly. Uh, and look, not just believe in it. It was academically, the thought process was academically really researching all the different options out there and then distilling it down into something that you can consume, but it's not a true, your traditional research paper where, you know, you need a magnifying glass to read this thing and get through it and good luck not falling asleep. It's really, it's meant to be digestible. But other thing is it's literally how I allocate our family's monies. I mean, verbatim, what you read is a hundred percent how I allocate funds. So I am totally a believer in this. And that sounds like, yeah, no kidding. Like everyone, that's not true, right? What people say and how they think about it, not always how they allocate, which does kind of blow my mind, but it's important to point that out. Actually, I'd like to chime in here. My experience has been the vast majority. And when I say vast majority, I'm going to say probably in the 90 percentile of financial advisors, people working in financial services recommend something that they themselves do not invest in. That has been my experience. And by the way, this is also knowing a lot of people, having a lot of friends in the industry, knowing exactly what they invest in compared to what they sell. So that to me is a big misalignment. And so I'd like to clarify your point because you said this is exactly how you invest your family's monies, meaning your clients' monies as a family, their capital. But it's also how you invest your family's capital, right? Your family office. One one hundred percent. Yes. And look, I was I used the medical analogy earlier. So I try to be proactive and, you know, work with various doctors. Well, I looked to bring another one on this year by a recommendation from a holistic doc I work with. And in that meeting, we did a Zoom call. She had given me some recommendations. And this is an observation. It's not meant to be judgment. But I think it ties into where we're at. This poor lady was really, really overweight and and and was sharing with me what to do to optimize health. Well, my point is, I would struggle taking health advice from someone who doesn't seem like they're taking care of themselves. Right. Well, when you're thinking of your money, has the person that you're talking to had financial success if you're talking about finance? Right. And the answer to that in my mind should be yes. Right. But it's not always yes. And then are they doing with their capital and their money? First of all, they they have done well to show the exact dollar amount. But they could illustrate that they've pretty much figured out the financial game. And then are they doing exactly what they're saying? And both those answers should be yes. Or why are you working with them? That's right. If you can't show me a that you're invested in the same things that you're sharing with me and be that you've actually created a lot of wealth doing what you're talking about. I have no interest. And so there's two different sides of the spectrum to me where most people are like, hey, let me you know, my financial plan or my financial advisor, you know, is this that or the other thing? And, you know, I've known him forever. And but but there's no transparency. We don't actually know how well they've done. We don't know if they're investing your money into the products that they themselves are invested in. And we actually don't know if they've done well just because they have a nice car or just because they work for a name brand company. A Wall Street company does not mean that they're actually good at what they do. That's one side of the equation. The complete other side of the equation, which this one's also mind boggling to me, is the influencer space where people are sharing what they're doing. And, you know, here's I've had tons of success doing this and you should do it. But people trust them not based on whether they're an expert. They trust them based on how many social media followers they have, which is also mind boggling to me that the level of diligence on either side is so insufficient that there's just such a high likelihood for disappointment and an underperformance. Right. Like if you're a social media influencer and you have a big following, there's a high likelihood that you make most of your money from selling information, education or products to people. You didn't actually make money doing the thing that you're talking about. So big danger over there. But big danger on the other side, where you're really fully on the conventional side with a big firm or with someone that has a slew of products that are primarily all the same and all offered by the big financial institutions. Yeah, totally. So so we think it whatever for whatever reason I'm using health today as an analogy, maybe because it's something I've been focused on for a while. But when I going down this path and engage with Paul Cech in like 2018, he's a holistic lifestyle coach out of California. He's a unique cat. Anyway, he's become a friend and someone I work with one on one for a year. Why? One, he was 10 years older than me in great shape and really seemed to be so well educated and doubt in. So it's like, well, this dude's already been there and done it. And I could see it in his physique and in his his energy level and his interactions. He was healthy, physically, mentally, spiritually. So I'm like, there you go. So it checks out. Why would I go to some fat dude that isn't practicing what they're preaching and isn't showing me physical and mental and spiritual health? Right. So it's the same in the financial world. Why? Why would we take advice from someone like that? Yeah. And so it should sound obvious that I'm eating what I'm cooking. But to your point, it's not always the case. Yeah, I think people need to do a great job diligencing the most important vendors or relationships in their lives and doing, you know, an audit of like the most important things, understand what they're doing, what their business is like, are they the real deal? Are they not the real deal? I think that's so important. You know, to me, the most important place is like on the wealth creation side of things. It's like who's managing your money? You know, what's your exposure to alternative investments and who's helping you with that? And then who's overseeing your tax strategy and then who's overseeing your estate plan? And and then likely, you know, who's quarterbacking all those and coordinating all those and who's actually making sure that you have the cash flow needed to support the life that you have or you're at least trending in that way. And you can project that in a certain period of time, your passive income will exceed your lifestyle expenses. Yeah. And like literally that's our process. And I'll and maybe I'll share some of that before I do. I wanted to point out is because this may not be known is, you know, in our industry, there's broker dealers and there's compliance and there's various departments. Some of these various departments limit how much can even go into the alt space. That's right. Even if some of the advisors wanted to, they're handcuffed. So again, that's like some of this. I get the reason for the protections, but it's again, could correlate this on the health side. So you get where I'm going. It's like, why are we why are we limiting that? You know, it may be the intense. Well, maybe it is, maybe it's not. But nonetheless, does it make sense? And would you ask yourself, what do you have in hedged? What do you have in private equity? And if I'm listening to this, I would be thinking, what do I have in that? And that would be a good homework assignment to go back and look and see what's private credit, what's private equity, what's hedged. I'm not telling you what your percentage should be, but do you have it? Why or why not? What do you have in crypto, et cetera? Why and why not? So these are good questions. And then when you look at what's your process or if you're working with someone, what is their process and does it make sense to you? So so ours is under this umbrella of the way to wealth. The way is the idea of living in harmony with things is the philosophy of the way. So it's very intentional. And it's also living now in the present moment. And I'm very it's not just words like, what are you going to do this year with that capital? One, you should be enjoying it because we only know we have what today. So what are we doing to use the money to enjoy? And then what are we doing this year to reduce taxes? Not some print out on some 30 page 30 years from now. What's going to happen? Silliness in many ways, because all of those variables change. What can we do this year to reduce that tax burden, to increase cash flow, to get a return on investment? These that the way. Then the two's the team and the game is won or lost here. If you can surround yourself with people smarter than you and really standing out in their area of expertise and they don't have egos. So, you know, the difference between a players or a hose is there's a distinction there. A players don't have to have the best answer. They don't have to be the one with the best answer. They want to get to the best answer for your benefit. A hose have to have the best answer. So you want to have a players. OK, it's really good in the process. Ours is wealth. It's an acronym W's. What's the foundation? Well, what's the foundation tax reduction strategy, asset protection, a state and legacy plan, insurance maximization, interest rate and credit all should lead to more cash flow and control. So these are the bricks in the foundation. Then the E is establish a savings bucket. You need to allocate towards where are you warehousing your capital for emergencies and opportunities? The A in wealth is all of your expenses are covered by income. You have a bucket that's going to be focused on income so that you're financially independent because when your income is exceeding expenses passively where you're not having to go work for it, you're economically independent and have some financial freedom. Then we can go for the E or the L is living with inflation. We can swing for the fences in the growth bucket because we have the foundation. We have the savings. We have the income taken care of. Then we swing for the fences in the growth bucket. And then lastly, the T is taxes again, because it is our biggest expense. So we want to have a tax diversified strategy of taxable, tax deferred and tax free. And then H is have it updated annually. That's all on one page. That's a process. It's mine. It's what I do with our capital and our financial plan here for our family. And yeah, just make sure you have a process. And then from there, we can start digging in the weeds of all seasons capital, what private equity or what private credit or what publicly traded stock, all with the overlay of what's your unique way to wealth DNA that you can use and leverage to maximize on these opportunities versus handing it just handing it over and hoping. Yeah, that's beautiful and well said. And I love that you have these one page documents that you use as your frameworks and you have acronyms that are one word and you've got your company based on all the different processes, but, you know, built into one short saying. It's very clever. I think that that's really fun. So, you know, we talked about this briefly, but I don't know if we actually drilled down on it. Where does Bitcoin fit in this? I think it fits below based on what you had said, but I'm curious, you know, how comfortable or confident you are in it. You know, for me personally, I've made some big shift, excuse me. For me personally, I've made some big shifts over the years where we've really built a treasury for most of our big businesses. So for real estate company, for lifestyle investor, where a good portion of our treasury is actually sitting in Bitcoin and not to mention, you know, just having other investments that that we do there under our holding company. But to actually have the treasury of these businesses there, I think is a profound, I guess, revelation, a realization for me and kind of following the path of Michael Saylor and what he's done with micro strategy. I mean, it's been a game changer for us for compounding wealth while having liquidity at the same time. Yeah, yeah. I'm a fan. I was I was a bit small, small, small allocation, albeit early adopter, but nonetheless, early adopter and have been following it. I'm no expert, however, read quite a bit. Am a fan. Very familiar with Michael Saylor and his thought process and a lot of his sharings and talks, very articulate and well thought out on his stance. And so to me, I really like the idea of a one to five percent allocation as as as a bit of a guideline. And but again, based on education, so I would be leaning towards the I like it and I would like it as an allocation and leaning towards the lighter end if I'm weren't educated on it. If I were, then I would lean towards the top end of that five percent and then even potentially more if educated, meaning you feel comfortable and you have a thesis on why so that when you have swings and when you have people saying that this is complete gambling, you feel like you can stand on your own two feet. You need to be able to get there. And from there, then you could use alternative ways to participate, i.e. some of the companies that are exchanges or you could look at micro strategy as an example. And I'm not recommending this. I'm simply saying another way to play that since he has so much in it could be owning that stock. So there's various ways to go above that allocation and to play it that could make sense based on your unique understanding, education and way to wealth DNA. What what skill set can you bring? Yeah, and I love that standpoint there, because before we hit record on this podcast, you and I were talking off air and you said, you know, hey, I've got some capital to invest and I want to find some good deals. And I'm excited to dig into a lot of the lifestyle investor deals. And in fact, we're wrapping up this call here in a couple of minutes because we have two deals that we're presenting inside of our community that have gone through. You know, we spend about three hundred thousand dollars a year on our process for the deals that we do just through our channels of due diligence. And one of the things that you and I both talked about that we agreed upon is that you don't rush investing, you don't let FOMO kick in, you don't make emotional decisions, you build out your investment criteria, you do it based on facts, not emotions. And there's always going to be another world class best deal ever, even though emotionally we think this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. But I'm telling you, as an investor, someone who's invested, you know, for 25 years and 15 of which in alternative investments, there is always a deal of a lifetime. And you should never rush into anything and you should take your time and you should educate yourself and put in the hours to be competent and confident. Yeah, that's it. Look, so I'm a new member and there's a lot of opportunities. Right. And what I said going in, I'm I'm looking to deploy capital. Right. And I shared being in this industry for 30 years, you can have a couple of a couple of losses. You can have loss of capital, which how are you going to get that back once you've lost it or you can have loss of opportunity. There'll always be another opportunity as well. That's right. It may take a while. But again, if you think about how I'm deploying capital with close to 50 percent of the allocation is basically warehousing my wealth, where if I never deployed it, I'm comfortable so I can let that game come to me waiting for another opportunity. But what I'm not comfortable with at 50 is loss of capital. That's good. So that's why I can take this stance and believe in. And I think everyone should consider that loss of capital or loss of opportunity. Just know there will be another opportunity. Once you lose the capital, you've lost the capital. Yeah, there's no doubt. What are you going to pick? Loss of capital or loss of opportunity? You lose the opportunity. More will come. That's well said. I love that. You know, we've only got a couple of minutes here. I want to make sure that people know where they can find you. And by the way, we've had some of our mastermind members and people in our community that have used you and and your company for building out their whole life strategies and use that in the bottom quartile of, you know, that would probably fall under, you know, it's interesting whether that falls under long term or short term because you can use it like short term money, but it actually is a long term product. But a lot of people in the lifestyle investor community have used you guys and the way to wealth, which is awesome. But you have a new book also. So I'd love for you to, number one, share the book. And then number two, tell us where we can learn more about you and find you for people that are interested in your, you know, your methodology, your way of, you know, working with families and deploying capital and allocating capital. And then, you know, if they want to get whole life, if they want to, you know, get the process, if they want to become a client in some way, I'd like for Yeah, well, thanks, Justin. The book, this is book number, I guess, four. And so this one is a labor of love. It's the way to wealth. It's what you just heard me riff on for a few minutes ago. And it's probably five to 600 pages. So it's a bit of a tome. So it could be a solid paperweight. But I wanted it to be, you know, when you think of books, and when you think of business, and when you think of processes, there's there's typically substance and sizzle, and you need both, you know, the sizzle cells, and you need that for growth and opportunity. But I've always been way more focused and wanting to be focused on the substance, hence the almost 600 page book, because I want it to be meaningful. So anyway, I lean towards the substance size. So hopefully people appreciate that appreciate that about the book. It's written, it's in the editing phase, it'll be out likely next year. So look for that in finding it or more on me and the company, the way to wealth. So th e, way w a y, the number two and wealth spelled out the way to wealth.com. You'll see our process there. The book will be there and be available there. And I'm sure on every place you can get a book as well. Carson wealth is the company name. We're in Maryland, Tennessee, and Georgia locations I'm involved with on a day to day basis. And then probably every state is my assumption as far as the entire enterprise. And yeah, that's where you could learn more about us. And I say us on those locations, because they're the locations who follow the process that we've created called the way to wealth. And, and luckily, again, I everything that I what the one promise I'll make is what I said earlier. No bullshit, you're going to get what you get as far as what we what we what we share is what we share. And it's also what we do. So if you're talking to someone, and even if it's not me, ask them what they own, you get asked to look at it, right. And I think today, we've had some significant people, players come in and participate in this infinite banking idea of how do you warehouse capital, but I don't think anyone's putting as much capital in on an annual basis to match me just yet. And I hope I can keep that up. Actually, I hope someone beats it. But the point is, I'm not just saying it like we're doing it. And, you know, ideally, I've done good enough to be able to do that as well. Right. So that's why I think it's important to share. But no matter who you talk to, if they're talking to you about infinite banking, rest assured, they can show you their, their program and policy, what company and why and how they do it there's to themselves. I think that's critically important. So you want to find out more best place I would say is the way to wealth.com. And yeah, man, thanks for having me back on Justin glad to be a part of the group. Hopefully shared some value with some of the sharings, but also look forward to learning. And I'm sure I'm going to get plenty of that coming up in Austin. I am sure you are too. And so excited to have you part of this community. And for those of you that are doing your audit, ask, you know, your whoever you're working with, what are their fees? Get clear on that too. I'm just going to throw that out there. And, you know, most of our paid with, with AUM assets under management. And so they probably are like highly discouraging you from moving your money into alts because they're not paid the same way. And, and if you're not using alts on their platform, you're then they're not getting paid on it, you know? So very, very interesting the way that it all works. And I love that you're an open book here. I think that's amazing. And, and by the way, you have a lot, you've talked a lot, so you can look up Scott Ford as well and learn some good stuff. I like ending every episode with a question for our audience. And the question is the same each week, but it's, it's what is the one step you can take today to move towards financial freedom and move towards a life you truly desire? One that's on your terms, not on default, like most people live, but a life by design. And what's the one thing you learned from Scott today that you can put into action? Thanks so much. And we'll catch you next week, Scott, this is wonderful. Appreciate your time. And to everyone watching and everyone listening, thanks for consistently tuning in and for being, you know, avid followers of our content, because I, I tell people all the time, you know, health experts always say, mind what you eat, what you put in your body is important. I would say equally as important, if not even more important is what is the content you put in your mind? What do you feed yourself intellectually? Because I actually think that has the the grandest impact of anything. So thanks for tuning in.