Tuesday, June 19, 2018

How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck


2012 was the year my husband and I  decided to take control over our financial destiny.

At the time, Anton worked for a small start up. The start up didn’t make it, so Anton had no job and no income.

I was running a small consulting firm – we implemented Human Resources systems for companies around the world.

I was a workaholic and drove myself into the ground – I was extremely exhausted, depressed, and had to close the business.

You know what? Our three kids couldn’t care less that we didn’t make any money. They still wanted to eat, drink, do sports, buy Pokemon cards, etc. It was pretty horrible!

That was the rock bottom for us. 


So we made two decisions:


  1. We decided to write our resumes and get ourselves proper jobs. Like grown ups do.
  2. We decided that we will find a way to make sure that this type of financial disaster never-ever-ever happens to us again





 That’s when we realized that we had absolutely no idea about money.

We knew very well how to spend it. But that was it!

So we started educating ourselves.







Some of you might have heard about the Law of Attraction and Bob Proctor.

Bob Proctor is considered to be one of the world's greatest authorities on attracting wealth. What he says is

 “Thoughts become things. If you see it in your mind, you will hold it in your hand”,
- Bob Proctor 

Maybe it was the law of attraction, or maybe I was just click happy on the Internet.

But one day we got a call from Rich Dad Poor Dad coaching team. So Anton and I signed up for an 8-week real estate training program with Rich Dad Poor Dad.




Taking that course and committing to do as we were taught, was one of the best decisions we ever made.

We learned about assets.

An asset is something that puts money in your pocket. 



I’ll show you an example later.


We learned that to become financially independent, you need to acquire assets. Assets will work for you and put money in your pocket. If you own some assets, you’ll have income from them and you will no longer be at the mercy of your employer or your next paycheck.


We also found out about liabilities.

A liability is something that takes money away from you.


For example, traditionally, we think that our house and our car are assets. 

But the reality is that both of them are actually liabilities.


That’s because we have to pay money to maintain them every month - mortgage, insurance, utilities, gas.


Here’s an example of an asset.

This is a small house in Chatham, Ontario.

It rents for $800.

All expenses add up to about $700.

Cash in your pocket is $100 every month.
By show of hands. 

Who would like to have an asset like this? Right, most people think that 100 bucks isn’t worth the effort. 




Audible, Netflix and a Sushi Buffet for up to 4 people cost about $100 bucks.

All three of these liabilities together can be covered by the cash flow from the tiny Chatham house we looked at earlier.

You can look at it this way: if you stop going to work and never get another paycheck, you’ll still be able to afford Netflix, Audible and Sushi.


Let me ask you now. Who would like to have the tiny Chatham house, so that you can get free Netflix, free Audible, and free Sushi for the rest of your life?




Based on the concepts we reviewed:

Assets put money in your pocket. 

Liabilities take money away from you.





The formula to financial freedom is: 

Acquire assets and eliminate liabilities until the cash from assets covers all the expenses from your liabilities. Then you are financially free.


Monday, June 18, 2018

Pocket Deal: You make money when you buy! Literally


Got a property with 20% off!
In one of the real estate training programs I took, we learned about pocket deals.

I knew, in theory, that if you build great relationships with real estate brokers, you'd start getting deals off the market, which they call pocket deals. But so far this has never happened to me until today.

Today is my lucky day!

Because... I GOT MY FIRST EVER POCKET DEAL!


These deals are supposed to be great because:




  • Price is low - you get a gigantic discount
  • No one else even knows about the deal
  • No competing offers even in the hot seller market!

Here is how it happened.

One of my friends focuses of flips. It's essential for him to find properties at super low prices. So, he  designed a system of finding deals off the market and putting them under contract. His system works great!

He gets houses ch-e-e-e-e-e-a-a-a-a-a-p. Then, fixes them. And flips!

Occasionally, he comes across a house at a good discount, but the discount isn't big enough for a flip. The cost of the transaction would eat most of the profit. These situations are best for those who buy-fix-rent-&-hold, like myself.

So instead of flipping, the deal was assigned to me. In this transaction, my friend plays the part of a wholesaler. He adds a profit (aka assignment fee) for himself before re-selling the deal to me.

Here are the numbers:

Market Price
290,000 [1]
Sold to Whosaler At217,500 [2]
Assignment Fee15,000 [3]
My Price232,500 [4]
Downpayment54,375
Closing Costs10,875
Renovation15,000
Total Investment80,250 [5]
Instant Gain31,625 [6]
ROI at Purchase39%[7]





1) Comparable houses are currently selling for 290K

2) My friend was able to purchase the property off the market at 217.5K

3) He charged finders fee,  which is called assignment fee, of 15K when he assigned the deal to me

4) I am paying 232.5K for the house

5) To get the property, my total investment will be ~ 80K, including dowanpayment, closing costs, and a renovation

6) Based on current market prices, I'll have immediate gain of 31.6K:

Gain = 290K - 232.5K - 10.8K - 15K = 31.6K

7) The moment I buy the property, my return on investment (ROI) is almost 40%:

ROI = 31.6K / 80.25K = 39%.