Master Your Money: Chris Miles’ Strategies for Achieving Financial Autonomy

Rich Bennett 0:00
So my guest, he got I met him through Pod match, which is a wonderful tool. I love it. Alex Although, Alex, you still own me because I never got a birthday. CONAN I understand some other people have. 

My guest is very unique, and you're going to find out why, said Chris Miles, once a traditional financial advisor here. When I say there once quickly identified the pitfalls of standard for one keys and mutual funds, prompting him to pivot towards passive real estate investment. This shift allowed him to retire by the age of 28. You heard me right. Tait Not just content with his personal success. Chris became an advocate for financial freedom, teaching many to achieve a work optional status through passive income, which we're going to learn more about, known as the cash flow. The cash flow expert and I love this the anti financial advisor. Chris host the Money Ripples podcast and has been featured on platforms like U.S. News, CNN Money and Bigger Pockets with his company Money Ripples. He's aided clients in increasing their cash flow by over 300 million in 13 years. A.I. Financial Advisor. I love that van. 

Chris Miles 1:25
Had the nice ring to it as. 

Rich Bennett 1:27
It dies. Because I mean, well, let's face I don't think a lot of people like to talk to a financial advisor and correct me if I'm wrong there, but they do. Right. This is like I would say a lot of people if you say financial advisor, they look at them as an I can't believe I'm gonna say this because I've done it for years as a car salesman. 

Chris Miles 1:48
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 1:50
I know you pretty much used car sales since. Yeah. Yeah. So actually, what prompted you to adopt the moniker A.I. Financial Advisor? And how does it redefine traditional financial comfort, you know, that you were doing? 

Chris Miles 2:06
Yeah, it's because I used to be one. Right, Right. I used to be the enemy, so to speak. You know? Now, I didn't start out that way. I mean, raised as a kid. I mean, yeah, I thought money was cool, but the one thing is, my family taught me good values, hard work. You know, your word is your bond. You know, those kind of things. But when it came to money, it was there wasn't much taught to me in my home. I mean, it was it was mostly about scarcity of not having money, right? It's never about having enough. Hey, we can't afford this. We think I am made of money. Money doesn't grow on trees, you know? You know, those are the kind of feeling here. You have to. But I mean. 

Rich Bennett 2:42
Actually, I'm glad you said that because, I mean, you. Well, you're younger than me, but nowadays this stuff isn't even taught in school. 

Chris Miles 2:51
That's right. 

Rich Bennett 2:52
And which is something we have to change, too, because I think you look at a lot of these kids now and they don't know how to even balance a checkbook. 

Chris Miles 3:03
Yeah, because they don't even need a checkbook anymore. 

Rich Bennett 3:07
Well, that's that's your excuse, but you still got to balance that banking account. 

Chris Miles 3:11
That's right. 

Rich Bennett 3:12
A lot of them don't, you know, they don't look into that. So actually, what made you get into the field, first of all? I mean, when you were in school, was this your plan? 

Chris Miles 3:21
No, not at all. My my plan was to do something different than my dad. Right. Because my dad was that ultimate penny pinching saver. Cheapest can be depression era mentality. And so I thought, you know, I want to do something different. I'm going to go to college. So I go to college just like every good boy supposed to do. And and as I'm in college, I'm getting towards the end almost my bachelor's. And I realize my plan was to get an MBA and go into business consulting. I figure if I'm going to do that, I should have real business experience, not just get an MBA. And I'm just this young kid that has no real life experience. So I took it was supposed to be a one year sabbatical. I was going to take a one year break off, figure out, you know, just what kind of business maybe I could do, get some experience there, and then go back in and finish my MBA. Well, I basically dropped out of college and then was doing that The first business that came up that intrigued me was a financial advisor, not realizing that they take anybody off the street as long as you can, you know, not have a criminal record and write in 70%. That's all is required to be a financial advisor. And so I did that, you know, as a commission only type of type of job. And and I loved it. I loved being my own boss. I loved having my own business and having control my own destiny, my own time, my own freedom, because my dad didn't have that. My dad was the guy that says you worked for that company for 40 years. Even though the company's not loyal to you for 40 years in the layoff and do stuff like that. Right. He was in the automotive business. And so, I mean, he was getting pushed around, you know, doing that kind of stuff. Yep. Well, I mean, and by the way, he also had heart attacks and strokes by time. He's in his forties and fifties. So I wanted a different life. I could see that that path was in business. So I was a financial advisor. In fact, part of my motivation for being a financial advisor wasn't just about having a business. It was also because I wanted to help my dad. I want to see if I can give him some of his life back because he literally would say, I think my job will kill me. Yeah. So I thought, if I can get him to retire earlier, that would be worth it. So I did that for several years and then, of course, few years in, not expecting it. My dad calls me up and says, Chris, when you go, become my financial advisor. And I thought, Whoa, okay, this is the guy that changed my diapers, and now he wants me to talk to him about his money. And that's a sacred subject with him. I'd never seen his money ever in my life. He always kept his cards close to his chest. Never was anybody know how much money he had, right? Most kids skeptical of everybody. And so we sat down. I see his money for the first time. He had stuff. Money is for when K like a good boy is supposed to. He paid off his house and all of his debt early so he was debt free. Very proud of everything he did right. And then I looked at his numbers. I said, Dad, so you're 61 years old. You want to retire today, right? Yes. Well, you better hope you die in five years, because that's how long it's going to be before you run out of money. 

Rich Bennett 6:06
Wow. 

Chris Miles 6:09
All right, Chris. Well, that's not what I want to hear. What do I do then? I don't know. You did everything right. I mean, I tried to get you in this mutual fund or that one, but who's to say it's going to work? And by the way, I'm like, he just came out of Y2K, you know, it started coming back up, but he lost some his money in Y2K. Right. And like, they didn't put him in more stocks because just a few years after that was going to be the Great Recession starting. You know, So, I mean, I just I told I was like, I can't guarantee you anything. I mean, it's like you can probably cash money out of your house because it's paid off. But I you can't put that in the stock markets illegal. So I don't know what to tell you. And that bugged me so badly that I couldn't help him. The very guy that kind of inspired me, you know, without him knowing inspired me to get into that business. I couldn't help him. And it was even worse because it was just a few weeks later, I'm talking with a friend of mine that I trained to be a financial advisor, but then left to go do real estate investing and partnering on deals with his dad and his dad. He talked about how his dad's double his income as a professor, that local university. And I said, okay, come on, that's too good to be true. No way. In four or five months he's now doubling his income. And he stopped me. And he knew, of course, because he was trained in that industry a little bit, you know, even though it wasn't an as long as I was, he was still there for about a year or so. He said, Well, Chris, how much of your clients are truly financially free where they don't worry about money? I said, Oh, you had to throw that last part on. Thanks. You none, because they all worry about running out of money. Even in retirement. They're doctors and lawyers. They still think they'll run out. Okay. Chris will wait to help nobody. How about this? How have you guys as financial advisor financially free? None of the commissions you're earning, but doing these investments you've been recommending? Oh, and he got me because there I remember I remember at that time, this is the mid 2000s. I remember thinking kind of mentally envisioning about 100 people in my office that was there. And I realized there's guys have been working as financial advisors since the late 1970s and still they couldn't retire either. Wow. So I said none that there's a problem. And it got me to open up. Even though we were going to the debate about real estate not being as good as stocks, I realized, you know what? There's something here. And so few months in, I start to realize, okay, I got a choice, because now I've seen that there's this whole other world of alternative investments, places where you don't just throw your money in to build a big nest egg and then live on less than the interest, because, you know, financial advisors, the good ones, are telling you to only pull out 3% a year right now. So if you happen to be lucky enough to save up $1,000,000, which only, by the way, fidelity, only one and a half percent of their clients of 45 million, some or 50,000 people have over $1,000,000 in their accounts. Really, if you haven't saved up a million, you'll pull off 3%. That's only 30,000 a year. You're broke. And so you know, you're broke. Millionaire, right? And so so when I realized that that's $1,000,000, I think a cash or say, produces 1% a month, that's now 10,000 a month versus hoping for 2500 a month. That's quadruple the power. And it got me to a place where I said, okay, either I stay in this business, put blinders on and just say, or people never. I have as a financial advisor going to keep doing it or do I quit at the height of my business and say I'm going to keep my integrity intact. So I took the ladder and started going down that path. And that's where, like you said earlier, like I was retired later that year when I was 28, almost 29 years old, because I was able to get my money to work for me much harder than it was just accumulating and saving mutual funds. Because, by the way, I was on the same path as my dad. I was trying to be cheap. I was trying to save a lot, hoping that maybe if I saved a couple of million dollars, I can retire at age 40. Right? Well, it's amazing what money can do when it gets more leverage and more power. And it's in real assets versus stocks that are really just gambling pieces of crap. They go up or down whenever Biden sneezes or sniffs something weird. Right. So that's the thing. It's like he just can't rely on that kind of thing. You can't rely on something that isn't reliable. It doesn't if it's not loyal to you, you can't you shouldn't be loyal to it. Right. You know, so that's so that's where actually I was able to get myself out of the rat race, quote unquote, you know, where I was able to be me work option. I like work because I want to, not because they have to. And of course, when you do that, naturally, everybody wants to say, okay, Chris, how in the heck are you so young and you're retired right now? How did you do it? And that's where eventually I felt the calling the poll to come out and teach people how to do what I do. And that's where I became people want to call me a financial advisor. I'm like, No, I quit. I dropped those licenses. Only thing I hold an insurance license. Now I'm like, Nope, I don't have any of those licenses anymore. Now I'm more of an anti financial advisor and it stuck. 

Rich Bennett 10:48
I love it. I love it. Go back a minute because when your father asked you to be his financial advisor and you looked at everything and you gave him, you know that news, was he your first client that you ever said that to? 

Chris Miles 11:07
Yeah, because yeah, that's a good point. Because it was a little bit more personal because when he was his, he was, he was in a place well, one, he was actually at the point of retirement. Right, right. A lot of people I met with I was in my twenties. So of course, I'm, you know, birds of a feather flock together. I'm talking to a lot of newlyweds, young couples, younger families. Sometimes I talk to people in their fifties, but he was probably one of one of the older clients. I had some that were already retired, but he was the one that was right at the cusp of trying to retire. MM And, and plus on top of that, like to see that knowing that the guy is a cheapskate. I mean the guy is the kind of guy where if he gets bad service at a restaurant, he doesn't just not only tip somebody, he actually goes and steals their stuff like he made a Chinese dress and you have all these little Chinese plates and little teeny of teapot things that he stole because he's like, I got a crappy service. I'm taking this. You know, that's like a cheapskate. He is, you know, the kind of guy who buys Mrs. Butterworth on sale in cases and then has it 20 years later, even though you wouldn't dare drink it. 

Rich Bennett 12:06
Oh, God. 

Chris Miles 12:07
Or whatever. That's the kind of guy because it was on sale. Right? Right. And if he's the kind of guy that, like Dave Ramsey would say, I want to be like him someday, right? If he's like that kind of guy that, you know, Dave Ramsey says, be like him and then he's still broke. What does that tell you? I tell you, this whole system screwed up. It's wrong. It doesn't work. It's broken. But of course, so few people ever talk about that. I know on these shows, a lot of times we do. Yeah. But the truth is that the vast majority of people I'll tell you know, this is the way you know, this is the path. You just follow this one single path you're given. It's all or nothing. If it doesn't work out well, it's your fault cause you just didn't save enough or it's not because it's save enough. Because he saved a lot. He was debt free. He was everything you were supposed to be. And it didn't work. 

Rich Bennett 12:53
Right. 

Chris Miles 12:54
And and before, when I was talking to people like you asked before, like, is this the first conversation? It was always about someday, right? Like, you can't really see the sun on my wall with this camera angle right now. But I was science says live your life today, not tomorrow. Because everything in financial rising even with Dave Ramsey, right. He was like, oh, you be debt free in 15 years. Like, well, good job. Like if that's a look, you're alive in 15 years and if it's that happens do in the meantime in the calculator looks great but real life isn't a calculator you know and same thing with financial advising 30 or 40 years from now watch what your money could be doing. You know, I can't give you any guarantees, but this is what it could look like given historical is what the sovereign has done since 2000 BC when the Egyptians roamed the earth, you know, all that kind of stuff. It's just it's just a bunch of overpromised, undelivered crap that now we're starting to see the evidence of it today. But back then it was just so fresh and new. You could just blame people for not saving enough money. And I think that that information, that truth has got to come out. It's got to come to a head. And that's why I have my podcast. That's why I'm educating people to take a different path than just the traditional status quo path that leads to people to living in a broke retirement. 

Rich Bennett 14:04
Now, when your friend asked you about everybody that you work with, the other financial advisors, if they were more secure and then you decided to leave, have you talked to any more or any of them and basically helped them? Now. 

Chris Miles 14:23
It's funny you say that most of them never wanted to listen. I did. I remember that first year I actually did go back and visit the office. I remember I bought a nice Mercedes and stuff and I was I remember actually one guy took the lunch. I purposely drove literally across the parking lot to the lunch just to show off my car, like, Hey, you bought a Lexus? Well, I bought a mercedes worth double the price of your Lexus. And, you know, and that was me being in my twenties and being egotistical and stupid. Right? Right. And that definitely didn't stick. And I know some of them see them as see and hear my stuff on social media and and podcasts. But most really they don't want to see it. It's because it's the same, same dilemma I had right? I either had to choose my pocketbook or my integrity. And sometimes if you're in that profession, you're well invested into it. It's hard to say, Hey, I know I've talked to hundreds of clients and now I've got to tell them, Oh, the stuff you did with me is crap. It's a lie. Yeah, I look like you. That was only four years in the business. I didn't have that many clients. I still went back to some of those clients that, Hey, listen, these things suck. You probably want to get out of them. Right? But I'll tell you, though, what's fascinating, that's and that's what the guys that do. This is like a business where they have to make money. Right. And once a year I'm in a study group with guys that literally make at least 1000000 to 2 million a year as financial advisors. These are like the cream of the crop financial advisors. Some of them make tens of millions a year in their business. Every year I go to study group. I'm the one guy that's in shorts and t shirt just like I am now, right where some of the guys from New York are like fully dressed up in suits even though they don't have to be right. But they'll wear suits even among us advisors and and they'll see me. They're like, Man, I wish I could wear shorts and t shirt. I'm like, Well, that's what happens when you were able to retire. And initially, every single year, one of them comes out to me, pulls me aside quietly and says, Chris, can you teach me how to retire? Because I don't know how to do it. And every every year, every year, there's always at least one guy is like, I need to learn what you did or I need to know how you do what you did. All right. Again, they're teaching all their clients are selling all this Kool-Aid pieces, you know, with Kool-Aid crap. You're right. It's definitely not. Oh, yeah. A situation like what's happening right now is that people are actually losing. They're not making money. And the financial advisors are no different. If they didn't have the money coming in from their business, they would be just as broke as everybody else. Now, that's the scary part, right? And that's why you have to ask people is where did you make your money? Like, I'm more willing to meet people. I'm like, Hey, I made good money in my business. But the thing is, my money has also grown really well for me to even pay me cash flow. Like I can show that I can prove it. But most people see when people ask for people for money. So bias, it's not just financial advisors. They go to the person they see. They're like, Well, you're a dentist, you make a lot of money. You must know a lot about money then, right? And it's like, no, they know how to make money. They're good in their skill, their profession, their, their practice. It doesn't mean that they're good with money. There's a difference in making money and growing it. And that's the thing is if you're following people, you want to follow people that have actually done the thing and are still doing the thing that you want to emulate. And that's that's why I tell people like, no, no, no, if you want cash flow, follow those. Actually create a passive income, right? You want to learn how to make a lot of money. Great. Go talk to those people. But making money does not equate to freedom. You can have a great lifestyle, but you'll still realize even if your business owner, you could be free as a business owner potentially. But I find business owners get caught in some of the biggest rat races of all because they keep quote unquote reinvesting in their business. And all the time they don't take that profit home. They're stuck. Just keep put money, plug your money away, and then they're just stuck in their own rat race. Yeah, they make good money. They can go take pictures on vacation and stuff and make it look like they have a great life. But they know. And I know that they know because I've been there in the back of their mind, they're saying, Yeah, but I have to keep hustling. Yeah. And I'm getting tired of it. You know, I'm getting sick and tired of having to hustle. Just have I want to just show up to work because I choose to now, Because I have to. 

Rich Bennett 18:22
Well, I think a lot of them, I mean, you can have somebody that, you know, making $1,000,000, but they're spending well over $1,000,000 a year. So where's all that money? 

Chris Miles 18:33
There's that, too. Yeah, you. 

Rich Bennett 18:35
Know, I mean, it's like one of the things I was always told, live within your means, you know, you don't have to be extravagant and spend all this money on other things. And now I'm the type I'd rather just give back. You know, I could have $1,000,000 shit in my pocket right now, But if I see somebody or an organization that needs it more than me, I'm the type that's just going to say, okay, I'm fine. You're not. 

Chris Miles 19:03
Here. Take it. Simplify your life more, right? 

Rich Bennett 19:06
Yeah. Yeah. And it just it makes you feel good in the heart, too. I mean, at least it does for me in your perspective. So what are the undercurrents? Driving the end is unpredictable behavior of today's market. 

Chris Miles 19:24
Yeah. You don't know the stock market specifically or any market. 

Rich Bennett 19:27
Just any market because. Yeah, well, with inflation and everything has been going on, it's even interest rates. You have no idea what's going to what it's going to be like next week. It's just it's mind boggling and a lot of people probably sitting there thinking, do I want to retire? Because if I do again, I may not have enough five years or now. I mean, hell, what was it just two years ago? You could buy bread for $0.99? I bread a loaf of bread now is $5. You know, So I mean, basically just everything overall. I mean, how do people know, like this is where I need to invest. 

Chris Miles 20:10
It's a it's an interesting time right now because, I mean, how many times have we had these quote unquote recession scares and then somehow we just skirt the recession? You just kind of sidestep it. Now. Now, even right now they're talking they're like, you know, that recession is over. We're good. We're seeing growth now. I think America is strong. We're pulling out of this. Right. And the thing is, recessions and depressions are normal cycles, right? I mean, they really are normal cycles. In any business, there's just like there's spring and summer. There's fall and winter, right? There's always cycles. And it's funny how we got people like the feds and other politicians that tried to lie about numbers, like how we have the lowest unemployment rate yet people are getting laid off left and right. Why companies, especially right. 

Rich Bennett 20:52
People, lie about numbers. No way. 

Chris Miles 20:54
No, they never do that. Right? Come on. Nixon was honest. It's like he never gets, you know, 

Slick Willy, you know, read my lips. No new taxes. Come on. They never lie to us. 

Rich Bennett 21:08
That's our first time I've heard tricky dicks name mentioned in a while. 

Chris Miles 21:12
No, I mean, that's the thing, is that, you know, obviously there's a political aspect here with the economy, right? They want to show a good front like, hey, we've we've got us through. But let's look at real life, right? And first off, we got what they call a negative yield curve where short term, you know, rates are higher, the long term rates, that's always 100% since before World War Two has been indicative of recessions. And now they're saying, oh, this might be the first time history. It's not even though it's been that way for a year, one of the longest times you had this negative yield curve, as they call it, that right now, people are like, well, we're scared. This is more like recessionary signals. And usually, by the way, it takes about a year for it to show up. And we've been in it for over a year. Right. And then we hear, of course, that, you know, employment strong yet that the government will come out with numbers that month later they'll say, oh, we adjust the numbers. It's a lot lower than what they said it was right. Like we created as many new jobs. Oh, we just adjusted. Never mind. We didn't create that much. Oh, we haven't lost jobs. Weird. Then we got things like, Here's I like to look at I like to look at credit cards. I like to look at auto loan defaults, savings rates or as well savings balances and what's going on there, because it always hits us in our pocketbooks first. The problem is they they always look at these big numbers like the GDP, Right. Which, by the way, a quarter of the GDP is government spending. So, of course, if they spend more money, the government put us in more debt. That doesn't mean we have a stronger economy, but they count it. They make that a big part of the GDP, Right. So, hey, we're growing, we're doing great now. We're just blowing more cash. But people right now, I mean, we got student loans coming up that they're going to start paying on student loans. And there's about 20% of the country that's got student loans right now that are going to start in October. But already credit card balances just broke $1 trillion for the first time ever waiting has also gone down, too. So savings are starting to deplete. People are also putting more money in the savings accounts, but the savings that people have had have been depleting and now the balances are running up. This the first time. Now that there's now more people carrying a balance on a credit card than than paying them off each month. So there's there's a lot of crap happening and the auto loan defaults are up. That's also happening, especially among millennials and Zoomers right now. Right. Those are the ones are hurting the most right now. The boomer, you know, the Gen X like my group or the baby boomers, We're doing all right, even though we're feeling the pinch from inflation or whether it get a lot better than those that just got started and they're got thrown into this financial mess. Right. And and then they're having to fight all these headwinds, trying to make their way into life in their early years. That's where we're seeing a lot of issues. And and we just don't see people talking about that too much. They're like, oh, no, stock market is great. It's about to bounce back to its all time highs soon. And hey, you know what, really, you know, real estate is okay, but nobody wants to buy real estate every bit by way, every cent real estate sucks. That's how you know, that's when you want to buy real estate. Whatever anybody says, the media do the opposite and you'll make money, right? If they tell you the stock market's going up, it's going to go down. If they tell it's going to go down, it actually might go up. You know, that's another the report because it did go down. That's definitely I talked about when they predict. Yeah. When whatever they tend to predict and tell you to do that's what that's usually after the fact they tell you that bitcoin's hot. That's when you know you get out of bitcoin. Right? Which by the way, I got a bitcoin last year when it's around $50,000, thank goodness, because I was just gambling with it. I wasn't using that as my financial plan, but but I did. I was like, I realize that the feds were manipulating Bitcoin prices, you know, like all this stuff was going on. And, and of course, you know, you got these people hanging on and they're hanging on the retirement house thinking that, well, you know, if it just got back up to where it was a few years ago, then I'll be happy. What did this up there like? It didn't in the year 2000, same thing happened March 2000. The market tanked and started to recover all the way to August. It hit right up to the same high it hit in March of 2000. In August, it hit the same high and then bam, after August 2000, it starts tanking. You know, actually the cool thing is 911, the market started to come back up and then it tanked in 2002 again. So that's it's like a. 

Rich Bennett 25:08
Roller coaster, man. 

Chris Miles 25:10
It's a roller coaster. And how can you ever be free if you can never have any control over your own life and your own way that way? That's why I tell people I get away from that stuff, buy real assets. And that's the answer in this kind of market where you have inflation and things like that. The best hedge against inflation is a by real assets, things that actually have real tangible value because those things do go up, even real estate. And I know that real estate prices could go down, but I don't buy real estate to have prices go up. Right. That was my mistake from a financial advisor. Brent. I thought real estate prices have to always go up and they only go up like three, 4% a year average. When the market does ten or 12, which by the way, the market never has done long term, it's always it's actually up more average, about 7.7% or so per year in the last 30 years. Wow. Not ten or 12. And the. MARTIN Yeah. The real estate might only go up three or 4%. But appreciation if you if you do it right, should be gravy. The real key is how much income does it produce for you? So, for example, I bought a real estate property five years ago in Memphis, you know, $32,000 down with closing costs, put $32,000 into that property, got a mortgage for the rest after my mortgage payments and paying the property manager because I don't manage properties myself, I I'm all hands off. Right, right. After paying property manager and paying the mortgage payments, guess what? I still netted about 300 bucks a month. So almost it was about 11, almost 12% a year. However, rents keep going up. Now I am actually making about 650 bucks a month instead of just 300 bucks a month. After five years. If you add up all the cash I've had even net of paying for costs and everything else, I've actually made over a 300% return in five years because, yeah, I've made money. I've made almost all my money back in just cash flow alone for the last five years. But I've also the more the mortgage has been paid down by my renter, so I've gained equity just automatically the renter pays down my principal and interest mortgage, Right? That's not even factored in my cash flow profits. And then there's the appreciation, which is awesome, because now that property's worth about 210,000. When I bought it for 134. So yeah, there is appreciation. And that was about, you know, roughly 200% of that 300%. But I still made about 100% from just the cash flow alone, just from the renters. Pay me. Nobody's done that in the market the last five years. The market's done about roughly a little over 50% in the last five years, not 100. And that's a good market. That's what the roaring, you know, money printing like galore from the feds right after 2020. Right. So that's the thing is like I had that and I get to keep more of my money because they don't pay taxes on that money. Right. So that's the other thing is cool, too, is that real estate is better tax advantages. You don't get that at the stock market at all. So that's that's where I like to invest. 

Rich Bennett 27:55
I was going to say, so what I'm hearing is basically forget about the stock market and it definitely invests in real estate. But is there like a certain type of real estate that people should invest in, whether it be business or residential? 

Chris Miles 28:10
That was going to be my next point. Yeah. Okay. So real estate is diverse. I mean, because people think most people think, oh, I'm going to buy a property like what I described. I mean, usually people buy in their backyard. Big mistake. Usually people buy in their own town. It's usually not a good deal just because you buy real estate doesn't mean you have good a good real estate property. I have the example with a client of mine in San Diego. He had a he bought a property. It was one of his very first rental properties. He was cash going 200 bucks a month, but he had 700,000 of equity in that property. So one of those numbers we look at when somebody has real estate's called return on equity, right. How much return you getting off the equities in that property? So 700,000, you're making 2400 a year. He's making like 0.3% return on that money. I said, Buddy, what if you just sold that property off? I know is your very first properties like your first time, you know, you know, it's your first, you know, first girlfriend or whatever, right? But still, like, if you could sell that property, you take the 7000 out and even just earned 10% return on that, which is not hard to do in real estate, earn 10%. That's 70,000 a year versus 2400 a year that you're making right now. And he resisted me like crazy because he had that savor Dave Ramsey mentality, right? Like, well, no, you got to once I pay off that debt in five years, well, then house will be paid off and I'll have 2200 a month. Or 20. 200. Yeah. 2200 a month or about, you know, a little less than 30,000 a year. I'm like but still you can make 70,000 you're today reinvest that for the next five years and be at 100,000 a year instead of 27,000 a year. And and finally he got it took him a few years he got it and he's like investing now in the southeast. Like, we see a lot of good properties right now. He's like, why not do the sooner like I'm making way more money now. Like I told you, you didn't have to like, keep that piece of crap property. So it's not always buying it in your backyard. You can do so many things with it. Yes, you can buy rentals in other parts of the country where you don't. You have to find the property. Somebody else you can hire like a turnkey company to find the property for you buy it from them because they renovate it and they make it rent ready. They even help you find the tenants and properly manage it for you. In many cases you have to do anything but buy it right. You do that or you can lend money to investors. That's one thing that's actually really good right now because because interest rates have gone up more, saying, you know what, screw the banks. I don't want to deal with the banks. I can get a little less interest rate. I really pay something for private quick money I can get now and be able to pay them interest only payments. And so I'm seeing people lending money for ten, 12, sometimes 15%. I actually just did a short term loan for 15% that the guy like, I just need your money for three months for an apartment deal to, you know, do a transaction, sell it and then get out. You know, those kind of things. Right. Wow. There's things like oil and gas actually is one of the really under talked about things right now is that it's kind of underappreciated because gas really is that low at a low right now. Oil prices are really low from where they should be. Really. So if you could rent the land to an oil company and then cut you in on the royalties, then you get a double dip on the property. So you get pay rent and you get paid royalties as well and you can make some good money. Last year I was on the lower end, you know, with that one of the deals we got into in Oklahoma, it was like 8% return. But for some of my clients to go into a deal is just a month after I got into my deal, they going to a different deal a month later, 35% last year. What Yeah it's just ridiculous Again that's not I mean they never expect that. They always just say hey we target 10 to 15% is what they always say. They never want to promise. That's pretty dang good. You know, like that's not bad for their first year. My first year was only eight, and that's usually a lower return a year they're expecting cos it's on track to do more like 10 to 12 this year. But, but that's, that's the thing, there's so many things. Raw land. I actually put a quarter million dollars in raw land a year and a half ago and right now it's cash flowing 7500 a month currently. And I'm just reinvesting all that cash to keep growing it and compounding it. I plan to get it about a year and a half, about 15 grand a month before I might start pulling some money out of it. So there's just there's just so many things you could be doing. I mean, you could do self-storage. There are apartment buildings, commercial. You asked about commercial. I wouldn't do commercial right now. Okay. Maybe a year or so there might be enough fire sales happening because people are trying to get out and figure out what to do because they can't make money on it. You probably will see more opportunities in that. Maybe like 20, 24 or 2025. 

Rich Bennett 32:31
I'm still I'm still stuck back on the oil thing. I how can you make money off of the oil when right now like this administration doesn't want people drilling or anything. 

Chris Miles 32:46
That's. Well, they say that. So. Okay like we said the government there's there's this they're always so honest with us right? 

Well, they poo poo all over oil companies. They try to make it seem like oil companies are the bad guy. 

Rich Bennett 32:59
Right. 

Chris Miles 32:59
In truth, they're doing backroom deals with these guys all the time because they need them. I give you example, actually, the the White House The White House actually did a study talking about using clean energy because that's always been the thing. They're going to go green. Oil companies are killing the earth. Right. But it's amazing how even when they did all their different scenarios and they even went for like best case scenario, the going green, guess what happens by 2050, more demand for oil than today. And they said only about 10% of it people will adopt doing EV cars 10%. So still 90% are gasoline driven. Right. And remember, a lot of our oil products was, well, first, oil creates plastic, right? So every time. 

Rich Bennett 33:45
Right. 

Chris Miles 33:45
Complaining about, you know, COVID and stuff and like, oh, I don't want to touch people. Okay, great. Well, go get your plastic you know, your plastic containers and everything that's now going to kill our planet more than the what we're drilling. Right. And by the way, all things being equal, of course, you don't want to kill the planet. I don't either. I'm from Oregon. I'm a tree hugger. Right. But still, that being said, we all need it like we can't. We have created a life where we can't do all that oil. And here's the thing. I didn't know about oil, too. So when they drill oil, that's the liquid stuff. Know like you see on the Beverly Hillbillies, right. That's coming out of the ground. You know, it spews out what comes off the top like the steam on water. Right? The stuff that comes out on top is natural gas, Right. Is a green, clean energy. So when they drill for oil, they're also getting natural gas that they can capture as well. To take that and sell that to. So that's the fascinating thing, is that, yes, the government says, oh, we hate it, but they know they need oil companies and they need it badly. And the problem is, yeah, when they try to put in rules and laws does not do more drilling actually with one of my friends is in the oil business right now. He even does the oil like that, like the drilling parts and, you know, the machinery and stuff. Right. Right now he's like even if the government said, yes, we need you to pump more oil because we don't want to import it from other countries like Russia or Iran or, whatever, or Venezuela. Yeah, well, guess what? All the all the manufacturing of those things would still take a couple of years to create more equipment to drill more. So right now we're already at max capacity for production. We can't drill anymore because the government said, no, we got to put the kibosh on this. Well, if they say, well, oh, no, gas prices are going through the roof, so let's say they do start going to five, six, $7 a gallon. People are screaming at the politicians to make it make it right. They're going to blame the oil companies. The oil companies like no, because we can't drill anymore. You made it that way. Really scarcity. And now it's going to take us 2 to 5 years to get us out of the situation by creating enough equipment to be able to do that. Wow. So that's the thing, because like, I, I that's why I really believe that oil prices have been artificially kept down because they've been tapping into our reserves. Right. The reserves they weren't supposed to touch, they've been tapping into to lower the prices right before the election, November. Right. To get that midterm election to get more Democrats in. And I'm not saying Democrats are evil because I think all sides of the aisle, they all suck. Right. But but it's true. They're like, well, if we can get it down a little bit, get Americans feeling better about us, then they'll vote us in again. It's it's so dumb that they tried to toy with our dumb emotions for that very reason. But that's. 

Rich Bennett 36:13
Yeah, but it's sad that people fall for it, too. 

Chris Miles 36:16
Oh yeah, of course. That's why I kind of tell people like, Listen, if I want to pay more of the gas pump, I might as well invest in it and make money so that I get paid from that extra money, right? 

Rich Bennett 36:27
Yeah, I just. I mean, I didn't realize all that with the oil and and the properties and. But what if. What if is it because not everybody has a lot of money to invest in a property. So what about there's ones that don't have enough money to invest. 

Chris Miles 36:47
Well, start building up the money to invest. That's the best thing. I mean, you mention it like if you have to simplify my my advice, like in 2020 when I saw things going crazy and I thought, this is it. This is the this is the black swan that's going to put us in the recession that we were predicting in 2019 that was starting to happen. And then all of a sudden, all the money printing avoided the recession, just pushed off the longer made a bigger bubble. I told people the same three things is get lean, get liquid and get out. So Jillian means it doesn't. You have to be cheap. It doesn't mean you have to like, you know, fire your family and get and kick your kids out of house. It doesn't mean that at all. But what it does mean is that you'll find the things that actually bring you joy. Like you mentioned earlier, who said, I like to give money? Cool. Don't cut that out. Right? Like I type 10% of my money to my church. You know? Right. That's something I do religiously, no pun intended. But I mean, it's something I do nonnegotiable right now. So I can look at my finance from the outside, say, well, you're blowing 10% of your money. My dad actually said that, you know, And I'm like, no, like that to me is worth it. Like, I believe in that. You know, I like to donate money and do those kind of things, those terrible things. If if that I believe it creates more abundance to where I make more money. I believe I get blessed for that, you know, But it's really just prioritizing whatever it is you like and get rid of the stuff you don't like. It really doesn't bring you joy. I had one client, for example. He was he spent about 600 a month on alcohol. Right. His wife said it was bad. Yeah, a lot. And and he's like, you know, I could probably do less. And she's like, he could do a lot less. And, and so I said, listen, okay, obviously it's I can tell it's affecting your family more than just the money, your pocketbook. It's something bigger than that. I said, I'm going to tell you to go dry here, but let's cut it back to 100 or 200 bucks a month. Right. Is get it back at least 400, 500 a month. Get that cash back in your pocket and then use that better. Right. Those kind of things. You know, if your business owner can you save on taxes. There's so many tax strategies that guarantee people overpaying on, you know, things like that debt, you know, could you be paying off certain debt? Some debts I like to pay off quickly, others I don't. And it's not the interest rate they look at. I look at what the payment to the balance ratio. Right. The higher the payment to the balance ratio or essentially what's my biggest return on my investment if I if I have to pay off a balance to free up X $9 per month, I'm going to pay off the one that gives me the best ROI. Right? Right. I call that a cash flow index is actually that the term I coined it. So cash flow index is where I divide up the balance by the minimum monthly payment, the lowest number I pay off first. Right? So if it's like 10,000, our credit card at 200 bucks a month versus a 10,000, our car loan at 500 a month, obviously the all year was 10,000 bucks. The one's going to create a little bit more freedom. Breathing room is the $500 a month, right? Getting rid of that sucker. Now, people say, yeah, but that's a lower interest rate. Who cares that $500 a month you could always use a pay off credit card in the next year anyways, and you'll hardly get charged any interest in that period of time. Like just pay it off and then then it freed up 700 bucks a month, you know. 

Rich Bennett 39:41
Eventually, Right. 

Chris Miles 39:42
Things like that. Like I go for the lower number. So like that 10,000 divided by 520 versus the 10,000 divide, the $200 a month credit card is a 5020 means it's two and a half times more potent, two and a half times more value to pay that one off versus the credit card. All things being equal, they're the same. I pay off the credit card, of course, the higher interest. But yeah, I go for the payment first because I frees the most cash. That's actually how in their last recession where I got my butt kicked. Yeah, I retired in 2006. By by 2008 I was over $1,000,000 in debt because of the recession. Everything happened. I was I was I didn't file for bankruptcy, but I had to pay off that debt. That's what that strategy actually used, is I was using that equation to help me do that, even though I had no money and no credit at that point. 

Rich Bennett 40:25
So. 

Chris Miles 40:26
So anyways, I mean, that's so that's the thing is get lean is what I mean like just really look at your finances, get lean, get liquid means get your money, you know, get your money out of prison, stop throwing extra payments on your house because one mistake people are making right now is that if you need to get to the money, this is a mistake. I made the last recession. This is the number one thing that hurt me in the last recession that got me over $1,000,000 in debt is that I was pulling the Dave Ramsey method. I thought not. I can just throw extra money into my house because I saw a mortgage license. At that time. I was like, I'm a mortgage broker. I can always just ask for that money back out if I ever need it. So I throw an extra equity into this new home that I bought. And then when the recession hit, I said, Ooh, things are getting tight. Let me go ask the bank. And the bank say, Sorry, we don't do cash out refinance anymore. Things are going a little crazy in the banking industry right now. That was in 2007. That was before all the bad news of like, you know, Stearns and Lehman Brothers and stuff. By the way, my mortgage heavy was owned by Lehman Brothers. Chase So even when I tried to sell the house, they would let me they wouldn't let me short sell it where I sell it for less than I owe on the property. They wouldn't let me do it, so they end up foreclosing on me instead for a much lower price than the offers we had to buy my house. That's how corrupt Lehman Brothers was. So anyways, side note there. But. But anyway, I was in a tight spot, you know, it was a very tight spot. And because I threw all that equity in my house, I guess that's eventually it happened. I lost it because I couldn't get back out. Prices came down, the equity disappeared. I'm better off having that money in cash having in my possession. Same thing with foreign in case don't throw your money in a41k and then all of a sudden, if you ever want to touch it again, you have to ask for permission. And they slap your hand with 10% penalties and stuff for taking out before you're 60. That's just dumb, Mike. Get your money. Liquid That's where I teach, like a strategy called infinite banking. I'd say, you know, go to my podcast, learn more about that, or my YouTube channel on Money Ripples, because that's a whole nother rabbit hole there. But if you're looking for a place to save before you have enough money to invest, that's another great place you can save, build up some cash. And when you do invest it, you can actually get earned money in two places at once when you do invest. So that's that's why I recommend Zach do that. And then once you have the money built up, you're liquid enough, then you get it out to invest into these other alternatives that generate passive income. So you want real cash flowing, predictable assets to start paying you. That's what you want. 

Rich Bennett 42:43
I didn't realize that with the mortgage thing about paying extra because I you know, I know like with my mortgage company, when I go online to pay, it's got a little calculator. If you pay this extra, you'll have it paid off in this amount of time. And it looks good. It sounds good. But now after hearing you explain is like, I don't know if I want to do that. And actually with that because when it comes to investing, a lot of people have equity. Well, I don't want to say a lot because a lot of these new homes, I think it might be a while till people have equity built up. 

But, you know, somebody like me, I know I have equity in my house. Would it be But if I want to invest in another property and I don't have the money to, would it be what's your take on, say, like a reverse mortgage to do that? 

Chris Miles 43:38
Yeah, that could be a great strategy. But. SHAPIRO The age of 62, that's that's the only time you can do a reverse him. 

Rich Bennett 43:43
I'm not there. 

Chris Miles 43:43
Yet. Yeah. Oh, I'm on for two more years. But yeah, you hit 22. A reverse mortgage does become an option, and you can access some of your equity that way. My mom actually did that. That was just a discussion she and I had with her. She's in her late seventies right now. She was wanting to move away from Seattle because I was a dumpster fire over there. And so she want to move out in the mountains and she's like, well, I don't really have the cash flow to do this. Like, I'm really in retirement now. And I was like, Well, you could always do a reverse mortgage, right? You can always use the cash from the sale of your house to buy another house. And then there you have no payment, right? Then you can even access the equity by doing a reverse mortgage and then you actually get paid a stream of income from that equity that's in that house. And you can either take it as a lump sum and they usually won't give you more than half the value or 300 or 400,000, give or take, 

or you just take as monthly payments right until you die basically. And then the mortgage, if you don't if your kids don't want to take it over, then it just goes back to the bank. It's done. You know, women definitely do that. 

Rich Bennett 44:47
The the kids could take it over. 

Chris Miles 44:50
Oh, yeah, Yeah. The kids could assume the loan afterwards. Like, if you want to do that, they could definitely take it over. The banks would love it the way banks are not in the business to hold real estate. That's why commercial real estate is worried about that blowing up. And it could. But a lot of banks are like, if I could. In fact, I had a friend who actually the bank went to him, said, Listen, if you need to negotiate anything, we'll give you a lower payments. We'll we'll even, you know, make the balance. Only half do. We'll put two separate loans or something. We'll we'll work with you on this because the banks, they aren't in the business to own real estate properties. Right? They're in the business. They're in the people business. They're in the cash flow business. They want you to keep paying them over and over passively that they don't have to do anything for, just like we want. Right? That's why I always tell people you just turn the rules of the bank into your favor. You do the same things they do. It's actually really easy to figure this stuff out because that's all they're doing, right? They don't want to hold assets. They don't own anything because if it's not paying them cashflow, they don't want it. They want to get rid of it, get off their books. Right. It's not worth keeping. So same thing, by the way, if you pay down your mortgage, like we talked about earlier, paying the extra principal, this is take to different people here, you know, to, you know, Bob and Joe or here, you know, say Bob, you know, he's he's been paying down that that mortgage religiously got lots of equity versus Joe is saying, you know what, I'm going to keep that max mortgage. I'm going to pay minimum payments. I got less equity in this property if the bank has to foreclose. Looking at foreclosing on both of them, which property do you think they'll take? The one that has no equity or the one that has a lot of equity? 

Rich Bennett 46:18
I would think that when it has a lot of equity. 

Chris Miles 46:20
You got it? Yeah. The more you pay down that mortgage, the more at risk you are not the bank. You put the bank at less risk every time you pay them a dollar where you go at more risk because your money is locked up, it's locked away. You have to either ask them for permission or try to fire, sell your property for probably less than it's worth to get the money out if you can sell it even in this market. Pretty dang hard to sell right now, isn't it? It says that we're not a seller's market anymore. 

Rich Bennett 46:45
Wow, I. Oh, holy cow. So are all of you listening? You definitely have to check out his podcast because I know you talk about a lot of this on your show. Yeah. And the website and hire him as well. Work optional stats. I never heard that. Work optional. Whichever thing you're you've been explaining, it sounds like it's work optional. But did you coin that phrase? 

Chris Miles 47:14
Oh, no, no. I sell from somebody else that Oh an off off conversation from I had said work optional. Mike you know I like that idea. So I it seems like I've used it because I've used a lot more, but, but it's true because I've realized even though our older generations like us are looking forward to retirement, the younger generations are like, I don't want to retire. I want to I want to have the option to choose whether I want to go to work or not. But I still want to work. I still want to do something. And I and that's kind of people I talk to or the people are purpose driven. That's why my company called Money Ripples is that it's not just about getting rich, but living a rich life is as you're blessed financially, you have a greater capacity to bless the lives of those around you, right? Yeah. So that's the true blessing of, you know, really that parable of the talents in the Bible, you know, be able to use those talents and those gifts to help serve others. So it gives you that option, right? Like you have enough passive income, you can pay all your bills, you go to work, totally worry free. You don't care if they lay you off. You don't care if in your business you make money or not. You don't need that client, but you go there because that's what you want to be doing. That's how you want to be spending your time and that's great. 

Rich Bennett 48:18
So with your business money ripples, how long when when did you actually start that. 

Chris Miles 48:25
That that company? I started 11 years ago. 

Rich Bennett 48:27
11 years ago. And when did you start to podcast That podcast? 

Chris Miles 48:32
I started in 2013. They guess I'm in my ninth season, so. 

Rich Bennett 48:37
Okay. 

Chris Miles 48:37
14. 

Rich Bennett 48:38
So a couple of years after you started the business. Mm hmm. All right. What? Me? Because I've always said I think I actually I think all businesses should have their own pocket. But what made you decide to start a podcast for the business? 

Chris Miles 48:54
You know, I had done a podcast previously. I even did AM talk radio back in the mid 2000 a little bit and got Yeah, yeah it's fun. I mean different with commercial breaks. It's nicer when you don't have those interrupting all the time. But I started doing a podcast in 2000, late 2008, all the way through 2012. And then when I left the business I was in and then went to do and then went to launch Money Ripples, I kind of just put that on the back burner. I said, I had the podcast equipment, I bought it for that time, but my too much to worry about. I'm building a new business, right? But then I went on a show called Entrepreneurs on Fire with John. Yes. So I went on for the first time. I've been on show three times. I went out for the first time that I actually co-wrote a book with him and Tim Ferriss by that same name, Entrepreneurs on Fire. And when I did a show, I had so much fun. I said, Man, I missed this. I do this again. And so, like, literally, like it was a Friday. I'm talking to a friend. I think about your podcast is like, Why don't you do it? Like, you're right, I should Friday to have that conversation Tuesday, I did my first episode, I launched it. I said, Let's get this out here, let's start doing it. And and that's the thing for me, it's like an outlet. I love teaching. That's my thing. That's why I like doing these shows. To write is I love teaching and giving back. But the side benefit, of course, is, yeah, it brings in business, of course, but for me it's really that mission of helping liberate people. Give them a break. The shackles and chains taught by financial advisors, banks and other institutions that are trying to get you to make them money versus making you money. Right. And and that's the thing that drives me. That's why I base. I just stay pissed a lot. You know, I'm so ticked off that I can't stop. Even though I actually did it, I was able to get out of the rat race again. After paying off the debt, retired again 2016th December 2016 to be exact. Still, it was like I got to keep doing this. I cannot stop. In fact, why not put more of my money that I'm making from my own personal family? Let's put this sucker let's start using this to build and grow this business. 

Rich Bennett 50:49
So is that the only book you've written? 

Chris Miles 50:52
Yeah, I helped write. I did do. 

Rich Bennett 50:54
To help write. 

Chris Miles 50:55
That's like 28 pages because I put page breaks and chapters in them. Right? So it would have been 15 without it. I hate writing. I'm a horrible writer, but I love podcasts and that's why I need more. 

Rich Bennett 51:09
What do you mean you hate your writing? Now you think about that. 

Chris Miles 51:13
Sure, I'm transcribing it right? 

Rich Bennett 51:15
Exactly. I mean, I finally started on writing my first book. 

I didn't know what to write about, so nobody was to hear my life story. And I keep I have people all the time ask me about podcast, and I said, Well, I talked to a lot of people. There's a lot of stories there that's, you know what? Now let me write one about podcasting because I do it differently than other people I was, and I've never heard of anybody else had started monetizing their podcast before they recorded the first episode. I've done that. If for some reason people think you can't, you have to have a certain amount downloads. But you know, from being in radio, that's not the case. That's right. That's not the case at all, actually. Do you like doing podcasting better than radio? 

Chris Miles 52:04
Oh, yeah, I Love it. 

Rich Bennett 52:06
More freedom, isn't it. 

Chris Miles 52:07
Versus live. Oh, yeah, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:09
Oh yeah. I'd be afraid to do do live. Tell everybody the website. 

Chris Miles 52:15
Yeah, the website you can find this is money ripples dot com that's make sure use the R and Ripple's. I had somebody that was in the U.S. news say oh money nipples dot com sugar Jesus we're not that kind of company trust me so yeah those entrepreneur magazines you got to be careful of them right but I know it's money ripples dot com great little passive income calculator on there you can try out and see how much passive income your situation career could create for you. Then of course like you mention our podcast The Money Ripples podcast you can find on any, you know, iTunes, YouTube or anything like that. 

Rich Bennett 52:48
Actually how many Because I mean, you being an entrepreneur yourself, how many different types of passive income have you done yourself? Because I know there's all types out there. All types. 

Chris Miles 53:01
Yeah. If you count all the streams of income I have, it's roughly about 16. 

Rich Bennett 53:07
Really. 

Chris Miles 53:07
At the last count. It might be more now, but a few months ago when I counted, I actually went and tallied them all up. It was about 16. 

Rich Bennett 53:13
That was the first one. Real estate investment or. 

Chris Miles 53:18
It's most of them are investment ones. I mean, there's a few like active like within the business that I'm counting in there too, but I'd say about eight or nine of them, maybe ten or more real estate based type investments. 

Rich Bennett 53:32
Okay. Before I get to my last question, I just looked at the time was like, holy cow. I mean, is there anything you'd like to add? Because I know there's a lot we haven't covered which means you're going to have to come on again, plain and simple. 

Chris Miles 53:46
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot to add for sure. We can we can go on this for hours. I especially can. Right. 

Rich Bennett 53:51
But everything changes every year, it seems like to me. 

Chris Miles 53:55
It can, man. But yeah, I'll tell you, the good thing is principles don't change. All those strategies can, right? And the best thing I've learned is that, you know, ignorance. Ignorance is not bliss. It's. It's expensive, right? The worst thing you do is just try to guess your way through life. It's like Blinken, Robin Hood Bennett types that movie, when he's up on the watch tower saying, I'm guessing, I'm guessing nobody's kind, but he's right. And that's kind of what people are doing right now. The great thing as find somebody who actually can see, right, like find somebody you can see learn from them. And there's so many free resources, just like we mentioned on Money Rivals.com, you know, we got our podcast, there's interviews like this right here. Keep consuming this, but at some point you have to say, All right, enough's enough. When are we to take action? So that actually creates change. Now we've got the education to a degree. Now I need the experience to go with it. That's when you really start to learn. That's when you gain wisdom instead of just knowledge. 

Rich Bennett 54:49
And everybody once again listen to his podcast because you're going to learn lot. It is a great podcast, by the way. I meant to tell you before we started, it's because I've listened to it and it's it's awesome. You learn a lot from it. Learn a hell of a lot. You've been on several different shows. You've had probably hundreds of different interviews. Is there anything that a host has never asked you that you wish they would have asked you? And if so, what would that question be and what would be your answer? 

Chris Miles 55:23
Man, that's a hard one. I mean, this is I mean, this is my 25th interview in 23 days. So 

mean that they especially they I mean. 

Rich Bennett 55:36
And it doesn't necessarily have to be about business. 

Chris Miles 55:39
No, I was actually I think outside of that right. You know, I mean, nobody's asked me about how many wisdom teeth I have. 

I have. 

Rich Bennett 55:49
Wait a minute. Okay. I saw this I saw this in your biography. When I saw as I. 

Chris Miles 55:56
Had one of my third grade spelling bee. Right? 

Rich Bennett 55:59
Yeah. Because you have five wisdom teeth, Hal. 

Chris Miles 56:05
Yeah, I have five left. I had women initially. I didn't know about it right until I went to the dentist in my twenties. He said, Hey, do you know you have two extra teeth on top here? So I have four risen to the top and then two here as some people like to say, I have a pretty big mouth, right? And but, and the only reason he removed the six one is, is that he just said, you know what it might be? You might be 70 years old, it might become abscess by that point. So let's just take it out now so I could actually kept them in. I have that much room in my mouth. 

Rich Bennett 56:33
So it's it's six wisdom teeth. 

Chris Miles 56:37
Yeah. You mentioned flossing is like really difficult. Try to get to those extra wisdom teeth back there. 

Rich Bennett 56:41
You just tell everybody you're very wise. That's why. Yes. 

Chris Miles 56:45
I'm here to prove you that more wisdom teeth doesn't make you more wise. You know, there's not one to make me any any dumber either. Luckily. 

Rich Bennett 56:51
But hey, that's all right with you my age. And you go to your dermatologist and hopefully you'll have one. That's cause is mine. And you ask him about something, he'll tell you it's a wisdom spot. Yes. My wife kept the system in it to age spot. I said no, My dermatology said it's a wisdom spot, so I am wise. So don't. I don't tell her anymore. 

Chris Miles 57:14
Yeah, I get that. I got a wisdom spot right here. 

Rich Bennett 57:17
The age. Hey, look. 

Chris Miles 57:21
There it is. 

Rich Bennett 57:22
Say same thing. And the white strictly because, you know, I start groaning in June for saying, but it's not. Here's what I tell everybody, because the kids especially seems like they're. You're losing your hair. No, I'm so smart and I'm out growing it. 

Chris Miles 57:39
That's right. My head's is getting bigger. It's growing in my hair. Kids can't cover it all. I've taught my kids the same thing. Like, Dad, you got your little round spot up there, Mike. Yep, that's right. And just. No, I know. Was he was related. Your mom. You're going to be worse than me, so good luck with that. 

Rich Bennett 57:56
Well, Chris, I want to thank you so much. And, God, I've learned a lot. I was, 

which is why I look forward to doing this. I love learning stuff. And everybody, please again, listen to his podcast. Go to the website. I guarantee you you're going to learn a lot and going to look more into this reverse mortgage because it sounds like well, it sounds like that's definitely a better plan than a four or one K. 

Chris Miles 58:26
It can be. 

Rich Bennett 58:27
I mean, it's I love the idea of Bannon investing into the real estate property. I would have never thought about that because, you know, growing up, it's always stocks. Oh, you got to get into the stock market. You got to get into the stock market. Yep, yep, nope, I'm not doing that. So, Chris, thanks a lot. Take care. 

Chris Miles 58:49
You too. Thanks.