Cash Flow for Financial Freedom
Real Money TalksOctober 02, 2026x
488
28:5639.72 MB

Cash Flow for Financial Freedom

Traditional retirement advice often focuses on saving more, contributing to retirement accounts, and waiting. But what if building income today could create a different path to cash flow for financial freedom?

Chris Miles joins Loral Langemeier to discuss cash flow for financial freedom and why he moved away from traditional financial advising after seeing its limitations firsthand.

Together, they discuss real estate, oil and gas, businesses, private investments, and why relying solely on traditional retirement accounts may limit both liquidity and cash flow.

Ultimately, cash flow for financial freedom is about creating enough investment income to cover your expenses while building a life where money no longer determines the choices you make.

Loral's Takeaways:

  • The Anti-Financial Advisor (00:02)
  • The Shift to Real Estate (05:30)
  • Market Volatility and Liquidity (06:52)
  • Alternative Investment Strategies (16:45)
  • Defining Cash Flow For Financial Freedom (21:17)

Meet Chris Miles:

Chris Miles is the Cash Flow Expert and Anti-Financial Advisor who helps high-income earners break free from the grind and achieve financial freedom—without Wall Street. He’s founder of Money Ripples, retired twice by 40, author of The Work Optional Blueprint, and host of the Money Ripples Podcast, helping clients create over$300 million in cash flow and passive income.

Podcast Info: https://podmatch.com/guestdetailpreview/chrismiles

Contact: info@moneyripples.com

Meet Loral Langemeier:

Loral Langemeier is a money expert, sought-after speaker, entrepreneurial thought leader, and best-selling author of five books.

Her goal: to change the conversations people have about money worldwide and empower people to become millionaires.

The CEO and Founder of Live Out Loud, Inc. – a multinational organization — Loral relentlessly and candidly shares her best advice without hesitation or apology. What sets her apart from other wealth experts is her innate ability to recognize and acknowledge the skills & talents of people, inspiring them to generate wealth.

She has created, nurtured, and perfected a 3-5 year strategy to make millions for the “Average Jill and Joe.” To date, she and her team have served thousands of individuals worldwide and created hundreds of millionaires through wealth-building education keynotes, workshops, products, events, programs, and coaching services.

Loral is truly dedicated to helping men and women, from all walks of life, to become millionaires AND be able to enjoy time with their families.

She is living proof that anyone can have the life of their dreams through hard work, persistence, and getting things done in the face of opposition. As a single mother of two children, she is redefining the possibility for women to have it all and raise their children in an entrepreneurial and financially literate environment.

Links and Resources:

Ask Loral App: https://apple.co/3eIgGcX

Loral on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/askloral/

Loral on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/lorallive/videos

Loral on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorallangemeier/

Money Rules: https://integratedwealthsystems.com/money-rules/

Millionaire Maker Store: https://millionairemakerstore.com/

Real Money Talks Podcast: https://integratedwealthsystems.com/podcast/

Integrated Wealth Systems: https://integratedwealthsystems.com/

Affiliate Sign-Up: https://integratedwealthsystems.com/affiliates

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Loral Langemeier:

Hey, this is Loral. Welcome back to Loral's

Loral Langemeier:

Real Money Talks, a podcast about money: how we make it, how

Loral Langemeier:

we keep it, how you invest it. Just understanding money. So

Loral Langemeier:

many people don't understand money at all. In fact, one of my

Loral Langemeier:

latest classes that is being raved about is finance for

Loral Langemeier:

non-finance business owners. It's amazing how many finance,

Loral Langemeier:

how many business owners start a business with absolutely no

Loral Langemeier:

knowledge of finance, much less cash flow. Which brings me to my

Loral Langemeier:

guest today, because we're going to talk about cash flow, passive

Loral Langemeier:

income. Chris Miles is with me. He's known as the anti-financial

Loral Langemeier:

advisor. So let's start there, Chris. Explain why you like that

Loral Langemeier:

title. I love that title because I I have all sorts of things to

Loral Langemeier:

say about financial advisors.

Chris Miles:

Well, I I say that because I used to be one in the

Chris Miles:

early 2000s. I spent four years as the salesman in a suit, aka

Chris Miles:

financial advisor, right? And like a traditional one for a

Chris Miles:

while. What's that? Sorry,

Loral Langemeier:

like a traditional one, very

Chris Miles:

traditional, selling you the mutual funds,

Chris Miles:

telling you to set and forget it, save it forever. Because if

Chris Miles:

you compound interest for the next 5000 years, you'll be a

Chris Miles:

millionaire too, right? And that's pretty much what I

Chris Miles:

taught. You know, I just told people to put it away, and I

Chris Miles:

drank the Kool-Aid. I believed it myself until about four years

Chris Miles:

into my journey. My dad reached out and he says, "Well, when are

Chris Miles:

you going to advise me? And my dad was like the penny pinching

Chris Miles:

saver, post depression era mentality, the kind of guy that

Chris Miles:

throws away nothing, literally nothing. And and the guy was

Chris Miles:

just penny pinch everything. He taught me to save. I didn't even

Chris Miles:

know debt was a thing you could use when I became an adult

Chris Miles:

because he refused to let me learn about debt. And and I sat

Chris Miles:

down with him, and he says, "Chris, I'm 61 years old. I've

Chris Miles:

had heart attacks. I've had strokes. The stress of this job

Chris Miles:

will literally kill me. I need out. How can I retire? And so

Chris Miles:

I'm expecting to see that I'm going to give him the golden

Chris Miles:

answer, and he'll be able to retire. And he thinks, "Oh,

Chris Miles:

you're my favorite son. I'm his only son. But you know,

Loral Langemeier:

but anyways,

Chris Miles:

I sit down with them, and I look at it, and I

Chris Miles:

said, "Dad, here's the deal: you've stuffed money in your

Chris Miles:

401k, got the company matched like a good boy should. You're

Chris Miles:

debt free, including his house, so he's mortgage debt free too.

Chris Miles:

I said, "But here's the deal, Dad. If you try to retire today,

Chris Miles:

you would have to die in about six years because you'll run out

Chris Miles:

of money.

Loral Langemeier:

Wow.

Chris Miles:

He's like, "Well, that's not what I wanted to

Chris Miles:

hear. Like, what? How do I retire? I said, I don't know.

Chris Miles:

Keep working, you know. Keep saving. I mean, that's all you

Chris Miles:

can do because I had no answers for him. Because I mean, I told

Chris Miles:

him, he's like, Dad, you did everything right. It's just you

Chris Miles:

just haven't done it for long enough, apparently. Especially

Chris Miles:

with the markets had gone. You know, he he was thinking he was

Chris Miles:

going to retire in the early 2000s, but then there's Y 2k,

Chris Miles:

and this is 2005. I'm talking to him, you know, right before

Chris Miles:

2006. Of course, few years later, the market hit him again.

Chris Miles:

So he had to postpone retirement into his 70s before he finally

Chris Miles:

retired, living on really his last 10 years of his life in

Chris Miles:

retirement. Five was okay, you know, living on a budget. The

Chris Miles:

other five, he was homebound. He was in basically on in bed with

Chris Miles:

home health care 24/7, taking care of him. Even to the point

Chris Miles:

where I bankrolled the last months of his life, paying like

Chris Miles:

13,000 a month for his home health care and things like

Chris Miles:

that. And that's the the sad reality is that he was the guy

Chris Miles:

that did everything right, yet it wasn't enough. And as

Chris Miles:

somebody who is in his late 20s, I'm thinking, well, this is a

Chris Miles:

problem. What? Because shouldn't this have worked? I mean, I've

Chris Miles:

been telling everybody it's good. It's going to work. You

Chris Miles:

save 100 bucks a month, and just like Dave Ramsey says, you'll be

Chris Miles:

a millionaire, right?

Loral Langemeier:

No,

Chris Miles:

BS.

Loral Langemeier:

Can't. I mean, don't you agree? I'm just going

Loral Langemeier:

to cut. Like, you can't save your way to success.

Chris Miles:

No.

Loral Langemeier:

I mean, you can hope that it's going to work

Loral Langemeier:

out. You can invest your way to success, but the word "save,

Loral Langemeier:

I've beat up the word "save" since I started my career

Loral Langemeier:

because I think it's savings is an undefined lump of money you

Loral Langemeier:

just put in your savings. Well, what's it doing there? What's it

Loral Langemeier:

for? What's its purpose? So I just don't like the words. So I

Loral Langemeier:

I always say you can't save your way to success, but you can

Loral Langemeier:

invest your way.

Chris Miles:

That's right. Well, and and even earlier that year,

Chris Miles:

I remember meeting with my brother-in-law, who came from a

Chris Miles:

family of very like his dad was a self-made millionaire. His dad

Chris Miles:

was homeless at 16. At 18, worked for a dealership. At 19,

Chris Miles:

he got his own dealership. He actually convinced Chrysler to

Chris Miles:

give him their first dealership in the state of Utah, and then

Chris Miles:

by 21, he became a multi-millionaire, which in

Chris Miles:

1960s actually meant something. Now it means middle class,

Chris Miles:

right? Right. But I mean, that guy was very successful. So when

Chris Miles:

I sat down with my brother-in-law, trying to

Chris Miles:

impress him with my vast knowledge of investments around

Chris Miles:

mutual funds and stuff like that, you know, I sit down with

Chris Miles:

him and he's like, "So Chris, if I give you 10 grand to play with

Chris Miles:

today, you're saying you can make me 12% right? I'm like,

Chris Miles:

"Well, there's no guarantees, but since 2000 BC, the market

Chris Miles:

has averaged 12. You know, which isn't true, and and so he's

Chris Miles:

like, okay, Chris. So 10,000 bucks, if I give that to you,

Chris Miles:

you might make me 1,200 bucks in a year. But Chris, I've got a

Chris Miles:

dealership. He had a big rig dealership with like semi

Chris Miles:

trucks. He's like, I have a dealership. I could put 10 grand

Chris Miles:

as a. Down payment on a semi truck, turn around, flip it a

Chris Miles:

few months later, make 20 grand profit. So why should I invest

Chris Miles:

with you? I said, well, you should be diversified. You

Chris Miles:

shouldn't pull all your eggs in that one basket. Ironically,

Chris Miles:

since I was a business owner myself, I was 100% commission

Chris Miles:

only, self employed as a financial advisor, which that

Chris Miles:

was my number one investment that was working, not the mutual

Chris Miles:

funds. And here I am telling him, yeah, don't do the thing

Chris Miles:

that works. Do the thing that hasn't been proven to work,

Chris Miles:

right? And that's when I realized, like, really March of

Chris Miles:

'06, after I I kind of stepped away a little bit, kind of got a

Chris Miles:

bigger view, started meeting guys that were in the real

Chris Miles:

estate investing space. I realized, you know what? I can't

Chris Miles:

teach this crap anymore. I cannot keep my integrity taxed

Chris Miles:

and stay as a financial advisor, so I quit. Vowed never to teach

Chris Miles:

about money again. I would just do mortgages on the side because

Chris Miles:

in 2006, everybody could do mortgages, and then I would

Chris Miles:

teach ballroom dancing as well at the local university, and and

Chris Miles:

I was doing that. I like the latter

Loral Langemeier:

one. I like the latter. I

Chris Miles:

know. I mean, kind of a renaissance thing, right?

Chris Miles:

But yeah, I mean, I was having fun doing that kind of stuff,

Chris Miles:

but you know, eventually I started learning about real

Chris Miles:

estate investing. And later that year, by turning my own starter

Chris Miles:

home into an investment property, and literally I could

Chris Miles:

do hard money lending and things like that, I had enough passive

Chris Miles:

income coming in. Of at that time, only needed like 3500 a

Chris Miles:

month to live on. I had like four or five grand a month

Chris Miles:

coming in from that, as well as other streams of income from

Chris Miles:

like some business, you know, like affiliate type stuff. Even

Chris Miles:

though I wasn't affiliate back then, was just I was referring

Chris Miles:

some people, and I was like, "Holy crap! I'm 28, almost 29

Chris Miles:

years old, and I can definitely be retired. And that's when I

Chris Miles:

realized, like, I was onto something. I'm like, I I was

Chris Miles:

hoping and praying I could retire my 50s or 60s as a

Chris Miles:

financial advisor, and here I am in my late 20s, trying to wonder

Chris Miles:

what I'm going to do with my life, and and that's kind of

Chris Miles:

when I came out and started coaching in 2007. And despite

Chris Miles:

the recession, going over a million dollars in debt, had to

Chris Miles:

dig out of that hole. And eventually, I was able to retire

Chris Miles:

the second time after I got back out of the rat race again by the

Chris Miles:

end of 2016. And so I had to do it twice technically.

Loral Langemeier:

What talk about the market right now?

Loral Langemeier:

There's a lot of opinions on a runaway market going to have a

Loral Langemeier:

huge correction, going to go in a deep recession. Some people

Loral Langemeier:

say it's going to keep going, you know, for a while. Talk

Loral Langemeier:

about the market currently today, 2026.

Chris Miles:

Yeah, the thing is, the market-it's always based on

Chris Miles:

how much money's circulating, right? Like, how much is there

Chris Miles:

available money? Like, 2008, 2007-I mean, that was a big

Chris Miles:

problem. We couldn't get access to money because the banks were

Chris Miles:

like, "Sorry, we don't want to lend. Especially the business

Chris Miles:

owners, right? That was one of my problems. I couldn't get

Chris Miles:

equity out of my house because they said, "No, we don't like

Chris Miles:

business owners anymore, so no cash out refinances for you. And

Chris Miles:

I locked all my money in home equity, right? Now is not that

Chris Miles:

problem. Right now, we have the opposite problem. There's money

Chris Miles:

available everywhere, and that's why the stock market's still

Chris Miles:

going. Even though the stock market should have crashed,

Chris Miles:

definitely it should have actually crashed in 2020. But

Chris Miles:

the government obviously started printing more dollars, working

Chris Miles:

with the Treasury and with the Feds hand in hand. You know,

Chris Miles:

going to bed together that way to make sure there's tons of

Chris Miles:

money in the system, and it created this extra big bubble

Chris Miles:

that we've been in. In fact, we've had the largest, really

Chris Miles:

the longest bull market run in the stock market in history.

Loral Langemeier:

Yeah,

Chris Miles:

like 2009 until now, we had a little 2022 blip.

Chris Miles:

Whoop-de, freaking do. Nobody even remembers that they lost

Chris Miles:

money in 2022, right? Because the market just kept soaring

Chris Miles:

away, and so we are overdue for correction. Now, will it be

Chris Miles:

massive? I mean, I know Diary of a CEO. There was a guy that got

Chris Miles:

on there. There was a money manager saying he expects a 70%

Chris Miles:

loss in the stock market. I don't think it matters. What

Chris Miles:

really matters is kind of I started teaching people in 2020

Chris Miles:

when I thought we were going to move into a recession because I

Chris Miles:

think it could be extended if they keep printing more money.

Chris Miles:

But at some point, we're going to have to pay the piper, right?

Chris Miles:

At some point, it's gonna catch up to us, and they can't just

Chris Miles:

keep running up more debt to try to artificially prop up the

Chris Miles:

economy. And so, for us as business owners, the big thing

Chris Miles:

is I taught this, and it's actually in my book too. It's

Chris Miles:

get lean, get liquid, and get out. So, get lean is make sure

Chris Miles:

you really are tracking your money. You don't have to like

Chris Miles:

live on fricking rice and beans, like our good old buddy Dave

Chris Miles:

Ramsey says, right? You don't have to do that kind of crap.

Chris Miles:

You don't have to be so cheap that you cut out that latte

Chris Miles:

factor, like Dave Bock says. You know, it's always a Dave, right?

Chris Miles:

That tells you to not live life.

Loral Langemeier:

Or Susie, to Dave. Or Susie,

Chris Miles:

exactly. Yes, her too. But it's always they're

Chris Miles:

always telling you to restrict, and you don't have to do that,

Chris Miles:

but you do need to be a wise steward of your resources,

Chris Miles:

right? So in business, I recommend people like if you're

Chris Miles:

using QuickBooks or whatever system you're using doesn't

Chris Miles:

matter. I like to track my money weekly because I can prevent a

Chris Miles:

lot more money leaks in my business by being proactive

Chris Miles:

rather than reactive at the end of the year when I'm doing

Chris Miles:

taxes, right? When it's already too late. Also in your personal

Chris Miles:

life, you know whether you're using like Monarch or Rocket

Chris Miles:

Money or whatever it might be, track your money there too. You

Chris Miles:

know, make sure you are tracking your money, and and doing that.

Chris Miles:

If you do that on a weekly basis, you tend to be on top of

Chris Miles:

things. You tend to tell if there's you know apps that

Chris Miles:

you're getting charged for that you should be you know paying

Chris Miles:

for anymore. I remember there was one woman that she was like.

Chris Miles:

Get a quarter million in Silicon Valley a year, and I'm broke

Chris Miles:

every month. I don't know why. Well, we ran the numbers. She

Chris Miles:

was spending 5600 a month eating out, like literally eating out

Chris Miles:

5600 a month. And by the way, this was 2010 prices, so this

Chris Miles:

would be like spending over 10 grand a month eating out. And

Chris Miles:

and I said, you know what? Cut back that budget to like 1000 or

Chris Miles:

so a month. You know that was still free up 4600 a month, and

Chris Miles:

you could be able to do more with it, right? So it cut back

Chris Miles:

in the ways that it's necessary to help you have some freedom.

Chris Miles:

But the other side of the equation is: can I make more

Chris Miles:

money too? Can I increase the amount of value I'm creating for

Chris Miles:

other people? Can I, you know, solve problems? Which right now

Chris Miles:

there's more problems to solve than ever. Be a problem solver,

Chris Miles:

solutions provider. You'll make more money, right? So that's get

Chris Miles:

lean. Get liquid means you have cash in your control. Don't lock

Chris Miles:

it up in prison, like everybody talks about putting your money

Chris Miles:

in the 401k's and IRAs. I don't believe that. Like I'm not

Chris Miles:

saying that you never use them, but when they make that the one

Chris Miles:

and only solution for you, that's because Wall Street gets

Chris Miles:

paid the most money, right? That's how they make all their

Chris Miles:

money. They're the ones telling you lock it away forever, so

Chris Miles:

they get paid forever, right?

Loral Langemeier:

And they get the residual, but they also

Loral Langemeier:

there's no tax strategy in that, as you and I know, like yeah,

Loral Langemeier:

yeah. The you know I always tell people have your 401k open.

Loral Langemeier:

That's your own company. I mean, obviously, a lot of people

Loral Langemeier:

listening are probably employed, and they they don't have command

Loral Langemeier:

of their 401k. But for entrepreneurs, our company 401k

Loral Langemeier:

has become a tax strategy. Do you have to maximize it all the

Loral Langemeier:

time? Old folk, like you said, would say yes. We would say if

Loral Langemeier:

you need it, but it's not the first go to. It is usually the

Loral Langemeier:

last go to for me. Usually, it's oil and gas, real estate, all

Loral Langemeier:

the alternatives, real assets that actually produce cash, cash

Loral Langemeier:

flow, and passive income. Then, if I need to use a 401k at the

Loral Langemeier:

finale, then you can have it, but have the account open. But

Loral Langemeier:

to your point, most people see that as a sole source of a

Loral Langemeier:

retirement plan, and it's so wrong because you're going to be

Loral Langemeier:

taxed at the end, and you don't know the tax rate.

Chris Miles:

That's right, and you can get so. That's the

Chris Miles:

thing. I argued with a financial advisor literally just a few

Chris Miles:

hours before this, right? And he was saying, "Oh yeah, we put it

Chris Miles:

away, and they can put away hundreds of 1000s a year into

Chris Miles:

these retirement, these you know qualified plans and such. I'm

Chris Miles:

like, "Well, one, I don't trust the government, and they can

Chris Miles:

change the rules whenever they want because I don't go into

Chris Miles:

business with somebody who controls all the rules that way,

Chris Miles:

and that's what the government is. They own your 401k. You're

Chris Miles:

just the benefactor, right? You're just the you're. It's for

Chris Miles:

the your benefit, but they make all the rules. So I'm like, I

Chris Miles:

don't trust that. Two, it's so hard to get to the money when

Chris Miles:

you need it if you need it, and that's why you need to have

Chris Miles:

liquid cash. That's why I don't like locking away in in home

Chris Miles:

equity. I made that mistake in the last before the last

Chris Miles:

recession, I thought because I was a mortgage broker. If I ever

Chris Miles:

needed cash, I just cash out refi and get my money out. Well,

Chris Miles:

until it didn't work, right? That's why I don't agree with

Chris Miles:

people. They say, "Oh, I have cash reserves. I got a credit

Chris Miles:

card. I'm like, "Yeah, until you don't. If they cut back limits,

Chris Miles:

and I watched that happen so much in 2007 and 8, people that

Chris Miles:

had all these credit limits get cut back to their balances, and

Chris Miles:

then they or close altogether. You know, so you got to be

Chris Miles:

careful of that. So have liquid cash. I don't care if it's in a

Chris Miles:

savings account. You know, I use a combination of you know bank

Chris Miles:

savings local that I can get to today, high yield savings

Chris Miles:

accounts, which I can obviously transfer to my bank in a few

Chris Miles:

days, and then I use life insurance for the lion's share

Chris Miles:

of my money because I can get to that money whenever I want, but

Chris Miles:

I'm getting paid like a guaranteed, you know, five 6% a

Chris Miles:

year tax free on it, and I can get to that money whenever I

Chris Miles:

need it. So I

Loral Langemeier:

within your life insurance policy.

Chris Miles:

I'm sorry, say again.

Loral Langemeier:

Usually within your life insurance policy.

Chris Miles:

Correct. Yes, specifically whole life

Chris Miles:

insurance. Not like some people are like marketing like oh index

Chris Miles:

universal life, all that kind of stuff. It's like no, those

Chris Miles:

things are market driven. You you can't count on those

Chris Miles:

exactly. But I use the boring whole life that right now they

Chris Miles:

they're paying over 6% a year, you know, dividends, you know,

Chris Miles:

and and that has no market risk. So it's a safe place I can get I

Chris Miles:

can store it. I can get to it whenever I need it too.

Loral Langemeier:

Yep, yep. So that's why I think so so few

Loral Langemeier:

people know or understand passive income. I mean, you and

Loral Langemeier:

I know that answer, but let's just talk about passive income.

Loral Langemeier:

I and I'm just going to start off saying, just you know, I

Loral Langemeier:

make fun of it because I don't think anything's purely passive.

Loral Langemeier:

I call it packedive. You're going to be a little bit active,

Loral Langemeier:

at least with some oversight of your real estate that's going to

Loral Langemeier:

produce that cash flow. So I like that your shirt says cash

Loral Langemeier:

flow freedom versus passive income because I do make fun of

Loral Langemeier:

passive income because passive is nothing and too many people

Loral Langemeier:

do nothing so I'm just giving them no permission you have to

Loral Langemeier:

pay attention like you said weekly to your money you've got

Loral Langemeier:

to pay attention and and all those I'm going to do it for you

Loral Langemeier:

real estate deals you still need to have oversight, so I'll give

Loral Langemeier:

a my little just my my rules around that as you answer that.

Chris Miles:

Absolutely, I I couldn't agree more because you

Chris Miles:

know you're right. It requires a level of stewardship, right? The

Chris Miles:

problem is we've been brainwashed to believe by the

Chris Miles:

financial industry, financial advisors, and the companies they

Chris Miles:

work. For that, we just set and forget it, and we just never

Chris Miles:

have to think about it ever again. When has that ever worked

Chris Miles:

in real life? Like, when have we ever been passive? What what

Chris Miles:

happens in our relationships if we're passive with it? They'll

Chris Miles:

leave. If we're passive with our health, our health will leave.

Chris Miles:

If we're passive with our money, it'll leave too. And we got to

Chris Miles:

be careful not to be, you know, like I'm not talking about like

Chris Miles:

hands off investments. There's great ways to be the financier

Chris Miles:

or you know hands off in that way, but you still have to be

Chris Miles:

very much aware and manage that stewardship, or you'll lose it.

Chris Miles:

And so I agree. Like even rentals, like for example, the

Chris Miles:

most hands off rental strategy when it comes to real estate is

Chris Miles:

turnkey rentals. But even then, I mean, one. I mean, I'm doing

Chris Miles:

upfront work to make sure that hey, is appraisal still look

Chris Miles:

good? Is you know, do we make sure that we actually have the

Chris Miles:

right numbers before we get in? Do we do we know for a fact that

Chris Miles:

the home inspection is done right because I don't have to

Chris Miles:

pay maintenance in something that I just barely bought? You

Chris Miles:

know, all these factors, and yeah, you may have some

Chris Miles:

headaches. So I tell people at best it's semi active or semi

Chris Miles:

passive. Now I might lend my money. For example, I lend my

Chris Miles:

money to real estate investors, and it's very hands off. But if

Chris Miles:

they don't pay me, right, I might have to foreclose on them.

Chris Miles:

I might have to take that control back, take that

Chris Miles:

property, and that's anything but passive. And so there's

Chris Miles:

always that due diligence period and those kind of things that

Chris Miles:

aren't passive at all, but in comparison, I'll tell you, like,

Chris Miles:

because I mean, I've got roughly about 50,000 a month of passive

Chris Miles:

coming in for myself right now, and for me, like, I spend maybe

Chris Miles:

at most couple hours a month managing my, you know, my

Chris Miles:

stewardship and my investments and things like that, because

Chris Miles:

again, like most of it's like watching grass grow, you know,

Chris Miles:

like it comes in, it's doing its thing. Now up front, now I'm

Chris Miles:

getting into new investments. I might spend anywhere from

Chris Miles:

several minutes to maybe a few hours, depending on the

Chris Miles:

investment. But once I'm in, I'm in, you know, and and then it's

Chris Miles:

just a matter of you know filling, make sure that things

Chris Miles:

are okay, and watching and managing what I have. So no,

Chris Miles:

it's it's never brain off. Never think that passive means brain

Chris Miles:

off. But if we're talking about like passive income, even if

Chris Miles:

it's oil and gas, because I've got oil and gas investments like

Chris Miles:

you have as well. I mean, I've got stuff in business and things

Chris Miles:

of that nature. Like there's so many cool things you can do in

Chris Miles:

the alternative investment space that no financial advisor will

Chris Miles:

ever tell you about. Because one, either they don't know

Chris Miles:

about it themselves, like myself. I didn't know any about

Chris Miles:

about most these things, or two because they don't want you know

Chris Miles:

about because they don't get paid a dime if you go and do

Chris Miles:

those other investments, and that's the real reason why

Chris Miles:

you're never taught. I'm going to go in

Loral Langemeier:

three. They're legally licensed. They have to

Loral Langemeier:

only sell into their broker dealer. They can't. So to that

Loral Langemeier:

point, I mean, so few people endorse or even understand

Loral Langemeier:

alternative investments. So I wrote, I mean, early 2007. I

Loral Langemeier:

wrote Well Cycle Investing, which is a complete chapter by

Loral Langemeier:

chapter alternative. Every alternative you can invest in

Loral Langemeier:

that was available at the time. Now there's more alternatives

Loral Langemeier:

because you know the economy and industry shift. So why do you

Loral Langemeier:

think so few people understand alternatives. For I'm not speak

Loral Langemeier:

for me. That's all I was ever ever introduced to. Like I knew

Loral Langemeier:

real estate. I worked, you know, with Chevron. I built the

Loral Langemeier:

fitness centers. I saw gas and oil, and I knew they were they

Loral Langemeier:

had bypassed a lot of small fields. And that's when a lot of

Loral Langemeier:

us, when we left Chevron, got together the the geologists and

Loral Langemeier:

the engineers, myself, bunch of safety engineers were like, we

Loral Langemeier:

know the fields. They bypassed because they were too small for

Loral Langemeier:

a chevron, but they're not too small for a small operator.

Loral Langemeier:

That's how I got into all these alternatives really, really,

Loral Langemeier:

really young. And the market was always, like you said, an

Loral Langemeier:

elusive, you know, emotional machine that's controlled by a

Loral Langemeier:

lot of other market makers and not us, so that's how I got in

Loral Langemeier:

the alternatives. Tell me about. I mean, obviously your story is

Loral Langemeier:

very similar. You went, you know, very stock market-ish and

Loral Langemeier:

mutual funds, and then over. But in general, Chris, why are so

Loral Langemeier:

few people talking about alternatives when it's what

Loral Langemeier:

makes us the wealthiest and gives us the most cash flow.

Chris Miles:

It's true. Well, it's it's traditionally been

Chris Miles:

reserved for the wealthy than the rich class, right? It's the

Chris Miles:

poor middle class are told to invest in their 401k's

Loral Langemeier:

and Roth IRAs.

Chris Miles:

Poor middle class are told, "Hey, just pay off

Chris Miles:

your house and you'll live an adequate lifestyle. But what

Chris Miles:

people don't realize, and it's becoming more common thanks to

Chris Miles:

social media and things that we're doing, like these

Chris Miles:

podcasts. It's becoming more aware, but the truth is that the

Chris Miles:

the massive sales force of financial advisors, and that's

Chris Miles:

really what they are. You you nailed on the head. Like when I

Chris Miles:

had my securities license, I'll tell you the most free day I

Chris Miles:

ever had was in 2005 when I dropped my securities license

Chris Miles:

because I wasn't licensed to make people money. I was

Chris Miles:

licensed to sell only a very specific suite of "quote

Chris Miles:

unquote" financial products, right? And none of them fit in

Chris Miles:

that alternative. And I call it more not even just alternative

Chris Miles:

investments, but Main Street investing versus Wall Street.

Chris Miles:

They always pitch Wall Street, but Main Street. I mean, this is

Chris Miles:

stuff that's been going on for 1000s of years. People have been

Chris Miles:

buying and selling businesses, investing that way. People have

Chris Miles:

been buying and selling real estate for 1000s of years. The

Chris Miles:

Wall Street's only been around for a few 100 years. It's not

Chris Miles:

even that new. But marketing from the big companies, all the

Chris Miles:

billions that go into every financial news network that you

Chris Miles:

see, they're the ones paying for that those ad spaces for them to

Chris Miles:

say yes, go invest with Fidelity or Merrill Lynch or whatever

Chris Miles:

crappy company you want to invest with, and again, they

Chris Miles:

serve their need. But the whole other side, the side that the

Chris Miles:

wealthy families have known about for so long, the side that

Chris Miles:

you know you see the the typical private wealth accounts go into,

Chris Miles:

and the hedge funds and things like that, they're investing in

Chris Miles:

these places already. I mean, a lot of them even have like 30%

Chris Miles:

of cash sitting on sidelines or cash equivalents, combined with

Chris Miles:

all these other alter investment class, yeah, they might have a

Chris Miles:

little Wall Street in there too, but they put a lot of money into

Chris Miles:

things like private equity and credit. They put things into

Chris Miles:

real estate. They put things into oil and gas. They're

Chris Miles:

already doing the stuff. It's just now it's the time that

Chris Miles:

people realize again, you're not what's called an accredited

Chris Miles:

investor, where you make at least 300,000 a year on your tax

Chris Miles:

return, or and or you have a million dollar net worth, not

Chris Miles:

including your equity of your house, you won't often hear

Chris Miles:

these things, especially if you're under that that realm.

Chris Miles:

Like most of those people won't even offer it to you, anyways.

Chris Miles:

But there are still some access ability for people to be able to

Chris Miles:

get in to deals like this, even if you don't qualify that way,

Loral Langemeier:

yeah, absolutely. So, just I'm gonna

Loral Langemeier:

I'm gonna ask this question because it's kind of wide open.

Loral Langemeier:

But when you say, "How do you achieve financial freedom? How

Loral Langemeier:

would you answer that? Because so many people come to me

Loral Langemeier:

because they want financial freedom, and I say, "Does that

Loral Langemeier:

really mean that you just want a life of freedom? So you have

Loral Langemeier:

like time freedom, lifestyle freedom. What does it really

Loral Langemeier:

mean? So describe that, just because I think there's so many

Loral Langemeier:

descriptions you can put with what does it mean to be

Loral Langemeier:

financially free.

Chris Miles:

Yeah, see, I was going to say same thing as well.

Chris Miles:

How do you define financial freedom? And I'll tell you how

Chris Miles:

you can get it. You know, I think there's two different

Chris Miles:

terms. There's financial independence and financial

Chris Miles:

freedom, financial independence. Simply put, is when you have

Chris Miles:

more than enough investment income or other income streams

Chris Miles:

coming in, whether you work or not. Right, they can pay your

Chris Miles:

bills. So if you have enough passive income coming in to pay

Chris Miles:

your monthly expenses, you can be financially independent. But

Chris Miles:

that does not make you financially free. And I learned

Chris Miles:

that firsthand because I had to do it twice. Financial freedom

Chris Miles:

is actually more of a state of being or state of mind, a state

Chris Miles:

of abundance, and that's something that you can't be

Chris Miles:

bought because I've had plenty of clients get out of the

Chris Miles:

quote-unquote rat race. Right, they have more passive income

Chris Miles:

coming in than their expenses, but they still feel broke or

Chris Miles:

they still feel like it's not it's quote unquote not enough.

Chris Miles:

And I believe that financial freedom is when money is no

Chris Miles:

longer the reason or excuse that you do or do not do anything.

Chris Miles:

That you now feel like you're in that place, and that's something

Chris Miles:

you can start working on right now. For me, it took me going

Chris Miles:

broke in 2009. I didn't go bankrupt, but I was over a

Chris Miles:

million dollars in debt. Got foreclosed on my house just a

Chris Miles:

week before my fourth child was born. So we literally, as my

Chris Miles:

wife's going through postpartum, we're moving out into a small

Chris Miles:

rental, right? Moving out of our dream home that we had bought in

Chris Miles:

2006, and so I mean, I had to lose everything to find out that

Chris Miles:

I actually had everything, that the stuff didn't matter anymore.

Chris Miles:

I was like, I was disconnected. I kept the minivan. We hid it in

Chris Miles:

the garage so the the repo guys couldn't take it. But for us,

Chris Miles:

once I detach from the stuff and I stop trying to prove with ego

Chris Miles:

that, and this is true even for business owners, right? Often

Chris Miles:

I'll drive a car that's less expensive than many of my

Chris Miles:

business owner friends, but I make more money than them, you

Chris Miles:

know, because I just don't give a crap. And that's it's funny

Chris Miles:

enough for me. That's when I realized that I created

Chris Miles:

financial freedom in 2009 when I was broke. Is when I detached

Chris Miles:

from that. Then once the money came in; it didn't matter. Like

Chris Miles:

I just had to hit financial independence, and the freedom

Chris Miles:

was already there.

Loral Langemeier:

Yeah, I had to share. I laughed because, like,

Loral Langemeier:

I flew around in a King Air C 90 multi million dollar plane that

Loral Langemeier:

was more important because that was my freedom to get around

Loral Langemeier:

this planet, not really the planet in the U S and Canada as

Loral Langemeier:

fast as I could, do as many shows as I could and get back

Loral Langemeier:

home, but that was so vital to my career. And I would come

Loral Langemeier:

home, and people they arrived or saw me, they'd be like, "And you

Loral Langemeier:

drive a Jeep? I'm like, "Yeah, because I don't care. It gets me

Loral Langemeier:

from here to there, and I like them. So now, yeah, it's just

Loral Langemeier:

interesting how people put values or egos importance on

Loral Langemeier:

things, and it's different for everybody. So that's why I love

Loral Langemeier:

asking the question because I think you know what's going to

Loral Langemeier:

have you be free is very different than you know what

Loral Langemeier:

other people need to be free. Chris, I know you're whatever

Chris Miles:

definition of freedom is. It might be

Chris Miles:

different when you get there.

Loral Langemeier:

Oh yeah, and then you go like, "This is it,

Loral Langemeier:

or "This is like not it, okay. Mis misaligned on that, and you

Loral Langemeier:

go again. And I have a saying. It's called "So what now? What?

Loral Langemeier:

So what you arrived, or so what happened? It's now what are you

Loral Langemeier:

going to do? When you live in the now, what's going to happen?

Loral Langemeier:

And you have that really generative energy, just like to

Loral Langemeier:

move here and then move here, and just you keep moving forward

Loral Langemeier:

versus looking back and having. Any of that affect your future

Loral Langemeier:

changes you changes your decision making your freedom

Loral Langemeier:

creating your freedom structure. Chris, I know you have a

Loral Langemeier:

calculator. Talk about your calculator. Talk about your

Loral Langemeier:

book. How do people follow you? How do they watch you?

Chris Miles:

Yeah, most people don't realize that they actually

Chris Miles:

have more potential for creating passive income than they

Chris Miles:

realized, and so to help people do that, because people kept

Chris Miles:

asking me, and they'd say, "Well, what do you see, Chris? I

Chris Miles:

finally put my brain into a calculator. So on my website at

Chris Miles:

moneyripples.com, there's a passive income calculator you

Chris Miles:

can actually put your numbers into. takes maybe a couple

Chris Miles:

minutes, and it can spit out saying, "Here's how much passive

Chris Miles:

income you could create in the next 12 months in your current

Chris Miles:

situation. So kind of a cool free tool you can try out.

Loral Langemeier:

Okay, cool. And how do you get your book,

Loral Langemeier:

Money Ripples?

Chris Miles:

Yep, go to Amazon. Yeah, we got the the book called

Chris Miles:

The Work Optional Blueprint, and so you can find that on on

Chris Miles:

Amazon or wherever you buy books. You know, but it's

Chris Miles:

basically there. Eventually, the audio book will be out too, but

Chris Miles:

not for a few months.

Loral Langemeier:

Okay, cool. But yeah, if you ever want to

Chris Miles:

follow us? There's at Money Ripples and social

Chris Miles:

media moneyripples.com, or we have the Money Ripples podcast.

Chris Miles:

You can follow as well.

Loral Langemeier:

Perfect, and I am over there on his podcast. So

Loral Langemeier:

go check out our interview.

Chris Miles:

Yeah, this has been great to

Loral Langemeier:

have you today. Love to have you back. I

Loral Langemeier:

think you and I could rant about cash flow and just just the

Loral Langemeier:

structure of what it takes to to create call it wealth, financial

Loral Langemeier:

freedom, just the freedom in general, and create the cash

Loral Langemeier:

flow that you really need, and understand how much it is,

Loral Langemeier:

because so many people are in the situation that your father

Loral Langemeier:

found them in, and still today, it's why so many baby boomers,

Loral Langemeier:

in my opinion, are still working. Is they had a huge

Loral Langemeier:

miscalculated structure of thinking that that was going to

Loral Langemeier:

be enough, and they didn't. They didn't. You know, nobody.

Loral Langemeier:

Everybody puts a little inflation in there, but when

Loral Langemeier:

they really figure out the calculator, they forget all the

Loral Langemeier:

economic up and downs. I mean, the fact that 30% was lost in

Loral Langemeier:

2020, and now they're what 20 something percent was lost in

Loral Langemeier:

the market in 20, you know, 22. Like I said, there's just so

Loral Langemeier:

many variables that affect that number that never goes into the

Loral Langemeier:

calculation. So take advantage of Chris's calculator and do it

Loral Langemeier:

on a regular basis so you keep your mind straight.

Chris Miles:

Absolutely,

Loral Langemeier:

Chris. Thank you. And those of you that are

Loral Langemeier:

out there, if you have any questions at any time, always go

Loral Langemeier:

to askloral.com. A s k l o r a l. Ask a question, make a

Loral Langemeier:

request. We'll be back next Friday on the next podcast.