# 1 - Our Story Pt 1

[0:00] This is the Wealthy Investor Show, where we don’t just talk about your wealth, we also talk about your holistic health. I’m your host, Matias. And I’m Erica. And this is the Wealthy Investor.

[0:16] Welcome to the Wealthy Investor. So we want to kick things off this time with a little bit of an introduction to who we are. My lovely wife, Erica, here. We’ve been married for over 10 years. We got started in the journey together when we first got married. We had very little to our name. We had about 120,000 negative to our name. And we kind of got started by working at paying all that off. So a little bit about Erica is we have three kids that are from seven, one and a half to seven, about. She is a licensed professional counselor. She’s my business partner. She’s my best friend. And she’s the co-host of this podcast. Erica, do you want to start us off by telling us a little bit about your professional background, what education you’ve done? Yeah, what were you done professionally up at this point?

[1:18] Yeah, I started off as a barista. I was terrible at that job. I went to Eastern Mennonite University, got my bachelor’s degree in psychology, and then went straight on to get my master’s also at EMU in counseling. And then I did a variety of jobs for a long time in the trenches, working with families in their homes in Spanish, mostly. And then I also did some counseling in the schools with kids with at-risk behaviors who were either at risk of being taken out of their home or out of the school for, to an alternate placement. And then I also did some supervising at that point. I moved into administration and I was a clinical supervisor for the clinical programs at a for-profit agency here in the area. And then I worked full-time over at the CSB with kids in an outpatient setting. And then around COVID, like mid-COVID, I moved into my own practice, which is where I am now. And I do that part-time, three-quarter time, private practice, seeing adolescents on up.

[2:45] So fun fact, she graduated with her master’s. So I am a little bit older than her by like six months or so. And she graduated with her master’s when I was hobbling with crutches, because I did a front flip over a fence playing soccer. And I sprained my ankle. So I was hobbling to pretend and to walk that I got my degree, but I hadn’t even gotten my undergrad degree yet. Meanwhile, this overachiever was giving a speech for her master’s program. So that gives you a little bit of insight of some of our dynamics here in our relationship. I don’t know if we’ve ever done anything conventionally because I, fun fact, I never graduated from college or from high school either. So I ended up graduating a year early, getting my GED and hopping into college studies the next day. Yeah. That’s a whole nother story. But I think you and I have always done things a little backwards. That’s true. That’s true. And I went to Germany for a year after high school because I knew I wouldn’t take it seriously, college going straight in. So that’s kind of where that delay came. She did force me to finish my degree when we started dating. So

[3:58] that was good. Clarification. I said, if you don’t finish this degree, that is going to be a problem. So she forced me to get my degree. I was also in psychology. That was my undergrad degree. Didn’t go on to get my master’s. But so we both kind of had that background. We worked at the same agency for a little bit. I also helped with kids in schools. And so we both have a bit of the background in psychology. Our degrees primarily were what caused us to have so much debt. And at the time, actually, when we got married, we knew there was a lot of debt. We hadn’t really sat down and talked about it fully. Maybe that’s one of the things that you should do. We were too in love. It didn’t matter at that point, right? But we decided on the way back from the honeymoon to really make a spreadsheet and dig into it. And I think at that point, we realized it was about $120,000 in debt. Pretty much all student loans. We had just bought a house as well, but we’re not counting that.

[5:12] And decided that we didn’t really want that hanging over our head the whole time. Do you remember what we were making at the time? I actually thought about this earlier today. I was making around $29,000. You were making $19,000. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a mountain. First time homeowners, just got married. Yeah. That was a mountain to climb. $120,000 now doesn’t seem quite as crazy. But at the time, it felt insurmountable. I mean, it was a big thing. Well, we had to make a lot of significant lifestyle changes to be able to save money to pay off. So we did follow the Dave Ramsey plan. I would say we aren’t religious Dave Ramsey people by any means, but it was a good way to get kind of laser focused at that time for us. And so we lasered in on the debt.

[6:20] We made a big thermometer that we hung up eventually. And every time we made a significant payoff, we would color in that thermometer. At that time, I got my real estate license. And that’s when my real estate kind of career started. And you were doing private practice on the side as well at that time, right? I was. I was. Because that, I think it was that year when we were doing or started to do the debt payoff. Do you remember when we were doing taxes, we had like five or six W-2s because we had so many different jobs. But we ended up taping that thermometer in our kitchen. So we couldn’t, do you remember that? We couldn’t unsee it. Yeah. And it was very public. Everybody could see it. Everybody kind of knew we were in it. And I mean, it had, it kind of had to be because we had to, we had to not do a lot of things with our friends. We had to say no a lot. We had a restaurant budget of, was it $50 a month? It was 30. 30. It was a trip to Oriental Cafe for happy hour sushi.

[7:28] And it could include two Sam Adams beers. Yeah. And then we had also an alcohol budget of like 30 or 50 as well. And that included a box of Francia and a $12 bottle of bourbon, right? Yeah. And that’s about what it covered. The bourbon surprisingly was not in a plastic bottle. It was glass, but it wasn’t very good. So that’s kind of where our journey started, I guess you would say. That’s where we became kind of focused on finances. I wouldn’t say that like it’s ever been, I’m a big dreamer. And so I’ve, this is one of our dynamics as well. I’m a big dreamer and I’m always thinking kind of about the next thing. I was the one that kind of pushed probably this to start with. I don’t know if you would have been a hundred percent involved, but now that we went through it, I would say that, you know, both pieces were really important. You were the nuts and bolts and the actually getting things done. I was the cloud, the head in the clouds kind of person. But we also look back on that time as like the, some of the best years of our lives. Like, even though we were so disciplined, it was really kind of like a bonding thing to be in that journey together.

[8:37] Yeah. I think it definitely taught us how to work together as a team. Not a bad thing to do to start a marriage off. In forming this podcast, one of the things that I thought was kind of important or, or interesting or a need was you hear a lot about when I listen to my podcast, you probably don’t listen to these podcasts, Erica, but when I listen to my podcast, there’s a lot of success stories. A lot of people that talk about what they did being nonstop, being relentless in the pursuit of their, whatever they want to do, like becoming a top realtor, becoming a top investor. Oftentimes there are husband and wife’s like investor duos that are kind of both laser focused on it. But I don’t know if they usually talk about kind of the nuts and bolts behind it all. Like it does take, it could take away from a marriage, could take away from family. And I thought that it’s kind of an awesome opportunity to have you as a licensed therapist kind of have some insight on that when we interview people. And that’s kind of part of the idea of this podcast as well.

[9:47] Would you want to talk a little bit about our experience from, you know, me having long evenings and showing houses and I mean, it hasn’t always been easy. I mean, what has worked well, what have we had to think through or figure out along the way? Not that it’s 100% perfect. No, I was going to say it’s not easy. I don’t know if it ever will be easy. I think it, we have to stay pretty on top of it. Just in communication and talking to each other about what we need to make it feel good for both of us. Having you as a partner who’s a real estate agent comes with some pretty unique challenges. And I think one of the biggest ones is the home, the boundary between work and home is really difficult to define. And it’s not like you go to an office and then when you come home, you’re home for the evening. It’s often you can be home for the evening, but then a crisis happens and you have to deal with it. And sometimes I don’t know you’re dealing with a crisis.

[10:56] Um, until I check in with you and then kind of fill me in. But so, so what that tends to look like is a lot of times when you’re free and available, you’re here and you’re engaged, but there are times when a lot is happening or you’re doing a showing or you have a late evening or there’s a crisis happening, you’re writing an offer that needs to get in right away. And so it places a lot of the, um, the parenting piece of it on me. I felt a lot of that weight falls on me. Yeah. And, and so that’s hard to negotiate. And I would say that, um, one of the things that’s hard as well is that I’m an expert and I like to be around my family and I feel bad when I’m not around my family. So sometimes I want to work around my family, but that just makes more problems. So like, I think one of the things that we’ve often tried to do is, is have me go to my office downstairs. Uh, if I have to get something done, because it’s better for me to be there getting work done than to be up and the kids being asking, asking you for a million things or asking me for things and say, and I can say, I can’t do it right now.

[12:01] Also, can I paint that picture a little bit? Yeah. Cause this is a scenario that happens a lot and it often happens, say, I’ll just go with breakfast. Cause that tends to be when, you know, where we’re both up, we’re both in the kitchen, we’re sitting here, you’re on your computer, answering emails and responding to situations or working on an offer right beside you in the chair beside you are our children. And I am on the other side of the Island, getting everyone breakfast and answering a million different requests. And I see you there and you are on reachable to me. Sure. And so, and not that you and I have had so many conversations about this. And so that’s why like we’ve a lot of times have tried to practice. If you are working, you’re in a different space, Right. Cause that feels really hard when your partner is there, but not. Right. And that’s, that’s really tough. Cause a lot of people would just go to, go to work. Um, but when they’re home, they’re around their families and they’re home. And that, that is definitely a unique thing for, uh, realtors that it doesn’t really turn off. And you know, it, there’s, there’s times like now that we can

[13:16] have this conversation, we have flexibility. There’s, there’s, there’s advantages as well to kind of making your own schedule, but it’s when work is there. It’s, it’s, you have to, you have to get it done. There’s 16 offers and you know, you’ve got to get one in that same evening. Um, so yeah, it definitely can be a challenge. Can I talk about the flip side of that for a minute? Yes. Cause with that, because you can make your own schedule and because I can make my own schedule, that was one of the reasons why I joined CrossFit because you were doing CrossFit. And that was a way that we could have time without the children where we can connect together and we could both do it at noon. Yeah. And that was, that was great. That was, um, that was particularly during a time where, you know, Sawyer was what, four months old and it was just feeling really hectic and we couldn’t even know how to talk to each other. And that was, that was, the gym has been a big piece and that’s something, something we’re going to talk about as well as, um, just physical fitness and, and how that can help with

[14:18] mental wellness as well. I think that’s been very important for both of us. Um, especially now that we are kind of in the cult of CrossFit, if you will, if you haven’t tried, please join. You will see the light soon. Going back to, uh, going, going back to the, the finances thing a little bit of the, or the renting and, and, and all the businesses. So right now we have like a flip business that is also working as like a rental business. So, you know, an LLC that we flip houses in and that we have rentals in. Um, then we own a couple of properties independently, uh, just, or personally, I should say. And then we have an S corp that runs my real estate sales business. And then you have an S corp that runs your counseling business. Um, and then we recently had to form another LLC, uh, for property. Um, and so it’s, there’s been a lot of things that I have no idea what’s happening with in the backend where you’ve come in. Um, and that’s one of the ways that we work really well together, that you’ve been very on top of the, you know, the bookkeeping, that kind of stuff. Um, do you have anything to add about that? I mean, it’s, it’s one of those other things where we didn’t

[15:40] do it conventionally. We came in kind of from another angle, but we, I, I, you know, I did a lot of research and I figured out how to form an LLC and how to make an S corp and how the advantages that came along with that and where to file all the reports and papers and how to hire you as an employee and how to make that. Am I doing a good job? I haven’t fired you yet.

[16:06] Figured out how to get group health insurance for our one employee and his family. And, uh, you know, and then the accounting side, uh, just learning how to categorize and reconcile. And, and that’s, you know, that’s a whole different side of my brain, but it’s been really fun and I haven’t listed the help of an accountant now because our, some of our investment transactions have become very complicated. And so I’m thankful to have some help with that too, but, um, it’s been fun ride, but I can’t tell you how many times you’ve come home. Okay. So this trend, this deal is happening. I bought a townhouse today and then this money is going here and then we’re going to from there and put the money over here, just so you know, because we, uh, often fund things out of like HELOCs and we have three different HELOCs. And then, uh, sometimes we have to transfer money from this place to that place to make it all work. It is a nightmare. And, um, I think as we go further along, we’re hopefully able to streamline that a little bit. We’ve maybe gotten a few things figured out to make it easier, but it’s also just gotten more complicated. So yeah, having the professionals

[17:26] in your life that, that can help make that easier is a big thing. And, um, I think along those lines, I think, you know, one of the things that we dream about now is that I’ve, I’ve lived overseas, you’ve lived overseas and I’ve really wanted to take the kids, um, to have that kind of experience. So in, we want to say in like five years or so, we want to do this trip overseas and hopefully be there for a year. Um, in preparing for that, I think we have to learn how to hand more things over right now. We are managing all of our rentals ourselves. I don’t think that’s realistic from across the ocean. Um, so bookkeeping, that kind of stuff all needs to kind of go get, you know, get delegated more and more. So in the hecticness of our life, what, what are some of the things that you need? Some of the things that you have found are helpful for your wellbeing, for your mental health, what times that do you take for yourself? What’s important to you to keep your engine going to keep you, uh, at the top of your game? Hmm. In, in general, um, um, I would say the gym is probably my number one or one of them. Hopefully we don’t talk about CrossFit too much, but I will say this is the first

[18:55] gym community I’ve been a part of that solely focuses on skill and strength and not a body composition necessarily or weight loss. Um, that’s not the focus. And that has been fun, but I can genuinely say that the, this gym community is just a lot of fun. Um, and I have discovered parts about myself that I don’t think I knew were there. The other day I did say, you know, until CrossFit, I didn’t really realize she was athletic, but she’s really athletic, which I think is a compliment, but I, I just probably didn’t realize that either myself. So that’s, that’s a big one. And, and that, that helps my mood and it helps me with stress and I get to be with my friends there. Speaker 1 00. And then also getting up an hour before our children wake up is, is important to me. And so I usually get up around five 30, well, I get up at five and shower and then I get out in the living room by five 30 and I read for an hour with my coffee before the kids get up.

[20:05] And I noticed a huge difference just in those two things. You don’t have to start off running. Cause usually when the kids are up, it’s, you gotta, it’s running. Speaker 1 00. Yep. I can face the day a whole lot better. Speaker 1 00. It’s, it’s interesting how those things are kind of all intertwined though, like the, the, the mental health and the physical health. I mean, really, I, I, do you find that you have always eaten very healthfully? I mean, is that something that you would say plays into your mood, into the way you think? Speaker 1 00. The food specifically? Probably. That one’s tricky for me because I have such a sensitive digestive system. And, and so I, I don’t know specifically, but there’s likely some kind of an allergy to like preservatives or like high fat foods. But I, I have learned over the years, what kinds of food make me feel good. And that tends to be home cooked meals or honestly eating downtown anywhere feels pretty good to me. But if I would ever go eat out at a restaurant, like a chain, I’m usually in pain for a couple of hours. So that, that aside, I can tell when I, when I am eating

[21:18] more cleanly, I have a lot more energy. I generally feel a bit bouncier and I can handle a whole lot more. That is definitely true. Speaker 1 00. Yeah. Yeah. I, you’re better at that than I am. You have been a very positive influence in my life for eating healthy. So I do appreciate that. Yeah. So normally now we would kind of go into a, a questions, um, maybe more related to real estate investing. Um, the, I know that has been kind of my focus. Uh, you’ve, you’ve run things, you’ve been more of a manager in that kind of realm, not, uh, uh, getting out there and finding the deals kind of thing in our relationship. Um, but since you have the, the counseling and the professional background, you do, um, what would you say is some of your best mental health advice? I know that’s a very broad question and everybody’s different, but what would be, yeah, one of the best things that somebody could do to improve their mental health?

[22:20] Speaker 1 00. With the investing side of things? Speaker 1 00. No, not related to investing, just, just in general. Like if, if somebody is listening to this, it doesn’t even have to be somebody that’s depressed or anxious or anything, just what’s like a general thing that most people could do that would improve their mental health. Speaker 1 00. If I had to name one, I’d say get outside, just get outside, get moving. Speaker 1 00. If I, if I had to dial it down to one thing, um, often it comes down to move your body because we know now that, um, there’s stress everywhere, which we’ve always known, but we know that in order to move that stress outside of your body, you have to do something that they call completing the stress cycle, which can be done a lot of different ways, but the easiest way to do it is to get your body moving and by dancing or, um, working out or going for a walk. But otherwise you can move through a stressful situation and you can come out on the other side of it. And, and the, the way the stress stress goes away some, um, but it still stays within your body. And so you need to do

[23:28] something to get that energy out. Speaker 1 00. That’s awesome. Any, this would be a question that I don’t, I’m not sure if I can translate it, but, um, any golden nuggets you would say, um, from you can, you can choose personal finance. It could be, uh, investing. It can be any other golden nuggets from the mental health world, um, or CrossFit. Anything, anything, how do you get your first muscle up? Speaker 1 00. I haven’t yet. I don’t know. Speaker 1 00. Well, I, the first thing that comes to mind, honestly, are more little nuggets, um, for an investor or someone in your shoes as a partner, observing you for a number of years that I have noticed that we’ve talked about this, the one, um, important part of the process is to have solid people and mentors and friends around you to ground you. And particularly if you’re a dreamer and you have had, and you’ve, you’ve honed and developed, um, some meaningful friendships and mentors and coworkers that you value their input. And so when a deal comes up, I am not the one you want to be talking to necessarily, because I’m, I’m often the person that, you know, if we’re doing it,

[24:58] let’s do it and then I’ll figure out how to get it done and we’ll go. But I can’t handle like 10 different ideas at once. Sure. But you have these people that you’ve learned how to, um, bounce ideas off of them and have these conversations to help you hone where you want to go. Speaker 1 00. Help me process. Speaker 1 00. And that’s, that’s been really helpful. Speaker 1 00. Yeah. Speaker 1 00. I am curious, uh, that, that, that’s stress cycle I was talking about. How do you do that with your stress? How do you get your stress out? I mean, the, the gym definitely is one of the biggest things for me. I think that we have found that, or I have found that if I can work out at 430 in the afternoon and leave my stress behind me for the day, um, that can have a big impact on how I am with like the kids and how I’m at home. I feel like I can be much, much better. Yeah. So I definitely, I mean, working out is, is a big piece. Um, you’re going to get me on a rant. Um, but I, I definitely believe, um, in us as a society have gotten to, uh, be too comfortable, too complacent. And I think that, uh, we have to manufacture struggle in our life to, to, to get rid of our stress. And I think that if

[26:23] we don’t, uh, have hardship that we overcome, we become stressed and anxious and depressed. And so I think that that’s one of the reasons working out, this is my, you know, not professional, not, not from a clinical background from, uh, listening to podcasts and that kind of stuff, uh, background, uh, observations. But I think that, I think one of the ways we do that is, is, is exercising. I think that, um, for me having a new exciting endeavor is something that really is good for my brain. I like to, to, to take on something new and challenge myself. Uh, I don’t like to just kind of stay in the same place and do the same thing over and over again. Uh, I think that the, the cold plunge is another, I, I built a cold plunge out of an old freezer. Um, and it looks very ghetto and very funny. And it, a lot of people think I’m insane for sitting in a freezer filled with water. Um, but it, it, it is, it does really make you feel good after you get out. Um, and we also got a sauna here recently that, uh, we’ve been enjoying that part you do like.

[27:37] Um, and, uh, going between the sauna and then to the ice bath, the cold plunge, um, has been surprisingly more difficult than just getting in the cold plunge. Uh, but it’s, it’s, it’s all that, like pushing yourself, uh, getting past it. It makes you feel good. Getting past a hard workout makes you feel good. Uh, I, I think I talked about the cold plunge with you and how if you, if you, if you’re looking, if you, if you know, you’re going to go do a hard CrossFit workout, a hard workout, whatever you kind of are dread dreading going and doing like, if you’re going to do a half marathon, it’s this big event. It’s, it brings about this kind of dread, but you’re also kind of addicted to it. Cause once you get done with it, it feels so good and you feel accomplished and you just have an elevated mood. That’s kind of how it is with the cold plunge too.

[28:27] Like you, you, I would like walk by and be like, well, Hey there, how are you doing? I kind of want to get in you. Even though it’s, it sounds crazy to get into freezing cold water. Uh, but once you get out and it does, it does feel really good. So one day we’ll get you in there. We’ll do on the podcast. All right. So do you have any book recommendations, uh, that you think, uh, people should know about any could be counseling, marriage, real estate, investing books that you love to read? We just finished reading the love prescription by John Gottman. Matthias and I, um, both chose a book for the other for, or for us to read together. We actually haven’t read your book yet, but the love prescription was my pick. And if you haven’t read it, it’s a short, easy read. It’s, um, seven practical habits or behaviors that you can do with your spouse to increase your connection with each other. And, and some of them are, they’re just very simple and easy, like saying, thank you.

[29:38] Yeah. For the good and positive things that you see your spouse doing that you normally overlook. Um, cause we often focus more on the critical parts of our spouses and ourselves. Uh, and then some of the other ones was give a real compliment. Yeah. Um, one of the things that I, I, I thought was interesting from it. And I think that this may be, wasn’t even a chapter, but one of the insights they said is like, often if you’re having marital problems and you go to marriage counseling, often people will want to just focus on the problems, uh, and try to solve those problems. But they’re like, try having fun, try, try getting into a nice conversation with each other and try appreciating, noticing the things that they do to appreciate them. And, and, and that kind of helps turn the ship a little bit. Um, which I thought was interesting. Uh, it makes sense.

[30:32] Mm-hmm. Yeah. It’s just to go back a couple of steps, the, the seven habits or behaviors that this came out of all of the research that they, John and his wife, Julie have done, um, in their love lab in Seattle, where they have a townhouse that they have hooked up to different cameras and they have couples come and stay in the townhouse all weekend. Um, and they just observe their behavior and they code their behavior and they’ve, I think it’s been thousands and thousands and thousands of hours and they’ve dialed it down to where they can predict whether a couple will be together in the next five years or will be divorced within what? 95% accuracy, 90% accuracy. It’s pretty crazy. And so the, the behaviors that they pulled out from these, uh, recordings, um, that would, were indicative of a successful relationship. That’s what they put into this book. And so it’s, it’s been really helpful for us because we don’t have hours and hours to connect with each other. Usually it is just moments. And a lot of times it is pretty high stress, um, having three young kids and then having more of a, a different kind of

[31:42] balance in the parenting. Um, and so it, it was, it’s been really fun. It’s been good. And we, we’ve talked about it would be nice to have a poster, um, that kind of has those seven things kind of out to remind us, um, on a daily basis, but I’m going through intentional goal setting and tracking. And, um, I try to implement those things, uh, in a, in a day to day if I can. Um, so looking forward to this next quarter goal setting, which we need to talk about, um, we probably won’t do that here, but, um, it would be interesting to see if there’s another book, uh, similar to that, that, that you’d recommend. Um, so we’ll look into that. Do you, of our real estate deals that we’ve done in your shoes is not in the, in the trenches necessarily in the like actual houses, but, you know, from a managerial standpoint, which one would be your favorite? What have we done that has been, yeah, your favorite. Hmm. Can I change it to most memorable? Sure. Sure. There’s two that stick out to me because there’s our very first investment property, um, over on Kelly. And I remember you coming to me and asking about that one days before I was going to have our second

[33:12] child. I think I was scheduled to go in for a C-section Monday morning and it was maybe over the weekend. They were like, Hey, are you cool with this? And this was our very first one. So that one, that was, uh, this is a flip. Yep. And it was, it worked out beautifully. It was great. Uh, I’m glad we did it. The other, it would probably be broad street because I saw pictures of how uninhabitable that house was. And it was even, it wasn’t even classified as, uh, real estate with the city. Like they wouldn’t even tax it because it was so bad because you couldn’t live in it. And which I kind of figured out kind of a little bit later. And so she doesn’t go to see him. She’s not in the trenches. So she doesn’t, she’s after the fact. Well, Matias walks into that and you’re like, wow, that’s going to be beautiful. And I, I just don’t have that eye. So it’s great. But it was, it was really cool to see such a shithole go into this really beautiful home and you designed all of it and, and then, and made it into, um, a really beautiful place. And then it turned and that’s, that’s, that is the side that I like

[34:34] about the investing of the turn something that no one can live in or no one would want to live in, into a really beautiful place. And it creates a home for somebody. I’ve heard somebody say, call it recycling a house once. I thought that’s kind of an interesting way of saying it. Yeah. And that one, I, what the one thing that sticks out with me for that one is, was that the first time we really got the kids involved? Cause we, we made a point, we were cleaning, um, maybe doing some staging, uh, but we got the kids to come and, and help out. And I think we did some landscaping too, as well, but that’s been something that’s kind of been important to me is to, to have the kids see kind of a little bit what we’re, what we do and, um, kind of experience some of the work that goes into it as well.

[35:20] Is there any mistake or learning outcome that you would, could say that you’ve gone through, through, I don’t know if real estate investing or marriage or hopefully you’re not saying Matias. No, no, no, no, no, no. I, I mean, I feel like I have gotten to know you in many new and different ways and have loved you in many new and different ways because of it. Uh, I w I will say I, I have learned how to trust and let go quite a bit in this process. I mean, when we, you think about like when we first started and I was managing the budget. And so I would say, I would tell you how much money we had to spend in what category. Right. And I remember you feeling pretty frustrated with that. You’re like, I just feel like I have to ask permission every time.

[36:21] Right. Cause we had such a strict budget. So going from that to, Hey, by the way, I might be buying a townhouse today through a text message and me feeling okay about that. Right. Is, is, we have come a long way, a long way. Cause it, there were many, many, many, many fights early on where, you know, you were trying to help me learn that when I go for an investment deal, it has to be a quick decision. We can’t, we can’t wait until we have Friday evening after the kids go to bed to talk about it and decide if we want to make an offer. I have to go in there at noon today at the auction and make a decision. Right. Do you trust me? Right. So that, that was, um, that was really hard for me, but. And you, you have always been kind of the money.

[37:10] I don’t want to say controller manager maybe, but like, that’s that, I think that was like a pretty big shift and it seems like such a significant shift too. Cause I mean, it’s hundreds of thousands of dollars potentially that we’re, you know, working with on, on these things. So yeah, it was a big shift. Yeah, it was. And I have gotten to the point now where I, it really does not make me nervous necessarily. I know you very well and I know you, how you process things and I trust you to make decisions that are best for us and our family. And honestly, sometimes this does comfort me. I go back to our early days as a Mary cup. I’m like, you know what? We can survive on a box of Franzia and a bottle of $12 bourbon. It doesn’t matter if there’s nothing else. Well, and it’s funny too, cause I think this is something that a lot of people struggle with when they start investing is, is it, or even just buying a house. Like it seems like it’s like a zero sub game. It seems like if you make the wrong decision, you’re going to lose all of that money. And it’s usually not that, that, like, you know, even when there was the bubble that burst,

[38:12] like it was, people were losing maybe tens of thousands of dollars and it was, it was painful, but it wasn’t like you bought a $200,000 house and now you lost $200,000. Yeah. That is something that you have helped me learn that a crisis is never usually as big of a crisis as it seems. It’s going to be fine. And it has always been just fine. Yeah. Well, I mean, this has been a lot of fun. I mean, honestly, like, like this is just fun to have this conversation with you. Like I, I hope other people enjoy listening to it. And this is how we’re going to be able to talk to each other. Yeah. We’re going to schedule time. This is a therapeutic thing for us. So thank you for joining our therapy session. I, I, yeah, I really, I’m looking forward to talking to people and kind of diving into, into their world with you through this. Something that should be said as well is that, you know, I have probably a little bit more flexibility with my schedule and there might be more times where it’s just me interviewing people. But the goal is to, to have Erica involved as much as possible and to bring her perspective as the spouse of somebody that’s been the, you know, the,

[39:26] the main, I don’t know, the charge leader of real estate investing. And somebody that has also been a part of it from a, from a different perspective. So yeah, next we are going to turn the tables around and have you interview me a little bit more. And then from there we will have guests come on the podcast. So thank you for being the first guest. You’re welcome. Thank you for having me. This will be fun. Yeah.