April 1, 2025 • 35 mins
On the latest episode of The Get Ready Money Podcast, I spoke with Scott Carson, President of We Close Notes and Host of The Note Closers Podcast about changing the way we think about money and investing in debt.
Key Takeaways:
- Always get qualified expertise.
- Tips and resources if you’re struggling with debt.
- How buying a note works.
- The importance of compound interest, the rule of 72 and how it can work for you or against you.
- Failing to plan is planning to fail.
- Why taking care of your health is part of financial success.
Connect with Scott Carson:
Website: https://weclosenotes.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/1scottcarson/
Resource:
Free One Day Class: Http://NoteWeekend.com
Podcasts:
- The Note Closers Show Podcast: https://weclosenotes.com/note-closers-show-podcast/
- Note Night In America: https://weclosenotes.com/note-night-in-america-podcast/
Mentioned in this episode:
- The Power of Compound Interest - The Get Ready Money Podcast (here) https://www.tonysteuer.com/blog/the-get-ready-money-podcast-financial-five-episode-with-chris-mouzon-derrick-wesley-mac-gardner-and-thomas-kopelman-the-power-of-compound-interest
- DIMS SCORE® Calculator (from Giftingsense.org): https://giftingsense.org/gift-survey/
- Stacking Benjamins Podcast - Joe Saul-Sehy: Stacking Benjamins
- FinCon: The Business Event For Money Creators: https://finconexpo.com
Bio:
Scott Carson (aka “the Note Guy”) is a highly sought-after guest and host of the popular podcast, the Note Closers Show. An active entrepreneur, he is an expert in real estate investing, raising capital and marketing. He speaks regularly at different events and industry conventions focused on real estate, marketing, and podcasting. He also helps thousands of investors and entrepreneurs each year create wealth through his debt buying classes, podcasts and coaching. An avid sports fan, he spends his free time traveling, gardening, and making memories. He calls Austin, Texas home.
The Get Ready Money Podcast and its guests do not provide investment advice. All content is for educational purposes. Guest opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of The Get Ready Money Podcast and Tony Steuer.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and
transform your financial future?
Then you've come to the rightplace.
This is the Get Ready MoneyPodcast with Tony Stewart, where
Tony has insightfulconversations with financial
experts who are changing the waywe think about money.
Catch up on the latestfinancial trends and hear
(00:27):
practical advice from Tony andhis expert guests so you can
build healthy habits that work,Be empowered with tips for
implementing small changes thatcan have a big impact on your
financial future.
So sit back and get ready tohear from today's guest.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the
way we think about money.
I'm pleased to be joined todayby Scott Carson.
Scott is the president of weClose Notes and host of the no
Closer Show podcast.
In this episode, we'll bediscussing Scott's insights on
how we change the way we thinkabout money and real estate
investing.
(01:08):
Scott, welcome to the Get ReadyMoney podcast.
Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Tony, honored to be here, as always.
Thank you for having me bud.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, now looking forward to this.
So you know, to start out, tellus a little bit about yourself.
What is your origin story?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
My origin story, you know.
I fell into a vat of toxicwaste a few years ago, got bit
by spiders.
No, no, no, I call Austin,texas, home.
I'm known across the country asthe note guy, which is a little
bit different.
I'm basically in a mortgagespace, but on a different side
of it.
Instead of originating, I'm onthe de-origination side of
(01:44):
things.
But I've been an active realestate investor for 20 years
previous financial advisor,previous banker for JPMorgan,
chase Bank, one and Citibank andfor the last almost 20 years
I've focused on the niche ofbuying distressed mortgage notes
direct from banks and hedgefunds.
And that's kind of my originstory is.
(02:05):
We buy this distressed debtfrom banks at big discounts and
then we work to try to modifythe borrowers who are falling
behind on payments in one formor fashion to keep them in their
houses, and if they can't cometo the table, we can't have a
soft landing for them to startpaying their mortgage on time.
So we try to work a way to getthem to walk away from the
property with some grace anddignity without having to go
through the foreclosure process.
And so over the last, like Isaid, almost 20 years, we bought
(02:28):
over a billion dollars indistressed debt and then also
helped thousands of real estateinvestors redefine the way that
they invest in real estate andcash flow by coming to the dark
side of real estate or the sexyside of real estate is called by
becoming a note and debt buyer.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Cool, cool.
Well, let's go a little bitdeeper on that.
What is a note?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, so everybody's in the note business already for
the most part.
If you've got a mortgage onyour house, a car payment,
student loan, debt credit card,your cousin Bubba down the
street 500 bucks fromThanksgiving bet on a Cowboys
game, you're in the note space.
You have an IOU.
That's what a note is.
It's a debt receivable.
You know promise to pay an IOU.
(03:12):
And I focus on mortgage notes,where people have mortgages on
their, their property.
You know their homes andvacation homes and then also
commercial properties.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
That's awesome.
Well, that's really helpful,because I think people hear
these terms and they're likeokay, I feel like I should know
that.
Now, if you have somebody likeyour cousin Bubba he bet $500
with on the Cowboys game andBubba decides not to pay you
back because he's just that kindof friend, Is that a
non-performing note?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's a non-performing.
That's a non-performing note.
You could sell that debt toyour buddy, guido, at 50 cents
on the dollar and get 250, andGuido can go collect on the 500.
You know what I?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
mean, yeah Well, that's what you get for betting
on the Cowboys, right?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, exactly, they actually decided to win a game
for once this year.
But you know right, yeah,exactly, they actually decided
to win a game for once this year.
But it's a little bit differentthing.
If you've owned a house and hada mortgage on your house before
, you've probably gotten aletter from your existing lender
at some point that your loanwas sold from Chase Bank to ABC
Bank or from ABC Bank toCitizens Bank or something like
(04:21):
that.
It happens all the time.
What most people don't realizeis that individual investors
like me can actually buy thatdebt as well.
Um, you don't need to have fiveor ten million dollars or more
to buy from uh banks.
We buy a lot of smaller stuff,a lot of individual notes.
I was just doing a video.
Uh, a second.
(04:41):
We're buying a note in daytonohio.
The borrower owes 40 grand,hasn't paid in three years.
And we're buying a note inDayton Ohio.
The borrower owes 40 grand,hasn't paid in three years, and
we're buying that note for 25 ona $140,000 house.
Our goal is to get the borrowerback on track.
If they start paying on timeagain on a monthly basis, that's
about a 20% cash and cashreturn to us, which is pretty
good.
If they don't pay, I'm thelender.
(05:05):
I have the same rights as thebank did.
That made that loan toforeclose.
If they don't play ball Now,they only owe 40.
So if I foreclose, I'll sell itat the auction and I'll make
about a $15,000 profit on my$25,000 investment, which is not
bad.
But if it doesn't sell atauction now, I will own that
(05:26):
real estate and own thatproperty, which is about
$130,000, $140,000 house that Ipicked up for $25,000.
Our goal, though, is not toreally own the house.
I don't want to be a propertyowner.
I would actually prefer to keeppeople in their houses and get
the cash flow without dealingwith toilets, tents and trash
outs.
I could obviously turn thisinto a rental if I want, but I
(05:46):
don't like to do that.
I like being in the note spaceand being on the banking side of
real estate.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So what does WeClose Notes do then?
Do you consolidate the debt forinvestors that they can buy in
a pool?
Are they buying individualnotes?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, great question.
When we started doing thisstuff back in 2008, we started
getting lists of notes sent tous from big institutions and
people didn't know, understandwhat was the note was right.
They're like well, is that aproperty?
I'm like no, you have to, youcan't.
You're not buying the property,you're buying the debt.
To take the property back, youhave to finish the foreclosure
process.
So we started teaching thisniche of note investing.
(06:23):
That's what we Close Notes is.
It's kind of our education armthat our podcasts and our
webinars and our classes fallunder, but we've been teaching
investors how to actually buydebt and who to talk to.
Now, you're not going to buyfrom Bank of America, chase or
Citi.
If you're listening to thispodcast, you're behind on your
mortgage.
Don't call me up and say, scott, I want you to buy my mortgage.
Okay, we get plenty of those,but we're tapped into thousands
(06:51):
of different banks andinstitutions that do have debt
that they'll give us these liststhat we can cherry pick, and so
we teach investors how toeither go out and identify
opportunities on these lists or,if they don't want to do the
work themselves, they can do itpassively by investing with us
and we'll give them a decentreturn on their money for 12 to
36 months while we work throughthe asset.
Get the bar back on track andthen either A foreclose or sell
(07:14):
that now-reperforming note backto Wall Street.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Okay, so I think the big question that comes to mind,
for me and probably for some ofthe listeners, is are you a
debt collector then, or is thatpart of the role Do you
outsource to a debt collector?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, I'm basically a debt collector, I'm basically a
lender and there are debtcollector licenses that you need
to have in specific states.
Specific states the kind of getout of jail card is that if you
are buying notes and have yournotes with a licensed servicing
company who is licensed tocollect debt in that specific
state where the loan is, that'llsolve your licensing
(07:54):
requirements about 75% of thetime.
So we buy in a lot of thosestates that we don't have to go
get a separate license Stateslike Illinois, massachusetts,
north Carolina.
They want you to have aseparate you know license, debt
collector's license on top ofthe servicing license, and
that's okay, cost you a couplehundred bucks.
But for the most part when webuy a non-performing note, we're
(08:16):
going to board it with aservicer who's licensed in that
state and pay them anywhere fromlike 25 bucks for performing it
all the way to like 90, 95 forthem to handle the collections,
the borrower outreach, thecollecting of payments, the
sending out of statements tomaking sure that they're
Dodd-Frank compliant and thatthey're kind of our buffer in
communicating with a borrower.
(08:37):
So they're talking with aborrower, collecting information
.
We're going to obviously letthe service know which way we
want the which way we want thestory to go.
We'd like them to do a, b or cbefore we could get to get to d.
So that's.
The great thing is that we have, you know, vendors all across
the country that are working onour behalf to control.
So it's kind of almost apassive investment for a lot of
(08:59):
folks that want to get into realestate but don't want all the
hassles of rehabbing or dealingwith tenants.
They can have a, you know, byperforming paper that's just
paying them on a monthly orquarterly basis directly and
have a third party servicerwho's collecting it and doing
all the heavy lifting for them.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Well, that's cool and I think for some of our
listeners is.
You know, there are funds thatyou can buy that do similar
things, that purchase distresseddebts.
Now this can be a higher riskinvestment.
So neither Scott nor I isendorsing this or making any
promises or obligations orthrowing in every single
disclosure that you can think of.
(09:37):
You know that this is purelyfor educational purposes.
Exactly, and here's the biggest.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Don't just go invest in something because you heard
something on a podcast.
I can't tell you how importantthat is.
No matter what you're investingin, you got to learn about that
type of niche, whether it'scrypto, mfts baby, let's learn
some MFTs fix and flip andrentals or, in my world, note
investing, whether it'sperforming or non-performing
(10:03):
Non-performing is what I buymost of the time.
That's where somebody hasn'tpaid their mortgage in a period
of time and we get a biggerdiscount for that.
But then we have to either gothrough the route of foreclosing
or really doing some heavylifting and working out with a
homeowner to get them back ontrack on a payment plan.
But that's why we always startteaching classes and doing so
much online with our YouTubechannel and podcast.
(10:24):
Because it is a niche.
People don't know about it.
Many folks in our age may havewatched Field of Dreams with
Kevin Costner and James EarlJones, and that's actually a
movie about the note being solda note story.
You know what?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I mean, oh, that's right, I forgot that.
That's the core of it.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You know, the note gets sold from his
brother-in-law at the bank toinvestors who are going to wipe,
wipe, wipe him out, you know,plow under the cornfields and um
, he's, you know, trying to savethe family farm.
I mean, there's a bunch ofstories.
Uh, the big shorts withchristian bale, you know, is it
another great movie that I loveis kind of more of an example of
what I do looking atspreadsheets a lot of times and
then doing our due diligence toidentify deals from the duds and
(11:09):
and finding good deals, notonly for my stuff but also for
our investors and our studentsyeah, that's awesome and those
are two great movies.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know the field of dreams I always think of.
Was it shoeless joe jacksoncoming out of the cornfield?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
that's correct, baby, that's correct so great movie
um you know, rip james earljones, who just passed away here
recently.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You know, but, the voice of darth vader yeah.
So now here's the flip side,and I think this might be
helpful to a lot of listeners.
So, for the people who arestruggling in debt and trying to
work through this, do you haveany tips for them on what they
can do?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yes, and I'm so glad you asked that because, no
matter what the talking headssay, how great America is doing
and the economy is doing yeah,the stock market is doing great,
but a lot of Americans arestruggling to get behind.
We are seeing an increase inpeople defaulting on their
mortgages defaulting on carpayments, student loan debt,
credit card Default rates ofthat stuff are all up across the
(12:10):
board.
First-time homebuyers on VAloans or FHA loans is one of the
highest default rates.
And here's the thing Before youever buy a house, if you're
buying a brand new house, lookat what your tax rate is going
to be.
A lot of people default ontheir mortgage after the first
year.
They're buying a new homebecause the tax basis is just on
the lot, not on theimprovements in the land.
So in states like Texas,wisconsin, florida that have
(12:33):
high property taxes, that cankill you once your property is
reappraised and now it has a newtax rate and you're not
expecting your payment to go upby $300, $400 a month or more in
some cases, if you are behindbecause you've been laid off
your hours have been reduced.
You're going through the big Dand don't mean Dallas.
(12:55):
The best thing you can do isreach out to your lender and
tell them what's going on.
Many of these lenders haveprograms especially since we saw
it happen in COVID wherethey're allowing you to do a
forbearance agreement, maybeskip a couple months of payments
that doesn't initially hurtyour credit score to give you
some opportunity to get back ontrack, because the last thing
(13:16):
they want to do actually thelast thing the bank really wants
to do is actually take yourproperty back.
Okay, but communicate with yourlender, tell them what's going
on.
We talk with our borrowers alot of times our servicer does
and there are things that we arewilling to do.
We're willing to give them a90-day forbearance agreement to
allow them to get back on track.
We're allowing them to maybesplit up their payments to twice
(13:39):
a month versus once a month.
It's changing.
There's a lot of things you cando to get back on track.
A lot of states out there ifyou're struggling, look for any
type of rental assistanceprograms.
A lot of times they haveprograms to help you pay your
mortgage.
There are different communityorganizations that will also
kind of step in and help pay,depending on what state you're
(14:00):
in.
I don't know them all off thetop of my head, but check with
your local state and talk withthem.
I mean, there's modificationcompanies, there's organizations
will sometimes pay up to sixmonths of your mortgage payment
to keep in your house, or more,depending on what's going on and
you know of course you've gotto qualify for that stuff.
But communicate with yourlender, talk with them, let them
(14:21):
know what's going on.
The worst thing you can do ishide your head in the sand and
not call them and then they'regoing to be forced to start the
foreclosure process.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, I think that's so important For people not to
spare is that you may have a lotof options, but you know it's
always the worst option withanything is hiding your head in
the sand, you know.
So getting started figuring outthe options, like you said I
mean, you listed five or sixdifferent options that might
(14:51):
apply for people, you know.
So that's that's saying don'tnot deal with it, we've got a
deal right now.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
That's the worst thing you can do with your money
.
Yeah, we've got a lady rightnow on a deal it's not my deal,
it's one of my students' dealsand this lady lives in Round
Rock.
She's lived in this house foryears.
The house is worth about$400,000, okay, conservatively
okay.
She owes about $75,000, buthasn't paid in two years.
(15:21):
She just doesn't have the moneyto pay.
And my buddy, cal, who boughtthe note at a big discount he's
willing to work with her.
He's like how can I help you Ifshe just pays off the mortgage?
It's going to be a good day forhim, but she doesn't have the
money to do that.
She can't go qualify for atraditional new mortgage.
What she could qualify, becauseshe's old enough.
She could go get a reversemortgage and pull some of this
equity out of the deal and nothave to pay a mortgage payment
(15:45):
and not have to pay anything.
Her heirs would be required topay off the loan, but she could
qualify for that.
It's not based on credit score.
So Cal's trying to work withher to get her to go through
that route, but she's notwanting to do it.
And so I'm like well, you couldalways just give her some cash
cash for keys, give her some ofher equity so that she can move
on and not have to be dealt withas burdened.
(16:06):
So that's what they're tryingto work with right now.
I was once a distressed borrower.
I once was facing foreclosureyears ago with my first house,
back in 2001.
So I have a lot of empathy forpeople that are struggling to
get by and can't make theirmortgage payment.
We were able to, by the skin ofmy teeth, be able to modify and
keep my primary residence andgo from there, and so I
(16:28):
understand when people arestruggling to get by.
Things are a lot more expensivethese days and the holidays
make it even worse.
All right, so just don't hide.
Here's the best thing.
Talk to somebody.
Pick.
So just don't hide, here's thebest thing.
Talk to somebody.
If you know a mortgage broker,know a real estate agent, pick
up the phone and call them.
The worst thing we want to doas real estate professionals is
find out that one of our friendsis losing their house, when
(16:49):
they could have picked up thephone and called us and we could
have helped advise them to stayin their house, keep their
mortgage or, if they have a tonof equity, be able to get out of
that house without aforeclosure and still putting
some cash in their pocket.
Because if it goes toforeclosure that's a crapshoot.
You never know what's going tohappen.
A foreclosure auction, and onceyou go that far, the bank's not
(17:09):
really willing to work with youbecause you haven't been, you
haven't had engaged incorrespondence and communicating
and telling them what's goingon that's awesome advice and to
give people a little bit ofcontext too, I would add.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
This is why it's important to look at the
different areas of yourfinancial plan, because you
might have some other areas thatyou might be able to change
that could impact your abilityto pay your mortgage.
So it's not only you know we'retalking about focusing right
here on paying off your mortgage, but you know this is your
overall debt strategy, yoursavings strategy.
(17:42):
You may have some other assetsyou can tap into that Maybe it
makes sense Like normally youdon't want to borrow from your
401k plan, but maybe in thiskind of instance it does make
sense so you protect your creditrating, you don't get in
trouble and lose your house isthat you need to take a look at
all areas of your financial lifeand start to understand how
(18:02):
they work together.
So, scott, the next section iswe're going to run into what I
call the get ready questions.
These are quick fire questionsI ask all my guests.
The first one is what basicmoney concept do you wish people
knew?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Oh my gosh, do we have all day Only?
I think we have 14 hours left.
Okay, so 14 hours?
I can't get an answer to one.
So the most basic moneyprinciple is something I learned
as a 24-year-old kid, and it'sthe rule of 72, the rule of
compound interest that if youtake the interest rate that
(18:38):
you're getting on an investmentand divide that into 72, the
number that it gives you willtell you how long it takes that
investment to double.
So if you're getting 6% on acertificate of disappointment, a
401k or something like that,six divided into 72 goes 12
times.
So it will take 12 years forthat $10,000 CD, making 6% to
(19:00):
double to 20,000.
And so that's one of the mostimportant values, I think is
learning that number and thepower of compound interest.
Now it also works against you.
All right, if you've got acredit card at 24%, like many of
them are right now, that meansthat your balance on your credit
card is doubling every threeyears if you're not paying it
off.
So understand that concept.
(19:20):
It was one of the mosteye-opening things out there.
And then, of course, plan Bwould be to pay yourself first.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I love it.
So, for people who are watchingand listening to this podcast
as I say every time, because Iwould say probably at least 75%
of my guests mentioned the powerof compounding interest I hope
that you understand that this iswhy they continue to mention it
, because this is one of themost fundamental things that can
help you, but I'm also gladbecause not many guests talk
(19:53):
about how it can also workagainst you with your debt.
So, again, that's why you takea look at everything and see how
it all works.
So appreciate you mentioningthat.
So, scott, what is one simplething people can do each year to
set themselves up for financialsuccess?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Oh, that's very simple Just start putting money
away.
A lot of us I literally hadthis conversation with a guy
yesterday on a podcast Peopleoften think about how they need
to have like $4 million savedand that seems like the
impossible dream.
I think 66% of Americans aregiving up on the idea of
retirement because they say Idon't have, I got 50 grand, I
(20:32):
don't have $4 million.
Well, if you look back atlittle simple decisions each day
and if you get in the habit of,like I said, paying yourself
first, putting money away eachmonth $100 a month or $100 a
week or something like that giveit time and it will compound,
as we talked about, it will growfaster than expected dreams.
(20:54):
But there are ways to make 6%,10%, 12% that don't have to be
in banking issues that can helpyou grow your nest egg and help
you compound.
The idea is and one of the greatthings that Tony's doing with
this podcast is providing awhole variety of different
knowledge and information onthose different things to help
you grow.
But plan failing to plan isplanning to fail first and
(21:17):
foremost.
So sit down with a professionalif you don't have a game plan.
Failing to plan is planning tofail first and foremost.
So sit down with a professional.
If you don't have a game plan,get with somebody.
Even if you're just startingoff, it's never too late, and
it's only going to get worse ifyou delay and keep kicking the
can down the road.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, I love it.
And that gets back to what youwere talking about earlier with
debt, and for everybody watchingand listening.
If you're not aware, you can goto my website, join the Get
Ready Money Club.
You'll receive a weekly actionitem that covers, over the
course of the year, your entirefinancial life, so you can start
to see what's going on withdifferent parts of your
financial life.
So appreciate that advice.
So the next question is what isone habit that people can
(21:56):
change when it comes to theirmoney?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Well, I will tell you this.
Some people will probably talkabout money, but I would say
it's probably health.
All right, and I only say thatbecause of I've dealt with some
health issues in the past andthat I've worked hard to get
beyond that.
I'm being diagnosed withdiabetes and working to reverse
that, Like I have in the last 24months.
Um, we were only given onevessel and you got to take care
(22:20):
of that vessel of your spiritand that's your health.
We're not talking going to thegym and being buff like Arnold
Schwarzenegger or the two guysfrom Saturday Night Live.
We're talking about makingconscious efforts to take care
(22:40):
of yourself.
Go for a walk, get outside frombehind any screen, give that a
little bit.
Like I just got back fromwalking about actually 6.2 miles
this morning.
It's one of the things I doevery morning is I get up and
walk for an hour or two that'sone of the best things and then
just adjusting what you eatbecause your body won't.
If you want to be lived for 85to a hundred, you got to take
care of that vessel and ifyou're putting bad things in,
(23:01):
you're going to get bad thingsout and you're just going to cut
your life especially shorter.
You're going to have more costsand then, when it comes to
insurance and more health issuesand that's the best thing I can
do Be preventative for yourfuture self.
Your future self will thank youfor taking that walk today.
They're not going to care abouthow many videos on TikTok that
you liked.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Exactly.
Well and there's a lot of talkI don't know if you've heard it
about a wealth span, so you knowmany people are concerned about
how long their wealth is goingto continue, but a lot of times
their health runs a lot shorterbecause they haven't taken care
of it and they don't enjoy thoselast few years of their life
where they've saved all thismoney, but then they can't do
(23:40):
anything to enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah, nobody likes I mean working 40 years to then
retire and not be able to enjoyit, not be able to go out and
travel and walk or spend timewith your loved ones.
That's more sad than anythingelse.
You can't take your money withyou, but getting out and making
memories is one of the thingsthat my dad really drove into my
head, and his last couple yearswere difficult because he was
basically been diabetic for 20years congestive heart failure
(24:04):
and he always talked aboutmaking memories.
But his last two years werevery miserable because he just
wasn't healthy, you know,couldn't, couldn't get out and
do things and it it reallydrained the energy out of him
and the joy out of life in a lotof cases.
So I think that's one thingthat drives me the most is not
to end up like that.
You know my dad was my hero.
Bless his soul.
Rest in peace.
I just want to be a healthierman when I turn 50, 60s and 70s.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, well, that's awesome, that's great advice.
So what money myth are youtrying to break?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Ooh, the money myth.
This is the big thing here.
This is something I've beenpreaching for about 20 years.
I like to say is let's talkabout banking.
Let's just talk about bankingand what banking does and change
the myth up for that.
So you go, put money in a bankand a bank has and I say this
because I was brainwashedworking for a bank a bank will
tell you that, oh, 1% to 4% issafe, 4% to 8% is safe, 48%
(25:02):
return is kind of moderate, andthen anything 12% or greater is
risky.
Yeah, in some cases.
But if you do some research,what the bank is wanting you to
do is put money into yoursavings or certificate of
disappointment account andthey're going to pay you 1%,
maybe 2% or 3%.
If you put $100,000 in for 10years.
They're going to take thatmoney and go out.
They're glad to give you 1%because they're going to go out
and make 6% to 7% on mortgageinterest rates, 10% on auto
(25:27):
loans, 24% to 29% on credit carddebt, and they're glad to give
you that 1% and they're makingat least five times that or 32
times that in profits.
That's why banks are thebiggest.
Look at something.
You are not solely resilient onthe banks to go do some things.
I mean, that's part of what Ilove about real estate investing
(25:47):
.
Of course you need to pick aniche.
There's private lending thatyou can do.
There's a whole lot of thingsyou can do to make an above
average return, and that was thebiggest thing.
That was my eyes where I openedyears ago.
I have to read Rich Dad, poorDad and a few other things.
Don't just invest in bankBecause, look, we all want to
(26:07):
say, but here's the only thingJesus saves.
Everybody else has to invest.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
What is Jesus investing in?
I think that's the bigger.
Sorry for anybody listening.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I'm not trying to insult anybody, no, no, no,
we're not, it's a joke, I mean,that's what it comes down to.
You have to be responsible forwhere you're at.
You have to take responsibilityfor your actions or lack of
inactions and just look tochange the course.
That's the great thing about usliving in the United States.
No matter what your politicalauthority is and if you're happy
(26:42):
or sad based on the election,it doesn't matter.
What happens at DC is probablynot going to affect you that
much.
You have the most control overwhat you're doing day in, day
out, and that means whether it'sputting five bucks away or 500
bucks away towards your futurelife and other things.
You are solely in control ofyour spaceship called life.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I love that.
You know you're in charge ofyour life and you're in charge
of your money.
So Scott let's get out the timemachine for a minute.
What advice would you give youryounger self if you could go
back in time, knowing what youknow now about money?
Oh, start early.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Start early, you know , and save more.
That would be the biggest thing.
I mean I hustled.
I've worked since I was like 12, 13.
I grew up in the local hardwarestore my parents own and I
would work on the weekends forpeople mowing lawns, clearing
brush, head buddies.
That worked for me.
And as kids we get kind of idea,you know.
We get the idea about oh, I'mgonna go buy the new pair of
(27:44):
Jordan sneakers or I'm gonna gobuy the new radio or the new CD
or the tapes decks, you know,back in those days and that's
great.
I wish somebody would sit downand taught me more about hey,
you could invest.
You can start putting moneyaway into an ESA for your
college education 529 plan, oryou can start putting money into
a Roth IRA because you'remaking more.
(28:05):
I think those things are someof the most critical things that
you can teach our youngergeneration and none of it's
taught in high school.
It needs to be taught beforethat, because kids often learn
money habits from their parents,who are often, unfortunately,
some of the most financiallyuneducated people out there.
Not bashing them, it's just ahereditary disease that we can
(28:29):
cure by teaching the propertools and how to make money last
and how to invest properly.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And I'm going to give a quickshout out to a tool from a
friend of mine withgiftingsenseorg.
I'll put the link in here.
And she has a does it makesense?
Score calculator for kids tosee if a buying thing whether to
buy something or not makessense.
(28:58):
So I was trying to write mynote while I was talking and
that didn't work out.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
That's okay, it's good to put that note down for
guys like you and me, so wedon't forget to put it in the
show notes, for sure.
Exactly.
We take notes Maybe that's thenext, next invention of.
We close notes for sure,exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
We take notes.
Scott, what is your number onego-to favorite money resource,
whether it's a podcast, book,newsletter, app or website,
what's, what's the one thing yougo to?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Wow, that's another long list If we're talking just
basic kind of knowledge advice.
Your podcast is phenomenal.
I also love you're welcome, Ialso love the Stacking Benjamins
podcast.
Josal Sihai is a buddy of mine.
We've had him on the show, hehad me on his Stacking Deeds
(29:53):
podcast when it was around, andthey've pivoted to a new
direction that way.
Fincon is a conference that Ilove going to once a year.
It's where money and marketingmeet, and I'm surrounded by you
know, 2,000 other money nerds indifferent niches and I could
learn something from them.
And that's been probably one ofthe most valuable things in the
last three or four years isgoing to FinCon and getting a
(30:16):
chance to network and meetamazing individuals like
yourself and others out thereand learn what they're doing in
their niches, and when I need anexpert on a field that I'm not
an expert in, I'm able to reachout to them and truly get
counsel.
One bit of advice I would tellfolks out there if you're
looking for advice or counsel onsomething, don't go to your
family.
All right, opinions are likeassholes Everybody has one, and
(30:42):
if your family member is notdoing the things you're trying
to do or trying to accomplish,they're not the right person to
go to.
You want to go see somebodywho's in the position that you
want to be, or is an expert inthat, and actually get their
counsel not their advice Muchmore valuable than just asking
your cousin Bubba, who you owe500 bucks to, about buying a
term policy or investing in realestate, or whatever it might be
(31:03):
.
Go talk to the experts, it'llbe well worth your time.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I love that because I think people overlook that is.
You know you have to considerthe source of whoever's giving
the advice is.
Are they qualified to give theadvice?
It's just like, would you takemedical advice from your cousin?
Probably not, you know.
You'd go and find somebody whoknows what the heck they're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, cousin Bubba, if he can't fix it with Miller
Lite, windex and some duct tape,find somebody who knows what
the heck they're talking about.
Cousin Bubba, if he can't fixit with Miller Lite, windex and
some duct tape, he ain't goinghe ain't dealing with it.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I used to do outdoor sports and that was the thing.
Duct tape was always our numberone go-to Use duct tape for
everything, but it's not alwaysthe best solution.
It's not always the bestsolution.
So, to close out, what is yournumber one tip on changing the
way we think about money?
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Number one tip about how to do it is first get
educated.
Read, listen to podcasts, watchYouTube videos.
It can be overwhelming, let'sjust put it that way Very
overwhelming, especially ifyou're behind the eight ball and
getting started a little bitlater in life or like are just
awakened to new financialconcepts.
That's what I love about youryear long and your newsletter,
(32:21):
tony, with you doing focus onone thing each way each month,
and then the emails that goalong with it emails that go
along with it.
Life is like an onion.
There's different layers to itand you're going to hit
different layers depending onwhere you're at, where you live
and what you do for a living.
The best thing I can tell youis just get educated.
Read books, read, podcasts.
(32:42):
Just start going out there.
We have so many opportunitiesto learn and change the
direction you're in here in theUnited States and others, so go
do it.
If you're not happy with whereyou're at, guess what?
Go change it.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
That's great advice.
So, scott, where can peoplefind out more about you?
Where can they tune into thenote?
Closer show.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah, our podcast is on any any of the podcasting
platforms out there.
But you can go toweclosednotescom is our main
website.
That'll give you access to ourpodcasts, our educational stuff.
If you'd like to learn moreabout note investing, we have a
free class that we give away tofolks.
It's kind of a teaser, kind ofthe Cliff Notes version of our
three-day longer class.
(33:24):
If you go to noteweekendcomthat's noteweekendcom you can
sign up for the free class,catch the replays.
The last one we taught usuallyninety nine bucks but we were
given away for free for you, nocredit card required.
Three and a half hour class.
That's a great way to startfeeling if notes are right for
you.
Of course, if you have anyquestions about investing or
real estate stuff like that, I'malways available by going to
(33:46):
talk with Scott Carson dot com.
Book a call with me.
I'm always glad to help answerany questions I might have or
point you in the right directionif I don't know the answer.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
That's awesome and for everybody watching and
listening.
As always, there will be linksto all these resources in the
show notes so you can connectwith Scott, you can tune into
the no Closes show, check outthe free course.
So, scott, thanks again forjoining us today on the Get
Ready Money podcast.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Tony.
It has been an honor, as always.
Buddy, Looking forward tocontinuing the conversation
later date.
And for those of you guyslistening out there, we as
podcasters, we love you to doone thing Go over Spotify, Apple
Podcasts, wherever you'relistening and leave a five-star
review for Tony.
We love to see those things.
It tells us we're doing a greatjob and leave a note, leave a
(34:31):
comment.
If you're not gonna leave afive-star review bug off, go do
something else, but five-starreview and leave a comment.
That'll be great for us to seewhat you like.
And, like I said, Tony'skicking ass and taking names of
this podcast and we'd love tohear feedback.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
That's awesome and I appreciate the warm words, scott
, and appreciate your time and,yeah, you know, if you can leave
a positive review, it reallydoes matter and helps us out and
allows us to continue providingthis great content, and so
thank you, as always, for tuninginto this episode of the Get
Ready Money podcast.
(35:05):
If you learned something today,as Scott mentioned, please
leave a review, tell a friend,subscribe.
You know the things to do.
Until next time, let's changethe way we think about money.
Thank you.
Are you looking to get ready, be prepared and
transform your financial future?
Then you've come to the rightplace.
This is the Get Ready MoneyPodcast with Tony Stewart, where
Tony has insightfulconversations with financial
experts who are changing the waywe think about money.
Catch up on the latestfinancial trends and hear
(00:27):
practical advice from Tony andhis expert guests so you can
build healthy habits that work,Be empowered with tips for
implementing small changes thatcan have a big impact on your
financial future.
So sit back and get ready tohear from today's guest.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Welcome to the Get Ready Money podcast changing the
way we think about money.
I'm pleased to be joined todayby Scott Carson.
Scott is the president of weClose Notes and host of the no
Closer Show podcast.
In this episode, we'll bediscussing Scott's insights on
how we change the way we thinkabout money and real estate
investing.
(01:08):
Scott, welcome to the Get ReadyMoney podcast.
Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Tony, honored to be here, as always.
Thank you for having me bud.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, now looking forward to this.
So you know, to start out, tellus a little bit about yourself.
What is your origin story?
Speaker 3 (01:24):
My origin story, you know.
I fell into a vat of toxicwaste a few years ago, got bit
by spiders.
No, no, no, I call Austin,texas, home.
I'm known across the country asthe note guy, which is a little
bit different.
I'm basically in a mortgagespace, but on a different side
of it.
Instead of originating, I'm onthe de-origination side of
(01:44):
things.
But I've been an active realestate investor for 20 years
previous financial advisor,previous banker for JPMorgan,
chase Bank, one and Citibank andfor the last almost 20 years
I've focused on the niche ofbuying distressed mortgage notes
direct from banks and hedgefunds.
And that's kind of my originstory is.
(02:05):
We buy this distressed debtfrom banks at big discounts and
then we work to try to modifythe borrowers who are falling
behind on payments in one formor fashion to keep them in their
houses, and if they can't cometo the table, we can't have a
soft landing for them to startpaying their mortgage on time.
So we try to work a way to getthem to walk away from the
property with some grace anddignity without having to go
through the foreclosure process.
And so over the last, like Isaid, almost 20 years, we bought
(02:28):
over a billion dollars indistressed debt and then also
helped thousands of real estateinvestors redefine the way that
they invest in real estate andcash flow by coming to the dark
side of real estate or the sexyside of real estate is called by
becoming a note and debt buyer.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Cool, cool.
Well, let's go a little bitdeeper on that.
What is a note?
Speaker 3 (02:51):
Yeah, so everybody's in the note business already for
the most part.
If you've got a mortgage onyour house, a car payment,
student loan, debt credit card,your cousin Bubba down the
street 500 bucks fromThanksgiving bet on a Cowboys
game, you're in the note space.
You have an IOU.
That's what a note is.
It's a debt receivable.
You know promise to pay an IOU.
(03:12):
And I focus on mortgage notes,where people have mortgages on
their, their property.
You know their homes andvacation homes and then also
commercial properties.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
That's awesome.
Well, that's really helpful,because I think people hear
these terms and they're likeokay, I feel like I should know
that.
Now, if you have somebody likeyour cousin Bubba he bet $500
with on the Cowboys game andBubba decides not to pay you
back because he's just that kindof friend, Is that a
non-performing note?
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's a non-performing.
That's a non-performing note.
You could sell that debt toyour buddy, guido, at 50 cents
on the dollar and get 250, andGuido can go collect on the 500.
You know what I?
Speaker 2 (03:57):
mean, yeah Well, that's what you get for betting
on the Cowboys, right?
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Yeah, exactly, they actually decided to win a game
for once this year.
But you know right, yeah,exactly, they actually decided
to win a game for once this year.
But it's a little bit differentthing.
If you've owned a house and hada mortgage on your house before
, you've probably gotten aletter from your existing lender
at some point that your loanwas sold from Chase Bank to ABC
Bank or from ABC Bank toCitizens Bank or something like
(04:21):
that.
It happens all the time.
What most people don't realizeis that individual investors
like me can actually buy thatdebt as well.
Um, you don't need to have fiveor ten million dollars or more
to buy from uh banks.
We buy a lot of smaller stuff,a lot of individual notes.
I was just doing a video.
Uh, a second.
(04:41):
We're buying a note in daytonohio.
The borrower owes 40 grand,hasn't paid in three years.
And we're buying a note inDayton Ohio.
The borrower owes 40 grand,hasn't paid in three years, and
we're buying that note for 25 ona $140,000 house.
Our goal is to get the borrowerback on track.
If they start paying on timeagain on a monthly basis, that's
about a 20% cash and cashreturn to us, which is pretty
good.
If they don't pay, I'm thelender.
(05:05):
I have the same rights as thebank did.
That made that loan toforeclose.
If they don't play ball Now,they only owe 40.
So if I foreclose, I'll sell itat the auction and I'll make
about a $15,000 profit on my$25,000 investment, which is not
bad.
But if it doesn't sell atauction now, I will own that
(05:26):
real estate and own thatproperty, which is about
$130,000, $140,000 house that Ipicked up for $25,000.
Our goal, though, is not toreally own the house.
I don't want to be a propertyowner.
I would actually prefer to keeppeople in their houses and get
the cash flow without dealingwith toilets, tents and trash
outs.
I could obviously turn thisinto a rental if I want, but I
(05:46):
don't like to do that.
I like being in the note spaceand being on the banking side of
real estate.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So what does WeClose Notes do then?
Do you consolidate the debt forinvestors that they can buy in
a pool?
Are they buying individualnotes?
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, great question.
When we started doing thisstuff back in 2008, we started
getting lists of notes sent tous from big institutions and
people didn't know, understandwhat was the note was right.
They're like well, is that aproperty?
I'm like no, you have to, youcan't.
You're not buying the property,you're buying the debt.
To take the property back, youhave to finish the foreclosure
process.
So we started teaching thisniche of note investing.
(06:23):
That's what we Close Notes is.
It's kind of our education armthat our podcasts and our
webinars and our classes fallunder, but we've been teaching
investors how to actually buydebt and who to talk to.
Now, you're not going to buyfrom Bank of America, chase or
Citi.
If you're listening to thispodcast, you're behind on your
mortgage.
Don't call me up and say, scott, I want you to buy my mortgage.
Okay, we get plenty of those,but we're tapped into thousands
(06:51):
of different banks andinstitutions that do have debt
that they'll give us these liststhat we can cherry pick, and so
we teach investors how toeither go out and identify
opportunities on these lists or,if they don't want to do the
work themselves, they can do itpassively by investing with us
and we'll give them a decentreturn on their money for 12 to
36 months while we work throughthe asset.
Get the bar back on track andthen either A foreclose or sell
(07:14):
that now-reperforming note backto Wall Street.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Okay, so I think the big question that comes to mind,
for me and probably for some ofthe listeners, is are you a
debt collector then, or is thatpart of the role Do you
outsource to a debt collector?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, I'm basically a debt collector, I'm basically a
lender and there are debtcollector licenses that you need
to have in specific states.
Specific states the kind of getout of jail card is that if you
are buying notes and have yournotes with a licensed servicing
company who is licensed tocollect debt in that specific
state where the loan is, that'llsolve your licensing
(07:54):
requirements about 75% of thetime.
So we buy in a lot of thosestates that we don't have to go
get a separate license Stateslike Illinois, massachusetts,
north Carolina.
They want you to have aseparate you know license, debt
collector's license on top ofthe servicing license, and
that's okay, cost you a couplehundred bucks.
But for the most part when webuy a non-performing note, we're
(08:16):
going to board it with aservicer who's licensed in that
state and pay them anywhere fromlike 25 bucks for performing it
all the way to like 90, 95 forthem to handle the collections,
the borrower outreach, thecollecting of payments, the
sending out of statements tomaking sure that they're
Dodd-Frank compliant and thatthey're kind of our buffer in
communicating with a borrower.
(08:37):
So they're talking with aborrower, collecting information
.
We're going to obviously letthe service know which way we
want the which way we want thestory to go.
We'd like them to do a, b or cbefore we could get to get to d.
So that's.
The great thing is that we have, you know, vendors all across
the country that are working onour behalf to control.
So it's kind of almost apassive investment for a lot of
(08:59):
folks that want to get into realestate but don't want all the
hassles of rehabbing or dealingwith tenants.
They can have a, you know, byperforming paper that's just
paying them on a monthly orquarterly basis directly and
have a third party servicerwho's collecting it and doing
all the heavy lifting for them.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Well, that's cool and I think for some of our
listeners is.
You know, there are funds thatyou can buy that do similar
things, that purchase distresseddebts.
Now this can be a higher riskinvestment.
So neither Scott nor I isendorsing this or making any
promises or obligations orthrowing in every single
disclosure that you can think of.
(09:37):
You know that this is purelyfor educational purposes.
Exactly, and here's the biggest.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Don't just go invest in something because you heard
something on a podcast.
I can't tell you how importantthat is.
No matter what you're investingin, you got to learn about that
type of niche, whether it'scrypto, mfts baby, let's learn
some MFTs fix and flip andrentals or, in my world, note
investing, whether it'sperforming or non-performing
(10:03):
Non-performing is what I buymost of the time.
That's where somebody hasn'tpaid their mortgage in a period
of time and we get a biggerdiscount for that.
But then we have to either gothrough the route of foreclosing
or really doing some heavylifting and working out with a
homeowner to get them back ontrack on a payment plan.
But that's why we always startteaching classes and doing so
much online with our YouTubechannel and podcast.
(10:24):
Because it is a niche.
People don't know about it.
Many folks in our age may havewatched Field of Dreams with
Kevin Costner and James EarlJones, and that's actually a
movie about the note being solda note story.
You know what?
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I mean, oh, that's right, I forgot that.
That's the core of it.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
You know, the note gets sold from his
brother-in-law at the bank toinvestors who are going to wipe,
wipe, wipe him out, you know,plow under the cornfields and um
, he's, you know, trying to savethe family farm.
I mean, there's a bunch ofstories.
Uh, the big shorts withchristian bale, you know, is it
another great movie that I loveis kind of more of an example of
what I do looking atspreadsheets a lot of times and
then doing our due diligence toidentify deals from the duds and
(11:09):
and finding good deals, notonly for my stuff but also for
our investors and our studentsyeah, that's awesome and those
are two great movies.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
You know the field of dreams I always think of.
Was it shoeless joe jacksoncoming out of the cornfield?
Speaker 3 (11:22):
that's correct, baby, that's correct so great movie
um you know, rip james earljones, who just passed away here
recently.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
You know, but, the voice of darth vader yeah.
So now here's the flip side,and I think this might be
helpful to a lot of listeners.
So, for the people who arestruggling in debt and trying to
work through this, do you haveany tips for them on what they
can do?
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Yes, and I'm so glad you asked that because, no
matter what the talking headssay, how great America is doing
and the economy is doing yeah,the stock market is doing great,
but a lot of Americans arestruggling to get behind.
We are seeing an increase inpeople defaulting on their
mortgages defaulting on carpayments, student loan debt,
credit card Default rates ofthat stuff are all up across the
(12:10):
board.
First-time homebuyers on VAloans or FHA loans is one of the
highest default rates.
And here's the thing Before youever buy a house, if you're
buying a brand new house, lookat what your tax rate is going
to be.
A lot of people default ontheir mortgage after the first
year.
They're buying a new homebecause the tax basis is just on
the lot, not on theimprovements in the land.
So in states like Texas,wisconsin, florida that have
(12:33):
high property taxes, that cankill you once your property is
reappraised and now it has a newtax rate and you're not
expecting your payment to go upby $300, $400 a month or more in
some cases, if you are behindbecause you've been laid off
your hours have been reduced.
You're going through the big Dand don't mean Dallas.
(12:55):
The best thing you can do isreach out to your lender and
tell them what's going on.
Many of these lenders haveprograms especially since we saw
it happen in COVID wherethey're allowing you to do a
forbearance agreement, maybeskip a couple months of payments
that doesn't initially hurtyour credit score to give you
some opportunity to get back ontrack, because the last thing
(13:16):
they want to do actually thelast thing the bank really wants
to do is actually take yourproperty back.
Okay, but communicate with yourlender, tell them what's going
on.
We talk with our borrowers alot of times our servicer does
and there are things that we arewilling to do.
We're willing to give them a90-day forbearance agreement to
allow them to get back on track.
We're allowing them to maybesplit up their payments to twice
(13:39):
a month versus once a month.
It's changing.
There's a lot of things you cando to get back on track.
A lot of states out there ifyou're struggling, look for any
type of rental assistanceprograms.
A lot of times they haveprograms to help you pay your
mortgage.
There are different communityorganizations that will also
kind of step in and help pay,depending on what state you're
(14:00):
in.
I don't know them all off thetop of my head, but check with
your local state and talk withthem.
I mean, there's modificationcompanies, there's organizations
will sometimes pay up to sixmonths of your mortgage payment
to keep in your house, or more,depending on what's going on and
you know of course you've gotto qualify for that stuff.
But communicate with yourlender, talk with them, let them
(14:21):
know what's going on.
The worst thing you can do ishide your head in the sand and
not call them and then they'regoing to be forced to start the
foreclosure process.
Speaker 2 (14:31):
Yeah, I think that's so important For people not to
spare is that you may have a lotof options, but you know it's
always the worst option withanything is hiding your head in
the sand, you know.
So getting started figuring outthe options, like you said I
mean, you listed five or sixdifferent options that might
(14:51):
apply for people, you know.
So that's that's saying don'tnot deal with it, we've got a
deal right now.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
That's the worst thing you can do with your money
.
Yeah, we've got a lady rightnow on a deal it's not my deal,
it's one of my students' dealsand this lady lives in Round
Rock.
She's lived in this house foryears.
The house is worth about$400,000, okay, conservatively
okay.
She owes about $75,000, buthasn't paid in two years.
(15:21):
She just doesn't have the moneyto pay.
And my buddy, cal, who boughtthe note at a big discount he's
willing to work with her.
He's like how can I help you Ifshe just pays off the mortgage?
It's going to be a good day forhim, but she doesn't have the
money to do that.
She can't go qualify for atraditional new mortgage.
What she could qualify, becauseshe's old enough.
She could go get a reversemortgage and pull some of this
equity out of the deal and nothave to pay a mortgage payment
(15:45):
and not have to pay anything.
Her heirs would be required topay off the loan, but she could
qualify for that.
It's not based on credit score.
So Cal's trying to work withher to get her to go through
that route, but she's notwanting to do it.
And so I'm like well, you couldalways just give her some cash
cash for keys, give her some ofher equity so that she can move
on and not have to be dealt withas burdened.
(16:06):
So that's what they're tryingto work with right now.
I was once a distressed borrower.
I once was facing foreclosureyears ago with my first house,
back in 2001.
So I have a lot of empathy forpeople that are struggling to
get by and can't make theirmortgage payment.
We were able to, by the skin ofmy teeth, be able to modify and
keep my primary residence andgo from there, and so I
(16:28):
understand when people arestruggling to get by.
Things are a lot more expensivethese days and the holidays
make it even worse.
All right, so just don't hide.
Here's the best thing.
Talk to somebody.
Pick.
So just don't hide, here's thebest thing.
Talk to somebody.
If you know a mortgage broker,know a real estate agent, pick
up the phone and call them.
The worst thing we want to doas real estate professionals is
find out that one of our friendsis losing their house, when
(16:49):
they could have picked up thephone and called us and we could
have helped advise them to stayin their house, keep their
mortgage or, if they have a tonof equity, be able to get out of
that house without aforeclosure and still putting
some cash in their pocket.
Because if it goes toforeclosure that's a crapshoot.
You never know what's going tohappen.
A foreclosure auction, and onceyou go that far, the bank's not
(17:09):
really willing to work with youbecause you haven't been, you
haven't had engaged incorrespondence and communicating
and telling them what's goingon that's awesome advice and to
give people a little bit ofcontext too, I would add.
Speaker 2 (17:21):
This is why it's important to look at the
different areas of yourfinancial plan, because you
might have some other areas thatyou might be able to change
that could impact your abilityto pay your mortgage.
So it's not only you know we'retalking about focusing right
here on paying off your mortgage, but you know this is your
overall debt strategy, yoursavings strategy.
(17:42):
You may have some other assetsyou can tap into that Maybe it
makes sense Like normally youdon't want to borrow from your
401k plan, but maybe in thiskind of instance it does make
sense so you protect your creditrating, you don't get in
trouble and lose your house isthat you need to take a look at
all areas of your financial lifeand start to understand how
(18:02):
they work together.
So, scott, the next section iswe're going to run into what I
call the get ready questions.
These are quick fire questionsI ask all my guests.
The first one is what basicmoney concept do you wish people
knew?
Speaker 3 (18:16):
Oh my gosh, do we have all day Only?
I think we have 14 hours left.
Okay, so 14 hours?
I can't get an answer to one.
So the most basic moneyprinciple is something I learned
as a 24-year-old kid, and it'sthe rule of 72, the rule of
compound interest that if youtake the interest rate that
(18:38):
you're getting on an investmentand divide that into 72, the
number that it gives you willtell you how long it takes that
investment to double.
So if you're getting 6% on acertificate of disappointment, a
401k or something like that,six divided into 72 goes 12
times.
So it will take 12 years forthat $10,000 CD, making 6% to
(19:00):
double to 20,000.
And so that's one of the mostimportant values, I think is
learning that number and thepower of compound interest.
Now it also works against you.
All right, if you've got acredit card at 24%, like many of
them are right now, that meansthat your balance on your credit
card is doubling every threeyears if you're not paying it
off.
So understand that concept.
(19:20):
It was one of the mosteye-opening things out there.
And then, of course, plan Bwould be to pay yourself first.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
I love it.
So, for people who are watchingand listening to this podcast
as I say every time, because Iwould say probably at least 75%
of my guests mentioned the powerof compounding interest I hope
that you understand that this iswhy they continue to mention it
, because this is one of themost fundamental things that can
help you, but I'm also gladbecause not many guests talk
(19:53):
about how it can also workagainst you with your debt.
So, again, that's why you takea look at everything and see how
it all works.
So appreciate you mentioningthat.
So, scott, what is one simplething people can do each year to
set themselves up for financialsuccess?
Speaker 3 (20:12):
Oh, that's very simple Just start putting money
away.
A lot of us I literally hadthis conversation with a guy
yesterday on a podcast Peopleoften think about how they need
to have like $4 million savedand that seems like the
impossible dream.
I think 66% of Americans aregiving up on the idea of
retirement because they say Idon't have, I got 50 grand, I
(20:32):
don't have $4 million.
Well, if you look back atlittle simple decisions each day
and if you get in the habit of,like I said, paying yourself
first, putting money away eachmonth $100 a month or $100 a
week or something like that giveit time and it will compound,
as we talked about, it will growfaster than expected dreams.
(20:54):
But there are ways to make 6%,10%, 12% that don't have to be
in banking issues that can helpyou grow your nest egg and help
you compound.
The idea is and one of the greatthings that Tony's doing with
this podcast is providing awhole variety of different
knowledge and information onthose different things to help
you grow.
But plan failing to plan isplanning to fail first and
(21:17):
foremost.
So sit down with a professionalif you don't have a game plan.
Failing to plan is planning tofail first and foremost.
So sit down with a professional.
If you don't have a game plan,get with somebody.
Even if you're just startingoff, it's never too late, and
it's only going to get worse ifyou delay and keep kicking the
can down the road.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, I love it.
And that gets back to what youwere talking about earlier with
debt, and for everybody watchingand listening.
If you're not aware, you can goto my website, join the Get
Ready Money Club.
You'll receive a weekly actionitem that covers, over the
course of the year, your entirefinancial life, so you can start
to see what's going on withdifferent parts of your
financial life.
So appreciate that advice.
So the next question is what isone habit that people can
(21:56):
change when it comes to theirmoney?
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Well, I will tell you this.
Some people will probably talkabout money, but I would say
it's probably health.
All right, and I only say thatbecause of I've dealt with some
health issues in the past andthat I've worked hard to get
beyond that.
I'm being diagnosed withdiabetes and working to reverse
that, Like I have in the last 24months.
Um, we were only given onevessel and you got to take care
(22:20):
of that vessel of your spiritand that's your health.
We're not talking going to thegym and being buff like Arnold
Schwarzenegger or the two guysfrom Saturday Night Live.
We're talking about makingconscious efforts to take care
(22:40):
of yourself.
Go for a walk, get outside frombehind any screen, give that a
little bit.
Like I just got back fromwalking about actually 6.2 miles
this morning.
It's one of the things I doevery morning is I get up and
walk for an hour or two that'sone of the best things and then
just adjusting what you eatbecause your body won't.
If you want to be lived for 85to a hundred, you got to take
care of that vessel and ifyou're putting bad things in,
(23:01):
you're going to get bad thingsout and you're just going to cut
your life especially shorter.
You're going to have more costsand then, when it comes to
insurance and more health issuesand that's the best thing I can
do Be preventative for yourfuture self.
Your future self will thank youfor taking that walk today.
They're not going to care abouthow many videos on TikTok that
you liked.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
Exactly.
Well and there's a lot of talkI don't know if you've heard it
about a wealth span, so you knowmany people are concerned about
how long their wealth is goingto continue, but a lot of times
their health runs a lot shorterbecause they haven't taken care
of it and they don't enjoy thoselast few years of their life
where they've saved all thismoney, but then they can't do
(23:40):
anything to enjoy it.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah, nobody likes I mean working 40 years to then
retire and not be able to enjoyit, not be able to go out and
travel and walk or spend timewith your loved ones.
That's more sad than anythingelse.
You can't take your money withyou, but getting out and making
memories is one of the thingsthat my dad really drove into my
head, and his last couple yearswere difficult because he was
basically been diabetic for 20years congestive heart failure
(24:04):
and he always talked aboutmaking memories.
But his last two years werevery miserable because he just
wasn't healthy, you know,couldn't, couldn't get out and
do things and it it reallydrained the energy out of him
and the joy out of life in a lotof cases.
So I think that's one thingthat drives me the most is not
to end up like that.
You know my dad was my hero.
Bless his soul.
Rest in peace.
I just want to be a healthierman when I turn 50, 60s and 70s.
Speaker 2 (24:29):
Yeah, well, that's awesome, that's great advice.
So what money myth are youtrying to break?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Ooh, the money myth.
This is the big thing here.
This is something I've beenpreaching for about 20 years.
I like to say is let's talkabout banking.
Let's just talk about bankingand what banking does and change
the myth up for that.
So you go, put money in a bankand a bank has and I say this
because I was brainwashedworking for a bank a bank will
tell you that, oh, 1% to 4% issafe, 4% to 8% is safe, 48%
(25:02):
return is kind of moderate, andthen anything 12% or greater is
risky.
Yeah, in some cases.
But if you do some research,what the bank is wanting you to
do is put money into yoursavings or certificate of
disappointment account andthey're going to pay you 1%,
maybe 2% or 3%.
If you put $100,000 in for 10years.
They're going to take thatmoney and go out.
They're glad to give you 1%because they're going to go out
and make 6% to 7% on mortgageinterest rates, 10% on auto
(25:27):
loans, 24% to 29% on credit carddebt, and they're glad to give
you that 1% and they're makingat least five times that or 32
times that in profits.
That's why banks are thebiggest.
Look at something.
You are not solely resilient onthe banks to go do some things.
I mean, that's part of what Ilove about real estate investing
(25:47):
.
Of course you need to pick aniche.
There's private lending thatyou can do.
There's a whole lot of thingsyou can do to make an above
average return, and that was thebiggest thing.
That was my eyes where I openedyears ago.
I have to read Rich Dad, poorDad and a few other things.
Don't just invest in bankBecause, look, we all want to
(26:07):
say, but here's the only thingJesus saves.
Everybody else has to invest.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
What is Jesus investing in?
I think that's the bigger.
Sorry for anybody listening.
Speaker 3 (26:20):
I'm not trying to insult anybody, no, no, no,
we're not, it's a joke, I mean,that's what it comes down to.
You have to be responsible forwhere you're at.
You have to take responsibilityfor your actions or lack of
inactions and just look tochange the course.
That's the great thing about usliving in the United States.
No matter what your politicalauthority is and if you're happy
(26:42):
or sad based on the election,it doesn't matter.
What happens at DC is probablynot going to affect you that
much.
You have the most control overwhat you're doing day in, day
out, and that means whether it'sputting five bucks away or 500
bucks away towards your futurelife and other things.
You are solely in control ofyour spaceship called life.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I love that.
You know you're in charge ofyour life and you're in charge
of your money.
So Scott let's get out the timemachine for a minute.
What advice would you give youryounger self if you could go
back in time, knowing what youknow now about money?
Oh, start early.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Start early, you know , and save more.
That would be the biggest thing.
I mean I hustled.
I've worked since I was like 12, 13.
I grew up in the local hardwarestore my parents own and I
would work on the weekends forpeople mowing lawns, clearing
brush, head buddies.
That worked for me.
And as kids we get kind of idea,you know.
We get the idea about oh, I'mgonna go buy the new pair of
(27:44):
Jordan sneakers or I'm gonna gobuy the new radio or the new CD
or the tapes decks, you know,back in those days and that's
great.
I wish somebody would sit downand taught me more about hey,
you could invest.
You can start putting moneyaway into an ESA for your
college education 529 plan, oryou can start putting money into
a Roth IRA because you'remaking more.
(28:05):
I think those things are someof the most critical things that
you can teach our youngergeneration and none of it's
taught in high school.
It needs to be taught beforethat, because kids often learn
money habits from their parents,who are often, unfortunately,
some of the most financiallyuneducated people out there.
Not bashing them, it's just ahereditary disease that we can
(28:29):
cure by teaching the propertools and how to make money last
and how to invest properly.
Speaker 2 (28:36):
Yeah, that's awesome.
And I'm going to give a quickshout out to a tool from a
friend of mine withgiftingsenseorg.
I'll put the link in here.
And she has a does it makesense?
Score calculator for kids tosee if a buying thing whether to
buy something or not makessense.
(28:58):
So I was trying to write mynote while I was talking and
that didn't work out.
Speaker 3 (29:02):
That's okay, it's good to put that note down for
guys like you and me, so wedon't forget to put it in the
show notes, for sure.
Exactly.
We take notes Maybe that's thenext, next invention of.
We close notes for sure,exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
We take notes.
Scott, what is your number onego-to favorite money resource,
whether it's a podcast, book,newsletter, app or website,
what's, what's the one thing yougo to?
Speaker 3 (29:32):
Wow, that's another long list If we're talking just
basic kind of knowledge advice.
Your podcast is phenomenal.
I also love you're welcome, Ialso love the Stacking Benjamins
podcast.
Josal Sihai is a buddy of mine.
We've had him on the show, hehad me on his Stacking Deeds
(29:53):
podcast when it was around, andthey've pivoted to a new
direction that way.
Fincon is a conference that Ilove going to once a year.
It's where money and marketingmeet, and I'm surrounded by you
know, 2,000 other money nerds indifferent niches and I could
learn something from them.
And that's been probably one ofthe most valuable things in the
last three or four years isgoing to FinCon and getting a
(30:16):
chance to network and meetamazing individuals like
yourself and others out thereand learn what they're doing in
their niches, and when I need anexpert on a field that I'm not
an expert in, I'm able to reachout to them and truly get
counsel.
One bit of advice I would tellfolks out there if you're
looking for advice or counsel onsomething, don't go to your
family.
All right, opinions are likeassholes Everybody has one, and
(30:42):
if your family member is notdoing the things you're trying
to do or trying to accomplish,they're not the right person to
go to.
You want to go see somebodywho's in the position that you
want to be, or is an expert inthat, and actually get their
counsel not their advice Muchmore valuable than just asking
your cousin Bubba, who you owe500 bucks to, about buying a
term policy or investing in realestate, or whatever it might be
(31:03):
.
Go talk to the experts, it'llbe well worth your time.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
I love that because I think people overlook that is.
You know you have to considerthe source of whoever's giving
the advice is.
Are they qualified to give theadvice?
It's just like, would you takemedical advice from your cousin?
Probably not, you know.
You'd go and find somebody whoknows what the heck they're
talking about.
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Yeah, cousin Bubba, if he can't fix it with Miller
Lite, windex and some duct tape,find somebody who knows what
the heck they're talking about.
Cousin Bubba, if he can't fixit with Miller Lite, windex and
some duct tape, he ain't goinghe ain't dealing with it.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
I used to do outdoor sports and that was the thing.
Duct tape was always our numberone go-to Use duct tape for
everything, but it's not alwaysthe best solution.
It's not always the bestsolution.
So, to close out, what is yournumber one tip on changing the
way we think about money?
Speaker 3 (32:00):
Number one tip about how to do it is first get
educated.
Read, listen to podcasts, watchYouTube videos.
It can be overwhelming, let'sjust put it that way Very
overwhelming, especially ifyou're behind the eight ball and
getting started a little bitlater in life or like are just
awakened to new financialconcepts.
That's what I love about youryear long and your newsletter,
(32:21):
tony, with you doing focus onone thing each way each month,
and then the emails that goalong with it emails that go
along with it.
Life is like an onion.
There's different layers to itand you're going to hit
different layers depending onwhere you're at, where you live
and what you do for a living.
The best thing I can tell youis just get educated.
Read books, read, podcasts.
(32:42):
Just start going out there.
We have so many opportunitiesto learn and change the
direction you're in here in theUnited States and others, so go
do it.
If you're not happy with whereyou're at, guess what?
Go change it.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Yeah, that's awesome.
That's great advice.
So, scott, where can peoplefind out more about you?
Where can they tune into thenote?
Closer show.
Speaker 3 (33:04):
Yeah, our podcast is on any any of the podcasting
platforms out there.
But you can go toweclosednotescom is our main
website.
That'll give you access to ourpodcasts, our educational stuff.
If you'd like to learn moreabout note investing, we have a
free class that we give away tofolks.
It's kind of a teaser, kind ofthe Cliff Notes version of our
three-day longer class.
(33:24):
If you go to noteweekendcomthat's noteweekendcom you can
sign up for the free class,catch the replays.
The last one we taught usuallyninety nine bucks but we were
given away for free for you, nocredit card required.
Three and a half hour class.
That's a great way to startfeeling if notes are right for
you.
Of course, if you have anyquestions about investing or
real estate stuff like that, I'malways available by going to
(33:46):
talk with Scott Carson dot com.
Book a call with me.
I'm always glad to help answerany questions I might have or
point you in the right directionif I don't know the answer.
Speaker 2 (33:55):
That's awesome and for everybody watching and
listening.
As always, there will be linksto all these resources in the
show notes so you can connectwith Scott, you can tune into
the no Closes show, check outthe free course.
So, scott, thanks again forjoining us today on the Get
Ready Money podcast.
Speaker 3 (34:11):
Tony.
It has been an honor, as always.
Buddy, Looking forward tocontinuing the conversation
later date.
And for those of you guyslistening out there, we as
podcasters, we love you to doone thing Go over Spotify, Apple
Podcasts, wherever you'relistening and leave a five-star
review for Tony.
We love to see those things.
It tells us we're doing a greatjob and leave a note, leave a
(34:31):
comment.
If you're not gonna leave afive-star review bug off, go do
something else, but five-starreview and leave a comment.
That'll be great for us to seewhat you like.
And, like I said, Tony'skicking ass and taking names of
this podcast and we'd love tohear feedback.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
That's awesome and I appreciate the warm words, scott
, and appreciate your time and,yeah, you know, if you can leave
a positive review, it reallydoes matter and helps us out and
allows us to continue providingthis great content, and so
thank you, as always, for tuninginto this episode of the Get
Ready Money podcast.
(35:05):
If you learned something today,as Scott mentioned, please
leave a review, tell a friend,subscribe.
You know the things to do.
Until next time, let's changethe way we think about money.
Thank you.
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