February 24, 2025 • 61 mins
Embrace the journey from sunshine to Wall Street insights with us as we welcome Emile back on the podcast! Fresh from a family reunion in the Bahamas and now braving New York's winter chill, Emile opens up about the experiences that have shaped his positive outlook on life. In this episode, we promise you'll gain a deeper understanding of financial empowerment through Emile's expert lens as an Assistant Vice President of Global Wealth Management at GoBullion International. He takes us through the fascinating world of precious metals investment and shares actionable tips for overcoming the skepticism often associated with stock market investments.
Do you find the stock market intimidating or perhaps even a bit of a scam? We tackle these misconceptions head-on by contrasting intangible stocks with the very real potential for fraud in the real estate world. By likening investment journeys to long-term relationships, we stress the importance of research and education. With resources as accessible as YouTube and the possibility of starting small with $500, we urge everyone to consider investing in ETFs and index funds as a viable path to a secure retirement. This discussion extends into the cultural and educational barriers within the Black community, emphasizing how financial literacy can break down these walls and lead to true empowerment and wealth building.
Crypto enthusiasts and lifelong learners, this one's for you! Emile draws parallels between his personal entry into finance and iconic films like Wall Street. We explore the allure and risks of cryptocurrency, demystifying its decentralized nature while acknowledging its potential pitfalls. The episode crescendos with a powerful call to embrace learning with intent, illustrated by Emile's own encounters with giants like billionaire Robert Smith. This isn't just about amassing wealth—it's about enriching your mind and investing in knowledge that fuels personal and professional growth. Join us for this enlightening journey and walk away feeling equipped and inspired to take control of your financial future.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome.
Welcome to the your OpinionDoesn't Matter podcast, episode
91, the Zoom edition Finance andZoom.
Well, my name is Lamont.
I'm here with a special guest,emil.
How are you doing, brother?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm doing well, Monty .
Thanks for inviting me back.
I really appreciate it.
Brother, Good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yes, nice to see you, man, and you know you've been a
fan favorite.
Some people are like oh, Iliked when your friend was on
the show.
Emil, you was on our previousshow when we had an interesting
topic and that was very, verygood and he was talking about
the culture, the culture like aWest Indian culture, so forth
(00:47):
and so on.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I remember that right .
That was a great podcast.
I really enjoyed that.
That was a couple of months ago.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Right, right, right, yeah.
And so, yeah, how you been, howyou been, I've been well.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I've been well, man.
I just got off a vacation, awell-needed vacation, with my
wife and my family.
We had a family reunion firstone we've ever done, and one of
my cousins has been trying to doit for the past four years Got
27 members of my family togetherout of like I don't know 100, I
don't know.
Just came back from tourism,caicos, bahamas, last Friday
(01:22):
from a week and I just had sucha great time.
I'm really, really relaxed andstuff.
I came back to New York to 39degrees from 90, which is a
terrible shock.
I'm good because I'm back heretalking to you.
I'm in good shape.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Nice, nice, nice.
I want to say sorry to hearthat you missed the sun and fun
and you're here with us todayAll right, it's okay.
This new year is starting offkind of shaky for me.
It's like this never-ending ofup in your face, like so much
(02:03):
people passing away.
Yeah, it's overwhelming.
But I was going to do likeusually, like last year, two
people have passed away and Iwas like I'm going to go dark on
it.
I'm going to go dark on the web, like I'm not posting nothing.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
And then.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
But then I said you know what, this year I gotta
just, I'm gonna just be happyand do what I'm regularly doing.
You know, I can't, I can't,just, I can't just let certain
things overwhelm me, even thoughthese things are important.
It may not be directlyaffecting me, but it's affecting
someone else and I care abouthow other people feel as well.
You know what I'm saying, notto say I'm not posting
(02:43):
derogatory.
I want people to be like youknow they'll look at it and be
like oh, if they know that Iknow that person, why would they
?
You know they look.
I mean, I'll be thinking ofcertain things, like why would
he post anything?
And just not chill, you know,when he knows something is going
on.
But you know, you know out theway.
(03:06):
But but yeah, so other thanthat, I'm just pushing, I'm
pushing on and you know, living,I gotta live.
I gotta live my life and behappy and be happy.
We, you know, we were speakingto you before.
Like I kinda I kinda bamboozledyou the first time to come on
the show and the first off Iwanted you to talk about finance
.
And then you just came on andthen you found the next topic
(03:32):
interesting, which was about theculture, and you said, all
right, I'll do that.
And then I said I owe you afinance episode.
I owe you a finance episode andI'm here and I'm happy for the
people to hear some interesting,interesting perspective on the
financial market and thefinancial prices, or soon to be
prices.
That's in now.
(03:53):
So just give me a brief.
Give the people a brief.
Just, you know, tell them aboutyourself and what are you,
what's your specialties?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Sure, thanks, man.
I appreciate you bringing meback.
Excuse me, so my name is EmilVio.
I am a financial servicesprofessional, right.
So I've been working on WallStreet since I was 22,.
23 years old, attended New YorkUniversity, majored in
(04:23):
international business, and I'veworked for numerous financial
services companies, some of thebig ones Bank of America,
merrill Lynch, thompsonFinancial.
Where else?
Smith Barney, what you mightcall the old school Wall Street
(04:45):
Gen Xer, who survived numerouscalamities within the financial
markets for many, many years.
I'm that guy.
Some have gone through it withme and some have left the
industry altogether, especiallyafter 2001,.
September 11th and after OA.
A lot of guys and a lot ofladies just left the game.
(05:06):
I stayed in because I feel asthough this may sound crazy and
macabre, but I feel Wall Streetowes me.
I've been in it, I've servicedit and I'm going to get what I
can out of it.
So, that said, I've worked inseveral different what they call
verticals.
That means just areas of themarket from the capital markets,
which is, like you know,selling products to investment
(05:28):
bankers.
I worked in the hedge fundspace doing product sales to
hedge funds, private equity,venture capital, and now I found
my space and I am the.
I'm currently now the assistantvice president of wealth um, um
of wealth management, globalwealth management, for a company
called GoBullion International.
(05:48):
So I manage um um, a group ofguys within um the United States
and Southeast um, mid Atlantic,um and West coast.
So I I work for a financialtechnology or, let's put it, an
(06:10):
institutional financialtechnology firm that introduces
opportunities to financialadvisors to purchase precious
metals for their wealthiestclients, meaning I reach out to
financial advisors with my teamand we introduce the opportunity
for them to buy gold for theirwealthiest clients in their
(06:33):
portfolios so they can benefitfrom the prices of gold and
silver, platinum and palladiumgoing up.
So that's my job is to actuallyintroduce investments to the
financial advisor who managesportfolios for their clients.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Nice, nice, nice.
So then, OK, so you said thatside of it, right, so
introducing them to you knowpossibilities of gold and all
that stuff like that.
So now, where do you get yourinformation from the other side,
like, okay, there's a deal here, or something like that as far
(07:11):
as to know the gold, because Iknow you're not actually, you're
basically like a broker,basically kind of sort of right.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, that's a very good way of looking at it.
So I'm the intermediary, right,I'm the guy in between, right,
so I manage the relationshipbetween my firm and the
investment firm.
So, for example, Merrill LynchWealth Management is one of the
biggest wealth management firmsin the world.
Right, they have over 14,000financial advisors, private
(07:37):
wealth managers.
These are people who managemoney for very wealthy
accredited investors.
Right, Like you got to havelike a quarter of a million
dollars to start just to open upan account with these guys.
Some places it's a million,right, and depending on the size
of the advisor's book ofbusiness, right, Book of
business is how much his entireportfolio of clients are worth.
(07:58):
Some guys will manage $500million, a billion dollars, or a
team that manages $2 billion.
So that's my job, right, so totalk to that guy right, and
force my way in in a verysophisticated manner by
introducing the opportunity forhis book of business to grow, if
(08:20):
I introduce the rightinvestment for him.
Right, and if it makes sense tohim to introduce that to his
clients.
Gold is extremely expensive.
It's not like a stock, right,Gold is not like a stock or a
bond or anything like that.
Gold is an actual piece ofmetal that you can barter for
(08:40):
money, right, you know, when youwatch those TV shows and those
heist shows, oh we're going tosteal gold bars from that vault
in you know London or Zurich orsome fancy geography, right, and
they take the trucks and youknow it's this whole fancy heist
thing like that movie that cameout many years ago with Mark
(09:03):
Wahlberg and stuff like that,right, the Italian job, right,
yeah, that stuff Like we'reactually selling gold bars,
right, Like this is like insanestuff that the average person
doesn't have access to, right.
So you have to reallyunderstand how that works.
So, yeah, in that sense I'mgiving entree because we have
(09:27):
the relationship already.
So my job is to connect to allthe advisors inside the firm to
make sure they understand who Iam and what I could do for them,
or what me and my team could dofor them.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice.
For some clarity A tad bit.
But you know you did explain alot, but I mean, like this right
here is another level, itreally is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I've never done this before in my life and, honestly,
I'm not a precious metals orgold expert.
I'm not a platinum or palladiumor silver or gold expert.
So in the world of Wall Street,bro, people are under this
impression right, because theydo it on purpose that you have
to have some kind of relativeknowledge base to know this
(10:13):
stuff, like 80% of Wall Street,like they teach you what they
want you to know.
They just have to like youenough to hire you to have you
do it.
Right, right, this is theactual environment.
So don't get it twisted.
You don't have to know thisstuff, like coming out of
college or anything like that.
You just don't.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Right, right, that's a good way of summing it up,
because I know somebody whodidn't have the proper
credentials and in in around thewall street area and they hired
him because they liked him.
They liked him and then theytaught him, and then they taught
(10:57):
him how to do this, even thoughhe had skills in another area,
but it definitely wasn't.
This I'm not.
It's not about the stock oranything like that.
It's not about that selling ortrading.
It was more or less like ITstuff.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I understand.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It's interesting.
It's very, very interesting andI have some questions for you.
Why is investing in the stockmarket considered by so many
people to be a scam?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, there's an old saying, right by so many people
to be a scam.
Well, there's an old saying,right, what you don't know, you
don't know what you don't know,right.
So for a very long time peoplewould normally talk people
normally just by the nature ofwho they are.
(11:43):
Right, average human beings,when they don't know something,
they tend to talk themselves outof it.
Right.
And if you don't know howsomething works and the kind of
return that you can make off aninvestment sounds like they're
too good to be true, then peoplesay, well, then it can't be
true, right.
(12:05):
When in fact, wall Street andinvesting in Wall Street is the
Open secret of exclusivity.
That is a farce, right.
So you tell somebody, forexample.
You tell somebody, for example,I'm going to buy a pair of
(12:30):
Nikes for $200.
You're just buying a pair ofsneakers that the market tells
you is worth $200 because,between marketing, the hype word
on the street, somebody'swearing it, looks cool, it's
flat, looks good, your outfit,it's already sold to you.
You buy that $200, speaker,there's nothing scammy about it.
(12:50):
Why?
Because you can tie it, put iton your foot, walk out with it
under your ankle.
Done A stock.
Where do I buy it?
How come I can't touch it?
Where do I see it?
Who's giving it to me?
What's happening?
How come I can't touch it?
Where do I see it?
Who's giving it to me?
What's happening?
Where's it coming from?
Who builds this thing?
Where am I going to find it?
How do I sell it?
Where do I get my money from,and when?
(13:11):
you begin to tell people howthat works, and if it doesn't
resonate because they can't seeit, they can't touch it.
It's a scam.
The stock costs $10.
You put $100 into it, that's 10shares.
The stock goes to $100.
(13:32):
That's 90 points.
You've made like almost $2,000in the span of a week, probably,
depending on stock moves, yes,and the stock can also go down.
Why, supply and demand?
Right.
But if you can make $2,000 offof $10, off of $100, let's say
within a week, which hashappened 1,000 times over and
(13:55):
you call your broker and say,hey, John, can you liquidate
that stock of Nike for me?
How much do I get?
Oh, you get $1,000.
All right, thanks.
Oh, $2,000.
Or get a thousand bucks?
All right, thank you.
Two thousand or three thousand?
All right, thanks.
Can you send that to my account, please?
Sure, when would I get there?
Twenty four hours?
I've done it, my buddies havedone it.
I've known hundreds of people inmy lifetime and if you have a
(14:18):
friend that you trust and youcan show you how it's done, it
is no longer a scam Becausesomebody has to do it first
before it's not noted as a scamanymore.
That's the issue with societyin a whole.
Everything is a too good.
Everything is I have to see itto believe it or I have to touch
it to believe it.
(14:38):
This is like real estate, right, it's not a scam because you
can touch it.
Right, it's not a scam becauseyou can touch it.
But some of the biggest scamsin our society are real estate
scams.
And you can see the house youjust, we just purchased.
Go touch it, walk through thegate, take the key, walk through
that door, but for all you know, that house is not even yours
(14:58):
because somebody scammed youinto it.
Right?
right, it's all I'm saying, I'mjust giving you two sets of
diametrically opposing theories,but one could be actually 100%
true and the other one is aphysical theory, but it could be
a scam as well.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Right right, right right.
So the lack of knowledge wouldbring people to the ignorance of
saying, oh, this is a scam.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Absolutely 100% 100%.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
So what would you recommend to people to actually
to learn about this?
What steps should they take?
Because I know it's a process,yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, investing is what my call is.
It's a long term play, right.
It's like trying to date awoman.
Right, you see yourselfmarrying her in five years and
(16:09):
from now to 2030.
Right, you're saying toyourself what are the steps do I
have to take in order to marrythat woman?
And you, as a man, know whatyou got to do to marry that
woman, right, that's the sameway with investing.
You have to study it, you haveto research, you have to
understand it.
Right.
You have to um, engage it right.
Do uh, get.
There's a knowledge base tounderstanding what you're
(16:31):
willing to invest.
It right.
And it's the same thing asrelationship, right.
Vice versa, right.
So you first have to do yourresearch and if you happen to
know somebody who's with withinthat then call out, reach him
Interesting I'm learning moreabout X right.
Or if you don't have anyone inyour immediate centers of
(16:53):
influence COIs right.
Or somebody that you know thatknows somebody.
Because it can happen, you takeyour ass to YouTube and you
punch in how to invest in stocksand you're going to have, at
best, two or 3000 people withall kinds of channels, who all
kinds of financial servicesbackgrounds, telling you about
this.
It's literally a retardedmonkey can do this Right.
(17:20):
So he's got to go to YouTubeUniversity.
Right, right, right, right,right right.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So he's got to go to YouTube University, Right, right
, right right, literally,literally, and it takes all of
500 bucks.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Maybe less, but 500 bucks is a very, very, very
decent start to learning how toinvest in stocks.
I don't mean one stock, I'mtalking about a gang of them at
one shot for 500 bucks ETFs,exchange-traded funds, index
funds you can learn what thosethings are.
(17:51):
It's just fancy language.
But once the fancy language istaken away and you learn what
that is, you're like oh, that'swhat that is.
Yeah, they do it on purpose tokeep certain people out.
It's a ploy.
It's a ploy and it's kind ofsad.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
It's kind of sad, it's kind of sad, but it's fancy
language used on purpose tokeep certain people out and then
they see, they hear all ofthese words and they're like, oh
no, oh no, because it's noteveryday language it's not
everyday language.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
The vernacular and the verbiage is so foreign right
that they make themselves notwant to care right.
The stock market is the placewhere most people will always
can retire from and have moremoney in their pockets, if you
start early enough, than youwill in your average pension.
(18:43):
Nice, nice.
The average pension in theUnited States is like $200,000
to $300,000.
The average pension.
Most people who invest in thestock market for 20 years will
come out with a million bucks.
I know it's a broad term to usecome out with a million bucks.
(19:04):
I'm talking about somebodywho's devoutly involved for 20
years and you've had a job for20 years.
You can probably outpace yourown pension with the right
investments in the stock market.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Right, right, especially if you was there when
you was there in the beginningof Facebook or the beginning of
something.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
There you go, there you go.
You just said it, right there.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
You'd have been way up.
You'd have been way up.
You'd have been like pensionwhat I'm retiring early, early,
early, early, early, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Nice, nice, nice, nice.
Thanks for that.
Thanks for your information.
Let me go to question two.
What are some of the easiestinvestments for people to get
into that are not investmentsavvy?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
GARY GENSLER.
Oh, one, stocks.
So I'll explain what a stock isIn the most simplest, most
layman term.
A stock is an investment in acompany, period End of story.
You can go to your refrigeratorand there are stocks all up in
(20:17):
your refrigerator Heinz, ketchup, tropicana, boar's Head, pepsi,
sprite it's endless Frito-Lay.
Go in your cupboard Campbell'sSoup.
Every time you put a dollartowards something in your fridge
(20:37):
or your cupboard, you'reinvesting in a.
That's basically like investingin a stock, right?
It's just an investment in ashare of a stock you go to.
Like I said before about Nike,I don't know how much Nike stock
costs might be like 150 bucks.
If you purchase Nike for oneshare, you own a share of Nike
(20:59):
and if Nike moves two points,you have two points of revenue
going into your portfolio.
It goes from $150 to $152, andthat's $2.
And it gets higher and higherand higher.
So that's all a stock is.
(21:20):
You could have mutual funds,extremely easy to invest in.
All mutual funds are is a poolof stocks in a basket.
So one stock is by itself,right.
A pool of stocks is a mutualfund.
It can have Microsoft, it canhave Time Warner, it can have
(21:45):
Frito Lake, pepsi, it can haveFord Motor Company, right, and
you invest in those mutual fundsand that's a basket of stocks,
right.
Then you have something calledREITs, which are super dumb.
Easy Real Estate InvestmentTrust REITs R-E-I-T-S REITs is
(22:09):
investing in real estate funds.
So if you have $10, likesitting on the side somewhere,
like, let's say, a rainy dayfund or or or some money you
have on the side, you could taketen thousand dollars you can go
to.
You can go to uh, google andput in reits and it'll give you
(22:35):
days worth of investments inREITs.
Reits can be investments indevelopments in a particular
state, right, or an alreadyexisting development that's
doing extremely well.
Let's say, a high rise inManhattan with 150 floors and
(23:00):
it's in middle of Park Avenueand 90% of the buildings already
occupied, right, and all theother condos worth, let's say,
$2 million in them.
That is a REIT and in the REIT,every single month you will
(23:20):
receive dividends from therevenue stream that that
development makes intoperpetuity.
So it could be $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, $100,000.
$20,000, $50,000, $100,000.
But imagine just investing$10,000 and getting back, for
(23:52):
example, I don't know $300 amonth in your bank account for
the next 10 years.
Or it gets reinvested and youcan reinvest that into another
REIT somewhere or something likethat.
Right, those are the number oneeasiest investments Easy.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Those are REITs, real estate investment R-E-I-T-S.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Right Now, some people like the actual physical
you know oh, I want to invest insomething I can see, like real
estate.
Right, I want to buy a threefamily or whatever.
Yeah, you can invest in threefamily developments down south
that's already underway.
Or you can invest in a multicomplex multi development
(24:34):
complex in Atlanta or NorthCarolina, la they're everywhere
and they give you prospectuseshow it's going to do, how many
investors are in it, you can seehow long it's been around and,
if you want, you can go visitthe damn thing.
Right, but it doesn't mean itdoesn't exist.
These things are physicalproperties that exist that you
(25:02):
invest in without having toactually manage it yourself.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
REITs are incredibly, incredibly, incredibly
profitable.
Nice, nice, nice.
I never heard of that, neverheard of REITs.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, and you broke down the mutual funds, right,
that's what you said the mutualyes, mutual funds,
exchange-traded funds, REITsthese are all baskets of
investments you can invest inwithout having thousands and
thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So now for the REITs.
What's the minimum you shouldstart with with a REITs
investment?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Most REITs minimum that you always usually see is
like 5,000.
Then it goes to 10.
It could be 20.
Some of them tell you well,this particular development over
here is a luxury high-rise inManhattan on Madison Avenue, and
it's completely underweight andthe occupancy so far is 70%.
That's telling you that's howmany people are already vested
(26:02):
to already live in it, whichmeans they're going to be paying
that mortgage, which meansyou're going to be getting your
money back in those REITs, right?
So I'm speaking in layman'sterms and I'm being vague as
possible, but that's the conceptof it.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
What's the percent with?
Like?
What was the?
What would be the percent?
Like?
Okay, say, say a person putsdown five, 10,000, and that the
say your firm purchased thatREIT for you.
What would that?
What would?
What would the investment, whatwould that person whose money
it is?
What percent?
What would it be?
Would it be a percent or justwhat would that be called?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
So it's called.
So you're investing in theactual real estate fund, so
you're funding it, right, andyeah, so it's like a bond.
So you're almost like you sayokay, thanks for this money.
So, in conjunction with yougiving us money for this fund,
we're going to give you apayment once a month for X
(27:10):
amount of time, right, so lookto it as a get back, not a
kickback, but like a dividend tosay thank you.
This is every single month.
Right, and I don't know ifthat's how it.
You know because it'sstipulated in the contract, the
REIT contract.
Right, when your dividendswould start coming back to you,
(27:32):
it could be two months, threemonths after the initial
investment, or whatever the casemay be.
Right, and you'll know wherethe building's located, you'll
know who the developer is, youknow who the manager is, you'll
know how many people are goingto be living in it.
It's so transparent it can'tget any more transparent.
Right, reach extremelyprofitable.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Nice, nice, nice, nice.
I'm Tate, I'm listening, I'mlistening, I am definitely
listening.
Man, do, please do.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
This is something this is something that a lot of
african-americans just do notcare to care about, right, and
it's not because they don't care, it's because they don't have
the information being told tothem.
Right, because, because this isnot like REITs are not even a
(28:23):
popular term that's being thrownaround Mutual funds, people
know.
They hear stock, they hearbonds.
Those are the most commoninvestment verbiage, common
investment jargon.
You will hear Mutual funds,stock bonds, right.
You don't hear REITs, right.
You don't hear ETFs Right.
(28:45):
You don't hear that type ofterminology.
So you think it's somefancy-pass, expensive thing.
But it's not.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Right, right, right, right right.
It's very, very interesting andI definitely want to learn more
about it.
And yes, let me go to anotherquestion.
Let me go to another questionwhy do you think so many Black
people don't invest and preferto only maybe do real estate?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
only maybe do real estate.
Well, not to be presumptuousand it's not just us, but
because we're talking about ourpeople, we are risk-averse
people.
Right, we are risk-averse.
We don't like taking chances onsomething that we just don't
(29:38):
see and don't know.
Right, this is not rocketscience, right, and it's the
natural cautionary tale type ofworld that we live in, right in,
(30:03):
with the internet and theconsistent scamming of the
average person on a daily basis,actually by hour by hour.
We trust nothing that we clearlymake no time to understand.
And, yeah, investing takesserious devotion, right, there
are people who are calledlong-term investors, who don't
give a damn what happens in themarket, as long as they know
(30:24):
that, based off just forces,it's always going to go back up.
There is something to that, butif we don't understand how
something works, then we willnever trust it.
Right, understand how somethingworks, then we will never trust
it.
Right, and it's one of thoseand I hate saying it right, but
you know, oh, you know there area lot of ignorant people out
(30:45):
there or unknowledgeable peoplewho will always say, oh, that's,
that's a white man's game.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I was thinking the same thing.
I was thinking the same thing.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Right, yeah, yeah.
And and because he inventedthat, he invented that.
He invented that game.
Wall Street is clearly theAnglo-Saxon white man's creation
, right From days of old, rightFrom the barter system all the
way up till today.
Right, he has created andmanufactured and, just out of
(31:18):
thin air, just creatednonsensical investments that
people just don't understand howit's working.
And how do I give you a dollarand next week I got 10,000.
Right, and it's in my bankaccount.
How did this happen?
Right, and if we don't know howit happened, some people are
(31:39):
like I don't give a damn, it'sbread, but you should understand
, because then you can replicateit and do it somewhere else.
The issue is we're not providedthe intricate level of
information to connect the dots,to see why this is good for us.
Right, like the middle classwas, the Black middle class was
(32:06):
built on the backs of the postoffice, corporate America jobs,
federal state and cityemployment.
Right America jobs, federalstate and city employment.
Most of our parents didn't havecredit cards in the 70s but
(32:27):
they were buying houses becausethey were saving their money.
They gave it to the bank andthey got their house and they
survived only on their pensionand they survive only on their
pension, right, right, and nowit's a whole other kind of model
.
But they don't understand thattheir pensions are managed by
(32:49):
Wall Street people, hedge fundsand investment funds.
Right, and now those bigcompanies are coming into the
federal, city and state world.
And now your pension, yourparents' pensions, it's being
thrown into Wall Street, and nowtheir money is going to be
(33:09):
bigger, hopefully, and largerthan your grandparents.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Because they're leveraging it.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Because they're leveraging it in other places.
So those same places is wherethe Black Americans and
African-Americans in Koreashould be investing in those
kind of places the REITs and themutual funds and the ETFs and
whatever.
But that's again, it's risk,right, you know, you know you're
(33:40):
not at work.
You got to put the money out toget the money back, right,
right, scared money don't makeno money, right.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Right, right, that's you know.
And people rather take a $10loss and play lotto than than a
hundred dollar loss.
It's like people I say it'slike Black people look at that
as a white man's game and theydon't want to take a chance and
they don't believe.
A lot of people are content andthey don't think about
(34:09):
financial freedom.
They don't really.
That's not.
Financial freedom to them isbad, but they're all right, I
bust my butt all week, come home, I take a drink and I'm cooling
out.
I always say like this in school, you are taught a certain way,
(34:30):
right, you are totally.
You are taught a certain way tobecome workers and say like,
say five percent, like, say if,like, say like a parent would
tell a child like look, okay,listen, this is what I'm gonna,
this is what I want you to do.
I want you to think of abusiness, for this is from a
middle school.
I want you to think of abusiness and you're going to
(34:51):
start putting it together tocreate a business, right, and
then now in high school, you'regoing to put it together and put
it together more and more.
And in college now you're goingto have your business.
Right, but then, because 90 to95 percent of the kids that's in
school are trained to becomeworkers and that other 5 percent
could have those same kidsworking for them.
(35:12):
It's a mindset.
It's a mindset, it's a mindset.
I have my brother, my brother,he's a, he's a, he's a
journalist for the Wall Street.
He's a, he's an editor for theWall Street Journal.
Oh, wow, awesome.
And he went to John HopkinsUniversity, right.
And just the other day, liketwo months ago, we were in a
(35:34):
three-way chat, me and my otherbrother, my other older brother,
right.
We're in a three-way chat, meand my other brother, my other
older brother, right.
So, my other brother, he likesto get into like little debates
about back in the days, but it'slike becomes an argument.
I said why, when we cometogether on a conversation, we
don't talk about empowering eachother, making money, making
moves?
We don't have theseconversations but we'll take
time to talk about foolishness,you know.
(35:57):
And then my brother and I saidto him separately the one who
wasn't arguing with me, the onewho went to John Hopkins I said
why don't you never think aboutdoing business?
He says no, no, no, no, no.
That's not me, that's not me,that's not me.
And that's the thing.
A lot of people that's theirthing.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
That's the thing A lot of people that's the thing.
That's not me, you don't try it.
So they say it's not for them,and I get that, and that comes
from reluctance, complacency.
A lot of it is exposure andagain, I'm biased only because
I've worked in a place that is amoney-driven economy.
Wall Street is a money-driven,revenue-generating economy.
(36:43):
It's a place that basicallyruns the free market, right?
Wall Street is a place thatruns the free market and
dictates to the world what'shappening to you all, right?
So I have the insider'sperspective on why these things
(37:05):
are happening, right?
So I've always been in thatplace where I worked as the
sales guy who gets theinformation and push it out, and
so I'll always have theinformation before you sort of
(37:28):
kind of understand why this ishappening, right?
So before the financial crisishappened in 2008.
In 2007, we heard about it, butit was developing, it was
getting uglier and nastier.
But this product that I wasselling to hedge funds, I was
(37:52):
like, hmm, they don't know thatthis information is being
gathered and these hedge fundsare selling stuff to people and
to each other and whatever thesebonds, and I'm saying to myself
this is going to be bad.
Now I'm just saying all this tosay when you get information.
(38:13):
It's about the information whendo I get information from,
where do you get informationfrom?
And it's always been aboutaccess to info.
It's that corporate slang,right?
Access to information meanseverything.
And I've always been privy, notspecial, but I've always been
privy in certain spaces.
(38:36):
The hedge fund space, theprivate equity space and the
wealth management space are thethree top places where info is
manufactured and kept andhoarded for rich people, hoarded
for rich people all the time.
(38:57):
And that's when I realized Iknow where I am.
I realized that maybe I'm 55.
I realized that 15 years ago,mind you, just lack of
information and caring to takeit and benefit yourself from it.
(39:19):
Because we, unfortunately andlook, I was, I'm from out here
we knew from the same hood,right, we grew up in the same
hood, you and I, you know, andwhen we were kids, we weren't
connected to any of this stuffor people.
(39:40):
Who was connected to this stuff?
Right, I got to this stuff byhappenstance, literally by
happenstance.
I wasn't gunning for it, right,it's not until I started school
.
There's always something aboutschool that connected me to
other kids who were doing thatthing that I saw in the movie,
(40:02):
like the movie Wall Street,right, the Boiler.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Room.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Well, Boiler Room came like 20 years after Wall
Street.
So Wall Street with CharlieSheen was the catalyst movie,
the one that set it off.
And I got into that worldbecause I thought it was like
that movie.
And when I got in it really wasand I was like what the f I'm
(40:33):
really in that movie and I wasnear that room on Wall Street, I
was just downstairs from it andI would go up and down to talk
to those guys and I was hooked,my guy, like a heroin addict.
This is in 1993.
1993.
And that's when I got my firstunderstanding of access to like
(40:58):
that information.
Like nobody in Flatbush in myhood was working in a place like
that that's great.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
That's great.
I mean, you have the insidelook and and you have the
knowledge and you gained a wholelot of knowledge and you know,
you know, as you're saying, thatcertain information is being
held by the higher-ups.
The rich stay rich and the poorstay poor.
But if people start to say,listen, let me stop playing
lotto, this lotto, that youspend 200 a month on lotto just
(41:32):
to win back $50, use that $150and invest.
Use the $150 and invest.
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Not even $150 in a mutual fund.
It's really that easy.
But again, there are people whowould prefer to play crypto,
which is literally, straight upand down, probably the biggest
gamble I've ever seen as itrelates to an investment
(42:03):
instrument.
Right even from a perspectiveof a guy who's been in this game
that long, I'm saying to myself, wow, this one, this one needs
to be looked at Now.
Mind you, I know some cats whojump in early, like those tech,
(42:24):
real tech savvy guys from like2015, 2016, 17,.
Who was telling me about it andI was skeptic then.
That couldn't grasp it, even asa financial services guy, that
I couldn't grasp it.
Even as a financial servicesguy, I couldn't grasp it.
I knew some Asian guy who livedin Cali, who's a friend, who
(42:45):
was calling me about it, askedme if I heard about it.
I said no, what's that?
He told me I'm investing aboutfive grand in it.
It's only like four cents.
I said this sounds like a pennystock.
No, it's not a stock, it'scrypto.
What's that?
We're going back and forth forweeks and weeks and weeks.
We lost contact for a littlewhile and it was Bitcoin.
(43:07):
This guy must be a millionaireby now, because there's a time
in Bitcoin's history, you cancash out of your ledger without
paying taxes.
So I know this guy must havecashed out of hundreds of
thousands of dollars, maybe amillion, and change 5,004 cents
(43:31):
Woo.
That's my point, which is legit.
This is because the governmenthas legitimized Bitcoin.
Now, so is Bitcoin a scam?
Probably not.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
What was Bitcoin?
Who came up with that?
What was the intentions ofBitcoin?
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Bitcoin came now.
Interestingly enough, bitcoinwas created by an Asian
gentleman.
I forgot the name.
I think Natoshi something.
This is back in 2002 or three,if I'm not mistaken early twos
and wanted to decentralize orhave a decentralized way of
(44:20):
transporting money without itbeing connected to a dollar,
like the Federal Reserve'smonetary policy and fiscal
policy of the United States,where you wanted something to be
disconnected from that and youhave to be a developer, right,
like software engineer type, tocreate something like this and
(44:44):
created a coin and the ledger isjust a way of coagulating all
the information together andcomputers speaking to each other
, but you don't have access andit's something you cannot
(45:07):
decipher, right, because it'sencrypted to a level where you
have to have access to theledger in order for you to even
understand what's happening.
I say all this to say that nowyou can utilize crypto as a full
currency, like a dollar would,but it's not a physical paper.
(45:34):
It's digital, like everybodydoes, everybody knows, but it
can be manufactured intophysical cash and they're using
it heavily in California.
You can buy houses on cryptocurrency in California countries
.
But crypto is not a scam Now,because it cannot be managed or
(46:06):
regulated by the government.
It's its own process throughhuman interaction.
There's no banking systeminvolved in this, so it cannot
be managed, which is the geniusof it.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Right, so that keeps the US out of their pocket.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Right.
So Bitcoin is legit, but nowit's so legit they're trying to
manage it.
So now, if you try to cash yourcrypto into your account,
you're going to pay taxes.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Oh see, they're finding a way to get in there.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
They're finding a way , but in 2015 and 16, if you
cashed out, you cashed outtax-free.
Wow, there are millionaires,millionaires, who are like 21
years old, 25 years old on this.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
That's nice.
So yeah, so you know it'sinteresting.
You say and you break down.
You broke down Bitcoin, so tellme a little bit about crypto.
What is the science behindcrypto?
Is Bitcoin crypto?
Are they kind of the same?
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Well, crypto is a euphemism for digital currency.
So Bitcoin is just crypto,Bitcoin you have.
Solano, you have Saldano, youhave Ripple, you have tons of
them.
Now a lot of them have beendeemed a scam, so a lot of them
are gone.
But there are some like threeor four of them that are super
(47:39):
legit Okay Right, and thatpeople can invest in, but these
are just non.
These are whatchamacallit, non.
They're not nondescript, butthey're incapable of being
regulated by government bodiesand stuff like that.
(48:02):
Right, which?
This is the attraction to itit's decentralizing the
financial markets.
So the dollar looks as if it'sat risk, when it's not.
This is just another digitalcurrency being used other than
the US dollar, but it'soutpacing inflation, right Like
(48:25):
crazy.
And now Bitcoin must be like$90,000 a coin.
No one can avoid you said noone could afford.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
It's $90 a coin.
No one could avoid Bitcoin.
No one could avoid Bitcoin, noone could avoid you said no one
could afford it's $90.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
No one could avoid Bitcoin.
No one could avoid Bitcoin.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
No one could afford it At the price it's now the
Bitcoin.
Is that much?
Yes?
Speaker 2 (48:46):
$90,000 a coin.
Who could afford that?
Oh?
Speaker 1 (48:49):
$90,000.
Yes, oh shoot Last I saw it itwas $90,000 a coin.
Sheesh man man.
That's a serious thing.
Is it true that Trump said thathe was coming out with his own
type of coin or something likethat?
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Yeah, so Donald Trump is trying to take advantage of
the excitement behind digitalcurrency and Trump is, for all
intents and purposes, he'sdrifting.
So he's trying to create adigital coin though he's the US
(49:31):
president, which should beillegal, though he's the US
president, which should beillegal so he can benefit off
the ensuing excitement ofdigital currency.
Right, because?
Yeah, because his real estateempire is defaulting, it's
falling apart, has fallen apart,so he has to have a new revenue
(49:55):
generating scheme and I'm not ahuge fan of what he's doing,
never have been and he's tryingto create a coin so he can
enrich himself, but, again, it'sgoing to work because his
voters will invest in it, forthe simple fact that he's
(50:17):
creating it.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
So I wouldn't call it a legit currency because it
just will not be.
And his popularity?
You know people's going toshoot.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
His popularity is fueling his ride.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
Make America great.
That red and white, that redhat People's buying it off the
shelf.
People's buying it off theshelf.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Yeah, that's not even worth having a conversation
about because it's not really alegitimate plan and any
recommendations.
I really suggest that twothings.
This is my own opinion.
People should really thinkabout what investing is right.
(51:01):
It's just a tool.
Investing in the stock marketis just a tool to have something
else to fall back on right.
So I'll give you a perfectexample.
You go to the bank and you say Iwant to buy a house.
My wife and I have 50 grand andwe want to put towards this
(51:22):
$300,000 house Great.
Do you have anything else?
Yeah, I have.
I've got a 401k oh, that'sgreat, but you probably won't
want to have to use that.
But how much is in your 401k?
Oh, I've been at my job for 26years.
I got about $900,000.
(51:43):
That's great.
Is there anything else?
Yeah, my wife has a pensionthat's great.
But is there anything else?
Yeah, I have a stock portfolioworth $600,000.
I got some leads.
I put $20,000 in development.
I'm getting $200 a month individends.
(52:04):
I got $50,000 worth of bonds.
I get interest rates everysingle month and I got some
mutual funds over here.
That's called liquid assets.
Listen closely.
Those liquid assets can assistyou in leveraging for that house
(52:32):
.
All of that right, and you cansay, oh, and I got a life
insurance policy with whole lifecash value.
That's a lot to have than just$50,000,.
Right, and you want to say Iwant to use that money that I
just all that I just told youabout because that's the safety
(52:52):
net that they're looking for Tosay, okay, these people, other
than the $50,000 that they have,they have all those other
things.
It's not rocket science.
They have all those otherthings and we want to leverage
all that other stuff Right Tobuy this house so you don't even
(53:13):
have to give them the $50,000.
Right, they say we have the$50,000 in our savings but we
don't want have to give them the50 grand.
They said we have the 50,000 inour savings but we don't want
to give that to you.
This is what we got.
So what can we get for thathouse?
How can we get this house Nowif you only have $50,000, no
stocks, no bonds, no investment,nothing, then you have a harder
(53:36):
time.
Then you're going to have aharder time, you understand.
So you want to have thoseliquid assets right, that will
say they could liquidate all ofthose things they just told me
right now and have damn near $2million and they are a safe bet
(54:03):
for that $300,000 house.
So you can have the 50 grandand I'm just speaking like in
layman's terms, but this is howbanks view you.
But those investments that youinvest in are your safety net
right, and that's really yourretirement.
But you're also using that thephysical presence of all of that
(54:23):
liquid cash, to say, yeah, Iwant that $3,000 house, I have
$2 million worth of all thisliquid cash, but all we have in
our savings is 50 grand.
They don't care about the 50grand, they care about that
other stuff, because it saysthat you're safe, a safe bet.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
And that's what the average person.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
That's what they don't understand.
They ain't got to even be amillion bucks worth.
It could be 150 grand worth ofliquid investment 100 grand
worth At least that they knowyou got some other stuff sitting
there, but don't make that 50bucks be it, because then you're
going to be a liability Versusyou know anything else, right?
Speaker 1 (55:16):
Wow, this is very, very interesting.
I hope the people out there getthis information and you know,
we could probably have a serieswhere we could just actually
stick to one and then nail itdown to give people a better
understanding.
This is great information.
You're welcome, man, if I'mloving it, so people got to love
(55:42):
it, you know.
Speaker 2 (55:43):
Well, you know I don't know what people don't
know.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
I don't know, what people don't know, yeah, but
what I do know, I learnedsomething today.
I learned something today,that's all.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
I appreciate it.
Yeah, my pleasure.
Yeah, my pleasure, man.
Speaker 1 (55:58):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
So, yeah, so, um, it's, this isepisode 91.
Um, this is the first time in acouple of years that we've done
a zoom actual zoom meeting andum zoom podcast and this is a
great show.
It's a great, great show and,um, hopefully we get to do
another one very soon.
You know, I wonder we could doyou have, like a Friday special.
(56:25):
Emil the finance guru, you know,and you have any parting words?
I mean, let me start off withmy parting words.
My parting words is that youknow, they say, if you knew
better, do better.
Right, they say that, but is itactually true?
You know, people need to apply,apply what they, what they do,
know, instead of holding on toit like okay, and stop being so
(56:47):
skeptical and be like okay.
You know, and one thing aboutlife is that people believe,
they believe in, they believe inthings.
That's, that's um, that don'tcost them anything, like they
would have faith, they'll havefaith.
They they so heavy with faith,but they don't, they don't, they
don't, but they don't trust,they don't trust in themselves.
(57:07):
They're like, okay, let me, letme put this money here.
Yeah, the risk of losing it isis much more than just um the
thought of financial freedom.
Yeah, yeah, that's my closingstatement.
Everybody, hey, open your mind,open up your eyes and open up
your wallet or your purse.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
Yeah, absolutely no, you're 100% correct, yeah, and I
just want to say thanks a lotfor bringing me on.
I really appreciate it.
I'm pretty passionate aboutlike knowledge and going to go
get things, like go and learnthings, right.
I've always been like that.
(57:48):
I've always been a voraciousreader for a really long time.
You know, some people will say,oh, I read a book a week.
That's nonsense, right, that'slike.
You know, that kind of stuff Ifind to be like very
disingenuous, um, in ways thatit makes someone seem like
they're, you know, trying to bebetter than everyone.
(58:09):
It's almost like a forced thing.
Um, and I don't mean to be meanabout it, but I've read 60
books since the age of 21, 22.
That's a lot of books, but it'snot.
It's almost like two a year andI like to learn things other
than what everybody is trying toread.
(58:32):
Because of where I work, theenvironment I work in, I'm
almost forced to learn and findout because I work around
seriously worldly people,worldly people like who's done
things.
And I've done some things.
I've traveled some great places.
I've known some amazing peoplein my lifetime.
I've connected some amazing,amazing, amazing professionals
(58:55):
in my lifetime.
I never thought that I wouldmeet right.
I've met some people that youknow people from the hood just
don't meet right.
I've met people stacked elbowto elbow, chatted two, three,
four hours.
You know Robert Smith.
Speaker 1 (59:09):
I never know him.
Speaker 2 (59:11):
Robert Smith, the black billionaire.
Speaker 1 (59:13):
Okay, the one that's higher than Jay-Z the richest
man.
Yeah, well, he's the financeguy right, Private equity, the
one that's higher than.
Speaker 2 (59:19):
Jay-Z the richest man .
He's the finance guy, privateequity firm, robert Smith.
His net worth is like $9billion.
Jay, don't come close tonothing like that.
Met Robert Smith many years agoat a banquet dinner.
Fantastic conversation with theguy Got his phone number whole
(59:43):
nine yards.
I was running a mentoringprogram at Goldman Sachs many
years ago and it was a blackbanker's dinner, more or less,
and it was like four or fivehundred black professionals
there honoring him.
Um, and we had some kids therefor my program and one of them I
introduced them and it was afantastic evening.
(01:00:05):
So he was looking to fund theprogram.
So, like, all these things havebeen happening to me in my
lifetime, right.
So I say all this to say go outthere and learn on purpose.
Learn Right and stop beingdistracted by pop the balloon
(01:00:26):
and find love and dudes fightingon air and chicks scamming
their men and dudes.
You know, fighting in trainstations.
You're like we're gettingdistracted by nonsensical, like
subpar, like way out the way,nonsense to the point where it's
like commonplace, right, butyou're over here buying Nikes
(01:00:50):
for 200, but you want to investin the stock for 50.
Go out there and learn onpurpose.
That's my thing learn right,and I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
learn on purpose.
Folks learn on purpose, and Iappreciate you.
I appreciate you, emil, forcoming on and spreading your
wisdom better, yet I'll cut youoff.
Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Go on, learn for purpose.
That's what I'm going to cutyou off.
Go on, learn for purpose.
That's what I really meant tosay.
Go on there, learn for purpose.
Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Learn for purpose.
Learn for purpose, folks.
You heard him Live and direct.
This is the your OpinionDoesn't Matter.
Podcast man, episode 91, a very, very good show.
We are out, thank you.
Welcome.
Welcome to the your OpinionDoesn't Matter podcast, episode
91, the Zoom edition Finance andZoom.
Well, my name is Lamont.
I'm here with a special guest,emil.
How are you doing, brother?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm doing well, Monty .
Thanks for inviting me back.
I really appreciate it.
Brother, Good to see you again.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
Yes, nice to see you, man, and you know you've been a
fan favorite.
Some people are like oh, Iliked when your friend was on
the show.
Emil, you was on our previousshow when we had an interesting
topic and that was very, verygood and he was talking about
the culture, the culture like aWest Indian culture, so forth
(00:47):
and so on.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
I remember that right .
That was a great podcast.
I really enjoyed that.
That was a couple of months ago.
Speaker 1 (00:52):
Right, right, right, yeah.
And so, yeah, how you been, howyou been, I've been well.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I've been well, man.
I just got off a vacation, awell-needed vacation, with my
wife and my family.
We had a family reunion firstone we've ever done, and one of
my cousins has been trying to doit for the past four years Got
27 members of my family togetherout of like I don't know 100, I
don't know.
Just came back from tourism,caicos, bahamas, last Friday
(01:22):
from a week and I just had sucha great time.
I'm really, really relaxed andstuff.
I came back to New York to 39degrees from 90, which is a
terrible shock.
I'm good because I'm back heretalking to you.
I'm in good shape.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Nice, nice, nice.
I want to say sorry to hearthat you missed the sun and fun
and you're here with us todayAll right, it's okay.
This new year is starting offkind of shaky for me.
It's like this never-ending ofup in your face, like so much
(02:03):
people passing away.
Yeah, it's overwhelming.
But I was going to do likeusually, like last year, two
people have passed away and Iwas like I'm going to go dark on
it.
I'm going to go dark on the web, like I'm not posting nothing.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
And then.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
But then I said you know what, this year I gotta
just, I'm gonna just be happyand do what I'm regularly doing.
You know, I can't, I can't,just, I can't just let certain
things overwhelm me, even thoughthese things are important.
It may not be directlyaffecting me, but it's affecting
someone else and I care abouthow other people feel as well.
You know what I'm saying, notto say I'm not posting
(02:43):
derogatory.
I want people to be like youknow they'll look at it and be
like oh, if they know that Iknow that person, why would they
?
You know they look.
I mean, I'll be thinking ofcertain things, like why would
he post anything?
And just not chill, you know,when he knows something is going
on.
But you know, you know out theway.
(03:06):
But but yeah, so other thanthat, I'm just pushing, I'm
pushing on and you know, living,I gotta live.
I gotta live my life and behappy and be happy.
We, you know, we were speakingto you before.
Like I kinda I kinda bamboozledyou the first time to come on
the show and the first off Iwanted you to talk about finance
.
And then you just came on andthen you found the next topic
(03:32):
interesting, which was about theculture, and you said, all
right, I'll do that.
And then I said I owe you afinance episode.
I owe you a finance episode andI'm here and I'm happy for the
people to hear some interesting,interesting perspective on the
financial market and thefinancial prices, or soon to be
prices.
That's in now.
(03:53):
So just give me a brief.
Give the people a brief.
Just, you know, tell them aboutyourself and what are you,
what's your specialties?
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Sure, thanks, man.
I appreciate you bringing meback.
Excuse me, so my name is EmilVio.
I am a financial servicesprofessional, right.
So I've been working on WallStreet since I was 22,.
23 years old, attended New YorkUniversity, majored in
(04:23):
international business, and I'veworked for numerous financial
services companies, some of thebig ones Bank of America,
merrill Lynch, thompsonFinancial.
Where else?
Smith Barney, what you mightcall the old school Wall Street
(04:45):
Gen Xer, who survived numerouscalamities within the financial
markets for many, many years.
I'm that guy.
Some have gone through it withme and some have left the
industry altogether, especiallyafter 2001,.
September 11th and after OA.
A lot of guys and a lot ofladies just left the game.
(05:06):
I stayed in because I feel asthough this may sound crazy and
macabre, but I feel Wall Streetowes me.
I've been in it, I've servicedit and I'm going to get what I
can out of it.
So, that said, I've worked inseveral different what they call
verticals.
That means just areas of themarket from the capital markets,
which is, like you know,selling products to investment
(05:28):
bankers.
I worked in the hedge fundspace doing product sales to
hedge funds, private equity,venture capital, and now I found
my space and I am the.
I'm currently now the assistantvice president of wealth um, um
of wealth management, globalwealth management, for a company
called GoBullion International.
(05:48):
So I manage um um, a group ofguys within um the United States
and Southeast um, mid Atlantic,um and West coast.
So I I work for a financialtechnology or, let's put it, an
(06:10):
institutional financialtechnology firm that introduces
opportunities to financialadvisors to purchase precious
metals for their wealthiestclients, meaning I reach out to
financial advisors with my teamand we introduce the opportunity
for them to buy gold for theirwealthiest clients in their
(06:33):
portfolios so they can benefitfrom the prices of gold and
silver, platinum and palladiumgoing up.
So that's my job is to actuallyintroduce investments to the
financial advisor who managesportfolios for their clients.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Nice, nice, nice.
So then, OK, so you said thatside of it, right, so
introducing them to you knowpossibilities of gold and all
that stuff like that.
So now, where do you get yourinformation from the other side,
like, okay, there's a deal here, or something like that as far
(07:11):
as to know the gold, because Iknow you're not actually, you're
basically like a broker,basically kind of sort of right.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
Yeah, that's a very good way of looking at it.
So I'm the intermediary, right,I'm the guy in between, right,
so I manage the relationshipbetween my firm and the
investment firm.
So, for example, Merrill LynchWealth Management is one of the
biggest wealth management firmsin the world.
Right, they have over 14,000financial advisors, private
(07:37):
wealth managers.
These are people who managemoney for very wealthy
accredited investors.
Right, Like you got to havelike a quarter of a million
dollars to start just to open upan account with these guys.
Some places it's a million,right, and depending on the size
of the advisor's book ofbusiness, right, Book of
business is how much his entireportfolio of clients are worth.
(07:58):
Some guys will manage $500million, a billion dollars, or a
team that manages $2 billion.
So that's my job, right, so totalk to that guy right, and
force my way in in a verysophisticated manner by
introducing the opportunity forhis book of business to grow, if
(08:20):
I introduce the rightinvestment for him.
Right, and if it makes sense tohim to introduce that to his
clients.
Gold is extremely expensive.
It's not like a stock, right,Gold is not like a stock or a
bond or anything like that.
Gold is an actual piece ofmetal that you can barter for
(08:40):
money, right, you know, when youwatch those TV shows and those
heist shows, oh we're going tosteal gold bars from that vault
in you know London or Zurich orsome fancy geography, right, and
they take the trucks and youknow it's this whole fancy heist
thing like that movie that cameout many years ago with Mark
(09:03):
Wahlberg and stuff like that,right, the Italian job, right,
yeah, that stuff Like we'reactually selling gold bars,
right, Like this is like insanestuff that the average person
doesn't have access to, right.
So you have to reallyunderstand how that works.
So, yeah, in that sense I'mgiving entree because we have
(09:27):
the relationship already.
So my job is to connect to allthe advisors inside the firm to
make sure they understand who Iam and what I could do for them,
or what me and my team could dofor them.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
Nice, nice, nice, nice, nice, nice.
For some clarity A tad bit.
But you know you did explain alot, but I mean, like this right
here is another level, itreally is.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I've never done this before in my life and, honestly,
I'm not a precious metals orgold expert.
I'm not a platinum or palladiumor silver or gold expert.
So in the world of Wall Street,bro, people are under this
impression right, because theydo it on purpose that you have
to have some kind of relativeknowledge base to know this
(10:13):
stuff, like 80% of Wall Street,like they teach you what they
want you to know.
They just have to like youenough to hire you to have you
do it.
Right, right, this is theactual environment.
So don't get it twisted.
You don't have to know thisstuff, like coming out of
college or anything like that.
You just don't.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Right, right, that's a good way of summing it up,
because I know somebody whodidn't have the proper
credentials and in in around thewall street area and they hired
him because they liked him.
They liked him and then theytaught him, and then they taught
(10:57):
him how to do this, even thoughhe had skills in another area,
but it definitely wasn't.
This I'm not.
It's not about the stock oranything like that.
It's not about that selling ortrading.
It was more or less like ITstuff.
Okay.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
I understand.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It's interesting.
It's very, very interesting andI have some questions for you.
Why is investing in the stockmarket considered by so many
people to be a scam?
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Well, there's an old saying, right by so many people
to be a scam.
Well, there's an old saying,right, what you don't know, you
don't know what you don't know,right.
So for a very long time peoplewould normally talk people
normally just by the nature ofwho they are.
(11:43):
Right, average human beings,when they don't know something,
they tend to talk themselves outof it.
Right.
And if you don't know howsomething works and the kind of
return that you can make off aninvestment sounds like they're
too good to be true, then peoplesay, well, then it can't be
true, right.
(12:05):
When in fact, wall Street andinvesting in Wall Street is the
Open secret of exclusivity.
That is a farce, right.
So you tell somebody, forexample.
You tell somebody, for example,I'm going to buy a pair of
(12:30):
Nikes for $200.
You're just buying a pair ofsneakers that the market tells
you is worth $200 because,between marketing, the hype word
on the street, somebody'swearing it, looks cool, it's
flat, looks good, your outfit,it's already sold to you.
You buy that $200, speaker,there's nothing scammy about it.
(12:50):
Why?
Because you can tie it, put iton your foot, walk out with it
under your ankle.
Done A stock.
Where do I buy it?
How come I can't touch it?
Where do I see it?
Who's giving it to me?
What's happening?
How come I can't touch it?
Where do I see it?
Who's giving it to me?
What's happening?
Where's it coming from?
Who builds this thing?
Where am I going to find it?
How do I sell it?
Where do I get my money from,and when?
(13:11):
you begin to tell people howthat works, and if it doesn't
resonate because they can't seeit, they can't touch it.
It's a scam.
The stock costs $10.
You put $100 into it, that's 10shares.
The stock goes to $100.
(13:32):
That's 90 points.
You've made like almost $2,000in the span of a week, probably,
depending on stock moves, yes,and the stock can also go down.
Why, supply and demand?
Right.
But if you can make $2,000 offof $10, off of $100, let's say
within a week, which hashappened 1,000 times over and
(13:55):
you call your broker and say,hey, John, can you liquidate
that stock of Nike for me?
How much do I get?
Oh, you get $1,000.
All right, thanks.
Oh, $2,000.
Or get a thousand bucks?
All right, thank you.
Two thousand or three thousand?
All right, thanks.
Can you send that to my account, please?
Sure, when would I get there?
Twenty four hours?
I've done it, my buddies havedone it.
I've known hundreds of people inmy lifetime and if you have a
(14:18):
friend that you trust and youcan show you how it's done, it
is no longer a scam Becausesomebody has to do it first
before it's not noted as a scamanymore.
That's the issue with societyin a whole.
Everything is a too good.
Everything is I have to see itto believe it or I have to touch
it to believe it.
(14:38):
This is like real estate, right, it's not a scam because you
can touch it.
Right, it's not a scam becauseyou can touch it.
But some of the biggest scamsin our society are real estate
scams.
And you can see the house youjust, we just purchased.
Go touch it, walk through thegate, take the key, walk through
that door, but for all you know, that house is not even yours
(14:58):
because somebody scammed youinto it.
Right?
right, it's all I'm saying, I'mjust giving you two sets of
diametrically opposing theories,but one could be actually 100%
true and the other one is aphysical theory, but it could be
a scam as well.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Right right, right right.
So the lack of knowledge wouldbring people to the ignorance of
saying, oh, this is a scam.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
Absolutely 100% 100%.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
So what would you recommend to people to actually
to learn about this?
What steps should they take?
Because I know it's a process,yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:41):
Yeah, investing is what my call is.
It's a long term play, right.
It's like trying to date awoman.
Right, you see yourselfmarrying her in five years and
(16:09):
from now to 2030.
Right, you're saying toyourself what are the steps do I
have to take in order to marrythat woman?
And you, as a man, know whatyou got to do to marry that
woman, right, that's the sameway with investing.
You have to study it, you haveto research, you have to
understand it.
Right.
You have to um, engage it right.
Do uh, get.
There's a knowledge base tounderstanding what you're
(16:31):
willing to invest.
It right.
And it's the same thing asrelationship, right.
Vice versa, right.
So you first have to do yourresearch and if you happen to
know somebody who's with withinthat then call out, reach him
Interesting I'm learning moreabout X right.
Or if you don't have anyone inyour immediate centers of
(16:53):
influence COIs right.
Or somebody that you know thatknows somebody.
Because it can happen, you takeyour ass to YouTube and you
punch in how to invest in stocksand you're going to have, at
best, two or 3000 people withall kinds of channels, who all
kinds of financial servicesbackgrounds, telling you about
this.
It's literally a retardedmonkey can do this Right.
(17:20):
So he's got to go to YouTubeUniversity.
Right, right, right, right,right right.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
So he's got to go to YouTube University, Right, right
, right right, literally,literally, and it takes all of
500 bucks.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Maybe less, but 500 bucks is a very, very, very
decent start to learning how toinvest in stocks.
I don't mean one stock, I'mtalking about a gang of them at
one shot for 500 bucks ETFs,exchange-traded funds, index
funds you can learn what thosethings are.
(17:51):
It's just fancy language.
But once the fancy language istaken away and you learn what
that is, you're like oh, that'swhat that is.
Yeah, they do it on purpose tokeep certain people out.
It's a ploy.
It's a ploy and it's kind ofsad.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
It's kind of sad, it's kind of sad, but it's fancy
language used on purpose tokeep certain people out and then
they see, they hear all ofthese words and they're like, oh
no, oh no, because it's noteveryday language it's not
everyday language.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
The vernacular and the verbiage is so foreign right
that they make themselves notwant to care right.
The stock market is the placewhere most people will always
can retire from and have moremoney in their pockets, if you
start early enough, than youwill in your average pension.
(18:43):
Nice, nice.
The average pension in theUnited States is like $200,000
to $300,000.
The average pension.
Most people who invest in thestock market for 20 years will
come out with a million bucks.
I know it's a broad term to usecome out with a million bucks.
(19:04):
I'm talking about somebodywho's devoutly involved for 20
years and you've had a job for20 years.
You can probably outpace yourown pension with the right
investments in the stock market.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Right, right, especially if you was there when
you was there in the beginningof Facebook or the beginning of
something.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
There you go, there you go.
You just said it, right there.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
You'd have been way up.
You'd have been way up.
You'd have been like pensionwhat I'm retiring early, early,
early, early, early, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:39):
Nice, nice, nice, nice.
Thanks for that.
Thanks for your information.
Let me go to question two.
What are some of the easiestinvestments for people to get
into that are not investmentsavvy?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
GARY GENSLER.
Oh, one, stocks.
So I'll explain what a stock isIn the most simplest, most
layman term.
A stock is an investment in acompany, period End of story.
You can go to your refrigeratorand there are stocks all up in
(20:17):
your refrigerator Heinz, ketchup, tropicana, boar's Head, pepsi,
sprite it's endless Frito-Lay.
Go in your cupboard Campbell'sSoup.
Every time you put a dollartowards something in your fridge
(20:37):
or your cupboard, you'reinvesting in a.
That's basically like investingin a stock, right?
It's just an investment in ashare of a stock you go to.
Like I said before about Nike,I don't know how much Nike stock
costs might be like 150 bucks.
If you purchase Nike for oneshare, you own a share of Nike
(20:59):
and if Nike moves two points,you have two points of revenue
going into your portfolio.
It goes from $150 to $152, andthat's $2.
And it gets higher and higherand higher.
So that's all a stock is.
(21:20):
You could have mutual funds,extremely easy to invest in.
All mutual funds are is a poolof stocks in a basket.
So one stock is by itself,right.
A pool of stocks is a mutualfund.
It can have Microsoft, it canhave Time Warner, it can have
(21:45):
Frito Lake, pepsi, it can haveFord Motor Company, right, and
you invest in those mutual fundsand that's a basket of stocks,
right.
Then you have something calledREITs, which are super dumb.
Easy Real Estate InvestmentTrust REITs R-E-I-T-S REITs is
(22:09):
investing in real estate funds.
So if you have $10, likesitting on the side somewhere,
like, let's say, a rainy dayfund or or or some money you
have on the side, you could taketen thousand dollars you can go
to.
You can go to uh, google andput in reits and it'll give you
(22:35):
days worth of investments inREITs.
Reits can be investments indevelopments in a particular
state, right, or an alreadyexisting development that's
doing extremely well.
Let's say, a high rise inManhattan with 150 floors and
(23:00):
it's in middle of Park Avenueand 90% of the buildings already
occupied, right, and all theother condos worth, let's say,
$2 million in them.
That is a REIT and in the REIT,every single month you will
(23:20):
receive dividends from therevenue stream that that
development makes intoperpetuity.
So it could be $10,000, $20,000, $50,000, $100,000.
$20,000, $50,000, $100,000.
But imagine just investing$10,000 and getting back, for
(23:52):
example, I don't know $300 amonth in your bank account for
the next 10 years.
Or it gets reinvested and youcan reinvest that into another
REIT somewhere or something likethat.
Right, those are the number oneeasiest investments Easy.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Those are REITs, real estate investment R-E-I-T-S.
Speaker 2 (24:12):
Right Now, some people like the actual physical
you know oh, I want to invest insomething I can see, like real
estate.
Right, I want to buy a threefamily or whatever.
Yeah, you can invest in threefamily developments down south
that's already underway.
Or you can invest in a multicomplex multi development
(24:34):
complex in Atlanta or NorthCarolina, la they're everywhere
and they give you prospectuseshow it's going to do, how many
investors are in it, you can seehow long it's been around and,
if you want, you can go visitthe damn thing.
Right, but it doesn't mean itdoesn't exist.
These things are physicalproperties that exist that you
(25:02):
invest in without having toactually manage it yourself.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
REITs are incredibly, incredibly, incredibly
profitable.
Nice, nice, nice.
I never heard of that, neverheard of REITs.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Yeah, and you broke down the mutual funds, right,
that's what you said the mutualyes, mutual funds,
exchange-traded funds, REITsthese are all baskets of
investments you can invest inwithout having thousands and
thousands of dollars.
Speaker 1 (25:29):
So now for the REITs.
What's the minimum you shouldstart with with a REITs
investment?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Most REITs minimum that you always usually see is
like 5,000.
Then it goes to 10.
It could be 20.
Some of them tell you well,this particular development over
here is a luxury high-rise inManhattan on Madison Avenue, and
it's completely underweight andthe occupancy so far is 70%.
That's telling you that's howmany people are already vested
(26:02):
to already live in it, whichmeans they're going to be paying
that mortgage, which meansyou're going to be getting your
money back in those REITs, right?
So I'm speaking in layman'sterms and I'm being vague as
possible, but that's the conceptof it.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
What's the percent with?
Like?
What was the?
What would be the percent?
Like?
Okay, say, say a person putsdown five, 10,000, and that the
say your firm purchased thatREIT for you.
What would that?
What would?
What would the investment, whatwould that person whose money
it is?
What percent?
What would it be?
Would it be a percent or justwhat would that be called?
Speaker 2 (26:45):
So it's called.
So you're investing in theactual real estate fund, so
you're funding it, right, andyeah, so it's like a bond.
So you're almost like you sayokay, thanks for this money.
So, in conjunction with yougiving us money for this fund,
we're going to give you apayment once a month for X
(27:10):
amount of time, right, so lookto it as a get back, not a
kickback, but like a dividend tosay thank you.
This is every single month.
Right, and I don't know ifthat's how it.
You know because it'sstipulated in the contract, the
REIT contract.
Right, when your dividendswould start coming back to you,
(27:32):
it could be two months, threemonths after the initial
investment, or whatever the casemay be.
Right, and you'll know wherethe building's located, you'll
know who the developer is, youknow who the manager is, you'll
know how many people are goingto be living in it.
It's so transparent it can'tget any more transparent.
Right, reach extremelyprofitable.
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Nice, nice, nice, nice.
I'm Tate, I'm listening, I'mlistening, I am definitely
listening.
Man, do, please do.
Speaker 2 (28:03):
This is something this is something that a lot of
african-americans just do notcare to care about, right, and
it's not because they don't care, it's because they don't have
the information being told tothem.
Right, because, because this isnot like REITs are not even a
(28:23):
popular term that's being thrownaround Mutual funds, people
know.
They hear stock, they hearbonds.
Those are the most commoninvestment verbiage, common
investment jargon.
You will hear Mutual funds,stock bonds, right.
You don't hear REITs, right.
You don't hear ETFs Right.
(28:45):
You don't hear that type ofterminology.
So you think it's somefancy-pass, expensive thing.
But it's not.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Right, right, right, right right.
It's very, very interesting andI definitely want to learn more
about it.
And yes, let me go to anotherquestion.
Let me go to another questionwhy do you think so many Black
people don't invest and preferto only maybe do real estate?
Speaker 2 (29:18):
only maybe do real estate.
Well, not to be presumptuousand it's not just us, but
because we're talking about ourpeople, we are risk-averse
people.
Right, we are risk-averse.
We don't like taking chances onsomething that we just don't
(29:38):
see and don't know.
Right, this is not rocketscience, right, and it's the
natural cautionary tale type ofworld that we live in, right in,
(30:03):
with the internet and theconsistent scamming of the
average person on a daily basis,actually by hour by hour.
We trust nothing that we clearlymake no time to understand.
And, yeah, investing takesserious devotion, right, there
are people who are calledlong-term investors, who don't
give a damn what happens in themarket, as long as they know
(30:24):
that, based off just forces,it's always going to go back up.
There is something to that, butif we don't understand how
something works, then we willnever trust it.
Right, understand how somethingworks, then we will never trust
it.
Right, and it's one of thoseand I hate saying it right, but
you know, oh, you know there area lot of ignorant people out
(30:45):
there or unknowledgeable peoplewho will always say, oh, that's,
that's a white man's game.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
I was thinking the same thing.
I was thinking the same thing.
Speaker 2 (30:52):
Right, yeah, yeah.
And and because he inventedthat, he invented that.
He invented that game.
Wall Street is clearly theAnglo-Saxon white man's creation
, right From days of old, rightFrom the barter system all the
way up till today.
Right, he has created andmanufactured and, just out of
(31:18):
thin air, just creatednonsensical investments that
people just don't understand howit's working.
And how do I give you a dollarand next week I got 10,000.
Right, and it's in my bankaccount.
How did this happen?
Right, and if we don't know howit happened, some people are
(31:39):
like I don't give a damn, it'sbread, but you should understand
, because then you can replicateit and do it somewhere else.
The issue is we're not providedthe intricate level of
information to connect the dots,to see why this is good for us.
Right, like the middle classwas, the Black middle class was
(32:06):
built on the backs of the postoffice, corporate America jobs,
federal state and cityemployment.
Right America jobs, federalstate and city employment.
Most of our parents didn't havecredit cards in the 70s but
(32:27):
they were buying houses becausethey were saving their money.
They gave it to the bank andthey got their house and they
survived only on their pensionand they survive only on their
pension, right, right, and nowit's a whole other kind of model
.
But they don't understand thattheir pensions are managed by
(32:49):
Wall Street people, hedge fundsand investment funds.
Right, and now those bigcompanies are coming into the
federal, city and state world.
And now your pension, yourparents' pensions, it's being
thrown into Wall Street, and nowtheir money is going to be
(33:09):
bigger, hopefully, and largerthan your grandparents.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Because they're leveraging it.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
Because they're leveraging it in other places.
So those same places is wherethe Black Americans and
African-Americans in Koreashould be investing in those
kind of places the REITs and themutual funds and the ETFs and
whatever.
But that's again, it's risk,right, you know, you know you're
(33:40):
not at work.
You got to put the money out toget the money back, right,
right, scared money don't makeno money, right.
Speaker 1 (33:48):
Right, right, that's you know.
And people rather take a $10loss and play lotto than than a
hundred dollar loss.
It's like people I say it'slike Black people look at that
as a white man's game and theydon't want to take a chance and
they don't believe.
A lot of people are content andthey don't think about
(34:09):
financial freedom.
They don't really.
That's not.
Financial freedom to them isbad, but they're all right, I
bust my butt all week, come home, I take a drink and I'm cooling
out.
I always say like this in school, you are taught a certain way,
(34:30):
right, you are totally.
You are taught a certain way tobecome workers and say like,
say five percent, like, say if,like, say like a parent would
tell a child like look, okay,listen, this is what I'm gonna,
this is what I want you to do.
I want you to think of abusiness, for this is from a
middle school.
I want you to think of abusiness and you're going to
(34:51):
start putting it together tocreate a business, right, and
then now in high school, you'regoing to put it together and put
it together more and more.
And in college now you're goingto have your business.
Right, but then, because 90 to95 percent of the kids that's in
school are trained to becomeworkers and that other 5 percent
could have those same kidsworking for them.
(35:12):
It's a mindset.
It's a mindset, it's a mindset.
I have my brother, my brother,he's a, he's a, he's a
journalist for the Wall Street.
He's a, he's an editor for theWall Street Journal.
Oh, wow, awesome.
And he went to John HopkinsUniversity, right.
And just the other day, liketwo months ago, we were in a
(35:34):
three-way chat, me and my otherbrother, my other older brother,
right.
We're in a three-way chat, meand my other brother, my other
older brother, right.
So, my other brother, he likesto get into like little debates
about back in the days, but it'slike becomes an argument.
I said why, when we cometogether on a conversation, we
don't talk about empowering eachother, making money, making
moves?
We don't have theseconversations but we'll take
time to talk about foolishness,you know.
(35:57):
And then my brother and I saidto him separately the one who
wasn't arguing with me, the onewho went to John Hopkins I said
why don't you never think aboutdoing business?
He says no, no, no, no, no.
That's not me, that's not me,that's not me.
And that's the thing.
A lot of people that's theirthing.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
That's the thing A lot of people that's the thing.
That's not me, you don't try it.
So they say it's not for them,and I get that, and that comes
from reluctance, complacency.
A lot of it is exposure andagain, I'm biased only because
I've worked in a place that is amoney-driven economy.
Wall Street is a money-driven,revenue-generating economy.
(36:43):
It's a place that basicallyruns the free market, right?
Wall Street is a place thatruns the free market and
dictates to the world what'shappening to you all, right?
So I have the insider'sperspective on why these things
(37:05):
are happening, right?
So I've always been in thatplace where I worked as the
sales guy who gets theinformation and push it out, and
so I'll always have theinformation before you sort of
(37:28):
kind of understand why this ishappening, right?
So before the financial crisishappened in 2008.
In 2007, we heard about it, butit was developing, it was
getting uglier and nastier.
But this product that I wasselling to hedge funds, I was
(37:52):
like, hmm, they don't know thatthis information is being
gathered and these hedge fundsare selling stuff to people and
to each other and whatever thesebonds, and I'm saying to myself
this is going to be bad.
Now I'm just saying all this tosay when you get information.
(38:13):
It's about the information whendo I get information from,
where do you get informationfrom?
And it's always been aboutaccess to info.
It's that corporate slang,right?
Access to information meanseverything.
And I've always been privy, notspecial, but I've always been
privy in certain spaces.
(38:36):
The hedge fund space, theprivate equity space and the
wealth management space are thethree top places where info is
manufactured and kept andhoarded for rich people, hoarded
for rich people all the time.
(38:57):
And that's when I realized Iknow where I am.
I realized that maybe I'm 55.
I realized that 15 years ago,mind you, just lack of
information and caring to takeit and benefit yourself from it.
(39:19):
Because we, unfortunately andlook, I was, I'm from out here
we knew from the same hood,right, we grew up in the same
hood, you and I, you know, andwhen we were kids, we weren't
connected to any of this stuffor people.
(39:40):
Who was connected to this stuff?
Right, I got to this stuff byhappenstance, literally by
happenstance.
I wasn't gunning for it, right,it's not until I started school
.
There's always something aboutschool that connected me to
other kids who were doing thatthing that I saw in the movie,
(40:02):
like the movie Wall Street,right, the Boiler.
Speaker 1 (40:05):
Room.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Well, Boiler Room came like 20 years after Wall
Street.
So Wall Street with CharlieSheen was the catalyst movie,
the one that set it off.
And I got into that worldbecause I thought it was like
that movie.
And when I got in it really wasand I was like what the f I'm
(40:33):
really in that movie and I wasnear that room on Wall Street, I
was just downstairs from it andI would go up and down to talk
to those guys and I was hooked,my guy, like a heroin addict.
This is in 1993.
1993.
And that's when I got my firstunderstanding of access to like
(40:58):
that information.
Like nobody in Flatbush in myhood was working in a place like
that that's great.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
That's great.
I mean, you have the insidelook and and you have the
knowledge and you gained a wholelot of knowledge and you know,
you know, as you're saying, thatcertain information is being
held by the higher-ups.
The rich stay rich and the poorstay poor.
But if people start to say,listen, let me stop playing
lotto, this lotto, that youspend 200 a month on lotto just
(41:32):
to win back $50, use that $150and invest.
Use the $150 and invest.
You know.
Speaker 2 (41:40):
Not even $150 in a mutual fund.
It's really that easy.
But again, there are people whowould prefer to play crypto,
which is literally, straight upand down, probably the biggest
gamble I've ever seen as itrelates to an investment
(42:03):
instrument.
Right even from a perspectiveof a guy who's been in this game
that long, I'm saying to myself, wow, this one, this one needs
to be looked at Now.
Mind you, I know some cats whojump in early, like those tech,
(42:24):
real tech savvy guys from like2015, 2016, 17,.
Who was telling me about it andI was skeptic then.
That couldn't grasp it, even asa financial services guy, that
I couldn't grasp it.
Even as a financial servicesguy, I couldn't grasp it.
I knew some Asian guy who livedin Cali, who's a friend, who
(42:45):
was calling me about it, askedme if I heard about it.
I said no, what's that?
He told me I'm investing aboutfive grand in it.
It's only like four cents.
I said this sounds like a pennystock.
No, it's not a stock, it'scrypto.
What's that?
We're going back and forth forweeks and weeks and weeks.
We lost contact for a littlewhile and it was Bitcoin.
(43:07):
This guy must be a millionaireby now, because there's a time
in Bitcoin's history, you cancash out of your ledger without
paying taxes.
So I know this guy must havecashed out of hundreds of
thousands of dollars, maybe amillion, and change 5,004 cents
(43:31):
Woo.
That's my point, which is legit.
This is because the governmenthas legitimized Bitcoin.
Now, so is Bitcoin a scam?
Probably not.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
What was Bitcoin?
Who came up with that?
What was the intentions ofBitcoin?
Speaker 2 (43:55):
Bitcoin came now.
Interestingly enough, bitcoinwas created by an Asian
gentleman.
I forgot the name.
I think Natoshi something.
This is back in 2002 or three,if I'm not mistaken early twos
and wanted to decentralize orhave a decentralized way of
(44:20):
transporting money without itbeing connected to a dollar,
like the Federal Reserve'smonetary policy and fiscal
policy of the United States,where you wanted something to be
disconnected from that and youhave to be a developer, right,
like software engineer type, tocreate something like this and
(44:44):
created a coin and the ledger isjust a way of coagulating all
the information together andcomputers speaking to each other
, but you don't have access andit's something you cannot
(45:07):
decipher, right, because it'sencrypted to a level where you
have to have access to theledger in order for you to even
understand what's happening.
I say all this to say that nowyou can utilize crypto as a full
currency, like a dollar would,but it's not a physical paper.
(45:34):
It's digital, like everybodydoes, everybody knows, but it
can be manufactured intophysical cash and they're using
it heavily in California.
You can buy houses on cryptocurrency in California countries
.
But crypto is not a scam Now,because it cannot be managed or
(46:06):
regulated by the government.
It's its own process throughhuman interaction.
There's no banking systeminvolved in this, so it cannot
be managed, which is the geniusof it.
Speaker 1 (46:20):
Right, so that keeps the US out of their pocket.
Speaker 2 (46:24):
Right.
So Bitcoin is legit, but nowit's so legit they're trying to
manage it.
So now, if you try to cash yourcrypto into your account,
you're going to pay taxes.
Speaker 1 (46:39):
Oh see, they're finding a way to get in there.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
They're finding a way , but in 2015 and 16, if you
cashed out, you cashed outtax-free.
Wow, there are millionaires,millionaires, who are like 21
years old, 25 years old on this.
Speaker 1 (46:59):
That's nice.
So yeah, so you know it'sinteresting.
You say and you break down.
You broke down Bitcoin, so tellme a little bit about crypto.
What is the science behindcrypto?
Is Bitcoin crypto?
Are they kind of the same?
Speaker 2 (47:18):
Well, crypto is a euphemism for digital currency.
So Bitcoin is just crypto,Bitcoin you have.
Solano, you have Saldano, youhave Ripple, you have tons of
them.
Now a lot of them have beendeemed a scam, so a lot of them
are gone.
But there are some like threeor four of them that are super
(47:39):
legit Okay Right, and thatpeople can invest in, but these
are just non.
These are whatchamacallit, non.
They're not nondescript, butthey're incapable of being
regulated by government bodiesand stuff like that.
(48:02):
Right, which?
This is the attraction to itit's decentralizing the
financial markets.
So the dollar looks as if it'sat risk, when it's not.
This is just another digitalcurrency being used other than
the US dollar, but it'soutpacing inflation, right Like
(48:25):
crazy.
And now Bitcoin must be like$90,000 a coin.
No one can avoid you said noone could afford.
Speaker 1 (48:35):
It's $90 a coin.
No one could avoid Bitcoin.
No one could avoid Bitcoin, noone could avoid you said no one
could afford it's $90.
Speaker 2 (48:39):
No one could avoid Bitcoin.
No one could avoid Bitcoin.
Speaker 1 (48:42):
No one could afford it At the price it's now the
Bitcoin.
Is that much?
Yes?
Speaker 2 (48:46):
$90,000 a coin.
Who could afford that?
Oh?
Speaker 1 (48:49):
$90,000.
Yes, oh shoot Last I saw it itwas $90,000 a coin.
Sheesh man man.
That's a serious thing.
Is it true that Trump said thathe was coming out with his own
type of coin or something likethat?
Speaker 2 (49:09):
Yeah, so Donald Trump is trying to take advantage of
the excitement behind digitalcurrency and Trump is, for all
intents and purposes, he'sdrifting.
So he's trying to create adigital coin though he's the US
(49:31):
president, which should beillegal, though he's the US
president, which should beillegal so he can benefit off
the ensuing excitement ofdigital currency.
Right, because?
Yeah, because his real estateempire is defaulting, it's
falling apart, has fallen apart,so he has to have a new revenue
(49:55):
generating scheme and I'm not ahuge fan of what he's doing,
never have been and he's tryingto create a coin so he can
enrich himself, but, again, it'sgoing to work because his
voters will invest in it, forthe simple fact that he's
(50:17):
creating it.
Speaker 1 (50:22):
So I wouldn't call it a legit currency because it
just will not be.
And his popularity?
You know people's going toshoot.
Speaker 2 (50:26):
His popularity is fueling his ride.
Speaker 1 (50:30):
Make America great.
That red and white, that redhat People's buying it off the
shelf.
People's buying it off theshelf.
Speaker 2 (50:36):
Yeah, that's not even worth having a conversation
about because it's not really alegitimate plan and any
recommendations.
I really suggest that twothings.
This is my own opinion.
People should really thinkabout what investing is right.
(51:01):
It's just a tool.
Investing in the stock marketis just a tool to have something
else to fall back on right.
So I'll give you a perfectexample.
You go to the bank and you say Iwant to buy a house.
My wife and I have 50 grand andwe want to put towards this
(51:22):
$300,000 house Great.
Do you have anything else?
Yeah, I have.
I've got a 401k oh, that'sgreat, but you probably won't
want to have to use that.
But how much is in your 401k?
Oh, I've been at my job for 26years.
I got about $900,000.
(51:43):
That's great.
Is there anything else?
Yeah, my wife has a pensionthat's great.
But is there anything else?
Yeah, I have a stock portfolioworth $600,000.
I got some leads.
I put $20,000 in development.
I'm getting $200 a month individends.
(52:04):
I got $50,000 worth of bonds.
I get interest rates everysingle month and I got some
mutual funds over here.
That's called liquid assets.
Listen closely.
Those liquid assets can assistyou in leveraging for that house
(52:32):
.
All of that right, and you cansay, oh, and I got a life
insurance policy with whole lifecash value.
That's a lot to have than just$50,000,.
Right, and you want to say Iwant to use that money that I
just all that I just told youabout because that's the safety
(52:52):
net that they're looking for Tosay, okay, these people, other
than the $50,000 that they have,they have all those other
things.
It's not rocket science.
They have all those otherthings and we want to leverage
all that other stuff Right Tobuy this house so you don't even
(53:13):
have to give them the $50,000.
Right, they say we have the$50,000 in our savings but we
don't want have to give them the50 grand.
They said we have the 50,000 inour savings but we don't want
to give that to you.
This is what we got.
So what can we get for thathouse?
How can we get this house Nowif you only have $50,000, no
stocks, no bonds, no investment,nothing, then you have a harder
(53:36):
time.
Then you're going to have aharder time, you understand.
So you want to have thoseliquid assets right, that will
say they could liquidate all ofthose things they just told me
right now and have damn near $2million and they are a safe bet
(54:03):
for that $300,000 house.
So you can have the 50 grandand I'm just speaking like in
layman's terms, but this is howbanks view you.
But those investments that youinvest in are your safety net
right, and that's really yourretirement.
But you're also using that thephysical presence of all of that
(54:23):
liquid cash, to say, yeah, Iwant that $3,000 house, I have
$2 million worth of all thisliquid cash, but all we have in
our savings is 50 grand.
They don't care about the 50grand, they care about that
other stuff, because it saysthat you're safe, a safe bet.
Speaker 1 (54:45):
And that's what the average person.
Speaker 2 (54:47):
That's what they don't understand.
They ain't got to even be amillion bucks worth.
It could be 150 grand worth ofliquid investment 100 grand
worth At least that they knowyou got some other stuff sitting
there, but don't make that 50bucks be it, because then you're
going to be a liability Versusyou know anything else, right?
Speaker 1 (55:16):
Wow, this is very, very interesting.
I hope the people out there getthis information and you know,
we could probably have a serieswhere we could just actually
stick to one and then nail itdown to give people a better
understanding.
This is great information.
You're welcome, man, if I'mloving it, so people got to love
(55:42):
it, you know.
Speaker 2 (55:43):
Well, you know I don't know what people don't
know.
Speaker 1 (55:46):
I don't know, what people don't know, yeah, but
what I do know, I learnedsomething today.
I learned something today,that's all.
Speaker 2 (55:53):
I appreciate it.
Yeah, my pleasure.
Yeah, my pleasure, man.
Speaker 1 (55:58):
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
So, yeah, so, um, it's, this isepisode 91.
Um, this is the first time in acouple of years that we've done
a zoom actual zoom meeting andum zoom podcast and this is a
great show.
It's a great, great show and,um, hopefully we get to do
another one very soon.
You know, I wonder we could doyou have, like a Friday special.
(56:25):
Emil the finance guru, you know,and you have any parting words?
I mean, let me start off withmy parting words.
My parting words is that youknow, they say, if you knew
better, do better.
Right, they say that, but is itactually true?
You know, people need to apply,apply what they, what they do,
know, instead of holding on toit like okay, and stop being so
(56:47):
skeptical and be like okay.
You know, and one thing aboutlife is that people believe,
they believe in, they believe inthings.
That's, that's um, that don'tcost them anything, like they
would have faith, they'll havefaith.
They they so heavy with faith,but they don't, they don't, they
don't, but they don't trust,they don't trust in themselves.
(57:07):
They're like, okay, let me, letme put this money here.
Yeah, the risk of losing it isis much more than just um the
thought of financial freedom.
Yeah, yeah, that's my closingstatement.
Everybody, hey, open your mind,open up your eyes and open up
your wallet or your purse.
Speaker 2 (57:26):
Yeah, absolutely no, you're 100% correct, yeah, and I
just want to say thanks a lotfor bringing me on.
I really appreciate it.
I'm pretty passionate aboutlike knowledge and going to go
get things, like go and learnthings, right.
I've always been like that.
(57:48):
I've always been a voraciousreader for a really long time.
You know, some people will say,oh, I read a book a week.
That's nonsense, right, that'slike.
You know, that kind of stuff Ifind to be like very
disingenuous, um, in ways thatit makes someone seem like
they're, you know, trying to bebetter than everyone.
(58:09):
It's almost like a forced thing.
Um, and I don't mean to be meanabout it, but I've read 60
books since the age of 21, 22.
That's a lot of books, but it'snot.
It's almost like two a year andI like to learn things other
than what everybody is trying toread.
(58:32):
Because of where I work, theenvironment I work in, I'm
almost forced to learn and findout because I work around
seriously worldly people,worldly people like who's done
things.
And I've done some things.
I've traveled some great places.
I've known some amazing peoplein my lifetime.
I've connected some amazing,amazing, amazing professionals
(58:55):
in my lifetime.
I never thought that I wouldmeet right.
I've met some people that youknow people from the hood just
don't meet right.
I've met people stacked elbowto elbow, chatted two, three,
four hours.
You know Robert Smith.
Speaker 1 (59:09):
I never know him.
Speaker 2 (59:11):
Robert Smith, the black billionaire.
Speaker 1 (59:13):
Okay, the one that's higher than Jay-Z the richest
man.
Yeah, well, he's the financeguy right, Private equity, the
one that's higher than.
Speaker 2 (59:19):
Jay-Z the richest man .
He's the finance guy, privateequity firm, robert Smith.
His net worth is like $9billion.
Jay, don't come close tonothing like that.
Met Robert Smith many years agoat a banquet dinner.
Fantastic conversation with theguy Got his phone number whole
(59:43):
nine yards.
I was running a mentoringprogram at Goldman Sachs many
years ago and it was a blackbanker's dinner, more or less,
and it was like four or fivehundred black professionals
there honoring him.
Um, and we had some kids therefor my program and one of them I
introduced them and it was afantastic evening.
(01:00:05):
So he was looking to fund theprogram.
So, like, all these things havebeen happening to me in my
lifetime, right.
So I say all this to say go outthere and learn on purpose.
Learn Right and stop beingdistracted by pop the balloon
(01:00:26):
and find love and dudes fightingon air and chicks scamming
their men and dudes.
You know, fighting in trainstations.
You're like we're gettingdistracted by nonsensical, like
subpar, like way out the way,nonsense to the point where it's
like commonplace, right, butyou're over here buying Nikes
(01:00:50):
for 200, but you want to investin the stock for 50.
Go out there and learn onpurpose.
That's my thing learn right,and I'll leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
learn on purpose.
Folks learn on purpose, and Iappreciate you.
I appreciate you, emil, forcoming on and spreading your
wisdom better, yet I'll cut youoff.
Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Go on, learn for purpose.
That's what I'm going to cutyou off.
Go on, learn for purpose.
That's what I really meant tosay.
Go on there, learn for purpose.
Speaker 1 (01:01:23):
Learn for purpose.
Learn for purpose, folks.
You heard him Live and direct.
This is the your OpinionDoesn't Matter.
Podcast man, episode 91, a very, very good show.
We are out, thank you.
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