Building $20,000 per Month in Passive Income w/ Justin Hill

[00:00:00] Justin Hill: Added income streams that aren't requiring a ton of my time. As we all know, are time's the most valuable thing that we have. So I just try and maximize capital without requiring as much of my personal time. 

[00:00:12] Intro: You're listening to the real fi podcast where we discuss time, tested tricks, techniques, and strategies for pursuing financial independence today, so that we can enjoy a better tomorrow, a better tomorrow financial independence. Isn't about getting rich quick. It's about cultivating a foundation to grow financially mental. Physically and spiritually let's figure out how to kick the nine to five. Here are your hosts, Patrick and James 

[00:00:44] Patrick McGrath: phone guys. Welcome back to the real fi podcast. You got myself, Patrick McGrath and my co-host here, James Ripon.

[00:00:52] How's it going everybody. And today we're we got a really exciting guest, one of my long term, best friends and [00:01:00] someone who's on a wonderful financial, independent journey right now. My good friend, Justin Hill. How's it going, Justin? 

[00:01:07] Justin Hill: Good guys. Thank you for having me excited to share some knowledge and have good conversations with you guys today.

[00:01:12] So thanks for. For sure. So 

[00:01:15] Jamie Rippeon: we like to get started by just getting to know you a little bit better. We want to know you as a person, like where you started, maybe not like where you were born and raised, but you know what you did for a career, maybe where you went to school, what you did throughout that time as a younger person, younger professional, and how that developed into the person you are today and what your pursuits are.

[00:01:34] So why don't you wind back the clock a little bit and tell us a little bit about yourself. 

[00:01:39] Justin Hill: Yeah, absolutely. Starting we'll, we'll jump in. We'll save where I was born and raised with was where you guys are from in Maryland. Went to a school called Towson university to a college just north of Baltimore.

[00:01:49] I studied business management and entrepreneurship there. A double major there. Really learned a ton about just mainly an entrepreneurship track to be right. The big management track probably [00:02:00] condensed in like a year, in my opinion. But I've learned a ton of great stuff on entrepreneurship track.

[00:02:04] That led me to some of the side hustles that will get into but originally first little side hustle that had going was I had eBay. Pat's younger brother, Luke helped me out with that. Still super appreciative of that. Luke was awesome. We had a good thing going and that, that company I would go I started off selling.

[00:02:22] She hairs clearly. I don't need the hair straighteners, but I, I found a contact overseas to ship Chi hair straighteners, and I was getting 'em for. I think like 30 or 40 bucks and I was selling them for 70 or 80 on eBay. And then one thing led to another and started buying storage units. And then selling on eBay started express and was taking consignment for people.

[00:02:50] Then people would bring me things I would sell only for them that transition. So I did that for a few years. And then when I graduated college, went out to work for a pretty [00:03:00] large fortune 100 company. I was an operation consultant for them. And then decided to move to Florida, which is where I am now.

[00:03:06] And my fiance and I started a beach bot where we see through some friends got started in beach body. So then we had beach body into a fashion hill, which was a LuLaRoe company that my fiance and I ran together was super successful. Super fun. I'm sure pat will have some questions or stories about that.

[00:03:26] That's that was a fun time in life and really cool experience. And then that transitioned into. With actually a bunch of things, but into a duplex. So we have the real estate piece that, that kind of helped leverage me get into first investment problem there. And also currently in, in a sales role for a fortune 500 company.

[00:03:47] All of those kind of led to, built up. So it started selling a couple Chi hair straighteners on eBay rolled into other businesses and other side hustle. And then one thing just grew to another and now love the company I'm with [00:04:00] now. And really just love where my network is going and growing, I should say.

[00:04:07] And yeah, a longwinded answer, but that's a little bit my background. 

[00:04:11] Jamie Rippeon: So looking back to your college experience, you said you got involved with entrepreneurial and business classes. Did you find that the classes. Attracted entrepreneurs or did it grow entrepreneurs that, was it able to create entrepreneurs or is entrepreneurial?

[00:04:29] Is that a skill that you can learn in college? I guess that's what I'm trying to get at here. 

[00:04:33] Justin Hill: Yeah, no, that's fair. To your point I think that's like a two part question. No, I don't think it. Fostered, any entrepreneurial minds that weren't previously look and go like the entrepreneurial route.

[00:04:45] I think it was more engaged on like actual, like entrepreneurial accounting where like in traditional big business management, you're doing like accounting one and accounting two, and that's more engaged towards running like a corporation and managing a balance sheet where it did a lot of like entrepreneurial learning, [00:05:00] how, how you're gonna file as a sole proprietor or so it gave you a lot more of.

[00:05:05] How tos. But even that I, I, I would think that could be consolidated. But no, I don't think it fostered anybody that wasn't an entrepreneur. I think it just helped people like myself get a little more structured and cut a little curve, just different advantage and things like that. 

[00:05:25] Patrick McGrath: That's great.

[00:05:26] That's great. I want to touch base on that first business and kind. Really dive into what you learned out of that, what you took away out of that and how that's shaped you now, 10 years later in how you look at business and think about financial independence and being able to work for yourself.

[00:05:50] Justin Hill: Yeah. I, to say that's a super exciting topic. I personally think multiple streams of income obviously is the way to go. That three of us I think are [00:06:00] in agreeance on. I think doing the, so everything that I did prior to now was super labor intensive. My eBay business the Amazon business, the consignment the, the clothing company, everything that we did required a ton of my time.

[00:06:14] And so I, my paradigm kinda shifted towards, I still need that income, but. Taking up a ton of my time. So that kind of molded we haven't touched on this yet, but I'm really big into trading and cryptocurrency. And that provided a lot of freedoms and financial flexibility to be able to add that into one of the income streams.

[00:06:37] So pat and I have a company as well on side flow where we basically trade we swing trade the stock market, done some cryptocurrency as well. And so just, just added added income streams that aren't requiring a ton of my time. As we all know, are time's the most valuable thing that we have.

[00:06:54] So I just try and maximize capital without requiring as much of my personal time. [00:07:00] 

[00:07:02] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. That's that's, that's a great answer. And I think that's where we're all at right now is, is trying to build more of that passive income. I think when you're first starting out as an entrepreneur, you go for.

[00:07:13] Low hanging fruit, not not saying that it's easy, but that's all you have when you're younger is time when you don't really have the money to invest in some of these things. So in the beginning, the value that you have is your time putting all that in there. And as we grow older, And we've been able to save up some money then it's, how do I use my dollars to make more dollars?

[00:07:36] And I think that's exactly where, where we're all at now. So in regards to financial independence can you give us an idea of what that really means to you? Is it a lifestyle? Is it a number and of break it down for us and the audience out. 

[00:07:52] Justin Hill: Yeah. Yeah. So I think there's gonna differ for everyone.

[00:07:55] I'll speak for myself personally. My number is 20,000 per month. So that means that I need to be [00:08:00] netting 20,000 per month. I have some. It's fail, safe and checks the checks and balances that I have for myself to hold myself accountable. Just, just basic things I get up early every day. Just getting the basic routines at pat and I talk every morning.

[00:08:14] I'm always constantly checking the stock market cryptocurrency keeping my ears to the ground on places coming up, either depart complexes or foot deals, or just think adding to the rental portfolio. So just staying active every day. Something to help work towards my goal. But yeah, to specifically answer your question, $20,000 is my personal number.

[00:08:32] But I think financial independence really is just the ability to decide if you want to work or not. And additionally are you gonna be able to maintain that? So are you gonna be able to have the residual income to sustain whatever lifestyle that you're looking for? And I think that's gonna differ for each person, but.

[00:08:50] I don't think everybody's going need 20 grand. And some people might hear 20 oh, there's no of that. My personal number is 20, but I think it's whatever you feel comfortable at [00:09:00] whatever's sustainable. And whatever you can, live within that residual live within your means off of that residual income that you're building to that point.

[00:09:07] I lost, since that I only bought. I've driven the same car for the last five years. It's paid off. I don't have a car payment. I I truly only buy things that make money. I'm spending some money for a wedding and things like that. For the most part, I try and only buy things, making money.

[00:09:26] You're you're 

[00:09:28] Patrick McGrath: on mute, James. 

[00:09:31] Jamie Rippeon: I said, I'm with you right there. My wife and I are on the same track. Mentally, we're always just trying to buy assets. I, I have this tendency of somewhat guilting her a little bit in the future value of money. So whenever she wants to do something in the present, I say, is that worth X amount of dollars in the future?

[00:09:47] Just, to limit those luxurious expenditures today for delaying gratification for the future. I'm definitely with you, right? How did you come up with your $20,000 number? Is that something you deconstructed backwards where you kind [00:10:00] of put, put together, the lifestyle you wanted to live and you Mo modeled it off of that, or is there some other means of which you came to 

[00:10:07] Justin Hill: that figure?

[00:10:09] Yeah. I've factored a lot of things travel where I would like to, I'm looking to build build on the water right now in the inter down here in St. Petersburg, Clearwater Florida area. So that's not gonna be cheap. So just just BA basic cost of living needs different disposal link, income to invest and grow in, in other other revenue streams and other business idea.

[00:10:29] But I, I, I just came that numbers. I think that's enough residual income to be able to one have verifiable income, to get additional properties or financing for other business ventures and enough to be able to invest in some things that are, that come along the way. Not an exact signs, but I just think based on where I'm looking to go and what I need, I think that's ballpark what the number.

[00:10:52] Jamie Rippeon: So something I find super interesting is your involvement with, cryptocurrencies and NFTs and how you're paring that. [00:11:00] I, I would imagine into maybe other cash flowing assets as well. It's all, some sort of cyclical Environment that we're, gained somewhere, buy you assets for passive income elsewhere.

[00:11:11] Is that kind of how you visualize your involvement with crypto is it's like this huge upward potential gain that you can deploy in something 

[00:11:19] Justin Hill: like. Absolutely. And I it's on a small scale that already happened with the du Dubai. I just flipped a just real quick, just ended doing a flip deal on a duplex that I was planning on holding.

[00:11:32] But as well know, the market's really crazy right now. And neighbors house ended up selling like two doors down for 75 grand more than what I thought it was gonna be where I'll tell you long story short end up profiting. One 20 off of a house, but what leveraged me to be able to getting into that house was prior crypto trades and stock trades that I had made that allowed me to save up that capital.

[00:11:54] And a quick story off that is I met that when we were. Jesus, probably four or [00:12:00] five years ago, we, we did not have a lot of extra money and we would be like, oh, how much are you gonna get? And be like, oh, I'm gonna get like one extra Ethereum. I have 200 extra dollars on my check and we're gonna spend 170 of it on cryptocurrency.

[00:12:11] And our bills are like, are you crazy? Like you don't even have any extra money and you're spending the only extra money on this fake internet money. Are you crazy? And so we had a lot of those discussions. But then it came back full circle, which was really cool. Cause then we got money needed.

[00:12:26] To put down on a place it leveraged us into our clothing business that we started. We actually, that was something that I think we should talk about how we started. We. Basically just took out a credit card and financed the entire business on the credit card. We didn't pay ourselves a penny until the credit card was a hundred percent paid off.

[00:12:44] Which happened to be super quick, cuz it scaled faster than we originally anticipated. You just put out there listening, like you don't necessarily need to have money to get started in business. And I have a couple other, we'll sure we all have some ideas that we can share ways that you can generate income streams.

[00:12:59] That [00:13:00] don't require a lot of capital. But yeah, it got a little sidetracked there 

[00:13:05] Patrick McGrath: now. It's all good. I know. It's, it's really exciting when we all get, when you get talking with like-minded people and you have all these interesting stories and ideas. And everything else, but to parlay off of what, what James was talking about is one of the reasons that Justin and I had started this trading company that that we're doing is because we've wanted to partner together on real estate.

[00:13:26] Ever since we were in high school. We've always talked about real estate, real estate, real estate, and we decided, you know what, instead of just buying. Going out. And we both have enough money to go and buy an Airbnb down in Florida, but you know what, let's start a company, let's start a business that we both invest a little bit of money in and we'll grow that.

[00:13:48] And then we'll use our profits from that to fund our Airbnb business. Let's start another business for our other business. So now once we have the Airbnb, we have a [00:14:00] successful company that funded it. Now we. Continue to fund that and, and fund more and buy more assets with it. So we took an approach on, instead of just going out and buying something that we, we could do, let's take the harder road and create a business.

[00:14:15] That's gonna end up funding that, but down the road, that's gonna pay off exponentially. And we both invested money into doing this with our crypto. Returns from the mini bull run back in may. So it, it all is feeding each other and extremely exciting. And it all comes down to just investing that little bit every time and having that long term plan.

[00:14:39] So I love what you do, when you talk to your wife about all that, because those little investments can pay off down the road. If you're thinking far enough ahead. 

[00:14:50] Jamie Rippeon: So that's true. It definitely all adds up. I It's a progression of, of time and, it's time in the market kind of thing.

[00:14:57] And when you're working at it long enough, you're gonna build [00:15:00] up that asset pile. That's gonna either be growing. And value that you can collateralize for, additional assets or kicking off cash flow. And I think that's one of the hardest things for people to start right outta the gate is a business.

[00:15:13] A lot of people get into real estate cuz they think it's gonna be the easy, the easy fix to. To financial independence, but what a lot of people don't realize at first is that it takes a lot of capital to get into real estate unless you're syndicating, or you're doing a whole bunch of highly leveraged deals or your wholesale.

[00:15:30] But as far as like buying hold, passive mailbox money, It takes, takes capital investment and what you guys are doing. You're building that business, that's thrown off that money that you could reinvest. I think that's one of the more difficult things for people to, to grasp and get ahold of, because you really have to make a bet on yourself before you start making bets on assets.

[00:15:51] Justin Hill: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I think that was it too. Just always paying myself first. Like it like that Ethereum example that I gave before wasn't exaggeration. [00:16:00] Like I just, all, I was like, I know this is gonna pay off one day. It sucks right now, especially when you only have a couple hundred bucks disposable income to spend, 50, 70, 80% of that.

[00:16:10] In investing, even though you're not, we weren't really seeing any immediate returns at that point. Took a little bit of guts, but it paid off massively. It we've learned so many lessons probably more from our losses than the wins, but the wins are super fun. We've learned a lot from the losses in try and adjust strategy.

[00:16:27] And, just make better decision forward profits off the table. Always, just, we learned a lot of lessons coming along that I think some of 'em you have to learn the hard way greed and FOMO will get you losing a lot of money in the market. So just learning those tough lessons through just being diligent and just having systemic on how, we approach trading and growth and things like that.

[00:16:49] Jamie Rippeon: Let's, let's get into that a little bit. I, I know. That every other podcast, you listen to 99% of the time it's gonna be those wins. And those home runs [00:17:00] that people knocked out of the park. And it, it paints this super easy picture to, to investing. But what you don't learn is when you peel back layers to the onion is.

[00:17:10] There's a lot of lost money, a lot of wasted time, a lot of defeat. And all of that is, is it's not a negative, it's, it's a positive because it's an experience for me to learn from and build upon and grow afterwards. I know looking back in my investing, I've made. Countless terrible investments, and they all came at the expense of money or time, but, I gained knowledge or experience as a result.

[00:17:34] I, I can just thinking of it right now. Last year I bought right before the bull run with all the Bitcoin and cryptos and stuff, bought a whole bunch of domain names, thinking that I'd be able to flip them later for a couple hundred bucks, couple thousand dollars a piece based in, the crypto market probably put in three, $4,000 sold one wonder, main name for.

[00:17:55] Like 200 bucks, and wasn't able to unload any other one. So it's just a total, [00:18:00] total loss. I, I learned stay in your lane now I know nothing about domains. I don't know, you know how to market them. I dunno what appeals. So that's just like one example of a loss on my end. Be happy to talk about, some of your, some of your investing lessons that you've learned, where maybe things didn't go as expected and kind of what you, what you gained from that experience.

[00:18:21] Justin Hill: Yeah. I think that it goes back to what I was saying before and just not having super labor intensive high inventory managed companies. I got torched like several times in my eBay business, like coming up when I didn't have any money then. So if somebody disputed order or wanted to return or like that would be like devastating at the time, if they needed to have a couple hundred dollars return.

[00:18:44] And I was in college at that time, so I didn't have any real like money or ways to cover. Any things like that, or like any things going awry. But sorry. God, what was, can you go back to the original? I just had one second. Sorry. I got distracted. What was the original question? [00:19:00] 

[00:19:00] Patrick McGrath: Tell about tell us about a loss that yeah.

[00:19:04] Yeah. That taught you, that taught you a lesson. 

[00:19:06] Justin Hill: I'd say the most devastating one I ever had like that. I personally remember just feeling agony was like, I just bought I don't know, call it 40 or 50,000 of crypto, which brought my portfolio up to like around a six bigger position.

[00:19:19] It was down like 35,000, 24 hours. And I remember waking up and I was like, oh my God. I was like sick to my stomach. Like, how am I gonna make this back? Or and I legit for five minutes I freaked out and I was. I literally lost my breath. Like I like, oh my God, what do? And then I was like dude, I just bought Ethereum Bitcoin cash and Bitcoin two weeks ago at 35%.

[00:19:43] And I thought it was a good deal then. So yes. Okay. It went against me in the short run, like literally, like I bought it and crashed like the next morning I'm waking up early in the morning. Oh, let's see how my games are. Like, Nope, you've lost like more money than you made the previous year. And I'm like, oh my God.

[00:19:57] I'm like literally sick to my. [00:20:00] And fast forward and double the desk. I go through like the motions or they just, all the emotions of. Sad, like then just trying to assess what's going on. And then I just doubled down. I was like, you know what? Like this still is a good deal. It sucks that I just had to learn this super hard lesson, but I'm doubling down and then I did.

[00:20:17] And then it's the, market's almost back at what it was now. And it, I think that just, so that was a long answer for just. Staying disciplined and being patient especially in the crypto game. And we, we don't have a ton of physical data, but from what we do have, if you stay in position and ride, ride it over the long run, if you zoom out, the one year, two year, three year, like it will be ascending.

[00:20:40] So that will be my takeaway. Just staying disciplined patient and not getting greedy. 

[00:20:45] Patrick McGrath: Yeah, I can a hundred percent relate to that to go back to our whole beginning of crypto, Justin and I started investing during the 2017 bull run. I can remember having a portfolio of, two or $3,000 [00:21:00] going to seven, go into 25, go into $50,000 in the matter.

[00:21:07] Three four months and the whole time, you have that euphoria and we're like, it's going up. It's going up January. You get a dip, you're buying the dip March, you get a dip, you're buying the dip. Next thing you're holding bags for three years. And we held, we held some serious bags for really, really long time.

[00:21:26] And that long they learn through long, but those are the ones you learn where it's like. All right. I, I get the euphoric, the FOMO and everything else, but to watch a portfolio, like he said, from a hundred thousand drop to 65, or, from 60,000 drop down to 3000, you, you, you take some hard lessons, like you said, waking up in the middle of the night, thinking about everything, but it, again, it makes you be more disciplined, makes you be more diligent with your money.

[00:21:57] Learned to set up, stop losses all these great [00:22:00] inventions out there. But also again, if we would've just held onto everything that we had, cuz as soon as it started going up again, you're like, all right, I'm cutting my losses. I'm outta here. If you to just hold onto everything, we'd all be singing me and him especially would be singing a much bigger tune and most likely we'd probably be sitting here with seven digits in the bank right now.

[00:22:23] But those losses like you said, they, they teach you the most valuable lessons. Anything that comes easy is gonna go easy and anything that comes hard, you're gonna learn the most valuable lessons out of that. And I, I think that's a hundred percent what the crypto space can can do for you.

[00:22:38] I think there's gonna be a lot of people learning some hard lessons. Sometime in 2022. And hopefully I'm not one of 'em repeating that 

[00:22:46] Jamie Rippeon: yeah. I'm I just got into the crypto game 2020. I'm not even gonna say crypto, I only buy Bitcoin. And at that point, I, I had learned that it's volatile as hell.

[00:22:56] It, it comes with the territory. It's part of, part of what it [00:23:00] is. So when we rode this last one up to 63, I didn't think it was gonna drop, before, it, it drops down to 30, it's a 50% haircut. I think some of the other cryptos probably went down 60 plus percent. And it's one of those things where you just have to have the conviction in what you're owning and be, be willing to have patience.

[00:23:18] For me, especially with Bitcoin, it, I know Warren buffet hates Bitcoin, but I'm just thinking of a quote of his price is what you. Value is what you get. And when you're buying something and especially real estate, like you're buying an asset that, has value. You might get, beat up a couple years if the market turns, but if you buy a cash flow and asset and you're gonna hold it for a long time the odds are, inflation is gonna be your friend and the price is gonna appreciate so there's definitely a valuable lesson in there in patience and be it a well patient investor.

[00:23:48] Justin Hill: Yeah, it's funny. You mention that. I joke with people all the time and say, this is the only thing Warren Buffet's ever been wrong about. I still stand by. Hopefully, I'm not on some like clip and like chairs oh, is this wrong? But I [00:24:00] think he, I think he's he's gonna be proven wrong on this one as, as it plays out.

[00:24:03] Jamie Rippeon: Maybe that'd be an interesting direction to take the conversation is where we think investing to be going in the future as compared to where some of these traditional investors, Warren buffet, Ray Dalio, like all these. Big guys who have massed billions of dollars, they came up in a, in an environment, maybe that's different than where we are at now as a younger generation.

[00:24:25] How do you think about that as how big of a role is crypto gonna play in the future? What do you think the significance of it is? I 

[00:24:30] Justin Hill: think it's bigger than we can even conceptualize right now. I think as things start moving to the metaverse and VR, where, just think of how many friends we have now that have VR headsets when they go there and whether it's our normal or not like that's going to be the future normal and their preferred current going to be a form of cryptocurrency.

[00:24:51] So it's gonna be something on the blockchain. So whether it's Bitcoin or lake or. It's gonna be something that's backed by blockchain [00:25:00] technology. So I think that you're doing yourself a disservice to just point your feet in the ground. Oh, this isn't happening. Like it's happening. It's just a matter of are you gonna realize it and capitalize in it and like your own way, and it's gonna be different for everybody.

[00:25:12] For me personally, I think that's Diving more into the NFT space. I do a lot of the alt coins, but I still think there's a ton of great value in the big three, primarily in Ethereum, a lot of these alt coins. I like know I have some fun stories about that too, but sh had some wins off of that, but they're all Darum platform, I think just.

[00:25:33] History plays out. It's gonna become increasingly more important. And for a lot of the reasons that people won't be happy with, but it's, it's going to eliminate a, a lot of exchange rates. If foreign exchange is a huge, huge global industry right now. So you're gonna get a lot of pushback from that. And, but what it did, it, it inherently is like a double accounting balance, which is like what our current system is based off of.

[00:25:57] So it inherently does what [00:26:00] our current system. Is doing just much more effectively and excuse much more efficiently. So I, I just think that it's gonna be the way of the future in, in not some capacity in every capacity. I Just think of, you're on your phone, you have apple pay and.

[00:26:16] Google pay and Android pay and all these different things. What's more conducive with that. Like your Fiat currency, like banking system that you say, go to withdraw money or like cryptocurrency, that's gonna be able to have 10 times the encryption and operate faster and more efficiently.

[00:26:32] I just think if that's the way it's going and it's funny. I almost think it's crazy that people don't see it, that I see it. Like as much as I know tomorrow is coming. That's how much I know, everything's gonna be blockchain based and it's gonna anywhere that the efficiency of blockchain can be used.

[00:26:49] I think it will be used. It's just a matter of how long is it gonna take to get there? 

[00:26:53] Patrick McGrath: I completely agree with you. And I also think sometimes that people don't don't see the power of how it's [00:27:00] going to help the unbanked. I think that's really huge there. Billions of people out there that don't have access to a banking system in cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, light coin, stellar lumens even Cardo is all gonna give the unbanked the ability to pay back and forth, but moving into the digital era, like you said, with, with games, and now these NFTs, soon people are gonna be living in these digital worlds where they're gonna have a digital house and in their digital.

[00:27:29] They're gonna have their digital artwork, their NFT, or their avatar or whatever, like specifically decentral land, where people are buying up virtual real estate and virtual assets, and they are paying real dollars to have these things. There's this whole space out there that you can invest in and you can own virtual real estate.

[00:27:51] It sounds ridiculous. It really does, but it's happening. We've talked about investing in virtual real estate and buying up plots of land and virtual in, in, [00:28:00] inside virtual games. And all of that and paying people to build, build houses and all of this stuff inside here, because it's going to happen.

[00:28:07] It's not, if it is when, and I think it's gonna be a lot sooner than, than people. There's gonna be a lot of people that said, I always knew it. And a lot of people that wish it wasn't happening, but it's going to happen. And the sooner you get on board and you don't have to go all in, but the sooner you get on board, you're gonna be a part of the people that are gonna be in that new wave.

[00:28:30] Really look at, if you just look at today in the news, and I know we don't really wanna talk about news too much. If you look back over the last couple years, every time that any of the big banks came out, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, any of these guys were talking about, how Bitcoin's going to zero and it's not, it's intrinsically not worth anything.

[00:28:49] That's what they were saying on TV. But behind the scenes they were buying. Bitcoin. And they were buying up these assets and trying to get a trading desk and get an [00:29:00] ETF out there to push onto retail investors who didn't want a custodial hold their, hold their own assets. So the entire time they're telling you that it's worthless, they're buying, they're buying up massive amounts of it.

[00:29:11] So I really think that kind of goes to show that it's gonna be here for the long haul and the fact. All these large governments are against, it means most likely that it's good for, all of us. 

[00:29:23] Jamie Rippeon: one thing that I think is super interesting is banking the unbanked. If you look at El Salvador, they, adopted Bitcoin as currency and more people are transacting through.

[00:29:37] It's a state sponsored app, but nonetheless just. Transacting through the Chivo wallet, then actually have bank accounts in the country. Like people who could not have bank accounts are now transacting in the economy digitally. But before that, they were just doing cash and in coins. But now, but now they're officially banked and they're not having tax implications [00:30:00] for buying coffee or, selling papoosas or whatever.

[00:30:03] So I think it is revolutionary. Something is, on the horizon changing. So it's definitely something that 

[00:30:11] Justin Hill: hedges these underprivileged countries from inflation, hyper inflation to where their dollar is just significantly less or valued, significantly less. Through no fault of their own, just because their economy is bad or they're, they don't have good government leadership.

[00:30:28] I think it globalizes it, I know people don't really like that word, but globalism it's coming at some, we're basically already there, but I do think that, like I said, it eliminates a lot of the foreign exchange issues. And then from an efficiency standpoint that's really been the only.

[00:30:43] Big pushback that I see is people see really taxing on the grid. But I think when you look at alternative alternative energies, and I think as just as technology evolves, that it will become increasingly more efficient and less taxing on the grid. So just my 2 cents on it, I think it's [00:31:00] undeniably gonna change every aspect of how, how we live even down to simple things.

[00:31:05] Inventory and grocery stores and things like that and how you're gonna be able to tie the block chain technology to really create new positions for the people that understand it, but, and eliminate and consolidate some positions that are currently really labor intensive right now on the labor taxing on these stores.

[00:31:22] Patrick McGrath: I agree. I, I agree a lot and that kind of, that kind of segues us into this next part that we were, looking to get to is surrounding yourself. Like-minded people and how your network really helps you in growing and getting to, that form of financial freedom and financial independence.

[00:31:43] That, that we're all vying for. Tying that all in. Can, can you give us a little idea of, of how your network that you surround yourself with, is, is helping you get. 

[00:31:53] Justin Hill: Yeah, man. I think this is super important to talk about. It's actually it's a close subject to me cause I.

[00:31:58] As you go through growth, you [00:32:00] maybe outgrow some of your closest friends, which was super toughy. Pat. I, I get along with everybody. I just super personable fun, like to get along with everybody, but it comes to a point where especially if you get older and you start looking how valuable your time is and how your time's being spent.

[00:32:14] And true, not to be cheese. I know everybody says your network is your net worth, but it's true. And to that point, five to seven years ago, I was rolling with a different set of friends that I really would going out during weeknights or certainly not discussing like business ideas or anything like that.

[00:32:30] But come full circle. Pretty much since I moved, relocated to Florida, about eight years ago, I've just been super laser focused on just growth with my fiance and I both personally and together. And then when I just look at my circle of friends, That I had before versus my friends now.

[00:32:47] And not that everything's money based, but just to bulk, I would say like previously my friend's aver income is probably, I dunno, somewhere like 50, 70, 80, something like that. Now I'd say my five to [00:33:00] seven closest friends all make well above 2, 3, 400. And more than that. And. When you're surrounding yourself with people, you're having different discussions, it's more growth or opportunity based.

[00:33:13] It's not coming from a place of like jealousy. Like I pretty much, I make the least out of all of my closest friends. I love it. That I get, I learn from them and get tips from them all the time. Different strategies they're implementing tax advantages. Just really just it there's. So for so many reasons, everything changed the discussions changed the things that we do change.

[00:33:34] My vacations changed that I'm getting married Dominican Republic next month. So just everything changed for the better, but it was tough. And you had to go through a growth process and it's not like I. Talk to any of those friends, I would love to catch up or see how they're doing, but it's just on my day to day interaction.

[00:33:50] The people that I'm speaking with the most, it's the packs. It's my other friends, other friends, it's all, all business in growth minded. And we obviously catch up on what's going on in their personal life too. [00:34:00] But yeah, it's just different conversations and, but it's opened up so many better doors and allow us to do fun things that we otherwise wouldn't have been able to do.

[00:34:10] Yeah, I think. If anybody takes anything away from this, like you're in network and you're hanging out with it's gonna directly impact the trajectory of your life. 

[00:34:22] Patrick McGrath: Yeah. I, I couldn't I couldn't speak more highly of that because the same thing is, has really happened with me as well. I've seen over the progression of over the, about the last five or six years of we've invested in real estate and been spending majority of our time investing in ourselves and the, one of the only people or one of the very few people that I get to have those.

[00:34:45] Conversations with on a daily basis is, is Justin here. And we, we talk about business ideas and, and everything all the time. And that gets you motivated because it's so nice to get the three of us together like this, to be able to have a conversation, because I'm sure in a, in a [00:35:00] room full of people, it's, it's, you're usually the only one that's consistently, or one of the few that is consistently thinking about these, these types of things.

[00:35:10] And it's so nice to know that, you got someone to talk to and you're not the only one and it helps push you along. And I think that's, that's the whole point of this podcast. And what we're trying to do and bring to people is to show you that. You're not the only one out there if you're, trying to get towards financial independence or financial freedom, that if you surround yourself with one, you only need really one or two, one or two people that are gonna hold you accountable and, and push you.

[00:35:34] Just a few short years you can surprise yourself with, with where you're gonna end up and. I, I just think that is that is great. I really want to James, you wanna chime in 

[00:35:44] Jamie Rippeon: there at all? Yeah, I was just gonna say people definitely need to be comfortable with being uncomfortable and surrounding yourself with people who have gone up a notch above you is an uncomfortable thing.

[00:35:56] Cause you're gonna feel like you're not there yet. And especially with those that I. [00:36:00] Wanting to get involved in real estate. They're super intimidated to go to the meetups cuz they haven't done their first deal or something like that. But it's really important that you surround yourself with people who have the same ambitions, have the same goals, larger ambitions, larger goals.

[00:36:15] Because it's gonna reflect upon you and you're gonna change your goals, not necessarily to be bigger, but you're gonna see how you can adapt them to your, to your purpose that fits, what you want to do for your life and financially. So definitely I think it's important for you to learn how to, be comfortable being uncomfortable.

[00:36:32] Justin Hill: Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:36:33] Patrick McGrath: Exactly. Exactly. I think this kind of ties in to where we want to head to next was is is there anything that is there, is there a book out there or a podcast out there, or any particular person that, has really struck a chord with you that kind of changed your way of thinking about financial independence and what it means to, hustle and go at and get out there and, and go after your goals and [00:37:00] dreams.

[00:37:02] Justin Hill: Yeah. I have like your standard, seven have habits of highly effective people. I think 10 X rule is good. I think all of Robert Kiyosaki's rich dad, poor dad series is super, super just really useful. And I'll touch on that too. I don't necessarily have a rich dad, poor dad, but my dad isn't like a crazy businessman.

[00:37:20] He, funny enough, he owns his own business. He owns his own appraisal business. He's not like a crazy businessman and I would. His ideologies are more like in line with the poor dad, not like big refined lifestyle, but just just, he's more in line with the poor dad mentality. So I don't really have not related famous to follow, but like pronoun and Gary V there's another It's there's one really good.

[00:37:42] Oh, what is it? It's like the total money transformation. I think he's the author of, and a super conservative guy. He is it Dave Ramsey? Yeah. Yeah, Ramsey. So he, that's not really my couple tea, but I think that is a very clear cut, structured way of getting debt free. We didn't talk on that yet, but [00:38:00] I really do think that's super important to talk to getting debt free.

[00:38:02] Think is you asked, like for something valuable leave. I think that's the ultimate the best tip that I can leave no matter what you have to put yourself through, just figure out how to get debt free. If you need something systematic, like the Dave Ramsey approach, then do whatever you have to do to do that.

[00:38:20] I didn't do that. I for fortunately just through trades and different things and was fortunate enough to get a good job. I didn't have to go that route to do it, but It has changed my life and changed just like in debt, weighs on people. Like it, it weighs on your psyche, your just just overall, just everything.

[00:38:37] Just debt is just really hard on you. And I think that we don't, as we're there are current systems brought up. We don't emphasize enough on how bad day is, and I'm all for a good debt. If we're making some money on it. Absolutely. That's the only kind of debt that I'm good. That I'm okay. So I'm not completely anti debt, but if we're having debt, then it's producing us an ROI.

[00:38:56] I'm not gonna go debt 

[00:38:58] Jamie Rippeon: for. [00:39:00] Absolutely. But yeah, I, I think that Dave Ramsey, he's a great place to start, for your financial independence journey. He's probably not your end point for, for people with certain goals, but I agree 100% with your debt. My real estate debt, I don't pay two thoughts to cuz it's paying for itself.

[00:39:17] And I don't even think about it. Credit card debt, I'm paying off every single, after every transac. Because it weighs on you. I did use some debt to buy some Bitcoin that weighs on me because that could go either way real quick. You guys know that. So even though you buy assets with, I would put lump that into the bad debt category, cuz it's not real estate.

[00:39:35] But there is definitely an emotional. Part to it because you think about it every day and it weighs on you and it, it constricts your, your ability to think creatively beyond that debt. So I think getting yourself into a good debt situation is definitely step number one for financial independence.

[00:39:52] Patrick McGrath: Completely agree. Absolutely completely agree from a guy who. Refinanced his house [00:40:00] and bought Bitcoin at the peak and then had to ride that out. I can definitely say that that weighed on me for about three years. If you're going to invest or get into debt, make sure it's good debt. So yeah, I just have to try that one in there.

[00:40:14] Cuz everybody says don't do it. And of course, nobody knows best but yourself. That's another one to chalk up for the, for the hard lessons there, but I completely agree. And I think there's such a misnomer out there about debt. I know I've had tons of people on my Instagram arguing about you.

[00:40:31] Assets versus liabilities. And if you have debt on there, no matter what, it's a liability. And I think we can all agree. Good debt is something that pays for itself and generates cash flow and bad debt is something that you personally have to pay that generates no income or no value like a car or anything like that.

[00:40:51] And it's nice again, to have those like-minded people that think the same way when it comes to. When it comes to debt there. Man, this [00:41:00] has been an awesome conversation up to this point. I, I love the book choices that you got. I think we're all really into the the same kind of guys out there and have the same kind of thought process.

[00:41:10] Justin for anyone out there and that you, you want to drop a last little piece of knowledge on, is there anything else that you really wanted to, to touch on to teach people or tell people about, your financial independent journey, where you're going, where you're headed, what's next?

[00:41:25] In that journey? I think they definitely love to. 

[00:41:28] Justin Hill: Yeah. What's next for me personally in contract on a five unit in St. Pete now obviously scaling patent I trading company. Obviously I have a full-time career as well. That's going really well. That's obviously that's my main thing.

[00:41:40] So I think the equally important to touch on is just, that's my main thing. I do all of this outside of business hours and I think if you really dig deep and. Look, look at yourself in the mirror and say, can I do more? You can go work your full time job and do this after I did it, I, I did it and continue to do it and will continue to do it as I need [00:42:00] to.

[00:42:00] But so I think for me, just acquiring more units. Scaling my trading cryptos going great right now. So just a lot of really good things going on on that. And then I really like the NFT upside right now. Pat and I are just now diving into it. We're going into deeper layers of diving into it.

[00:42:15] think that's gonna be a huge piece piece of the future. We have some really great artist friends that we work. So I'd love to get some collabs going with them, pat and I put up the funding they do the artwork piece. We help 'em with marketing growth, things like that. So I think that's where it's going.

[00:42:30] But things that I would like to leave that I think for just people getting started is I think just try and find things where you can generate. Income without requiring a lot of capital from you. So obviously we're all in real estate but that does require a little bit of at least basic knowledge and, a minimum or, or a minimum amount of capital to get started, but what doesn't require You can do Amazon arbitrage just real quick at a high level.

[00:42:55] It's basically you find a item selling for $300 on Amazon and you can find it in [00:43:00] the store at a home Depot or Lowe's for say 150 or $200 there's apps that you can get on your phone that helps you identify those deals. I think that's something really great to get into when you're just first starting.

[00:43:10] I think NFTs figure out cryptos, figure out how to get on the DFI stuff. Figure out how to get to some of these cuz a lot of these aren't expensive and you can have massive, massive returns for a 20, 30, 50, a hundred dollars piece of art. And you may be selling it for a thousand or 2000% returns, not that far off in the future.

[00:43:29] So I think that's really. And then I think the Airbnb management is really big. So if you don't have any money to go buy an Airbnb right now, go find people who have properties that are either having trouble finding tenants or excuse me, trouble finding people to rent to, or just are tired of managing their own property or whatever the case may be.

[00:43:47] And just find people that will let you manage their property. That's your foot in the door. It's gonna give you the experience of at least managing a vacation rental, maybe. Quite the same requirements like an actual rental, but it's your foot in the door. It doesn't require a lot of capital. And it's [00:44:00] something that you can easily scale.

[00:44:01] Assuming that you do a good job at it and it can be super lucrative too. So I have friends down here making five, 10, $15,000 a month that owns zero property. So you don't have to own a ton of real estate. I like doing the asset, but who knows? Maybe, maybe just managing other people's is.

[00:44:17] Jamie Rippeon: arbitrage. That's a great opportunity generate that cash flow and then you can buy equity and other assets and businesses as well. So you gotta start somewhere. And I think those are all great examples of how to get into something with little investment and look for a great upside and good ROI. Justin, how do people get in touch with you if they wanna reach out to you?

[00:44:34] If you had something insightful that you dropped here and people wanna follow. 

[00:44:39] Justin Hill: Yeah, you can. So primarily do a lot of my business on LinkedIn. That's pretty much where I, I do most of it. It's I think it's Justin Hill business executive might be LinkedIn, Justin Hill business executive, I think to find out Facebook as well.

[00:44:50] I need to do a better job of being more active on social media. That's something that pat has vowed to hold me accountable for. So I'll, I'll be more available to people, but yeah, feel [00:45:00] free to reach out. You can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook. I have an Instagram and I'll use it too much, but yeah.

[00:45:05] Feel has any questions. Anything, if I can help out in any capacity, feel free to reach out. I'd love love to help people have. I can. 

[00:45:13] Jamie Rippeon: That's great. I appreciate it. It was great having you and Justin. 

[00:45:16] Justin Hill: Yeah. Thanks for having me guys. Good luck. Look, look forward to doing more in the future. Absolutely.

[00:45:21] Patrick McGrath: Awesome. Have a good one out there, guys. We'll talk to you and see you next time. 

[00:45:27] Outro: Thank you for listening to the real fi podcast where you learn from the investors that have lived, the hard lessons for you to connect with us during your pursuit of financial independence. Be sure to join our community by following us on Instagram or emailing us@infoattherealfi.com.

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