This episode covers myriad of issues facing our modern world today: how technology is impacting kids in school and beyond, the effects of mortgage rates  and inflation on the economy, and the looming recession in the U.S. 

Hallie and I discuss our personal experiences with social media and the challenges of comparison and distraction. We also touch on the negative effects of cell phones in schools, then transition to the impact of mortgage rates on the real estate market and the rising cost of food and the impact it has on household budgets. We conclude with Warren Buffett's investment strategy, the distribution of wealth in the stock market, and, on a positive note, the power of journaling at any age.

Timestamps:

[00:10] Our Personal Social Media Use

[06:26] Cell Phones in Schools

[12:10] Mortgage Rates and the Real Estate Market

[19:04] The Rising Cost of Food

[20:03] Understanding the Stock Market and Market Fragility

[22:37] Warren Buffett's Investment Strategy and Market Indicators

[26:30] The Power of Journaling and Reflection

Welcome to the 200 % Life Podcast, your weekly insights to spiritual growth and business success with Adam Hergenrother and Hallie Warner.

So Hallie, we all use our phone. Yeah, we do. You know what I actually did recently? Was I have an app on my phone. coffee. What? I don't know. You said what you No, I'm drinking Celsius now, actually. You know actually the funny thing about Celsius is?

I'll give it to Asher for his third game. He gets to take like five sips of it before his like third lacrosse game. And he only gets it. It's like the special thing is he only gets it on his third game in one day and he gets like half. But it's so funny.

bring it out like I gave him a couple steps and all of your kids are like kind of couple steps. So it's like it's like community Celsius like because it's their third game they're smoked. Anyways so they're pretty good. What's his flavor? I think it's like the cherry or like the mixed berry. yeah.

So anyway, actually put, it's an app on my phone called Opal. I don't know if you've heard of it, but it's basically blocks your social media. But it does a lot more than that. It helps like you can put different settings on there. like right, actually during my entire vacation, I had like a vacation blocker on there where I couldn't go on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is my kryptonite. Does that also do an auto responder for your text?

I don't think so no no but that would be nice if so I did work around that and what I did was because I get a lot of text and then so I'm not I don't have that problem a of people if they're texting me and I get back to them they're like well and then of course later on they can find out but it's so then I put like the driving mode on and put my own custom messages I'm no longer receiving text until

Whatever the day it is. you can put that, that's just a phone setting. Yeah, exactly. think, right? It was, that's the way. Yeah. I thought there would be a better way to do that. There might be, but no, the Opal app is more of like, you can do, and you can customize your settings. Like when I have my work mode, I can't access any of my apps from like nine to three so that I am just not sitting there scrolling. Some people shut it off in the mornings or in the evenings. It's been so much better because I get very

Do I enjoy it? don't know. I enjoy it because there's a few people I like to follow for entertainment. There's a few people I really like to follow more for business. And then the...

And of course I have to use it for work. I mean, that's just the reality of selling things and being a coach and all of that. Like I definitely need to be on there, but I can get stuck in the scrolling and I do not like doing that. then LinkedIn again is my, I say it's my kryptonite because I do get very competitive and I see what other people are doing. And I get competitive in a good way sometimes, but then I also get trapped in the comparison of, and I look at them and like, I don't even want to do what they're doing.

But I'm so far behind But I'm like but I don't actually want to do what they're doing because they're working harder than I want to be working right now Or they're doing things that I have no desire to do. I don't want to build a company and I want to build a team But I still like get stuck in the comparison. So Yeah, it's all game. It's funny. You know, I've been off of social media for a while, but there's a app called Strava you're from the Strava. That's your exercise So basically, no, I'm not familiar But it basically like it tracks like you're like there's like all these

segments that you can create and it tells you who's the king of the mountain is or like a top ten or so there's all these different things like competitively that you can it's fun

But I could find myself in that thing. Like I'll scroll down and I'll do like a two hour bike ride. And I thought it was pretty good. Then I'll see the next roll down. Somebody did a four hour bike ride and I go, I should have done longer. It's so honestly, like to this point now, like I've literally had, I don't even go on Strava anymore because like I, and I do sometimes to like just to see like, but I I'm saying like once a week now I was on like every day and like kind of seeing what other people were doing. But then the same thing started happening. It didn't matter what it was business or fitness. was that same competitiveness, which is like,

now I need to be a better athlete. I need to go work out more. And of course, you're looking at 11 different people and they took two days off to make this bike. Whatever it is they're Does it motivate you? Because it actually is, for me, it's demotivating and I can feel myself showing up in inauthentic ways because I'm trying to, like, I'm just gonna do what they're doing because that's clearly what you're supposed to do. I mean, I actually don't get trapped in that too much anymore. But I feel myself.

trying to be relevant in ways that I just don't. It feels for me it's inauthentic and I don't, it's demotivating for me, but is it motivating for you? It is. can be. not for But let me explain. can be motivating to a detriment.

And so what I mean by that is like I know my body needs rest and I go, what? I need to go out there and do a longer ride or I need to go run to this or I need to be faster than this. And so like in some way it makes it go a little like it's a better workout to sometimes but then am I digging a deeper hole because then I don't know if I even told you that I actually pulled my back right before. Yeah, you talked about it on one of the podcasts. I did, yeah, exactly. it's like the same. It's like the Olympics. Yeah, that's right. So it's like the same thing. I was like I was way overworking. I was trying to do way too much different things. And that's like one of the things that can happen.

there. course recording the Mine is I feel like I need to get my insert myself into conversations like on social and then I'm like I don't even that's not who I am I'm not somebody who like I'd rather have an interesting exchange of ideas not say this is the one way to do things that's just not who I am I'd rather I'm more curious than that. I know that like if I opened up Instagram and started going on there I would

I don't have so much a problem with it. LinkedIn is the one that causes me problems. Everyone's a little different. Instagram, I can just get stuck on there more for fun and scrolling. And I always like to see book recommendations. Sometimes I do feel like I miss. There is a positive to it. But I think that for me, at least for me, it's outweighed by the negative. So speaking of all of this, think it was a New York Times article that I was reading about

adjusting cell phone usages in a lot of schools because obviously back in the day you was like nobody used cell phones then when I think there was an there was started being a lot of school shootings they started allowing kids to have phones with them because they thought it would be more of a you know protective measure but just a security or they're able to call somebody or or whatever but now they're starting to rethink that again because of all the negative effects on concentration focus bullying

mental, just all the things, I mean, that was all mental health stuff I was just talking about, about this comparison and also potentially just distracting them from focusing in school. So I was curious what the policy is for the kids in school. When you're sending over the agenda, because we do have an agenda, folks, the point is there. not. Yeah, believe it not, we do. But when you send it over, it's funny because our school just sent out an email that said there's no cell phones allowed in Stowe anymore.

Hold 7 to something 2 or? electronics. So you can't have a Gizmo watch. I was going say even they show you the iPads. Apple watch. You can't have anything that's like that can use that stuff because they cited the article like they didn't.

They actually just included the article because they're in basically if you the article, it's what everybody has been hearing anyways. It's like specifically for kids like up through high school, like the detrimental impact that it does of like needing like oxytocin basically every second of like some sort of head. And what the other big thing though is the bowling issue that's happening because you you're not, you know, I are friends with Tom Murphy from Sweethearts and Heroes and he's talked to millions and millions of students and he's a good friend of ours. And like one of the things that we

or whatever it was. Or you got yelled at face to face. then once you went home, but then once you went home, like you didn't like, it was like a reset period. Like it was like, and maybe you knew it was happening, but you wouldn't see it again until the next day of school. Now what's happening though is like people literally that's happening at school, but then

during school, everybody else is, so now all of sudden you're glued and everyone's making fun of you it's come and then it's still doing it even more than you wait. So it doesn't end. So it's like, there's no reprieve from that to be able to do that from there. And I was gonna say, the bullies don't forget either, right? They might go home and just like move on with their, and forget about the kids that they being mean to. And it's also just incredibly distracting.

for like to try to like, you're in an environment. So this is like, I don't want to get into a whole podcast about Vermont schools and how it's funding because I think it's completely way out of whack and it's beyond comprehension at this point of how poorly run our schools are. But that's a whole other thing that we'll get into later on. But as an example of this, like our poor people spending in Vermont is doubled and our ratings have decreased. We're now below our testing scores. And so now we're below the standard and we're spending double the amount per pupil.

It's like, that's why. So where's the money going? To all these different programs that are not effective. I was going to say even the infrastructure, because the schools, some of them are really, wouldn't the Stowe school have infrastructure is. No, it's not even infrastructure it's going to. It's going to programs that have no accountability to them. This is where, I, if you heard that podcast that Elon Musk did, he was talking about

about the politics and why he did with Trump. And he said, one of the things he was doing with Trump is that they want to create an efficiency task force for the government. it basically was like, it was actually like getting our, cause I mean, whether you're democratic, Republican or independent, you have to understand if you're spending seven, a third of the budget every year is there to pay our current debt. That's a problem. Like we can't, that can't sustain that right now. I think we're actually at like 15 % of our

or 12 % of our entire payments is that. That's the problem. So anyways, but when we, what was I saying before that?

About the schools test scores are down. Yes, so they're down anyways, and it's this whole issue that's going on there But again, I'll send the point of like having cell phones and there's incredibly distracting for people Yeah, and they're worried of course about AI and cheating. Yep, too. It's exactly right. So it's all those kind of factors I'm actually happy they did that because then it's no longer about I need my phone I need to do this I think you can you go at three and you can use them to like make your calls and again, yeah, guess what people go This is the argument I hear from some parents sometimes they go. but I to get in touch with my kid I go

They've been doing school. Yeah for like a hundred years and without any of them. What did you tell to do with your parents? Exactly. This is exactly what time you need to be somewhere and I am going to be there to pick you up and you better be there because I'm not gonna wait for you. Where you go to the office and you pick up the phone and you actually memorize a number to call them to do this different thing anyway so I think it's like teaching kids those different things that are around there. Well we're also in a really interesting spot with

big question for folks is mortgage rates and just in real estate in general, which we'll get into the macro economy, to me, it's really fascinating right now. The overall economy, as we know, had some dismal job reports. I think it came out like 114 ,000 people applied for jobs or got jobs and they forecasted like 178 ,000 approximately from there. Something with unemployment rate is really still like not that It's up though. Yeah. So it's not as bad.

as people want, but it's going in the opposite direction. Now, the other thing is that's really fascinating. If you actually take out the government created jobs, we're in a recession currently. So like that's the other thing that people are basically indicating that if the government stops spending money into these different sectors, like they're giving contracts out to boost spending, they're giving money out to build infrastructure. And so they're creating a lot of jobs. If you actually take out the jobs that are created from the government, we're in a in a actual defined recession right now. So again, but this is part of what government

do is they spend money these ways but this is why we're finding ourselves into yeah so they can create jobs and make it look like this for different things this is actually why

5 % they've been hovering at the highest point of like almost 8 % they've been hovering around 7%. Why it for anyone who and I'm curious myself but

tax rate, whatever it was, it came out to about $8 ,000 ,000. So the money they were giving out to first time home buyers was basically a wash. It was the money that was created back in there. So there's so much money created from the housing market in general. So one of the other ways, this...

Consumers may not necessarily notice, but if you're in real estate, we've been in an actual real estate recession for 18 months. I don't know whatever you want to call it. We are down over 40 % from where it was. sales. Yes. The number of homes that have sold to the number that are selling now. And it's been staying there. It's been the hardest 18 months.

and at least for me in real estate and I think for anybody else that's been in real estate. everybody's been affected. pricing or is this because people aren't moving? It's because of lack of inventory. And the reason why it's lack of inventory is because mortgage rates also went up so high. So people with two to 3 % mortgage rates that go, sure, I could sell my house, put my equity in there, but now I'm going to have a 6 % mortgage or a 7 % mortgage. And maybe it drops to 6 % at some point in time, but I don't want my payment to go up from $1 to $3 ,500 just to have a little bit better of...

house. At some point that gap narrows and people go, that's fine, right? But what we're seeing is it's still way too high. So that's why you're seeing refinance is the lowest it's ever been in history since they've been walking it because they're so high right now. what you're starting... But they did jump. They jumped 16%. % because But remember, when you're at 1 % and you go to 1 .8%,

of mortgage rates refinance are in the single digits of the percentages. Sixteen percent sounds like a large number, but it's still a tiny number of what they are. Again, it's good that it's going that way, but it is what it is.

mortgage applications only rose 0 .8%. So it's a very minimal effect. I think is going to happen, just starting that point out with in any real estate sector, real estate has been in a recession. So we've seen that from the brokerage industry because the number of sales, and of course you take 40 % of inventory for anybody and you have the most amount of agents that are out there, people suffer. And that's just what's happening. And now there's an efficiency. I think the market's being reworked. I think there's some regulatory environment issues that are coming out there that are causing things to be reworked as well too.

that stuff, not to say it's bad or good, it just is what it is, but this is why there's so much tie in there because it produces so much income into the economy. remember when the Fed rate is not necessarily tied to mortgage rates. So people have this idea they go, if the Fed reduces because the prediction markets are saying that Jerome's gonna drop it 1 % right in September maybe. Maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, but if he drops it 1 % the mortgage rate doesn't automatically drop 1%.

Right the Fed rate which is basically what banks charge each other raise what the Fed rate is will drop 1 % And then so like revolving debt credit card auto loans home equity lines boat payments all student student debt if you have revolving or if you have a variable mortgage rate will all sudden drop down because of that right for what those things are but what mortgage rates really do is spur an economy that has a depressed real estate market so a lot of people watching this in my opinion is that over the next

quarter to get to the over film.

We're having this conversation in middle of August. I'm confident that I think that by the of this quarter, especially in election cycle, we'll see right around 6 % mortgage rates. And then I think we'll even see some banks go to 5 .5. We'll see some banks go to 5 .25 in -house 10 -year program, five -year refinance. And what it'll do is it's get it close enough to people that go. I think prices are Especially when you have like a 3 .8. Exactly what I'm saying. Even 3 .5, 4%.

so much equity in your house, prices are gonna drop a little bit, so you're gonna have quite as much equity in there, but maybe the higher end homes come down a little bit more, and so yours isn't depressed so much, so you can sell it, take your equity out, and you go, I don't mind an extra $500 a month for this entire house that I have, and mortgage rates seem better. That's what'll start spurring the economy, and that's the other big thing that we need to kind of help a softer landing or keep us necessarily out of recession. To me, it's just real estate's been in the recession for...

for a period of 18 months and the rest of the world is catching up to it, which is typically the other way. So real estate is usually one of the last industries because it's got a lagging tail to it. But because this time the economy was doing so well, jacked rates up, which then put a halt to real estate first, which this will be viewed in economists for years because real estate is always the lagging indicator and it's always the first one out, which is interesting because it's typically how it works. But in this case,

it's literally been the first one in before everybody else was. And I think we'll be the first ones out because the A, there's demand there, rates as they start to drop and mortgage rates get to a more comfortable level. You'll see more buyers enter the market, but it's not gonna be some, you know, we're gonna see 40 % increase again. I think it'll be slow this year in terms of what we're seeing now. It'll start to feel a little bit better because things will start going in there. And then I think we'll see rates normalized somewhere between five, five and six. And I think that's when it gets down to people going,

Okay. I also think prices were softened, which they already are like in certain areas. Some areas are not softening, but predominantly things are cracking. And I don't mean that even in bad way. Like I think they need to come down just like food is up a hundred percent food. You go to the grocery store, by the way, we used to spend this is a side note. I was yelling at Sarah the other day and I probably shouldn't have done that, but like we used to spend like $1 $2 ,000 a month in food. We eat pretty healthy. We have family of five. Like I drink a lot of seltzers and things like that. And we're spending like four grand a month.

That's insane. said even a joke like it literally like and I'm we were fortunate enough to be able to afford that but to even that I'm even I'm going like no the majority of people cannot know but I'm going like do we need to four grand a month I'm like what what do I need to so then I start looking then I'm like shit I'm taking away from my experience now I'm looking at the food I'm going we spent 50 bucks in the steak even last night so I was going through this and I'm like what's wrong with me right now and it's like again but I but yeah the prices of food again I feel like have

They are. so I think they're all going to start. That's why we're getting inflation, obviously. But the cracking is going to happen. As all these things start to compress, I think it'll kind of mix for this next couple of years of what it was. But that's where mortgage rates and how that all tied into everything. What, I mean, obviously, you saw the headlines, too. It's like the stock market crashed, which it didn't actually.

crash. But clickbait, right? I'm sure a lot of advertising was sold over the past over last week. But it $2 million was wiped from the stock market. yeah, $2 trillion was wiped from the stock market on August 5. Maybe your own portfolio lost $2 million.

So like what does, it says it dropped but we're still up 9 to 11 % here to date. What does this all mean? Yeah, as of Friday of last week, we were up 11 % still. Most of the market has come back. What it really means is that the market is so fragile right now. By the way, 114 ,000 jobs that were supposed to...

that actually hit versus the 170 something along those lines that it was supposed to be should not cause the market to drop like that 600 plus points, right? And now what that really is showing is like how fragile everything's baked into everything. And the sentiment on the street is right now, if you talk to other business owners, they're more fragile right now than ever than they have been. And they're going, okay, we saw that just happen. There's another thing that we don't have to get into, but the sell off of the yen, right? Drops so much because the first time Japan

actually charged an interest rate but Japan without getting in the whole bunch of this actually isn't

charge of like their own Fed. So like they don't have a separation between Fed and government or a Fed and president like we do in our country. So they basically own their own debt and they're charging whatever they want to charge in their own debt to keep inflation in line. They haven't had inflation for a while, but for the first time in the last couple of years, they've had actually inflation go up. It's been like a 4. something percent, not quite high. We got it. But they tried to raise rates like 25 basis points from zero to like 25 basis points. And it threw everything

in the whack because they're trying to do it. So in combination with that report, it did this whole kind of like market kind of like freaked out and went back. But it's now, I think I saw something from Bloomberg that within 48 hours, most of the sales that have happened have, and were put back into it. like, I think people kind of extracted money in different places and I was gonna say some of the people I follow were just like, well, we just bought a lot of stock while it was cheap. Yeah, well, the other thing is like, well, it's really interesting. You you look at like Warren Buffett, who's been,

massing a massive war chest right now. So Warren, if again, you know, some people like him, don't like him, whatever, I don't think people dislike him, but like they may say he's old, but he's got almost $300 billion. So he's sold most of his position in Apple. He has been, and he's been selling in some other ones. If you actually look at a lot of his stuff, he stays in companies that are kind of regulated, that are set pricing, that are easier. There could be a lot of reasons why Warren's doing that right now. One could be that he maybe thinks, you know, Apple lost that case about being able to

have Google as their primary search function, which is $20 billion a year, which was 99 % margin. So think about that. So you have to factor that in. So if regulation comes down and says Google can no longer pay to be the number one or the not the preferred, but the

major cases actually happen. it's what's the term word I'm looking for now it's not because it's

Monopoly you talking about? Yeah, yeah, it's like it's yeah, I think there are I mean Apple and Google like they're creating them the monopolies Nobody else can get in there like an or an oligopoly and everything like those things But what they're saying is if that happens and you take away 20 billion dollars at a 99 % profit margin, right? Basically taking 20 billion out a year you take that out that could be a half a billion dollars in market value And so again, so, know Warren's selling a lot of his current position that it's out there He's also the other thing is that like he also may think that we're heading into a recession and know, so where's his

Like when you say war chest is just putting he's putting cash cash. Yeah, that's I thought. That's thought I got 300 billion dollars cash Yeah, but there was a six in front of that number that I saw it was maybe I thought it was like 640 something don't know. He's gonna hit like 300 billion dollars, which is unheard of to be sitting in a cash position right now and so again the people are speculating like he does he think we're going to because you know Warren's always famous for sell when people are buying and to buy when people

selling right so now there's speculation of like does he think our sessions coming and setting up for the future to be to make some really good deals or just this is not like Apple because of the regulatory environment that it's in anyways we'll have to see that but that's that's really where the kind of the market play ends up I it's funny because your everyday person what do they keep it you know about this I don't think I should touch it yeah over it's the same thing with real estate there's never the real estate world in

the public markets have always gone up over time. And they have to. And the reason why this is, whether you like it or not, our worlds economically, and you would definitely be a farmer if this happened, because we would all be farmers, literally is run by those two going up over time. If real estate's depressed and 99 % of individuals in the United States or even in

developed countries have their equity in their homes, if they decreased, people would know that all that equity would be wiped away from everything. So people would have no equity. Think about it, people had And then would it just become, would it be like... They would have no retirement, they would have no money, they would have no equity. there's trillions of dollars that'd be wiped away. And the same thing that in...

So you had that for obviously for housing in the public markets. If they went down, people invested in there and you had, you put $100 ,000 in, but then 20 years later it's worth 10 grand. The entire like, for nobody would do it. But like then all of a sudden nobody has retirement anymore.

So like the markets themselves are built into a situation where yes, for periods of years, you can lose money if you sell or if you invest a lot into a one specific company. That's why you have a diversified portfolio between real estate and public markets and bonds and treasuries and equity yields and different things like that, or even short positions in companies. know, any of those types of things if you want to. And so like that's where a diversified portfolio really comes in there. But if somebody just invests into an index, which is you're going to have a very diversified portfolio when you do

that over time it averages you know nine ten percent growth again for so it's just timing of real estate and those things so for the average person that can that's just with it like you can go on. I wish I knew I saw this stat when I was reviewing all stuff. would say is like if you have a lot of money and like a company in like let's just like Warren as an example yeah I think I figured exactly how much he owned in it.

But if you own that, if you have that large position in a company and it's at its peak and you sell it at its peak and you take it and you deploy it into like a safer, which is what he's doing, like a T bill of four or 5 % instead of at a 12%, that's not a bad option because then you're setting yourself up there. So as long as you're just not taking it out and buying it for personal consumption. Yeah, I was just going to say, I can't remember what the, the stat was, but it was like 95 % or something like that. But that.

It was, I can't remember what it was, but it was something about like the only the really the top, I don't wanna say it was 1 % of people, wealth wise, but maybe it's top 10 % of wealth people have 95 % of the stock market. It was the top 10%, 95 % of the stock market. Yeah, which I also thought was. Or 90 % of the stock It was something kind of crazy like that. It's like, okay, so we are really, so then I'm like, okay, well, what are other people investing in? Are they just not investing at all? Well, I think they are just a number of, so small too.

So most I would say most people I know have like some so for one care Roth, but it really is showing distribution. was going to say they're in retire. Like again, the article I was reading was there like in retirement plans through their their school teachers or their like bills at a retirement through unions. But those are then invested into. Sure. So they're in the markets that way. That's true. But again, most of what I took away from that was just again, I think it was like we can probably look it up in a second, but it was like 10 percent of the

of 10 % of people own 90 % of the market. So again, it's the same Pareto principle. It's like in everything. And when they threw that out there, people were like, some people were arguing about it and I go, well, that's almost always been like that by the way. it's not like that's like 20 years ago, that wasn't much different either. It's just for one of those type of things that was there.

You know I did do? I went back today, because I was struggling for like a question of like trying to get an answer for my own head. And I was just trying to go back and forth. And I was like, I finally was just like, you know what, like I'm just like a mess inside. I stop asking the person of mine these questions. I went back and I read one of my journals.

leadership is needed or like, these are all my own words, right? And I'm reading this and it's just like, it's like, gotta like never give up and like, you gotta push through and like, you'll be looking at this in five years now and all. And the funny thing was like, I know during that time that hollowness, that stress that was there was really there. it was like, I was building the ALZ building and the casual challenges. UPI was like challenged cause we just hired somebody and I wrote in there like, I needed to let this person go.

Yes,

running around trying to make everything happen. And I don't remember 10 years ago. No, seriously, I don't even like. And so my point with that is like all these like political challenges that are there, market fluctuations up and down.

You know, in a period of time, you won't remember these things. And most of them, you won't remember them for a year later. mean, COVID seems like it was decades ago. I mean, honestly, maybe, I'm sure if you... it does for me, It just, like, it is. And even the CDC now, basically, I just saw them come out with a report. Did you see this? They just came out and said, treat COVID as same as the flu.

I did not do So they just came out and two years after this all ended. again, they came out with like a thing, a printed paper, basically like a white paper. COVID for the first time.

You got COVID. I did. I COVID times. When I was in Miami in March, I got it. were actually, came back, speaking of vacations, we came back from vacation early because I'm like, why are we here? I have, I'm sick. I to just go home. But that's crazy. No, I did not. Do you still journal? I do. Every day. Every day. Yeah. do think it's Even on vacation, I still journal every Yeah. I think it's, I haven't journaled in such a long time, but I know I've told you this before that I kept a journal from -

Literally when I was like first knew how to like really write like I was seven from seven until like 21 ish probably But I do I haven't gone back. I really want to go back and read some of them But I'm almost like scared to go back and read them. That was the first time I read mine, but I don't know why I'm scared

It's like why are people scared to do anything? It's just like it was one of the first times that I read that and I was just like, you know, it like it was almost like I needed to hear that because it was like, I mean, I'm not even in like anywhere remotely in that situation anymore. And it's like, they're still stressed that if you allow it to be there for different things, it's all self induced by the way. Like I always put myself in these situations, even though like in that, in that journal is like, never going to find myself in a situation and I'm not in that same one. But it's like, you know, I remember there's a really good friend of mine that used to work out with that is sold like

three or four companies and he's done really well. I remember I was like seven years in working out because he always, saw the stress of the first sale and he was like, and then like, he's like, fuck, I got out of that. He's like, I'm never gonna put myself in a situation. Like four years later, he's in the exact, I literally went up to him I go, you told me you were never gonna put it. He goes, I know, I can't believe that. can't believe, like, I did it. I know I'm in this situation. Now I just gotta get through it. Now he's like, and what do you think made him want to do it? it, was it like he just needed to?

I think what it is, think when you - to be a part of something or? Well I think even like, even for - wasn't money.

No, but it is money. Like it is like, even if you have money, it's still like, is there too much allocated here? Is that putting my holdings at risk? Do I have to sell some of my liquid assets in order to pay for these things? Or I'm finding myself trying to get out of this debt that we've borrowed or whatever it is. That wouldn't necessarily mean you have to start another company. No, I just think, I think part of it is people start to go in there and say, I won't find myself, I'll learn from this. But it's like a slow death. I mean, that's literally what it is. Even the same thing for me, like I have built a lot of expensive homes and I've built homes that have been like, well, I probably spent too much money in there.

you can afford it and whether or not like it's too much money right like

To me, I still think personal homes are one of those things that should be paid in cash. even the amount of cash you have into a home should be a certain amount of your portfolio, like was sitting there. And for me, even building some of these homes, I mean, I've done 13 of them. And every time I've been like, probably don't want this much money in there, the next one's gonna be different. And it never is, it just gets more. I just wake up today and I'm like, how do I have this many millions of dollars into a house? And I'm like, it doesn't make sense to me. And it's not even like...

Again, it's like, learned this from one of my mentors, who's like, I could buy a $200 million home, but not me, but like this guy, and he's like, I chose not to, and I built a $7 million home, and it's like, still an unbelievable home, but it's like, it's just, it's, they're like, I mean, yes, they grow, but like, you don't wanna have that much. He's like, what else could I be doing with this money? And I just always go back to that conversation. I'm like, it's so much money to have tied up in housing, and at the same time, you don't feel any different. I've lived in, again,

$10 plus million homes and I've lived in $150 ,000 condos. And yes, some of the experiences are, I understand that part, but like the actual feeling of that. This particular, actually, Gary Keller, was.

Tell us openly. I remember the first time I was going to his house and I just had this story I was driving down there and He passes his first home that he ever had on his way to his new house And he's like this is the first house that I moved into and then he sat there quietly for like 20 seconds He goes, know Adam he's like I don't feel any different when I go into my house versus living in that house and I drive by this Street every time as a reminder of

And I just didn't say anything and I just, didn't even continue the conversation, but it just always stuck with me. And it's like, it's so true. Cause I'm a real estate guy and so wasn't he. And I literally have lived in again, million dollar homes to homes that are not. I truly don't feel any different. Again, yes, his house that he's living in that one was much smaller. Didn't have the pool, those things. And he's got those things, but like,

It doesn't make your energy that much. After a period of time, it's just a house again. Even Jeff Bezos was asked about it. He's like, so I hear you have 20 rooms in your house. And he's like, yeah, but the reality is I only sleep in one of them. But it's the same thing. And it's just like, when Gary said that to me driving by there, I'm like, so I've always kind of reminded myself of that. But what I love about real estate is building. You and I had chatted about this before, the physical creation, the vision.

being on site every day. actually listen to this. I like the tangible.

Real estate gives you that not everything else does no it doesn't I was listening to this Podcast that Lex Friedman actually did with a bonka Trump. Those are last two I listened to two Yeah, you're on like yeah, no I was interesting and I happen to be the two that I listened to over the last couple of minutes I listening to that one. I wanted a bonka I listened to a while ago as it came out But it's about real estate and actually one thing that she said is actually fascinating listening to her a little bit different because I've always had a different opinion of her even though I never listen to her so I just listened just to have a different thing but one thing she said and I agree she said

you an architectural design plan, engineered plan will get you like 85 to 90 % there. The other 10 to 15 % of the house requires you to be there for things everyone else is missing. And that is, she's so point on like, that's why I love being on site and I'll stare at something and they go like the door is in the wrong place or it needs to be switched or this outlet over here is not going to work. this is how I'm going to use this. That's exactly right. It's outlets in different areas. The light over here, all those little things that, and that's what makes it. And that's when people walk in there and they go, this feels

so good because that's what to me like you I've always been able to sell virtual reality do that yeah but it's like you have to live in the space you have to feel that while you're doing that that's that's really important for those pieces you were gonna know we were talking about journaling yeah yeah well I was actually if we want to go back to journaling I was gonna ask you do do the kids journal

I was going ask you about that. was curious. Kids do not journal. OK. They see me journal all the time. Yeah. try to read their journals of them, but they don't journal. right, because you do one for them. I've reached them. Yeah. So this is just like an Instagram thing I've seen, but I do wonder if.

but I do because you just started doing it 10 or 15 years ago. I think someday that'd be really cool to either have them read it or even have you just go back and read some of these old journals maybe on a future podcast episode. Pull a couple of pages out. I've actually thought about doing this even like sub stack or something. Writing the journal and then just posting the journal every day. Like full on like.

Everything's real. Yeah, like like the real like what you put in a journal like nobody because sometimes it's funny sometimes I'll be journaling like my own thing. Yeah, one of my kids will snuggle with me and so I don't want you to want them to see like I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, then I let him read it because I'm like, my ego is not going to take over. That's the stuff we want to hear. Seriously, like that's what I've thought about doing that of like writing that out there. And so people can just just see it from to test it out on the podcast. I like that.