Billy Keels  00:00

Today's conversation is sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor and you want to know about how we're helping other accredited investors keep more of their income, go to firstgencp.com forward slash going long.

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00:12

I always say that with freedom, because you have the freedom you got the chequebook with freedom comes responsibility. So it's very important to understand the rules.

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00:24

You're listening to the going long podcast with Billy keels, the number one podcast for long distance real asset investing.

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Billy Keels  00:33

Welcome to the go along podcast, we're back once again to continue to help to educate you so you feel much more comfortable as well as confident investing beyond your backyard. And guess what, I'm your host, Billy keels, and I'm super excited to welcome you back to today's conversation. It's another action packed, awesome, get your pen and paper out, and it's gonna be really, really cool. And we're gonna get to it really, really quickly. Because first and foremost, I want to thank you for continuing to share, tagging us across social media, LinkedIn, and Instagram, y'all been doing this like, it's really, really cool. So thank you for that will continue to get in touch with you share it with family and friends. And also, if you have not had a chance to leave an honest rating review as well as rating, take just a couple seconds to do that we even have a cool little video for you to check out on the Apple podcast platform would really appreciate that. And for those of you who are looking to check out some of the previous episodes, you heard it, there was an amazing guest that you still haven't haven't been able to find on your favourite podcast platform, just go to first gen cp.com Ford slash podcasts, you can find every single podcast that we've ever done, and they're all there, first gen cpe.com forward slash podcasts. And we would well you can check out everything that you want to check out there. So listen, if you wanted to understand how you can get more control of your funds that are locked in this qualified funds jail, you wanted to be able to break them out, you want to be able to figure out how you can invest in things that you truly understand where you have more freedom and responsibility. Today's guest is really going to help to lay that out for you exactly what you can be doing. And we're going to be speaking to Dimitri from Chinko. And we're going to get to that conversation just after this. Are you a busy high paid professional, someone that in the previous two years has earned $200,000 and is expected to earn $200,000 this year. Or maybe if you file jointly, previously, you've earned $300,000 The previous two years and you're also expected to do that this year. Or maybe if not, either individually or jointly, you have a million dollars in net worth not including your primary residence. If you meet any of these criteria, then you're someone that the IRS considers to be an accredited investor, that probably means you're someone like an enterprise software sales executive, you may be an executive in a major corporation, you may be a doctor, you may be a lawyer may be a high paid consultant, you may even work for a major sports franchise, the thing I know you have in common is that you continue to do the hard work like you're doing 100% of the work. And you're only bringing home 50% of the reward because you continue to get crushed by your income taxes. If you are tired of this situation and you're looking for a new solution, then go to first gen cp.com forward slash going long. When you get there, that's going to help you to start the journey so that you can begin to take back control of your taxes take control of your time. And then also that means you're going to be able to spend more of the time that you want with the people that you love the most. And that is the way that you're going to get the personal freedom that you're looking for. So if you're looking to take back control, go ahead and go to first gen cpe.com forward slash going long, and see how we can help you today. So if you want to know how having the right sense can go a long way to improving your long distance investing journey, then guess what? Today's a conversation that you're going to want to listen to until the very last word you know why? Because today's amazing guests not only is a husband and father, an entrepreneur, a private lender, as well as a real estate investor himself. He also began in the financial planning as well as real estate industry in his career in 2000. So I guess he's got a lot of experience that he's going to share with us probably a lot of things that he's done well, things that he's seen not go so well. And it's all gonna benefit you. He also decided to find a solution to a common problem that people that were in his mentoring area near him were having. He's been a contributor to Forbes as well, and he is the president of since Financial Services LLC gives me great pleasure to welcome to today's conversation, Mr. Dmitri from chenko. Dimitri, welcome the show,

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04:21

Billy, thank you. It's pleasure to be sure, looking forward.

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Billy Keels  04:25

Yeah, likewise, that makes two of us I'm really, really looking forward to it. And I know the things that you are doing, and the impact that you've made on so many lives already, is going to be very, very beneficial to the entire going on family. So let's jump into our very first very first question. And Dimitri, I know we were talking before that, you know, I'm going to ask you two questions in the beginning, but ask you three in the end. And in the middle of the matrix, I'm going to ask you a whole bunch of questions because you have loads of experience. I just don't know what those questions are yet. So let's jump into question number one and help us understand where is it that you call home in the US?

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04:57

Well, I live in Southern California.

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Billy Keels  05:01

Wow, Southern California. So you know what? I guess you're gonna like the sunshine a little bit because I love it here in Barcelona.

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05:08

Yeah, we, we actually get some pretty hot couple of months during the summer, we just pass them. You know, the good part of September was that but we were overweight and the temperature cooled off. And it's really nice here now.

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Billy Keels  05:27

Yeah, that that makes the same here for me as well. So let's get into question number two, which is, you know, I love talking about positive things. And so, Dimitri, I would love for you to share, what's the most positive thing that's happened to you in the last 24 hours?

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05:40

Well, you know, I was thinking about this bill. And it's actually a positive thing that happens to me every day, and almost every moment, but to answer your question is that this morning, I will cop, I'm alive. I'm breathing. And I'm just have to remind myself that God gives me a breath, every breath that I take is a gift from God. And I'm thankful for that. And that helps me keep the right attitude. And actually, while you every, every hour, every minute of my time, and I'm trying to leave that to the fullest because again, every breath that I take is gift.

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Billy Keels  06:21

Yeah. Oh, yeah, man. And, you know, many times in retreats, those very, very simple things, when we can just recognise them in the fact that you're recognising that and you're also sharing that with us, is something that really, really appreciate it. So just that being able to have another breath every single day that you get to do that is is something that has absolutely makes you fortunate. So listen to me try also, I need to actually want one. Thank you for sharing that. And then the other thing is, I have to tell you a little bit of something about me that the entire going long family knows already. I am someone who is a recovering perfectionist. And what that means is, I usually try to do things that are like sometimes most people would say, why would you even do that it's not even possible to do that. Something like trying to tell your entire backstory Demetri I tried to tell it in like two and a half seconds, I was never going to be able to tell your backstory in two and a half seconds. Because you've done way too much. You've impacted way too many lives. So sorry for trying to do that. But it's just this kind of defect that I have as a recovering perfectionist. Number one, but also, I'm going to ask you for your help. If you could, could you please tell your backstory and tell it in your own words? And yes, Dimitri, because you're our special guests, you can take a lot longer to tell your backstory, take the time that you need. And then also, if you can help us to understand because I think this is really important for the going long family to understand what are some of the major decisions that you made along the way to help you get to this point in your journey? And then we'll see where you and I take the conversation from them?

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07:44

Yeah, so just Well, I guess going back, I, as I told you, I live in Southern California, I've been here for almost 20 years, 25 years, actually, this month, actually, in five days, it's going to be my 20 not 2424 I believe. I emigrated in this beautiful country, the best on the planet Earth, I believe, back in 1996. But so I'm obviously I'm not from here originally, I was I immigrated here from Russia, actually was born in Kazakhstan, but lived all my life in Russia. And until I was 22. And then I moved here with my family. So I met my beautiful wife here. And my background is in Electromechanical Engineering. That's what I went to school for. That's where I worked. And then actually moving here in the US, I translated my degree, and worked in the field for several years, but then to a number of circumstances, I was actually kind of forced out of that and which I'm thankful for. I got into financial services. And then about the same time I got introduced to real estate investing. And so I started that and then a few years later, I actually made a shift full time into real estate. I started working for a local real estate investment company as one of the mentors advisors and and then during the last down tune in the real estate market and the economy, the 1008 Nine, basically I was given a task to stop the department handle itself directed retirement accounts because we as a company, we worked with several companies that were providing this kind of service, and none of them really worked out a long term. So because I had the experience, I have the expertise and knowledge and that, obviously, I had to learn a lot more meet with some of the industry experts. And so that's kind of the history of the sort of sense financial services. And so I did that as a basically in being working for a company. And then about a year later, I went out on my own. So started since financial in 2010. And the rest is history. And so that's our focus, which is helping our clients, unlike the retirement accounts, basically. Because for most people, if they have a conventional retirement account, it's it's an a prison, it's, so we help them jailbreak their IRA or 401. K, because they're very limited as far as the investment options. So Ross, feel free to ask me any questions about any of those details?

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Billy Keels  11:01

Yeah, sure, man. And you know, it's one of those things that I don't know, if you're not watching the video version, you should hear you should check out the video version, just because he said, as soon as he's helping people to break their money out of 401 K, or IRA JL might just put a smile on my face from like ear to ear, because this is one. This is one of these things, qualified funds that are trapped, you can't touch them for 40 years, or you're very limited in terms of what you are able to do to get to your financial and investing destination. And Dimitri is someone who can help you, his company can help you to understand more about how you can break it up, break them out of jail, you said, you mentioned a couple of things out, and it kind of, I want to go back to you getting into the financial services industry, you pivoted because as an electrical engineer, you made that move in, then you also decided to get into real estate investing, just out of curiosity, as you started to look into the financial services and real estate investing kind of at the same time, what was it that actually even brought your attention to real estate investing, given that you probably not even been in the, in the US that long, probably less than a decade at that point in time, and you're looking at real estate? And I only say that, because I've been living in Spain for the last 21 years. And it's Well, I did have a very small amount of time when I looked at it, but I haven't looked at it since then, maybe what spurred the interest in real estate investing?

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12:20

Well, the financial services aspect that that was, you know, probably more commonly known, and I already had known some of it. And so it was, it was somewhat of a, you know, natural transition. And I started with that. And then, you know, maybe a year or two later, I was introduced to the concept of real estate investing, actually, I met someone at college who told me about local real estate investment meetup and invited me there. So that was, you know, I think that singular event was, I mean, really historical to me, because just being invited to that meeting, started the whole, I mean, really changed my life. I will say, because I came, I started coming to those to those meetings and just learning about real estate investing. It eventually got me started in real estate, investing myself and then led led me to start in my own business. So again, it was somebody just introduced me, I came, I listened, I liked that I liked the, you know, I got exposed to some of the, you know, ideas, and I really, it attracted me.

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Billy Keels  13:45

Yeah, so that that's really, really interesting. Because one of the things that I also recognise is, as to your point, you recognise you are, you're open minded, you were invited to go to this Real Estate Investment Association meeting, I'm adding that part, but you decided to go right, and when you went there, you began to receive more education and understand so. So that kind of happens on one side, I guess I'm always curious, because whenever I learned about real estate here locally in Spain, it's very different than back where I was in the US. And so there sometimes there are things that I recognise that there's specific opportunities, and I realised that there were some of the kind of drawbacks. Did you find yourself in the very beginning when you were coming into this new like real estate space? I don't know if you were doing that were when you were living before you got to the US. But if you were if you were not investing in real estate before you got to the US word that how much of that were you saying okay, well, it's not like this where I normally where I first came from, and it is here so you see also different opportunities that had you not made that decision to go to those meetings you would have never recognised.

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14:49

I did not have any experience or even knowledge about real estate investing prior to coming to the US and it happened several years after me Come into the stocks when I basically I got exposed to this and just started learning, but it was just a completely new aspect for me. And just, you know, not just real estate investing, but what it can do for you, you know that it can provide you with the freedom it can provide you with the financial, you know, security, potentially financial independence.

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Billy Keels  15:25

Yeah. Perfect. Love that. So I'm gonna act now, just want to ask you one other thing, because this goes to the, to the heart of what we do here at the going on podcast is really helping. I think it's more mindset really helping each one of our going long family members to understand that, hey, listen, you know what, don't let geography be a limiting factor in terms of where you decide to invest your time, your energy, your capital, things like that. I happen to know and please correct me if I'm wrong that you had or have your California licence in terms of real estate investing is that as a realtor, is that correct?

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16:00

Oh, I had, I have my broker's licence, which I actually had the opportunity to get when I was working. When I was working as an employee for my previous employer before starting a business. I don't really need it now. But yeah, it's a California real estate brokers licence.

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Billy Keels  16:20

Okay, so you have a broker's licence, which I think is absolutely fantastic. And also at the same time, if our sources are correct you you also have done something that's very contrarian, very similar to me, by the way, Dimitri, I understand that you've also decided to invest outside of your backyard. And meaning that you're not that you invest in places outside of Southern California where you are, which is music to my ears, and all of those that are here part of the going long family. At the same time, I recognise that that's something that's very contrarian, because most of the books Demetri, and you probably agree with this, that we would read early on or saying, Hey, listen, if you're going to buy a piece of real estate, it should be in the same place like the two hour rule, or the two block rule or whatever, the two neighbourhood rule. But you decided to do something very similar to the many of the people that are watching and listening today is to go against the grain to go and do something contrarian. So I always love to have you share, what was it that gave you the strength to be able to say, Hey, listen, you know what, I'm going to invest in a in an a real asset that is not actually here in my backyard in Southern California, it may be in a different state, it may be four or five hours away. What was it that gave you that strength?

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17:30

Well, it was actually, again, the, when I started coming to those meetings, the organisation that put around it was actually a network of real estate agents and property managers and, you know, many different parts of the US. And so I got introduced to this concept early on pretty much from the very beginning that you can invest outside of your backyard. Actually, for me, I ended up buying, you know, obviously, my residence first and again, that was after attending those meetings, I ended up buying a residence, and I ended up buying a first investment property, which was about an hour away from me. But that was the beginning. And then after that I was able to leverage the equity to, I just started buying properties outside of California, basically, to more than 2000 miles away. And it's headed the right team, that's really the key. You know, if it's, if it's a single family rental, you got to have a property manager in place. And it's it's really the key, having the right team to manage that. And I've seen, I've experienced what I had, I had great experience, and I did not have a good experience as well. When, again, not having the right property manager made all the difference.

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Billy Keels  19:02

And so when you start thinking about having the right team in place, and specifically you talk about having the the right property manager in place, but I'm going to bring it back to the to the team, right, having the right team in place to help you understand what are the different assets that you have that can help you get to your investing destination sooner. We're specifically talking to right now Demetri about real estate. At the same time, I tend to believe that you also need to have a very strong team just to help you recognise in your overall portfolio, all types of assets. How can you best leverage each one of the assets that you have? I know that that's something I do and say, Okay, well, maybe there are different vehicles that I haven't been aware of. I was working for a really big company and many big companies for a really, really long time. I just after 26 years of no longer working in the corporate world. But while I was in the corporate world, I knew that I was for a while early on, I was consistently contributing to my my qualified plan right at the time it was a 401k and then I did it outside of the that and into an IRA and things like that. So I know that we talked about early on like it since Financial Services, LLC. This is one of the team members that can help someone understand the different assets. So maybe if you can help us understand when we think about self directed IRAs, or even think about, you know, chequebook IRA or solo 401, KS, which I know is something that you help just in general, help us to be educated around different qualified plans. Can you talk to us at the very highest level as a new team member, right, looking for team members to help us identify where we have different assets that can help us get to our destination sooner? Talk to us about how you were helping people today, since Financial Services LLC in the types of qualified plans that you can help people to understand the different value that they can potentially unlock.

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20:47

Yeah, so essentially, as I mentioned, if you have a conventional retirement account, an IRA or a 401 K or any other employer sponsored plan, such as 403, B, or 457, pension, perhaps, then it is locked in a prison. And what I mean by that is, it is you have a custodian for your account, and the custodian limit the investment choices or investment options for you. And they are limited to and always confined to the stock market. Okay. And many people actually believe that all they can do, they can only invest in the stock market in equities, stocks, bonds and mutual funds. But if you look at the IRS code, what the IRS says about this, there is it can be nothing further from the truth. In fact, IRS doesn't, doesn't give a list of investments that they approve, there is no such list, IRS does not approve any investments, whether it's stocks or otherwise, what IRS does is that they actually give you a list of a prohibited transaction of audit transactions that they do not allow you to use your retirement accounts to invest in. And that's basically confined to the collectibles and life insurance contract. So those are the only two investments that you cannot make. But your custodian when you go to Schwab or fidelity on you open an account, they're in business to sell equities or, or that's their platform. So and they place under custodial agreement, they place those limitations, they don't allow you to use your IRA to invest in anything else using their platform. That's why you the only choices are equities, there but you can actually set up a quote unquote, a self directed account with not with the conventional custodian where you don't have the limitations, and you can invest in pretty much anything that you want. The list is really limitless. But you do want to invest in something that you understand and, and have more control. And certainly, there is investment assets out there that gives you more control than the stock market. I mean, you've seen what happened with the stock market. If you you know, watching a towel or just listening to the news or or if you have invested investments in the market, then you've seen as probably 20 30% drop just this year. Okay. And guess what? You and I, we have no control over the stock market. Now if we employ certain strategies, and that's actually the reason I got out of financial planning, because I will basically help my clients invest in those conventional investments. And I did not have a way to control those investments. And my clients did not have the control, or does investments, and I just wasn't comfortable, continue what it commended those investments. So that's, that's why I got out.

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Billy Keels  24:05

Well, when you make that type of a switch, and you decide, hey, listen, you don't want to be in this area, you want to be able to help people to be able to have more control, investing in the types of assets. And I think this is one thing that you said that I want to reiterate to the entire go along family, it's into assets that you understand. Trusting that you enjoyed today's conversation. And you know, if you're tired of getting crushed by taxes, if you're looking for greater freedom, to be able to choose what you want to do when you want to do it, make sure that you go to first ncp.com Ford slash going long and see how we can help you today. Let's get back to the conversation. There's also one of the things you talked about understanding you talked about control. Can you talk to the to the to the point of responsibility on the individual who has control because I think that's also too and I know when I was in my corporate role, there's this there's this concept of hey, listen, you just do it. It's quick and you don't have to worry about it too much. But I do want you before we dive into a little bit more about what the self directed IRAs are. It just talks about that the responsibility that the individual has as well, when they're investing in things in assets, control.

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25:14

Well, obviously believe when, when you can control your self directed IRA, and what we actually do is we give you a quote unquote, chequebook control, which is you literally have a checking account and chequebook and you can write the check and make the investment. So there is no middleman in between. But I always say that with with freedom, because you have the freedom you got the chequebook with freedom comes responsibility. So it's very important to understand the rules. And it's not rocket science, okay, you don't need to become an engineer to do that, or something like that. It's the rules are pretty straightforward. And you can certainly tap into the, you know, other resources that are available to help. So if you're going to work with us, we provide all this kind of help. And we can answer any questions for this. And I, I always tell my clients listen, if you're not sure about something, ask before that's the key, ask before doing this, okay? If you can see that I'm making an investment, you're not sure. Well, just reach out to us talk, talk to me, send me a text, my client have my number, they can text me. So send me a text message and say, hey, I want to do this is that is? Is that gonna get me into any trouble? Because guess what, once you make a mistake, it can be, you know, with an IRA, particularly, it will disqualify the entire IRA. Now, I don't want to scare you off. Here. I'm just trying to make a point that it's important to understand, you know, the responsibility.

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Billy Keels  26:54

Yeah. And so it's one, it's important to understand the responsibility to meet you. But I want to come back to the thing that you said even earlier was it's about having the right team, right, because once again, this is about how to, how are we helping the going on family to understand and it is no different when you are in with with a team and you're working with a high performing team, it's important to share the plan before you start to execute the plan. Because if you want to do something that your team is not equipped to do, it's better to know that to your point, Dimitry before, versus trying to get halfway through the play and recognising you don't have the tools or you've put yourself in the very, very difficult decision or position of being able to win the game. If you can talk to your team in advance. Going back to one of the things that Dimitri mentioned earlier, you're just putting yourself in the best possible position. Dmitry, I do want to come back to this there is one kind of concept and I because when I went to your website, and I would recommend that they going long family ticket ticket, look at the you got a lot of educational material there. There's this common understanding or maybe misunderstanding of when we start talking about qualified plans and being able to manage them yourself having more control. You hear things like self directed IRA, you hear about things like chequebook IRA, you hear about things like solo 401k? Are these all the same thing? Are they different? And if they're different, like what should someone be aware of just education wise, so that they can try to figure out okay, well, which is the best option for me to start to learn more about?

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28:27

Yeah, well, unfortunately, we probably don't have enough time a

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Billy Keels  28:32

high level, remember high level

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28:35

to get into all of that. And, you know, I, you know, I have some videos that actually go into deeper into details explaining exactly what the differences are, and, you know, advantages of each and but I, I would like to offer this to your listeners that if you if you have some questions, you can reach out to our office and I'm, I'm willing to give you a free consultation, I can talk to you about your specific situation and help you determine again, you can find some videos that actually be explained. And I, I do have those presentations, explaining the difference. But even even after that, watching that video, you still might have some questions because you will need some guidance, determine what's best for you. But the bottom line is, if if you have money in retirement account, you can take control over them, you know what will be the best vehicle again, I can help you determine that. It's going to take more than just a few minutes here. So that's why I feel free to reach out and like you said Billy, back tap into the resources that are available for you and I'm, I'm this resource for my clients and I'm happy to be that resource for your listeners as well.

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Billy Keels  29:58

Fantastic. We appreciate that and it just goes back to the point of being able to understand what is the right vehicle for you, and being able to access education first and foremost, so that you can, you know, you take a look at some of the videos that that Dimitri has on his website. He also has written information that you can take a look at so that when you have a conversation with him or someone from his team, then you go in more informed. So you're, you know, when you ask better questions, you get better responses, typically, right, at least you are, because you're much more informed. So, and there are a lot of different things that are a lot of different types of vehicles that exist. And one you have the exposure. So we've even talked about a high level self directed IRA, chequebook, Ira, solo, 401, K, all of these different things to Demetrius point, what's what are the pros, what are the cons, and which of these vehicles could be the best for you, given the context of your life right now, and also the destination that you want to be able to go to? Just to maybe a couple of other questions, and he's probably a little bit easier questions, but that you can answer in shorter time period. But you mentioned earlier that there were there were certain types of investments that you could not make you talked about collectibles, you talked about life insurance. Can you maybe talk to the whole the other point about certain types of transactions that are that you cannot actually make? Because I think that would also be very helpful from an education standpoint.

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31:20

Yeah. So basically, with self directed IRA, you can invest in virtually anything except collectibles and life insurance. So those are the only two investment types that are prohibited you can I just to give you an example, okay, again, this is an example. So I know this list, but yeah,

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Billy Keels  31:42

it also to everybody in this is just a general thing. So Dimitri, thank you for reminding me because I forgot to say this. Dimitri and I are only talking about examples, concepts, we are in no way shape, or form giving anyone any type of financial advice. So all of these concepts, ideas, the idea is for you to be able to take this education, speak to your specific tax teams, your specific legal teams and understand how these concepts and ideas fit your specific situation. As Dimitri mentioned before, he also has consultation where he can talk to you about some of these concepts in more detail about your specific situation. So sorry about that. I forgot to mention that at the very beginning.

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32:16

Yeah, so again, to give you some examples, residential real estate, here in the US, for my clients who are US based obviously, also, some of my clients invested outside of the US I have clients who purchased real estate in South America and Mexico. And also in Canada, I have a client who purchased real estate in Japan, I have a client could purchase real estate and it actually in Europe, okay, so you can do all of that you can buy investment anywhere, but it goes beyond just the real estate or you can do commercial real estate you can invest into self storage facilities or or even farms or multifamily real estate deals as a general partner, you can invest in other types of investments not just real estate, you can purchase precious metals, you know, gold and silver in salt. So um, there is against qualification there. And you can do other things like very popular something that I'm personally doing with my retirement funds has been a private lender, where I actually prefer using my retirement funds not to own real estate, but to be a bank. So you can be the bank or your your IRA can be the bank and you can lend to people you can also invest in things like cryptocurrency been popular, controversial, but you can do that. So, again, the But to answer your question, what are the limitations? Well, IRS defines that there are certain people who are disqualified to the plan and disqualified persons is the owner of the IRA or 401 K, the spouse of the account owner, his parents, grandparents, children and grandchildren and their spouses. So immediate family members cannot be involved in the transaction. So for example, if you buy a vacation rental property in Florida, for example, you personally cannot go and stay there with your family. Your your parents cannot stay there. If you have your father who's a maybe owns a construction company and you buy a fixer upper, your father cannot do a work on the property if your real estate agent you cannot be acting as a real estate agent on the transaction that your IRA is involved. So a disqualified person cannot be involved in the transaction.

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Billy Keels  34:51

Okay, fantastic. So appreciate you helping us understand the types of specific vehicles that may be prohibited and also the types of individual those that may be prohibited from being a part of the transaction or what it sounds like is also, there's not a specific individual benefit that you can take from using your IRA to invest, as you mentioned, in that very concrete example, in a property that you plan on vacationing in, IRS would not like that. So that makes a lot of sense. One of the things that I would like to do to speak to you or have you speak to us about just for people to keep in mind, before we get into the going long, final three, because it's about time to do that. Talk to us about how leverage or using a loan could potentially could potentially impact being able to invest in something I know, a lot of times we look at investing in a syndication with our 401, or with our, with our self directed IRAs and things like that, just to be aware, like, what are some of the things that you want to be aware of when doing that

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35:52

leverage can can make a tremendous difference. And actually, I, the number of years ago, I, I was, I guess I was influenced maybe by some of the Dave, Dave Ramsey teaching, I don't know if you're familiar with them, Ramsey, he makes a lot of sense and number of things. But when it comes to investing, it just not his area, he's basically talking just to normal people who just live a normal life and they have some debt. And you know, it's totally in place. But when you invest in leverage can make a big difference, you have to obviously be careful with that and not over leverage yourself, because you can go from one extreme to another, because, but leverage can make a huge difference, because you can really jumpstart your investment, I was just talking to my brother in law yesterday, who came to visit and the Chuck had a chat, he actually pulled out equity from his home at less than 3% interest. And because he made the investment into something and he's expecting this money back, and he said, Well, what they do it divided I pay back the loan, I said, it will be actually kind of foolish to pay off this, this extremely low, it's like almost cheap money, where you can actually him I assured him that you can take this money and you can with very, very little risk, you can you can get nine 10% on your money so and that 6% is like you get it from from nothing. But so when when it comes to investing, you certainly can use leverage, you just need to be wise about this.

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Billy Keels  37:41

Yeah. And it goes back to what you're talking about before, when you have the freedom to take and have control, you just also need to be aware of the responsibility. There are a lot of different things that I think it's important for you to you know, as a as an investor, someone who would be using these types of funds, just be aware of, you know, is there leverage involved? Is it not and have that conversation with your team members, as Dimitri was talking to us about earlier. So Dimitri, here's the thing, man like this time flies by but we have to get into the going long final three in the thing is because you're our special guest, I never asked anyone to go along final three, unless you tell me that you're ready. So my question to you is, are you ready? Sure. Yeah, I knew you were gonna be ready. I had, I have a sneaky suspicion. So here's the thing to meet you. We started with you over in Southern California. I'd like to bring it back to my new adopted side of the pond Originally, I'm from Columbus, Ohio, but I'm over here now over in Europe. So I would love for you to share with us. What is your favourite European city that you've either visited or still on your bucket list to visit?

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38:46

Well, I'm going to, I'm going to pick it from the doors that I did visit in the in the past. Maybe we'll spare CT from my bucket list to next time but it's it's Riga in Latvia. Wow, this is a Baltic areas they actually I visited that Syria or that area when it still was a belief it still was part of the Soviet Union at the time, but it was very different. It was very different me coming from Orange I actually used to work in the train. And I will go to back in Russia, because i i the college that I graduated was a railroad type of college so I was working with robotic systems. Okay. Railroad was very developed back in the former Soviet Union and back in Russia. And so that was very memorable experience. I still have some souvenirs and some things that remind me of that around me. And so Latvia Riga is pretty cool place Got to see. Beautiful.

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Billy Keels  40:03

All right, perfect. So we're gonna add that and it will be in the show notes. So Riga, Latvia, which is I think it's the very first it's the first time we've had Riga as our favourite European city. So awesome. So thank you for that. Question number two, it really has to go with a lot of just experiences that you had, right? And it is, it's really about understanding, like, every, each, each and every one of us goes through these trial and error, right? We have these ideas that we want to be able to say, Hey, listen, I'm gonna go out and I want to, I want to make sure that, you know, I'm trying new things. And as a result of trying new things, well, sometimes we make mistakes. And sometimes we don't make mistakes. But more often than not, and I'm sure this is probably been your case, because with high achievers, which you are, you tend to go out and you have a plan, you want to execute the plan. And then well, along the way, some things don't work out exactly as they're supposed to. And so I'm sure that this has happened to at least once, where maybe something didn't work out, right. And you probably like very most people that are high achievers, you stopped and you learn from the mistake that happened or the mistake that you made. And you then went out and you put different strategies, tactics and actions in place so that, you know, the same thing didn't happen again. So I really would love for you to share, like not the mistakes that happened, the mistake that happened to you if you had to think of one mistake, but really, what is the one lesson that you took away from that learning experience that, you know, would be invaluable for someone today, here and as part of the go along family?

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41:34

Yeah, well, since you're talking about, you know, investing in, you know, maybe real estate specifically, I'm gonna use that example. Because I think that's, I mean, it helped me and it will help you and, you know, wise people, what, what do they do they learn from other people's mistakes, okay. So you don't have to repeat the same mistake that I did. Learn from my experience, okay. So think about this. But the, the, basically, I made some mistakes in the past and the beginning of my real estate investment career, but I over leveraged and basically just acquire more than I could, or try to buy more than I could chew, so to speak, right. And the lesson that I learned from that is you need to understand the difference between investing and speculation. Okay, so I was basically kind of chasing speculation. I was kind of in that mood, and that really set me back set set me apart set me and, but but it was, you know, it was very valuable lesson was expensive lesson but but was very good lesson. I'm glad it happened to me, because I wouldn't be where I'm at now, without that. So know the difference between investing and speculation.

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Billy Keels  42:58

Absolutely. Appreciate that about you, Dimitri, you paid full price for that learning experience. And now you are sharing it to everyone as part of the going long family at a severe discount. So thank you for sharing that. And just once again, recognising the difference between investing as well as speculating, right, there's a place for both of them, and just recognise what you are doing when you're doing it. So last question, this will kind of wrap things up for us today. Dimitri, would love for you to share something that will help to increase the knowledge and doing that through reading. What is one book that you would recommend to the going on family today?

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43:31

Well, I've thought about this, and this might be a book that you and others fjord, likely, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna bring that up again, because it actually comes up, you know, in me, just talking to people, you know, even teaching my dad or, you know, these concepts. And this is a book by Robert Kiyosaki Cashflow Quadrant, okay. And again, you may have thought of that, but it's, maybe it's time for you to revisit those concepts, even, even mentally, even if you're just gonna do that mentally without necessarily reading the book, or just looking at that actual diagram. You know, looking at the left side of the quadrant and the right side of the quadrant, and I'm teaching my data look, you know, you can be on the right side, you can create a system that the trans for you, and you can be an investor, you can have your money working for you, but you got to start somewhere and you, you know, you start on the left side, but you you want to have a goal you want to transition again, was very valuable to me. I read that, gosh, 20, probably 20 years ago, or so. Not not maybe not quite but almost 20 years ago. It's still it's still applicable even today. Yeah, definitely just Just what one thing might be to to, to add to that is especially what I experienced in the last Couple of years because I've been making some investments, I have a number of rental properties. And then I, when I started this business, I transition into private lending just with my portfolio. And that just increased my income, I was looking for ways to how can I you know, minimise my my tax liability because I was paying, you know, have to write checks every year was painful. And so I basically transition into commercial real estate, you know, multifamily syndications, primarily with my personal investments. And just last couple of years, it's been just mind boggling for me, I It's hard to believe my, I looked at my tax bracket this year, it was half a percent. Because of, you know, the Phantom losses that I was able to use to offset my income can be very powerful. That's how, how wealthy people get, you know, even more wealthier because they their income increases, but their tax liability increases. So,

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Billy Keels  46:03

yeah, and I mean, it's just one and it goes back to what you said earlier, Dimitri, it's it is about having the right team on board to help to advise you so that you understand what are the different options that you have that you can take, right, because if you don't have the right team on board, you are more than likely going to do what everybody else has done, and what you've always done, and you're going to continue to get the same results. I know that that's not going to happen for you, because you're here, you're listening, you're watching and you're listening to the things that Dimitri is sharing with you and you're going okay, well, yeah, you know what, let me let me find out more about this, who's the right person on my team to be here who can help me navigate through the different money that I have trapped in this qualified plans jail, to be able to break it out and stuff like that? So listen, Dimitri, man, I like I mean, I'm just going to the very beginning, like 1996, you move to the US, reminds me 2001, I moved here to Spain, and it's been absolutely fantastic. Sounds like you're, you know, you have enjoyed it coming over as an electrical engineer, you have had the opportunity? Well, when life happened to you, you are gifted the opportunity to move into a new space, you learn more about the financial services industry more about real estate investing, you decided to take action to learn more about how these new concepts real estate initially could help you. But then you've also understood that there are no we didn't even talk about the trillions that are actually stuck in these in these qualified plan deals that you're helping people to understand. Through your own experience, really not just learning about it, but doing it yourself. You build out a platform to help to educate people to be able to go in and either watch videos or listen to things or read things. And that is helping you and what you're doing and the company that you started in 2010 would since financial services and and listen, everybody's thinking to themselves. Yeah, Billy, just ask him the question then. So here's the thing, Dimitri, everybody at the go along family wants to understand how can they find out more about you how they can find out more about what you're doing it since Financial Services, LLC and things like that? What's the best way to get in touch with

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48:01

you? Well, you can go to our website, which is sense financial.com And senses like common sense, because the things that we are talking about the common sense, financial things, they do make sense, right? So since financial.com, you can find me on LinkedIn, you can find me on Facebook, and you can find me on bigger pockets. So those are the three platforms on social media that I primarily use in. But you can reach out and again, if you want to talk to me, I do have a complimentary consultation available to everyone who's listening to this and happy to talk to you and I'm passionate about this. I don't have to work. I was able to because of the business and the investments that I made. I was able to reach that level of being financially independent. I don't have to work but I enjoy what will they do? Yeah. So I enjoy doing what I'm doing and helping people I am practising what I'm preaching. So what I'm talking to you about I'm that's that's what I'm doing myself. All right. Well, you know, one other thing is that, just one encourage you, you know, you might be again, something to piggyback on what you said earlier, is that you don't have to invest in your backyard. Okay, you, if you have the resources, to invest, there are teams and systems that can be put in place that will enable you to be successful. So don't let that stop you keep, keep learning and keep connected with people. And that will help you be successful. keep persevering.

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Billy Keels  49:44

All right, absolutely. Fantastic. Dimitri, thank you very much, really appreciate it. And also going on family when you reach out to Dimitri, especially on the LinkedIn platform, make sure that you send him a personalised invitation. It will just help the two of you because you will let him know that you've already been watching and listening here on the going long podcast. as it will make the continuity of your conversation much easier. So, listen to me just on behalf of the entire go along family, I want to say thank you very much for deciding to invest your time with me with us. And really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. All right, and Dimitri, give me just like 15 seconds, we'll wrap things up. Go along family. Listen, Demetri he just shared with you? New ideas, new concepts, he's even talk to you about the website. He has listened. Take today's conversation, share it with friends, share it with family talk about the concepts that that that Dimitri shared with you go to his website, download the videos, read them, talk to your family and friends so that you can take the theory put into practice, and heck, reach out to him he's given him a complimentary call. And so while you're doing these things, I'll be here preparing for the next conversation. So until then go out and make it a great day. And thank you very much. Trust that you enjoy today's conversation. And once again, today's conversation was sponsored by first generation Capital Partners. If you're an accredited investor and want to find out more about how we're helping accredited investors to gain their personal freedom even faster, go to firstgencp.com forward slash going long.

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