1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:01,900 Tell me about your vision, Steve. 2 00:00:03,160 --> 00:00:07,900 My vision is much too big to actually be accomplished. 3 00:00:07,900 --> 00:00:11,380 My vision is to change the way investors look 4 00:00:11,380 --> 00:00:14,420 at their investment portfolios 5 00:00:14,420 --> 00:00:19,420 and change the way Wall Street emphasizes market value growth 6 00:00:19,580 --> 00:00:21,040 instead of income production. 7 00:00:21,940 --> 00:00:23,680 In other words, turning things around 8 00:00:23,680 --> 00:00:26,300 so it's not to the benefit of the Wall Street professionals, 9 00:00:26,300 --> 00:00:28,880 it's more to the benefit of the clients. 10 00:00:28,880 --> 00:00:33,880 Because you can't spend market value, only income. 11 00:00:35,480 --> 00:00:37,480 And that's exactly the opposite 12 00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:40,040 of what the emphasis is on Wall Street. 13 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:43,160 My vision has been since I started this 14 00:00:43,160 --> 00:00:46,360 to create an environment for my clients 15 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:50,040 where they had more than enough income to pay their bills 16 00:00:50,040 --> 00:00:52,920 throughout their careers and into retirement. 17 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:57,920 So how long ago did you start this? 18 00:00:59,080 --> 00:01:02,760 I started investing when I was 25. 19 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:06,960 So that was 54 years ago. 20 00:01:06,960 --> 00:01:10,920 Wow, you're in the late 70s then, huh? 21 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:12,480 In my 80th year. 22 00:01:12,480 --> 00:01:14,640 Okay, wow, my hat is a little off. 23 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:16,320 That's awesome. 24 00:01:16,320 --> 00:01:18,520 I haven't reached 80 yet. 25 00:01:18,520 --> 00:01:20,400 You were right on, but this is, 26 00:01:20,400 --> 00:01:22,680 you know, you're 80 when you get there. 27 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:26,160 That is awesome, that is awesome. 28 00:01:26,160 --> 00:01:28,360 I plan on making it to 80, 29 00:01:28,360 --> 00:01:33,360 but I'm trying to keep myself busy in that timeframe. 30 00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:37,880 So you talked about... 31 00:01:37,880 --> 00:01:40,400 So I started investing then. 32 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:43,040 I was fortunate, I chose my parents well. 33 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:48,040 I came into my small, what would you say? 34 00:01:48,040 --> 00:01:50,240 Whatever your parents put together for you 35 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:53,240 to take care of your college and graduate work 36 00:01:53,240 --> 00:01:55,640 and stuff like that, and you don't spend 37 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:58,840 because you go to some cheaper college, you know, 38 00:01:58,840 --> 00:02:01,120 and you don't do your master's right away. 39 00:02:01,120 --> 00:02:03,840 Well, I took over that sum of money 40 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:08,840 and made it my goal to make more money with that 41 00:02:12,560 --> 00:02:14,880 than I was at my employment 42 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,200 so I could stop commuting to New York 43 00:02:18,200 --> 00:02:22,680 and just live a life a little bit more sanity 44 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:25,760 than that provided. 45 00:02:25,760 --> 00:02:28,040 And I did that when I was 34. 46 00:02:28,040 --> 00:02:31,120 I left my job, I was making about five times 47 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:35,400 my salary investing, and I started investing 48 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:37,160 for other people. 49 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:39,360 I showed them what I had done. 50 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:41,480 They agreed to let me manage their money. 51 00:02:41,480 --> 00:02:46,040 I kept plugging away until eventually I was managing 52 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:50,800 over 110 million for 150 odd people 53 00:02:50,800 --> 00:02:54,160 throughout the country and a couple overseas. 54 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:59,160 Then last year, the company that we were doing business with 55 00:03:01,240 --> 00:03:03,080 made us an offer we couldn't refuse 56 00:03:03,080 --> 00:03:06,480 and we sold our business for a nice chunk of change. 57 00:03:06,480 --> 00:03:09,440 And now I've decided to take my... 58 00:03:09,440 --> 00:03:12,880 Take my business on a one-on-one basis to individuals 59 00:03:12,880 --> 00:03:17,240 and teach them how to grow their portfolio income every year 60 00:03:17,240 --> 00:03:19,560 and just get out of the... 61 00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:24,160 Out of the, I guess, the rut they're in 62 00:03:24,160 --> 00:03:26,080 where they're chasing the market 63 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,160 and worrying about the next correction 64 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:34,160 and never being happy because they didn't take their profits 65 00:03:34,160 --> 00:03:35,880 because their professional told them, 66 00:03:35,880 --> 00:03:37,760 oh, no, the market's going up. 67 00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:39,360 Now the market's going up. 68 00:03:39,360 --> 00:03:42,920 They wind up losing all the paper profits. 69 00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:47,160 That cycle, that cycle of disappointment, 70 00:03:47,160 --> 00:03:50,360 it was my goal to fix that. 71 00:03:50,360 --> 00:03:52,840 So let me get this a little cleared out. 72 00:03:52,840 --> 00:03:55,840 So your main investment portfolio, 73 00:03:55,840 --> 00:03:58,960 it goes to, I'm guessing it's all stock market? 74 00:03:58,960 --> 00:04:01,000 No, it's not all stock market at all, 75 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:02,360 particularly not at my age. 76 00:04:02,360 --> 00:04:04,320 It varies with how your age. 77 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:06,000 A guy your age should probably be about 78 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:08,760 at least 50, maybe 60% in the stock market. 79 00:04:08,760 --> 00:04:12,160 A guy my age should be more like 30% in the stock market 80 00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:15,840 because the stock market is inherently more risky 81 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:18,680 than the income producing market. 82 00:04:18,680 --> 00:04:19,520 Correct, correct. 83 00:04:21,280 --> 00:04:25,320 But the focus, my focus is that wherever you're investing, 84 00:04:25,320 --> 00:04:28,960 be it the stock market or the fixed income market, 85 00:04:28,960 --> 00:04:32,880 you should always recognize that it's income 86 00:04:32,880 --> 00:04:36,440 that you wanna develop sometime in your future. 87 00:04:36,440 --> 00:04:41,440 You wanna take that cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest 88 00:04:41,920 --> 00:04:45,320 in the first, in the best room on the boat. 89 00:04:45,320 --> 00:04:47,440 You can, you know? 90 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,080 You wanna go to Japan, you can. 91 00:04:50,080 --> 00:04:51,680 You wanna do what you wanna do. 92 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,400 And you can't do that unless you have income. 93 00:04:54,400 --> 00:04:55,240 Yeah, that's correct. 94 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:56,640 Otherwise you have to sell your assets 95 00:04:56,640 --> 00:04:59,080 and then you don't have them anymore, you know? 96 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:02,160 So my methodology fixes that. 97 00:05:02,160 --> 00:05:06,120 And my latest book explains how you can do it. 98 00:05:07,120 --> 00:05:10,080 Okay, that is awesome, that is awesome. 99 00:05:11,280 --> 00:05:13,000 Okay, that answers quite a bit of questions. 100 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:15,880 So there it goes to my next question, Steve. 101 00:05:15,880 --> 00:05:18,400 Where did your vision exactly come from? 102 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:20,480 Came from my dad. 103 00:05:22,040 --> 00:05:23,160 You know, I guess you hear that. 104 00:05:23,160 --> 00:05:24,720 That's a pretty common thread. 105 00:05:26,120 --> 00:05:31,120 Growing up, he was a developer, a real entrepreneur. 106 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,840 He had a vertically integrated company. 107 00:05:34,840 --> 00:05:36,080 Do you know what that is? 108 00:05:37,320 --> 00:05:38,600 He was a builder. 109 00:05:38,600 --> 00:05:40,320 He owned a lumber yard. 110 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:41,720 Okay. Okay. 111 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:43,800 And all his contractors that he bought, 112 00:05:43,800 --> 00:05:45,880 got everything at his lumber yard. 113 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:47,840 He owned the property. 114 00:05:47,840 --> 00:05:51,320 He built for people, took back the mortgages. 115 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:54,800 He built homes on speculation and rented them 116 00:05:54,800 --> 00:05:56,280 and collected the rents. 117 00:05:56,280 --> 00:05:58,160 He had an insurance arm. 118 00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:00,800 So he did all their insurance work as well. 119 00:06:00,800 --> 00:06:03,680 So he had insurances, mortgages. 120 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:06,560 He had the lumber yard, you know, you name it. 121 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:08,960 He had money coming in every which way. 122 00:06:08,960 --> 00:06:10,960 So he basically took a business 123 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:13,280 and found every possible scenario 124 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:15,840 to make money from that, in every aspect. 125 00:06:15,840 --> 00:06:16,680 That's awesome. 126 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:20,200 Right, to make income, not to sell products 127 00:06:20,200 --> 00:06:21,360 or something like that. 128 00:06:21,360 --> 00:06:25,120 Certainly not to create market value. 129 00:06:25,120 --> 00:06:28,800 You know, oh, my land is now worth a million dollars. 130 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:30,760 How much does it pay you in income? 131 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:32,280 Well, nothing. 132 00:06:32,280 --> 00:06:33,280 But it's still a million. 133 00:06:33,280 --> 00:06:34,240 I'm a millionaire. 134 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:36,800 Fine. Can you afford to take me to dinner? 135 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:38,720 No, I don't have any income. 136 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:41,240 You know, he eliminated all those questions. 137 00:06:41,240 --> 00:06:44,280 And that's what he drilled into me. 138 00:06:44,280 --> 00:06:46,800 He didn't so much drill it that much into my brother, 139 00:06:46,800 --> 00:06:48,840 but he drilled it into me, certainly. 140 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:52,120 And, you know, and that gave me my impetus 141 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:54,000 to when I started investing, 142 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,840 when I got that bunch of money that I told you about before, 143 00:06:57,840 --> 00:07:00,320 I bought stocks, but I didn't buy any stocks 144 00:07:00,320 --> 00:07:01,640 that didn't pay dividends. 145 00:07:02,480 --> 00:07:03,480 You know? Yeah. 146 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:06,680 And I bought, and I, with my first early, 147 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:08,000 and I didn't, and I always, 148 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:10,600 and I made a profit target on everything I own. 149 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,240 You know, if it went up 10%, I was gonna sell it. 150 00:07:13,240 --> 00:07:16,240 Because I had studied the charts 151 00:07:16,240 --> 00:07:18,280 and I saw how they go up and down, 152 00:07:18,280 --> 00:07:19,720 and up and down, and up and down. 153 00:07:19,720 --> 00:07:21,880 And I said, why don't you just, you know, 154 00:07:22,960 --> 00:07:27,480 you see it's at a down stage, buy some, you know? 155 00:07:27,480 --> 00:07:29,200 You sell it, it goes up a little, 156 00:07:29,200 --> 00:07:31,680 and you buy something else that's in a down stage, 157 00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:33,200 and you do it again, you know? 158 00:07:33,200 --> 00:07:35,840 The names didn't matter to me. 159 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:37,320 All of them paid dividends. 160 00:07:37,320 --> 00:07:40,720 All of them were rated B plus or better by standard and poorest. 161 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:42,760 There was a guide at that time 162 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:45,720 that published by standard and poorest. 163 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,200 I'll show it to you. 164 00:07:48,200 --> 00:07:50,720 This little book used to come out every month. 165 00:07:50,720 --> 00:07:52,440 Stock guide. 166 00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:54,520 They don't have it anymore. 167 00:07:54,520 --> 00:07:58,880 I think 2016 or 18 was the last issue. 168 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:02,000 But it gave you all the information you needed 169 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:05,560 to determine the quality of a security. 170 00:08:05,560 --> 00:08:08,520 Today, it's pretty much hearsay. 171 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:11,880 Telling you that you hear about a stock and you go buy it. 172 00:08:11,880 --> 00:08:13,760 In those days, you discovered something 173 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:16,000 that was profitable and paid dividends, 174 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:17,360 and then you went after it. 175 00:08:17,360 --> 00:08:19,160 That's correct. That is awesome. 176 00:08:19,160 --> 00:08:20,640 So that's the way I did it then. 177 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:21,800 And I do it now. 178 00:08:21,800 --> 00:08:23,960 Now I use a different vehicle 179 00:08:23,960 --> 00:08:27,000 because the risk with the market, 180 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:32,000 the size of the markets, 181 00:08:32,000 --> 00:08:35,160 the size of the volatility, 182 00:08:35,160 --> 00:08:38,960 the amount of change that can happen in any given day 183 00:08:38,960 --> 00:08:45,960 made stocks to me more risky than they needed to be. 184 00:08:45,960 --> 00:08:50,480 So I started investing in a form of fund 185 00:08:50,480 --> 00:08:56,280 that I'm pretty certain you have never heard of. 186 00:08:56,280 --> 00:08:59,920 And that's called closed-end funds. 187 00:08:59,920 --> 00:09:01,800 I've not heard of that. 188 00:09:01,800 --> 00:09:02,720 Closed-end fund. 189 00:09:02,720 --> 00:09:05,840 And you'd be surprised how few financial professionals 190 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:07,000 have heard about it. 191 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,960 I hadn't heard about it. 192 00:09:09,960 --> 00:09:11,240 Actually, I hadn't realized 193 00:09:11,240 --> 00:09:14,240 that I was actually investing in a couple 194 00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:16,560 in the early days of my career 195 00:09:16,560 --> 00:09:18,720 until I looked inside a little better. 196 00:09:18,720 --> 00:09:20,720 These are different than stocks. 197 00:09:20,720 --> 00:09:22,120 What they are, trusts. 198 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:24,040 They're trust vehicles. 199 00:09:24,040 --> 00:09:27,280 And the difference that they have from all the other types 200 00:09:27,280 --> 00:09:31,640 of funds, they pretty much have the same securities inside 201 00:09:31,640 --> 00:09:34,480 as ETFs and mutual funds. 202 00:09:34,480 --> 00:09:39,760 But their difference is that they focus on income 203 00:09:39,760 --> 00:09:43,640 because the trust vehicle, the pass-through trust, 204 00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:49,920 has to pay out 95% of its income to its shareholders. 205 00:09:49,920 --> 00:09:53,720 Can you imagine if Amazon paid 95% of its income 206 00:09:53,720 --> 00:09:55,040 to its shareholders? 207 00:09:55,040 --> 00:09:57,760 Yeah, that would be tough for them. 208 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:01,440 Yeah, and Amazon would never have gotten as big as they are 209 00:10:01,440 --> 00:10:03,720 today because they wouldn't be able to reinvest. 210 00:10:03,720 --> 00:10:08,000 And that's the distinction between these income-focused 211 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:12,400 closed-end funds and every other security out there. 212 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:14,400 Their focus is income. 213 00:10:14,400 --> 00:10:16,720 And you can't buy them and expect 214 00:10:16,720 --> 00:10:18,680 that they'll ever go up in price, 215 00:10:18,680 --> 00:10:21,480 that they'll ever be $100. 216 00:10:21,480 --> 00:10:25,400 I mean, I own maybe 250 of them. 217 00:10:25,400 --> 00:10:31,080 And none of them is over $40 a share. 218 00:10:31,080 --> 00:10:34,040 That's about as high as they go. 219 00:10:34,040 --> 00:10:38,200 And you can buy every stock in a New York Stock Exchange 220 00:10:38,200 --> 00:10:40,960 within these closed-end funds. 221 00:10:40,960 --> 00:10:44,880 Every stock you want to buy is in there, and you own it. 222 00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:47,800 But if one of them goes out of business, 223 00:10:47,800 --> 00:10:51,320 it's not even going to cause you a hiccup. 224 00:10:51,320 --> 00:10:54,520 And that's the way I like to feel about investing, 225 00:10:54,520 --> 00:10:56,840 so that I know the market goes down, 226 00:10:56,840 --> 00:10:59,560 I'm going to be in a position to take advantage of it. 227 00:10:59,560 --> 00:11:02,120 If it goes up, I'm going to be taking lots of profits. 228 00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:07,240 What's your goal for being on this show? 229 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:09,600 The goal for being on the show is the same 230 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:12,120 as the goal is for my book. 231 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:18,680 And the goal of the book is to educate investors of all sizes 232 00:11:18,680 --> 00:11:24,200 to this new form of security and a new set of concepts 233 00:11:24,200 --> 00:11:26,960 that will allow them to make more money 234 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:31,280 and be comfortable with the markets, both the interest rate 235 00:11:31,280 --> 00:11:36,680 market and the stock market, regardless of which direction 236 00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:41,800 it's going, because they'll be able to meet their income goals 237 00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:47,520 and grow their income regardless of what's going on around them. 238 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:48,280 That is awesome. 239 00:11:48,280 --> 00:11:49,560 So that's the goal. 240 00:11:49,560 --> 00:11:52,920 The same form of education is what I feel I can 241 00:11:52,920 --> 00:11:55,640 give in being on the show. 242 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:57,000 Thank you for being here today. 243 00:11:57,000 --> 00:11:59,480 I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 244 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:03,320 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes 245 00:12:03,320 --> 00:12:04,360 continue to move forward. 246 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:06,080 This is going to get more and more fun. 247 00:12:06,080 --> 00:12:07,920 We'll have more and more engagement as well. 248 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:10,040 We'll invite people to participate in the show. 249 00:12:10,040 --> 00:12:12,400 And thank you for giving us your time and attention. 250 00:12:12,400 --> 00:12:15,120 Have an excellent time building out your vision 251 00:12:15,120 --> 00:12:18,440 and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.