Table of Contents
Podcast Transcription
Erwin Szeto [00:00:08] Hello and welcome to another episode of The Truth About Risk Investing Show. My name is Erwin Szeto and I was at a conference recently which showed a video of Tony Robbins his talk the year before. They said something that really resonated with me, how he was presented with the business opportunity. And basically he said he could not commit 100% of his resources, including himself needed because the opportunity would not fit his personal lifestyle goals. My takeaway is that work and investments need to be designed to suit the lifestyle that you want, not the other way around. Not to say haven’t been guilty of living in times of imbalance as I’m experiencing now, as I’m finally getting back into the gym weights that you’d be a warmup weights for me are now my workout weights and plenty sore possibly even injured as I’m hobbling around going hard like Terry and I are these days with the Ball Hacker Conference, plus everything else we have going on for businesses to young kids, a figure portfolio. It all takes work in time though. Hack Conference is only a month away. November 12th. We’ve been making our rounds on other podcast webinars. Speaking at events, I like to say thank you to Elizabeth Kelley, Corey Spiral, Christian’s blissful goal of Oreo lasagna with the rapper’s podcast after this ten minute crowds are Reiser real estate’s Seth Ferguson. Andrew Hines Diana Lazaro Coach Madge my coach Marion Gillespie. Daniel Unsworth, John SCHRANK. Your list goes on and on for supporting us, especially to all of you who have already bought tickets and our sponsors. If you haven’t bought tickets already, I highly recommend that you do. Tickets only go up in price as we get closer to the event. This recession is shaping up to be the one of our generation. Fear keeps climbing and the deals are honestly getting better as time goes. So you want to educate yourself on what the experts are doing in real estate stocks, insurance, private mortgages, cryptocurrency. For example, the last time we had a real recession back in 2008, the properties they bought back then they’ve tripled in price or more. I love for everyone in the community to have to be successful. Almost, it requires investment decisions. Set yourself up for a comfortable retirement. Also, for those who are interested in sponsoring, we are down to like one, maybe three booths left. So if anyone considers still wants to wait at the last minute to sponsor, don’t wait too long. Just reach out, turn as investments are generally passive and don’t take that much time. We do need to visit them from time to time and maintenance requests do come in, but they usually go directly to my handy person or assistant that can handle them. We just write the checks again to keep our investments as passive as possible. We have more fun things to do with our lives. My point is, we’re good at this level of activity at this point so we can spend more time with our kids before they turn into teenagers and it won’t be around us anymore. Last week, Monday was our first day back at the gym. As I mentioned, the reason why I can’t walk anymore. I was having to follow my kids programing as I’m doing the work too. My kids are doing class on their own, so I to join my kids class because I’m too out of shape for the adult workouts, the adult classes. It was only when I parked the car at the gym that it hit me. For those of you who have gym buddies, you know how you form a bond with them. And that’s what I want with Robert and Bruce. I haven’t thought this far though. For example, during the run portion of our workout I low five each kid as we pass each other on the run. I’m huffing and puffing as always as part of the workout, which included throwing your medicine ball up in the air several times, hanging by raises and then running the adults cheering. I had to run more than four kids, so naturally we’re going to pass each other. And so as I see the kids when I’m back on the run and they alter their path, they actually once they see me come out the door of the gym, they alter their path towards me so that we to ensure that we get low five each other, they see me suffer. There’s actually a bit of has like getting a bit annoyed of the low fiving because I’m not in a good mood and I’m suffering. But it was really cute. Anyways, most importantly with these family workouts is we save money on a family plan. We’re buying in bulk, so we’re getting a better deal from the gym. And we also save on time, which is really important to me, is being efficient with my time doing my workout in as this is a one stop shop. So when winning on many levels, supporting a good local business, I don’t know. And you know, all the parents I speak to our clients and friends with kids in rap, hockey and competitive dance. I don’t know how you guys keep up because it’s so expensive and the drives are long. Hopefully all of you listening out there who aren’t our clients, hopefully you’re successful investors as well because and I understand that it’s like $10,000 per kid, per hockey, per competitive dance. And so hopefully you’re successful like our real estate clients are. I’m not sure how you do it, but if you’re not sure how to be a successful real estate investor, just reach out. Ask. Happy to share with you our experience how we are passive investors in order to afford our kids this show if little cheering I prefer to. I can rent. You know, we just talk about the gym. I’m happy to pay a gym membership so I can rent the use of their equipment and the facilities because I don’t have the room for that in my house. I like hard assets and being in control in general. I do other things like cottages, hotels, cars, all on vacation, and I choose not to own those things because I want my life to be simple. We used to lease our cars for tax purposes and as those are also generally depreciating assets, we only bought our minivan when it came off lease because it gone off in value. Let’s turn it to investment. Unintended. Unintended. Other examples of wanting to be in control is of our real estate, where we pass on from this world. I don’t want our staff or our kids to have to sell off our businesses or properties. Hence we invest in insurance to cover the tax the tax expense as the good old government will want their pound of flesh when we pass on as we prefer to own over rent, we prefer to have whole life insurance over term insurance. If you don’t know why, that’s because you’re among the 99%, which means who? Don’t know a lot about insurance because honestly, I don’t remember anything. My parents know it’s a lesser known investment, partly because it’s generally for people who have who can afford it. And there’s not that many who can afford health insurance. I only learned the what Jason calls the infinite banking concept strategy or a few years ago at my real estate mastermind, where I’m the poor person in the room and the poor person in the room. So I’m knowing the most. Several members of my mastermind were already implying this strategy, and we even brought in an outside expert from one of the one of the big banks to educate us on the subject. Unfortunately, the subject is not the easiest to understand. And tell me about Jason Mo, founder of Ascend Financial, coauthor of The Banker’s Secret A Simple Guide to Creating Personal Wealth for Canadians. Jason is a leading financial professional in Canada, a leading expert. Also, him being the client of all the life insurance providers in Canada gives him an experience that I don’t know of anyone else having, so he can speak from experience again, from being a customer of all each of the different providers. At the end of the day, his policies, because we own them, they show up on our balance sheet when we show are the banks where we own our assets and liabilities our balance sheet. Banks love to see this. I love to see life insurance because they treat it as collateral and that’s an asset. Hence the lenders more money we can borrow against our policies at low rates and we can pay it back later whenever we want. Much like a home equity line of credit, cheap money, flexibility in control, all things I like. Hence, our plans in 2023 include growing our insurance policies to explain it further in detail and give you Jason Lowe, our guest of this week. And also, if you prefer, reading about the strategy, especially the Italian side. My lovely wife has written a blog post on the subject How to grow a Tax Free Investment and Minimize Your Taxes. I’ve included a link to Cherry’s blog post in the show notes I give you. Jason Lowe Hi, Jason. How you doing?
Jayson Lowe [00:08:00] I’m terrific. Erwin. How are you?
Erwin Szeto [00:08:02] Busy. But what’s keeping you busy these days?
Jayson Lowe [00:08:05] Oh gosh. What is in keeping me busy these days? We’ve got a number of operating businesses in our family, group of companies and travel has picked up, which I like to some degree in and dislike to some degree. I think Zoom has been a really powerful tool for connection and getting business done. It’s changed things forever, in my view, but I’m busy traveling the country talking about becoming your own banker, the infinite banking concept and soon to be traveling the United States describing that process as well with our company launching there. And so it’s been really, really busy. I just got here. I just landed like a few hours ago and we did some recording and it’s just an honor to be here. I’ve seen the pictures and now I’m in the studio with a live studio audience comprised of one my teammate Peter.
Erwin Szeto [00:08:53] And now people have a reference point to how tall you are as well.
Jayson Lowe [00:08:56] Exactly. Yes. Yeah, six three.
Erwin Szeto [00:08:58] I weren’t six three because I weren’t cherry coming in because again, we met you. We’ve only ever known you over Zoom.
Jayson Lowe [00:09:04] That’s right. Yep.
Erwin Szeto [00:09:05] You are our own advisor on insurance.
Jayson Lowe [00:09:07] Marketing insurance? That’s correct. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:09:09] Yeah. And then just in this world, we’re now, we’re actually seeing people in person. Yeah. I’ve had a couple of times where people say, like, oh, you’re telling me expected. And then I see people as well your what I expected. I gave Cherry the heads up on the way and Jason is, is the one I should be. Six two. Six three. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Oh, sure. She’s like, no way.
Jayson Lowe [00:09:26] Yeah. And I’m the small one in my family.
Erwin Szeto [00:09:29] Yeah. You have some, like, superstar athlete children, you know?
Jayson Lowe [00:09:32] Yes. Yeah, yeah. My kids are. Oh, my goodness. They’re just I can’t. Every parent so proud of their children any. But I just I burst with pride. They’re amazing. They love sports. We love having them enrolled in sports, hockey, dance, basketball, volleyball for kids. It’s a 24 seven circus ring of sport and we love it.
Erwin Szeto [00:09:55] So she brings up a lot of question. First of all, as expensive as a nine it is.
Jayson Lowe [00:09:59] Yeah. But, you know, it’s a worthwhile investment because it’s not just. The particular sport that they’re that they’re involved in, in that they’re developing some skill set around hockey or basketball or whatever it is. It’s learning how to be a great teammate. It’s learning how to be coachable. It’s learning how to really bring out your best potential, even on the days when you don’t want to. Now, there are mornings where a kids, they don’t want to get out of bed and go, you know, 6:00 in the morning to the hockey rink. But when they get there, they’re there and.
Erwin Szeto [00:10:31] Teams relying on.
Jayson Lowe [00:10:32] Oh, exactly. And that’s the key. Right. Like your teammates are expecting you to be there and they don’t expect you to be there slouching. They expect you to be there, bring in your very best. And those are usually the best games and the best performances of the team, as is when you think about even if you like to exercise, if you like that workout. I find myself personally the best workout I have is the one I don’t want to do because once I get going and I get into it, I feel great and it’s good. I’m super proud of my kids.
Erwin Szeto [00:11:02] And they’re pretty high level. Are they not? Yeah. Triple-A.
Jayson Lowe [00:11:06] Yeah. Yeah. Triple-A hockey and provincial volleyball. And we’ve had our kids involved in sports from a very, very early age because we wanted them to. To be occupied.
Erwin Szeto [00:11:17] Right.
Jayson Lowe [00:11:17] And to be busy and to not to grow into teenagers and get involved in things that might not be a productive use of their time, you know? But yeah, it’s good.
Erwin Szeto [00:11:27] So how important is multiple streams of income to pay for these sorts of expenses?
Jayson Lowe [00:11:30] Oh, it’s critical. It’s critical. You know, and we were talking about this before recording the show that I work a lot. You know, I’m a workaholic. I’ve been talking about this a lot on podcasts and talking about a lot because Joe Polish of the Genius Network, he helped me understand that workaholism is a publicly accepted form of addiction. So if you have those tendencies and some people where like a badge of honor, all I do is work and I’m being coached on how to make those changes in my life, to prioritize things that don’t involve work and to try and not find a balance. You know, I think work life balance is just really a myth and quite elusive, but really taking quality time to have more freedom of purpose and freedom of relationships and freedom of time and money. The money piece, once you get to achieving cash confidence, it’s a very peaceful, stress free way of life financially when you get there. But there’s a whole lot of hard work that you have to do to get there. The key is, is don’t kill yourself doing it and don’t neglect other aspects of your life that are really important for you to be a whole person, for you to really feel fulfilled and to be fascinated and energized. And so that’s what I’m so grateful to. Joe Polish, to Dan Sullivan for coaching me on that. I took a six week sabbatical last year, the longest I’ve ever been away from work since I was a fetus. And this year, this year I took eight weeks. And had you have said to me three years ago, if you and I were sitting here and you said, Jason, I’m taking a look into your future and next year you’re going to be on a six week sabbatical. I would have thought you were certifiably nuts. Like, Are you kidding? Taking that much time away from work, it seemed impossible to me. And so I faced the fear and I did it anyway. I’m eternally grateful to Joe and Dan for inspiring me to do that. Joe took a year off.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:31] For him one.
Jayson Lowe [00:13:32] Full calendar year, and I was like, okay, there’s no way I’m starting there.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:36] Yeah, baby steps.
Jayson Lowe [00:13:38] Baby steps. Gradual and incremental for.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:40] Some people to take a weekend off.
Jayson Lowe [00:13:41] Yeah, yeah. Create free days in your life and really honor them. No work. No access to work. Like on my sabbatical, my teammates, they turned all my technology off, so all my passwords were changed.
Erwin Szeto [00:13:56] You couldn’t even get in.
Jayson Lowe [00:13:57] Yeah. So imagine if this was my office. They changed the alarm code to the office building so I couldn’t even get in. And it was just all methods of keep Jason away, let him really, truly honor his sabbatical. And my team went through that sabbatical with me and businesses grew and they were thriving. And so you almost think, oh my God, like, am I needed here? But that’s just a self-manifested. Of course the team needs me and I need them and I would recommend it to any hardworking entrepreneur. Not if but when. Take a sabbatical, take time away.
Erwin Szeto [00:14:32] I think I’ve even challenged a listener, for example, to write it down six weeks sabbatical. Yeah. And then start figuring how you get there. Yeah, I’m sure you have lots of it. I’m sure everyone has lots of objections. I have lots of objections, but I’m listening to you speak about it and then start addressing them. Write them all down. Write them all down. How are you going to counter them all?
Jayson Lowe [00:14:49] Yeah, right. It’s fear, right? It’s the fear of I’m going to miss out on something. Or will my businesses continue to operate well without me being there? Can I count on my teammates? I see that coming from a place of and I count on them to keep the businesses afloat. And what Dan Sullivan told me, he said, you know, the truest measure of your team’s strength is when they can’t get a hold of you. So if there’s no way for them to reach you and they’ve got to be in problem solving mode. Wow. If you’re there all the time, you’re robbing them of an opportunity to grow. And so they said, wow, that’s brilliant. Right. And but, yeah, I would recommend it.
Erwin Szeto [00:15:30] I’ll share a quick tip. What I do for real estate investors, for example. Yeah. One tip I have. One thing that I do, for example, is my handyman. We’ve given him $1,000 cash float. Hmm. Right. So if he has something under $300 needs to take care of. Yeah. And it makes the tenant happy. Yeah. Pretty nice to not even ask me. Right. But also, he has the cash available to be able to draw it down for a couple properties until he can get back to me on. Like what? Everything, you know? Yeah. I really don’t care. Yeah. Just let me know at the end of the month because I’ve never done any maintenance care. My ne my tenant and probably any property taken care of.
Jayson Lowe [00:16:03] Yeah. And it’s one or more less things for you to be thinking about and expending energy on. And you’re empowering someone to do something great for a tenant, which is great for you as the property owner.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:16] My customer pays me $10,000 a year. There you go. Right. And then just bring it up, because I’ve brought up I’m brought up in a while. The tent landlord relationship is often I think, well, the way I frame it for my clients is if you spend $10,000 a year at a restaurant, how do you expect to be treated?
Jayson Lowe [00:16:32] Very well.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:33] Very well. Very well. Yeah. And so that’s how I reframe my tenant relationship with my mate, everyone who’s on my team. Yeah. Right. I expect to be taken care of.
Jayson Lowe [00:16:42] Absolutely.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:43] All right. They have an issue. We all need to deal with it. Yeah. And of course, you should deal with someone who gets paid hourly. There’s more money for me.
Jayson Lowe [00:16:49] Exactly. Exactly.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:51] And then. Yeah, it’s just instructing them to look around while you’re there. Look around for stuff that needs to be fixed.
Jayson Lowe [00:16:55] Exactly.
Erwin Szeto [00:16:56] Right. Me not to do it then, like, add it to the spring meeting schedule for sure. Right. So, Jason, I don’t know if I told you the story, but how you ended up in our world is because friends of mine. Yeah, lots of friends of mine have sizable real estate portfolios. Yep. And it was like, no, no, no, no, no, no. From, like, every lender until one of our friends shared how in one of my real estate masterminds like a high end mastermind was sharing how they were able to they were approved for three more mortgages, plus a refinance on their own principal home because they purchased a whole life insurance plan. Yeah.
Jayson Lowe [00:17:32] Dividend paying, participating. Whole life insurance. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:17:35] And then I was like, okay, I’ve heard about this whole life insurance thing a couple of times now that now you get people interested in it because any investor, almost everyone, every investor runs into a wall on financing. Yeah. And then here we have a totally legal way that opens up the door.
Jayson Lowe [00:17:53] That’s right.
Erwin Szeto [00:17:53] So. But also before recording, you explain to me. So my understanding sorry, my interesting is not complete. That’s why I have you on. Yeah. I only generally see rich people doing this. Right. But you’re telling me that anyone should be doing investing in whole life insurance?
Jayson Lowe [00:18:07] Most definitely. Right. You know, if you if you think about dividend paying, participating, whole life insurance is just a tool. And it just so happens to be the best tool to get the job done of becoming your own banker. And so when you walk into a commercial bank, a commercial bank doesn’t indicate that you have to be wealthy to be a depositor at the bank. And so it doesn’t care. Yeah, the bank, they want that capital coming in and they want that money flowing. And so going back to your earlier point about what happened with, you know, this person in your high level real estate mastermind, here’s something that so many people just don’t know. To operate as a commercial bank, you have to maintain what’s called Tier one assets. And Tier one assets can be comprised of gold bullion, cash and something that is aptly named Bowley bank owned life insurance and commercial banks buy dividend paying, participating whole life insurance contracts by the truckload, and it’s one of their best tier one performing assets because of how stable, predictable, reliable and all of the underlying contractual guarantees.
Erwin Szeto [00:19:16] So this is depositor. So this is something that actually appreciates versus cash and gold.
Jayson Lowe [00:19:20] Big time and it but it’s contractually guaranteed to appreciate and it can’t support.
Erwin Szeto [00:19:25] Or guarantee scares.
Jayson Lowe [00:19:26] Me and it can’t go backward. So I was sharing with Terry earlier the economy recedes, cash value goes up, the stock market falls, cash value goes up, the real estate cycle turns against you. Cash values go up. So if you’re sitting down with a lender and you take participating dividend paying whole life out of the equation, and the lender says, listen, you’ve hit a brick wall. Right? You’ve your leveraged to the max.
Erwin Szeto [00:19:54] Yeah, we’ve accounted for all your gold. Not enough. Exactly.
Jayson Lowe [00:19:57] We’ve looked at all of your assets. We’ve looked at you. All of the ratios that we need to determine whether or not we can lend you another dime sink like the banker for a second here. If the lender understands because this is a tier one asset on their own balance sheet and you sit down now as a prospective borrower and you say, well, listen, I’ve accumulated some dividend paying, participating in life insurance, I’ve got cash value, I’ve got a guaranteed death benefit. Well, the lender, if they’re halfway smart, which they are, the lender is going to go, wait a second, you’ve got an asset on your balance sheet that’s contractually guaranteed to grow. We’re quite familiar with it because we buy it by the truckload. God forbid, if the unthinkable happened to you, there’s a tax free windfall of money that’s going to show up exactly when it’s needed the most. Does that make you a better prospect for lending or worse?
Erwin Szeto [00:20:46] Well, if people understand the probate process, then you may need to make your way back to right.
Jayson Lowe [00:20:50] And but the lender the lender wants to find every reason to get the deal approved. Right. That’s why they’re in the lending business. So if you give them another tool from your toolkit that says, listen, this makes me a better qualified borrower. But that that really that’s secondary. It’s secondary to you have a policy or you have a system of policies in place. You’ve got the best tool to get the job done. But if you don’t know how to use the tool right, you’re likely not going to turn out any good work with the tool. And in fact, you may end up breaking the tool. So you’ve got to work with a good coach who can lead you through how to implement this process. The dividend paying, participating home life insurance contracts are just a product, right? Becoming your own banker. The infinite banking concept is a process. And we’re going to touch on this at the Wealth Hacker Conference.
Erwin Szeto [00:21:37] To.
Jayson Lowe [00:21:37] Really pull that together for people where they’re going to go, oh, my goodness, I grasp it. I get it. I know that fundamentally someone, some organization must perform the banking function as it relates to my needs. And it’s not just temporary. It’s for the rest of my lifetime. So if you’re a real estate investor in your active, what you’re doing is you’re making the wheels of the banking business and the real estate business turn in that order. You’re not controlling the financing function. The process of becoming your own banker has nothing to do with rates. It has nothing to do with interest rates, rates of return, any of that. It has everything to do with how you go about financing the things that you need in life. Think of all the things that you need to finance throughout your lifetime for.
Erwin Szeto [00:22:27] The real estate investor. But more than more work.
Jayson Lowe [00:22:30] Yeah, but no. But think about even as a real estate investor, it’s not just the property, it’s everything that goes on with the property. It’s unplanned vacancy, it’s bad debt, it’s new appliances, new floors, it’s car loans. Partly it’s new roof, new shingles, whatever it is, the money must come from somewhere to take care of all those things. So if you can control not only how you’re financing your real estate investment portfolio, but you also have total and absolute control over ready access to a growing pool of financial value called cash value that increases every day and it cannot go backward. And you’re paying no tax on the daily accrual of that cash value. How much of your capital do you not want in that entity in? It’s just a logical question. And you mentioned earlier well, you know, the only time I ever heard about this was from wealthy people. Yeah, that should tell you everything you need to know.
Erwin Szeto [00:23:25] Yeah, wealthy people are doing it. So if I like my friends Tom and Nick, my mentors in my mine time in Nicaragua, they also brought this. They’re also there. You got this as well. Like, okay, they’re pretty smart, too. They’re going to keep digging into this.
Jayson Lowe [00:23:37] How long? Here’s a question that my late mentor, Ah Nelson, now, she wrote a book titled Becoming Your Own Banker. It’s a 92 page read. It’s a great book. If you haven’t read it, you have an opportunity. And Nelson asked me a question, I’ll never forget it. So we were standing inside of the meeting room at the annual Infinite Banking Think Tank Conference, and I’ve been privileged to speak there. This 2023 will be my I think my 11th or my 12th consecutive speaking appearance there. And Nelson said to me, he said, Jason, I have a question for you. So we’re standing at the back of the room. There’s a speaker on the platform delivering a great talk. And he says, Jason, I have a question for you said, Sure, Nelson. He said, How long do you think a skyscraper would stand on a weak foundation.
Erwin Szeto [00:24:26] Of coal with climate change?
Jayson Lowe [00:24:28] I said not very long at all. So he said, Listen, you can have all the tools, the calculators, you can have all the knowledge. But if you do not understand the ridiculous simplicity of what becoming your own banker really is and the foundation that that represents in your financial life, you can stack as many things utility investment, crypto stocks, mutual funds, gold. You can stack all of that really high and build a really tall skyscraper. But if you don’t have that strong foundation, it’s going to topple over. And how many people have you met in your lifetime who haven’t experienced some kind of financial setback as it relates to any of those things that I just described? Dividend paying, participating, whole life insurance never has been never will be an investment. It’s a unilateral, binding contract. You become a co-owner of the life insurance company. And in Canada, interesting trivia has never failed to produce a divisible profit in any year of operations since inception. And in Canada, that year is 1847. So I want you to think about all of the calamity that’s occurred in the past 176 years in this country.
Erwin Szeto [00:25:43] And to come.
Jayson Lowe [00:25:44] Political turmoil, the Great Depression, the COVID 19, H1N1 SA’s 34 recessions, the tech bubble bursting in early 2000. World Wars 0809 World Wars, you name it. And these life insurance companies continue to be the most financially solvent institutions on planet Earth. The wealthy understand, as everyone, regardless of how much money you’re making, as everyone should understand, is that your money must reside somewhere. So what better place to have it reside than here? And then from that very place you can set about achieving all of the financial objectives that you have in your life. I’ll tell you, in our family banking system, we’re going to be talking about family banking at the Wealth Hacker Conference, plug for the conference. Have you ever heard the expression that one decision, one decision can change the course of your life?
Erwin Szeto [00:26:39] Come to a conference.
Jayson Lowe [00:26:39] Come to the conference. And so being at the conference, you’re going to hear all about family banking is the way you think about this.
Erwin Szeto [00:26:47] People should bring their significant others.
Jayson Lowe [00:26:49] Oh, yeah. Be there. Be there with your spouse.
Erwin Szeto [00:26:52] It’s better to hear from you than here. I do it all the time. I can’t explain this to Cherry. I need it in the same room.
Jayson Lowe [00:26:57] Yeah, to be there. And we’re going to talk about it.
Erwin Szeto [00:27:00] Get your whole team on board. Yeah, right. So your significant other. Maybe your adult child. Yeah. Yeah.
Jayson Lowe [00:27:06] Because money the think about it in simplicity. Your viewers, your listeners, they’re earning income, rental income, tea for income, interest income, dividends, whatever source of income. Is it not true that at present all of that money is flowing through the books of someone else’s bank? I say that again. Someone else’s bank. How much of that flow of money do you want flowing through your system versus someone else’s? Logic would say all of it, but it cannot be achieved. Overnight is meant to be achieved gradually and incrementally over a period of years. I’m 15 years into my journey. I don’t rely upon a commercial bank for anything other than the convenience of debit. That to a real estate investor is like heaven on earth. Like that is my beliefs. That is what I want. Like if I don’t have to rely upon a commercial bank for anything other than the convenience of debit, I feel peaceful. I feel stress free. My net worth goes up every day. No matter what. And it can’t go in the opposite direction. It cannot go backward from that foundation. I build my skyscraper. I buy businesses. I invest real estate. I led capital. All of these things that I’m able to do because I know that that foundation, it only cures stronger every day, every single day. And so how much capital do I not want flowing to that foundation?
Erwin Szeto [00:28:39] Spin us all to conference?
Jayson Lowe [00:28:41] Absolutely.
Erwin Szeto [00:28:42] It’s not the easiest understand. And I don’t fault anyone for not understanding this. Yeah, because I run this ecology of money in the long ago, and we just haven’t been that financially well off, like, forever. Like many Canadians, for example, if they’re a real estate investor in listening to this very often they’re the first generation ever of their line to be successful financially. Right. So the whole idea of savings, of buying large quantities of gold or insurance is like they’re the first generation where that was ever available to me. So I don’t I don’t fault anyone for not understanding this. I didn’t learn this from my parents. I took churn out to learn this ourselves. Our parents were poor immigrants. Right. So and then my understanding that helped me with the understanding where also there’s more than one type of life insurance, like Peter clarified for me for that because I actually have a friend that bought the wrong one. Yeah. And didn’t have all these nice things available to them because they had the wrong product.
Jayson Lowe [00:29:41] That’s right.
Erwin Szeto [00:29:41] They’re structured incorrectly so they didn’t get all the banks didn’t love them like.
Jayson Lowe [00:29:47] And they didn’t get that maximized rapid accumulation of cash value and so on. There’s ways to engineer a policy that would not be ideal to implement this process, and it doesn’t mean that the policy is no good. It just means that it’s not optimized for this process. Right. So that’s where we come in. All right.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:04] And then also, life insurance industry is a short term for it sounds very much like insurance, as in like for example, I view gold and holding cash as insurance. Right. They’re not investments.
Jayson Lowe [00:30:16] Right.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:17] I think like, for example, the average Canadian understands why you have a little bit of US dollars. Right. It’s not an investment. It’s for you to have available to you should you ever go to the States and use it.
Jayson Lowe [00:30:25] Right.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:26] Yeah, right. That’s insurance. So then you don’t have to be exposed. You want to exchange money all the time. Right. Okay. So I have some sort of understanding now, you mentioned, but you funnel all your money through a through the strategy.
Jayson Lowe [00:30:37] That’s correct.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:38] And he uses the. To actually buy other assets and investment. That’s right. So you use it to. You mentioned lending. Yep. So could you can I touch on that? Like, how do you how do you flow that through? So then you’re like you’re running your own mortgages, for example.
Jayson Lowe [00:30:51] Yeah. So we do a lot of bridge financing. We do a lot of private lending for.
Erwin Szeto [00:30:56] You still use like a mortgage broker that brokers these deals for you.
Jayson Lowe [00:31:00] That’s a part of it. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:31:01] Like we I’m trying to think the easier model for people are used to.
Jayson Lowe [00:31:04] Yeah. And we, you know, did a deal here recently where a fella was renovating a cottage and needed some, some capital and was, you know, a great candidate for borrowing based on all of our criteria. And so we put up the capital and were earning interest in the for the money’s really simple. So we contact the life insurance company and we request what’s called the policy loan. And that policy loan is unstructured. So what that means is that there’s no repayment schedule. The policy owner in this case, me, I control the repayment schedule, the frequency of payments, the amortization timeframe. I control that. So that puts me in a position of comfort and it makes me feel peaceful about the whole deal. My total cash value in the policy continues rising uninterrupted by the loan. So if I look inside, the policy in the policy has $100,000 of total cash value and I’ve got $1,000,000 death benefit and I need 50,000 to lend to a borrower. I contact the life insurance company. I borrow against that 100,000 without withdrawing anything from the policy, because cash value is not really money, it’s a value attributed to the contract. So I’m borrowing against that.
Erwin Szeto [00:32:18] Since our address has a contract value to get determined.
Jayson Lowe [00:32:21] The value is determined by the guarantee that the cash value must match the total death benefit by age 100. So it all begins with the death benefit and then the cash value follows the leader basically. So the money comes from the insurance company by way of a phone call or submitting a loan request document. The insurance company asks two questions. Would you like us to mail you a check or can we electronically deposit that money into your account? I want your real estate community to just hit the pause button and rewind and listen to that again. Can you bring in all of your financials for the last 322 years and show us every penny that flows in and out of your life? And there’s none of that. No lengthy Ngozi credit applications.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:06] Nothing less, because the insurance company knows what the underlying asset is while.
Jayson Lowe [00:33:10] The insurance company. That’s a good point. The insurance company itself is guaranteeing the collateral for the loan.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:15] Yeah.
Jayson Lowe [00:33:16] Right. So the moment that I get that 50,000 from the insurance company in my hands, they place a lean on my death benefit for the loan.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:24] Balance because they understand exactly what the underlying asset is, which is their own personal bank versus typical loan is based on your ability to repay whatever collateral you’re putting out there. You owe us your car; you got your Bitcoin.
Jayson Lowe [00:33:35] Whatever, you got it. And so the insurance company says, Listen, we’re going to lend you the money. It’s unstructured, so just pay it back on your terms. God forbid if you pass away and there’s a loan balance outstanding, don’t worry about it. The death benefits going to be extinguished, the loan balance and the remaining death benefit proceeds.
Erwin Szeto [00:33:51] It pays them back.
Jayson Lowe [00:33:52] There you go. And so, look, I think about it from this vantage point. If you went into a lender to finance a deal and the lender said, Erwin, we’re happy to lend you this money, repay it on your terms.
Erwin Szeto [00:34:05] Never happens.
Jayson Lowe [00:34:06] And God forbid, if you pass away, don’t worry, there won’t be any indebtedness left behind. Oh, and by the way, we’re going to contractually guarantee that the property will increase in value every day and it can’t go backward. You and I wouldn’t even be recording right now. You would have never even had a conversation with me. Mm hmm. So this enables you to become the banker in your life. What does that mean? It means that you’re taking control of that function as it relates to your needs. The money flows into my hands. It’s the life insurance company’s money. It’s not Jason’s money. Jason’s money is growing in the policy. Uninterrupted. Mm hmm. The money flows to the borrower. Borrower is repaying the loan on my terms. Who’s the banker now?
Erwin Szeto [00:34:51] You’re the man. You’re the lender.
Jayson Lowe [00:34:53] In both transactions. The policy loan and the lending deal. Money comes back with babies. Right.
Erwin Szeto [00:35:00] Called interest greater than the interest rate you’re paying.
Jayson Lowe [00:35:03] Greater than my cost of capital. Right. Because capital has to flow at a cost. What I’m doing is I’m taking capital and I’m putting it right back into my aquarium so that when the next high caliber opportunity tracks me down, I have ready access capital to pounce on that opportunity. We’re in skyrocketing inflation, interest rate uncertainty outside of the fact that it just keeps climbing. Political turmoil. We know the government’s going to need more money in the future than what they need now. So we definitely know there’s going to be changes from a tax perspective. And if you look at all of those elements of uncertainty, that creates stress and pressure for people.
Erwin Szeto [00:35:43] Who are destined to support you there. Yeah, because we all a lot of us think there’s going to be more. The tax rate to increase the capital gains exemption is currently 50%. They may go up. We should all be looking for alternative investments that doesn’t have a tax liability.
Jayson Lowe [00:35:57] So you beat me to it. The participating dividend paying whole life insurance contract, which is not an investment, it’s a unilateral binding contract. The only party that I contract that’s required to make and fulfill promises is the insurance company. Guess how often they fail to fulfill those guarantees? It’s never happened. And so. If you know that the fundamental truth that your money must reside somewhere. And you store capital inside of this entity and you co-own the life insurance company. And you know that in these economic uncertain times, opportunities of high caliber are going to present themselves. So if you need to go to a commercial bank to take advantage of that opportunity, much lower the odds change in this climate versus somebody calls me and says, we have a distressed business.
Erwin Szeto [00:36:50] Or it could be property.
Jayson Lowe [00:36:51] Property. They need cash. And I have ready access to a growing pool of financial value on demand and on my terms. I’ll say that again. I have ready access to a growing pool of financial value on demand and on my terms.
Erwin Szeto [00:37:06] Should we give it your cell phone number now?
Jayson Lowe [00:37:08] I can. I can take advantage of that opportunity immediately. I don’t have to go through the strain that someone standing next to me does. Right, who’s not practicing this process in there.
Erwin Szeto [00:37:21] Lives, because most people think they just have to be hoarding cash in order to take advantage of these.
Jayson Lowe [00:37:25] Right. But where are they storing it in someone else’s cash? And so if you think about it, Nelson, and again, I, I can’t express the amount of gratitude that I have for my late mentor, our Nelson Ashe, who again wrote the book titled Becoming Your Own Banker. It’s an amazing read. He would often say when you have ready access to capital, opportunities of high caliber will track you down.
Erwin Szeto [00:37:52] To give me your cell phone number. Email address.
Jayson Lowe [00:37:55] Erwin. I would say to folks, get in line. I get contacted daily with opportunity and I’m blessed and I’m very I feel grateful for that.
Erwin Szeto [00:38:03] So, Jason, let me pause you there. Yeah, because beginner investors are always asking like, where do I find deals? Right. And a good way to find deals is to let your network know, like your realtor, your lawyer or mortgage person. If you let them know you have capital ready access, but you don’t need approvals for. Yep, right. You better believe you’re on the top of the list when they ask when they got something good all day. Every day right. Versus the person that has so oh I aggregate pre-qualified yeah. All my stuff to the bank hoping for approval in two weeks.
Jayson Lowe [00:38:33] Would you rather be in a position of total and absolute control? Yeah, of course. Anyone, anyone who possesses logic would say, Yeah, of course I want to be. But we live in an instant gratification. Everything. Instant food, instant coffee. You could order a parcel from Amazon. It’ll be here before you shut the office down today. This is meant to be achieved gradually and incrementally over a period of time, right.
Erwin Szeto [00:38:57] Out of the get rich, slow process.
Jayson Lowe [00:38:58] Right. I am 15 years into my journey and if you would have told me 15 years and one day ago that I was going to be where I am today as a result of implementing this process. I didn’t see it. I didn’t see it. It took executing. It took simulating. It took a commitment. It took first and foremost. It began with the desire, the desire to change. And then going through that period of introspection, where you look at all of your financial resources and you say, okay, 100% of my existing financial resources are already prioritized for something. I’m already prioritizing every penny that’s flowing through my life. If I want to begin to implement this process of becoming your own banker, the infinite banking concept, the financial resources are already there. It just requires a reallocation of priority. It’s not going out and creating new money where no money existed before. It’s taking existing financial resources and reallocating reprioritize. And I began to do that gradually and incrementally over a period of time. And fast forward to today. We’ve got 67, 67 participating, dividend paying whole life contracts in our family banking system. And at the Wealth Hacker Conference. I’m going to explain why. I am going to unpack that and I’m going to talk about the advantages that that represents and that how people in attendance at the conference, they can do this too. They just need to realize this isn’t something that’s going to be achieved the day of the conference. Right. It’s going to be a period of years. Years. But again, I got to give credit to Nelson. He said you need to be thinking three generations past your own because the generations that come after you are going to need the use of money as well. And not if, but when you die. If you do not have this foundation in place, you’re going to trigger a pretty significant terminal tax bill. Where’s the money going to come from to pay it? It’s called liquidation.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:00] Selling off assets.
Jayson Lowe [00:41:01] Right? Whereas if you want to talk about the term investment, in my humble view, the best definition of an investment is one that pays you the most when it’s needed the most, the moment you die. Those unilateral binding contracts, those insurance contracts are going to pay. It’s called a promise to pay. It’s a contractually binding promise to pay. And that money shows up and there’s no tax bill attached to it. So now you’ve got all the capital necessary your family to take care of any terminal tax obligation, and they still get to own all of the assets you worked so hard to accumulate over your lifetime. So when you speak to someone wealthy and you ask the question, is there anything stupid about doing that? Any wealthy individual is going to say, No. Of course not.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:50] Like generally wealthy people.
Jayson Lowe [00:41:52] I want to buy as much of these unilateral binding contracts as I can get my hands on.
Erwin Szeto [00:41:56] To enrich energy. So I should grow up bigger, make a policy bigger next year.
Jayson Lowe [00:42:00] That’s great.
Erwin Szeto [00:42:01] So actually, you mentioned 67, 67 policies within your own family. And we were talking before recording. I’ve been at many parties and whatnot. And people know I like to make money. I don’t know. I mean, that’s why this comes up. But they say to me, like, you know, you can get it. You take out a policy on someone and that’s how you make money. And I’ve always been like, I don’t understand. Confused mind says no. Right. Well, and then you tell me you have 67 of these. That’s right. This is some crazy idea.
Jayson Lowe [00:42:27] No, it’s there’s nothing crazy about it.
Erwin Szeto [00:42:29] And this is basically what people are talking about at these dinner parties. You know, you buy insurance on people. Like, I can go buy insurance. And Adam, if I wanted to. Yeah.
Jayson Lowe [00:42:36] I mean, you need to have a beneficial interest in the person that you’re insuring, but it brings up a point that we mentioned before recording around diversification. I’m hearing that all the time, especially now you need to be diversified. Okay, well, what is the route? What is the route of the philosophy behind diversification? Well, the route is you diversify so that you don’t lose it all.
Erwin Szeto [00:42:59] And hopefully that gives you mental peace.
Jayson Lowe [00:43:00] Is that would that be fair?
Erwin Szeto [00:43:02] So you’re not going to do that? I will give you.
Jayson Lowe [00:43:03] Books on diversifying so that I reduce the odds of losing it all. Okay, I get it. Well, I’m diversified in lives insured. That’s my diversification. I have policies on my nieces, nephews, kids, in-laws, business partners, to name a few. So I’m diversified. All right? And there’s no risk of me losing it all.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:27] Well, sorry. Why would you take a policy on someone else? Well, I can just add to your own policy.
Jayson Lowe [00:43:31] Oh, well, you’re limited to the extent of the maximum death benefit that the.
Erwin Szeto [00:43:37] Underwriters had on each individual. Yeah, right, exactly. Any more individuals? Yeah, just scale.
Jayson Lowe [00:43:42] And that’s how you diversify. And I respect and I just say that in good humor. I respect people’s financial objectives and they’ve got money scattered in a number of different things. And you’ve heard the saying, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. I disagree with that wholeheartedly. If I control the basket. Where else do I want my eggs? Like, honestly, the only.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:03] Part of that point in eggs in one basket is most people don’t understand all the baskets.
Jayson Lowe [00:44:07] Right. And so if you if you have total and absolute control over that basket.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:11] Then understand everything about it.
Jayson Lowe [00:44:12] How many eggs of yours do you not want residing in there? Think about any period of time.
Erwin Szeto [00:44:17] Jeff Bezos did okay with this one, but all.
Jayson Lowe [00:44:19] He sure did. And think about points in your life where maybe you’ve lost money. And I can promise you and I’m not a gambler. But if I was if I was to bet, I would say that it had something to do with you handing control of that money over to someone else. More often than not. And this foundation of becoming your own banker, the process. It helps you to understand that regardless of what’s happening in the economy, with interest rates, with inflation, etc., the process of banking goes on no matter what. So who is the banker in your life? It can and it should be you. So that through periods of time like we’re experiencing right now, you can rest easy knowing that your net worth is going to be larger tomorrow morning than it was when you went to bed. Not because you’ve got some secret code to crack there and share with people and hey, you know, come by my stuff and I’ll teach you how to do all this. It’s because you’ve taken control of this financing function as it relates to your needs. That’s the essence of becoming your own banker. The insurance contracts are just a tool. They’re just a tool. But I’ll tell you, it’s been the best tool I’ve ever owned. I’m not really like I don’t do handiwork and things like that. It’s not part of my unique ability, but this is the best tool I’ve ever I’ve ever owned.
Erwin Szeto [00:45:38] And you’re your going along, especially right now. Oh, gosh. We were chatting earlier this week. And you’re telling me all these clients, your is our balance sheet. This is the only thing that’s green.
Jayson Lowe [00:45:48] Exactly. Yeah. Clients are contacting us literally daily and they’re saying, listen, like we heard you shouting from the rooftops when we were in the lowest interest rate environment we’ve ever experienced when gaining access to capital was no more difficult than it would have been. Getting a gumball out of a gumball machine.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:05] And everything was.
Jayson Lowe [00:46:06] Yeah, everything. Everything was sunshine and roses. And we heard you screaming from the rooftops. Not if, but when. We start experiencing what we’re experiencing right now. Your policy values can only continue to go up and people are contacting us and saying, Look, I’m taking a look at the balance sheet and this is the only thing on my balance sheet that keeps increasing in value outside of the fact that I may have some pennies put away in a savings account somewhere. It’s what a peaceful, stress free way of life it is. When you get the bankers out of your life.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:39] Speaking of stress, there’s people out there, including some of our clients who are who have no more access to lenders, are saying no. Yep. Is not getting all that policy going to help them all day long.
Jayson Lowe [00:46:50] All day long. And the longer you wait more, you penalize yourself.
Erwin Szeto [00:46:54] It’s kind of crazy because, for example, part of the reasons why a lot of us invest in real estate is, well, the bank would give us cheap money on it. Yeah, the cheapest money for this. So there must be something good about owning real estate. Oh, for sure. And you’re telling me that this is categorized? This is grouped in the same category as gold in terms of all collateral value.
Jayson Lowe [00:47:13] Well, hey, let me let me. Sure. Let’s talk about collateral value. So, Erwin, I’ll put you in the in the driver’s seat as a policy owner. Okay. So you’ve got a policy and it’s got $1,000,000 of total cash value. It’s got a death benefit of $2 million. I’m just picking arbitrary numbers and I’m putting myself in the position in the driver’s seat of owning a piece of property. So I own a piece of property free and clear. It’s unencumbered. And it just got appraised at when you know it, a million bucks. Now, you and I decided to go to lunch together, but our lunch break is going to go to the bank. So we go to the commercial bank, and you and I sit down and the commercial banker says, Erwin, we’d be more than happy to give you an operating line of credit or just an advance loan, and we’re going to lend to you $1,000,000. You can capitalize the interest and just wipe out the balance when you die, or you can make repayments at your convenience and everyone’s going, Wow. Thank you.
Erwin Szeto [00:48:16] Fantasy land. Are we.
Jayson Lowe [00:48:17] In? And then I say, Well, what about me? I have a property that’s unencumbered. It just here’s the appraisal. It’s been appraised on a million bucks and you say, well, we’re going to have you sit down with a loan manager and if you can clear your schedule for the afternoon, we’ve got documents for you to fill out and a process for you to go through called qualifying. And presuming that you do qualify will extend to you a home equity line of credit for 650,000. Now, if you want to bump this up to 80% loan to value, it’s going to be a principal and interest mortgage for the balance. So you’re going to do things on our terms. What does that tell you about the strength of the asset in the eyes of the lender? Very different night and day, night and day.
Erwin Szeto [00:49:03] And if you don’t have a job, you’re I don’t know how you get that mortgage.
Jayson Lowe [00:49:06] Not a chance. And so I guess in simplicity.
Erwin Szeto [00:49:11] Sorry, sorry. I don’t have to have a job either. You’re telling me the commercial one, the commercial bank or what? Just give it to me.
Jayson Lowe [00:49:17] If you don’t have a job, the commercial lender will likely get you to about 75% loan to value. No qualifying right above that. You can’t be insolvent or pending insolvent. You can’t have derogatory credit. There’s still criteria. You’re borrowing from someone else’s bank.
Erwin Szeto [00:49:35] But the flexibility.
Jayson Lowe [00:49:36] And the control. Just how would it make. I’m speaking to you now, the viewer, the listener. How would you feel being in a position of total and absolute control financially as it relates to opportunities that are tracking you down whatever financial objectives you have that you want to set about to achieve? If you’re in a position of total control, it’s very peaceful, very peaceful. Isn’t that good?
Erwin Szeto [00:50:02] And the folks with it who say they have life insurance? Do they have the same benefit.
Jayson Lowe [00:50:06] If they only have temporary insurance like term life insurance? They would not have that same benefit because you’re only renting the benefit.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:14] In term insurance. Life insurance, general. I mean, term insurance.
Jayson Lowe [00:50:18] Yeah. People purchase.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:20] I went to it. 95% of people who say they have life insurance; it may even be a term and all.
Jayson Lowe [00:50:24] Yeah, I would say it’s so common and.
Erwin Szeto [00:50:26] Especially if it’s via their company benefits. Oh yeah that always is.
Jayson Lowe [00:50:30] And I yeah it’s group employment benefit which is, which is different. But if you look at it from this perspective used another interesting bit of trivia. If you take out term life insurance which has a purpose, it’s it obviously, but if you’re renting the benefit. So if I could get you $1,000,000 of death benefit for 35 bucks a month and you were life insured for the next ten years, what do you think the odds are of you dying in the next ten years?
Erwin Szeto [00:50:54] Hopefully not good.
Jayson Lowe [00:50:56] The insurance company, if they thought you were going to die during that ten year window, then they’re making a really lousy bet by only collecting 35 bucks a month in exchange for a promise to pay a million. That’s why less than 2% of term life policies ever payout a death benefit. Oh, so. A lot more returns. Well, but think about it. It’s a great return for the life insurance.
Erwin Szeto [00:51:17] Company for them.
Jayson Lowe [00:51:18] So if you if you’re a dividend paying, participating, whole life insurance policy owner, you co-own the life insurance company. So that’s a great return for you as a co-owner of the business, isn’t it?
Erwin Szeto [00:51:28] At least you benefit.
Jayson Lowe [00:51:29] Often it creates an enormous cash float. And what do you do with cash? Float, right? You multiply it.
Erwin Szeto [00:51:35] So instead of renting, you’re getting some equity.
Jayson Lowe [00:51:37] Oh, from day one. Yeah. Isn’t that good? So real estate investors get.
Erwin Szeto [00:51:41] Oh, I love equity. Right.
Jayson Lowe [00:51:43] It’s a match made in heaven.
Erwin Szeto [00:51:44] And the analogy I often make is like, if you don’t like the price, you’re paying it with gas at the gas pump. We got a Tesla, but buy some shares in the gas company, buy some Suncor. The more you pay, the more you’re making.
Jayson Lowe [00:51:57] Yeah, exactly. And you know, as it relates to if you just think about investing in stocks, my own personal experience is and this may sound a little corny, but it’s the honest to goodness. Truth is, I took a look inside my pantry. I took a look inside the fridge; I took a look inside the medicine cabinet. And I just literally looked at all the products that I consume, no matter what’s happening in the economy or with inflation or anything. So am I going to keep shaving as inflation skyrockets? Yeah. Am I going to continue eating cereal? Am I going to? And so on. Do I keep powering on this device? Yeah. Well, I wonder who makes the components that puts us together.
Erwin Szeto [00:52:44] Your iPhone.
Jayson Lowe [00:52:45] Right. And so that was just my ridiculously simple approach to it. And it’s worked out incredibly well. And not because I knew how to time a market, but because I knew that I was thinking long range as it related to the consumption of these goods and services, and then take all the dividends from owning those stocks and reinvesting it in more stock. And it just grows and grows and grows. Where I’m going with that. I do not know on any given day what the value of that stock portfolio is going to be. But I promise you, I know on any given day what the value of all my participating dividend paying life contracts are today and what they’re going to be tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that and so on.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:30] Diversification.
Jayson Lowe [00:53:31] Yeah, well, for me, it’s it wasn’t an either or.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:35] Oh, no, it should be like and yeah.
Jayson Lowe [00:53:37] Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:38] I think the both the wealthier again and the more education one gets, the more diversified they are.
Jayson Lowe [00:53:44] I think so, yeah. For me, I try to stick to what I know.
Erwin Szeto [00:53:48] We’ll add to that. Something we were talking about before is you and I were discussing. So to give some context, statistically, we’re living longer than ever. That’s right. Yep. COVID 19 was the first time that we actually regressed in our increasing life expectancy. That’s right. We’re wealthier than ever. Yeah. Even with this correction we’re having, we are still. Yeah, we are. We have a blip right now, but still, generally, we are wealthier than we were in 2019. Yep. Yet I would argue mental health is probably among the worst to prevent.
Jayson Lowe [00:54:13] Yeah. Yeah. People are really, really suffering.
Erwin Szeto [00:54:16] And one of the lessons I’ve seen a lot of real estate investors take is the understanding most of them are active. Yeah. Many of them have exited, and now they’re not looking where to put that money. Right. Not only what they’re looking to, where they put that money, but generally I find they’re looking for more passive, yet more peace of mind. Yeah. Less wear and tear on their mental health.
Jayson Lowe [00:54:36] Oh, God. So.
Erwin Szeto [00:54:37] So where would this fit on the spectrum?
Jayson Lowe [00:54:39] Okay, well, let’s just check a few boxes. Okay. We have contractually guaranteed daily cash value accumulation check box. We attract no tax on that daily accrual.
Erwin Szeto [00:54:49] Oh, that’s big saving. Check the.
Jayson Lowe [00:54:51] Box. The policy is exempt from the passive investment income tax rules. Check the box. Mm hmm. We have an ever increasing total death benefit, of which the total cash value must grow to match. Check the box. We have ready access to capital on demand on our terms. Check the box. When we borrow against that accumulation, we’re not interrupting it. So now the real estate investor in that example who has liquidated. Mm hmm. And they have this enormous stockpile of cash. The truth is, is that the money must reside somewhere. Mm hmm. If you stored on the books of someone else’s bank, then you’re enriching someone else’s stockholder. Mm hmm. If you stored on the books of your own system, you’re building your own warehouse, a wall, and it’s indestructible. So you pour this strong foundation to go build your next skyscraper that’s actually going to stand and can’t fall over. And from that very place, you can do all those things financially that you set about to do. Mm hmm. And we find, at least in our experience, and we deal with real estate investors coast to coast, is that once they catch this, they know exactly what to do. They want to get as much capital flowing through this tool as possible. Understandably so.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:06] Mm hmm. And then just something kind of understood along the same lines. Part of my own education in this area was I had questions. Are you? Yeah, because there’s a couple of vendors that offer similar products. And you told me you actually have money with all of them.
Jayson Lowe [00:56:21] That’s right.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:23] So you sampled everyone’s services and products?
Jayson Lowe [00:56:27] Absolutely.
Erwin Szeto [00:56:28] Because what I found is when people find out what what’s when, which company I went with, they always have, like, negative things to say about some positives and negative, often negative. But I found the same shoe with my choice of cars. Yeah. I used to drive. I drove a BMW for ten years. Yeah, a lot of people didn’t like BMW. Now, driver, Tesla and even more polarizing authority people tell me how what a what a terrible choice it is and how bad for the environment it is. Yeah. But again, you’ve sampled everything. That’s right. Which is we weren’t me. I imagine we were never going out there.
Jayson Lowe [00:56:56] Yeah. And the only reason I did it is because I wanted to speak from a place of authenticity, not from opinion.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:02] You’ve put your money in everything.
Jayson Lowe [00:57:04] Precisely. And I wanted to go through that journey as a customer. Yeah, because at Ascendant Financial, we want to be continually developing a deeper understanding of what exactly it is the clients we have in the clients we want to have truly value. And then we will not put them in any situation where they’re not getting what they truly value. And there’s a lot of great companies without running an advertisement for any one particular life insurance carrier in the country. There’s a lot of great carriers in the country, not all of which are suitable for a great client experience as it relates to what we’re talking about. And so.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:43] It’s okay. It’s okay that people are different service offerings.
Jayson Lowe [00:57:46] Oh yeah, for sure. And for me, it was just I want to be able to speak to this from a place of authenticity. It’s like I’m a customer of all these carriers so I can speak firsthand and share fact.
Erwin Szeto [00:57:58] Right.
Jayson Lowe [00:57:58] Right. There’s everybody has an opinion which you’re entitled to, but that’s fine. But I will say that many years ago I’m speaking to 2011, to be precise. Nelson Nash said to me at my very first infinite banking think tank conference. He said, Let me ask you a question. If you’re dealing with a mutual life insurance company, that means that they’re not publicly traded. There’s no stockholders. Is that private? Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:27] Technically, yeah.
Jayson Lowe [00:58:28] Yeah. Because you’re not on the government’s radar. The government doesn’t know that you have those contracts in place. It’s private. Private contract. Check. Check the box when you request a policy loan. Is that a private loan arrangement between you and the insurance company that you co-own? Yeah. If you have a board that looks after the day to day operation of this insurance company and they have no one else to be responsive to except for you and every other participating policy owner.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:56] Right. Because you are the owners. Right. Right.
Jayson Lowe [00:58:59] Is that the.
Erwin Szeto [00:58:59] Customers? Are the owners. You got it. So do you care about the owners having to be the customers?
Jayson Lowe [00:59:05] Exactly. You said no. Let’s contrast that with a stock company. Very different. You have a board that is responsible primarily, first and foremost, before any other human being on the planet. The stockholder? Yeah. So it’s.
Erwin Szeto [00:59:18] Arming themselves to.
Jayson Lowe [00:59:20] Immediately. You’re dealing with a distinction that needs to be well understood. It’s not that one company is bad and the other one is good. And all the noise that you could hear out there, which is just all a bunch of nonsense. All I know is that if I’m dealing with a company, I have a private contract. My dealings are private. The board is only responsible to fulfill the mandates to me and to every other participating policy owner. When a divisible profit is to be distributed, the sole beneficiaries of that divisible surplus are the owners. 100% of the owners’ equity belongs to the owners, not stockholders. There’s a reason why, Nelson said in his book. Ideally, you want your contracts to be placed with a mutual company. That’s what he meant by it.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:12] As a mutually beneficial.
Jayson Lowe [01:00:14] Mutual meaning? No. Stockholders? Yes.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:17] Private, but surely our customer first.
Jayson Lowe [01:00:20] Big time and.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:21] There’s no other. There shouldn’t be any. The bias, our motivation.
Jayson Lowe [01:00:24] Exactly. And so in Canada, we only have one option. And that’s who you have your contracts. Right.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:31] And they get other people like other ones, which totally cool.
Jayson Lowe [01:00:33] Oh, that’s fine. Yeah. People can write. They can store their money wherever they choose, but. The advantages of being a mutual co-owner of a mutual life insurance company are incalculable.
Erwin Szeto [01:00:47] Interesting. Really? Well, the criticism I heard is that my policy that they say it’s expensive, but I’m the equity owner.
Jayson Lowe [01:00:54] Compared to what?
Erwin Szeto [01:00:55] I don’t know. They say the questions are high or something, but compared to what? I don’t know.
Jayson Lowe [01:01:00] It’s just know that that’s just. Have you ever flown in an airplane with noise cancelation headset?
Erwin Szeto [01:01:08] My own.
Jayson Lowe [01:01:09] And you know how beneficial that is.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:11] No kids crying can be my kid.
Jayson Lowe [01:01:14] You got to you have to have the ability to note that noise. I pay no attention to it whatsoever. Equitable being the company that we’re talking about, again, without running an advertisement on any particular life insurance company. All the carriers in Canada that provide dividend paying, participating, spending, life insurance have a great track record. They really do. From a mutual perspective, there’s only one. And so if there was more than one choice, then I would be evaluating an alternative choice. But presently there’s only one. And so far, so great and so far so great. Meaning since 1936. I mean, it’s just it’s been a little while.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:54] So, Jason, we’re running out of time. Why, thank you so much for coming in.
Jayson Lowe [01:01:58] Oh, it’s.
Erwin Szeto [01:01:58] Looking forward to you.
Jayson Lowe [01:01:59] Talk. Thank you.
Erwin Szeto [01:02:00] I think more than ever, people are looking for boring. It’s funny because for the longest time, everyone was into real estate for boring. Yeah. And then when it got easy to make money, people got adventurous. Yeah. Think now we’ve come back to the way. Boring is winning these days. Yeah. And it sounds like doesn’t get more boring than this if you’re lumped in with gold.
Jayson Lowe [01:02:19] Oh, my God. It’s is. I shared with you before we hit the record button. It’s like right up there with watching paint dry and grass grow.
Erwin Szeto [01:02:27] Which I think people would love right now.
Jayson Lowe [01:02:29] Oh, for sure. Like, I rest easy knowing that my pool of financial value continues growing daily and it cannot go backward. And I’m attracting no tax on that daily accrual. What more could I ask for? Like, I mean, that’s a very peaceful, stress free way of life financially. When you get into the human condition of greed or you’re in a market environment where everybody thinks they’re immortal and unstoppable and then.
Erwin Szeto [01:02:56] Don’t talk to my Bitcoin portfolio. Right.
Jayson Lowe [01:02:58] It’s like Mike Tyson says. Right. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face by him. And so I haven’t had a single client call me once in 15 years to say, Jason, I’m really frustrated that my cash values keep rising every day. It’s really frustrating me. I’m really bothered that I have ready access to capital to take advantage of a high caliber opportunity. No one has ever said that to me. People are relieved. They’re relieved that they got started in their journey years ago. Right. And the best time to get started for people who are viewing and listening is once you have clarity, get clarity on the process, make sure your questions are answered, make sure that you’ve got a great plan in terms of how you intend to implement it. Work with a great coach and we pride ourselves on having the best coaches bar none. If Nelson were still alive today, he would attest to that and which level we do. And we love working with our clients and supporting them and coaching them. And 15 years into our journey, we’re more excited now than we’ve ever been. So because of me coming up in this journey, I didn’t experience soaring inflation until now. I didn’t experience skyrocketing interest rates until now. And so to be able to live through this peaceful, stress free oh my God, you can shield yourself two from the next whatever it is that’s going to impact you financially. The longer you wait, the more you penalize yourself. So stop reading about the Wealth Hacker Conference. Get a copy of our Nelson Nash’s book titled Becoming Your Own Banker. Believe me, you’ll be glad you did. We’ve released our first book in a series, Canadians Guide to Building Wealth Without Risk. This is the first in a series. Every quarter a new book is coming and it’s just an honor to be here with you. Thank you for having me.
Erwin Szeto [01:04:44] Jason and you are copies of the book on hand at the conference. Believe it. Yep. In a huge.
Jayson Lowe [01:04:48] Booth.
Erwin Szeto [01:04:49] Zippers Jason, you mentioned earlier that opportunities are coming to you yet. Can you comment on how are they? Are they getting better or worse, right in this current climate?
Jayson Lowe [01:04:59] Much better, yeah. Because people are motivated. They either want out from the deal. They were in a lot of business in particular coming my way in terms of companies that are just distressed. They need financing capital, they need leadership, they need help. And so I get tapped on the shoulder all the time. I turn away far more opportunity than I move forward.
Erwin Szeto [01:05:21] Like nine out of 1095, at 100, you turn away.
Jayson Lowe [01:05:24] Oh, man, that’s a really good question. I’ve never really characterized it in terms of ratio.
Erwin Szeto [01:05:29] In this client, especially, you know, the saying hell yes or no. Oh, it’s gonna to be a hell yes if so much to choose from, if.
Jayson Lowe [01:05:37] I’m not familiar with what exactly it is that. You’re talking about with me. I’m out. I don’t care how good the deal is, I have to have a level of familiarity. Otherwise, I won’t participate.
Erwin Szeto [01:05:47] Right. So those people at those cocktail parties saying I should buy insurance on people, they were right.
Jayson Lowe [01:05:51] Yeah, they actually. They were. I mean, you’ve got to take care of yourself first. It’s much like when you get on an airplane, I. I flew here today and the stewardess says, listen, in the unlikely event that something goes sideways, oxygen masks will drop from the ceiling. Make sure you put yours on first before helping someone else. It’s the very same as it relates to this. Take care of addressing your own needs first and then expand that to other people in your family, your business, both.
Erwin Szeto [01:06:21] It’s awesome.
Jayson Lowe [01:06:21] Isn’t that good?
Erwin Szeto [01:06:22] Yeah. Can’t wait.
Jayson Lowe [01:06:23] That was fine. All right. And thanks to our studio audience, the one person, my teammate Peter, who’s here appreciates it. We’re also.
Erwin Szeto [01:06:33] Thank you.
Jayson Lowe [01:06:33] Thank you. It’s pleasure. Yeah.
Erwin Szeto [01:06:43] Before you go, if you’re interested in learning more about an alternative means of cash flowing like hundreds of other real estate investors have already and sign up for my newsletter and you’ll learn of the next free demonstration webinar I’ll be delivering on the subject of stock hacking. It’s a much improved demonstration over the one that I gave to my cousin Chubby at Thanksgiving dinner in 2019. He now averages 1% cash flow per week, and he’s a musician by trade. As the real estate investor myself, I got into real estate for the cash flow, but with the rising costs to operate a rental business, it’s just not the same as it was 5 to 10 years ago when I started. Never forget that cash flow reduces your risk. The more you have, the more limbs you can absorb. And if you have none or limited cash flow, you’re going to be paying out of your pocket like I did on a recent basement flood at my rental in St Catherine’s, Ontario. If you’re interested in learning more for free from my newsletter at WWW. Truth about Real Estate Investing dot CA. It’s your name and email address on the right side will include in the newsletter when we announce our next Free Stock Tracker demonstration. Find out for yourself with so many real estate investors are doing to diversify and increase our cash flow. And if you can’t tell, I love teaching and sharing the stuff.