Nicole Pendergrass: This unfortunately is what happens to a lot of people. They don’t have a plan when life hits them. And when tragedy strikes, there’s nothing in place. At least even financially to help the family with disaster. What happens when you leave this earth? What happens when I leave this earth? Do we have anything for our children? Do we have anything to support our spouse?

[00:00:27] It’s actually what led me on my journey.

[00:00:35]

Intro: Welcome to the share the wealth show where minority professionals can learn to escape the racial wealth gap and catapult themselves into abundance. Your host, Nicole Pendegrass grew her net worth from being negative to multiple six-figures. Join her on her investigative mission to expose the secret strategies of the wealthy.

So we can all have the tools needed to build the life and legacy we were created to possess. Now it’s time for the show.

[00:01:37] Nicole Pendergrass: “Nic, he didn’t make it.”

[00:01:43] I have been holding my breath and I didn’t even realize it. And as soon as my brother said those words, my breath released. In a type of deep whale-like moon sound that I can’t even replicate if I tried. I figured it wouldn’t be good news when I got the email that said, “Call me as soon as you get this, no matter what time it is.”

[00:02:15] But I wasn’t expecting quite bad.

[00:02:26] I basically was on the trip of my dreams. I was in Paris, actually. I wasn’t even in the country when tragedy hit. And I actually asked my dad before I even left what he wanted. and he was the first person I had actually even bought souvenirs for. And they were sitting in my bag.

[00:02:51] This unfortunately is what happens to a lot of people. They don’t have a plan when life hits them. And when tragedy strikes, there’s nothing in place. At least even financially to help the family with disaster. What happens when you leave this earth? What happens when I leave this earth? Do we have anything for our children?

[00:03:18] Do we have anything to support our spouse? It’s actually what led me on my journey. It happened to be that same year I was invited to a three-day real estate seminar. I had already been searching for that thing that I wanted to do. I wanted to have a job with purpose or something that I enjoy doing.

[00:03:41] I heard too many stories of people being stuck in jobs that they didn’t enjoy. And they were just there. Most Americans don’t like their jobs. And I didn’t want that to be me. I actually did not go to medical school for that very purpose. I wanted to be a thousand percent sure that was the path for me before I finished and start well before I even started medical school.

[00:04:09] I went my entire undergrad career doing pre-med because I don’t quit things. If I started pre-med I’m going to finish pre-med. That’s not always a virtue. It’s a virtue when you know, specifically why you want to do something, then having grit and determination comes into play. But if you’re climbing up the wrong ladder is just wasted time.

[00:04:35] In any case, this three-day seminar changed my life. It was the first time that I actually saw that it was possible. And that normal people invest in real estate and change their lives and can create income that less gives them the freedom to do what they want to do. And that’s what it’s always been about.

[00:04:57] It’s been about freedom. It’s been about having choices and having the ability to be up and leave and move. And I can change my plane ticket even from out of the country. That second. And even my mother actually is one of the driving forces and was my big, why when I got started was because I had grown up seeing her work two to three jobs because my dad was sick and had been sick for as long as I can remember.

[00:05:28] And so she needs to support the family because he couldn’t work. And I have four brothers, so to support a seven-person household it’s a lot. And I appreciate it. I saw the work that she was doing then, but it was more because she needed to, and I appreciate it so much more now that I’m older and I have my own children.

[00:05:50] My goal when I started was to make sure that she. Didn’t have to work like that ever again. And that she could stop working. Her current job was at that time she was working one job, but always doing overtime. And I didn’t want her to have to do that forever if she wanted to. Sure. But I wanted to give her the option that she could stop and do something else with her life.

[00:06:17] My mom’s worked so much. I don’t even know if she knows what else she would do with her time. She’d probably get bored. But in any case, Long story shirt short, I went to the seminar. I signed up, I was sold immediately. My whole body was on fire. This is my way out. And real estate is going to be my path to financial freedom.

[00:06:39] And then I will figure out what I want to do with my time. And so I basically. They teach you when you start, especially when you have no money, no credit, and no connections like I did because of course, almost any college student, I ruined actually decimated my credit in college. And even at my mom’s… like, the only financial advice I ever got from my mom was don’t open a credit card.

[00:07:08] And I did it for the first couple of years. And then junior year I needed the money and I opened one. And basically from there went downhill because I did not understand what credit was or why it was important. So I didn’t have credit when I started, I didn’t really have money. And I didn’t know anybody who was doing it.

[00:07:28] That was 2010. So I spent at least the next three to five years doing all the things, all the stuff you’re supposed to do. I was going to every meetup I had joined my local REIA. I was a member in Active. I traveled to three-day conferences and boot camps. I read all the books. Podcasts weren’t as huge then.

[00:07:55] I did everything. I went to webinars. I did everything. Most of it was in-person because virtual networking wasn’t as much of a thing then as it is now. But I started wholesaling, which is a strategy that they tell anybody who has no money in credit to get into. First. I did that for a few years and brought some friends along and we probably, we tried wholesaling in New York city.

[00:08:19] That’s where I’m at now for about two years and never did a deal. And we had all the things too. We had the LLC, the bank account we met every week. We went over strategy. We went to the courthouse, we pulled records, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. We did all of it. Never did a wholesale deal. Until I actually did it also, I did a venture with a group of people from the New York City area where we bought some houses in Detroit, at the tax auction, knew nothing about that market, had nobody on the ground there.

[00:08:45] And that ended in disaster as well. Multiple times multiple ventures that failed that I put in all the work I did all the things that you’re supposed to do, and it still didn’t work out for me until I get to 2015 and I buy a three-family house hack. I lived in one of the units and I rented out the other two units.

[00:09:07] I was blessed to be able to get that. And I use some of the whole Schilling Saturday strategies that I had learned such as sending out direct mail is how I got a call back about this property and ended up talking with the owner. And we purchased the property without even using a broker which changed my life.

[00:09:27] That was the start of the beginning of me being a real estate investor and me going on the journey of what I had learned in that first three-day seminar.

[00:09:42] That was not easy at first. There were so many things that went wrong at the very beginning and I will I’ll spare you all those details. But in any case, I pushed through, I made it work during that time. Like I stopped being as active in real estate. In general, because I was learning like I was learning how to be a landlord.

[00:10:04] I was learning how to manage contractors. I was learning how to upkeep and manage a property. I was learning all the things and life was happening. I got married. I started having kids. So that took me away from the active pursuit of growing my portfolio because I had this one and I was learning this first and it was a great experience being hands-on and getting to know about asset management and property management.

[00:10:33] The next thing is that property. I was able to refinance a few years later and I moved out as I had my second child. So I could have a bigger space and then that capital that I was able to refinance out at cashed out refinanced and that capital, I was able to use a couple of ways. That really was the turning point of the trajectory of my journey.

[00:10:58] So I was able to actually passively invest in larger multifamily syndication. So I learned how that works on the investor side. I also was able to pay for mentorship and coaching in a community that is fantastic. And has. People who are new and people who have thousands of doors within the multi-family space, because I knew that in order to grow the portfolio, the way I wanted to, I needed to have a mentor and coach.

[00:11:28] And I think that was something I was lacking previously in my other failed ventures. As we, I didn’t really have someone, even though I was doing all the networking, I didn’t really have someone over my shoulder I could trust consistently. And even after that, I opened a whole life insurance policy.

[00:11:44] Which is not your typical whole life insurance policy. This is what the infinite banking concept bank on yourself, family banking. If you’ve never heard of that. Research that also I’ll mention that in the refinance, I refinanced into a first position. He locked. Yes. That does exist. Why would I do that?

[00:12:06] Because that is an interest-only payment. It’s not a fixed rate, so it does fluctuate, but there is a limit on how much it can fluctuate. How often it’s not every year or every month is going to be a new interest. And there’s a certain amount of limit on how much they can raise it. The program that I found out about that was to help you pay off your mortgage quicker. I did not want to do that. That was not my strategy. I want it to actually have more cash flow for investment purposes. So whenever I wanted to pay more on the principal, I could. And I, but I did not want my principal to be stuck there.

[00:12:43] I wanted access to my equity and that was my strategic decision on why I wanted a first position. He locked. There are other things behind that, but in any case, look that up. So I had found out about first position. He locks, I found out about infinite banking on yourself, whole life policy.

[00:13:03] There are multiple names for that strategy. And there certain ways of policy needs to be set up in order for it to be effective. These are not policies that take 10 years to accumulate cash value. I actually already pulled out. The cash value from that policy the very same year, maybe six months after I opened it to purchase my first commercial building, I was able to purchase a first commercial building with a joint venture with someone who I met.

[00:13:32] During the program that I joined and the mentorship and coaching, and I had so many questions and doubts about this property, but I had mentors that I could reach out to and ask them to go over the underwriting with me and figure out, make sure this was a good deal. I didn’t want to make newbie mistakes.

[00:13:50] So all that to say, I basically learned strategies. As soon as I heard about a strategy, even if it was controversial. And even if a lot of people weren’t doing it, I researched my behind off. I either talked to multiple advisors. I read multiple books. I looked up as much information as I possibly could until I made a decision for myself, not based off of what other people were doing.

[00:14:18] But based off the info, the goals that I had, what I wanted to accomplish with it. And if I thought it would work for me. So with the whole life policy, with the limited investing in a syndication with joining the mentorship program and the coaching program to doing the first position, HELOC, all of those strategies.

[00:14:41] And some of them in our strategies, but just growing into a network with some people that is an out-of-the-box strategy for some people, because some people think you should do everything on your own and that there’s merit in that. And then some people hate debt. They will never do. Some people will say, oh, why would you do a fluctuating rate on a HELOC?

[00:14:58] Some people think the whole life is not. You should do term there’s so much controversy and so much noise out there in the world. Why did I start this podcast? My idea is really, or my passion is really to help people form a plan based off of information that may not be mainstream, but that helps other people who are wealthy and other people who are already build.

[00:15:26] On their journey use and that, but a lot of people don’t know about that. And I want that information to be out there. I want to bust limiting beliefs. I want to shift paradigms. I want to be a disruptor. I want you to think outside the box and stop following the herd. Now, if there are certain things that you like to do, if you want to still invest, I’m not a huge stock of that.

[00:15:54] If you invest in stocks, there’s a lot of people who are super successful at that and know the stock market inside and out and can do that. And as part of their investment portfolio, that’s fine do that if that’s you, but if that’s not, then build up your wealth in a way where you can control. And then if you want to put something passive on the side, you can do that and buy some stocks, maybe in the index fund or S&P 500 or anything like that.

[00:16:24] I just think that outside of your retirement account, there are other ways to invest and grow your wealth and that you should not only rely on the 401k or 403B or whatever it is that you have to be there for you or even a pension to be there for you and provide for you in your retirement years.

[00:16:45] There’s a lot of things to think about when you’re looking at the information wall street gives you because they want to act in a certain way that is most times actually beneficial for them more than you realize.

[00:17:18] My ethos for building wealth is 1. The first pillar, creating wealth, whether that’s through your W2, actively investing anything that you have to be active in. So that is the pillar where you actually have to have some knowledge and expertise. You have to build it up. You have to know what you’re doing and be super specific and honed in and really learn your craft.

[00:17:42] So even if it’s you’re at your W2, you know what you’re doing at your job. Either get bonuses, work overtime, do extra, whatever you can do to gather more capital for investing, do that in the first pillar. Even if that’s a side business or a hustle or whatever that you need to do, you have to learn about that to grow that to a substantial amount.

[00:18:04] So take your capital and invest it there. Or. Work for someone else where you can learn and get information and get knowledge and skillset that is transferable into other industries. Pillar, number two is growing your wealth. So how after we create it, how can we grow it? This is all about investing strategies.

[00:18:24] This is investing in not only real estate, even though that’s the field that I’m in, but it’s also about investing in businesses, investing in yourself and your education, investing in mind, body, and spirit. And making it, this is holistic. So investing that capital primarily on the financial side, so that you can grow that wealth to a level and have it still working for you.

[00:18:50] This is where you can be active or passive. There are plenty of opportunities to invest passively that are outside of the normal retirement accounts. Path or vehicle? The third pillar is protection protecting your capital. So you’re protecting the wealth through life insurance policies through estate planning, through trust, through elder care planning because you want to make sure that your elderly years are taken care of so that’s not a burden on your children, and that will strip from the wealth. Cause we’ll have to use the wealth that you build up to take care of you. And now they have nothing to pass on either to their kids or to even use, to help build up their lives.

[00:19:36] So that’s the three pillars creating, growing, and protecting your wealth. Within the podcast, you will hear a lot of guests. I’ve done a lot of interviews already with people in all three of those pillars. So although it may, at some times C seem like it’s all over the place. If there’s really a strategy behind it.

[00:19:59] And there is everybody who’s on the show fits into one of those pillars. So wherever you are on your journey, whatever information serves you best you pick those pillars and you apply them to your life. All about application. As we heard what my store before, as soon as I was finding out about all these different strategies I dug in, I learned about it and then I applied it.

[00:20:21] So this is about implementation. Don’t just sit on this information. This information is supposed to be, I’m extracting this from people, so to share resources with you, and then I want you to implement. If you need help with that, please reach out to me at any point, because I’m all over. Minorities in our culture and community having access to information and to resources and to opportunities that we may not actually, not may, not that we haven’t had the opportunity and we haven’t been exposed to and been able to jump into because there has just not been something whether on the race level or the incumbent.

[00:21:04] There is so much intertwining between the two of those that affects our community. And I want to change that. I want to change what the face of wealth is. I don’t want us all to only be. Relegated to certain opportunities and certain investment strategies and certain information and not even know, or open up our mindsets.

[00:21:25] And also, I think the biggest thing is mindset. We really need to think about what we’re doing and why we are doing that. Where did that come from that information or that thought process that we have? Why is that part of our ethos today? And really self-examination is one of the hardest things to do, you are your own impediment to growing and success because you let sometimes mindset. And I won’t say you particularly but a lot of us, community-wise, I’ll say myself as well. We let certain beliefs hold us back from moving forward because we don’t realize that those beliefs are really shackles to our growth.

[00:22:09] And let’s change that. Let’s do this together. I want to say, I could say some more about my story, that actually the growth after I purchased the first commercial building that I refinance that, that three-family I was able to. Reposition that building and purchase the second commercial building.

[00:22:28] And now I have the opportunity to get into more deals and grow and really have the power of momentum. So building wealth I’ll say is not a quick fix care about the journey. Don’t expect immediate results,

[00:22:57] But enjoy the journey and you will eventually become the person who you are supposed to be, to have the things that you are supposed to have and leave the legacy that you are supposed to leave. So join me. You really don’t want to miss some of the people I’ve already interviewed are fantastic.

[00:23:21] There’s so much information there I’ve actually even read, and listened to a lot of the episodes because they’re so jam-packed. With information and how-tos and mindset shifts. And let’s do this together. Are you ready to build wealth? I am to see you soon on the first episode or cut that. See you soon on the next episode, let’s share this well.

[00:23:54] Outro: Did you love this episode of share the wealth show? Be sure to connect with Nicole by following her on LinkedIn, Instagram or Facebook, if you picked up any of the gems that were dropped by today’s guest, make sure you not only put them in your bag, but if you know of someone who would benefit from this information, don’t keep it to yourself, share the wealth and make sure you leave a rating and review. We’ll see you for next week’s episode subscribe. So you’ll be notified.