Justin Stoddart
Welcome back to the Think Bigger Real Estate Show. I’m your host Justin Stoddart and I’m very excited about this episode today, because I think it solves a big problem not only for real estate agents, but for your customers and for America as a whole. There’s no doubt that debt is a growing epidemic in our country, and that far too many people in general live off debt. And today we’re going to be talking about how you as a real estate agent can start to get more control over your personal finances, so that you can act more as an advisor to your clients. Again, the goal been helping you be an expert and be able to command being a well paid professional. So before we get into that, before I introduce today’s guests, I’m going to just reiterate the purpose of this show, which is to help you think bigger because when you think bigger, your actions start to follow suit, and your opportunities and life. Again, follow that and my aim and passion is to help you have a life of great impact, which all require you to start thinking bigger.So, let me begin by introducing a good friend of mine. His name is Rod Cummings, I’ve known Rod for years. He’s an entrepreneur, a professional, someone who I greatly admire and respect that he reached out to me to said, “Hey, Justin, I have a solution for real estate agents that they need to know about.” And so I said, hey, let’s bring him on the show. I agree with you that that is something that would be a benefit to them for their own life, as well as for helping you be a real differentiator in the marketplace. So I want to introduce Rod Cummings. Thanks for coming on the show today, my friend.
Rod Cummings
Oh, you bet. Thank you for having me on today, Justin. And it’s awesome. I, the show that you created, I’ve watched some of your previous episodes and the impact you’re bringing to the real estate marketplace is incredible. So thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Justin Stoddart
Right. So let’s get into this topic. Obviously, you kind of you brought it to my attention. Not that I wasn’t aware of the problem, but but kind of a solution. Talk a little bit about what we’re going to cover today. And who you’ve brought along with you to help kind of have some additional experts helping us get kind of to the bottom of one way to go about doing this?
Rod Cummings
Well, absolutely. Well, about a year or so ago, I got involved with the two gentlemen that are on the screen here. They are currently associate partners with a company called Symmetry Financial Group and they’re also advisory board members and they’re very much involved with the launch of a new initiative within Symmetry called Debt Free Life. And when I was exposed to the program, back in February, I got extremely excited about it. And over the course of the last several months, they have been involved in the implementation of it. And when I learned about your podcast, I thought and what’s happening the Portland market with the explosion in the real estate, and of course, the associated debt that goes along with it. I thought, Wow, what a better way than to jump on the show with you and explode expose the Portland Realtors and the Portland market to this opportunity and see where it goes.
Justin Stoddart
You know, I appreciate rob you know, it’s an interesting from my vantage pointin that I get the chance to work with a lot of different real estate agents. And I think from the outset, people think that if you’re a real estate agent that you’re rich, right, maybe you drive a nice vehicle, maybe you, you know, people see your signs and stuff around, they see you selling homes. And there’s just an assumed this assumption that real estate agents, you know, don’t have any concern with money. And I know firsthand because you know, I deal with some, even some great agents who, who struggle with this, and I think everybody struggles with what is the best option for your money. Debt can be a real killer. And so I really appreciate you bringing this to my attention.
Rod Cummings
You bet. You bet. Well, I’ll just let you know that both Matt and Brad will be involved the rollout of this new initiative, Debt Free Life, but they’ve actually had some examples of working with clients that have already put this into practice. And so I can’t wait for you to hear what they’ve been able to do in this short period of time since this initiative launched and the impact that they’re having both with in their own businesses and helping other agents like me, you know, able to bring this to the marketplace around the United States. So I’m excited to be to have them on the show today.
Justin Stoddart
Awesome. Well, they look a little bit of like, I don’t I don’t think that they’re related. Haha… I just want everyone to know that’s actually not a mirror image, these are actually two separate human beings.
Rod Cummings
I was wondering. Yeah, so we’ve got Matt Smith and his brother Brad Smith, as you can tell identical twins.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I love it. Very good. Welcome, gentlemen. Thanks for coming on the show today.
Matt & Brad Smith
Appreciate it, Justin.
Justin Stoddart
Yeah, so let’s let’s, you know, let’s kind of dive into this topic here. You guys probably have some specific stats on on debt. And again, I’m not just picking on real estate agents. This is you know, nationwide. Let’s talk a little bit about this debt epidemic that really plagues our our country.
Matt & Brad Smith
Yeah, is an epidemic. I know that firsthand. Personally, I closed the business end of 2012 and I left that business with a lot of debt. And I know firsthand that it affects your stress level, your anxiety, your sleep, it affected my relationships with my family and my spouse, and you know, virtually every aspect of life. And so, you know, we’re very passionate about helping people get out of debt, educating people. And we have very specific tools that help people accelerate their debt without spending anything more than they’re currently spending. And I want I want to ask any listeners this question, and I want you to think about if you were to ask your clients this question, if I could show you a way to pay off all of your debt in less than your mortgage without spending anything more spend, is that something you’d be interested in seeing? I haven’t yet met a person say no to that. And realtors are in a unique position that they’re every client that they have versus unless they’re paying cash is getting ready to go on debt and it is a thought it is a concern for a lot of people. And and other realtors are always looking for ways to add additional value to their clients to position themselves and differentiate themselves in the marketplace.So that’s what we do when we work with realtors and mortgage brokers, with their clients and with themselves to help them pay off debt in an affordable way. Interesting.
Justin Stoddart
I love the topic. Let’s Let’s ask Matt, would you add anything to that? That that you would say that would kind of open people’s eyes is maybe why this is such an important topic?
Matt & Brad Smith
Well, yeah. I’m getting some feedback. I don’t know if you guys you’re hearing that but maybe, sorry to pick on you. But I guess on your end, maybe you want to make sure everyone can hear what we’re talking about. Is that better? A little bit. Okay, I’ve got my speakers as low as I can still be able to hear you guys.
Justin Stoddart
So, we’ll take it, we’ll take it. Yeah, I mean, we’re in the insurance and finance, business. So we’re always looking for ways to add additional value solve additional problems. Similar to you guys. I love I love how you intro the show and you know, having the advisor approach, not just a salesperson approach, but actually truly adding value. And to me if you can help focus on some of the biggest problems in people’s lives that affect them more than just about any other problem in their life. I mean, and that’s, that’s the idea of being a slave to debt. And, you know, Brad had mentioned that we shut our business down in 2012. We were $250,000 in debt. And, you know, fortunately, we were able to get that paid off in about 18 months. And a lot of people look at that and say, how can you do that 18 months and when you have a strategy, where you can identify inefficient dollars and efficient tax dollars and efficient interest, just inefficient dollars, you can and you can put them into a financial vehicle that can accelerate their payoff. You can literally take people from a 30 year window to you know, nine years or less, we say nine years or less. We’ve got clients, seven years five years we had a client just last week, 2.3 years? What, what, what was going to take them 30 years? It’s just amazing. Do you know how to do it effectively. And so that’s really what what we’ve done with debt free life. It’s an initiative. And, you know, it’s not something that we think that we can just kind of keep within our company. We can show other people how to do it. Other people that are already meeting with people that are in debt are getting ready to go into debt, as a way to add more value become a more, more of an advisor like you’re talking about, and solve these problems for your clients.
Justin Stoddart
That’s great. I’m gonna I’m gonna mute your audio for just a minute. Matt, raise your hand if you want to talk again. Let’s see if that fixes it. So one, one interesting comment. So I was at one point on the advisory board of a of a tech company that was a startup and it was centered around helping people make better decisions with their money and the concept is where employers could pay for this benefit for their employees because of absenteeism and presenteeism. But it was an idea. Because there’s a real problem with people missing work, because of their money problems are causing them to not be present, because they’re worried about money. Right? And so to your point, Matt, is that it’s a bigger problem than people think that not only affects them at home, right? But it occupies their mind during the day, as a result, keeps them from being totally productive and keeps them from solving the problem. You know, helping them be productive so that we can solve the problem that’s in front of them. So, again, I think anything that’s helping people to make better decisions is a great concept. So, Rod, I’m going to see if it’s you, I’m gonna, I’m gonna I’m going to pause Robin for a sec, we’ll see if it’s him. Okay, let’s keep going here for a minute.
Justin Stoddart
Thank you, I think we found our culprit, gentlemen. You’ll have to raise your hand if you want to say something right? Like this is back to third grade.
Matt & Brad Smith
So I just want to comment to you ask the question, how is it an epidemic? How does it affect, you know, everyday Americans and the average life, if you look at a lifetime income of the average Americans $2 million. So over the election, they bring in $2 million without their whole lifetime, yet at the age of 65, they’re left with $60,000 in retirement. And I would say that that’s not the American dream. That is not what they were going for when they work for 40 years of their life. And the reality is that if you look at a pie chart and what percentage of their money is going where 34% is going to interest? Think about that. So we’re selling the American dream. People are buying a house, they’re very excited about it, but 34% of their income is going to go to interest. 40% is taxes. That’s including sales tax, gas, tax, income tax, state tax, all these are my taxes 40%. That’s 74% of the average American income is going to interest in taxes. And so it’s no wonder that people get so frustrated that they’re not making enough money. The reason people can’t retire in America is not an income problem. It’s a debt problem. And when you can show somebody how to, you know, we don’t learn these things in school, we’re never taught in school, how to reduce taxes, how to reduce debt, these are actually very simple problems to fix, and it doesn’t take extra income. You know, if you if you go talk to a financial advisor or CPA, the only solution they’re going to have is give me more money. And then I’m going to help you get out of debt. And and, you know, you look at the Dave Ramsey approach or different financial approaches to paying off debt. They said live on rice and beans for the next 10 years and help pay off debt. We don’t do that we hope actually increase the amount of money for lifestyle, just taking inefficient dollars and it’s just a lack of knowledge out there on how to do it. So when you can connect somebody to experts who know how to do this have a track record with literally thousands of clients that we’ve helped get into debt over the past four years. We can do it for your client we can do for yourself. And so what we what we propose to clients is, let us not only educate you and show you how to do this, but put a custom plan together at no cost, where you can see the exact month of credit card number one disappearing the exact month in your critical number to the automobile first, a second, what month and year guaranteed and contracts we pay off the house and they’ll know exactly when they’re going to be a debt. And it gives somebody in my opinion, what I’ve been told is the greatest gift, which is hope and direction. And I’ve also been told you can’t give hope without direction. You can’t give direction without hope. But when somebody can see exactly when the chains are gone, when the shackles are gone. They’re free from debt. It is a feeling like no other I’ve experienced myself and I’ve seen client after client experiences. And it’s something that if you’re looking for referrals, if you if you’re looking for your clients to refer.You to other people, this is a great way to do it because it leaves that client. And I know that and you probably just know student with real estate, you work with a lot of realtors, that sometimes realtors just can’t get somebody approved. They the client wants to buy a house, they just can’t get approved for the loan. And so this is a great way to help that client start to pay off the debt and get in a position they can actually qualify for a loan.
Justin Stoddart
So lenders should perk up because they’ll they would be able to help more people by helping them live a debt free life. I like it. Really, really interesting stuff. You know, I was just doing the math in my head. So you told me that the average American brings in $2 million in their lifetime. And 140 or 1.4 million of that goes to interest in taxes. I understand you correctly. 74%. So more than that, more than 1.4 million. Yeah. And oftentimes we criticize people for saying how do they only end up with 60,000 and you realize when you know it’s a bit of a rigged system right, to where the IRS is going to get their piece the bank is going to get their piece and no wonder people aren’t left with very much because they’re, they’re playing a game, it’s really tough to win when you’re at a severe disadvantage from a knowledge standpoint of the tax and interest component.
Matt & Brad Smith
That’s exactly right. I mean, you think about the we all used to play probably the game of life, right? Roll the dice and you start, you start at the beginning and you go through life and you, you end up you know, buying a car, you go into debt, you take out credit cards, you go into debt, you buy a house, you’d go into that you’re paying it off and you’re getting ahead and all of a sudden, you buy another car, you go into more debt, you pay down, you sell the house, you buy a bigger house, you go into more debt, something happens, and it’s just a cycle of constantly up and down, paying down debt going back more into debt. You know, I’ve heard that the average person buys a new home every five years and you’re always resetting the the percentage that your of your payment, it’s going to interest right they say it a four and a half 5% loan but in reality if you look at the percentage that you’re paying in that first year we know that it’s a it’s a huge amount of interest and very little is going to principal so every time you do this you know the clients paying more and more interest so it adds up to 34% over their lifetime and so a lot of people just don’t know how to do that and and you know, debt ends up not only becoming it goes from manageable to all of a sudden taking over and it starts to really consume people and they just don’t it’s very easy for us to get into debt but nobody knows how to get out of it.
Justin Stoddart
Well again, I oftentimes we know will it will encourage ages to listen to the think bigger real estate show through two ears, right, one ear is how can this help me in my own personal life and business? The second ear is how does this help me differentiate myself so that I’m not just another Realtor, you know, standing in line to get the chance to market and sell your home because knowledge matters. In fact, I was teaching a class this morning on similar differentiation topics. And I said, “Does anybody here have an example of you where you gave somebody really good advice that moved the needle when it came to wealth building for them?” A guy raises his hand and he said, “Yes, I told the client not to sell. And at the time, the home was worth $250,000, and today that home is worth $750,000. Now, so that one bit of advice, earn that client, half a million dollars. And I said, those are the kinds of things that not only you agents need to be doing but they also need to be broadcasting and sharing with people because all of a sudden your commission seems really, really small, when the kind of value that you’re offering up can move the needle for people to that extent, right? And what I hear you guys saying is that this, of this $1.4+ million dollars, you could be influencing and getting some back into the pockets of people because of the principles of understanding taxes and interest and getting on the winning side of that as opposed the losing side.
Matt & Brad Smith
Absolutely, the impact is so big. It’s okay I’ll give you an example. We have a client 37 years old husband 37 wife 35, put a plan together that normally was going to be over 30 years, they’re going to be out of debt, we’re able to get them out of debt and 7.8 years without spending any additional dollars and they’re already spending that not only helps save the client 144 $145,000 of interest, but because they were able to pay off all of their debt and 7.8 years. Now you think about all that debt service payment they’re saving for the next 22 years after that can all go into retirement, we’re able to put them in a position that with the same exact amount of spending and they’re now going to have an additional $700,000 in retirement because of it. So the true difference is actually $845,000 benefit to that client just by simply educating them on how to shift their dollars in a more efficient way.
Justin Stoddart
Love it. This is powerful stuff, guys. really appreciative of you coming on today Matt’s anything else that you want to add in before we kind of wrap things up and actually direct people to where they can go to learn more about this?
Matt & Brad Smith
Um, no, I mean, I guess I could spend a little bit of time talking about where they could learn more about this if the appropriate. Yeah. So we’re going to be doing a webinar, more of an educational webinar this Thursday. It’s going to be a little bit of an early morn, I guess you guys are used to getting up early out there in Oregon, on East Coast time. But it will be 8am pacific time on Thursday. And you can learn how this program works, and how you can I guess educate your clients on how they can get out of debt sooner. So that’s debtfree.guide is going to be the website where you can go on there, there’s a short little video on there if you guys want to watch that does kind of go through it a little bit. But then you can register there for the webinar on Thursday. Okay, awesome stuff and for
Justin Stoddart
Those that are listening to this after the fact right, obviously, there’s an opportunity to be on the live webinar 8pm Pacific Daylight Time on Thursday, August the 29th, I believe.What if they want to learn about it afterwards? Well, that website is still help them?
Matt & Brad Smith
Yeah, we’re going to hopefully we’ll have the recorded webinar up there. I’m not sure if it’ll be up there. You know how soon it will be up there. But we’re going to try to maybe maybe do more of these webinars as well. So this is going to be the first one kind of for realtors. So we’d love to partner up with any realtors out there in the Oregon area. But yeah, there’s a lot of interest and you guys are, get passionate about it like we do, then, you know, we can do more of them.
Justin Stoddart
Okay, very good. Well, I’m excited about, you know what you guys have shared today, Matt, since I’ve got you kind of front and center. I’m going to ask you the signature question of the show today. And that question is this what is a guy like us, obviously a big thinker, helping people in some really big ways. What do you do to continue to be a big thinker, to continue to expand your own possibilities. What does that look like, for Matt Smith teach us?
Matt & Brad Smith
Well, you know, it’s it’s interesting, both Brad and my lives have changed so much in the last six years, you know, we had a business that was shut down. And we started over. I mean, we had to redefine ourselves. And if you saw kind of our life today, it’s so drastically different. It’s not even recognizable. And I think a lot of that, you know, if you’re somebody that’s struggling right now, maybe you’re not where do you want to be in life? I would say, appreciate where that’s at. Because the hardest things in my life have actually been the best blessings in my life and the things that I appreciate the most, and if and if that hadn’t, if those hard times weren’t there that was really the fuel that kept me going and also allowed me to take advantage of opportunities that may be normally I may be a little bit fearful, but I said, you know, what do I have to lose? And so, you know, over the last six years, we’ve been fortunate enough to get to the top of our company out of, you know, 4000 different agents. on the advisory board. We’ve got actually several of the companies that were that were running as well soyou know, just everyone has fear but don’t let that stop you from from moving forward.
Justin Stoddart
I love it. I love you said that almost appreciate what you know, what I heard you say is actually appreciate, you know, this place that you’re in. I know, Rod, I have a mentor in common who, who once said that “Oftentimes, life’s greatest disappointments turn into God’s greatest appointments” and I think I’ve learned a lot from that. And I think that kind of correlates with with what you’re teaching us as well. So, great stuff guys really appreciate what you’ve poured into this audience, the think bigger real estate audience. It’s been a pleasure and me not knowing a lot about debt free life other than what you shared with us today, I’m excited to learn more about it myself and see how I can further help real estate agents improve their own situation as well as offer kind of a unique value in the marketplace. So appreciate you coming on again. And thank you to everybody for tuning in. And my final request of everybody here is three words GO THINK BIGGER! Thanks, everybody. Appreciate you being on!