Stop Planning for Retirement: Build Work Optional Wealth Through Real Estate and Cash Flow

Perry Jeffries III (00:00)
The biggest pivot man is the mindset, right? That is the biggest opportunity. And what I mean by that is this, when I changed my framework and said, I am no longer solving for retirement in the future, but I’m solving for freedom today, it unlocked everything for me.

Scott Bursey (01:53)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. Today we are cutting through the noise and diving deep into true financial mastery. We are joined by a Titan in the industry, Perry Jeffries III. With over 22 years of financial strategy experience and over $80 million in assets under management. Perry has cracked the code on scaling wealth. He’s the creator of the exclusive WEALTHY Framework.

Wealthy Framework, a system built to help high income earners stop operating in survival mode and finally teach them how to think like the bank. Perry, welcome to the show.

Perry Jeffries III (02:32)
Thank you, Scott. Thank you for having me. Such an honor, my friend. Appreciate you.

Scott Bursey (02:36)
yet so. Just an honor having you on the show and Perry to help our listeners get up to speed. Please give us the front row seat and how your career ignited and where you’re pouring your fuel now.

Perry Jeffries III (02:47)
Yeah, man. So ⁓ I won’t bore the audience to death with taking it all the way back to when I was born in 1976. But at the time in this recording, I am turning 50 this year. And ⁓ I think that’s a great place to kind of start the conversation and kind of work our way back. So I’ve been in, as you mentioned, the financial service industry now for over two decades. So I think I’m in my 23rd year. ⁓

Oddly enough, when people think like, my gosh Perry, did you go to school for finance? No, I absolutely did not. I went to school for basketball, Scott. I went to school with the intent of playing basketball, played at a couple different colleges, but finished at Tennessee State with a degree in math and a minor biology. So literally my first job out of school, man, I was a substitute school teacher and ended up being a head basketball coach at a middle school and assistant varsity basketball coach at my old high school at my alma mater.

From there, I got into the fitness space as a strength and conditioning coach, moved from Akron, to Columbus, Ohio, where I managed a team of 30 some odd personal trainers at a really large gym. And then man ⁓ is around that year ⁓ as a segue into kind of our conversation today. I had a client that I was training. He wasn’t much older than me. And ⁓

He was paying me a lot of money Scott for personal training. And one day I asked him, said, dude, how are you able to afford me? And he said, well, I have a corporate job here, but I’m also.

Investing in real estate. said man. I’ve been reading all kind of books on real estate, right? I’ve been reading I’ll be following Robbie Kiyosaki and Russell Whitney and things of that nature But you know cannot take you out for a cup of coffee and learn about what you’re doing He said well, yeah, so Scotty was you know around 2001 a dollar fifty cup of coffee So where else you’re gonna get a dollar fifty cup of coffee today, right? dollar fifty dollar fifty cup of coffee led to a Conversation which led me to grow my first seven figure real estate portfolio since then

I left the fitness space in 2003, got my stockbrokers license, insurance license, and went into wealth management. So I was juggling the wealth management as well as the real estate piece. And then like many people, 2007, 2009 hit, and I did not have the systems in place that we’re gonna talk about today.

So when 2007, 2009 hit, I got my butt handed to me, lost everything, you kind of have to lick my wounds and go back to the lab. And then in 2014, got let go for my corporate job, which I call now my Independence Day in July 8th, 2014. But that year was such a pivotal year because that was the year I started dating who’s now my wife. And since then, man, we decided to start our own firm where we could speak.

and help our clients the way we truly wanted to. So taking and kind of removing the title of financial advisor, replacing that with financial strategist and then helping clients navigate wealth creation from a different lens versus retirement planning more focused around alone, the lines of being work optional, right? Where you don’t have to wait to age 60, 65 and plan for this future event, how you can live your best life today. So between me and my wife, we’ve now grown another multi-seven figure real estate

portfolio. We now have a mastermind community where we help individuals, you know, install our Wealthy Framework so they can become work optional in the next 12 to 36 months. And I was able to retire my wife at 40. And going back to what we know 1976, this year I turned 50 and my goal was to be work optional by 50. And we’re doing that I hit my freedom number last year. And now what we’re doing is just tightening up some systems and some hires to make work truly work optional for me.

⁓ But not mission optional. Work optional just simply means, hey, I can choose when and where I want to work, but we’re on a mission to help other people experience where we are. So that’s my story in a nutshell, my friend.

Scott Bursey (06:42)
That is just an incredible, impactful story. What a journey. know, Perry, what really caught my attention about you was the purpose behind your methodology. You’ve taken over two decades of deep level financial strategy and successfully stripped away the complexity, creating a roadmap that actually works. You know, your W E A L T H Y Framework, Wealthy Framework.

Most people are stuck in survival mode, but you’re showing high octane earners how to shift their entire operating system and frankly, learn to think like the bank. Seeing you manage over $80 million in assets with that level of clarity is exactly why you’re here on Investor Fuel today. Thank you for being here, my friend.

Perry Jeffries III (07:30)
Trust, it’s such an honor, Scott. Thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (08:20)
Let’s dive in. You your Framework has helped countless people scale. What is the strongest pillar of the system for someone just starting their path to financial independence?

Perry Jeffries III (08:29)
Yeah, absolutely.

I think what I’ll do probably would be best for the listeners, just to level set is kind of the Wealthy Framework. Each I’m real big on acronyms. I’m kind of weird, kind of a nerd that way. So the Wealthy Framework, each of those letters stands for something. So I’ll quickly run through those letters and then tell you which one I think is the most important. The W stands for watch your numbers, knowing exactly what’s coming in, what’s going out, what number you’re solving for. The E stands for emergency fund, but not the emergency fund that we’ve been taught to

you know, put money into a high US savings account, use an emergency fund that is identical to the same type of fund that the banks use in the form of bank on life insurance. Then the A stands for automation. What can put on autopilot and remove any type of decision friction away from your wealth creation. Then you got your L, which goes into your leverage. And again, very anti, you know, some gurus who will say, man, all debt is bad. What we look at is we look

at liabilities that can help us create Cash Flow So, you know, how can we leverage the current assets that we have uncovered and unlock that capital so we can now go out and acquire assets that’s going to give us Cash Flow. Then you have your T, which is now we’re terminating toxic debt, getting that debt off the table that’s serving no purpose. Then you have our H, which is no hedging against taxes. We realize, you know, something really simple, right?

It’s not how much money you make, it’s about how much money you keep. So if you can navigate that tax landscape and put more money in your pocket, then no financial freedom and work optionality becomes, can come a lot quicker, right? And then we end with the why, which is your passive income stream. Everybody’s, know, asset-based income, passive income stream is gonna be different. How we create our financial freedom may be different from you.

But if you’re installing this Framework, you know, you now have access to the opportunities and you now have a very systematic way to make those decisions and kind of determine what’s best for you. So that’s the Wealthy Framework if you kind of just zoom out and look at it. But the number one component is the W is the most impactful.

Right? Some people would say, man, period of leverage is super impactful because typically we, you know, help high income earners identify extra hundred thousand dollars that they’d had no idea had access to. That’s huge. But if you’re not looking at your numbers, like the most unsexiest thing of the entire Framework, Scott is what are your numbers? You have to have 100 % clarity over what’s coming in, which most people have, but most people don’t have clarity around what’s going out.

And then the piece, and I think the, won’t call it the secret sauce, but what the whole Framework and work optionality is built on is knowing your freedom number, which falls in that W category, because when you have a freedom number.

When you’re very specific and know that, for me to become work optional, it is going to be $8,922 per month is what I need to have coming in ⁓ via cashflow from assets. And now you’re solving for that number, it relieves so much of the anxiety that people have around their finances. So to answer your question, the entire Framework, all of those components ⁓ are amazing and part of the story, but it truly starts with having 100 % clarity around your numbers.

Scott Bursey (11:49)
I love it. That’s a massive injection right there of value, Perry. Now let’s shift gears a tad. When you look at the financials of entrepreneurs you coach, what is the most common weakness or blind spot you see them making with their Cash Flow?

Perry Jeffries III (12:38)
not having a system? And Scott, I think that is such a powerful question, Because what I’ve seen in my years, right? And not only just with other entrepreneurs, but also myself, right? ⁓ When I was kind of propelled into entrepreneurship, when I lost my corporate job back in July 8th, on July 8th, 2014.

The wild thing is, at that point in time, I already had a decade plus of investing experience, right? I could tell you all about stocks and mutual funds and annuities and insurance and the whole nine. But when I set out to become an entrepreneur, I realized very quickly, I did not know.

how to manage Cash Flow. I did not have a systematic way to, hey, when this dollar comes in, you know, have a way to say, let me give every dollar a job before it even hits my account. So it wasn’t until, you know, later on, probably around 2017, I got introduced to the concept of profit first. Since then, I’ve had the opportunity to work directly with the author, Mike McAulowitz and his business partner, Ryan Sheherian. And that gave me

you know, a system to say, hey, when these dollars come in, I need to give every dollar a job.

And if the wildest thing happens when you have a systematic systematic way to manage your income when it comes in, then now you can use that income to create Cash Flow and a Cash Flow is what actually provides you with the financial freedom. But if you’re mismanaging the act of income and you don’t have a systematic way to say, hey, when this dollar hits the account, this is going to go here, this is going to go here, this is going to go here and this is going to go here, then.

you know, how in the world are you supposed to create Cash Flow? So I think that is the biggest blind spot that I see with most of the entrepreneurs that we’re either with your CFO or with your financial strategist, Scott, is like, and we asked him, there’s literally out the gate, walk me through your dollar’s journey through your, after you receive a dollar, what is that dollar’s journey?

Where does it go? What account does it go to? How is it split up? And most of them say, man, it just goes in the account and we pay bills. And people are like, yup, well that’s part of the problem. So we need to fix that.

Scott Bursey (14:48)
that hits home. often confuse gross revenue with actual usable profit, Perry.

Perry Jeffries III (14:54)
Absolutely. 1000%. 1000%. Absolutely. Yep. can’t you. can’t tell you how. Go ahead, please.

Scott Bursey (14:58)
And

Yes, ⁓ that right there is pure Investor Fuel philosophy. And let’s go into the operations side of things. In today’s market, where do you see the biggest opportunity for investors to pivot and start acting like the bank rather than the client?

Perry Jeffries III (15:19)
The biggest pivot man is the mindset, right? That is the biggest opportunity. And what I mean by that is this, when I changed my framework and said, I am no longer solving for retirement in the future, but I’m solving for freedom today, it unlocked everything for me.

And what I mean, I like everything for me. Real quick story here. Several years ago, my mom was fighting cancer.

She’s recent. She’s been gone, I think, three years now. But those two years that she was fighting cancer, I remember when she first got diagnosed, Scott and came back home, told my team, I said, hey, reach out to our clients or send out an email. I’m not going to be around for the next three, six months when we spend time with mom, because at that point in time, they told us you have three to six months to live. Right.

And she ended up fighting a lot longer, you know what saying? So thankful for that time I had with her. But as always, my mom is foundationally my source of so much strength and clarity. And what she gave me during that time, I had no idea it was going to impact so many more people. When I realized that I was at a crossroads where I had to make a decision, do I go to work?

so I can provide for the people I love and trade off spending time with the people I love because I have to go to work. And I said, nobody should have to make that decision. No one should have to be torn between, man, I want to spend this time with my loved one, but I can’t spend this time with his loved one because I got to go to work so I can provide for this loved one. So I said in that, you know, during that time with my mom and I realized then Perry, you’re going to have to figure out

how you can continue to maintain your lifestyle and pay the bills and keep the roof over the head and take care of the family, but also to not be the bottleneck and locked in to having to do everything, right? So when I did that and I had that aha moment, Scott, that’s when I went back and looked at my finances and said, huh, I’m solving for the wrong thing.

I’m solving to hoard money and plan for retirement sometime, you know, in a near, in a future round, you know, 60, 65, where I should be solving for a cashflow today, because if there’s cashflow coming in from the assets, like real estate and businesses and things of that nature, that covers my monthly expenses, but then I can spend as much time with my mom as I want. Right. So when I had that aha moment, brother, I was like, Oh, and then it immediately sent me into well, who?

What company can I model? What business can I model that specializes in Cash Flow? And I said, it’s the banks. I used to be a VP for the bank. So that’s when I said, I’m gonna lift up the hood and see how the banks actually manage their finances. And when I did that, lo and behold, what the banks tell us to do with our money is not the same thing they’re doing with their money. I said, interesting, I’m gonna do what they’re doing with their money.

And when I did that, man, we were able to unlock the cashflow and start to solve for the right number. So in short, I’ll give this real quick example and then I’ll be quiet and make sure we get more value to your community. I started to ask myself if I needed $5,000 a month to live on. $5,000 a month is $60,000 a year under the traditional financial system and personal finance.

to get that money using the 5 % rule, would need $1.2 million. It got me to thinking, okay, what would be easier to do or faster? Save and invest and grow and get $1.2 million in a 401k or acquire assets to produce $5,000 in net Cash Flow today to pay the expenses. When I asked that question to people, Scott,

10 times out of 10, I asked them which one is easy. Nothing is easy, but which one is easier and which one is faster. And they say, well, Paris, you’re not trying to save and hope I can grow 1.2 million. It is going on to create a cashflow today. And I said, bingo. And when we started doing that and started to think like the bank, you know, we start being able to set people free and give people, you know, a road map to being financially independent.

Scott Bursey (20:05)
Perry, you just moved the needle for a lot of our listeners. Thank you for sharing that.

Perry Jeffries III (20:10)
My pleasure, my friend.

Scott Bursey (20:11)
And

I know our listeners are interested to know this from you. What is the biggest threat to a real estate investor’s tax strategy right now? You know, the one thing they currently perhaps are ignoring that that could cost them later.

Perry Jeffries III (20:25)
Man, such a great question. And I think I have to answer that question this way. There are two versions of Perry, right? There was the 2001 Perry who got into real estate, super excited, read all the books, right? And was just, you know, happy to be in the game who ended up losing everything. And then it’s this version of Perry now with his wife who was growing a real estate portfolio. And if I looked at those two different Perrys, right? One of the biggest differences is.

Perry won, know, the first period, 2001 Perry had no tax strategy. It was just, I’m gonna buy some stuff and put some tenants in it and it’s really cool. And I got money in my pocket and this is amazing versus, you know, the 2026 Perry with his wife who were looking at, hey, what’s so wonderful about real estate is that yes, it provides cashflow, know, with rental properties or Airbnb’s or short-term rentals, but.

You’re missing the needle if you think your cashflow is the number one benefit of real estate. Really your number one benefit of real estate is the tax strategies and the tax benefits, right? So when I leaned into that, I realized that the biggest thing that’s hurting people around real estate with their taxes is not having any strategy at all. Not understanding cost segregation studies, not understanding accelerated depreciation, not understanding that you might have to structure

your business a certain way so that you can get active losses versus just only passive losses. Like there’s so many different ways that you can leverage your real estate portfolio and your real estate business to reduce your taxes. Not only from a real estate standpoint, but structure it the right way, reduce your taxes at your job. My wife, when I retired my wife at age 40, she was a couple of years younger than me.

I retired her age 40, Scott, and I said, Hey, we’re gonna do this real estate thing together. So we hired a coach, she learned the bird method and things of that nature. And everybody tends to believe that, man, you guys became work options for the real estate. I said, no, no, no, no, no. The real estate gave us the tax deductions to take my almost seven figure income and almost pay zero in taxes because we start leveraging cost segregation studies, ⁓ real estate professional status, things of that nature. So

That’s why we love real estate and it’s such a quarter stone of what we do, even though our primary business is coaching and financial consulting and being a CFO, but the real estate gives us this asset that helps reduce the taxes on the active income side, give us appreciation, grow our net worth. And all year, by the way, we get a little bit of cashflow too, man. So I think that’s biggest break, man, is not having a strategy or not even realizing that real estate

is, you know what saying, I think the number one tax strategy that you can have.

Scott Bursey (23:11)
Talk about rocket fuel. What a blueprint that was. And Perry, since we’re talking high octane fuel here, if you could condense everything you’ve learned managing $80 million into one piece of advice that would unlock a total financial shift for our listeners today, what would that advice be?

Perry Jeffries III (23:29)
Man, ⁓ that’s such a wonderful question. And I know I asked myself that question. I’ve been asked that question before. And the answer really comes down to what are you solving for? ⁓ Scott, I’ve had clients in managing, know, having an $80 million real estate, $80 million client portfolio, right? And, you know, I’ve had clients who’ve had a couple million, clients who’ve had…

half a million, some who were just starting out, you know, got their first 10,000, right? And what’s always blown my mind is the client who had seven figures in their portfolio, but still had anxiety and stress around their finances. And it’s like, why are you so stressed out? You’re a millionaire on paper. But they didn’t feel like a millionaire on paper. And it was more like, I don’t want to lose the money. I don’t want to live off the money.

I said, you just want to look at the money? Like you didn’t work all these years just to just look at the account balance, you? And what it came down to is they were never taught and they never learned that they should be solving for a number, right? Everything, when you look at it from a financial standpoint, if you solve for a number, if you know, hey, my end goal is to have a very specific number, not a generic.

Hey, what do you need to cover your living expenses? What do you need to cover your essentials? Keep a roof over your head, keep food in the house, right? If that number is $7,525.10, that’s the number you’re solving for. So when you know you have this number that you’re solving for, now it gives purpose to your actions and your investments because when you solve for that number, that’s when you become financially independent. That’s when you become work optional.

So the biggest challenge and the biggest gap to your question is individuals investing just for the sake of investing, but not investing to solve for a very, very specific number. That is what helped me become WorkOptional and how we’ve been able help.

Scott Bursey (25:26)
That is such a huge distinction right there. Thank you for breaking that down. And Perry, we can’t let you go just yet. You’ve given us so much great advice already today, but is there any additional golden nuggets or words of advice that you can leave with our listeners?

Perry Jeffries III (25:43)
Yeah, man. ⁓ Great question. The first thing that comes to mind, which is what I found, usually the first thing that comes to mind is usually the right thing to talk about. We’re talking about, you know, finances, right? We’re talking about some really big numbers, 80 million dollars in a management, multi seven figure real estate portfolios and things of that nature. If I was to leave the listeners with anything, man, ⁓ I would tell them the most valuable asset they could ever invest in.

is themselves. ⁓ I was recently asked the question like, hey, know, what’s kind of like the biggest challenge that people have towards, you know, working towards becoming work optional, financially free, retired, however you want to, however you want to classify it or categorize it. And the biggest challenge is the biggest bottleneck is us as a person. When we start to realize that we are the most important asset and we are the asset that needs the most investing, not your crypto account, not your stock account, not your

your Airbnb or short term rental, mid term rental, right? You’re the most important asset. When we understand that we’re the most important asset and the thing that we’re solving for is not even money at the end of the day, Scott. What we’re really solving for is freedom so that we can be with our family and show up in the best version of ourselves. If I was to leave your listeners with anything, just know that. Yes, we want you to invest in real estate. Yes, we want you to grow your network and your Cash Flow. But more importantly, it’s all about growing you.

And when you grow you and you’re solving for time freedom so that you can show up and invest the version of yourself for your family and your friends and your community, that right there is the win. So that’s what I would leave the listeners with.

Scott Bursey (27:17)
That is a total pro blueprint right there, Perry. And for those of our listeners that wanna keep this conversation moving, stay in your lane or collaborate with you on future deals. What’s the best way for them to plug into your pipeline and reach you directly?

Perry Jeffries III (27:31)
would say visit our perryjeffries.com website. It’s easy, it has all the links on there as far as our different, you know, five day challenges, information around our social media. Obviously connect with me on social media. I’m easy and go to Facebook, Perry Jeffries or Instagram at the Perry Jeffries. But if you want to connect in and, you know, get access to some of our resources and things of that nature, go to perryjeffries.com and that place right there would kind of be the hub of

different ways to connect with us, right? So I would say that would be the place to go. But feel free definitely to connect with us on social media. We’re pretty accurate.

Scott Bursey (28:08)
Perry, thank you for joining us today, my friend.

Perry Jeffries III (28:11)
Thank you for having me, Scott. Keep doing what you’re doing. think what you’re doing is so valuable and so needed ⁓ in the community, in the world, just getting different perspectives from different individuals and their journey. So please keep doing what you’re doing, man. I really appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (28:26)
Appreciate the kind words. And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be fueling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like Perry Jeffries III, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.