The Net Worth Game: A Real Estate Investor’s Path to Financial Freedom

Krisstina Wise (00:00)
it’s easy like that’s when you’re under constant pressure. I I mean I remember being under so this is I don’t think I’ve ever said this out loud before, or certainly not, online, but I remember this moment where I was under so much pressure.

That I thought, if I could be in the hospital right now, maybe I have three days where I don’t have to worry about things. like what a thought of like if I was in the hospital, at least I didn’t have to I could just escape the pressure. It’s but that’s how much pressure I was under like during that.

Cody Crabb (02:04)
Welcome back to the *Real Estate Pros* podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb, and today I’m joined by Krisstina Wise, a longtime real estate investor, author, and financial educator who teaches the principles behind building real wealth. Krisstina, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

Krisstina Wise (02:20)
pleasure. I’m so happy to be here.

Cody Crabb (02:21)
Yeah, you’re you’re something of a friend of the show. so thanks for thanks for joining us here. so just to start off, people that are not familiar with with you and your career, there’s this really common advice. I kind of we kind of chatted about this before we started. There’s this really common advice, especially in real estate investing, that if you want to succeed, do one thing and focus every every breath you have on that. and

Learning a little bit about you, you seem to disagree with that a little bit. I’d love to hear, first of all, if you could kind of give us an introduction as to why I’m saying that, and then tell us why. Tell us what how you’ve made that work for yourself.

Krisstina Wise (03:03)
All right, well, I’ll share by telling a little story that, you know, brought me to who I am today and and what I do today. It started in real estate. So I started in real estate sales in my early 20s. So I’ve been kind of around this real estate industry for my entire adult life. And I the thing is, is I did really well because starting off, I loved sales, I love making money, I love

Buying a lot of stuff with all the money I made. And I quickly became a top producer in everything real estate. So and I just couldn’t get enough. And every year I’d want to blow out last year’s numbers, and I typically did. So the interesting thing about that is I be kind became very well known in the industry as the person in the city, in the state, in the country to win all these awards and be, you know, on all those stages. And I’d find myself talking to groups all the time, like.

I did this to succeed and I did that to succeed. I mean, we all know how that works. But what was interesting about that is that from the outside, I was the success story. Like I came out of nowhere and just blew the doors off the industry. But behind closed doors, I was constantly afraid of not having enough money. The there’s more bills at the end of every month than there was real estate commissions.

And I found myself in constant fights at home about there never being enough money. And so then I’d have to feel like I’d have to go out and spend another holiday to try to sell another house to just make ends meet. And that went on for many, many years. And it, you know, I just it just kind of was my reality. So I didn’t really question it.

Until one day I ended up getting divorced. I’m a single mom. I’m completely broke. My car is being repossessed. Like, how the hell do you sell real estate without a car? Really? And I had over $100,000 in IRS liens because I was making all this money and somehow wasn’t paying my taxes because I didn’t really know how to do it at that age. And I just found myself in this really horrific financial situation. Like I was completely broke.

In enormous debt, and I’m a single mom now of a two year old and a three year old in a hundred percent commission-based job that the market had just turned and nobody was selling any houses.

Cody Crabb (06:15)
And and on top of that, even if it was doing really well, you have no car. Exactly.

Krisstina Wise (06:18)
And I have no car.

Cody Crabb (06:19)
Even in the best of circumstances, exactly still not good.

Krisstina Wise (06:22)
But you know, it’s kind of like in and you can imagine, like I I’d never knew what a panic attack was. I thought I was having a heart attack. And I come to find out it was a panic attack. And and just it was a horrible, horrible time. And I just couldn’t understand. But what baffled me was how did I make all that money and wind up completely broke? And

B s broke broke where I don’t have a car and I don’t have money to for the deposit to get a crappy apartment after living in the big old house that I used to live in with the three car garage and the people safe.

Cody Crabb (06:56)
Broke. People say broke when they mean like no extra money. Like they don’t have money to buy extra stuff. It’s just the basics. You that’s like bro.

Krisstina Wise (07:04)
Broke,

broke. Broke, broke, right? Yeah. It was like, I don’t know if I’m gonna have a roof over my head broke. So, you know, that, you know, to kind of keep out of the drama of that story, it was a really, really tough and scary time. But underneath that all was this probing question of how the hell did I make all that money and wind up in this financial situation? And then it was just so embarrassing, and I was ashamed and

Because I was like number one in everything. So how can I be number one? And now it’s like I’m the person that can’t feed our kids and doesn’t have a car to go to show property.

Cody Crabb (07:42)
Yeah. And you think it’s never it can never happen to you.

Krisstina Wise (07:44)
Yeah,

I was just so wrapped up and so many feelings and just despair and disgust and shame and and all the things. And finally, you know, coincidentally, I I had a coach at that time, because I’ve always had a coach. And I went to my coach finally, because I’d hidden this from everybody because I was too embarrassed and ashamed to admit it. So I finally went to my coach and I asked my coach this question, who was very financially successful and came clean, and he said, Krisstina, you need to read the book.

*Science of Getting Rich*. And then you need to read *Think and Grow Rich*. And then you need to read *Rich Dad Poor Dad* in that order. And so, what the hell? Like, why not? I mean, might as well do what my coach says. I didn’t have any other solutions. And I read those three books in that order. And it was those three books that completely radically shifted my money mindset. And then understanding like how money works. Like I was clueless. I thought you just worked your ass off, sold a lot of.

real estate made a lot of money and you’d be rich and happy is kind of and it doesn’t work that way. So

Cody Crabb (08:48)
No, but like a lot a lot of people either it’s i the funny thing is I always say there’s two ways people get into real estate. They read *Rich Dad Poor Dad* or they go, What do the rich people do? They buy real estate. I guess I’ll do I’ll do that too. And you did both. You did both of them.

Krisstina Wise (09:01)
Did

both. And I got into real estate before I read the books and before I had the understanding. And then but I’ve just always loved the industry because it’s just it’s so creative and you can be busy you can be a business person and you can be an investor and you can make a lot of money and you can take care of clients and so it there’s so much richness to the industry and it has a lot of dangers and pitfalls in it as well that it’s easily to get trapped in with kind of with some naivety or ignorance like I had.

So is that story? So then I just shifted and realized, like, okay, I can’t just be chasing the dollar. I have to focus on this thing called net worth and wealth. So then I go on and kind of rebuild myself and build now, not as an agent, but build a really nice size brokerage that then got a lot of fame and success and the things. And so the interesting thing about that part of the story, kind of a decade later, after rebuilding everything and re reaching kind of another.

echelon of success as a broker versus just an agent, is I was doing all the things that these books said.

So I was a really good student. So publicly then, again, I built this great big new public identity as being all this success and in real estate. But privately I was studying money and I was investing and nobody knew it. My all of my identity and reputation was on all this amazing success. Again, kind of

The quintessential GaryVee successful entrepreneur, I did that. Like I built like a multi, multi-million dollar company. And burning both, again, behind closed doors, I was burning the candle at both ends. I was always trying to, you know, push up the, you know, the next ceiling. And I ended up getting really sick. And getting sick, this multi-million dollar business, I it, I got so sick that I was out of the just marketplace for two years, focusing on my health.

And really trying to save my life during this time. So what’s interesting about that part of the story is that I dedicated my whole life to building this business and to having all this success and all this financial success. And I had done it. But as soon as my body gave out, my body being my number one asset, I my business started going down with it. So all that decade of building took like less than two years to completely fall apart. So

That was kind of this big aha moment, like, wow, I thought I’d built this thing. I thought I’d built this asset as a business and and that that was supposed to carry me. And if I did all the right things, it was leveraged and I had all the people, which I thought that I did, but it didn’t quite work that way. But what had happened is since I’d been privately studying money and doing these laws, I had 12 months emergency fund. And I had a couple of pieces of real estate back then that provided some cash flow after coming out of 2008 and that whole financial crisis. And

And when I got sick, what happened was my my business plummeted. I had to start paying it to keep it alive versus it paying me. And while I’m trying to keep myself alive, but I was able to sell one of my pieces of real estate and I was able to use quarter million dollars from the gain of that to pay for healthcare that ultimately saved my life. And I had another piece of real estate that was providing some cash flow alongside of that 12-month emergency fund.

So out of kind of the moral of that story is I’d worked so hard to build this thing and have all this success and financial success. And it was this side investing and following these money principles I’d learned that ultimately was my financial cushion that got me over the bridge. So I was in a different position in the first part of the story where I had nothing. This I had I had like a foundation. And then, you know.

I got well and I was able to build everything back. And you know, here we sit as you know, being a place of complete financial freedom and using that decade after that to rebuild and again, here we are. So the reason why I tell those stories is because there’s so much, I think, lesson, like I learned these lessons in that is that that there’s more to money than just chasing it. And the the game of money, how to win the game of money is called the net worth game.

And so this net worth game is oriented around this conversation that I find very few people ask themselves, which is how much money is enough?

Because before there was never an enough number. So it’s just always the next thing. And so because I had no enough, I never felt safe and secure financially. I always felt like I was behind. I always felt like I had to push myself bigger or better to be, I don’t know, worthy or to reach some level of success that I thought would be good enough. And my version of that nearly killed me, like literally.

So that’s what I share with now that when you said earlier that people say, you know, one thing, I don’t think it needs to be one thing. I think quite the opposite. I think wealth, wealth comes from a multiple of things. And it’s stacking multiple things over time that tends to grow multiple streams of income that creates a bigger foundation of wealth. So it’s just getting clear on.

How much money’s enough? How much net worth do I need to provide the cash flow that funds the cost of living my good life and giving your good life a number? And then creating a strategy that moves towards funding that number, but very getting very clear on it and building backwards as opposed to just getting into real estate investing and choosing a strategy if it’s flips, if it’s wholesaling, if it’s buy hold, if it’s whatever your version of that is, and then.

Trying all of them or just trying to succeed at one of them. I’ve done them all. When it comes to real estate, I’ve done every single strategy. But it was just based over time, based on opportunity that came up that I’ve done wholesaling when wholesaling made sense because I knew a property and I knew a potential buyer and I put myself in between and was able to make money there. I’ve done lots of buy holds. I’ve done several flips. But it just really was like, hey, I have a number that I’m working towards and

Real estate investing is one way that I want to build wealth and hit my number. So based on an opportunity that hits me at the time, but I have 15 years to do it. So I don’t have to try to do it all in 12 months or 24 months. I’m going to take this time and just be strategic about it. Because if I’ve given myself this amount of time to hit that number, then again, some deals are better just wholesaling them. Some deals are better if it’s a buy hold. Some deal deals the money’s in the flip.

And not in the buy hold. So that’s how I’ve done it is I’ve just done all of the strategies over time with being very clear on my numbers, my strategy, and my timeline. And then, you know, other types of investments as well to balance it out, to carry me that, you know, when real estate is not, you know, performing, there’s other layers of of net worth and assets built in there to balance out the portfolio. So that’s just it. But you know, it’s it’s not exciting.

It’s kind of boring. I’ve just done it over, you know, a period of time. And then you just kind of wake up one day and be like, wow, the money from all my assets completely supports my lifestyle. And now I actually get to do whatever I want. And what I do, whatever I want today, is I teach everything we’re talking about, like how to create financial freedom and success through a methodical, with a clear design, with a clear goal,

Clear timeline and just kind of a methodical strategy over time to to make that happen while learning and understanding these financial principles that we have to follow that if because if we betray them, we’re either self-sabotaging our success, slowing down our success, or I don’t know, just eliminating the opportunity altogether.

Cody Crabb (17:53)
Yeah, I find that so this is the I find this real an interesting philosophy because I actually did a similar thing with my with my job when I had kids. So I was like, you know, I I I didn’t really have a a solid career yet. I was kind of doing like customer service type jobs and call centers and stuff. And then as soon as I had my first kid, I was like, okay, I need to start thinking about what do I want to do with my life. And and a lot of people I see are like, you know, they start a career, they have a

family and then just whatever happens because of that. But I was in this unique position where I was kind of starting both at the same time. So I was like, what I need to do is figure out what I want my family life to look like and how much I want to work and work backwards from that. So it sounds like the same exact philosophy here. so when you say how much is enough, how do you actually figure out that number? Because yeah it seems like that is a very it seems really easy to be like, I don’t know.

Five hundred thousand, like just to say a number and and even maybe just to to jot down a few numbers. What does somebody actually need to know about their life and their finances to put a actual solid good number on the enough number?

Krisstina Wise (19:03)
Yeah, I love that. I love the question because it seems like it should be easy enough, but I’ll I’ll throw that out and just say, go figure out your number. And then someone will sit down, like, I don’t even know where to start. It sounded easy, but now that I’ve got a pencil and paper, I I don’t even know what what I should be asking myself. So there’s a few numbers to just calculate. It’s just some simple math calculations. But it it’s first starts with what I call your good life number. And your good life number is the annual cost of what it costs to fund your good life.

So that’s step one. It’s really sitting down and thinking about your life and what would make it good. And in a, you know, I just say a good life. It doesn’t have to be an extravagant life over the top. It doesn’t have to include Lambos and vacation homes and and caviar and first class flights. Like it can for some that might be there.

Cody Crabb (19:54)
importantly it could.

Krisstina Wise (19:56)
Yeah,

like it can. If that’s if that’s your if that’s your version of good life and nothing less than that, then by all means. And you need to calculate the cost of that life or whatever your life is. So it’s just looking down and kind of looking at the cost your life is now, and this is the the exercise, is to establish your good life number, calculate the costs of your life now, all of your bills on a monthly basis, and

Calculate that on a monthly basis. Now remove all debt payments, like except your mortgage, but take out all debt. Because the goal is you have to become personal debt-free to really start amplifying how fast you can build wealth. Because consumer debt paying interest and building wealth are pretty much mutually exclusive. You’re either paying the bank’s interest or you’re collecting interest. Like choose one or the other. So you pull the debt payments out with the goal, if you have consumer debt.

Business debt’s different, real estate debt is different, but consumer debt, especially high interest debt, you pull that out from your good life number with the goal, I’m gonna get rid of this as quickly as possible, whatever I need to do. So then that’s the cost of your life without debt. And then add back in anything that’s missing that would really make it good. So like if it’s missing the annual trip per year, add in the cost to that. If it’s missing, I don’t know,

more massages or retreats, add that back in. But just something that’s like, hey, this is my version of a good life. So that’s you’ve quantified your good life. You know, do that on an annual basis. And that’s it. So if it’s that’s number could be 50,000 a year, probably not, but it could be $100,000 a year, probably not. But it could be $250,000 a year, let’s say, or $500, or it could be $10 million. Like again, you get to decide your number, but that’s it.

And then kind of just some simple math to start with before you get more granular to to really figure it out, is you multiply that number by 25. So if you’re if your good life, let’s say to keep the math easy, is $100,000, then multiply that by 25. That means that’s the 4% rule kind of on the other side. You can pull out 4% per year and hopefully not run out of money. So if you multiply it by 25, that means I need 2.5 million.

As my what’s called your freedom number, your net worth number. Because that 2.5 million, if you’re pulling out four to five percent per year, that’s a hundred thousand dollars in interest, basically, you’re pulling out of your fund, which covers the cost of your good life. So that’s your good life number, calculating that, multiply it by 25 or you know, whatever your withdrawal rate is, and then work towards that. So then it’s and then give yourself a timeline. So the third step is.

If my good life number is $100,000 per year and my freedom number is $2.5 million, now I need to know what that gap is. So if I have zero in net worth today and I have 2.5 million and I’m going to give myself 15 years to do it, then that’s part of the strategy. It’s like, okay, how many investment properties do I need that’s going to produce kind of that $100,000 of cash flow, kind of reverse-engineered how many houses you need to have to be able to have

That type of cash flow. And then, okay, I need to buy a house every year. I need to buy a house every two years. I need to, you know, based with kind of with these assumptions. So it’s pretty simple and you set these goals and targets. And does it work out the way you think it’s going to? Not even close. But at the end, does it work out? It does. Like it just kind of plays out the way it plays out, as long as you’re just clear on your numbers, stay true to your strategy.

And don’t try to overcomplicate it and don’t try to shortcut it. The biggest mistakes I’ve made and I see others make is trying to shortcut it, to cut that timeline in half, take more risk, you know, do more stupid things like I’ve done, trying to, you know, hit the lottery win. And then it just took me backwards because I lost the money that I had to make up. So if you can just be patient, patient is just part of the game. But we live in this world of instant gratification, get rich overnight, the latest hack, the crypto buy.

When crypto was really or the jump in real estate because real estate will make you rich overnight and there’s never a down market or whatever the flavor of the month or the year is. And just trying to stay out of that and just being true to your strategy. And if real estate’s part of it, it’s pretty simple. How many houses do I need to buy based on that hundred thousand dollars of cash flow, based on these cash flow assumptions? How much money do I have to save then to be able to buy the houses for the down payments or the type of

you know, real estate that I I want to do. So it’s again it’s just it’s pretty simple math.

Cody Crabb (24:39)
Yeah, I I really like this just because it is simple math. I think it’s it’s really easy to say, I want to be a millionaire by by forty, and then be like, you know, that and and not really do anything to make that happen other than what you’re already doing. And so I like the idea that you kind of pull these numbers out and some people might go, son of a gun, I’m already there. I don’t need to do anything now, I’m good. And and and it just is the realization of

Maybe I can just stop and enjoy my life. It that’s for that for some people, it’s probably that. Probably not a lot, but probably some people. And then and then there’s the other side too of like the the realization of like, I have to really get moving if I’m gonna achieve this this life that I want. So so there’s that side. But then I on top of that, there’s the I’m almost there type people that are like, I don’t really I don’t have to like

just imagine some faraway thing. This is like right here if I can do X, Y, and Z. So it’s this seems like for depending on who you are, this is like a really helpful tool. And it w and it can help in so many different ways, it sounds like.

Krisstina Wise (25:48)
Yeah. And it’s just, and then every single year part of the work is all right, how where am I along my timeline? But it but it just

Cody Crabb (25:55)
Got it.

Krisstina Wise (25:56)
Yeah, just it yeah, and it just takes being in be invested, not just invested in real estate, but you have to be invested in your own life and sit down and take the time and look at your numbers and and ask the questions. And am I on track? Am I off track? Am I moving towards my goals or am I sitting still or am I going backwards? And if I’m not

Hitting the goals, why not? What can I do differently? Did I get lazy? Did I get off, you know, whatever the case is? And we’re human, that that happens. But it it’s just like if the mindset is get rich quick and I want to be rich for all these things, that sometimes work, but usually it’s again, people ask me all these questions. Like, I can give you all the all the fundamentals, I can teach you all the strategies, I’ve done them all.

But until you get really clear on your goals and really what’s the word I’m looking for? Just committed to achieving them because you’re committed to this future, the future. So there’s always this competition between what I want now and what my future self wants at some 10, 20, 30 years.

Cody Crabb (27:05)
Yeah, that is the literal battle of my entire life. It’s everybody’s. Yeah. Like what food am I gonna have for dinner? Well, you know, am I gonna go for a run tonight? Like literally every single choice I make ends up coming down to that. no, that’s a it’s funny that you it really does boil down to like if you wanna if you want life A, B, and C, are your choices leading to life A, B, and C? If not, then do different choices. Like it really is that simple. so I

I I once you know what this number is, how does it change what you say yes to? Because I imagine at some point another deal is not necessarily moving you toward this actual better life and it’s just racking up numbers. Like what what do you do then? Like what what what now? I mean I’ve I’m sh I of course it will vary to for from person to person, but I’d be very curious to know, like, how do you see that?

Krisstina Wise (28:01)
I’m I’m not sure I understand the question. Is it how do I see like what happens when you hit your number? Is that the question?

Cody Crabb (28:06)
So give me a give me an idea of like you hit this number it and it’s just like and then do do whatever the plan was. Like or is there like is there step two? Is there another is there another thing after this?

Krisstina Wise (28:19)
Well, I can just share from my own personal experience and for those like me, like my peer group, I would say is are in similar situations. And I’d say my entire peer group that have let’s say hit their number, whatever that means, they’re not sitting around in a hammock by the ocean. They’re still creating, they’re still building, they’re still, you know, growing into the next version of themselves, they’re still making money.

They’re still growing and building their businesses. I think everyone that I know, I mean, until you get a certain age, but assuming you know, you’ve kind of done it before 65 or so, whatever that retirement number is. But and I’ve got a ways to go on that, thank goodness. But the what changes is the choice. I mean, we hear it, the option, the choice. And to not be driven.

By more money and more success. Now it’s still like a desire. Like I always want to create more success because I want to constantly learn what I’m capable of and I want to make a bigger impact. And and I want to, you know, but it’s fueled from a different place. It’s not fueled like I have to make all this money to hit my number or to pay my bills or to do XYZ. It’s just like what happens is this emotional shift of I don’t have to, I want to.

And this different feeling of security, of like, I’m financially secure unless something catastrophic happens. So it just alleviates kind of that day-to-day financial tension, financial strain, financial stress, financial push, you know, or pressure. And when that’s gone, it just opens up a different kind of lot on life in a way. So where we think it’s about, I’m gonna hit this number and

It’s gonna be, you know, happily ever after. And I get to sit in this hammock and watch the sunset go down. I mean, it might be that, but it’s less of that. And it’s more about this incredible feeling of safety, security. one-to versus I don’t have to, of again, just waking up and not having to worry about money, just knowing, assuming you’ve got a good mindset. Like some people have billions of dollars and still.

don’t have enough and still worry about money all the time and the different things. So I’m not saying money fixes your mindset, but if you’ve Some of them are Yeah,

Cody Crabb (30:45)
Yeah, sorry, go ahead.

Krisstina Wise (30:47)
exactly. But if you have a healthy mindset, you know, you’re kind of over that need to have more money for some, you know, some lack that you may have

Cody Crabb (30:56)
I like this too because you’re leaving so much room for like if you want to, that’s fine. If you want to be obscenely wealthy and then be a philanthropist, but you need the money to be a philanthropist, then yeah, that’s your goal. And so you can do that. one thing that I’ve so I’ve I’ve always been big on, like I mentioned, this career thing of like what do you want to do with your life and how do you want to spend your life? and something an exercise that I’ve kind of done with people is you know, if you

It let’s say you retire tomorrow. Everybody that’s young is like, well, I’m just gonna relax and I’m gonna do you know, do nothing. Yeah, and I said, Yeah, of course you are. Okay, everyone would do that. And then what? Because I’m picturing like a month or two, six months, five years. It I mean it might be a while, but after a while you’re gonna start going, I wanna do something with my life and make this worthwhile. Whether that’s volunteering, whether that’s helping being an activist or helping like homeless people or something. There there’s millions of ways we can contribute to society that are not just

working or creating wealth too. And so those people, I mean, that that’s another thing that you’re enabling is the ability to do these worthwhile things that you need. People need income, but like there’s plenty of these opportunities and lifestyle goals and things that just they re don’t require money. They just require time. And so people are like

They don’t pay money, but you need money to survive, so how are you gonna do that? So I I like the idea that not only does this free you up to not not work if you don’t want to, but like it allows you to pursue things that you may not be otherwise able to because things cost money and and life costs money. And so yeah, I love this philosophy a lot.

Krisstina Wise (32:41)
Well I have real quick. yeah, go ahead. I have I just have a an example of that is that it’s easy like that’s when you’re under constant pressure. I I mean I remember being under so this is I don’t think I’ve ever said this out loud before, or certainly not, you know, online, but but I remember this moment where I was under so much pressure.

That I thought, you know, if I could be in the hospital right now, maybe I have three days where I don’t have to worry about things. You know, like what a thought of like if I was in the hospital, at least I didn’t have to I could just escape the pressure. It’s but that’s how much pressure I was under like during that.

Cody Crabb (33:22)
I can relate to that. I’ve been that busy where I’m like, a light coma sounds really refreshing right now. Yeah.

Krisstina Wise (33:27)
That seriously, like we’ve probably all been there. So so, you know, there’s that feeling that when you’re under that much pressure for an extended period of time, everything’s in it sounds like, man, I just like not work and I just hang out. And because it’s it’s the antithesis to this feeling. Now and I’ve been there, so I know exactly what that feeling is. Now, what I can share with you is that when I was sick, I was bedridden.

And I mean, I had the life. I was there kind of in front of a TV set every single day in a bed by myself with kind of no pressures other than how do I kind of heal myself, which is its own level of you know, fear and anxiety and stuff. But my point is that part of the suffering when I was sick, there was the physical part, but the mental emotional part was my identity. Like I wasn’t out being me and I wasn’t able to.

Do things I couldn’t create. I wasn’t able to help people. I wasn’t able to do anything. I was just there in bed. And so the the emotional suffering was this kind of loss of identity and this piece of who am I if I can’t help people? Who like what is how can I be happy if I’m not making an impact? What, you know, I don’t want to just sit here flipping channels every single day. So it’s like,

You think it sounds good until you’re there. Maybe the first week is nice, but you’re point six months in, it’s like, uh-uh, we’re destined to be here, to, to, to live our potential, to be whatever our version of that is. And when we get disconnected from it, I think our soul starts to suffer. And then it can be a different, you know, depression or something else, which what’s which snuck snuck up on me. Like I’ve never been depressed in my life. And all of a sudden I just had this deep, dark, depressive cloud over me.

You know, as I had this anxiety because I was afraid to die and I was afraid of, you know, being sick. But then I had also this heavy, heavy darkness of depression because I couldn’t do all these things we’re talking about. So to your point, it’s like, okay, the the financial pressure is gone. Now it’s kind of opens up versus sitting around, you know, eating bonbons and flipping channels on Netflix. It’s this now who do I get to be or what can I do now that I don’t have to work for money?

Cody Crabb (35:50)
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. Because I feel like there’s definitely been some people that are gonna hear this that are gonna super relate to that, that feeling of like I you know, I I wanna well and then like you said, it the the funny thing is it’s the same it’s the choice. It’s you you said like that being able to being able to relax when you want to is amazing, but

Having to relax and be bedridden is awful. It’s the same as these other choices. Like you said, it’s just the just the other side of the coin. So to bring this all the way back to where we started, if somebody listening feels like they need to pick one real estate strategy, and and real estate specifically, just because you know, this is *Real Estate Pros*, and and obsess over it, what would you tell them to focus on instead?

Krisstina Wise (36:41)
To so are you asking which real estate strategy I would say if you had to choose one, choose this?

Cody Crabb (36:46)
one?

No, actually I’m kind of the opposite. I’m saying if somebody feels like they should do that, what would you tell them to focus on instead of the strategy?

Krisstina Wise (36:57)
I say focus instead on the goals. And like where I started is if if we’re just talking exclusively exc exclusively about real estate, it’s there’s there’s two pieces to real estate. Maybe this is a good way to answer this question. There’s kind of these these two sides of real estate investing. There’s a side of real estate there’s the side of real estate investing that’s a cash play. And that’s like wholesaling, which is kind of real estate, but not really real estate. But

let’s say like let wholesaling or flipping. Let’s just use those two examples. So wholesaling and flipping, that’s a cash play, meaning you’re just trying to make cash. It’s not an investment play per se. It’s it’s short term. So when you have this long-term strategy of having so much wealth at a certain period of time, what I’ve looked through the lens of so I’m in

I think when before we were online, you say where do you live? And where I normally live is I live in Park City, Utah, right, right up the mountain from where you are, Cody. And today, though, I’m not in Park City, Utah. I’m in Bentonville, Arkansas. And you’re like, Bentonville, Arkansas, because there’s

Cody Crabb (38:08)
The only thing I know about Bentonville is something something Walmart, is that right?

Krisstina Wise (38:12)
Yeah, it’s the Walmart headquarters. So believe it or not, it’s like it’s like *The Truman Show* here. Like there’s so much like perfection. It’s it’s crazy, it’s a crazy little town. And it’s a it’s a good market because a lot of people are moving here and it’s kind of up and coming and and that thing. But what what just coincidentally fell across my lap in a way was this flip opportunity in Bentonville. I wasn’t looking for a flip.

I wasn’t didn’t have the word out for a flip. I wasn’t searching the internet for a flip. But this investment opportunity came to me to Bentonville and I ran the numbers. And it’s just like, I can make this work. I’ve got freedom. I can, I’ve got location freedom, so I can literally work from anywhere. And the timing is good because I don’t really have anything going that keeps me in Utah right now. And so all these factors fell into play. And it’s like, okay.

Let’s move to Bentonville, Arkansas for six to 12 months and do this flip. So that’s just this thing. Now, this flip is if I make, let’s say, let’s say I make $50,000 on this flip, it’s an example. for 12 months, I’m still making money doing my day job, doing all the things. I’m just working this thing, and now I’m gonna put an extra 50 grand in my pocket within 12 months.

Now that 50 grand goes back into my investment bucket to be able to put in towards the next thing I do. And maybe that’s a buy hold, or maybe that’s I don’t know, something, some other type of real estate thing that I maybe I want to put in a syndication. Who knows? But some other real estate thing that I want to do. But that’s a cash play. So it’s I’m buying, it’s in the real estate investment thing, but I’m just trying to make $50,000 cash quick that I can redeploy somewhere else. Now

something else might come on, come aboard, which is this really great opportunity because now I’m like now I’ve got this new timeline that I want to build my portfolio up to this next amount by a certain by the time I retire in you know, like 10 years or so. So that’s my next echelon, is like I’ve got this, I’ve got full financial freedom, all the things, but I want to have this stuff do this next level of freedom and lifestyle costs when I officially retire.

So now I’m working on that timeline. And so when this came across my desk, it’s like, okay, this just pushed me $50,000 in kind of immediate cash forward towards that number. And now that will be that. So then let’s just say somewhere sooner than later, there becomes a really good investment in Salt Lake City. And it’s a buy hold deal. And all the numbers work in the thing. It’s like, I could hold this for 10 to 15 years.

It’s gonna, I’m able to cash flow at this. I see this type of appreciation or XYZ. So I’m gonna buy and hold that one and produce just an extra few hundred bucks a month to my overall net cash flow. And that’s gonna grow my cash flow monthly on that piece. So that’s just part of this. And it’s all working towards this next level number. But this $50,000 that I’m making this 12 months is $50,000 of down payment that I can put towards my next buy hold as an example.

That’s how these kind of all work together without being, I’m just a wholesaler, or I’m just a BRRRR method person, or I’m just a flipper, I’m just a XYZ.

Cody Crabb (41:31)
That’s a great way of looking at it because I feel like it people don’t wanna people are worried about being too general, but people are also worried about being too specific. So I like the idea of kind of looking at the goals and then what fits the goal. Like that’s that’s a great way to look at it. okay, so for people that we’re we’re running out of time here. So for people that want to learn more about you, follow what you’re doing, dig deeper into this approach, where’s the best place for them to find you?

Krisstina Wise (41:55)
So I’ll do like monthly workshop. It’s a two-hour workshop and it’s where I kind of talk about all these things. It’s free. And so just go hang out with me for two hours. And at the end of that, I always answer questions. So if you have like any pending real estate question or just want to listen to kind of my financial philosophy about building wealth and

designing and living a good life at the same time, like not trading one for the other, then I’d say, like, just join me for the for the workshop also that puts you on my mailing list and I write newsletters and I do my own podcasts and send those out. So it’s just a great way to stay into in my YouTube. It’s just a way to kind of listen to the latest thing that I’m working on or what I’m teaching.

Cody Crabb (42:41)
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing all this. we really appreciate your time today. listeners, if you liked this one, make sure you don’t miss another episode. We’ve got lots of ones lots of people like this, lots of stories, lots of life experiences. You’re gonna learn a lot. thank you so much, Krisstina, for sharing yours and we’ll see you next time.