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Show Summary
In this episode, Ghiath Arodaki, founder of Stark Core, discusses the importance of teaching kids and teens about financial literacy, investing, and real estate. He shares practical strategies for building financial judgment early, understanding market dynamics, and adapting to economic changes. The conversation also highlights common pitfalls in financial education and explores approaches to investing in both high-cost areas and stocks, emphasizing awareness, education, and long-term planning.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Ghiath Arodaki (00:00)
awareness does not exist unfortunately with a lot of people especially from our generation they don’t understand hey there’s something going on in geopolitics that’s fine it doesn’t affect me and if they even are aware that is something going on in the world ⁓ and you know on their day-to-day it’s like why are things expensive you know that’s why is gas price going upDylan Silver (00:03)
Yeah.Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Ghiath Arodaki is the founder of Stark Core, a program designed to teach kids and teens how investors actually think about risk, capital allocation and decision making. His work focuses on giving families a long-term edge by building financial judgment early through real world frameworks rather than theory. You can find them at starkcore.org. Ghiath, welcome to the show.
Ghiath Arodaki (02:30)
Thank you, thank you Dylan for the beautiful introduction. Glad to be here.Dylan Silver (02:33)
Absolutely,man. Absolutely. It’s great to have you on here. And I think not enough can be said about how much this is needed. I think one of the biggest critiques that people have of education in general is like, where’s the financial education? How did you get started in this space?
Ghiath Arodaki (02:54)
So ⁓ a little bit of background about myself. I am an industrial systems engineering student at SJSU, graduated very recently actually while working in my experience. So building up my experience, the number one issue that I’ve noticed is that people make money, but they don’t know what to do with it, right? Young professionals, ⁓ they call them stuff, we’re broke. We can’t get homes, we can’t buy homes.And the issue is, oh, everything is expensive. So try to dig deeper into it because I’m becoming a young professional myself coming out of college and I’m thinking I want to buy a home. And, you know, I talked to a bunch of mentors that I had and everybody mentioned you got to learn financial literacy. There’s a difference between wealthy and there’s a difference between being rich. And a lot of people are trying to aim for rich. So what I did is I wanted to
First of all, work on my own financial literacy. started reading a bunch of books. And then in addition to that, I found a ⁓ company actually, it was a startup that was based out of the Bay Area that teaches investing in addition to STEM and also other courses and subjects. So I asked them if I can teach the investing curriculum. And I started building the client base and I started.
working with a bunch of families and building that experience and getting that knowledge into some form of curriculum rather than just scattered knowledge here and there. once, you know, after a while, about a year and a half to two years, ⁓ the company shut down and some of my clients decided, okay, we want to continue with you. We built that trust and it’s the journey from there. Now I’m building my own client based on my own.
Dylan Silver (04:46)
Now, when we talk specifically about how folks can get started with financial education, with teaching their family, their kids about real estate, where do you see folks typically going wrong? What common errors do you see people making, whether it’s through an informal conversation or through more formalized, like, hey, let me show you how to do taxes type of thing?Ghiath Arodaki (06:02)
Well, people really don’t know how to do taxes properly in my opinion because in my opinion, they don’t outsource their taxes, right? ⁓ Meaning you have to have an accountant who’s an expert, right? You have to have somebody who’s an expert in everything that you do in life. You can’t just run off and do it on your own because most likely if you don’t understand what you’re doing, you’re gonna run into mistakes. And one of the other things is financial literacy, right?⁓ Everybody’s dream right now is let’s get a home. Like I said, ⁓ people are living in apartments up to their 35, 40, and if you go back in generations like Gen X or Boomers and so on, they used to get their homes in their 20s. So what changed? The economy changed, inflation, we get that.
Dylan Silver (06:39)
Yeah.Ghiath Arodaki (06:51)
but also what are you doing to adapt to the change? Because this is an ongoing thing when it comes to inflation and economy changes, it’s always changing, right? Especially if you live in a capitalistic society like the United States and the West, the economy always corrects itself, there’s inflation and then goes back to correct itself and so on, it’s dynamic, right? So the first thing is that I notice is thatawareness does not exist unfortunately with a lot of people especially from our generation they don’t understand hey there’s something going on in geopolitics that’s fine it doesn’t affect me and if they even are aware that is something going on in the world ⁓ and you know on their day-to-day it’s like why are things expensive you know that’s why is gas price going up
Dylan Silver (07:22)
Yeah.Ghiath Arodaki (07:43)
And why can’t I afford my rent? And why am I living paycheck to paycheck? Well, because there’s something going on in the world. You need to be aware of it and then anticipate, right? So, you know, for example, if you want to anticipate, what does that mean? Okay. So if, if something different is happening, I can put some of my money into certain stocks that I know will go up. So now I’m building my assets and they’re growing. And then I can use those assets and sell them orDylan Silver (07:54)
Yeah.Ghiath Arodaki (08:12)
you know, use them as a collateral security backed credit line in order for me to be able to buy a home or afford a real estate or property.Dylan Silver (08:23)
Yeah, I mean, you raise a number of really good points there. One of the things that I think often gets overlooked is that, you know, people might be renting until much later than they were in previous times, in previous generations. And this has a ripple effect, right? It’s not just, you know, hey, we’re not homeowners at this point, but they’re also not able to ride the wave of appreciation the same way a homeowner can’t, right? And so, I mean, if we just take a look atyou something that was in the news recently, right? Like gold and silver pricing, right? Over the last couple of months has been, you know, skyrocketing, right? And you know, you could say, okay, well, you know, it’s good time to invest in gold and silver, you might say. On the flip side, if you compare that to like home ownership, right? It becomes clear, like, yeah, you want to get in because when’s the best time to plant the tree, you know, five years ago, when’s the next best time to plant the tree right now? And I think that
that’s a lot of people’s frustration is like, okay, well, if I don’t get in right now, how am I going to get in? Because it’s not like it’s likely that it’s going to go back down substantially and that we’re going to be able to, you know, buy low, you’re going to have to kind of jump in on the wave up and then continue to ride it along with everyone else who’s already a homeowner.
Ghiath Arodaki (09:48)
Correct, correct. Yes. And like you mentioned, because prices might continue to increase. So you can’t just say, I’m going to wait when the price drops. And that could be years from now. So that means you’re stuck in an apartment. You’re not getting your property or assets really at the correct time, whether that being ⁓ homes or even stocks or even gold, or like you mentioned for silver, right? ⁓Dylan Silver (09:59)
Right.Ghiath Arodaki (10:50)
You should get on the ride because if again, it goes back to awareness and being educated. If you are aware, and if you’re educated enough to understand how things work, ⁓ how financial statements work, how does that tie to a company or even silver or geopolitics and how does that affect gold prices and even cryptocurrencies and all of those things, then you understand, okay, if I jump in, it’s still not too late. I’m riding the wave here.Dylan Silver (11:06)
Yeah.Ghiath Arodaki (11:19)
it’s going to continue to increase. So regardless, I’m going to be able to make my money and then be able to ride on that appreciation of my assets.Dylan Silver (11:28)
I would like to pivot a little bit here and if we can ⁓ get a little bit granular as far as how some of this might be different depending on where you’re at in the country. One thing that I have noticed, you’re in Texas, I’m a Texas licensed realtor, is there is a very strong culture of being a mom and pop investor in Texas specifically versus where I’m from originally in Northern New Jersey and this is no shade on that area, that is a highly…less common occurrence. You don’t see as many people talking about having rental properties in Northern New Jersey, in many cases, because of cost to entry. It’s just cost prohibitive, but also too, because this idea and this culture surrounding being a real estate investor is just less prevalent for most folks who are coming from that W-2, very much traditional background.
in the East Coast specifically, I can say.
Ghiath Arodaki (12:32)
Yeah, I understand. I’m originally from the West Coast, from California in particular. It’s a very similar mindset. People tend to be much more corporate minded in those states just because it’s large cities, global cities. Not that Dallas or Houston are not larger global cities, but New York and San Francisco and LA, have the financial services industry in New York, for example.So anybody who’s living in New Jersey from my friends, at least that I know, they commute to New York and then that’s where they work. Same thing here, got LA, we got Hollywood and then in the Bay Area, we also have the tech industry. And then the issue with these places, like you said, is the cost to entry. I even renting an apartment in the Bay Area where I’m originally from,
Dylan Silver (13:02)
Yeah.Ghiath Arodaki (13:21)
It’s insane. mean, I’ve had friends who just graduated or are in college and they rent those apartments from the 80s, 70s. They need lots of work. It’s not really in the best area and they’re paying 3,600, maybe 4,000 a month, right? So you really can’t live on your own. exactly. You’ve got to have a roommate or something like that. the road to…Dylan Silver (13:38)
Yeah, as agency.Ghiath Arodaki (13:47)
real estate ownership and then having rental properties and all of that, it gets more difficult. But again, it goes back to your education and how could you kind of work around that? And I highly suggest always having mentors. I have a mentor that is based in California. He’s also a real estate agent actually, who when I sat down with him, he said, do you see how the Bay Area is difficult to enter?And I was like, yeah, I I live in Dallas, Texas. People tend to have much more of independence here. you know, they, like you said, mom and pops. So we have our own small business going on. We don’t need to go work for corporate. Working for corporate is more of a plus. So that paycheck they get from corporate actually goes into investments or savings. And then they get into a home or get, or acquire like real estate property. And then ⁓ that real estate property appreciates and they buy another home and so on. ⁓
He told me it’s okay, could happen here in California. It’s just how do you strategize around it? How do you think about getting into that?
Dylan Silver (14:52)
Is there any difference in approach? know, because for…It’s one thing to be able to say, we’re gonna shoot for having, you know, rental properties in DFW and we may be able to do some acquisitions and maybe a value add rehab, you know, acquisition point, $150,000. And we may, you know, flip these properties for 250 or we may hold these properties and turn them into rentals of some kind. That’s one strategy. But when you’re looking at, you know, the, you know, South, ⁓
the Bay Area and then you know some of the areas in California you’re looking at price points of like 1.2 million dollars or like 800 plus thousand dollars so it just changes the arithmetic and entirely when you’re educating young people entering the workforce about you know real estate in that regard
Ghiath Arodaki (15:41)
Yes.Dylan Silver (16:27)
Does it make sense to be talking about, you know, fix and flip and buy and hold rentals or would it make more sense to be talking about things such as like, hey, we should be partnering with people and forming, you know, capital partnerships or like investing out of the state. What’s your feedback on that in general?Ghiath Arodaki (16:45)
Absolutely. From the approach that I was taught and also the approach I’d like to tell people is first of all you want to focus on your own stock options within the company you work for. I mean if you’re in the Bay Area for example you get stock options. mean I have people who work for companies like Nvidia and Tesla and so on.Dylan Silver (17:06)
Yeah.Ghiath Arodaki (17:07)
and they get a cut from their paycheck that goes into their ⁓ stock option at a 15 % discount. That’s great. I mean, when those companies are rising up, that means you’re making more money than the public. So if you keep accumulating that and don’t touch it on the side, that will help you start investing and that will help you start getting into a real state. That’s number one. The second thing is networking, right? You’ve got to…Dylan Silver (17:28)
huge.Ghiath Arodaki (17:32)
partner up in those places and lots of people there. It’s a very entrepreneurial ship driven culture, right? Everybody has a startup in the Bay area. That’s a well-known fact. Everybody has a startup. Now, is it real startup? Does it make money and so on? Now that’s a different question, right? So again, you’ve got to network a lot. You’ve got to partner up with people and ⁓ the Bay area has opportunities, but the Bay area culture does not encourage it ⁓ because again, we’remuch more tech heavy in the Bay Area. So what’s going on there is people want to sit behind the computer and code for eight hours, right? So get out there, get out there, try to get to network with people, businessmen, mentors, and so on. Like I said, my mentor, who’s a real estate investor, he’s in the Bay Area and he’s able to ⁓ get in the market with the current price ranges. And then he’s educating other people to do that as well. you know, there is a way, you know, there is a way to get into it.
The third thing, like you mentioned is, I did have that approach. I did see that approach. ⁓ I witnessed it where you’re in the Bay area in California, for example, or New York, and you’re using some of your income to invest into other states like Texas, Ohio, and so on. And although the appreciation would be much slower than in the Bay area, for example,
Dylan Silver (18:48)
Right.Ghiath Arodaki (18:56)
but it still accumulates. I mean, that’s the beauty of investing. Growth never stops and compounding never stops.Dylan Silver (19:04)
Yeah, I mean, when we talk about the ability to invest remotely, I think there’s more and more interest in this. I think if you ask most people, certainly 10 years ago, but maybe even five years ago, hey, what’s your tolerance for, you know, underwriting deals in certain areas, they might say, well, I don’t have boots on the ground over there. But now with all the tools that we have, even as just, you know, having this podcast like we’re having right now, the ability to create a sphere to get boots onthe ground in an area to create capital partnerships, to expand your network. It’s more possible now than ever. So it wouldn’t surprise me if we start to see even more out of state investing from some of these areas where you do have, you know, very, very high, you know, ⁓ appreciation in properties, but also high incomes, right? So like the coast of the country, we are coming up on time here though, Gaius. ⁓
Any new projects that you’re working on and then as well, what’s the best way for folks to reach out to you or to learn more about StartCore?
Ghiath Arodaki (20:10)
Absolutely. So I’m always working on new projects. mean, I’m getting my real estate license here in Texas myself. Right. So ⁓ we’re going to heavily incorporate real estate education more and more in depth into Star Corps. My main focus right now is Star Corps. Like I said, I started withteaching kids nine to 19. I’m getting a little bit older, younger sometimes investing stocks, real estate, economics. I have international students actually outside of the United States as well and teaching about macro economics and geopolitics and how does that affect? mean, currently we live at a time as we are right now talking where energy prices are being driven up and everything is…
getting affected because of geopolitical events. I teach the kids that. So that’s kind of my focus. And in addition to that, we are trying to also get into homeschooling as well. And there’s a rise in interest in homeschooling, huge rise. I mean, started in Arizona in 2011 and after COVID, like you mentioned, AI, chat, GPT, Zoom, all of those things.
made parents realize, I don’t have to send my kids to a public school. They can just get homeschooled and they can have that social interaction online. And there’s much more control and there’s much more ⁓ education they get than the typical school where you get something like, okay, learning about stocks and investing in real estate, which you don’t typically get in public education. Right? So we’re trying to expand in that area. The best way to get more information about Stark
Dylan Silver (21:44)
Yeah.Ghiath Arodaki (21:54)
is go to the website, StarkCore.org, go to the socials, StarkCore HQ on Instagram, on TikTok, and then the best way to connect with me is by email, know, [email protected], or by my phone number, which they can, I think, put it in the description or somewhere.Dylan Silver (22:14)
All right, all right, Ghiath thank you so much for joining us today. Thanks for taking the time.Ghiath Arodaki (22:20)
Absolutely, thank you so much for having me on the podcast.
