Oh, by the way.

Yeah.

These chairs.

And he has, like, a hoop.

I don't know about that.

So these are faux walnut.

Right.

The t.

The table that I bought.

Yeah.

The reason why I bought it is they have two very similar side tables like this.

Oh.

That completely match that for, like 300 bucks.

I didn't buy them because, you know, I just, you know, whatever.

But so I thought that'll tie the rooms together with our old furniture, which, again, homage.

And that third chair is going to go in there next to the desk.

Sarah Bellum.

Yeah, dude, you can't steal my catchphrase at the show.

Impressive.

Welcome back to the number one financial literacy podcast in the world.

This is the higher standard.

Sitting next to me on my left is my partner in crime, Christopher Nahibi.

We gotta find a regular cadence for this.

That's what it is.

It's every time.

And every time I do it, you know what?

It's throwing you off.

It's me mentioning the higher standard because I caught myself on a couple episodes saying, welcome back to the show and not mentioning the name of the show.

Sitting next to me, my partner in time, the one and only, the man, the myth of legend.

Say it, Omar, everybody.

King of the gooseneck.

Mr.

Gooseneck.

Yeah.

And sitting behind the ones and twos, we have nobody.

All right, listen, we got a heavy real estate show tonight.

There's going to be some educational pieces, there's going to be some current event pieces, and we're going to get a lot of Chris's takes on what's going on.

And I have not prepared for this at all because I've been, you know, prepping the studio.

I mean, not prepared for this specific show.

But, I mean, this is part of your everyday.

Yeah, I mean, this is my subject matter expertise, if you will.

But, you know, I'm just saying.

Well, you're still calling yourself an expert.

No part of what.

Okay.

Damn it.

There's no way out of this.

Valid point.

I.

I would like to withdraw before we go there.

This is kind of one of those bittersweet shows because we know we're like, one or two shows away from the new studio.

Switch.

I know.

And we say night prior to this recording, we're in the new space and we have a table coming in about a week or so.

We got the rug, and that's kind of the major furniture starting to come in.

TVs are up.

Yep.

And the new format of the show, for those who watch the show, certainly I think it'll change the way we sound.

When we talk to one another, because, number one, the acoustics in space are phenomenal.

But number two, we're gonna be sitting across from each other.

No, I'm not gonna be able to get away with.

It's gonna be more interview style like this.

Yeah, I'm not gonna be able to get away with just looking away from you.

Yeah, you're not gonna be able to do that.

But, you know, I think, look, I.

I'm excited for the new space.

There's obviously a lot of logistics and set up between now and then, but, yeah, we've grown.

We went from in the garage to this place.

I was looking at some older photos that we had of us in the garage and.

Yeah.

Remember the thick blanket that we had up to.

Oh, the sound.

Yeah.

I still have that, by the way.

Yeah, it's in the back of the truck.

I use it for other things now.

Good man.

Transporting supplies to the show.

There you go.

We got this from CNBC.

March home sales dropped to their slowest pace since 2009.

Key points here.

Sales of previously owned homes in March fell 5.9% from February.

That's month over month.

Inventory was up nearly 20% from a year earlier.

And more inventory and slower sales are starting put on a chill on prices.

Not at all unexpected.

I saw this headline today.

I did repost it because I thought that it was important.

It's too early to call any type of quote trending because what we're seeing is this volatility in the markets and the data that's coming in.

Now, keep in mind, housing is a lagging indicator, and there are some proxies for how housing is going to come in.

Like mortgage applications.

Yeah.

But for the most part, we don't really know what the housing market looks like until about six months after any stagnant point in time or static point in time.

So I'm hesitant right now to think too hard at that particular statistic.

But the.

The recession pundits have certainly pointed to it.

The housing pundits have pointed to it and poked holes in it.

And what I'll say is this, is that I truly believe there is a cultural change that's going to happen regardless of whether we enter a housing impacted economy or not.

Mm.

And I think this is probably important for what we're gonna talk about later on, because it's gonna come down to investment strategy and what you.

If you're a realtor, what you should be thinking about, talking to your clients about if you're in the home, to.

If you're in the market to buy a home.

This is gonna change what you ask and how you think about things.

So I think there's a little bit of applicability.

Applicability to everybody.

I am so goddamn caffeinated.

That's 400 milligrams.

That's what the show needs.

And I got a lot of criticism last show for being overly caffeinated by the way.

Criticism?

Yeah.

People were like, listen Chris, like it's too much.

I need you to walk about.

It's not, it's not matching the vibe of the room.

So let me see what I have to say then we'll go on the restroom.

So I, I think that the backbone to keeping up consumer confidence has been this equity that people have acquired in a relatively narrow period of time in their homes.

So we have this unprecedented level of non household debt.

We have this massive amount of credit card debt out there that really came after the stimmies but continued to grow.

It's like a hockey stick straight up.

If you look at non household debt in general, certainly credit card debt, highest amount of student loan debt in history.

Even with all the forgiveness, you've got debt problems out there, but everybody's gone.

But look at the equity in homes.

So this is not going to just impact people who are looking to buy homes now.

So for a lot of a long time people were saying, hey look, you know, it affects first time home buyers, it affects the people who are on the fringe.

Well now that confidence that people got from oh I've got a million dollars of equity in my home or I've got a half a million dollars of equity in my home, that's going to go the other way if home values go down and if consumer confidence fails, in addition to volatility, which we're already seeing in the market, really impacting consumer confidence, I think you're going to have a consumer sentiment shift which is going to slow the economy dramatically in and of itself.

So I think there's reasons for the headlines to be impactful and scary.

Whether that actually affects the consumer in the markets, I don't know.

But what I will say has happened as a result of all these economic changes.

I think the middle class is smaller than it's ever been in history.

That the American dream is a very different paradigm than it once was.

We've talked about that in previous shows.

Right.

And how do you think we got here?

The most, most of the taxes paid in the country, historically at least this is observationally my opinion here have come from the middle class, they made more money than the lower class, but not enough money to be in the uber wealthy and have a lot of really sophisticated tax strategies.

But the middle class is shrinking, so companies are going to have to pick that up because the wealthy individuals are not going to pick that up.

Right.

It's just they're not going to vote to pay taxes themselves and politically lobby accordingly.

So it's going to be companies most likely that pay these taxes.

So, you know, I, we got here over a very interesting landscape of time where the wealthy got wealthier, it got really, really hard to buy homes.

The number one source of wealth for most Americans, the equity they build up in their home over time.

And if less and less Americans can start buying homes, you're walking into a generation where the average age of a home buyer is going up into the 30s.

And that means they're getting 10 years less equity appreciation over time.

10 years less skin in the game.

Yeah.

And I, they can go into alternative investments, but a lot of people were warded off by alternative investments.

Some people were lucky enough to go into crypto early, but I think you've had a shrinking basic, a shrinking pool of assets with which to invest for.

I mean, it's simply put, but a lot of Americans who would normally buy a home, acquire equity, buy a bigger home, they didn't do that.

If they bought a home, they didn't buy another home because they had these historic low rates.

And if they didn't buy a home, they never got the equity appreciation over time and hopefully went into other investments.

But those other investments didn't appreciate like homes did in most cases.

Right.

So you've got a really weird Molotov cocktail of circumstances that have led to a shrinking middle class.

It's undeniable.

Right.

So to dive in a little bit deeper on some of these key details.

Right.

So we mentioned that existing home sales fell 6% month over month.

Existing home sales.

What is, what does that mean?

Those aren't new homes.

Right.

These are homes that people lived in for, you know, a certain period of time.

New home sales are up seven and a half percent month over month.

But six month lagging indicator.

But that came at a cost.

Yeah, right.

They're up 7.4% month over month.

But they actually home prices have come down seven and a half percent.

So that's what they incentivize things.

So home builders have incentives for to buy.

So when they start to see that their, their pipeline of sales is slowing, they've got deliveries to the market.

What a lot of people don't realize is if you're a home builder, you're typically using lines of credit to finance these builds.

And then as you, there's a couple different way.

These financing transactions are typically set up.

But for most home builders, as new people come in and buy, you pay back part of your loan and you take some as profit because you, you don't want to just have profit on the back end.

You got operations to maintain.

And when they're, when they're building out, they have this huge plot of land and they're, they're literally doing them in divisions.

Right.

Depending on the size and scale of the home builder.

Yes.

So home builder financing or builder financing typically speaking, would work in like a, a track.

Yes.

And then for them too, correct me if I'm wrong, part of the draw or part of the, I guess the, the issue that they have to deal with is maintaining a certain level of volume.

Right.

Because if you're building out on a subdivision like that, Right.

Or a plot and you release certain amount of homes, now those new homeowners that are coming in, they're going to expect the rest of the division to be built out too.

And if, well, if within a certain period of time you devalue and if you devalue, there's new investments and there's a whole problem there.

So they have to allow for, for that and allow for things like buying down your rate, which a lot of.

People are, you know, exploring well, buying down your rate.

Plus they, they like to do like construction incentives.

Like you get more premium build out on your builds so you'll get some like, you'll get grounded granite countertops at a tile.

You get, you know, more premium, you know, build out just.

Yeah.

For your home they'll offer a bunch of different incentives to, to try to get you in the door.

Rates are probably the most obvious because there's only really two levers here for, for home buyers, it's home home price and rate.

Yes.

And if the national association of Realtors, they're, they're, and pretty much all the housing pundits have always thought the solution, the affordability crisis is to lower rates, which we have long criticized in the show as being very self interested because what that really means is their commissions stay high but their volume picks up.

Right.

I'm not saying that everybody's nefarious, but it's just a very convenient narrative.

Right?

Right.

The home builders that you're seeing now too also have some added challenges that they have to work through, which are not really being accounted for.

Okay.

If you're a home builder, you don't, you finance the entire build.

Right.

But if it's profitable and you're doing this right, someone comes in and buys a property, you give a certain percentage of that, a large, larger percentage than you take home or best 50, 50 to the bank to pay down your principal and interest on the loan.

You take 50% for your operating profit so that you can continue to operate.

But typically when you work through, call it 65, 70% of your, your sales, the back end of it's all profit.

So they're trying to get to those profits and get onto the next build by incentivizing you to keep going and keep going.

So they're willing to eat into their incremental profits near term to get into those larger profits long term.

There you go.

So there's a reason why they want to get to these communities fulfilled and get to the back end.

It's not just because they want to make it valuable for you.

It's because they also want to move on to the next project and they also want to get the, the bigger profits at the end of it.

Yeah.

So there's a lot of reasons why that's important.

Plus they're also nervous about the economy and home prices too.

Right.

If home prices are coming down and they're incentivized by bringing home prices down, they know that as this, this becomes like a waterfall effect.

Right.

If our community's pricing down, the community across street's pricing down, these comparable sales are pricing down.

That means that sales prices are going to continue to drop incrementally over time, which eats into their profits incrementally over time.

And as the six month lagging indicator catches up and all the reporting systems they're going to go, okay, we know we've got about a six month window, ish.

Before this becomes really, really impactful for us.

Starting now.

Right.

So we briefly touched on how buying mortgage points work, right.

For people that are looking to buy newer homes and what some of these newer builders will allow you to do.

Right.

It's always a conversation by the way, there is not a single person who's ever done this and gone, I know exactly what I'm going to do.

Easy.

Yes.

It's always a logical conversation.

Right.

And so just, just a breakdown of how it works.

Right.

So mortgage points equal prepaid interest you pay, points to the lender at closing, one point equals 1% of your loan.

Right.

Example on a $400,000 loan, one point equals $4,000, right?

Yeah.

Upfront?

Yes.

Up front?

Yes, up front.

Right.

Each point typically lowers your interest rate by 0.25%.

That's it.

So for every 1 percentage point you pay of your loan amount upfront, they will reduce your interest on your loan that you're paying every single month moving Forward by about 25 basis points or 1/4 of 1%.

Right.

The reason why this is important is it does reduce your mortgage payment on a monthly basis, assuming you have the money up front to pay down that point.

And this buy down can be done by you or it can be done by your builder as a way to incentivize you to build.

Like, hey, Saeed, I know the prevailing market rate is six and a quarter percent to buy this property and that mortgage payments a little high for you.

But if I paid, in this case, you know, 1% of your, if your loan amount to buy down that rate to give you a 6% rate, would that be more attractive to you to buy?

Because now, even though the home price is still high, your mortgage payments lower because I bought that rate down for your benefit.

Right.

Now the, the question then becomes this, right?

If rates right now are hovering around 7%, I think as of today, the 30 year fixed rate mortgage, right, Meaning the rate that you come in at, that's going to be your rate for 30 years.

I think that's what most people think of when they, when they get a home loan, right.

30, 30 year mortgage right now is a 6.84% buying down, buying down your rate by a point drops it down a quarter point.

Right.

You think to yourself, is that, is that a better option or, or what's currently going on right now also is now more so than in the past two years.

The highest amount of adjustable rate mortgages are being taken into account.

Wow.

I didn't know we were to go here.

So I have for a single.

This is, from what I've seen, an investment product tool.

Right.

But people, people do use it.

It's not an investment product tool solely.

The wealthy have used this methodology for a great deal of time for their primary residences.

Yeah.

Because they've looked at them.

So I have never been a fan of the Grant Cardone rhetoric of oh, hey, you know, you should rent your home.

And he's like, invest all your money.

Which conveniently works out in investing in his properties.

Right.

From a guy who also bought his property in Malibu.

So it's like, come on.

Like, it's just contradictory.

But the wealthy have long used this saying, okay, If I own a $20 million home, okay, and I put $10 million into it, and I get a 50% loan to value, I don't really care about paying this down.

So what I'm gonna get is a 5 year interest only ARM loan on my property and I'm gonna pay interest only.

I got $10 million in this thing.

Right.

I owe 50% on it.

And because this product is considered a riskier product, the interest rate on it is slightly less than what you would see on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage, right?

That's right.

It's a teaser rate.

Yes.

It's supposed to tease you.

So it's basically fixed in this case for five years and then it adjusts usually to an index plus margin rate which is going to be higher typically at the end.

Well, it's always going to be higher because your index margin, the floor rate is always going to start rate of the arm.

So to make that clear, if, let's just say you, you got a loan today based off of SOFR plus 2%.

Let's just say SOFR is 5%, make this easy.

That's an index.

Right.

So the 30 year so far plus 2% would be a 7% blended rate.

Let's just say your teaser rate is 4%.

Looks kind of attractive.

Looks kind of attractive.

At the end of your fixed period, whether that's three, five or seven years, typically your 4% is gonna be the lowest it's ever gonna be.

So even a sofa goes to the floor and you know it's 2% and you're plus your 2%, you're never gonna be lower than your start rate.

That's typically how they work on the ARM side.

Okay.

So.

But in almost all cases it's gonna be slightly higher than where you got it.

Unless you happen to come into the economy.

We just went into, you know, 14, 15 years ago now, actually 16.

Wow.

So I don't think, I think arms are demonized because for most people they get into it, they have it for a couple of years and they go, oh my God, I've got this ARM loan that's coming due to refinance and they have like this payment shock.

Yes.

But if you're in the system and you're paying attention, it could be a very valuable tool to reduce your monthly payment near term.

I don't like it for someone who's using this as a primary residence who are struggling to buy a property.

Because if you don't have a clear defined economic plan to exit this right in you Know by the time your ARM loan is up, this is not.

One of those things you do and you just forget about you put away.

Right?

Yeah.

So strategically speaking, some good times or I guess times that would make it okay to exercise this kind of option.

Like what Chris mentioned earlier, right.

Is if you don't plan on staying in the properties long term, right.

If you, if you, if you already know you're going to get out of it within five years.

Right, Right.

I think a lot of people think that when they get into a property, but the fact of the matter is, is people are staying in properties longer now.

And a lot of this is an interest rate situation, a lot of this is the home price situation.

But it's a, it's a multi cocktail of problems that have all kind of coalesced.

So because people are staying in their properties longer, I think you go into the best laid plans of getting out in five years or seven years and refinancing.

But let's say we have a housing recession.

Let's say your home value goes the other way.

Let's say you've got a little bit negative equity now.

You've eaten into the money you put into property, you're gonna be less incentivized to get out of it.

So then you're like, okay, I'm gonna refinance because you have no choice.

If you had a 30 year mortgage, you would just keep that loan that you can currently pay today until such time as it's paid off in full.

That's the benefit of a fully amortizing 30 year loan due in 30 years is at the end of it, you owe nothing, you've paid interest.

Now keep in mind your interest is front loaded and you're paying principal at a slower cadence.

But this is incredibly valuable to you.

Cause there's no payment shock.

Right.

If you handle a payment today, unless your financial position doesn't change materially, you can handle that payment in perpetuity.

Right.

If you got a loan over the last like 14 years.

Right.

Like, like my mortgage name is 2.71% interest rate.

I know, I hate that you got that on me.

I got 2.99.

Right.

Which is a phenomenal rate.

You shouldn't be disappointed with the fact that you're a little bit less qualified than me.

I got a two handle.

Right.

Look, everybody who I know has one in the twos, like they, they feel just as like, wow, I feel very.

Lucky, feel very blessed.

Right.

This option is, is not an option you would have taken back then, right?

Because I want to lock in that 2.99 rate for the next 30 years.

I don't, you don't, you don't see it coming back down.

And I can make a compelling argument that, that you shouldn't, you shouldn't take an ARM today.

For most people.

Yeah, not on your primary residence.

For me that, that's, it's a little risque.

It is.

But look, I mean everybody's risk appetite is different and I'm not knocking anybody who does it.

I just think anything below, and this is going to be very stigmatizing the statement anything below, call it seven and a half, 8%.

You're still below the historical average for mortgages.

I think if you can pay for that mortgage and you can get a 30 year fixed, you have the money to put down.

And I recognize I'm talking to a very, very narrow margin of society.

Right?

That is what you do.

And then another reason why you tune into the Higher standard podcast is you want to stay up to date with all the other financial news, right?

You want to stay up to date with what we're saying.

Jerome Powell is saying, what the FOMC is saying, what's going on in the economy.

Because if you feel like rates are going to fall in the near future based on everything you hear, then okay, then maybe this product is a good product.

Maybe I do get an ARM loan for five years thinking that rates are gonna come down and then I can refi out again and into a fixed 30 year product.

Can I drop a little cheat code?

Little cheat code.

I recognize for most people watching CNBC all day long and reading financial headlines is not exactly exciting.

I know for those of you who listen to the show and lower listeners, first of all, thank you.

I know you get most of of this from the show, but let's just say you weren't a higher standard listener and you made bad life choices.

I mean just, you gotta educate those people right away, right?

You could easily get the majority of this by literally like if you're driving to work, turn on CNBC.

Most of us have either YouTube TV or you know, whatever it is, turn on CNBC.

Listen to the audio.

What are you doing right now?

What are you doing to the family business?

I go against the family.

You're going against the family right now?

No, what I'm trying to say is it's not that hard to stay plugged in.

I think people over stigmatize it because like I gotta read about this, I gotta know about futures and.

No, you don't.

No.

Yeah.

You know, all you gotta do is listen to 10 minutes a day of CNBC or just, here's what I do.

I have it in my office on.

All day long.

Yeah.

I'm looking at headlines.

If something comes up that I think is important, I'll turn on the volume.

Otherwise, it's not.

I'm just watching the ticker.

Right.

I'm watching the treasuries all day long.

For me and for my job, that's important.

For most people in America, it's not that important.

Yeah.

But what I do think we should all do is we should all know, like, hey, did Netflix, by the way, we called that reporting.

Called that in the show.

We did.

We said that Netflix was gonna report strong.

They reported strong.

They did.

And we knew they would.

We knew they would.

And.

But today's market up.

Positive.

Positive numbers.

There's lots of rhetoric.

And I.

When I.

When I drove into the market, drove in this morning, I saw some negative news about China and the president and tariffs and talks.

Then I saw some, like, weird, intermittent news.

I'm like, dude, I don't know what to make of this.

I'm in the business of understanding some of the backstory here and the rhetoric, and I cannot tell you what the market's gonna do based on some of these headlines.

But I think it's better to know the headlines, whether you know what the market's gonna do or not, than to not know them.

Right.

So if you know that, here's a great.

This is terribly basic.

You watch cnbc, they have graphics.

If you see a bull and the graphic is green, market is positive.

If you see a bear and the market is red, market is not positive.

Yeah, but people don't.

But when people see that, they don't know what to make of it.

I think they're very much confused because they're hearing recession talk.

Recession talk.

Oh, there's so much instability, so much volatility.

Yeah.

You see this on tv.

Red three days in a row, you can pretty much say you are in a challenged economy.

You see green three days in a row, you go, you know what, man?

If you see red, green, red, green, then the market's kind of like, whatever.

You stick around for a couple of weeks.

I'm trying to make this basic, man.

Yeah, well, I know.

You know, speaking of basic, I saw.

I saw a brief clip of Jordan Belfort doing somebody doing a podcast.

Right.

Wolf, Wall street guy.

Does he still do podcasts?

He's doing.

In an interview.

He's getting sleazier A little bit.

I don't know, man.

Based on his track record, it was pretty sleazy at one point.

I read his book before it was a movie.

Long before it was a movie.

I read Catching the Wolf of Wall street, which was the second book in the series.

The sequel.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I didn't have a bad take home.

It was when he started using the movie to boost his presence and going on podcasts that I was like, eh.

And then he came up trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents.

No, I get it.

But then you try to become like Tony Robbins, you know.

Yeah.

Where you're like, you're motivating sales teams.

That's.

Yeah.

Are you the guy that's not the come.

That's not the comeback people want to see.

Yeah.

They're not buying it.

So you just run and build a legitimate corporate business.

It's not gonna happen.

That, that credibility is long gone, bro.

Come on.

Right.

Unfortunately for him.

But what is kind of cool is when he on this podcast, he kept it very basic and very simple.

And when.

When.

When someone like him says it as simple as this, you got to believe, man, it's true.

It has to be true.

It's not that difficult.

Invest.

Invest in the S P 500 long term, 30 years and then get out.

You're going to beat most hedge fund managers doing so.

Warren Buffett has said the same exact thing.

That's true.

You know, it's like, this is not.

You don't.

It's not rocket science.

It's not.

But people over complicate it because they're afraid.

They're afraid.

So that's a great way to get in start because yes, you are going to have those friends.

They're going to tell you, bro, I just made this much on crypto.

Like how did you not.

You should have listened to me.

I don't have those friends, actually.

No, but people.

The people that do brag are going to be the ones that Lord help.

The person that comes to me with that conversation.

No, the.

The you.

The friends of yours that are going to come to you bragging are going to come to you bragging about the speculative investments that they made that they got lucky on.

They're not going to tell you about the hits that they took, right?

Well, yeah, I'm pretty open about the hits that I took take and that I took.

But I would say yeah.

No, but you're not doing risky investments like that.

Come on now.

No, but I mean, I sold the property last year.

That, that really Hurt my.

My ego, my pride, my wallet to pay taxes.

And then I got taxes back from a refund from 2022 this year, which would have negated the need to sell.

But then we bought the new studio space, so that replaces that one.

And I mean, I look at like this, like, I would not have bought the studio space so aggressively had I not have been reeling from the loss of a property because I don't like selling properties.

I didn't want to go backward.

Right.

So maybe it all kind of works out.

Maybe I'm just.

I know you're going to use this against me at some point in time.

Maybe I'm just a little anal retentive.

You?

Yeah.

Got some ocd.

I got a lot, dude.

And it's getting worse as I get older.

Yeah.

It's getting.

What's the.

What's the one that you're noticing that's like, creeping up on you more and.

More of the ocd?

Like, traits?

Yeah.

Oh, man.

I have a way of doing things every single morning.

Like, I want a routine.

Yeah.

And part of it's because it works for me.

Like, my testosterone levels are improving, like naturally, so I'm actually scaling that back.

And that's part of the reason.

But I have a routine.

Yes.

I want to get up, I want to get an energy drink, get downstairs, get on the bike, ride for 20 minutes, get in the cold plunge, get out of the cold plunge, go upstairs, go about my day.

I want to stop at Starbucks, head in the office.

I have that routine.

I can deviate from it.

I don't like to.

So.

So this is actually something coincidentally for me too.

I know you're going to take your jabs, but your boy's trying.

So let's give me some positive reinforcement here.

Okay.

Why do you make me sound like I don't support you working out?

I support you working out.

No great deal.

I know.

So for the last two weeks, your boy's been waking up at 5am to get down in the garage gym and hit it.

Hit the gym.

Right.

Okay.

I've been seeing a lot of walking, though I haven't seen a lot of lifting.

No lift.

No.

I do.

I try to.

I'm trying to get into this.

30 minutes minimum walk every morning.

So kind of like your bike cardio.

Right.

And then a lifting session right after.

May I suggest something?

Yes.

Given the limited availability you have to work out.

Yes.

And the fact that you're not doing two a days.

Yes.

I'm not.

I would suggest lifting for 10 minutes more and doing 20 minutes of cardio.

Okay.

Yeah, I'll give it a shot.

I just really like the, the 30 minutes.

I'll be honest, by the end of that 30 minutes, I feel really good.

How much are you lifting?

How often?

How long are you living?

It's for the last two weeks.

Right.

It's about 30 minutes.

And I'm doing full body, so I.

Would prefer you cycling.

I'm doing like a circuit where it's a full body workout and then I.

Like full body workouts.

I'm trying to be honest.

Three days a week.

Yeah, no, four days a week right now.

Okay.

But with.

And then one day of like maybe extended, like long distance walk.

Right.

And I'll incorporate a little bit of jump rope too, maybe on that day.

And mind you, this has only been two weeks.

Yeah.

But what I am trying to gear towards is I'm trying to set myself up to get myself back into a rhythm where I'm not going to get hurt.

To start.

Anabolic maps.

Anabolic.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good program.

Yeah.

Then here's what I would do.

I would, I would.

20 minutes, low intensity status.

A cardio, just to get warm in the morning time.

Right?

Yeah.

If you really want to engage a little bit more, hold some dumbbells in your hand and do some curls and you know, just kind of arm movements.

Get fully warm and burn a little extra calories.

Yeah.

And then go into lifting.

But I would have focal groups on the four days.

Like so if I was in a.

Four day split, it would make a bro split.

It'd be like chest and tries.

But I would still do some like legs and some other stuff.

That's my favorite style.

I'll be honest, I have not enjoyed the full body.

The full.

It's actually been kind of frustrating because, like I'll start to get a pump in.

Yeah, right.

And.

And my God, man.

Like, I just want to keep doing.

I want to keep hitting this.

So here's what you do is so you do like chest and tries, but you're also going to do some like leg work in that too.

So you do chest tries.

You'll do one.

So a great example is I'll do like bench.

Right.

I'll do tricep, like extensions.

I'll do abs, air squats.

And then that's my circuit.

And then I do.

I'll do like three circuits.

Yeah.

That's pretty much my full body.

Yeah.

Right.

But you're really focusing on heavier lifting.

That's why it's just instead of, instead.

Of the Air squats.

So mine, instead of the air squats, I'll do goblet squats.

Just because.

Because I'm using the bench in the squat rack.

You know, I'm not going to readjust everything.

All good.

But here's the problem, though.

When you.

When you.

When you do full body workouts like this, you need to get people.

People hate this.

The.

The weight that you're lifting is good because if you're trying to burn more calories and put out more exertion, that's how you do it.

Right.

But you also get a benefit from working the muscle time under tension.

Right.

So going slower, being more.

More method, and working the muscles more frequently.

I am.

I am very.

Oh, that's the other thing that I'm doing.

I'm.

I've already started incorporating, like, the trigger sessions.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Which I like.

Yeah, the trigger session.

And I think.

I think that's going to help a lot.

But.

So this is the OCD part that I wanted to touch on and compared to times in the past when I've, like, gone into, like, the lifting mode and exercise mode.

Now at this age, it's to the point where if I don't work out in the morning, I don't want to do it.

Y'all don't have that problem.

I want to work out constantly.

If I could work out all day.

Long, like, it doesn't feel good.

Well, first of all, I would like to work out later in the middle day, but there's not enough time.

Right.

We come into the office, there's work to do.

There's.

We're slammed.

So there's.

And then when I come home, like, my kids are at an age right now where when I'm.

They literally like, I haven't seen you all day.

I want to see you.

I want to spend time with you.

Can't you, like, do it afterward?

Well, after they go to sleep, yeah.

Then I'm like, I'm wide awake.

I'm not.

I'm not pushing myself to the point of exhaustion.

I'm trying to.

I'm trying to take the approach that Sal talks about on the show.

Right.

Mindful mind.

But mind pump, where you want to.

You want to leave having, like, energy.

Right?

You don't want to.

You don't want to.

You want to do what's optimal, right, not what's tolerable.

Well, yes and no.

So I agree.

You want to leave having energy if you're working out in the day, but if you're at the end of the day.

And you're tired.

So I did this yesterday.

I was exhausted.

I did not want to go to the gym.

I knew getting a workout was better than not getting a workout at all.

I knew the workout wasn't going to be great going into it, so I did my 20 minutes cardio, and then I lifted weights.

And first set of, like, I was doing bench.

I did incline.

I started with incline.

I did first set.

I'm like, first of all, strength isn't there.

Yeah.

Clearly in a caloric deficit.

I mean, tired.

I'm tired, but I'm like, I'm going to do it.

I was exhausted when I went.

I was exhausted when I left, and I went to the studio last night and worked.

Yeah.

But the way I look at it, it's better than nothing.

Yes.

And that's the other component behind this.

That if I want to have a frank conversation.

Right.

Frank conversation.

Let's have.

Let's have a frank conversation.

Is.

I think the number one thing that.

That has held me back for so long.

Okay.

Is I'm really interested in this space, the health and fitness space.

I tune into a lot of different podcasts, especially Mind Pump.

Right.

I listen to Huberman.

I listen to David.

What's your boy's name?

David Italia.

Is that his name?

Peter Attia.

Oh, Peter Attia.

You weren't even close.

Yeah, but I listened to him from time to time.

Right.

And a couple other guys.

And here's my issue.

I know too much.

And because I can't incorporate 100% right away.

Nobody incorporates 100%.

I know.

And that's my problem, because I know too much.

I know I'm not doing everything I should be doing.

It's kept me from starting.

So here's what I would say.

And that's.

And that's been.

And that's something that I've acknowledged.

And I'm like, okay, you know what I do?

I gotta make slow changes.

It's slow changes.

My wife has this.

I love.

I adore my wife.

She'll get into working out and she'll go hard as hell, day one, be super sore, discouraged.

And she won't say that she's discouraged, but you can just tell, like, she's in pain, so she's not gonna work out the next day.

I take a very different approach.

I don't know where I changed mentally for this, but my approach to working out has changed huge in.

In recent weeks.

Has changed a lot.

Again, I.

I'm not working out every day like I used to.

I'M working out maybe three days a week at most.

I'm not even hitting it that hard.

I'm really just kind of maintaining.

And yet I'm seeing more physiological response.

I'm leaner and I'm actually lost weight in general, but I'm leaner than.

Than I otherwise would be.

I think a lot of it's intermittent fasting, A lot of it's constant movement.

Yeah.

I've started the fasting too.

Yeah.

And I think people over stigmatize a lot of these things.

When I was trying to intermittent fast and I was being very direct about it, dude, it just.

I was thinking about food all day long.

Yeah.

I couldn't help it.

Yeah.

And when I pivoted to look, I'm just gonna have coffee, I.

I stopped like demonizing things.

So, like, I'll have.

I'll have a nitro cold brew in the morning.

Yeah, right.

With some milk in it.

Sweet cream.

Yeah, yeah, I get it.

We get it.

Technically speaking, to, to like the purest of intermittent fasting.

Like, you broke your fast.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh my God.

You're not.

Intermittent F days that I'm hungry, I will have like a protein, like snack in the morning.

Like I don't care.

Right.

But I.

Most days I'll.

I'm so busy in the morning anyway and I have my routine that I'm so focused on getting to the routine, getting everything else that.

Right.

I'm not even thinking about food till like 12 or 1.

Yeah, you're not.

Yeah.

You're not thinking about like the.

What's.

How you're laying out this whole entire journey.

Actually, today's a great example.

All I've had to eat today was a burrito and chips.

And I try to eat a burrito every day.

Honestly.

I'm on a burrito a day diet, bro.

Yeah.

That's a good way to live, though.

I say this like kind of tongue in cheek, but in reality, I.

I have found a way to eat essentially whatever I want and I don't gain weight and what I found.

And nobody talks about this.

No one.

Oh, man.

Ever.

You know who you are now?

If it fits in your macros, you're that guy now.

Oh, if it fits your macros.

I'm Lane.

Lane Norton.

Yeah.

I don't even.

So I don't.

He's been on the show.

He's been on your show.

Lane's been on the show.

Pre Saeed.

Yeah.

So here's what I would say about.

Nobody ever talks about over 40 or getting in your late 30s.

And this, this, this affects women and men differently.

I think women get it in their late 30s a little bit.

Really depends on your own metabolism, though.

Everybody gets this differently.

When I, when my metabolism slowed down, I thought I was insane.

I was doing all the right things.

I couldn't figure out what the hell was going on.

And it was just like, it was such an uphill battle.

And I mean, I was so dialed in with macros, with working out, it just didn't make any sense.

And I was still gaining weight, gaining body fat, but I was using the same mentality I had when I was in my 20s about getting my 1 gram of protein per pound of body fat or per pound of body, body weight.

And I was trying to do all the things that I, I thought I knew were good.

When you think about the context of where most of your bodybuilding advice comes from, that's my problem is that comes from people in a very different age demographic and lifestyle than you are leading.

Correct.

So when I took that pressure off myself to say, I'm just going to do what I feel like works for me.

Yeah.

And I know, I know I, I am educated enough in health and fitness and I stay abreast of new modern trends to know what I know.

Right.

But I discard all of it.

I literally had a burrito and chips today.

I know that I'm under my calories today.

I have not had a day of hitting a gram per, per pound of body weight of protein in probably two years.

And I know that, I know at the end of the day I'm protein deficient.

I can argue.

I know the science says, I can tell you based on my metabolism today, I am leaner and stronger today than I've ever been historically.

And these people who listen to the show.

Well, Chris, you're on testosterone.

Yes, but I was also on testosterone when I was 40 pounds heavier.

And that's true, I can attest to that.

And not asleep.

So I can tell you that that is not the, not the, the reason why I, I found a pattern in practice that worked for me.

And any.

I know someone's gonna DM me and say, hey, like, tell me what it is.

I mean, isn't there.

Hold on.

So it.

A gram of protein per lean pound of lean body mass.

Right?

I just say per pound of body weight.

But yeah, let's just say that.

Right?

That's in the event you want to build muscle.

But it's.

You don't need.

Some people say that for maintenance too.

You don't need that much protein to maintain the muscle mass that you have.

Yeah.

But again, I try to, like, generalize the statements because I know people have heard the old adage, I'll say you need a lot less protein than you think you do, particularly as your metabolism slows and as you get older.

And I know there's a lot of people listening to this, gonna be like, no, that's not right.

Yeah.

But the vegans are gonna be like, you're right, bro.

And here's the problem.

The overarching theme that's gonna really drive people crazy, whether we like it or not.

As much as you and I are both humans, and we look very similar, Our physiology, our DNA is very different.

Yeah.

And I'm gonna use a very extreme example that's gonna bother people.

Oh, there are some people that are freak athletes.

Right.

I know.

I know.

Some people can eat sugar and candy all day long and just be shredded.

Oh, yeah.

Literally, the guys.

There's guys in the NFL that say, I just had a bag of Skittles.

Right.

So far today.

That's it.

Yeah.

And they're just shredded.

There is something fundamentally different about their body and mind, because I can tell you, if I did that, I would be overweight.

But yet when you hear someone say, all I eat is protein, I don't need any carbs, you go, oh, I'm gonna do that because that guy's lean.

Well, no, that guy's the same guy who can eat a bag of Skittles.

It's just.

It's a different.

Different situation, different outcome.

Yes.

Everybody's physiology responds differently to different things.

You gotta.

I do not like eating carnivore.

Carnivore.

I like carbs, bro.

I used to be that guy.

I had.

I have cousins that.

I mean, we grew up the same.

And then at one point in time, I see them, and, like, they're, you know, much different, like, physical shape than I had been.

I'd be like, oh, what are you doing?

I was like, oh, man.

I just.

I make smoothies in the morning, and I do this, and I'll be like, oh, so we're having smoothies.

Yeah.

Smoothies wreck my stomach, by the way.

Yeah.

Right.

And I mean, this was, like, years ago.

Like, I'm in, like, late 20s.

And you're like, okay, well, this doesn't work for me.

Yeah.

This doesn't make any sense.

Look at Michael Jordan.

Michael Jordan in his prime, was a known, like, alcoholic, was drinking all day long.

One of the greatest athletes of all time.

Yeah.

Kobe Bryant.

Too.

Would drink like a liter of vodka in some sittings, you know, after losses.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We'd still get out there and be able to.

We.

You.

We do not appreciate that that person you see as a spokesperson for some diet.

It could actually work for that person.

That could.

That they could be 100 legitimately telling the truth.

But that does not mean that it will absolutely work for everybody watching it.

But they sell it like it works for everybody.

Yes.

And that's the problem.

That is the fundamental disconnect with.

We all want to look like that person on the screen, but we don't want to acknowledge that that person's DNA is different than mine.

Yeah.

I'm really excited about this time around for me.

Take the pressure off yourself, man.

Just do what works.

Yeah.

Doing what works.

But this time I'm doing.

I'm listening to my own body.

I'm listening to what feels right.

I'm not gonna force the issue.

Like, let's say tonight.

Right now.

What time is it?

It is 1101.

Thursday night.

Early bird special, brother.

So tomorrow, Tomorrow I'm.

I'm not going to wake up at 5am Because I understand.

I now recognize that sleep is important.

So what I'm gonna.

Peter T.

Is very clear on this.

If the choice is to get up super early.

Yeah.

And be fatigued and work out or get more rest and skip the workout.

You should get more rest and skip the workout.

Now.

The old me would have beaten myself up over.

Nope.

I'm 100 in.

I'm waking up tomorrow and then I'm gonna.

That just wrecks me.

Yeah.

You know, for the next couple days.

And it's like, this is not a good move.

See, this is where my OCD kicks in.

Where like, I, I.

That morning rhythm sets my entire tone for the day.

Yeah.

Like I.

I don't do it because I want to be in shape.

I do it because I want to.

And I try to sleep when I can, but I also don't sleep a whole lot.

But that's what I know.

Yeah.

And some people function differently.

Right.

And that's one of the.

My favorite things that I.

I've taken away from.

From Mind Pump is they say it's so interesting how we prepare our workouts.

I know what split I'm doing.

Right.

I'm doing push, pull legs.

I'm doing a bro split.

I'm doing full body whatever.

Right.

We prepare meals.

I gotta hit my macros.

But the last component, arguably one of the most important components about this whole thing is sleep.

And how come we don't prepare for our sleep the same way we do all the other things?

Right.

And.

Oh, I do.

I'm not saying, I'm not saying to.

Turn log in tract in meticulous detail.

Right.

And you know what works for you because you, you can.

You measure.

You know, it's funny, and I'm sorry to cut you off.

I didn't think about this until just now.

You just said it rang true to me.

I tracked macros for years down to the gram.

More than anybody I've ever met in my entire life.

Yeah, I do remember.

Yeah.

I was carrying a scale with me everywhere.

I track my workouts down to the movement, the intensity, volume.

The volume.

Everything down to painstaking detail.

My lifts, I don't track any one of those anymore.

You know what I do track?

Sleep.

Sleep.

Sleep is the only variable actively looking at it.

Yeah.

Every day.

So every day I look at my sleep, I look at the quality of sleep.

My time is less than most people, but I look at the quality of sleep.

How long I was in deep sleep, how long I was in rem.

And I, I legitimately try to be.

I have red light therapy at home.

I have the.

The eight sleep bed at home, the cold plunging in the morning.

I don't do it at night because it does disrupt my sleep.

I don't drink alcohol anymore.

Not because I don't like drinking.

I love drinking.

Alcohol affects my sleep.

Yes.

So sleep is the only thing that I've prioritized.

And here's how crazy of important variable that is.

I have completely deprioritized eating.

Completely D.

I do eat a lot less.

Isn't that, isn't this so insane?

Completely deprioritize my workouts.

My workouts are nowhere near as good as they used to be.

I worked out one day this week.

I worked out chest, abs and triceps.

Yeah.

Right.

It is Thursday.

Okay.

I'm probably gonna have a back and buy workout tomorrow, Friday.

And then if I'm lucky, I'll have one more workout for three of this weekend.

And I'm probably not gonna be lucky because I'll probably work in the studio every single day.

Yeah.

That being said, I'm in probably the best shape of my life now.

Insane, right?

Yeah.

And this is something that my wife and I were really trying to focus on because I know we say we joke around on the show, but my wife and I, we don't.

Our only time is after the kids go down and we like the family time together.

But I Like to, we like to have these long conversations at night where we're talking about each other's days and this and that.

But then that always bleeds into us losing sleep.

Right.

So now we're trying to make a, an honest effort at getting to bed at a certain time every night.

I'm very delineated with this.

Honey, we are going to bed.

Yeah.

No, no, it's not that I'm not thinking in the back of my mind, I should be going to bed right now, but I'm stuck here talking, right?

No, no, no.

I'm not either.

But I will, I will literally look at the clock and be like, okay, what time do I have to wake up tomorrow?

What time does my day start?

And I will literally measure out the minimum amount of sleep that we should be getting.

Yeah.

And I'll go, it's bedtime.

We're going to bed now.

It's to the point where I'm trying to make such an honest effort that it's okay.

When she's usually what we, I do is let her go take a shower first and then I'll, after she's done, I'll take a shower.

Now it's like she'll take a shower and I'll just go jump in the kids shower.

I'm like, I don't even care about showering my own shower anymore.

I just want to hurry up and get to bed and just like, let's call it a night.

Yeah, Yeah.

I mean, the showering thing's interesting too, because it does set the thermodynamics up the right way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's my, one thing is I, if I don't work out during the day, like, I'm not always showering at night.

Right?

I know, you don't know.

You think I'm a dirty birdie, but.

You, I don't understand how you get into your sheets like that.

You're showering tonight, though.

Yeah.

And I worked in the studio.

I shower every night.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

It was pretty locked in.

Speaking of the lock in, going back.

To mortgages, the lock in effect.

Baby.

No, we don't need to.

No, we can look at.

It's fine.

No, I think that that's a, that's a big component as to why everything is the way that it is.

Right.

I mean, yeah, people got crazy ass.

Low rates for a long period of time.

And it really impacted, I think, the expectations for new home buyers.

It impacted the expectations for existing home buyers.

It's really created a lock in effect that that has prevented transactional activity.

So I think one of the things that nobody talks about that I think is getting completely ignored and shouldn't be is that transactional volume is slowing.

So if transactional volume slows, then you're not going to see the change in pricing happen at a great cadence either because there's just not enough transactions on the market to move the needle.

Right.

So I think you're going to wind up seeing a slower amount of volume.

And look, there's people with that splice us every which way from Friday.

The problem that I've had when preparing for our recent shows is that there's just a lot of uncertainty.

I can't point to a data point and give somebody a direction.

A direction right now.

Okay.

All I can say is right now it's anybody's guess the data is going to change.

I don't think the Fed's going to cut rates in the next meeting.

I think anybody who's hopeful of that is, is deluded.

Yeah, that's just not real.

I think the, the pressure from political tightrope from both the Fed Secretary's perspective and the President's perspective is going to continue to, to, to be there.

And I think that that's going to create a lot of discomfort in the narrative around Fed policy.

Right.

So for the near term, you have a lock, in effect, keeping people somewhat situated.

80% of the people who have mortgages right now have a mortgage of 6% or less.

Yeah.

And if it's a 30 or if a 30 year fixed mortgage right now is at 6.84% doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

That's why you're locked into what you have.

Yeah.

Oh, dude, you could not convince me to refinance my first trust deed right now.

You couldn't.

I mean, I, I get it.

People do it, but.

Right.

Some people will do it.

Some, some people would do it just to pull out cash.

Right.

To, to go do something else, maybe pay off debt.

I mean, for a lot of people it's their only option.

Right?

Yeah, that's right.

Now let's get, give some advice to someone who's trying to prepare to buy a home in this current economic cycle.

Right.

Some basic tips.

Just overall, this is not just, not just for this economic cycle, but just in general.

How would you even begin to prepare for this endeavor?

Right.

Get your finances tight.

Get it right, get it right.

Get it tight.

You don't like that?

That's got to be a T shirt.

You practiced that, didn't you.

Oh, I did it.

I just thought of the song.

No, you didn't.

I thought I was like, get it.

Right, get it tight.

Get it right.

Come on.

You remember those days?

No, I do.

I just don't remember you remembering those days.

Yeah.

You got to check your credit score, right?

You got to make sure you got a good credit score.

You got to make sure I check.

My credit score monthly.

So, no.

You like the flex.

I want to be clear.

850, Mr.

Mr.

850.

8:50, baby.

So I want to be clear that all the places you get your credit score from that are the soft pulls that give you an indicative credit score.

Whether you have, like, American Express or Wells Fargo or.

Or, you know, you're using an app.

Those are not necessarily 100% accurate.

What they are is they're doing a soft pull.

Your credit report from one of the bureaus.

You have Equifax, TransUnion, TransUnion, and Experian.

And let's just say they're using Experian to.

To do this right, or TransUnion, and they're giving you an indicative credit score based on that.

There.

There's two other bureaus, and not everybody reports into all the bureaus.

So your actual credit score is usually pulled from a tri merge.

So a banker or lender will pull all three.

Equifax, Experian, TransUnion.

You have a high score and a low score, and they'll get rid of them and they'll look at the middle score.

Mm.

And say, whoever, whatever that middle score is, that's the credit score they use to determine what your credit score is.

So even though you have one that could be high, like, for example, mine could be 850 from whoever's pulling it.

Let's just say there's one that's 801 that's at 825.

And usually they're pretty close to one another because the major things do get reported, like your defaults on payments, your late payments, stuff like that.

They all get reported in ranges of like 50 to 60, you know.

Yeah, they can swing a little bit.

At the high end.

So, I mean, it's a false sense of security.

But what I think is important is you look at your credit score, and a lot of those, Those.

Those credit reporting companies that.

That do this vis a vis your mobile apps and your websites, they also kind of tell you why your score moved.

If it's higher credit balances, you should be aware if it's additional inquiries in your credit score because you look to buy a home or a car, get credit cards somewhere.

You should be aware, I think knowing how these things impact your credit score and knowing approximately where you're at at all times, like every month or so, it's only 12 times a year.

I think that's a worthwhile investment of five minutes of your time once a month.

Yeah.

And it might give you a little insight into like maybe some unauthorized things happened against your account that 100%.

You know, I locked my credit score up so nobody could pull my credit score like almost two years ago.

Okay.

And I thought it was going to be like this problematic thing.

Right.

I have to release it and stuff like that.

No, yeah, it's fine.

Totally fine.

Right?

Totally fine.

I went to all three credit bureau signed up for like their, their lockup thing and locked them all up.

So to Chris's point, then the credit report will, will tell you what you can do to increase your score and even tell you you can pay this down, pay that down.

It'll, you know, increase your score.

But it has some suggestions, they're pretty helpful.

It does have some suggestions.

Right.

So the next thing component with this is paying down some of your debt because ultimately when you pay down some of your debt, your debt to income ratios will, will increase higher, meaning you will qualify for more.

Not to say that you should stretch as far as possible, but it's nice you want to pay down that debt so you can afford a home that fits your family's needs.

Yeah, yeah.

Look, we all cycle through debt.

I think using debt strategically, I'm not a Dave Ramsey guy.

You can't have debt ever, you know, get out of here.

It's crazy.

Debt is part of the wealth system and how you use it.

I think long term debt is weaponized well.

So buying homes using debt that's deployed over a longer amortization means you're usually paying less on a monthly basis.

That's good debt to have.

Typically anchors your credit score, the near term stuff like cars.

Also installment loans will anchor your credit score a little bit, but give you.

A nice little boost when you pay it off.

Yeah, decent.

But credit card debt, use charge cards, don't use credit cards.

American Express is a charge card.

You charge it up, you pay the balance in full every single month.

I'm a big proponent of using charge cards versus credit cards.

We have previous episodes on that.

If you can avoid using credit cards and start focusing on just charge cards like amex, I think you have better overall credit management personally and you have an extra Layer of security because no one's tapping into your ATM account.

You know your balances.

Next up is probably building some cash reserves.

Right.

You're going to need to figure out your down payment situation.

So anywhere between 3 to 20% down payment, right?

Yeah.

Ideally you want to get it to that know 20% range so you don't have to pay the PMI.

Private mortgage insurance.

Yeah, private mortgage insurance.

Closing costs anywhere between 2 to 5% of the purchase price.

And then you want to have an emergency fund somewhere between three to six months.

So.

And I can't stress enough, and I do I say this every single month to at least one person.

Say to say to pretty regularly.

Get your real estate license.

Yeah, I got to do that like asap.

We've been years, it's been years you and I have been talking about this.

I think I'm going to, I'm going to do it out of the new studio space.

I'm gonna blame it on you.

Like I needed.

This is what I needed this whole time.

This was really on you.

Yeah.

So it took a man cave for you to man up?

It took a man cave for me to man up.

I feel like you can get canceled.

For saying that it took a woman cave for your woman up.

There you go.

All person caves.

They have woman caves.

Is that a thing?

If they want, they should have.

No one ever calls it that.

But I mean what would you put in a woman cave?

Would it be like I'm not doing this?

No, because I know like a man cave was typically like leather and like smoky and all those things.

My wife likes this stuff too.

So my wife like has a very manly aesthetic.

She likes like the space.

Well, it's a nice vibe.

Yeah, yeah, she likes that vibe.

Even my wife like we both like industrial.

She has like that.

But I don't know what would go in her woman cave.

Yeah, with some witchcraft stuff for sure.

Yeah.

We should ask crystals.

Crystals would go in her man.

Crystals.

There you go.

That would be her thing.

Nailed it.

Right.

And you touched on this is you want to make sure you get pre approved.

Right.

Not pre qualified.

There's a difference.

Right?

Pre qualifies.

Qualifications are really aren't a thing that much anymore.

It's not a thing.

Right.

So it's like if you go speak to a broker and he tells you, he asks you how much money you're making, this and that, but he doesn't actually run your credit score to figure out what your debt to income ratios are.

Can't really tell you that.

You're approved for anything.

You know, it's a crazy thing to me that's become like, an American standard that I don't fully understand why when people think about getting a mortgage, think about Rocket Quicken.

You know, these, These online, digitally marketed, very heavy digital presence lenders.

Okay.

But every single person in America that has a bank account has an existing relationship with somebody who probably makes home loans.

Yes.

Right.

Most banks make a home loan.

Yes.

So if you have that relationship, why wouldn't your first logical process be to call the bank you bank with?

If you're at Wells Fargo, call Wells Fargo.

Yeah.

Why wouldn't you call that bank first?

That seems like a very.

I remember back when I was in college working for Wells Fargo on the teller line, that there was somebody from, like, the, you know, single family mortgage department of Wells Fargo that would routinely come in.

You know, I've always said that to the better.

And it just feels like an easier, seamless transition, like a nice little warm handoff.

Hey, we already got all the information.

You know, I don't like, though.

What don't you like?

So I don't like when I have to make an appointment to go see somebody.

Oh, really?

Like, if I have to make an appointment to come talk to you, I want to be able to.

If I'm going to Wells Fargo and I, you know, I have a home inquiry.

Like, I want to be able to go to a desk and be like, yo, I got a question about home loans, yo.

Yeah, I mean, like, I.

I don't like.

I'm serious.

Like, hey, yo, man, I got a question about these home loans y'all selling.

What's going.

What's going on?

I'm talking one of these things, man.

Yeah, these things.

You know, I need one.

I need one.

I need a bill.

No one wants to call a 1, 800 number to talk to somebody.

No, you don't know who's in line of that phone.

And it.

I don't care what they sound like.

You don't know where they're at.

Yeah, valid.

You know, I mean, let's be honest.

I don't want to talk about my credit score with somebody in the Philippines or in India.

Like, I.

I don't want to call.

I want a local, domestic person.

Not that I don't trust them from a cultural standpoint, just because I don't want to call another country to talk about my credit score.

Yeah.

Am I a bad person?

Like, I feel like this should be.

So, like, domestic and, like, protected.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

And like, I'll be honest, like, if you live in, like the Philippines or you live like in India or something, like wherever this call center is located.

Yeah.

Do you know what it's like to buy a home in America?

Right.

And I'm just saying, you know, like, I want to talk to somebody who can.

Like, if we can do this, I'd like to talk to somebody in California.

So if I can walk into a branch or somebody in California who's dealt with similarly situated home buyers in the past, like, that's who I want to talk to because I live here.

That's where I'm trying to buy a home.

Right.

It blows me away.

You have these call centers of people.

So you do want to.

So then it makes you feel safer if you would go in and speak to somebody.

It's not just safer, it's.

I just want to talk.

I feel like the person who's in California, who's representing like a banker or like a lender or whatever, then aren't you.

Then you.

Then you probably feel like you'd have to.

You're paying a premium for that service.

Well, yes and no.

Right.

I mean, at the end of the day, there's a lot of big companies who use call centers all over the world.

Not not only domestically, like in different states, but also what I'm saying is, is if I talk to somebody in California about getting a loan from them, right.

If I go into, like, we're in Irvine, we go into Irvine, we have a conversation, somebody that person's talked to some of the situated home buyers in Irvine, they're probably going to know the market better.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right.

So calling in like one of these lenders that you're just like calling into a call center, like, they don't know the market and they're trying to treat like widgets.

Well, I mean, yeah, there's a little bit of that.

That.

There's a lot of similarities, but it's also like, I don't need to be sold this product.

I need to be.

I need somebody who's gonna coach me through the product.

Yes.

You know what I mean?

Like, so I feel like you get that with somebody in person.

I know I'm watering down, like, scales of economy and businesses and so on and so forth, but I'm just saying you can be in a call center, but if you're in a call center in California and I'm buying a property in California, I feel a whole lot better about it, you know?

Right.

That's All I'm saying.

Yeah, I agree with you.

You're, like, trying to sidestep bad.

Bad thoughts.

No, no bad thoughts.

Look at me with that evil eye twist.

I'm like, whoa, what's going on in there?

No, no, because it makes sense, right?

Like, if you see in my community, in my neighborhood, right, I see the same three realtor names all over the place.

And I also don't like that.

I don't like that.

But here's the thing.

You know, they know that market better than anybody.

So if I was looking to list my home, maybe I go to one of them.

Because they know it, right?

They know it better than anybody.

Some of them do.

And it's undeniable.

But I also don't like it because sometimes you get a false.

You.

You confuse marketing and branding with talent just because Joe and Jane are on every single billboard in the area.

No, I'm not saying Joe and Jane.

I'm not saying.

I'm saying actual listings.

Yeah, no, I like open house for this person this way.

And you're like, I'm just a hater.

You know enough.

Where you're like, nah, bro, you can't get me.

It's not that.

It's like, I fully respect people who own markets like that.

I get it.

I would say that I've had some really fantastic ones.

I've had some really salesy heavy ones that I'm just like, yeah, don't do this.

Like, don't.

Don't sell me.

Like, I know enough to where I don't need to be sold a property.

Right?

I just need to be told if this meets what I want or not.

There you go.

Yeah.

And the right.

The right agent should know that.

The right agent should know who he needs to.

Or who she needs to sell the home to.

So this is where I'll say, like, look, getting.

Using an agent is.

It should be a relationship.

It shouldn't be a transaction.

If you feel like you're a transaction, you're with the wrong agent.

In theory, if you buy a home from somebody three to five years later, you should think they're gonna still be in the business and you can go back to that person and buy another home.

And if you don't feel like that's the case, I wouldn't use that person.

Right?

Yeah.

My two cents.

Okay.

How much of the seasonality do you.

Would you take into account if you were looking to buy a home, Right?

Like spring and summer, you're like, okay, competition is probably gonna start to get a little Heavy fall, winter, incremental benefits.

At a certain point.

Are you really even.

I mean, would you.

If I'm for you.

But we're talking about like you know, someone that's looking to maybe buy their first home or you know, step in, sell their home again.

I would say focus on your life and move when it's convenient for you and just look.

Yeah.

You're never going to time the market.

Utility.

Right.

Don't try.

Here, let me, let me just give some hardcore don't do rules.

Okay.

Don't try to time the market.

Okay.

None of us are that talented.

Don't try to time the market.

There are people who've been doing this their entire careers who time the market.

Wrong.

Don't try to time the market.

If you buy a home and you're buying it for the long term and you're not gambling, if you get the utility of living in a property that makes you happy, that's going to trump time in the market.

Don't try to time interest rates.

Okay.

There you go.

Banks, people who are in the business.

Can you afford it or can you not afford it?

They tried not to do the same thing.

Right.

People who are very seasoned and specific around interest rate risk, they understand this.

They still do not try to gamble on interest rates.

Right.

Do not try to time the bond.

In stock markets.

Okay.

We preach dollar cost averaging the show because guess what?

That removes timing the market from the equation.

Yeah.

And over, over a 30 year span you won.

Yeah.

Now if you're someone like a Warren Buffett who's timing investments because he's looking at the fundamentals of underlying companies and seeing their upside.

He's not gambling.

Yeah.

He's all, he's not, he's studied every single P and L out there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They're, they're believing in companies long term vision.

It's not time in the market.

That's saying I believe this company is going to do better over time.

Yeah.

And he doesn't invest and get out in a week.

He invests for months, for years and gets out after they've realized some of these goals.

He's also has enough money to sway a market.

Yeah.

So don't try to look at your home as a strategic invest.

And I made this mistake a lot when I was younger.

Do not try to time your home in the right environment.

On, on getting the best possible scenario for you.

Just try to do what you can with the market you have.

Oh, okay.

When you're ready to buy, buy if you can afford it.

If you can afford it.

So that's key component.

Because what I was going to say is if that's what we're going to get into.

A nice way to wrap up the show is something that I did incorrectly that back in the day that I actually.

It actually worked out in my favor.

So I got very lucky.

I would not recommend it for anybody else.

Is the first home I purchased.

I was very house poor.

Right.

All the income that we were making was going into the house because that's all.

That's all.

That's all we could afford.

And yes, it worked out for me.

Right.

The equity that I made in the house was able.

Ended up being the down payment for my next home.

Right.

But I would not recommend that friend.

It was stressful.

Right.

It's easier to do when you don't have kids.

Yeah.

We did not have kids at the time.

Yeah, it's easier to do when you don't have kids.

It's.

It's easier to do when you're single than it is when you're married.

Sometimes when you're married, you have somebody who supports you.

I have aligned visions.

I suppose that could work out, but there's a time and a place for those type of.

That could bring a lot of stress onto a relationship if you guys aren't, you know, page.

Yeah.

Aligned.

So I'd be very careful.

So.

Yeah.

Don't.

Just because a bank approves you for a loan does not mean you can afford it.

Yeah.

Believe it or not, the, the approval process is much easier than people realize.

And they, sometimes they take the, the.

Hey, you're approved for this.

And they don't go like, this is my payment.

You go, ah, yeah, I don't, I don't.

I don't want to.

I don't want to pay that much every single month.

Yeah, that's my biggest problem.

Look, I've got a super low mortgage payment.

When I, When I purchased that first home, they used the liquidity that I had in my retirement account that you could not access.

That I could not access as my cash reserves in case, in an event there's an emergency that I needed to tap into.

And looking back on it now, I'm like, wow, that was.

That was wild.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, if you ever.

Try to tap into your.

Your 401k, I mean, I would.

It ain't easy.

No.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, they're like, oh, how much you want?

You want.

How much you want your own money?

What's the reason?

Yeah, you got a medical Problem exactly did you get?

I know you're behind on your mortgage payments, but did you actually receive the foreclosure?

Not.

Do you have a hardship?

Yeah.

What.

What is the hardship?

You.

How hard is your ship?

Can't touch that line.

I need you to.

To provide me evidence of this alleged hardship.

Yeah.

So that I can consider giving you your money.

Wild, right?

This is wild stuff, man.

I know.

Yeah.

And there's all kinds of, you know, laws around it and reasons why they do it the way they do it.

I know it sounds sarcastic.

It's not sarcastic.

That's how difficult this is.

Yeah.

Now, look, you can get a.

You can get a loan against your 401k, but that's also.

Even then, that's a questionable thing.

It's questionable.

It's difficult.

It takes a.

It's a whole process.

It's crazy.

So.

But again, just because a bank approves you does not mean you can actually afford it.

So I would be very careful.

Don't become house poor.

Yeah.

I mean, easy advice.

I mean, when I bought my first property, I was freaking out.

I think people get excited, man.

People get.

Or they are not even just excited, like, where the.

Where home prices are going, like, existing home sales going up.

Right.

You're like, I have to.

I just want to get skin in the game.

That's all it is.

They just want to get in the game.

They're tired of being on the sidelines watching.

Yeah.

They want to get in the game.

I have family members that are like, I'm not wasting another dollar on rent.

Yo, when is Weiss gonna buy a property?

What's he doing?

We're calling him out by name.

Yeah.

What's he doing?

I know he's got the bucks, so it's.

We can call him out because he's got bucks.

That's why he.

He is not poor.

Yes, he's doing well.

Why can't he.

Why isn't he buying a home?

I don't.

I don't know.

I think he's very comfortable with his situation.

He's not trying to rush anything.

Weiss, this is me talking to you, nobody else.

You've got a problem with commitment, dog.

No, he does, bro.

He's good.

He's good.

He cannot commit.

He's committed.

He's committing.

Yeah.

Buy a home.

Plant some roots.

Why, though?

Huh?

He's a free bird, man.

He's a free bird.

I.

I admire him.

I admire him.

As the kids say, he's him.

He's him.

He's him.

She's I Wait, is that the way it goes?

I don't know what that is.

Love you, Weiss.

I know you're not listening, but love him great deal.

He doesn't listen to the show.

It's fine.

Yeah, it's fine.

Yeah.

Their.

Their billboards are.

Are hilarious.

Pretty good.

I can't wait for you to get sued, though, using people's rap lyrics.

I know.

They always want it.

Y'all know I'm an attorney, right?

Like, what's going on here?

I cannot endorse.

But I like it.

But I do not endorse it.

Yeah, I saw one.

They had.

They posted a billboard in Dallas because, you know, they're in Dallas and Los Angeles.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's literally said, this is a sign Fridays.

Yeah.

I think the problem with the.

With the name is that who doesn't love Fridays?

No, I get it.

It just doesn't.

Like, life is.

You need to tell the consumer what they're getting.

I get what you're saying.

Yeah.

You know, we have the same problem.

A Higher Standard does not tell you that you're a financial literacy podcast.

Right, but.

Yeah, right, exactly.

You know.

No, but it does.

It does insinuate.

Like, Chris Williamson's Modern Wisdom.

He's trying to give you Modern Wisdom.

Like, that's the name of the show.

No, The Higher Standard.

No, they're.

Exactly.

You're lifting yours or you're uplifting yourself.

Yeah, but you have to.

It's like the whole Friday thing.

You have to explain it.

No, but, like, the consumer is stupid.

They want to be told, get Rich with Chris and Saeed.

That's good.

You know what I mean?

I like that show.

That's a good show.

That's good.

I got to do the trademark now.

I bet you Get Rich is taken.

I know.

Or die trying.

Yeah.

All right.

You got anything else?

No, I.

I appreciate you coming to the studio and watching me paint.

Yeah, the.

The baseboards, that was.

They pop, man.

They really pop.

Yeah.

The semi gloss black.

Yeah.

Chat GPT.

You wouldn't.

You'd be surprised how much I bounce ideas off Chat GPT.

Really?

Yeah.

I mean, why not?

It's a.

It's a good sounding board.

It really is.

Yeah.

It's a great sounding board.

It makes you.

It's a good way to start the.

The process.

Right.

To think about.

No, no, no, no.

Brainstorm.

I also feed into it the pictures after I'm done and say, hey, here's what I'm thinking.

I forgot to tell you.

So my son Adam, and tonight was Open house.

That story.

Of course.

Story got a cap.

No, no.

You would appreciate this.

Oh, sure, sure.

Well, no, trust me.

Trust me.

I was.

I was thinking to myself, like, do I talk about Adam again or do I not?

But.

So he had open house tonight.

Okay.

Right.

And I went.

Went to school, and he.

I was like, what are you most excited to show me today?

I don't want to tell you.

I just want to show you.

I'm like, really?

Okay.

All right.

Get to get to his class on his desk.

He prompted that image of himself.

What?

Yeah.

Oh, well, maybe we'll find a way to post it on the show, because it's not an actual photo of Adam.

Adam is an engineer, plays basketball, loves math and his family.

The coolest job of 2025.

Now, introducing Adam.

Adam is focused, caring.

His favorite subjects are math and engineering.

This is wild.

And that.

That's.

He had to prompt AI to make that image of himself.

Notice the background?

It's a stadium.

It's a stadium.

You know, sports related.

Yeah.

He did the.

The part in his hair.

Obviously, he didn't get the.

The size.

It was like a school thing.

They taught him.

The prompter was.

Yeah, no, no.

They all worked on this together.

And I was like, this is so cool that in third grade, it's part of the curriculum where they did this.

I went to the teacher, and usually I do the whole fluff, like, oh, thank you so much.

You know, I really.

My son really likes you, and he loves.

He really enjoys.

No, this time I was like, can I just tell you for a second?

I think that's really cool that you incorporated this, and I think it's going to be really beneficial for them long term.

Dude, I do it every single time I work on a show.

I work.

I use AI every single day.

Yeah.

I use AI for checklists.

I use AI for reminders.

I use AI for spell check.

I use AI for.

For grammar checking.

I use AI to check my tone.

Yeah, I use AI a great deal.

It has improved my efficiency monumentally.

So.

So it's a good dad story.

It's a great dad story.

Okay, this one's acceptable.

Damn it.

Gooseneck.

All right, good night, everybody.

Goodbye.

Assert.