Episode 34: Building ‘Life’ Wealth: Balancing Experiences and Financial Growth with Canadian Idol & Real Estate Investor Ryan Malcolm

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Join us on a captivating journey as we sit down with Ryan Malcolm, the multi-talented Canadian Idol winner, who has since blossomed into a thriving entrepreneur, restaurant owner, and real estate investor. Ryan’s inspirational story and profound insights will undoubtedly leave you motivated and empowered to embrace life with purpose.

In this episode, we explore the notion of “living” life beyond traditional norms. Discover why waiting until retirement age to truly start living may not be the most fulfilling approach. Ryan shares eye-opening perspectives on how sacrificing some income or assets today can lead to enriching experiences and contribute to building your own version of “life” wealth.

Ryan’s success as an entrepreneur is no coincidence. We delve into the transformative power of an entrepreneurial mindset and attitude. Learn how this mindset enables you to cultivate and sustain valuable partnerships, driving both professional and personal growth.

Resources:

• https://www.malcolmandfitz.com/
• The Canadian Wealth Secrets Wealth Building Booklist 
• The Real Group Windsor Real Estate Team
• Canadian Wealth Secrets Ontario Mortgages
• Download our Wealth Building Blueprint

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For those interested in being considered for potential Joint Venture (JV) opportunities, reach out to us here.

Contact Matt if you’re Buying or Selling Real Estate in Windsor or Essex County!

Reach out to Jon if you’re looking for an Ontario Mortgage or an Ontario Mortgage Refinance!

Check out the work Jon and Kyle do assisting mathematics educators and district leaders.

Watch Now!

00:00:00:15 – 00:00:23:02
Ryan Malcolm
We’re seeing a lot of people come together and say, okay, well, here’s a $700,000 lakefront cottage. Not everyone can afford a second property that cost 700,000. Most people can’t. So some ideas and some options is, well, maybe you get two or three families together and you split that ownership. So even if in ten years it’s worth 1 million, 1.1.

00:00:23:04 – 00:00:29:19
Ryan Malcolm
That’s still a really good return on a relatively low risk investment that you can actually enjoy while building equity.

00:00:29:20 – 00:01:00:00
Jon Orr
That there is Ryan Malcolm and we want to welcome him to join us in this captivating journey as we sit down with him. He’s a multi-talented Canadian idol winner. He has since blossomed into a thriving entrepreneur, restaurant owner and real estate investor. Ryan’s inspirational story you’re about to hear has profound insights and will undoubtedly leave you motivated and empowered to embrace your life with purpose.

00:01:00:02 – 00:01:30:11
Kyle Pearce
In this episode, we explore the notion of living life beyond traditional norms. Discover why Waiting until retirement age to truly start living may not be the most fulfilling or wealth building approach. Ryan shares eye opening perspectives on how sacrificing some income or assets today can lead to an enriching experiences and contribute to building your own version of life wealth.

00:01:30:13 – 00:01:59:15
Jon Orr
Ryan successes as an entrepreneur is no coincidence. We delve into the transformative power of an entrepreneurial mindset in attitude. Learn how this mindset enables you to cultivate and sustain valuable partnerships driving both your professional and personal growth.

00:01:59:17 – 00:02:06:01
Kyle Pearce
Welcome to the Canadian Wealth Secrets podcast with Kyle Pierce, Matt Bigley and John.

00:02:06:01 – 00:02:14:20
Jon Orr
Or get Ready to be Taught. As we share our successes and failures encountered during our real life lessons, learning how to build generational wealth from the ground up.

00:02:14:22 – 00:02:58:09
Kyle Pearce
Welcome invested students to another episode of the Canadian Wealth Secrets podcast today. We are so excited to welcome our first guest of many who will be joining us in the future to chat about their invested students stories along the way. And we thought that Ryan was a great fit simply because he not only has that entrepreneurial spirit, but he has a really interesting story and how he’s sort of began in the entertainment space, headed into that hospitality space with the restaurant living abroad and now landing himself firmly in the real estate world as a realtor.

00:02:58:11 – 00:03:14:22
Jon Orr
So let’s not waste any more time. Let’s get you into that story and see what you can pull from his life journey to see how you can apply it to your journey as building your wealth. Let’s go. Well, hey there. Ryan, welcome to the Investor Teach Your podcast. How are you doing today?

00:03:14:24 – 00:03:17:17
Ryan Malcolm
I’m great, guys. Thank you guys so much for having me on.

00:03:17:19 – 00:03:18:13
Jon Orr
Awesome stuff.

00:03:18:14 – 00:03:34:16
Kyle Pearce
Ryan, it’s awesome to have you on the show here. I’ve heard a lot about you because it’s sounds like you might know John a little bit. So tell us a little bit about yourself and what’s your story? What’s your journey? How do you know? John And I guess where are you now?

00:03:34:18 – 00:03:46:19
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah, so John and I, we literally grew up together. It’s one of those old friendship tales you always hear about. We grew up across the street from each other instantly became best friends. It’s been a 40 year friendship, I think.

00:03:46:20 – 00:03:49:07
Jon Orr
I think so, yeah. It’s got to be for sure. For sure.

00:03:49:07 – 00:04:05:22
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah. We’re getting older there. But yeah, it’s a testament to just staying in contact with public school friends and just. Yeah, it’s been a long friendship, but we kind of know each other very well. I mean, you’ve seen me and I’ve seen you kind of change as you grow up and you’ve got your two careers and I’ve got mine.

00:04:05:22 – 00:04:07:07
Ryan Malcolm
And it’s interesting to watch.

00:04:07:07 – 00:04:31:09
Kyle Pearce
So totally what I’m hearing, I’m imagining listening to this podcast right now and it’s like, Oh, John just brought on his friend. Yeah, cool. Yeah, we’re going to listen. But actually, I think you’ve got a pretty interesting story. So tell us a little bit about that. Let’s maybe roll back and then kind of take us through it, bring us to current times here, because I was intrigued by your story and I think people listening are really going to find it interesting as well.

00:04:31:11 – 00:04:52:13
Ryan Malcolm
So, yeah, as John knows, I grew up singing with my father. We had family restaurants as I was growing up and when I was 23, I think, Oh my God, it’s a while ago now. I actually I did 20 to 20 years ago. Yeah, yeah. We’re coming up on the 20th anniversary of it. So I auditioned for Canadian Idol, which was a little startup.

00:04:52:15 – 00:05:09:01
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah. And ended up winning the show. So. Yeah. Versus Idol of Canada, I guess, if you want to call it that from there. It’s been a wild, crazy 20 years of just growing and changing my path career wise and everything so well.

00:05:09:01 – 00:05:41:09
Jon Orr
I know that puts you on this trajectory, this pathway. You would take in that platform. You had gone and done a couple of things. I know that you had a band that kind of spun off of that success. You toured with those guys for a long while and your journey just kept going because you moved to Costa Rica, you opened a restaurant, you are an entrepreneur at heart and that’s partly the reason we brought you on the show, is because you’ve got this long, amazing history of thinking about business, starting a business, running businesses, changing careers and starting new businesses.

00:05:41:09 – 00:05:43:07
Kyle Pearce
It’s like right up our alley for sure, right?

00:05:43:08 – 00:06:04:23
Jon Orr
Give us, yes, some insights of business owners and have that entrepreneurial spirit and there looking for advice and insight and inspiration. So I’m wondering, give us some insight of what was it about Costa Rica that that part then turned into coming back to Ontario, becoming a realtor? Which area you settled in and what happened after that and the success of some of that?

00:06:05:02 – 00:06:28:13
Ryan Malcolm
Sure. So I will say being a musician in Canada, you need to be adaptable. We constantly have jokes in the industry that you’ve got to be a chameleon because the industry, it’s difficult, let’s just put it that way. Canada is not the U.S., so you’re not making the millions of dollars. So you have to be able to adapt and so for me, being an entrepreneur and growing up, the son of two entrepreneurs, I had that ability and drive.

00:06:28:13 – 00:06:51:22
Ryan Malcolm
So when the career was kind of winding down in 2013, I ended up moving to Costa Rica with my wife. We started a restaurant down there. We had that for about two or three years. It’s very successful. My wife’s an incredible chef and that was a learning experience for sure. Just being able to get out of our comfort zone and invest not just in Canada but in a foreign country was a huge learning curve.

00:06:51:22 – 00:07:14:09
Ryan Malcolm
There’s a lot of different things obviously, involved with that that you don’t necessarily have to do when you’re investing in Canada. And so that was a really great learning experience and as we were doing the Costa Rica stuff, I said, when we move back to Canada, I definitely want to have something that I can sort of quote unquote fall back on in case my modeling career doesn’t take off as a hair model.

00:07:14:13 – 00:07:15:08
Jon Orr
Yeah, yeah.

00:07:15:09 – 00:07:18:06
Ryan Malcolm
Don’t take your hat. I’m not going to take my hat off to.

00:07:18:08 – 00:07:19:22
Jon Orr
You and Kyle. Anything in common?

00:07:20:02 – 00:07:23:11
Kyle Pearce
Yeah, he’s American, but I’m like, I don’t know if he’s joking or not.

00:07:23:13 – 00:07:46:14
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah, doing a lot better than me. You’re doing a lot better than me. But yeah, So I started taking the courses, and I just instantly fell in love with the idea of listing and selling homes and getting into that market. And the more I do it, the more I learn, the more I love it. So fast forward five or six years and I’ve been been selling real estate now for I guess about seven years now.

00:07:46:16 – 00:08:03:14
Ryan Malcolm
And I was in Goodridge, which is north of London, and within the first few years I was one of the top agents in the area. And I think part of that has to do with my musical background. I’m very comfortable with people and it’s a people business. Yeah, there’s houses that you got to sell, but at the end of the day, that’s a people based business.

00:08:03:14 – 00:08:16:04
Ryan Malcolm
So and a half a year ago now we’ve moved back to Kingston and more specifically Bath, which is just outside of America where John and I grew up and still selling houses and having a blast.

00:08:16:07 – 00:08:35:13
Kyle Pearce
Wow, that is so impressive. And actually, I’ll be honest, I came into this interview, John very briefly gave me sort of a back story, but I didn’t realize that it actually stretch. I mean, Canadian Idol, I was like, Wow, that’s awesome. We’re going to have tons to talk about. But Costa Rica opening a restaurant, moving back, changing and shifting.

00:08:35:13 – 00:08:59:03
Kyle Pearce
So you’ve gone from entertainment, entertainment in the restaurant industry, then going back into real estate, coming back, becoming a top agent and then moving again. Right. So in my mind and you mentioned about feeling that there would like it was a success in Costa Rica. So I’m getting this sense of you clearly don’t have the same primal question as I, which is this I need to feel secure.

00:08:59:03 – 00:09:21:13
Kyle Pearce
I need to feel like financially, I need to know where the next paycheck is coming from. That’s something that I struggle with. I’m sensing that you don’t struggle with that. So I guess my wonder is, what would you say? And maybe you know, this top of mind or maybe you haven’t thought about this, but what do you think maybe inspires you to be able to make that shift?

00:09:21:13 – 00:09:42:21
Kyle Pearce
Is it that you like new things? You enjoy a challenge you haven’t found? Maybe the thing some people believe like you were born to do one thing. I don’t believe in that personally. What’s going on in your mind when you’ve sort of made these shifts from entertainment, hospitality, real estate, and now it seems like you’ve sort of found a spot there.

00:09:42:21 – 00:09:45:13
Kyle Pearce
But who knows, maybe there’s something else around the corner for you.

00:09:45:15 – 00:10:07:19
Ryan Malcolm
You know what? For me, what it was was being in a music industry is so unstable that you kind of just learn to live with it. I can remember living on my buddy’s couch for a few years and touring all over the world, and people are like, Oh, you guys must be so successful. I’m like, Man, you have no idea how expensive it is to tour, how expensive it is to record an album, just sheet music videos.

00:10:07:21 – 00:10:30:01
Ryan Malcolm
So I’m used to that and that’s definitely served me well. Leaving Godrich was a big unknown because you go from selling a lot of houses, especially obviously in the pandemic. High six figures was pretty common out that way and now saying, Am I going to risk all that? I’ve got a client base we own out there. Do we really want to move back to Kingston?

00:10:30:01 – 00:10:47:21
Ryan Malcolm
And for me it was, yeah, What’s the worst that’s going to happen? My wife is very flexible as well when it comes to stuff like this. And I think that’s part of the reason why we make such a good team is that we have this ability to let’s move to Europe for a year, see what happens. We could do that and we thrive on that stuff.

00:10:47:21 – 00:11:05:20
Jon Orr
So I love it. I remember thinking what you just said about people envision that this rock star lifestyle is rich in your know, you got everything. And I remember thinking that about you. I think I came to one of your concerts and we were like in the back van hanging out. And it was like, Man, this is a real rock star.

00:11:05:22 – 00:11:27:15
Jon Orr
He’s living the life, which makes me think about what the life is. We always talk here on this podcast about our personal beliefs. We feel like thinking about what our goals are, what do we really want? So, for example, when we help think about for real estate investors or just investors in general, figuring out what we really want, what does it look like when we retire?

00:11:27:15 – 00:11:42:14
Jon Orr
Or what do I want my lifestyle to be like now and in the future? We call that our personal beliefs. Kyle You would remember, I think Matt always talked about his personal beliefs. I’m going to sit on a beach in Belize and sip on Mai Tais or am I going to.

00:11:42:14 – 00:12:06:22
Kyle Pearce
Be doing John Campbell thing? Yeah, big real estate investor here in Canada and Ontario in particular. But the one thing, Matt, nice to give you some context are. Ryan You know, Matt and I start investing in real estate and we sort of did it to build wealth, to prepare for all the things that you’re supposed to do. But we really struggled with actually articulating why other than for me, my primal question being that am I secure?

00:12:06:24 – 00:12:24:00
Kyle Pearce
Can I put food on the table? Can I take care of my family? Those things I don’t really know. And it’s taken many years to kind of think about that. So I think that’s what John’s getting at here, is do you have that vision or is that vision what you’re doing, which is just living life more and more?

00:12:24:00 – 00:12:42:21
Kyle Pearce
I start to recognize I’m like, I think I like just seeing what’s out there and learning and failing along the way, of course. But it’s like you’ve got kind of to pass a common path as you pick a career. It’s like, Hey, you picked that one. It’s enough to get by and it’s like you sort of just stick with it and you’re like, Now, here I am educators.

00:12:42:21 – 00:13:02:24
Kyle Pearce
John and I being teachers, that’s kind of the mindset, right? It’s like, Hey, I enjoy it. I’m fine. I’m not having any issue with it, but it’s sort of like not even considering all of the just infinite possibilities that are out there. So when you hear that, what does that mean to you and are you working on it or do you know it?

00:13:03:00 – 00:13:05:08
Kyle Pearce
What does that look like and sound like for Ryan?

00:13:05:10 – 00:13:27:03
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah, I mean, as I get older, it certainly evolves. I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve been able to do that dream life, whether it was living in Costa Rica, It wasn’t a beach, it was the jungle. But we loved it. And I’ve been very fortunate in that way throughout my life that I’ve been able to live a lot of people’s dreams, number one, while still being relatively young.

00:13:27:04 – 00:13:48:18
Ryan Malcolm
I do think about that a lot to do. I want to wait till I’m 65 to do the six months in a Caribbean country, or do I want to do it when I’m in my thirties and we ended up doing it in our thirties and I have no regrets now. Did that cause some financial hardships? Yeah, absolutely. Because while people such as yourselves were building a career, I was out there still working hard.

00:13:48:18 – 00:14:08:07
Ryan Malcolm
But let’s be honest, the money you can make in Canada compared to, let’s say, the money you’re making in Costa Rica or Belize, definitely different. So now I’m definitely working towards, okay, I want to retire at 55. What’s that look like? What do I have to do to get there? And my wife and I, she’s ten years younger than me, so it’s a little different.

00:14:08:07 – 00:14:35:22
Ryan Malcolm
Obviously, she’s going to be probably still working once I hang it up. But for me, my ideal would be to have a comfortable amount of liquid assets. Whether that’s multiple properties generate income, not necessarily until I’m 90, but maybe it gets me through that 55 to 75 and then you just kind of unload things. And for me, I think realistically I would probably love to spend six months of the year traveling.

00:14:35:22 – 00:14:52:19
Ryan Malcolm
We love to travel and because we both have been broke, we know how to travel pretty frugally. Although I don’t like doing that. As I get older, I’m like, Now I get it. Less money. Yeah, yeah. I’m like, Now I can remember we were crossing, we were doing a border run in Nicaragua and we stayed at a hotel.

00:14:52:19 – 00:15:00:16
Ryan Malcolm
It was $10, which was honestly one of the best hotels we could find. And the shower was literally just a garbage can full of water.

00:15:00:18 – 00:15:02:23
Kyle Pearce
And yeah, I’ve been there and done that.

00:15:03:02 – 00:15:16:09
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah. And that’s a learning experience. You think you grow from that. If you can do that, I think it makes you a stronger person and I’m super happy we did that. But now I’m at a point now I’m like, Let’s rent this villa in Spain for a month.

00:15:16:11 – 00:15:17:01
Jon Orr
Yeah.

00:15:17:01 – 00:15:19:09
Ryan Malcolm
Which is still some really good taps.

00:15:19:11 – 00:15:20:15
Kyle Pearce
Yeah, Sometimes. Yeah.

00:15:20:16 – 00:15:42:03
Jon Orr
You graduated, right? Graduated? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That’s awesome. I think if you had asked me even five years ago what my personal beliefs was probably thinking about, hey, I just want to retire at 55 on my teachers pension and I’m going to move down to Florida and put on some white shoes and white pants and like, I’m going to read all of it.

00:15:42:06 – 00:16:00:00
Jon Orr
I’m going to travel day. Yeah, that’s all I remember imagining. But I think coming at it from my pathway. Your pathway completely different. But I think we still now have the same view of what our believes is going to be is that you have that kind of passive income to be able to be flexible and be able to travel.

00:16:00:00 – 00:16:16:23
Jon Orr
But also, hey, if I want to work and work is maybe different than the way I think. I think it’s like Kyle’s. It’s like, if I could just keep learning and keep applying and keep bailing and then relearning and then seeing if that works. And it’s like that part is now been my shift. And so it’s like that risk taker is now come in me.

00:16:16:23 – 00:16:37:08
Jon Orr
But I’d never had it before and I think we’re similar on a lot of ways that way. It’s kind of like we started on the same journey. Our paths diverged. Now we’re absolutely aiming at the same spot again. And that brings me to think about your real estate investing experience. I’m always curious about the beginning Investor The first time, the first moment, what did that look like?

00:16:37:08 – 00:16:57:15
Jon Orr
What did that sound like? What was some of the worries? So I know that you were living in Doddridge, you were in Bayfield for a little bit, which is up on Lake Huron, kind of still southern Ontario, but a little bit more north than where we are. Kyle and I are. It’s kind of cottage country up there. What I heard you say earlier was that you moved from Doddridge, you came back to Kingston.

00:16:57:17 – 00:17:19:00
Jon Orr
I assumed before this conversation you had sold your Goderich home and moved back home into Kingston area. But you had said just before a recording that you’re renting that out. So I’m curious about you obviously already had the home you were living in it, but then to make that transition to, Hey, I’m going to be a landlord, I’m going to be a long distance landlord.

00:17:19:05 – 00:17:33:06
Jon Orr
Exactly. So give me some insight on the thinking around that, because I think there’s a lot of people that are like, I don’t want to get into this because of I don’t want to be the landlord, I don’t want to fix this. I don’t want to have to do that. What happens if they wreck the place? These are all the worries.

00:17:33:06 – 00:17:35:05
Jon Orr
People don’t get into real estate investing.

00:17:35:10 – 00:17:59:04
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah. So as a realtor, I can say I’ve definitely witnessed those nightmare scenarios, whether it’s doing a walk through a rental property for a seller. We’ve been very fortunate that when we listed our place for rent, we were in that higher price range. We just had to be we had just put 100 grand into renovations. We just did a kitchen, we just did all the flooring and we’re like, And now we’re going to rent this.

00:17:59:04 – 00:18:06:07
Ryan Malcolm
Are you insane? We just put a luxury kitchen into it. Who does that, right? Yeah, but luckily for us, we found a.

00:18:06:13 – 00:18:08:05
Kyle Pearce
Realtor that recommended that I did.

00:18:08:05 – 00:18:28:17
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah, exactly. So it was really a dumb idea, but we had planned on staying. We hadn’t really decided that we were leaving yet, and it needed a kitchen anyway. And I’m a big believer that equity, equity, equity, man, everything you put into that house, if you do it properly and you have somewhat good taste, you’re going to get that back and then some.

00:18:28:19 – 00:18:47:06
Ryan Malcolm
So when we decided to move, we had just kind of put the feelers out for looking for one of our friends who might know someone. Long story short, a friend of mine who’s actually a home inspector was looking for a property to rent, and it just worked out perfectly. Now it’s an old arts and crafts home, 100 year old.

00:18:47:11 – 00:19:09:10
Ryan Malcolm
It’s not a good rental property generally, but sometimes you need to take those risks rather than Do I really want to sell after the pandemic bubble? No. God, no. That would have been a disaster we bought before the pandemic. And so we were very fortunate and lucky that we’ve already seen our equity, we’ve seen our prices already doubled, which is crazy.

00:19:09:10 – 00:19:21:20
Ryan Malcolm
That’s not normal. I’m not saying that you buy a house three years later, it’s going to be worth it twice as much. But we were very fortunate and we’re also fortunate that we don’t need to sell. We can keep the house as an investment and just watch it grow.

00:19:21:24 – 00:19:45:08
Kyle Pearce
I love it. I love it. And I was going to mention that as well. Like I’m getting the sense here, I don’t know your personal finances, but knowing how you had success when you were selling and God, Rich, I’m going to assume that you’re having success in Kingston as well, are building that success. And when you think about investing, sometimes people get too stuck in trying to maximize every single opportunity, right?

00:19:45:08 – 00:20:07:03
Kyle Pearce
I used to be that guy. I used to try to find the perfect opportunity. And sometimes really all it is is making sure that you’re positioning yourself in a situation where you’re going to be okay and the investment is going to at least hold its value. In real estate, We tend to see obviously that over the long term that equity is going to grow.

00:20:07:03 – 00:20:35:24
Kyle Pearce
So it’s like if you didn’t need that extra cash flow, if you didn’t need that extra equity out to put into the next property, why not just sit on it, Right? Absolutely. Going anywhere. It’s going to at least be a hedge against inflation and it sounds like it actually worked out quite well for you given the situation. But even if it didn’t, even if we had a temporary dip, some people bought at the peak of the market and have experienced a little bit of a dip.

00:20:35:24 – 00:20:56:13
Kyle Pearce
Well, guess what? We’re 12 months from that peak and maybe 18 months later we’ll start to see things get back to normal and ultimately, at the end of the day, you’ve got that equity, you’ve got a cash flowing asset. I’m going to guess, or even if it is slightly cash flow negative, you can kind of picture it like you’re just socking money into an RSP, right?

00:20:56:18 – 00:20:57:22
Ryan Malcolm
Absolutely.

00:20:57:24 – 00:21:18:22
Kyle Pearce
Someone’s paying the bulk of the expenses and you’re gaining that appreciation. Any cash flow and that principal pay down, which is the win win win. So you said equity, equity, equity. I love it. That’s going to definitely go in our description here for this episode. My wonder is, are you owning a place like a primary residence now in Kingston?

00:21:18:22 – 00:21:28:23
Kyle Pearce
And then my wonder is, are there any other investments out there? Is it real estate or is it something else? Are you striving for more investment properties? Where’s your head? Out there?

00:21:29:04 – 00:21:49:07
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah. So probably only about three or four years ago we started with stocks and obviously we’ve taken a bit of a beating over the last year and a bit currently we’re actually we’ve got a sweet little pad that we’re renting while we look for a home. So it’s worked out well in the fact that because I’m a realtor, I kind of know where the trend is going.

00:21:49:07 – 00:22:11:15
Ryan Malcolm
And I was listening to one of your earlier podcasts speaking about timing. You can’t get too hung up on timing, especially if it’s a long term investment, obviously. But this is a good time for buyers. It’s a good time for investors because of the high interest rates. As soon as those rates start dropping, prices are going to go higher, demand is going to get higher and the inventory is always going to be low.

00:22:11:15 – 00:22:34:11
Ryan Malcolm
In Canada, we have a lot of new Canadians coming in over the next few years and something like half a million people. So there’s going to be a large demand for real estate that we just don’t have. So that’s going to cause everything to go up. So real estate right now is a great investment, in my opinion. So we are looking for another property to the point where maybe we take the money from the market and put it into real estate.

00:22:34:11 – 00:22:56:03
Ryan Malcolm
We’re not percent sure yet, but it’s certainly an advantageous time if you’re an investor looking for real estate now, obviously. Yeah, three or four years ago. Sure. Before a bit of the boom. Absolutely. It returns will be higher, relatively quicker. But again, if it’s a long term play, don’t get too caught up on the timing. I see it all the time.

00:22:56:03 – 00:22:59:23
Ryan Malcolm
Buyers are like, Well, I want to wait till I’m like, If you find the right house, buy it.

00:23:00:00 – 00:23:03:24
Kyle Pearce
Yeah, especially if it’s your like in your mind, your purchase, your first time buyer.

00:23:03:24 – 00:23:04:17
Ryan Malcolm
Absolutely.

00:23:04:17 – 00:23:14:04
Kyle Pearce
You want to be in there and you want to just get move in, right? If you’re not planning to sell it in the next year, then what the heck are you waiting for, Right. 5000.

00:23:14:04 – 00:23:17:19
Ryan Malcolm
Exactly. Here. Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter exactly. Yeah.

00:23:17:19 – 00:23:39:04
Jon Orr
We’re huge analytical nerds being math teachers. Continue to analyze the numbers, sometimes too much. And I think that was a little bit we’ve talked about that here on the podcast a little bit to not to a fault, but it’s like it held us back a lot of times because we were always looking for the best deal. And then now it’s like, let’s make sure we have a deal that we can live with.

00:23:39:04 – 00:23:57:08
Jon Orr
As long as we’re always thinking long term. And it might not be cash flowing right now, it might be, hey, we’re cash flow negative for a little bit, but then we can shift our thinking around that by saying, well, hey, it’s like restocking in a way in the RRSP for now will appreciate hopefully over time. So that’s kind of our strategy as well.

00:23:57:10 – 00:24:17:07
Jon Orr
I’m curious about your other investing when you kind of mentioned stocks. We’ve been doing a lot of learning and have done a lot of learning around stock investing and primarily our listeners are doing both right there in the stock market. They’re also in the real estate market in there, or they’re wanting to do one or the other or both and are kind of learning along the way.

00:24:17:09 – 00:24:28:10
Jon Orr
Give us some insight in there. What are you investing in, particular stocks? Are you going full index funds? Give us a snapshot of what Ryan’s portfolio kind of looks like.

00:24:28:12 – 00:24:49:05
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah, so it’s a wide variety from everything from crypto to index. I’m a little more aggressive with my selections, so I’m a little more I’m a little higher on the risk category than my wife. We kind of wanted one to have a little bit of risk and so hers has done okay. Like I said, the last 18 months, we’ve gotten it back.

00:24:49:05 – 00:25:10:07
Ryan Malcolm
We clawed our way back out of the hole, luckily. But it’s all relatively new to me as an investor. We’ve got a guy in Doddridge who who takes care of us. We send him the money. He really does a lot of the selections, but for me, a lot of them, yeah, some of these are whether it’s crypto or even Brookfield, which is actually a parent company.

00:25:10:07 – 00:25:40:11
Ryan Malcolm
I think of my last brokerage, Royal LePage. So there’s some funds there that long term, whether it’s ten or 15 years down the road, we’ll see what happens. But again, we may end up pulling some money out and buying another property to tie the rent out or live in because it just makes financial sense. If you can afford to do that, to put your money, like you said, your stock in a way, in an RSP essentially, and at the same time your return on real estate historically has been very solid and very steady.

00:25:40:11 – 00:25:43:05
Ryan Malcolm
So that’s kind of where my mind sets up.

00:25:43:07 – 00:26:02:15
Kyle Pearce
I love it. I love it. So it sounds like you’ve been kind of all over the block there with crypto. We did a ton of learning in crypto. We also took a couple punches from crypto along the way, but we look at it. One thing that I think is really important for people to those who are listening, those who might be maybe apprehensive about even in the stock market.

00:26:02:15 – 00:26:17:21
Kyle Pearce
Right. And I’ve talked about this on previous episodes. There was a very long time where it was like, it just freaked me out the idea because I didn’t know anything about how it all worked. And that was when I began my journey to go, okay, I started with real estate because I understood it. I was like, It’s a physical asset.

00:26:17:21 – 00:26:41:20
Kyle Pearce
I can go and knock on the door at any point. It’s there. Even if somebody doesn’t think it’s worth anything, it’s like, I think it’s worth something and it’s going to generate me money. Great. Then we started going down the stock market and actually learning about how it all works is so interesting. But it’s also still you’re going to take some punches along the way, especially if you’re trying to learn by doing.

00:26:41:20 – 00:27:05:17
Kyle Pearce
And I’m that type of person that I learn by doing. I’m sure you learned a ton as well as you went into that, and now you’re kind of like, okay, now I have to reset. I believe crypto is going to be a part of our future. I truly do. I believe that there’s so much value there. It’s not just about hopefully number goes up, but it’s about understanding how that market works, understanding that risk profile.

00:27:05:17 – 00:27:24:18
Kyle Pearce
And it sounds like that’s on your mind. So as we wrap up here today, Ryan, I’m wondering your chat with all the invested students out there that are listening. Let’s chat a little bit about what would you say. Do you have any advice, any thoughts about what you would recommend for someone who maybe is listening to the podcast?

00:27:24:18 – 00:27:43:24
Kyle Pearce
Maybe they have. I’m going to argue most people probably start with mutual funds from their local bank and they want more. They want to do something else. They want to grow their wealth so that they can achieve that personal beliefs, whether they understand what that is or not, they want to get there at some point. What would you say?

00:27:43:24 – 00:27:48:15
Kyle Pearce
What are you hoping the message that they remember from this podcast episode here with you?

00:27:48:15 – 00:28:10:07
Ryan Malcolm
I would say one thing that we’re seeing a lot more of as the market changes in terms of real estate are partners such as yourselves or families coming together to purchase investments. A lot of times that’s going to be cottage country. So there’s an example of an investment that not only will give you a return, but you can actually enjoy.

00:28:10:07 – 00:28:31:22
Ryan Malcolm
Like you said, this is yours, you own it. And we’re seeing a lot of people come together and say, okay, well, here’s a $700,000 lakefront cottage. Not everyone can afford a second property that cost 700,000. Most people can’t. So some ideas and some options is, well, maybe you get two or three families together and you split that ownership.

00:28:31:24 – 00:28:58:17
Ryan Malcolm
So even if in ten years it’s worth, you know, 1,000,001.1, that’s still a really good return on a relatively low risk investment that you can actually enjoy while building equity, as opposed to just seeing the numbers on the screen and sleepless nights and worrying and worrying. This is a good example of something that, yeah, there are some inherent risks any time with the waterfront especially, but I think that’s a great idea and especially even if you don’t own your principal residence, a lot of people don’t.

00:28:58:17 – 00:29:07:21
Ryan Malcolm
A lot of people are renting, paying higher than mortgage right now. So if you can’t get into your own property but you want to get into the market, I think that’s a good way to do it.

00:29:07:23 – 00:29:30:14
Jon Orr
Love it. Love it. You kind of mentioned partnerships. You’re very partnership oriented, and I think that’s a great aspect or asset. You have in your line of work. That’s something that we’re doing as well. We’re partnering with many different investors to get them into the real estate world, leveraging our success, leveraging our experience. And I see a great partnership forming here between us.

00:29:30:16 – 00:29:36:06
Jon Orr
I want to thank you and I think Carl’s got one more thing to say, but I want to thank you for taking some time out of your super busy day.

00:29:36:07 – 00:29:37:08
Ryan Malcolm
My pleasure. My pleasure.

00:29:37:13 – 00:30:03:21
Kyle Pearce
Yeah. Ryan, I just want to thank you for that creative thinking. And it just kind of reminded me I don’t know what book it was in. I want to say it was something maybe cash flow quadrant or something from Robert Kiyosaki, one of those books. They highlight this idea of trying to, when possible, take your wealth building journey and try to leverage it in a way that will also support what it is you’re trying to achieve.

00:30:03:21 – 00:30:27:05
Kyle Pearce
So we talked a lot about this personal Belize idea. If a cottage is your personal beliefs, why wait? You were talking about waiting till 65 to travel. Why wait? So if you’re able to do something that let’s say buying a cottage might not be the best investment, but it’s not about the best investment. It’s about what investment’s going to help you achieve your goals.

00:30:27:07 – 00:30:47:11
Kyle Pearce
So if that’s something you want to actually do, instead of waiting, socking away money, continuing to watch the market get away from you, right. Cottage country, it’s not going to get any cheaper in the long run. So absolutely should wait ten years, try to save up, save up or keep trying to do something so that you can eventually obtain this cottage.

00:30:47:13 – 00:30:53:24
Kyle Pearce
If I’m thinking creatively now, just like you’re suggesting, maybe that could happen sooner than later, right? You start.

00:30:54:00 – 00:30:54:14
Ryan Malcolm
Absolutely.

00:30:54:15 – 00:31:13:10
Kyle Pearce
Who else has a vision that aligns with ours? And it’s like, if my goal is to invest in stuff now so I can get a cottage, what if you could get a cottage and maintain an investment? It might not be the best one, but it’s like you’ve already got the end goal you’re after and you benefit on the upside as well.

00:31:13:10 – 00:31:13:24
Kyle Pearce
I love it. Yeah.

00:31:14:04 – 00:31:14:12
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah.

00:31:14:16 – 00:31:15:17
Jon Orr
I see a cottage in here.

00:31:15:17 – 00:31:20:01
Kyle Pearce
Yeah, exactly. Hey, there’s three of us. Matt going to go today.

00:31:20:01 – 00:31:21:04
Jon Orr
But yeah, all.

00:31:21:06 – 00:31:23:21
Kyle Pearce
Of us. I think we’re going to be chatting with her a little bit more.

00:31:23:21 – 00:31:25:24
Ryan Malcolm
I love it. Yeah.

00:31:26:01 – 00:31:35:01
Jon Orr
Some awesome stuff. Thanks so much, Ryan. And I look forward to meeting up with you soon. Actually, we are up in your area in a week. John, hitting the camping spot. You know our camping.

00:31:35:01 – 00:31:38:23
Ryan Malcolm
I’m seeing you. Yeah, we’ve got a camping spot just down the road from you guys, so.

00:31:39:00 – 00:31:40:13
Jon Orr
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:31:40:14 – 00:31:43:08
Ryan Malcolm
I forgot about to bring the beer.

00:31:43:10 – 00:31:44:21
Jon Orr
I’m excited now. I’m really.

00:31:44:21 – 00:31:49:15
Kyle Pearce
You guys going to crank this episode on the loudspeaker? Absolute in the campsite to hear?

00:31:49:17 – 00:31:50:07
Ryan Malcolm
Absolutely.

00:31:50:07 – 00:31:54:03
Jon Orr
Yeah. We’re going to play it. It’s going to be great. The whole.

00:31:54:05 – 00:32:14:04
Kyle Pearce
Listen, Ryan, before you go, where can people find you? You came on the show here. You’re in Kingston. Tell us a little bit more. Are you on social? You got a website. Where can people find you so that they can leverage It Sounds like someone who’s got the creativity that I want when I’m working with any realtor, I always want them to be looking out for my best interests.

00:32:14:04 – 00:32:27:08
Kyle Pearce
I want them to be thinking creatively, seeing angles, seeing perspectives when I’m not. And it sounds like, based on this very short conversation, you checked the boxes for me. So if I’m in Kingston, where am I going? How do I find you?

00:32:27:10 – 00:32:47:20
Ryan Malcolm
Yeah. So my partner, Jenn Fitzpatrick and I, we have a real estate group called Milkman Sets and we are on Instagram. Milkman Fits, and I think our website is Malcolm Fitz dot com. The beauty of us though is that we do a lot of things on social that maybe a lot of the other realtors don’t quite do yet or are starting to do.

00:32:47:22 – 00:32:56:14
Ryan Malcolm
So that kind of lends itself into our marketing as well. So if you look us up on Instagram, you’ll see some of our whacky and sometimes silly videos are.

00:32:56:15 – 00:33:01:16
Jon Orr
Some will include those links and some others in the show notes page for folks to go and learn more about you.

00:33:01:16 – 00:33:03:05
Ryan Malcolm
Thanks, guys.

00:33:03:07 – 00:33:24:05
Jon Orr
As always. Kyle. I always think about the episode after we’ve recorded it and think about some of the big takeaways that we have from an episode and I’ve known Ryan for my whole life. As we said in the episode, starting from little kids together, kindergarten together, all the way up till now, we’ve always kept in touch and there’s not too many friends I think that I have where I’ve kept in touch that long.

00:33:24:07 – 00:33:48:24
Jon Orr
And hearing his journey, I haven’t even heard some of those stories before and it was just hearing that journey. It just makes me think how powerful his transformative story from all his experiences has led him exactly to his moment now. And I really love the idea of thinking about working towards or making decisions on your investments so that you can achieve what you were looking for, like your personal beliefs.

00:33:49:00 – 00:33:54:06
Jon Orr
We want that goal. Hey, what are we doing now to achieve it? I love that message that came out of this episode today.

00:33:54:11 – 00:34:24:16
Kyle Pearce
Yeah, and it reminds me we’ve had chats with so many invested students out there, friends and family and people who have been referred to us to have chats with us about real estate investing, stock options, my personal favorite, the infinite banking concept in using whole life insurance, all kinds of different strategies. But ultimately when it comes down to it, it’s so difficult to actually decide what a great strategy is for any one individual.

00:34:24:17 – 00:34:51:18
Kyle Pearce
Until that individual sort of decides what is it that they’re trying to achieve, or are they just trying to gain as much wealth or assets as possible? Are they hoping to travel? Are they hoping to have that cottage, as Ryan mentioned in this particular podcast, gaining that clarity around what you’re trying to do it for can really help us help you in terms of pointing you in the right direction.

00:34:51:18 – 00:35:09:08
Kyle Pearce
I know one of the questions I ask people right away is are you gaining wealth or building wealth simply so that you leave a legacy behind? And if they say yes to that question, then I see maybe starting with infinite banking might be a best bet for you as a starting point. Not the end, but maybe as a start.

00:35:09:08 – 00:35:33:15
Kyle Pearce
Because going to help you achieve that over the duration of your lifetime, if you’re looking to try to ensure that you gain wealth and generate that wealth. So that you have options in retirement and you’re not really sure what those options are, then we tend to start looking at real estate as an option. But ultimately, at the end of the day, it really does come down to what is it that you’re after, right?

00:35:33:15 – 00:35:54:05
Kyle Pearce
Having money. Money is helpful, but only helpful as a tool to help you accomplish what it is you’re trying to accomplish. If you don’t have something you want to accomplish, it’s not going to really do a whole lot for you. Of course the number goes up, but your happiness, your lifestyle, the things that you wake up in the morning for may not shift a whole lot.

00:35:54:05 – 00:36:09:01
Kyle Pearce
So I think this is a great episode to get you thinking about. What are you doing it for? Why do I want to build wealth and what is the actual journey that I need to truly begin now in order for me to get closer to that end goal?

00:36:09:03 – 00:36:39:23
Jon Orr
Prince If this is the first episode you’ve listened to, then we want to welcome you to the Investor Teach your podcast, and we’d love for you to hit, subscribe, hit, subscribe so that you do not miss out on all the episodes We put out. One episode every single week, have been doing that for over six months now. Kyle We are at episode 34 here today and we’re keeping it going for a while, so hit subscribe so they can get all of our tips, suggestions, resources, interviews like we did here with Ryan, and we’re always trying to bring you those sound ideas to build your wealth.

00:36:40:00 – 00:36:46:07
Jon Orr
So please hit that subscribe. And if you can’t, we’ve listened to it for you already. Please rate and review this episode of.

00:36:46:09 – 00:37:14:18
Kyle Pearce
Friends All links resources. Transcripts from this episode can be found over on the website. Canadian Wealth Secrets dot com Episode 34 That’s invest in teacher dot com forward slash episode 34 Keeping in mind we have all kinds of goodies, including our downloadable book list that includes the book. I referenced the cash flow quadrant on that book list over at Canadian Wealth Secrets dot com forward slash books friends.

00:37:14:18 – 00:37:47:08
Jon Orr
Also one last thing here is if you’re looking to get yourself into real estate investing and looking for a trusted partner who’s been through it, who’s been through the wringer, who’s seen many different aspects of real estate investing and you’d like to kind of let them do the heavy listening. That’s us. We do the heavy lifting so that you can earn maybe cash flow or appreciation, add to your assets, partner with us, head on over to invest in teacher bcom for tax g investor teacher recom for that JV and fill out a form and see if you are our next partner.

00:37:47:10 – 00:38:05:14
Kyle Pearce
All right. Invested students class dismissed.

00:38:05:16 – 00:38:17:05
Jon Orr
Just as a reminder, the content you heard here today in this episode is for informational purposes only. You should not construe any such information or other materials legal tax, investment, financial or other advice.

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