As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Ryan D Lee | How to Retire In 10 Years or Less

• Ken Joslin

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What if everything you've been taught about building wealth is wrong? Ryan D Lee shares how he walked away from a six-figure corporate salary after just four years by implementing a financial strategy that bypasses Wall Street entirely. His journey began during the 2008 financial crisis when he lost nearly 80% of his savings and almost lost his family, forcing him to question the traditional path to financial security.

The breakthrough came when Ryan discovered two transformative books: "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" by Robert Kiyosaki and "Creating Wealth" by Robert Allen. These works challenged his fundamental understanding of money, introducing concepts that seemed offensive at first glance—"savers are losers" and "debt is money." Yet as he implemented these principles through what he now calls the "Passive Income Machine," Ryan achieved what most consider impossible: complete financial freedom in less than half a decade.

Ryan reveals the three core principles that drive his wealth-building strategy. First, measure financial success by the income your assets produce, not their total value. Second, choose assets that deliver tax-advantaged income streams rather than tax-deferred growth. Third, leverage is the most powerful tool in finance—not consumer debt that mortgages your future, but strategic debt that acquires assets that pay for themselves. This framework has helped countless people escape the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle and build true financial independence.

The conversation takes a powerful turn when Ryan discusses the concept of honor and authentic living. By acknowledging and honoring his mentors, Ryan built relationships that led to co-authoring a book with Robert Kiyosaki and Robert Allen—the very authors who transformed his financial thinking. He emphasizes that true freedom comes from authentically using your God-given talents in service to others, creating a multiplicative effect that benefits everyone involved.

With inflation squeezing household budgets and economic uncertainty rising, Ryan's message is more urgent than ever: financial education is the dividing line between those being crushed by economic forces and those who profit from them. As he powerfully states, "Financial freedom is your obligation"—not just a goal, but a responsibility to create options that allow you to pursue your purpose without financial constraints.

Welcome to the ATLG podcast I am your host Ken Joslin, former pastor turned coach & host of CREATE, the #1 Faith-based Entrepreneur conference in America. My mission is to help faith-based entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves by growing in our Core 5: Faith, Health, Relationships, Business & Finances. You can get more information as well as join our FREE Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/676347099851525

Speaker 1:

Welcome to another episode of as the Leader Grows. I am your host, ken Jocelyn. I've got a super special friend of mine today. Guys, this dude is an absolute beast when it comes to how to invest and make money without Wall Street. My good friend, ryan DeLee all the way from Salt Lake City man, we've been connected. Ryan's been a part of our GSD Corner now for almost a year. He's on our stage at Create Conference every year. But we hit that fifth component of our number five. One more finances. This guy is a guy that brings the house down every single year.

Speaker 2:

Ryan T Lee. What's up, my friend? What is up, ken? So good to be on the microphone with you today. I love your community, I love the people you surround yourself with and I love to be included in that circle. Man, it's a, you're doing amazing things, my friend Dude talk about the power.

Speaker 1:

You said circle. You know we talked about community circle, corner a lot. Talk about the circle, talk about those relationships and how important that is to you and how that's gotten you where you're at today.

Speaker 2:

You know what I'll never forget the first time I experienced the power of proximity you talk about this all the time. You know, I've always been kind of a lone wolf At least that's the way I was brought up right and I thought when you do something you do it yourself, so you know it gets done right. And obviously anyone who's been down that path knows you only go so far on that path. And I remember the first mastermind, if you want to call it, to get into the world of real estate investing. I was making a ton of mistakes and so I went to this little meetup and I sat in the back and I'm a hat guy so I pulled my hat down low, had my arms folded, sat in the corner. You know, somehow told myself I'm too cool to be here. It was so dumb.

Speaker 2:

But I remember, I remember as person after person after person got up and they started sharing their experiences, what they were doing, how it was working, trials they'd overcome, who they collaborated with in that room to overcome those challenges. I remember my beliefs starting to change because these people weren't, you know, they weren't extraordinary in the sense that they had supernatural skills or abilities, but they knew the answers to the questions that they were looking for were in that room and they were leaning on each other, and I remember, as all these people got up, I started to realize these people aren't smarter, better or more driven than I am. They just understand the power of proximity and they're using it with each other, and that's allowing them to go forward. It's allowing them to learn from each other rather than learn on their own, because those mistakes are expensive in real estate, and I remember I started to believe that if they can do what I can too, and I've got to plug into this world, and that started probably 15 years ago, and ever since then, I'm always looking to get into a room where and I don't know if this is the right way to say it, but I like to be the dumbest guy in the room, right?

Speaker 2:

I like to be around people that are inspiring and motivating me and showing me, you know, open up new doorways of possibility and, ken, that's what you've created. Every time I get in a room with you, not only is it I mean, it's not just real estate guys, that's the first thing I was in it was, it's people from all walks of life, health, faith, fitness, everything and man, I get in the room and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's just so energizing and motivating to be in those type of rooms, so I love it, erwin.

Speaker 1:

McManus called me a couple of years ago and Erwin was like hey, ken, I want to run some stuff by you. I said what's up, pastor? And I've known him for a long time and he was like, hey, I'm thinking about starting a business mastermind. And I'm like, well, tell me about it. And so he told me about it, and could I pull it off? And I said, well, how much is it? He was like he named the number and I said, well, good, tell Alyssa to send me an invoice over, I'm in. And he's like Ken, I didn't call you to sell you the mastermind. That's exactly what I told him. I said, erwin, if you're putting a room together, I want to be in that room. And, bro, I've walked, listen to this, I walk in that room. And obviously it's Erwin.

Speaker 1:

Edwin Ariabe, ben Newman sitting to my right, joel Marion. Tom Patterson, ceo of Tommy John Underwear, jerry Lorenzo, the CEO of Essentials and Fear of God. I got two billionaires sitting on the couch side by side Paula Lima and Dave Billionaires. Yeah, legit, billionaires. The room was just like I was the brokest, least callous guy in the room. But when I got around the room like that dude, it raises the belief lid. And so when we talk about relationships and belief lid, you're finishing. You just wrapped up off air. We talked about your book, one of the books that made the biggest difference in you in this journey, in as you started cashflow tactics and now you guys are Wealth Without Wall Street. Tell me a little bit about the book, your mentor, the book you read X amount of years ago, how that propelled you forward in this real estate investment journey, and then what's going on with that now?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, to sum up that story, I did everything like I was supposed to do it. I did everything like we were all told to do it. I went to school, got a job and started climbing the corporate ladder. And I remember when I first started doing that, I was making trade-offs and I knew what those trade-offs were, but they felt justified in the moment because you're making more money. And I just thought, if I could make more money, save more money, max out my 401k, do everything right, I'll retire early. And in the beginning it seemed like that trade-off was working. But over time we know how trade-offs work Over time, the opportunity cost of that trade-off really started to stack up the more.

Speaker 2:

The higher up the rungs I climbed, the more I was giving away of my faith, my family, my parenting, and I just kept telling myself I'll buy it back. I'll figure it out later when I've got the money to do it. And in 2008, everything turned upside down for me. Not only did I lose almost 80% of what I'd saved the previous five years, I almost lost my family, and I won't go into the details of that story, but that one rocked my world and I'll never forget sitting in the hospital. You know, as I was contemplating the decisions of my life up to that point, I realized if I keep doing what everyone else is doing, expecting a different outcome, I got to be pretty stupid.

Speaker 2:

All of my coworkers these were people who were 20, 30 years ahead of me in their careers 2008 set them back. They realized they couldn't retire. And here I am following their path, thinking somehow it's going to be different for me. So in that hospital I picked up a couple of books, and the first book I picked up was one I'd heard about before but it sounded kind of dumb. It was Rich Dad, poor Dad, and I'll never forget. When I picked that up, I almost put it right back down because it offended me right I mean when I say it offended me. He said savers are losers and on the surface that sounded super offensive. I'm a really hard worker and I'm going to lose the game of money. And I've now come to learn that losing the game of money most oftentimes translates to also losing the game of life, because money is just options and if I don't have any options, I make trade-offs and so you know, as I said, if you don't have options, you make trade-offs, yeah, man.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's powerful, bro, because when people we talk about money, especially on faith-based entrepreneurs, people go are you a prosperity guy? I'm like, well, I mean, I believe God wants you blessed and prosperous, but I believe there's a purpose for it. It's not just for you to consume yourself. But when you said that it's about options and with you don't have options, which, which you just said this minute ago, if you don't have options, man, you're, you're in a, you're in a bad spot.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man you're, you're fragile, You're super fragile, and man we're. We live in a very fragile world right now, and people are with fewer and fewer options, which makes them more and more dependent, and so that's a tough place to be. And so I decided look, I'm going to figure out what this dude is saying. So I read his book and it opened me up to an entire new perspective around money. Now I was super excited about it, but I had no idea what to do with it. Savers are losers, debt is money. The rich don't work for money. What the heck? I mean, those are all great principles and concepts, but what am I supposed to do with that? And concepts, but what am I supposed to do with that? But it did open up my mind to start thinking differently about money. And a couple of weeks later I ran into another book, and this book it said Creating Wealth. Now, that wasn't the thing that attracted me. It was the subtitle. The subtitle of this dude's book was Retire in 10 Years Using these Seven Principles. Now, ken, I don't know about you, and this is the power of being in a room you start to consider things that you never even considered before. But when I read that subtitle, I had never even considered it possible in my world, with my perception, with my paradigm, to retire in 10 years or less. And I picked up that book and he laid out a framework, a playbook, to have how to do it and it was really a playbook to implement everything that Robert Kiyosaki taught in his book. And so I did it, man, I had nothing to lose other than, you know, just being, I mean, maybe losing a little bit more than I'd already lost in my 401k. But I ran this playbook, man, and four years later I walked away from a six-figure salary, completely financially free, and that book was Creating Wealth, by Robert Allen.

Speaker 2:

And, man, I'll tell you what, when I walked away from that career, you know, most people said, man, that guy's crazy, right, I'm in my mid 30s, now I'm walking away to go do whatever. But, man, people started asking me how did you do it? And so, I remember, I started giving people just enough information to get them going, and they would come back and say what's next? What's next, what's next? And so, before I knew it, I took seven guys and I just said, look, man, what if I put my arms around you guys? For, you know for six months and I just pour into you, I give you everything I know and I help you get from where you want to be to where you want to go. And it was crazy what happened with those seven guys in that first six months, and after that I knew I had something, and not love doing it.

Speaker 2:

I loved unlocking people's lives by giving them more options with their money, because usually what that translated to is they became better fathers, they became better husbands, they became better business leaders, they became, they started chasing their dreams more effectively, and so that's really what this full circle is, man. We're releasing a book and it's written with the author, robert Allen, of creating wealth and coauthored by Robert Kiyosaki. Rich Dad, poor Dad and those were my two mentors that got me going, and for the last 10 years, man, I've been just building off of the frameworks they gave me, and now they're coming back to the table to rewrite a book with me. It's exciting.

Speaker 1:

So what were some of the early, the things you learned early on? Rich Dad, poor Dad, and then creating wealth strategy. Use these principles to get depth. You know, to retire in 10 years Because here you are in the corporate world. You're like 10 years. That sounds fantastic. Yeah, man. What were some of the early lessons you learned out of those books and some real life experiences doing what you were doing?

Speaker 2:

I'll tell you what the first one was I realized the value of financial education, your financial IQ. Money is just a tool. That's really all it is. I mean, in today's world, it's so confusing. Money is paper, it's a number on a computer screen. It's cryptocurrency, it's, you know, precious metals. What is money? But here's what I do know Money is something that we trade our time for, and it's the very tool that's required to buy our time back. But here's the crazy part, ken, and you talk to people about money all the time.

Speaker 2:

I've asked this question a bazillion times and no one has the answer for it. How much money do you need to retire? How much money do you need to be financially free? And the reason no one knows that is you're never taught to think that way. The whole purpose of every dollar that you save or invest is to spend it in the future. It's future. You're just delaying your spending, and so financial freedom is a function of how much income your assets give you, and if you don't know the answer to that question how much income my assets give me you'll never retire, you'll never be free and you'll put your money in all the other places where you're chasing the elusive high rates of return or whatever it might be, but you'll never get to the fundamental point of financial freedom.

Speaker 2:

So the first one I learned was measure your success based on the income an asset produces. That's number one. Second thing I learned was now, with this framework in mind, there are assets that actually deliver better streams of income than other assets. For example, if I put my money in a 401k, which I was doing previously, my money is going to be taxed at a future tax rate. I have no control over that tax rate, and so now I'm taking the government with me into the future, whereas if I put my money into real estate or life insurance, for example, I pay no taxes on that. I can take my money out tax-free whenever I want. And so you know, knowing income is the focus. Then you choose the assets that align the best with that focus.

Speaker 2:

And then the biggest thing I learned the most powerful thing in all of finance today is leverage, and I won't go into all the psychology behind it. Most people use debt as a consumer. They mortgage their future to buy something that takes money out of their pocket, and they trade the next three, four, five, 10, 15 years to pay for that thing that they bought today, the wealthy. They do the exact opposite. They use the bank's money, which is really just fake money, and they convert it into a real assets. That asset pays them enough of a profit to pay the bank back, and so, therefore, the bank just bought the asset for them.

Speaker 2:

That's why the rich are getting richer. They know how to use leverage in their businesses, they know how to use leverage in real estate and they know how to use leverage with life insurance. And so those three tools, you know, if you understand that the focus of all investing is income, that there are assets that deliver more effective income streams than the other, and that leverage is the key. If you put those three things together, that's really what creates our system. It's called the passive income machine.

Speaker 1:

I love that and so you started this. How long ago did you start Cashflow Tactics and which has turned into wealth without Wall Street?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, I started. So I've been working now with clients for 12 years. I walked away from the corporate world and I messed around for about a year or so and then, 12 years ago, I started working with you know, those first seven people and now I've been doing it for 12 years straight About in 2018, we I took everything down and I rebranded it. I joined Russell Brunson's world and he's like hey, you got to stop talking to people over kitchen tables and you're gonna start talking to people online. So I rebranded it all as cashflow tactics, and from cashflow tactics for or from 2018 all the way to today, it's been cashflow tactics.

Speaker 2:

With the launch of this new book, uh, we've just decided to read like step number one for everyone. I mean, I've talked to everyone and everyone's default mechanism is just put money in stocks right Mutual funds, 401ks, iras. So, step number one if you want financial freedom in 10 years or less, you have to walk away from Wall Street. Wall Street will grow your money, but it'll never make you free. So that's why we call it wealth outside of Wall Street now is then you cross that bridge and outside of Wall Street now you can use systems that use leverage, which is the passive income machine. So 12 years passive income machine. Wealth outside of Wall Street that's the game today.

Speaker 1:

So, in that journey with you over the past 12 years, ryan, you really obviously Robert Kiyosaki, and then your two co-authors on your book now were your mentors. When did this kind of this vision that you had not just for what you're doing in general, but when did the vision for you come in? Hey, I want to write this book and I'm going to reach out to these two, because most people wouldn't reach out to their mentors and they did. You didn't know them, they were just mentors because you read their book. I'm going to reach out to these mentors and I want to do a book with these guys.

Speaker 2:

You know what, man, this was the best. I think all of us stand on the shoulders of the people who came before us and, man, I'm so grateful for those two individuals. So in 2020, I think it was either 20 or 21, we were hosting a big event. You know, we had a bunch of our clients coming in flying all over. You know, in Sundance, a place that you and I know very well, and you know, I thought to myself, man, you know, I've got all these people here that are implementing this system, and we always talk about Robert Allen. What if I reached out and I invited Robert Allen to come to our event, host him as a guest of honor and give him a lifetime of achievement award, just to show him? His book changed my life and through his teachings, I've now been able to help these hundreds of I mean hundreds of people in the room and thousands of people in the community, and hundreds of I mean hundreds of people in the room and thousands of people in the community. And so we invited him never knew him. It was the craziest thing, man.

Speaker 2:

I did a bunch of things to kind of get connected with him and just show him my love and my honor. And you know we flew him out. We put him up in the penthouse you know nice place, really. We really went after his wife, to tell you the truth, man. We gave her a massage and you know flowers and chocolates and she's like, robert, you're going to go and you're going to like talk, whoever this guy is, you're going to go out because I love him, right. And so he came and we stood him up on stage and just said, hey, thank you, thank you, and allowed him to share his expertise and how his story had influenced us and so many others, and I think that really touched him. I think that really moved him. I think that really moved him.

Speaker 2:

And then, the year after that, I invited him back and he not only wanted like he wanted to come back, he wanted to be more involved. And so after that, then I was like, hey, you know what we should get Robert Kiyosaki at the next one, and him and Robert Kiyosaki are buds, man, I mean they. So Robert Kiyosaki actually gave his wife Kim Robert Allen's book Creating Wealth and said this is how you do real estate. And that was how she got into real estate was with his book. So then Robert Kiyosaki reached out, or Robert Allen reached out to Robert Kiyosaki, and that's how that whole thing came together. Man, it's a really tight world when you start acknowledging the mentors and the people who paved the path before you, and so I just acknowledged the people I got this information from and said, hey, man, let me say thank you.

Speaker 1:

You know, there's a. There's a word, ryan, that we don't use much in America, and not only do we not use it that much, but we don't, but we don't, we don't practice it very much. It's honor, yeah. And so what you did was you honor these guys. You honored Robert, you honored his wife hey, thank you for the impact you guys have made.

Speaker 1:

A lot of people ask me. They're like dude, how do you get? I just got a text from Brent Goode two days ago and Brent goes dude, how do you get Gary Brackett to come back to your conference every year? Yeah, and I said, well, number one, I honor him all the time because he's helped me on my own journey like mad, helped me on my health journey. And I just like, dude, we want you to be a part of this. And I mean, you know, and Gary was with us, like you with Robert, I've been with us since pretty much day one, for four and a half, five years, before anybody knew who he was.

Speaker 1:

And I think that's massive when you can honor people, when you have a heart where you want something for them, not from them, and you're like, hey, you made a difference in my life. I just want to. I'd love to connect, build a relationship. And then I've got this massive audience over here. I'd love for you to do in their lives the same thing you did in mine Talk about, talk about honor and what that means to you, ryan.

Speaker 2:

You know I think it's the multiplication effect. You know, as I'm writing this book, I thought I knew. I thought I knew what to put in the book. I really did and I had it all dialed in. But man, Robert Allen's a multiple New York times bestselling author, and by bringing him in and saying, hey, can we collaborate on? Cause I brought a lot of intellectual property to the, to the, you know, to the equation by adding life insurance to his original strategy. But when we're collaborating with him, the book is 10 times better. You know, one plus one didn't equal two. One plus one equaled 11, right in this scenario.

Speaker 2:

And that's because when two or more come together with, you know, using their God-given talents in the service of others, it's a multiplicative effect.

Speaker 2:

And so that's what I've found is, when I get, when, when I get around other people, it gives me actually more freedom and permission to be me right, cause if I know I've been given a couple of really nice, amazing talents I don't have all of them, but if I can go deep on the talents that I've, that I've been given, I can become an expert in those talents and then if I can, you know, be around people that have developed their expertise and talents that are, you know, necessary to make my life better or complimentary to mine.

Speaker 2:

The world just gets more abundance, and that's what I found for. For me is, I used to try to, I used to try to be the lone wolf. I used to think that, look, by doing everything myself I'm more self-sufficient, but I truly believe that self-sufficiency is actually the definition of poverty, and that's kind of crazy. I can't be the best at every single thing, so by default I'll be adequate or marginal at everything, or I can be the best and then become really, really associated with people like you that have developed their expertise in areas as well.

Speaker 1:

I think it's such a beautiful thing when a leader goes you know what, I know what I do. I'm going to stay in my lane. I'm a connector. I know how to run an event. I know how to flow an event for two and a half days. I know kind of really how to get the heart of God on what he wants it to look like. And then I just bring in amazing people when it you know, faith, health, relationship, business and finances especially when I hit, obviously, gary with health, when it comes to business and finances, we just bring in the best people in the world to talk about those subjects and then I just you get out of the way and you let them do what they're good at. What do you think, ryan, keeps people from being okay with excelling in the gift that they have and not trying to be somebody else that they're not or they're not supposed to be?

Speaker 2:

Man? What keeps them okay with doing that? Why do people actually do that? You know, I think it's. We're talking about freedom, right, and we're talking about financial freedom. Financial freedom is having money and options, but if you really want to think about freedom, freedom is being authentically you. And God put his thumbprint, his unique digital not digital, but his unique fingerprint on each one of us.

Speaker 2:

And that's different for each one of us. And if I try to go outside of that fingerprint, that God-given, you know fingerprint for me, violating God's will for me, I'm violating the talents that God did give me. And if you think about the parallel of the talents, he's not just going to give me other talents, he's going to take away the talents that he gave me, because those talents were never for me, they were for me to use, to amplify, to then use to serve other people. If you really think about that, the greatest currency that we all have access to is the currency of fulfillment, and fulfillment doesn't come by having a talent and developing it. It's like I'm going to give you an example my wife.

Speaker 2:

She wrote a book and one of her God-given talents is an author. She's so good at storytelling and she wrote a book about 11 years ago and this vision just came to her and I mean I'll never forget. She was just type type, typing away and that book just poured out of her. It was crazy because you know she was she's not like a supercomputer person and like 100 pages into it, somehow, some way, the book literally got deleted. We could not get the file back and she just sat down and, boom, rewrote it all over again. So that's how much the book came. But when the book was out, we published it kind of on our own and this was back before. You know, I was too involved in the internet world and all that kind of stuff and so I didn't really know how to do anything.

Speaker 2:

And there was like five people that read the book her mom, me, a couple neighbors and even though writing the book was fun for her to do, it was very low fulfillment because it didn't reach enough people and so she kind of put it up on the shelf, was, you know, vowed to never write again, was disappointed. You know, she sent it to publisher after publisher. They all kind of turned her down and randomly about I don't know, five years ago we were on a cruise and there was a lady who sat at our table. We just kind of she was by herself, we were with our family. We just say, hey, come sit with us, and we just got to talking and her and my wife just were talking, talking, talking. And my wife just casually mentioned I wrote a book and the lady stopped her mid sentence and said Whoa, whoa, go back, you wrote a book. Tell me about the book. And this lady then said oh, you've never published a book. This lady is a multiple bestselling author, unbeknownst to us. She connected my wife to her publisher.

Speaker 2:

Within six months, the book was published, and here's the crazy part. Now people all across the world were reading her book. She had people sending pictures of their daughters and kids reading this book and, man, her level of fulfillment went through the roof. Same book, same book, but now her talents were being used to better the lives of the readers that had her book. And so that's the key right there. When we use our talents in the service of other people, we find ourselves in the flow, because that's what God gave us. We also find the currency of fulfillment, and most people are willing to let go of everything else, to go deep Not most people. The people who are willing to do it. They find the freedom of being authentically them, and when you're free to be authentically you, god then works through you.

Speaker 1:

Well. So it's crazy because it goes back to my principle that I live my life by. Great leaders want something for people, not from people. When you guys invited that lady to come sit at your table, you had no idea who she was, no idea you didn't do that for you. You didn't want something from her, you wanted something for her. And what did God do? God turned all that around and went okay, I got you.

Speaker 1:

I put this Psalms 37, the footsteps of a righteous person are ordered by the Lord. He put that woman in your path and you guys are wanting to serve her and make sure. You said I was with my family and she was all on it. Hey, come over here and sit with us Like dude. That's the character that I think God is looking for, and when he sees that man, he's like I can bless that guy, I can bless this family, I can bless that guy, I can bless this family, I can bless this woman. I think that's massive. So your book you just told me you thought it was going to be done like five years ago. You just got done, true man.

Speaker 2:

It's true.

Speaker 1:

I know right and you just wrapped it up. Is it a relief to know you're done?

Speaker 2:

It is.

Speaker 1:

It is a relief to know, I know you guys can't see the video right now, but his face looks pressed and says everything.

Speaker 2:

It really is, man. I'll tell you what. Here's the crazy part it has been it really does feel like a life's work. I've been at this for a decade. I've dedicated everything to this work and to helping people and I wanted it to be right, and so we've reworked it, rewritten it, made sure there was tons of client experiences in there that it's authentic, that it's applicable to anyone, no matter where you're starting from, because that's where I started. I started with nothing and within four years, I turned a principle-based framework into financial freedom. So, man, it feels really, really good, but it also feels like it's just beginning right. I mean, I've been at this for 10 years and I feel like this is opening up a brand new doorway to now go wider and bigger and reach and help more people, and so that's what I'm really excited about. To be honest with you, ken, you know it also feels like perfect timing.

Speaker 2:

I don't know, 10 years ago finances were what they were, but, man, it feels like today. You know, there are more people struggling than ever before. I talked to so many people that were well off just a couple of years ago and now they're worried that AI is going to take their jobs. The cost of living has gone up. They can't afford a home. They're living month to month or paycheck to paycheck or whatever that might be. And this book is the tool, it is the solution to take back control over their money. And really more than anything, it focuses on financial education, and if the greatest asset that we have is the asset in between our ears, it's going to increase their financial intelligence. It's going to then give them a framework to use that intelligence, not by giving their money away to financial advisors, but by taking control over it.

Speaker 2:

You know Ayn Rand in in Atlas Shrug, says that money, you know money is a tool, but it will never replace us. It'll take us wherever we want. How does she say? She says money is a tool, but it will never replace us. It'll take us wherever we want. How does she say it? She says money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you want, but it will never replace you as the driver. And so the goal of this book is to help people become the driver of their financial futures. And that's really man. I'm so excited for this, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So we've got so we're a month out Talk a little bit about. You've got the event the book release, which we'll put a link on the podcast notes for you guys. And then you've got a big event. You've got Robert Kiyosaki coming to speak. You, robert Allen, our good friend Ed Malek's, coming in to speak at the event. Talk about the event. How do people find out about it and where can they register?

Speaker 2:

You know what? Here's the other piece about this. You know, this book. I really do feel like it's a personal development slash, transformation book. And so what I decided to do is I decided to go to mentors in the world of insurance, of taxes, of real estate, of business building, of income, of faith, and I got all of their expertise. And I said look, come tell me about you, come tell me about your story, come tell me about your expertise. And then at the end they're sharing principles and I just take each one of those principles and I say Ken shared this about building, you know, building a faith-based, entrepreneurial driven business. That's one principle. In the pathway to becoming a financial, you know, financially free, you've got to make money right. Then, once you've made it, let me go talk to Tom Wheelwright and he's going to tell us how to keep the money that we make. That's a principle and let's bring it into the system. And so I went and got just all the best best of the best really is what it comes down to and I had each one of them speak on their areas of expertise.

Speaker 2:

And anyone gets access to this event. It's a free event. There's no charge to be at the event. You're going to hear I mean my man right here, ken Ed Milet Kiyosaki, ben Hardy, Patrick Donahoe some of the best of the best in the world of money, of leadership, faith Ryan Deely. I'm going to be narrating the events and then at the end of it, yeah, man, we're going to launch our book and the goal is to get 5,000 copies of the book into 5,000 people's hands that want to become financially free in 10 years or less. I love that website.

Speaker 1:

Where can they? How can they register? Where can they register?

Speaker 2:

Retirein10Yearscom. Retirein10.

Speaker 1:

That's one zero right, One zero. Yep, yeah, RetireIn10Yearscom. That's the number 10, not spelled out T-E-N, but RetireIn10Yearscom. Don't miss that. Date is September the.

Speaker 2:

It is September 25th, 26th and 27th.

Speaker 1:

I. I knew the 27 was in there sometime. I didn't know exactly where it was at 25, 26, 27. Guys, listen, you don't want to miss this. It's going to be an unbelievable opportunity and I'll share with you guys just a personal story.

Speaker 1:

One of our guys he was my Division II National Coordinator for umpires. We just I had my whole team over. So we're going through all of our, all the stuff, figure out what we had, what we've got to order. We're six months out. We'll have 1,200 people that create this year and one of the things I went through was all my old college baseball umpire stuff.

Speaker 1:

And so I was looking at the lineup cards from all the different college games that I umpired and it got me thinking about Scotty. So Scotty called me and he was like hey, dude, you know, scotty's just a Division II national coordinator for all the umpires and I've never made more than about $150,000, $200,000 a year. And he gets into the ERCT and he makes almost a million. And he calls me it was last year about this time, september, october and he goes hey, dude, I made this money. I got X amount of money I've got to pay taxes on in the bank. What do I do, and I just said dude 66 or 67 percent and created an asset for him to where he could actually make money. Well, I mean maybe not the specifics of that deal, but walk people through how something like that works.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'll tell you what man. It's really interesting. You know, we've been taught and sometimes I think it's nefarious. I think most oftentimes it's laziness. I think there are people at the top pulling the strings, because our system is built on dependency. You know, the more dependent we become, the more we vote, the more we vote, the more they can print, the more they print. You know. Just that whole thing goes on.

Speaker 2:

But here's the reality. Like, if you look at the tax code, there are 3,000 pages. I mean, have you ever read a 3,000 page book before? I mean, long is the Bible? It's not 3000 pages, right, but there's 3000 pages in the tax code. But the very first line in the tax code says everything you make is taxable. If everything you make is taxable, what are the 3000 pages for? And that's the crazy part.

Speaker 2:

And so all we do is we open up the other 3000 pages and we help people see and understand that the tax code is really a series of incentives.

Speaker 2:

And when you understand the incentives, you can both lower your taxes on your active income, you can invest in such a way that you either eliminate them for a while or permanently eliminate them in your passive income, and so that's what we do, is we begin with the end in mind and we understand how much income do you want? And if we can make a tax free income, then you're going to be you know, by default 30, 40, 50% closer to your target than if we're deferring our taxes. So we just build a tax strategy. If we build a tax strategy to lower your taxes on your active income and eliminate them on your passive income, the game gets so much easier. And so so much of our system, so much of our investment protocol. It is based on the tax code and we could have a whole separate discussion around this. But, man, the tax code is the most dangerous part of our financial system, because if you're financially ignorant, you could work for half of your life just to pay your tax bill. If you get to give money away.

Speaker 1:

You know, the greatest moment probably in political history in the last 50 years was when Hillary Clinton looked at Trump. She goes you don't pay any taxes, and how did?

Speaker 2:

he respond I mean in the most Donald Trump way, with that smug smile. He leaned into the microphone and said that makes me smart.

Speaker 1:

That makes me smart, because why would you not take advantage of that he did say? He also did say it makes me smart and all I need to take advantage of this Same tax code that the people who give you money take care of that donate to your campaign on the other end as well.

Speaker 2:

I really think, ken, there is a divide right now and this divide and there's lots of reasons that this divide is getting bigger and bigger, but a lot of it does come down to financial intelligence. The financially ignorant are getting crushed. Inflation is wiping them out. But on the other side of that divide, dude, I make money because of inflation, because of inflation. Inflation makes me money, and that's that's the hard part for people to understand is you. The more you follow the traditional system, you stay financially ignorant to the way our system works. As you raise your financial intelligence and understand how the tax game works, you can eliminate taxes and put your money in places that inflation makes you wealthy. And so that's really all we do, man, is we just help you align your money with the economic forces that are either holding you back or that can push you forward.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that dude. Retirein10yearscom. Retirein10years, that's 10, the letter one zero retirein10yearscom. Ryan D Lee guys, robert Kiyosaki, robert Allen I'll be on there. My good friend Ed Milet will be there. You've got a ton of amazing, amazing people. I saw my good friend Shay Spitz on there. Super stoked man for Shay, super excited. She is the number one or number two real estate agent in the state Nebraska for EXP. You just got some killers coming on there. Dude, for three days it is the 24th, no 25th, 26th and 27th of July. We'll drop a link in the show notes. Guy, you need to go out and check this out. What about the book? They get the book at the event.

Speaker 2:

At the event. Yeah, everything's going to be launched in the book at the event, and here's what I'm going to say about the book too. Man, not only is it the pages that you're going to read, so we've included 12 hours of course, material calculators, like you can quite literally see what's possible for you In addition to the book. We're just making it super simple. Anyone can see where the path that they're on, the outcome of that path and a possibility of becoming financially free in 10 years by aligning your money with real financial principles. So, 12 hours of recorded content behind the scenes, interviews, calculators, property analyzers, all kinds of things to start applying what you learn. And let's make 2026 the year that everything changes. I would love nothing more for 5,000 people to come to this event, grab a copy of the book and then, in 2026, completely adjust the trajectory of their financial life. I love that man.

Speaker 1:

And you've done it, dude. I've been to your home, I've been with your wife and your kids. We've known each other for several years now. I've watched you live this whole thing out and the one thing I love about you, ryan, is you have such an authentic passion to help people take the same journey that you've taken over the past 12 years and, dude, that's what makes you good and that's what makes you different. Bro, there's no pretense there, it is 100% authenticity. Guys, retirein10yearscom. My good friend, ryan, deely, ryan, final thoughts for our audience, bro.

Speaker 2:

You know what, ken? I've kind of resorted to saying this to people as I've been preparing for the launch of this book, and I truly believe that financial freedom is your obligation, and that kind of rubs some people the heart the wrong way. But if money comes down to options and if God's waiting for you to have more options in your life to be able to quiet the noise of financial scarcity so you can start listening to the voice of opportunity man, the principles are there, the tools are there, the time has never been easier or better than it is right now, and so if that's all true, then it is your obligation Take control over your money, take control over your life and use that money in your life to live a purpose-driven life. That really would be my admonition to anyone listening to this today. I love that.

Speaker 1:

RetireIn10Yearscom guys. Ryan D Lee on Instagram Actually the Lee on Instagram, actually the Ryan D Lee L-E-E on Instagram. Go check him out, get registered for this free three-day masterclass on retiring 10 years. My man Appreciate you, ken. I love you. Man. Guys, thank you for joining us on another episode of as the Leader Grows. I am your host, ken Jocelyn. It's been an absolute pleasure. I'll see you next week right here on as the Leader Grows.