Can we beat the market? How to hang out with millionaires?

Issue #7

Hello Cashflow Hackers,

Welcome to our new 23 members and thank you to many of you who clicked reply on the previous newsletter to share your thoughts! I did not reply to you yet because I wanted to soak in that bliss for a little bit when you said it’s a good read. 😍

Please forward this to someone that you think would enjoy reading this!

Are you watching your cashflow in your business or personal finance and constantly improving it? I am, and the feeling of knowing you’re 1% better every single day is amazing. That’s why I named this newsletter Cashflow Hackers.

Would love to hear what you do with your business / personal finance to make it 1% better every day! 🤗

Part 1: Change your mind all the time

My best friend asked me whether I like Dallas, I said yes, he said but you used to like Austin and also New York. I said true. He said and you change your mind all the time. I said true.

Make me remember one line from one of my favorite writers Derek Sivers.

It makes so much sense to me:

“Do not be loyal to anyone or anything or any idea.”

It means respecting the truth and staying open minded. But also be in charge and responsible for everything.

The reality is I like where my life is at overall but do not mind to change it.

Same with business.

You can change up your strategy and be in different businesses and keep changing. No apologies. 👩🏻‍💻

Lesson learned: Everything is impermanent! Not resisting to change and really take on responsibility is a muscle we all need to practice.

Part 2: Can we beat the market?

I recently had lunch with a friend who’s a big entrepreneur / investor. He has so many properties across the US owned outright by himself (not syndicated) from industrial to strip malls to power centers to hotels and multifamily properties. 😱

He told me he bought a 100 unit multifamily property in Vegas in 2014 for $4.5M and in 2022 sold it for $21M.

To put things in context, in 2008 crisis hit Vegas the hardest with property value falling down 30% and 2009 - 2014 prices were kinda at the bottom. And 2022 was the top of the multifamily real estate market.

He said he applied the value add strategy to his 100 units, and the max he was able to push the value by rehab and increased the rent was up to 8M after all done in 2-3 years. He said the rest big chunk of the profit that he was able to get is just because of the market. 🚀 

Right now many investors who invested in 2021 - 2022 deals are suffering, the only way to do it is to be able to weather out and exit deals in 2025 or 2026.

Lesson learned: No ego. No matter how good you are, most of us can’t beat the market. Instead, lean into it, position yourself to benefit from the market, that’s why since 2023 I was putting my money in distressed multifamily deals.

Part 3: Onboarding myself into my industry

I attended the IMN Middle Market Multifamily Forum in Dallas, the best part was meeting many investors who are owner operators of multifamily investments and learning from their experience.

I met David - a lawyer syndicator who told me about the easiest 15M he ever raised, it was from a Chinese billionaire who owns an equivalent Zillow of China, he invested 15M in after 45 minutes walking around the California apartment complex. 😁

I also met Diana who told me about her BTR (build to rent) strategy of building multifamily from the ground up then refinance to return all money to investors and then keep the property for cashflow forever. 💸

I met Mary Lou who has been raising money for multifamily deals since 2022 who’s kinda 1 year ahead of me, she found a partner who’s a great operator now and they partnered on a 44 units and soon 128 units together. 🙌🏼

Going to these events and talking to people is the way I am onboarding myself into the multifamily industry.

Here is the list of all the Multifamily conferences in the US if you want to do the same.

Lesson learned: It really applies to anything you want, you can onboard yourself to a new industry by just attending events and surrounding yourself with the right people.

Part 4: How to hang out with millionaires?

When I was working as a scientist, I heard from many famous people and podcasts that if you want to be a millionaire, start hanging out with millionaires. That you are the 5 people you’re hanging out with.

It was quite absurd to a $43,000 income scientist like myself at that time. I was like: “I really don’t know any rich people.” 🥲

10 years ago Sophie would never imagine she would eventually earn a spot at the party to talk to other millionaires. One thing she was clear about is that she does not enjoy spending lunch time with coworkers talking about other people or complaining about her work. She was spending lunch by herself listening to Bigger-pockets podcast and day-dreaming about her own empire. 😌

It’s really about starting to hang out with like minded people who also want to be millionaires like you.

I started hanging out with other people who also wanted to become real estate investors like me 6 years ago. I also constantly meet new like-minded people over the years, some have become my close friends. Now most of them are experienced real estate investors / millionaires. 🥳

Another way is to buy your way in, like buying into a mentorship program. Or making your way in, like start pushing your income to over 200k a year to become accredited investor so you can go to places where you are surrounded by accredited investors.

Lesson learned: That’s why I started to hang out and talk with a lot of newer multifamily investors like myself. If you would like to chat, book a call with me here. 🫰🏼

I also started planning everything by the quarter now. 90 days is a nice chunk of time to plan for and also reflect on.

Since this is the last day of 1st quarter, I set a goal of getting our financials in place and all set for all my businesses by the end of 2nd quarter. I also have travels for the next quarter planned out.

What are you looking forward to achieve in your 2nd quarter? Please email me back and share whatever you’re doing. This game called life is way better with friends!

Please forward this to someone that you think would enjoy reading this!

Cheers!

Sophie