Jerry Ford: Guns, Drugs, or Wealth

Transcript

[0:00:13] CH: Author Hour is about answering one question: How can you get the best ideas from great books without spending so much time reading? Every week, we take you behind the scenes with a new author, about the most important points in their book. So if you love to learn while you're on the go, you’re in the right place. All of our book summaries are 100% free and we do more than a hundred episodes every year. So please subscribe to and review Author Hour on iTunes. Today’s episode is with Jerry Ford, author of Guns, Drugs, or Wealth. If Jay Z and Warren Buffett collaborated on a how to guide to building personal capital, then Jerry’s book might well be the result. It’s a combination of financial expertise with street smart wisdom. Jerry should know because he overcame inner city poverty, violence and tragedy and went on to achieve remarkable success. In this episode, he’s going to share his inspiring true story and a powerful three pronged investment strategy that anyone can follow to financial security and peace of mind. Even if you’re an inexperienced investor, you can still reap phenomenal rewards by establishing the streams of income that Jerry talks about. By the end of this episode, you’ll have proven investing strategies that can help you live the financial life of your dreams. Now, here is our conversation with Jerry Ford.

[0:02:16] Jerry Ford: As you guys know, I’m from Detroit, Michigan, but I’m from the ghetto. I am from the gutter, there’s no better way to put it and when I was 14, my brother was murdered on my mom’s birthday and that was by far the hardest thing my family and I ever had to deal with. Shortly, after that, my best friend was murdered and seeing all of that negativity drove me to be one type of person and that’s pretty much a product of my environment, coming from Detroit. The first time I felt like I had a bit of luck is when I went to college. You know, I was kind of, able expand my horizons and get out to rockers university and after Rutgers University, I start personal training where I saw a lot of those high end clients, high end net worth individuals and as anybody may know, when you get around people who are a lot more wealthier than you are, you kind of start to wonder what are they doing that I’m not doing. What are they doing that I could be doing? That’s what really got my wealth clock ticking because before that, I had only known loved ones leaving me though death and seeing all of these things on the street. I mean, I witnessed gun violence, witnessed drug abusers, witnessed murders, I witnessed a lot of things I can leave somebody down their own path. Coming from there to seeing first hand these high net worth individuals and princes and royal family members and celebrities, that really motivated me to do something different.

[0:04:01] CH: Wow, thank you for sharing that, that’s heartbreaking what you had to go through. I’m curious, a lot of people who grew up in your circumstances, they end up staying, right? They go down the path, your book is called Guns, Drugs, or Wealth. They go down one of the first two paths and maybe they did see some wealthy people but they decided for whatever reason, the story in their head stayed that this is the life I’m destined to live. What do you think separates you from them? What do you think made you choose that path and ultimately succeed on it?

[0:04:43] Jerry Ford: Well, you know what? It’s funny you mentioned that because my book is called Guns, Drugs, or Wealth specifically for that reason and it’s because where I’m from, there’s choices, right? There’s this choice of choosing the gun which is the gangs and the territory and then there is the choice of choosing the drugs which is you know, finding a way to take the pain away through drugs and alcohol and then there is the wealth which is not really on the table. What really made me go toward something different was when I was younger, I competed in the martial arts and we always got a chance to travel state to state and a country to country to compete. The first time I traveled outside of Detroit, just the surroundings, I said, “Man, the world is much bigger than Detroit,” and then when I got different opportunities and I travelled out of America, I said, “Wow, the world is much bigger than America.” So the more that I travel and the more that I learned, the more I realized what I didn’t know and it kind of sucks because where I‘m from, everybody lives within a city block or city blocks. They can only relate to and they can only do what they see, right? Then being that i was seeing different things outside of Detroit and outside of America, it opened my mind a little bit more than what I was brought into, if that makes any sense.

[0:06:20] CH: Yeah, absolutely. Just before we get into the life that you started to build, I want to dive a little bit into the daily rhythm of growing up in the ghetto of Detroit. I know you witnessed really hard things but what was it like on a day to day basis? I mean, our CEO of our company, JT McCormick, he grew up in the slums of Dayton, Ohio and he talked about how he was lingering behind his classmates when they went out to recess because he needed to pick trash out of the food because they didn’t have any food at home and that sort of thing. What was it really like on a daily?

[0:07:02] Jerry Ford: Well one, because growing up in the ghetto, you’re either a sheep or a wolf, right? You’re either struggling to find food, you’re either the sheep, you either got to worry about being picked on or possibly being murdered or you know, the ghetto forces you to be the total opposite of that which is very unfortunate but that’s a whole other conversation. A day, I mean, it was a lot of the times, my family didn’t have heat, water, lights, you name it. In the winter time in Detroit when it’s you know, below zero, it’s like, I remember weeks at a time to where we would have to wake up and we would have to take snow and put it in a bucket, right? Put it on the electric hot plate just to get the water warm enough to pour it in a tub and take a bath in, you know? This tub was so small that sometimes we had to fill it up, you know four or five times but the terrible part about that was is that the house is so cold, by the time you fill up the second, third, bucket of water, the water in the tub was already freezing again. Oftentimes, I would just throw the snow in the tub and then just sit in the snow until it turned to water or when we did have water and we didn’t have heat, I would just take a cold shower in say, zero degree weather and that was the start of my day.

[0:08:33] CH: Man, that’s brutal.

[0:08:36] Jerry Ford: Then, it’s funny because as I mentioned, I was in martial arts so this entire time, I’m thinking, you know what? My master would say, this is mind over matter, of course, he didn’t see my circumstances but you know, this whole time that I was doing this, taking these could showers, sitting in the snow, I was thinking, this is what master was talking about when he was saying mind over matter, you know? That honestly, going outside was like – it was like going to war but it was no fear because that’s where I was from. It didn’t seem like it was dangerous because that was everyday life, right? Before I had a car, I had to walk to school, I was walking to school and I had to decide if I wanted to take a shortcut which probably led to me seeing a dead body, which I’ve saw a few times when I was younger, walking to school, trying to take a short cut or if I wanted to take the longer route and you know, felt a little bit safer. But definitely, every day, I got into a fight. 100% got into a fight and it’s kind of sad man, because I am a martial artist, fighting was kind of fun to me, you know? It’s like something that I practiced seven days a week and we trained seven hours a day. I definitely got into a fight. School, I mean, the teachers were always great but it’s the Detroit public school where we all know, we live in the state or a country to where law enforcement and teachers are way under paid and then there’s the saying as you get what you pay for. Going to school, it was tough and sometimes as I got older, sometimes, a lot of times, I didn’t go to school because I was out doing other things to help put food on my table and to help keep me alive because after all, as I mentioned before, where I’m from, you’re either a sheep or a wolf and people who try to play it in between, often, don’t survive.

[0:10:39] CH: Can you give me an example of playing it in between?

[0:10:42] Jerry Ford: Sure, you got people in Detroit who I’ll say are sheep, right? They will not fight back, if somebody picks on them, right? They’re the sheep, they’re the weak, you know? Sometimes, that gets people through and then you have the wolf who is going to be a leader of whatever he puts his mind to, whether he’s in the streets, whether, he’s on wall street, whether he’s in prison, regardless, he’s always going to be on top, he’s never let anybody by their own, nothing like that. In between, it’s like playing both sides of the fence, you know? Like an okay, I’m going to let people bully me on Monday and then I’m going to fight back on Tuesday. You know, kind of that sense. It’s hard to play it in between in the jungle, it’s like, you have to pick a side and that side often defines a lot of people’s future because sometimes that side isn’t the legal or the right side. Sometimes people, they just don’t have a choice.

[0:11:47] CH: Right, that’s applicable to people outside of Detroit for sure. You had this life changing experience, you met Bill.

[0:12:03] Jerry Ford: I met Bill.

[0:12:05] CH: Tell me about it.

[0:12:07] Jerry Ford: This was after I was already training, I was training in New York City for about two years and I was already one of the top trainers at my company which was the New York Health and Racket Club and then I had already had you know, a super nice car and I thought, I was the best thing since sliced bread when it came to personal training. When it came to personal training. I mean, I was so young and then I remember my personal training manager coming to me and he said “Hey, I have a hot lead for you. This guy, he’s like a wolf of wall street and he bought 200 sessions.” Now, any gym worldwide, maximum 48 sessions to a package, maximum a hundred sessions but even somebody buying a hundred sessions was like you know, farfetched, unknown.

[0:13:01] CH: Right.

[0:13:04] Jerry Ford: The minute that my personal trainer manager told me that this guy came in and bought 200 sessions, I’m thinking, what type of idiot will come in here and buy 200 sessions? I’m like, okay, no problem. The best thing about this story is that, Bill wanted to train five days a week, actually, six days a week, he wanted to train six days a week every morning. It’s like a guy with 200 sessions training six days a week is like a trainer’s dream when you’re working for a corporate gym. It’s Monday morning and I’m waiting on Bill and he walks in, I had never seen this guy before in my life prior to this. He walks in with his briefcase and his suit on and I’m thinking, this is going to be a piece of cake, you know? I introduced myself, I said, “Hello, are you Bill? He’s like, “Yeah.” “I’m Jerry Ford.” He looks at me and he’s like, “How old are you kid?” I’m like, “I’m 23 going on 40,” you know, trying to make myself appear a little bit more you know, a little bit older. He’s like, “Yeah, that’s what she said.” I’m like, “What?” He’s like, you know, whatever, that happens, we finally get the training and this guy is a complete prick, he is a prick and I went through months and months of him just making comments, trying to tell me to tell him what we were going to do for the entire hour and literally, this lasted for six months.

[0:14:40] CH: What kind of stuff would he say to you?

[0:14:43] Jerry Ford: For example, everything I asked him to do, he would ask me to explain in a full detail, right? Imagine everybody know that super setting is a really good way to build muscle and shred up. Which means, if you do a set of bench press and you do a set of pushups after that, that’s super set. I would say okay, bench-press and I would say, do the pushups but before he did the pushups, he would ask me to explain in full detail why he had to do the bench press. Or he would say, this didn’t work. It made it really hard for me to get him to a really good workout. The thing that he said that really pissed me off one time was after the session, he goes, you should be a more difficult and harder trainer. Your training session should be harder. Now, this is the worst thing that you can ever tell a trainer and I’m thinking like, if you just do the exercise, you know, it wouldn’t be hard.

[0:15:47] CH: I love the comment of this isn’t working to tell a personal trainer, that’s the best.

[0:15:55] Jerry Ford: Dude, are you kidding me?

[0:15:56] CH: Yeah, that’s awesome. This went on for a while.

[0:16:01] Jerry Ford: This went on for six months and it was bad, I mean, if you ever try to play scenarios in your head of like you know what? My boss said this, the next time he says this, I’m going to say XY and Z and it’s going to be it. I would play these scenarios in my head over and over again. This went on for six months and then finally, one day, I just strongly confronted him about a particular exercise and it shut him up. It shut him, I don’t know what it was but it shut him up and he looked at me and he looked at the other trainers, he’s like, “Kid’s 23, what are you going to do? Kid’s 23, what are you going to do?” From that moment on, I don’t know what happened. We started talking every day, he started helping me build my portfolio, he started helping me learn more about investments. He got in the best shape of his life because he wasn’t being such a prick, I met his wife, I met his kids, I started going over his house, literally like we became brothers, it’s so nuts, up to this day, I still talk to this man every single day. But we somehow became the best of friends and then that’s where it really started.

[0:17:19] CH: That’s awesome. You prove that you are equal status to him or higher status on your turf. Yeah. Then you move to LA and you really got started on what you call the billionaire track, tell me about that.

[0:17:38] Jerry Ford: Yeah, you know, first of all, I love cars, I love watches, I love cars and I love watches. When I got to LA, you know, anybody that moves to LA, you know, the stigma is that it’s all about what you drive. You know, it’s all about what you drive. I moved to LA, I had my car shipped to LA, I was already a celebrity trainer, I had investments that Bill helped me with. I had a few Royal family members that I was training. I felt like I was –

[0:18:08] CH: Really?

[0:18:09] Jerry Ford: Yeah. Royal family members, this other super high end tastemakers and yeah, I was what I like to call living. I was working at Equinox gym. I think within one year, I broke every record that they had at that gym.

[0:18:30] CH: Every record?

[0:18:31] Jerry Ford: Record.

[0:18:31] CH: Like sales or -

[0:18:33] Jerry Ford: Like sales, training sessions, they got like an algorithm of how they rate trainers worldwide.

[0:18:40] CH: How’d you do it? Was it your reputation had built because of the caliber of people you were working with?

[0:18:46] Jerry Ford: Yeah, mostly it was reputation. A lot of people found out that I was in LA, so they came to Equinox and was like, Jerry Ford works here. I brought a lot of people to Equinox and they joined Equinox to train with me and then the people that were at Equinox wanted to train with me and I was telling so much personal training but also, getting people to where they wanted to be as far as their bodies. It was nuts and I’m a workaholic, my work ethic is nuts. I work from 5 AM to still to this day 8 PM sometimes and I’m totally okay afterwards.

[0:19:28] CH: It’s easy when you actually like what you do.

[0:19:31] Jerry Ford: Yeah. I was working at Equinox and then I had a conflict with Equinox and they fired me and literally, the day after, I called Bill and I simply - I was like, you know man, a lot of people can make – not a lot of people but most people can make a million dollars in their career. I said, but, “What you’ve made is 1% it’s like 1% of people make what you make. How did you do it? How did you do this?” He’s like, you know, he’s joking, this is Jerry. I think he made a joke about you got to be good looking and I just straight up didn’t laugh. He’s like, “All right, well, the next time you’re in New York, we’ll talk.” I said, “Bro, I’m on my way.” I hopped on a red eye flight that day, I get to New York, I remember going straight to Bill’s crib, you know? He answered the door and I was like “Bro, let’s get to work. We got dead presidents to make, let’s get to work.” He’s known me for ages up to this point. He’s looking at me like, this kid is out of his mind. We sat down and he’s like, all right, write all your liabilities down on one side and all your assets down on one side, he’s like asking me questions, “What’s a difference between a liability and an asset?” I’m like, “Bro, we gone over this a million times.” At this point, he’s dead serious, he’s like, “What’s the difference between asset and liability?” I’m like, you know. “Asset puts money in your pocket, it’s passive income, doesn’t lose equity, liability, your obligations, take money out of your pocket.” He’s like, “As soon as you get rid of all of your liabilities, you come back to New York and you see me and we can talk about building some serious wealth.” I go back to LA, no lie Charlie, I sold every single car that I had, I got rid of everything that was locked, I paid my credit card off, literally I got rid of every single liability that I had. I start Uber pooling because it was super cheap, especially in a big city like LA. I set aside like 300 bucks a month for transportation, you know, then I mentioned -

[0:21:50] CH: At this point, how much were you earning?

[0:21:54] Jerry Ford: I don’t know the exact number I was earning but I can tell you that within six or seven months, I saved enough cash to buy four properties cash money. Each property is like 100,000, 50,000, 150,000, 20,000. I was literally working nonstop.

[0:22:18] CH: You were training, right? As your primary work?

[0:22:21] Jerry Ford: I was training and then I was also day trading.

[0:22:25] CH: Day trading. Okay.

[0:22:27] Jerry Ford: Training and day trading, that’s it.

[0:22:29] CH: Had Bill taught you how to day trade?

[0:22:31] Jerry Ford: He taught me how to day trade.

[0:22:33] CH: Got it, okay, interesting. You sold off all your liabilities, you were hustling, working like crazy and then that was Bill’s first recommendation to you was to buy assets, it was to buy real estate?

[0:22:48] Jerry Ford: No. After I sold off all my liabilities, I called Bill this time because I was on a strict budget and I couldn’t fly to New York, so I called him and he was like, “Okay, he was like. Now, he told me he was like, the, every CEO reads one book a week”. Now he’s like, he lost me there. Reading? I’ve never read a book cover to cover in my life and I old him this and he’s like, that’s okay. He’s like, “I hate reading too. He’s like, why don’t you try audio books?” I was like, “Audio what?” He’s like, “Listen to books, take notes and every Sunday,” we can meet up and talk about how to implement these timeless principles into my life. I was like, okay, cool. Then I set aside specific blocks of time throughout the day to listen to these books. The very first book was Rich Dad, Poor Dad and it got me thinking about these three forms of income. Then, on that Sunday, I met with Bill, via phone and we talked about Rich Dad, Poor Dad and we talked about how it can start creating these three forms of income and the first one was real estate.

[0:23:56] CH: You began real estate investing and this is income form number one that you talk about is passive income from real estate investing. I’ve read Rich Dad, Poor Dad too, he explains it really well in the book. It is a great story, so anybody listening, that’s definitely a worthwhile book for a reason but give us a break down here of what this specifically means to you, passive income from real estate investing.

[0:24:25] Jerry Ford: So what that means to me is that I – there’s a lot of different ways you can purchase real estate as you definitely know. What it means is that I am purchasing real estate and then I am getting money out of real estate regardless if it’s renting it out to tenants, regardless if it’s Airbnbing the real estate, regardless if you’re buying the tax land cert and you still get the money back after somebody don’t pay the taxes. But what it definitely means to me is putting a tenant inside of that unit or that property that I bought and every single month I am receiving their rent as passive income.

[0:25:06] CH: Got it and so did you say you bought four at once or did you buy one after the other?

[0:25:15] Jerry Ford: So I bought four properties in the first year. I bought them within maybe months of each other.

[0:25:22] CH: Okay, so you’re a workaholic right? So you are able to work long stretches, not everyone is maybe wanting to do that. How difficult did you find it? Was it a bit of a scramble or was it pretty easy for you?

[0:25:38] Jerry Ford: Well it definitely wasn’t easy. I mean I worked my butt off and I literarally owned these properties. I was literary putting anything that wasn’t tied up in an investment that I had already created with Bill was going into these properties. I mean I am the type of person that I remember the second property that we bought, it was the duplex, it was a duplex and I remember that I lived off $30 for the entire week. I lived off $30 for a few weeks to make sure I was able to buy it.

[0:26:15] CH: What were you eating?

[0:26:16] Jerry Ford: Well you know actually it is bad but it’s not so bad, right? So I was looking fucked up. I would have a Greek yogurt which is like a dollar and it’s super healthy. After that I would have four egg whites and carrots and string cheese. After that I would have a half of a chicken breast from Trader Joe’s that’s pre-cooked and then I would literary repeat that and have a protein shake at the end of the day.

[0:26:47] CH: That’s solid for 30 bucks? Dang.

[0:26:50] Jerry Ford: 30 bucks.

[0:26:51] CH: I’m impressed, all right. Good for you, man so all right, so you hustled during this first month but that first year you are getting tenants in. What was the adjustment like to suddenly be a landlord?

[0:27:12] Jerry Ford: Well see, the funny thing is I forget which book I read that said this but they hit this spot on is an investor who does not hire a management company and a management company is the landlord, an investor who does not hire a management company is an investor who’s lost his way, right? Because a landlord that’s a waste of an investor’s time. You don’t want to be spending your nights waking up, unclogging toilets or putting light bulbs in. So you want to hire a management company and I did learn that you usually spend five to 10% of what the rent is for management companies. So I am always trying to figure out how can I get the best bang for my buck. So I’m saying, well you know what? I don’t want to hire a management company because I do want to keep – actually, a few of the spots that I bought the management companies were talking crazy, like I am talking about 15%. So I said you know what? My brother who is Shabazz, he was my first partner. He was my COO of my investment real estate company because I actually formed the actual entity, separate entity and started buying the properties on there and I said, “You know what? Why don’t you take care of the management company side, so you can hire everybody for that and it could be our own people who can create emails and we can put in some type of a slide, a plumber, an electrician, contractors. So we can have an assistant call them anytime a landlord calls to Google line and leaves a message.” So we kind of created our own management company and it was a lot cheaper than paying five to 10% because honestly, if you screen your properties correct and you screen your tenants correct, of course things will always happen but the likelihood of something going wrong is slim to none.

[0:29:12] CH: Yeah, if you are screening them and they have a history that shows they’re good to go, it is unlikely that they’re going to create chaos for you, makes sense. So before we dive into the next income form which is stocks, is there anything else that you really wanted to share about real estate investing?

[0:29:34] Jerry Ford: Well a lot of people were scared to get into real estate honestly because I think they just don’t know enough to be interested in it but as an investor, I would say forget about being a landlord. Hire a property manager to do that or hire somebody who can do that for you and screen your tenants and go through the steps, step by step in buying properties and there’s nothing like waking up on the first and having six to 10 different people pay you a thousand or $2,000 a month that’s straight passive income that you did not have to work for.

[0:30:13] CH: Yeah, it is true.

[0:30:19] Jerry Ford: It’s so nice!

[0:30:21] CH: Yeah, so the first time you had this experience what did you do that day? I mean did you run off and I don’t know, buy a new car or had Bill changed your mind about the liabilities?

[0:30:38] Jerry Ford: You know what? Actually it was funny, I was going to try to shy away from this but I’ve got to be honest right? So I trained a couple of Royal family members of actually a few different countries and I was with some of these guys and we were at a lounge and their rent had just been paid and in Los Angeles, if you were at a club or a lounge, you decide to get your own private table, it is so expensive. It’s ridiculous, it can be 3,500 to $10,000.

[0:31:11] CH: Goodness.

[0:31:12] Jerry Ford: Nuts. And so I decided that you know what? I am going to get our table tonight. I am going to get our table at this lounge tonight and I spent maybe half of the monthly rent just like that. It’s nuts because just like that it’s $3,500 but the great thing about it was I wasn’t expecting it, I didn’t work for it, it was just there.

[0:31:42] CH: Yeah, that’s great. That’s awesome, I love it.

[0:31:46] Jerry Ford: So you know we –

[0:31:47] CH: You have to have a moment like that otherwise you are not human, I think.

[0:31:50] Jerry Ford: You bet and I was very smart with months to follow but as with the rent –

[0:31:56] CH: Right, it’s not like you won the lottery ticket and blew half of it. It’s like you have monthly income coming in now and that’s great. So well deserved celebration. So let’s talk about stocks. Now this is your income form number two. Day trading I take it is not what you are going to talk about here although you know how to day trade so tell me about stocks.

[0:32:20] Jerry Ford: Yeah so actually the second book that I am working on is talking about day trading but I definitely don’t want my new investors to day trade. That is the quickest way to a poor house especially if you don’t know how but on stocks, I think stocks and I talk about this for and Bill broke wrote this down to me, for the last 100 plus years the most money on average, the most money has been made in the stock market. And growing up, you know I grew up again in the ghetto and with a southern family. And I was always told stay away from stocks, they will take your money and now I realized I don’t want to stay away from stocks. I am afraid of not knowing how to invest in stocks because if this is the way that most people has made the most money the stocks is where I want to be, you know? So the first thing that and again, I’ve read countless amount of books on stocks but my main resource are my clients and finance including Bill, the first thing that I learned is dollar cost averaging. And when I first heard that at that time I was like, “What the heck is that?” but dollar cost averaging is actually the best way to invest in stocks. So what dollar cost averaging is if you don’t know is you take the exact same amount of money every month and you invest it into the stock market. That’s often a lot of times where people say is that, “Well stocks are too high right now so I am not going to invest.” But then when stocks are going low they say, “No stocks are going low so the market is crashing.” So now it’s like, okay the stocks are too high and I am not going to invest or the stocks are too low and I am not going to invest then when am I going to invest? You know obviously they say that when you wait so long waiting usually becomes a habit. So I always tell people that if you bought a share of the S&P 500, which is like 280 or 270, 280 right now this month and then it drops 50% which I pray to God it don’t, next month you buy a share again and it drops again and you buy a share again. Well you calculate your average –

[0:34:37] CH: Just got a discount.

[0:34:38] Jerry Ford: Yeah, you’re getting it on a discount and if you just continue to buy it for 10, 15, 20 years, it has been proven for the last 100 plus years it has been proven that if you dollar cost average into a stock or into the stock market that does better than any savings account.

[0:34:58] CH: Oh yeah, unquestionably. Savings accounts are a joke. They don’t even keep up with inflation.

[0:35:06] Jerry Ford: Not at all. Not at all. It is so beneficial. So the first thing that I really love is dollar cost averaging and even if it’s 50 bucks, even if it is a 100 bucks that you take and you put in that stock market every single month. That’s my very first thing. The next thing is don’t let the fluctuation of the market scare you. Like literary do nothing and I mean I still tell myself this, when I am day training and I am using some serious cash, I tell myself this, do nothing. Because the more you mess around with the stocks, the more you do stuff the more you lose money but if you can just do nothing and not look at it, you will win.

[0:35:48] CH: So I am curious, why do you day trade? Because it sounds like you know a lot about stocks and everything I’ve read, well I am not as well versed is exactly what you said, do nothing. Be as passive as possible but automate it.

[0:36:08] Jerry Ford: I’ll tell you how I started day trading. So again, we’re dealing with the stock market and I am talking to Bill, he’s like, “Dude I made so much money today.” And I’m like, “How?” And he’s like, “You know day trading.” And I’m like, “Day trading? That’s the total opposite of what you told me to do.” He’s like, “All right, it’s because I wanted you to get this. I wanted you to learn how to ride the bike before you can drive the car basically.” And I day trade because there are super volatile markets out there. I am talking about super volatile markets that can drop 50% in one day that can go 50% in one day. And I have found a strategy and a formula that really, really works. So now what I do is I day trade with the intention of holding onto the stock, right? So if I know because all stocks are linked to something. It’s not like a stock is out there and it’s by itself like all stocks have mother stocks and is linked to something else to where if this is going good, this is going to go good. There’s no stock out there that’s just floating in the universe. You know? If something happens and I think that that’s going to impact that stock then I’ll definitely day trade it with a lot of money and then I will rip it. This is going to a whole other level but using something called a Bloomberg Terminal, I’ll rip it whenever I am happy and I don’t day trade every day because sometimes it’s best to just leave it for a day or two but I do day trade. I day trade and I am happy, really happy with it.

[0:37:56] CH: Excellent, yeah. Hey, more power to you. One of the wealthier people I know day trades and I can’t argue with those results so thanks for answering that. So let’s talk about income form number three which may not be the most surprising but it’s just as important as the other two which is money that you earn daily from your job or business.

[0:38:21] Jerry Ford: Yes, so one I think everybody should own their own business but as you are working for someone else, I think it’s super important to know the difference between a liability and an asset and to spend your money very wise. Actually you mentioned Rich Dad Poor Dad earlier, one of the things that Robert T. Kiyosaki talks about that stuck with me and that sticks with me and that I remind myself every day is the rat race. You know it is the fear, it’s that combination of fear and greed and he puts it in such a beautiful way. So it’s like a lot of people get money and they fear that they are not making enough. So they work, work, work for money and when they get the money, the greed kicks in and they think of all these nice things that they can buy and then do it again and then they have a fear of not having the money. So they work hard, work hard and then they get it and then it just becomes a big rat race, right? So I think having a great work ethic but spending your money in the right ways while knowing the difference between liabilities and assets is very key.

[0:39:35] CH: I agree.

[0:39:38] Jerry Ford: Even myself, this is an everyday struggle and I don’t want people to think that I got it figured out. I struggle with this every single day of, “Okay, what is smart spending today? Do I need this?” And not to get that confused with treating yourself but smart spending and good habits of money management is the difference between the rich and the poor.

[0:40:03] CH: It really is, knowing a need versus a want. I was talking to somebody just the other day, another author who specializes in 401(k)s and he said, “Needs versus wants. We say we need a new pair of shoes but when you bought those pair of shoes were your other shoes literarally falling apart? Did you walk in barefoot? No, you have to be able to distinguish and know what you actually need versus what you want.” And most of us can’t do that very well but we rationalize it another way.

[0:40:36] Jerry Ford: You’re right and actually another thing that in Rich Dad Poor Dad, he says, “The difference between the rich and the poor is that rich people buy assets and poor people buy liabilities that they think are assets.”

[0:40:50] CH: Yep, right so they don’t even know.

[0:40:54] Jerry Ford: For a second, Charlie, that was me. I was rationalizing. I was saying, I mean I have a nice car now but that money doesn’t come out of my pocket. It’s through investments but before, I was saying, you know what? I have this nice car. I need this nice car because it’s all about what you drive. It’s the conversation starter right? It’s coming out of my pocket, I need this nice watch and this nice suit because it is all about what people think but it is coming out of my pocket and it was literary the liabilities that I thought were assets.

[0:41:23] CH: Yeah, it’s funny. You have to know the distinction. One is earning your money and the other takes it out of your pocket like you said, yeah. So I love that you have these three income forms in your book because these are not like shocking brand new things which they shouldn’t be. These are time tested, battle tested ways to build wealth and in fact, I think there’s some famous book on building wealth where they say right in the very first paragraph there are three ways to build wealth, real estate, stocks and owning a business and those are the three. So you’ve got it figured out and I don’t want to spoil everything in your book. There’s obviously a few chapters that we are not going to cover but I do want to touch on your final chapter in your book is titled, “A Letter to Black America”. Tell me about this.

[0:42:22] Jerry Ford: So I hate statistics but I love numbers because the numbers don’t lie and they say that 80% of America is poor or middle class and then the majority of the 80% of America is minority and the majority of that minority are African-Americans and I’m also aware of the mass incarceration in America and I mentioned this in the book. One of my favorite books is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander and there is also was a show on Netflix called The 13th or something like that.

[0:43:07] CH: Yep, great documentary.

[0:43:08] Jerry Ford: Yeah, great documentary and I was definitely talking to everybody when I said let’s build wealth but I specifically as an African-American man, as an African-American person I wanted to specifically talk to my people especially because we make up the majority of that 80% and man, I feel like that even in an 80%, in a lot of this neighborhoods people who are from, where they’re from, where we’re from don’t come back and say, “Hey this is how you are to be successful, this is how you build wealth.” Usually anytime a motivational speaker or a rich dude comes back to the ghetto or any inner city, they’ve never lived there a day in their life. So a lot of these kids are thinking, “Well how are you going to tell me how to be happy?” Or “How are you going to tell me what to do let alone build wealth when you never walked in my shoes? You’re not where I’m from. You don’t know nothing.” But I figured that they may be more receptive to someone who’s from where they’re from and has done what they’ve done. And I thought it was so important for me to put that chapter, A Letter to Black America, in there because it’s a huge problem in the world right now still from law enforcement, from cops killing young African-American men to - African-American people rather and I just want the better of that 80% and I want to let them know that although all this stuff is going on that we can move past this and still build wealth and I am trying to talk without exactly giving everything away but it’s definitely one of my favorite chapters.

[0:45:08] CH: And a strong way to finish the book and I hope many, many copies of your book reaches that audience in particular and does them a service the way the way that Bill did that service for you. So Jerry let’s wrap up with two more questions. The first question is how can our listeners connect with you and follow you?

[0:45:34] Jerry Ford: Yeah, so I am on all three platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. I use Instagram the most, Facebook second most, Twitter sometimes. But my Instagram handle is @realjerryford and they can hit me up on one of the social media handles.

[0:46:01] CH: Awesome and final question is give our listeners a challenge, what is the one thing from your book that they can do this week that will have a positive impact on their life?

[0:46:15] Jerry Ford: I think that they should pick one thing or actually two things. They should pick two things that they want to become a habit. They should pick two things that they want to become a habit and force themselves to do it for one hour a day. Now in a week it may not help because it takes on average 66 days to create a habit, I think is the new statistic. But if they take two things whether they are listening to an audio book or working out, whatever they think is going to help them become a better version of themselves, pick two things and do those things for an hour a day for seven days. I challenge them to do that.

[0:46:57] CH: The book is Guns, Drugs, or Wealth. Jerry, thank you so much for being on the show.

[0:47:04] Jerry Ford: Thank you. Thank you Charlie for having me.

[0:47:07] CH: Many thanks to Jerry Ford for being on the show. You can buy his book, Guns, Drugs, or Wealth, on amazon.com. Thanks for tuning in on today’s show. If you liked what you heard, here is what I want you to do next. Open up the podcast app on your phone or iTunes on your computer and search for “Author Hour with Charlie Hoehn” and then click “ratings and reviews”. Take 10 seconds to rate this show or leave a review. It is a small favor but it’s really the best way to show your support and give me feedback and if you know someone else who’d love Author Hour, take another three seconds to text them a link to this episode. We’ll see you next time.