Cody Yeh: And when you can actually do that, squeeze out 10, 20, or 30 hours per week, doing that side hustle and you are having some results and you see that trend is going to replace your full-time job income and you have a good cushion in real estate, good cushion in your trading account, or you have a good cushion and support from your family or your partner. Discuss that, make sure they understand what you're doing. Then you can pull the trigger.
Alfonso Salemi: Welcome back, REITE club community to another episode of the REITE club podcast. It's Alfonso Salemi here today with my special co-host Francois Lanthier. How are you, Francois?
Francois Lanthier: I'm good. And you?
Alfonso Salemi: Fantastic. For those who are listening to this podcast for the first time, or maybe you don't know who Francois is. Francois is our amazing community advocate for the REITE club. He's an investor extraordinaire himself. We've gotten to know Francois over the last year, maybe even more now that he's been working with us and now working alongside us to build the REITE club community. And he's a community advocate.
Francois, what's new with you? And I know you've talked to a lot of the community members of the REITE club and a lot of new things going on. What's new in keeping you busy these days?
Francois Lanthier: Investing in the US and looking at stock options. I've been very interested. So I'm really looking forward to this interview. I've tried on my own and yeah, not a good result. I can't wait to hear what Cody has to say, what not to do and what to do. So that's great. And how about you, Alfonso?
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. I just wanted to say, I love that you tried. You said you tried to go, it's okay. You learn something though, right? You definitely learned something. And then you got to that next point and yeah, definitely super excited for the interview with Cody. But we've been keeping busy. The JAAG Properties team continues to grow. We're building our referral partner program. We're bringing on more rent to own projects. We're selling off to our clients as well too.
They're getting a lot of good equities when they're buying as well. So successful projects all the way through and this whole day trading stock, trading crypto I don't wanna bunch it all together, but alternative ways, right? Alternative ways to make some passive income, multiple income streams.
We've all heard it before and this is just another option, right? That you can try to test out, maybe see, get some information like Francois. I'll try it on your own. Maybe get some leadership, maybe get some mentorship and really indulge just another opportunity that we want to give. That's the cool part with the REITE Club, the community @thereiteclub.com. You can get all the information, tools, tricks, power, team members, there's all types of information one-on-one contact with people, right? Remember that? Seeing people talking to people we can still do that except we're gonna be on the internet and, messaging with each other and getting info and then maybe setting up phone calls or, socially distanced walks and meetings and all that kind of stuff.
You can do that all on the right. Dot com, and maybe you're listening to this podcast right on the community website as well too. You can do that there as well. So I'm super excited. So what do you say, Francois? Why don't we get to the podcast?
Francois Lanthier: Yes, let's do it.
Alfonso Salemi: Welcome to the podcast, Cody Yeh. It's a pleasure to have you today.
Cody Yeh: Thanks for having me, Alfonso and Francois.
Alfonso Salemi: We were just chatting a little bit before we got on to the recording here. And I know Francois, I have lots of questions and obviously you have some real estate background, some stock trading background, You got the, I love the background there, the big a hundred dollars bill of neon lights.
That looks really good. But for those of the REITE Club community that haven't had a chance to come across your material or know you, can you give us, let's go with a 30,000 foot view, a little bit of a background of your story and how, where you where you've gotten to what you've done and to, to what you've done today.
Cody Yeh: Usually I skip the first 18 years of my life. I grew up in Taiwan, but I was just a kid. I love sports. I'm good at school, but I don't find motivation. It's only when I came to Canada as a student, as, through a student visa, that's when I realized everything is real. That's when I learn about critical thinking.
I am on my own. If I get kicked out from university, I don't know what I'm gonna do. It's very expensive as an international student. And back then I chose to study mechanical engineering because I love car as a kid, I wanna become a Formula One driver. My dad told me we do not have the environment for it.
I thought the second best is becoming an engineer. At least I can get close to the car, even though it was very different. And that's where I learned all about critical thinking. How to keep hustling every day cause it's a very competitive environment. I went to UFT so it was very competitive. All top students come in here, so it's a very good environment to push you for.
I was good at it, I thought I was good at math. . I didn't want to write a report, so I chose engineer and God, I was wrong. But that really changed my perspective on life. And just if you want something, go get a sky the limit type of thing. Because you're a new country, new language, new everything.
Fast forward, I was working at Honda after graduation as a project manager, during which I managed millions of projects. And then worked a lot of overtime back then. I didn't know. Much about real estate investing. I was doing some stock a little bit more passively, and then I just thought the best way to save it for my first down payment is working more overtime.
I was working 400 to 800 hours of overtime per year. So we do that calculation. It's almost 5,200 days more. and I thought I was young. I thought I could go like this forever. And I bought my first property second, third, from 2016, 2017, 20 19. And I quit my job, last year before covid because I was able to replace my income with whatever I was doing since 2011 in stocks day trading stock option.
I was comfortably replacing my six figure income. So I say, Hey, this is not what I thought it would be. I moved up to mid-management and I was like, this is totally not what I was expecting, right? So I took the leap of faith. I know there's a better way down the road that I want to be financially comfortable, but have more flexibility.
I know it's not an easy way, but I know I can take the leap of faith, eventually start firing myself and build up the whole team, whether that's in real estate. Stock option team, right? That's the nine yard, and now that I teach a stock option course I have personal coaching even though I steer people away from that.
I own some real estate and the goal this year is to buy two apartment buildings. So that's still on my 2021 resolution. Even though the price is going nuts, there's still deals and I'm really absorbing a lot, I'm spending a lot of time on getting comfortable with commercial stuff.
Francois Lanthier: You mentioned two interesting things here. So you bought your first property in 2016 2017, which was at the height of the market at that time in the Toronto area. And now we're again at a new height, which we didn't think we'd get to. And firing yourself. So there's two really interesting things could you expand on buying in a crazy market? And firing yourself from your business, which I love. I want to know more.
Cody Yeh: No problem. So in 2016, the first property at that time, I save up around $30,000 to $50,000. And my mom wanted to buy a bungalow in Toronto. At that time, I still remember my mom loving those weird number combinations.
She believed that they actually talked to people. So she put out an offer as $526,743. I still remember, cause she keeps repeating that number. She thought that have some kind of power and she eventually got it right. But everyone look at her like you're nuts. Like you pay half a million. Bungalow, it looks like 60 bungalows.
Fast forward to today. It's near Aton deference, so that's probably a good 900 to a million. Who knows, right? We don't track that anymore, but at that time, I only had 30,000 to 50,000. So I say, mom, I don't want to use my first time home buyer. Can I chip in? So she said yes. And then two years, a year later, 2017, with all the overtime I was able to buy my own, right?
I bought my own first property in Allison. That's where Honda is. That's where I work. I thought, Hey, if I stay three to five years, this is a house. I'll stay there. And I still remember, I put an offer in November, 2016. and then closed in February 2017, a year ago. Cause I do all my homework.
I'm a geek, so I look at the entire market for the last one year. I look at how many houses were bit over asking and what is the range. So I still remember the most over asking was 30k only. So I know that was the range they're gonna go for. But that was in November. I remember those 10 days when the house came on the market, the house was not staged, people were still living there.
It was 460,000. And I remember a year ago, this seller bought it for 320,000. So for me it was a shock. I was like, that's a good 30%. And then, with everything going on, we just went in and that was only $5,000 lower. Second day and then I remember those couple days were very gloomy, very cloudy. So I was like, this is a good environment.
Because the sellers go into winter, they're afraid it's not good timing. They need to sell. So eventually we got it right at the listing price. But I was like, wow, that's 30% above what he bought for last year. But it's fine now. It's nuts now it's nuts. Right now it's almost 800 cause the neighbor's house sofa is 800. I'm like, Yeah. So now is that, I hope that's enough of the story.
Alfonso Salemi: That's a great insight. That's a great insight of, you're, like you said, you're doing the research, you're looking you're seeing what comparables what's going out there, and that could apply to any property, whether it's a multi-family, whether it's your own primary residence you want to know, that's a key part there. But the part that I liked is that you actually did take the action, you said, okay.
It's gloomy or you didn't just sit back and watch. You actually go ahead and put in the offer. And that's what's important. Like even just your life coming over immigrating, going into school being hyper-competitive, you have to take those actions to actually make something happen because, you said, oh, I'm and use your words right now.
I'm a geek and I'm analyzing and all that kind. And I think a lot of people get stuck on that. On that paralysis, whether it's real estate, whether it's stock trading, whether it's, I don't know a pair of jeans that you're gonna go buy online and Oh, they don't fit right. Or something like that.
There's that over analysis on things. So maybe for the audience, and because you are helping others as well too, coaching, what are some of the things that, like at a certain point that you said, okay, I've done research enough, I'm ready to go and put the action. Yes. You worked up, you got the overtime money, you got money saved, but what was it for? That said, okay. Hey I've done the research. I understand. I'm ready to pull the trigger now.
Cody Yeh: Really good question. Very loaded question, and I touch on this. I usually don't like the mindset thing, but now I start teaching a course. I put the mindset thing for the first 30 minutes because I know how important that is. That's fundamental, that would change the way you think and change the way you take action. And for me I'm an engineer, so I'd like to reverse engineer everything. So everything I do, I say, okay, what am I trying to achieve? I don't just blindly do this, right? Like when I bought my first house, Hey, if I stay here for three to five years, I can move in here.
That was my thinking, right? And now that I use the stock option, everything I set up now, let's say, Hey, down the road, I don't have kids yet, but down the road when I have kids. I want to have more time. It's not all about more money earned, but it's how I can get the highest and best use of my time? I know that's a trademark now, the highest best use of my time in terms of activity I do.
Now, if I only spend 30 minutes on stock options per day, I spend another hour or two running my viP group, sharing with them, teaching 'em all that. But other than that I can spend all the time I want. I can't do nothing. Or I can go learn about multifamily or I can spend a lot of time reviewing deals, running numbers, and that's the freedom I want.
Down the road when I have kids who are family or if I need to drop everything cause my parents are getting old and go back to Taiwan, I could do that and nothing will impact my business. All my income generation, right? So that was my thought process, right? So I think for a lot of listeners, they're gonna understand this.
It's not all about earning more money, because in most of the corporate world, as I move up the ranks, I keep raising my hand for more opportunities, but at the same time I keep working with more pressure and it just adds up, right? You get paid a little bit more, but a lot more pressure and you bring all those home with you.
That impacts different aspects of your life. You can't just look at one aspect, right? Health, money, friendship, there are other stuff, but you gotta make sure those are all taken care of together, right? So that's why I love the way I do things now.
Francois Lanthier: It makes so much sense when you have time, like you were saying, you have time to analyze things and find deals maybe that others miss cause they don't have that time. They don't have, yeah, they can't take a step back cuz they're always busy and missing out on opportunities.
That's really good. And I want to go back to my other question too, about firing yourself from your company. I'm in that phase right now, that growth phase, and you're very involved. Like we always say, don't be working in your business or on your business. I always forget which one, but I think that's where you are and you're avoiding that. So I'd love to hear more about that.
Cody Yeh: That is definitely not for everyone. I think we probably mentioned this in the previous recorded podcast that disappeared. But I think this is very important to mention again, don't do what I do and quit the job right away, but instead try to find time outside of your nine to five job and do what you say you are interested in.
Do what you say you're passionate about. Cause if you cannot find time to do that on top of your 95 job. You are not gonna do it when you don't have a 9 to 5 job, cause your mindset is not right. You can't even prioritize things. So that's really the first step. And when you can actually do that, squeeze out 10, 20, or 30 hours per week doing that side hustle and you are having some results and you see that trend is going to replace your, full-time job income and we have a good cushion in real estate, good cushion in your trading account or you have a good cushion and supporting your, from your family or your partner.
Discuss that, make sure they understand what you're doing. Then you can pull the trigger. Unless you're kinda like me and just say, you know what? This is it. I can make things work. I know how to figure things out. Not everyone's like this. And it's quite painful. The things that we go through, Francois probably understand is, it's a lot of that's the quickest way to learn.
When you have more liability, more family and kids, you gotta make sure, everything's intact when you're flying really fast, right? You're gonna make sure, hey, what is the most important thing? A lot of people talk about family and why, but a lot of people are actually doing a lot of things to get them away from family.
A lot of time I question is family really your why? Because you're pushing 16 hour now and you don't really see your family. So is that your why? You say, yeah, 10 years down the road, I can spend time with them, but they're growing up and that's the key time, right? So that's why I asked myself, maybe when I have kids I can take ahead of the first one to three years. I'm not gonna grow as fast, but it's okay because I grow really fast. Up to that point, I'm okay with stabilizing for that three years. Take a sabbatical or something, right? That's my viewpoint on it.
Alfonso Salemi: Fantastic. And to your point, right? And everybody talks these days, and, retirement or I want to, quit the nine to five or fire myself. There's all the different lingo around it, right? But I think it really comes down to is that freedom, right? Sometimes, I always say I quit my 40 day, 40 hour a week job, so I can work 60 hours , but then I get to pick those 60 hours or 80 hours to depend on the week or driving around and being tired and putting in that effort.
I think there's, there, there has to be a shift of more enjoying it along the way. Now, if you are young, and this is, I'm quoting Gary V here, I think he's very inspirational. Yeah. But the younger you are, the more time you have to make mistakes and recover. So if you're, 60, 70, 80 years old, and you're like, oh, I'm just gonna go and burn the ship in tr hold on. Now you've established a lifestyle you need for certain types of living, those types of things. But if you're in your early twenties and you're listening to this and you're thinking, oh, I'm gonna try, the best part is you can go and make a mistake and fail, and then you can start again right?
This is from Gary Vaynerchuk, if you guys haven't heard of him. Awesome podcast and entertainment that he has. And he's also talking about the multiple streams of income, different businesses treating your life like a business as well as the businesses that you're working within, right?
How you spend your time in what you're doing. So like you said, you spend a few hours. Your viP clients, you're doing your own trading, you're analyzing and trying to achieve your goals of those two apartment buildings per day. But someone that is in that full-time job and you said you find that extra time.
How did you do it? Was it in the mornings, people waking up at five, the 5:00 AM club, was it late nights? Was it both? How did you bounce? Because when you were working and now at the factory, right? Cause you were engineering and all that. Those are long hours there as well. So how did you find that extra time and motivate yourself to put in that work.
Cody Yeh: I never share them on any podcasts, but the truth to be told is I actually found ways to be very effective at my full-time job. As in, yes, I put in a lot of hours, but a lot of time is because I'm that laziest person because I don't have. Paid by hour mentality. Everyone's paid by hour there, so the more time you put in, the more things you get paid. But I'm there to plan a lot of things.
I plan out well, and a lot of time I'm supervising things. I know I cannot be very proactive at it. So a lot of time I already plan it out. I look very busy, but technically my brain or my computer could be planning something else, if now, I couldn't say that when I had a job, but imagine if 10 hours of the day and you can actually just spend three or four hours and you do a better job than other people and you don't just waste time, chit-chatting and all that. I look very busy. Yes, I was busy, but not necessarily all on the job, but my performance looks really good because people were like, amazing.
Oh, Cody. You work a lot. So that's why you get all those results. Yeah, if you look at it from that standpoint, it's how you can find a lazy way to achieve the same results but not have that mentality as, yeah, we gotta talk to this person, talk to that person. A lot of times it's, I make sure I don't get in big trouble, but I do it first.
I don't ask for permission. I do it first, then ask for forgiveness. And most of the time it works. People might shock them a little bit, but a lot of times they're like, oh, wow, you achieved the results. I hope that helps.
Alfonso Salemi: I love that. And I know Francois all has got a question, but just something that I'm paralleling with, in my career when I was working for a big global shipping company. Okay? It's got three. Initials and they don't sponsor this podcast, so we're not gonna say their name on it, but they ship globally across the world. And I was doing sales calls for them too, so that they would use our shipping services, and clients would use our shipping service. And I had two different briefcases.
I had my briefcase for my shipping company, and I had my briefcase for my real estate business. And I can't tell you how many times I went, sometimes in the wrong meetings with the wrong briefcase, confused if I was meeting a realtor or if I was meeting a shipping company for shipping. But you're right, it was about effectiveness, right?
Yes. It was about effectiveness. If I was hitting my targets or, in the top three, top five of sales of that month or of that group for that year if you did it in an hour or if you did it in 50 hours, it was about the results, right? And maybe people might hear that and be like, oh, he is doing work while he is supposed to be doing other work, and that's not right.
It's about getting the results and you were still achieving what you needed to in your job, but you allowed and created that in your schedule so that now you could build your dreams. On the things that were for you. So I love that. I love that. And everybody should do that. And let's start the hashtag. Everybody should have a side hustle, right? Like side hustle, that.
Francois Lanthier: It's awesome. And we're going back to the multiple streams of income. So this, it's very smart. How can you earn money while you sleep? That's how they're wealthy. Do it. Yes. Your job and all that, but maybe your job is more of a passion thing, that you do a passion project and your money comes from elsewhere. That's what I'm hearing more and more from other investors and high income earners. So this is excellent. I love that you only do about two hours of work per day.
Cody Yeh: I didn't say just two hours of work. I say, there's a balance for that. I just try to keep it very effective. I like to just add onto that. Usually if I book any meeting, even right now, it's only because you guys are in the REITE club. So I give an exception. Usually there's no media in the morning. Because morning is my magic hour, that's when I can pluck away on the hardest things, whether that's reviewing deals or doing things like brainstorming, and setting up goals only in the afternoon.
I'll set up calls cause that's when I'm, a little bit slower after lunch and all that. And at night I just do lighter stuff, right? Protect your hours too, even though it's hard to do at a full-time job. But I still try to do that. And then I told my boss like, can we just move the meeting to the afternoon?
I still have something to prepare, things like that. And people get used to it, right? So sometimes I look like I'm staring at my computer for four hours right at them. Morning, but I achieved a lot. Instead of just turning around and say, Hey, how was the hockey game yesterday? I have to compromise some, and we will chat about it at lunch, but not now, right? Not just randomly. You kinda have to set those rules for yourself and people quickly get used to it.
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. So I want to dig a little bit deeper here. We're, obviously, we're in real estate, Francois, depending on what day of the week you made 10 more offers and bought five more properties on real estate and things like that. And we're fully involved, and that's what we talk about for a lot. But, this is a unique situation. You have a little bit of both, right? The real estate aspect has gotten you to a certain level of success. And now , you are actually doing a little bit of stock trading.
For someone like myself that's not too familiar with it, I've bought stocks, right? There's different quest trades in all different ways that you can do it. So I've, I'm gonna say dabbled at the very, I'm even dabbling as even overstating it for myself. But for someone that is looking to get into stock trading, you mentioned day trading.
It's a big animal. So if we can break it down a little bit from your perspective, the stock trading, and little bit different of what you're doing in the day trading and the difference between the two and, how wealth is created with either one or both of those. And how we could compliment that, like Francois said, multiple streams of income, how we could compliment that with maybe real estate our own income, our own jobs, things like that that our audience can apply.
Cody Yeh: Very good question. I was a day trader for two years, from 2016 to 2018. So go back to Francois' question. From 2016 to 2018, before I quit my full-time job, I was working a lot of overtime at work at night from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM. It started work at seven 30, right? So I get off at four or five, whatever, from 5:00 PM to 11:00 PM Monday to Friday. I'm either sitting in front of my computer looking at four screens or I'm at the real estate seminar.
That was the compromise I made. And those hours I sit in front of my computer. I was spending one to two hours preparing for the day trading because I was trading the Asian market 12 hour difference. So I could do it. And now I was spending one to two hours trading and I was spending two to three hours writing reports, reflecting on exactly what happened in the market, was a part of my strategy and a little bit of my coaching.
I hired a coach that was younger, two years younger than me, a girl. And she was really good. So I hired her cuz I saw her track record, right? So I spent some time coaching there as well. At 11, I try to go to bed and wake up at six. So it's a bittersweet experience, just put it that way. But with all those, I wouldn't come up with all the strategy I'm using now, and I wouldn't be confident enough to say, if you're gonna go into day trading in order to be good.
This is what it takes and it takes years. Okay? But now the strategy I teach is that you can't have a full-time job. You can be a stay-at-home mom. You can have a lot more flexibility. You just spent 30 minutes. Once you get to know the process, just like real estate is very front end loading. Once you get that down, a lot of times just 30 minutes per day, sometimes you don't do anything.
The return on that is very impressive. That could be the casual way to sustain your lifestyle, right? And that's what's triggering me. That's why I like that, and I know the strategy I'm teaching now, the success rate is a lot higher than day trading. Day trading, yes, it seems glamorous, but actually only 5% of people make money.
Whereas this strategy, 80% to 90% of people make money if you stick to the rules. It's a lot easier for average people, and I don't want to teach, say, it doesn't matter if I become really successful, make a lot of money, it's how can I teach other people doing that? And they can slowly build up the confidence level and have that belief system.
We show all the track records from the history of what Warren Buffet did, right? This is part of the strategy that Warren Buffet does, right? And we modify it a little bit with that. And again, this is the highest and best used on my time and return on time, in my opinion. And not a lot of stress.
That's another thing, right? I used to have a lot of white hair when I was day trading. Now there's not. and my girlfriend thought I was nuts, right? Because when I was 26, all my white hair were popping out and now they were just all gone. I didn't know white hair could disappear and they do disappear.
Alfonso Salemi: I definitely know that hair can disappear . But break it down a little bit. When we talk about day trading, does that mean like you're looking at, handful stocks, several stocks? I obviously we're not gonna get into the full strategy, but the difference between the normal stock market where you're looking at, holding, buying long term , and you said it's part of Warren Buffet's strategy.
He's famous for holding onto Coca-Cola stock since it became a stock. Probably, right? But what would be the biggest difference to say if I'm buying these blue chip stocks long-term and the day trading, is that more from a real estate perspective, is that like a flip.
That I'm buying a house, I'm renting it, and then flipping it. Like how do I add value to a stock or the day trade? How do I know? And obviously the time and learning that is what you spent to do now, training your students and people that you're working with. But how does someone, where do they go to learn that?
Do they watch the tsx the, like you said, Asian markets? Like where does someone even just pick up an idea before they even call you? Because if I just come to you and say, Cody, teach me everything I'm a white canvas. What's someone that they can do on their own? Maybe spend some time before they get in contact with you?
Cody Yeh: I can answer the question backwards. So if you wanna learn more, listen to this podcast or a lot of other podcasts on my website, Codyeight.com/interviews. There's a lot of free ones. There's a lot of hosts that grill me really hard and actually get. Stamp a lot of good ideas for beginners as well.
From there, I have a YouTube channel as well, right? Just reach out to me. I can refer you to a couple books if that's really what you want. But really what I got from my alumni is that a lot of my alumni told me, Cody, I read 20 plus books. I spent hundreds of hours on YouTube. I still couldn't put it together like you do.
I wish I could spend that time taking your course. Again, not a marketing scheme, but that's what I heard. Now, going back to today's trading. Today, trading is like going to battle Every day. The market goal could go up, can go down. It looks very easy from the outside. Hey, yeah, today the market is, why don't we just buy low and sell high or opposite?
Hey, why don't we just sell high and buy low? You make money both ways, but we're actually in it. You're sitting there staring at this. There's a lot of chops. A lot of time you can get washed out, so it's almost like a flip, but you're doing a flip in a short period of time, just one day. I don't keep any position overnight, so every day I'm starting from zero.
It's a very scary feeling. It's every day I empty myself. Today I'm only as good as my last tray. Today I'm a brand new baby. And then you battle through that, through the technical analysis, through the news, through human nature. You reverse psychology to think what is the sentiment and how do you capitalize on that?
It's very demanding. Now on the other side, what I do now, yes, I stick to blue chip stocks, as some people refer to as boring stocks or very highly growth stocks that are already making money, consistently making money. So I'm not speculating. They are either the top three leaders as we're not.
I have to have a really good reason why they'll become one. Then I'm banking on that because at the end of the day, it's just like in real estate, the growth always comes back to the mean. That means it is fundamental. If the fundamental doesn't catch up, it'll eventually come back to the mean, right? So if it drops, guess what?
There's opportunity. If it goes too high, it'd be a little bit more conservative. But I can use the stock option strategy to eventually own a stock. I wanna own a good stock, a good company at a cheaper price. So if it ever comes down, hey, I get a sign at a cheaper price and I can write it on the way up, and I get.
Some premium just like an insurance company and not a lot of time you can get paid like an insurance company in the real world, right? It's almost like you can offer to buy your neighbor's house off market and you get paid $10,000 as insurance because your neighbor thought his house would go down 10% or 20%. You go in and say, if it goes down 10%, I'll buy it cause I know what to do with it, but you gotta pay me $10,000. That doesn't happen in real estate, but this is happening everyday on the stock market.
Francois Lanthier: And what kind of money, like does somebody need to get started? Do you need 10,000? Do you need a hundred? What's a reasonable amount to dabble in it?
Cody Yeh: I get that question all the time and everyone's different. Even you can start with a paper trading account as in now that I learned from. I don't wanna put in real money. I have a hundred K sitting aside, but I want to see the results on fake money first.
Everything is real, except for the fact that the money is fake. Then you can do it. Wow. I earned a couple thousand per month. Oh, okay. If I put in real money that's what I can get. Now if more, most of my alumni, just like real estate investors, just okay, now I'm done studying. Now down it. And I say I wanna do it right.
Some people put in 10, 30, 50, some people put in hundreds. It really depends, right? But I'll say you will eventually build a confidence level to the point where you can say, Hey, I wanna add more money. Cause I'm quite confident I went through a couple of small cycles where a big cycle like Covid, then they know what's like to be down, what's to be up.
Eventually, the fundamentals will catch up, right? If you know it's a good start, we'll go up for a long. , just like in real estate, the market's good will go up long term. It's okay if I buy a little bit too high or buy a little bit too low. I learned my lesson. Next time, maybe I'll, if it's crazy when there's a 30 bidding war, I'll wait for a month because a lot of people see that I have and everyone wanna put out the listing.
Guess what? A month or two after it will drop. Not really the price drop, but people will be like, oh, now there's too much supply. There will be a small gap. Maybe that's the time we go in. But don't wait for too long. It's really not time in the market. But time in the market, especially when we're getting pay a premium to wait, we're like an insurance company.
You only sell the policy. You only get paid when you sell the policy. Like insurance companies, don't wait. They can't wait. If they wait, they don't get paid a premium. But they know the probability of winning and they always set aside the. and they know the worst case. And for us, the worst case is you own a good stock. You know it will grow long term. A lot of stock is owned by Warren Buffet as well. So that's, Really how it covers all the baseline.
Alfonso Salemi: It makes a lot of sense in terms of, when you're looking at that portfolio, anything that you're doing, whether it's just investing in stock trading, opening a business whatever that you're looking to do, it's getting those fundamentals down.
Working with people that are professionals in the area, looking at the history. More than likely history repeats itself. But what do you learn from that history and what points do you come in? Cody, you've been an amazing guest and so much information and an amazing member of the REITE Club community. I'm super excited for this next part of the podcast. It's the lightning ground. So Cody, are you ready for the lightning ground?
Cody Yeh: Yes, let's go for it.
Alfonso Salemi: Awesome. Okay, so I'm gonna start with the first question and Francois, while you'll go to the second and the fourth, but alright, so let's get started with the lightning round. Cody, are you ready for the lightning round?
Cody Yeh: Yes, let's do it.
Alfonso Salemi: Awesome. Alright, so first question, what is the best advice you received from another investor or at a networking event?
Cody Yeh: I think the best advice you probably heard about that. Best advice, cause I saw that the plague behind you the other day as just do it. When I say just do it doesn't mean you blindly do it, but you get educated and you learn from someone who has a good track record. We're actually still doing it or making money doing it and just do it.
You might not hit the same number because of your lack of experience, but five years down the road, looking back you will thank yourself for doing it. Whether that's stock option or real estate, right? Dabble into it and just do it cause it really won't kill you. It will actually make you a lot stronger. So that's my take on it.
Francois Lanthier: Great advice, and I really agree with it. Taking action is super important after doing some due diligence. Of course. Our next question is, what is your favorite resource for real estate investing and I guess for stock hacking. So a book or a person or an event, or a website?
Cody Yeh: There's like for real estate, I think there's a lot like REITE Club, there's other clubs around. Really tune in on where you are and try to find the local real estate investing club because yes, they're different clubs, but a lot of the clubs are more general, but some are more area focused. But talk to the people that are in your area already doing it. So you get a firsthand or where you ever, you want to invest cuz they get a firsthand know.
Even though generally you run a number similarly, there's a small difference in terms of bylaws, in terms of regulation, in terms of rent control and just different things. Now coming to the stock on options side, I'll say start by reading a lot of Warren Buffett's, Asher even if it's a biography or just his way of thinking, where, a couple days ago I was reviewing, every year I sit here and I review his annual meeting.
I sit through the five, six hours. If two wise old men can do it for five, six hours, I can see her at five to six hour because they spread so much wisdom they have seen, almost seen at all. And yes, when the stock market is going up, everyone looks like a hero, but we want to be the last one standing, not when everything goes up.
I look like a hero, but I want to think if it comes down, I don't want to be that person over leverage. I don't want to be that person, that negative cash flow. I need to start borrowing money. I want to be that person and say, Hey, I thought about that and now I, because of that, I have more cash to buy at this time. And all my portfolios are very balanced.
Alfonso Salemi: Absorbing that information and getting that from credible sources, all different ways, discerning that, collecting that info. Yeah, that's great. Warren Buffet, obviously he's the legend, man. The goat, everybody that's like the best of the best, when you're looking at that. The third question of the lightning round, what is the attribute that has made you the most successful.
Cody Yeh: Attribute? As in personality wise or?
Alfonso Salemi: Yes, personality. If it's not your personality, another attribute, then what that's made that has at least helped you or made you successful.
Cody Yeh: I actually spent four hours with a coach sitting down and final, my real why Cody hustle so hard, and I can share on this, why a hustle so hard is because I think growing up with even studying abroad, a lot of people don't know is that, there's a point where might not have enough tuition fee to go into second year or third year.
That was 2009 when the stock market crashed, when things happened in the family and all that. And that's when I realized I don't want to ask for money. So even my parents didn't know I quit my job a year after and they're like, Cody, why now you have so much time. And Mimi outta the weekday now, right?
I'm like, yeah, I quit my job already. But it's that feeling of I don't want to ask money or for help from the family standpoint, cuz I know what they've gone through is because it's that freedom, that financial independence and that control I want to have. That's why I pushed so hard and I know that's the right way to do it in the long term.
Because if you rely on someone, anyone can fail on you. But if you rely on yourself and build a good team around it, you have so many layer of safety at the end of the day, if you really lose everything. You know how to build a backup in a year or two, right? So that's why I fight so hard.
I'm quite sure Francois and Alfonso can probably agree to this, but it's because of that. It's not really about how much money and all that. It's that freedom. I don't have to ask for money if I need to go, for example, I bought a car, I could just go buy it and I make the best decision on it. I know that cars don't appreciate much and it's a good marketing tool, and I really enjoy racing.
I just do it. I don't need to ask for any permission, and I take all the responsibility. I do. And I think that's a very powerful thing. Not a lot of people have the guts to do that, right? To say, yeah, I teach a hundred more than a hundred people, a couple hundred people. I take responsibility. I hold on to my quality because of that. Cause I'm that person standing around. I'm here for the long term.
Francois Lanthier: It's a big mindset shift for sure. So our next question is, what do you typically do on a Sunday morning ? So I guess in your downtime, which sounds like you have lots of it.
Cody Yeh: Usually, believe it or not, now that you get into a habit every morning, even a weekend, I don't wanna put it, I won't say put it to waste, but I like to do very productive things in the morning, whether that's reading, even just on weekend, like reading from the morning until noon. I wake up at the same time every day, so I do very important things in the morning.
Then after lunchtime, it's all mine. And I spend time with my girlfriend, with family and all that, but I still try to put in some work in the morning. Not, sometimes it's not just work, it's just reading or reviewing some of the webinars or, just doing very very casual things could be too. But I feel I achieved something and when I enjoy it. And I enjoy it more.
Alfonso Salemi: That's beautiful. That's awesome, Cody. Thank you so much for spending your time with us today and giving us so much information for those of the REITE club community. If they wanted to get a hold of you, how can they get in touch with you, Cody?
Cody Yeh: They can follow me on Instagram. Name is Cody Yeh or we can put the link at the bottom. I do run a free webinar for people who want to learn. No obligation to sign up for anything, but I put in a lot of good information. You can learn it from there and know where to start and stock an option, right? It's cody.com/free webinar. You go to my website, go around listening to the interviews, and sign up for the free webinar. Or, look into the course as well. They can, or follow me on Facebook. I am everywhere.
Alfonso Salemi: Awesome. And I just saw the hat in the background, so say, Yeh. Get in touch with Cody. And thank you very much for your time and for sharing your story with us today.
Cody Yeh: Thanks for having me, Francois and Alfonso.
Francois Lanthier: It was a pleasure. Cheers. Hey, Alfonso, how did you feel about this interview? Amazing content.
Alfonso Salemi: Yes. Cody what an inspirational story coming, to a whole new world, really. Immigrants coming to Canada at a young age, getting into school UFT, and really cutting his teeth are a really competitive market. It's crazy here. This post-secondary schools and then jobs afterwards.
It's very competitive. I love that he wanted to be a Formula One driver. That was, Secretly my dream, I'm too heavy and maybe too tall or not, dangerous enough to be a Formula One driver. But just taking the, that, engineering mindset and applying it to, whether it's real estate now it's a stock trading that he's doing as well too.
Now his coaching program. My takeaway there is, just don't give up. Keep trying, keep putting in that effort, put in the time. There is not a magic formula or a wand that you can just wave and all of a sudden the empire is built. It happens over time. Consistent hard work and yeah, nobody wants to hear that.
That's the unpopular thing to hear. There's, they just want it all tomorrow. But, the fortunate part is that you get to gain those experiences along the way and build that up. But how about you Francois? What were some takeaways with Cody? .
Francois Lanthier: It's just like real estate. You mentioned it already. Give it a try. So making offers, it's the same thing. Stock options. You bid I guess on different stocks and then you get some, you lose some. It's the same with properties. And as you see behind me, you go up. So with your experience and what you learn, you keep increasing knowledge, your network.
That's something else he mentioned that's huge is networking. That's why The REITE club is here. Like education. Yes. But networking. I think it is, yeah, up foremost. Anyway, tips for anybody like who you know will really influence your outcome and your success. Get involved and just do it
Alfonso Salemi: Absolutely. Think of information as food for your brain. So are you always in, popping chips and candy bars, or are you putting some good vegetables and fruits and nutrients in there. And, it's not to say you can't always have a bag of chips or something like that and, but you don't want that to be the primary.
Going into your brain, you wanna be surrounded by some good information, some healthy information, things that have been tested true and people have experienced. That's the best way. I think if you're gonna go on vacation, I would love to hear from the spot that Francois I've gone to before versus, just reading all things, personal experiences, networking, talking with people that maybe necessarily don't have a dog in the fight and they just want the best.
You can do that at The REITE Club. Our community is the best. The best Canadian real estate community that you can find out there. And we love helping others grow together. Our community helps our community. Now it's continuing to grow in the conversations and some of the amazing testimonials that we've been having.
If you want to get in touch with us, if you want to be a guest on the podcast, we'd love to have you. We'd love to hear your story, but even if it's just a testimonial, we want to hear your story. The REITE club has helped impact you or at least change your journey of your life for your family and some of the things that you want to achieve.
We want to help you get to those goals and we can all achieve them together. So Franccois, thank you so much. Thank you for being an amazing community. Advocated an integral part of the REITE Club and my co-host today on the REITE Club Podcast. And for all those out in the REITE Club community, get in touch with us. And Francois, what do we always say?
Francois Lanthier: Come and grow with us.
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