Casey’s story is fascinating. Here’s a young man who read Kiyosaki and Allen, and who is trying to find riches by following their advice. He’s trying to make money quickly, and is struggling<\/b>, but is willing to share the gory details. In one entry, Casey writes that he and his wife are running out of money. They’ve been living on credit cards, which are now maxed out. He’s afraid he might have to get a job.<\/p>\n I can’t just do a job. I do not want to give up my dream of financial independence. If I get a full-time job, I will continue doing my business and investing on the side. Finding time to do both will be hard (tried it before many times). If I must do that, I will. But it will probably take much longer to reach my goals.<\/p>\n An hourly job has limited earnings potential. Getting a 3% raise every year is not my idea of upwardly mobile. Making $25\/hour writing code seems like a waste of time when I can sell a real estate contract for $5,000 after doing 5 hours of work = that’s $1000\/hour!<\/p>\n So if I can work really hard for one month and find just 2 deals, I can make $10,000. That’s much better return on my time.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Casey received many responses (the comments are the best part of the site), some helpful, some angry, some flabbergasted. Some are all of these at once.<\/p>\n You’ve just nailed the difference between fantasy and reality.<\/b> […] You are in the process of learning the difference between GAMBLING and INVESTING. Everything you’ve done so far has been gambling. Investing requires that one balance the risk with the rewards, diversify, and be dedicated. Some investments will fail, but a wise investor won’t have too much tied up in any single thing (like real estate purchased on a guru-drunken binge). Investments are made with money that one could stand to lose. Investing is not done by leveraging oneself up to the eyeballs and beyond, hoping for a miracle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Langemeier, Kiyosaki, and Allen are inspirational. Some of their ideas may even be useful. (Prlinkbiz \u2014 who I’m sure will have something to say about this entry \u2014 is a huge Kiyosaki fan, and seems to be making his principles work for her.) But these folks preach that their methods are sure-fire ways to wealth and success. They overpromise in an attempt to sell books and seminars.<\/b> Langemeier says she’s created 200 millionaires, and that she can make one out of anybody. Yet I can find no independent evidence that this has occurred. I’m not saying that it hasn’t<\/i> happened, but I’m skeptical.<\/p>\n The only sure-fire way to wealth and success is to spend less than you earn<\/a><\/b>, to save the difference, and to invest that savings for growth.<\/i><\/p>\n Casey stopped by Get Rich Slowly yesterday and had this to say:<\/p>\n I don’t see why a person CANNOT get rich quick… but still do it in an honest and safe way. Whenever you hear “Get Rich Quick” you think somethhing bad.<\/p>\n And yes, if you read my story, it DOES sound like i’m just a big screw-up. AND YES.. I did do some stuff that I am NOT proud of (liar loans). However, I am learning my lessons and hoping to make a comeback.<\/p>\n I am determined to find a way to make an honest buck in real estate in a down market. My mentor “Rich Dad” did it. It took him only about 10 years. Now he has 20K+\/mo in PASSIVE income from REAL ESTATE.<\/p>\n Is 10 years too quick? What about 5 years?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That’s an interesting question. How quick is<\/i> too quick?<\/p>\n It’s not impossible to get rich quickly \u2014 the day before I wrote about Casey, I shared advice on how to handle sudden wealth<\/a> \u2014 but it’s dangerous to focus on quick wealth as a goal. I’m convinced that people get rich quickly by chance, not by intention. If get rich quick schemes worked, more people would do them. You’d read and hear documented<\/i> tales of success. But they don’t work. They’re mostly scams designed to transfer money from saps like Casey into the hands of others.<\/p>\n My advice for Casey is this:<\/p>\n If you have a burning passion to make these sorts of plans succeed, then pursue them with only a portion of your finances. Follow tried and true personal finance wisdom with most of your money. Take 90% of what you earn, and do the boring stuff with it: pay off debt<\/a>, start an emergency fund<\/a>, invest for retirement. You are so young right now<\/a>, that if you would invest just $5000 each year until you’re 50, you could retire then as a millionaire. (Assuming 10% returns.) This is with almost no risk. Why try to get rich all at once? Why not ride it out?<\/p>\n If you’re dead-set on trying to get rich quickly, then don’t use all of your capital to do so. Do the safe stuff with 90% of your money. Save the remaining 10% to make real estate purchases. If you strike it rich, great. But if you don’t, then at least you haven’t mortgaged your future. This isn’t ideal for most people, but you have the drive and desire, so it gives you something to play with. But this means that you’ll have to work in order to meet your goals.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I don’t want to kick Casey’s dreams. Dreams are good, and I think people should pursue them with gusto. Too many people make a practice of telling others why their plans won’t work instead of lending support. But when your dreams are at odds with reality, you need to re-evaluate.<\/p>\n Casey Serin<\/a> of I Am Facing Foreclosure<\/a> held a two-hour conference call to take questions from readers and to explain his situation. I didn’t hear the call, but I did read the entire<\/i> transcript (part one, part two).<\/p>\n For those of you unfamiliar with him, Casey Serin is the Napoleon Dynamite<\/a> of real estate investing.<\/b> He took real estate seminars from Russ Whitney<\/a> and read books by Carleton Sheets<\/a>. He bought into the “get rich quick” mentality. In October, the San Francisco Gate<\/i> wrote<\/a>:<\/p>\n After spending a year and upward of $15,000 (borrowed on credit cards) going to real estate seminars and buying home education courses from everyone from Russ Whitney to Bruce Norris and, of course, the aforementioned Robert “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” Kiyosaki, Serin embarked on his brilliant career as a real estate flopper, er, flipper. “I wanted to move toward financial independence,” he told me by phone from his home in Sacramento, referring to “passive income,” a key tenet of the “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” scriptures (“Don’t work for money, allow money to work for you”).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Most people take these seminars and read these books but never do anything. Serin heeded the advice of these gurus. In his own words, he “bought 8 houses in 8 months in 4 states with no money down looking to fix ‘n flip.” He bought these houses between October 2005 and May 2006, after the U.S. real estate market had already begun to decline. He ended up $2.2 million in debt, and he’s been blogging about it<\/a> ever since.<\/p>\n Serin’s story bugs a lot of people.<\/b> He made many mistakes<\/a>. He lied on his loan applications (and continues to rationalize this by saying it’s “industry standard policy”). He exhibits no regret. He continues to live a normal (even lavish) lifestyle despite being deep in debt. He refuses to pay anything on his debt because he doesn’t think it’ll make any difference. He refuses to take a job. He doesn’t take any action to improve his situation. He seems to be a publicity whore. Despite his failures, he believes that he can still get rich quick in real estate if he only finds some sweet deals<\/b><\/i>.<\/p>\n I don’t get angry at Serin. I just think he’s dumb. He continues to pursue a way of life that is just not tenable. He’s trying to bypass the “hard work” portion of the American Dream<\/a>. I consider his story a stark counterpoint to my message of “get rich slowly”.<\/b> (Trivia: Casey went to high school with Ramit of I Will Teach You to Be Rich<\/a>. The former tried to get rich quickly and failed. The latter teaches sensible entrepreneurship and personal finance advice, and has succeeded.)<\/p>\n As I said, I read the entire transcript of Serin’s two-hour conference call. It’s an amazing glimpse into the mind of a young man who wants wealth now<\/i>. Since I know most people don’t have the time to wade through the entire thing, I’ve culled the best parts to share here.<\/p>\n The first thing that strikes you when reading Serin’s stuff is that he doesn’t seem to have learned his lesson<\/b>. He’s two million dollars in debt, but he’s still convinced that there’s a quick fix for this mess.<\/p>\n Besides real estate<\/b>, I’m also looking at other opportunities. With this exposure I’ve had, I’ve made a lot of interesting contacts in different industries, not just real estate. I’m talking with a gentleman in Southern California who’s a silver broker, for example. The silver and gold and precious metal<\/b> market right now is on the rise, and whenever there’s turbulence, or any kind of a war, or anything crazy with the economy, that’s a good place to put your money. I’m definitely looking at that. I’m looking at stocks, but individual stocks, not mutual funds \u2014 the performers, the companies that are about to take off, that you’re able to make some money; for example, with penny stocks<\/b>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n I want to mail Serin a box of personal finance books. I want to send him Dave Ramsey, Your Money or Your Life<\/i>, the words of John Bogle. I want him to read real personal finance advice that works. But I’m afraid the books would go unread. (Does anyone have his address or know how to get it? Maybe I really will<\/i> send him some personal finance books.)<\/p>\n At times Serin seems to have learned something. Regarding “no money down” deals, he says:<\/p>\n If I was putting my own cash down, I would have been a lot more careful.<\/b> That’s what happens when you have a real down payment. Anybody out there who’s looking to do a no money down deal, I say, you have to be careful. Don’t treat the no money down as just a free deal for you.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n But other times it seems he hasn’t learned a thing:<\/p>\n I love those no doc loans, they’re the best because you’re never stating anything so no one can ever go back and say you were lying on your application.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n One caller tried to explain the concept of “buy low, sell high” to Serin, but he didn’t want to hear it.<\/p>\n CS:<\/b> Well, you know, if you’re going to do flipping in a down market, here’s the biggest thing. Buying is going to be easy. There’s tons of people giving houses away, including myself. You come to me; I’ll give you my houses away. Just take them over, or whatever; save me from foreclosure. So, buying is not going to be the hard part. Selling is the tough part. You have to get really good at selling your properties, and in a down market, you probably don’t want to buy anything that’s not a first-time-buyer home. Serin isn’t interested in a long-term strategy. He wants his money now<\/i>. He doesn’t see that this is precisely where he’s going wrong. While he’s focused on quick riches, he’s neglecting basic personal finance. For example:<\/p>\n I thought at the beginning it would be such an awesome story, a comeback story and show so much success to be able to pay everything back, but at the same time I think I had a bit of a wishful thinking going on, because I didn’t realize when I first started what kind of a hole I was in.<\/b> The hole’s so big that at this point, I’m really out of options.<\/p>\n Yeah, but here’s what’s going to happen. I pay a credit card \u2014 even fifty bucks \u2014 that doesn’t do anything to the collection process. Here’s what happens: it’s going to go and get discharged, and then they’re going to try to sue me and try to get that money. So that fifty bucks could have been used better in something where I can actually make money, perhaps doing another deal \u2014<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And:<\/p>\n GDS:<\/b> What’s your FICO now? The end of the conference call is the best part. A caller named Nacho tries to push Serin to think about his situation, about the things he’s done.<\/p>\n CS:<\/b> Not everyone’s going to be successful and self-employed. But don’t you know self-employed doctors or lawyers or successful realtors or anybody who doesn’t have a W-2 but still makes money? It’s not like W-2’s the only\u2026 Casey Serin may or may not be a good guy. I can’t tell. He seems likeable enough. But he has succumbed to the idea that the best way to make money is through tricks and games. I’m not saying that you have to be a wage slave all your life in order to get money to save for retirement. But there are clear, safe paths to wealth and happiness. They take time. They take effort. My goal is explore these paths with you. It’s too bad Casey’s not along for the journey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Robert Kiyosaki, Robert Allen, and Loral Langemeier would have you believe that in order to get rich all you need to do is throw your money into real estate, sit back, and let the profits come. It’s not that simple.<\/b> There’s risk involved. You have to know what you’re doing.<\/p>\n Jon forwarded a link to what he calls “a personal finance trainwreck”. He writes: “If this guy is for real (and there appears to be some suspicion about that) then, wow. Unbelievable.” Casey at iamfacingforeclosure.com thought he could make a killing at real estate. He wanted to reach Financial Independence quickly.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/dallasproperty.jpg\" "\\"One")
I’m a 24-year-old aspiring real estate investor from Sacramento, California. After going to few seminars I bought eight houses in eight months across four states with no money down<\/a>. I fixed and sold two and then ran out of cash. I am now facing foreclosure on six<\/s> five houses. I’m learning my lessons, finding solutions and blogging about it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/casey.jpg\" "\\"Casey")
You can see television interviews with Casey (choose “House Flipper Part One” or “House Flipper Part Two” from the menu in the middle of the page). His story is also featured in two articles from the San Francisco Chronicle<\/i>:<\/p>\n\n
Follow-Up on Casey Serin, the Man Who Would Be Rich<\/h2>\n
$2 Million in Debt in Two Years<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/images\/serin.gif\" "\\"Casey")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/napoleondynamite.jpg\" "\\"Napoleon")
<\/div>\n
\n[…]\nSC2K2:<\/b> I just can’t handle how brainwashed you’ve been by all those seminars.
\nCS:<\/b> Oh, yeah?
\nSC2K2:<\/b> The way you make money in a down market, is you wait for the prices to bottom; you buy in paying very little; and then you sell when they’ve gone way up.<\/b> Yeah, your Rich Dad probably \u2014
\nCS:<\/b> That’s the long-term strategy. Are you saying you can’t do quick flips on the way down?
\nSC2K2:<\/b> You know, Casey, there’s no way you would be able to handle quick flips.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nCS:<\/b> I actually don’t know because I haven’t logged into Washington Mutual in a while and I probably should have done that before this call, but last time I checked it was in the high 400’s, 490 I believe or something along those lines. It might be lower now because I’m going to have two official foreclosures showing up on my record any time.
\nGDS:<\/b> Well, it doesn’t go below 450, so it doesn’t get much \u2014
\nCS:<\/b> It might be interesting to see if I might be a person that actually gets a 450 FICO score<\/b>. I might be one of the few amongst some of my friends. I’m hoping other people don’t do the same thing I did.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nNACHO:<\/b> But you haven’t been successful! So isn’t it time to try something else? Supplement your side jobs with a real job.
\nCS:<\/b> Well, you know, I never said I’m not going to get one. I’m definitely considering that, and since I do still have money coming in through some of those other sources, it allows me to stay flexible so I can still kind of be in real estate a little bit, and other opportunities.
\nNACHO:<\/b> Do you understand that the real estate market is tanking? Do you have a grasp of that?
\nCS:<\/b> Oh, yeah. That’s why I’m looking at other investing opportunities, not just real estate.
\nNACHO:<\/b> And do you understand that you bought in at the worst possible time? You do understand that, right?
\nCS:<\/b> It’s not like you can’t make money in a down market. My local Rich Dad, he made his fortune in the last downturn in California. But of course he had a lot more experience.
\nNACHO:<\/b> Did he have decent credit? Was he able to secure loans?
\nCS:<\/b> Well, he could secure loans. He had money partners. He had mentors. See, I kind of started off without any mentors guiding me, and that’s kind of one of my problems. And I didn’t have any construction experience.
\nNACHO:<\/b> You know what, Casey? I don’t think mentors is your problem. I think you’ve got enough with these guru mentors. I think that that’s the last thing you need. What you need is a swift kick in the ass, from somebody who’s going to tell you the truth. Seriously. Someone who’s going to tell you the truth.
\nCS:<\/b> I appreciate you being upfront and giving me a little dose of reality, as you said.
\nNACHO:<\/b> Well, that’s how I roll. I’m always trying to keep it real. I’m just trying to let you know, man, that you need to start looking at things differently. You’ve been going a certain way and it’s not working out for you, and you really need to change the way you’re viewing life.<\/b>
\nCS:<\/b> Well, I appreciate it.
\nNACHO:<\/b> Because everybody that you owe money to is going to get shafted, and then, in turn, taxpayers are going to have to pay \u2014 you know, foot the bill.
\nNACHO:<\/b> Are you worried about going to jail?
\nCS:<\/b> I’ve already kind of addressed it, but the thing is, if I live my life in fear, what good is that going to do?
\nNACHO:<\/b> And you don’t think that you deserve to go? You don’t think that what you did was basic thievery?
\nCS:<\/b> Well, the thing is I wasn’t out to rob banks, I was out to make a business, and I screwed up.
\nNACHO:<\/b> But Casey, you got everything fraudulently. Come on, you knew in your heart that that was the wrong thing to do.
\nCS:<\/b> Part of me was thinking that maybe I shouldn’t be doing stated income loans, because even though everyone seems to be OKAY with it, I had a little bit of a gut instinct. I should have listened to it; you’re right.
\nNACHO:<\/b> And you understand that when you do things wrong like that, sometimes you have to pay the piper?
\nCS:<\/b> Oh, yeah. And do you think I’m paying the piper?
\nNACHO:<\/b> No, not yet. Not by any means, no.
\nCS:<\/b> You don’t think that all the financial stress and the issues I’m going through is not enough?
\nNACHO:<\/b> Absolutely not, Casey. I think you should be out there working your ass off \u2014 two jobs if necessary \u2014 paying five bucks a month on every single bill if that’s what it takes to pay this stuff down.<\/b> I think you should be calling your creditors and making some sort of payment arrangement for you to \u2014
\nCS:<\/b> You know what? Check this out; put yourself in my shoes. Even if I get three or five or ten jobs right now I’m not going to be able to catch all my loans up, so they’re going to go to collections, and they’re going to start suing me. So if the only good thing I can really do right now is bankruptcy protection or refinance all those loans.
\nNACHO:<\/b> If you pay five dollars a month on any bill, they can’t send it to collection, Casey, do you understand that?
\nCS:<\/b> Sure, they can.
\nNACHO:<\/b> No, they can’t.
\nCS:<\/b> If I don’t pay the full monthly payment \u2014 I can’t just keep letting them go\u2026 That means I can just pay a dollar on all my loans and they’ll just keeping indefinitely. They’re not going to do that.
\nNACHO:<\/b> I’m not talking about the foreclosure loans, I’m talking about the credit card bills.
\nCS:<\/b> Even the credit cards.
\nNACHO:<\/b> Casey, you have to do something to try and right this wrong. Who’s the guy who has the blog – I am [$334,442 in unsecured debt. I am 23. Will I make it ?] dollars, whatever the hell it is, in debt.
\nCS:<\/b> Yeah, the guy eating Ramen and stuff. Yeah, he’s eating Top Ramen; he’s doing all this other stuff.
\nNACHO:<\/b> He’s doing the right things. If you would do those things, people would be behind you.<\/b> People would be giving you suggestions and telling you what to do. Do you understand that?
\nCS:<\/b> Well, you might have a good point there. But I wonder if that guy’s really for real, though. Do you think a person can survive on Top Ramen for six months?
\nNACHO:<\/b> Oh, yeah. Sure.
\nCS:<\/b> Do you think he can eat that crap and still be healthy and still be safe?
\nNACHO:<\/b> Yeah, throw some vegetables in there. Casey, the last thing you need to worry about right now, seriously, is eating your vegan \u2014 your mildly vegan \u2014 seriously, you throw some vegetables and a little bit of whatever, some chicken in the Top Ramen, and it’s fine. Have some beans and rice; that’s fine. Buy a big-ass bag of beans and a big-ass bag of rice and cook it up. Have oatmeal for breakfast \u2014<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
I’m a 24-year-old aspiring real estate investor from Sacramento, California. After going to few seminars I bought eight houses in eight months across four states with no money down<\/a>. I fixed and sold two and then ran out of cash. I am now facing foreclosure on six<\/s> five houses. I’m learning my lessons, finding solutions and blogging about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31919,484],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}