Podcast 64. Setting Goals as a New RE Investor with Calvin Blankenship

Average Joe Finances:
0:00

This is average Joe finances podcast, episode 64. If you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you smash that like button and click subscribe. For those of you listening on a podcast platform, be sure to subscribe on whatever platform that is and leave us a rating. If you can. The more likes ratings and subscriptions that we get, the more we can spread the message and grow our community. So we also have a free Facebook group. It's called the average show finances. Check us out. Join the group, join the community, ask questions and become a part of the team. All of our other social media accounts are listed in our flow page and we have them in the video or podcast description. Below thing that I realized was especially in the lower ranks of enlisted, you don't get paid that much. So the best way to do things is to be as frugal as possible and don't spend as much and just save, save, save, save. You know, have that bundle of money, ready to invest whenever you find the right vehicle to deploy that, that money. Welcome to the average Joe finances podcast. Are you trying to get out of debt invest or just not sure what a start then? This is the place for you. We discussed different ways to get out of the rat race and build your. Join us on this wild ride to financial freedom. Hey, how's it going everybody? So today's guest is Calvin Blankenship and he's 22 years old in the United States Navy, like me. And he's an active duty corpsman, which is for those of you that don't know what a corpsman is in the Navy. He's, he's basically a medic, right? So he has had an entropy entrepreneurial mindset since the age of 16 and he's, he tried his hand in network marketing. He ultimately came to the conclusion that his goals were to replace his military income with passive and active real estate income as fast as possible. So he's looking to do this in less than three years after he crushes that he plans to scale and create his very own syndication company. So Calvin, you've got some huge goals and aspirations. I'm really excited to talk about that with you today. Thanks for joining me, Mike. Thanks for having me on. All right, right on. So, Hey, the first thing I want to ask you is the same thing. I ask everybody that comes on the show. And you know, I shared a little bit about you about your background but I'd like to know a little bit more. And so my listeners, so if you could share a little bit about yourself, share your story. Where did this all start for you?

Calvin Blankenship:
2:28

Started when I was 16 had some good mentors, some good friends surrounding me. They got into network marketing or direct sales. I got involved with direct sales company. Tried my hand at that for a little bit. Didn't really work out for me. I saw that the business model was kind of tough to make a passive income, and then eventually found that V real estate as a vehicle. Create a life of financial freedom and a consistent passive income was the best way for me to, you know, have financial and time freedom throughout my whole life. So ever since 16, I've set my eyes on that goal and I'm going to continue to do that until I achieve it.

Average Joe Finances:
3:03

Okay. Right on. So tell me a little bit about why you decided to join the Navy. Like what made you go from, you know, you were 16. And you were, you were trying your hand at this network marketing thing realized it wasn't really what you were looking for. And then you joined the Navy. So what, what brought you?

Calvin Blankenship:
3:20

Yeah, that's crazy you askthat the real honest answer is my goal in life was to not, not necessarily for, you know, just complete financial freedom and time freedom. But if I was going to make millions of dollars, I felt like I should. Should have earned that in some way and the way that I am in my eyes, the best way to earn that is to serve the country and be deserving of that, that lifestyle and freedom. So that's a big reason why I joined was to, to justify having that nice lifestyle that I've always wanted and say that I earned it.

Average Joe Finances:
3:50

Yeah. Right on. So, you know, your, your big goal was to make sure that you were, you know, putting in that work and that effort yourself, that it wasn't, you know, you didn't want to make it look like it was handled. Right, right. Either either way, it seems like with your mindset and the way that you're trying to do things, you were going to earn it anyway, you know, the way you were going to get your, you know, get there. So choosing to join the military as a means to an end, you know, and also for your reasons for doing it, you know, you want, you want to serve the country and everything. That's, that's all admirable and that's, that's awesome. And and I want to say, thank you for that. For sure. You've been in for four years, right. I'm actually getting ready to hit my 19 year mark. And as we discussed before we started recording, we have the same Navy birthday. So coming up here July 10th, by the time this episode airs, you know, that that would have already passed, but I'm getting ready to hit my 19 year mark. You're hitting your four or five-year mark

Calvin Blankenship:
4:40

four year mark.

Average Joe Finances:
4:40

Awesome, fantastic. So four years. And so throughout your time, so far, The Navy has different opportunities or just the military in general has different opportunities to, you know, save money and invest. They don't really advertise it too much. So is there anything that you've done since you've joined the Navy to try to start building your wealth?

Calvin Blankenship:
4:59

Yes. The first thing that I realized was, especially in the lower ranks of enlisted, you don't get paid that much. So the best way to do things is to be as frugal as possible and don't spend as much and just. Save save, save, and then, you know, have that bundle of money ready to invest whenever you find the right vehicle to deploy that, that money

Average Joe Finances:
5:20

right on. Yeah. So save, save, save. So is that, is that what you've been doing? You've been saving up right now, you're saving up and you said to find that right vehicle. what is that vehicle that you're going to use to build your wealth?

Calvin Blankenship:
5:30

right now that, that money that I've saved up as, other than not using it as a. We're using it for a primary residence thatlump sum of the cash is what I want to use to get my foot in the door of a commercial real estate and large multi-family deals, because I believe that's the, that's one of the fastest ways to create that, that massive passive income that everyone wants to just buy multiple as many doors as you can under one roof.

Average Joe Finances:
5:53

Yeah, absolutely. I don't know if you've listened to some of my previous episodes. I've I've had several multifamily syndicators on the. Including somebody with a similar name to you even though you're not related or you might be not really sure, but I'm sure you've listened to the episode with Ramsey. You know, one of the things that we talk about, especially when it comes to like large multi-family properties is just the economy of scale, right. And how much quickly or more quickly you can scale up your, your net worth your passive income and all of that by forced appreciation. So many other things, right. You wanting to start off in, you know, large multi-family and commercial real estate is really awesome because most people will start off with like some single family rentals they'll have that for a couple of years, pay them down a little bit, sell them, take the equity from that, or the profits from that, and then get into something like this. So you're, you're trying to hit it big from the beginning, which is, which is pretty awesome, man. And the other thing you said is Part of what you're saving up for is also your primary, but do you, really need that or are you going to use a VA loan? What are you looking to do right now with your primary?

Calvin Blankenship:
6:56

So, and my market car market, San Diego, it's really hard. Obviously my goal would to be, to use the VA for zero down, for up to a fourplex. However, out here in San Diego fourplexes can range from, you know, 1 million to 1.3 million. When you're looking at those kinds of loans, the problem that I've ran into is having six months reserves and closing costs. Hopefully the goal is obviously not to pay anything down and get closing costs covered, but to qualify for those big loans, you still have to have the six months reserve. So I could have that money in my bank account just in case I need to use that as proof of funds.

Average Joe Finances:
7:30

That's a good reason to have it, you know, hopefully I'm knocking on wood. That you can, you can find something like that. That's ideal in San Diego, get yourself a quadplex yeah, yeah. Market's tough right now for everybody. So it's, it's just one of those things that, this too shall pass, but at the same time, you don't want to wait for opportunity to pass by either. So you're, you're doing the right thing by continuing your search and, and until you find that right place. Now you chose real estate as your vehicle for wealth building and you, and you, you know, you gave some pretty good reasons why I want to get a little more into the root cause of that though. Is there a specific reason why real estate is the, main vehicle you want to use? I know you said it's one of the quickest ways to build wealth, but what a lot of people don't realize is real estate is one of those get rich, slowly things, right? Because here you'll build up your passive income and you can. Pretty quickly, but when it comes to like your net worth and everything else, it's not going to just jump to a million bucks after you buy a couple of properties. So what is it that you're looking to build right now?

Calvin Blankenship:
8:35

I'm definitely in it for the long game. What I've found with real estate compared to any other type of investment is once you get good at it and you have enough. And you can put systems in place and delegate. It's it's very, hands-off like at the beginning, yes. You're going to be working and it's going to be almost like another full-time job, but eventually as you get experienced and you have more units, you put systems into place. You can have passive income with multiple doors and you can be hands-off. You can have someone managing your properties and you're getting paid every month for someone else to manage your properties. And the better you get, the more hands-off you are. And the less time it takes to manage your.

Average Joe Finances:
9:13

Fantastic answer. Love it. For my listeners the reason why I'm asking questions like this is I'm trying to get a little more detail, trying to squeeze a little bit out of Calvin here, because he is new to the game when it comes to searching for real estate. He's just starting his. Which is really awesome because there's a lot of you out there listening, you're getting ready to start your journey. This is a good way to see, how to do it, how to put these systems in place and how to build it. So, Calvin, I want to ask you, like, as you're, you're looking for these different properties, You know, is there specific criteria that you have in mind for your primary residence right now? I know what you want to do is get a fourplex, right? Obviously you want to live in one of the units and rent the other three out. And for those of you listening, that's called house hacking. What made you decide that house hacking is the right way to start this off?

Calvin Blankenship:
10:01

Right? Just from, you know, reading books, listening to podcasts and watching YouTube videos. Taking advantage of that VA loan that everyone in the military has the best way to either create cash flow and control. And an asset is to as to house hack. So you can get up to four units with a VA loan. through the market research and everything, finding, living in one and renting out the others is how you is, how you can get close to cashflow and control an asset. That's appreciating hopefully most of the. It's just, it seems like the best way to do things instead of just having like a single family home. And you're, you're paying the, the BAH are just covering the mortgage. You're not getting paid to live there, so

Average Joe Finances:
10:39

And for those of you listening that, aren't military, or haven't served in the military know qualify for a VA loan, this is you can do something similar with an FHA loan by putting three and a half percent down, which is significantly less than having to put 20 to 25% down depending on your lender, right? Cause usually buying a multi-family, especially if you're not going to live in it, you're normally going to have to put 25% down. So yeah, you're, you're definitely going about this the right way. Right. So you're going to, essentially, once you find that right property, you're going to be able to live in it for free and maybe make a little bit of a profit on the side. Now what's the plan. Do you plan to stay in that for two years? And then possibly rent out the unit you're living in and go find another one. Like what's how do you want to scale this up? Or is that going to be while you're there? You save up all your money and then go right into commercial real estate. What's what's what's the next. After the quadplex once you nail this thing down?

Calvin Blankenship:
11:31

right so kind of to, to pass a thought on this one, you have my, I have my primary residence for the VA. The goal for that side is to get out as fast as possible, right. Live there for a year and then get out and either find another VA property to refinance that until I can conventional loan or something. So I can free up that VA loan. On the other hand, I'm still going to be actively looking to do. Big commercial deals. I may not have the capital, but I can also bring time and market research to and value to other people to get my foot in the door, to those bigger deals. So I'm going to kind of be working two angles at the same time.

Average Joe Finances:
12:05

Okay. Yeah. That's a great strategy. I hear you know, a lot of people that do that when they're first starting. Is, to get your foot in the door, providing some type of service, like, Hey, I'm, I'm here to help you. You know, it's not about what can you give me? It's what can I do to help you? You know, as you're, you're moving further, along in your journey. All right. That's fantastic. So it sounds like you have a pretty good plan, but the thing is right now getting to that first property. I like, if you could just kind of walk me through where you're at right now in this process. Cause I know that particular market that you're in is really tough. And probably, based off the stuff we talked about before we recorded, some people would probably just throw their hands up and say, this is impossible. I'm just going to rent and I'll try it again later. So tell me why you haven't and stopped your search.

Calvin Blankenship:
12:50

Right? So for, so for all your listeners out there, I'm in San Diego. And to be honest, the way with the San Diego market. Duplexes triplexes. And quadplexes rarely pencil out with how expensive they are now. So I'm still going. I'm still analyzing deals. I'm still analyzing condos, like one bed, one bath, just because if I can find a cheap one, I can still cashflow on my BAH, technically, because for all the, that are in the military and you're getting BAH, you get a certain amount of money per month. If I get a mortgage and it covers all my mortgage and expenses. Cashflow on that single family residence, as long as all the expenses are under my BAH, as far as the multiunit goes, you just have to keep looking. You have to read books, have a good realtor that knows the market and figure out what kind of rents that you're going to command depending on the zip code and area. So some areas it's tougher than others, but you never know if you keep looking, you could find a deal as far as. Giving up and wanting to rent. Like, I, I feel you, like, I've been looking for months now and I've analyzed hundreds of deals. I've been to countless home showings and put in offers and just what the market being crazy right now. I'm getting beat out by, you know, at least 20,000 over asking and you have to be patient. There's no reason to fall into the trap. Being desperate and putting in, you know, 20,000 over asking, you know, waiving contingencies. It doesn't have to be like that. And you just keep, keep looking and eventually you'll find a deal and that all worked out, but patience is the main thing.

Average Joe Finances:
14:17

Patients is a virtue. That is a hundred percent fact. So you know, you said something that I, I never really thought about. And you're saying that you're going to cashflow your BAH right by buying a condo that would be under your BAH. And that way you can pay for it with their BAH instill pocket, some of it maybe towards your next real estate investment. Right. Right. And one of the things that I want to point out about that that is so awesome. And what a lot of people like, you know, you don't really think about BAH as what it really is. Right. And what I mean by that is I'm starting to confuse myself as I'm trying to explain it, but BAH, so for those of you not in the military BAH is a tax-free allowance that is given to military personnel for housing. It's it's meant to supplement our income so we can afford to live in the areas where we're stationed at with BAH being tax-free, if you buy a piece of real estate and you're paying for that with your BH, you're paying for an asset that depreciates that you can claim on your taxes and get taxes back with something that you're not getting taxed on. And it's actually David Pere from a, from military and millionaire actually explains it a lot better than I'm trying to right now. So go give him a listen sometime, but it's, it's just a, another way to be able to pay for an asset and still be able to claim some of those taxes back all while not paying any taxes on it at all. It's, it's simply amazing. And if you're doing it with the VA loan, now you did this without putting any money down. So it's kind of a no brainer. So for those of you in the military and you, you're not buying. And you're, you know, you're continuing to rent. Think about what you're doing with that money that you're using to rent, or are you just throwing it away? You're paying somebody else. You know, you're paying another landlord and you're you're becoming their passive cashflow when you can be getting it yourself. Right. So I want to, I just wanted to touch on that a bit because I've, I've never heard somebody describe you know, paying for. You know, real estate with their BAH, but, you know, having it let, having their mortgage be less than their BH and counting that as cashflow. I guess you kind of can, right. You, you can kind of count that as cashflow because now. You know, this extra money. Let's take a brief moment to hear from our show sponsors. What's going on everybody. So today I want to talk to you about Buzzsprout the average Joe finances podcasts recently switched over to Buzzsprout and I got to say, I am super happy with the progress. Our podcast is now on every single major platform and reaching audiences that we couldn't reach before, which is just super awesome. Thank you to Buzzsprout for being such a great platform. But also I want to say, Hey guys, if you sign up for Buzzsprout and you sign up for one of their paid plans using our link, you'll get a $20 Amazon gift card. So go check them out. It's averagejoefinances.com/buzzsprout and we'll make sure the link is in the show notes below what's going on everybody. So today I want to talk to you about the podcast editing service that we use for the average Joe finances. That is editpods.com. And what I really like about them is it's a subscription-based service. So the prices are fantastic. And not only do they do the podcast episodes for us, but they also make us videos, audio grams, social media, caption videos. They do our show notes, thumbnails. It's just fantastic products. Go check them out at editpods.com. Let's get back to today's episode. You're listening to the average Joe finances podcast, whether it's single or multi-family real estate, the stock market, or side hustles, we discuss it all strap in and enjoy the ride.

Calvin Blankenship:
17:52

Yeah. So this is how I think about it. Like, so say you get$2,000 a month BAH, right? I could easily go rent something for$1,500 and I could say, Hey, I'm cashflow in $500 a month BAH, but I could find a cheap, I could find a cheap condo that could have the same mortgage, but that could be owning and controlling the asset, paying down the mortgage collecting the, the deppreciation and collecting the appreciation when I sell. So for me, it's a, it's a no brainer. Like make the sacrifice, find something that's cheaper. There's, there's no reason for me to, to live a lavish lifestyle right now with, with my goals. So find something cheap, find something that the mortgage and the expenses are less than BAH cashflow on it. And then you're controlling the asset instead of just renting. And you don't have the.

Average Joe Finances:
18:38

Yeah, you can rent the place for 1500, like you said, and pocket that other 500 and save that for later. You know, knowing most military folks will take that 500 and turn into a car payment or the car payment will be more than that. So yeah, it's definitely a great way to look at it because now, like you said, you're, you're able to claim that depreciation as the property goes up in value, you're getting that appreciation. So when you turn around and go sell it, and as long as you've lived in it for two years, you're not gonna be paying capital gains taxes on it. Being in the military, you don't get it. You only gonna live in it for two years out of the last 10, I believe right now, which is, which is pretty amazing. So you obviously you're goal oriented. You know what it is that you want and you are attacking it from a couple of different angles, but the thing is you're not changing your goal and you're not changing our mindset even with how, how tough the market is. right now. And you probably getting a lot of nos. I know we talked about before, you've, you've put in several offers, a written several offers and you've you've you said you've already analyzed , over a hundred deals. That takes time, you know, and, but the thing is you're going to put in the time and the effort in the end, when you finally get what you're looking for, that benefit and what you actually get will be worth all that time and effort you put into it. I don't need to tell that to you. You already know that because that's the mindset you have. And it's good that you started with the mindset before you even joined the Navy., like that you said at 16, you already knew that you wanted to be an entrepreneur. Right? It took me a long time after being in the military to realize, Hey when I retire, that's not going to be enough to live off of. I need to figure something else out. So a couple of years ago, that's when I started looking at real estate. And you know, it's between that you know, real estate and there's, there's so many different ways to get passive cashflow. Right. And the thing is, once you build up these different, passive cash flows, when you, when you get out or retire, like there's, there's a lot of folks that I know that are in the military that aren't even gonna stay till retirement because they don't need to, they've moved up enough cashflow that they've completely replaced their income. And that's what you're trying to do yourself, and you've got a goal to do that in the next three years. As long as you keep pressing the way you are, you're absolutely going to get there, which is awesome, man. With real estate being the vehicle that you chose, and I know I'm rambling here, but I wanna, I want to try to touch onto a couple of other things. Is there any other asset classes that you currently invest in? Are you in the stock market, crypto or anything like that?

Calvin Blankenship:
21:01

Yeah I dabble, in stocks and a little bit of crypto. I eventually. Being an entrepreneur, I want to have multiple, the more streams of income you have, the more stable your income is so I'm definitely into stocks researched had like a gross stock before portfolio and a, in a dividend yield portfolio kind of research in crypto. I don't really understand it that well, so I don't invest that much. I just kind of I'm in the learning, the ropes of those things, but yeah, definitely try to diversify a little bit

Average Joe Finances:
21:26

So I actually I talked with a crypto guy. Not too long ago. And that episode will probably air in like two months, I think. And I I'm actually interviewing another one this afternoon, a guy that's kind of heavy into crypto. So it'll be interesting. Cause I'm trying to learn about that a little bit more myself, because when it comes to that, I really don't have a clue. And I don't want to, you know, put my money into something that I'm not too confident about. I want to be confident in, in what I'm putting it in. Now sure I can have some play money that I could speculate with and dabble with. And I, I do that right now with a couple of stocks. But what's really funny is I found the play money that I was using to invest. I wound up as I was moving it around to the different stocks. I was speculating on some how, all wound up, back into stuff that I was comfortable with that had some decent returns, but was also paying great dividends. Most of them are in REITs right now. So it all, it all circled full back towards real estate, which is kind of crazy. But I love REITs. I do. I love reads when it comes to just the, at least the ones that I have that pay me monthly dividends that I drip reinvest right back into it. And it's, it's just been, it's just been awesome. And as a matter of fact, my, my little play portfolio now it's for what it's turned into is still up 30%. Even with that big dip that we had last week, I'm happy about it. And I'll just kinda let it keep playing out. But yeah, actually that, that money that I'm playing with right now is actually going to go towards like probably my next real estate investment, because, as it builds and I'm just keeping it in there for now, I'll probably wind up selling it all and dumping it into a syndication here in the future. you're looking at having multiple vehicles, but real estate is going to 100% be your main one, right?

Calvin Blankenship:
23:04

For sure. Yes.

Average Joe Finances:
23:05

Okay. So you have other asset classes that you invest in. So for anybody else that's looking to get started just like another newbie. They're not sure what they want to do, or actually let me, let me put you in this situation, right. Because you've probably you're probably debt free right now. Now, what would you tell somebody that is getting ready to join the military or they getting ready to start their first job in a career field? But they've got some debt. They've got some credit card debt, maybe some student loans or something like that. What would you tell somebody in that situation? They're 18 years old, or let's say they're 22 years old. Let's say they're your age? Right? Because they went to college or whatever. And they ha they accumulated some debt. Let's say in four years, they want to be in a situation like where you're at. What do you think they should do to get there?

Calvin Blankenship:
23:49

So my personal advice and my take on this. Depending on your, your debt and your interest rates. If, if the interest rates are high and it's killing, you pay that down first because the entry you're just going to be paying more money out of your pocket than you should. So pay down the things with high interest rates and the things with low interest rates, instead of paying, like, say, you know, have a huge, huge tuition debt that you need to pay down instead of paying that down and trying to be, debt-free take that money and invest it in. Work for you and make it make more money so that you can pay the debt down faster. I think that's the best way to do it is some debt like credit card debt with high interest rates. Yes. Pay that down first because it's. But the long-term debt you've already secured, like the student loans save money and find a safe way to invest it, that it will give you more returns and eventually it will exponentially grow. And then you'll pay down your debt a lot faster, especially with real estate invest in real estate, hold an asset that, that appreciates. And then eventually you can just pay off your loans a lot faster than just paying them.

Average Joe Finances:
24:55

Yeah, I like, I was actually working with somebody that they had quite a bit in student loan debt and they were looking, they said, Hey, I want to start investing. I don't know what to do at this point. I've got like this amount of student loan debt, but the interest is really low. And I've actually been able to defer a lot of it. I'm at the point where I've almost paid off all the rest of my debt, what should I do? And I told them, I was like, Hey, you know, you got to think about what's best for you, but you're at a point right now where if you can invest that in money that you've paid off this other debt, if you can invest that money and it's making a return higher than what your interest rate is on this, the student loan debt take whatever you're getting from that. And just start dumping it into that student loan as you, as you get these returns back, because like you said, you put that money in, you make it work for you, right? You want to employ your dollars to work for you. So you, you definitely have a fantastic mindset when it comes to this. I think you're going to absolutely go out there and crush it. man. Is there anything else you want to add? Like any any other tips or tricks that you think might benefit somebody?

Calvin Blankenship:
25:53

Yeah, I would just, for all your listeners out there, know what your goals are and just know that you have to be patient and you're going to have to sacrifice like there's I know a lot of people in the military, they they're, you know, kids are, they join. And then all of a sudden they have this paycheck, that's coming every two weeks and they're like, wow, I have all this money. I'm just going to go blow it. If you're, if you're really goal oriented and you really want something out of life and financial freedom, you have to realize that it's going to take a lot of sacrifice. You're going to have to be frugal. There's no reason to go out and live lavish. Now, the sooner that you make those sacrifices, now, the more longevity of that life of freedom you'll have, and you'll, you'll bear the fruits of the labor a lot sooner than you would. If you were to spend it now, then try to get that freedom later.

Average Joe Finances:
26:37

Love it. You know, it's funny that you say that. You know, when I joined the Navy back I was 17 when I, when I joined the delayed entry program and I was 18 when I went to bootcamp, it was like right after I graduated high school and I started getting these paychecks. And, and now mind you back in 02 with, with paying for my GIbill you had to pay for your GI bill back then the first six months you were in with paying for my GI bill, my paychecks and I wasan E1. My paychecks were like between $225 and $275. Per paycheck. It was disgusting to me, somebody, I was working at my minimum wage job before I joined the Navy. I'm like, oh, you know, I'm getting this consistent check, this isn't too bad. And then I madeE2, E3 and whatever. And like, it went up a little bit. But what did I do? I went out and bought a new car, a lot of people do this. it's funny because if I would've just held on to that money and if I would've just stayed on the ship, I went and moved out in town with some buddies of mine. I was paying like $250 a month to rent a bedroom in their apartment. If I would've just stayed on the ship, saved that money. Like this other guy that I met on the ship, and this is kinda what started me in the right direction. This guy was a second class. He was getting out of the Navy, but he had, I think 100k in his account and he was. I was like, dude, what, how? And and he's like, I still live on the ship. I still eat, my three meals on the ship and that's it. He's like I'm saving, all this money. So I don't know what happened to him when he got out. I'm pretty sure he's out there crushing it at life right now. Probably a multimillionaire, because, because of the way he did it, he simply did his, I think he was on a six year contract. He did a six years, got out and is just killing it.

Calvin Blankenship:
28:15

It's all about that delayed gratification.

Average Joe Finances:
28:17

Exactly, exactly. And I wish I would've learned about that sooner, and I really hope that sometime in the future, it's something that, that they implement, you know, they give you some type of financial training. I think I did something in a school. It was like a, a finance class, but it was really nothing. It was just, Hey, put your money in TSP. And for the most part, keep it in the G fund, which was another thing I did for the first 13 years in the Navy, kept all my stuff in the, in the G fund. And it didn't absolutely nothing. So that's, that's fantastic. So for those of you listening listen to what Calvin is saying here, man. Like he's, he's got the right mindset delayed gratification, as he just said, that is definitely something you want to do. If you're looking to build your wealth in the future, sometimes you just got to delay it a little bit. I got to tell you I'm about to hit my 19 year mark in the Navy. I just bought my first new car for the first time in years I've been buying used cars before that, and I bought my wife a new car. But you know, that's been paid off now for about two and a half years. I haven't bought a new one since, except for my own, which I, you know, I finally rewarded myself as I'm getting close to retiring. Right. So delayed gratification is huge and it, it, it got me to the point where I was able to buy this awesome house out here in Hawaii. And every single one of you out there listening can do exactly this. Look at the way, Calvin's starting off, he is starting off on the right foot. And I guarantee you, if I have him on the show in like another year or two, it's going to be a different conversation. It's going to be about how he's just living off of, most of it is passive cashflow. I think the way he's going, he might hit his goal before three years. So Calvin absolute pleasure talking with you today, man. Do you have. Any social media where people could follow you or a website that people could check your stuff out.

Calvin Blankenship:
29:58

Right now I'm just on Facebook just Calvin Blankenship. Find me on Facebook, feel free to message me. I have people that just through the military that know that I have I'm investing. I have people reach out to me all the time and they want to learn how to invest in how to make their money work for them. So feel free to message me and I'll definitely take the time to message you or call you and put you in the right direction.

Average Joe Finances:
30:18

For sure. Actually there's one more thing I want, I want to discuss because we, again, this is something we talked about before we recorded, and they're the reason why you came on my podcast. Right. And there's a reason why you're going on a bunch of other different podcasts. So if you could share that reason with, with our listeners. I thought it was awesome. It's kind of one of the same things I'm doing. One of the reasons why I have a podcast myself, but tell me why you're hopping on these different podcasts to share what you're doing as a newbie.

Calvin Blankenship:
30:43

The main reason, and the drive behind getting on these podcasts network is because. I I've for a long time listening to bigger pockets and YouTube videos and all these other podcasts. And I always hear these people on these shows, asking the questions. I was like, wow, that's I had that question. That's a great question. So I just want to be the voice for all the new people out there that are always listening, but never really take action or anything I want to, I want to ask the questions that you're all thinking about, and I want to get the answers for them, for you, because I was in, I was in your shoes, you know? I was always listen to these podcasts, you know, and I would hear these people ask these questions and I'm like, well, that's a great question. Now. I want to be the voice for the new guys and get that advice for you. It's just starting out.

Average Joe Finances:
31:25

Yeah. And, and you're doing it, you know? I think a lot of the information you shared today can, can really help change someone's life. Hopefully. So if there's one person out there that this message that you shared affects, then you're, you're doing some awesome stuff. So Calvin, again, like I said, absolute pleasure having you on I appreciate you taking the time to chat with me today and I look forward to networking with you in the future and, and watching you grow and watching your journey. I can't wait to see what you do man.

Calvin Blankenship:
31:52

Thanks, Mike, I appreciate you having me on and taking timeout of your day to interview me

Average Joe Finances:
31:56

for sure, man. Aloha.

Calvin Blankenship:
31:57

All right. See ya.

Average Joe Finances:
31:59

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