Podcast 111. You Can Be Your Own Bank with Drew White

Average Joe Finances:
0:00

Hey everybody. Welcome back to the average Joe finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni and today's guest is Drew White from Create Tailwind. So really excited to talk about drew. We just had, an awesome conversation before I hit the record button. He's got an amazing story and stuff to share with you, all some great information. I am really excited about this conversation. That's about to take place. So Drew, welcome to the show.

Drew White:
0:22

Mike thank you for having me, man. I'm excited to have a conversation with you.

Average Joe Finances:
0:25

Yeah, absolutely. Hey, the way I like to start this off we talked about this before we even hit record, I like to just have this as be a genuine conversation, but what we really want to know is a little bit more about you and your background. So, who are you? How'd you get started, share your story with us.

Drew White:
0:42

Yeah, man. I was born on a cold winter night and no, I'm just kidding. I'm not gonna go that far back on you. But, no, it's okay. I was born and raised Omaha, Nebraska still live here today. I was a pediatric oncology nurse for 10 years. And that's really the start of my journey of my financial journey anyway. Because I graduated with 150,000 plus in student loan debt. And up to that point, I knew nothing about money. I didn't come from a background with money. My dad was a pastor. And so all we really knew were just, like I, I didn't really know budgeting, nothing. My dad being a good father, that he is, was a little bit worried about me when he realized like, Hey, you're in quite a bit of debt here and you're making like 40,000 a year, this is not lining up. And and so he sat me down, taught me a little Dave Ramsey and Dave does the gazelle style, the, paying off the debt. And so I, I went at it, tacked it aggressively. It was when I realized oh my gosh, half my money is going to pan down my debt. This is, this is crazy. What did I do to myself? And, we won't get into it or maybe we will, I don't know why an 18 year old was allowed to make that decision, but I was and that's where my journey started. So I got a lot of debt paid it off pretty quickly added my wife's debt to it as well. And that's really when I started to it opened me up to. Okay. What are other people doing? How are other people growing their wealth? I was like, now what do I do? I've been in scarcity, I've just really been like grinding paying this off. What do I do now? So I learned a little bit about real estate. I did some day trading flip some mobile homes, and then I found my way to, what I teach people now, which is the infinite banking concept. And there were some things that overflowed there with real estate and infinite banking. But that $150,000 student loan debt and really was what kicked it off. And it was about a 10 year journey. and I, and now I do what I do today and I let my nursing license expire last year.

Average Joe Finances:
2:22

Oh, wow. Okay. So yeah you have completely separated yourself from your nine to five, and now you're a full-time entrepreneur.

Drew White:
2:30

Yeah, it's good stuff.

Average Joe Finances:
2:31

It's funny because there's a lot of people that I've talked to and even myself, that, that look back and say, when you first started this journey to, to building your finances and getting outta debt, a lot of people come back to the whole Dave Ramsey and seven baby steps and all that good stuff. I did the same thing, I've I was following the baby steps to get outta debt. I didn't have quite as much debt as you but it was up there. And it worked out pretty good, like to actually get rid of the But at the same time, like after I was debt free, I was like, now what.

Drew White:
2:58

Yep. So that's when I started, exploring different options and that's when I got into to real estate investing.

Average Joe Finances:
3:02

Now you had mentioned something you had said, that you're doing infinite banking now and I know a little bit about that, right? I do velocity banking myself and I've had a couple people on talk about that on my podcast. In the past, haven't had a lot of people come on to talk infinite banking. We've maybe had maybe one or two guests that have, talked about a little bit. So I'd like to, go into your experiences with that. And how did you get started in infinite banking? And I guess maybe let's rewind it back to, when you started investing in general, how did you get to the point where infinite banking was the next step for you?

Drew White:
3:36

Sure. So it's honestly interesting. I had a friend we're sitting down in a coffee with another group of friends and he slides me this book and it's called the Bitcoin standard. And this will tie into infinite banking, he slides it over to me and it looks like the most boring book in the world. And I'm like, oh my God, a friend gives you a book, you have to read it. And it wasn't like he was giving it to me. It was his book I was borrowing. So I was like, now I really have to read it.

Average Joe Finances:
3:56

Is that the really, really thick one?

Drew White:
3:58

It's not, no, it's pretty normal size. Okay. But in front of it looks boring. I think it's got a gold bar and some like a wheel or something I don't remember. But, and but that book really it, he doesn't talk so much about Bitcoin until the pretty much like the last chapter, but he explains like what's going on. And the history of money and the economy and all these things with the Fiat standard that I just didn't understand. And so I read that, which, opened me up to, Bitcoin, but I tell people I never would've been open to infinite banking. And just even looking into that further. Because Bitcoin really made me curious and made me wanna understand economics on a larger level, and I'm not a master of economics, but I definitely understand more now with fiat money and not being our money, not being backed by gold. And so that is really what opened me and be like really allowed me to be a questioner and be like, When I first heard infinite banking, not just write it off as, oh, that's a scam. I've never heard of that. And because we mentioned my Dave Ramsey background, infinite banking, spoiler alert for people. It involves whole life insurance. And so if you're a Dave Ramsey person, you're typically skeptical of whole life insurance as I was, because he rails on it a little bit. And but because of that book, because I had started to like, be like, oh, I understood a little bit more about what's going on economically. In the world, I was like, more open to it. And if you want me to get into, I can, how I first came across it, but that's that book actually allowed me to be at least a little bit more open minded because I had ruled out Bitcoin as well. I thought Bitcoiners were dumb. I wasn't into it, and then that book just. Oh I understand a little bit more now.

Average Joe Finances:
5:25

No, that's great, man. I do, I'd like to, I'd love to dive a little bit more into into that cuz this book opened dress, but I'm curious like it's, this is a book called the Bitcoin standard. How did it open your eyes to infinite banking?

Drew White:
5:38

Yeah. How I found infinite banking was my kids were playing at a playground and I was listening to a podcast and I hear these guys come on and the other phrase that people might have heard with infinite banking, becoming your own banker. That's the other thing it's known by. And so I hear this, I hear this podcast and these two guys are talking about becoming your own banker. And at first again, I'm like, huh, this sounds scammy. I don't know about this. And then I reach out to one of 'em and he and I chat and he has a Bitcoin connection. And so we both, chatted about Bitcoin. And and then he sends me this book about becoming your own banker. Becoming Your Own Banker it talks not just about setting up this system and everything. It talks about what's going on, with our money and the banking system and with, the bank printing, being able to print, seven, 10 times the deposit you put in the bank. And because I understood that Bitcoin standard talks about banking. It talks about Fiat money and then this becoming your own banker also ties into that and talks about how the banking system works, how we're just, printing money. And so that's really where I was like, oh, these two do connect a little bit. And like I said, I was more open to it. And so as I read that book, I was just only about halfway through it and I remember closing it and I turned to my wife cuz I knew, I wanted to do something in money. Ever since I first started learning the Dave way. And so I, I closed the book and I turned to my wife and I said, I wanna do this with our money but I also know that I wanna teach people. I don't know why, and so then I, so we started this ourselves and then I started teaching other people and I'd always had nurses ask me for advice on money and even just stuff on how to set up their insurance, their health insurance, what, how to choose it. So I always knew that was in me. And that just pretty much was like that point that it awakened in me and was like, okay, this is what I wanna do.

Average Joe Finances:
7:09

No that's great. A lot of people they find like these great vehicles for investing and just being able to do awesome things for themself, they want to go and share with other people. It's one of the reasons why I started this whole podcast as well is to get like some of this really good information out there, cuz there's so many people that, might wanna do the strategy. They just don't know it yet. They're just not too sure, they've never heard of it, or they may have heard of it, but they heard, just bits and pieces, not enough to make them comfortable to try to get into something like this. You read this book what was it that kind of flipped that switch that said, you know what, I know you said, you wanted to go right in and start teaching other people about it, but what flipped the switch to make you want to actually say, I'm gonna invest my own money into my whole life insurance policy to be able to use that for future investments? What was that trigger?

Drew White:
7:54

Yeah. It was, a lot in that book, Nelson Nash, the way he breaks it down and he talks, he gives you this example of, and he does it this way so that everybody can relate. He gives you this example of being a grocery store owner, and he talks about, Basically his point is that you want to be the owner of your money, of your banking system, not a customer. And he gives a story too, about how you don't wanna steal the peas from your own bank, or from your own grocery store. Sorry. And so that idea, that concept, I never really heard that of wait, I couldn't become my own bank. I can create a system. Or I'm the owner, right? Instead of the bank using my money to make more money, I can create my own pool of money that I have control over that I have liquidity over that gets, tax free, guaranteed growth over time. And for me, those concepts I really like the idea of I'm not huge into retirement. To me, retirement means to be taken out of service. And if people do a deep dive on it, it was created by the Germans to get people out of the workforce. And so Nelson, he mentions that in his book and that we're all, a lot of people are waiting to use their money to a later date. And so this idea was like, no, let's put your money in a system that benefits you now that you control now that, and then there, there's another huge concept that sounds like, almost too good to be true with infinite banking. And that is that. Whenever you use that money and say, go buy real estate or buy a business. You're really leveraging the insurance company's money. You're using the insurance company's money. So your money continues growing tax free, guaranteed uninterrupted. And for me, it was like, oh that's incredible. I can get my growth going on. And one side, of the equation. And then on the other side of the equation, outside of my policy banking system, I can get in real estate or businesses or Bitcoin or whatever. And so those were some of the concepts that was like, I just had never heard that before. And that was like, all I'm in . Yeah. I'm sold. It's time to get moving.

Average Joe Finances:
9:40

That's good stuff, man. Okay. So speaking of that, let's talk about some things you can do with infinite banking, right? First of all, to get to the point where you can actually start investing the money, like borrowing from your policy, what does it look like to get there? Do you have to supercharge your account your life insurance policy?

Drew White:
9:56

Yeah. Some people will call it like overfunded life insurance, which is a generalized, that's not my favorite term, but it's a good way to describe it because you, you can basically, you're gonna, like a traditional whole life guys, if he sat down with you, honestly, That's the kind that Dave Ramsey's talking about, it's kind of junk. You're not gonna have cash value right away. What you wanna do is have someone that knows how to design it, and you're gonna, basically, you are gonna basically put extra into it for about four years to really pump that cash value up. However, you can use it like right away. So people will always ask me like how quickly can I take a loan from the insurance company and use this money. And, I always tell them, as soon as that first check clears and different states have different money laundering laws, or whatever our anti-money laundering laws. But, typically we say three weeks then after that it's highly liquid the rest of the year. I had a day where I took a loan. I told them in the morning I wanted the money and they had it to me by the evening. And so it's very liquid, which, again, a lot of real estate and business owners love it because you can use it for those transactions when you need that money, quickly. But so to answer your question, you wanna fund it extra about the first four years, build that cash up. And then it reaches a point that we call efficiency, where, you're basically putting in $1 and you're able to actually take out maybe a dollar. 10 per dollar and it gets better from there every year.

Average Joe Finances:
11:09

Right on. So when you're actually borrowing the money from the policy, are you borrowing it from your cash value or are you borrowing it from the death benefit?

Drew White:
11:17

Cash value. Great question. One time my mistake, I taught a guy and I thought he gets it all and he goes, and he gets to the final step and he thinks that he's got millions of dollars. So it'll take from his death benefit. And I was like, oh no, I did not teach you. And so we had to go back, to square one there to step one. But yeah, so it's the cash value that you have put into your policy what's happening is when you use that money, they're actually putting a lean on your cash value. And so that's, but yeah, so it is the cash value. Thank you for asking that question, cuz it's needs to be clarified

Average Joe Finances:
11:46

Yeah, no, absolutely. Okay. Now how would a real estate investor or a business owner, how would they use this to, I guess scale or increase their business? Why not just go take out a loan from the bank? What is the point of borrowing it from yourself? What's the benefit?

Drew White:
12:00

Yeah. Great question. So there's multiple ways to do it, right? So I and it's tough to even cover them all because I work with, myriad of people who do different things. But so I have, I have a guy who does he's a land investor, so he doesn't typically work with banks. He doesn't need a ton of money for those deals, needs some thousands of dollars. So for him, It's much quicker and easier for him to basically give his business a hard money loan and he can have access to that money within one to three days for his deals. Now I have other people who are, doing larger real estate, maybe multi-family. And they still will use bank money and nothing against banks, because even though interest rates are going up, they're still, it's still pretty cheap. Another way to do it is you can leverage that money in that policy as a down payment on whatever you're gonna do, or there's people who use it to invest in syndications. On the real estate side, we've actually do preach, use it for the down payment right now, while interest rates are still low, and go out and yeah, buy a multi-family deal or whatever. And. Put that money back into the system and keep, keep it cycling it, because right now, like you don't want money stagnant in this hyperinflationary environment. And then the last thing I'll say, you asked about business owners for business owners. It's the same thing. They can go and use it if they're gonna, if they have a business that they have to own land or a building, you can do the down payment. But I also have business owners, like I have a guy who's has a coffee roasting business. And so his roaster was gonna cost him 30,000 that he was gonna get a loan from the bank for. So instead of doing that, He took 30,000 from his policy and he recaptured the interest that he was gonna pay to a bank to himself now. And he just repaid himself, set up the terms of the loan that way. So those are just a few ways. One of the things I love about it is pretty much everybody's situation is unique. There's no one size fits all and really your creativity and like imagination is the limit on this.

Average Joe Finances:
13:39

No, that's great. So when you're borrowing money, right? So you're borrowing this money from the cash value of your policy. I can see the benefit there, right? Cuz now you're not paying this interest to the bank when you're paying the interest, it's going back to you, right? All that interest that you pay goes back to you and not to the life insurance company. Right?

Drew White:
13:55

Yeah. Yep. And I don't wanna leave people straight. So it is right now it's like 4% simple interest that will go back to the insurance company. But I said simple interest. So it's not amortized, but then yeah, what you do, the banking side of this comes in where, take the hard money guy I mentioned who's doing a land deal. So he can charge himself maybe 18%. So yeah. He's still making that difference. Whereas if he had used the hard money lender, That hard money lender makes all that money off him, and he only gets what he made from the deal. And yeah. So now he's bringing both those things in house and yeah. So it is 4% simple interest, that you pay the insurance company back for. I also mention it's an interest only loan with the insurance company. You set the terms. All they care about at the end of the year is if they got their simple interest back, they don't care about anything else. And so that's, so at the end of the year, it's really just as simple interest.

Average Joe Finances:
14:41

Yeah. So as much as you're willing to pay back to the principal balance that you owe, that's it, the loan could take as long or as little as you need, right?

Drew White:
14:48

Yep, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so we have some people who, yeah, they're like, they need a little room for a deal right. To work, so they may set their terms up longer, but some people know, I only need that loan for six months. So they set that up, and then I'm not a CPA, but you can also, there's some tax strategies they can use where they deduct those interest payments back that they're making too also.

Average Joe Finances:
15:05

That's fantastic. Now, what about the as you're borrowing from your cash that you have in your policy already, does that take away from the interest that your cash that's in the policy is building? Does the amount that you borrow, does it make it so let's say you borrow, let's say you have a hundred thousand in there and you borrow, 40,000, are you now only getting interest on 60,000 or are you still getting interest on the entire a hundred thousand that you have in the policy?

Drew White:
15:31

Yeah. So another really great question. You still get that interest on the hundred it's as if the hundred's there, because what's happening is there's a lean on it, right? So your hundred is still gonna grow at that, tax free, guaranteed rate plus dividends. Which is one of the things that makes, I think makes it so powerful. And it's also one of why we talk about, we tell people if I'm showing you an illustration and you're looking at these numbers and it's We're like, but we're saying this, these are the numbers. If you do nothing with this policy, but you should do something with this policy. You should keep your money in motion and go buy cash, selling assets, or, like we talked about Bitcoin or crypto or NFTs, whatever you're into. I'm not saying do those things, but whatever you're into, because your money is still gonna grow in that account, whether you use it or not. So you might as well put it to use. And then as I mentioned earlier, Inflation right now is bananas. So you, you're losing, if that money's just sitting in that account, stagnating doing nothing. And so to, answer your original question. Yeah. A hundred thousand is still gonna be growing uninterrupted, which is what makes this system, I think pretty special and unique because you get the growth in the system and then you get the, your growth on your behavior outside the system.

Average Joe Finances:
16:36

Yeah. It's great. You get to double dip, right? So you're borrowing from something that getting your interest that you're getting on it back already. Plus the dividends that you're still getting on the a hundred thousand. right on top of that, you're taking the money that you borrowed and investing it in a cash flowing asset. So it, yeah, you're essentially, you're just, you're double dipping. That's really awesome. Yeah. Okay. I love that.

Drew White:
16:56

That partner really got me it took me a little bit, cuz I was like, that sounds just too good to be true. And we've all been taught either or with money, you either get the growth here or here, but you can't do both. And that's what I think separates it a little bit in my mind from other.

Average Joe Finances:
17:08

Okay. Yeah, right on. Now, so speaking of that, since you're talking about it seems too good to be true and everything like that, what are some common misconceptions that you find or that people ask you about when it comes to having a whole life insurance policy?

Drew White:
17:22

Oh, man, that's a good one. Common misconceptions. I'll say a common misconception that maybe, and I can probably get another one for you that relates to term, but I often hear the thing that people tell me is why wouldn't I just buy term and invest the rest? That's a common phrase that is out there. And I I used to say that phrase myself, but the thing that I found is most people don't invest the difference. They buy term, and then, they don't invest that difference. Other people, the other real, I would say big misconception too, is people look at it as this is an investment. So I've had a young guy just recently say to me why would I do this when I could 10 X my money elsewhere? And I said, you're thinking in either ORs again. So you're thinking you either do. Or you go 10 exit, but what I'm telling you is actually put your money here first and then yeah, absolutely go 10 exit elsewhere, on your own. And so a lot of people think sometimes they start to look at this as an investment and they're looking at the returns over time, which actually, if you can think long term, actually they are still pretty good. But the point, is not to put this in an investment vehicle and just leave it there. Like a 401k that just, you never touch, the point is to use it. And so I think that's probably one of the biggest things that I get is that people come thinking like, oh, this is an investment vehicle as well. And it can be an emergency fund. Don't get me wrong, but it's also, something you can use to invest in other vehicles.

Average Joe Finances:
18:34

That's fantastic. And so speaking of, using this, you said emergency fund too, right? But if you're talking about just life insurance policies in general, you mentioned, term life insurance. So I, everybody knows term life insurance is basically just, you pay a small premium, and you just have the death benefit. The death benefit, there's no cash value or anything like that. But what about other permanent life insurance policies? Like what makes a whole life insurance policy stand out for maybe a variable? What is it? What's it called a variable interest?

Drew White:
19:04

Variable universal.

Average Joe Finances:
19:05

Yeah. Variable universal. What's like the difference?

Drew White:
19:07

Yeah. So I don't, me personally, just full disclosure. So I'm called what's like a IBC certified practitioner, so we're very like, just whole. Centric whole life centered. For a lot of things we talked about where, whole life specifically gets you, this tax free, guaranteed growth. You get that uninterrupted compounding you get use and control of it, very liquid. So that's more like my niche, like what I focus on. So I'm not as well versed in some of those other universal variable. So I don't personally teach it or sell it or anything like that. I know other people who are great experts at it, and I think, you mentioned I, some velocity banking, which I think maybe uses some of those concepts and. That's not my specific thing, but that's where, Nelson Nash, who I mentioned earlier with the book, I'm more of a Nelson Nash, I'd say purist. And so he was very whole life and also the other thing I would say for whole life, why I'm a big fan is it's literally been around for hundreds of years and never failed and never had to be repackaged as an insurance product, which some things have had to. And then said, oh, this is the new thing. And so whole life has just been one of those things that's been steady and consistent for hundreds of years. And so if I'm gonna put a large amount of money into it, I want to know what's gonna be safe long.

Average Joe Finances:
20:11

Okay. No, I definitely appreciate that. That's that's fantastic. Don't want to talk about things that we don't know too much about because that's when people get in trouble. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Right on. Okay. Can you talk a little bit about then, so if we're talking about the way that you have this set up with infinite banking. And I know you, you had mentioned velocity banking just now we, we had talked about that pre-recording cause I was talking to him about how I do that right now with a HELOC so this is definitely a little bit different than that. Not a little bit, it's a lot different than velocity banking. But I wanna talk to you a little bit about, legacy planning. So if you could just talk about that a little bit and how does this help with legacy.

Drew White:
20:42

Yeah and that was, one of the things, one of my, I keep mentioning Nelson, but in the book he has this last chapter that he really does focus in on that, that I love. And I have this saying that I learned from a guy named Jamal King, which is, a great principle that it's not like he's the one that invented this we've all heard it, but that a blessed man leaves that inheritance to his children's children. And so in that last chapter, Nelson touches on that. And so there's things you can do, obviously if you have a policy on yourself or your spouse or whatever, there's a death benefit attached to that. We don't focus on the insurance, in fact we're opposite, right? We're focusing on the cash value and then the insurance, but there is an insurance side to it. Number one, you're gonna leave that, death benefit, that's gonna pass down tax free to your next generation, but then there's some other things that you can do that are interesting, where you can take out a policy on a child, and you can do it on an adult child. You can take it on, also, not adult children, but younger children. You can do a policy on grandchildren as well and pass this down to them. And then, people like, so Nelson, one of the things he did, he had tons of grandkids. I don't remember how many, but each grandkid had a policy. And when he passed, he had also gave them, their policy and the book on how to use it. And one of the things I love about that strategy is, like I don't personally know where college is gonna be, 20 years from now. So I'm not a huge fan of those college savings plans. Whereas this, like I have a daughter she's seven and she's already entrepreneurial. She's already come up with these little businesses and made some side money. And so in my mind, I'm like I don't wanna pigeonhole her and say, you have to go to college. If she wants to start a business, so we're opening the policies on our kids that they can have control of, and that we're gonna teach them over time, how to use. And I think also it's beneficial. It begins that conversation about how to use this money how to become your own bank, but also leads to these larger discussions about money and entrepreneurship. But so the way that you can, do it is you can set up policies on kids and grandkids and you can pass them down generationally. And then, you like, so say, and if I pass and I have my kids have one, now they have all this tax free money that's gonna pass down that probably could even fund their policies in the future. So there's really some. Legacy planning strategies, and I won't get two into the weeds, but that you can definitely do with this system. That's pretty cool.

Average Joe Finances:
22:49

Yeah, that's great. You had talked about like super charging a policy like over a four year period. Can you imagine doing it, from the time that a child is seven years old, right? You don't even have to supercharge it. You could just, put a little more than the normal premium and just, and start just increasing that cash value. That's really awesome. So definitely a great way to build that generational wealth for the next generation to leave that legacy ah, I love it, man. Love it.

Drew White:
23:13

Yeah. There's a lot of, there's some interesting stuff out there too, that if you ever look into Walt Disney, he funded Disney from his whole life policy that he had for years. So someone probably started for him. I don't know for sure. And then, the pampered chef as well, did that's how she got her, I don't know if anybody remembers pampered chef, that's how she got it started as well. And then too, there's people like Jim Harbaugh, his contract is structured using a kind of a whole life type banking structure as well.

Average Joe Finances:
23:36

Yeah, that's great. I think one of the things that I love about it is just, and you mentioned this earlier is the liquidity of it. You were able to call them that morning and say, Hey, I need X amount of dollars. And that night you had it, right? Yeah. You go and, for an investor sometimes that can be, make or break on a deal, right? Hey, we need to earn this money deposited this much by this time. And you're like, got it. You can make that phone call. And make that happen very quickly. So that's, there's a lot of convenience there as well, besides that double dipping benefit and the other benefits that you get from it as well. So yeah. That's awesome stuff.

Drew White:
24:08

And you also, the other thing people like is there's no questions asked, right? When you go to your bank, you gotta give like your dog's name, your cat's name. And when they last saw the vet, and you gotta tell 'em all this background and the guy that I was mentioned, that's the land flipper. He was, Drew man, if I never have to go to a bank again, I'll be a happy man, cuz he hates that whole process. And so for him, he loves that. He calls up, says, I need this much money, wire it to me now. Though he thinks ahead a lot so he doesn't do always do the wiring, if he needs to, he can. And so for him, yeah, it's definitely eliminated a big, pain point obstacle for him as well. That's been pretty cool.

Average Joe Finances:
24:42

Yeah Drew that's fantastic. I've had other people on that have talked about this strategy before. You make it sound so much better. Not, I'm not saying better than everybody else, but you just, you make this sound very appetizing to somebody who, who wants to look at doing this, at least from my perspective. So this seems pretty fun.

Drew White:
24:57

I appreciate that.

Average Joe Finances:
24:58

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely man. Hey, I'd like to go into something that we started doing recently. It's called the the final round it's where I have four questions that are gonna kinda hit you hard and get down to the nitty gritty of the core of who drew white is. So if you're ready to go, we'll get this party started.

Drew White:
25:15

Okay. I'm ready, man.

Average Joe Finances:
25:16

All right, let's do it. So the first question is what's the biggest mistake you've ever made.

Drew White:
25:21

That is that's a good one. So I'm gonna be honest here. Biggest mistake for me probably was going to college and specifically where I went, everybody told me where I was going. I'm not trying to fill them under the bus here. Not that any of them will listen to this, but I went to Creighton University and everyone wants a Creighton nurse, right? They're one of the best and everybody loves Creighton nurses. What I later learned out is everybody just wants a nurse. There's a nursing shortage. And my dad tried to warn me after the first year. Hey man, this is a lot of money for this and you're not gonna make that much. At least I would've asked some more questions beforehand. I don't regret my time as a nurse. I learned a ton and met some amazing families .But for me I realized pretty quickly, like it wasn't the right career for me, wasn't the right path for me, and, I don't know if I found my way to what I'm doing if I hadn't done that, so I wouldn't change it. But, definitely taking on that debt and not asking more questions and learning about money a little bit sooner. I would have to say is one of my biggest biggest mistakes.

Average Joe Finances:
26:16

No, and I can, I could appreciate the honesty and going back to all that, but, I will say that, looking back at everything that you've been through and how you got to where you are today, I feel like, that journey that you had probably wouldn't have started if you didn't rack up this student loan debt and get yourself into the situation where you're in right now. So maybe if you didn't do it, you might not be sitting where you're at right now.

Drew White:
26:40

Yeah, no. And that's what I tell people even though I was a mistake and I regret it, I also have somehow have at the same time, this gratitude for it, because I genuinely believe what you're saying. I don't think I'm here today. I don't think, I don't even know if I'd ever get to the point that I care about generational wealth and teaching my kids. Wealth principles and mindsets and things like that. And so I, a hundred percent like acknowledged that it started from there. Definitely a mistake I wish. And the other thing I'd say the other mistake, I think, and again, not to rail Dave Ramsey, I wish instead of paying off all that, maybe this is a better one, honestly, now that I'm thinking of it, I wish I had invested in real estate and I wish I had done this, what I'm doing now sooner. I could have kept that mistake and still had the student loan debt, but invested in real estate, 10 years sooner. And been a little bit further ahead. So maybe I'll change my answer.

Average Joe Finances:
27:25

Hey, that's fine, man. That's fine.

Drew White:
27:27

I give you two mistakes for the price of one.

Average Joe Finances:
27:29

Hey, I appreciate that. Look at that. Now I'm double dipping on the podcast episode. That's great. All right. Cool, man. Hey next question. And this ties into probably what we just talked about and what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first started?

Drew White:
27:42

Yeah. So this is this is a one I've only really learned in the past year that I'll share with people. It's, called the gap and the gain. There's a book on it. Yeah, I actually haven't even read the book to be honest, I've just been taught the principles, but for me it's been a huge one and I'll go in real quick to what that kind of means, or at least how I understand it. The gap is where I'm at right now in and where I wanna be, where my future me wants to be, where my goals are ,my vision is ,right? But the gain is when you measure backwards and you say, okay I was drew that had$150,000 student loan debt, and now I'm here Drew teaching these, wealth concepts and principles of people. That's pretty remarkable how far I've come from, to pat myself on the back for. But if I'm constantly measuring and living in that other place, the gap where I'm saying, yeah, but I have all these things that I want, I have all these things. I want my wife and I wanna have an Airbnb and this, and we're not there yet. Then I'm never measuring up. I'm never enough, I'm always falling short. But if you can, measure backwards and see, and basically live in kind of gratitude of where you came from and to be thankful for that journey and say, wow, I really have grown. I'm not a nurse anymore. That's amazing. I didn't think I'd ever get out from being a nurse. I don't work weekends and holidays. I could be with my family. And so for me, that's been something I wish I had learned sooner. I for years was just like always looking at that big future vision and being. Oh, I'm not measuring up. I'm not good enough. I'm not there yet. So that's been a huge one for me that I, whenever I share people with that with people, that's oh yeah, that , that's good.

Average Joe Finances:
29:05

No, that, that is that's fantastic. Because when you look back and you think about just the knowledge that you have now versus when you first got yourself into this. I mean it's night and day, right? It's night and day. Like you, you can go look and say, okay, I wanna go buy a piece of real estate, exactly what to do now to go do that. You know exactly how to borrow that money from your policy when you need it in that moment where, when you first started off, it's a lot of learning and all the learning curves you have to go through, the books that you were reading, the podcast you were listening to, that's huge. It's huge. Awesome, man. All right, cool. Let's move on to the next question. And this also kind of ties, they'll you'll see that they all tie into each other, right? But do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started today? Let's say somebody wants to take out a whole life insurance policy, cuz they listened to this episode and said, Drew, this is what I want to do. Drew. What would you recommend to them?

Drew White:
29:58

Okay two parts. One, I'd say, Hey, reach out to me. And we'll answer that at the end of the show, how to, but I would say, for anybody find someone that could mentor you or coach you, that you would trust, and for me, if, to be honest, like I really didn't, I didn't know the value of coaching and having a mentor and having someone that can basically look from the outside of the glass or the jar and see the bigger picture than when you're just inside of it and you can only see the glass around you. And I think that's huge. And so many people think, oh, I can't afford it. I can't do that. And sometimes I have to take a leap of faith and just do it. And I still in my business have done. I'm still being coached and mentored. And sometimes it is like a financial leap of faith. Okay, I'm gonna pay this person, cuz I've seen so much from coaching and mentoring that's pushed me outside my comfort zone. One of the greatest life hacks there is and, it's and someone that you can trust, don't just go with the first person, interview and make sure too it's someone that's ahead of where you're at, because if they're the same level as you, you're probably not gonna get that growth. You need someone ahead of where you're at. And then the other thing I'm gonna do a bonus one again here, so two for the price of one if someone was starting, the advice I would've given myself is figure out what your mindset is around money, because we all have a relationship with money, whether we realize it or not. And a lot of it crazy enough is generational. It comes from your parents comes from the previous generation. And so if you're not assessing those and evaluating those, it's tough to grow beyond where you're at, because you really like for me, I had some issues with money. I heard this guy say, just write down money is, and then free flow, for five, 10 minutes. And you'll see what comes out. Just don't filter it just right. And it was huge. It was like, oh my gosh, all almost everything was negative . And so realizing you have a mindset around money is really important if you're just starting out and figuring out what that is, and then working to change.

Average Joe Finances:
31:39

I absolutely love that. And I, I've mentioned that on the podcast before, too, especially when it comes to relationships and money, that you have to have a good, positive relationship with your money. If you have to treat it like it's a person, if you were in a toxic relationship with somebody, would you stay or would you say it's time to go? If you have a toxic relationship with money, guess what? It's gonna be the money walking out on you. It's gonna be the money walking away, not you walking away from it. Cuz trust me, you'll be chasing it the entire time for the rest of your life.

Drew White:
32:06

I've never that analogy. I love that the money walking out on you.

Average Joe Finances:
32:08

Just, it just made that up just now. So there you go. A lot, lots of firsts happening right now. So there, here it is folks right here. Heard it for the first time. Oh, good stuff, man. I love that. Okay. I have one final question for the final round and I have a feeling I know what this answer's gonna be, but do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both?

Drew White:
32:30

Okay. So yeah you did get me. I think you're gonna know, but and I hope people keep an open mind cuz I would say read The Bitcoin Standard honestly. And I would also say Becoming Your Own Banker obviously, cuz I loved it, but The Bitcoin Standard and not even if you're like interested in Bitcoin, to be honest and you may not be by end of. But it's just to me, it was so fascinating and he does such a great job of showing you the history of money, which again, anybody saying the history of money, that doesn't sound interesting, but I promise you, like he really does. It really is interesting. And he goes into like fractional reserve banking and all of this stuff. And so for me, it was just very eye opening. Very interesting. And then, yeah, I can't recommend enough Becoming Your Own Banker. And if people want that, I send it to people for free because it impacted my life so much. I maybe shouldn't say that on a podcast, but I will but those are two, two huge ones for me personally.

Average Joe Finances:
33:17

Okay. No, absolutely love that, man. That's great. Yeah, and I figured that was I figured at least becoming your own banker was definitely it and then also the Bitcoin standard. So another two for the price one.

Drew White:
33:26

Oh man. I know I'm just doubling up today.

Average Joe Finances:
33:28

Yeah. Okay. All right. Hey, I love it, man. Drew, this has been absolutely phenomenal. This conversation's been awesome. So I have one more question for you, this one's coming but this is the one that is super important because there's people that are listening to this episode right now and say, you know what drew is talking about some really cool stuff, I really like this investment banking in infinite investing banking strategy. What is some ways I could learn more about that? I need to talk to drew. So how am I gonna get in touch with drew? So drew. Can you share with us, do you have a website, any social media or anything like that where people can find you?

Drew White:
33:59

Yes. Thank you for asking. And let me share that with the audience. So ibcdrew.com, which stands for infinite banking concept, drew.com. They can book a call with me. There's, some resources for more information. And then I'm really big on LinkedIn. That's where I'm mostly active on social media. So if anybody wants to check me out on there, we will provide the link in the show notes, it's just basically that LinkedIn and back slash ibcdrew. But I'd say, if you wanna book a call with me on the website, spot to do that and we can chat and and I tell people too, if you have policies and you want me to look 'em over. I help people with that too. Cuz sometimes people have something that can already be used. And I just tell you, oh yeah, here's how you can use that. And that's how I work with people. Insurance companies pay me, my clients never pay me. So I'm, a free coach. Average Joe Finances: That's fantastic. You know what, that's my favorite price phrase, my favorite price. So for those of you that are listening I'll make sure I have all those links in the show notes to make it easy for you. You can just copy and paste or click or whatever works for you. Just don't do it while you're driving, because that probably won't help your insurance policy. So drew, it's been an absolute pleasure. I really appreciate you coming on and taking the time to have this conversation with me today. Yeah. Thank you so much, Mike. I really appreciate.

Average Joe Finances:
35:05

All right, man. Aloha.