Podcast 93. Multiple Streams of Income Through Stock Options and Real Estate with Cody Yeh

Average Joe Finances:
0:00

Hey, how's it going everybody. Welcome back to the average Joe finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike, Cavaggioni, and today's guest is Cody Yeh. And he is a first generation immigrant from Taiwan who moved to Canada at the age of 18. He went to university as an engineer, got a white collar job, but apparently that wasn't good enough. Cody is now a stock and options. Coach YouTube influencer, a real estate investor, and more importantly, he's building an empire to help more people reach financial independence sooner. So Cody, I love your background. I love your mission. I love what you're doing. Welcome to the show.

Cody Yeh:
0:37

Wow. That was a, such a good intro. Thanks for having me, Mike.

Average Joe Finances:
0:41

Yeah, absolutely. So, Hey I do this with every guest that I bring on the show, I gave like the wave top background of who you are, but people want to know what that vast ocean of Cody Yeh looks like. So if you could you share a little bit more about yourself and your story? How did this all get started for you? I know you, you became an engineer, got a white collar job. That's pretty high paying stuff, man, but that wasn't enough. So you got into the stock and options thing. How did that start?

Cody Yeh:
1:05

Yeah, so, back it up a little bit, I came to Canada when I was 18 from Taiwan, with a student visa. At that time I have to catch a, my, my grade 12 English grade, 11 grade 10, whatever the math, you know, not to be stereotype. It's not hard, but the English that's a problem. I couldn't even read the, understand the question, right. From that point. I really chose engineer because I want to get the highest paying job coming right out of university because my parents was paying for my tuition and it's very expensive as an international student. I don't want to bring so much loading on my family. So I look at my dad was a doctor. I look at doctor, I look at, business and all that. And I found out that engineers is one of the ways that can, not become really rich, but become stable at that time. I didn't know anything about wealth building yet, right until my second year and university, where I found out that all these engineers or engineering curriculums competition are great, but I found my true interest in financing, accounting, and marketing. I actually sit into class at night after. Requirement. And I couldn't even book those clouds. I could even enroll by, I was sitting in the back and listened to it and that's where it really piqued my interest. And that's where I start investing in stocks really

Average Joe Finances:
2:25

Wow, so that kind of, it was, you were just kinda like a fly on the wall in some of these classes that you just snuck in there. That's a pretty smart way to get in there and and get like a free education. But that's pretty cool, man. So I have to ask, so if you moved to Canada at the age of 18, did you move over with family or did your family stay back in Taiwan?

Cody Yeh:
2:44

So my brother came first. We, so my brother was three years older than me, so he came to Vancouver because anti-Western kind of like our second mom. Okay. From there, we applied to all the schools we want to go to. And then we ended up both end up in Toronto, Canada, which kind of like the New York us equivalent and yeah. How we got into Canada is because of that. Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
3:08

Okay. Right on. Right on. All right. Now you chose to be an engineer because you wanted something that was more high paying. So you looked at that you said your dad was a doctor, right. And you're looking for something that's going to give you an option to be more comfortable, not if, of course you wouldn't get rich from being an engineer, but you'd be able to live that comfortable life and have a high-income paying job now. As you're going into this classroom and learning about stock options and just, or just financial literacy itself and how to become more financially independent, what was it that flipped that switch that said, you know what, being an engineer at this point is great, but it's not going to be enough as I move into the future. Cause it sounds like even before you got your engineering degree, you knew already that this was not going to be enough. So what was it that flipped the switch? Was it something that one of the professors said, was it just being in that room and absorbing that information? That just, you were just like, man, this I'm not going to get to where I want to get by just doing my job.

Cody Yeh:
4:09

Yeah. Just over broke. Right. So actually to be very honest with you when I was in school, all my students, all my friends who are top student, all one to get into investment bank, Do they really know what that is? No people just thought that was the best way to make the most money. They don't care if they killed themselves. They thought they were young. They could put in a hundred hours then upper out either to make it to the partner, or you can just go to their partner companies. So at that time I've no sense of financial freedom or whatever I'm teaching right now that time, I just, I learned about stocks, accounting and all that. I just stick with playing a boring stocks and it's not until 2015 where I got introduced to my day trading coach. I know I did that for two years and not any day trading coach doesn't have any YouTube podcasts, whatever she's like under the radar, but she was managing $50 million. And I wouldn't believe it until I see her screen. She was sharing until she was making trades. And I was just amazed. She was two years younger than me. So when I was 26, she was 24. And that really shocked me so much. And she was flipping arenas. It's people flip, like high-end exotic cars and as girls, they flip Irma's bags. I was like, that blew my mind. And then from that, while I was doing that, I was working a lot of overtime on my full-time job. So it was not glamorous. Right. My starting pay was I think 62,000. So I don't know if that's a high paying job, but because of all the overtime and bonus, I hit 124, like over that four years in a row by almost kill myself because I worked 400 to 800 hour overtime and take on a large responsibility. And for the day trading, it was great, but that was my second job. I was trading in the Asian market. Soon. I realized this is good return, but it's not what I want. It's not the financial freedom, what I want. Right. That's why. I like real estate, not like day trading is great. It's only for a small group of people, but I like real estate right now. A lot more to build your net worth and a stock option program teaching right now. So people can make one to 4% per month only using less than 30 minutes per day. To me, real estate and stock option, you can say passive, or they call it leverage your time. Investing has the highest return on time and lowest return on stress. So we're not looking at an overall return, but we're looking at every single hour. What is that rate and real estate and stock option investing gives me that and gives me the freedom to get on this podcast even on a Saturday. Right? So that is what I'm looking for. I know a lot of people out there are looking for this as well as not like trying to cite the second or third side hustle. What is the point? A lot of my student actually fire a lot of their side hustles. Once they learn the skills, right.

Average Joe Finances:
6:56

Yeah, Cody that's that's pretty amazing. And to think about it as you're going along on your journey here, right? You were 26 years old. You come across this coach who was two years younger than you, that was doing day trading, right? You said she was day trading over $50 million.

Cody Yeh:
7:11

That was what she was managing. I saw her account how my heart almost stopped.

Average Joe Finances:
7:14

That's insane. I mean, you get a little a 1% increase in and you did quite well, so that's awesome. There was something else you said that I really want to hone in on that I think is super important. You said, when you started off at your job, you were so upwards of 62,000 a year, right. To start off. So I started putting in all this overtime and working over a hundred hours a week and basically. With that amount of time that you're putting in and stress slowly killing yourself. Right. And that could be detrimental to your health, right? Mental health, physical health just putting all of that time and effort into that. And then on top of that, you'd finish up your work for the day and you would do some day trading and so you basically had two jobs, so it didn't stop when you got home, when you got home

Cody Yeh:
7:59

three jobs. Because whenever I'm not day trading, I'm going to all these real estate investing seminars around Toronto area. I was cause like, where I work is up north an hour drive from the main city. So I was literally driving one hour, one way. And so many times I almost fell asleep on the highway. Yeah, I'm not going to talk about the best. Sometimes I woke up out my two lane down. I'm like, just gotta stop. Like this day trading thing. I couldn't do this anymore. Right. So that's really what spurred me. Cause I, I know it's very dangerous now from that I was so exhausted and my white hair was coming out when I was 26. Now I don't have much, I didn't know why hair can disappear. That's funny.

Average Joe Finances:
8:35

There you go. Hey, teach me your secret because mine has not disappeared since it showed up. The stuff up top is going away, which is why I always have my, my my hat on. Right. But then the stuff on the sides, I'm pulling a George Clooney over here. I just got the salt and pepper, like something crazy. And that started in my late twenties as well. So, and now I'm going into my late thirties and it's it's it won't go away. So I don't know. I don't know if you use just for men or if you just you've got some type of secret. But if you do got a secret we can talk about it offline, but anyway,. And, just realizing where you were, at that point where you had to make that shift. Because like I did, like I was saying like that whole mental health and physical health aspect, when you're sitting here work and trying to work these three different jobs and you're driving an hour, to get to one meetup and then you're there for what probably at least an hour or two, then you have to drive an hour back. That's four hours of your day on top of the 10 to 12 hours you put in at the office that day. On top of the time that you put into your day trading that day. When the heck were you sleeping?

Cody Yeh:
9:35

I couldn't go there, I couldn't do day trading. I find going to the, and yeah, I was literally living living, renting a place, renting a room for six years for $600. So that's, before I save up for my first down payment. Right. And that's how I started. And then that just kept snowballing, right? By that time, I didn't know a better way, day trading profits. Full-time job saving spent less. Right. But now, nine days different have multiple streams of income by at that time, I didn't know better. Right. I just, by that's weight and we're just talking off, off recording that I'm selling that same house I bought, which I thought I stay there for five to 10 years. If I ever have a kids at this full-time job, no, we bought it in 2017 for four 60. And right now I'm getting multiple offers. And when myself, a 1 million. And just real estate and amazing. And what are we going to do if that profit, probably half of is going to go to the next house. The other half is going to come into my trading account. Now in my trading account, if I make the passive cashflow, I already have a seven-figure trading account. So if I make one to 4% per month, just say the 1%, just say 1 million, it's 120,000 per year. That's good enough for me to live a comfortable life. The rest of the proceeds will go and buy more real estate. Yeah. And the more real as real estate goes up, like in the long-term like where there's very strong, fundamental, I can refinance more money put in my trading account and we go, and the crazy circle speeding up the financial freedom process. So active business multi-active business, real estate investing stock option, if the cashflow and they all work really well together and have like whole life insurance and all that. Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
11:14

Yeah. That's wonderful. See, a lot of people don't realize like one of the biggest secrets in the industry right now to, to just being able to keep your money. And I'm not saying like to not ever pay taxes, but there's a lot of ways to avoid taxes and you do that by borrowing from your own assets, right. Instead of, selling all those stock options, you. Borrow from it. And you invest that money into real estate. And then instead of selling that piece of real estate that you want to keep that's cash flowing, you re you you pull out a home equity line of credit and you take that cash and you put it back into the stock market. And then, you can just get like this vicious cycle going where, now you have these liabilities on your assets that you can claim against your taxes, right. But at the same time, the cash that you pulled out, you didn't pay taxes on because you are so that's. I like your little, it's like the circle of life right there for the the working dollar, right. You've figured out how to get your dollars to work.

Cody Yeh:
12:08

That's all you get ahead in life. And that's what I never learned in school. The counting, learning the school, the marketing, the finance, the stocks investing, they always focused on Mexican. But they don't focus on what is the impact of this in your life. So I have to figure that out later on from taking multiple courses, coaching, mentorship from real life, from talking to real people like yourself to figure that out. Right. And I'm just so, so, so amazed by why those are not taught in school, really, to be honest. And I think we both know why, and that's why, I'm building this empire to really just like yourself to really create more financial literacy for people out there, because there's a way to get ahead in this financial game. And guess what, if you're ahead in the financial game, a lot of other physical mental relationship problems will be greatly reduced. A lot of time, just like my family, all that problem came from the financial stress. And there were forced to make decision that they think they don't have a choice on, but it's because the choice they make five years ago make them, they don't have a choice right now. Right. So I'm pretty sure you get what I mean. Right. I

Average Joe Finances:
13:19

do. I do. Yeah. Your decisions today really affect, your outcome for tomorrow. And, it's really funny, like as we're sitting here talking and you're explaining the whole thing about the financial literacy and education in the school system today, it, it saddens me, but at the same time, I'm happy to see that, it's not. How it's done in the United States that also in Canada, it's the same way that, you don't see the financial literacy taught in schools in public education. And like you said, the reason why I know the reason why, and that's because, when all of this was put together, the whole point of the education system is to create good workers. Good employees said it is, it's true, right? You, and there's nothing wrong with that because we do need employees. We do need people in the workforce to do certain things. But if you look at what's happening today, you look at the, everybody calls it the great resignation. And I had a guest on I think this was episode 40, right? And she is somebody who went viral on Tik TOK, talking about how she does her, her freelancing through Fiverr and Upwork and other websites. And she started off that way. She left her corporate job. And started doing freelancing. And in her first year made like 30 something thousand. The next year she made 60,000. The year after that, she made like 270,000. Then the year after that, she made 360,000. She's hiring virtual assistants to outsource some of the work. And now she's clearing, I believe over 400, 500 K it's insane. And she's got like eight different modes of income, right? So eight different streams of income. And that's the thing. Like you see all these people leaving their day job to start doing something else and working from home because there's so many possibilities there and you're going to see probably 80% of the workforce in the next 10 to 20 years will be working from home. Especially now, as we start developing more into like this whole metaverse thing, I'm not even going to get into all that as crazy as it sounds, but if you look at some of the movies that have come out, not too long ago, I really think we're heading in that direction where we're going to be living in like a, an episode of black mirror where, you know, or something like that, because it's. That's where we're headed. And if people aren't going to open their eyes to what the future is going to look like, you're going to get left behind to quote unquote, say that in the stone ages. Right? So, you know what you're doing right now with your mission and bringing coaching people into being able to build up another stream of income and you're doing that through, through stock options. Right. But also, you had mentioned that you also invest in real estate and that's super important because that's one of those assets that are always, that's always going to be. Something people need, you're always going to need a roof over your head. There's always going to be a need for shelter. And that's one things I like about that now I'm not too smart when it comes to options trading and things like that because I'm more of a real estate guy. I do have some individual stocks, but most of the stuff that I invested in the stock market is in index funds because I can set it and forget it and just go. I buy individual stocks for companies, I believe in like apple Tesla and things like that, even though Tesla is completely overvalued, but I'm only going to get into that either. But at the same time, I want to talk a little bit more about, I want to change the focus of this interview to what you do as a stock options coach, because I'm really interested in this. Right. And so I'd like to know cause you touched on it that whole like circle of life is what I was calling it of the dollar, right. Circle of life of the dollar. Like I'm coining. There you go. Boom. Right. So how does stock options and investing and real estate investing work hand in hand for somebody to build generational wealth?

Cody Yeh:
16:51

Boom, bingo. That was my key goal. I don't have kids yet. I started buying a whole life insurance when I was 23. Everyone thought I was. Like diamond, a rough, like they were like Cody, where do you pop out a fright? But, and that's all because the family I grew up in, I seen how high income earners, if you don't have financial literacy, how they can put on a lot of stress to the family as well. It doesn't really matter how much you owe anymore. This game can not be winning. This financial game cannot be wind by earning more income. Half of those under your W2, or in Canada are paid to the government or never went. If you don't know how to, have corporation and all that. And coming back to this real estate game, that's what really, real estate stock option. That's what really opens my eyes because the real estate is a leverage play. Now we can argue that real say really driven by three things, right? Jobs, population growth. That's pretty much it. Right. And there's others other smarter stuff. But if people want to move in, the fundamental is strong, right? So I know all those numbers in Canada, right. We have 400 to half a million people come into Canada every year. 40% of that comes into Toronto. So guess where the housing is going. Plus there's a supply issue because of global shortage and the government's not making it easier for our builders or developers. So that from that open book, now, if you're saving for your first property, you're like Cody, I want to buy my first house stock option help you to make more return. Comparing just putting your money in the bank, right. GIC pay less than 1%, know, there's and that's fun. Pay you five to 8%. Right? That's great. But if he can have more control and speed up that process, buy her first house. So once you buy your first house, a lot of your listeners, there's like Kodiak 10 properties with like a hundred doors. Like I'm weighed over that. I'll get to that. People will buy their first property as it goes up. Like you say, can refinance it out without paying any tax on it legally. And guess what? You can put that in your trading account or go buy your next property depending on which stage you are. And then as the house price goes up, you can refinance more. Or if you put it in a trading account, if he makes blow more cashflow, save it up with your full-time job or your active business, go buy more. Right. So that's the back and forth thing. Right. And then for stock and option thing, you can actually open up account in your corporation as well. So in Canada it can be treated as active income. So as a tax, a very favorable rate, and you only take out the money really neat through your personal level. So it's really a hack and it works really well.

Average Joe Finances:
19:26

Yeah. And also with that. So if you were going to, you pull out what you need from your corporation, right. And then you, when you take it out or take out what you need, you're going to pay yourself from the corporation as an employee. Right. And that's just, so I'm not really, I'm not really sure how that works in Canada versus how it works in the United States. But, we have some pretty good tax breaks for LLCs and different things like that to pay, their employees at least $12,000 a year. So like right now that, that's one of the things, as my children get a little bit older, like I'm going to start tasking them with some small things and. Paying them, right. Income come splitting. Yeah. No that's pretty neat. So I didn't know that it worked that way for, in Canada as well. So that's one of the things I really like is just how relatable we can still make this, even though we're in different countries right now. And, but we can talk about the same things because financial literacy and I'll say this too, financial literacy is not only limited to a specific country or a specific region or anything like that. Financial literacy is important all around the world. It's just how you attend. That particular need, for finances in specific countries, there's different rules. So the main thing is yeah, different vehicles, you have to educate yourself on that, get educated on what the rules are because, for the longest time I was investing and I didn't really know the rules and I wasn't paying a lot of taxes and a lot of that stuff can be avoided. So, and it could be. Educating yourself or getting yourself a coach that knows what they're doing that can help push you through that. So now how can you use stock options to invest in just, and generate like a significant stream of cashflow through real estate? Right? So like we, you had mentioned as you're pulling money out from the stock options and you're putting it into the real estate. Are you more focused now by taking some of that hard money that, that is more active and putting it into real estate to make it something that's a little bit more passive? Is that kind of where you're going with that?

Cody Yeh:
21:24

Yes, both are very passive for me. If you know how to set up well, buy from my real estate is very passive. I have to hold power team, same thing as stock option. Right? So the reason why

Average Joe Finances:
21:34

you're saying that your stock options are passing.

Cody Yeh:
21:37

Less than 30 minutes. So like I have alumni again, I know this is all recorded, but I don't mind sharing it. I have alumni hitting 25%, 40%, 20, 21. And they are VP of big companies in Canada. They're like Cody, I only spent less than 30 minutes per week making this is there something wrong with it? I'm like, are you happy over your 24 or 40% per year? She's like, yeah, of course. So what's the problem. She's like, I don't know. I just, I used to 30 minutes per day, but I'm spending 30 minutes per week. So once you learn it, it's a real say, once you learn it, you can make money while you sleep. Now there's a right way and wrong way. In my opinion. Now I said that very strongly, right? This strategy was used by Warren buffet for the longest time, but he really talks. Okay. This strategy, instead of on, get on the buying side of option most people's I hate Cody, how do I turn a hundred bucks into a thousand bucks? That's what people are thinking. This is small money. I want to gamble. I want to take calculated risks by buying a lottery, but instead of on the buying side, participating in the casino, now you're on the selling side. What does that mean? That means you are the casino or you are the insurance broker. That means like your home insurance. All right, Mike, when I asked you all the insurance premium, you pay every month to your home and auto insurance. Do you ever get it back? Whether you make a claim or not, do you

Average Joe Finances:
22:58

no, not at all.

Cody Yeh:
23:00

And now the strategy will allow you to be the entrance company and I'll use real estate terms to explain that because most of the audience or re a real estate investors. So imagine all real estate investors, what they want to buy off market deals, right? Pocket listing below market value. Right? I want the same thing. I run a business to do that. Now, most of the time you pay a markup to get that a finder's fee, whatever that is, right a wholesaling fee, right? Guess what? In this case you agree that say, not stock advisor, anything, but that's a apple. You talk about you that you like apple, Tesla, whatever. Imagine you can buy apple 10% off. You adjust you just by agreeing to buy apple 10% off. Right. Right now, apple is about 1 72. Imagine you agree to buy apple 1 62 and you get pay one to 4% per month to agree to buy apple 1 62. What do you think about that? Yeah, I think that's a, you want to buy at 1 72 anyway, and now you get, Hey, one to 4% to buy one 60.

Average Joe Finances:
23:59

Now you're getting paid one to 4% on those particular stock options or?

Cody Yeh:
24:03

Yeah so this stock options is like a contract. So imagine I come up with I'm the insurance company now as when we're selling stock option selling options where the insurance company. So I come up with the policy and say, here's the policy does how much premium pay me for the next 30 days? If apple goes below 1 62 Sur or whatever, Mike, you can come back and make a claim at force me to buy a hundred shares of apple, 1 62, but in exchange for that risk with defy risks, we will pay you, 1 70, 2 to 500 bucks per month for doing that. Right. So imagine that, and you're like, I want to buy Aqua 1 72, because I did all my homework. I know your financial long-term bullish on it. I know this is number one company that Warren buffet is investing. I'm very comfortable in the longterm. Now I can buy at a discount price and get paid to further reduce my cost of ownership. It's a no brainer, right? So let's say by you getting paid to buy off market deals and the real estate turns does, are you falling so far?

Average Joe Finances:
25:02

Yeah. No, that makes sense. That makes perfect

Cody Yeh:
25:04

sense. The next step, right? There's a circle in here to the next step is once if ever you need to buy those apple stocks at 1 62. So whenever the apple stock expire lower than 1 62, you need to buy a hundred shares. But anytime that's above 1 66, By the expiration, that 1 63, you 200, whatever. You just keep the premium, just like an insurance company. Say, Hey, expire, you then make a claim too bad. I'm keeping all the premium anyway. And even if someone make the claim like yourself, make a claim to me, I still keep all the premium. And now I'm forced to buy a hundred shares of apple, 1 62. Right now I have a hundred shares of apple. What do I do? I turn around and do the same thing. Now I have the shares. I sell the insurance contract. I agree to sell my shares a higher than 1 62. And I get pay one to 4% again per month. So not only I got a discount and I agreed to sell that. I get pay another one to 4% again. And now this is a rent to. Right. And real estate. You agree a rate that you're willing to give it away? Yes. You cap your gain. Hey, I say, Hey, I've agreed to sell apple 1 65 in a month. I can pay one and 4% for it. So what do I get? The worst cases of apple goes to one 70. Ah I kept my own profit 1 65. I only profit the difference between 1 65, 1 62. Plus the premium I get paid as an insurance company, but to me, that's a good situation to be in. It's almost what I call tell my hundreds of my alumni is like first world problem, right there down. We get cabin,

Average Joe Finances:
26:36

Win, win situation. Pretty much.

Cody Yeh:
26:39

We win all that is based on. You really want to own that stock for the longterm and you do your homework. So this doesn't work on. I only speculate this stuff. It works on a good stock dog. You don't want to

Average Joe Finances:
26:49

use this on a penny stock. You want to use this on a blue chip company that you do your due diligence on and do enough research to be comfortable that if it does drop down that you know that in the long-term, you're still going to get that back anyway. So, no that's

Cody Yeh:
27:05

awesome. Yeah. So that's in a nutshell, I hope I didn't confuse you. I hope,

Average Joe Finances:
27:08

I think I know a little bit more about options now than I ever did before. So, cause I, I really don't know too much about options. I, I have friends that do it and they say they do quite well with it. I just never really took the time to get myself involved in it too much. And like I said I would stick with like index funds or I would buy individual like blue chip stocks for companies that I'm comfortable with because I know where they're at, but I never looked at options as a thing because honestly, I just thought it would be a little too much like too time consuming. But with the way you're putting this out, like, you can do this in a pretty, it's not even well, besides the time to research the company, the actual time that you're taking action to, to buy the options. Like you said, it's probably going to be less than 30 minutes. So that's actually a, it might be something I might start looking at to, to play around with a little bit, if I've just got some spare cash to just play with, maybe maybe I'll take a look at that.

Cody Yeh:
28:00

Yeah. It's a cashflow play. So this, when your insurance company, insurance company get the float, right? This is what they call it, the flow. So this is like our float. So when we get paid this premium, what do I do? We can either support our day to day life, or as a proceeds, go buy more real estate, or it can take it and buy your index or ETF for the longterm. So this is how we split our money. So for me, I set a mouth every time it goes a hundred K over, I'll pull it up. Right. And then buy more real estate. We'll buy more long-term stocks or ETFs,

Average Joe Finances:
28:31

and you're not strictly, you're not strictly in just stock options. You're well-diversified so I just, just to put that out there for everybody that's listening, like this isn't like the, be all end, all of what Cody's doing. Right. So, like, like you said before, you have this circle, you have this little cycle going on, which is, the washing machine of Cody's funds. Right. And how it goes from one to the next and I love it. I love that you find a way to employ your dollar. In more than one thing at one time. And I think that's the biggest thing to take away from here. Like it's not your $1 goes into like three different things. So you just turned your $1 into $3 instantly without even knowing it. And I think that's just absolutely amazing.

Cody Yeh:
29:10

That's amazing way of putting it. I never thought about it that way.

Average Joe Finances:
29:13

I know. You know what, it's funny. Like people tell me some things that are doing and I come up with these little weird things that, that work cause in my brain, I'm like, oh, This makes sense to me, if I say it like this, and again, this is average Joe finances, right? So I'm putting this out there for the people that aren't too savvy with financial literacy and things like that. Cause it's all a learning process and that's the whole point of this show and bringing you on to talk about this is so people can learn and try to make the best decisions for themselves financially to, to build their future. Right. And that's one of the things like you'd seen in the background behind me, it says, build your wealth and control your future. And that's what it's all about because yeah, financial freedom, isn't about being rich, wealthy is one thing. There's a difference between being wealthy and being rich. And we focus on being wealthy because, w we want to have that financial freedom to live the life that we want to live. And not have to worry about finances where the rich are constantly struggling to stay rich. And when you're wealthy, you don't need to worry about staying wealthy. You will hold that wealth.

Cody Yeh:
30:12

No big difference there. But

Average Joe Finances:
30:14

so all right there, there's I have to ask you this, right? So besides real estate and stocks and options, is there anything else that you play around with that you personally invest in? Like, have you bought into the crypto hype or anything or NFTs or anything like that? Cause you see so much of that being talked about nowadays. So I like to ask people if that's something that they have considered or looked at.

Cody Yeh:
30:38

Yeah. Great question. And like personally I have one Bitcoin since 2017, I bought a once 10,000 when I was 20,000, I thought I was a genius when it went out to 3000, Definitely not, but the way I treat that as I bought one, not because I want to get rich, I want buy a hedge just in case if ever does U S dollar Paul monetary system ever collapse. That is for my grandkids to played ready player one and the multiverse. I'm not even kidding. I have a lot of interests.

Average Joe Finances:
31:10

I like how you tied that in, because that's what I was talking about before with the metaverse like I was talking about like, some of these movies that they show, like, what the future might look like and ready player one was exactly the movie that was in my head when I was talking about, yeah, that's awesome.

Cody Yeh:
31:24

So to me, I hide my password at night. I'm going to joke about, I blew the way high my password. I'm not selling it for life. I'm holding it for my grandkids, right? If it goes to a million, great, Hey, my grandkids have something to work with, but if it goes to zero, it doesn't hurt me at all. It's $10,000 USD and 27. Right. That's extra layer on top of my whole life insurance, my disability long-term care, whatever. And real estate and stock option, multiple streams of active income. That's the last here now for people who are thinking that they can make a quick bucks, because this is all the hyped up thing. Just be very careful with that because there's many incident in the past that even if you look at Al automotive companies back in 1900, when they first started this car thing, there was a thousand companies. And now all those thousand company, if you look at how many of those are on the S and P 500, there's zero, zero of them Ford, wasn't out yet throw it. I wasn't out yet. So this is in my opinion, The 19,000 of the automotive. So everything is so new. Everything is so great. The best thing I can set is stick with the bigger thing that really has the application and the technology behind it, rather than just following people you like people should trust because that's not a hope is not a good game to play in this case. And that's another thing why I don't participate in those because to me, I don't just look at the return. I always look at the risk first. If I can, I defend us in the future to myself. Can I tell myself that yes, I look out the risk. I'm comfortable. If that risk I'm going ahead. If I cannot defend anything, I'm like, I always try to pull myself back and say, Cody, if I asked myself that decision five years from now, what I regret, and to me, that might be one of the decision. If I put more money, am I regret it? And I don't want to have that kind of thing, right? Every. F five years from now, what do you think that decision is that a good decision about decision and only make the good decision if I can defend that in five years? Right? So I was looking at the risk first very risk averse and everything else to me is the upside. If I go in, I already know what the risk is and I'm comfortable with it and have the odds in my favor, some of the stock options strategy. When I go sell an insurance contract, just like an insurance company, they calculate, they have actuaries calculate all your risks, how many claims they can make, how many money they could lose. Right? Best case average, worst case scenario. Right? So, same thing with us, the moment we go in, I know what's the probability that we'll ever have to buy apple 1 62. I know that probability. And I know even if that probability is wrong, I have to buy apple. I'm okay. In the long-term right. Again, not stock advice. I'm at the, I'm at the stage where I consider things like that. It's not, I have so many choices. There's so many ways to make money, but what is the most effective and the safest way. And don't do dumb things like what Charlie manga set, right. Just don't do dumb things. And you're a lot better off already. Right? A lot of people think they're doing a lot of things, but not all of the art, the right things, or are the most effective things to get to where ever they want. And they look very busy, but they're going nowhere and set use more time to think. I think from the risk perspective, not for how much money I can make. No. Think about how much money can you lose. Then if you're comfortable with everything. It's the money you make, in my opinion, right? Sorry. I went on at rent, but

Average Joe Finances:
34:48

no, that's cool, man. I was just letting you go because I liked what you're saying. I like where your head's at with that too. That, that was one of the things I was thinking as you're talking is, you know exactly where your head's at, when it comes to cryptocurrencies and things like that. Because, you're talking about, if you're going to go with it, go with the big ones, go with the ones that are here to stick around and not just, some coin that was made up because somebody thought it would be funny to make a name up or whatever, so you're talking about like Bitcoin and Ethereum, right? And yeah, application is pretty neat too, because that's what all the NFTs are tied to right now. So everybody's making these big deals about NFTs, but, it's. Purchased with Ethereum and it's being sold with theories. So that's, something that, that we'll take a look at

Cody Yeh:
35:29

it like a means. Right, right, right, right. Product. But the means the platform for it exactly

Average Joe Finances:
35:35

the same, a lot more, I guess it's a lot more stable and it's got a lot more weight behind it because it's, it is something that's being used in transactions often. It's not like some of these other coins that the only transaction for them is them being traded. They're not being used as any type of currency or anything like that. So, again, I'm not really too comfortable with that. Again, you don't know what you don't know. And if it's something I decide to invest in the future, then. Best be known that I'm going to research it before I jump into it. I'm not just going to dump some money into it. I have one crypto coin right now and it isn't alt coin. And the only reason why I have it is because it's given to me through this website that I host my podcast on, or that my podcast is on and people can vote for it. And when you get upvoted, you get this coin and it's called hive coin. And my podcast has actually been trending on there for a while. So I do have a pretty healthy amount of this coin and it's worth like a dollar 18 per coin right now. Nice. It's okay if I ever decide to cash it out, but I'm not even going to do it. I'm just letting it sit there because I did nothing to earn it. I did nothing to, I just keep putting out my content and if people vote for me then awesome. Thank you. I appreciate that. So everybody that's on the whole real one system that is voting for my podcast. I just want to give you all shout out real quick and say, thank you very much for that. But yeah, honestly I'm not like a crypto enthusiast, but I've brought people on that are, and they, they talk about their reasons, their why, and I understand that and I'm not gonna knock anybody if that's their thing, they've done the research. They've put the effort into it. I have not. So, I'm not going to, I'm not going to be the guy. That tries to crap on anybody. That's doing something different because you know what, the people that think outside of the box and do different things, they're the ones who pioneered the next stages of development. And for those people that do that, Hey, good on you. I appreciate you. I'm gonna go with what I'm comfortable with for now and maybe in the future we'll, we'll see.

Cody Yeh:
37:28

Yeah. To add on that quickly is the way I look at things. The things I'm investing in has to be scalable. Yes. Now what I put seven figure into cryptal if I have 10 figure, maybe I'll put seven figure, right. But it's the scalability, right? How comfortable you are. I've people I'm very confident about it, but meanwhile, I only put 5% in net worth. That's not confident to me, but whereas a lot of real estate investor, a stock option investor like myself, when we put a lot of net worth. That is what I said. You put your money where your mouth is. Not just, I'm very confident by only putting 50 K I'm like cool. But your money's not saying the same thing. So I like to follow where the money is, where the big money is. Right. When they say I do something. Okay. Do you actually pay for it or the Ashley? That's what I look at. And a lot of times that doesn't line up, but if you're into crypto, there's definitely nothing wrong with it. Just knowing that there's a lot more volatile. I'm gonna have to hold it for longterm. Right. And to me, it's just harder to scale at this point with the volatility and with the knowledge with the while spread of things out there at this point. Not yet, not stable enough for me to pour a lot of money. Right.

Average Joe Finances:
38:38

It's Crypto itself is like 24, 7 day trading. Right? Like for me, if I was day trading, I can't do it. I one, I don't have the time and two, like having to sit here and stare at it and watch it go up and down and up and down, I would, I'd have a heart attack. I would lose my mind, it's, I'm not built for that. Okay.

Cody Yeh:
38:56

And you and me are, I tried that before, like I said, the return on time and lowest return on stress and look where we are. We're quite comfortable. We're going to say we're there, but we're quite comfortable. We have our own financial freedom. I have multiple streams of income. So we must be doing something, right? So again, wherever you listen to make sure you listen to the people that has to track wrecker time proven, and they're living the life you want. Don't listen to someone. Who's a say very confident. Again, and again, they're trying new things and failing and all that. They would like the next one will be the big thing. The next one

Average Joe Finances:
39:30

they're taking their pictures in front of the rented Lamborghini and Ferrari and the private jet with all the girls around them and stuff, and everything's rented nothing's owned.

Cody Yeh:
39:39

So, yeah. And that's really the message I want to send. Right. Just listen to the person and, educate yourself

Average Joe Finances:
39:45

I appreciate that. And I appreciate you coming on the show and sharing what you do because it's really quite awesome. And what you've built since you immigrated to Canada at the age of 18 and just you've been going nonstop and building something really good for yourself and building that general generational wealth for your future family. So, when you do have children, they're already blessed and they're not even here yet. And that's a, that's just amazing that, you've had that mindset even before having a child and, a lot of people have children and still can't feel. How are they going to put food on the table for the rest of that child's life and, having that mindset. And I'm glad that switch flipped for you at a very young age, when you were in college and going to school and that's amazing. Cause it was

Cody Yeh:
40:28

putting a lot of overtime. That's when I woke up with like, I'm 25. It's my broken. Tulane's over. I can't do this man. Like, yeah, literally I woke up too late. There's one time I almost had a taxi run in front of me. I thought the guy was banging my head. I'm not religious or anything, but I thought the doc, God has given me a hand and said, Hey, do wake up. You're going to hit that car. I was lowered dark clothes that I shift. Right. I'm like, okay, you

Average Joe Finances:
40:51

woke up literally and figuratively. Right? Cause you opened up your mind to to where you're at now with building this legacy and this financial independence for yourself. And I just want to say, man, super proud of you for what you're doing. And I really appreciate you taking time to talk with me about this. So, I want to ask you, because when it comes to financial literacy there's a whole bunch of different things people could look at to, to get into, to, to start learning. Now, do you have any. Tips or tricks for anybody that is just getting started today. Like they, they just finished college and they just got their first job, or let's say somebody who just got out of debt and they're middle-class and they want to start investing and they want to start building their net worth. What would you say to somebody who's just starting out today?

Cody Yeh:
41:34

Yeah, a lot of YouTubers talk about spending less now to me is very important, but that's the easy thing to talk about, but what people don't talk about more is how do you speed up the process to build more wealth? Because that's the part is hard to talk about. So, there's real estate there's stock options to have more accounts. You're as even more passive way of insurance policy. Right. And for the banking concept, again, I'm not a broker, anything I barely know enough to talk about, but I do put my money where my mouth is. And we'll

Average Joe Finances:
42:06

jump in and say, I figured you probably did that when you mentioned that you've got a whole life insurance policy at the age of 23. So I even want to go down that road, but I was pretty sure I was like, he probably does infinite banking, which is another another way to add that to the cycle. So that's

Cody Yeh:
42:20

and the corporation as well, not personally, both. Both. So that's awesome. So it's really, this is cliche and not cliche. Learn about it. Takes actions on it. Fail fast if you ever going to fail, but learn from the people and learn from more important learn from people's mistakes. Whenever I go mingle with people, big time, real estate investor, a big time stock option trader coach, whatever asset what's the biggest mistake. What should we avoid? Same thing. I talk to all my students. You said the mistake I make all the students make. Please don't do that. If you look at it from a risk standpoint, everything else is upside. So please don't do that. Same thing. I'll do the same thing. If you already look at all the rest, you're okay with it, just go do it. And that's what brought me to where I am right now. Brought you to where you are right now. We're looking at if there's ever another crash in real estate where stock market we are. Okay. As well, I'm very confident in saying that because most of our real estate, all my real estate is cashflow positive. We adjust the portfolio. So we have a buffer setting and I have like six months rent in there. I have like, 50% loan to value. So that's like, I don't take more than that about so that's, I'm like, I'm quite careful if that, so I'm at the same time expanding, but I'm not expanding in a very irrational way. If something happened, I'm setting up a lot of buffer. Now we look at it from that perspective, don't compare yourself with anyone was like, how many doors do you have? Whatever, compare yourself from a year ago, if you're already moving forward. Appreciate that. Take time to appreciate that and celebrate.' cause that's you moving forward? Not everyone else. Everyone has a different journey. It doesn't mean someone's growing faster will be there 20 years. Right? A lot of people grow so fast that implode their own business because they know how to scale. So compare with, for yourself. And, it was a very exciting journey to me. You could probably see them, efficiency, freak, building business, and all that. And just very excited. This is financial freedom is great for me, but I work even longer hours, but it's the things I really like it, I know can make an impact on my life. Everyone's life, their family's life. And that's what really drives my passion. Right.

Average Joe Finances:
44:22

Yeah. Right on. I love it because you're doing something that you enjoy that you love and it's something I've talked about on this podcast several times, if you're doing something that you. Can you even really consider that work and you're doing something that you love that is building an income for yourself at the same time, you're helping other people. It's just awesome. Like, I love your mentality, your vibe and your energy. As you're sitting here talking about this stuff. Cause I can tell you're passionate about it. I can tell that, you're the real deal. And there was something, as you were telling that, that portion, right? You said that as you go up to these different meetups and you talk to these big real estate investors and stock options coaches, and you ask them that one question that I am now going to ask you, and I'm adding that to my repertoire here, because this is something I haven't asked anybody on this podcast before, or if I have it, hasn't been often. So Cody, what is the biggest mistake you've ever made?

Cody Yeh:
45:10

The biggest mistake ever made as I trust some uncle about a weed, a weed stocks. When I don't know anything about it, when they say Cody, this is the new deal. That the biggest that we company Canada, that the managing director is going to Australia to open this company. I bought that shares at 1.2. I remember. And guess what? Within, I think within six months it went down to 0.3 and I called my friend. Cause I think I put it in a 10,000 and I called my friends that, Hey, why did you still have it? They should we hold it? He said, oh, I sold at 1.0. I'm like, dude, you're my best friend. You didn't tell me about that. Will you try to hide it from me? Or like, what was that? Right. So that was the biggest mistake. And from then on, I never play those games and I trust myself. I don't blame anyone. I don't hope anyone to tell me when to enter, when to exit what investment to make. I take full responsibility. If I can make it. I know all the. I'm not going to play anyway. Even if you tell me something, Mike, cause I do this. Okay. I'll think if I can make it, even if it fail or being successful, I'll really thank you for both ways, but I will not blame you for anything and no one should really blame anyone because. If you have those kinds of victim mentality, you will never make it. You will never improve and you're going to live a miserable life. Trust me. Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
46:26

Yeah. Right on. I love that. I love that, man. You take full ownership and responsibility for your own actions, even though you got shafted there. And that's definitely commendable Cody, for sure. And the fact that you bounce back from that and you use it as a learning experience, a very expensive educational moment for you, but at the same time you still paid for your education, right. It was just a little more expensive than you probably wanted to pay for it. So, now definitely appreciate that perspective. So I've got another question. I'm going to ask you on this. This is also in regards to education and for somebody who's trying to learn a little bit more but do you happen to have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast or both? Yeah.

Cody Yeh:
47:04

So for book-wise this is one of them. I'm not sure if he know this book, Stefan RNL money. People deal again. A lot of people talk about rich dad, poor dad. I think that's cliche now. So money people deal is a really great book. Unfortunately, the author passed away at age 33, it's from Canada. But he left a really good legacy. This is a book I recommend for any real estate investor, where people were new, where he talks about the three things, right? Money people deal. This has all the components and real estate deal. You need all three of them. And most people can't find the money because they can't figure out the people in the deal. So in a nutshell, is that and podcast, I came across your podcast. I listened to some episodes. They're great. And depending on where you are, I would say if you're investing in real estate, listen to the local investor podcast, because it could vary right by Korean Honolulu. I'm in Canada and us. Everything is very different. The price point, the brokered interest rate the policy and the structure is very different. So listen to the local ones that talk to go out to the meetup events. Right. And like me, when I was driving to the meetup events, I was listening to the pockets while I'm driving there. So I'm doubling down. So I would say that's the best way to learn or, go on YouTube and you can learn more general stuff.

Average Joe Finances:
48:18

Yeah, absolutely. I love that because, that's what I do myself. I very rarely listen to music in my car anymore. It is always, I always have a podcast on when I'm driving to work or an audio book, right. Or I'm listening to because I have, I pay for the YouTube premium, right. Don't kill me, Dave Ramsey, wherever you're at. But yeah, I pay for YouTube premium because sometimes there's a lot of good YouTube videos that I want to just listen to that have to deal with financial literacy or business related. And. That's something I can actually hit the power button, my phone and turn my screen off, put my phone down and have to play through my speakers still as well. While I'm driving to work. Or a lot of times I like to watch some of the book reviews on books that I've read and see what other people got out of that book was different perspectives, get a different perspective and be like, oh, you know what? I didn't look at it that way. I got this out of the book. So that's an interesting way to look at it. And I think that's super important as well. And I've actually learned so much through that actually just through book reviews. And I don't think I've actually ever mentioned that on this show before. But I think that's just a great way to learn about a book to read the book itself. Don't just watch a video or something on a book review. But, watch or listen to some of the book reviews and get a good understanding of what somebody else got out of that, and it might open your eyes. So yeah that's super important stuff. So I definitely appreciate that. I appreciate that you listened to my podcast as well. That's awesome. Cody, and now I know you have a YouTube channel and you help educate some people as well. So I'd like to give you an opportunity. Now, if you could share with us where people can find out more about you what you're doing, and if you have any, a website or social media that you can share with us, that'd be awesome.

Cody Yeh:
49:51

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people, if I don't leave anything, they're going to go into YouTube and type in, sorry, go into Google and type in Cody, Yeh C O D Y. Space. Y E H. So if you don't get anything away, just go type in on YouTube. Sorry, Google. I kept saying YouTube and there's some free YouTube videos. I have 18 videos, there's 14,000 subscribers, which a lot of people thought it was a miracle. And that was because it's talking about this very stock option strategy. And there was a lot of traction on, and I have a Facebook group free Facebook group, right? You can request to join. My kid can put it in the show notes. There's one of 4,000 people. Like-minded people and they're organic. I didn't pay for any ads for it. People just joined and they dragged her friends, refer their friends. I run Facebook live every Sunday at 7:00 PM. I have a lot of blocks in there. Now. My own personal walking dogs is a more about financial stuff. Right. You know how I take the, why I buy the Porsche. I really drive it for free for a reason cannot house like how's hacking or car hacking ways. Right. You can drive a cheaper than a Honda kind of ways. So yeah. Facebook group, YouTube, social media, like Instagram, Cody, Yeh something you will find me. And yeah, if you're really interested in learning more about stock option, if my could do that, but it put the link for the application and and the show notes, and I know people who are serious about it, we'll go through the 10 to 14 question, because from that I know how serious you are. Right. And that's really the first step. Right. You'll tell me a little bit more about yourself and from there, I know whether it's a good fit already and it we'll hop on a phone, right? Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
51:22

Cody, for sure. I'll have all your links in the show notes. Accessible for anybody that's listening. And if you're driving right now don't sit here and try to copy and paste it, we'll make sure you can always pull it up later and get it that way. So Cody will definitely have that stuff in there because this interview I totally enjoyed it. Like, I'm being super honest with you here. Just with what you're putting out and just how passionate you are about this. I can tell that, this is something that you're not doing just for yourself, you're doing this to, for the betterment of mankind, right. And I'm not trying to sound cheesy or anything, but you literally are, you are trying to help other people and help get them on that right. Path to financial literacy and financial freedom. So thank you for that. I definitely appreciate that. And yeah, Cody it's been an absolute honor and privilege to have you on the show. I really appreciate you taking some time on a Saturday to have this chat.

Cody Yeh:
52:11

Yeah, thanks for having me. Mike is a pleasure and really to add onto that, I really just don't want anyone to have to go through the financial struggles in my family that we go through. And there's a lot of ways to improve that. And I'm making sure my next generation or your generation, your next generation, your audience, next generation, don't have to go through that, but I'm not going to hand money to my family, to my kids. They're going to work for it. Or I'd rather give it to a charity. I'm not even joking about this. Right. If they don't deserve it. Right. So I think this is a Ryan mentality spread around you work for what you get and don't have the victim mentality and enjoy the journey because there's a lot of fun, right? So,

Average Joe Finances:
52:51

absolutely enjoy the journey. So that's what we're all about, right? Building our wealth, controlling our future and that journey that takes us all the way to the end. So Cody again, man, thanks so much for coming on and Aloha from Hawaii.

Cody Yeh:
53:04

Thanks.