Podcast 202. Accepting Responsibility for All Aspects of Your Life with Jerry Fetta

Average Joe Finances:
0:01

Welcome back to the Average Joe Finances podcast. I'm your host, Mike Cavaggioni, and today's guest is Jerry Fetta. He is not a stranger to the Average Joe Finances Podcast. As a matter of fact, he was here couple months ago on episode one 20, actually, more than a couple months ago. But hey Jerry, I am super excited to bring you back on the show, to give us some updates on what's been happening with you and everything you have going on. So thank you for joining me again.

Jerry Fetta:
0:27

Yeah, Mike, it's great to be back on. I had a lot of fun last time and we had a good conversation, so I'm excited to dive into it more. I've got some some cool things to go over today and some crazy stories to tell too.

Average Joe Finances:
0:38

Awesome, man. I definitely want to get into that. And, having a great conversation is what this is all about. It's why I started podcasting, man. And I remember the last conversation we had, it was fantastic. You were doing some really awesome things. Now, I know we talked a little bit off camera about some things that are going on I'm really looking forward to getting into those conversations and talking about what's been new with you. But before we get to that for those that may not have listened to episode 120, which I recommend you go back and listen to cuz it'll add a lot of context to what this episode's gonna be about go back and listen to that. But Jerry, for those that haven't heard that episode yet, can you just introduce yourself, let us know who you are and what your story is.

Jerry Fetta:
1:16

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I'm Jerry Feta. I'm the owner, founder and CEO of the brand Wealth Dynamics. And I've been helping families, individuals, entrepreneurs, achieve greater financial freedom in life for about 12 years now. So I started, what I call like retail financial services. I was a financial advisor. I was helping people with their retirement planning and mutual funds and stocks and bonds. I worked my way into being endorsed by Dave Ramsey in about eight different states. I worked with Grant Cardone, Pamela Yellen. And so I as I evolved, started learning more and more about what the wealthy actually do. And that's for me as like a former financial advisor, having all those licenses in the education, I started seeing like the dichotomy, the difference between what banks and Wall Street push on the average person versus what wealthy individuals are actually doing. And they weren't the same thing. So I started really studying that, reading I call, I like to call 'em old, dead successful and wealthy people, biographies of those that have been around, they are the ones that founded a lot of the concepts that we talk about today. That's my story. So I love helping clients with that. That's what my company does is educating on that connecting clients with the right tools and strategies to achieve those things.

Average Joe Finances:
2:27

Jerry, one of the things I distinctly remember was that the phrase that you used, old, dead and wealthy. To hear you bring that back up again. Yeah, it definitely brings me back to the last time we had a conversation, but the last time we talked, you were doing something a little bit different than what you're doing now. So I wanna get into that. I know some stuff happened. You've been doing a lot of rebuilding and rebranding and just building yourself back up because there was some stuff that went down I think, one of the things that we can get into as well is how your financial background, how that was able to help you overcome some of the challenges you faced after this big adversity that you faced. And for my listeners, just so you know, shortly after Jerry and I had our last interview, he had some stuff go down and I'm gonna let him explain that to you guys. And your build back story of what happened. So if you could Jerry share that with us, please.

Jerry Fetta:
3:16

Yeah, for sure. Just to give some context and background. I've been investing as a private investor for many years now. So the very first time I ever invested, it was actually a mutual fund. I was a financial advisor, right? So I did that, put a few thousand dollars in, had to pull it out right away, lost money to fees and all that and I think I spent that on a car or something like that. I was 18, 19 years old. And so as I started learning more about real estate as an entrepreneur we're, I'm very busy, right? So I work, 70, 80, 90 hours a week already. So I was very attracted to real estate, but I was like, I'm not very attracted to being a landlord, right? And so I was trying to figure out, okay, how do I get into real estate without getting into having this part-time? A job where I'm maintaining properties and stuff. And so the way that I did that is I had a very close friend of mine that had a private real estate fund. And he was, in that game for about 40 years. Phenomenal track record. So that was my introduction to like private fund investing. And I think this is a really good conversation for investors because the private fund space is a little bit like the wild west. There's not a ton of oversight. There's not a ton of regulation in it. I invested with this fund because that experience was so good. I looked at other funds and so I had actually my childhood friends start a foreign currency trading funds. Now at this point, I didn't know much about foreign currency trading. And also with a fund, a fund really is a business, so you have to understand who's the owner and what is their management like, and, how's the operation run? And so because I had so much in real estate I was comfortable with kind of, speculating with a little bit of money. So I put some money into this foreign currency fund. And long story short the fund had, I guess at some point lost money. The manager, again, he is my childhood best friend since we were like 12, right? The last person you'd expect to have this kind of thing happen with. He was trying to trade out of the deficit, so he did not tell anybody that he was losing money. He was still taking new investors in and keep in mind he did his SCC registrations he had his private placement memorandum, so all of the things you're supposed to check, were there. And so he basically was taking new investors in and trying to trade out of a deficit. And it was apparently just getting worse to the point where he began to falsify our monthly statements. So when I would log in, I would see, I made money, I could pull money out I could put money in, and it was to the naked eye, there's nothing going on there. What was really happening, he was paying out the old investors with the money coming in from the new investors, and then reporting false returns. Hoping he could trade outta that deficit and that nobody would be the wiser. I think he got caught, by the regulators and stuff in like August or September of 2022. And it turned out Mike to be, I think 135 investors that he defrauded out over, I think it was over 35 million which is in the fund space. Not a huge amount, but when you consider the amount of money, that is a pretty big chunk of change. And then the other thing too that happened was there was some counterparty risks. So the fund owner of this fund that committed fraud knew the owner of the other fund, and the guy in the other fund had money with him as well. So the real estate market was high. This other fund that had a phenomenal track record sold, took their profits. They didn't wanna leave it in the bank cuz the FDIC insurance doesn't cover an amount that size. So they put it with this other fund and said, Hey, just put it in a holding account. We're gonna build it up. I think they were looking at buying a hotel with it. And so they ended up losing all of the money that they had with this other fund. And so between those two, I took a big hit on my net worth. That's the phase I've been in the last six months or so, is handling that rebuilding. And it's one of those things that I'm glad it happened in the sense that I can learn from it. It definitely sucks to build up that high and then see it all come back down to, almost ground level. But it is a great learning experience and it's something that's, I think I'm better off for having gone through.

Average Joe Finances:
6:55

Yeah. Jerry, we talk about a lot the education that comes with. Investing. A lot of times some of that education is a mistake that we make and it winds up becoming a very expensive education as you just recently experienced. And the thing is, like even somebody with as great of a financial background as you can get stuck in a situation like this. And I think it has to do with due diligence. We talked about this a little bit off the air, I'm thinking, cuz this was your childhood best friend, you were kind of like, Hey, he's good. We're good to go. I'm not too worried about this. And he wouldn't do that to me or blah blah blah. And maybe it lets you put your guard down a little bit, would you say that's the case?

Jerry Fetta:
7:36

Ironically, no. And I'll get into why. So he had been trading since we were in high school, so I've watched this guy go broke more times than I can count. Trying to figure out the trading game to become a good trader. It is speculation and it's very easy to lose money. I watched him for years. He would go work, extra hours, get money, build it up, and then lose it. And then, he went through enough of those cycles where he actually did get good. And to this day, I truly believe he's a good trader. But the thing is trading is speculative. Not only is it speculative, it's rigged, right? It's a market and the markets are made and they're typically made by in the Forex market, central banks, some of the largest chain banks in the world, hedge funds, like those are the top three players in that market. Just like going into the ocean, like if you're used to being in the pond and as a fish and you move into the ocean, Now there's sharks, there's whales, there's all sorts of stuff that you're not used to, basically he had a track record. He had traded before. He tried to get me to invest with them maybe in 2015, and I told him no. I was a Dave Ramsey financial advisor, so I was like, Hey, until you can show me you have an actual fund, you've got a five year positive track record, and you actually have like administrative, like I can log in and see my account and do all the things I can do with a mutual fund. I was like, until that I've got zero interest. I don't wanna put money with you. Fast forward, until he finally actually had those things. He was like, Hey, I've got a five year track record. He showed me his numbers. They were phenomenal. He had lost money one time. It was pretty significant, maybe back in 2017. And he showed that he made that money back by the end of the year, there is volatility, as long as I follow my trading, regime and behavior I'm able to keep my gains positive and just basically hit singles, right? Stack 'em up over time, and it's a pretty substantial return. So between that, he did his private fund filings. All the due diligence you're supposed to do, I did. And really the difference is that, for me, I think, to your point, because he was my buddy, I ignored the fact that in prior years before the fund, he had lost money. I watched him come up and there was the, get to the top and lose it and then build it back up. If any average Joe came to me on the street and was like, Hey, I've got a fund and I knew they had that kind of track record leading up to it. Even if they had five years of consistency, I would've been like, no thank you. And so I think that's the part where I let my guard down a little bit cuz he was a childhood friend. And then the other part too is, when I really look at investing I didn't have control over that investment. I can't really tell you that I understand foreign currency trading. I get the concept of it right. The thing is if I would've said, Garrett, I'm concerned. Can you send me your trading statement? I wanna look at your trading statement. I don't know that I would've known how to read it. I didn't have the knowledge on day trading and foreign currency trading to know that. As an investor, really we need to lead with education. That's something I did really heavily on real estate. You guys know I'm really big into the infinite banking concept with life insurance. I did it really heavily there. And the one area that I really didn't, and I think again goes back to I knew the guy so well was the foreign currency cuz I was like, I don't need to know it because he knows it right. And I trust him and that kind of thing. So yes and no. There was some permissiveness on my end, but it was the due diligence that most people would do on investing in a fund are the things I did. And I think that's why this is such an important story of don't just rely on that. Really rely on your own knowledge and control.

Average Joe Finances:
11:29

Absolutely. It goes to show that no matter what with any in investment, there's always risk no matter what.

Jerry Fetta:
11:35

For sure.

Average Joe Finances:
11:35

Whether it's real estate, the foreign currency exchange, the stock market, cryptocurrencies, whatever it might be, there's always an inherent risk. Some of these markets more volatile than others, right? Real estate's a pretty safe asset to be in. But we have things that happen like 2008, 2009. Some markets are experiencing some downfalls right now. And some are fine, right? It's all very market specific. Now, 2008, 2009, that was everywhere, right? This time it's a little bit more focused in areas where some of these assets may have appreciated way too fast. So they're experiencing some downturn, but nothing crazy. Yeah. And that's why I still like real estate. Like no matter what, people need a place to live. So you had this happen, right? You lost you took a big hit to your net worth, like you said. What did you do to readjust and or how did you change trajectory after this happened?

Jerry Fetta:
12:33

Yeah, so the first thing I did is I had to really take responsibility for my causation in it. Like one of the things that's interesting and I, so I'm not big in victim mentality, they did this to me, this happened to me. Like for me, even if I get sideswiped in traffic by someone else's and it's completely their fault, I still believe I was responsible for it. And the reason why is the things I can be responsible for, I can control. So by giving that up, I'm giving up control. Even if factually they were the ones that did it, I want the control, therefore I have to assume the responsibility to have that control. Otherwise it's not up to me. So that was really the first thing is mentally I had to catch that and when you go through something like this for any listeners that have been through this or those that haven't the FBI gets involved, the security, the Exchange Commission gets involved. The state that they're in, the banking and securities division gets involved, and the unanimous messages, you are a victim. They tell you that you're a victim, we're gonna send you to a victim specialist. Here are your rights as a victim. Here's a pamphlet for victims. So it's very easy to fall into, I'm a victim. This was done to me. And I think that it's a slippery slope mentally. If I'm trying to rebuild from that, I can't do that with a victimhood mentality. So does this suck? Yep. Was he in the wrong? Yep. But did I put the money to in the fund? Yeah. Did I have a gun to my head that made me do it? No. That was my choice. And I could have done more education, I could have done more. So that was really the first point of catching that. And then for me, I had to look at, okay, what do I need to do to make sure that this never happens again? And so at its root, the word investing, it means to clothe your capital. And so when I think of clothing, I think I would only wear clothing on my body that I like that I understand, it fits me, it fits the things I'm gonna use it for, it's vital and it's not overpriced, and that was always kind.

Average Joe Finances:
14:18

So you're a fan of spandex then?

Jerry Fetta:
14:20

I'm not a fan. Spandex can fit me pretty well sometimes. It depends on how tight it is. So that's what I always thought. But the point that I was missing on that was control, Mike. Imagine wearing clothing that you walk into the office and someone can just take away your pants like that. You've got no control over it. So with investing, I realize that point too of okay, I need to have all those points in and also control. I need to have control over the asset. So one of my handlings with that is, okay I don't invest in anything where I don't have direct control over it. And control needs to either be something like I can tangibly get into it and see it and have it. Or it needs to be extended control through oversight. And that can be done through regulation. It can be done by third party auditing. It can be done by a lot of different stuff to give you that level of control over something. So that was another point is, okay, I don't do anything now that could put me in a similar situation. And then, because of the fact that I had to rebuild, it got, it went back to, that actually is done through active income. I've really been focused on, the things that got me to that position in the first place of being able to invest and being able to be a multimillionaire by age 30 and all the stuff I accomplished. And that's really pushing on my active income sources. Really growing my business, working with my team, sales and marketing and delivering services. Cuz we have to have that earned income to then save and accumulate it so that we can invest. So that's where my mind has been at, what my plan has been and that's what my attack has been the last six months here.

Average Joe Finances:
15:43

Sure. Yeah. That's you were able to, take a situation that a lot of people would probably throw their hands up in the air and say, you know what? I'm done with this. I don't want to get back into investing. It's just not for me. You were able to take a situation like that and turn it into a strength, right? Which is what you did. You say, okay, look, I realized what my mistake was here. This is what I'm gonna do to rectify that in the future. So speaking of, now you're focused on hard assets, right? You're things that are tangible, that you can see, touch, feel, smell, right? So what are you actually buying right now or investing in right now? To keep yourself in that in that state where you're buying these hard assets and you know where your comfort level's at right now.

Jerry Fetta:
16:27

Yeah I'm a bit of a more, I guess aggressive in the sense that I can get back on the horse pretty fast, right? Like a one, one of the things that you could fall into if you don't exactly pinpoint what went wrong, it's this general this whole area is bad. I need to avoid it, versus no. Everything else was fine. It was this exact thing. And I think that can happen very easily as an investor, could go through something like this and say real estate is bad, or private funds are bad, or investing is bad. And it's no, investing in something where you don't actually have access and control is what caused this. Because I was able to pull out just that was the thing that caused it. I'm able to jump back in pretty quick and be aggressive with, okay, I need to get back into it and, really not have too much lag there. For me right now, most of my investing, because I'm so focused on my active, it's actually been back into myself and my business. When you have a loss like that, obviously that represents a blind spot. And I've been spending a lot of time, energy, and money on, okay how do I bring up my blind spots? How do I make sure that I can identify, what caused this, et cetera, learn more, get more knowledge, get more education and then, also growing my business too. And at the end of all this, when the dust settle, the things that I didn't lose money on was my life insurance. I still had my gold and silver. I still had my business. And I still had the real estate. So the real estate fund that was like you had some third party risk there. Some counterparty risk, they were invested in this fund that committed fraud. The real estate's still there, so I still have those assets. The cash flow's gone down significantly cuz the fund is trying to recover. But that's still there. So I looked at, okay, my hard assets, my real estate, my gold and silver, my life insurance, my business, and the knowledge that I have. They didn't go anywhere, right? The stuff that did was invisible in the first place. I can't hold foreign currency trading. It's not like I can go check the door and make sure that everything is intact. Like it's not the same. So I'm doing a lot of focusing on that. For me, I really am doubling down on my life insurance policy. For me, that's like my dry powder. And so when I start getting into deals and where I'm really focused on with doing my hard asset investing is number one, it's gotta produce passive income. It's also gotta be an actual asset. So I'm really big at this point in time on and I'm doing a lot of research and just, planning with this as single family residential rentals and actually using first position home equity line of credit strategy for that. And then also seller finance on single family rentals. I think, we're in a, depending on the areas you're in, these are all Midwest, mid-south kind of areas. But we're in an environment where, affordable housing is becoming less and less of a thing. We've got these states in pockets where, pricing is still decent. People can still get in, and I think that's gonna start to dissipate over time. So I really think there's a window to get in on, single family rentals that are below median price, that have good cap rates, they've got good appreciation. I do wanna outsource all of everything. I don't wanna be involved in the management experience. So for me it is a turnkey kind of thing. And then the other aspect of that.

Average Joe Finances:
19:24

I was gonna ask, are you focusing more on turnkey or are you like, how involved are you? No that's good to know.

Jerry Fetta:
19:29

Turnkey only. And what I love on that strategy with the single family is and most people don't know this as a thing, I just, you mentioned my financial background, like it really has helped to have the knowledge I have on the rebuilding cuz it's It's quick, it's, I know what to do. So for example, on the single family turnkey, like I knew exactly who to go to exactly what to do, what to look for. And then even on the acquisition, 20% down on a hundred or $150,000 home. And I do that with a first position, home equity line of credit. So my cash flow is super high on that deal cuz I'm only paying interest only on those loans. You can do rate stacking to get intro rates and things of that nature so you're paying very little interest. And then I can actually flow the passive income, the cash flow back into paying that credit line down, similar to what I would do with the life insurance policy. So it also solves the backend product of like when selling it or doing a 1031, I just refinance and tap the equity again and go to another one. And that's all tax free.

Average Joe Finances:
20:23

Nice. I do the same thing with my HELOC too. Velocity.

Jerry Fetta:
20:26

That's awesome. The strategy it's brilliant.

Average Joe Finances:
20:27

Yeah. Mine's a second lien HELOC. But yeah, it's the same thing, use it to buy more real estate and then I'm taking all of the the profits from the real estate and I'm paying the line of credit back down. Essentially. I'm getting it for free.

Jerry Fetta:
20:39

Concept with a house.

Average Joe Finances:
20:41

Yeah. That's awesome, man. No, so that that's good to see that's where the focus shifted to. And it's also, pretty good to see that there's still some good ways to get out there and get turnkey that actually works, that actually cash flows, right? Cause a lot of times people talk about, oh yeah, you can buy a turnkey, but you're lucky if you break even, right? You're focused on specific markets, right? So what. What markets are you actually in right now with I know you said like the Midwest, but is there any specific areas you like to focus on or is that secret sauce?

Jerry Fetta:
21:10

Yeah so we work with a couple groups that specialize this on this. So the turnkey side, there's like the rental side, and then there's also seller finance. And it really is Midwest, so for example, on the seller finance portfolio. And I really like doing it that way as well. It's, the Illinois, it's Indiana, it's Ohio. It's those kind of areas and states. And so for me it's more I have, partners and vendors that I work with that they're providing the research. They're have boots on the ground, they're doing the data. Then I can analyze that data. And figure out, okay, which properties, which areas do I want to be in? Going through that selection process. So for me, that's part of, you hit it on the head with turnkey. There's, the property actually is turnkey, like it's occupied cash flowing, and the management's outsourced. But then also the experience is turnkey. I've got the ability to get data that I wouldn't have to go find out for myself. I don't wanna have to go fly to Ohio and look at neighborhoods with realtors and do that whole thing. It's nice that I can just get that information and review it and look at it and study it, and then make my determinations based on it.

Average Joe Finances:
22:09

Yeah, absolutely. Now when it comes to that, how do you do your due diligence besides just reading these reports or what's sent to you? Do you do any market research in those specific areas? What other ways do you. Do your due diligence to to protect yourself.

Jerry Fetta:
22:26

Yeah. So on the seller finance side of things that really is done through their research process. So a lot of the market data is included in this. And so the company I work with, they're called Equity and Help. Actually you should have Ivan, he's their founder. You should have him on your show sometime. He's a phenomenal guy.

Average Joe Finances:
22:42

Yeah, absolutely.

Jerry Fetta:
22:43

So they provide all. Yeah he's speaking at an event of ours that's coming up. Super cool concept he has with equity and help. But they provide all of the market analytics and data, and so that's part of what I can go through with them. And then for me, a big part of it on the seller finance side is actually warrantying the home. I'm buying a home with the idea, okay, we're gonna get a family in it. We're gonna get them on a seller finance mortgage. If for some reason we can't, I have a warranty in place that covers me, it's gonna replace the home if I can't get it listed and occupied within a certain amount of time. So that's my stop loss. If for some reason, like nothing is guaranteed, right? And so for some reason, it falls through and it doesn't work without property. I've got an exit that's easy for me to get out. It's fairly cost effective and if you do a good enough job on the front end, you don't need that. But it's good to have. And then on the the equity side. It really comes down to looking at enough inventory obviously doing your research and looking at everything. And then also, like when I started really looking at turnkey, I was surprised at how many people don't wanna do an inspection on the house. Like they don't wanna spend the three, $400 to do an inspection on a home before you go in and buy it. And so for me, I'll inspect till the cows come home. Like I would rather spend that money and figure out everything I need to figure out going into it. And, have it be a little more expensive, but a great purchase on the backend, then shortcut that cuz that's where you have unexpected things come up. You can't expect what you didn't inspect. That goes for business and property alike.

Average Joe Finances:
24:08

Absolutely. A lot of the folks that don't pay for the inspection wind up paying for it on the backend. And I can tell you from personal experience, cuz I've been in that camp before of, oh yeah, I'm not gonna inspect it. My GC went and looked at it, we're good to go. I had a bunch of problems with that duplex and it was a very painful process. But yeah, so definitely get an inspection. Even when the market gets really hot again and people are waving it left and right. Don't wave the inspection. Just get it done.

Jerry Fetta:
24:38

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
24:39

No, that that's huge, because like you said, it's a risk, right? And you take even more risk if you don't get that inspection done.

Jerry Fetta:
24:46

It is and it goes back to there's an old I'll paraphrase it, but it's from Warren Buffet. So he relates investing to like smoking a cigar. And he's you're, we're not looking for the stub that someone else already smoked and left on the ground that we can get a little bit more out of before it's no good. He is no, pay a good price for a great cigar. Have the entire thing and enjoy it. And it's like investing while broke is what I call it. If we had cops for investing, we'd hand out investing while broke tickets. If you're worried about the $400 or a thousand dollars for an inspection, it's probably not time to invest yet. That's actually a sign you shouldn't do the deal. And so if you're that concerned about it you should be even more concerned about, like you said, what about on the back end? The roof. The roof needs to be repaired. There's 30 grand you didn't expect. I love that kind of mindset from Warren cuz it applies so well to value investing with real estate.

Average Joe Finances:
25:37

Yeah, absolutely man. I definitely appreciate that. And the analogy too and the example that Warren Buffet gives cuz it's true, right? You don't want. You don't wanna buy an asset that's beat up and you might not even know about it because you chose not to get that inspection done. Next thing down the line, a year goes by, water heater goes bad. You find out you had black mold on the studs and now it's coming through the walls. It's just, bad wiring. Now the house is on fire, yeah. There's a lot of things like that can happen that in an inspection can catch for you or the roof's going bad, so yeah. A couple hundred dollars for an inspection can save you thousands in the long run, for sure.

Jerry Fetta:
26:15

And I think the other part of that too is the ssur on, on the rental side, the having your anonymous LLC set up, having liability assurance in place, like just these little things that we tend to look at it as nickeling and dimming and it's no really, if you're trying to scale, these are the things that allow you to do that. They're the stop gaps that you have.

Average Joe Finances:
26:32

Actually, I wanna. Do an analogy now too, since you had mentioned clothes, right? So it's oh, you don't wanna be able to go into work and have somebody just take your pants, right? Yeah. The clothes that you wear should be something you're comfortable and something that you, the llc, that's your closet, that's where you're gonna hang all your clothes, right? So you wanna make sure that's something that's strong. You have a nice closet that's secure, that not anybody could just, come into your house, get into it, and take all your clothes, right?

Jerry Fetta:
26:53

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances:
26:54

There we go.

Jerry Fetta:
26:54

I love it.

Average Joe Finances:
26:55

I did my piece right there. Alright, Jerry. Alright, so cool. So here's a couple things. We talked about some really awesome things, right? From the the build back that you had to do from that. The the fraud that you had to deal with and losing a lot of money to where you are now, focused on these hard assets. And when I say hard assets, it's not just the real estate, it's also your life insurance. You're leveraging debt in a good way by using those first lean HELOCs to use that to buy more real estate. And that's one of the other pieces about this too, is it's not just about the money you have to throw at it. How do you leverage other pieces of your assets, right? So you can leverage your real estate by taking out these HELOCs to buy more real estate. Now you're leveraging your debt, you're leveraging your real estate, you're using your assets to get more assets, right? So I really appreciate, you sharing that with us. That is not just the, Hey, yeah, I'm buying some turnkey. No, there's a lot more that went into that. Sure, you got some money, you could put some money down. Go get the turnkey. But you're doing it in different creative ways, not to mention the seller financing as well. So we touched on a lot of very important things here. So for my listeners, I really hope you guys paid attention to what Jerry was saying today because this is all. Phenomenal data and phenomenal stories about what he personally went through and how he was able to build back from that. And I absolutely love it. So what I wanna do now, and you've done this before on episode one 20, but I think your answers might be different, is do something called the Final Round. It's where I'm gonna ask you the same four questions I ask everybody that comes on the show and yeah. We'll get right into it if you're ready to go.

Jerry Fetta:
28:30

Let's hit it. Let's do it.

Average Joe Finances:
28:32

All right, Jerry, so the first question is, what's the biggest mistake? And actually I'm gonna say instead of just real estate, I'll say, what is the biggest financial mistake you've ever made?

Jerry Fetta:
28:44

The biggest financial mistake I ever made was not protecting my assets on the front end. And part of that's the knowledge, right? Having the knowledge, the due diligence that's a protection move for sure.

Average Joe Finances:
28:56

Absolutely. And we talked a little bit about that today for sure. Okay, next thing Jerry, is and this kind of ties into that question as well, but what is something that you've learned that you wish you knew when you first got started?

Jerry Fetta:
29:10

I think through what I've experienced recently is how quickly you can do this when you have the knowledge. And it makes me wish that I did the knowledge thing sooner. Which is funny cuz I did start studying this stuff when I was 18. I wish I started when I was 12. If I would've, if I like knowing what I know, not how quickly I'm able to bounce back from this. It just shows me how powerful it is to have knowledge shows like yours where people can get this. It's invaluable. It's what gives you speed in building wealth.

Average Joe Finances:
29:36

Absolutely. Now, I wouldn't call it invaluable, I'd call it valuable. So yeah, just wanna point that out. Okay. Real quick to the next question, again, this also ties into that, and actually I'm interested to see what your answer's gonna be because it's probably gonna be different than the last time, but do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started out today?

Jerry Fetta:
29:59

Okay, so if you're just getting started out today I would say save up before you do your first deal. There's this myth of start early and there's this really like being anxious to get into investing. It's dessert. I want dessert. Do your proteins and stuff first, right? For me starting with a larger number, it makes you do more due diligence on the deal. You're, because if, let's say you start with 10 grand, depending on who you are, maybe that's a lot of money. Maybe that's not, for me, that's not a lot of money. So if I lose 10 grand, I'm like, okay, cool, I can make that back tomorrow. It's very easy, if I build up to, let's say, 250,000, instead, the decision making that I make on 250,000 versus 10,000 is night and day different. And so there's something to be said for building up to that amount. And then it also proves that you can do it right When you get the first deal done, there's this almost like a vacuum of okay, now I don't have money anymore yes, it's growing and I'm getting a little bit every month, but I need to go reproduce what I just deployed. So if I've done that to the level of, I built up a hundred or two 50, I've actually got myself a track record of, okay, I know how to earn, I can save it, I know where to put it, and I can build up to the next one and do another deal much quicker.

Average Joe Finances:
31:07

Absolutely. I love that. So for all of you that are listening right now, and you're, you're just getting started out heed Jerry's advice, right? Because, it's one of those things that can change your life, do it the right way. If you're gonna invest a certain amount of money into an asset and you say, man, if this goes south, It's really gonna hurt or I'm not gonna be able to handle it. It's probably not the right time to start just yet. Maybe save up a little bit more. So definitely appreciate that perspective. Okay. And the final question of the final round, Jerry, is do you have a favorite business in investing or real estate related book? Or podcast or both. And if you can remember what you said on the last episode, try not to say that one again. Let's do something new.

Jerry Fetta:
31:48

Okay. Let's see. I think last time I probably said Nelson Nash's book, becoming Your Own Banker. This time actually I'm pretty sure that's what it was. I think it probably was. That's kinda my.

Average Joe Finances:
31:58

If I go back in my notebook and look, I guarantee that's probably what it's okay. I write those down.

Jerry Fetta:
32:01

Okay. Since we talked a little about, about, a little bit about equity and help and Ivan, and so Ivan has a book he releases called Real Estate Philanthropy Investing. Real estate, philanthropy, investing. And so I read that book. It's a phenomenal read, but it's an introduction to a concept on seller finance real estate that I've never seen before. And so for me, the, just the title, philanthropy Investing it's a way of investing where you create an impact on humanity in a very positive sense. And I love that side of it cuz it's Beyond the rate of return. There's also, you're doing good for people and it makes you really proud of what you're doing. So I love that book. That's a great reading.

Average Joe Finances:
32:37

All right, awesome. Thank you for that recommendation. I wrote it down and I also wanna get in touch with Ivan later too. That's awesome. Okay. Jerry, that is it for the final round. However, I do have another question for you, and this is probably the most important question of the interview. So for those that have not listened to episode one 20, and they may not know where to find you. Where can people find more information about you? You have a website you could share with us, social media, anything like that?

Jerry Fetta:
33:01

Yeah we have websites and everything on social media. We're the most active, probably on, on Instagram and TikTok. So just add Jerry Fetta just my first and last name. Fetta is F E T T A. So two ts like the cheese, but twice as good and then the website, you can go to store.jerryfetta.com. We've got free content, blogs, videos, all sorts of stuff there as well. All right.

Average Joe Finances:
33:23

Awesome, Jerry. Thank you. I'll make sure I have all those links in the show notes for everybody so they can copy and paste or click away. Just don't do it while you're driving. All right. So to close things out do you have any final thoughts for our listeners?

Jerry Fetta:
33:37

I would say on the rebuilding thing, right? There really is no such thing. If it's an activity you should always be doing anyways. Like we don't resleep we just sleep. You do that every day. We don't re eat. You just eat. We don't rebreathe you just breathe. So for me, and if you've ever been through this as a listener, where you're like, I'm having to start from the ground up, you're not rebuilding, you're just building like you were gonna build anyways. You're always like, if it's financial freedom, we're just always building all the time. I like to work out. I don't rework out. I just go to the gym every day. So it becomes a behavior and a habit and I would say to embrace that. And sometimes you're building from a higher position. Sometimes it's a lower position than you expected, but it's at the end of the day, it's building. You're building towards your goals.

Average Joe Finances:
34:17

Awesome. What a great perspective. I really appreciate that. All right, Jerry, so again, I wanna thank you so much for joining me today to hear your story and, see what you went through shortly after our last conversation to where you are now and how you've built back from that. Absolutely amazing story, man, and I'm, I wish you the best and I really think this episode added a lot of value to my listeners. So again, thank you so much for joining me. I also wanna thank my listeners for joining me and our special guest, Jerry Feta, on the average Joe Finances Podcast. Go leave us a five star review and tell us what you liked about today's episode with Jerry. Aloha from Hawaii and have a great rest of your day.