Rob details his morning spiritual routine. This includes prayer of gratitude, praying for friends, studying the Bible, and listening to worship music. Rob has no doubt that his Christian faith is the main reason he and his wife Claudia have been blessed so much by God. Watch and learn about Rob’s spiritual routine, including his daily spiritual practices.

Rob Outlines His Spiritual Routine

As Rob’s morning coffee is brewing, he slips on his bluetooth headphones. He starts his spiritual routine by listening to his worship music playlist. Hillsong United is a favorite.

Then, he pulls out his prayer list card and scans it. Currently, about four dozen concerns occupy his list. After a prayer of gratitude for all of his blessings, he intercedes for the concerns as the Holy Spirit leads him. He often texts folks who are on his prayer list to check in on their situations.

Next in his spiritual routine, Rob dives into the Word. Lately, he has been studying the Old Testament, since he has never studied it in detail. He is working through a “Read the Bible in a Year” plan now. He also is reading through a book which expands on the stories behind each book of the Bible, such as their authors and the places and times they were written in.

All totaled, Rob spends between one and two hours reading the Bible each morning. This includes journaling about what God is revealing to him during this study time, as well as what is going on in his life at the time. Journaling is a challenge for Rob. However, he does his best to power through and document the date, time, and place he is reading. He hopes that someday after his death, his grandkids will go through his Bible and his journal and learn from them.

Join Our Community

Do you own multi-family properties? If not, do you plan to someday? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell will teach you what you must do in order to build wealth in the real estate business. It’s not as easy as it looks! Property taxes, liens, and legal fees can all be hard to navigate, so having a successful guide in your corner like Rob is a must! Enroll today!

How does a successful real estate investor calculate their blended tax rate? Let Addicted to Life’s Rob Rowsell teach you the secret formula so you won’t pay more taxes than you have to!

Rob Explains Blended Tax Rate For Real Estate Investors

Let’s do the math! Rob lays out a theoretical income amount for the group to consider. On a sample effective annual gross income of $400,000, Rob calculates a blended tax rate of 2%. That may sound small, but it in fact adds up to $8,000.

Jake Garcia asks our host for a clarification. Rob shows his work with a very simple equation. You start with your annual total gross income. Then divided it by all the taxes you paid at the end of the year. When you solve this equation, you will end up with your blended tax rate.

Finally, Rob makes sure to clarify that he does not hate paying taxes to his state and federal governments! Taxes are necessary for the United States to build roads, employ police officers, and provide equipment for the armed forces to defend our freedom.

As any business owner with many investments to look after would tell you, he just does not want to pay more than he actually owes by mistake. That means more cash on hand to invest in his family, his staff, and his eventual retirement goals.

Join Our Community

Do you own multi-family properties? If not, do you aspire to one day? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell will teach you what you must do in order to build wealth in the real estate business. It’s not as easy as it looks! Property taxes, liens, and legal fees can all be hard to navigate, so having a successful guide in your corner like Rob is a must! Enroll today!

Take it from Rob Rowsell, a successful business owner and entrepreneur: there are three and ONLY three reasons why you should buy or start a business.

1. So you can sell your business to the highest bidder
2. In order to scale your business
3. So you can passively own that business

In this video, Rob details the factors that you should consider, as well as the goals you should keep in mind in any new business venture.

Want To Start A Business? Are You Sure?

Rob started the clip by immediately laying out said reasons. Just like the first habit from Steven R. Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” outlines, every business owner needs to begin with the end in mind. Then, we get to the business of unpacking each reason you would want to start a business.

Setting the End Goal of Selling Your Business

When you decide to buy or start a business with the intention of selling it, you must be prepared to work toward that goal each day. Every move that you make on a daily basis should lead toward making it attractive for a potential buyer. This statement is true, whether it involves your daily operations process, investing in the property, or cultivating an appealing work environment.

When potential buyers called to show interest in one of Rob’s previous ventures, he instantly recognized that some factors that were out of place. However, his situation dictated that he had to accept that it was “good enough”. He learned to be better prepared for the next time the phone would ring.

Start A Business To Scale It – Strategies to Implement

In Rob’s past experience as an auto repair shop owner, he scaled his business via acquisition. Specifically, he grew the business by adding more locations. He also improved the existing shops by building additional bays and installing more lifts. These steps were a must as the brand continued to grow and attract more customers daily. This of course also meant Rob scaled the business by creating new positions and growing his staff. When potential buyers come calling, they are looking for a turn key investment. In a business like automotive repair, this means franchises that have built trust in their community over the years.

Owning Your Business While Earning Passive Income

What does passive ownership look like? In effect, the business generates passive income for you while you focus on other pursuits. You have thoroughly trained your managers and assistants on every facet of running the business. They do not need you looking over their shoulders, and the business runs smoothly in your absence.

If that is your ultimate goal when you start a business, then it means working less than ten hours per month in it. That is the work hours number that Rob and his wife Claudia agreed upon after crunching the numbers. Their home state of California’s liability laws caused this business plan to be very difficult. Changes in employees’ lives would make it extremely difficult for Rob to avoid having to put out fires in person. Thus, once their automotive repair business had scaled to a certain number of locations, passive ownership was impossible. At this point in its growth, selling it was a must.

Start a Business – Figure Out Now What Your Exit Strategy Is

Just like Chapter Four of Rob’s best selling book Addicted To Life states, you must prepare now for what is coming! Whichever reason you choose to start a business, do your homework. Laying the foundation well in advance for your end goal will ensure that you get the maximum return on your investment.

If you intend on selling your business someday, you should make sure all of the legal documents to facilitate a sale are stored safely online. In fact, you should have all of these files on hand before you even start the venture! Just gathering all of this information could take up to three to six months. Slow and steady wins the race, so don’t rush and get sloppy.

Scaling your business or working toward a passive ownership model will take even more time. You will want to consult with successful people in your field and others to see what those end goals look like. Accepting help from colleagues who have been there already is never a bad move.

The Big Takeaway

Rob wants everyone to be clear on what their business exit strategy is before they buy. Just like a college freshman, you have time during your career to change your “major”. That is to say, things won’t fall apart if you fall in love with the industry and decide not to sell or scale back your schedule to own passively. However, you should still take every step available to you in order to prepare for what your end goal is now.  That way, you won’t get caught with your pants down if you change your mind later.

Join Our Community

Do you own multi-family rental properties? If not, do you aspire to invest someday? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell will teach you what you must do in order to build wealth via real estate. It’s not as easy as it looks! Property taxes, liens, and legal fees can all be hard to navigate, so having a successful guide in your corner like Rob is a must! Enroll today!

Last week, Rob offered a “Bathtub Analogy” detailing retirement investment ideas. What about retirement expenses that drain your money? This week, Rob explains five money drains that can eat away at your retirement savings and investments:

1. Ignorance
2. Taxes (Tax Drag)
3. Cost of Living (Lifestyle)
4. Compound Investment Costs (Fee Drag)
5. Inflation

Can you think of more money drains? How can you avoid (legally!) these drains on your wealth?

Retirement Expenses Explained

Ignorance of Retirement Expenses

When we discuss money draining retirement expenses, there are none more basic than ignorance. If you don’t do your homework before investing in that “sure thing”, you have no excuses.

Taxes

Rob quipped that “tax drag” was the main deterrent to long term wealth growth. When he said “tax drag” what did he mean? Every quarter, you need to review your finances with your CPA. Taxes may not seem urgent, but they will sneak up on you at the end of the year. Consult with a professional regularly to construct a tax strategy that will save your business considerably. A second opinion couldn’t hurt so you don’t end up making disastrous choices that eat into your investment earnings. In fact, you may have outgrown your advisor!

Retirement Expenses, Continued: Cost of Living

Out of all of the retirement expenses, your cost of living could be the most uncomfortable topic. It may seem like a no brainer when we say you have to live within your means. You must draw the line where you know the number you need to live comfortably, but you don’t compromise your values. We all work hard, and deserve some creature comforts, but overspending today is a sneaky habit that can hurt our lifestyle in the long run.

Compound Investment Costs

Keep an eye on your Compound Investment Costs, or “fee drag”. These include the fees which you pay your advisors. When you make a lot of financial changes, the middle men and women always get their cut. Consider that when you are mulling your next investment move!

Inflation

Here’s a hot topic in the world of retirement expenses. As of this writing, inflation is climbing. The costs of goods and services are up in every industry. This may not be the biggest expense on the list, but you need to keep an eye on the markets to know where they are going and how you can benefit.

Join Our Community

Do you own multi-family properties? If not, do you aspire to one day? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell will teach you what you must do in order to build wealth in the real estate business.

It’s not as easy as it looks! Property taxes, liens, and legal fees can all be hard to navigate, so having a successful guide in your corner like Rob is a must! Enroll today!

Rob paints a picture of a bathtub for our group members. The faucet has several income streams ideas coming from it. Rob lays out several examples of passive and active income. The “nest egg” plan of the IRA isn’t the best retirement investment plan. If you combine regular passive income and other investment strategies, along with your 401k, then you have a solid plan.

Income Analogy – Passive and Active Income Streams

Once the attendees draw up the bathtub running the income streams, Rob has them make blanks below with “active income” and “expenses” headings. He then lays out several categories of income sources by how they are taxed. W2, rental, capital gains are all different examples.

Active Income

Rob starts the discussion on active income by clarifying that the term could have different meanings to different real estate investors. To him, active income streams are defined by investing more than ten hours per month into them.

Active income streams obviously include conventional 9-5 jobs taxed with a W2 tax form. If you invest in rental properties, and do not employ a property manager, this investment is likely qualified as active income.

Passive Income Streams

In Rob’s businesses, spending less than ten hours per month on an investment qualifies it as passive income. For example, you could buy a plot of land, do nothing with it for over a year, then sell it. Whatever profit you make is passive income, since you put no work into clearing the land or building a property.

Passive Residual Income

Finally, Rob details passive residual income. He provides the example of investing in a single family home or apartment complex. The owner may not spend much time on maintaining the property, but it is a consistent, passive source of income.

Passive Residual Income Streams For Retirement

Rob goes on discuss passive residual income streams as part of a retirement strategy. Most of us contribute to an IRA account for our retirement plan. Ideally, you sock away enough money to live off of during your golden years, drawing a necessary amount each month.

He does not subscribe to this “nest egg” theory. The passive residual income streams of his properties, as well as interest from his retirement investments pile up to cover his living expenses. In the end, the main goal is passive income streaming in each month to provide security when he can’t, or just doesn’t wish to, work full time hours anymore.

Lastly, Rob provides the example of a business owner who owns a successful laundromat. It does much more  business than its competitors. Rather than using the extra cash to educate himself and create passive income streams, he just spends it on a more lavish lifestyle. When he feels ready to quit, he sells the laundromat, and has a bag of money to retire on. This may or may not suffice to maintain the lifestyle he is used to. Without the passive residual income to supplement the money from the sale, his future is uncertain. He could outlast the nest egg and be a burden on his loved ones.

Join Our Community

Do you own multi-family properties? If not, do you aspire to one day? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell will teach you what you must do in order to build wealth in the real estate business. It’s not as easy as it looks! Property taxes, liens, and legal fees can all be hard to navigate, so having a successful guide in your corner like Rob is a must! Enroll today!

In this clip, Rob Rowsell explains property management companies. Who are they? What do they do? Why do property investors need to know about property managers? If you invest in multi-family apartment homes and rental properties, this video is a must watch!

Property Management Companies Questions Answered

Addicted To Life Community member Andy asked Rob if he used property management companies for his multi-family homes. How does the process work? Rob confirmed that yes, he did, then and began to explain.

Property managers are paid based on a percentage of the rent monies they collect. They are independent, third party companies. The companies that Rob does business with employ an online dashboard with weekly reports on the number of new applicants and how many new tenants those applications converted to.

Data also includes how many evictions, moves, and skips happened in the past week, plus how much rent was collected. Plans to resolve rent delinquency are also included.

Another major plus is that, after the Monday morning online reports, Rob can meet with the property management companies online to discuss the stats and keep them accountable.

Agreements With Property Management Companies

Rob pays an annual fee to the company in order to contract them. Both he and the companies and part ways with 30 days notice. Either party can cancel their agreement for any reason.

Andy asked another great question. Do these companies only operate in single states, or do they do business nationwide?  Rob confirmed both to be true. He uses one company that manages properties in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas, as well as another one that only focuses on one state. One company he let go is doing well in other states, but for some reason, was not performing in Texas.

Join Our Community

Do you own multi-family properties? Do you aspire to? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell will teach you what you must do in order to build wealth in the real estate business. It’s not as easy as it looks! Property taxes, liens, and legal fees can all be hard to navigate. Having a successful guide in your corner like Rob is a must! Enroll today!

In this Gathering clip, Rob Rowsell took a break from his usual real estate and financial discussions in order to share about his Christian faith journey. Rob used a baseball diamond chart as an analogy for “rounding the bases” of spiritual maturity in Christ.

Christian Faith Journey as a Baseball Analogy

First Base is the start of the Christian faith journey. This is when you accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour of your life, and he cleanses you of all of your sins. While it may be the most important event in your walk, it is literally just the beginning!

As you round the rest of the bases, you are maturing. Second Base is your commitment to maturity. Studying your Bible and praying leads to a closer relationship with God. When you grow as a Christian through these steps, God sanctifies you and molds you into the image of His Son.

Heading to Third Base, you obey God and use the talents He blessed you with to serve in your local church. You will learn more about your gifts and where God wants you as you learn to hear His voice.

As we become head back to Home Plate, the end of our Christian faith journey, God wants us to become a Kingdom Builder. Jesus called us in the Great Commission to lead others to him and make them Disciples. At last, we assume the role of Missionary. This can be lived out overseas or right here in our own community.

Join Our Community

Do you own multi-family properties? If not, do you aspire to one day? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell teaches you what to do in order to build wealth in the real estate business. It’s not as easy as it looks! This field can be hard to navigate, so having a successful guide in your corner like Rob is a must! Enroll today!

When you are in the real estate business, it’s essential to know the basics of buying rental properties at auction. Rob and Gary discuss the process with our rental properties discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community. There are both treacherous pitfalls and huge rewards to consider when bidding at auction for rental properties. If you’re looking at buying properties on the auction block, you’d better do your homework first!

Buying Rental Properties at Auction – Due Diligence

When Real Estate Investors consider buying rental properties at auction, they must perform their due diligence. Whether you physically look in the windows and interview neighbors, or just research previous sales prices online, you are doing just that. The more you know about the property before going into the auction, the better.

Members of our Addicted To Life Community chimed in to share their experiences with bidding at property auctions. Steve was not serious about bidding on the auction. However, the seller required him to bring a cashier’s check in a specified amount in order to attend. The auction took place at the county courthouse, and he felt like it sold for much more than it was worth. Steve was just coming for the experience, so no worries from him.

Paula has experience with buying several rental properties at auction. She has done business with the public administrator, so she is often invited to sit in at auctions, even if she has no interest in buying. Paula has learned a lot just from observing auction sales take place.

Jake detailed his experience attempting to buy properties at auction in Phoenix. He went through a bidding service, which was a real hassle. The service was very aggressive, calling constantly to get his bids up. He ended up just giving them his absolute maximum bid, and insisting they not call again. He also detailed a very disturbing experience another buyer had involving a dead animal in the property basement.

Join Our Community for More Rental Properties Advice

Do you own multi-family rental properties? If not, do you aspire to one day? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell will teach you what you must do in order to build wealth in the real estate business. It’s not as easy as it looks! Property taxes, liens, and legal fees can all be hard to navigate, so having a successful guide in your corner like Rob is a must! Enroll today!

Asset Protection strategies to protect real estate are so important! If you do not file your numbers properly regarding your properties and liens, you open yourself up to litigation. Savvy attorneys notice when your real estate properties’ numbers are not right, so don’t slip up! Protect your assets!

Strategies To Protect Real Estate – Asset Protection Umbrella

Rob Rowsell opened up to the group about strategies to protect real estate that he learned from experience. The first step in building that asset protection umbrella is making sure you have all of your ducks in a row, paperwork wise.

When you buy new multi-family rental property, you will go through the arduous process of filling out a giant stack of papers at the courthouse. One of Rob’s friends and mentors advised him to make sure those forms show the correct amount of equity in the home. Do the math! Between the actual value of the property and your loan, you must enter in the right numbers at the County Assessor’s Office. Otherwise, you may leave yourself open to a messy lawsuit.

Make no mistake, some lawyers are sharks who swim around and examine public records. When you do not enter in your information correctly, they might just smell your blood in the water! Implement the legal strategies to protect real estate, or your mistakes could quickly cost you investments you’ve worked years for.

Join Our Community

Do you own multi-family properties? If not, do you aspire to one day? Then you should consider joining our online discussion group, the Addicted To Life Community! Each month, Rob Rowsell will teach you what you must do in order to build wealth in the real estate business. It’s not as easy as it looks! Property taxes, liens, and legal fees can be hard to navigate, so having a successful guide like Rob is clutch! Enroll today!