Top 5 Habits of Successful Millionaires (LA 1580)
Top 5 Habits of Successful Millionaires (LA 1580)
Transcript:
Steven J Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hello.
Steven J Butala:
Welcome to the Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit broadcasting from sunny Scottsdale Arizona.
Steven J Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about the top five habits of successful millionaires. Recently Credit Suisse, not recently last year in 2020 did a pretty extensive survey. We were not included.
Jill DeWit:
Who did this?
Steven J Butala:
Credit Suisse.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, thank you.
Steven J Butala:
Of 10,000 voluntary millionaires.
Jill DeWit:
Sounds like you’re so adamant. Credit Suisse. Okay.
Steven J Butala:
And…
Jill DeWit:
Are they a bank?
Steven J Butala:
Yeah. It’s a-
Jill DeWit:
Isn’t it a bank?
Steven J Butala:
They’re a full bank, an investment bank and all of that.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, all right.
Steven J Butala:
Before we get into-
Jill DeWit:
Are they American millionaires or they’re just European millionaires?
Steven J Butala:
They’re all American.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, okay. I just have some questions. I’m curious. Thank you.
Steven J Butala:
Before we get in, there’s 20 million millionaires in the country.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Steven J Butala:
In this country and there’s a lot less multi-millionaires. And I don’t know the exact number, but it’s dramatically less.
Jill DeWit:
So it’s just, if you have one million, you’re a million.
Steven J Butala:
Yeah. And it’s a net worth thing.
Jill DeWit:
There’s a lot of people.
Steven J Butala:
It’s a net worth. So it could be stock, it could… most houses are worth-
Jill DeWit:
Your retirement.
Steven J Butala:
Equity, and your house is more than a million, so.
Jill DeWit:
That’s true. That’s all of Southern California.
Steven J Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
They didn’t start out that way, but they are there now.
Steven J Butala:
Before we get into it, there’s a show coming up later this Jack Thursday where I’m going to talk all about California.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, goodie. I can’t wait for that one. I will have a helmet on. no kidding.
Steven J Butala:
Thursays become a rant.
Jill DeWit:
I think I’m going to go put my helmet on.
Steven J Butala:
Thursday just become, we should just call it Jack rant Thursday.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, pretty much.
Steven J Butala:
You know what the problem is? People are emailing me saying this is my favorite-
Jill DeWit:
Sweetie.
Steven J Butala:
My favorite podcast is Thursday when you go off on all this stuff.
Jill DeWit:
Because they’re poking the bear.
Steven J Butala:
You think?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. It doesn’t take much.
Steven J Butala:
I never went to my parents and said, “I really love when you yell at me.”
Jill DeWit:
Say renovation, renovation. Watch what happens.
Steven J Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the landinvestors.com online community. It’s free. And if you’re already a member, please join us on Discord.
Jill DeWit:
Danielle wrote, “Do we need to build a buyers list if we’re going after bigger deals that will be handled by an agent? I’m spending all this money doing Facebook ads. And although they’re going to my website and submitting their email, I feel like majority of these leads are tire kickers. The general inquiry about my marketplace ads is about the ability to camp or put a mobile on the property. So far, it feels like a waste.” What was the beginning of the question? I’m sorry. I would mail the buyers list. Yeah, no, I don’t think anything of this is bad at all. Why are you looking at me like I’m nuts?
Steven J Butala:
Well, because I don’t think that.
Jill DeWit:
I think it’s great.
Steven J Butala:
I don’t necessarily… We have a five buyers in a very specific area where I buy and sell a ton of property. I have my stuff and Jill has her stuff.
Jill DeWit:
But you never know.
Steven J Butala:
And I never would go on Facebook and get any of those buyers.
Jill DeWit:
No, but [inaudible 00:03:13] yeah, you never know. I don’t know. Having a huge, let me back up, having a huge email list will never hurt you. Who knows who they’re related to, whatever. I don’t know. There’s just such good things that could come of that. And they’re opting in voluntarily to get on your buyers list so that when you get a new property, you can email them. What if you sell one a month that way, was it worth it? Probably.
Steven J Butala:
Yeah. Yeah, Jill, you’re right.
Jill DeWit:
So I don’t think this is crazy. Ours is really big and it’s not even utilized as well as it could be, but I’m still collecting those emails because they are land people.
Steven J Butala:
When you start anything, it just feels like it’s so wasteful until you get traction. When we started Land Academy, all we talked about for a year was why sending out mail works and we feel that all we would do is field calls from doubters. “What are you talking about, sending out mail with offers, come on. That doesn’t work and it’s expensive.” Now, it’s everybody’s convinced it works because it does. And we were just dealing with the details. So it’s hard. It takes two years, this is my personal opinion to get any traction on anything for real.
Jill DeWit:
Totally. I’d say even five.
Steven J Butala:
Really?
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. Five years you really start to have-
Steven J Butala:
Well, five you should be rolling in it.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
In two years it’s, “Okay, this really works now.”
Jill DeWit:
You’re either going to do it or you’re going to quit in two years. You’re going to keep it to you’re going to go, “And we’re done.”
Steven J Butala:
Yep. That actually is kind of along the lines of this topic. Today’s topic, the top five habits of successful millionaires. This is why you’re listening.
Jill DeWit:
Please tell us more about the survey?
Steven J Butala:
Credit Suisse did a pretty extensive survey of 10,000 US millionaires, self-made millionaires. Self-made’s in air quotes. I don’t know exactly what that means. And they boiled it all down in a summary form. If you Google it, you can go read the whole survey. The top five things that they all had in common, and it’s none of them surprised me at all. And all of them I’ve been since I was 12 years old, I have had all these traits. So this stuff doesn’t happen on accident.
Jill DeWit:
That’s too bad. Your poor mother.
Steven J Butala:
Number one.
Jill DeWit:
Since [inaudible 00:05:41] these same questions.
Steven J Butala:
Yeah, I was-
Jill DeWit:
Poor mom.
Steven J Butala:
I was and am grossly misunderstood by both of my parents.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, probably a pain in the ass.
Steven J Butala:
Were you misunderstood?
Jill DeWit:
No, no, they kind of got me. They pretty much said, “Jill, you’re either going to be an attorney or a salesperson because you don’t understand the word no.” That’s exactly what they said. Go ahead, sorry.
Steven J Butala:
Number one, have a plan. So I was talking about this in Career Path. When I was 11 or 12, I started to cut other people’s lawn because I was cutting ours and they would come over and say, “Hey, can you cut my lawn for X?” And so I did. And the entire time, I just realized this recently, the entire time I’m cutting someone else’s lawn I’m looking at the lawn, the lawn job, the lawn, the neighbor that I don’t cut their lawn and how am I going to get that job. You have to have a plan. If you’re in Land Academy, you have a plan.
Jill DeWit:
I had no plan.
Steven J Butala:
I know you didn’t.
Jill DeWit:
Before Land Academy. Now I have a plan.
Steven J Butala:
I have a plan for everything. It’s probably annoys the hell out of Jill, I’m sure it does.
Jill DeWit:
Well, what’s nice is if you don’t have a plan, it’s very easy to change and you’re not doing anything wrong, “I didn’t have a plan anyway, this is what we’re doing now.”
Steven J Butala:
So I’m getting questions. We’re at the tail end of Career Path, the 10 weeks that we do.
Jill DeWit:
For session two.
Steven J Butala:
Yeah. And we all know each other well now. And I’m getting questions like, “What’s wrong with you?”
Jill DeWit:
Oh and treats in the mail.
Steven J Butala:
“Why would you, if you’re doing so well, buying and selling land and everything’s peachy, why would you start something like Land Academy? Or why would you start something like Offers to Owners or Neighbor Scoop or any of that? What type of personality disordered you have, Jack?”
Jill DeWit:
What possessed you?
Steven J Butala:
“That you can’t stop starting these companies are starting these tools and making this all available and doing another podcast and showing up for life and all of that?”
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
I have a plan. And one day, this all will stop or it will wind down, but not soon.
Jill DeWit:
It’s all right.
Steven J Butala:
Number two, spend less.
Jill DeWit:
I didn’t do that too.
Steven J Butala:
Jill’s striking out so far.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah. I’m overdue. Now it’s not who I am now, that’s who I was when I was young.
Steven J Butala:
94% of people who filled this survey out, said that they make more than they spend. 50% of the general population makes more than they spend. Think about that.
Jill DeWit:
That’s good. They make more than they spend, 50%.
Steven J Butala:
50%.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, it should be much higher. 90.
Steven J Butala:
It should be a 100%.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, that’s true. I’m sorry.
Steven J Butala:
See, this is again, opposites attract, I guess.
Jill DeWit:
I’m sorry. I heard the glass half full part, I missed the half empty part.
Steven J Butala:
Number three.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. Let’s see.
Steven J Butala:
And this shocked me.
Jill DeWit:
Am I going to fail again here? This is going to be good.
Steven J Butala:
You might pass this one.
Jill DeWit:
All right.
Steven J Butala:
Under the heading of 97% of the people who’ve filled out the survey look for deals.
Jill DeWit:
Oh.
Steven J Butala:
They use coupons in the grocery store. And, but that’s what Land Academy is, we look for deals.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). I’m with you.
Steven J Butala:
So I think you pass there with flying colors. You want to buy stuff cheap. Even in the grocery store, you do. I know you do.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah, I do kind of look at that. There’s things that I don’t, there’s a few things that I don’t very much, but most of things, I do.
Steven J Butala:
Number four.
Jill DeWit:
I’m not going to buy a new car, I’ll always buy a used car.
Steven J Butala:
97% of the people who filled out this survey believe that they are in control of their financial destiny. 55% of the regular population believes that somebody else is in control of their destiny, like their employer or their wife or whatever. That’s sad.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
I cannot remember a moment in my entire life where I haven’t taken responsibility for my own financial scenario.
Jill DeWit:
Same here. That one I pass. I’m two for two, thank goodness.
Steven J Butala:
And number five.
Jill DeWit:
Number five’s a deal breaker. I know this is total truth time. I don’t know what these are right now. This article is news to me. So I don’t even know what number five is. So I’m just saying excited as you are.
Steven J Butala:
Number five and both of us fail here, Jill.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, no.
Steven J Butala:
Is they stick to a budget. I haven’t had a household budget for, since I’ve known you.
Jill DeWit:
I have.
Steven J Butala:
Oh, yeah.
Jill DeWit:
No. You know what? I have done that. My dad drilled that into me.
Steven J Butala:
Never had a budget.
Jill DeWit:
I did. I had a hard time sticking to it with the money part. And honestly, I’m probably three or four out of five because what was that one about spending less than they make.
Steven J Butala:
Yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Live on less than you make. I did that. It was hard. And, but having a budget, I learned that a long time ago and I would do a good job with that. We didn’t have much and I would get creative about a picnic in the park is going to be our fun time. And the kids thought that was great. They didn’t know that’s all we could afford.
Steven J Butala:
As a final comment too, they made a big deal about the fact that people who are millionaires, who filled out this survey spend less than $200 a month on food in restaurants.
Jill DeWit:
That’s interesting.
Steven J Butala:
And we can multiply that times 80 for Gemini. There’s just, we don’t have a travel and entertainment budget.
Jill DeWit:
No.
Steven J Butala:
We have a pretty serious, probably subconscious budget for stuff. We don’t buy a lot of stuff.
Jill DeWit:
No. And we have numbers that we run it by each other. No one goes extravagant without… There’s a limit where we have to check on it with each other, which is nice. Unless it’s your own money. If it’s your own money, you want to blow it on that, have at it. That’s what there for, but that’s true. You know what this survey is making me do though? It makes me think we almost need to get back to a budget and some things like that.
Steven J Butala:
Well, we moved up from Los Angeles to Phoenix.
Jill DeWit:
That helps.
Steven J Butala:
Saved about $40,000 a month.
Jill DeWit:
Half. Oh my gosh.
Steven J Butala:
Household.
Jill DeWit:
So there’s a lot of things that help there. That’s very true. This is a good thing. So what do you think we should all…
Steven J Butala:
What’s the takeaway from this?
Jill DeWit:
Aha.
Steven J Butala:
In light of trying to keep things simple and just there’s a takeaway, have a plan. You have to have a plan in life. I have a plan. I don’t know. I watched this Oprah episode, this is a million years ago. And the whole episode was men have a plan. This is her saying this, not me.
Jill DeWit:
Which is true.
Steven J Butala:
And women don’t necessarily have a plan. And so when I heard that episode, this is probably 15 years ago, maybe more. I went to the neighborhood barb and started asking people, “Hey, do you have a plan?” And so most of the guys are, “Oh yeah, I have a plan. Here’s my plan.” And they’ll tell you what it is. And it’s not even anything really complicated. “I’m going to work til this point. I’m going to save this amount of money and I’m not going to work anymore, I’m going to live off of whatever. But as soon as my mortgage is done.” So, and then I asked a bunch of women and they’re, “Yeah. I don’t know. I’ll just see how it goes.”
Jill DeWit:
Or it’s, you know what it is, is “I don’t know. Sweetheart, what’s our plan?”
Steven J Butala:
But that’s okay.
Jill DeWit:
Why.
Steven J Butala:
You need to have a plan.
Jill DeWit:
Well, we have a plan together.
Steven J Butala:
Then it has to be flexible. I do, I have my plan.
Jill DeWit:
That’s the woman part of it. Please make it flexible. Don’t make it stone.
Steven J Butala:
I have a plan. And then I have our plan.
Jill DeWit:
Right. I know that.
Steven J Butala:
And our plan is all subject to change.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven J Butala:
My plan, no.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Steven J Butala:
It’s not really subject to change.
Jill DeWit:
I understand.
Steven J Butala:
I expect a lot of stuff out of myself.
Jill DeWit:
Well, add that to the list. I might fail there too. By the-
Steven J Butala:
By the way, I’m on plan D.
Jill DeWit:
Oh, yeah. I know. That’s funny. Happy you could join us today, five days a week, you can find us right here on the Land Academy Show.
Steven J Butala:
Tomorrow the episode on the Land Academy Show is called landfunding.com is live. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
Good. So we’ll answer all those questions and talk about it then tomorrow. So that will be really good. I am happy with that. By the way, if you are interested in sending out a few thousand offers like we do, check out offerstoowners.com. No, I’m going from memory here, no setup fee, free mail merge, exceptional service, concierge pricing, and… What was our new thing? Our new pricing, our new… What’s it called, our-
Steven J Butala:
Concierge data consulting.
Jill DeWit:
That’s it. How am I doing? This is what’s like when we don’t have a script, I’m trying to remember all this stuff.
Steven J Butala:
All these products are in response to requests from Land Academy members.
Jill DeWit:
Stuff that you need.
Steven J Butala:
If you’re struggling in any way, let me paraphrase here.
Jill DeWit:
Please do.
Steven J Butala:
To get your first mailer out, we have a lot of tools that are going to help you do that.
Jill DeWit:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Steven J Butala:
We’ll do the mailer for you. That’s really what concierge data is.
Jill DeWit:
Yeah.
Steven J Butala:
We will suggest, literally suggest where to send it. We will give you a suggestion, not a suggestion on pricing and we’ll do the entire and complete mailer for you and get it in the mail.
Jill DeWit:
Yep. Thank you for doing that. We are Steve and Jill.
Steven J Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information.
Jill DeWit:
And inspiration.
Steven J Butala:
To buy undervalued property.
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