Hey parents, join the LA Kings on Saturday, November 25th for an unforgettable kids day presented by Pear Deck. Family fun, giveaways, and exciting Kings hockey awaits. Get your tickets now at lakings.com/promotions and create lasting memories with your little ones. Today on Radical Personal Finance, I've got something really special for you.

If you had the opportunity to sit down for an hour with a man who started his business life with very few advantages, grew up in a poor farming town in central Florida, started his career as a plumber's assistant, and did poorly in high school, dropped out of college, but has gone on to become a respected member of the business community and a financially independent multi-millionaire, would you jump at that chance?

Well today, through the magic and power of podcasting, I bring you just such a conversation and it's filled with little gems for you to consider to learn from and apply to your own life. Welcome to the Radical Personal Finance podcast. My name is Joshua Sheets and I'm your host.

Thank you for being with me today. Today I've got a good one for you, an interview with my friend, one of my personal, I hate the word mentor, but just a personal friend. It's a man I used to work for, a man named Warren Prescott, who has exactly that story.

I sat down with him and was able to pull a little bit of the story out of him and then now I get to share it with you. One of my goals with Radical Personal Finance has been to present a huge diversity of content. I've wanted to bring all kinds of topics to the show and I'm satisfied with some of the progress that I've made toward that.

I've worked hard to keep the guests diverse, to not talk about the same thing over and over again. I've tried to bring all kinds of differing and disagreeing opinions and perspectives and give people an opportunity to share their ideas and perspectives and then give you a chance to judge and to learn.

I think we can learn something from just about anybody. Who was it? Emerson, right? Every man I meet is my superior in some way, something like that. I'm really great at remembering the essence of quotes while butchering the syntax. But the point is I've tried to do that. I'll tell you that one of my disappointments for myself is I've brought a number of entrepreneurs on, but a lot of these entrepreneurs have had similar stories because they're from similar backgrounds.

It is so easy for me to get a young entrepreneur who's built some sort of business in the tech space on the show. That type of person is easy for me to get on the show. I got lists of them everywhere. My email inbox is flooded with propositions from these types of people.

It's relatively easy for me to get authors or speakers of people with a podcast and a brand on the show, again, a couple emails every single day with inquiries of this type of person. But you know what? In your town, is that type of person, that avatar I just described, is that the common multimillionaire?

Or is the common multimillionaire in your town more likely to be somebody who has perhaps a few more years, is not necessarily on Skype all day, every day? Are they likely to be somebody who didn't start a web business and get rich in the last decade? Are they more likely to be somebody who just runs a large, solid business of some type?

Well, in my financial planning career, we financial planners want to work with the rich people. That's where we make the most money, generally. And so I learned who the rich people are, and the rich people are blue-collar business people. Go and study Tom Stanley's work, just blue-collar business people, and they likely have brick and mortar stores, things like that.

Now, there's nothing wrong with the transforming, changing world that we live in, but you got to recognize there's something to be learned from those who've been there, done it. So my intention from the beginning with Radical Personal Finance was to interview lots of these types of business people, and I've had a few on the show.

But you know what? These people are tough to get to sit down for an interview. Number one, they're tough because usually I need to do it in person. And also, they're tough just because they're busy or they don't want to talk on a microphone. They don't have anything to gain, which here's a little secret for you.

If somebody doesn't have something to gain, they often don't want to tell anybody about what they're doing. So I share with you lots and lots of opinions and perspectives, and these are just not all from me. There are things I've learned from other people, but there are people who don't want to get on a microphone.

For example, I know a number of very experienced real estate investors here in West Palm Beach, and I've asked them, "Listen, can I get you on the show?" And I know their finances, and I know that they would have a lot of value to add, and they just, "I don't want to go on a show.

I don't want to talk about anything." They're practicing, what's that concept? Stealth wealth. They don't have anything to gain from telling people how much money they have, so they don't really do it. Now, it's not to say that some people aren't willing. So my guest today, he is willing.

He doesn't have anything to gain, doesn't sell anything that any of you can buy. He's just a friend of mine, and I used to work for him when I was a kid. But he has a lot to share, but still, to get him to sit down and do the microphone, I had to work really hard for a really long period of time to get him to sit down for an interview.

And even in that, you're going to have to listen through. He's an awesome guy. He's not a dynamic presenter. He didn't belly up to the microphone the way that I do with a big smile on his face, lots of enthusiasm and emotion in his voice. I had to pull it out of him.

But yet, this type of person can teach us so many gems, so much wisdom and knowledge. One of the things that I don't care for, a hallmark of my generation, I don't care for the way that we seem to ignore at the minor end and despise at the more harsh end people with age.

It really frustrates me how in the US American society, we have a tendency to honor and revere and exalt the young and the beautiful. We have a tendency to shun and to avoid and ignore the aged and the ugly. But yet, don't the aged have something to share with us?

I encourage, if you have a grandmother or grandfather, I encourage myself. It's been too long since I've called my own grandmother. My grandmother is 101 years old, almost 102. And to my own shame, it's been too long since I called her. So even as I begin the show, I'm reminding myself, but spend some time with people who have age and experience and learn from their wisdom, learn from their experiences.

And most definitely, if they have some financial wealth, some financial independence and abundance, try to get them to share some with you. Just ask questions. I've had lots of friends of mine who have wanted to get on the show and they say, "Listen, will you?" I ask them, "Will you come on the show?" And I'm trying not to overstate my case, but due to my experience and where I live, I know a lot of really wealthy people and multiple, multiple people.

"Listen, please, will you come on my show and share? I'll hide your name. I'll hide your identity." "No, no, no, I don't want to." But they will sit down with me over lunch and talk to me and share with me. And so that's some of the content that I bring you.

Bit of a wordy intro here just to recommend to you that you take the time and also to say, "I'm working hard on getting this type of person on the show, but it's hard work for me to do it." It's a lot easier to get somebody who can sit down and talk with us over Skype.

But today's guest is a man named Warren Prescott. He started his, as you'll hear in the beginning of this interview, he started his as in a little rural town called Belgrade, Florida, which is right here where I live in West Palm Beach. But Belgrade is the sticks. Even today, it is the sticks.

If you've ever been to South Florida here, it's in Palm Beach County, but it's hard to get a more different urban. It's not even urban. It's hard to get a more different environment. It's a farming town. And my guest today, he started as you'll hear with nothing in a little of a farming town, but he has been extremely successful and has built a really cool business.

I worked for him for a total of two or three summers, depending on how I count it, and some time when I was in college, briefly. And so he's always had a special place in my mind, and I really admire and respect him. And today I get to bring his story to you.

Before I play his story for you, I just want to share one sponsor today. You're going to hear in today's show, Warren talk about the importance of savings. And you're going to hear him talk about, as I try to pull out of him the threads of what made you financially successful.

You'll hear him talk about, well, I just invested. But the first thing was he had to have savings. And you'll hear through and through from the beginning of his life that he was always a saver. Well, guess what? You got to have a little bit of money to make some money.

Now, you can start with your human capital and work and earn money, but then the first thing you got to do is save some. You got to pay yourself first. You got to save some. And the only way to do that is to put a plan in place that results in you getting some money out of the spending column and into the savings column.

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If you have a goal, and if that goal involves money, as all goals do, a little tentative with that all because maybe there's something that doesn't involve money, but basically every goal involves money in some way, whether it involves money in some way, you need to have on your budget category at least some kind of reminder, something.

You need to do something towards that goal. For example, I have a budget category on mind for I'd like to buy an RV. And it's not appropriate right now, but at some point it will be. And I just have that on my budget category. And I fund that with a little bit of money here and there.

It's not a major focus. It's too much of a consumption item right now while I'm still trying to build the empire with my investment items. But I still put it on there to remind myself, put a little bit of money into that account, put a little money into that account, put a little money into that account.

I challenge you to do the same thing. If you're not using YNAB, at least check it out. You can download a free 30-day trial. You can try it without any obligation. You don't give them a credit card number or anything like that. Just go to radicalpersonalfinance.com/YNAB. That stands for you need a budget, an acronym affectionately called YNAB, radicalpersonalfinance.com/YNAB.

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So radicalpersonalfinance.com/YNAB. Warren Prescott, welcome to Radical Personal Finance. Thank you very much, Josh. I've been looking forward to having you on the show because there's a bit of an age gap between us. I find it so easy to pin down the internet entrepreneurs, the young guys and gals who are out running around just doing things online, but I really don't want to spend all my time interviewing internet entrepreneurs.

I want to interview some entrepreneurs like you who've been there, done that for decades, but you guys are always so busy I can't pin you down in front of a microphone. Absolutely. So I wanted to get you to share a little bit of your story, specifically with business, because you've been involved in some businesses that fascinate me.

So I'd love to know, where did you and your family start? You had a privileged upbringing, right? Started with loads of money, I'd imagine. Where did you guys get your start? No, I started out... Let me see here. I would say I started out when I was probably 17 years old.

I started out working as a plumber's helper, a plumbing company in Belle Glade, Florida. I worked there for a couple of years and decided I'd always wanted to be on my own. I never really wanted to work for anybody, so I went to college for about a year and didn't care much about college.

I wasn't a very good student, so when I come back, I started working for the plumbing company. I worked there a couple of years and I ended up taking my plumbing test after a couple of years and got my master plumbing license. I was self-employed for 10 years. Working as a plumber?

As a plumber, yeah. I did do plumbing and rough ends and things of that nature. Of course, I'd met my wife. I was probably around 29 by then. I met my wife from West Palm and my lovely wife, Lulie. I wanted to change my life and get out of plumbing, so I started...

I was from the Glades, knew a lot of people in the sod business, so I started a little sod company. I actually borrowed $10,000 from a doctor friend of mine and started cutting Bahia sod there in West Palm off Southern Boulevard by Land Country Safari. I made some good money in it, so I said, "Heck, this is a job I want to do." I like the outdoors anyway, so I had another buddy that was running a big sod farm and ranch in the Glades and he wanted me to come cut grass there.

What I did is I asked my wife at the time she was substitute teaching, I asked her if she wanted to get in the sod business and I talked her into going to her mother and borrowing $3,000 to start her company. I trained her and showed her how to do it and hired a guy that knew a lot about it.

She oversaw that. By then, we had a couple of kids, so I'd get up in the morning, take the kids to school. She'd go to the sod farm and do her orders and stuff and then I'd go out into the Glades. I had another guy managing the farm in the Glades that I was cutting on and I started cutting sod out there.

We did that for probably five years and I ran out of grass at this big farm. So, we started working together and decided that she needed to be a stay-at-home mom and I kept going with the sod business. In the meantime, I'd invest in real estate. We'd both always saved our money and invest in real estate and I'd buy little tracts and sell them and do odds and ends.

- I want to ask you about the sod business and we'll go into kind of the real estate because you've got an interesting perspective on it, especially now. Was it just from working in the plumbing business that you met some people who were in the sod business? How did you get the idea of that being your entrepreneurial endeavor?

- Well, I knew I wanted to get out of the plumbing business. - Why? What was driving you? - I was tired of it after 10 years of it. I made great money and everything. I just didn't want to be a plumber all my life, so I switched into sod.

I knew of several friends out there that had sod farms that had done very well in sod. - Just basically explain the sod business. It all comes down to the margins? You just grow some grass and cut it out? - Exactly. It's all volume. You sell it by the semi-load.

We sold it to landscapers and we just sold semi-loads of grass. I got out and talked to people, met people, and sold it to different companies. It worked out well. I got along with everybody. It just happened. - What was the foundation with the early part of the venture?

Was it you going out and selling it? Was it your knowledge of the intricacies of the type of grass and how it worked? What was the thing that you did really well that led to it being successful? - More me selling it. Being able to go out and get the grass there at the right time.

Delivering it at the right place at the right time and doing what I said I'd do. That was the thing. A lot of people would take an order and not get it to the landscaper in time. I was always good and prompt about getting it delivered on time. That's what did it.

Do what you say you're going to do. - What was your secret to doing that? Were you a hands-on manager? - Absolutely. 100% hands-on. I'd hired a guy that knew the sod business. I really didn't know the sod business. I hired a gentleman in the glades who'd been in it for 30 years.

He knew it well. I went out there and worked every day. We had long hours. We'd start at six in the morning and work to eight, nine o'clock at night. After a few years, I knew about it as much as you could possibly know in it. That's where I ventured into that.

I just kept growing and growing. Eventually, I got in the golf course business. That's where I'm at today. I do a lot of renovation on golf courses and stuff. Of course, I bought my ranch. I bought several pieces of property, little ranches and bought them and sold them. I kept building up, saving my money until I bought a big one.

I got a couple thousand acres now of my personal ranch. I lease probably 10,000 acres of ranches now. - For hunting or just for fun or for grass? - For cattle. I'm big in the cattle business too now. I have cattle. I have hunting. I lease some of the hunting rights out to people.

I'm still heavy in the sod and both in the Glades Inn and Okeechobee. - When you look back at your real estate investment career, what was the first piece of real estate you ever bought? - I bought a ... Well, I'd always been in real estate. Even when I was 17, I bought my first house, $11,000.

- Really? - I paid for a little house, yeah. - Did you pay for it with cash, a mortgage, or how did you buy it? - No, I paid cash for it. I saved my money in the plumbing and I bought it. Paid 11,000. I kept it probably 10 years.

Sold it for, I think, 28,000. It worked out well. I liked that. It wasn't a big problem. Renting it, only had one of them. Then later on, right after I got married, I bought a trailer park and a motel. - Cash or did you finance those? - You know what?

I'm pretty sure I paid cash for that because I'd already flipped the real estate and saved a pretty good amount of money. I had the motel, which was kind of a pain. I kept that for a couple years and I flipped that and made a nice little profit. After that, I went on.

Once I got married, I moved over to Wellington and then we bought a home in Lying Country Safari in Fox Trail. Then I started buying stuff in Wellington. I bought a 20-acre piece of land in Wellington in the horse country back there. This was in probably the early '90s.

Right when Wellington was starting to really crank up. Actually, I went to the bank and I was going to finance that. I talked to my banker and had the money set and ready to go. I told my wife one night I was going to buy 20 acres and she said I lost my mind.

I had another older gentleman that worked with me. I asked him, I said, "You want to be a partner in a piece of land?" He said, "Yeah." I said, "How much money do you need?" I said, "None. I already got approved. I'll just go ahead and buy it." I talked to a realtor and the realtor had told me if I buy it and hold it for a month that he'd be able to flip it.

I bought it, paid $200,000 for it. I flipped it the next month for $300,000. I made $100,000, gave him $50,000. He didn't put a dime on it. What did he do in the deal? Why did you even have him in the deal then? Because my wife didn't want me to do the deal.

I wanted to do it. I went ahead and did it. She respected him a lot. He said he'd be the partner with us. That's how it worked. We had a little argument over it, trust me. In 30 days, I did what I said I was going to do. I gave him half the profit.

From that day on, I could have bought anything I wanted. He'd finance me in anything. We really never did any other deals other than that. Over the years, do you have a strong conviction about always using your own money, always borrowing money? How do you decide between using your own cash versus borrowing money?

Well, on smaller stuff, I do. $300,000 deals, I do my own money. When I started buying ranches and stuff and getting up in the millions, then I'd get it from the bank and everything. I did a couple of deals. Flipped it and made a lot of money. Worked out good.

I still do it to this day. What's the best deal you've ever done? The one that you came away to say, "Man, I can't believe that worked out." I bought a 3,500-acre ranch. Is this here in Florida? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Up in the Port of St. Lucie area. Right before it was going to go crazy in the early '80s.

No, it would have been in 2006 probably. I bought it and I kept it for a year. I flipped it and sold it for four times what I paid for it. That's awesome. Four times what you paid for it in one year. Who was the buyer? Was it a special deal?

It was a big company out of the Carolinas. I had to take on some partners on that. I had three partners and then myself. We all made well, just hit it perfect. What's the worst deal you ever made? I don't know. As far as real estate, I've really never lost any money in real estate.

When the economy took a hit, we had already quit buying stuff. I bought a rock pit one time and I just sold it here in the last year or two. I lost money on that. It worked out. Some of you win, some of you lose. Did you expect the decline in real estate?

Change in economy? I knew it was coming. I got an old saying, "When the taxi driver tells you it's a good deal, it's time to try to sell." That's what was going on. I think most people knew we were fixing to go into a bad economy in 2008 or whatever.

I'd already had a couple of deals going. I couldn't get out of them as far as I'd bought it. We were getting them developed. We weren't developing. We were actually getting the PUD on it. Then we were going to sell it to a developer. That's how I got caught with one piece of property.

Your wife told me to ask you a question about the quail. Tell me the quail story. I think she's trying to throw you under the bus here. I was always busy doing something. I raised quail when we first got married in about '84. When I was a kid, I always raised quail.

I always had wildlife. I bought 12,000 chicks and raised them up for a hunting preserve and ended up selling them to a hunting preserve, which was Bonnet Hunting Preserve. That was some of the hardest work I ever did. Real estate's always been good to me. You're in Florida. Anybody that buys in Florida and buys a halfway right, if they can hold on to it, they're going to be all right because everybody's going to eventually come to Florida until we're built out.

That's the way I look at it now. I do think we're fixing to go into an economy that's going to change year again and the next year or two. It's going to take a downward hit. Everybody needs to be prepared for it. What are you doing to prepare for that?

Well, I'm not really purchasing any land right now. I'm selling some pieces that I got. I got contracts on a couple of ranches that I have. The ranches are moving real good, but the value's gone up so much now. It's time to get out and do a little fishing, play a little golf.

I'm interested to know, how do you and your wife handle your business practices and your money? Because she is heavily involved in the business even, as you said. Do you guys work together? How do you guys handle that? Well, we're partners. I pretty much do most of the business stuff.

We sit down and talk about things that we want to do. I do have partners now that we work with because I buy bigger tracts of land now. I think the biggest tract I ever bought was 7,000 acres. We do buy large tracts of land. Right now, nobody's getting interest on their money.

It's so cheap. Money's cheap. Now's the time to borrow as long as you can make the payment on it. That's the thing. You got to be able to make the payment and still survive. How do you find a good business partner, good investment partner? Well, through the years, I've dealt with a lot of guys.

We've become friends. I've never really had to go look and ask for anybody. I've always done good deals and people come to me and want to invest with me all the time. To me, it's kind of dangerous because you don't want to take somebody's money, invest in it, and lose.

It's hard to do. My people that I deal with are sound people. They understand the downwards part of what could happen. It will happen, but you just got to be able to hold on to it and wait it out. We don't go in and buy any commercial real estate or anything like that.

We buy cheaper land. I don't like buying $25,000 acres. I don't do it. When you're analyzing a real estate deal, are you a real number cruncher sitting down with a spreadsheet putting together comparable properties? Are you kind of just immersed in it and you get the feel? How do you actually analyze a deal?

What are you using to make a decision? Well, I'm from the old school. I try to figure out a 5% or 10% return. I really don't look at anything I don't get 10% on. I just look at the deals. Now, my partner is a number cruncher. I find a deal.

I take it to them. I tell them what I think. I've never been turned down on any deal I've ever done. I deal with some very sophisticated people that are sharp as they are in the country. I just know good deals when I see them. The thing now is I'm able to go and if I saw something I wanted to buy for $5 million a day, I could go tell somebody and put a deposit down on it and go buy.

I'd call them up and say, "Hey, let's put the money together and do it." It'd be done. I've worked hard to get where I'm at on that. There's probably not a deal that I couldn't do if I wanted to do it as long as they agree. I've always made them money.

I made them a lot of money in the past. They all listen. How in a normal week? I've always been interested. I worked for you when I was a kid. Exactly, in high school. You were a good worker. We all enjoyed you. Thank you. I learned a lot and got exposed to some neat things when I worked for you.

In many ways, I always admired the type of business you seem to be in. It was always my dream to drive around in your pickup truck and do nothing all day except talk on the phone. That was always what it seemed like to a youthful kid. I was like, "That's my dream of the kind of businessman I want to be." I'm interested to know, in today's world, from an experienced perspective, obviously it was different 30 years ago, but today, what does your normal week look like?

What do you actually do? I don't sleep very well. I get up early. Deals come to me all the time. People are always calling me with things. I don't know why, but they do. They call me about stuff all the time. I get up and I work every day just like everybody else.

I love it. I get up. I'm probably the happiest guy there is. I enjoy what I do. I enjoy the golf construction better than anything. I get to deal with all the superintendents and stuff now. That's kind of my little pet peeve right now. I'm doing several golf courses every summer.

It's very rewarding as far as I'm concerned. You get up early. Do you read the newspaper? Do you watch the news? What do you do? I don't hardly ever read the newspaper anymore. I watch a little bit of news in the morning, see what's going on. I have a plan of what I'm going to do that day because I've got so many things to do.

You call me from time to time. I can't hardly meet up with you. I feel bad about it. I'm always wheeling and dealing. It's kind of sad, but I do take off from time to time. Right now, I'm getting a little older and I'm kind of going to slow down and let my daughter and my son-in-law run the company.

I'm going to back down and just do my little play things, which is real estate. I love real estate. That's what I do best. So do you schedule a breakfast meeting three days a week with people? At this point in time, the deals just come to you? No. I do have meetings all the time.

My life's a chaos, really. I'm not very organized. That's one thing I'd say. I'm not very organized on what I do. If somebody calls me on the phone, I go beat them then if I can, if I can't. Just like with you, you call me three or four times.

I'm always busy. I'm fixing to have to leave here in just a minute and go to interview an architect. How do you keep your business going if you're disorganized? What have you done to keep your business going to account for that? I do have people that are organized. You can hire these young people that got good worth ethics.

They're organized. You got to find somebody like that. You got to be organized now. You got to know your costs and everything. That's what I do now. But I used to work off a shoestring years ago. I didn't do a financial statement every week and whatever. I still don't do it.

At the end of the year, I sit down and figure out what I've done. It's a nightmare for the accountant, but he understands me and he's been with me for 20 years. It must work. I always pay taxes, so something must be right. That's a good thing. Do you set goals?

I did years ago when I was young, but now I'm on the cruise. I'm getting on up there now where I don't want to do all this stuff. I want to play a little golf and go fishing and hunting and do the things I've always wanted to do. Of course, I've always done that too.

I've always taken time off of the family and done that. But now it's getting more aggravating for me to have to get out and do the hustle and bustles of everything. I guess I'm getting a little lazier in my old age. In fact, I know I am. How old are you now?

I'll be 62 in June. When you look back, so to say 62, you must have gone to your 40th high school anniversary. You probably know some of your friends that you graduated from high school with out in Belle Glade. If you were going to look and see, what would you say would be, can you identify any character traits, personality traits, things you did differently than some of maybe your friends that you graduated from high school with that have led to a major difference in your lifestyle over the years?

No, I was always motivated to work for myself. I never thought about working for anybody else. That's what I'd recommend to anybody, be self-employed. I've just always been that way. I never wanted to work for anybody. I've been fortunate enough that I did that. I've only worked for a couple of people in my whole life.

I've worked for a lot of people now when I do golf courses and stuff. I get up and go when I want to and do what I want to do. It's like being retired as far as I'm concerned when it comes to that. I'll tell you, if you would have took a poll of me in my high school days, most of my teachers would have probably told you I'd have been a definite failure.

I was a terrible student. I was a C student if I studied. I mean, it was that bad. I went to college. I went to a little small college in Georgia for about six months. I'd taken classes and stuff, but I just didn't like school. I was a terrible student.

I worked hard. My dad died when I was 18, and he taught us the work. As long as you got good work ethics, you can do it. But you got to have a goal, too, to say, "Hey, I want to have something one day." I'm not a nine-to-five guy with a job at Walmart or what have you.

That wasn't never what I wanted to do. I just always liked trying to make money, and I saved it. You got to save it. That was going to be my next question, was as far as saving money. Obviously, you were a saver. From 17 years old, you said you bought an $11,000 house and paid cash for it for money you had saved.

Two questions. Number one, how did you earn that money before you were 17 to be able to save it? Number two, did your parents teach you to save? What was the factor that caused you to feel that savings was important? My father always told us, "You need to save your money and spend it wisely," and all that.

Actually, in high school, I took probably my junior year, I did what they called DCT, where you went and you took your main classes in school, your English, your math, your history, and you'd get out a half a day. I had a job. That's where I worked for this plumbing company.

I worked and I saved my money. Matter of fact, I was working when we did a place in Port LaBelle, Florida. I never will forget. It was a golf course community in LaBelle, Florida, called Port LaBelle. I'd saved up $4,000. I wanted to buy a lot. They had some golf course lots over there.

I asked my dad about it. This was before he got sick. He said, "Well, I'll tell you why." Because I had the money and the savings at the bank. He said, "You go to the bank. You need to start your credit. You need to learn how to have credit so you can deal with these banks in the future." He sent me to the bank, Bank of Belle Glade, Wayne Michaels.

I told him what I wanted to do and everything. He said, "Well, being that you got the $4,000, I guess because I was so young, you probably ought to just pay for the lot and not really borrow any money." He was probably nervous. Here I was probably 17 years old wanting to buy a lot.

Who thinks about doing that at 17? I ended up buying the lot. I kept it a couple of years and I did sell it. Then after that, I bought the house. That's how it started. - How did you train your kids to handle money? - Well, I've spoiled them.

They both manage money pretty well. Just through the years of seeing how we were always open with them, they never knew what we had totally, but they knew we went and did. We had a place in the Keys and we'd spend the summers down there. I guess it was bred into them to save, but they both save right to this day.

They're just young, getting started now. They're in their early 30s. They're starting. We don't try to give them a whole lot. They need to earn it themselves. It's worked out so far very well. - You say they need to earn it themselves, but you also said you spoiled them.

Did you do something differently now than you did when they were younger? Did you do it differently when they were younger? - Well, they didn't get allowance. If they needed something, we'd get it for them. They never asked for a whole lot. They always had pretty much. Just like the average family, I'd say now, for sure.

I guess just hearing us talk. We were always an open family about things. They had a question, we'd answer it. We had a question about them, we'd ask them. It's all open. Always been open. To this day, they got a question, they ask. I give them my opinion, whether it's right or wrong.

They understand that too. But overall, I think it's worked out very well. - A few final questions here. You ever invest in stocks? - I have, and I've made a little money, and then I've lost a little money. I don't like the stock market. I've got a saying that I'm not sending my money to New York.

If I'm going to mess it up, I'll mess it up myself. I've stuck to that. I've seen a lot of people make money. I've seen a lot of people lose money. But I can invest my money as good as anybody can as far as I'm concerned. That's why I buy term life insurance.

Why am I going to spend it and let them invest my money? I've borrowed money from life insurance companies that buy real estate. Why should I be borrowing my money as long as I can raise my own money and do it or have partners that do it? - Do you feel like your approach and your buddy's that you hang out with, go hunting with, do you feel like, do they believe similarly to you?

They're going to invest their own money, or do you find that you're unique in that regard? - Well, most of them that, you know, I'd say the most guys I run around with are probably self-employed, but most of them don't move like I did. I don't know why, but not a lot of people jump out and invest like I did.

I was always able to do it because I had a backup in case, you know, if I bought a piece of land I couldn't afford it, I always could afford it. I never bought anything I couldn't afford. So it never put me in a bind. The worst thing that could ever happen to a couple is not having enough money to make ends meet, pay the bills at the end of the month or the first of the month.

That's where these marriages go sour, as far as I'm concerned. We just managed our money and we never really had a money problem because we just saved. - When you look at my generation and you kind of think about our future, do you look and say, "Man, these guys are really doing things well," or do you look and say, "Man, they got some problems"?

What advice, like, how do you perceive it? What do you see people doing that you think they should, you know, if you could give words of advice, let me rephrase it this way, if you could give words of advice to guys like me, just based upon your experience, people that work for you and your experience with the kids, friends and things like that, what do you see that people aren't grasping that you believe is important?

- Well, the worth of it, you know, people don't want to work. They think, you know, I mean, if you notice, everybody drives a brand new car and got a big old car payment. I mean, I drove my car for 10 years and never thought anything about it, you know?

And people are much more intelligent than they were back in my days. To me, it appears that way. I mean, these kids nowadays are brains, you know, they can do anything, but they want to make it too quick and they think it's easy and that's why you have a lot of bad things happen with, let me see how I wish to phrase this, you know, people don't want to wait.

These young people don't want to wait their turn, you know? Wisdom, being older and wiser really matters. And I mean, even though I started out young, you know, I hung around with a lot of older people. I had a veterinarian doctor that I dealt with and I did plumbing for him and, you know, I mean, I always worked hard.

You got to work hard if you're going to make it. As far as I'm concerned, you can't rely on somebody else to do it for you. And I mean, I got up my, to this day, I can go run any piece of equipment I got. I mean, I do.

I mean, heck, I get on a tractor and mow, that's my therapy, going out every morning on a pasture, you know, getting away from the phone and just relaxing, you know? And, you know, to me, not everybody's, you know, qualified to go to college. Everybody goes to college now.

There's people that should be in college that need to, you know, be electricians or things like that or what have you. I would recommend all these young people, you know, start up something, but stay with it, you know? I see them where they get bad credit right off. That's the worst thing you could ever do.

If you go to the bank, you borrow money, you better be willing to pay it back because the first time you get bad credit, it's a nightmare. They'll ask you. I remember one time years ago, I had a Sears. I bought something for my mother after my father passed away and I missed the payment at Sears Ropa.

That thing haunted me for 20 years. I mean, on your credit report, they put it down there, even though I paid for it and paid it off because I was late that one time when I'd go and borrow money from a bank, you know, for a line of credit for, say, my plumbing company or whatever.

They'd always ask me about that thing. It was amazing. I couldn't understand. It was probably a $30 a month payment and, you know, I just missed it one time by probably over looking it because I definitely had the money, but it haunted me. I never will forget that because, I mean, I probably had two or three banks that asked me.

Even when you go borrow a car, they look up your credit and they'd say, "Well, what happened with this payment here on this one?" You know, you'd have to—I mean, I was wondering if I was ever going to get that off. Your credit's very important. Your words are very, very important.

If you tell somebody you're going to do it, you better do it or you'll get a bad name and it travels, you know. To me, it does. I try to do whatever I tell you I'm going to do. I try to do it, you know. I'm bad about my appointments.

- Do you think you'll ever retire? - No. I mean, I'm talking about now slowing down, but no. I love the art of the deal, man. I live for it every day. I get up and got up this morning, I was just as happy as a lark knowing that I'm going to go out there and wheel and deal somewhere and do something.

I mean, it's like a big game, really. As long as you don't jump off in quicksand getting something you can't handle. But no, overall, I love it. I wouldn't change anything about what I do. I'll tell you that now. I don't spend time with my buddies and go play golf like I want to.

I can go play golf at all the courses in the county and I love golf. I'm just so busy right now. That's what I kind of miss right now because all my buddies are playing, they call me all the time. I can't go because I'm doing something. - You're working.

- Yeah, I'm working. That's it. I love it. - Warren, thanks for coming on. I really appreciate it. - Thanks a lot. I appreciate it. - Three major lessons I want you to learn from the story that Warren shared with us. Number one, savings comes... Let me rephrase that.

That's going to be number two. Number one, hard work is mandatory. Warren isn't kidding. You haven't known him, haven't watched him, hard work is mandatory. Now, I've seen him coming along after the fact. I came along after he had done pretty well and he certainly likes his toys, but hard work is the foundation.

If you don't have that work ethic, it's going to be very difficult to build wealth. Number two, savings and capital. You've got to have savings and capital. So if you don't have any money, go to work and get some. It's mandatory. You've got to have savings and capital. Now, notice the trend that I have pointed out, that he maintained control of that savings.

He has had the ability to invest it into various operations that he's had control of. The IRA wasn't the magic ticket. It was the savings and control of it. And then finally, point number three, notice that he invested in terms of an appropriate scale. I need to do this show.

The title of it is written... I mean, I can give you the... Here's the 10-second version. You have to always apply the lens of scale to your investment activities. Very popular, very important show that I did. I forget the exact title, but in the past, search the archives, it was lens of scale, applying the lens of scale to what you do, but you've got to apply it to the investments.

There's a stage at which buying and flipping a $4,000 lot is really useful. And that $4,000 lot can lead you into buying and selling an $11,000 house. But then there's a stage at which you do $3,500 acre deals. And once you reach a certain stage of wealth, buying and flipping an $11,000 lot, it doesn't do much for you.

You got to find those bigger deals. So the key is to learn and practice the principles when you're small, so that you're ready for that next stage. But if you don't have any money, I mean, hey, if you can put these deals together, fine. But if you can go out and find a $3,500 acre ranch and you don't have any money and your flat broke, you can put together some partnership deals and you can make that work, go for it.

You call me and tell me you did it and I'll interview on the show and we'll share that with others. All right? I'll believe it when I get the email and the call and I see the check that you did, that you put together. But until that time, here's my recommendation.

Start small. Start where you are with what you got. Teach your kids to buy an old bicycle and flip it up. That's going to be fix it up and then flip it. Buy an old car for a couple of thousand bucks, paint it, flip it, clean it up and flip it.

Keep your eye open on the side of the road for, I don't know, I bought a trailer one time, this big old 20s, huge trailer. I could barely pull it at the time. It was so big, but I bought it cheap and I fixed it up and cleaned it.

I think I doubled it. I think I bought it for like $1,500 and I sold it for three grand, something like that. So it worked out. Keep an eye out for those little deals. When you see a little piece of real estate, a little $4,000 a lot, go ahead.

Buy the house, flip the house. Look for something that's appropriate to you. Keep your eye out for those business deals that are around you. Some of you guys, I mean, sod, kind of a strange business, right? But Warren saw the business. He saw the opportunity and got involved and he's a huge sod farmer here in Florida.

So look for those opportunities around you. You can do this with kayaks or sod or fishing boats or tractors or skyscrapers. It doesn't matter. It's all the same. It's all the same as far as the fundamentals. Yeah, it's a little bit different. You got to go in line with the market, find there's a demand.

But ask you a question. With what Warren described, if you pulled him out of South Florida and put him somewhere else in the country or in the world, do you think he'd do about the same thing he's done? I'll let you answer that question. Thank you all for listening to today's show.

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If you want to do a hundred bucks a month, hey, that's cool too. Got a few people that do that as well. RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron for all those details. And I'll be back with you all soon. Don't just dream about paradise. Live it with Fiji Airways. Escape the ordinary with Fiji Airways Global Beat the Rush Sale.

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