Money Hacks

Because Everything You Think You Know About Money Is Wrong!

Larry Steinhouse

• Publisher: Morgan James Publishing
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN: 9781631957741
• eBook ISBN: 9781631957758
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Real Estate

An investing expert reveals the secret strategies of the super-rich for building wealth now and in the future.

Larry Steinhouse's passion for investing in profitable properties and lucrative stock options—and teaching others how to generate wealth—has motivated him to share  Money Hacks with anyone looking to build a more secure and financially profitable future. Steinhouse is known for his unique approach to money—an approach that, on the surface, seems to be in complete opposition to today's popular financial counselors. And yet, his strategies have proven to be the best-kept secrets of the super-rich that have made many people wealthy and are still making people rich today.

Money Hacks uncovers the mystery of money with Steinhouse's simple, profitable, and easy-to-follow strategies. Motivated individuals will learn how to buy properties without investing any of their own money and how to obtain huge lines of credit while building up their credit scores and their net worth. Steinhouse also explains how LLCs and trusts can protect one's wealth from excessive taxation and how to leverage an IRA and/or Roth IRA for huge profits, as well as how the stock market really works.

CHAPTER 1

Money Mindset

I want you to clear your mind and take a deep breath. I’m going to give you a word to think about, and I want you to pay attention to your reaction to this word. The word is . . . money.

What was your gut reaction to the word? Honestly? You may have felt a thrill go through your whole body. Or maybe you felt anxiety. Maybe you felt uncertainty. It’s possible that you felt peace. Whatever it was, I want you to sit with the truth of that feeling and hold on to that as we dig deeper into this chapter.

Myth vs. Truth

The feelings you felt come from your money mindset. Now, money itself is a neutral thing. But we attach all kinds of ideas to it and call them “truth.” But are they? For example, here are just a few myths you might believe about money, and I want you to notice how they make you feel:

1. Money doesn’t grow on trees
   This is the idea that you don’t have an endless supply of money. But that doesn’t have to be true. If it is, that just means you bought the wrong tree.
2. Money is the root of all evil
   First of all, this line is misquoted. The actual quote is, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” It’s from the Bible. What it’s actually saying is that you shouldn’t love money more than you love God. I agree, but it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy and love your money. Just don’t make the mistake of putting money number one in your life. Money itself is not evil. It’s a neutral thing. It’s how you perceive money or what you do with it that gives it a value.
3. Families get torn apart by money
   If you believe that families get torn apart by money, you aren’t going to have any money. You simply will not allow it to flow into your life. But is it true that money will destroy your most important relationships like that? No. Families get torn apart by selfishness and greed—not money. If your family is selfish and greedy, it doesn’t matter if you have a million dollars or two dollars. The attitudes will be the same.
4. You should never discuss money with your children
   That is a mistake. If you have children, start discussing money with them right now. I have a business partner who started putting credit cards in his son’s name several years ago. When his son turned 18 years old, he had an 850 credit score. The world is his oyster. It’s brilliant.

Master or Slave?

These are just some of the many myths out there about money. The ones you believe and buy into are the ones that control your relationship with money. Are you the master or the slave? If you’re not sure, answer this question: Are you stressed over any of your financial obligations? If so, money is mastering you. And that is a choice. If you want to be a master of money, don’t stress over your bills. Who cares? Your phone could be ringing from bill collectors all day long, your bank account could be empty—and it’s still a choice whether or not you’re going to stress over that. And as soon as you give yourself up to the stress and the worry and the fear, you are a slave.

Instead of living in fear of money, live in expectation and gratitude of money. This one change in your mindset will multiply it faster than you can imagine.

In his book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, T. Harv Ecker talks about picking up pennies when he finds them. How many people would pick up a penny if they saw it on the street (even when it isn’t heads up)? I would imagine that not many people would do that. But T. Harv Ecker says that if you don’t pick up the change on the street, then you aren’t receiving the gift that was put in your path. And if God puts a penny in your path and you refuse it by not picking it up, why would He give you a nickel, a dime, or a dollar?

Always remember that every set of 100 pennies is a dollar that can go to work for you, never asking for a day off or calling in sick. If you kick it to the side, it will go work for someone else who is willing to pick it up. Make sure you treat it with the respect it deserves!

This might sound silly to you, but I’m being serious. Start picking up pennies if you see them on the street. When you do this, strange things are going to happen. Money is going to start flowing into your life. I promise you it will. I once had a protégé who I challenged to start picking up pennies when she found them. She was a single mom with three children, and she was struggling to pay her bills. Shortly after she started picking up pennies, she found a $10 bill in the street. Then one day all these things started to happen in her financial life; it completely changed. It wasn’t long before she did her first real estate deal, and she made more money in that transaction than she made in almost half a year in her job. And then, would you believe it, she ended up marrying a rich, handsome man. It was me! That student is now my wife.

Don’t Let Your Mindset Hold You Back

When you change your mindset, you will have power over money instead of the other way around. This is a universal truth—it doesn’t just apply to money. The only thing that can ever hold you back from doing what you have always wanted to do is you. Granted, there are times when people may have a disability or something that is serious that really can hold them back, but it doesn’t hold them back to the point where they cannot do anything. The only thing that holds you back is your own mind.

For instance, I have a rare genetic disorder called Gaucher disease. There are three types of Gaucher disease. One type causes children who are born with it to, most often, pass away before they are five years old. Another type allows children to possibly live into their teens, but they will have severe brain damage. Luckily, I have the livable type of the disease, but it still comes with some serious problems. It eats organs and bones, which are very helpful to, you know, surviving. The other thing it does is that it makes people extremely tired at times. I take treatment for the disease, and I’m living a pretty good life in spite of my diagnosis.

There is a two-hour treatment I take every two weeks. There used to be just one factory that made the enzyme for this treatment. Well, that factory got a virus. Millions of patients could no longer get their treatments. They asked for volunteers who would be willing to skip their treatments for a while. I volunteered. It took almost three years before I started getting tired, whereas other volunteers were bed ridden after a week without treatment. These are people with the exact same disease and type of the disease that I have. We have the same prognosis, the same odds stacked against us. So, what gives? Why wasn’t I in bed after a few days? I’m telling you, the biggest difference between me and those other volunteers was our mindset. I have Gaucher disease, but I refuse to be Gaucher disease.

Lean In

When we fear something, it has more power over us. I learned a powerful lesson about this years ago, and it was a lesson I’ll never forget. At the time, I was learning Karate. I was sparring, and my opponent, who was better than me, would throw a kick or punch. I kept side-stepping his blows. But I quickly found that if I stepped back, he was able to hit me a lot harder than if I stayed where I was. By moving away, I gave him the opportunity to fully extend his leg or his arm, which made the impact more powerful. So, I started to step in instead. And I found that he couldn’t hit me anymore. Not only did I keep him from fully extending, but as I stepped in, he would step back. Now who was afraid?

This principle changed my life. There are times I get up in the morning and I don’t want to get out of bed. Those are the days I get out of bed faster, and I encourage you to do this. If you are having a bad day, step in—don’t step back. Make that extra phone call, go see that extra person, send that extra piece of mail. Do whatever you need to do to make your business better.

Think and Grow Rich

There’s a book called Think and Grow Rich. It is the product of many interviews the author, Napoleon Hill, conducted over many years. He went out and started interviewing millionaires, but this was back in the 30s, so they would have been billionaires by today’s standards. The basis of his questions revolved around one burning question: what is the secret to getting rich? To his surprise, he found a common thread through all of the answers. All of those wealthy men talked about how they had first wished for something or thought really hard about something, and then that wish or thought materialized. And they didn’t just think about it—they were consumed by their burning desires for those things.

I can relate. You see, the only reason I have a school filled with students is because I first had a burning desire to open a school. There were a lot of times I doubted myself because I wasn’t sure how I would get students, or I wasn’t sure I would have enough material to teach them. But I had the desire. Napoleon Hill talks about that in his book and says that God—or the Universe, or whatever it is you believe in—will put everything in your way to make the desires of your heart happen. You may not actually know how those things get in your path, but they get there. My school is a living testament to that truth. Literally, what you get is what you’ve imagined.

Back in 2008, I filed bankruptcy, but I didn’t stay down very long. I didn’t spend time feeling sorry for myself. I spent my time creating the next chapter of my life, and I knew that began by seeing it. So, I imagined that I was going to come out of bankruptcy and rebuild everything and become a millionaire again. And I’ve done it. It was not a fluke. I did it very intentionally, beginning the day I left bankruptcy court. Today, my credit score routinely goes as high as 800 and my net worth is over a million dollars. I am on track to hit my next milestone of having a net worth of $5 million, and I know I will get there because I already see it.

You literally get where you imagine. So, here is the really important question: What do you imagine? Do you imagine problems, or do you imagine solutions? Do you spend your time thinking about the misery of the life you’re living, or are you focusing your thoughts on building the life that you want?

Someone once told me to write a check to myself for the amount of money I want to have in twenty years. I did it, and I encourage you to do the same. Write that check. Make it as big as you can dream it to be. Date it for the goal date—the date you plan on being able to cash that check. And then put that check in your wallet. Keep it close to you. If you don’t have a check, then write it on a slip of paper. Either way, I want you to write it down. You’ve thought it, you’ve written it—you have already started the creation process. Do you understand? There are a finite number of steps between you and that dollar amount. By thinking it and by writing it down, you have now taken the first two steps. That shows God that you are ready for the next step, the next door to open.

That is how you create a life your future self will be proud of.

Counterfactual Simulation

Once you shift your mindset and you have planted your desire, the pathway there will manifest itself—but you need to do your part to help that along. I have a friend who is a billionaire. His name is Brian, and he is also my coach. He told me about something that changed my life. It’s called counterfactual simulation.

A counterfactual simulation is the process of letting your mind explore the “what ifs.” You make the assumption that something is already true and suspend your disbelief. You give your imagination the space to roam free and simulate all the “what ifs” that would make your dream a reality. And then you can identify all the doors that have to open in order for you to get there. Those doors may sound impossible and far-fetched, but you allow yourself to mentally walk through them and explore the possibilities. The idea is that you see the reality that you want, and then basically reverse engineer it.

For instance, let’s say you want to have an additional $1.25 million sitting in your bank account five years from now. You would begin by believing it is true. Then you would ask yourself, “What needs to happen between now and then for that to happen?” You would begin by looking at where you’re starting today. Let’s say you have $20,000 in your account right now. In simple terms, you would have to put away $250,000 a year for the next five years. That breaks down to $21,000 a month, or $695 a day. Now, what would you have to do to earn that money? This will move you into another set of simulations. What if you invested that $20,000 into real estate? How could that snowball into $695 a day or $250,000 a year for the next five years? Go down those roads. Ask those questions and let your imagination answer them.

When I first heard of this, I thought it was both crazy and amazing at the same time.

Now I want you to get a piece of paper and a pen and do this. Take just five minutes and write down where you want to be in five years. If there is a certain dollar amount you want to have or a number of houses you want to own, write those down. Whatever your goals are for five years from now, write them down. Do your own counterfactual simulation and allow yourself to believe you’re there and to see the path of how to get there. In this practice, anything is possible. Let your imagination run free!

Dare to believe that the impossible can happen. You will discover that anything is possible!

The Impossible Can Happen

One time, I was just sitting in a parking lot doing some work on my phone when a woman saw my truck and knocked on the window. I rolled down the window, and she asked, “Do you guys buy office condos?” I said yes, so she took my number and said she’d call me to set up a time for me to see her office.

When she called to set things up, before I even saw the office, she told me, “The best office in the complex has already sold for $150,000. I don’t want that much, but I do have a bottom-line number.” I told her no problem, and I went to see the space.

The space was perfect. I figured her bottom-line was probably going to be $100,000, but I was not going to offer that right out of the gate. I took my time to look around as I was formulating my plan. Finally, I asked, “Do you need the money?”

“No,” she said. “My husband is a doctor. We just want out. But we’re not looking for a low-ball.”

I nodded. “Okay. Tell you what. I will give you $500 a month for 100 months and a $50,000 balloon payment at the end.”

That was a ludicrous offer. But she was silent for a minute as she calculated everything in her head. Then a big smile broke across her face. “Deal,” she said.

Now, you’re probably thinking, Larry, that still comes to $100,000, and you said you were going to offer less!

Well, consider this: How many people have a $500 car loan? I have a condo payment that’s $500, and it is 100 percent ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Instructions for This Book
• Introduction
• CHAPTER 1: Money Mindset
• CHAPTER 2: What Is Money Anyway?
• CHAPTER 3: How Much Money Do You Want?
• CHAPTER 4: Money: The Big, Fat Lie
• CHAPTER 5: Can Money Buy Happiness?
• CHAPTER 6: Coaches and Mentors
• CHAPTER 7: The Truth About Credit Scores
• CHAPTER 8: Rebuilding Your Credit Using Credit Cards
• CHAPTER 9: LLCs: The Credit Multiplier
• CHAPTER 10: The Right Way to Buy a Car
• CHAPTER 11: How to Buy a House with Credit Cards
• CHAPTER 12: Investing With Other People’s Money (OPM)
• CHAPTER 13: Be Your Own Bank
• CHAPTER 14: Lend Out Your Equity
• CHAPTER 15: How to Choose Stocks
• CHAPTER 16: Stocks: The Big Picture
• CHAPTER 17: Steak and Tuna
• CHAPTER 18: Don’t Pay Taxes!
• CHAPTER 19: How to Buy Houses with Your IRA
• CHAPTER 20: Tax Secrets of the Super-Rich
• CHAPTER 21: Understanding College Loans
• CHAPTER 22: How to Thrive in a Bad Economy
• Conclusion Be a Legend
• About the Author
• Endnotes