Happy Happy…Merry Merry…it’s almost Christmas time!
Nick was in NYC with the family this past weekend and, of course, they visited “the tree” at Rockefeller Center.
There’s something about New York at Christmas time.
The decorations are over the top.
It starts right in the airport.
And then when you get into Manhattan, the whole city seems dressed up for the holidays.
If you’ve never been to NYC between the U.S. Thanksgiving and Christmas you’ll want to add it to your list.
It’s an experience. The shows, the food, the sights, the shopping…it’s like being in a movie.
Highly recommend it (for about 2-3 days max…then get outta there, LOL!).
OK, let’s get to it…
Over the last 18 years of doing this “real estate thing”, we’ve stopped being surprised by prices, interest rates, or government decisions.
The thing that still surprises us is this:
People with similar incomes and similar backgrounds end up in completely different positions, 10–15 years later.
Some are stuck.
Some are quietly sitting on multiple properties, extra cash flow, and real options.
And it’s almost never because one person is “smarter” or “lucky.”
It’s because they’re playing different games.
When we look at the people who are quietly winning this decade, we keep seeing the same three patterns over and over.
THE ASSET ACCUMULATOR
This person doesn’t look flashy from the outside. They’re not screaming on social media about every purchase. You might not even know what they’re up to.
We’ve had multiple of these types walk into our office with an old, sometimes rusted car, and a real estate portfolio that is jaw dropping.
They have a simple formula that seems to always go like this:
“If I buy solid properties, at a reasonable pace, and hold them…time, inflation, and mortgage pay-down will do most of the heavy lifting.”
They usually think like this:
Aim for one property every 1–3 years (as long as the numbers make basic sense)
Stick to one main strategy – starter rentals, duplexes, student rentals, whatever – and get good at it.
Focus on only a few key numbers (does it pay for itself, is the area growing or declining, can they qualify AND survive the mortgage)...
They’re not trying to buy the perfect property.
They’re trying to own enough good-enough assets that the math starts working in their favour.
Ten or twenty years later, everyone looks at them and says, “Wow, you’re so lucky with real estate.”
What they don’t see is the the years of quietly building, tenants slowly paying down the mortgage, rents creeping higher over time, and equity building across multiple properties.
The Asset Accumulator’s superpower isn’t timing the market.
It’s staying in the market long enough with enough assets that time does the work.
THE SIDE-HUSTLE BUILDER
This person keeps their job. They’re not reckless.
But they refuse to let their job be their only engine.
They see their job as “base camp” – it keeps the lights on.
Then they build a second engine that exists for one purpose:
“Fuel for my savings”.
That second engine might be:
Consulting or coaching in a skill they already have.
A small service business – landscaping, painting, media, bookkeeping, etc.
A online business – content, courses, e-commerce, whatever.
They’re not trying to build a unicorn startup.
They’re trying to get an extra $1,000–$2,000/month reliably coming in.
Enough to save for some down payments more quickly.
Crush some bad debt regularly.
Sleep at night knowing they have multiple streams of income.
Most of the people we see buying multiple properties on average Canadian incomes have something like this going on.
The Side-Hustle Builder doesn’t wait for a raise to save more.
They create a raise.
THE SYSTEM HACKER
This is the spreadsheet geek of the group.
(And we say that with love because we relate to this group, at least I do…Nick is a tad cooler than me but he’s part geek too, trust me…LOL!)
Their income might be completely average.
What’s different is how they see the system.
They don’t see banks, HELOCs, renewals, and amortizations as something to fear.
They see them as the rules of a game worth learning.
They constantly ask…
“Is there a smarter way to structure this?”
“Can I rearrange my balance sheet so my money works harder?”
They know their credit score and protect it. Know exactly how much HELOC room they have. Know when their mortgages renew.
They always seem to understand, at foundational level, what their lender will and won’t do.
Then they use that knowledge to do things like…
Use a HELOC to add a basement suite and turn a negative or break-even property into a positive one.
Refinance a property at the right moment to:
Consolidate ugly, high-interest credit card debt into cheaper mortgage debt once.
Or top up a down payment for another property, while rents from both easily carry the new structure.
They always think in these two dimensions:
Cash flow – can I comfortably handle this payment if rates wiggle?
Balance sheet – does this move help me own more productive assets, or less?
The System Hacker doesn’t accept “I can’t afford it” as the final answer.
They keep digging to see if there’s a smart way to make it work.
To world of the System Hacker is understanding the money game so deeply that you can use the rules that are oppressive and turn them around…
…to use those same rules to their extreme advantage.
This takes curiosity and constant learning.
Some of these are the earliest adopters into something like our BREAS Strategy.
How to leverage cash flow from real estate to buy Bitcoin and capture the upside while limiting the risk.
You can check out the BREAS calculator here:
https://rockstarinnercircle.com/breas
It’s endless fun.
OK, there you have it.
The three most common types of people we see winning, over and over again.
Maybe there’s something from this you can take for yourself.
And listen if you’re looking for a group of people that fit into these three categories you want to check out our Rock Star VIP group.
We only open it up to new VIP Members once a year.
And that time is approaching now.
We cap the group because we all go to restaurants together, attend special VIP classes together and network together…so “too big” isn’t great.
You can learn all about Rock Star VIP right here:
RockStarInnerCircle.com/Vip-Member
That’s it for this week, everyone!
Merry Merry…Happy Happy!
Tom & Nick
