To bring your income to the next level, you need to focus on three things: making it, keeping it, and growing it. At Next Level Income, Chris Larsen and Caleb Welborn show you how. Their programs, podcast and ebook all focus on helping investors accumulate wealth efficiently.
Chris has been syndicating deals for almost five years. His investments are not just multi-family real estate focused, but cover a breadth of topics. Though he thinks multi-family real estate is where to keep the bulk of net worth, he reflects his investment philosophy to his business. Next Level has expanded for 2020 with more options for investors. In addition to multi-family opportunities, they have added self-storage, commercial office, oil/gas opportunities. By doing so, they can add as much value as possible for their clients.
Sophisticated vs Accredited Investors
The Next Level team works with sophisticated and accredited investors. What does that mean?
An accredited investor is an individual that makes $200k+ per year or a couple making $300k+ and expects to continue making that income. It can also be an individual with a net worth upwards of $1 million without their primary residence.
A sophisticated investor has in-depth knowledge and understands their investment. While a sophisticated investor knows what they’re getting into, an accredited one has the means to not lose it all.
In order to work with the Next Level team, you must be capable and knowledgeable. A depth of understanding prevents surprises.
Step 1: Make It
You’ve decided to grow your income and become an investor. What does that process look like? Chris recommends investing in yourself and finding a career that’s a good fit. Become an expert in your field and help as many people as possible. If you need career suggestions, look at lists of top-growing or top-earning careers, and find the one that works for you. Choose a location that’s growing, not a town with net population decline. Basically, pick a high-growth industry in a high-growth area.
If you take the right path, you’re on your way to making $200k/year. A side-hustle can help you build this and become sophisticated at the same time. Try to educate yourself on the investment type you want to get into.
Caleb suggests finding someone successful and helping them for free. Find something of value that you can bring and become an apprentice – it’s a win-win situation. He knows from experience, since he found Chris in that kind of mentor role when getting into multi-family property investment. Caleb had marketing expertise, and Chris was already a successful investor. By getting close to a person doing what you’d like to do, you can model their behavior. “Choose the type of person you want to be and start acting like that.”
Step 2: Keep It
Saving income takes effort, but you don’t need to overhaul your lifestyle. The Next Level team suggests you live off 50% of your income (after tax) and keep the rest. This is definitely more challenging for established people, so it’s better to start early in your career. It’s a commitment, so you need to think about why you want to build wealth. Keep that mission in mind – it will drive you.
But in a median income bracket, how can you make this work? Examine ways to make more time in life and start a side hustle. Look at your time. Break down your activities and look for ways to create more time. Then, use that time to work on something on the side, like flipping a house.
Meet with a tax strategist to help you keep more. There is no need to slash your lifestyle in half if you increase your cash flow. Slowly build to making more, then save and invest additional income. Decrease spending by 10%. You’ll get there.
In order to keep money, you need knowledge to eliminate gambling. Like with most things, education is key. Learn from books, podcasts, and classes. Head to seminars and conferences. Be strategic and methodical.
At the end of the day, you need to know your personality and skills. What fits you best?
Step 3: Grow It
To grow your income, you need to properly implement your investment strategy and get started. Chris started by house hacking. He found a business partner, made a small investment, rented out rooms in his house and lived for free. It was a great way to build and grow wealth.
Next Level can help you with step 3 – contact them to get started!
The Next Level Income Podcast
Chris and Caleb developed the podcast for about one year ago and are excited to expand the Next Level brand. Once Caleb brought up the idea, Chris realized it was the perfect way to answer the myriad questions investors ask on a daily basis. Instead of writing the same email response to the questions, they can refer clients to podcast episodes. If it’s a new topic, they’ll find a relevant expert and record a new episode. This keeps information fresh within a dynamic medium.
Through their podcast, Caleb and Chris learn something new from each guest. They find new tactics to implement and ideas to investigate all the time, which makes them the best kind of teachers – the kind that are always learning.
Visit Nextlevelincome.com to contact them and to download their free ebook, and don’t forget to subscribe to their podcast!
