Cosmos

Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. For today’s guest, we have Chris Naugle. After going from middle class to multi-millionaire, Chris has dedicated his life to becoming America’s number one money mentor. 

His success includes managing over $30 million in assets in the financial services and advisory industry and tens of millions in the real estate business. With over 200 transactions in 20 years, he has built and owned 19 companies, and his businesses have been featured on Entrepreneur, ABC, NBC, Fox, House Hunters, and more. 

He also had his own edgy TV pilot in 2018. As an innovator and visionary in wealth building and real estate, Chris empowers others with the knowledge of how money works and how to use that to break the chains of financial slavery. His mission has already served tens of thousands of Americans. He’s the co-author of the book Mapping out the Millionaire Mystery and hosts the Money School podcast, which shares the secrets of the wealthy. 

So you learn how money really works and take back control of your life. He’s an extraordinary American, and I’m honored to have him on the show. Chris, thank you so much for taking the time to be here. It’s truly an honor.

Chris

Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. Super pumped.

Cosmos

So, Chris, can you tell the audience a little bit more about yourself, your story, and how you got to where you are today?

Chris

Yeah, I mean, it’s an interesting one. I mean, I didn’t start from a family of entrepreneurs or a family of money. We were definitely a lower-middle-class family. Mom, you know, always believed in me, always, you know, let me be that visionary kid that had the crazy ideas of what I wanted to do. 

And you know, at a young age, I remember going to my mom and saying, “Mom, I want to be a pro snowboarder.” Now, most parents would have just laughed. I live in Buffalo, New York, so yes, we have a lot of snow here, but this isn’t the Mecca for pro snowboarders. And you know, I’d watched a video, I was a skateboard kid, and I just wanted to do that. So that was my mission. And that mission, that mission to be a pro snowboarder, just changed my whole future. 

Because to be a pro snowboarder, I had to figure something out at a really young age. An age when most kids my age were just getting jobs, and, you know, what they were doing on the weekends was working in a restaurant. And that’s what I started doing. But I realized very quickly that working in the restaurant meant working nights. And weekends, which were the exact times I needed to be on the hill snowboarding to fulfill my dream. 

So I remember one day I was at the restaurant. The owner just treated me like complete crap. So I quit. But I had been working with my art teacher, Mr. Mahalski, on a plan to start a clothing line. And I was going to. I planned to print shirts with Mr. Mahalski after school, then sell them out of my backpack to different kids at the high school I was at. And that would be how I would fund, you know, the travel and everything else that I needed. I mean, I was 16. I didn’t have huge financial needs. I just needed an M car; I needed gas. We didn’t have cell phones back then. And I needed money to get to the resorts. 

So when I told my mom this, I thought she would be upset that I quit my job and was going to start a clothing line. But she didn’t. She fully embraced it. That was my first company. It was not, I don’t know the month, but that would have been 1992. Fast forward a little bit. I took that company and sold my clothing line all across the eastern seaboard. When I was going to snowboard contests, I would sell my clothes. 

And it spun into this other idea: I needed a shop. I needed my own store to sell not just my own clothing, but also my favorite snowboard and skate brands, as well as snowboards and skateboards. So we got the idea to open Fat Man Ph 80 board shops. And my clothing line was Fat Clothing Company. 

So you can see the parallel. That was where I really had to learn what it meant to be an entrepreneur. It was a $70,000 investment that I needed to open this store. I had no money. I had a KX125 dirt bike, a 19845 Buick Skyhawk, and a baseball and football card collection. 

So when I went to the bank, they laughed me out. But there was one bank that gave me the opportunity, and they were going to do an SBA-backed loan. But then they dropped the bomb, and they said, Hey, you know, what are you going to do for collateral? They were going to approve the loan, you know, but they wanted to know what I was going to do for collateral. 

And, I didn’t know I was 17 at this time. So I didn’t even know what the word collateral really meant. And I remember they told me, “No, we mean something tangible, like real estate or something you can put up as collateral.” Not your dirt bike, you know, piece of crap car in your baseball card collection. So when I told my mom, she knew that this was it. Like, after this, the dream dies. Because I’d exhausted all my options. 

So she decided that the 700-square-foot house we lived in would be used as collateral. And that’s how my first store got opened in November of ’94. I ran those shops; they’re still open today under the name fatmanboardshops.com. You can look them up. I don’t own them anymore. I sold them in 10. But it was like a dream come true. 

So I became a pro snowboarder. I’m running skateboard and snowboard shops and living the perfect dream until one afternoon, when I was driving to my brand new location. Because I had three locations at the time, I heard about a plane hitting the tower, then another plane hitting the tower in New York City. We all know that was 9/11. And then, following that, was the dot-com crash. Okay, so it was my first recession, and it brought me to my knees.  I literally almost lost everything. But I remember this is the first time. So remember, at 16 I had a job, and then I wasn’t employed outside my business from 16 until. Well, at this point, I’m in my early 20s. 

So I put my resume out there thinking, you know, this is my only option. I was thinking I’d be a pizza delivery guy just to make some side money. But to my benefit, Little Caesars wasn’t hiring. And that is an actual true story. During the recession, Little Caesars wasn’t hiring delivery guys. 

So I was out of a job there. But when my resume went out, I got calls from two Wall Street firms. And I’m like, what the heck? Like, I have no background in investments or Wall Street. But that was who wanted to hire me. So that was 2003, the year that I started on Wall Street. So I still had my stores, I was still a pro snowboarder, but now I’m a financial advisor. And I did that for 16 years. Through one of my wealthiest clients, I was led into real estate. 

So I did my first real estate deal in 06, kept doing them, and almost went completely bankrupt on a development deal. During 2008’s Great Recession, my girlfriend, who’s now my wife, put everything she had, all her money and all her income from. She worked at the bank. All that income kept me from going bankrupt, and we could stay afloat. And we made it through 08. And that’s when I started doing a lot of real estate. So we started buying apartment buildings and flipping houses.

And that leads up to kind of where you had mentioned. I had, you know, my wife and I had a pilot show on HGTV, and that would have been 2018 when that show aired. And yeah, so that brings us pretty close to where we’re at today in 2025. But when we get the show, I’ll finish with this. When we got the show, I put everything, I, ah, burned the boats, I guess, it’s the easiest way. I left the financial advisory world because I had to, you know, to do the show. 

And when the show didn’t go to, you know, the season, I was screwed. I didn’t know what to do. So that led me down this path that I’m on now. I was using the infinite banking concept in my own life to kind of take back control of my money and pay off real estate debts. And at that time, I started. I had a really good network because we had a TV show. 

So it wasn’t hard to bring in about 100 people every month to an RIA at our place. We had a big place in the mall so that people would come, and we’d have speakers. And I’d always bring in this guy, Brent, to speak on Infinite Banking. And I’d watch, like 100 people would just be enamored by him teaching what I was already doing. 

And then one day, my wife suggested, well, why don’t you ask Brent if you can do that? Go out, speak, you know, and do what he does. He’s doing, he’s making a lot of money, so why don’t you do that? And that’s what led me onto the speaking tour. And gosh, so much has happened in 10 years. You know, I’ve grown this business to be just a very large, actually, the largest IBC shop in the United States. I built Private Money Club, which is the largest private lending community, like a dating site for money. And now we’ve got technology companies, registered investment advisory firms, and boy, I feel like the journey is just beginning. And I know I went long on that, but that’s who I am and where I came from.

Cosmos

Chris, there are so many questions I have to ask you, you know. This is a very fascinating story because most people don’t like the idea of going from being a restaurant server to becoming a millionaire. 

So what I wanted to know is: what was your motivational factor, or your why, or your purpose, over all these years that made you go through all these companies and the highs and lows of it all?

Chris

Yeah, there’s a lot of lows. You know, I don’t know. I. You know, I was just never a kid who quit, right? I was just always really consistent and persistent. I wasn’t always the best at the things I did, but I was darn right persistent. 

And, I know in all the times when things have gotten really hard in my businesses, where most people would just quit, and where I wanted to quit, believe me, there were so many times when I wanted to quit. I just never did. I just always knew that there was something bigger, and I always knew that this was mine and nobody else’s, and I wasn’t going just to let it go. And that’s how I made it through. 

So it wasn’t like some secret special sauce. It was pure determination, and a deep-down urge not to quit. It’s not that I didn’t fail. My gosh, I failed so many times. I left that out of the story. But there were so many times in there, folks, where I failed. I mean, I failed hard and I lost everything. And, I had to rely on people like my wife, who back then was my girlfriend, to pay the bills, or my mom to put her house on the line. Right? Like, so it. It was never an easy journey. 

Nothing was ever easy, but it was just mine. I controlled it. And nobody else out there, you know, could get in my way. And I, I’ve always loved that. I’ve been an entrepreneur since I was 16. I’m 48 now. That’s it. Sometimes you just have to lay it down and realize that you are your best bet, your best investment, and that you can’t fail.

Cosmos

So, Chris, many people watching this would say, “Okay, you’re a financial genius.” That’s why you had Riz. Or the it factor that allowed you to succeed so greatly. 

But do you think there’s a formula for success? Or, like, can people replicate what you have done? Or is it innate?

Chris, yeah, so they definitely can. And there is a formula. So, you know, like, you had mentioned that I’m a financial genius. I hear that a lot. And maybe I am. I won’t self-admit to that. 

But, but you know, I’m pretty darn good when it comes to money in finance and figuring it out. And here’s what I would say: the secret is, and I see people make this mistake too often. You know, in today’s world, it’s so easy to kind of live above your means. I mean, you could finance anything, right? I mean, the average person could go out and finance a car that, literally, I would tell them, you know, in a consulting interview, that you can’t afford this car, but you can buy that car. 

So you can either listen to me say, Hey, you can’t afford this car, and it is not wise for you to buy it, or you could just do it because they said you can. And that’s the problem. We live in a society that largely traps people. It creates financial slavery. It truly does. The system is designed to do that. Why is it that people don’t learn financial education in school? Why don’t they know how to balance a checkbook? Why can’t they? They manage their own money. Why are they? Why does everybody need a financial advisor? It’s because you’re not taught the basics of how money really works. You are taught from a very young age, myself included, that wherever you are in life, you should be a slave to the system. 

And they’re not going to tell you you’re a slave to the system, but you are. You take your hard-earned dollars, you put them in somebody else’s bank, and the bank makes your money go to work for them. And by the numbers, the bank makes 400 to 1300% more than you do on your hard-earned money. And you think that that’s okay. You think, oh, that’s just the way it is. That’s just how it is. It’s how it is and the way you think it should be, because that’s what you’ve subscribed to believe. 

So the secret is to get out of the rat race. Stop believing that. What you’ve been taught about money, putting money in banks and letting the banks manage it, and you know, putting money in a 401 (k) to save for this fictitious thing called retirement, is the only way because it is absolutely a way not to get where you want to be. 

So here’s what I always tell people. You need to learn six laws, and they are indeed a lot. Now you can learn those six laws by reading a difficult-to-understand book called The Richest Man in Babylon, which presents the seven rules to wealth. Or you can learn the six laws of wealth, which I’ve kind of taken from the seven rules of gold. Law number one, okay, is you must keep 10 percent of your money. Now, that’s an old one. You. You’ve got to save 10% of what you make. 

So whatever you make your gross, are you keeping 10% of that? That’s the first thing you need to do. And we’re not even going to go to the rest of them, because if you’re not keeping 10% of the money you make, and I don’t care where you’re keeping it, we’ll get to that. But if you’re not keeping that, that’s goal number one. Find a way to create space in your finances where you can keep 10% of that. Now, some people are like, I can’t. I’m living paycheck to paycheck. Great. Get a second job, okay? I had to go out there and work a little overtime, get a side hustle. Find something that allows you to keep 10%. And if you can’t keep 10%, great. What can you save? Start saving whatever you can. And in your mind, remember: 10% is the number you have to get to the minimum. 

So then just keep changing that. So that’s the first piece of advice I have. Now, I know that’s very elementary, and most people like it. Really? That’s all you got? Okay, well, let’s keep going. Law number two is that you have to make the money for which you keep working. Banks, make your money work for you. Wall Street definitely makes your money work for Wall Street. And guess who’s making all that money working on Wall Street and the banks, the institution, not you. 

So you need to do what they do. You need to basically make your money work for you 24/7, while you are still working. But while you’re working, your money’s working for you. And here’s the competitive advantage, okay? Because you have to look at everything like a competition, right? So there’s you, okay? You can go out and hustle and work, but you have limitations. You have to go to the bathroom and eat. Otherwise you die. You have to rest and sleep, and you have to go out and do something outside of work that fuels your fire. Otherwise, you’ll just whittle away to nothing, right? 

So you have limitations on what you, as a human, can earn. Your money has no limitations. So once you make it and you keep it, your money can work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You cannot. So, what do you want to do? Do you want to keep working till you die, or do you want to learn how to make your money work for you? So that’s the second law of wealth. And there are many principles behind that which we can maybe get to today.

The third law, which I think is the one violated the most today, is: you need to protect your wealth. And, what do I mean by that? Well, you need to invest only in things that you know you like and you understand. And I know, whoever I’m speaking to here, whoever’s listening to this, I can guarantee you you are not invested in just things you know, like, and understand. 

As a matter of fact, most people invest their hard-earned dollars in things they don’t even understand. If I ask people, when I get them on the phone, I say, “So, you got money in a 401 (k)? Great.” What did you invest in? And the answer’s like, I don’t know. And my answer back, my question back would be, well, why did you invest in something you don’t even know anything about? Well, I don’t know. That’s what I was told to do. Great. 

So if I tell you to jump off that cliff, you’re just going to do it because I told you to. I mean, listen, like, let’s think of the logic behind it. There is no logic behind what I just said. But that’s what you do with your money. Stop. Rethink what you invest in. You don’t want to chase returns. I’ll tell you that’s always going to lead to a dead end. Oh, Nvidia and this and that. They’re making big returns. Great. That’s why you don’t invest in them. Number one, if you know them and like them and deeply understand them like Warren Buffett level understanding, great, invest in them. 

But if you don’t find something you understand, what are you good at? Invest in that. And you know what I always tell people? Invest in yourself. Invest in you. Learning how to be better at what you do. That you are the golden goose, folks, so protect your wealth. Really comes down to you being the golden goose. Okay? You lay the golden eggs. Without you, the eggs, the golden eggs don’t happen. So focus on the goose, feed the goose, keep the goose happy. The goose is you. The fourth, fifth, and sixth laws are simple. I’m going to go through them quickly. Don’t be greedy. Is the fourth law, okay? Greed always means your money will leave you forever. So be prudent with your money, conservative to a certain extent, but don’t be greedy. 

And you know what? There are tons of greed right now. The markets are going to collapse. Mark my words. You’ll thank me later. But if you’re greedy, you are continuing to invest in the markets, which. The S&P 500 is literally driven by seven stocks, which are all largely associated with AI, and if I told you AI is in a bubble, would you believe me? Oh, it’s in a bubble, all right. Burry is shorting the crap out of AI right now because it’s bubbled, just like real estate was in 2008 and technology was in the early 2000s. This is a cycle. And guess what? The game’s over. Okay? It’s re. It’s. It’s done. What it’s going to do is you get a little bit more, but if you’re chasing big returns, you’re going to lose. So don’t be greedy. And then the. The next law is given. Give deeply. Give from your heart. And give whatever you can, even if it’s just a hug. The sixth law of wealth is to create a legacy. And a legacy doesn’t mean save a bunch of money so that you can give it to your kids. No, Legacy is what you’re remembered for when you’re gone. 

So, listen, like, I know I went long on that one, too. I tend to do this on this podcast, but those are the secret sauce. Those are the things you need to do to get ahead. And if you violate any of those, then, well, I’m going to tell you right now, you’re going to have a really difficult time finding financial bliss or getting to the level of wealth you want to. And can I add one thing? Yes. This is the biggest secret. If you want to be wealthy, the single thing you need to be doing every single day of your life is solving someone else’s problem. The bigger the problem you solve, the wealthier you will become. If you go through life in your days trying to solve your problem, you will never reach success in terms of finance and wealth. You must solve other people’s problems, in any capacity, every day, and do it from your heart. If you just did what I just told you there, there’s no way you can’t be financially successful. No.

Cosmos

I appreciate you sharing this, but Chris, I know you mentioned the markets are going to collapse, and I also believe there’ll be a recession in the near future. 

So, for somebody listening to this, what can they do to protect their wealth during these turbulent times?

Chris

First and foremost, get out of the market. Like, get out of the market. So you get paid for sitting on the sidelines right now, like, a very rare occurrence. The markets are at an all-time high, okay? They’re exhausted. I mean, if you look at the valuations of these companies and you look at the fundamentals of them, there are no fundamentals anymore. I mean, you’re literally investing in hope, a prayer, and a bit of speculation. Everything’s speculation right now. 

So get out of the market. You got a 401 (k). Go into your 401 (k) and move everything into cash, okay? Or move everything into cash, Treasuries, or government bonds, right? Government-backed bonds. Now, some people would say I’m crazy for that, but believe me, I know something you don’t know. That is definitely what you want to do. Sit on the sidelines, watch everybody else, okay? When the markets are going up and up and up and up, just sit there and be like, yep, that’s, that’s fine. But I made my money because, you know, Warren Buffett said it best. He says the best advice he ever gave was buy low, sell high, and don’t lose money, you know? And what does that mean? Sell high. Okay, you already bought low, all of you have. 

So sell high now. Sell, and then you don’t lose money. And sitting on the sidelines, even in high-yield savings accounts, we have an RIA, a registered investment advisory. We are paying from a bank account with FDIC-insured funds at 3.8%. That’s a good return. That’s a good return with zero risk. And that is what people need to do right now. Because here’s what I’m going to tell you. Whether you believe me or not, it’s inevitable. I don’t know when it’s going to happen, but it’s probably sooner rather than later when the whole thing collapses. Imagine if you just took bad advice and you sat on the sidelines, okay? 

And you’re just sitting on cash. Just use cash. When everything comes crashing down. All your friends who told you you were stupid for moving out of the market, stupid for not putting your money in all these Mag 7 stocks. They’re going to call you stupid. They’re going to laugh at you. They’re going to be like, Oh, so I just made another 20% when you’re sitting on the sidelines. Good, good. For you. I’m so happy for you. And then when it all comes collapsing down, they’re going to be struggling. Guess what you’re going to do? You’re going to go back in and start dollar-cost averaging, because you’ll never get the top or the bottom. So just dollar cost average in, take all that money that’s sitting in cash and start buying, and just close your eyes and just buy whatever things you know and like, know like, and understand, and just put them in there and write them down. 

And then you will ride the next wave up, and you will make a ton of money, excuse my language, just by doing what everybody else is unwilling to do.

Cosmos

Wow, this is amazing advice, Chris.

But Chris, so a lot of people are, like, right now complaining about inflation over the last couple of years, and then everything just keeps rising in price. 

So, for somebody listening to this, is there a particular strategy that you utilize to hedge against inflation, especially now and in the future?

Chris

Absolutely, yeah. I mean, that’s a really important thing because remember, every day your dollars are worth less as the Fed prints money, or the, I should say, the treasury prints money. The Fed controls the monetary policy. These things, the dollars you have, they’re, they’re going down in value because you can’t just, you can’t print money into existence without giving it value from somewhere. 

So when they print a dollar, it takes a dollar of your money, and what it does is literally just peel a little corner off. They print another dollar, peel another corner, and eventually, what happens is your dollar. This is what it’s worth because all of this is printed into existence. But you no longer own or control this. This is all you have. 

So the best way to hedge against inflation is always to understand that inflation has an average, okay? Now you’re never going to hedge too well without taking on some risk. In an inflationary period like we just went through, where it was 8, almost 9% inflation, okay? It’s difficult to get there without taking a risk. But right now, inflation’s hovering around 3-4%. You can get 3.8% in a bank account. I just told you how to do that. You know, go to PMC Wealth Advisors.com, and you can get 3.8% in a bank, okay? So that hedges inflation. But there are better ways, because after taxes hit your money in a bank account, you’re probably underwater to inflation right now. 

So we got to kind of factor in taxes and inflation, not just inflation, because inflation is a, you know, it’s one side of the sword, if you will. We need to fight taxes and inflation. So obviously, the way to do that would be to make more than inflation. Let’s call it 4% in a tax-free or tax-deferred account, which you can easily do. And you can do it in a vehicle that’s been around for hundreds of years, used by the wealthiest families throughout history, called whole life insurance. But don’t just put your money in a whole life policy, because then you don’t have liquidity. Like what we build, we build specially designed whole-life policies with immediate high early cash value. 

So these accounts are guaranteed, and they grow tax-free. And the gains are tax-free, but they grow tax-deferred. And then all your gains are tax-free if you build them properly. But you don’t give up liquidity to any, you know, any more than 10 or 15% in the first year. And then after that, it just keeps getting better and better because your money compounds. Now, I’m not going to go deep into this, but I’m just trying to plant the seed that that’s a really good place to hedge against inflation. But you could also use T-bills right now. Okay? T-bills are paying it well into the 4% range. And you can do short-term T-bills. And just some of you are like, “Well, Chris, what’s a T-bill?” A Treasury bill. Oh, what’s a Treasury bill? It’s like an IOU for lending money to the US Government. And the US Government promises that in whatever the timeframe is, T-bills would be like, you know, one month, three months, six months, one year, whatever the duration is, you’re lending money to the US Government for that period of time. 

The US Government, in return, is paying you interest on your money, or yield on your money. And that yield you can double-check because it’s going to change. It can be anywhere between 4% and 5%, give or take. So that’s a really good place. Plus immediate liquidity. If you needed all that money tomorrow because you lost your job and things are falling apart, great, you just sell the T-bill and you get the money back. So, these are just a couple of the ways you can beat inflation. 

But what people do is the opposite. They find risk assets and try to take on all this Risk to make big returns. Greed is bad. Right, Right. I told you that. So don’t chase big returns. Chase small, consistent, and persistent returns that you will not have to worry about making for a portion of your portfolio. Now, many of you are probably wealthy, and you have, you know, the ability to lose some of your money and not be affected. Great. That’s your risk, asset money. But I would still argue that I wouldn’t put a single penny in the stock market right now.

Cosmos

So, Chris, I know you briefly mentioned the infinite banking concept and also about whole life insurance. Can you tell the audience a bit more about the infinite IBC?

Chris

Yeah. Nelson Nash pioneered the concept of infinite banking. Now he’s the late Nelson Nash. He passed away, but back in the late 90s, he pioneered this idea. And it was nothing complicated. It had been done forever by the wealthiest families. I mean, Ray Kroc and Walt Disney started Disneyland using this concept. Ray Kroc started the Ronald McDonald marketing campaign and helped use it to finance McDonald’s real estate, not the burgers. Okay? It’s been used by presidents. It’s been used by so many people. Oh, my gosh. I mean, JCPenney, I could go on forever. But the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, here’s, here’s how simple it is. All it is is a banking concept. It’s you becoming your own bank. 

So think of it this way. If you could take back the banking functions in your life by changing just one thing, it would be to put your money first and add just one step. And then you never had to rely on banks again because you became the bank. You created your own private banking system. And all you had to do was change where that money you were keeping, the one I mentioned in the first law, went first. 

Okay? Not where it went to stay, just where it went first. Even literally easier ways where you ran your money through. And we deposit that money in a specially designed whole life policy built for high early cash value. But we don’t want the money to sit in our lives for the whole time, okay? We want to put the money in a whole life policy and get it out via a loan from the policy into an investment that can earn more than your cost of capital. So just imagine this. Let’s say you put 10 grand into a whole-life policy, specifically designed and engineered for what I’m talking about. You then took out nine grand from that whole life policy when you took it. Okay, you have to understand what happened here. You put ten grand in, and you took nine grand out. Right. 

How much is left in your account? Many of you are thinking $1,000 because you’re thinking of this like a bank account. If you put ten grand in a bank and you take nine grand out, you only have a thousand bucks. 

So if your bank was paying you 4% on 10 grand when you took out nine grand, your bank is now paying you 4% on one grand, $1,000. But in the policy, if you put 10 grand in, you took 9 grand out, you still had 10 grand in cash value, and your 10 grand is still in there, earning guaranteed interest. That never changes. It’s the same for the rest of your life. Plus, these are mutually owned insurance companies, so you get a dividend every year. They’ve never missed a dividend, and they’ve never, ever cut one. 

So you’re getting interest in dividends. And by today’s numbers, the lowest one is 5.9%. For the companies we use, the highest is 6.6. So does 5.9 or 6.6 beat inflation? Yep. But remember, it’s for a whole life. So that money is tax-deferred. And any money you make is tax-free. So that’s actually like going out there and getting 7% on a taxed investment, depending on your tax rate. 

So hold on, let’s get back to it. So you got the money for your whole life. We’re going to take that money out, but we’re not going to dilute your earning potential. So your money, all of it, is still earning interest and dividends. Still, the insurance company charges you interest on the money they loaned you, because they did loan you part of your death benefit, up to the amount you wanted to borrow. And as long as you have cash flow, you can take up to that. So that interest they charge is about 5 to 5. I’m just giving you the math. I know some of you are getting lost in the math, but I’m going to go faster just once you understand that. 

So now we take that money that we just took out, that nine grand, and we want to make sure that money goes to work for you somewhere where it can earn more than the cost that the insurance company is charging. You call that 5.25? Well, let’s say you got some credit cards and racked up debt. Great. How much is your credit card charging? You 20%. Let’s take that nine grand. Let’s pay down or pay off the credit cards that you can with 9,000 bucks. Now, when you do that, we’re not done. You’ve paid those credit cards off. First off, good. You feel better about that because you no longer have debt to those credit cards, which you’ve been a slave to. But now you have to listen very closely because this is the infinite banking concept. Now, you take the amount you used to pay to the credit cards that left your family forever. If it was nine grand, let’s call it 150 bucks a month that you put on the credit card. You still pay $150 a month, but you change the name on the check. It’s no longer Visa, MasterCard, or Discover. It’s now your name, Chris Naugle, or whatever your name is. Just enter your name on that 150-buck check and set it up as an auto-pay. Okay, a bill pay. And that $150 goes back into the policy or into your private bank account. 

So let’s just talk about what happened. Think of this as a circle. Money started in the policy. Money was then moved out of the policy to go to work for you. Your chosen vehicle is the payoff debt, because that’s where you should start. You paid off debt, creating new money you no longer have to pay every month. You took that new money, that 150 that you used to give the credit card, and you now pay that 150 to yourself. 

So think about that. You now have $150 a month going into your policy, which you can use the next day when the check clears. So you lost no liquidity. But now that $150 is also earning the equivalent of what you used to pay on it, 5.25%. So you’re earning 5.25% on that money because you used to give it to the insurance company, but you didn’t care because you were paying the credit card 20% or more. So 5.25 versus 20 means you made the same spread. You see, this is how banks make money. They make a spread.

They pay you three, they charge you six. You’re reversing it. You’re becoming the bank. So now the. You’re making the 20. Your cost for that 20 is 5.25. But also, there’s one thing you probably missed. Remember, I said you still had the cash value in the policy, all of it. And didn’t I tell you how Much that made? Yep. Dividend crediting rate, 5.9 to 6.6 somewhere in there, depending on the company. 

So how many times did you make money on this single transaction of paying off debt twice the money you were earning for yourself? 24? 7. Like I told you in law number two, make your money work for you. And what did you do? You put your money to work in a place that you knew, liked, and understood. Well, you knew how credit cards work. You didn’t like paying interest to them, but you’d love to pay it to yourself. So you did. You wrote the 150 back to yourself. 

See, on what I just told you to do, the infinite banking concept hits on most of the six laws of wealth. All you did there is change where your stupid money went, where you saved your money first, and then you added this step, which is the infinite banking concept of being the bank. Now, all of that, remember you asked me earlier, you asked me about my success, and what did I tell you? Determination and consistency. Right. 

I was consistent and persistent. All you need to do to be wildly successful with the infinite banking concept is follow the simple rules. It’s like Monopoly. Okay? Just keep crossing. Which is, every year you get a dividend and keep making your money work for you, and things you know, like, and understand. And the inevitable, you become wealthy every single day. Every day that goes by, you have more money than you did the day before. Did it take you any risk? Zero, because there is no risk. It’s guaranteed. But the risk is you. You had to learn this concept and be diligent and consistent about it.

Cosmos

Yeah, I mean, I’m personally reading the book Becoming Your Own Banker by Nelson Nash, and I definitely think it’s something that people should definitely read.

And one question I wanted to ask you, Chris, connected to the infinite bank concept was: a lot of people want to hedge against inflation or build wealth through real estate investing, right? So, how does a whole life insurance policy compare to just investing in real estate?

Chris Naugle:

It’s the same thing. When you invest in real estate, where does the money come from to invest in the real estate? Comes from your bank account. Let’s not kid ourselves, right? There are very few people out there who are getting 100% finance. So that 20 or whatever your number is for the real estate deals you’re doing has to come from somewhere. It’s coming from your bank account. 

So again, let’s go back through the bank account. The bank account’s paying you 3%. Whatever your rate is, you’re getting on your money in the bank. A lot of you are like three, man. I’m getting zero. Okay, well, you’re. You’re getting zero. Great. Then you find a real estate deal you understand, and you want to invest in it because it’s going to give you a good return. 

So what do you do? You take money from the bank to buy the real estate. How many times did you make money just in the real estate business? The money left the bank, meaning the bank’s no longer paying you money on that. They’re not giving you interest on the money that you took out. Duh. You’re making money one time on the real estate. Let’s go back to what I just explained. You change now so that the money you hold in the bank goes first. You put it into this stupid, specially designed whole life policy. You find a real estate deal that you know and understand, that’s going to make you a good return. You take the money from the policy just like you would from the bank account. You buy the real estate. Great. How many times are you making money now? Twice. Then, to even go better, you take the returns from the real estate, which normally, where would you take the rent roll or the. The profits from your real estate deal, and deposit them? The bank. Right.

 So we’re just going to change that. We’re not going to let the bank keep our money anymore. We’re going to deposit the money you earn from your real estate into our bank account, specifically the whole-life account. And when we do that, what are we earning? More than the bank’s paying. And it’s tax-free. It’s protected against judgments and liens. And if you’re buying real estate, guess what? It’s not if you’re going to get sued, it’s when and how many times. Okay? Remember that you’re not going to ever invest in real estate without getting sued, you know, over a period of time. Mark my words. I’ve owned lots of real estate. And yes, I’ve been sued. Okay, and you will be too, because everybody’s out to take money from the person who owns the asset. 

So when you have the money in the policy, it’s protected from judgments and liens. And what are the two certainties in life? Death and taxes. Right. So let’s cover those in the policy. We don’t have to pay any taxes because it’s built in accordance with IRS guidelines, as long as it’s built under the MEC7 pay rule, which is how we build them. Okay. There’s no tax on it. So we fixed the tax problem because we’re growing tax-deferred, and we’re not paying tax on any of the gains inside the whole life.

Cosmos

Yeah.

Chris

And second, death. Well, if you die with real estate and money in the bank, both are probable. And number two, the person who gets them is probably going to liquidate them, sell the real estate, and just empty the bank account. But now you’ve got the money instead of being in the bank in a policy, a whole life policy, which has a death benefit. You die, and the death benefit pays to your beneficiaries, allowing them to pay off all the real estate. It self-completes. 

And did you have to do anything different for that? No. It’s like you bought insurance. You bought insurance that, if you screw up, doesn’t matter because it all corrects itself and is completed when you die. Now, I know I’m not trying to, you know, get anybody to, you know, think about death too soon. We don’t want to think about that, you know, so don’t, we don’t want to pay tax. Great. Told you how to fix that. And we want to leave our family in a better place when we die. Great. Told you how to fix that. And also, all the while, what changed? Nothing. You do the same thing you’re doing now. You’re buying real estate, you’re buying cars, you’re paying off, so you’re doing all those things. You’re just doing it from a different place that you control. And it is, because it is your private banking system.

Cosmos

Chris, when you become your own bank through this IBC concept and combine it with real estate investing, it’s almost like compound interest for wealth. It’s actually pretty extraordinary once people start to understand how this is happening.

Chris

Yeah, it’s absolutely compounding wealth because listen, folks, the one thing I’ll urge all of you to understand, and Albert Einstein understood this really well, which is why he said compound interest is the seventh wonder of the world. And he said it’s the most powerful thing in the financial universe. 

So let’s just bring that down to non-Albert Einstein worlds. If you have money, let’s use 100 bucks. Here’s a hundred bucks. I’m holding. If you’re listening, okay: if you have a hundred dollars and you put it into an account that pays 5%, let’s just keep it there. And you just left that money in there for 20, 30, 40 years, which would be incredibly boring, but let’s just say you did.

How much would you have at the end of 20, 30, or 40 years? Substantially more. Because of compounding interest, you see how compounding interest works. In year one, you put $100 in that account, and it earns 5%. Okay? So you make five bucks. So now, in year two, you have $105 earning 5%. And on and on we go. It gets more complicated to do in your head, but some calculators will show you this. Plug in the dollar amount you have in the bank, enter it into a calculator, and enter 5%. And just say, if you earned compound interest for X amount of period of time, 10, 20, 30 years, how much would it be worth? It’ll, it’ll, you’ll fall out of your chair. That’s the power of compound interest. 

But here’s what sucks about compound interest. And I told you this in the traditional way we’re taught about compound interest. You have to do exactly what I said. Take your hard-earned money, put it somewhere, and leave it there. Because with compound interest, normally, if you were to take that hundred dollars out of that account, you stop the compounding immediately, right? But remember, I said in that policy you put $100 in. Hypothetical, folks, I’m just using this as an example. Put $100 into a policy, and hypothetically, it earns a 5% dividend crediting rate over the next year. You need $50 of that $ 100. So you take that $50 out of the policy as a loan. How much money is in your policy earning compounding interest? The $100 you didn’t dilute the $100. Your money stayed in there, earning for you 24/7. And never be interrupted by taking money out if you’re not using it. The insurance company is advancing you money from their general account, effectively giving you part of your death benefit early. 

Because they know someday you gotta, you’re gonna die. They know this, we all know this. And they know when you die, if you have this policy, they have to pay a death benefit. So the insurance company looks at it and says, Hey, look, if you want to use your Money. While you’re living, we will gladly lend you your death benefit, and then they just subtract it from your death benefit. 

So if the next day, in that scenario, you put in 100, you took 50, and you had a death benefit of, let’s just say, a thousand. Okay, you die the next day, they take your $1,000 death benefit, and they subtract $50, which is the amount they loaned you. 

From that, they pay out $950. Did they lose anything? No. As a matter of fact, the insurance company won because they charged you 5% or 5.25%. You didn’t care. You were 6% on the hundred dollars. What does it matter if you got an M? If you need the money and you have to pay 5.25, you’re like, I’m still making money. Is it starting to sink in? It’s so simple, but it’s just math. And compounding interest is the fundamental reason so many wealthy families have used the infinite bank concept. And now it’s not just wealthy families; it’s available to the public. No.

Cosmos

This is amazing. Chris.

And Chris, I wanted to ask you about your book. I know you co-authored the book mapping out the millionaire mystery. Tell me, audience, a little bit more about that and the premise of how you started it.

Chris

I’m just coming back here, grabbing a couple of books, folks. So I’ve written a bunch of books. I’m mapping out the millionaire mystery. When I read Nelson Nash’s Becoming Your Own Banker, I found it just moving. It’s an amazing book. I felt like the book was a bit dated in some context. I felt like some of the examples, the illustrations, and everything just didn’t fit modern times. 

So I don’t remember when I wrote this book. Brent and I, I’m sure it’s in here. Mapping out the millionaire mystery was written in 2020. Wow. During COVID-19 in 2020, we sat down and said, You know what? We’re going to write a book called “Mapping out the millionaire mystery” and teach people about the infinite banking concept. But we’re going to do it in a different way than Nelson did. We’re going to do it in a modern way. And I don’t have my glasses on, but at the back of the book, it says, “What if you could get all the money back for every purchase you ever made and create wealth through the Debts and expenses you already have?” Sounds pretty cool, right? Well, this book shows you how to do that. This book shows you how to get all the money back on every car you ever buy, how to drive it, own it, and pay off your debt in a fraction of the time without working harder, longer, or taking on any risk. It’s a phenomenal book, you know, and I don’t ever really talk about my books anymore just because, you know, I don’t know, I wrote them a long time ago, and then people love cars, so I did this one. It’s a little guide. 

And folks, you can have all these books for free. As a matter of fact, you know, we’ll give you a link in this podcast that lets you get all these books for free, as we drift away from traditional car buying. How to get all the money back for every car you ever buy, drive, and own, in literally, I think, like 40 pages of ginormous text with pictures, graphs, and things. And then my first book I ever did was the Private Money Guide. You know, the truth behind Private Lending and Private borrowing. And then I have a 5-year-old daughter, so I wrote a children’s book with Brent, the guy who co-authored Mapping out the Millionaire Mystery. I did this with his daughter. It’s called the Companion. 

And it’s just a phenomenal story, all tied back to the infinite banking concept, but told in a very unique, very inspiring way, about a little girl who’s modeled after my daughter and her companion, this little bugger. But this little companion, yes, he’s a furry little critter in the book, but that’s your policy, so it teaches you how to be a good person as a child. 

So I’ve written all these books, and I want all of you to have them. The only one I can’t give you for free is the Companion because it’s a hardcover. But you can buy a copy on Amazon. It’s the Companion. Or you can go to thecompanion.com, Chris.

Cosmos

I’m so appreciative that you’re giving these books out because people definitely need financial education and the right kind.

And Chris, I also know that you have a podcast called the Money School Podcast. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Chris

Yeah, the Money School Podcast has been around for eight years now. It’s a big podcast. And what we do, folks, is we just interview really high-level people about really interesting things. And it’s just a fireside chat. It’s not like a normal podcast. It’s kind of like Rogan, right? 

And Rogan just sits down and talks with people. Well, that’s what I do. But it’s all about money. It’s about money, it’s about taxes and how wealthy people have, you know, done really phenomenal things to pay less in taxes legally, how they’ve built their wealth, how they’ve, you know, gone through struggles and failed and never given up. It’s a really fun podcast. But you know, the other thing is, if you want to learn more about money, my YouTube channel is probably the single greatest resource you’ll find. 

So you can just go to Chris Naugle. And I’ve got 13 or 1400 videos on there. Not that you’re going to watch them all, but we put up a new video every single day, and it’s totally free.

Cosmos

This is amazing, Chris, because this is like a great resource about proper financial education, not the ones that are being taught in schools and colleges right now. And this is so important for people to know. 

So I really appreciate all the work that you’re doing. So, if, let’s say, the audience wants to connect with you and learn more about you and your work, and maybe they want to know more about the infant banking concept or how to go about it?

Chris

Yeah. I’ll give you two ways. Go to my YouTube channel, like I just said at the Chrisnoggle, and on every video or in the main header, there’s a link. Okay. You can watch a 90-minute video or book a call with us. You know, I always say watch the video first because you’ll learn the infinite banking concept there, then book a call. Or you can go to chrisnaugle.com. Just go to my website, and there’s a bunch of resources. But you could book a call right there as well.

Cosmos

This is amazing, Chris. And Chris, I’m so appreciative that you took the time to come on this podcast and share your knowledge and wisdom about how to preserve and create wealth. 

This is so important because it’s not taught in schools or colleges. It’s something that people have to find outside of that. And I really hope that you come on the show at a later time.

Chris

I would love to. And hey, thanks for having me on, and let me go down a couple of rabbit holes here today.

Cosmos

No, Ralph, I mean, this is so, it’s a. It’s great that you’re sharing your wisdom, and I really appreciate it. 

And I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, there’s an extraordinary within every one of us. It’s our duty to awaken it and unleash it. Until next time. Bye for now.