Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans for today’s guest, we have Benjamin Chen. 

Ben is a young Gen Z entrepreneur, investor, and programmer who currently specializes in real estate investing and rents out his houses through Airbnb. With a diverse range of experiences, he has ventured into various hustles throughout his journey. During his middle school years, Ben took it upon himself to learn to code, using his skills to generate extra income. 

In college, he successfully managed a thriving SBA/multi-channel e-commerce business. Post-graduation, he embarked on a new endeavor. I am focusing on construction projects and managing Airbnb and new properties. Ben’s relentlessness and adaptability have allowed him to explore multiple avenues and leave an indelible mark on each venture he undertakes. He’s a second-generation immigrant who’s passionate about entrepreneurship, technology, and crypto investments, and he is a firm believer in my backyard Movement. He’s extraordinary. American, and I’m honored to have him on. The show. Hey, Ben, are you there?

Hey Neil, I’m here.  

Thank you. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this podcast with me. I’m really glad you took the time to do this. I wanted to ask you. Ben, so I know that. You’re Gen. Z. You’re an investor, and you’re into programming. Can you tell me and the audience a little bit more about yourself, your background, and how you got started?

Yeah, yeah. I guess I can just talk chronologically about what I’ve been doing in the last five or six years. And you know, it’s hard to say any one particular thing or area I focused on; rather, I think it was a series of formal and informal Entrepreneurial ventures. 

Right now, thinking about my earliest stage, I think I was like 11 or 12, and I was on this one site called Swagbucks. And for those of you who don’t know it, it’s like a micro-tasking and survey-taking website where you would just do things like find coupon codes, take surveys, watch small videos, and ultimately cash those out for points. Right? There’s one area, like watching videos or watching advertiser videos, where the 11-year-old me would just get a bunch of points, and eventually, I’ll redeem them for gift cards, right? And I was sick of it. I was sick of spending so much time watching these videos, so when I was that age, I taught myself how to code. It was like using auto-hockey language. I forgot exactly which, and it would watch the videos for me. Right.

So, I would just leave the script running. I taught myself how to use functions and variables, code it up, and run this script, right? It would just do this dumb thing where I would just watch videos, and I remember I would wake up in the morning. And I’d have the points equivalent to just $2.00, like back then, in middle school. That was a ton of money. I was, like, so happy.

Just being able to get 2 bucks every day and eventually redeeming them on Amazon and buying whatever middle school buys, like school supplies, gum, candy. So that was probably my first entrepreneurial venture. Hustle was more of a hobby at the time, but that’s what I got started in. So anyway, I guess fast forward here, and I was in college when I started computer science at UT, right? So, it was a pretty stable career. It was not my passion. Rather, I wanted to just have a stable career. The possibility of saving up money through working and getting a job

So, it was a safe choice. I was able to get in and study it. But in college, I think my second venture was operating an Amazon FDA business, right? So pretty much, it started like I was moving out to college. I had to sell off my electronics—my consoles. I think I sold my PlayStation and game cube. About the time they flew off the shelf, as in, I listed them one day and they were gone the next. And to me, I was thinking, who would buy these things? Who would buy these older, dusty consoles? But it turns out there was a big market for it, just by the fact that they were selling quickly. And I was just thinking about flipping them at the time, you know, making some extra money in college, like a very normal thing.

So, I went on Alibaba. And I found out that there was a big electronics recycling factory going on in China. They would take older consoles and just rehabilitate them, refurbish them, and then just sell them to the US consumers and I was able to go on Alibaba and just buy a ton of them, right? They were cheaper but not too cheap, and I was able to import, I think, dozens of consoles at a time and just sell them here on Amazon or eBay directly. I will say, though, that when doing it, it’s like a raw product, right? 

So, we get a raw console, and by console, I mean things like PlayStation, Atari, and retro gaming consoles as well as retro electronics. They’re collectibles; people like them, and still nowadays, people do. Anyway, back to These Chinese factories would sell you this product and the quality control was atrocious, Neil, right?

So, it turns out that quality control was not there. One out of every 10 consoles were defective, as was the fact that they were set in Chinese or Japanese. In the US market that just wouldn’t fly, so I would. I had to set them to English by installing custom firmware on them, and this was easy to do. It was a bit technical, but it was easy to just find the software online and plug in a USB cable to the console. And so that was the value added, right? I didn’t just flip a console; the value added was through quality control. It was through making them English. It was through branding and marketing. We packaged them up into pretty boxes and then included chargers and instruction manuals, and ultimately it was a product that did very well. We would commonly sell out.

So, I think at one point we cleaned out the factory, as the factory could only supply so many consoles a day because they were no longer produced. And they just didn’t have any more. So, I would realize that it was not scalable, right? We would just not be able to get more inventory. And I think that’s kind of the upper limit where I kind of started to look into other ventures. It’s just difficult to scale. 

And another scalability thing I want to talk about is when you’re shipping off 20 to 30 orders a day. It’s a lot of work, as it is. I mean, I tried bringing in temp workers. I tried finding assistance on Craigslist. Even then, it’s just that you hit an upper limit on the number of physical products you can sell, and it’s just difficult to continue. Doing it so, I think ultimately that that kind of transition would transition me into the next thing, and that would be, let’s see my third venture. Now it would be a social network, right?

So, I was in college at the time, a little bit into my junior year, and you know, I was in computer science, and I was surrounded by a lot of ambitious, high-energy software engineers, and some of us just wanted to get together and do a social network, and by that, I mean, if you remember. Back on November 17, 2018, there was a lot of stigmas around Facebook, especially with Cambridge Analytica. And for those that don’t know pretty much, Facebook was very bad because it was selling data. It was selling personal data. There was, it was.

Oh, I remember that.

Do you remember that? What do you remember about it?

It was just selling our data and using it for marketing and ads. But a lot of people had an issue with that. It’s just an ethical kind of thing. It’s a story for another time, I guess.

Yeah, yeah, I know exactly, Neil. It’s like Facebook was very bad and people were looking for a reason to get off it, which is actually where we decided, OK, here’s now the perfect cultural opportunity to come up with a social network that’s focused on philanthropy and good deeds. Right. So, by this, I mean that we wanted to bring people together. Our platform wanted to foster a culture of giving back. Of recognizing other people’s good deeds, of empowering others to be recognized, of empowering others to volunteer to donate, to give back any way they can. Right.

So maybe you have friends who are particularly interested in elderly care, pet care, animal health, sustainability, etc. You would be able to come to our platform. To find opportunities to volunteer to just talk about it or to even connect with people who are also into it in your community. And it was a full-fledged social network, right? 

So, think about things like news feeds and social sharing. I mean, we borrowed a lot of ideas from Facebook and built them out, and at this point, once we had the product right, it was a matter of gaining users. So that was done through outreach—just physical outreach, word of mouth, hosting a lot of volunteer events, and recruiting people to use our platform. As well as paid marketing campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites, and Google Direct. And we managed to get users right; we required users, but the issue was that it wasn’t sticky, right? User retention was very low. They would come to our platform. We didn’t have enough content there. We didn’t have enough users and their friends weren’t on it.

So, it was very easy for them to leave and go back to the original platforms they liked to use, and this was a significant challenge. We just find it difficult to have that collective movement. It’s like our platform was trying to do everything at once, whereas maybe if we hadn’t said we focused on one particular area of volunteerism, they would have panned. 

So, it’s just like trying to boil the ocean; it was very difficult. So, the B2C opportunity did not work. So, we pivoted B2B. And that was just selling software and nonprofits, and that didn’t pan out either.

So, it was like a two-year journey. I mean, we learned a lot, but ultimately, we decided to fold it right. And we folded it, I mean I spent on the servers, and I guess we just kind of moved on, and I graduated college also around this time, and I started, I guess, the 4th venture here. I guess it would be Crypto.  so I was a crypto investor for a bit. It didn’t start that way. I was just educating myself on cryptography. I was, of course, a software engineer. Where it’s very common to learn about, like coding on the blockchain. It’s very common to learn these technical concepts, and I was just kind of educating myself on them in particular. Neil, you might have heard about things like financial sovereignty and decentralization. Bitcoin is a hedge against inflation. Particular things stood out to me.

Oh yeah, totally. I think I remember meeting you around that time frame. We got along so well because we were passionate about protecting purchasing power like cryptos, precious metals, and all of that stuff. We know that fiat money is just being inflated away. This is like necessary knowledge, and it’s a core part of extraordinary American women’s stories to educate people about inflation and how to protect their purchasing power. In addition to entrepreneurship and business, you’ve got to do all of it together, you know.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And you’re right. Gold and Bitcoin are good inflation hedges, and it’s important to the whole thing with this podcast, like American Financial Freedom, because it’s just important.

And yeah, I was a pretty educated crypto investor. I managed to take profits here and there, right? So, I did manage to score some wins. I also scored some losses, and ultimately, I think this will lead to my next venture. Right. So. Oh, I’d have my crypto, and I would sell all of it because, with crypto, just like stocks, you might be rich one year but broke the next, right? So, you can one year have tremendous wins, but then the next year it’s zero, and that’s just the nature of intangible assets. 

When it comes to crypto, it’s just the Wild West, you know, it goes up, it goes down, and it’s not like it’s, it’s you have to be on it all the time to see how are the markets going?

Exactly, exactly. and I didn’t want to be like that. Right. I wanted to transform them into tangible assets. That’s why part of my strategy was to sell off my crypto and go into tangible things like real estate. And I think that’s exactly what I did.

So, to give you context in the timeline here, I just graduated college, and I was working at IBM at this time as a software engineer. I am still working there as a spin-off. And I also desired to purchase a home. I remember when I was in college. I’ve always wanted to buy a house. I was looking on Zillow for homes when I was in college, just because I wanted to. I think homes are like ownership in a primary residence. It’s fantastic in many ways. I think it’s a huge source of wealth creation. For many Americans, they make most of their money by owning their home over a long period. I think having a home is great for the community. When you live in a neighborhood, you give back. You know your neighbors. I think. I think it’s phenomenal to kind of just be right.

I mean, totally. Like most millionaires, you see, in recent years, they are coming from real estate.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And back to, uh, my home. So, I sold off my intangible assets and bought a plot of land to build on. Right. So, this was back in 2019–2020 when there was a plot of land. It was a bigger piece of land. It was. There were a lot of issues with it, but ultimately, I was working with an architect. I was going to put a home on it, right? Build a home on it. When most people say building a home, they mean something like a subdivision, which is pretty much what the audience … In a subdivision, Dr. Horton, Leaner, or any other big home builder can customize a home on a given plot of land, but there’s another way to do it, and that’s when you buy your plot of land. Then hire your architect, hire your general contractor, and build it yourself, which is what I did. 

So, I embarked on that journey, right? And the architect told me I could either put one house on it—one big house—or I could put four smaller ones. And I was kind of like, I don’t need a big house. I’m single; I’m not married. I just want a small house for myself, and maybe I’ll have three. I don’t know; I have it for later, or I don’t know.

I love where this is going. I love where this is going to keep going bad.

It’s good to know Neil. And so instead of one huge house, I just wanted four smaller townhomes, and townhomes are like connected units that pretty much live side by side. Right, right.

So, we started building on it. I had my architect draw up the plans, and at the time, I didn’t know what I was going to do with them. We just started building, right? We had a general contractor. We had an architect, and we had our plumbers, right? And man, Neil. I’m telling you, building it was a journey. It sucked like it was a two- to three-year process, just full of delays and setbacks, including running out of money at one point. 

Yeah, it was just like permitting, which is hard, or building it. It’s not hard, but it’s just a process where you have to overcome small hurdles every day just to get the finished product. It was a two- or three-year process, so permitting getting the entitlements is pretty much what the city says. You what? You. And we couldn’t build, and then we just started building, and with construction, it’s hard because a lot of it’s waiting. It’s sequential, right? 

So, in other words, the drywall cannot go in until the insulation goes in, and the insulation cannot go in until the framing is up. The framing cannot go up until the slab is up. The slab cannot go up until the site is graded and leveled correctly, so it’s very sequential and time-intensive, and there’s just a process you have to follow. We tried our best, but it just took a while, so fast forward. I’m sorry if I’m boring you here, Neil.

No, no, no. This is really like this. I’m going to be asking more questions regarding this real estate thing that you did. So go ahead.

Yeah. Yeah, so fast forward. It’s finally done after so many hurdles. It’s done. I moved in, and I have three other units. What do I do with them? And I tried getting long-term tenants in there. It’s kind of difficult to just because. It’s hard to find four guys who are willing to share a room or a house. I mean, it’s hard to find four girls and four guys to share a house.

So, it was kind of my idea. I think around the time Airbnb was very popular, and it still is. So, like, why not turn them into Airbnbs, right? I would live. I would live on-site, but at the same time, I don’t mind living next to Airbnb. I mean, maybe I’ll party with them. Like, who knows it’s cool to me. It’s cool if they’re bumping their music. And that’s exactly what we did. So, we turned two of them into Airbnbs. In one of them, I moved my mom in with me. My mom lives in one of them. I live in one, and the other two are Airbnbs.

So, weekend parties, right? Bachelor and bachelorette parties; They come here every weekend. They stay at home. The football season is big. Of course, you know Neil; you once lived in Austin South by ACL or Big, and it’s just like the hospitality industry, just pretty straightforward, pretty easy. You just kind of turn over the house. Get it ready for the next group and deal with the questions as they arise. 

I will say, though, that one thing happened: Airbnb is not like the Airbnb bust. By that, I mean that in the last year, Airbnb has not been performing as well. And what you see is a lowering of revenue and a lowering of occupied nights. So, it was my idea to pivot from Airbnb to monthly furnished rooms.

Right. So, by this, I mean we have a room… Each room has its own bathroom. The house was designed that way. It just was. Each room has its own bathroom, so it makes it very easy for someone to just live here for a month. Maybe they’re in between leases; maybe we get a lot of digital nomads, travel nurses, traveling attorneys, and people who are on contract gigs. A lot of people need temporary stays of one to three months in Austin, right? And they don’t mind sharing a house, right? It’s not a big deal.

So now that’s what we’re doing.

So effectively there are about 10 or 12 bedrooms that I manage pretty much just by getting people in here for a month or two months at a time, and then they’re off right away to do their next thing. Some of the people we’ve had in here for quite some time, like six months now, right, seven months, and it’s been great. It’s been high occupancy we’re seeing, and I think it’s great because I get to talk to people. I love meeting people. I love meeting the guests. I love getting to know what they do.

So, I don’t mind sharing my home. I have four roommates, actually, and I don’t mind it. I love it. So that’s what we’re doing right now, and we plan to go back to Airbnb. It’s just when the markets are right. I mean, we’re in a kind of state of economic uncertainty right now, and we’re just taking it one day at a time. But this is the way to get there.

Ben, I loved it. The part where you turn this plot of land into something like these. The first thing that I love and like is the reason I want to tell you why. This is because you, in a way, came across a strategy that I am riding in my eBooks for extraordinary America, which is called the wealth cycle.

So literally, what it is basically that you have, you know, whenever real estate is overvalued or stocks are overvalued, and then you have gold and silver or something, or something like cryptos like Bitcoin. They’re undervalued, and then, like the tide, they keep moving in cycles. Like if one thing is up, the other thing is usually down.

And so, what you mentioned over here was that you sold your assets, like your intangible assets, like crypto. Then you decide to invest in land and use part of the proceeds to do that. So basically, what I told you was what I’m writing in the eBooks. Is that once gold and silver? Or, like precious metals, go and reach an all-time high, and then real estate eventually comes down because it’s an inverse preparation, like in the next financial crisis. Which I think will happen within a year or two. Then, when gold and silver reach a peak, you take the proceeds and buy real estate, and then you rent out those homes. You’re like, let’s say you bought. $100,000 worth of gold, precious metals, or Bitcoin And then Bitcoin and precious metals rise like three times, right? On a conservative estimate. Right. And then? Real estate goes down. And then you sell—you sell the precious metals and everything—and then you use that same cash to buy real estate with it. Now you’re buying more real estate with the same amount of money.

So, let’s say $100,000 worth of money could now be $300,000 worth of money. And then, since real estate prices would go down in the event of, like, a recession or whatever, you’d be buying even more real estate. The same proceeds. And now your strategy of turning it into an Airbnb or a monthly rental kind of thing Are you renting it out now? You’re just generating incoming revenue. You’re getting more bang for your buck because now you’re buying more real estate and then more with the proceeds from that. You can compound and multiply yourself. Do you see where I’m getting at?

No, I see exactly what I would agree with you. You know, a cyclical strategy where you’re buying low and selling high across different asset classes is probably amazing. It’s just hard to do, right? Like, how do you? How do you time yourself?

I mean all; I mean always here. To be looking at the markets, especially crypto. It’s a wild, wild West, but you’ve seen how Bitcoin was at one point, like, I think, in 2019 or whatever or one of those years. It was at 20,000, and then it jumped to 60,000 or something, then back again. 

But let’s say it was at 20,000, for instance, and jumps to 60,000, and then that means you figure out now is the time to sell, like normally, three times, when it reaches two to three times its original value, then you sell it off, and then you use those same proceeds. To buy real estate or, like, basically get mortgages where you get multiple mortgages where you have like the down payments where you get the houses, but now you’re renting them out on Airbnb, right? 

Then you have incoming money, and then from that, you basically take the profits, and then you just continue to do more. Thursday, but usually, these cycles happen. like, uh, a long period. But there are small periods, like a financial crisis like in 2000, where gold and silver went up really hot, you know, like at that time gold jumped up 50%. Silver went to $48 an ounce and then again in 2020. I think it rises a little bit, but in the next financial crisis, there’s like a recession or something, and then the real estate goes. Down or whatever. Those who have invested in precious metals have invested in Bitcoin, and like them, it’ll rise up and then you at the correct moment. If you manage to cash it out and then use it to get real estate, and then you just rent it out or do Airbnb, you’re set for life.

Yeah, yeah. And under that, I would say to watch the Bitcoin price because right now we are in an accumulation phase. But yeah, it’s just hard to time the market, but if you do it right, then there are big rewards for those that do.

Massive gains, which is why I found it because you talked about crypto investing but then proceeded to talk about real estate investing. It just reminded me. Me of what? Of course, like the strategy that I’m talking about in my upcoming eBook, it’s just about understanding how wealth cycles work. 

Because if you understand how assets work and how sometimes some asset classes are undervalued and other asset classes are overvalued, you can take advantage of the asset values by changing them. It’s kind of like it goes to a peak, then it goes down, and then it goes to a peak, and you just have to find out those are the times when that happens.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. You’re saying I’m excited for that strategy to come out that you’re developing.

Yeah, but then I wanted to ask a little bit more about this. So, what was the motivating factor that got you to start doing real estate investing and all that, like, basically doing the Airbnb strategy and buying a plot of land? I’m just getting a townhouse because I think that it’s an amazing strategy and something that Gen Z entrepreneurs and other people should look into. It’s basically how to get real estate and turn it into a means of attaining passive income. Because what you’re doing is having incoming and all. You’re doing it. Just managing the houses, and yeah, there’s going to be a couple of bad people, bad ombres, or whatever here and there. 

Are the risks worth the rewards?

So, I would say my motivation personally comes from a little topic that I touched on earlier, and that’s home. Right. So, what you see is that historically, a lot of Americans make their wealth through their homes, and I’m repeating myself through their homes. Right. So, in over 30 years, when they own their homes, their assets have historically appreciated by 4 or 5% above inflation, right? 

So, not only is it keeping up with inflation, but it appreciates slightly beyond that, and what you end up getting is that you bought a house 30 years ago, and now you’re sitting on a bunch of equity that you can tap into and sell. And also, it’s like a forced savings account, right? When you get a mortgage, it’s like putting money into your house instead of maybe spending it because it’s there.

So, I would say I was exposed to those principles early in my life, and I just wanted a house. So, like, I’m kind of a DIY person; I like to just fix things up and maybe mow the lawn, and it might sound boring to some people. So, getting a house for me was important, and I would say also house hacking, right?

So, the concept of having roommates, for example, whether it’s through what I’m doing or even if you buy a smaller home and have two or three roommates to help you out with the bills, I think that’s a very good strategy. Helping pay off the mortgage, or even just having financial security, as far as the motivation goes, goes on to this. I keep repeating myself, but again, I think having a house is good for the community. It’s good to just live and give where you are, and I would also say another thing: Neil is… talking out loud, I realize housing is pretty. It’s not like crypto, right? It’s a very it’s a relatively it’s a relatively stable, right? Even though it could crash like we’ve seen it crash in Austin, 20% Overall, it holds its value well, especially in the US. I mean, you compare this to China, where the real estate market has stagnated for the last 10/20 years and beyond, while the US real estate market is good.

There are always a lot of buyers in the United States compared to other countries. But then there’s one thing I wanted to ask you, So I know you’ve done all these ventures and you’re highly entrepreneurial… So, my question is, during all these ventures, from the e-commerce business to something like crypto investing to doing this Airbnb, what is the biggest lesson you learned? When it came to all of this, especially when it came to doing Airbnb and having this incoming money and managing it, all these people.

Yeah, yeah. The biggest lesson, I think, is that there are two of them. 

And that’s one: have a support group—not a support group but have someone you can talk to, right? Because in any entrepreneurial venture, you will face setbacks and hurdles. It’s very easy to get dejected, maybe because of a huge negative thing that happens. I remember when, when building the house, there was so much **** that went wrong. There was, it appeared insurmountable. Finishing it would just not be possible in my Amazon business if I got banned. I got banned from Amazon one time, and it’s like, how am I ever going to sell again, I just kind of like taking it and having someone to talk to. 

You know, I found that when someone self-talks or spends a lot of time ruminating, it’s draining. It’s very easy to overthink yourself, and instead, if you find someone who’s supportive, make sure you surround yourself with good people and not people who might drain your energy. But when you find that good energy and you talk to them just through the process of talking through it, you will not only feel better, but maybe you’ll find a solution yourself, and they’ll help you find one. 

And on the tangential side of that, it’s like you will face a lot of setbacks in any entrepreneurial venture. It’s just a matter of picking yourself up and calmly telling yourself, OK, I have this, I got this, and I will overcome this. If it’s just 1% better every day, 1% solved compared to yesterday, I think that’s progress, and I think it’s important to remind yourself of that because it’s very easy, especially if you’re by yourself here. It’s very easy to get into a cycle of self-doubt.

So, Ben, one of the things that I admire about you is that you go through all these different entrepreneurial ventures and setbacks, but you never gave up, and you’re like a young Gen. Z entrepreneur like you were doing entrepreneurship, even when you were in college, you were doing college and doing business.

So, a lot of Gen. Z people, I feel like, have a fear of failure when it comes to starting a business or something. If you had to advise your fellow Gen. Z people on starting a business and becoming successful, or getting real estate and doing the Airbnb strategy, how would you go about advising them regarding attaining income on a passive level?

Just to clarify the question, are you asking about getting over the fear of failure and how it relates to making?

Yeah, like literally, how would you advise Gen. Z people about getting over the fear of failure and then going about it in a strategic way to succeed in whatever they’re doing?

Yeah, yeah, I think it’s OK to fail. I think it’s; I mean for sure, OK to fail. And in entrepreneurship, people will fail. Dozens of times and a handful of times before they nail a single product, I think to start making money from a venture early on, it takes luck, skill, and finesse, and it’s not likely.

So, I think just embracing a mindset that failure is inevitable. Failure will happen, but it’s OK because you can pick yourself up. You can recover. Yeah, financially, it might hurt a little bit. You might spend some time that you won’t get back, but instead, you need to frame it as a lesson. 

This is how I can improve next time, how I will not make the same mistake, and that in itself means I will help out towards maybe a later venture in terms of relating this to income, I think. I think it’s essentially the same process. Perhaps you lose money in one venture, but I like it. I liked it. I wouldn’t say all my products on Amazon were successes. I had. I remember this one product I tried selling that I imported from China. I bought 1000 USB cables, right? So, none of them sold. So, I had 1,000 USB cables sitting in my room.

So, Ben, here’s the thing: You bought that. And then, like, you had this thing where you lost money. So, a lot of people are afraid of losing money. How did you go beyond the fear of, losing? Because that’s one of the number one things that people are afraid of, like starting a business. What if I lose the money? And what I would say is that you have to have no attachment, but it’s just so difficult to do. But what are your thoughts on this?

No, honestly, that’s a hard question. I wouldn’t say I know the answer yet because people have different thresholds for things like financial attachment, right? For me, a thousand cables, or like $1000 on a new prototype, is especially important because I’m fortunate. I was fortunate to be working at a corporate job. I was fortunate to have financial savings.

What happened to those thousand cables? 

Oh, oh, so all my friends had some chargers for the rest of their lives that were so bad that they never knew they were bad anyway. But yeah, I just ended up donating them. No one wanted them.

Wow

Yeah, yeah, I honestly would say it’s really difficult because I know a $ 1,000 setback might be more for some people than others. And I would say I would kind of spin the question around, like, maybe it’s because I think corporate is a very good avenue for saving up money, right? I think savings are the key. The backbone of entrepreneurship. It’s kind of a precursor, I think. Any type of venture takes an upfront investment, whether it’s time or money, and having those savings in place at first, especially money is really important. You’ll find out that to make money, you’ve got to spend money.

So, I would suggest this for those who may have a fear of spending too much money. Just to be cognizant of how much money you’re spending on your venture, but also because it’s OK to lose money on your venture. I mean, you can work and save up more and just have a plan when you’re doing it.

I think that you have to be willing to lose money, just as you cannot attain success in business if you don’t have a certain level of non-attachment. I know that, as you say. The threshold is different for different people, but yeah, it’s easier said than done. But when you’re losing money, that can hit different people hard, you know.

Yeah, yeah. 

So, Ben, I had a question, as an entrepreneur, right? Or as a young entrepreneur, right? knowing what you know about crypto. And just different asset classes. What is your advice to your Gen Z peers regarding inflation, handling inflation, and debt?

I think inflation is real. It’s very real, and it’s bad. I think we’ve reached the topic of hedging against inflation through asset classes like real estate and Bitcoin, like gold, I think, depending on your comfort level, you have to be honest with yourself about what asset class you may be into, what you want to use, and what you trust yourself with. But inflation is very real, and I think real estate is a good way to hedge. Against it, as far as debt goes. I want to clarify something. Neil, do you mean like what? What do we mean by debt? Because I think it’s Good. And there’s bad debt.

Oh yeah, so, of course, most people, think debt is bad, but obviously there’s consumer debt and then there’s strategic debt, which is used to acquire assets or start a business. I’m talking about in this case, consumer debt. And if you could add how they can strategically use debt, that would be pretty good as well, because you and I both know that you can positively have debt.

Yeah, yeah, I think it’s very easy to fall into consumer debt. It’s very easy to open a credit card. It’s very easy to rack up so many purchases, especially in the US. For those viewers who are not in the US, we have every consumer and capitalist society here. People make it very easy to, oh, just pay it off later; you know, buy it now, and we’ll just bill you over the next few months to several years for your phone and your clothes. Even so, I think there’s almost a societal problem with that, and we need to start teaching. Financial education. I think we need to teach in school things like getting your credit score up, doing your taxes, and budgeting. Financial education in the community financial education at the individual level is very important, and I think America does not do a good job of that. It takes effort to go out and educate yourself, and many people do not have the privilege. I have the privilege of doing it because my parents told me to, but many people do not, and it is tough. People need to do work to educate themselves on financial freedom, and it’s difficult for many. As far as strategy.

So, once you educate yourself right now, you can kind of come up with strategies for acquiring good debt, and this comes in the form of housing loans and business loans. This comes in the form of just spending capital now to make money later, right over something like credit card debt, which is bad. Given that the credit card wasn’t used for a good reason, yeah, I mean, they’re just my thoughts. I’m rambling a bit.

Well, it makes sense. Because it is a thing that our generation of millennials and Gen. Z is facing this issue of rampant inflation, and it’s something that I like. What I’m putting in my upcoming eBook is about the threat of big inflation hyperinflation because, like right now, you have the interest rates as of August 2023. We have interest rates at about 5.5% on the federal level, which is crazy. This and this are going to eventually lead to a lot of companies closing, you know, over a year or so, and then, to stave that off, the banks and government are going to print a lot of money, which at some point is going to lead to even more inflation. 

So, the public needs to be educated on how to hedge against inflation and how to not get into consumer debt. And utilize, if they’re going to use debt, to either start a business with a good chance of success or to invest in asset classes that will rise in value. Like gold and silver, bigger. Of course, they’re going to do their due diligence but like real estate and all of that stuff,

No, no, I thought it was a good point. Like, what upcoming businesses will bust in the US because, like, interest rates are so high? I’d like to get a loan, and I just applied for a loan of 10%. No, no one can… It’s very hard to afford that. So, I’m very interested in seeing, say, what businesses hold.

Yeah, it’s not. It’s all going to be It’s only pretty, but I mean, it is where it is, right? It’s going to happen in the future. All we can do is come up with a strategy to protect our purchasing power. Our money… let’s say you have $100,000 in the bank, right? How much? It’s not how much money you have. It’s. How much you can buy with that right, and inflation is just eating away at that money like, within, like, 2 years, you won’t be able to buy as much with your $1000, $5000, or $10,000 as you can right now.

Yeah, yeah, no, it’s exactly, exactly. And it’s tough. I saw that with grocery prices and cars, it’s just less bang for your buck.

No, totally. So, Ben, there’s one thing I wanted to ask. As a Gen. Z entrepreneur, what do you think is the greatest challenge that you, like your fellow Gen. Z people and millennials for that matter, have when it comes to attaining the American dream? And how can they overcome that challenge?

Oh, ooh, that’s a tricky question. I don’t know where to start with that. Right. So, I think the American dream is more I think it is more and less attainable than ever in the context of globalization. With new online platforms like Etsy and Upwork, it is easier. And with the surplus of education online, it is very easy to go out and find a product to sell, like an effective solution to a problem. And monetize it just as soon as you solve a problem. It’s a good way to make money, right? Solving someone else’s problems. 

I think it’s also very difficult for the American dream because, I mean, the American dream once included owning a house, owning a car, and opening a business. And I think those are two of those that are hard right now, right? Owning a house is very expensive. New cars are expensive.

I think from an economic standpoint, the American Dream is a little bit further out than it once was, maybe 30–40 years ago. And that would lead me to my point that, financially, I’m uncertain of where we’re headed, right? How expensive will products and services be in the future? I am unsure of decades, like the days of low interest rates. I don’t know if they are. Mac, which is going to make it harder to open a business. It’s going to make it more expensive to borrow money for your business. And I would just say there’s a lot of uncertainty right now. I mean, everyone’s watching the Fed. So, I don’t know how to answer your question; sorry, it’s just a lot of uncertainty, both good and bad.

No, I mean, totally right now, the American dream, in my opinion, is under threat, but mainly because of bad financial policies on the level of the banks and the government, because they’re inflating the money away, which is becoming harder and harder because there’s a concept, right? Like where you have a stagnant income where your income is not. It doesn’t rise in proportion to inflation, or, like the rise in prices, there’s always a lag time, and in that lag time, people suffer consequences, you know. Yeah, but the only way, in my opinion, to continue to attain the American dream is through financial education. That is a must. It has to be that way, and we’re living in new times, so we have to adjust and adapt accordingly, and that’s the only way we can do it, to be honest.

Yeah, no, I would agree. I think that financially, it’s just that there’s a lot of doubt like it just wasn’t as good as it was. I think another thing I was thinking of recently, and I want to hear your thoughts on this, is the concept of how the climate is making things more expensive, right? So, in other words, climate change, whether it’s human-made or even natural, well, how is it causing everything to become more expensive, whether it’s insurance premiums, whether it’s food, or whether it’s things like, you know, electric cars like the government-mandated cars to be electric, right?

So, they have to research and develop these expensive batteries, and then pass on those costs to the consumer. So, I’m thinking that car companies are fine using gas; they’re fine. I mean, gas is the old technology; it’s cheaper to just buy a gas car. But now, with electrification, the costs are passed on to consumers because of the climate. OK, now we have to invest in a new, more expensive technology.

So, I think to answer your question, in another world where we had sound money where money was backed by, let’s say, gold or something of that insurer Fiat and it wasn’t getting inflated at a rapid rate, like, for instance, in 2022, it was like 9%, right? The inflation rate was 9 or 10%. Well, let’s say in another world where there was barely any inflation, it sounded like the economy was held, and everything maybe but like in today’s world, I would say that it has to be cost-effective. For our fellow Americans, because if they cannot afford it, then how? As I already said, life is hard as we try to make ends meet. On top of that, if you’re going to do this thing for the sake of the environment at the expense of the people, then that’s an issue. It has to be balanced, you know like you have to be environmentally friendly, but it’s also going to be cost-effective for the masses.

Yeah. Yeah, I would.

You have to think about the people first, but that’s just like my own. Personal opinion, you. Know. Yeah, yeah. So, Ben, I wanted to ask. You about like. So, what kind of upcoming real estate projects are those? Are you having it right now, and would you want the audience to get a glimpse into that?

Yeah, I will say real estate right now is a bit tricky with the higher interest rates. We have a couple of small projects going on. We have a small lot near the lake where it is going on. That’s just a build, and we are currently exploring other opportunities through land acquisition. But again, it’s hard because homes are so expensive, and rates are still high. So just stay tuned for that.

Ben, how can our audience connect with you, get to know more about you, and like what you know if they want advice on real estate strategy, Airbnb, and all of that?

Ooh, I do not have a website yet, but let me spin one up and I’ll send it to you, Neil. And you can put it in the comments.

Do you have, like, an e-mail or something where they can reach out to you? If they wanted to.

Yeah, yeah, let’s do it. Let us just use my LinkedIn. Just look up Benjamin Chen in Austin, TX, and you should be able to find me. But otherwise, yeah, feel free to shoot me a message. Feel free to connect with me. Send me a message if you have any opportunities going on. I’d like to just learn.

Ben, Ben, thank you so much for taking the time to be on this show. Like the advice that you’re giving regarding real estate, Airbnb, and even cryptos, it’s amazing. This is an important education that people should know, and I am so glad that you took the time to do the show with me.

Yeah. Thank. Thank you, Neil, for having me. Thank you for bringing on Gen. Z’s viewpoints. So, and thank you for, I mean, doing this; you’re helping out the community.

No, Ben; I appreciate that. And I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that listen, there’s something extraordinary within every one of us. And we must awaken it and unleash it until next time. Bye for now.