From Living in a Van to $1.4M in Net Worth with Michael Alberse – EP 310

Justin Donald: What's up, Michael? Welcome to the show.

Michael Alberse: Thanks. Good to see you, Justin.

Justin Donald: Ah, great to see you, too. I'm really excited about our time here together. This is a special episode because, for those that don't know you, a lot of people will know you because you've been to a bunch of our events, and you're a member of the mastermind. But this story's really special to me because you found my book. You actually had a friend that I believe gave it to you, and I think I just met him at our live event that we just had.

Michael Alberse: Shout out to him.

Justin Donald: Shout out to Vince if you are listening to this but learned all about you and some of the backstory, which is fun. But we just finished our big family office event, which was fantastic the last three days, and it was really just neat hearing people's stories. I always love people's stories, but your story is so special to me because you read The Lifestyle Investor. It had a profound impact. But a lot of people stop there. You went out, and you did something with it. And I can't wait to tell all the things that you've done. Like, your story's incredible, and then you've been able to join our masterminds, even get pro- you know, you kind of outgrew one and joined the next tier up. So, let's have some fun telling your story. But let's go back to the beginning, because for a little while, you were living in a van, right?

Michael Alberse: Yes, I was. That was a fun experience. It was during COVID too. So, I grew up in North Carolina and went to UNC Chapel Hill. Amazing experience there. Studied business and entrepreneurship. And I had a Google internship my junior summer, and that was summer of 2020. So, I was expecting to go out and be in California. I've always had a dream of living in California, and what better way to do it with Google. That ended up being fully remote, but it was an amazing experience. And I was able to work my butt off and get the return offer. So, going into senior year at Carolina, and also with COVID, with things kind of shut down a little different, I had a lot of time to prepare my next move.

And I had heard stories of people that lived in vehicles or box trucks or RVs outside of the Google office, and I was like, "I could do that," being 22 years old. And so, what I did is I took the Google internship money and other money I had saved from a job in college, and I wired $32,000 and got an empty Ford Transit van delivered to my parents' house, and then on the weekends, I would go back from school and build that out. So, I put in full insulation. I put up framing. I did all the carpentry. I did the entire electrical system from YouTube University, sized all the breakers and fuses, and put it all together, plumbing system. And at the end of it, I had this studio apartment on wheels with a bed, toilet, shower, stovetop, sink.

And it was everything I needed, because Google also provides two meals a day, but I would take an extra sandwich for dinner. So, I had three meals a day covered. They had an amazing gym there with showers. They even had on-site laundry. So, I was basically set. And after I finished the van and graduated, I drove across the country to California. I went to a bunch of national parks along the way, and that's really where my love for the outdoors and investing kicked off from there. So, that is how I started and just started to crank away at my corporate job.

Justin Donald: Well, I love the story, and it's nice because it was kind of more of a choice. Like, you actually were being very intentional about, how can I save some money? How can I get ahead? How can I start my investment journey? And by the way, I want to give you some major props. We'll get into this, but what's really impressive to me is someone like you at a young age, and I mean, at one point you had zero dollars in passive income. But I love your whole idea of, like, you said, "I had a humble $161 of passive income." And then you bumped that up over to $6,500. We'll talk about how you did that and the business that you built, and how little work that business takes, but the cash flow it kicks off.

And then I think it's really awesome that you went from basically no net worth, right? I mean, everyone starts at zero at some point. And the decisions that you made to get to 1.4 million in net worth, really in short order, relatively short order, for a lot of people listening, it's easy to feel like you're an overnight millionaire. You're not an overnight millionaire. It took a long time to get there, but you got there, and it was really fun being able to watch you along the way, as you are one of the very first ever members of the Lifestyle Investor Foundation's Young Adults Program, our mastermind for those in their 20s. It's just so cool to see. So, keep the story going. So, what was next? So, you got rid of the van at some point, it sounds like.

Michael Alberse: I did.

Justin Donald: You got your own place. Thank goodness. You're still working at Google. I think you've worked at Google for five years now, right?

Michael Alberse: That's correct, yes. Five years.

Justin Donald: Okay. And then, so talk us through a little bit of that, and then starting your first company.

Michael Alberse: Yeah. I can dive into that a little bit. So, when I was in the van, my monthly expenses were a couple hundred dollars a month, so I was able to invest well over 90% of my income, and I started where most people do. And just keep in mind, I didn't have a savings account open until a year and a half into Google. I didn't even know what a Roth IRA was. So, this was stuff that I just had a lot of time on my hands. I was like, "I'm going to go deep and learn this stuff." And so, I started by using the Google 401(k). I learned about the HSA and how I could also use that with the triple tax benefits. After that, I opened my Roth IRA, and then after that, I started to put more into a taxable brokerage account. It's like, okay, I'm getting these things starting to cook a little bit, which was exciting, and I was tracking my net worth.

And that was one of the biggest things that made a huge impact on my finances, is just opening up a spreadsheet. For me, I did it once a month and just put in my numbers, and I got to see what that was actually resulting in with my aggressive savings. So, I stacked some accelerators for sure, like I didn't have to pay for housing, I really didn't have to pay much for food, really not even much for gas, and those are the big three expenses, and then invested as much as possible. And while I was at Google in California, I was on the Google Ads team, so I was talking with small business owners all day, every day, about their problems in marketing. They needed to generate more leads and more sales.

And after I left that team, I had, from other mastermind groups, a lot of people knew me as the Google guy. And they're like, "Hey, I need you to help me with my ads." I was like, "No, I don't want to do this." But eventually, it was like, okay, I took on some clients.

Justin Donald: It's funny, you thought you were going to retire from it. You're like, "I'm done with this chapter," but it sounds like people knew that you were good at it, and it's like, "Hey, well, could I start my own business in this space?”

Michael Alberse: Exactly. And it's all about like, what do you want to be known for? And no, that's not what I want to be known for in the future, but that was my brand, and that helped me land some great clients. So, freelancing and offering a service, I think, was a huge mindset shift for me because beforehand I just thought about Shark Tank like, "I need this next multi-million-dollar product idea." And instead, it's like, "Oh, wait, I have people asking me to help with something I already know.” I could do that, and it's a B2B service. And so, I did that for about a year, but I eventually started to hate it with the meetings and being in the Google Ads accounts all day. And so, I've been…

Justin Donald: Well, you're truly on the hook, right? So, you're earning based on the time you're spending in that business. That's a sole proprietor business, but it's better than having no business at all.

Michael Alberse: Agreed.

Justin Donald: Right? But you're like, "Hey, let's step this up.” Like, how do we create a more systematic business, right, that doesn't involve as much of my time?

Michael Alberse: Exactly. And how do you do that? It's with the team. And so, I started with a partner who left Google. He was actually my original mentor, and he's better at Google Ads than I've ever been, and he likes the customer side more than I do.

Justin Donald: Oh, perfect.

Michael Alberse: And so, I just helped with the leads and then sales, and then he is our head of customer experience. And to this day, the business is not huge, but it's sustainable, and it's really focused on retention. We keep our clients. So, we're not growing like crazy, but that is a solid cash-flowing business. And it took about a year to build that up, but now at this point, I track my time, and I spend about three hours a month on that business, so.

Justin Donald: Wow.

Michael Alberse: And that generates that's outside of the 6,500. That's just through passive investments. So, that one is also mid-four figures, kind of depending on the month. But that's a huge cash flow stream for me, whereas instead of buying single-family rentals and managing them myself, I thought, "Why not start a cash-flowing business?" And that was able to get me a much higher return on my hourly rate than buying rentals, which is also something I have no skills or unfair advantage in.

Justin Donald: So, I'm really curious, if you care to share like what's a salary for a guy like you at Google?

Michael Alberse: Google, when I started out, right out of college, that was around $100,000, I would say.

Justin Donald: Okay. So, it's good, good starting pay. Yeah.

Michael Alberse: Definitely. And that's between salary and bonus. And then over time, you have more stock that vests. And since I was on Google Ads, I joined Google Cloud, so being in the more tech side and AI side, we've had a lot of good momentum there. So, now, the comp side of things is about 250, and then there's the other great benefits and things that Google has. But I have made a conscious decision to keep my foot on the gas pedal and maintain my W-2 while building things outside of work time that allow me to accelerate.

Justin Donald: Well, I love it. I mean, you're doubling up here. So, let's take your side business, your side hustle. It sounds like you're making around 100,000 there. You've got your passive income. Sounds like you're making around 100,000 there. So, after tax, I mean, you're basically doubling your income, which is really impressive. Yeah, I love that. So, give me an idea of what expenses look like for you.

Michael Alberse: Expenses have changed.

Justin Donald: Well, that's what happens when you get married and start your family, have your first child.

Michael Alberse: I know. It used to go from…

Justin Donald: So, they went from what to what?

Michael Alberse: I mean, they went from, you could say, $1,000 some months to now 14,000 a month. And that's just the real side of it. I mean, the van was that springboard, and the heavy investing in the side businesses and the job are the things that allowed me to kind of get to that point. But I don't like being that high. It's still something that I'm not super comfortable with. But trying to figure out what the right expense number is for us. And so, to kind of get to that number, I did put in, including the cost of the van, all that was $56,000. I lived for free for two years, and then I sold it for $86,000. And then I ended up buying a primary residence in Atlanta with my wife. We got married the next month, and then two and a half years later or so, we have our first kid.

So, our son, and it's just as life continues to progress, you take on more and more expenses. So, I've had to be flexible on I'm not that bachelor living in the van anymore. It's just the reality of how life is today. But I think we are still very effective with our spending. We just got back from a trip to Maine and Acadia National Park. So, those are the types of things where, yes, I don't like to spend so much on housing, but I will spend money on good groceries, like our nutrition. We go to a good gym, and we like to travel, so we want to at least maximize the utility of what we are spending.

Justin Donald: That's awesome. Well, what I love is that even at this higher price point, even if you're saying, like, "Hey, our expenses are 14,000 a year," so our expenses, let's just call it 170,000 a year, okay? I'm sorry, 14,000 a month, 170,000 a year. You're still making more than that with the business that you're putting three hours a week into, did you say?

Michael Alberse: Yes, or three hours. The agency is about three hours a month at this point.

Justin Donald: Oh, three hours a month, even better than your passive income. So, like right now, you are a lifestyle investor, right? You have more passive income coming in than your cost of living, and so your W-2 income, I mean, you can roll all that into investments, right? We're talking about, I mean, even the delta between what you're doing on your two businesses. If we called it even, you could say 250,000 less taxes. That's all going to investments. That's incredible.

Michael Alberse: Thank you. Yeah, sometimes it doesn't feel real, but when you say it like that, I mean, it's true. I do. I publicly show my passive income numbers online, and depending on quarterly distributions. Sometimes it's $3,000 a month, sometimes it's $7,000 or $8,000, but it averages out to $5,000 or $6,000 a month, with what's currently out there before new deals start to produce and everything. But I always want my fixed expenses and lifestyle to be covered from that passive business and my investments. And then, like you said, everything else is gravy on top of that. So, that's definitely how I have loved to set things up, and it makes me feel much more financially abundant to at least know that that is something we can afford.

Justin Donald: Well, I'm the biggest fan of surplus income. The moment you cover your lifestyle expenses, everything else is surplus income, so you can... I mean, basically that's how you can create like true exponential growth on your wealth, right? You're rolling all those dollars into different deals. So, let's dive into your passive income portfolio. So, first of all, it's a huge honor that you read my book. Secondly, it means the world to me to know that there were things in the book that you took action on. So, you read The Lifestyle Investor. You're like, "Hey, I think I remember you negotiating," because I talk a lot about like equity kickers and stuff like that in the book, and I think you even said, "Hey, I'm going to negotiate an equity kicker with this," like I think it was like a cupcake company or something, right?

Michael Alberse: Yep.

Justin Donald: So, walk us through some of these investments that you did and maybe the influence of the book on the way that you started investing and the way that you built your passive income.

Michael Alberse: Definitely. So, after the normal index fund kind of things and retirement accounts, I was like, "What do I get into next?" And I did one private business investment through a family friend, and that was in a pharmaceutical cold storage facility in North Carolina. And that one ended up being a grand slam.

Justin Donald: Great.

Michael Alberse: And it was different. It went differently than I expected, where I thought I was actually going to invest in that business and be an equity owner for 20 years, and I could see myself operating that company in the future. What happened is because it's biotech and storage, and it's just such a regulated industry, where it's very niche, very high barriers of entry. And a private equity firm came in, and they cleared out all the SBA debt on that business and then injected a bunch of new capital in it. And then since I was a small equity holder, they cleared the capital.

Justin Donald: They wanted to buy you out. They were cleaning up the cap table. Yeah.

Michael Alberse: Yep. So, I ended up getting a large multiple of my capital in a year and a half there, and that was the moment where…

Justin Donald: What was the multiple?

Michael Alberse: What's that?

Justin Donald: What was the multiple that ended up being?

Michael Alberse: Nine.

Justin Donald: 9X. That's incredible. That is a grand slam. Nice job. And that was your first investment?

Michael Alberse: That was my first private investment, yes.

Justin Donald: Well, I got to tell you, so I love hearing this. It's tough because probably future investments aren't going to match up. I always…

Michael Alberse: They’d share.

Justin Donald: Yeah. I share this story all the time. The first time I went to Vegas, I was in college, and my business fraternity was going. A bunch of people in my business fraternity were going.

Michael Alberse: Which business fraternity were you in?

Justin Donald: AKPsi.

Michael Alberse: Okay. I was DSP, so the rival.

Justin Donald: Nice. I think it's great. I had so many good friends, so I was like, "Oh, I'd love to go to Vegas. This would be great." And I remember playing. I mean, it was the perfect weekend. At that time, I'd never been, so I was playing blackjack, and I was winning. And one of my friends said, "You should come play Caribbean Stud with me." I'm like, "Okay, I'll play Caribbean Stud. How do you play it?" And they're like, "It's like poker, but there's a progressive pot. So, if you hit some numbers, then you can win some money from this big ticking number that just ticks up and up and up and up." And I was like, "Okay, that sounds great." Well, I just happened to get one of the hands that won a percentage of the pot.

So, my first trip to Vegas, I was like, "This is so easy. Is it this easy all the time?" and so I had this warped perspective of, you know. So, subsequent times of going, I played the same games but just lost every single time. And I'm like, "Oh, my goodness, I just got so lucky that first time," and attributed it to skill, thinking I'm a better card player than I really am. I'd watch the movies and the books on counting cards, and I'd act like, I mean, I really would try to do it, but it was just pure luck. And sometimes on investments, I've had these experiences where they've gone really well, and it makes me think that I know more than I really know. And I have had subsequent losses. Because for me, the best education's always been the deals that didn't work out.

Michael Alberse: Right.

Justin Donald: Because it's humbling.

Michael Alberse: I have had the same experience.

Justin Donald: All investors have. It's just a matter of time at some point, right?

Michael Alberse: Right. And it makes you better. And that's the good thing of learning lessons younger versus also the pain of all that compound interest that was foregone. So, to kind of move with further investments after that, I was part of another mastermind group where a lot of people are buying businesses and real estate. So, I was like, "All right, I'll fund some of these deals." And one of them was a partnership buying a cupcake bakery local to me in Atlanta. And I had just read The Lifestyle Investor, and it's like, I love this idea of the equity kicker. Do most of this as debt, get your capital back out, and then get an infinite return on that equity. And so, I gave them the entire...

See, this just goes to show, too, like I invested in businesses and opportunities that were way too small. So, the entire acquisition price of this cupcake bakery was $40,000. They put $5,000 down, and then I gave them $35,000 as a loan, and then I secured it to whatever assets they had in that building. It was like their ovens, their fridges, their mixers, their sign, like just anything that they had. We wrote that down and signed on it. And so, that was a loan for one year at 15% interest. And then after three months, it was interest-only payments. So, I received, I think it was $583 a month for nine months, and then at the end of that, I got the principal back out, 35,000, and I was made whole again while maintaining that 5%.

Justin Donald: That's awesome. So, you got 5% as an equity kicker. So, basically you got 5% without paying for anything because you eventually got your loan back. It sounds like they paid you back quickly. So, was the business doing that well, or did they just refinance you out?

Michael Alberse: They refinanced me back out. Exactly.

Justin Donald: Okay. That makes more sense to me. I would imagine they're probably not going to produce as much as the loan the first year. I love hearing that. And how are they doing? So, this 5%, is this business thriving? Are they doing okay? Where are we at?

Michael Alberse: So, the business, it was too small for me to make any type of an impact with my marketing skills. So, my hands are kind of tied. And so, they were in there, trying to figure out how they can keep costs as low as possible, and then what they can do to boost revenue. So, in cost, they were like, "If we flip the light switches on a certain way, we can save this amount on our electricity bill. And then if we go out and we talk to these different owners with cafes there, we can give them a dozen pack of our cupcakes once a week." But those things didn't really move the needle. And then in the strip mall that they were in was a Big Lots! and that Big Lots! left. So, their foot traffic dropped.

And what they eventually ended up doing was selling it, I think, at about the same that they bought it for. And so, my equity stake ended up not being worth anything, and it was basically just a bunch of learning lessons. And I have folks that hear that story, and they're like, "Oh, man, your cupcake investment was not great."

Justin Donald: I think it was an awesome investment.

Michael Alberse: Yeah. Like, I still got 15%. And I learned a lot.

Justin Donald: You made 15%. You got 5% equity as an upside shot. If they had made it, great. They probably should've transitioned into more coffee, right, or something. I mean, alcohol or coffee is probably going to be where you're going to make the multiples that you want to make. But I think that's a great first. I'm going to call it like strategic investment. Like, you didn't just take what you were given. You negotiated your terms, and I think that's awesome.

Michael Alberse: Thank you. Yeah, a little bit of deal-making, which I was inspired to do after reading the book. And then, as an example of one that has gone poorly is I invested in a… Which everything is much clearer in hindsight but let me just be vulnerable with the mistakes I've made. I invested in a distillery business in Colorado, and they had two different arms to their business. The first was the distillery and tasting room, where people go order drinks, and there are bartenders. The second part of the business was a bottling facility and business. So, they would bottle custom spirits for several large clients. I think they had a book of about 15 clients that were consistent. And the purchase price of this business there was going to be no debt, and they were buying it from kind of bankruptcy.

So, they were buying it below the fair market price of the assets themselves. So, we're going in like, "Okay, we don't think we can lose on this one. We want to make sure there's collateral there." But we went on that one, and then shortly after we closed, and I'm passive on this one when I say we, but I was an LP. And once that one was closed, all of the clients essentially for the bottling company just left. And I think it's because the previous owner was kind of shady and there was some fraud going on. He was very difficult to work with. The whole acquisition process was a bit of a disaster, so that could've foreshadowed a bit more. But it taught me a very expensive lesson on due diligence and talking to the customers of a business.

And we previously have talked about, even if things go wrong, horribly wrong in real estate, and interest rates are up, you can still probably sell that building for 50%. But in the case of a business that loses its customers and revenue, the entire valuation just goes up in smoke overnight.

Justin Donald: Yeah. Well, I think it's…

Michael Alberse: No distributions on that one.

Justin Donald: That's tough, man. It's tough, but you learn a lot. And I love that your first deal out of the gates, though, was such a big return. So, you had a little bit of room. And now you can just make smarter decisions. So, I love then that, at some point in here, and by the way, you were early 20s when you started this. You were early 20s, I guess, when you read my book, right?

Michael Alberse: I think I was 25.

Justin Donald: Mid-20s? 25? Okay. And then you joined our… You were one of our first members of Lifestyle Investor Foundations. So, that's our young adult program. Basically, 18 to, I don't know, mainly 30-year-olds. I think we might have a 32- or a 33-year-old in there, but mainly 20-year-olds, okay? And you spent, I think, a year in there, and what I think is really cool is you are also the first person from Foundations to step up into Tribe of Investors, which is that's a big jump. And I love your story to do it. I love how you grew your passive income. You grew your net worth. I mean, originally you wouldn't have qualified for Tribe of Investors, but you're our first guy. You're now our poster child for making the leap up. We've had people from Lifestyle Investor or from Tribe of Investors make the leap into Lifestyle Investor. But you're the first to go from Foundations to Lifestyle Investor. So, talk through that, like being part of the community and what that's meant and how that's helped you.

Michael Alberse: Yeah, it's such an exciting journey, and the community has been so crucial for me to invest smarter and to be in the rooms with. I love brushing shoulders with the Lifestyle Investor members because a lot of them are, I would say, more seasoned, and they have built and sold businesses. They're sitting on some capital, and they're patient with how they allocate it and ask great questions, and I love being surrounded by that mentality. I think younger people are oftentimes just willing to take more risk with their money or just behavior, in general. And so, I think having mentors that I can learn from has been so crucial.

So, like we were talking about when I started, I had $161 a month in passive income, and that was just from interest in my high-yield savings account. And that was back when yields were like 4.5%, and they were great. And since then, what I've built it up to is, like I said, between that $5,000 to $8,000 a month amount, and I have, since reading the book, gotten into more lending, so that's the recurring monthly cash flow. Within real estate, I've done debt in real estate for the lending and then in equity. I've done a mobile home park deal. I've done multifamily. I've done a retail center that's triple net, and I think that largely covers the real estate. And then in business, I've also done the business acquisitions for equity and then also debt with the cupcake bakery.

I've also done my first oil and gas fund last year, as well as some public market products too. And I love the exposure in the group to learn about different asset classes that I hadn't considered before. Like, industrial is exciting to me, and just being aware of these macro trends and the sponsors that are operating at a higher level than what I'd been exposed to in other groups. Because the other groups, they were great for me to get started, but it's kind of like the Wild West, and people are just putting together deals. And it's great when things are a little bit more loosey-goosey, because you can be the deal maker and negotiate things.

But once you start to get to these more professional sponsors, it's great that it is more professional and clean, and you get your tax returns on time, and there's better due diligence. So, I've enjoyed that piece of it too, and just having another level of sponsor and vetting that lifestyle puts into it compared to what I can do just as a lone wolf.

Justin Donald: Yeah. I see a lot of these groups with a very low success rate in the deals that they do because they don't know how to vet deals. They're just throwing stuff together, aggregating people's money, doing deals that are high risk, and most people don't even know they're high risk. So, one of the things I'm most proud of is having this infrastructure where we spend $350,000 a year to vet the deals that we bring into our community so there's at least a foundational vetting, and high-level. I mean, we're talking about institutional-level vetting for anything that makes it here. And, because of that, they're often institutional-level deals that we're getting access to through different family offices and relationships that I have.

So, it's neat that you now get the exposure to these, so it's like you did well here. It's really fun to watch you get to level up your investment opportunities and what that's going to do for the overall return profile, for the passive income profile, and I just can't wait until you make the leap into Lifestyle Investor. And I know it's just a matter of time for you on that one too.

Michael Alberse: Yeah, it's exciting, and just the lessons. I'm a hungry learner, as you are, and always coachable. So, being able to be surrounded by all of these investors smarter than I am and putting those lessons into place, not only does that help me this year, but it compounds across the rest of my life that I just need to stick to the plan, stay in the game, and let all these lessons continue to compound.

Justin Donald: That's awesome. I love it. I think you've recently built a new business. And I'd love for you to be able to share that as well.

Michael Alberse: Thank you. I have recently built a brand that I'm super passionate about. It's called Trailmix Wealth, and it might sound like a weird name, and I think I did that on purpose to sound a little bit different. I am extremely focused on financial education, and I've been posting content on Instagram and now YouTube for the two and a half years. So, it was actually Justin's book, Lifestyle Investor, that kicked off my entire social media journey because I read it and I said, "You know, can you actually generate passive income? Well, my page is going to be dedicated to the pursuit of passive income and seeing if this thing is actually real.” So, that's why I posted here's me making $161 up until like July of 2026, I made $7,100, and the breakdown of all those sources.

So, my page has been @micro.investing across all of those platforms, but I wanted to have more of like a core curriculum and roadmap for people who have maybe never done an alternative investment before or have done one. And I wanted to be like the approachable face towards private markets. Jess and I have been talking about how alternatives are only going to become more and more accessible to people in the future, but these retail deals are having poor fee structures, and they're a lot of the deal flow that the institutional-grade investors have already passed over. And so, the average person is basically getting the bottom of the barrel deals.

And I love this industry so much, and I want to make sure that we are educating people on how to safely get into alts, because I've made a lot of money and I've lost money through them. And so, that's where my passion is for Trailmix Wealth. It's how do you put together a holistic portfolio of assets for you that allow you to live the lifestyle that you want. So, for me and my wife, we want to travel to every single national park in the US. We're currently 20 out of 63. We have plans to knock out a bunch more. So, that's kind of like why we invest is so that we can be out in the woods with no cell signal. But everybody's investment mix is going to look a little bit different. So, that's what I'm excited about right now. I am in the middle of an entire free course on, like, the seven levels of wealth building. And that takes through a lot of alts as well, so I love it. I'm an educator at the end of the day, and that's really where I want to be in and just continue to be in this space with you.

Justin Donald: Cool. Well, I love having you as a member. It's always a privilege and a pleasure to interview our members on the show. And you're the first one from Foundations to make it here on the podcast. So, your story's incredible. For those of you that are wondering why alternative investments matter, why would people invest in alternative investments, well, if you look at the wealthiest people, the single-family office owners, the billionaires, generally 50% to 60% of their net worth is in alternative investments. So, that's the playbook. And the more opportunities that you can get to get access to those types of deals and craft your asset allocation around that, the more likely it is that it performs well in all seasons because it balances out your portfolio.

Most people are too heavy in the stock market, so it's great when times are great, but when the stock market crashes, then their net worth evaporates. So, to be well-balanced makes a lot of sense. And the wealthiest people in the world generally only have about 15% to 30% of their net worth in the stock market, which, for the record, is less than 1% of all the businesses out there. It's actually 0.016% of all the businesses out there are represented in the around 4,000 companies on the New York Stock Exchange. So, pretty crazy to think about, where you have tens of thousands of companies that are available for investment, and the wealthiest people like investing in private businesses. I was sharing a stat with our community at the event that over 78% of the companies that have $100 million or more in revenue are private businesses.

Michael Alberse: Oh, wow.

Justin Donald: Right? And then if you look at the stats across the board since private equity started, 1986, if you take the stock market in that same time, it's performed at 9%. If you take private equity over that same time, it's 15.7%. It's 74% over a greater return on the private equity side, and so this is why the wealthiest people do it. That's a big difference. If you invested a million dollars 39 years ago when all this started, if you invested in the S&P 500, you'd make $28 million. That's awesome, really exciting. But you'd actually make about $290 million in private equity, 10X greater.

Michael Alberse: That higher return compounded for that entire period is mind-blowing.

Justin Donald: Yeah, or about $280 million, 10X, yeah. So, pretty awesome stuff. Okay. Where, Michael, can we find out more about you and all the cool things you're up to?

Michael Alberse: I think @micro.investing on all the platforms is a great place to find me, and if you'll want to get the monthly breakdowns of the cash flow and the sources, you can just go through the link to sign up for a once-a-month newsletter I do. So, I'm not doing a weekly one, just writing it once a month and putting it out there.

Justin Donald: Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us. To those of you that tune in regularly, I love ending every episode with a question for you. My question's the same every week, but what is one step you can take today to move towards passive income, move towards financial freedom, and really just living life on your terms? Most people live a life by default, so my challenge to you is to find ways to move towards living a life by design. And what's something that you can take away from Michael's time here with us today that you can put into play right away today? Thanks! And we'll catch you next week.