Ep391: Mohanad Alwadiya – There Is No Such Thing as Passive Income

Andrew Stotz 00:02
Hello fellow risk takers and welcome to my worst investment ever stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community. We know that to win in investing, you must take risk but to win big, you've got to reduce it to join our community go to my worst investment ever.com and receive these five free benefits first, you get the risk reduction checklist I created from the lessons I've learned from all of my guests. Second, you get my weekly email to help you increase your investment return third, you get a 25% discount on all a Stotz Academy courses. And fourth, you get access to our Facebook community to get to know guests and fellow listeners. And finally, you get my curated list of the Top 10 podcast episodes fellow risk takers, this is your worst podcast hosts Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests, Mohannad alati, Mohammed mohana. Take a minute and filming for the tidbits tell us a little bit about yourself, and whether you're ready to rock.

Mohanad Alwadiya 01:04
Thank you very much for having me on the podcast, I'm really excited to be part of it. It definitely has a very catching catchy headline to it. So I'm gonna deal with the real estate experts. Also an intrapreneur. I can't the manager company, which is almost 48 years old, specialized in managing real estate portfolios, institutional portfolios, we manage portfolios worth almost 4 billion US dollars, across the Middle East region. I'm a published author. And I have a top rated TV and radio show here in the Gulf region in the Arab world. And very excited to be with you today.

Andrew Stotz 01:49
You know, I was going to read your bio, but you just did it so well, that I think you hit all the major points, but the one I would highlight is that $4 billion of portfolio is pretty impressive. So you really someone that understands real estate, and I think that, you know, one of the things that we talked about before we turn on the microphone was the idea that, you know, when you're young you look at senior people in your industry, or the place that you want to be and you think that they haven't, they've got it all going and they didn't make mistakes, but they didn't realize that we all have made a lot of mistakes. And so I'm really excited to get you on the show to talk about your so why don't we get into it? Yeah. Now it's time to share your worst investment ever. And since no one goes into their worst investment thinking it will be. Tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it, then tell us your story.

Mohanad Alwadiya 02:39
Sure. Andrew, I heard once a quote that said bad decisions make good stories. And mine is definitely a fantastic story. Because it was based on a very, very bad decision that happened almost two decades ago, I still remember I was extremely excited about life. I was at the beginning, I was just graduating from university. And my goal back then, was to become independent, I wanted to I wanted to break free from my families, you know, being the main source of income where I get my income from. So the plan back then was first to identify my number. And I think a lot of people will relate to this, everyone has a number where they feel I can be free. If I can achieve this number. Back then that number was in the range of around $2,000. I thought if I get this every month, I will break free, I will be absolutely independent financially for my family. And the best way back then, to make this happen was to get a job. So I applied for a lot of jobs. And then I got myself a very good job, I worked extremely hard, I had to kiss up to my boss make all my clients super happy. And guess what, after a lot of hard work, and with commitment and consistency, I achieved that number. So I got the salary of my dream, I felt super happy, super excited. But guess what happened? After a while I realized that this number is not enough anymore. Because we all agreed you all have higher expectations were ambitious. So my expenses grew. And I decided that I need to increase my number with it to grow that number. And back then I thought maybe another $1,000 will resolve my problems, I'll be happy. And guess what it became easier because I know the drill by then I knew that when I had to kiss up more to my bosses work longer hours, make more clients happy. And after a while I got it. But again, I wasn't satisfied for a long time. So this time, I decided to increase the number substantially. So I don't have to do this every you know, year or two. So I decided back then maybe I should raise it from let's say $3,000 to $10,000. And I thought that would be a very ambitious number monthly to add that much Hi Andrew,

Andrew Stotz 09:47
all right. So, here's No, no way. So why don't you just say and then I you know then I went after 10,000 because I just kept them thing rolling so we've got that

Mohanad Alwadiya 09:58
stuff Yeah, so, and then I decided to go after the 10,000. Because I thought I don't want to keep working on just small targets, building them up, I wanted to have a more ambitious, you know, number. And while I was working so hard towards achieving this number and my ultimate, you know, freedom goal or investment at that time in myself and in my life, you know, independence, something happened that changed my life forever. I found out that I was going to become a father. And I'm sure whoever goes through this experience, you know, the first child is really a moment of truth, it changes any human being male or female. At that time, I was shocked, I actually was. So I had a lot of mixed feelings, I was so happy. But I also panicked, because guess what I was working on my investment plan or my plan myself, or my independence plan, but I never thought of having another person that I need to work for. So I freaked out. And I wanted to come up with a plan to secure my soon to be born. Baby girl. And back then, with my knowledge, with my experience, I decided to go and consult the person who knows about money the most my trusted, if you want friend who knows everything about money, and guess who that person was? My banker. I rushed to my bank. I know, it gets better. I got so excited. I went there. And I broke the news to my so called friend back then that I trusted about everything he was the person in charge of my accounts, you know? So I thought that they said, I'm going to become a father. And he said, congrats, how can I help you, I said, I need to secure the future of my soon to be born daughter. And he's like, I've got you covered. And he pulled out a very fancy folder, opened it up. And there was there the golden investment long term investment plan that actually I found out later that this was a product that the bank was selling on behalf of an insurance company, you know, a long term investment plan for they had two options, 18 years or 21 years, depending on how much you want to invest for your child. So without any hesitation, I decided to allocate a big sizable portion of my number that I was working hard to achieve towards my, the most precious person in my life, my daughter at the time, before she was even born, I signed that agreement, a commitment that I will be investing every month with this company with the promise that they're going to give me a very big amount of money. When my daughter becomes 21, that money will help her and going to remember it was 18 sorry, that money was gonna help her university to get a good degree. And then from there, she'll get her own job and start working on her number like I decided to do with myself. So what happened after that,

Andrew Stotz 13:07
I just can't be more beautiful than that.

Mohanad Alwadiya 13:09
It's really nice. Honestly, a lot of people relate to this, you know, a lot of these insurance or bankers come to you with these fancy, nice plans, long term plans, and

Andrew Stotz 13:20
you can't I mean, you can't blame someone like yourself in that situation. You know, I mean, we're trying to do the best.

Mohanad Alwadiya 13:26
I was young, I was committed, working really hard. I was really at the middle of climbing the ladder of the corporate world. And then I got hit with the most emotional experience, anybody could experience becoming a father, you know? And honestly, I just went with my guts with my emotions, I went with the person I trusted the most, you know, why would I question him? My, my account was always accurate, you know. So anyway, after a while, I went back to my normal life working hard. My daughter was born, I kept working every month, deducting the amount. And I just left it there, you know, every month, they take a big chunk, and I kept working hard to achieve my security, my independence and my daughter's future. And then I remember after a couple of years, I was checking my email. And I used to get from them these quarterly reports, which I never checked, because to be honest with you, I felt, you know, I'm leaving, I'm trusting the person who knows about the money and the bank with this. So I used to ignore these reports. I honestly didn't understand them even I didn't have the knowledge to read them. So I remember as I decided to click to see what's happening, it's been a couple of years, you know, every month, taking a big chunk of my salary at the time, or my number and dependents. Anyway, so I checked and I was shocked because I realized that I lost almost 40 I remember 48% of the principle I was giving 40% and mighty, I was giving them a very big portion of my salary at the time. So anyway, I called first the banker, my friends, I was like, there seems to be a problem with my statement is like, what's the problem? I told them almost what 8% are lost? And he said, yeah, it seems to be a problem. Why don't you call them directly? I wouldn't know how to help you. So he just gave me up immediately. So I called the company, the insurance company, the main supplier of this plan? And they said, No, there's no mistake, yes, you've lost this much. And I'm like, but what do you mean, and I'm supposed to be gaining, not losing. And we kept debating over the phone that I decided to have a meeting with them. So I went, I scheduled a meeting, I went to them, I met the head of investment at the time a senior person, he met me. And he was extremely cold, Andrew, he told me, they said, you're going through the contract, you just signed it, it says that there is a big chance you could lose money. And if you're not happy with our performance, why don't you change how the fund is allocated, your money is allocated to these different instruments. And I told him, I know nothing about investment, very good employee. And he said, Well, this is your problem. So I told them, what are my options? What if I want to stop the plan, he said, You will lose everything, that you invested the whole principle, then I told them, what if I want to what if I lose my job, he says, If you lose your job, then you can't pay, then you lose everything you've saved to the so far. And I was stuck. I didn't know what to do. So I remember I left the meeting, while I was walking from the entrance of their company to the elevator. And the fancy building where the offices are. I had maybe the worst Walk of my life, the walk of shame, I called it, I felt so ashamed with myself. I knew I made the mistake, I felt so angry. But guess what, not at them. I was angry with myself, because I let myself down. And more importantly, I let my daughter down. Because, you know, I felt like I was robbed i was i really failed myself and I failed her. And as soon as I went to the elevator, I clicked the button, the elevator opened up, I saw my face, my face looked so funny. I was like, This is not me, I'm a different person. And then it hits me it was a moment of realization that I will never forget, I was looking at myself in that elevator and my reflection. And I decided that I needed to change everything I needed to change my life. I didn't want to have a number anymore. I wanted to have a much better objective on my life, because that was what was driving me that number, you know the salary I was aiming to have, I decided that I needed to not just have a number in terms of monetary value, I needed to have a number in terms of sources of income, I decided that I don't want to be an employee anymore. Or even if I'm an employee, I must have multiple sources of income. I learned that I should not trust people with my money. I needed to develop my knowledge about money and about investment. Are you still there, Andrew? Yeah, I I. And so I decided that I needed to develop my knowledge about money and about investment, I decided that I shouldn't be emotional anymore. When I take decisions about money, I should make more rational decisions, I should study the options, I should never. And since then I stopped believing in passive income, there is no such thing as passive income, money that you give to somebody to make it work for you and grow. It's all not true. It's all alive. All the books you hear about all the conferences, or the seminars you hear about passive income are all a big lie, there is no such thing as passive income. You need to work hard to grow your money, you need to work on yourself, and work on growing and nurturing that money. And this applies to any asset class class, no matter what people tell you, you need to be involved. Otherwise, you are really gambling you might lose your money like I did, you know, even if you go to the best companies with the best branding and the best names. So this was if you want my biggest mistake, but how did they end? I'll tell you how I did that. I actually decided to reduce the amount I invest with them without any penalty until such a point I think after five years, I could get out with them with a loss. So I took the head. But during that time, I decided I took a totally different route. I started reading books myself about investment about financial education, things that we never learned at school will never be learned anywhere you know, so I started educating myself investing on myself. And I started building my sources of income. So I started investing real estate which I Believe is God's gift to humanity is one of the best asset classes if you know how to buy it, and you know how to manage it. And then I started investing in companies that I knew that were well established that are profitable, I decided to take a stake in them. I learned about stocks, I learned about bonds, I started publishing my own books, which became a source of income for me, I started giving courses which became a source of income, even when the social media trend started booming, I made the conscious decision that I'm going to be on social media for the purpose of making it a source of income. And I've achieved that I started making a lot of money from my social media platforms, I produced and presented the best rated TV show and radio show, again, with the objective of making them a source of income. So today, after almost 20 years, you know, I'm very proud that I have now over 55 sources of income, I changed, I changed my destiny, I no longer want to depend on anybody, I, I want to be the manager of investments. And now I'm also interested to manage portfolios worth billions of dollars for other people. So this is my story. I know, it might sound like some people heard this. Yeah, I also have a plan for my kids, you know, a long term saving plan or investment plan, be very careful about it. And there are so many lessons, I can tell you a lot of things from this story. But in general, this is my I would say, the biggest mistake I made when it comes to investment, but God, let me become the person who I am today.

Andrew Stotz 21:41
Hmm. Well, maybe I'll summarize a couple things I take away from your story. The first one is that, you know, one of the things I always say is that never invest. Now, this doesn't apply in this case, but I always give an advice never in black invest with someone who calls you. Yeah. And what I often say is that, you know, in the world of finance, nobody moves unless they get paid. Yeah. And so if somebody's calling you, they're taking this effort. Now, in this case you walked in, but it's a little bit like walking into a supermarket and not knowing anything about nutrition. You're gonna see the signs of the candies, and the snacks and the colos. And all of those things is what you're going to see. And you're going to go directly those things if you didn't know about the importance of nutrition, sorry, you're going to suffer. And you're going to suffer from you know that. So why would investing be any different. And so that's the first thing that I take away. I love what you said about passive income. Because also the other thing that people think about it, though, the flaw and the thinking that you had to when you were saying, you know, when you were talking about, I wanted to have $2,000, I want to have $3,000, I want to have $10,000, let's just take $3,000, if somebody said that they wanted to have $3,000 in income each month, if you say that, that equals about $36,000 per year. And let's just say that you're going to give 4% Let's be conservative right now and say 4% return, that means you got to have $900,000, to be able to live off that now, that's a lot more money than what most people think when they think they're going to make some, you know, passive income. But the key thing where there's a lot of misunderstanding is that we all are showing these exponential curves, if you started investing now, and you invest over time, and it grows and it grows exponentially. Like look at Warren Buffett, they say that, you know, 80% of his wealth happened in the last 1015 years, because it's compounding what most people don't understand when they hear the nonsense about passive income. What they don't understand the people that are talking about it in the people that are listening is that if you were to take your money out of your investment for your monthly living, you don't get the compounding. Correct compounding assumes all of the income and all of the gain that you receive is being reinvested in that instrument or in that investment. So that's the second thing I just want to reiterate, I love what you said about there is no such thing as passive income. The third thing is I try to teach people to separate the creation of wealth, and the growing of wealth. creating wealth is what we do through creating passive, you know, right to creating these income streams working hard to get them. And the stock market is a place where we can try to grow that wealth not to create it. And the last thing that I would just say is that, you know, in Asia in particular, there's so many insurance products that are being sold. That to me are a waste of money a scam. I've just got a guy a friend of mine. He used to live in Bangkok, he went back to the UK and now he's. He's told me he just got a job, I believe it was in, in, in the Middle East, I don't know Dubai, where. But he told me, I'm now making huge money. And I just got this great opportunity to invest with this insurance policy, and then this and that. And he said, but I know you're a financial expert. So I want to just send it to you before I sign on the line. And I said, Call me, we need to talk because you're about to get ripped off. And so many of these things, the fees are super high. Not only that, but there's also penalties for getting out. So I think a huge lesson from this also is for the listeners out there, stop. When you're in promote, when you're presented with an investment proposal by someone, stop taking home, look at it, read it, read it, ask advice from people who know, because you could get trapped into that, is there anything you'd add to my takeaways? I took away a lot from your story? No, I

Mohanad Alwadiya 25:51
agree. I just want to add also from what I learned is that I just went with a decision with without thinking about it that was driven by emotions, because we all go through moments where we just make a decision because most people want to invest because they want to secure their futures or the futures are the ones they love. And if you really care about them, you shouldn't be emotional about it. Yes, I understand. It's an emotional, that are the reason or the motive is emotional. But your decision should not be driven by that. So that's one of the things that affected me. I think that I learned from you as well, before we started recording is you should you should always be careful about misplacing your trust, because I trusted my banker. And guess what biggest mistake ever, you should never trust your bankers ever, you know, they're good at keeping your accounts, but they're not good when it comes to offering you professional investment advice, that as you mentioned, they have a motive behind it. I also went into the trap of not monitoring. And other thing I learned from you, I wasn't monitoring their plan, I I found out only after like two or three years past about what happened and how bad it was, if I knew earlier on, he would have made a different decision to at least reduce the contribution I was giving them, I was giving them a very big portion. So I think all of these lessons were the things you mentioned, would be very valuable for people to consider. And I know not just in Asia, even here in the Middle East, in the Gulf region in Dubai. Every day, you know banks are being asked or incentivized to offer their clients long term investment schemes. So insurance companies, so please be very careful about it. I've never heard that people can actually just to prove what I'm saying Google people's experiences with these companies and these long term savings or investment plans. And I rarely come across anybody that actually nobody. And you can tell if there are some positive comments, they are fake, they're genuine ones, you're going to know they're genuine 99% of them, they have failed miserably with these plans. So we should learn from mistakes, we should learn from this story and from other people's stories and the comments, we can see and seek professional advice from independent consultants, like yourself, or people who have been through, you know, the journey and really have a genuine interest to help not just unshared knowledge, not just you know, trying to sell you something.

Andrew Stotz 28:11
There's two other things I would add to that I was just thinking about, you know, the first one is that not everybody can generate 55 different types of income streams. And if you're listening to this, and you feel discouraged, because you heard that, I would also say that there's nothing wrong with having a good job making good money and keeping your monthly spending below your income. You are creating wealth each month through your salary. And then think about that. And then the other thing I was thinking about is it nowadays, compared to let's say, when I started investing, I went when my niece is I have five nieces when each of them turned 18, I flew back to America for their graduation, and I bought $3,000. And I gave it to them and help them put it into an investment account, in this case at Vanguard, and taught them to try to just invest in this one instrument, there's an instrument called the Vt fonner Vt ETF it owns every stock in the world. And I was like, forget everything else. And just every month, put some money in there. And don't ever sell just let it grow over time. And you know that I have a course about that I have a book about that I've done you know, advise that for a long time. But the point is, whether you do it on your own, you do with a little bit of help. It is not expensive. And it's not too difficult to learn on your own to invest on your own. And so I think that's a lesson that I want everybody to learn. Let me ask you. Last question, what's your number one goal for the next 12 months?

Mohanad Alwadiya 29:43
I actually have so many exciting plans. But for the next 12 months, I'm actually starting up a crowd investment platform here a FinTech company in Dubai, and it will specialize in actually making real estate Mass opportunity for people to invest. And a lot of people criticize real estate, for requiring a big capital, I'm trying to actually change that perception. And I don't want to go through these real estate investment trusts of making it much easier where people can actually review specific assets, invest in it with a small amount as low as $1,000. And they can own a stake in that property that is ready generating income, that can help them have a second source or a third source of income. So this is my biggest objective, I have so many other things on the media front, I'm publishing a new book. So a lot of things happening. But this would be my biggest if you want the goal is to start this new company.

Andrew Stotz 30:42
That sounds exciting. And we'll have links in the show notes for everything that we just talked about. And hopefully, for anybody that wants to follow it up, what's the best way for them to reach out to you,

Mohanad Alwadiya 30:54
they can reach me through my email, or my social media platforms, I have over 2.7 million followers. Now across all my verified social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook, if you're on Snapchat, and Tiktok, LinkedIn, obviously, so they can follow me anywhere, they will find the bluetec. And all these platforms, very active, I love to interact with people. And I do offer a lot of advice whenever I have time, you know, just quick answers to specific questions.

Andrew Stotz 31:23
But I think we can all follow you and also learn from you on not only not only all that you can teach but also how you manage all that, because that's a lot of stuff to manage.

Mohanad Alwadiya 31:32
Yes, of course. But I think I think one of the secrets is also having the right team to work with you and making sure that you have a thirst for knowledge, I can see all the books behind you, I can tell from our conversation, that you're somebody who's got a lot of knowledge you've and then it's just like the concept of compounding it compounds The more you read, the easier it will be for you to read more books because your knowledge, your ability to comprehend, certain terminologies or industries will will become faster and easier for you. So it's all about the power of compounding. It's unbelievable.

Andrew Stotz 32:09
And knowledge is the one thing that nobody can take away. Well, listeners, yeah, there you have it another. Go ahead.

Mohanad Alwadiya 32:16
I'm so sorry, I was just gonna add to you knowledge, investing in knowledge is the only thing that you will never lose. And it's definitely the best investment ever. I've never heard a person enrolling in a course or reading a book and they lost money in it. You don't you always gain something and you will never lose when you invest in yourself.

Andrew Stotz 32:32
And I went back to do my PhD at the age of 47 and graduated when I was 50. So I challenge any of the listeners right that we are never too old to learn. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is another story of loss to keep you winning. My number one goal for the next 12 months is to help you my listeners reduce risk and increase return in your life. To achieve this, I've created our community at my worst investment ever.com. And I look forward to seeing you there. As we conclude, Mohan. I want to thank you again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy I hereby award you, yes, you alumni status for turning your worst investment ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience?

Mohanad Alwadiya 33:19
I'm honored. Honestly, it was such a nice interview. Very natural and amazing. Great speaker. I love the podcast. I'm going to watch most or all of them. Hopefully, if I have time, I'll make sure I have the time to see all my advice to everybody is just keep investing in yourselves. Try to even if they're small, but try to start building other sources of income for yourselves. And that's it. Thank you very much.

Andrew Stotz 33:50
Fantastic and that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our well fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the upside.