Ep439: Owen O’Malley and Ana Rodríguez – Don’t Lose Control of the Checkbook

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Quick take

BIO: Owen O’Malley and Ana Rodríguez are business and life partners. They are on a mission to create one million millionaires by 31st December 2050.

STORY: Owen invested $25,000 in a business he had no experience running because his friend convinced him to. The company failed, and he lost all the money he had invested.

LEARNING: Invest in something that is liquid and is in your control. Take time to ask questions before you buy into an investment idea.

 

“Keep the money in your control at all times.”

Owen O’Malley and Ana Rodríguez

 

Guest profile

Owen O’Malley and Ana Rodríguez are business and life partners. They are on a mission to create one million millionaires by 31st December 2050. They have helped many people accumulate one million dollars in their online trading accounts, and they have a powerful plan to help you reach one million dollars by just investing 200 per month.

They were taught by the most successful investors in the world and have a combined 30 experience in the markets.

Worst investment ever

Owen was once approached by someone he knew and showed him this spectacular business plan. The plan was to set up a factory making security cameras. This was in the early 90s, before CCTV was big. Owen was excited about this project. The two were going to build their own security cameras in a tiny little factory in Donegal and sell them worldwide.

Owen’s friend convinced him to invest $25,000, which he didn’t have at the time. He went to the bank, borrowed the money, and gave it to his friend. This was the worst investment he has ever made. The business never panned out. If Owen had done his math right, he would have put that $25,000 in the stock market, and it would be worth multiple millions today.

Lessons learned

  • Make sure you invest in something that is liquid and is in your control.
  • Don’t lose control of the checkbook; keep the money in your control at all times.
  • When you invest in the best companies in the world, you’ll have the best people in the world working for you.

Andrew’s takeaways

  • Small businesses are a trap. If you’re running one, you’re just going to get trapped. You’re rarely going to be able to cash it out, so you just get stuck.
  • If someone comes to you with a sexy idea about investing, take the time to ask the questions.

Actionable advice

If you are going to invest in companies, go to the stock market and invest in the best companies.

No. 1 goal for the next 12 months

Owen and Ana’s number one goal for the next 12 months is to continue opening up investment clubs and give people that safe, supportive space that they can learn and grow within.

Parting words

 

“By living in abundance, we attract abundance for us and for others around us, so it’s safe to be there.”

Ana Rodríguez

 

Read full transcript

Andrew Stotz 00:01
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'm learning from all my guests. Second, you get my weekly email to help you increase your investment return. Third, you get 25% discount on all a Stotz Academy courses. Fourth, you get access to our Facebook community to get to know guests and fellow listeners. And finally you get my curated list of my favorite 10 episodes of this podcast fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast hosts Andrew Stotz, from a Stotz Academy, and I'm here with featured guests. Owen O'Malley and Anna Rodriguez, Owen and Anna, are you ready to rock? We're ready to roll your way are Andrew? All right. I'm excited to have you on and I'm going to introduce you to the audience, Owen and Anna, our business partners and life partners, they're on a mission to create 1 million millionaires. By December 31 2015. They have helped many people accumulate $1 million in their online trading accounts. And they have a powerful plan to help you reach $1 million by just investing $200 per month. They were taught by the most successful investors in the world and have a combined 30 years experience in the markets. Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce Owen O'Malley, CEO, and founder and Anna Rodriguez, CEO of the investment club network. Tell us a little bit about yourselves.

Owen O'Malley 01:55
Thank you, Andrew, for having us on the show. And thank you for putting on this wonderful podcast that teaches people first of all, how not to invest so that they can learn how to invest. And we've gone through that journey ourselves and I will share with you as well. Our my journey or the journey of the investment club network began way back in 1996. With the Tony Robbins wealth mastery at that event, there was a wonderful group of grandmothers called the beers to an investment club if you want to Google them little town in America called Bernstein. And they were kicking ass in the market back in 1996. I think the s&p had done something like 8%. That year, these Granny's group of grantees had done 34% that year. One of the big message they gave to us in the wealth mastery event in Hawaii. Over six long days, one of the things they said is when you go back home from this seminar, get yourself together in a mastermind group meet once a month for an hour focus on wealth creation. They said most people are busy just generate an income and they're not thinking long term wealth. And so that's exactly the idea that I took home with me from that event. And I first of all trade the stock market part time alongside my day job I used to be seven farmer I used to grow salmon. And after two years of trading the stock market part time I was making more money from the stock market than I was from my day job I was able to leave, retire in effect, and begin to tell other people that it is possible to make a living from the stock market. And it is possible to be able to work together as a group and learn from each other. And that's what's big was the foundation of our first club. One club in where I live in a remote area became 10 clubs became 100 became over 1000 clubs, one country became 50 countries. And now with the power of zoom, we were all over the world building investment clubs and supporting our members.

Andrew Stotz 03:39
Amazing an Anna, what's your background? And how did you get into this? How did you get into this relationship to

Ana Rodríguez 03:48
my background is chemistry. And after 20 years of first analyzing crappy water literally, and then organizing the other crap in the fields, literally again, I decided that I was a bit fed up of selling my life, Andrew, of being processed and owned by somebody who decided when to work, what to do, what hours and if I had to, if I wanted to take holidays, you'd say yes or no to my time that was mine. I was selling my life. At that moment. My kids were small. And I said this is not working for me. I want to be home for my kids. However I want money on why. And that's one of the most powerful questions that we can ask ourselves. What for do I want the money in my case was to choose the education that I want for my kids. Not only the formal education, but also all the kinds of education like Owen was mentioning Tony Robbins. They were walking on fire when they were not even teenagers before. At 11 and 13. They were walking on fire with with Tony Robbins. That's it Kind of vacation that I wanted for them. So that was a very powerful way. And then I put it out there to the universe, how can I make money work for me be home for my kids travel the world, get to know beautiful people and all being in a we relationship. While he delivers even follow my lab, I had to work a lot, I had to study new things. But the good news, Andrew is that everything is learnable. We can learn whatever it is, whatever our background, whatever our sex, whatever our age, it doesn't matter. Everything is learnable. And not only that, because we work in clubs, not in all cases, but in most cases in clubs, we can pick all those qualities of different people and share our own. So we all work together in a mastermind group. So it's just fantastic. Now looking back, you see my kids had occasion, they have very successful stories in the stock market as well. And well, on my shopping list. There wasn't the demand, but I got the man as well.

Andrew Stotz 06:13
And, you know, when you talk about your shopping lists, it's not like you were asking for much. You just wanted happiness, independence, money, friendship, and ultimately, also you got the bonus of a man. Some people may feel like, Oh, I don't know if I can get that or you know, like that's asking a lot, or that's way beyond where I am right now. I'm just curious, like, what advice you give you give the listeners out there who are maybe thinking a bit small because they're, you know, they're scared, and they're there, they may not have the confidence that you have today.

Ana Rodríguez 06:48
Yeah, well, I didn't have this confidence whatsoever, Andrew boards, I had the confidence to take one step. And that one step led me to the next step, and so on and so forth. And once you open yourself to receive things come to you if you're close, forget it, even if they give it to you, oh, no, no, no, I cannot take that. Well, what's the universe saying? Well, if you don't take this, I'm going to give you the next thing. So yeah, we do the survey, we need to understand Andrew, that we deserve it, whatever it is out there with the survey, because us having it doesn't mean that another person doesn't have it, it means that we're not.

Andrew Stotz 07:29
So that's a great lesson right there for the listeners to think about setting your goals high, and believing that you can get there and that you deserve it. Before we go on to the big question, you know, I just want to highlight that this is our second time trying to do this call the first time we tried to do this call, I asked you to explain a little bit about your business. And one hour later, we finished, you answered all my questions. And I felt like I understood pretty well what you're doing. And I was pretty impressed. So I'm pretty excited to have you on. And you know, we know that. You know, everybody's talking about big returns in the markets and all that. And the reality is, that's very hard. But I would say there are some advantages, particularly that an individual has, if you're a big fund manager, you got billions of dollars, you got to buy 50 stocks, you got to buy, you know, you got to buy the biggest ones. In addition, you got a risk management department that's telling you, you got to own more than that, because you can't, you got to diversify what happens if this or that, but as an individual, you can build a relatively diversified portfolio. And and, and not be under those pressures. So maybe you can just tell us, you know, this audacious goal that you have of making 1 million millionaires by the 31st of December 20 1550.

Owen O'Malley 08:56
Yeah, just touching on his point, if anybody's listening to this show, and they're feel a bit lost and a bit in the dark, and no way. I would liken it to imagine you come home from work one day and you live in a two storey home, and you come back and everything is in complete darkness. But in your mind, you have a picture of where your bedroom is and that on the second story, and you just barely find the staircase and you just say yourself, Well, I just take one step and then I can see the next step. And then I can see the next step. But at the same time, as Anna said, you have that vision of the bedroom of where you're going to get to. I think that's all you need to be successful under you have that big picture. And so we're making a bold statement tonight tiny listeners here to this podcast. We know in a heart and soul that you the listener can be worth 1 million US dollars in the stock market and we have a specific plan to get you there and that specific plan as simple as invest 200 a month, every month consistently grow the 2% a month and after 20 years a month's worth you will be worth 1 million. And that's exactly what we offer our investment club members lot of investment club members Part of the agenda of the club we circled back to what's our plan? How do we do this month? Are we on track for a plan? We often say I'm sure we've all heard it. If you fail to plan you're planning to fail. Yeah. So we're, we're very, very specific on on what we want to achieve

Andrew Stotz 10:17
in the, the astute listener may say, Oh, my God, 2% per month. How much is that? per year? 26%. And that's a lot. I mean, the stock market only went up by the stock market, let's say in the last 30 years went up by 1214 15%. Maybe Warren Buffett went up by 17 or 18% 20%, whatever that number is, how, you know, maybe you could just explain kind of the core of how you get there.

Owen O'Malley 10:48
Yeah, so you're right. Warren Buffett has consistently for 62 years, done 20% per annum. So in order for you to keep on track with our plan, you got to do 6% better than Warren Buffett. And so you might say, well, how can we do 6% better than Warren Buffett? Warren Buffett is Berkshire Hathaway fund is pretty much buy and hold. Okay. What we do is we buy, we buy and hold as a foundation. I know you're really grateful you spent last week spending one full hour actually digging deep to the substance of that and and you're just number cruncher the last 20 years of our stock selection system. Do you want to share what the growth has been in the last 20 years compared to the s&p?

Ana Rodríguez 11:28
It's been? What is your 15% sweater? I believe, overall, it spiked over the last two years. Well, you got me there, I can get the chapter.

Owen O'Malley 11:40
Yeah, we'll come back to that. So basically, our buying whole foundation is incredibly good. Because all we do is we focus on the s&p 500. Within the s&p 500, which does about 10% per annum, we know we focus on the top 100 of that, and within that top 100 will invest in the top 20 companies. And so if you think about it, if the average of 500 companies does consistently 10% per annum, but you're in the top 20%, quote, section of that 500 companies the top 100 by definition, because of averages, you got to do better than average. So, we've proven that our stock selection system is way better than the s&p 500. That's been 20 years. But on top of that, we sell call options every month, Andrew, we sell productions every month, we collect a bit of dividends. And then we take that call option premium, their production premium their dividends, to go out and buy more shares. Those shares are like free shares, because they were paid for from the income of the first batch of shares. Then we start the whole process again, those free shares spin off called income for income and dividends. Without income, we buy more shares. So it's now the hens become the chickens produce the eggs, the eggs become chickens become hens produce more eggs, and it's the interest on the interest. So it is absolutely no problem to do 6% better than Warren Buffett because you're doing the income on top of his 20%.

Andrew Stotz 13:03
And just to go through that briefly, as I've seen, you know, some of the structure of what you're doing. Basically, I'll kind of describe what I saw. And then tell me where I'm right and wrong. Basically, as you've talked about, first of all, you invest in the most liquid stocks, pretty much in the world, if they're within the s&p 500. And within the s&p 500, you actually focus on the most liquid. And then among those most liquid, you try to focus on what what could be, I don't know exactly how to call them and let's say quality at a great price type analysis where you you've analyzed all of those companies from every different angle, and then you construct a portfolio of the best stocks out of that. Sure can and then you also aren't bound by having to let's say, wait that wait those stocks by some market index waiting or something, you can just follow the waiting that does the best for you usually equal Mark equal cap. So equal weighting, you know, is a superior way than let's say market cap weighting. But the typical fund manager has to do market cap weighting because that's what they're measured against. Sure. And so this is the foundation of your system is that you can do probably what fund managers can't easily do and you have you have a structured system for picking those stocks and you stick to that structure would I be describing that writer with at

Owen O'Malley 14:32
100% if you've hit the nail on the head 100% we do diversify we do in a significant size portfolio. We do each position sizes around about 5%. So we do work with 20 companies 5% each. We work in 20 different sectors, because sectors are always going up and down and shares are always going to go up and down. And the beauty by the ups and downs of the market if anybody's listening out there, we've done incredibly well the last 18 months because the more volatile the market is more uncertain. The market is The anybody knows anything about the market, the VIX goes up, when the VIX goes up the call premiums go up, the premiums go up, and the rent goes up the power of compound interest is actually better in a volatile market. So we love with volatility is our friend. We love uncertainty. We love volatility. So to then explain that, to the listeners out there, like thinking about my mother, who's listening right now, the one you're describing as you build a quality at a good price? portfolio, yes. And you are,

Andrew Stotz 15:31
as you call it, rent but you're generating income from those stocks. Bye, bye, bye, creating some derivative instruments that are very common puts and calls are very, very common out there. Yes. And so from those puts and calls and you set them up in a way that they're not some extreme bets that you're making, you're trying to make money from the volatility. And the benefit of that is number one, you get additional income that the typical buy and hold investor would not get. And I guess the second benefit is, if the market was to crash, you have some protection. How does that work from? Let's say, the US market is going to go down by 30%? How does your portfolio performing a download?

Owen O'Malley 16:16
Sure, yeah. And so that's not impossible, because we just saw that last year in COVID, the market went down 40% in about six weeks. So if you've got a foundation of buy and hold stocks, they will recover very quickly. So that's your basic foundation. And on top of that, if you've already generated an income from call options and dividends and puts, you have now a war chest ready to capitalize on dips in the market. So we can then do a very powerful thing called dollar cost averaging, so you end up with twice as many shares and half the price. Now when it goes back up again, you get four times the leverage. So it's very powerful. We actually we love dips in the market, because that allows us to dollar cost average.

Andrew Stotz 16:59
So we would say that your risk management is not so much the derivatives when it comes to a fall in the portfolio. But it's that you have high quality companies at relatively low prices, and therefore, it hopefully doesn't fall as much and it recovers, you know, back up to where it was, or further would that be correct?

Owen O'Malley 17:17
Yeah, but we also do hedging within our position. So one of the things we do is we sell put options to generate an income, but we will then sell put options where you're given a promise to buy a share in the future. So let's say you promised to buy something for $20. Next month, the market pays you $1. Today, to promise to buy something $20 in the future, that same transaction during COVID. Last year, we were getting $4.20. That's the beauty about instability and volatility in the market. Now, once you've made that promise to buy something for 20, your exposure is $20 in the market, what we then do is we put we buy at $19 production underneath that, which gives us the option to be able to release that share at 19. So now our risk is only the difference between 20 and 19. So overnight, we transfer our risk from $20 down to one. And the net credit of that is more than the $1 risk. So our net credit for that transaction might be $2. Our net risk is one. So even if that share does drop to $10. Overnight, we're still going to walk away with $1 profit. And at least one half to two thirds of our put positions are hedged in that way within our portfolio as well. So we've double protection that

Andrew Stotz 18:26
respects when when investors hear things like puts in calls, sometimes they think that you're betting on one direction, but in fact, you're talking about kind of a net position of your puts and calls that end up netting out so that your net exposure through the derivatives is is limited. It's not like you're taking some huge directional bet. Would that be also correct?

Owen O'Malley 18:46
That's correct. And also, it's important for listeners to understand that we never buy options, we sell options first. So we will sell a call, which means you get paid in simple layman's terms. And when you sell a call option, you get paid to sell your shares. When you sell a put option, you get paid to buy your shares. And the goal is to treat your shares like a property, you buy a house you put in tenancy collect rent, and you hope, eventually their house gets paid for by the tenants rent. You know, that takes me 2030 years. And if you use cash or borrowed money, we can show you in the stock market for your property investors out there, we can show you to do the exact same process in two to three years or even less, were the same concept. You buy an asset, you generate an income the income eventually buys the asset for you. And so that's the concept that people need to understand. We don't buy options, which is extremely dangerous thing to do. We sell premium. Got it we collect the rent.

Andrew Stotz 19:44
And the last question I have about what you're doing is, you know, if Why aren't other individuals doing this, why are they just sitting in buying and holding, you know, why is it that they're not enhancing their return? With the derivative strategy,

Owen O'Malley 20:02
yeah, it's as simple as this. Like, I don't know anything about Bitcoin mining, I know nothing about mining, so therefore I'm never going to do it. I don't have the inclination or the desire to actually understand what crypto mining is. But I'm sure if I did a course on it and studied it and figured it out, I probably would want to if there's a decent return, I'll probably want to do it. Yep. But I've no intention of doing so that's the way people are rather, they have no intention of learning what a call option is no intention, and I'm going to put option is actually no intention of a stock selection system. So we just had a seminar, our first seminar since locked down last Saturday in Galway in the west of Ireland. And we'd 15 people in the room and they wanted to be there, they were glued to their chairs, glued everywhere that Anna said, glued every word I said, they walked away there, within within hours and days, they were putting their results in their whatsapp group of the companies, they had research using our system. So they have a desire to learn. And they have a hunger to learn. And they have a clear plan, we've actually set them on a plan to be worth 1.5 million each in 10 years time, the club is already at 46,000. They're already doing the averages. So in 10 years time, those members were worth 1.5 million 10 years from now. So their focus, they have a clear plan. They're excited and they want to learn, they will do well. But somebody who's down the pub, because the pubs reopened in Galway. On that same day, having a point again, is telling the Burma what's wrong with the world. He will never do what we do because he's not interested. He doesn't want to learn. That's what he doesn't do.

Andrew Stotz 21:37
Got it? Yeah. And I mean, I tried to learn about Bitcoin mining, I got out my shovel, I went out in the backyard. You know, I just really couldn't get success with it. So I had to decide. So a little bit more complicated, but dedication. And you can learn? Well, I think that's a great introduction to what you're doing. I know, the listeners are going to be interested. Just before we get into the question, what's the best I'll have all the links in the show notes. But for someone that says I can't even go to the I don't want to go to the show notes. I just want to go straight to learn more about this. Where should they go?

Owen O'Malley 22:10
Oh, if they want to engage with us Ti si n dot a tango indigo, Charlie nov.ie, which is an Irish website, or if they want to go direct and communicate with Anna a and a one in a to send out a and it will help them. Number one, find the right club for them. and guide them through the the early steps of figuring out what we do and how we can help you.

Andrew Stotz 22:32
Fantastic. Well, that's a complete understanding of what you guys are doing. And I appreciate that. But let me tell you, now it's time to share your worst investment ever since no one ever goes into their worst investment thinking will be. Tell us a bit about the circumstances leading up to it then tell us your story.

Owen O'Malley 22:50
Yeah, so this happened way before Tony Robbins way before I was exposed to the stock market, I was approached by someone I knew who gave me a set of figures. And they were going to set up a camera making security cameras, a factory making security cameras. Now this is back in I want to say early 90s. This is before CCTV was big. This is before you know, as I say they recommend if you go to London, your image is going to be captured 300 times a day in London. So we're all excited about this project, we were going to build our own security cameras in a small little factory here in Donegal and sell them all over the world. And so they persuaded me to invest 25,000, which I didn't have at the time, but I went to the bank and I borrowed the 25,000. So I made the classic mistake that everybody did is it's a friends and fools scenario. I was a fool. I wasn't a friend to these guys, but I was the fool. And I bought the sexy looking business plan and all the promises and you know the usual words that people give you this is a no brainer. It's a you know, it's a whole new one type of investment. And I went out and put myself and my family under a lot of financial pressure. Just because I was a fool. I knew nothing about business. I knew nothing about how businesses run, I didn't realize that 85% of businesses fail in the first five years and 96% of businesses fail in the first 10 years. But even if you are successful in business small to medium sized businesses, you're lucky to make 5% profit. So you got to turn over a million to make 50 grand to be even successful. So if I hadn't done some basic maths, I would not have made that investment. So that was by far the worst investment. If I put that 25,000 in the market back then no one I know now that will be worth no exaggeration, multiple of millions today.

Andrew Stotz 24:44
So how would you describe what you learn from it?

Owen O'Malley 24:49
So what I learned from that is one that go into an investment with your eyes wide open. I mean, it was a privately held company. So it was completely illiquid, you know even if I wanted to sell the shares, nobody would be interest in violence. So the only thing the only place to be and the richest people in the world are in the stock market period. Why? Because it's liquid, you can buy and sell at a drop of a hat. And it's t plus two, you can buy your shares today, Tuesday's later that money can be any, in any bank account in the world, in your name fully liquid where you can go in and withdraw that money. So lesson number one, make sure you invest in something that is liquid that is in your control. And that for the listeners out there, we never take money from our members, our members have full control of their money at all times the money's in their bank account in their club, bank account or individual account, that they have full control. So I had this conversation with somebody else who's pitching me on some forex deal where he was saying, Yeah, you doubled your money in the first four months, and then you double it again, the next 12 months. And I did the Master says, Look, if this is true, in 10 years, I will be I will make more money than Warren Buffett has made in 60 years. So I said to him, and oh my god, you've given your money to somebody else, oh, yeah, it takes us three months to get the money. So that's a big lesson for the listeners. Number one, don't lose control of the checkbook, keep the money in your control at all times. And there's no other place for the stock market to do that. Because it's highly liquid, it's easy to buy. And so

Andrew Stotz 26:18
it's, it's great, I think, um, you know, I was thinking about your story as I was listening to it. And I was also just thinking, I often say that, you know, small businesses a trap. Because if you're running it, you're just gonna get trapped, it's very rare, as you've already expressed, it's very rare that you're going to really be able to cash out, you're going to get stuck. If it does, well, let's say it does, okay, you're going to be looking for the next five or 10 years as you try to make it you know, bigger. But this point that you make is that majority of businesses, truthfully, there, they just don't, they don't pay the owners enough in salary and compensation. And they don't pay enough in dividends. So even though the statistics may say a 5%, can make it past five years, many of those 5% still are not really generating the real income. So the odds are, you know, the odds are and now to top it off, put on top of that, your story has talked about Oh, and I'm going to tag along for that ride. And we now know that the reality of that right is that it's a huge risk. And of course, the crazy part about it is that if we don't have people taking that risk, society never really moved forward. Or the entrepreneur is somewhat crazy. And they're taking these risks that they just can't figure out that the risk taking if they knew the risks they were taking, they probably wouldn't even do it. But we need that, you know, that madness to move the world forward. So that was the one thing that I was thinking about. And the other thing is, you know, you were just saying, you know, I was friends and fools I was a fool. You know what one of my favorite quotes is by Otto von von von Bismarck, and he said, Only a fool learns from his mistakes. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others over the listeners out there. You got a guy here on is telling us I was afford the time. Listen to that, the next time that someone comes to you with some sexy idea about invest in this invest in that take the time to ask the questions, not just with that business. But also we heard that own ask the questions when someone came up with their forex scam idea or even if you look at as I've done, you know, with own and Anna asked a lot of questions. In fact, that's the key really to building success in your life generally is ask the questions. Anything you'd add to that?

Owen O'Malley 28:59
Yeah, just a great thought came to my mind, as you said that there's that like so. The one of the big things invest in the stock market is you're invested in the top 4% these guys have met at the med pass the first five years of failure the first the next 10 years. They've been floated on the stock exchange by being accepted into the stock exchange. They are the creme de la creme de la creme. And now they're run by the brightest and smartest people on the planet. I had a great conversation with Anna's guys, two days ago. They invested heavily in Tesla when Tesla dropped around $300 a share back in March last year during COVID. And as we all know, that went to 900. So they've done incredibly well. But even having said this is a very smart guy and his son is really, really smart. He's just a spreadsheet wizard. And he's one of his goal is to work for Elon Musk in some form like either SpaceX or Tesla's on that. But obviously he has to go to college and you know, get there, but he didn't realize we were just having a joke at the kitchen saying he was washing the dishes and I said you know It was something like along, he says, and he said something like, I don't know, do I want to be Elon Musk pitch? And then I said to Jaime, do you not realize that Elon Musk is your bitch, this is what you mean. I said, you own shares in Tesla, he has to get out of bed every day, him and his team to make test and work for you. The number one responsibility of the executive of a publicly traded company is to increase your shareholder value. And for the first time, we realized that he doesn't have to work for Ilan. Ilan is now working for him. And he was used, but Ilan owns 24% of Tesla only on a few shares. So the only difference between you and Ilan is just the number of shares. He still is your bitch. And he got all happy, big smile on his face.

Andrew Stotz 30:44
And then if he was really wise, he would have gone back to bed and let you know Ilan, work his butt off.

Owen O'Malley 30:49
Exactly. That's exactly what happens. Folks, you're listening out there, you can invest in the best invest best companies in the world. And the best people in the world are working for you.

Andrew Stotz 31:00
Period. Fantastic. So based upon what you learn from this story, and what you continue to learn in your life, what one action would you recommend our listeners to take to avoid suffering the same fate?

Owen O'Malley 31:13
Just go straight into the stock market, if you are going to invest in companies go to the stock market and go to the best companies. And that's the one mistake, you know, the opposite of that 25 grand had I put it in the stock market and bought one, one of the top quality companies? You know, it would have been a completely different story today. Did you want to share with the listeners about the journey with your boys and how they've done?

Ana Rodríguez 31:41
Yeah, they've done fantastically well. As I said before, they recognize a low moment in the market when COVID hit. And because they had practice before with pretend money. And then with money, even though they were minors, they were trading in accounts on our names. They had the skills, they had the knowledge, they had the ability of saving money, they knew about saving money on what to do with it, when the moment when the time would come. So they had all that within themselves. And all they had to do with take another spray and sorry, another step to take. But they had the knowledge before. So for our listeners there, I would say learn stuff. And overall learn how you are because you think it as me but I'm going to tell you anyway, what was my biggest mistake my worst investment ever, was not to invest in knowing myself, and to be completely congruent with who I am. I almost read to you before that. I'm good with numbers, but I don't remember them. So Oh knows me or number no clue. But I know what it saved. So it's okay to say I'm not super duper, somebody can do something better than me. It's okay. Let's be humble. Whatever I know, I know, I'm what I don't know, it's okay. Because we've been trained to be the best to never failed to do everything fantastic. And that's not real. So the sooner we learn our own, there's abilities in brackets in the things that we are not so good at. But we can develop tricks, we can save things, we can write things, we can apply systems like our own, we apply the system. So it doesn't matter whether I remember a number or not, because I have a spreadsheet with all the numbers there. And then I apply the six the system, take the boxes, go for it. And I know that I'll do well in the long term. And that's what my kids have done. Instead, knowing themselves working in a team, knowing a system applying it taking action and become that wealthy. My eldest, Jaime is now traveling and I said, I know you if you need to take a taxi, take a taxi, if you're hungry, eat, I'll give you the money. And don't don't have a hard time not spending money. And he says, You can't imagine how good I feel. When I don't say when I don't spend the money somewhere that I can save. And then I can invest it in the market. So good. So that's how they became.

Andrew Stotz 34:27
Yeah, that's fantastic.

Ana Rodríguez 34:28
In the future, enjoying the present moment?

Andrew Stotz 34:32
Yeah. And you talked about the system, you know, and that's, a lot of times when we look back at the stock market, we look at crashes and we think why didn't I buy them. But of course we don't buy oftentimes because we don't have a good system. We're not we haven't practiced as you said. And then we're overtaken by the emotion of the market and of the people and then we end up missing the opportunity. And so I like what Warren Buffett often talks about, as the market. Good is just simply a transaction tool, a tool to make transactions. But don't let the movements in the market, you know, cause your emotions to go crazy. And so I like the focus on the structure.

Ana Rodríguez 35:14
Yeah. And if you look at the market, Andrew, if you look how many years he's done better than the last year is that outperforms? The time study goes below. But what happens with the news? They don't sell it? They say all the market has gone crazy. And it's gone up this much. And is 25% more than last year? Do you ever hear that? But if it goes, one 1% Oh, my god world is collapsing. Yeah. Because that sales, so is

Andrew Stotz 35:46
yourself.

Ana Rodríguez 35:48
important to know the knowledge and applied that wisdom? Yep.

Andrew Stotz 35:56
So last question, what's both of your number one goal for the next 12 months? I know your goal to 2050?

Owen O'Malley 36:05
Well, it is in the pursuit. So not only do we know, we want a million millionaires in 30 years time, we know exactly what we have to do. We've got we've know what we've got to do this year, next year, to get to that. So we're just continuing to open up investment clubs give people that safe, supportive space that they can learn and grow within. continuing to work with lump sum clubs, as well. We've got clubs where people put in lump sums, rather than a drip feed, will continue to work with individuals that have a lot of money in a bank, making very little money for them, working harder for them. So we're working on those three funds to guide us to continue to develop those three things. Yeah,

Andrew Stotz 36:43
yeah, we're gonna plan.

Ana Rodríguez 36:45
Sorry, can I show you what they look like? Yep. Because I'm thinking of the people listening on the other side. And they may say, Oh, my God, stocks, what the hell is this talk? Oh, learning about options, what is an option learning all that kind of stuff, everyday having to look at the charts. And listen, that's not the way it goes, whatsoever. There are things to be learned. But let's focus as always saying on the second floor, where do I want to get to? In the meantime, let's have fun. And that's very, very important. Let's have fun. When I made I have a club with ladies only is called empowered. And we're looking forward to meeting together. Why because we not only talk about the money and the charts and the options, and selling and buying to close and sell to open, we have created a community we know of each other, we know about the other people's lives. And we are creating that strong bond. And we know that we're going to be there until our youngest member who is two and a half is off. So it can be something potentially very boring and out of our league can become something that we enjoy. If we put our attention elsewhere. For instance, I love creating art videos and photographs and stuff. So I say, what can I do with this? So I've started a series of videos of how I taught myself or how I learned myself and how I taught my kids so that they become the people that they are now and I'm sharing that with the world in videos. Oh, the things that we can go that we can do with whatever's in front of us.

Andrew Stotz 38:34
Now what are my mother always says inch by inch? It's a cinch, yard by yard. It's hard. And I like what you know, when you were telling the story about the dark garage and trying to get to your bedroom. I mean, that's a great story. Because, you know, just last night I woke up in the middle of the night, the lights were off, and I needed to walk to the bathroom and I had my hands out. I knew it's there. That's over there. We know it. We know we're going. So I think we all been through that as we kind of, you know, inch our way through the house.

Owen O'Malley 39:06
So listeners we know Warren Buffett started at age 11 was $100. In today's worth 90 million at age 90. We know the journey is possible. We just have to take as you said inspired. Yep.

Andrew Stotz 39:19
Well, listeners there you have it 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. And I think today I helped with that. To achieve that. I've created our community at my worst investment ever. And I look forward to seeing you all there. As we conclude. Oh and Anna, I want to thank you both, again for coming on the show. And on behalf of a Stotz Academy I hereby award you both alumni status for turning your worst investment or ever into your best teaching moment. Do you have any parting words for the audience? You can do it. Bring us home man.

Ana Rodríguez 40:01
I would say we deserve it. It is by living in abundance. We attract abundance for us and for others around us, so it's safe to be there. Beautiful,

Andrew Stotz 40:15
beautiful. Well, that's a wrap on another great story to help us create, grow and protect our wealth. Fellow risk takers. This is your worst podcast host Andrew Stotz saying. I'll see you on the other side.

 

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About the show & host, Andrew Stotz

Welcome to My Worst Investment Ever podcast hosted by Your Worst Podcast Host, Andrew Stotz, where you will hear stories of loss to keep you winning. In our community, we know that to win in investing you must take the risk, but to win big, you’ve got to reduce it.

Your Worst Podcast Host, Andrew Stotz, Ph.D., CFA, is also the CEO of A. Stotz Investment Research and A. Stotz Academy, which helps people create, grow, measure, and protect their wealth.

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