Why Ben Mallah Will NEVER Invest in Bitcoin

I can't get involved with something I really don't understand and I would never ever risk anybody's money in something that I don't know what I'm doing. So, you know, I'm not knocking it and I'm not for it because I don't understand Bitcoin and I've seen it all over the place and I know it's a new thing and yeah, my son told me to buy it when it was a dollar. Ben Jr., he told me to buy Bitcoin when it was a dollar. He even went a dollar. Why didn't he buy? >> I think he was in college. >> Why did >> Because you don't know. You don't have a crystal ball. It could have been a fraud and it's run by computers. And you know who controls the computers? People. And then if the wrong people get in there, I don't know. You know, I heard all kinds of stories. You hear good, you hear bad, I don't know. It It's not my generation. Technology. I came when technology was born. Okay. I didn't really grow with it. That's the problem. Guys like you have grown with technology and understand it is more part of your life. So you know what are you gonna do? You can't do everything in life. But >> do you think it's worth it to take the time to understand it or to diversify >> 3% into it? >> It's always good to diversify because when you diversify if something hurts you, it's okay because you got some diversification there of other things to protect you. So I'm not against it. And then maybe if my son insisted or Aaron insisted, hey, let's open up a Bitcoin account or whatever, I'd say, fine, open it up. But I'd be doing it more for him than me. I'm in real estate. Just like I don't loan money. >> What's >> I don't play the stocks anymore. >> I just do what I know because if I focus on what I know, I know I'm going to do well. I know what I'm doing. This is going to either sound really stupid or really amazing 20 years from now. But I see a lot of people online, a lot of real estate investors on Twitter saying, "I don't see the point in real estate anymore to try to bust my making 6 7%." When I believe Bitcoin is going to average 20 to 40% annualized returns over the next 20 years, why am I going to do that? But even even at 10, why take the risk, the work, the >> Everybody's different. whatever works for you. You're in control of your life. If you have a risk tolerance for Bitcoin, then go for it. Um, you know, I hope you make a fortune. I know guys that have made millions and millions of dollars of Bitcoin, millions and millions. And and I'm happy for him, but it wasn't my route. I focused on what I knew and I focused on necessity. People always need a place to live. People always need a place to shop. People always need a place to work. People need real estate is the world. You can't live without real estate. You know, if Bitcoin something happens and the computers go cuckoo tomorrow and everybody's Bitcoin can't find it or whatever the happened, uh computer chips or whatever break down, whatever the happens or somebody figures out a way to it up, >> someone turns it off. >> You know, you still got your house. You buy your house, you got your house. You buy that building, you know, the people going to pay your rent every month. I mean, listen, it's everybody. It's just like why didn't you become a doctor? You know, you choose your path in life and you choose where you want to put your efforts and your time and you you go for it. You know, it just, you know, it wasn't me. Even stocks aren't me anymore. My my youngest wants to, you know, we will over the summer for his benefit to trade some stocks, but I have no interest in it because I don't do six or 7%. I do value ad. I take garbage and I try to turn it into gold physically, mentally. I create it. I make it happen. I'm in control. I'm not just saying, "Oh, Bitcoin should go up. I'm going to make money." You're not What are you doing? You ain't doing >> I mean, to me, I like to make my money happen. Make it. Create it. You know, and uh just like, you know, you work for a living. You're you're creating your wealth. You're in control. If you make money, it's because you did it, not because you invested in Bitcoin. Yes, we got to have investments, you know, and you pick your and choose your investments. I choose mun bonds. You might choose Bitcoin. Whatever works for you is fine. It's your money. You earned it. >> Looking back, is there a life lesson or philosophy that you've adopted that you wish you implemented earlier in life? >> Sometimes I I could have took more risk and I didn't do it. I I always played it a little too. I didn't I could have bit off more than I could chew. >> Did I say that right? >> I could have bit more off >> and I could have [clears throat] chewed it. >> I could have swallowed it. I could have well I don't know if you like to swallow but that's another thing I don't know that um the point is that you know my sons do it to me all the time and it actually gives me a physical pain we're driving down the street you know we could have bought that building 5 years ago for half of what it's sitting is now you know we could have bought that bill I could have bought >> Why do they say this to you they just rub it in or what's >> No but listen you know the facts are the facts and the truth and the truth Did my kids tell me to buy more property back in the day? And I said, "No, I don't think so. The market's the market's already at a height." I didn't see it coming. I didn't see rents going from 800 to 1,600 in such a short period of time. You don't have a crystal ball. Now, I did pretty good, so you can't beat me down. But could I have done more? I could have done a more. I could have been a multi-billionaire if if I would have leveraged all the assets. I could have leveraged a lot more stuff that I did. I had the down payment. I could have bought up a ton of but I didn't do it. I didn't want to over, you know, bite off more than I could chew and I could have chewed it. But, you know, it could have went the other way. My do my kids always say, "Well, you know, it could have went the other way, Dad. You know, the market could have went down or it could have stayed the same and you'd be stuck with all these." So, you know, nobody's got a crystal ball. You don't know what the future is. You can predict it. You can sometimes apply logic to it. Like, yeah, if an Amazon place gets built up in an area where it's it's it's a deserted area and you know they're going to have 2,000 employees there, then you know damn well it pays to build, right? And you know it pays to build retail and you know it pays to create a community, a housing community. That's common sense. [gasps] It's interesting. I hear that a lot actually when I ask people what their biggest financial regret is, especially people that are like doing well financially. They always say, "I wish I could go back in time and have bought more equity, more assets, and invested more aggressively." But I also wonder if that's a little bit of survivorship bias >> because they're here, they're doing great by all means. Sure, they could be doing better, but to do better, you have to have a completely different framework. Instead of being conservative and calculated that applies to every action in your life, you would then become risky and aggressive and then that's what it would and you don't know where that would have also led you. And so it's like, >> but I came from a being a risk taker, but even though it really wasn't risk, I don't know, it's hard to explain. You know, I always tried to do deals that I knew for a fact I was going to make money. I knew that if I bought this property, I know I can raise the rents if I do A, B, and C to it and manage it better than the last guy. So, there was no risk in everything I did. You know, I always knew ahead of time, I'm I'm making money the day I buy this place because I know what I got to do. I know it's going to work because I already know what the market's going on. Now, to predict the future, that's a different story. >> Now, what about rising insurance costs right now? Because I know that's >> it actually came down this year. I just I just insured my whole portfolio and we got about a 15% savings. >> How did that happen? >> Because insurance got so high people stopped using it. In fact, you know what I stopped doing? If I didn't have a loan on the property, I didn't get insurance. I only got a liability in case I get sued if somebody got hurt. I said, I'll be the insurance company. If there's a fire and it cost 50 grand or 100 grand or, you know, god forbid, the whole place burns down, which never happens. I'll I'd rather take the risk than just give that kind of money to the insurance company. Insurance on apartments were always $3 $400 a unit. Right now they're 15 to 1,800 a unit. All right? In Florida, we get hit hard because of the hurricanes and all that. The problem is this. The insurance companies are the biggest crooks in the world. I'm sorry. It's true. Because they don't they don't have no risk. You know why? Because if they do get hit with big claims, okay, and I've seen it time after time again, they get hit here in Florida with big claims and hurricanes. What do they do immediately? They raise everybody else's rent, make us pay for it. That's what they do. So, they recapture all the money they paid out. >> I heard another strategy that they use is not to pay out the full amount. They claim some sort of loophole or whatever. They expect a certain amount to settle and then the lawsuits they expect they're going to spend X amount fighting this and we're going to spend X amount fighting this so therefore it's better for us to fight this thing to try to settle for less. >> Most insurance companies like to settle if they can because they don't want to deal with lawyers and they don't want to run up legal fees. We deal with this all the time. I mean and the lawyers have driven the claims up so high now they make no sense. They'd be just totally ridiculous with something a lawsuit. It should be a h 100,000 is now 500,000. I mean, you know, it's crazy. The courts and the lawyers have gone nuts with lawsuits. >> Is there any solution to this? Now, most people think forming an LLC is just about filling out one form and calling it a day. But there's a lot more to it than that. And if you skip the rest, your LLC isn't really set up the way it needs to be. That is why we have partnered with Northwest Registered agent. For $39 plus state fees, Northwest handles the state filing and make sure you have everything you actually need. Your operating agreement, membership certificates, and banking resolutions. Without those documents, you might be registered with the state, but you're not really ready to operate because banks, vendors, and partners expect to see them. Plus, you get a free domain, website, email, and phone number when you file your LLC through Northwest, which means your business is ready to operate right away. And your home address never goes on the public record. Northwest uses their own address on your filing instead of yours. So, if you want your LLC done right the first time, just go to northwestregisteredagent.com/ic to get started. It's northwestregistered agent.com/ic or click the link down below in the description to get your LLC filed. Thank you Northwest registered agent for sponsoring this episode. Is there any solution to this? >> Stop. You know, the lawyers want make a fortune. You know, if somebody has a million dollar claim in a car accident, you know how much the lawyer gets? >> 30%. >> 40. Maybe they can negotiate 30. You're right. Imagine that. They're going to make 300 grand off somebody's car accident. The lawyers have driven the settlements all the way up to the top. And who runs the courts? Who are the judges? Ex lawyers. They control the whole system. [laughter] the system is is is you know they're not going to go against their own people and lawyers kind of have this like bond. >> Well, the hard part is that it costs so much to defend a lawsuit even if it's baseless. >> Yeah. Lawyers are charging ridiculous money an hour now and then they got to hire people. They got to charge for this. It's crazy. Well, you know, a good lawyer is going to charge 500 bucks an hour now. It's ridiculous. An hour. Do you think it could ever be feasible that we implement the system in the United States where if you pursue a lawsuit and you lose, you are responsible for the other person's legal fees? >> You know, sounds logical, but technically sometimes you can lose and really not, you know, >> deserve to lose >> deserve to lose or maybe it was a you shouldn't have lost so much or, you know, I don't know. I I try to stay out of the court system because it's just very very tricky. >> But do you think that might cut back throwing a dice frivolous? >> I feel like instead of having to raise and frivolous lawsuits >> Yeah. >> Publiclix, you know Publix, right? I think they get sued like I don't know how many if you count all the lawsuits they have a slip and falls and most of them >> you know like constantly like every day they have lawsuits coming in. It's crazy. >> It would be interesting instead of having to resue for legal fees to sue them back for legal fees. It could just be a part of the dismissal process where the jury then decides, okay, you sued, it was frivolous to this degree, 70% frivolous, you pay 70% of what you're going to have, but then if somebody sues you for a frivolous lawsuit, nine times out of 10, they ain't got to pot the pistons. They ain't getting anyway. >> That's true. So what's the point is the problem is is you got the you got the people in life that are always trying to over and and and and and have some slick way of beating the system or doing something that's crooked or doing something that's shady and they're the ones that ruin it for everybody that really tries to do the right thing. >> What if there's a a database for lawyers and you can go back and see their history of performance in the court of law and that evidence and data could be used maybe. >> No, because most lawsuits settle outside of court. They're not going to go to a jury trial. It's easier just to settle and get 20. Either way, we don't need a solution. I don't think we have a solution. >> The lawyers get paid regardless. >> Yeah. >> Unless they took it on contingency and lose >> to single guys out there, cuz that's a lot of our demographic is like men 18 to 35. You have had plenty of experience dating, right? What would you say >> not dating? >> Mating. Okay. What would you say most guys are getting wrong in terms of dating? You know, you can't get too caught up in a relationship at a young age. You just can't. >> What is a young age? How it holds? >> 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 18 to 25. And then it depends on what you've accomplished while you're 18 to 25. You can't get into a relationship unless you got your together and you got your life on track and you're, you know, you're you're moving in the direction you need to be and you're you're self-sufficient, you know, and you're stable. And then the other person should be stable too. I mean, you know, and then, you know, I mean, really, you shouldn't really be getting I wouldn't see people having kids till like 30. I think 30 is really the right year to to maybe start thinking about having kids if you're successful and stable and comfortable in your life. >> Isn't that early? Because if you're 20, let's just say you're 26, you got your life together, and you meet someone, then it's also like, well, you got to date them for a few years, and then you got to get married, and then it's like another year, and then and then you're 35, >> whatever. Listen, everybody's different. You never know. You know, it's all about meeting somebody that's going to make your life pleasant and productive, whether it's moneywise or home life. Like my wife, she don't work, but I still feel like she's productive because she's got her responsibilities. She's got the house, she's got the kids, she's got our life, she's got she's involved. Okay. Uh, you know, it's got to be people that and and we're opposites. 100% opposite in every way. Imagine that. >> Mhm. >> You know, it's funny how you say, "Oh, this person likes doing this and I like doing that." Me and my wife are opposites and it works. I mean, everybody's different. We're all human. But, you know, you really shouldn't get caught up in a relationship till you got your own together and you got some money, you got your career going, you got your goals set, you're on the right track, you take care of yourself, you know, and you know, cuz dating, you know, you can start dating, you can start spending money, you know, you want to wine and dine, you want to have a fancy car, you know, you want to have a nicer place. A lot of people don't want to struggle. They don't want to they want it right now. They want to live it now. And that's how they up their credit and uh you know and and put themselves in a hole they can't get out of. That's the worst thing in the world is to dig yourself in a hole where it's almost impossible to get out of. >> Do you think guys should pay for taking the girl out every single time? >> I mean, yeah, I think that um you know, you're still a man, okay? You know, I mean, I think you know, it depends. I mean, you know, to me, yeah, you're a guy and you're dating a woman. Listen, no matter all the crap that goes on these days, it's still pretty much expected. You know, it's funny. All these women, the women's live and they want to be equal, but you when you go out to dinner, they sure want you to pay the bill, don't they? Yeah. Um, so, you know, I don't know. It's just it's it's the human custom I think that's been just the man's a man still, >> you know, and typically, let's face it, you know, men make more money than women and men women ain't going to do a lot of jobs men do. >> So, are there certain things though in a relationship that you would say look out for this, be aware of this that you've learned this is like a bad characteristic or red flag. You got to know when the flags pop up or the signals pop up. You got to you got to >> So, what are signals that you should be privy to? >> Anything that you feel is not you know, conforming with your life. I mean, you know, when you stop seeing like people, you know, like, you know, you like a girl and she's whatever, super hot and she got a lot of good qualities, but maybe she drinks too much, you know, maybe that's, you know, not, you know, a good sign. you know, if they overindulge in anything, you know, on moderation or, you know, I mean, you know, the person's got to match you and what your goals are in life. You know, if they want to constantly worry about party, party, party, then, you know, you know, it's not going to get you nowhere. It's going to take you down the wrong road. You know, cuz the party's over the next day and you forget all about it anyway. So, what the hell? How much more did it motivate you to make money and be successful having a wife and having kids? >> I mean, you know, having the kids definitely was a motivation knowing that I need money. I got to put I got to pay for these kids food. I got to pay for these kids. I got to have a decent place to live. I got to have a decent car to get around with. I got to have them in school. I It cost money. Kids are not cheap, you know. And you don't want to, you know, have a kid and raise them like uh, you know, a piece of like I was raised, you know. See, coming from such a bad upbringing made me, you know, have a more bigger desire to really do well for my kids and give them a good life.