In this episode of The Personal Finance Podcast, we’re going to talk to Paul Alex on how he went from Police Officer to Multimillionaire investing in ATM’s
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In this episode of The Personal Finance Podcast, we’re going to talk to Paul Alex on how he went from Police Officer to Multimillionaire investing in ATM’s
In this episode of The Personal Finance Podcast, we’re going to talk to Paul Alex on how he went from Police Officer to Multimillionaire investing in ATM’s
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Transcript:
On this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we're gonna talk to Paul Alex on how he went from police officer to multimillionaire investing in ATMs.
Woo, what's up to everybody and welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast. I'm your host Andrew, founder of Master money.co, and today on the Personal Finance Podcast, we're gonna be talking to Paul Alex about how he became a millionaire investing in ATMs. If you guys have any questions, make sure to hit. On Instagram or TikTok at Master Money Co.
And follow us on Spotify, apple Podcast or whatever podcast player you love listening to this podcast tune. And if you want to help out the show, leave a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Now, today we're gonna be talking to Paul, Alex about how he invests in ATMs. And this is a really cool episode because I've seen Paul blowing up on Instagram and TikTok and all over the place.
And what Paul does is he buys ATMs and that's how he invests his dollars to get started. And then from there, he teaches you how to build wealth with atm. So we talk through all sorts of things about the ATM business today, including how to find a location, how much do ATMs cost, how do you maintain ATMs, how much cash do you need to start an at m business, how much time does it take to start an at m business and how you can automate the systems so that you don't have to be working in and outta the business as well.
Then we go through some of his philosophies on money, and he's got some cool philosophies on money that we talk about as well. And then obviously at the end we ask Alex what wealth means to him. So this is a really cool episode. If you're looking for another way to invest some of your dollars, this is a really cool way to invest your money for really low startup costs.
You can start a business with very low startup costs, and we get into that as well. So without further ado, let's welcome Paul to the Personal Finance Podcast. So Paul, welcome to the Personal Finance Podcast. Hey, how's it going, man? We are so excited to have you here because you have a really, really cool story.
And I've been following you on Instagram and TikTok, and I've seen you pop up everywhere now where, um, you've been investing in ATMs for a little while, but you have a really cool story and background on how you kind of got to this point. So, for someone who is new, I want to dive into some of the nitty gritty, but first I want to get into your story a little bit.
So how did you get into investing in ATMs? Yeah, absolutely, man. I mean, I think it's a very unique story just because I've , I've been in the consulting space for the past two years, and, uh, to go from law enforcement to, you could say a boring business. Yeah. People are like, that's weird. But here I am. So let me explain exactly a little bit of background for anybody that's listening.
Um, I'm originally born and raised in San Francisco, which is the Bay Area in California. Guys. I'm currently in San Diego. I actually moved here. Right before 4th of July last year in 2021, came here to actually scale one of my company's atm together.com. Um, this is actually my third career, believe it or not.
It's my third career being a full-time entrepreneur. Uh, I come from a sales management role in corporate America for the past six years. When I turned 21, once I was around 26, I was like, Hey, why not become a cop? So , that's what I ended up doing, man. I ended up, uh, actually working in the city of Oakland, um, here in, uh, the Bay Area in California.
If you guys don't know at that time, you know, it was craziness. I was going down there and I was just like, Hey, if I'm gonna be a cop, I'm gonna be cop somewhere where, you know, I'm actually gonna do cop work. So I chose Oakland man and uh, I was in law enforcement for the past seven years. Worked several units, uh, crime Reduction team, uh, narcotics Task Force, and then finally special victims unit.
Uh, I got volunteered to basically go into investigations my eighth month in as a B cop. And, uh, yeah, it was crazy like the time. Blown by like my twenties, completely gone. But to be honest, it was like the most fulfilling career I've ever had. So to transition to what I'm doing now, the last two years of law enforcement, I was working 60 to a hundred hour work weeks.
It was insane. And whoever's listening to this, I was always a serial entrepreneur. Since the age of 18, I mean, I used to do nightclub events and we're talking about in the thousands, uh, 18 years old. throwing a nightclub event. You know, the day before Thanksgiving having 1500 people inside the venue before 10:00 PM man, I was just all about entrepreneurship.
And then I tried getting into the e-com space, lost pretty big on the e-com space. And this is before like Instagram, this is before Twitter, before all the social media platforms where everybody's now trying to sell you a Amazon drop shipping course. No, this is like legitimate. I tried to build an e-com store, uh, before that whole trend started.
And then, uh, I actually tried digital marketing back in MySpace days, man. When you used to have a profile and you had like a little song and your intro. Yeah. I didn't know it myself, but I was actually like, Sort of coding. I was doing H T M L codes for like phone lists and all that for like my nightclub events.
And I just didn't have a mentor at that time to like really nurture me like how a lot of society nowadays has mentors online, which is awesome. I mean, I wish I would've had this when I was like 18 to 21 because things would've been a lot different. But with that being said, yeah, I. I'm actually very thankful for the route that I took and, uh, for all the lessons and personal experiences that I got within corporate America, law enforcement, and now full-time entrepreneurship.
So to go back to ATMs, the last two years of law enforcement, uh, was working crazy amount of hours, basically blood money on overtime, 60 to a hundred hour work weeks is because the cases, it was a heavy load case in Oakland. Um, I mean this is a department where you're supposed to have like 800 officers and we literally were like, we were running so low, it was like 545, so you would barely have any officers like in the street covering like literally upon hundreds of thousands of people.
It's craziness. It's almost like a movie. So I'm there, a detective investigating all these cases, like literally hundreds of cases a week and overworked, and I'm. What am I doing? Like I get the fulfillment off helping people, but like, man, my health went down the drain. I wasn't sleeping. Um, I was stressed out.
I aged man. I went in there with a baby face and I came out like a grown man with a beard, , you know, it was craziness, dude. And then ultimately, um, I jumped back online after being off of social media for seven years. And um, the first, you know, social media platform I jumped on was Facebook. And most people laugh at me cuz they're like, dude, no one goes on Facebook.
Well, I mean, I do, right? Being that I jumped on when I was like 29. So I jumped on, checked out Facebook and just like Facebook ads do they hear, uh, you talking about passive income? They're talking about business side hustles. And ultimately I got an. I got an ad in front of me and I saw that it was ATMs and I was just like, what is this?
So then I started doing my due diligence, bought a couple books on Amazon, and the rest is History Man. Basically, um, started with six ATMs myself. Um, didn't really have a mentor at the time, so I sort of like, you know, struggled a little bit finding locations and, uh, figuring out how all the logistics works.
But eventually I was able to go to 30 locations within 18 months, um, during my time off. On the weekends, um, when I wasn't working, and actually it got so serious to the point where I cut off overtime completely just to focus on ATMs, which we'll get into a little bit. Right. But yeah, man, it was a remarkable journey.
Um, covered my bills. Ultimately, I was able to make a decent five figure income from this side household while I was still detective. And this is ultimately the vehicle that allowed me to escape my nine to five. And man, I could go on and on. You know, I've built ATM together.com, which has to do a lot more with digital marketing, but it also helps, uh, we're a little bit over, I think we're close to 1700 clients now nationwide in the past two years.
Um, helped them build their ATM businesses just everywhere. Phenomenal results. Hundreds of client testimonials. I mean, the game has changed, man, and. , uh, which we'll talk about this in a bit, but I'm getting into other ventures as well. Um, that has to do with like merchant services and crypto etms and all this craziness.
But, uh, yeah, that's the gist of it. , that's incredible. And I think the coolest part about this is you were in a job where you were stressed out. It was causing you, you know, stress, anxiety, all these other things, and you figured out a way to get out of it because you found cash flow and you, because you invested your dollars.
And that's the freedom that money has for us, is it allows us to have that freedom where we can do, you know, what we want every single day. And you have that now with entrepreneurship and all the things that you're building now. So that's absolutely incredible. So I kind of wanna get into, if someone is just starting out investing in ATMs, maybe they hear your story and they're like, I wanna get out of the job that I'm in.
Maybe I'm stuck in a cubicle that I hate, or I'm doing a job that just is causing so much stress. How do I actually get outta this situation? So if someone's just starting out, how much can they actually make from, at. Yeah, so on average right now, our clients are making anywhere between 200 to a thousand.
Now that is on average based on our experience, based on what we see. But what I always tell everybody, sky's the limit, man. It's ultimately, well, I mean, you know, this Andrew mindset is everything. Mindset is what basically is gonna drive you to grow that one atm, make it your vehicle, and then ultimately it can turn into a multi-million dollar company or multi-million dollar companies out there, depending on what type of person you are.
But just to give you a quick example and some realistic social proof. Okay. I have one of my managers that actually does a lot of the logistics for my company. He has 120 ATMs himself, and besides what he gets paid from us, okay, from my company, he makes $50,000 net profit off of his personal ATMs, and he's based outta Colorado.
I have another guy. He just joined us. He's a prior first responder. He, um, started in the ATM business roughly two and a half years ago. So, uh, nothing crazy. He wasn't in the game for like 15 years. Like majority of these boring businesses owners, you know, are in, uh, when you hear things like this, no, two and a half years guys.
First responder, the guy has 20 ATMs, he's net team profit, 15,000 off after expenses off of his personal ATMs, he just landed over 80 locations with a corporate contract with Dunking Donuts in the east coast. He's from New York. Wow. And he's one of the consultants for ATM together.com. Me, myself, like I said, guys, in the beginning I scaled to 30 locations myself, but it's just ultimately, you know, I, the anxiety, the being overworked, the like, what am I doing?
You know, that epiphany that most of us will. When you're just fed up with something right in life and you just want that change, you gotta use that pain in order to be your driver. And then you also gotta realize what is your why? Because your why is ultimately gonna be your biggest driver. You're not gonna be motivated every day to do it.
But if you have that strong why, which to me it was more of financial freedom, but mainly options, well we'll get into in a bit, but options to do whatever you want and to have a limited options, that's what it's about. Absolutely. And that is the amazing part and that's why I wanna talk about that upfront just because I wanna paint the picture for what is possible here when you invest in ATMs and what people can actually achieve.
And you said, you know, you have one guy there who has in two and a half years is already at $15,000 a month and $15,000 a month should cover no matter where you live, most of your expenses in your life, if not all of them. So that's one of the most powerful things that you can do in two and a half years.
You can absolutely change your life through doing this. So that's kind of why I wanted to paint that picture up front. Now, the first thing I want to kind of go through is locations. Cuz obviously one thing we have to figure out is where are we gonna stick these ATMs if we decide to do this? So as we go through this process, what are some things we should look for in a location?
Yeah, absolutely. The number one thing that I always tell everybody, once you step into any location, no matter where it is, and you start looking at the picture of like, should I listen to ATMs? Then it's just like buying a yellow. Or it's just like buying a red car, right? You start seeing that yellow, red car everywhere.
Same thing with ATMs. I get clients all the time saying, Paul, man, ever since I saw my first atm, now I can't stop seeing 'em. They're everywhere. And like I'm always like, oh, this will be such a good spot. Or you know, why not So cash driven. You have to make sure that the store or the location is cash driven.
Let me give you guys a great example. So here in California, okay, some of my top tier locations are liquor stores. And the reason why is just not just simply because they're liquor stores, but no, but in the state of California, you have to buy lottery tickets with cash. They don't allow you to use credit cards.
So you see right there, that little gem, that's the cash driven part. Of the liquor store is because it's not the fact that they sell alcohol guys, which I mean in the ATM industry it's actually known that if your store studies open late, they sell booze, um, then more than likely it's gonna be a good location.
That's all inside information right there, guys. But ultimately, liquor stores are a gem in California, just simply because of the lottery tickets. It's cash driven. But then also one thing that a lot of ATM deployers, okay, and I'm gonna go into a little bit into the ATM jargon here, guys, okay? ATM deployers, that's gonna be you if you ever start your own ATM business, is that you have to train business owners, okay?
And I know we're gonna get into that in just a bit, but you have to make sure that they're actually pushing that traffic towards your actual atm, whether it's a barbershop, whether it's a nail salon, whether it is a smoke shop, whether it's a dispensary, which everybody knows by federal regulations right now that banks do not deal with actual dispensaries, guys.
So right there, that is one of the biggest and best locations you can actually land if you guys have any dispensaries or if you're in a state where they're about to actually legalize dispensaries. Okay? Little hidden gem. Start calling them right now. So, Awesome. And that is one of the biggest pieces there, because cash is still something that a lot of people have to use in certain locations.
And so that is one cool thing where you find those high foot traffic, high cash usage locations and you can really do well with some of that stuff. So as you start to look through this and you think through this process and maybe you find some good locations, how do you find owners contact details? Do you just walk into the store and ask for the owner, or do you look up somewhere online?
How do you go through that process? Yeah, absolutely. Great question. Simplicity equals success, guys. Okay? Don't overcomplicate the process, especially at scale, okay? When you're building a business. So same thing codes with the ATM business. The reason why I was able to choose this business, and, uh, the reason why I was able to scale it so quickly is because I kept things simple.
So here are three tips that I'm gonna give you guys right now on this podcast that you guys can actually use to grow your ATM business. No. Number one, local chamber of commerce. Okay? You want to go in there, you wanna actually mingle with other local business owners, guys, let 'em know. You're the man or the woman with ATMs in your city and then dominate.
Okay? That's what I initially did when I started my ATM business in the San Francisco Bay area guys. I checked out as many local city, uh, local Chamber of Commerce meetings with other business owners, and then also you'll be alerted when there's new construction. Okay? Second LinkedIn, and this goes more into social media marketing guys.
Okay? If you don't know how to use LinkedIn, trust me, this is coming from a. Who is an old school millennial, wasn't on social media for seven years, but I was able to build a multimillion dollar business off of it. So if I can do it, you can do it too. I recommend going on Udemy. That's gonna be U D E M y.com.
The reason why I like Udemy is because, here's the thing, you don't have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a course. Literally that. It has like $10 courses that are totally worth it. Eight hours of like knowledge. And you guys can leverage that information and learn how to dominate LinkedIn or any social media platform.
Okay? Use your resources. And then the third one, guys. Simple. Just ask close mouths. Don't get fed. So just ask the gatekeeper or the employee at the store, let 'em know that it's urgent because you are there to save the business owner money by offering your solution to merchant services guys. So Absolutely.
And having that solution is kind of the best way to put it in terms of trying to sell it to that owner as well. And I think that's a really cool way to kind of go through the process where networking is gonna get you a lot of locations, I'm sure. And that's kind of going through that Chamber of Commerce process, I think is that nugget that a lot of people probably don't think of.
And I think that side of it is one where you can really start to network with business owners and people can kind of think through this process and say, Hey, I'm gonna meet all these different business owners and now we can actually, you know, start to network and find some locations that way. And once word starts to spread, it's really gonna start to accelerate after that point in time.
So after you find some locations, maybe you get ahold of the owner and an owner actually agrees for you to put an ATM in that location. How does this deal work and what does the cost to you? Do you give the owner a percentage of profits and or do you pay rent for that location? How does that typically.
Yeah, great question. So typically it's gonna range on the percentage of your surcharge. So here for California for example, I charge around anywhere between $3 and 50 cents up to $5, depending on the location and the foot traffic. Okay. Now, with everything at all skies, you're probably like three $54, guys.
Inflation, everything has gone up. You know, even if you go visit McDonald's, there's no dollar menu, right? . Exactly. So you have to raise up your prices, guys, that's just the way it is. And people don't blink because think about it like this. For anyone that's saying who uses ATMs, who still uses guys, it's convenience.
Just like Uber Eats, just like Uber, just like Instacart, you are paying that fee so you don't have to walk a mile or two or get in your car and go to your local bank, which is probably five miles away. No, you are getting the money right there at the store or location where you're gonna use the cash.
Okay. It's a convenience fee. That's all it is guys. So with owners, whenever I go into a deal, I first try to sell the value of the actual atm. And the way that any of you guys that is listening to this are gonna be able to do this is by simply just asking a simple question, and that is, How much are you paying for the credit card machine that you are using for the store purchases?
So we're talking about merchant services now, guys. Now if you guys don't know what merchant services is, it's the little credit card machine where people swipe their debit or credit card at every single store, right? So they get charged a percentage depending on what type of credit card, whether it's Visa, MasterCard, amex, which is typically the highest, um, that they use inside of this little credit card machine.
And they pay thousands in fees to these credit card companies, guys. So you, you go in there as the hero and say, Hey, what if I give you a solution where I can save you thousands, probably tens of thousands of dollars in merchant service at fees, by just putting an ATM in there and then you pushing your traffic to that atm.
And then guess what? You don't have to worry about paying those fees anymore. Now, that's a no-brainer to me, right? As a business owner, guys. But if they wanna play hardball, okay, now you wanna negotiate and you can negotiate depending on what the foot traffic is there. If the merchant is telling you, Hey, I get about two to 300 people going in a foot, traffic in there, then on average guys, okay, if it's a cash driven location, you can estimate the math here, three to 5%.
Of the clients actually walking into the store or going to use that atm. It's just because of the convenience. Okay? So if you have heavy foot traffic, let's say for example, one of my liquor stores makes about $1,500 a month, that's gross profit. After I give the owner 25%, he roughly gets a little bit less than 400 bucks, but that's 400 bucks that he would've not gotten from the merchant services guys.
So not only are you saving them money, but you're also. Giving them some extra money every single month. So it's a no-brainer for them. I mean, as long as you guys are equipped with the ammunition of the information that I'm providing to you, anyone should be able to do this. Just simplify it for the owner guys.
So typically zero to 50% you could go up to 50%. Uh, which I do. I don't have an issue doing that because some locations are bringing in $2,000 and hey, I'm okay with netting a thousand dollars when it takes about five minutes a month to load these machines. So absolutely, and that's incredible. So you really, the process is you go for selling them on the reduction in those transaction fees, and if they don't agree to that, then you can kind of start negotiating on a price as well.
Have you gotten some locations that have been absolutely free where all you do is just place the at t m? Yes. Actually, the great part about this is, and we get this all the time, we get clients that say, Paul, but everywhere I go is an atm. Well, just simply because everywhere you go that has a at m, it doesn't mean that the actual merchant is happy with their ATM deployer guys, because at the end of the day, it's about customer service.
What does it matter if the owner is getting paid 50% when their machine is down 50% of the time? So they would rather take someone who gives 'em less, but their customer service is top tier. And that's how I've been able to win locations day after day, month after month. I mean, my team@atmtogether.com, we find about 60 to 80 locations for our clients on a regular basis, guys.
So if we're finding 60 to 80 locations throughout the United States, that means that you guys can do it too. And that's incredible cuz I think, you know, that was one big thing that we were wondering too was if you go through the process, maybe you see an ATM in a great location. Like you said, once you start to think about this stuff, you're gonna see them everywhere and maybe you see an ATM and think to yourself, maybe that's gonna be a great location.
So you can walk in there and say, Hey, are you happy with your at m provider? Or, let me show you what I can provide and go through the whole process on that side as well. So I think that's a really cool way to kind of think about this and see how you can do that as well. So have you ever taken an ATM location from someone else maybe that had a, an ATM at some location?
I actually have. And I'm about good business, so I always like to do my due diligence. I always tell my clients or my mentees, Hey, couple things you need to check off on the checklist before you do this. And what you wanna do is, number one, you wanna check to make sure that there's no contract, because once you go in there, the fact that you have to go to court over this, it's not what for your time.
So make sure that there's no. Two, actually try to see what the pain points are. Because if it's mainly service or it's mainly just a client who is extra needy with attention, you want to be able to actually check that out because everything they're telling you might not be the truth guys. Okay? That's just the way it is and business in general.
So you want to fact check everything, do your due diligence. Um, with that being said, I have a great example. I have done a, uh, I remember one of my first deals where the owner just wanted me to actually fill the ATM for him. He owned the ATM and there was nothing wrong with it. I walked in there, saw the atm, saw that it was barely getting taken care of.
It was a little bit of older machine, and he's like, yeah, I'm just tired of going to the bank and refilling it. It's a great location. We're getting like heavy foot traffic here. Would you want to take it over? So then I thought about it and I was like, you know what? What if I can give you a free machine, brand new, and I take care of all of the services for you, and you don't have to worry about anything.
We're talking about the maintenance. We're talking about. You never have to deal with the bank anymore, all that. It becomes my issue now, on the back end, you'll still make the same money. He's just like, well, how's that possible? Well, let me tell you, if we raise the price up just a little bit higher, guess what?
We can keep your percentage the same. And now I get a little percentage off the top, Hey, and we're doing good business. The guy went for it, signed a five year contract, and has been a client ever since for the past six years. I mean, that's just the way you have to negotiate guys. You have to become very creative with these deals.
At the end of the day, I wish there was a blueprint, right? Just like a script that I could tell you, just say this, say this, say this, and you'll line every single deal. No, that's just not the way it goes because everybody's different guys. It's business. So you have to be able to negotiate and the only way you're able to negotiate is either through your own experience or experience of others, which is, I'm big on that.
I'm big on on me. Me, myself, I've spent close to $300,000 in the past two years on just learning systems, learning how other people think at a higher level, guys, and that's one of the biggest key takeaways. If you guys haven't heard anything else I'm saying on this podcast is investing yourself. That is the biggest thing.
Absolutely. Those are some of the most valuable dollars that you can invest in. It's my favorite way to invest as well. And I think the cool thing that you're talking about here is that investing is really a creative endeavor. We talk about real estate investing on this podcast a lot, which I know you invest in real estate as well.
And it's one of those things where you have to be creative when you do some of this stuff. And the people who are creative usually can win. They can usually win a lot of deals by being creative in that way. So I think that's a really cool way to think about it as well. So have you ever considered putting ATMs in, say, outdoor locations?
I've seen them a lot at car washes or at events, locations or maybe parking lots where people have to pay cash at parking lots to park at locations. So have you ever placed any in-out outdoor locations or they all mostly indoor locations. So all my personal ATMs are indoor locations, but the great part about being part of a network of people, entrepreneurs, like-minded individuals like yourself, is the fact that there are so many people.
We're talking about dozens of entrepreneurs throughout the United States that actually do outdoor events. Um, and the great part about this, okay, if you guys are not on Facebook, don't check out Facebook groups. I highly recommend that you guys do, especially if you're interested in this because we do have a Facebook group.
It's called ATM Business for Beginners. Literally started with five people. and now we're at 51,000 in the past two years. Amazing. So guys, I'm telling you right now, like your network is your net worth. And I'm such a big believer in this, especially because just having a 20 minute conversation has literally made me millions and millions of dollars in the past, okay?
So this could change your life, that it could be that little gem that you see on a post from another ATM deployer in another state, and you're like, wow, that's amazing. And then you end up executing and you make so much money off of it, you just never know. So we have dozens of clients that actually do.
they're highly successful in it. A lot of it is networking. A lot of them use the Chamber of Commerce actual approach, where they go and they talk to the business owners because a lot of the festival owners actually go there. A lot of the bent coordinators. And you're able to mingle with them and then say like, Hey, you're the one getting the first dips guys, right?
So you're in there and you're, Hey, do you have an ATM ready for your cash only festival or your cash only flea market? And that's how these ATM deployers are able to land those actual events guys and make thousands of dollars in literally a day. And the hardest part, I guess you could say, the biggest differences between actually doing outdoor events and then having a ATM in a stationary indoor location is just the fact that you're gonna have to either be at the event, enjoy the.
While your machine's making money or ultimately, uh, just hire someone to do it. So either way it goes. You could just do it the semi passive or the passive way, whichever way you want. But either way it goes. It's a great way for a nice cash injection if you guys do outdoor events. That's perfect. And I think that's kind of the best way to think through that process as well, is you can network to find out those locations so you don't have to like actually leave near, because indoor locations just seem like they're better for maintenance and all those other issues that could come into play as well.
And of course safety as well. So, um, that's the other side of it, but I think with the specific ATMs specifically, I kind of wanna shift gears here and talk about how much they cost and all that entire process as well. So I've heard you talk about for beginners, the best way for beginners to do this is to buy a new at t m machine.
It reduces your liability, it reduces, you know, the amount of maintenance that you have to have in play. So how much do a t m machines cost? So as of right now, you can find ATMs at $2,300 shipped nationwide, guys, and these are costs if you wanted to execute on your own, meaning that you find your own location, you find your own vendors.
I always recommend guys, do your due diligence. Get three bids. You could go to ATM together.com, that's my company. Or you could go check out a lot of the other companies as well. It's a very small community, especially in the ATM industry. Everybody knows everybody. Um, so the prices are not gonna fluctuate that much guys.
And ultimately it's just who you vibe with. That's, that's all I say. It's who you vibe with ultimately, who you would wanna be around. The biggest takeaway, I would tell you with this guys, and I know we're probably gonna get into this in just a bit, but let's say monthly fees. Okay? With the monthly fees, uh, the only monthly fee that you guys should be paying is just for your internet, okay?
And the reason why I see this is because a lot of companies out there, they actually like to charge what is called a processing network fee, and they take a percentage of your surcharge profits. Okay? This is actually what happened to me when I first started. I was hardheaded. I thought I knew business.
You know, I was sales manager in corporate America. I was just like, this is an ATM business, black and white, simple, right? So I threw all the suit, went out there, did my thing, guys, but I signed a three year contract with a major corporation, this major corporation up front. They gave me a discount off of the machine.
I think I got it for like around 2000, 2100 at the time, and they were charging me about 25% of my surcharge profits, guys, 25%. That percentage could have gone to the merchant. That's not even including what I paid the location owner guys. So I'm taking a hit, and now, luckily, right my first six locations, after trial and error, the three months, I was able to net around $3,000 after my third month.
And it was a game. You know, supporting beliefs, guys, but I was paying thousands upon thousands of dollars to this large corporation, which they were making tons of money off of me guys. Here's the thing, right? I had to pay $7,000 to get out of a service agreement. It was an 18 pager guys. And I know how some of us we get, we're like, oh yeah, this is simple.
Yeah, just a fine print, whatever. Make sure you guys do your due diligence, read everything. Um, especially because we do get a lot of beginners coming into the industry. A lot of horror stories guys. I've had clients come with me and say, Paul, I bought 10 ATMs and you know, I got it for a really good deal.
I now wanna set it up. I was like, unfortunately they out of compliance. And this goes back to actually, you know, buying new versus used guys. If you are brand new, okay, take it from me. I learned the hard way when you're new Buy new please. And the reason why I say this is because you might be saving a couple hundred dollars upfront by buying a used one.
But they might be out of compliance. And if the ATM is out of compliance, then you might be liable for thousands upon thousands of charges, okay? Uh, especially with federal regulations and fraud and all that jazz. You don't want to mess with that, guys. Just go with the brand new. You get a two year warranty, and this is through any supplier, any legitimate ATM supplier out there, guys.
Um, and you'll be happy you did it. Okay? So once again, just to recap, the only fee you should be paying is for your internet modem, which I could go off of what we sell the internet modem for probably 150 bucks for the modem. And then your recurring charge on a monthly basis for the internet, wifi internet is gonna be six bucks.
Other than that, keep 100% of your surcharge fee. Do not sign a service agreement, okay? And make sure you explicitly say this to any of the sales reps that you deal with, with any company out there, guys. All right. Those are awesome tips. Cause I think that's where a lot of people can get duped is going through that process and paying some of those extra service fees that a lot of people, you know, they're taking a large percentage of what you are making that you could be giving to the owner or yourself or whatever else she to actually negotiate a better deal.
So that's amazing tips right there as well. So after somebody buys an atm, because the startup costs really aren't that much to buy your first atm, I mean 2300 bucks to buy it, um, is a lot less than I even thought they would be. So after you buy that first at m, what is the cost to install it? Yeah, absolutely.
Two routes you could go with, right? And I always speak about nothing in life is free. You're either gonna pay with either the money you're invested into the business, or you're gonna pay with your time, guys. So if you wanna learn how to actually install an atm, hey, use your free resources. You got YouTube, you've got Google, you have the ATM Business for Beginners.
Facebook Group guys. Um, we have so many different free resources. We just launched YouTube, uh, and it's under ATM together, a ton, a ton of free trainings. I was doing one. Live training every single week inside of the Facebook group since we started it two years ago. So I believe right now we're over like 150 episodes on there, guys.
And we're uploading them, we're editing them, refreshing them, and making sure that we're getting that contact on YouTube now so you guys can actually take advantage of it. And this is information that people sell for tens of thousands of dollars on courses. Guys, we don't sell you for a course. We actually provide services and the logistics and the infrastructure for your business so you can actually get a head start of the game.
Now, if you wanna pay, let's say a technician, your standard cost for a technician would be anywhere between 200 to $300. That's nationwide. That's not bad at all. And I think that process, you know, you could either learn and go through the process of taking your time and how much is your time worth you?
Or you could have somebody go in in there, install it, um, who maybe have more experience and will do it the right way and go through the right process with that as well. So, and then as we go through this, maybe your ATM is a year or two old, and what is the cost to maintain and how much time do you have to put into maintenance on an AT machine?
Yeah, great question. So these ATMs, I'm gonna give you guys two recommendations on the models that I have personally used and I can vouch for. They are the best. They're the industry standard guys. As long as you guys stick with these two models, then you guys shouldn't have any issues for several years.
The first model's gonna be the Haus Sun, halo two, okay? And that's gonna be H Y O S U N G. And then Halo, just like the video game guys, for all, for all my gamers out there. And then, uh, the Gen mega. G 2,500 guys. These two are the ATM industry standard, okay? And they're both gonna range anywhere between the 21 to $2,300 shipped price that I stated earlier.
The biggest differences between these two ATM is the mega G 2,500. Right now comes with a camera. Okay, so if you don't wanna, uh, purchase any added security, it already comes in with a built-in camera, which is awesome. Um, so I recommend both. Now to go back to the maintenance and the repair, each of those ATMs should come with two-year warranty.
Okay guys, so that's a little gem right there. Make sure that you guys take notes on that. And they should be coming with two your warranties. Make sure to ask your supplier that they do, and then each unit should last you anywhere between. To seven years, especially if you're at a location and it's under heavy usage.
Okay? And we're talking about, it's going, it's making you guys cash flow, and that's what it's about, right? So when you guys think about it like this, uh, the maintenance are very, very low on this. Typically, the manufacturer's gonna cover you on the parts. All you have to do is just actually take a little bit of your time to replace the parts.
And to be honest, I've been in the game for the past six years. The biggest problem we have with these machines is sometimes we have kids that stick toothpicks inside the card reader and then it jams up the card reader and you just have to go in there with some, uh, you know, needle nose pliers and just pull out those toothpicks guys and just clean it out and you're good to go.
Other than. You just wanna make sure that the internals of your ATM is dust free. So I highly recommend for all my techies out there to actually get one of those, uh, dust cans, aerosol cans, where you can just blow off all of the dust in the internals because you're gonna be doing that when you exchange, uh, or when you insert the money inside of the vault, which is the safe inside of the ATM when that time comes, every single month.
And that literally takes seconds to do, guys. Okay, so a couple little gems right there that you guys can educate yourself with on doing the maintenance and, um, actually, uh, scene how long these ATMs last as well. I love that. And I think that the maintenance is much less than maybe some people would expect because it's, you're going through that process and you're already there putting the cash in there.
So you might as well just, you know, use the airs salt can and get some of that dust outta there as well. So I wanna shift kind of to cash as well since we've brought it up. Yeah. Uh, because I think cash is obviously a major factor here. We gotta figure out, you know, how often we're gonna fill up these ATMs, how much cash do we need?
All of those different things. So if someone wanted to start off, how much cash would they need to put into their atm? Yeah, so these ATMs, they hold up to $20,000. And when we're talking about $20,000, we're talking about $20 actual increments. Okay. So a thousand notes guys. Now, when I was started, I want to actually see what the foot traffic, the cash flow's going to be per atm.
So I'll put more than $3,000 when I first start off each location after that. Then I'm able to determine how much money I should just put there. So I'm able to go there once a month. I have some friends that just stack it all the way up because they have extremely busy locations where they're making anywhere between 1500 to $2,000 a month and they don't want to go multiple times a month.
But the standard is typically about once or twice a month, guys, two to three K. And the way it works with the cash, because I get this question all the time, is, okay, so I put my cash inside the AT app. How do I get it back? Or whose money is that? It's actually your guys' money guys, okay? You're putting your own cash that you're gonna have in your savings account inside of the atm.
But the biggest difference is, I like to call it infinity banking. And the reason why is because you're taking that two to $3,000 and you're basically recycling. Inside of your atm, it's going through the processing network that facilitates the bank transactions. And then it's going back to your business checking account.
So anytime that your ATM runs dry, it runs out of money, okay? You just go back to the actual bank, withdraw from the business checking account, and then just physically go to the location, reload it again, and you just do that over and over and over again, and you are making your money work for you, which is why I like to call it infinity banking.
And then you're making your profits off of the surcharge fees that you're charging people to let you borrow the money. And that's it, guys. It's as simple as that. I love that. So it's one set of capital it's working for. You know, as long as you have that a team, it just keeps working over and over and over again.
So that is the cool thing about this process is that you go through that. So do you only put twenties in there or you put other bills as well? Great question. So depending on what type of location it is, there are some barbershops where they have to tip and when they tip, um, Request tens, $10 bills, so you guys can actually change the denominations on your actual atm.
Now, there are other ATMs, which I think for additional costs of anywhere between three to $400, you can have another cassette. The cassette is what actually holds the cash inside of the atm. So you can have two different cassettes with two different denominations. I actually have that type of at t m and multiple liquor stores because people like options.
I like to give people options. Hey, you don't, you , you don't have, uh, the whole $160. Okay, no worries. You can take out 110 if you want. It's up to you. But you give people options and they like it, and you'll learn your market once you're in there, guys, and it's very easy to swap these ATMs. All it is is just four bolts going down to the ground that secured this.
Awesome. So I think that's a really good process to think through as well. Um, when we go through that, so as your ATM maybe starts to run low on cash, do you have to manually check that because we wanna make sure, obviously it's full of the time, or is there like some sort of notification that you can get to your phone or how do you go through that process?
It's actually a pretty cool process. Like I always tell everyone, like if you're running a business, you wanna run your business from your phone, right? So same thing with the ATM industry. Man. When I came in here, man, they were using like, I don't know if it was like Tetris, that's what it seemed like, but it seemed like a Tetris style application to look at, like the numbers for your atm.
You had to go through the wet browser. There was no direct application like there is nowadays. Um, and it was very hard to navigate. That's why majority of my friends that were in the ATM industry at the time, they were just like, dude, I just go. I just go and I check on it like biweekly. I was like, no man, you gotta check out the application.
So, um, one application and actually a processing network that I would recommend, especially for a lot of the newbies, beginners, anyone that's looking to invest into this look up switch, like a light switch, switch. Commerce guys, switch commerce, they're actually the best. We actually use their network as well.
And this is unbiased basically, um, saying for them guys because. They are truly the best for beginners. And the reason why is because they invested so much money in their application. And the application's key here because it tells you when your machine is down, it tells you when you have less than like, let's say 500 or a thousand, you can preset it to whatever number you want.
So it gives you enough time to go ahead and actually go to the bank and get your cash reload your ATM before it actually runs out. Because if you ever let your actual machine run out of money, then guess what? You're not making any money, right? So you have to make sure that it's always filled at all times and it's just good business because you're keeping that relationship and you're solidifying it with the merchant so that merchant's like happy when they see you coming in there and refilling the machine.
And then you can, you know, you can talk, do small talk, and a lot of times this is gonna be good. A lot of times whenever I would go talk to the merchant, I would love going in there, refill a machine, go buy, let's say a water or something, especially from a convenience store, talk to the owner and say like, Hey, So, how's everything going?
Oh, everything's great, man. Thanks. Thanks for the great service. Okay, cool. Would you know anyone else who would like the same service? Could you recommend me to someone? Guys, your network is your net worth. So I had so many referrals I got referred. Okay. And this was the biggest, uh, break in my ATM career.
You could say. When I first started was I got introduced to an investment group, and this investment group is initially when they were starting to launch the dispensaries out in the San Francisco Bay area. So guess who was the go? When they were like, Hey, we need an atm, right? I was able to get into those locations and then also connect my network with those locations as well.
So pretty cool, uh, going back to application, but switch commerce guys, it's a easygoing application for beginners and you'll be able to see absolutely everything. You'll be able to run your business from your phone. That's amazing. And I think having that capability is obviously something you definitely wanna have cuz you don't wanna run out.
And that's a great tip to ask for additional business with, to see if somebody knows anything else as well. So those are absolutely amazing. The next part I wanna talk about is any potential downsides. Cause I'm sure you hear this all the time from people you know, asking. I know how people think through this process and they're saying, well, maybe there's some downsides to this.
So have you ever had maybe an ATM unit damage or broken outside of, I know you talked a little bit about, uh, kids putting toothpicks or something at the card reader, but has there been any major incidents that you've ever had? So, all my personal ATMs know, and, you know, knock on wood man, , that, that it hasn't happened to me because I've seen the news.
Um, and you know, the news loves to sell fear, guys, just remember that the news loves to sell fear. So, uh, when it happens, it doesn't happen frequently. Uh, I think it happened quite a bit during the protest a few years back. But before that and after that, I just don't hear of it whatsoever. Now, a downside to this, and this is just me being very transparent, especially with the audience, is the fact that you will, if you start this business, you will.
It's not, you won't, but you will. You will put an ATM in a location and it's gonna be slow. It's going to be slow as far as doing cash flow for you, okay? You might just get a few transactions the first month, but then what ends up happening is you have to let the, at TM actually nurture inside of the location guys.
Because if the location never had an ATM before, how are people supposed to figure out that it's there? Right? So this is where your marketing comes into play. Your social media, seo, Google guys, uh, the actual owner putting a sign out there, investing it in your actual business, okay? To help that ATM nurture between the first three to five months.
Now, if you're not seeing the cash flow that you want at those locations, then I like to call this a floating asset guys, because that's what it is. An ATM is a floating asset. You're able to. Remove the ATM and find a better performing location. That's exactly what happened to me guys when I first started.
Okay. I started with six locations, three out of the six only net ME 50 bucks, and I still remember at that time, dude, I was driving a 2000, I think it was like a 2016 Dodge Ram. With like mud tires and I was just like, yeah, I'm about to make some money. I was driving like two hours away, guys. I didn't have no type of strategy when I first started.
I was just like, Hey, I'm just lining these locations, cold calling, and people are saying yes. Okay, cool. I'm gonna put my e t M in there. Guys. You need to have a strategy. Okay, , we're talking about the distance, we're talking about what type of location you wanna make sure it's cash driven. You wanna get a mentor.
That's very important. Okay guys, I would highly recommend getting a mentor because that's, that's what changed the game for me. After I got my mentor, he showed me the ropes, he showed me actually how to run a successful ATM business, and then I was able to relocate those three locations. And then after I did that, my third month is when I netted the $3,000 from all six guys and then my limited beliefs shattered after that.
I was just like, this is it. This is my golden ticket to get out of my nine five. I know it sounds boring. And trust me, I had naysayers all day. But that's just the way it works guys. Okay. You have to keep trying and trying and trying until you make it happen. It's either gonna work or it's either gonna work.
Absolutely. That, that's the best way to think is having that abundance mindset with anything in money is what we always talk about here as well, is just one of the biggest things you have to have, especially if you're gonna go into business, because going into business entrepreneurship, you have to have that positive abundance mindset to be able to do anything because businesses always has have troubles and there's difficulties all the time, but you just have to overcome those and that's how successful people come about.
So are there any other potential downsides that you can think of with a t m investing outside of just, you know, damage and that type of thing? This is a business for longevity guys. It's not I instant gratification. If you ever get someone saying, Hey, you're gonna make thousands of dollars off of one location, no, it's like real estate investing guys.
You're not gonna get rich off of one property. You have to have multiple properties. Same thing with ATMs, guys. You guys have to have multiple ATMs, and then what ends up happening, it's a snowball fact. You start building your actual route, you start getting several locations, and then what ends up happening is all the cash flow that starts coming in that you're netting off of that route.
Now you can buy an ATM every single month, and that's where the real money starts coming in, guys. It just doesn't happen overnight. And I think that's the number one thing that I'm seeing, especially just across the board, social media, um, 2023, going into 2023, is the fact that we do have a lot of, you could say, business owners saying, oh, this is how easy it is.
No, this is reality guys. This is a boring business. It works, but you have to be in it for the longevity game. Okay. No, in instant gratification with anything. Um, and just like I tell you off of my story, I went in there, didn't educate myself on this business, even though I thought it was simple. End up making only 50 bucks off three locations.
I'm like, holy crap, I'm in the hole for this much money and I only made 50 bucks a month. It's gonna take me literally years to make my ROI back. But no, I didn't give up. I actually invested into a mentor who had thousands of ATMs at the time, and I'm like, Hey dude, show me your way, Mr. Miyagi. Right? And then.
There you go. I was able to actually start building the Momentum Snowball effect, was able to get financially free from my nine to five, and then ultimately ended up going into digital marketing, found some other vehicles, and now I'm all over guys. We're talking about in Investi. I just bought a, uh, quadplex about a month ago in Los Angeles and Arizona.
Um, just invested into two more digital companies. Um, we just released Crypto ATMs, which oh my God, that's another episode, Andrew. I'll tell you right now. Crypto ATMs is amazing. Um, and yeah, guys, so the sky's the limit. Like I said earlier today, when you asked Andrew and you were like, Hey, how much can you make with ATMs?
It's ultimately up to you guys, the listener who's listening to this. You guys can make it happen for yourself. You guys can be the first aire in your family. You guys can ultimately decide how your life goes. Absolutely. And that's kind of what drew me to your story as well because you were kind of showing this as this is not a get rich quick thing.
This is a, a process that you have to follow through. But if you follow through with a wic, like anything, once you start to scale, you reinvest your cash flow, you can really build a really nice portfolio here and you can reinvest that cash flow into other assets like you are doing, which was real estate and all these other things as well.
So I absolutely love that part of it as well. So one big thing as we go through this process is obviously we don't wanna refill ATMs forever. So if we start to build a larger portfolio and you really wanna scale it big, like your friend who had, you know, over a thousand ATMs for example, how can you go through the process of automating this?
So do you still refill your own ATMs or do you have somebody else do it? No, that's actually a great question. Um, I do not fill my own ATMs guys. So before I left the San Francisco Bay area, I had hired two a technician and what you would call a vaulter. A vaulter is a third party service who would refill your actual cash or their cash inside of your ATMs to have the business running.
Now, in exchange, you could give a percentage to this vault to take care of the maintenance and to refill the ATM while you are somewhere else, basically. So it's 100% passive when it comes to it. The downside of this, right, of course, you're making less net profit, but at the end of the day, you gotta really decide what you want out of this.
The number one goal I had when I started with ATMs, all I said was just like, I just wanna make enough to cover my bills, because then I'll figure it out from there. And that was my goal. That's why I kept my personal ATM route at 30 locations. I didn't try to grow it after that. They're at solid locations with solid agreements with the owners.
I have such a great relationship with them that, hey, we're not going anywhere. But ultimately I wanted it to be as passive as possible for me. So I'm able to Ashi go anywhere. Just like we were talking earlier, Andrew, I'm in San Diego. I'm planning on moving to Florida. Sky's the limit, man. You know, we're building corporate offices in Florida.
We might be out the country in a couple years. Who knows? Who knows? Life is too short, right? You want to actually say, Hey, I was able to live this way. I was able to do it. And ultimately, guys, if you guys want to start this business, yes, you're going to have to refill the ATMs yourself in the beginning.
And the reason why I say that is because you wanna make sure that the locations are actually cash flowing, that you're in the green before you hire a third party service, because the worst thing you can do, okay? And this is a gem that no one else will tell you in the. Because I'll try to sell you services, is that if you hire someone and you're paying them, let's say a dollar per transaction and you're making $3 off of the surcharge fee, now you're down to two, and let's say you're giving 25% to the owner, now you're down even more and you still gotta pay out-of-pocket expenses, let's say for the internet.
Or let's say you're trying to pay off the machine even faster, and now it's gonna take over a year to do it. Just because you had set up those systems before you knew what you were, your cash flowing, you wanna make sure what's coming in first. So that's why I always tell people, have a minimum of three months of transaction history before you even consider hiring a third party service, a vaulting service, or even thinking that this is gonna be 100% passive.
Because in the beginning it's not. It's semi passive. Absolutely, and that makes complete sense cuz you wanna get your systems together. You wanna understand what's going on with each machine and how it actually works, because that's the best way to understand how to scale your business as well, is being in the nitty gritty and being able to do some of that stuff and understanding how all that works.
So I absolutely love that. Now I wanna shift gears a little bit because I've seen you talk a little bit about money and some of your philosophies on money. So we have a couple of questions for you on money that I wanna go through. And you can go through these rapid fire, you can expand on 'em, whatever you wanna do on this.
So why is it so dangerous to only have one income? Oh my God. This is a subject I could talk about for hours, Andrew, and I mean, guys, especially if you're relying on a nine to five, okay? You're not in control. Think about it like that. You're not in control, guys. You are working for either a corporation or for someone else who basically has your livelihood in their hands, okay?
If you don't like that, I, no one does. You wanna make sure that you have a plan, B, C, D, E, F, whatever. You wanna have multiple streams of income. Guys, if you guys are coming into entrepreneurship right now, you will start networking with other entrepreneurs and you will see that it's actually the normal in entrepreneurship that you have multiple streams of income.
I haven't met an entrepreneur who's a multi-millionaire yet who is not diverse in multiple streams of income, or not a partner in multiple companies. Guys. It's just reality. So you have to make sure that you guys secure you and your family's future. By having multiple streams of income. It's very important.
Cause you never know, Hey, what if one day you're healthy, but the next day you get in our car accident? Or let's say you have a medical bill that you can't cover with your 9 25, what are you gonna do? You gotta have those options guys. That's the way you have to think. You have to be prepared. And I got that from law enforcement.
Okay? Law enforcement really built me up as a leader, made me think, made me analyze. I mean, I used to do operations for hundreds and hundreds of detectives and officers on a monthly, weekly, daily basis, guys. And I had to think of logistics. Same thing with life. You have to think of logistics. You have to think of backup plans just in case.
Excuse my language, the shit hits the fan. Okay guys, so with that being said, don't be that person where you're only one step away from poverty. Guys, don't be that person, okay? Have multiple streams of income. Secure your future. You can make it happen. Absolutely, I could not agree more. And it's just the, the way to have control over your money and to protect your wealth and all those different things, you have to have multiple streams of income.
Otherwise you're one person's decision's away from being completely broke and having no income at all. So it's so powerful to have these multiple streams of income. And I love when you talk about that as well. So another thing that you do is you use assets to buy liabilities, which is one big thing that we talk about all the time on this podcast as well.
So can you talk about how you make that happen each time? Maybe you wanna buy a car, for example. Yeah, absolutely. Great. Great question. So let's say an example. You guys wanna buy, I don't know, your, your dream car, whatever it is, right? I wanted to take advantage of, uh, the task deduction for, you know, having a vehicle, I think it's section 1 79, over 6,000 pounds Yep.
Of one knot. Um, so I ended up getting a G wagon as my business vehicle guys. Okay? Now, no, I am not going to refill ATMs with a G wagon guys. , , I keep that all the time. They're like, bro, you're gonna get robbed. No, no guys, I have employees that do that. So I have the G wagon as my business vehicle. But here's the thing, okay.
I leverage having the cash flow of the AT apps, okay? My net profit, which guess what I'm doing, I'm not doing anything for it nowadays, and I'm using that money to pay for the car note guys, that's what you wanna do. So instead of actually spending, okay, you're active income, whether you're in a nine to five, whether you are just a, uh, business owner, Okay, well one source of income, your active income.
Do not use that cash flow to buy liabilities. Instead, go invest in assets like either ATMs, real estate, just like what Andrew always talks about real estate guys. Use that cash flow that you're getting either from your tenants or from your deals. And then buy your liabilities. Buy the fun things that you guys wanna buy.
Life is too short, okay? And I get it. Like, Hey, I enjoy my coffee, so I'll, trust me. I'm definitely using my cash flow to go buy my liabilities on a daily or weekly or monthly basis, guys. So I highly recommend that you guys do the same. Think about where is that cash flow coming from? Is it coming from. The check that I have to go and work for on a daily, weekly, monthly basis?
Or is it actually coming from an asset like ATMs, my real estate, which I'm barely doing any work for it guys. It's actually working for me. It's making me money while I sleep. Okay. And, uh, I believe that's something that Warren Buffet said, uh, as well, right, Andrew? Absolutely. Uh, yeah. You're only, well, how's the saying go?
Do you know the saying now it's, you're only, uh, it's something along the lines of you're like, only one person's decision away from losing. You know that one, I can't remember the exact quote. And I used to, I have a bunch of his memorized and I'm gonna have this one memorized, but it's something along those lines, which I absolutely love that thought fa process.
Yeah, guys, I mean, like, you're consistently working on a daily basis to go buy. The things that you want. And there's nothing wrong with that. See, I'm a big believer in enjoying whatever it is you want. It's your life. You should never, never feel bad for going, buying whatever it is that you want, whether it's a liability or an ass or a whatnot.
But be smart about it. Make your money work for you guys. And just take my experience. I used to work 60 to a hundred hour work weeks, okay? For seven years. And I learned the hard way, okay? The beginning of that actual journey in law enforcement, I was buying the nice cars. I was buying the nice toys, I was buying the million dollar house.
But guess what? And all my first responders know this cuz. There's quite a few probably listening to this right now or will be, and they're probably like, damn, I'm doing that right now. Now you're relying on your overtime. Now you're relying on your overtime. So guess what? Instead of you having to go spend time with your family or getting actual rest, you are forced to now go and actually pay off those debts.
You are forced to go and actually pay off those liabilities, so be smart about it. Use that money that you are getting from your active income purchase assets that are gonna be cash flowing, and then you can actually pay off those liabilities without having to work any extra. That is actually the definition of financial freedom man, and I didn't know the, the actual definition of financial freedom for a very long time.
It is when you're able to work less or not work at all, but still make the same amount of money. Absolutely. And that's the biggest key. It's the financial hack that most people just need to learn how to unlock. And once they unlock it, it's addicting to go through this process. But utilizing your assets to buy liabilities will absolutely change your life once you do it a couple of times.
So it's one of the coolest things that you could do out there. So the next two, I think you're gonna have probably close to the same answer. So if you had a normal job, again, what would you do to become financially free? Or if you had $25,000, what would you invest those dollars in? I'm assuming that's gonna be close to the same answer.
Yes. And I know most people are gonna be like, he's gonna say ATMs. No, guys, I'm actually not. Um, 100% transparency guys. Um, I know it sounds cliche to say this, but a $5 book changed my life. It really did. A $5 book changed my life. Um, and ultimately it was behind mindset. It was behind actually, uh, the value that you have.
behind what you do in life, what are you passionate about, what's your why? And a lot of it has to do with mindset. I mean, I've paid 50, $70,000 for different masterminds, guys. Well, I'm in the room with eight to nine figure earners, okay? And we're talking about guys that make millions of dollars every single month.
And it's, to them it's normal. But to a regular guy like me, I'm like, wow. Right. Even when I was first starting everything else, guys, my limiting beliefs initially was just like, well, I'm not gonna be able to make money off ATMs. And it was just simply because the people around me, people around me were putting the idea, oh, you can't make money off that.
Who uses cash anymore? And this was like six, seven years ago guys. So just imagine out, same thing. Same process, negativity, toxic environment. So what I would do if I was working a nine to five, if I was back, uh, being a detective, being a V cop, whatever it is, and I had 25 k, I would actually invest in self-education.
I wouldn't invest. Into a automation, whatever. No, actually self-education on building a business. And the reason why is because you're gonna get that knowledge that no one can ever take away from you. You're gonna get knowledge from an actual person who has done it. Okay. And I think that's the difference.
Right now we're, we're starting to see, because my two sisters, my younger and my oldest, they're registered nurses, they've been in school their entire lives and now they're like, dude, we're super like interested in what you do. And we sort of wanna transition to like sort of what you're doing because you have more freedom than us.
Well, the biggest difference is that I actually paid close to, what was it, $300,000 to learn from actual eight to nine figure earners that actually are doing what they're teaching instead of learning. Topics like that are not interesting to me, like history or math. And I get it. That's important. . Nothing wrong with getting the education guys, but it's the same thing as using your active income to buy an assets.
And I believe actual self-education is an asset with building a business, you'll become rich. And then once you become rich, then you could go ahead and buy those assets to go ahead and start cash flowing for you. So at the end of the day, self-education is key. Whether you have a thousand, whether you have 25,000, it doesn't matter.
Self-education is the advice I would give to anybody. And like I said, guys, it changed my life. Sounds cliche. Started with a book. That's it. And I do the same thing in my twenties. I spent most of my time just learning about different things and self-educating and going through that process just changed my entire trajectory.
And I think it's the most valuable dollars that you can spend on yourself. Because even if you learn a brand new skill, for example, and that skill earned you five, 10, $15,000 a month, that is so incredibly valuable for you to invest those dollars to learn that skill. So I think it's one of the most powerful things that people can do early on.
If you're brand new to personal finance or if you're brand new to investing, that is the best thing that you can do early on is investing yourself, invest in your education so that you can learn this stuff and really be able to scale your life as time goes on. You can achieve financial freedom just with your, some of your head knowledge and taking action on that knowledge as well.
So it's one of the most powerful things that you can do. So this has been absolutely amazing. Paul. One question that we ask everybody that I want to get to, um, is what does wealth mean to you? Oh, it actually very short and sweet Andrew. It means having unlimited options. Think about it like this guys, and I actually took this from one of my mentors, is that you need to get richer.
You need to get richer. And the reason why you need to get richer, because think about it like this, anywhere you go, whether it is when you go take that flight with your family and you're forced to go and actually fly in the back of the plane instead of first class, that's an option. But if you were richer, you would have the option.
And don't tell me that you wouldn't pick first class. If you have medical bills that are racked up in the thousands, getting richer helps you actually pay off those medical bills to help you and your family. Whether it's you staying in a one bedroom, getting richer is gonna help you move into that. Four, five bedroom house.
Possibly buy that house for your mom, buy that car that you need, that car you've always wanted. Getting richer is not a bad thing guys. It's just what we've been told our entire life. Get around the people that you wanna be around. Get around the positive binded individuals that are actually making it happen for themselves.
It will change your life. But ultimately, that's what stuck in my head ever since I started ATMs, ever since I moved onto digital marketing. Getting richer is not a bad thing, guys. You guys can all make it happen. And it's just as simple as that. It's having unlimited options. Absolutely. And options are one of the most powerful things that wealth can create.
So I absolutely love that answer. So Paul, this has been incredible. I've learned so much throughout this interview. Where can people find out more about you and ATM together and all your socials and everything else? Yeah, absolutely. Hey guys, so if you guys wanna check out my content, check out more free resources, couple of platforms you guys could check out.
First one's gonna be Instagram, Paul Alex Espinoza, that's gonna be E S P I N O Z A, Paul Alex Espinoza. And then you can check us out on our official website. That's gonna be atm together.com, and we just launch YouTube, guys. So you can either check out Paul, Alex Espinoza or ATM together on YouTube.
You'll have a lot of valuable information and free resources, and if you even wanna chat with either myself or one of our teammates, just let us know. Absolutely. That's incredible. We will link to everything down below as well, so you guys can check that out. We encourage you to check out all of Paul's links down below in the show notes as well.
Paul, thank you so much for being here. This was absolutely incredible. Absolutely. Thanks Andrew.
In this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we are going to do a Money Q&A about Can I contribute to multiple retirement accounts every single year?
In this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we are going to do a Money Q&A about Can I contribute to multiple retirement accounts every single year?
In this episode of the Personal Finance Podcast, we are going to talk about how to buy a house the right way in 2024.
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