Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, we're black. We're back, We're brown.
Speaker 2: Hey, Mandy, what's up to a little shaky on the
Speaker 2: dismount there?
Speaker 1: I what's my order? What's my line?
Speaker 3: Line?
Speaker 4: Are we black? Are we back? Which one comes first?
Speaker 1: I know, I don't know, and you know I got it.
Speaker 1: It's okay. We're We're in here in cheer. Have you been.
Speaker 2: I've been great, you know, making making moves per usue
Speaker 2: trying to wake up from the Super Bowl. I'm still
Speaker 2: like half asleep because it was the boringest event in
Speaker 2: all of history.
Speaker 4: But you know, it's nice to have snacks.
Speaker 3: I didn't even honestly, I spent the day at like
Speaker 3: my parents' house, helping well superman put all the stuff together.
Speaker 1: You know, your parents taken when you come fixes one thing.
Speaker 3: Three hours later, the whole house is done.
Speaker 2: And this is why I moved States, because this is
Speaker 2: my brother, is the one that my dad calls.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I just like yeah, I mean, I mean he didn't mind,
Speaker 3: which is nice, you know, But still I was like
Speaker 3: I told her, mamm like, just the door, Mommy, just
Speaker 3: the door.
Speaker 1: She looked at me like, girl, bye, I'm not even.
Speaker 5: Speaking to you.
Speaker 1: You don't even do anything. I'm speaking to your husband.
Speaker 1: So he said he loved it.
Speaker 3: He was his mom passed away when he's twenty, so
Speaker 3: he's like, you know, your parents are my parents.
Speaker 2: So I was like, oh, nice, you're a great one.
Speaker 2: Like your husband's nicer than you are.
Speaker 3: You're like I know, because I was sure, like she'll
Speaker 3: just get this door done and have to wait.
Speaker 1: I look like, if you say so, no, but it
Speaker 1: was awesome. But I'm super excited if speaking about good men,
Speaker 1: I'm excited because we've got an awesome guest today.
Speaker 2: Correct though, Yeah, I've actually you we both kind of
Speaker 2: known Ash Cash, the man that met the legend going
Speaker 2: on a few years now.
Speaker 4: When did you first meet Ash? What's your Ash story?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't even remember, you know, I feel
Speaker 3: like I've always known, as you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: just like I can never not remember, honestly.
Speaker 1: I'm like, well, ask if you remember, like I don't. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I don't know for a fin con I don't know.
Speaker 6: Before you don't remember it was? I remember, I remember this.
Speaker 6: I remember it was, Uh what year was this? It
Speaker 6: had to be two thousand.
Speaker 5: I forget what year it was.
Speaker 2: You're both at memory but it was christ Wow, you
Speaker 2: have a great memory.
Speaker 5: A little kid was like last year.
Speaker 1: I'm the last you know. I wasn't even that think
Speaker 1: called last year.
Speaker 3: But anyway, if you don't know who we're speaking to
Speaker 3: and of Ash Cash is a personal finance expert. He's
Speaker 3: a speaker radio TV. But honestly, he's like really like
Speaker 3: my brother from another mother. He is super inspiring. He
Speaker 3: was in the banking industry for about a decade, worked
Speaker 3: his way up from a teller to a manager and
Speaker 3: then was the CEO. What is it when you're when
Speaker 3: you basically run a credit union presidency?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was the CEO of a credit union.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's incredible, you know, incredible And just recently he
Speaker 3: so just like me. I well, I ended up losing
Speaker 3: my home during the Great Recession, and Ash was on
Speaker 3: the verge of that. But there was a program he
Speaker 3: used that helped him save his home, and recently he
Speaker 3: sold that home for a huge windfall. So that's what
Speaker 3: we've been to talk about today. So we're just really
Speaker 3: happy to have you'll. You'll know, his tagline is mind
Speaker 3: right money right or mind right life right. I mean,
Speaker 3: but mind right is kind of like how it's like
Speaker 3: my live Richard. So thank you for joining us.
Speaker 6: Thank you so much for having me. You know, well
Speaker 6: we always connect. It's always great energy. And Mandy has
Speaker 6: been on my radio show and she has great energy
Speaker 6: set Mandy show.
Speaker 1: I didn't know.
Speaker 2: First of all, you knew that. I think we were
Speaker 2: supposed to be on it together. But whatever, we won't
Speaker 2: go into your bad memory.
Speaker 6: And that's I wasn't gonna say anything. But it was
Speaker 6: Tiff was supposed to be on as well. It was
Speaker 6: a little bit last minute, so many held it down.
Speaker 2: You know, we're we're here to mend fences. We're not
Speaker 2: trying to dig up. Let's focus on the man himself.
Speaker 2: So Ash, I mean, I think you have so much
Speaker 2: going on. I mean, TIF didn't even mention the fact
Speaker 2: that how many books have you written?
Speaker 4: Seven?
Speaker 5: Ten? Seven books? Yep, I'm at number seven.
Speaker 2: Now, well, forget all that for a second, because beyond
Speaker 2: your financial expertise, I'm just mostly interested in your personal
Speaker 2: story and your real estate experience. So take us back
Speaker 2: to when you and your wife first decided to buy
Speaker 2: a home. It was in New York, right in the Bronx.
Speaker 6: Yeah, New York, in the Bronx the Wakefield area who
Speaker 6: we were young. So it's funny because my wife and
Speaker 6: I have been together for fifteen years for eleven and
Speaker 6: when we first met, uh, you know, we we met
Speaker 6: at work actually, so so my you know, I work,
Speaker 6: I worked at Chase. Uh, I was a banker at
Speaker 6: the time. She was a teller and we and we
Speaker 6: you know, we met. We dated for about I mean
Speaker 6: we knew each other for about two years before we
Speaker 6: started dating. And so as we started to date, we
Speaker 6: were thinking about I want to say, we were together
Speaker 6: like four or five years or four years and then, uh,
Speaker 6: we had the news that we were gonna have my
Speaker 6: my daughter. And so at the time, you know, we
Speaker 6: had planned this big wedding we were gonna go to, uh,
Speaker 6: We're gonna have a destination wedding.
Speaker 5: We would get married in Jamaica and all this stuff.
Speaker 6: And my wife, you know, feash out to her, being
Speaker 6: financially savvy, said you know, why are we gonna spend all.
Speaker 5: Of this money to entertain other people? You know?
Speaker 6: And see she jokingly said, you know what, how about
Speaker 6: we just take all this money that we were gonna
Speaker 6: pay for this wedding. Let's buy a house and if
Speaker 6: we last ten years, then we'll have the wedding after
Speaker 6: the ten years. And you know, I said, oh, that
Speaker 6: sounds like a great idea. And so we like literally,
Speaker 6: uh we were we were.
Speaker 5: She was twenty four, I was twenty five.
Speaker 6: We bought our first home and we you know, we
Speaker 6: bought the house in the Bronx, uh Wakefield area.
Speaker 5: Uh you know again I was I was already a banker.
Speaker 6: I was already in banking and so financially, that just
Speaker 6: made sense for me. And instead of buying a home
Speaker 6: that was just a single parent a single family home,
Speaker 6: we we bought a two family home, you know, thinking
Speaker 6: that we can either you know, rent it out or
Speaker 6: you know, have you know, maybe you know, you know,
Speaker 6: at the time, her mother lived in the Bronx, so
Speaker 6: we were thinking about maybe you know having you know,
Speaker 6: my uh my mother in law lived with us so
Speaker 6: that she could help take care of the baby. And
Speaker 6: so that's what that's what we wind up doing. And
Speaker 6: so we bought the home, I want to say, two
Speaker 6: thousand and seven and.
Speaker 4: Good timing, good time.
Speaker 2: Yet a way to spend money then.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, exactly and at the height though, right, so
Speaker 6: this is right when you know, you know, the real
Speaker 6: estate bubble, you know, you know, everything was pricey, and
Speaker 6: so you know, we bought the house.
Speaker 4: Then how much was it?
Speaker 6: It was four to twenty five at the time. Okay,
Speaker 6: so four hundred and twenty five thousand dollars for two
Speaker 6: family home in the Bronx and Man two thousand and
Speaker 6: eight hit two thousand to die, and we lost a
Speaker 6: lot of you know, we lost a lot of value
Speaker 6: in the home. Like literally, you know, the house was
Speaker 6: worth you know, for twenty five and we bought it.
Speaker 6: By two thousand and nine, two years later, the house
Speaker 6: was worth about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 2: And you had taken out a mortgage. So how much
Speaker 2: mortgage did you have at the time.
Speaker 6: So at the time, so we we took out we
Speaker 6: used the fah loan, and so we had put down
Speaker 6: you know, the I want to say, like ten percent
Speaker 6: or maybe less than that. We I want to say,
Speaker 6: we put put down about twenty thousand, which is less
Speaker 6: than ten percent, right, So we put it. We put
Speaker 6: down a lot about like twenty twenty thousand. So you know,
Speaker 6: our mortgage was was around like four hundred you know,
Speaker 6: four hundred thousand for four oh seven some somewhere along
Speaker 6: those lines. I don't remember exactly the numbers, but it
Speaker 6: was it was four hundred and some changes what our
Speaker 6: mortgage was, and you know, and so so each you know,
Speaker 6: each month.
Speaker 5: We were we were paying a hefty penny.
Speaker 6: You know, I want to say, close to twenty five
Speaker 6: hundred dollars if I if I'm not mistaken, was was
Speaker 6: our mortgage?
Speaker 2: And yet your house is worth like one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty k less than that.
Speaker 5: Then what we yep, then what we were paying?
Speaker 1: Yeah, do you remember what your interest rate was back
Speaker 1: then that you locked in?
Speaker 6: So luckily? I want to say that I had. I
Speaker 6: was working at the bank, so I was at the
Speaker 6: time that we bought the house.
Speaker 5: I was a private.
Speaker 6: Banker working at a Bank of America, And so I
Speaker 6: want to say it was it might have been like
Speaker 6: five six percent something like that, somewhere on those lines,
Speaker 6: like five six percent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So what happened? I mean, what was the worst?
Speaker 2: What was like the bottom for you guys when you
Speaker 2: realized what in what terrible shape you were? And then
Speaker 2: and how did you bounce back?
Speaker 4: What did you meant?
Speaker 6: So so so right around? I want to say, two
Speaker 6: thousand and nine, so I'm still working at the bank.
Speaker 6: You know, we lose all this value in the home,
Speaker 6: but you know, everything is all good. You know, we
Speaker 6: still sort of like budget you know, budgeted for to
Speaker 6: make the monthly payments, so we were still making the payments.
Speaker 6: Everything was all good. Right Around two thousand and nine,
Speaker 6: I wrote my first book, Mind Right, Money Right, Tellos
Speaker 6: of Financial Freedom. And at the time I just kind
Speaker 6: of had this bug for entrepreneurship and to just kind
Speaker 6: of take it back a little bit. You know, I
Speaker 6: grew up in a single parent home. You know, I
Speaker 6: grew up into projects in Harlem, Saint Nicholas projects, and
Speaker 6: so I didn't really have any role models, anybody in
Speaker 6: business that could teach me and know mentors anything like that.
Speaker 6: And so when I had I knew how to passion
Speaker 6: to teach, to teach money, and so you know, I
Speaker 6: you know, I wrote this book, I started doing speaking engagements,
Speaker 6: was traveling, was making some money, and so I decided
Speaker 6: to take a leap of faith and just leave my
Speaker 6: my my bank position. And I was making six figures
Speaker 6: at the time managing a branch, and I, you know,
Speaker 6: decided to jump out the window. I said, you know,
Speaker 6: I'm passionate about I jumped out the window.
Speaker 5: I was, uh, you know, I just.
Speaker 6: Not literally no no, no, no, no, no, that.
Speaker 5: Was that's a figuratively speaking, you know, because.
Speaker 4: That was happening. I mean it was it was troubling time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was troubling time.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: But but think about this though, Even during that troubling time,
Speaker 6: I I quit my job, right, I like, I said,
Speaker 6: you know what, I have this passion for financial education,
Speaker 6: and so you know, I want a tour. You know,
Speaker 6: I was getting a good publicity. I was on you know,
Speaker 6: Black Amprist seven. I was doing a lot of interviews,
Speaker 6: and so at the time, I thought fame equals money.
Speaker 6: I said, whoa, you know, people know me now, and
Speaker 6: so you know I'm gonna make money now, right, And
Speaker 6: so I just prematurely.
Speaker 5: Decided to quit my job.
Speaker 6: And once I did that, I was making some money
Speaker 6: as an entrepreneur, but I wasn't making enough to manage everything.
Speaker 6: It wasn't making enough to manage my bills, none of
Speaker 6: that stuff. And so you know, things started to catch up,
Speaker 6: and you know, we couldn't afford the mortgage anymore.
Speaker 5: And so you know, like I.
Speaker 6: Literally remember it was like two ten, twenty eleven ish.
Speaker 6: In fact, if you look at my Facebook page, you
Speaker 6: will see that I threw myself a retirement party in
Speaker 6: twenty ten because I retired from banking. I was like,
Speaker 6: I'm retiring from banking. I'm gonna start this new career.
Speaker 5: I was. I was just about to turn thirty.
Speaker 6: So twenty ten, November twenty ten, it was my thirtieth birthday,
Speaker 6: and so I threw myself a retirement party, a thirtieth
Speaker 6: birthday retirement party.
Speaker 5: That's how full of myself.
Speaker 4: The universe was just like, we're about.
Speaker 1: To show yeah, like we finished, you know what the state.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that, but go ahead, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: Universe was like, wait, hold on, hold on, watch watch
Speaker 6: let me show Let me show this guy, right, and
Speaker 6: so yeah, shortly after, I want to say, you know,
Speaker 6: uh uh not sure, but maybe like six, six or
Speaker 6: seven months afterwards, I started to realize that I wasn't
Speaker 6: making as much money as an entrepreneur as as I
Speaker 6: was in my nine to five. I didn't plan, you know,
Speaker 6: I didn't plan accordingly. My mother in law was staying
Speaker 6: with us at the time, and so, you know, when
Speaker 6: everything was going on, you know, we had to make
Speaker 6: a decision. Right we we had this mortgage that we
Speaker 6: couldn't afford. The home was wasn't worth what we were paying,
Speaker 6: and so we we were missing out on payments. They
Speaker 6: were gonna, you know, put the house on foreclosure, and
Speaker 6: so we we did, uh, you know, we contacted the
Speaker 6: bank and we did what's called a deed in lieu
Speaker 6: of foreclosure where we put the home up for a
Speaker 6: short sale and so that that way, if someone buys
Speaker 6: a home, then we went and you know, we wouldn't
Speaker 6: have to have you know, anybody knocking on our door
Speaker 6: and you know, come come in and take the house.
Speaker 6: And the most embarrassing part of it was that I
Speaker 6: was still the hottest I ever was though, right My
Speaker 6: book was still.
Speaker 5: Selling, I was still on radio, I was still a
Speaker 5: television I was still doing all this stuff.
Speaker 6: But you know, you know, in real life, you know,
Speaker 6: I'm struggling about to lose my home.
Speaker 5: My neighbors are coming up to me like, Ash, what's
Speaker 5: going on? Why are you selling the house?
Speaker 6: And you know, and so it was like not only
Speaker 6: the worst time that I had, but also the most embarrassing,
Speaker 6: but the most humbling, you know, and I'm happy it
Speaker 6: happened because if you fast forward during that time, you know,
Speaker 6: I kind of like I ate humble pie. I said,
Speaker 6: you know what, I need to go back to work.
Speaker 6: And so, you know, good thing. I had a great
Speaker 6: resume still, and so you know, I decided that, you know,
Speaker 6: why struggle, right, why struggle unnecessarily decided to go back
Speaker 6: to work. And so I, you know, got a got
Speaker 6: a branch manager position at City Bank, managing one of
Speaker 6: their branches in Harlem. Was making good money again, and
Speaker 6: so you know, now I'm I'm living right like now,
Speaker 6: we could afford the mortgage. But at the time, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, fash out the President Obama had the Making
Speaker 6: Home Affordable program and so we you know, we're in
Speaker 6: a short short sell we qualify, and so we applied
Speaker 6: for it. And what what what essentially what it did
Speaker 6: was anybody who had a mortgage that was underwater, Uh,
Speaker 6: they would they would if you qualify, they would recalibrate
Speaker 6: the loan so that you would now, uh they would
Speaker 6: forgive you for the excess amount. Right, And so you know,
Speaker 6: at the time, let's say, you know, my mortgage was
Speaker 6: four hundred and seven thousand, got rid of the excess,
Speaker 6: you know, one fifty and so now you know, my
Speaker 6: mortgage is now two hundred and fifty thousand, and so
Speaker 6: you know, you know, now I have a job, you know,
Speaker 6: you know, making making money again. And so my mortgage
Speaker 6: payment went went from close to three thousand dollars to
Speaker 6: now like twelve hundred dollars or eleven hundred something somewhere
Speaker 6: along those lines. And the great thing that happened with
Speaker 6: that was we had a two family house, and you know,
Speaker 6: my mother in law was staying with us, and so
Speaker 6: now once we went through the whole short cell process,
Speaker 6: she decided to move out. And so we also you know,
Speaker 6: now when the when the home was was was refinance
Speaker 6: or or when they when they redid the loan. We're
Speaker 6: now paying a two hundred and fifty thousand dollars loan.
Speaker 6: Plus we have an apartment downstairs that we could rent out.
Speaker 6: And so it was a double blessing, right, so now
Speaker 6: we were able to save the home.
Speaker 5: We could afford the mortgage.
Speaker 6: But now we found a tenant, someone to live in
Speaker 6: the home, and they were they were paying us eleven
Speaker 6: hundred dollars in rent, and so you know, this, this curse, right,
Speaker 6: this thing that was almost the worst thing that could
Speaker 6: have ever happened to us, wound up being a blessing
Speaker 6: because our you know, out of pocket expense for the
Speaker 6: mortgage was less than one hundred dollars one hundred and
Speaker 6: two hundred dollars and I was it. And so the
Speaker 6: money that we would have spent on uh or we
Speaker 6: would have used on the mortgage, we're now able to
Speaker 6: save and start to rebuild our our account.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the key difference. The fact that you
Speaker 2: guys had invested in a two family homes so you
Speaker 2: had the ability to rent it. Because like, at the
Speaker 2: same time home values were dropping, demand for rent was
Speaker 2: going up.
Speaker 4: So shout out, let's pour.
Speaker 2: One out for the home Affordable Modification Plan, which was
Speaker 2: the program you guys took advantage of.
Speaker 4: It's no longer offered, but let's pour one out for it.
Speaker 2: Thank god, you guys took advantage of it when you did,
Speaker 2: because that was, you know, a huge game changer.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, absolutely, and it was.
Speaker 6: It was it was like a you know, at first,
Speaker 6: we were like, man, this is too good to be true,
Speaker 6: but no, we accepted the blessing you know, you know,
Speaker 6: I ate my humble pie learned from it and it
Speaker 6: really made me appreciate or that's what opened my eyes
Speaker 6: to you know, residual income and have your money work
Speaker 6: for you because you know, again you know having that.
Speaker 6: I mean, it wasn't really foresight, but you know, for us,
Speaker 6: it was more about you know, babysitting. We were like,
Speaker 6: all right, let's get this two family house so you know,
Speaker 6: mother in law can stay with us, could help us
Speaker 6: out when we need, you know, when we need babysitting.
Speaker 6: But it actually wound up you know, helping us because
Speaker 6: that extra that extra apartment, you know, allowed us to
Speaker 6: create a source of a source of income. And so
Speaker 6: now we weren't only relying on our physical labor, but
Speaker 6: we were actually relying on you know, you know, uh,
Speaker 6: residual income through through rental payments.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: It's a way to turn something that could have been
Speaker 3: like the worst possible thing into something that end up
Speaker 3: being like a positive change for you and your family.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely, I was gonna say, you've dodged this bullet,
Speaker 2: You've saved your home. You guys are in good shape.
Speaker 2: You have rent you have rental income coming in your mortgage,
Speaker 2: Like you know, your share of the mortgage is shrinking.
Speaker 2: You're back to launching your own business. Can you talk
Speaker 2: about sort of the the years following the loan modification
Speaker 2: when you were getting back on your feet?
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely so, so you know through you know, after
Speaker 6: that happened again. You know, I you know, a couple
Speaker 6: of things happened. Right first, I realized that the reason
Speaker 6: why I needed the humble myself was because I was
Speaker 6: making it about me. Uh when when when I when
Speaker 6: I came, when I started to my journey of personal
Speaker 6: finance and teaching about financial education, it felt good helping people,
Speaker 6: helping people manage their money, helping people learn how to
Speaker 6: uh you know, be better stewards of.
Speaker 5: Their money and change their mindset.
Speaker 6: And but but the moment where I started getting a
Speaker 6: little notoriety, getting a little fame, I started making it
Speaker 6: about me. And that's when, you know, the rug got
Speaker 6: pulled over from under my legs. But now I realized
Speaker 6: my second go round, it was like, you know what,
Speaker 6: this is not about you.
Speaker 5: Uh, you know now that you have this new added you.
Speaker 6: Know, humbleness, but this this story, this uh, this this
Speaker 6: obstacle that you overcame. Now now you're able to use
Speaker 6: that to help people even further and full disclosure. Tiffany
Speaker 6: you know this already, but I'll but I'll say it again.
Speaker 6: You know, it was actually Tiffany who gave me the
Speaker 6: courage to even have a conversation about about this because
Speaker 6: for a long time when I was you know, you know,
Speaker 6: I never spoke about it.
Speaker 5: You know, we're still doing my speak speaking engagements.
Speaker 6: I was still going out there, you know, not pretending
Speaker 6: that everything was okay. But I just was omitting the
Speaker 6: fact that I, you know, that I understood where people
Speaker 6: were coming from from a foreclosure perspective. And I remember
Speaker 6: one time, just you know, listening to Tiffany you know,
Speaker 6: on on a on a on a video chat, and
Speaker 6: she started, you know, talking about how she was going
Speaker 6: through foreclosure and you know, lost her home.
Speaker 1: And I was like, way, I'm like, I remember you
Speaker 1: hit me out.
Speaker 6: You're like, I was like, yo, you the budget niea
Speaker 6: like how you how you.
Speaker 5: Stilling all the tea? You know.
Speaker 6: But but I but I realized, you know, that transparency
Speaker 6: was what uh Ma is what made people and continues
Speaker 6: to make people fall in love with her and her
Speaker 6: message and so from that point on, I was like,
Speaker 6: you know what, I'm actually gonna be more transparent.
Speaker 5: Uh and and and the.
Speaker 6: Honest truth was the moment I started to add that
Speaker 6: as part of my story. It now sort of like,
Speaker 6: you know, broke down a wall, right, because before I
Speaker 6: was going in there as you know, the guy who
Speaker 6: you know grew up in the hood and you know,
Speaker 6: started worked in banking and became a successful banker. And
Speaker 6: that was the end of the story. And now I'm
Speaker 6: teaching you how to change, you know, how to get
Speaker 6: out of your circumstance. But you know, now a story
Speaker 6: she shifted from this guy who grew up in the
Speaker 6: hood became a successful banker and then you know, ruined
Speaker 6: his credit, ruined his uh you know, ruined his almost
Speaker 6: ruined his life financial life by you know, by by
Speaker 6: not making the right decisions.
Speaker 5: And so started sharing that story.
Speaker 6: You know, now that you know, we have the extra income, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, from not having to pay a mortgage, you know,
Speaker 6: we're saving more, we're investing more, we're you know, we're
Speaker 6: buying other properties, right and so now we are realizing
Speaker 6: the power of real estate, and so we you know,
Speaker 6: we're buying you know, you know, income producing properties. You know,
Speaker 6: my businesses is flourishing. I'm writing books and so by
Speaker 6: that time, so two thousand and nine, I wrote my
Speaker 6: first book. By twenty thirteen, I want to say, I
Speaker 6: had three books, which is uh, you know, I had
Speaker 6: Tailors a Way, which is a book I wrote with
Speaker 6: my daughter, life lessons Learned through the eyes of a
Speaker 6: three year old. But then I wrote What the Fico,
Speaker 6: which was one of my which is still one of
Speaker 6: my best selling books.
Speaker 5: What the FIGHTO. Twelve steps are repairing your credit.
Speaker 6: And so from there my business just started to take
Speaker 6: off in such a way where you know, I have
Speaker 6: income coming from our primary residents because we're renting that out.
Speaker 6: We had one more, you know, one other property I
Speaker 6: was a co op that we're getting income from we
Speaker 6: have you know, my wife and I you know have
Speaker 6: that We had our you know, my books were making money.
Speaker 6: I was traveling from a speaking you know, making steady
Speaker 6: income from speaking, and so I decided to take another
Speaker 6: leap and decided, you know, after the credit union.
Speaker 5: You know, it was a great opportunity.
Speaker 6: I was, I want to say, one of the youngest
Speaker 6: CEOs of a federally charted bank at the time, I
Speaker 6: was thirty two. Yeah, thirty two at the time. But
Speaker 6: after that decided to jump out the window again, not literally,
Speaker 6: but you know, take a leap of faith and started
Speaker 6: to started my business. And then you know, now was
Speaker 6: it was uh, it was it was, it worked, it
Speaker 6: was more steady.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: One of the things I want to point out for
Speaker 6: for for everybody, for the listeners, is that I believe
Speaker 6: that the second time around, uh, the reason why it
Speaker 6: was more successful, I was more successful as an entrepreneur
Speaker 6: was because I took care of the basics.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 6: The first time around, I was you know, I jumped
Speaker 6: with a leap in a prayer, right, I didn't I
Speaker 6: didn't really properly plan. I didn't have enough money saved up,
Speaker 6: uh to take care of my you know, my my my,
Speaker 6: my basic necessities. And so not being able to take
Speaker 6: care of the basic necessities had me uh, you know,
Speaker 6: had me worrying. And and that space in my mind too. Uh,
Speaker 6: I didn't have enough space to flourish. I didn't have
Speaker 6: enough space to be an entrepreneur. Uh and and and
Speaker 6: and fully developed my business the way I want to
Speaker 6: because I was worrying about the basics. Uh, this time around,
Speaker 6: you know, I had the basics covered right, my my shelter, food,
Speaker 6: you know, I knew how my daughter was going to
Speaker 6: go to school.
Speaker 5: You know, all the basics were covered.
Speaker 6: And so now when I when I decided to become
Speaker 6: an entrepreneur, it freed up so much space in my
Speaker 6: mind right. And that's why I always talk about mind right,
Speaker 6: money right, mind right, life right. If your mind is right,
Speaker 6: it allows you to do other things. And so yeah,
Speaker 6: I you know it was was was able to become
Speaker 6: a full time entrepreneur, and you know, have been been
Speaker 6: on that journey ever since.
Speaker 2: Well, let's take a quick break and then I want
Speaker 2: to come back and hear a about how one day
Speaker 2: you had a fateful knock on the door of the
Speaker 2: house that you saved from foreclosure and decided to sell.
Speaker 2: We'll take a quick break and come back with ashcashow Ash.
Speaker 1: This is the part that's really fascinating because it sounds.
Speaker 3: Very Oprah esque. I don't know if you know, but
Speaker 3: my auntie Oprah, when she bought her ranch in mont Pecito,
Speaker 3: it's a California she that house was not for sale.
Speaker 3: Oprah was like, yeah, cute, but I want it. And
Speaker 3: so she knocked on the family's door, or I'm sure
Speaker 3: her representatives did, and said, Oprah wants to buy your house.
Speaker 3: And they were.
Speaker 1: Of course like yes, because you know, she made them
Speaker 1: an offer that they could not refuse. And that happened
Speaker 1: to you.
Speaker 3: It was Oprah, but it was someone who was willing
Speaker 3: to pay you a good amount of money.
Speaker 6: Tell us about that day, man, So you know, the
Speaker 6: the house continues to be continue to be a blessing.
Speaker 5: Uh.
Speaker 6: You know, one day, you know, I'm getting my daughter,
Speaker 6: you know, ready for school, and we're on our way
Speaker 6: out and there's this guy, you know, going daughter door,
Speaker 6: knocking on people's door, and he's, you know, just introducing himself.
Speaker 6: And so as I'm about to leave the house, I
Speaker 6: see him. He's walking up to me and.
Speaker 5: So now you know, I you know, we we we
Speaker 5: make eye contact.
Speaker 6: And the first thing, It's funny, the first thing I
Speaker 6: saw was his suit, right, He had a nice suit on.
Speaker 6: It was you know, nice and polish. And I was like, hey,
Speaker 6: that's a nice suit, brother, and he was like, you know,
Speaker 6: thank you. And I automatically thought that he was a politician, right,
Speaker 6: because you know, in my neighborhood. It's a you know,
Speaker 6: it was a middle class neighborhood.
Speaker 5: A lot of you know a.
Speaker 6: Lot of politicians come over around election times to introduce
Speaker 6: themselves and you know, ask us, you know, how things
Speaker 6: are going, and you know, want in our votes and stuff,
Speaker 6: and so, you know, the gentleman said to me, he said, hey,
Speaker 6: if I can get you top dollar for your home,
Speaker 6: would you sell? And you know, I looked and I
Speaker 6: was like, nah, you know, we had no intention of selling,
Speaker 6: no intentions of moving, and so we you know, I
Speaker 6: you know, I politely declined, was like, nah, you know,
Speaker 6: we're not thinking about you know, selling anything like that.
Speaker 5: He gave me his card.
Speaker 6: He said, if you ever, you know, if you know
Speaker 6: anybody who's selling or anything like that, you know, definitely
Speaker 6: give me a call.
Speaker 5: I was like, perfect, we'll do.
Speaker 6: Drop my daughter off the school, came back home, bump,
Speaker 6: you know, saw my wife and I said, hey, baby,
Speaker 6: let me you.
Speaker 5: Know, this guy just walked up. He gave us this card.
Speaker 6: He asked, you know, if we were interested in selling
Speaker 6: at home. And so we both looked at each other
Speaker 6: and we were like, you know what the house next
Speaker 6: door was on you know, was was on sale i
Speaker 6: want to say, nine ten months and it never sold.
Speaker 6: Like people would go in there, people would look at
Speaker 6: the house, but it never sold, never sold.
Speaker 5: And we were like, man, this house is just too high.
Speaker 6: I'm like, there's no way you know that they're going
Speaker 6: to sell the house for what they wanted because it
Speaker 6: was you know, it was also a two family but
Speaker 6: they didn't have an attic like we had an attic, right,
Speaker 6: and so they only had you know, like two bedrooms downstairs.
Speaker 6: We had just put a you know, put some money
Speaker 6: into the house. We had an attic, and because my
Speaker 6: son was just born. My son is three now, but
Speaker 6: he was you know, he was when he was like
Speaker 6: one years old, we were like, you know what we
Speaker 6: need to start, you know, making more room. And so
Speaker 6: we took the attic and we redid the whole attict.
Speaker 6: We put about thirty thousand dollars into the home. We
Speaker 6: created two new bedrooms upstairs, we created you know, we
Speaker 6: created it into a duplex.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So it went from being a two family home with
Speaker 6: a two bedroom, one bath upstairs and a one bedroom,
Speaker 6: one bath downstairs, and now we upgraded it to a
Speaker 6: four bedroom, one bath, and so my wife and I said,
Speaker 6: you know what, we should just put this house on
Speaker 6: the market to see what happens, to see how much,
Speaker 6: you know, we'll get offered for it, especially with this
Speaker 6: new addition that we made.
Speaker 5: So we put the house uh.
Speaker 6: You know, you know, on on on on the market
Speaker 6: and didn't really think anything was gonna happen. Within six
Speaker 6: days we got to offer for exactly what we were
Speaker 6: looking looking for. And just to kind of you know, uh,
Speaker 6: you know, give you give your perspective was that we
Speaker 6: uh you know, the house was was was was uh
Speaker 6: you know, uh modified for two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Speaker 6: But throughout the years our equity started to increase. Now
Speaker 6: and so now the house was worth you know, in
Speaker 6: the four hundred range. And then now because we added
Speaker 6: that addition, we said, you know what, we're gonna sell
Speaker 6: the house of four forty and six days later we
Speaker 6: got to offer for for four hundred and.
Speaker 5: Forty thousand, exactly you know what we asked for.
Speaker 6: And it was a blessing, right because when you think
Speaker 6: about it, you know, we had the low modification and
Speaker 6: so now the house was underwater and then now we
Speaker 6: were we were made right. But now you know, we're
Speaker 6: at a space where we're looking at, you know, coming
Speaker 6: up with with you know, a six figure check to sell,
Speaker 6: to sell this home, pay off our mortgage, and you know,
Speaker 6: figure out what we want to do if we decided
Speaker 6: to move. And my wife, you know, my wife has
Speaker 6: family in the South, has always talked about you know,
Speaker 6: you know, moving down south, and so we said, you
Speaker 6: know what, maybe we should we should kind of take
Speaker 6: a look at this, maybe we should take this seriously.
Speaker 6: And we decided to take a trip down to you know,
Speaker 6: it was two options. We were either gonna you know,
Speaker 6: go to Atlanta or Charlotte. And you know, you know,
Speaker 6: one of the great things about being an entrepreneur and
Speaker 6: being at this space of my life was that, you know,
Speaker 6: it didn't really matter, you know, where I live, because
Speaker 6: majority of my income was either from you know, working
Speaker 6: remotely doing you know, writing articles, things of that nature.
Speaker 6: But then also I travel a lot, you know, going
Speaker 6: you know, traveling throughout the country. You know, I mainly
Speaker 6: speak at colleges teaching financial education, and so it didn't
Speaker 6: really matter, you know, where I lived. And my wife
Speaker 6: is an HR consultant, so she was working from home
Speaker 6: as well, and so we were like, why are we
Speaker 6: paying all this money in New York when we don't
Speaker 6: have to be here? Long story short, we went to Atlanta,
Speaker 6: you know, spent the week there, was looking at the
Speaker 6: amount of square footage we can get for lessing with
Speaker 6: the house, you know what we were paying in New York,
Speaker 6: and it was sort of like a no brainer, and
Speaker 6: so we decided to make the move. Not nothing planned.
Speaker 6: We literally we sold the house in so let me
Speaker 6: tell you the timeline. We sold the house September twelfth, Right, so,
Speaker 6: September twelfth, we sold the house. September thirteenth, we're on
Speaker 6: the road down to Atlanta. It was a thirteen hour trip.
Speaker 6: We stopped one time. So we got down there September fourteenth.
Speaker 6: We stayed in the airbnb as we were looking for
Speaker 6: different homes. We closed on a new home in October.
Speaker 6: So a month later were closing a new home. And
Speaker 6: now we're living, Uh, we're living. We're living a good life.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say that, but he's still very humble.
Speaker 4: Universe don't don't Yeah, yeah, yes.
Speaker 6: Universe, yes, Universe, you know, you know, please write the work.
Speaker 6: You know I do put the people first, you know,
Speaker 6: I still put the people first. Uh but yeah, but
Speaker 6: but yeah, no, definitely living living a great, a great
Speaker 6: life in the in in the South.
Speaker 1: Had you like, did you you didn't have any family
Speaker 1: down there?
Speaker 6: No, no family, you know, I had, you know, some connections,
Speaker 6: you know from the work I've done, you know, you know,
Speaker 6: you can see your stats. And so Atlanta was my
Speaker 6: second So New York, you know, obviously was my biggest market,
Speaker 6: but but Atlanta was the second biggest market as far
Speaker 6: as like followers and people who purchased, you know, who
Speaker 6: support my business. And so that was one of the
Speaker 6: reasons why I wasn't reluctant. I was like, you know what,
Speaker 6: I'll you know, I'll figure it out, you know. And
Speaker 6: and I and I knew, you know, uh, you know,
Speaker 6: Atlanta is the real, the real Wakanda of the United States.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 6: So like a lot of people, you know, a lot
Speaker 6: of black and brown people are are you know, are
Speaker 6: thriving in Atlanta. Uh, they work together and you know,
Speaker 6: they work together. It's it's it's a lot of love.
Speaker 6: And so that was one of the reasons I said,
Speaker 6: you know what, let you know, it's I'm willing to
Speaker 6: make that move.
Speaker 5: And and and so far it's been working out.
Speaker 4: We'll say hey to my hometown for me.
Speaker 6: Hey, yeah, when I when I found out that you
Speaker 6: were from the South man and and and and you're
Speaker 6: in New York. And I'm not gonna rub it in.
Speaker 6: You know, I'm not not gonna do that, right right, man, Dae,
Speaker 6: I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna rub it in.
Speaker 6: But but you know what it's like, you know, like
Speaker 6: you know that here is man, the cost of living
Speaker 6: is awesome.
Speaker 4: Whatever. Who needs in a two car garage?
Speaker 1: Who needs that garage?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 6: Like my like my my bathroom is the size of
Speaker 6: of my old apartment.
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying. You know, it's like the backyard.
Speaker 1: I mean right, I'm me can't in the backyard, do they?
Speaker 1: I really think that's the overrated?
Speaker 2: Who cares that your house is half as much as
Speaker 2: mine and three times as big?
Speaker 1: I don't.
Speaker 2: I made my choices, and I'm so happy with them.
Speaker 6: But whenever, and if you and if you want me
Speaker 6: to have to talk, you know, you know I could,
Speaker 6: I could talk to your husband and we could, you know,
Speaker 6: we could kind of figure something out.
Speaker 2: I'm saying because I've been saying, I'm married to a
Speaker 2: New York or he's not gonna move.
Speaker 4: But look at you. You're as New York as they come.
Speaker 1: I mean as or as they come.
Speaker 6: All I'm born and raised one hundred twenty nine Street,
Speaker 6: eighth Avenue. Oh I say, I say all that. You
Speaker 6: know what I'm saying, like like, yeah, I'm New York
Speaker 6: as they come. But I think that you know, and
Speaker 6: I'm I'm gonna tell you the secret.
Speaker 5: What what what you?
Speaker 6: What you have to do is y'all gotta just come
Speaker 6: down here. Just sneak you know, just sneak down here,
Speaker 6: Just come visit your family.
Speaker 5: Do something.
Speaker 2: He got married down there that didn't work.
Speaker 1: But here's what it comes down to.
Speaker 4: Here's the truth. Childcare.
Speaker 2: So his mother is here and she you know, they're
Speaker 2: going to be the primary grandparents. So I think when
Speaker 2: you're having it's like you you you and your wife
Speaker 2: stay close to home when you had a kid. And
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people, like young couples, are
Speaker 2: thinking the same thing. So for me, it's I would
Speaker 2: save money by moving to the A, but I'm not
Speaker 2: dropping my kids off my dad's house.
Speaker 5: Are you kidding me?
Speaker 4: They're gonna die?
Speaker 2: Like, I'm trying to live up here where they have
Speaker 2: you know, the Dominican grandmother. Well, so I'm gonna save
Speaker 2: on childcare by staying here. But I get, you know,
Speaker 2: it's you know, you have to balance those things. But
Speaker 2: you bring up a really good point about the fact
Speaker 2: that a lot of people, if you're working remotely, you
Speaker 2: can work from anywhere. And you know, I'm not in
Speaker 2: that situation right now, but there's people on my team
Speaker 2: who work remote, and the opportunities are are out there
Speaker 2: for people who work remote. Especially in this job market,
Speaker 2: I feel like a lot of employers are having to
Speaker 2: bend their own traditions or rules to give you know,
Speaker 2: let people be independent, location independent because the market is
Speaker 2: so hot and it's hard to find people for jobs today.
Speaker 5: Right absolutely, I think that's a great point.
Speaker 6: And then when you think about it, you know, you know,
Speaker 6: the money that you have to command could be different
Speaker 6: if you go to a place where the court, you know,
Speaker 6: the cost of living is lower. Right So someone you
Speaker 6: know from from an employer's perspective, you know, having that
Speaker 6: flexibility allowing you know, employees to work remotely. But then
Speaker 6: also if that employee understands, you know, you know, do
Speaker 6: I have to be in in a in a major
Speaker 6: metropolitan city.
Speaker 5: Do I have to spend you know this this money,
Speaker 5: uh to live?
Speaker 6: And you know that that that also you know, allows
Speaker 6: that flexibility as well if.
Speaker 3: You can look back, I mean, is there anything that
Speaker 3: you would change and do differently or you're like that
Speaker 3: the end totally justify the means.
Speaker 5: No, and definitely justifies the means.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 6: The one the one thing I always say is that
Speaker 6: the good, the bad, and the ugly all work in
Speaker 6: your favor.
Speaker 5: And so sometimes when you.
Speaker 6: Know, I don't believe in negative and positive like negative
Speaker 6: things happening to you because I think that as long
Speaker 6: as you have breathing your body, uh, you're you know,
Speaker 6: you you always have a you know, opportunity to do
Speaker 6: do things different.
Speaker 5: And everything just serves as a lesson.
Speaker 6: And so for me, I you know, you know, you know, yes,
Speaker 6: somebody would have been like man, you know, maybe I
Speaker 6: would have done this differently. But if you think about it,
Speaker 6: you know, honestly, if I would have never thrown myself
Speaker 6: that you know that that that retirement party, if I
Speaker 6: never decided to you know, quit my job cold Turkey,
Speaker 6: I would have never you know, fell back, you know,
Speaker 6: fell behind in in my mortgage.
Speaker 5: Uh. You know, I would have never had that.
Speaker 6: That uh loan remodification, and that loan remodification is what
Speaker 6: led to you know, my my home increasing in value.
Speaker 6: That also allowed me to sell the home and walk
Speaker 6: away with some money in hand and be able to
Speaker 6: purchase another home for half the price, triple the size,
Speaker 6: and so all of that, it was all it was
Speaker 6: all a sequence. And so if I took any of
Speaker 6: that back, if I just said, man, I wish this,
Speaker 6: this didn't happen, and I changed anything about it, I
Speaker 6: would probably still be in New York. I would probably
Speaker 6: still be in the same home. But instead, you know,
Speaker 6: I was, I was given a new opportunity and and
Speaker 6: you know, more importantly than me because I was, I
Speaker 6: was fine in New York.
Speaker 5: But I think you know now.
Speaker 6: You know, you know, watching my wife happy because she
Speaker 6: has family down here. I mean, she always wanted to
Speaker 6: be here. You know my daughter she's ten now. You know,
Speaker 6: she loves her school. She's the New York Girls. So
Speaker 6: she's popular, you know, popular in school.
Speaker 5: She loves it.
Speaker 6: You know my son, you know, he's three now, and
Speaker 6: and he you know, he's he has a lot of
Speaker 6: energy a York toddler. Yeah, you know, you know that
Speaker 6: he has a lot of energy. He's able to run
Speaker 6: and and and enjoy themselves. And so I think that,
Speaker 6: you know, all all lessons are blessings, and so I
Speaker 6: definitely wouldn't change anything, and I'm happy that things happen
Speaker 6: exactly the way they did.
Speaker 2: All lessons are blessings. I love people who can speak
Speaker 2: in bumper stickers. Yeah, you're good at that.
Speaker 3: Just what is what if your full name ashes short
Speaker 3: for no, just Ash ash Elexantis.
Speaker 1: Oh, your middle name is Xantis.
Speaker 6: No, my last name is Xantis and my first name
Speaker 6: is Ash. It's just Ash really like yeah, yeah yeah,
Speaker 6: so my so my parents, so my parents are from
Speaker 6: from Haiti, from Haitian.
Speaker 5: Uh yeah, so so Ash is a is a Haitian name? Uh?
Speaker 5: Which which which?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 5: Legend tells it that I'm named after.
Speaker 6: The water boys. So so there was a water boy
Speaker 6: uh in Haiti.
Speaker 5: Uh that my mom? You know, my mom, It was
Speaker 5: my mom's water boy. His name was Ash. And that's
Speaker 5: you know, that wind up being my name water? No exactly,
Speaker 5: not now that I say that I.
Speaker 2: Did he save you from drowning or something like.
Speaker 5: You are you really my dad or boy? Now that
Speaker 5: I say it out loud, it might it might be
Speaker 5: something to that. But and parents lie.
Speaker 4: You have two kids, don't you lie?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, tell the bran Ambition fam where they can find
Speaker 2: you Ash online on the social let them know.
Speaker 6: Yes, So you can go to my website I am
Speaker 6: Ashcash dot com. You can follow me on all social
Speaker 6: media platforms so Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, the same handle I
Speaker 6: am Ash Cash and I'm very active, So you can
Speaker 6: find me either on the website or on social media.
Speaker 3: Okay, Ash, Yes, he you are consistent through and through.
Speaker 3: I am a testament to your heart and soul and
Speaker 3: you really do just pour in to the people that
Speaker 3: you serve. So Atlanta is really lucky.
Speaker 5: To have you. Thank you so much. No, I appreciate that.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much.
Speaker 4: Thanks for coming on the show.
Speaker 6: Ash, Thank you, Mandy, thank you Tiffany, thank you for
Speaker 6: having me. Thank you listeners for you know, you know,
Speaker 6: I'm very loud and yelling and stuff, so thank you
Speaker 6: for I.
Speaker 4: Know it's her wife, like shut up.
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, she's like the total opposite. So she's like
Speaker 6: very calm and you know, my manner. But yeah, I'm
Speaker 6: like the big, outgoing guy. So thank you listeners for
Speaker 6: for for dealing with me. But you know, I appreciate
Speaker 6: you guys, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Yes, New York stand up.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's trying to imagine if you and Tip were
Speaker 2: both co hosts.
Speaker 3: Me I had as honest at the Literature Academy at
Speaker 3: the Expert Yo that Yo.
Speaker 1: I literally I think I fell asleep at the computer afterwards.
Speaker 1: I expended so much energy Fire up it was, But honestly, it's.
Speaker 3: Like the number one act The Expert. Everyone loves that one.
Speaker 3: That session, it was so much I think. I mean
Speaker 3: I can't even watch the whole way too, because it's exhausting,
Speaker 3: but in an awesome way. So yeah, no, it would
Speaker 3: be YO would just be yelling back and forth.