Any thoughts on the zero to freedom financial course?

[Lithium]

where did you get that it's live? Pretty sure its pre-recorded videos, with some live scheduled Q&As (which are recorded), and access to a forum or facebook page

I guess I didn't read that. But why else would enrollment be limited? Why not just let everyone buy the pre-recorded videos? Maybe pay extra for the live Q&A's?

[CordMcNally]

I guess I didn't read that. But why else would enrollment be limited? Why not just let everyone buy the pre-recorded videos? Maybe pay extra for the live Q&A's?

I didn't dig into it but it's pretty common in the world of sales to make something seem 'limited' or only available for a 'limited time only'.

[Lithium]

I didn't dig into it but it's pretty common in the world of sales to make something seem 'limited' or only available for a 'limited time only'.

I get why teasers help to sell a product, but when you go to buy a course on the WCI product page and see that some of them are "closed to enrollment," (like Peter Kim's course) it seems weird to me that turning away customers is a good business model, especially when pre-recorded videos are available that can easily be monetized.

WCI sells videos from his conference all year long and presumably makes mountains of cash by doing so.

[Jim]

I didn't dig into it but it's pretty common in the world of sales to make something seem 'limited' or only available for a 'limited time only'.

It's called "Fear of Missing out" and it's one of the oldest marketing gimmicks there is. Personally, it turns me off.

[AndyJ]

It's called "Fear of Missing out" and it's one of the oldest marketing gimmicks there is. Personally, it turns me off.

Thanks to everyone for your responses. I may have had FOMO here...but I agree here that I am extremely put off by this tactic. I am not going to take the course. I suppose I have been spoiled by lurking here for a while, and courses are much more conservatively priced. Regardless, I have always felt that there was some altruism behind the successful business that this site is. But this zero to freedom course is starting to sound gimmicky...similar to what I would expect a non-physician course to sound like, targeting MDs for their money. That may not be a fair assessment since I do not know their motives, but it feels like they are really trying to get rich off of doctors much more than trying to help doctors. Again, I know that may not be reality, but it does FEEL that way to me. thanks to everyone for the input.

[ScopeMonkey]

Thanks to everyone for your responses. I may have had FOMO here...but I agree here that I am extremely put off by this tactic. I am not going to take the course. I suppose I have been spoiled by lurking here for a while, and courses are much more conservatively priced. Regardless, I have always felt that there was some altruism behind the successful business that this site is. But this zero to freedom course is starting to sound gimmicky...similar to what I would expect a non-physician course to sound like, targeting MDs for their money. That may not be a fair assessment since I do not know their motives, but it feels like they are really trying to get rich off of doctors much more than trying to help doctors. Again, I know that may not be reality, but it does FEEL that way to me. thanks to everyone for the input.

Personally I think the main Q is how much of your time you want to devote to direct RE, and perhaps "RE Professional status" (at least 750 hrs a year) rather than to medicine. Perhaps I'm wrong, but my perception of at least some of the "FIRE" and "semiretired" younger docs is that they simply didn't pick the right vocation. If you truly enjoy and get deep satisfaction from at least some parts of medical practice, I think the vast majority of those docs are not going to pursue side gigs that are very time-intensive. I actually have a bunch of RE investments, but all started in the last few years, after I was already in practice over 20 yrs. No right or wrong here, just an observation.

[mkintx]

I watched several of their promo videos, and they are just too aggressive for me. They seem to both overpromise and to endorse using more leverage than I am comfortable with. I am interested in real estate, and have done a decent amount of research on my own, but there are lots of nitty gritty details that could probably prevent a $2300 mistake if you invested without a little guidance or a ton of research. Paula Pant has a similar course on Afford Anything, at a lower price point, and it appeals to me more because I think she's more conservative in her investing strategy. I still haven't jumped in yet. I like to spend a lot of time reading and considering, though.

[fatlittlepig]

I browsed the website for a few seconds. Looks like it’s two hospitalists, one of them quit and does real estate. It’s just changing careers, nothing really to see here. Dual income hospitalists or physicians can easily become financially secure or independent without taking on a lot of debt investing in real estate.

[Jim]

There's a guy named Chad Carson (at coachcarson.com) who sells a "real estate start school" course for about $1000, and sometimes he gives a $200 discount off of that. It's also waitlisted, but in his case it's for a good reason. He enrolls students and goes thru the course with them live over several weeks with phone calls (more likely zoom calls, actually), not just recorded videos.

Chad is just one example; there are scores of other people selling real estate investment courses (Peter Kim, for another example). As I said in my original comment, it comes down to what's their credibility and value, and that, unfortunately, can be a very difficult question to answer.

[saildawg]

I am at somewhat of a crossroads. I was critical of semiretiredMD on the POF guest post. I hated the term FastFIRE, and considered it complicated leveraged FIRE. I simply believe that FI can be achieved easily with a good savings rate and passive index investing. However, I am at a point now where this course really appeals to me. I am part of a 2 physician household, and we are doing great financially. My wife wants to continue working and I am considering pivoting careers, retiring from clinical medicine. I would need something to retire to, and after seeing our effective tax rate climb to 38% the benefits of real estate investing are enticing. So this course has peaked my interest, but there is just something about the marketing and "flim flam" of this course that I just cant get behind. I am hoping someone takes it and can review honestly. I don't mind paying for something that will benefit me, but the signup tactics and marketing of the course gives me hesitation. Why is real estate investing so prone to these tactics? I wish there was a Jack Bogle of real estate investing

[Lithium]

I've decided to stick with just reading books at my own pace rather than fork over money for these courses.

I read Cory Fawcett's book which was great for explaining basic concepts and going over the math for explaining cashflow. But it had too much cheerleading and not enough in the way of pitfalls and cautionary tales. He managed numerous rentals on his own and did a lot of the maintenance while working as a surgeon and made it sound like it wasn't that much of a burden, but I can't imagine how most people could juggle that.

I'm debating investing in turnkey real estate or an equity fund. Despite reading for hours and hours, I still feel pretty much clueless about how to vet these syndications and RE funds. I want to invest in a core or core + fund (as opposed to these risky opportunity zone funds), don't want to invest in something that relies heavily on advertising to attract investors, would rather invest with a management team that has been around for 5+ years, and has a lot of skin in the game, good fee structure. Hard to find many good options. That's why I'm starting to consider a turnkey company. I did put $25k in HML, but also have had difficulty identifying many debt funds that lend in non-judicial states without leverage.

[saildawg]

I am doing their free mini course now, 1/2 way through. They make some mistakes on calculating taxes/tax savings but most of the info has been pretty helpful. They are good at explaining the tax advantages of Real estate investing, and emphasize the specific strategy of Real estate Professional Status. So this is a strategy for one high income professional with a spouse who wants to actively manage real estate. For a 2 physician family, one doc would cut back significantly to 1/2 or .25 FTE or even stop their clinical career. Seems like a really good tax deferment strategy if you or your spouse is motivated for a career in active real estate investing. Still not enough to convince me to sign up for the course as of yet. I may take a deeper dive into John T. Reed books first.

[Jay2244]

your money will be better spent buy some stocks than these courses.

[Jim]

I may take a deeper dive into John T. Reed books first.

I've read a couple of Jack's books. He's an interesting fellow. Outspokenly critical of Robert Kiyosaki.

[fatlittlepig]

Hmm... a course on how to go from a high paying physician's salary to a highly leveraged real estate investor/speculator: perhaps the course would be more aptly named Financial Freedom to Possibly Zero?