20. Real Estate Investing in the Age of AI with Tim Fergestad

I see.

Yeah.

And I think it's an astute observation that a lot of these really highly educated paths like medicine, like neuroscience, like, you know, a lot of these very specialized things, they often focus, I think, so much on that specialty and that path to the detriment of a lot of very basic life skills, like learning what to do with your money, you know, to its detriment, I think, because as you and I both know, intimately, being able to deal with your money is an intrinsic part of operating in our society, right? So I think it's so funny that it's not You know, you don't get it at any point during your professional careers.

So I'm glad you were able to make that kind of transition.

Can you tell us a little bit about that self-education process? Was it easy? Did you find it easy because of your background? How did that go? I did

not find it easy.

Everybody assumes that because I, you know, as a scientist that I'm, I can do, I'm competent with spreadsheets.

I can do crunch numbers and things like that.

But I did not have a strong economics background and trying to figure out the financial nature of things.

I was I was sold.

So like, you know, in graduate school or residency, financial advisors come in and they start selling you disability insurance.

Right.

And start start trying to develop that relationship.

And they sell you some other products and stuff.

And it's in their paperwork.

It is sometimes not even in the fine print, the fees and other stuff.

And I'm trying to figure out and I had to track and I had to educate myself on, well, the market apparently did this.

And this is, you know.

pre AI anyway.

So I'm trying to, uh, it was, it was a little more challenging to educate myself, but I was trying to figure out why the market gave, you know, eight or 9% for the past several years.

And my returns did six or seven, right.

And things like that.

So, so, so there was some of that.

And then, uh, there was some good resources out there, but ultimately I had to figure out where success leaves clues.

Where

I see.

Yeah.

And I think it's an astute observation that a lot of these really highly educated paths like medicine, like neuroscience, like, you know, a lot of these very specialized things, they often focus, I think, so much on that specialty and that path to the detriment of a lot of very basic life skills, like learning what to do with your money, you know, to its detriment, I think, because as you and I both know, intimately, being able to deal with your money is an intrinsic part of operating in our society, right? So I think it's so funny that it's not You know, you don't get it at any point during your professional careers.

So I'm glad you were able to make that kind of transition.

Can you tell us a little bit about that self-education process? Was it easy? Did you find it easy because of your background? How did that go? I did

not find it easy.

Everybody assumes that because I, you know, as a scientist that I'm, I can do, I'm competent with spreadsheets.

I can do crunch numbers and things like that.

But I did not have a strong economics background and trying to figure out the financial nature of things.

I was I was sold.

So like, you know, in graduate school or residency, financial advisors come in and they start selling you disability insurance.

Right.

And start start trying to develop that relationship.

And they sell you some other products and stuff.

And it's in their paperwork.

It is sometimes not even in the fine print, the fees and other stuff.

And I'm trying to figure out and I had to track and I had to educate myself on, well, the market apparently did this.

And this is, you know.

pre AI anyway.

So I'm trying to, uh, it was, it was a little more challenging to educate myself, but I was trying to figure out why the market gave, you know, eight or 9% for the past several years.

And my returns did six or seven, right.

And things like that.

So, so, so there was some of that.

And then, uh, there was some good resources out there, but ultimately I had to figure out where success leaves clues.

Where