Legacy Math – Using Private Capital to Pay Off College, Weddings, and the Future (with Logan Richetti)

Bryce

Today, we are greeted with Mr. Logan Richetti. Logan, thanks for being here.

Logan

Thanks for having me.

Bryce

Okay, so I typically let the guest introduce themselves, but this time I’m going to do it for you—because Logan’s a good buddy of mine. I know him pretty well, and honestly, I don’t think he’d do as good of a job introducing himself as I can.

Logan is a mastermind—a genius, really. He has about 26 irons in the fire. Frankly, I don’t know how he does it all. He’s a husband, a father to four girls, and somehow juggles a real estate brokerage, a private lending company, and all the “Lend” companies: Lend Fam, Lend Safe, Lend Docs, Lend Elite, Lend Family—probably missing a few.

On top of all that, you’re in the gym every single day, lifting weights, getting swole. Logan’s just an all-around great dude. I’m very excited for this episode.

Logan

Well, I appreciate that. My main claim to fame is the real estate brokerage—that’s the foundation of my real estate career. I’ve been doing investments for 15 years, and about ten years ago—actually, ten years ago this July—we opened the brokerage and paired it with a title company.

I also have 9 or 10 LLC partnerships with other investors. We either buy and hold or buy and flip properties. The lending company, Finley Capital, came about in early 2021. It happened almost by chance. I had an opportunity to do a private money loan as the lender, took the risk, and used capital I had finally saved up from years of effort.

That first loan worked out really well, so I did another. Same result. Next thing I knew, I built a business around the lending idea—and that’s how Finley Capital was born. I actually named it after my firstborn daughter, Finley.

From there, we started layering on new concepts to help scale and grow Finley Capital in a sustainable way. That’s what keeps me busy.

Organization is key for me—spreadsheets are my best friend. I don’t sleep much, but I always prioritize my daughters and my family. That’s always been the focus.

Today, for example, I didn’t start the workday until 10:45 a.m. I took my daughter to the mall and spent a few hours at the playground. I wanted to be present with them before jumping into work.

Sure, that might cost me some productivity. But honestly, I don’t care. This phase of life—with little kiddos—is fleeting. You don’t get that time back. I work hard, but I’m also very clear about my priorities.

Sure, that might cost me some productivity. But honestly, I don’t care. This phase of life … is fleeting.

It starts with family, then work, and finally whatever’s left for sleep. And with a six-month-old in the house, there’s not much sleep going on right now.

Bryce

I was going to say—I see you always posting at 2 a.m., up with the baby, and then you’re back at it by 6 a.m. at the gym. I’m like, man, I don’t know if I could function on four hours of sleep, but somehow you manage.

And I completely forgot about the title company! That was a new one for me when we saw each other a week or two ago.

You’ve got so many things cooking, and I want to dive into all of that—assuming we have time. But for all the newbies listening who haven’t met you yet, break down all the private lending-related stuff.

Tell us what’s under the umbrella, what your overall goal is, and what makes it all work together. It’s super interesting. I honestly think it’s brilliant. So let’s get into it—explain the differences.

Logan

Well, like I said, Finley Capital was organized in early 2021. At the time, I had a vision of building a large operation with a full staff. I eventually grew the team to five full-time salaried employees.

We had an underwriter, a processor, a social media manager, and a controller—all helping build the infrastructure I thought was necessary to grow toward my ultimate goal: $120 million in balance sheet value. That’s a sizable portfolio of loans at any given time, and originating, underwriting, and sustaining that volume requires a team.

So I made some extensive investments in infrastructure and overhead. I also built a 506(b) fund during that time to raise capital in a more efficient and sustainable way.

But I quickly realized a major issue: with $25,000 to $30,000 a month in payroll, you need to fund so many loans just to cover your overhead. That pressure can force you to shift your underwriting criteria—from making the most conservative loans possible to making loans just to make payroll.

When you’re underwriting private loans, that’s dangerous. You need to stay laser-focused on mitigating risk—not hitting volume targets.

You need to stay laser-focused on mitigating risk—not hitting volume targets.

We did about 250 loans that way. Many were solid, but we also ran into a few problem loans. Some of those mistakes came from decisions we might not have made without the burden of overhead. So, I wound things down.

We had peaked at about $9 million in active loans. I rolled that down to $3 million, returned some investor capital, and let go of staff who weren’t a great fit or just weren’t getting it done.

Then I asked myself: Do I even want to be in the lending business anymore? If so, I needed to do it differently—lower overhead, tighter structure, more conservative philosophy.

That was around a year and a half ago. I connected with Kevin Marshall, now my partner at Finley Capital. Together, we made the decision to re-engineer the company into a lean, efficient, and conservative private money lending operation.

Kevin now handles all operational aspects of the business. One of the first things he did was plug in Lendr as the backbone software for our loan origination, underwriting, processing, and servicing.

At first, I resisted. I didn’t want to make another change. But he told me, “Logan, we have to have this. It’s game-changing.” I agreed—he’s the operations guy. I said, “If you believe it’s the right move, run with it.”

Before Lendr, we were using a mix of Google Sheets and HubSpot to cobble everything together. It was painful. Our team was collecting documents manually via email, downloading, uploading, recoding, linking—it was a mess.

When we implemented Lendr, we also created a system called Lend Safe, which handles loan underwriting for private money lenders. Borrowers pay a processing fee at closing, which funds the Lend Safe team.

That allowed us to cut a huge chunk of our internal payroll. Essentially, we built a third-party service provider—and we use it ourselves. Now, Lend Safe is also partnering with other private lenders who want help with processing and underwriting. And we’re layering Lendr into that system as well, which is awesome.

Here’s how it works: after a borrower signs a term sheet, Lend Safe reaches out with an intro and portal link to Lendr. The borrower uploads the necessary documents—say, eight of them. We get email notifications, and the Finley Capital Lend Safe team underwrites and processes the deal completely within Lendr.

What’s also cool—and you know this because you wrote it—is that our capital partners can log in and view the deals. They can see file details and underwrite on their end if they want.

Once the loan is funded, Lendr’s servicing features kick in. We can monitor investor loans, interest rates, volumes, and maturity dates. We get automated alerts for things like expiring insurance or missing draw requests. It’s helped us tremendously with portfolio management.

And the result? We’ve scaled back up to $10 million in loan volume—with no paid staff, aside from one part-time controller. Everything else is handled via Lend Safe on an a la carte basis.

So, long story short: by partnering with Lendr and rebuilding our operational model, we’ve become highly efficient, conservative, and profitable.

Now, we’re in a great position to raise more capital and be more aggressive on originations, because the infrastructure is finally there.

So, thanks, Bryce, and thanks, Kevin, for helping make that happen.

Bryce

I appreciate the kind words. The goal of the episode isn’t to fish for compliments—I’m supposed to be talking you up! But we’ll take it. That’s very kind of you.

What I really want to dig into is what I think is an absolutely incredible offer you’ve put together. And honestly, this is something you do extremely well—something I’ve personally struggled with. I want to dive into that.

In my opinion, you’ve built a truly irresistible offer. I assume some of the influence comes from Hormozi’s $100M Offers, but the way you’ve crafted something that’s just so good, it’s stupid to say no to—it’s impressive.

One thing you mentioned to me really stuck. You said, “A new private lender comes on, they don’t really know what they’re doing, they don’t have a ton of capital—we’re going to give them $1 million to start.”

“A new private lender comes on, they don’t really know what they’re doing, they don’t have a ton of capital—we’re going to give them $1 million to start.”

That blew my mind. I mean, no kidding—who would ever say no to that?

So, first off, I want to know how you came up with that. How did you craft that kind of offer? I’ve read Hormozi’s book seven times, trying to do the same—create something people can’t ignore.

And second, I’m curious: what else do people get access to under that offer? Because I know it’s not just, “Here’s $1 million you can lend.” There’s a whole stack of services you’re providing beneath that—and I want to hear what those are.

Logan

Well, as you know, I live in Midland, Michigan. Our market has about 50,000 people, so deal flow is limited. To grow from a $1–2 million portfolio to something like $10, $20, $50, even $100 million, I had to develop a partnership model with other private money lenders.

It’s just like how we built the real estate brokerage—we have 50 agents. They go out, close sales, generate deals. Then our infrastructure supports their growth. I wanted to duplicate that model in private lending.

So the question was: How do I get other lenders—new or experienced—to want to work with Finley Capital? Incentivizing them properly became the key.

If you follow Hormozi, you know he says to test many offers until one sticks. That’s exactly what we did. The first concept we tried was the Regional Associate Partnership model. These were essentially loan originator affiliates—we’d pay them commission for every deal they brought us.

We reached out to about 15 or 20 people: investor group leaders, real estate brokers, mortgage pros—anyone who could generate consistent deal flow.

Some were interested. But the problem was: they had no skin in the game. They’d just toss us deals to see what stuck, often low-quality or high-risk stuff. There was no intentionality, no conservative mindset, and certainly no alignment with our underwriting philosophy.

So we pivoted. I asked myself, How can I attract new, aspiring private money lenders in a way where both sides benefit? That’s how the Lend Fam concept was born.

How can I attract new, aspiring private money lenders in a way where both sides benefit? That’s how the Lend Fam concept was born.

We launched a site: lendprivate.us. The offer came about from a simple post I made in my little Facebook group, Powered by Private.

I was sitting on about $1 million in capital with only $200K in pending loans—every lender knows that feeling. You’re paying interest on idle cash with no pipeline in sight. So I posted: “I’ve got $1 million available. If you want to learn how to lend private capital, let me know and I’ll give you $1 million to lend.”

Then I went to play with my kids. Came back and my phone was blowing up. Ding, ding, ding. Dozens of people were interested. That’s when I realized—this is the offer.

Here’s the deal: for most new lenders, the biggest challenge is raising capital. You can’t just walk up to your dentist and say, “Want to invest $250K in my lending business? I’ve never done a deal.” No one’s saying yes to that.

So we thought: Let’s attract, train, equip, and mentor new private lenders—and give them capital to start. That way, they get experience and credibility, and we at Finley Capital can place our funds through their originations.

We underwrite those deals together. As a result, the new lender is involved. Because of that, they care about the loan quality, and we get to deploy capital responsibly. It’s truly a win-win.

As a result, the new lender is involved. Because of that, they care about the loan quality, and we get to deploy capital responsibly. It’s truly a win-win.

Plus, we provide plug-and-play services through Lend Safe, Lend Docs, and Lend Books—third-party solutions for underwriting, loan docs, title review, and servicing. These tools let our partners skip the $25–30K/month overhead I used to carry just to support operations.

Instead of hiring processors, underwriters, controllers, or buying expensive software, they just use our tools.

So the offer became: We’ll mentor you, give you support, provide the infrastructure, and fund your first deal. If it’s a fit, we’ll fund more.

That’s how we’ve built Lend Fam. It’s not just a coaching program—it’s a community. There’s a big sales letter at the top of the website, lists of services, and membership benefits.

Every Wednesday, we host a Zoom call. There’s also a WhatsApp group where members post deal questions, borrower scenarios, capital leads—you name it. If someone needs help, I, Kevin, or another coach hops on Zoom, reviews the deal, helps structure it, even joins the call with the borrower or capital partner if needed.

Once a deal is structured, we bring in Lend Safe, Lend Docs, and Lend Books. Then, we split revenue with that Lend Fam member.

So what they get is the ability to start their own lending company—without capital, without experience, and without overhead. And we get a growing pipeline, a broader network, and strong partnerships.

Like you said, it’s kind of a grand slam offer. They get real coaching, access to funding, the tools to operate, and the confidence to go quote and close deals.

And we get to scale—ideally from $1–2 million in monthly volume up to $10–20 million or more over time.

Bryce

It’s genius. I was just thinking about it from the perspective of a brand-new flipper—someone who’s never done a deal before.

A lot of people are wondering, “Should I buy this $10,000 course? Do I need all this training?” And look, I’m not saying don’t educate yourself—you absolutely should. But sometimes the better move is not to buy the expensive course. Instead, use that $10K as your tuition to get hands-on and do your first deal.

That’s essentially what people are doing under Lend Fam. Rather than buying some insane, overpriced course, a flipper could partner up on a real deal. That first experience? Invaluable.

You’d be working alongside someone who’s done this 250, 300+ times. You mitigate risk. You learn fast. I mean, you’d spot problems a mile away just by having that guidance.

You mitigate risk. You learn fast. I mean, you’d spot problems a mile away just by having that guidance.

It’s all the education—without the high cost—and you actually make money on the deal. It’s brilliant. It truly is.

Logan

I totally agree with you.

When we bring on a new real estate agent at the brokerage, I always throw them a few leads right away. It’s so hard to get traction starting out, and I know how vital it is to get early reps.

Same thing happened when Kevin started his lending company. We had been connecting remotely for a few months and became friends, and I helped him fund his very first deal—just as a favor. At the time, I didn’t realize how impactful that would be for him.

He got to experience the entire loan lifecycle—from the signed term sheet to underwriting the file, coordinating with attorneys and title companies, collecting insurance, setting the close date, reviewing the closing statement… all of it.

He set up the loan in a servicing system, managed draws, collected payments, sent distributions to capital partners, processed a repayment, and even released the lien. That one deal gave him a complete walkthrough.

And the best part? He made money doing it.

Let’s break it down. Take a $100,000 loan with a 3% origination fee, a 12% note rate, and a 10% assignment rate. Over 12 months, that’s:

• $3,000 in origination
• $2,000 in servicing spread
• 5 draws at $200 each = $1,000

That’s $6,000 in total revenue for that loan, and we split it 50/50. The lender who brought the deal in? They made $3,000 on their first rep. That covers all their overhead for the year.

Meanwhile, we earn our share by mentoring, funding the deal, and bringing the infrastructure to the table. Everyone wins.

At scale, it’s an incredibly smart model. I love that we can mentor, support, and align interests with these new lenders inside Lend Fam.

I love that we can mentor, support, and align interests with these new lenders inside Lend Fam.

It’s been a blast so far—and we’re just getting started.

Bryce

I remember what I was going to say too. So, I have a personal belief: I think 90% of people are probably not cut out for entrepreneurship. Really, truly. For most people, I think you’d honestly be better off working a W-2 job and focusing on increasing your income that way.

Entrepreneurship? It’s not for everyone—it’s really hard.

However, something you talk about all the time on your podcast—and by the way, if you haven’t checked out the Finley Capital Podcast, go listen. It’s excellent—is this idea that you don’t need to go full-time or build a billion-dollar empire. You say, “Do one or two deals a month, and you could generate $50,000 a year in additional income.”

That’s not Lambo money or yacht money—none of that flashy stuff. But for a lot of people, an extra $3,000 to $4,000 a month? That’s life-changing. That’s breathing room—or finally being able to make ends meet.

an extra $3,000 to $4,000 a month? That’s life-changing.

And you lay it out so clearly: we’ll give you the capital, we’ll do the work, we’ll walk you through it, we’ll help you mitigate the risk—and you’ll make $50K a year extra.

Ultimately, it just comes back to what we keep saying: the offer is genius.

Logan

Yeah, I agree—and if I could go back and point to one thing I’m most proud of from the last 15 years of small business and entrepreneurship, it’s exactly that: helping other people make marginal revenue for their families.

And you’re right—it’s not for everybody. You’ve got to be a little nutso to juggle all the plates and chaos that come with running a business. But this concept we’re building, it lets people get the benefits of entrepreneurship without having to burn the ships.

We don’t have a single person in Lend Fam doing this full-time. It’s all side hustle. It’s a way to leverage your network, your credibility, your relationships—and we support you the whole way through.

Could it be full-time? Absolutely. And if you look at the performance metrics, they get ridiculous quickly. You can make more than a doctor in just a couple of years of focused work.

But you don’t have to. You could do a couple loans a month and bring in an extra $50K to $100K a year. And like you said, that number hits different for everyone. To some, $50,000 isn’t much. But for most people? That’s huge.

Think about what you could do with that kind of extra cash.

• Pay off student loans.
• Pay down your car.
• Kill off credit cards.
• Eliminate medical bills.
• Knock out your mortgage.

And then, after a while—and this is exactly what happened to me—you start getting ahead. You save some liquidity. You’ve funded the retirement account. Put money aside for the kids. Then suddenly there’s capital left.

Now guess what? You’re the capital investor. Now you’re putting your own money into the deals. And that compounds your returns like crazy.

Now you’re putting your own money into the deals. And that compounds your returns like crazy.

You’re getting returns as the capital partner and you’re earning income from the loan—the origination, servicing, draw fees. It just stacks.

So, if you’re someone listening and you’re interested in lending private capital—whether it’s to create a new income stream, diversify your real estate portfolio, or just dip your toe into something new—this is the move.

There are some decent training programs out there. Not many. You and I are in what I think is the best one. But let’s be honest—there’s just not a lot of structured training or mentorship out there for private money lending.

So that’s what we’re trying to change.

That’s why we put six video modules on the lendprivate.us website. There’s a 30-page PDF guide—the Private Money Handbook, Lender Edition—that gives you all the basics. We give it away for free.

Because like Hormozi says, just give it away. Help people. Teach first.

And if after going through the content someone says, “Yeah, this clicks. I want to do this,” then awesome. Reach out to me or the team. Let’s see if it’s a good fit. And if it is—let’s go build something together.

Let’s go take this thing to the moon.

Bryce

Here’s the other thing I was thinking. For anyone listening right now who’s saying, “Man, I just need a side hustle,” seriously—just think about all the side hustles that are out there.

You’ve got people talking about dropshipping, Amazon FBA, all that stuff. But let’s be real: talk to someone who’s not a guru, someone who’s not trying to sell you a $2,000 course, and ask them how that actually plays out.

Because here’s the real deal:
A) You have to front the inventory.
B) You’re importing stuff—so you’ve got shipping timelines, customs, logistics headaches.
C) You need to learn marketing, sales, product listings, customer service.
And then what? Now you’re housing boxes of crap in your garage, crossing your fingers that it all sells. And even when it does, you’re talking about razor-thin margins. Like, low reward for a ton of work and risk.

Now compare that to what you’re doing, Logan. With this model, I can literally tell someone right now how to make an extra $50,000 a year.

Here’s the play:

• Go to Facebook, go to your network, wherever people hang out.
• Say, “Hey, I’m a private lender. I fund real estate deals.”
• People will come to you. “Hey, I’ve got a deal, I need funding.”
• You say, “Cool. What are the numbers?”
  
  Let’s say it’s a $100,000 loan on a $150,000 property.

Then you take that deal to Logan.
And he does all the work.

He walks you through it, step by step by step by step.
You don’t need:

• a CPA
• an underwriting team
• software
• infrastructure
• $30,000 a month in payroll

You don’t need any of that. Because Logan and his team have already built it—and you get to plug into it.

It’s just brilliant. I mean, we’re saying the same thing over and over at this point, but it’s that good.

It’s just brilliant. I mean, we’re saying the same thing over and over at this point, but it’s that good.

As far as side hustles go, this one actually works.

One or two deals a month… and it could literally change your life.

I just think it’s genius.

Logan

Yeah, I agree. One of the other things we do inside the group is give everyone their own custom loan application form. They can embed it into a website or just use a simple Bitly link. Then when a borrower fills it out, they get notified, and I get copied on it too.

From there, the team member and I hop on Zoom or a quick call. We review the application, quote the deal on the spot, and send it out. Sometimes I do it, sometimes they do it—just depends on the strategy. But we help them negotiate it and lock it in, which is super cool.

Now, the other lane this works really well for is people who already have liquidity—they’ve got their own capital, but they just don’t know how to lend it safely.

Let’s say you’re a doctor, a dentist, an attorney—whatever. Maybe you’re retired and you’ve got a couple hundred grand sitting there. You’ve already invested in stocks, bonds, mutual funds. You’ve bought some crypto, maybe some real estate. But now you’re curious about private lending as an alternative investment.

Let’s say you’ve got a son-in-law who’s flipping houses and you’d love to lend to him. But the problem is, you have no idea how to structure it properly or secure it safely. That’s really common. I’ve seen so many people lend private money the wrong way—no collateral, no proper lien, no repair escrows held back, no origination points, no interest clearly spelled out… just totally winging it.

The truth is, so many people would lend to friends and family if they just knew how to protect themselves. That’s where we come in.

We help folks like that all the time. They keep 100% of the deal—points, interest, fees. We just come in behind the scenes with our services to help them structure it right.

They keep 100% of the deal—points, interest, fees. We just come in behind the scenes with our services to help them structure it right.

We’ve got a few people in the group right now who joined for exactly that reason. In most cases, they’re not looking to build big lending operations. Instead, they’re not trying to scale. They just want to deploy $1 million they’ve already got—safely. After all, they know they can earn 10–12% if they do it right, lending to flippers or investors they already know and trust.

They just don’t want to spend a year figuring it all out.

So if that’s you—if you’ve got capital but you want to lend it safely and correctly—reach out. We’ll help you set it up and get your money out the door. Honestly, getting $1 million deployed can be as simple as five $200K loans, or ten $100K loans, or even just two $500K deals. Doesn’t take a ton of volume.

You just have to do it right. And we can help you do exactly that.

Bryce

So, a lot of listeners on the podcast are naturally drawn to the idea of passive income. And when you hear “passive income,” one of the first things people think of is rental properties. Right? I get it. The concept makes sense: I buy a house, I put a tenant in it, they pay me every month—boom, passive income. At least, that’s the dream.

I fell into that trap myself about 15 years ago when I was working my W-2 job, chasing the passive income dream. I had the spreadsheets and I mapped it all out: if I could make $300 a month in cash flow per door, and I wanted to replace my income—say, $10,000 a month—that meant I needed 30 to 40 doors. So, I made that my goal.

And we did it. Fast forward five, six years—we hit that number. I remember looking at our QuickBooks and seeing $12,000 in net monthly income. You’d think I’d feel euphoric. Like we climbed the mountain and reached the top.

But honestly? I felt sick.

Not because of the money—that part was great—but because of what it represented: 40 doors. 40 properties. 40 roofs. Tenants, toilets, maintenance calls. Property managers who were more stress than help. Every six months I’d get this giant stack of envelopes from the assessor’s office—property taxes due on every single one. It was overwhelming. It was exhausting.

And most of all—it wasn’t passive. There is nothing passive about rental properties.

So what did we do? We sold everything, stopped flipping, and sold all the rentals. We took the equity and moved it entirely into private lending.

And I’m telling you—best decision we ever made.

Just yesterday, I wrapped up a private loan that paid us $18,000. Start to finish, I maybe spent four or five hours on it. Vetting the deal, coordinating with title, signing the docs—done.

So if you’re listening to this and you’re chasing “passive income,” here’s my take: private lending is the closest thing to real passive income I’ve found. Is it totally passive? No. Nothing is. But it’s semi-passive, and compared to owning rentals? It’s a dream.

… private lending is the closest thing to real passive income I’ve found.

No tenants, toilets, or 2 a.m. calls. Just good deals, structured well, secured by real estate, and your money working for you. I can’t recommend it enough.

Logan

I’m actually laughing as you’re talking because right now, I own about 75 rental units—and honestly, I don’t make a dollar from them. Sure, they generate a little bit of cash flow, but compared to what we do with lending, it’s nothing.

The only reason I hold on tight to that portfolio is for the kids. It’s for their future—college, weddings, dresses, proms, all that stuff that’s coming down the road. Hopefully, four weddings, four colleges. But if it weren’t for their future, I wouldn’t be holding those rentals. They’re not cash cows.

Most of my portfolio was acquired through BRRRR strategies, and I’ve held on tight since. Just last night, I was up until 2 a.m., flipping through P&Ls and balance sheets trying to figure out where everything stands. It’s tough to keep track of it all.

And that’s the thing—lending isn’t passive, but neither is owning rental properties. I own a property management company, and that’s not passive either. Like you said, there are turnovers, evictions, late notices, work orders, taxes, insurance. Making sure 75 properties stay insured? That’s a full-time job on its own.

In my mind, those rentals are like a 401(k) or an IRA. They’re long-term retirement vehicles. You set them up when you’re 41, and hopefully by 61, you’ve held on long enough to pass them down to your kids.

But lending? That’s an active side hustle that generates extra marginal revenue. If you’re smart about your finances, you don’t inflate your lifestyle. You just funnel that extra income into more rentals, private loans, or debt reduction.

Then, when you look at your personal financials over 12 months—and if you’re not tracking your net worth this way, you should be—it becomes real and tangible. One thing I’ve done for the last 10 years is build a personal financial statement, basically a balance sheet of assets, liabilities, and cash.

I track where I was on December 31st of last year and where I am today, and I can see the difference. That’s powerful. Suddenly, bringing in $10,000 a month from loan originations isn’t just a number—it’s a real boost to your net worth.

Suddenly, bringing in $10,000 a month from loan originations isn’t just a number—it’s a real boost to your net worth.

Then you take that $10,000, stick it somewhere safe—like a private money loan or a down payment on a new building—and you start to get excited. You want to take more action, get more aggressive, because you can see the benefits right in front of you.

I don’t know if you track your finances like this, but it’s been a game changer for me.

Bryce

I do, and it gets addicting, honestly. But it’s a good kind of addiction—not a gambling addiction. It’s fun to see the numbers increase and go up over time. It really incentivizes you. I think, this is great, I want to keep adding more to it.

We’ve had quarters where our net worth increased by a quarter million dollars, and you think, whoa, how did that happen? I don’t make a quarter million dollars in my job.

Pretty soon, it starts to grow faster than you can contribute and just steamrolls and grows on its own.

Logan

I don’t want to spin out into the moon here, but one thing that’s been very successful for me personally is visualization. I talk about this sometimes with close friends and family. A lot of my time and energy is spent thinking about money—not because I’m chasing it, but because that’s my role in the family: to generate revenue and take care of everyone.

I think about it all day long. I don’t focus on other stuff like Madden Football. Instead, I focus on my businesses, revenues, and expenses all day. One thing that helps me grow is visualizing financial metrics on the top line. For example, every month I visualize making X amount, then five times that, then ten times that. Eventually, I picture a number that was outside my thinking just a few years ago. Every time I do this, it works.

Of course, there’s a limit. You can’t be a slave to money. You must find balance. But when it’s work time, and you’re building revenue for your family, I focus heavily—95%—on top line revenue. I don’t think much about expenses, not to cut costs, but to double revenue, because doubling revenue fixes everything.

… when it’s work time, and you’re building revenue for your family, I focus heavily—95%—on top line revenue.

I look at this business, that business, this opportunity, that action. If you track it on a spreadsheet, you start to see those numbers grow and grow. I think my path is similar to yours—I had a business or a job. I was a real estate salesperson for five years and worked really hard to earn money. Then I opened a brokerage, which started making money. Every year, I flipped houses on the side.

I was a real estate investor, buying, fixing, and selling. I borrowed private money because I didn’t have any and split the profits. Depending on the year, I might do 1, 2, 3, or 4, even 10 to 12 flips. I didn’t have a formal flipping operation, but I was always investing in at least one house at a time.

In Midland, Michigan, you don’t make $50K or $60K per deal. You make $10K, $15K, $20K if you’re lucky. Those profits compound. Four flips a year making $20K each equals $80K extra annually. I use extra intentionally because if you just deposit it in your bank account, it’s gone. You end up buying a new truck, gadgets, or going on vacation.

For me, lending money, I put profits back into my lending company. However, before I got to that point, I used flipping profits to jam down debt—student loans, house, cars, credit cards, whatever I owed.

I also did something I think could help you: I looked at every year of my life with a legacy mindset. In 2015, I paid off the land contract. In 2016, I paid off the house. 2017, I paid off other debts. When you work hard, whether at a job or business, it can be frustrating to look back and ask, “What did I accomplish?”

If you focus on a specific objective and track it over 12 months, then you can get a lot done. For example, you can take $100K off your balance sheet by flipping 4 or 5 houses, making 4 or 5 loans, or whatever your side hustle is.

Getting ahead doesn’t come from stable income alone. Whether you’re a doctor or working at McDonald’s, you tend to adjust your lifestyle to your income, making it hard to get ahead. Doctors might have boats, McDonald’s workers apartments, but marginally it’s tough to build wealth.

That extra income, the focus, and determination to work harder—finding a second income stream and putting that revenue toward something that builds a legacy—is a roadmap to get ahead over the next five years. For me, this has been my strategy for 15 years. Every year, I have a legacy or a goal I can look back on and say, “Good job, you achieved that.”

That progress motivates me to keep working hard for my family. It drives me to keep taking opportunities and growing, knowing that over 10, 20, or 30 years, I’ll be in a great position—and so will they.

Bryce

I agree. I’ll probably botch this, but I think it was a quote—maybe from Bill Gates, though I could be wrong. He said, most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can accomplish in a decade. When you don’t track progress, you don’t notice what you really achieve. But if you jot it down and put it in a spreadsheet, you realize you did make huge waves that year.

… most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year and underestimate what they can accomplish in a decade.

You can see crazy gains in your personal balance sheet and net worth just by tracking and hustling. I go back and forth on hustle culture. There’s a lot of toxic stuff in it, but the core fundamentals are clear: you have to work your ass off. It’s hard, but you also have to work smarter, not just harder, to make real progress.

Going back to private lending, I’ve shared this story multiple times on the podcast. I flipped houses for six or seven years, similar to Logan’s model. We borrowed private money because we didn’t have the funds ourselves. Our biggest year was 25 flips, but typically about ten a year.

One project, though, was a nightmare. Everything that could go wrong did. A painter stole money, Covid hit, the market dropped, and rates went up. The project dragged on for 14 months—it was basically a project from hell.

In the end, we basically broke even, making about $1,200 after all the sleepless nights and stress. But when I looked at the settlement statement, I saw our private lender made $25,000. That was the lightbulb moment for me—I knew I needed to get into private lending.

That’s not to say private lending is risk-free. People can default or walk away if they’re unreliable. Of course, you can lose money if you don’t stick to your contracts or commitments. But overall, if you’re conservative, properly underwrite, stay within your risk profile, and avoid overleveraging, the bank always wins.

Logan

I agree. The minute I had a chance—I’ll never forget it back in 2021—to be the lender, a lot of thoughts ran through my mind. The first was, holy cow, I actually have enough money to do this. It was a $100,000 loan or something like that. For most of my career, I didn’t have that kind of money just sitting around to take a chance with. But I did.

My second thought was, what if I lose it? What if this was a loan to someone I had never met? To this day, I still haven’t met her. She lives out in Montana, and we’ve been business partners for four years. It started with a loan I made to her as a referral from a friend I trusted. I took the leap of faith and put a mortgage and promissory note together. We signed an operating agreement and became equity partners.

Funny enough, we just sold the building we bought together last week after 3 or 4 years. The exit was pretty cool. But beyond the deal itself, it’s the range of emotions involved in lending—whether it’s your own capital or raising money from friends and family—that really hits you.

It’s a big responsibility. If you try this, you have to know what you’re doing. You must be able to clearly explain the risks, benefits, rights, and responsibilities of everyone involved. Many people struggle with raising capital from friends and family because they don’t want to let them down or damage their reputation by causing financial loss. Trust me, nobody worries about that more than I do.

You must be able to clearly explain the risks, benefits, rights, and responsibilities of everyone involved.

On the other hand, I tell my team—the Lend Fam guys and gals—this: either you believe in what you’re doing or you don’t. If you don’t, don’t do it. But if you do, bring your family and friends in. They want to invest in places where their capital is secure and they trust the process.

If you can build a lending operation where loans are structured safely and properly, capital is secured the right way, and borrowers are thoroughly vetted, then it becomes a very exciting investment opportunity. Add to that the fact that your friends and family want their money deployed, want good returns, and most importantly, want to not lose it or have it stolen, and you provide a space that meets those needs. Ideally, they get a solid rate of return while you’re driving the boat.

From that standpoint, you should be talking to your friends, your family, your mom, dad, aunts, uncles, and saying, “Look, I have a place where your money can go safely. I can secure it, I can make sure it’s safe, and I won’t steal from you.”

Growing this idea or concept requires a mind shift. You’re actually serving people. Your capital investors need safe places to put their money. If you provide that, sustainably and safely, they’ll be grateful—and you owe it to them to offer that opportunity.

Bryce

Yeah, I mean, I couldn’t say it better. For example, there’s a video I saw by Dan Martel, if anyone follows him. He basically said, “You’re being selfish.” Like, how dare you? If you have an opportunity that’s so lucrative, and people are eager to invest and make money, then how selfish is it not to give them that chance?

In the beginning, I was afraid to reach out to family, friends, and other individuals to raise private capital. Now, they make up a large portion of our overall capital base. I changed my mindset to, “How dare you not offer these opportunities to people?” They’re looking for places to put their capital safely and earn a return.

Especially when the market is volatile, people want something more conservative and risk-conscious. So, yeah, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Logan

A lot of people follow you on Instagram and YouTube because they want to learn about different investing concepts. However, there are many misconceptions about investing. Most commonly, people believe it’s just about putting money into retirement accounts, stocks, bonds, or mutual funds.

Many buy homes as an investment since they build equity over time. However, most people don’t buy rental properties — they just don’t get it. If you’re listening and have never bought an investment property, ask yourself why. Usually, it’s because you don’t know how, don’t have help, or don’t want to take the risk.

Here’s the truth: if you bought a $200,000 investment property today and held it for 20 years, you’d likely own it outright when your kids go to college. It’s not guaranteed — tornadoes or city collapse could happen — but tenants generally pay it off. Yes, there will be toilets to fix, evictions, and turnovers, but there’s a clear runway ahead.

Planning for the future took me a long time to focus on. At 41, it’s still difficult to plan 10, 15, or 20 years out. However, I need to make decisions today that affect me decades from now. I’m currently developing a six-acre parcel to build 20 duplex apartments. This project demands a lot of my energy, capital, and time.

Rentals don’t generate huge cash flow, but I’ll learn, grow, and bring in partners and private capital. The key is that all four of my kids will benefit if I do this right. If I complete ten projects like this over 10 to 15 years, their futures will be secure.

You can debate how far generational wealth should go, but for me, it’s about what I can build now to give my kids control over their future. Hopefully, I raise them to not squander it. My daughter recently told me, “Dad, I need you to buy me three buildings — a milkshake shop, an ice cream parlor, and a hair salon.” My stepdaughter asked for a zoo, where only friends and family can come. I said, “Alright, I’ll buy it.” No problem. But you know…

You can debate how far generational wealth should go, but for me, it’s about what I can build now to give my kids control over their future.

Bryce

It sounds like your daughter and my daughter would get along just great.

Logan

My definition of success in ten or fifteen years will be whether or not I’m in business with my kids.

Bryce

Or whether or not you own a zoo.

Logan

I’ve got to get some capital and assets together so I can actually do it. I want them to have the choice. If they want to be hairstylists, that’s fine. But I’m hoping instead of just being hairstylists, they’ll own hair salons — and I’ll get to work the cash register. Then I get to see them every day, and we can grow up together, have fun, and enjoy life.

In the meantime, we’ve got to work hard for our families so our futures are in our control. If you’re listening and you have kids — or hope to have kids — even if your kids are older, 14, 15, or 16, it’s not too late. Your 15-year-old will be 30 in 15 years, and there’s still plenty you can do together to help or provide for them.

Even if you don’t have kids or they’re not your thing, you still have a lot of runway left in your future. Make this episode the day you decide to make a change and start building supplemental income streams — whether lending, investing, or a side hustle. Take action today to help yourself in the next 10 to 15 years.

Take action today to help yourself in the next 10 to 15 years.

Bryce

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Logan, you’re the man. Before we wrap up, any parting words of wisdom? Also, where can people find you? We already mentioned the podcast, but plug your stuff! If people want to learn more, where can they reach out?

Logan
If you like private money lending or are interested, follow the Finley Capital Podcast. We’re about to hit 100 episodes! I’ve gotten maybe 60 downloads total — a very small following — but the listeners really enjoy it. If private money lending interests you, find us there.

Bryce

I’m one of those listeners, and I can vouch for it. Honestly, it’s awesome. Logan doesn’t give himself enough credit. Moreover, the podcast is very tactical and worth its weight in gold. So, absolutely go have a listen.

Logan

Thanks, I appreciate that. I love doing the podcast twice a week. It’s a lot of fun sharing and having conversations like this, getting to know friends and family. You can find us at Finley Capital Podcast, finleycapital.us, lendprivate.us, and on the Powered by Private group on Facebook. It’s a great way to network. We want to grow a community of private money lenders, capital partners, borrowers — everybody in between — so we can all get out there and go get them.

Bryce

I love it. Logan, thanks again for coming on the podcast. To everyone listening, please make sure to check out Logan’s work. He’s a treasure trove of knowledge—and trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

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