In episode 31 of Wake Up to Wealth, Brandon Brittingham interviews Carson Herlean, an expert in infinite banking and family banking strategies, as he shares his journey from real estate investing to teaching others about the powerful benefits of using specially designed whole life insurance as a wealth-building tool.
Tune in to learn how infinite banking can offer safety and growth in your financial journey.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS
Brandon Brittingham
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mailboxmoneyb/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brandon.brittingham.1/
Carson Herlean
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carson.herlean/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carsonherlean/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carson-herlean-603057188/
WEBSITES
Brandon Brittingham: https://www.brandonsbrain.org/home
Carson Herlean: https://go.moneyschoolrei.com/carson-links
This is Wake Up to Wealth, a podcast dedicated to helping you change the way you think about wealth. And now, here's your host, Brandon Brittingham
Hey, what's up, everybody? We are back for another episode of Waking Up to Wealth. And I got a homie here, Carson Herlean with me. You guys, Carson's also a sponsor of the show. As you guys know, we don't let anybody sponsor this show that we don't trust in, believe in, or actually do business with ourselves. And super knowledgeable, actually had him speak at one of my real estate investing mastermind days that we did not that long ago. Thanks for coming on today.
Brandon Brittingham
Thank you, Brandon. I appreciate you being here. Yeah, this is awesome.
Carson Herlean
So one of the things that. you kind of specialize in, and I want to spend the bulk of time here today. It's got many names, family banking, infinite banking, but it's kind of something that you're very knowledgeable of and have a good understanding of it. But for those who are listening, tell them who you are and what you do.
Brandon Brittingham
Yeah, of course. So again, like Brandon said, my name is Carson Herlean. I live in Southern California. And I teach infinite banking, like you mentioned. And how that even started for me was I was in the money space. I was flipping houses in the real estate game. And then I was learning of different ways that I could manage my funds better, use them more efficiently, using this strategy called infinite banking. And it blew my mind. And it changed everything for me to the point where I even left doing active deals in real estate and I wanted to teach this full time because of the safety and the growth that's given me and just my financial stability and future. And so this strategy today is what I really want to talk a lot about today because it's changed my life and it's changed a lot of people's lives that I teach.
A lot of people never heard of this infinite banking or family banking or whatever. It's got a lot of different names. Like for someone who's listening, it's like, I have no idea what the hell these guys are talking about. What is it? What does that mean?
Yeah, well, I mean, it's interesting. In the world we live in today, it's a very simple path, traditional way we're taught to keep and use our money. We're told to go get a job. With that job, with that paycheck, you then pay for your taxes. You contribute to your 401ks. Then you pay your house and car payment. And then what's left over, you get to keep for yourself for investing in your lifestyle. And that methodology doesn't work. You know, the Social Security Administration came out and said that five out of 100 people in America retire financially secure. They don't say rich or wealthy or happy. They just say secure. And that's 5%. If that's the path I just mentioned that most people go on and only 5% become just secure at retirement age, it's a failed system. It doesn't work. And so there's alternate ways you can manage money, invest dollars and finance things you need throughout your life in a more efficient way. And that is the strategy. And so when we all go out and we provide value to the world, we produce income, that income comes in. And once it's in, it has to go somewhere. It has to. And what we're told to do is to spend it today or save it and then just spend it in the future. And that's not a real efficient way to build wealth or protect the money we're earning. And so this strategy helps you do that. It pulls into this whole scenario a middle account, a place your money flows through before it's spent. So all those dollars you save for the future, instead of just saving it in a traditional savings account and then spending it and losing it or investing it, only getting that one return, This method will add a place of guarantees, a place of protection against creditors, a place of tax regrowth. And that account is life insurance. And when people hear that, they run away. They end the podcast because they think life insurance is a scam, or they've been told from Dave Ramsey to buy a term and invest the difference. Guys, who does Dave Ramsey talk to? He talks to most people who are in debt and don't know how to manage money in the first place.
And not to cut you off, but if you're listening to this a couple of weeks ago, we leapfrogged Dave Ramsey on investing in the United States. We actually beat his show, became number one. Just a little sidebar.
Yeah. Congrats, man. I did not know that. Good for you. That's awesome. But I mean, he teaches great things. It's just not things that help people get wealthy. It's just things that help people stay broke and get out of debt. But that's the most people need. And so. This life insurance policy I mentioned is not regular life insurance, is not term insurance. It's specially designed whole life insurance. Not the whole life insurance you get from your broke brother-in-law who just sells insurance. You have to be very specific with how you fund and use this. But life insurance is a very favorable environment for money to be kept. It's protected. It's gonna grow tax-free, guaranteed. It does have a death benefit. and it's liquid. We can build a policy that is still liquid. So now, back to my example of how we store money in savings accounts and we should try and store those dollars somewhere we control, this policy becomes that account because it is going to grow, is guaranteed, and it's liquid at the same time. And if you do take money out against the policy, it doesn't stop those dollars from compounding. Those dollars will still sit inside the policy compound interest while you leverage it to go do the financing activities you have. If you need to buy cars, make investments, buy a house, you can still do all of those things. It's just now flowing through the policy. And so by doing this, It's not going to change what you spend your money on or what you invest in. It just changes where your money resides while you use it. And so if you can build the policy correctly, it becomes a very favorable warehouse of your wealth, I would call it. And when you do this for 10, 20, 30 years of storing money here versus elsewhere, This becomes a very strong foundation of where your wealth is kept versus a bank account or some savings account you keep money. But by having your dollars guaranteed to compound while you use it over 20, 30 years, that's going to create a multiple of how much you have sitting there versus just, you know, you keeping it in a savings account and spending it. So that benefit of storing money long term, compounding while using it, is the benefit of becoming your own bank is what we teach. We teach people how to be their own bank because what banks do is they store money, they lend it out, they keep money in motion. just like we should be doing. So if we can store money, lend it out, keep it in motion, and have multiple things happening on the dollar at the same time, that's how we can be wealthy and we can be like the banks using this strategy. So I don't know if that was too long or a good enough example of what this is, but that's how I look at it. That's how I use it.
No, a hundred percent. So for everybody that's listening, so you guys know, I have two of these policies and I'm about to get a third one with Carson that I'm working on as we speak. And so one of my policies has a really, really large death benefit because I've been fortunate to be successful and accumulate a ton of assets. And I fund it every month to his point. I want you guys to understand this in real time because the first time someone explained this to me, I didn't get it. The second time somebody explained to me, didn't get it. The third time somebody explained to me, I didn't get it until someone sat me down that I knew and trusted who was a mentor of mine and showed it to me. So right now I've got, I put money in it every month and majority of that money is liquid. And while it sits, meaning I can take it out of my policy and do what I want with it. while it sits there, my dividend this year was north of 6%, I think it was 6.2 or 6.3, something like that. So not crazy, but it's earning more than any bank would pay me in a policy that if something happens to me, I've got a large death benefit that goes to my state and to my family. And I can now pull money on that and I'm putting it in other real estate projects that are earning me more than a 6% interest. And now that I understand it and I see how it works, I'm getting another policy because to his point, it's just really a cool vehicle for you to build wealth with. And the other thing that I learned, and I'd love for you to speak on this, because I'm sure you're way more educated on this is, When I started looking into this, I found that largest financial institutions in our country own these policies. Some of the wealthiest families, you know, where their lineage, you know, a hundred years of wealth was passed through their families. They did it through these vehicles. And it just baffled me that this world existed and I didn't know about it. And the more I researched it, the people who were involved in it were a bunch of wealthy people.
Yeah. Yeah, you know, it's interesting, too, is in today's world, that's kind of how it is. Only the wealthy and the big banks and corporations are using this. But before the 60s and 70s and the 1900s, I talk about that like it was, you know, decades, centuries ago, 50 years ago, basically, most of America had whole life insurance. most. I think it's in the 90% range. But in the past 20, 30 years, people are getting in the buy-term-invest-the-difference, the IRA phase, and they're slowly fading away from it. But that's what our country was actually built on for two centuries before this, was life insurance, because it is guaranteed. It's a very efficient environment for money to be, because life insurance companies never lose. They make money when the market's good. When the market's bad, they're always growing. And so to your point, let's social proof this idea. Yes, millionaires, billionaires do this. And the IRS has even tried to outlaw this a couple of times, which signals something that we should pay attention to. They try and do that to favorable things for most people. And I've met with someone worth nine, 10 figures who do this. I've also met with someone who makes $10,000 a month, $5,000 a month, and they do this. And so it isn't just those rich individuals. And this policy itself In regard to the mechanics of it, it's not an investment vehicle. Like you said, it has a low rate of return. I'm not buying this for a return. I'm buying it for the attributes that it has. Just like when you purchase a business or you buy a rental property, it's not just the cash flow. There's other aspects that are involved. There's more attributes of the deal that make this intriguing. And so I'm seeking specific attributes that I know will produce results. And that's why I use whole life insurance. I want to store my profits here. We have to store it somewhere.
You got to put your liquid somewhere.
You have to. Yeah. And most people think that storing your money in a business is a great idea. Well, you know, businesses can get sued. Businesses lose money. There's risk. People like storing money in real estate, but if you store all your money in real estate, everything's, you know, there's no debt on your properties. Well, you're still getting the same rent and you have the home paid off. Might as well use that money. It's not liquid. It's not working for you. And so those are less efficient environments to store money, but life insurance, It's going to be sitting there, liquid, available, and earning at the same time. So it's just a more efficient environment to store profit. And that's really what everybody can do, wealthy or not.
Yeah, so one thing that I find is there's so much wrong information and misinformation and like anything else, there's also people that do this that probably are not as versed as you or can't explain it the same way that you can. So, natural human reaction, you don't understand something, it's a scam or there's something wrong with it, right? So why do you think there is, I mean, it's just when you get to the other side of understanding it, and if you understand money and you are any type of entrepreneur that understands investing, you're stupid not to do this. But why do so many people, why is there this misunderstanding and kind of this gray area with this?
It's a great question. I think it's because people don't have good money habits to start. 90% of America don't even save or don't budget. And that alone, you can't understand the basics of thinking long-term, you're never gonna be able to do something like this. Because this is very long-term thinking. And there's a death benefit attached. This is a low rate of return over long periods of time. This is not a get-rich-quick scheme or a crypto run. This is a very long-term mindset you have to have, and just most Americans can't do that. And so those who can, those who understand that and are able to put off instant gratification for long term, they're the individuals who get this very quickly. And so it's really the mindset that it starts with. And once they have that down, like you said, you're on to the other side of it. And it opens up a whole new world of possibilities.
So I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit to try to just walk through this. So someone is listening to this and they're a real estate investor and they've got excess liquid that they could put away every month. You know, pretend they're a client listening to this potentially. Give them an example of, hey, look, you could use your policy to do this in your world.
Yeah, that's a great example. Great idea. So let's say we'll just throw some basic numbers out there. Let's say you want to buy a rental property for 200 grand. You want to put 20% down. So you need 40 grand to put down on this property and you want to hold this property longterm and the property cash flows a thousand bucks a month. We'll just say, well, where are you going to, where are you going to store your down payment while you wait for the property? And then once you do put the down payment and you have cashflow, where are you going to put the cashflow? Well, you could do it the traditional route, pay cash or down payment out of your pocket, leave the money in the house, get the cash flow, save it up, go buy another rental, and you can do that game all day long. But What if that $40,000 of a down payment came from a policy? So you stored it here first, you took a loan against your policy, put the $40,000 down for the property. Now, let's think about that. You now still have $40,000 of equity in the house, you still have the rental, you still have the cash flow, but that $40,000 is also sitting inside the policy, compounding, like you said, six whatever percent this year, tax-free, which is comparable to a nine, eight percent gain taxed. It does provide a death benefit in case something happened to you to even pay off the mortgage. And if you were ever sued, no one could touch your policy. So you're less risk, more gains, making money twice at the same time, and you have a death benefit attached to the same deal you would have otherwise done. And then when you have the thousand bucks a month of cash flow, Where are you going to put it? Just put it back in the policy. Store it here. When it gets to another $40,000, you go buy another one and just rinse and repeat that cycle through the policy. So it's not, I think people think sometimes, oh, should I diversify and do a policy and a rental or a policy and my IRA? It's like, well, hey, this is not pick or choose. This is what I call the and asset as a nickname of whole life because It's the and asset. You can put it here and go do those investments at the same time. And that's why I think it's hard for people to understand, as you can do both. And whole life insurance is one of the only vehicles that allows you to do that. And that's why it's favorable.
Got it. Yeah. I get that. That makes a ton of sense. And I'm glad you gave that example. What do you, what are potentially people that are listening again, that are just, this is new to them and they're unclear. What else do you see as a benefit of, of using this vehicle?
That's a good question. I think it almost forces you to be careful. Because it is life insurance. There is a life insurance premium a part of this. And if you don't pay that premium, you could lose the policy. And so it almost forces you to keep saving money. And for most of Americans who work 9 to 5 and are struggling to save money, this is almost a good step forward to just force yourself to save. And yes, you get all those benefits you've talked about. Yes, you can go and buy rentals or do whatever you want. But it's at least forcing you to put money aside. And it's going to produce a much larger retirement, most likely, than any other thing you're going to do. I think that's a very basic answer, but it's what most people need to hear.
What about, um, you know, the other thing I've heard about these policies or I've heard from people. And again, I'd go back to always, uh, a lot of times when someone doesn't understand something or they haven't done it, um, the hell with their opinion anyway. But, you know, what we hear also, or I've heard is, well, in order for that to do this, for these policies to work, the cost is too extreme. It costs us too much money to acquire one of these policies or what you've heard, and I'm sure you've heard this because I have, these policies are a scam. And then, so just for my listeners out there, when I looked at the big financial institutions and the big families that have shit tons of wealth, And they all had these policies. I was like, the scam is they want you to believe it's a scam. And you're just not in that room with the wealthy people because the wealthy people all day will tell you this is not a scam. But those two things, you know, it costs too much and this is a scam. I'd love to hear your answer to that.
Yeah, that's a funny thing you just mentioned. It's funny, when we were in Boardroom, an event we both attend, everyone there knows what this is, and everyone there makes money, whether it's a good amount of money or a ton of money. They all do it. And so I think you're exactly right. It's about the network you're a part of. But I think a lot of people think that they look at a policy itself and they say, oh, this is a scam. It's like, well, yeah, it's just a product you're looking at. You're just looking at a payment for a death benefit and it has some cash value. That's just a product. And infinite banking and this strategy is not a product. It's not a policy. It's how you move your money. It's how your money flows. If you were to look at a product on a sheet, that's not going to show you taking loans out, buying rentals, repaying yourself, going and financing cars for your family, paying them back. These different benefits of really doing this aren't shown on a piece of paper. It's shown in the action and the movement of your money. And so, I think that's the hard part for people to understand is the product. If you look at a policy on a sheet, you're going to think this doesn't work. And you're right. If you just buy a product, it's not going to work. Nothing's going to happen for you. And it's not just money sitting there stagnant. Money has to move to make money.
Velocity of money is one of the best things you can understand when it comes to investing money is that money cannot sit. It has to move. Absolutely. Man, you covered a lot. Is there anything else for someone that's listening to this that doesn't have a policy, doesn't understand this, anything else you want to educate them on or just kind of tell them a piece of advice they need to understand?
You know, that's a good question.
I think... Besides everybody in their right mind should do this shit.
Make it as blunt as possible. You know, I think the hard part about this is understanding money moving for most people and what that means and why becoming your own bank is the phrase we use. And if you actually look up banking online, it will say banking is the business of protecting your money. interesting right and then if you look up like the verb of banking how's that a verb it says banking means you are depositing lending and protecting your money so when you look at it that way it's like okay well Where am I doing my banking right now? Somewhere else, Wells Fargo or Chase, where they're choosing the rates, they're protecting my money, they're doing whatever they want with it. How's that my control? How's that helping me? It's not. And so for us to understand infinite banking, we first need to understand what banking is. And so now that you understand like You're building your own system to really do this. You're becoming your own private bank that you're in control of everything going on. Because remember, infinite banking is not a policy. It's just the process of your money moving. But it's literally taking over those banking activities you're doing with somebody else and then doing it in your own private system. And it just so happens to be that life insurance is the best asset to do this with. You could do the same idea with other different types of assets, but life insurance just happens to be the best and most efficient. And I think people as well think it's a complex idea, but it can be super stupid simple. So if you just understood banking, and then when it comes to a policy, you understand how that operates, it doesn't matter. I just want to flow money through it and go make it work for me. And whole life insurance helps you do that.
Great answer. Yeah, it's for everybody that's listening, you know, one of our focuses here is to educate you about money and investing. And one of the best books I've ever read in my life, and you know I've said this on the show multiple times, is George Anton's, The Banker's Code. And he basically explains in layman's terms, and it's very easy read and digestible, of understanding how banks actually work and how you can become a bank. And he talks in this book about one of the ways to become your own bank is using the policies that Carson has talked about. But it just completely changed my mind on real estate investing in general. And it really pushed me to get more on the debt side, even though I'm active in the asset side, I really got more on the debt side and we're getting more and more into it and I love it. And as I've mentioned, we use family banking policies to leverage our real estate investment. So it's good shit, man.
yeah no and i know you're you're building out your system further you know the whole idea is i like how you call it family banking because yes it's infinite banking that's the term that's used to describe this but it is family banking you're building something for your family long term because when that death benefit does get paid out What are they going to do with it? Hopefully you've taught them the right things to do. And now they build their policies further. And now the next generation is going to get a death benefit of 5X that. You're building the future generations wealth just by you setting up a simple policy and paying off some debt or buying a rental with it. It's really changing the future more than you realize.
So I knew you would go deep on this. So I really appreciate you being on here. The last question I'm gonna ask you, which is the same question I ask everybody, had your dad on a couple of weeks ago and I asked him this and he gave a really good answer. But I'm gonna ask you, the show was built, Waking Up to Wealth is because first and foremost, this entire conversation we just had, you will never be taught in school. No education system will teach you this. And frankly, what we've all been taught go to work, put your money in a bank, save your money, that's how you get ahead. And when you learn to get around wealthy people, you understand that that's not what the fuck they do, right? They learn how to invest. And so waking up to wealth was educating people so they wake up to what the hell's wealth is really about, which is a different world than what we've been taught. So for you, I'll ask you the same thing I ask every guest, is what is waking up to wealth mean to you? Doesn't matter what it is, it's your version.
So I'll give you a story I had recently. So someone came to me, and he's 27 years old. He said, hey, Carson, in two and a half years, I'm going to be 30 years old, and I have nothing to show for it. He had some emotion in his voice. I felt it over the phone. I didn't know who he was. He was calling in to learn about infinite banking. This is the first thing he said. And he said, the next 10 years for me are going to be just different. This is going to be my age of change. And that's stuck with me ever since. That's what waking up to wealth is. Realizing what you're doing will not work, is not working. And that's what happened for me as well when I was in college. I had both people in my ears. I was going down the traditional path. And then in this hand, I was holding that. And then in this hand, I was holding entrepreneurship and real estate. And I chose to leave school and pursue an education in investing and learning how to make money work for me because that's what I found was fun to me, made more sense to me, and I felt the pain of watching my friends go through the traditional path and they weren't having fun, they weren't succeeding, they weren't enjoying it. And so just like my friend who is 27 right now, I felt the same way. There's an awakening you have when you realize what you're doing now will not work and you're looking for answers and you will keep digging deep to find the answers you want. And maybe infinite banking is not that for you, but you will definitely find that by being a part of this show in this community. And so anyone listening, I would urge you to find out when your age of change is, if that's now, if it's already happened or if it's coming, make that happen. Wake up to wealth and find ways to control your life.
Great answer. So everybody who's listening and they're like, I'm interested in, in, in the family banking, infinite banking. I'd love more information. I'd love to get on a phone call or a conversation with you to figure more out about it. How can they get in touch with you?
Yeah. And first off, guys, you're not supposed to understand everything I said today if this is your first time hearing this. So don't feel dumb or bad to reach out. Like Brandon said, it took him three times to learn it before he even kind of understood it. So we only went in detail for 20, 30 minutes, guys. So I would recommend doing more research. This is just enough to get to the tip of the iceberg. Let's go do some more real due diligence and figure out what this means for you. So if you do want to do that, I have plenty of resources and I'm being a part of wake up to wealth being here today. Anyone listening. If you let me know, that's where you're from. I'll meet with you for free and go through your entire situation and see how you can implement this yourself or if you should. And if you want to do that, I'll be super personal with you guys. You can just shoot me a text. My number is 702-461-4198. Just shoot me a text with your name and you came from this podcast and I'll talk with you. I'll do whatever you guys need. I'm here to help.
Awesome, brother. Hey, dude, I knew I knew you'd go deep on this. That's why I really wanted you to come on. I thank you so much for taking the time to pour into my audience. You got interest. Reach out to him. He'll take care of you. Somebody I use myself. Also a sponsor for the show. Thank you so much for being on with us today.
Thank you, Brandon. I appreciate it.
Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of Wake Up to Wealth. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way we'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review on Apple Podcast and tell your friends about the show. It is how new people find us. Until next time.