Doctors Building Wealth

Leti and Kenji
  • 4.8 (98)
  • Investing
  • Updated Weekly

Doctors Building Wealth is for physicians drowning in student debt and working endless hours, wondering if your medical career will ever bring true freedom. Despite your six-figure income, the path from successful doctor to financially independent professional feels impossibly complex. We get it—balancing patient care and financial planning is overwhelming when no one taught you how to invest during medical school. Lucky for you, you don't have to figure it out alone. Meet Drs. Letizia Alto and Kenji Asakura, physicians who've built a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio while maintaining their medical careers. They've helped hundreds of fellow doctors replace clinical income with passive cash flow—without sacrificing patient care. Join Leti and Kenji each week as they interview physician investors who've escaped the burnout cycle, share step-by-step strategies to analyze deals, and provide actionable blueprints to build your real estate portfolio with your busy schedule. Learn how to leverage your high income, create tax advantages most doctors miss, and build the time freedom you deserve. It's time to stop trading your time for money and start building generational wealth. Your patients need you at your best—not burned out and counting the years to retirement.

  1. 4d ago

    Choosing Principles Over Trends: Practical AI Business Strategies

    Every week there's a new model, a new tool, a new "must-use" prompt. If you've ever felt like you're falling behind on AI no matter how much you read, you're not alone, and according to our guest, you're also worrying about the wrong thing entirely. In this episode, we sit down with serial entrepreneur Lior Weinstein. Lior has built and sold multiple technology companies, holds multiple patents, has a book coming out with Tony Robbins, and spends his days helping CEOs of eight and nine-figure businesses actually use AI instead of just talking about it. His core message is a relief: you cannot keep up with AI, and you were never supposed to. What matters isn't the newest tool. It's the principles that stay true no matter what shows up next. Get those right, and any new technology becomes something you can calmly fold into your business and your life. We get practical, too, including how investors and busy professionals can use AI to buy back hours and scale, and exactly where AI should never be allowed to take over. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why chasing every new model and tool is a waste of energy, and the mindset that replaces itThe difference between finding "tasks" and finding "projects," and why it changes how fast you see resultsThe one number to measure so you know AI is really saving you time, not just entertaining youWhere AI should never replace a human, no matter how capable it getsWhy building your business on top of ChatGPT or Claude can quietly break it, and what to do insteadThe only skills actually worth developing for the AI age (none of them are technical)Whether you're AI-curious or already deep in the tools, this conversation will replace the overwhelm with a clear, calm way to put AI to work. READY FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS? Book your call HERE for your next move. RESOURCES + LINKS Work w/ SRMD: HERE Join our FREE Facebook Groups: HERE Join our Newsletter: HERE FOLLOW + CONNECT Connect with SRMD: Website | Instagram | Facebook Liked this episode? Share it on social and tag me @semiretiredmd Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know!

  2. Sep 13

    What Is Zero to Freedom? Our Real Estate Investing Course Explained

    You've probably heard us mention Zero to Freedom. Maybe you've even Googled it, and found a pile of other people's reviews before you found anything from us actually explaining what it is. So we wanted to set the record straight, in our own words. What is Zero to Freedom really about? Who is it for? Who is it honestly not for? And what happens once you're inside? Here's the short version: Zero to Freedom is a cohort-based course built for doctors and high-income earners who want to go from knowing little or nothing about real estate to buying their first genuinely great deal. We've run it since 2019, refined it through every kind of market, and watched thousands of busy professionals use it to take action they'd been putting off for years. Because that's the real problem we set out to solve. It was never a lack of information. It was that smart, capable people kept getting stuck in analysis paralysis, waiting to feel certain enough to move. This episode is the honest tour of how the course is built to fix that. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why so many people who want to invest never take the first step, and the specific thing that finally gets them movingWhat you'll have assembled by week four of the course, and what you'll be doing by week fiveHow the course handles taxes for high earners without ever crossing the line into giving you adviceThe kind of person Zero to Freedom is genuinely NOT for (we're refreshingly blunt about it)Why nine out of ten graduates say the most valuable thing they gained had nothing to do with a real estate tacticWhat "condensing decades into days" actually means, and the support that makes it possibleThis isn't a get-rich-quick scheme, and we say so plainly. It's a real skill, learned in a supportive community, that can change how you work, how you invest, and the options you have for the rest of your life. READY FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS? Book your call HERE for your next move. RESOURCES + LINKS Work w/ SRMD: HERE Join our FREE Facebook Groups: HERE Join our Newsletter: HERE FOLLOW + CONNECT Connect with SRMD: Website | Instagram | Facebook Liked this episode? Share it on social and tag me @semiretiredmd Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know!

  3. Sep 6

    How This Doctor Rents by the Room for More Cash Flow

    You already know cash flow is what makes a rental worth owning. But what if the same property you were about to buy could produce noticeably more of it, just by renting it out a different way? That's the promise of the rent-by-the-room strategy, and in this episode we sit down with Paula, an ophthalmologist who has turned it into a thriving portfolio she runs alongside a demanding medical career. Paula's story is worth hearing on its own. She started investing right after college, flipped her first properties and even built a six-unit condo development while she was a med student, and kept going straight through residency, pushback from her program and all. Along the way, she noticed something most investors miss: near a university, there is enormous, underserved demand for a single well-run room. In this conversation, she walks us through exactly how she does it, from finding tenants to pricing rooms to keeping the whole thing running while working as a physician. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why renting by the room can generate noticeably more cash flow than a standard whole-unit leaseThe free channel Paula relies on almost exclusively to fill her rooms (and why the big listing sites barely work for this)How she wipes out summer vacancy completely, even with a house full of student tenantsThe way she prices rooms, including the low-risk experiments she runs to find the ceilingWho this strategy works best for, and the kind of market where it really shinesThe simple systems that put rent collection and maintenance on near-autopilot (and why she still handles tenant screening herself)Whether you're buying your first rental or looking to squeeze more out of the ones you already own, Paula's approach is a practical, repeatable playbook. READY FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS? Book your call HERE for your next move. RESOURCES + LINKS Work w/ SRMD: HERE Join our FREE Facebook Groups: HERE Join our Newsletter: HERE FOLLOW + CONNECT Connect with SRMD: Website | Instagram | Facebook Liked this episode? Share it on social and tag me @semiretiredmd Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know!

  4. Aug 23

    6 Components of a Great Real Estate Deal

    You keep hearing the phrase "a great deal." But if someone put a property in front of you right now, could you actually say whether it was great, good, or one to walk away from? Most investors can't. And it's almost impossible to go find a great deal when you've never clearly defined what one is. Think of it like the four-minute mile. For years nobody believed it could be broken, until someone defined the target, hit it, and suddenly runners everywhere were breaking it too. Real estate has the same problem: almost no one tells you what a great deal actually looks like, so most people default to the one number everybody talks about, cash flow, and stop there. Here's what we've learned building our own portfolio: a truly great deal makes money in more than one way. In fact, it makes money in six. And when you learn to see all six on a single property, your whole standard for what's worth buying changes. In this episode, we break down each of the six ways to make money on a deal, how they stack together, and why the investors who build wealth fastest refuse to settle for just one or two. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: The six ways a single property can make you money, and why great investors insist on hitting as many as possibleWhy setting a "10% cash-on-cash" goal might be the very thing holding your returns backThe difference between the appreciation you buy and the appreciation you create, and why missing one of them slows everything downHow maximizing the tax benefits of a rental can put real money back in your pocket at tax time, and what it actually takes to do it rightThe costly mistake one surgeon made buying ten properties, and why he still didn't feel wealthyWhat "fast FIRE" really means, and how it separates the people who reach freedom in years from those who wait decadesWhether you're evaluating your first property or your fortieth, this episode gives you a clear scorecard to hold every deal up against. READY FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS? Book your call HERE for your next move. RESOURCES + LINKS Work w/ SRMD: HERE Join our FREE Facebook Groups: HERE Join our Newsletter: HERE FOLLOW + CONNECT Connect with SRMD: Website | Instagram | Facebook Liked this episode? Share it on social and tag me @semiretiredmd Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know!

  5. Aug 9

    Starting Real Estate Later in Life: How Real Estate Can Support Your Retirement Goals

    You've thought about real estate for years. Maybe fifteen of them. But life kept happening. There were kids to raise, tuition to pay, a demanding career that took everything you had. And now retirement is on the horizon, and a quiet question keeps surfacing: is it too late for me to start? It's one of the most common questions we hear from doctors, and it usually comes wrapped in doubt. Should I just leave everything in the stock market and my 401(k)? Am I about to take a risk I should have taken twenty years ago? Have I simply missed my window? Here's what we've come to believe after countless conversations with physicians in exactly this position: starting later isn't the disadvantage it feels like. In many ways, the years right before retirement are the strongest position you'll ever be in to begin. In this episode, we walk through why, from the clarity and capital you have now that you didn't at 35, to the specific ways real estate can shape the retirement you actually want. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: The first question to get clear on before you buy anything (most people skip it, and it changes everything)The tax strategy one cardiologist is using to convert his retirement savings into a Roth without the usual tax hitWhy the years right before retirement may be the best window you'll ever have to claim real estate professional statusHow rental income can create a gentle off-ramp from full-time medicine, instead of grinding until you hit a wallThe advantages you have at 55 that you simply didn't have at 35, from capital to the respect you carry into a lender's officeWhy keeping everything in the stock market may be a riskier position than it feels right nowWe also share the story of how income-producing rentals supported Leti's mom for years, and why the reasons to start at 55 look very different from the reasons at 35. Whether you're 50 and eyeing an earlier off-ramp or 60 and rethinking what's possible, this episode will help you frame the conversation and see this next chapter differently. Listen now and start designing the retirement you actually want. READY FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS? Book your call HERE for your next move. RESOURCES + LINKS Work w/ SRMD: HERE Join our FREE Facebook Groups: HERE Join our Newsletter: HERE FOLLOW + CONNECT Connect with SRMD: Website | Instagram | Facebook Liked this episode? Share it on social and tag me @semiretiredmd Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know!

  6. Jul 26

    Investing in the Downturn: How Doctors Build Wealth When Others Are Waiting

    Everywhere you look, the message is the same: wait. Wait for rates to come down. Wait for the market to settle. Wait until it feels safe again. And so most doctors are doing exactly that, sitting on the sidelines, watching, waiting for a green light that may never come the way they expect. Here's what almost no one is saying out loud: the waiting is the opportunity. We've been in a real estate downturn for a year or two now, and downturns are precisely when fortunes get built. Not by the people who timed the bottom perfectly, but by the ones who were prepared, connected, and willing to move while everyone else froze. We've lived through this before. Kenji invested through the 2008 crash, and what we learned then is shaping every move we're making right now. This market is different, and that difference is good news for a prepared physician investor. In this episode, we break down what's actually happening in real estate, why the deals are better than they've been in years, and the specific, practical moves you can make today to grow your wealth while the market is down. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: Why "immediate appreciation" is the single most powerful concept in a down market, and how it quietly stacks the odds in your favorThe one relationship most new investors completely overlook, and why a downturn is the best possible time to build itWhy tightening your criteria, not loosening it, is the smartest thing you can do when deals are everywhereThe hard-won 2008 lesson about loan terms that's keeping seasoned investors out of trouble right nowHow to turn a property that's quietly languishing into fuel for your next great dealWhat to do with the portfolio you already own so it can weather a storm that may last for yearsWhether you own ten properties or you're still looking for your first, this episode will change how you see the market you're standing in right now. READY FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS? Book your call HERE for your next move. RESOURCES + LINKS Work w/ SRMD: HERE Join our FREE Facebook Groups: HERE Join our Newsletter: HERE FOLLOW + CONNECT Connect with SRMD: Website | Instagram | Facebook Liked this episode? Share it on social and tag me @semiretiredmd Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know!

  7. Jul 12

    Local Bank or Loan Broker? How to Finance Your First Commercial Deal

    You found the deal. A five-unit, a small apartment building, your first property big enough to count as commercial. Now comes the question nobody really prepared you for: how do you actually finance it? Most doctors freeze right here. Do you hand it to a commercial loan broker who shops the whole market for you, or do you walk into the local bank where they already know your name? One charges a fee that makes you wince. The other gives you a single option and a lot of trust. And the wrong move can cost you better terms, or worse, blow up the deal entirely. Here's what we've learned after financing deal after deal: there isn't one right answer, and the investors who get this wrong usually do so because nobody told them how the two paths really work. In this mini-episode, we walk through the honest upsides and downsides of both, the negotiations most new investors don't know are on the table, and how the right call can quietly change over the life of your portfolio. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: The loan terms you can actually negotiate on a commercial deal, beyond the one number every new investor fixates onThe quiet experience requirement that disqualifies most new investors from commercial loans, and how a broker can sometimes get you approved anywayWhy putting all your eggs in one bank can cost you terms you'll never even know existedThe reason working both paths at the same time can torch relationships you'll want for every deal that comes afterThe one corner of the commercial loan market where a broker can save you days of shoppingWhy the right answer for this deal might be the wrong answer for your next oneWe also get honest about a costly mistake we made on our own paperwork, and what it taught us about having someone in your corner before you sign. Whether you're financing your first commercial property or your next one, this episode will help you walk into the conversation knowing exactly what to ask for. Listen now and learn how to finance your next commercial deal with confidence. READY FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS? Book your call HERE for your next move. RESOURCES + LINKS Work w/ SRMD: HERE Join our FREE Facebook Groups: HERE Join our Newsletter: HERE FOLLOW + CONNECT Connect with SRMD: Website | Instagram | Facebook Liked this episode? Share it on social and tag me @semiretiredmd Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know!

  8. Jun 28

    What to Do When You Feel Like You Failed in Real Estate

    You did your homework. You ran the numbers. You bought the property believing it was a good decision. And now something has gone wrong: a tenant problem, a repair you never saw coming, a deal that just isn't performing the way you were sure it would. And quietly, a voice starts up in the back of your mind. Maybe you're not cut out for this. Maybe you should have known. Maybe you should just get out before it gets worse. We've been there. After investing together since 2015, and with Kenji's experience going all the way back to 2001 and the 2008 downturn, we've had plenty of deals that didn't go the way we planned. What we've learned is that the setback itself is almost never the thing that decides your future. The story you tell yourself about it is. In this episode, we get honest about the deals that didn't work out, and we walk through the exact mindset shifts and the practical framework we lean on when something goes wrong, so you can move through it with less suffering and come out the other side a sharper, stronger investor. BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING, YOU'LL DISCOVER: The two ways almost everyone reacts to a setback, and why both of them quietly keep you stuckThe mental traps that kick in the second a deal goes wrong and quietly convince you it's worse than it isThe one emotional reaction that wrecks your judgment at the exact moment you need it mostThe difference between taking ownership and spiraling into blame, and why only one of them moves you forwardThe simple shift that turns "you versus your spouse" into "the two of you versus the problem"Why nearly every failure we've had eventually became the lesson that made the next decision betterThis isn't about pretending setbacks don't hurt. It's about understanding what your mind does under pressure, refusing to let one hard moment rewrite the whole story, and knowing the steps that actually carry you forward. Because if you invest long enough, a setback isn't a question of if. It's a question of when, and of whether you'll be ready. Listen now and change the way you handle the next deal that doesn't go as planned. READY FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS? Book your call HERE for your next move. RESOURCES + LINKS Work w/ SRMD: HERE Join our FREE Facebook Groups: HERE Join our Newsletter: HERE FOLLOW + CONNECT Connect with SRMD: Website | Instagram | Facebook Liked this episode? Share it on social and tag me @semiretiredmd Love the show? Leave a 5-star review and let me know!

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4.8
out of 5
98 Ratings

About

Doctors Building Wealth is for physicians drowning in student debt and working endless hours, wondering if your medical career will ever bring true freedom. Despite your six-figure income, the path from successful doctor to financially independent professional feels impossibly complex. We get it—balancing patient care and financial planning is overwhelming when no one taught you how to invest during medical school. Lucky for you, you don't have to figure it out alone. Meet Drs. Letizia Alto and Kenji Asakura, physicians who've built a multi-million dollar real estate portfolio while maintaining their medical careers. They've helped hundreds of fellow doctors replace clinical income with passive cash flow—without sacrificing patient care. Join Leti and Kenji each week as they interview physician investors who've escaped the burnout cycle, share step-by-step strategies to analyze deals, and provide actionable blueprints to build your real estate portfolio with your busy schedule. Learn how to leverage your high income, create tax advantages most doctors miss, and build the time freedom you deserve. It's time to stop trading your time for money and start building generational wealth. Your patients need you at your best—not burned out and counting the years to retirement.

Information

  • Creator
    Leti and Kenji
  • Years Active
    2022 - 2026
  • Episodes
    186
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Doctors Building Wealth
  • Show Website
    Doctors Building Wealth

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