Long Distance Investing

Billy Keels, a regular guy from Columbus, Ohio, started out as a corporate go-getter. He was rejected twice and then did some great luck with commercial real estate investing. Now, Billy is living in Barcelona, Spain, and is a big proponent of passive investing. In this episode, Billy tells his incredible story of how he overcame obstacles to become successful in the Passive Investing world. He explains how he had a problem and tried to look for a solution and ended up investing in real estate, mobile home parks, and commercial properties. Billy also mentions the bonus depreciation rules and how they can use them to reduce taxes on their active income. Finally, Billy emphasized the importance of building relationships and gaining investor trust. He tells the listener that technology has been helpful in this regard, as it allows him to communicate with investors more easily.

Highlights:

[00:00 - 09:56] How to Passive Invest for Financial Freedom

• Who is Billy Keely Keels
• Billy talks about his mistakes in investing and how he learned about passive investing.
• Investing away from home.
• He then discusses how passive investing has helped him achieve his personal freedom goals.
• He also mentioned that he would be able to tap into bonus depreciation rules and use losses against active income to redeploy money into other investments.\
• He is Currently investing passively in Energy sector

[09:56 - 14:35] How to Raise Capital For Your Own Deals or Syndicate

• One of the things that Billy started to realize is that there's a mindset different among people in different types of rooms.
• Living in Europe or other parts of the world doesn't mean your Tax free
• • As an American you have to declare your worldwide income.
  • Making sure you have a team of professionals to advise you on how to able to do these things
• For those who want to invest in real estate, there are other vehicles that can help them get to their destination, such as investing in other businesses or using technology
• It's important to have a team around you to help with various aspects of your investment, and also be available to invest yourself

[20:55 - 22:00] Closing Segment

Reach out to Billy

• Links Below

• Final Words

Resources Mentioned: For Accredited Investors ONLYfirstgencp.com/paylesstax

Tweetable Quotes

"As you start to be in different types of rooms, you start to realize that there's a different kind of mindset. There are Different vehicles that I'm comfortable with that help me get to the same destination. And so a lot of times it's a matter of being exposed."

- Billy Keels

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Connect with Billy by visiting his website www.firstgencp.com

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Want to read the full show notes of the episode? Check it out below:

[00:00:00] Billy Keels: Like, it's really interesting cuz I've been using zoom as a long distance investor for the last 10 years.

[00:00:04] Billy Keels: As you start to build relationships. Yes. It's great that you can start with meeting someone on. Maybe you're meet in a chat room or a Facebook group or whatever kind of group but eventually you wanna be able to take that conversation offline,

[00:00:14] Billy Keels: I'm a big believer. If you wanna develop a relationship you have to be willing to put your money where your mouth is. And so you can develop a relationship up until a certain point, but then eventually you need to get on a plane and show other people that you are interested in. Not only building relationships, but also making investments.

[00:00:31] Sam Wilson: Billy keels is just a regular guy from middle class family in Columbus, Ohio, where he grew up knowing nothing about investing Billy. Welcome to

[00:00:50] Billy Keels: the show, Sam. Thanks so much, man. Really looking forward to it. Love your energy, love what you're doing and looking forward to the convers.

[00:00:56] Sam Wilson: In 90 seconds or less.

[00:00:58] Sam Wilson: Can you tell me, sir? Where did you start? Where are you now? And how did you get

[00:01:01] Billy Keels: there? Yeah, you already told where I started. So originally from Columbus, Ohio product of two, two parents who really worked hard, put a real, real focus on education as a result I actually saw them suffer a lot really because they worked two jobs, blue collar, and they had a lot of different challenges, like paying certain bills.

[00:01:18] Billy Keels: I saw them at the end of the month, like, are we gonna pay this bill? Are we gonna pay the other bill? And so I grew up in that environ. We, by the time I was 12, we lived in like three different states, eight or nine different houses. But the focus was always on education. So of course I'm an, a student.

[00:01:31] Billy Keels: I really focused on the things that I was supposed to do and what I was told. So went to college, got two degrees. although I did find out what rejection was cause I had my dream job. I was rejected, not once, but twice. I got my college degree and was ready to go there. But at, through that rejection, what it helped me to do is I got a job that I never, ever imagined rejected twice from Proctor and gamble that opened up a door for me, where I had a job, Sam, where by the time I was 26, I'd worked and traveled throughout 58 different countries, which was amazing, opened my mind to doing, seeing different things.

[00:02:01] Billy Keels: And what that did is kept me in a corporate career. Although I left the. Moved to Europe. I was supposed to be on a one year sabbatical and that one year sabbatical, interestingly enough, I started in Paris, France, and that started 21 years ago. So that one year sabbatical actually took me from Paris down to a town in the south called Montier.

[00:02:20] Billy Keels: I went from there to Italy, started up a sales team, then went back to France and have been living in Barcelona, Spain, where I currently reside since July of 2000. And. I was working as a students do. I was in a corporate role for about 26 years. And recently in December of 2021, no longer part of the corporate world.

[00:02:38] Billy Keels: And now am focused on continuing to live the best life that I can through the challenges through dedicating a lot of time and energy to the. The multinational. Now I'm focusing a lot of the time and energy on family, enjoying time with my wife, with my kids. and also getting back to the us more frequently.

[00:02:52] Billy Keels: So that's really in like probably 90, a little bit more than 90 seconds. A little bit about the, this guy from Columbus, Ohio, who's now residing in Barcelona. Spain. I

[00:02:59] Sam Wilson: love it. I love it. I think anytime someone becomes well traveled there's there. It just, it does open your mind to so many possibilities in the world.

[00:03:06] Sam Wilson: You're like, oh, wait, there's not everybody looks or acts like me. You lose a lot of the prejudices that I think we're taught, over the news and everything else. It's like, man, there's great people, the world

[00:03:15] Billy Keels: over. So yeah. That's and definitely focuses you to challenge the way that you think.

[00:03:19] Billy Keels: At this point now, Sam I've loved it so much and I've been challenged so many times about the way that I look. At the world, I've now traveled to 86 different countries. Wow. And my next goal is to get to all seven continents. So I just need to get down to Antarctica, I guess that's, if you talked in the us and in Europe, they don't believe there's seven continents, but that's a whole different conversation.

[00:03:36] Billy Keels: We'll talk about that later. in a hundred countries, so that's those are the next two geographical challenges I've put for myself. That is really

[00:03:43] Sam Wilson: cool. You've spent a lot of time in the corporate world, and I know you said you've stepped out as of December, 2021. That's really amazing.

[00:03:51] Sam Wilson: You've had your hands though, in commercial real estate in a lot of different ways. Can you give us kind of a breakdown on some of those different ways you've been involved in commercial

[00:03:59] Billy Keels: real estate? Yeah. Sure. Absolutely. So, and I guess the way that I got into real estate was because I got like, I'm an, a student I mentioned before.

[00:04:05] Billy Keels: So I did all the things I was told. I was in the, I was investing in my 401k IRA, just maxed out the 401k, rolled into IRA and did all that kind of stuff. And 2000 happened, 2008 happened. I got hit twice. My parents always told me, Billy, look, if something happens once, shame on them, if it happens twice, shame on you.

[00:04:20] Billy Keels: I look to invest in real. And initially I read a lot of the books, the rich dad, poor dads, went down those rabbit holes and I saw of a lot of videos and as well. Listen to a lot of podcasts. And I thought I was gonna invest here in Barcelona, Spain, but through a number of different trials and tribulations, and then some pretty good luck.

[00:04:38] Billy Keels: I ended u