Deferring Taxes for Decades (and the Dangers of 1031 Exchanges) | PREI 091

I just got back from Memphis, Tennessee where I had a great three days there. We had a two-day event. The first day was all about education, getting to know new things about things related to real estate and real estate investing and taxes and whatnot. Then we had a great networking event that evening where I got the opportunity to meet a lot of investors from all around. In fact, we had one person there from Australia, we had a couple there from Hawaii, and it was fun. These people are there to learn and they’re people who listen to this podcast and it was just a lot of fun to meet people who listen to and from their drive to work. It’s great to put faces and names to people who are out there listening and educating themselves, learning to better their financial future and create financial freedom for themselves. That first day was all about education, the evening was all networking. We got to sit around and have something to eat and have a few drinks and just overlook the Mississippi River. It was just a great time. The second day was all about a property tour. We got to go around the Memphis market, learn about various neighborhoods, get to see properties at different stages of the game; some being pre-renovation, some of them being in the middle of renovation, some of them having completed renovation. It was an exciting event. Then we had some more networking after that. It was great two and a half days of mingling and meeting other real estate investors. One of the things we got talking about there was taxes and taxation and whatnot. The question comes up, “Why do people hate paying taxes?” One reason is because they just simply don’t understand them. Albert Einstein said, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” Aside from that, we just simply don’t like to pay any more than we have to. Some people feel that there is an obligation to pay, but at the same time I think you have an obligation to learn how to reduce, minimize or even eliminate the taxes that you pay when the opportuni