E006: Living the American Dream with Michael and Anna Trefel

<p>College sweethearts Michael and Anna Trefel made their careers on Wall Street. Then at some point, they decided to leave the corporate world and focus on real estate investing to be able to spend more time with family and live the American Dream.</p> <p><strong>Here’s what we talked about:</strong></p> <ul> <li>Michael’s background as a global strategist for Lehman bank<br> </li> <li>Anna leaving Wall Street to follow her retirement dream<br> </li> <li>Their first flip in college and venturing into real estate<br> </li> </ul> <p><strong>Episode Highlights:</strong></p> <p><strong>From Wall Street to Real Estate Investing</strong></p> <p>One day, Anna came home and told Michael she can't envision her future working 16 hours a day sitting in the cubicle. Her retirement dream was to open a flower store so Mike encouraged her not to put it off.</p> <p>After she left Wall Street, Anna got a designer degree in horticulture and design at the New York Botanical Garden Institute. Her MBA really did help in running her business as well as her management skills. The business grew to a very successful venture from a small local downtown shop into a massive 5000-square foot showroom, where they did events organizing huge accounts.</p> <p>Ten years after, a competitor offered to buy all of her accounts. It was the perfect timing since she had baby #2 on the way and she wanted to take a step back to be able to spend more time with their kids.</p> <p>After Wall Street, Michael was a global strategist for a bank for Lehman and he realized he was working too much that he was not spending any time with his family. He was traveling the world without seeing the world. At the end of his MBA program, he just decided to quit after three years.</p> <p><strong>Their First Flip and Counting</strong></p> <p>Their first flip was in college. They were working part-time and saving. Unlike stocks, real estate is something concrete. Growing up in Russia, Michael and Anna saw real estate as the American dream. So when they left Wall Street