Why $2M Liquid Can Beat $20M in Rentals, According to Operators

By Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin, Dylan Koch · October 6, 2026

Net worth is the number real estate investors brag about. Liquidity is the number that actually decides what your life looks like. In Episode 512, Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch debate a "regular rich" concept circulating on Instagram, explain why a rentals-only balance sheet can be misleading, and walk through what happened when Mike started replacing paid software with tools he built himself.

What does "regular rich" actually mean?

Dan brought up a concept from Templeton Walker, an investor he follows on Instagram: regular rich is roughly $2 million liquid, meaning not locked up in equity, earning around 10%, plus a paid-off house. Dan noted Walker has since backed away from posting about it because it was starting to feel like a job.

Dylan said he's seen similar versions floating around, usually framed as a number where you don't have to report to anybody, and compared it to the Coast FIRE idea where you hit a threshold and stop saving so hard.

Mike pushed back on treating it as pure math. In his view, $20,000 a month means nothing if you've got car payments and a lifestyle burning cash with no surplus. His own definition: you're regular rich when you feel comfortable spending excessively on the things that matter to you without it becoming a moral conflict.

Mike also argued a lot of this is mindset. He thinks plenty of people are already there but won't admit it, because they don't believe in their own earning potential or carry an old-school saving habit. He's willing to overspend on things like a business-class seat once or twice a year because he believes the money comes back. Dan called the opposite type oversavers.

Why does liquidity beat a big rental portfolio?

Dan made the sharpest point of the episode: if your only strategy is real estate and your only income is rental cash flow, you're probably not as wealthy as you think. Rental equity is not accessible liquidity, and cash flow stays variable until the portfolio gets very large. At that size, Dan said, you've usually picked up concentration risk because everything you own is the same asset class.

His comparison was blunt. Twenty million dollars in real estate doesn't feel as wealthy as $2 million that's accessible tomorrow and kicking off 10%. Dylan agreed that portfolio architecture matters and that you should probably have a little bit of everything, though he raised the alternative of $7 million in paid-off rentals spinning off income that covers a lifestyle without sitting in an account you can touch.

Dylan also noted that for an older investor, income-oriented holdings with less credit risk can be reasonable even if purchasing power erodes. Mike agreed time horizon drives the whole question, and shared that his 81-year-old father recently decided they'd saved enough and should start doing more, which is why the family is going to Japan in November.

What did AI actually replace, and where do costs run away?

Mike has been building internal software with Claude instead of stacking subscriptions. At their lending company that list includes a CRM at $500 to $600 a month, PandaDoc at around $500 a month, and a loan origination system. Dan was quick to note the savings are technically zero until they cancel the old platforms and migrate records, which virtual assistants are still pulling by hand.

The trigger was a pricing tool. Mike said they were quoted roughly $5,000 a month on a three-year commitment for a platform that turns complex pricing matrices into something a team can use on the go. He signed, backed out before onboarding or paying anything, and said the company sent them to collections anyway. That pushed him to build the equivalent himself.

Dan's point is that the subscription math undersells it. Fewer logins and fewer clicks across one screen instead of five is real productivity. Dylan noted a five-second screen load doesn't seem like much until you add it up. Mike's estimate for time saved, staff not needed and subscriptions dropped: well over $100,000 a year, and as Dan said, they aren't even a big business.

The warning is just as concrete. After bringing his team onto the new platform, Mike's document review function wasn't caching prompts, so every request ran fresh. Between an 8:30 a.m. kickoff meeting and 9:30 a.m. they'd spent about $350. He only caught it because he keeps $50 in the account at a time and gets an email on every recharge. After fixing the caching, he says they haven't had a day over roughly $100.

• Easy to build internally: dashboards, pricing comparisons, document review, bookkeeping categorization
• Harder: anything communication-based or financial that requires an outside service
• Mike integrated JustCall so texting and calls run through their own platform, keeping TCPA and 10DLC registration under his account instead of a vendor's numbers
• Mike's view: use it for cumbersome, mundane work rather than trying to replace people

What do the hosts take from an SEC settlement?

Mike discussed an SEC document regarding Mike Ayala, a former guest on the show. According to Mike's reading of the filing, it concerned roughly $10 million raised for mobile home parks, was framed as allegations rather than a conviction, and included a large restitution figure. Mike said Ayala agreed to resolve it rather than go to trial.

The hosts' interest was the investor lesson. Mike's view is that choosing to settle rather than fight a sum that size tells you something. Dan said he's never seen a fully wrongful SEC investigation, and that a settlement signals more than a dismissed case would. Dylan found it odd that commenters defended the matter purely on the grounds that nothing was proven. Mike's broader point: platforms create pedestals, pedestals raise money, and he and Dan run a fund and choose not to abuse that every day.

The through line in Episode 512 is that the number on your balance sheet isn't the same as the freedom in your life. Listen to the full episode for the complete back-and-forth.

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Educational content from the Collecting Keys podcast. Not financial, legal or tax advice.