Regular Rich
Regular Rich has been a guest on Collecting Keys, the real estate investing podcast hosted by Mike DeHaan, Dan Austin and Dylan Koch.
Regular Rich: Why $2M Liquid Beats $20M in Rentals
Mike, Dan and Dylan debate the "regular rich" idea making the rounds on Instagram — $2 million liquid plus a paid-off house — and argue that mindset, spending comfort and liquidity matter more than net worth. Mike details how building internal software with Claude has replaced a CRM, PandaDoc, a loan origination system and a $5K/month pricing tool, and warns about runaway API costs. They also discuss a former podcast guest's $10 million SEC settlement and why settling rather than fighting tells you what you need to know.
Key takeaways
- "Regular rich" as discussed means roughly $2M liquid (not equity) earning ~10%, plus a paid-off house — but Mike's own definition is being able to spend or give money on things that matter without it becoming a moral conflict.
- Dan argues that if rentals are your only asset, you're probably less wealthy than you think: cash flow is variable, equity isn't accessible, and you're carrying concentration risk. $20M in real estate can feel poorer than $2M liquid kicking off income.
- AI's best current use is cutting out mundane, click-heavy work and replacing SaaS subscriptions — not replacing people. Mike estimates well over $100K/year saved across software, staff time and subscriptions.
- Watch AI API costs closely: Anthropic's default account cap starts at $200K/month, and Mike burned ~$350 in an hour because document review wasn't caching prompts. He keeps only $50 in the account at a time so he gets recharge alerts.