What if the key to building lasting wealth isn’t earning more—but wanting less? In this episode of Build It to Billions, Brett Swarts sits down with real estate investor and entrepreneur George Roberts to discuss how avoiding lifestyle creep can create greater financial freedom, flexibility, and peace of mind. Through the story of his $5,000 sailboat, George shares why intentional living often delivers more fulfillment than constantly upgrading to bigger and more expensive possessions.
The conversation also explores the power of disciplined investing, commercial real estate, long-term wealth building, and making financial decisions that align with your values instead of social expectations. Whether you’re growing a business, investing in real estate, or planning a future exit, this episode offers practical insights to help you build wealth while preserving the freedom to live life on your own terms.
Episode Highlights Here:
Brett
Before we jump into this episode, I would invite you to join our community to help you become a better steward, scale to billions, and ultimately give more or all of it away. All I want you to do is to click the subscribe button right now. I love your support, it’s incredible to see your comments, and we’re just getting started. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you. Thank you so much for subscribing. It means the world to me. Welcome to the Build to Billions podcast, where we guide successful entrepreneurs and investors on their journey from millions to billions. We believe the key to scaling and compounding your wealth and life starts every single day, with a mindset and practice of stewardship of our ownership and applying billionaire biblical principles. Our ultimate goal is to have to scale and compound your wealth and life, so you can give more all the way to help MVPs. My name is Brett Swarts. Each and every episode, we’re joined by the world’s top entrepreneurs, millionaires or billionaires, and they share their secrets, wisdom, and insights with us, so we can all level up and make a bigger impact. I’m excited about our next guest, he’s out of the Michigan area, he’s the author of Passionate Living through Passive Investing, and he’s going to help us build passive income and real estate without the tenants, termites, and tantrums, and he, he’s got a real kind of a tremendous, tremendous background that he’s going to be sharing with us. He’s an award-winning data scientist, he’s on the Who’s Who for 2024 He’s a sighted bio scientist, heavily cited bio scientist, and he currently is an active investor in over 550 units across the United States, and a passive investor over 700 units. Please welcome the show with me, Mr. George Roberts. George, how we doing?
George
Doing well, Brett. Thank you, and great to be on the show.
Brett
Excellent. Yep, grateful to have you, and for our listener to get to know you for the first time. Would you give us a little bit more about your story and your current focus?
George
Yeah, absolutely. So, I came from a tech background, went into real estate when I realized it was just absolutely the best place to put my money, and nowadays I do invest in apartments, love it, invest actively and passively, and love to help other people do the same,
Brett
beautiful and superpowers growing up, for George, what was the one, two super strengths you always just kind of had, or, and, or, you know, the things that help you to help bless people and help you to help bless people today.
George
Well, I would say enthusiasm and curiosity, and that’s really what carried me through my scientific career, and it’s what takes me through to today, and also obviously part of my book
as well, which is all about my life, not just investing.
Brett
Awesome, love it. And so, let’s dive right into the topic, which is kind of the name of your booking the podcast, Passionate Living Through Passionate Living Through Passive Investing. What does that mean to you, and how does that help people today?
George
Yeah, so it’s all about living today and enjoying your wealth, not just about accumulating poker chips. So, most important thing I think people need to do is wherever you’re at in your finances, make sure that you have some economical ways that you’re enjoying your life every day, so it shouldn’t all just be about having a two-week vacation at the end of the year, or if you’re an entrepreneur, maybe not even two weeks. So, remember that it actually may be harder as we get full control of our schedule, we have to, we have to seize control, use that control, and youknow the rest of the book, the passive investing part is just about my passion for helping otherpeople learn how to invest in private markets. You can’t unrun, you can’t outrun the pack if you run with the pack, so we have to look places other people are not looking, so look in private equity, private debt, these are some great things to do, and then I also bring in a lot of mindsets in the book.
Brett
Excellent, and yeah, I can agree with you more. I feel like most people that read the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, right, and they want to give us that fourth quadrant, but they never do, right? They They get stuck in two and three, and this idea of if I only, you know, if I only had this many more X, then I would be truly passive, right? And so, if you don’t have. if you don’t. I’m curious, what’s helped you to get. I call it truly passive income, where I call it no shoes, no shirt, no problem. You’re Kenny Chesney on the beach, playing it with a guitar, and the money is consistently showing up. It’s durable, you understand the investments, and it’s 20, 3040, $50,000 a month, whatever that number is, but you’re not trading into the time. Yeah, I like, Ilike that you put it, the termites, the tantrums, right? The tenants, you are, you are able to live, you know, you know your life, right? So, what’s it? What’s when you hear truly passive income? What does that mean to you,
George
right? So, so I think there’s two sides to it. To get that truly passive income, you have to look for your margin of safety in every investment. Make sure that, however cautious you think you need to be, probably 10x continuous learning, because you never know enough to be an investor, because the game is always changing. That’s the one side of things, but then the other is just avoiding the lifestyle creep. So, the no shoes, no shirt, no problem for me, that’s being out of my sailboat, and I got my sailboat for $5,000 Okay, I, you know, I could have gone for a yacht, I could have afforded it, and it would have been great, but guess what? Then you know I have new.
Brett
so, if you like this little, short clip of the interview I just did, click over here to watch the full interview, and please don’t forget to subscribe. Thanks so much, everybody.
Watch the episode here:
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About George Roberts III
George Roberts is a commercial real estate investor, entrepreneur, and the founder of Roberts Capital Enterprises. Known for his data-driven approach to investing, George transitioned from a successful career as a bioscientist and data scientist into commercial real estate, where he now helps investors build long-term wealth through multifamily syndications and strategic investment opportunities.
Drawing on his unique analytical background, George is passionate about teaching others how to make informed investment decisions, avoid common financial pitfalls, and achieve financial freedom through intentional living. His practical insights on wealth building, leadership, and disciplined investing have made him a sought-after speaker, podcast guest, and trusted voice in the commercial real estate community.
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