In this episode of Dr. Sev Talks Money, I’m joined by attorney and private money lender Ashlee Edwards to explore private money lending, what it is, how it works, and how it differs from investing in stocks or owning rental property.
Private lending is often misunderstood. Some see it as risky. Others confuse it with syndications or hard money lending. Ashlee brings clarity to the conversation by breaking down secured vs unsecured loans, risk mitigation strategies, and how professionals can use capital more intentionally.
We also discuss:
• The difference between a loan and an equity investment
• How to protect your principal before funding a deal
• Questions cautious investors should ask
• A costly $35,000 investing mistake — and the lessons behind it
• Why financial clarity matters more than hype
If you’re curious about alternative wealth-building strategies beyond traditional saving and investing, this episode offers practical insight and a grounded perspective.
This conversation is part of the Women on the Move series, highlighting women expanding access to financial knowledge and strategy.
Connect with Ashlee here:
*Instagram: instagram.com/lndrsnfrnds
*Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lndrsnfrnds
*YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ashealways
*Website: https://lndrsnfrnds.com/
*Program (if applicable): JOIN THE MAY 2026 ACCELERATOR https://genfinity.thrivecart.com/pmlamay26/
*Community (free course for those curious but not quite ready):
JOIN THE FREE COURSE https://bit.ly/areyoubuilt
****************************************************
Join Dr. Sev’s free community for women here: https://www.skool.com/wealth-warriors-community-1025/about?ref=98f6434472254253b84ed49d2cce7860
The Dr. Sev Talks Money podcast’s mission is to empower women to approach money confidently, reframe their financial habits, and build a future where their money is a tool for opportunity and security.
Through Dr. Sev Talks Money YouTube channel and Podcast, I provide actionable advice and inspiration to help you achieve financial freedom. Join me for one-on-one coaching, group sessions, workshops, or speaking engagements as we journey to financial empowerment together. It’s never too late to begin again—let’s make it happen!
Here is one way you can support the Dr. Sev Talks Money podcast and YouTube channel:
https://www.buymeacoffee.com/DrSevTalksMoney
My website: http://www.sevtalksmoney.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DrSeverineBryan–SevTalksMoney
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/severinebryan/
Podcast transcript
Welcome to Dr. Sev Talks Money where we empower women to manage money confidently. Today we’re talking about private money lending. This is also a special kickoff for the first session of our Women on the Move Livestream series for Women’s History Month. We are going to be highlighting women who are building and creating financial Impact. So please join us every Sunday at 6:00 PM Eastern time throughout the month of March, and I’m excited to begin this series with attorney and private money lender Ashley Edwards. She helps professionals build wealth through intentional business purpose lending. Ashley, welcome to the show. Thank you.
I’m excited to be here. Awesome. I’m excited to have you because we have not had a discussion about private money lending on this show, so, um, I’m ready to get to dive into it because I wanna learn more too, and I’m sure my guests, my, um, listeners. Would like to do that. Um, we already have someone chiming in.
Hi Beverly. Thank you so much for joining us, um, on our, our live show. So, I like to start off with an icebreaker to kind of ease into the conversation. ’cause you know, money’s a little bit tricky, so I like to do that. So your options are to splurge on a vacation or a handbag. What is your choice and why? Very easy for me.
I would say a vacation. I love to travel. I love to see new places and have new experiences, and I don’t really have a strong fashion sense, so I wouldn’t even know. What handbag to get. Uh, but I know exactly where I wanna go. Yeah. What about you? Yeah, I’m, I’m with you. Uh, I’ll take the experiences of a vacation over a handbag.
I’m taking, I’m actually carrying my daughter’s, um, bag from Kohl’s. That’s what I’ve been carrying around as a handbag. So let’s dive into the meat of the, the discussion. What is private money lending and how does it differ from traditional investing paths like stocks or owning real estate? Yeah, that’s a good question.
So private money lending is when individuals like me and you use our own funds. To loan out to investors or other business owners so that they can expand their operations or do whatever they need to do with their projects. And I would say it’s different from a lot of other investments because. If you do it the way that I teach it, it’s secured by an asset.
So, for example, if you are investing in the stock market, your stocks are not secured by an asset. So if the stock value goes down to zero, which is rare, we know, um, your money is gone. Same thing with like a syndication. You know, you put your money in, it’s not secured by anything, so you could potentially lose all of it.
Um, real estate, it’s different because you’re not owning the asset, but your money is secured by the value of that asset. So if the borrower were to not pay you back, then you could foreclose on that asset. So that’s what makes private money lending most different, in my opinion, is that it’s secured by something else.
So in the event of default, you still have recourse if you’ve done it right. Yeah, so it sounds to me like it is, um, it’s a little bit more secure, um, in when you approach it that way. It’s a little bit more secure than say the stock market because the stock market is, is, is, is controlled by other so many other factors, whereas this seemed to be peed.
To a, an asset that’s not going to move in value as much? Is that, would that be correct? Yeah, I think that’s mostly correct. And the thing is, you can do private lending as secured loans or you can do unsecured loans. People do both, but you do reduce a lot of that risk by doing secured loans that are backed by assets, like you said.
And those don’t fluctuate in value the same way that a stock would. Yeah. And, and for those of you who are listening right now and those who are gonna be listening on the replay, um, I’m going to be having all of Ashley’s information in the description on the podcast, on YouTube, everywhere else, so that you can, um, you can follow up with her and get more in depth, um, discussion.
Or explanation or what this entails. So one of the things we talk about on this podcast is building wealth more strategically instead of just working harder. ’cause I’m not about to be working hard, okay? I want my money to work for me. I want my money to work hard for me, not me working harder. So what transfor information do you see when women realize they don’t need to earn money first?
More first they need to use what they already control a little bit differently. Yeah, that’s a great question. I think that. One thing that I’m seeing is a lot of people are looking for passive, which is kind of like what you described, right? And there’s a ton of people telling us that everything is passive, right?
When I was a bit younger, they were telling me that real estate is passive, you know, and you know, be a landlord. You never have to work a day in your life. And like those are the types of things that I heard. And I, I did those things and I learned that. Passive. Passive is a spec spectrum, right? So there’s like completely passive and then there’s not passive at all, right?
And what people realize when they start private money lending is, you know, you can be involved in something like real estate or adjacent to business without actually being on the ground and being an active participant. So I can say, look, Dr. Sev, you wanna do a fix and flip? That’s great. I love that for you.
I do not want to do that, but I am happy to employ my money to help you accomplish your goals. Okay? You go out, you do the work. I’ll sit over here in my office with my popcorn and my movies, and I’ll wait until you’re done and then you can pay me back. And so like I said, passive is a spectrum. People realize like, you know, they thought they were interested in real estate, but they don’t wanna be a landlord.
Or, you know, they want the benefits of a fix and flip, but they don’t wanna do the work. And they realize like, oh wow. Private money lending is a way for me to be adjacent to that business and still be involved in that industry without me having to be on the ground slinging the hammer or dealing with the contractors or answering those tenant calls.
Yeah. So you mentioned, you alluded to the risk, um, earlier. So let’s talk about some of the biggest misconceptions that people have, especially women about lending and risk. Yeah. Uh, I think the biggest misconception that I hear is. People confusing private money lending with hard money lending. Like people a lot of times use them interchangeably and they’re really not the same.
So with hard money lending, you are getting a loan from someone who has pulled capital from multiple investors and they’re likely loaning it out from a fund, right? So it’s not their own capital, it’s more of institutional lending. With private money lending, it’s literally people like me and you, right?
Maybe we’ve set up an entity, maybe we’re loaning from our IRA, you know, however we’ve set it up. But it’s literally going within your network, people you know, who have idle money and getting a loan from them. So it’s a bit of a difference there. So that’s one of the biggest misconceptions I see. And then another one is that this is like so risky, right?
People think of giving money. As one of the riskiest investments, but I think what they don’t understand is that your money is secured if you are giving unsecured loans. I agree. That is. One of the riskiest things you can do, because imagine, you know, you just handed money over and you have no recourse. I mean, you have a contract and everything, but you know you have nothing to back up that loan.
Whereas if you’re doing secured loans, it’s actually the opposite. It’s a lot less risky than people think. And so when they kind of learn that concept of, oh. I’m giving a loan, but I can mitigate some of that risk by securing it against an asset that’s worth enough to cover that loan. Then they’re like, oh, and it clicks, and they’re like, okay, this is not what I thought.
Okay, so I don’t know if this would fall into private money lending. One of the things I’ve done maybe a couple years ago is that I became a part. Hotel owner and I contributed some money, uh, towards a, I don’t, it’s not a program. It’s, uh, you know, they were buying, they were purchasing a hotel. Mm-hmm. And they were asking different people who they knew to contribute to that.
And I did. And I, oh, how much did I put in? I think, I don’t remember how much I put in, but I know it’s five figures and, and I was, I became a hotel owner that way. So would that be considered, um, private money lending? I love this question. So it sounds like you did a syndication. Mm-hmm. And you, it sounds like you invested probably as a limited partner, so you probably didn’t have to do anything.
You just put your money in and then you expect to get your principal back in a certain timeframe. And maybe, depending on how the syndication is structured, you may have received quarterly payments or something like that. Um, so with a syndication, what you’re looking at is equity. Right. So what you get paid back and whether you get paid back depends on how the syndication does.
Yeah. Now, with a loan, I hate to say it, but I don’t actually care how your project turns out if it’s successful or not. You still are gonna owe the money because it was a loan, right? I did not become an owner in your project. I did not. Go on the contract with the home purchase with you. I don’t have any equity rights.
I am simply letting you borrow money to complete your project. And whether it’s successful or not, repayment is expected at the end. So that’s the key difference. A lot of time people will confuse people by saying, come on and be a capital partner, or equity equity partner or, or loan me the money. But if it’s a true loan, you can expect a very.
Clear repayment timeline and repayment amount. So I think one thing to ask yourself is if you’re ever wondering, like, is this a loan? Ask yourself, does my repayment depend on how they do? And if the answer is yes, then no. It’s not a loan. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, that’s very, that’s very good that you made that distinction because now I realize I’m, I didn’t make a loan.
I’m part of a syndicate. And the. The returns on that money that I paid to be part of that hotel ownership depends on how well the hotel does, because the first year I didn’t, I got my K one and there was no, no profit or anything. So as soon as the hotel makes money, that’s when I’ll make money. But if it were a loan.
I would be on the beach somewhere waiting for my money at a certain time, right? It doesn’t matter if the hotel does well or not, I would still be getting my money. So thank you for making that distinction. And if anyone has questions, please put your questions in the chat and we will do our best to, um, to respond to them.
But right now, we are going to take a short break while I invite you to be a part of our Dr. Sev talks Money Community. Hey friends, quick pause. If you’re enjoying today’s episode, the best way to support the show is to share it and leave a rating on your favorite podcast platform, and you know it. Five is our favorite number, and if you’re watching on YouTube, don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share.
Thank you. Okay, so we’re back. Hi. So let’s talk about. The mistakes that you’ve made as a, a, a private money lender in this space, or even with any of your investments in this entire, um, you know, in the spectrum of, of money lending or, or real estate investing. Okay. Yeah. Um, I’ll start with real estate investing ’cause that was my biggest, most expensive mistake, and it was like my very first investing mistake.
So I was doing a b, so the bur strategy by rehab, rent, refinance, repeat. I had taken this real estate course and I was like, I’m gonna do my first bird right? So I, I buy the property and, you know, start the process and there were several things that I failed to do and a couple of those things I should have known better.
’cause I’m an attorney, um, that cost me a lot of money, so. This lesson cost me $35,000. But what happened was the contractor, um, I guess he was sued by his, the mother of his child, they had their own drama going on and he could no longer do my project at the price that he quoted me. And so he came to me and said, look, I’m gonna have to increase the price of your project.
Um, but if you can’t pay it, I’m just gonna have to walk away. And I was like. Is this like a real conversation right now? Like, are you really saying this to me? But he was, he was totally serious. And um, I told him, I’m not gonna pay an additional, I think it was like 30,000, 60,000, something crazy. I was like, I’m not gonna pay an additional amount just because you’ve been suing your finances are in disarray, you know?
Um, and so he did, as he said, he walked off the job and. I did not have much recourse there. Right? So I did not have a certificate of insurance naming my company as an insured. I did not have a surety bond in place in case the contractor did not perform. And I didn’t even have like a thorough independent contractor agreement, which is so basic, you know what I mean?
Like, that was, that’s like elementary for. An attorney, right? I should have had that, those things in place. Um, and so I ended up paying an additional $35,000 on that project. To get a new contractor in place, um, and to undo some of the work because contractors don’t like to go over another contractor’s work.
They wanna do it themselves. And I was just like, so that was the most expensive mistake that I’ve made. Um, and it was my very first real estate investment. Um, so it sounds like a certificate of insurance is key. When you’re doing those kinds of projects, a shorty bond for sure, because then you can sue the bond.
Right, right. Not just, not the contractor. And then you also wanna have a contract, an ironclad contractor agreement to make sure that you’re covered. ’cause one of the things we sometimes do is we like people. We like how they behave and you know, we just think they’re the the best thing. They’re not going to mess us up because we are friends from high school and all of those things.
But when it comes to money, money uncovers who we are. And money really reveals the person deep in it within. Yeah. And because of that, when we don’t have clear rules in place, then we end up. Being the ones that have to come out of pocket. Like you had to come out of pocket an extra 30 plus thousand because this person was having financial issues in his personal life.
He wanted you to take on the burden of that. And because you didn’t have a contract in place, you didn’t have the right documents. Now you have to go get somebody else to finish the work. That’s right. And I think sometimes too, it’s just like excitement. So I had just finished a real estate investing course and I was just.
Excited to take action and move and like I didn’t wanna delay things and it caused me to be sloppy, right? So sometimes we need to pause, slow down, and make sure that our ducks are in a row before we move forward. So yeah, that was my most expensive and first. Investing mistake. Um, in terms of private lending, do you want me to share one of those mistakes that I’ve made?
Yeah, yeah. Before you do that. Um, and Beverly is saying here, you have to be very specific about the work you want performed. And it needs to be laid out in Yep. In the agreement. And it cannot be something that is, the language has to be very clear. About what it is and, and if the work is not performed, what the consequences of that are.
Because if we don’t have those things in place, uh, you know, people are going to interpret it how they feel it benefits them. Mm-hmm. But we want something that the court can, can interpret clearly based on the language in the agreement. I agree. And having a scope of work that is attached to the project helps as well, so that we are on the same page about what it means and what’s the cost of certain line items and things like that.
Yeah, yeah. So share with us an, uh, one of the cost of mistakes of private money lending. Yeah. So the biggest mistake that I see people make, and I made this mistake when I first started, is doing unsecured loans. Like I think, I think what it is, is it’s kind of like what you said with real estate investing.
You think you know the person, you think they’re not going to do whatever or everything’s gonna be okay. And one of my very first loans. Was with someone that I knew. Um, it wasn’t, I wouldn’t say it was a friend or family member, but definitely someone familiar. And I think that familiarity is what caused me to feel comfortable in not securing the loan.
Right. And that is unacceptable because even if you’re right and the person is loyal and they’re. You know, a good person and definitely will pay you back and all those things. You just don’t know what will happen. Right. And I was talking to someone about this other day. I was like, they could get into a car accident and unfortunately pass away, you know, and be unable to pay the loan, but there’s no evidence, there’s no security.
Tying that promissory note to that, that, um, money that you gave, it could be, you know, they. Had brain damage and don’t remember this transaction with you. You know, um, there could be, there could be all kinds of things that could happen, you know, and you don’t know that the family or whoever’s the representative of their estate, you don’t know how they’re gonna treat this debt that is owed, you know, once they’ve lost their loved one.
So that was the biggest mistake I made, and thankfully it did not come back to bite me, but I’ve seen. People in a very uncomfortable position when a borrower defaults and they have not secured the loan because now they’re panicking, right? They’re like, wait, so what do I do? I’m like, well, I mean, you have some options, but you could have had stronger options if you had secured the loan.
Yeah. One of the questions here in the chat, um, Beverly asked, wouldn’t interest rate apply? And I think that’s, that’s when you were talking about, um, how the private, uh, money lending, uh, is set up or how it, how it, um, how it is, um, what is the word I’m looking for? I just had a brain freeze. It’s okay. Yeah.
Um, but how we, how the private money lending is, um, operates. You mean what kind of interest rates do people charge? Yeah, I think that’s what she was asking because we were talking about the difference between the syndicate and the private money lending lending and that. That’s when the question popped up.
Oh, yeah. So with both of those though, they’ll give you a return rate, right? So even with the syndication, when they invite you to invest in this syndication. They will usually specify the level of return that you can expect. They’ll say 9%, 12%, 15%. Same thing with private money lending. If someone comes to you and asks for a business loan so they can buy five more vending machines for their route, they’re also going to say, I’m looking for this amount and at this interest rate.
So the interest rate alone doesn’t help you distinguish between the two. It’s more of what happens. At the end of the project, right? Or what happens if the project is unsuccessful? That helps you determine whether it’s a loan or an equity investment. Okay. So essentially the type of loan it is, whether it is a, a syndicate where.
That returns are dependent on the success of that, um, that project versus a loan where no matter what ha what they do with that money, you’re, you are guaranteed your money back, whichever one it is, the structuring of it will de, will determine the interest rate. So, so the agreement between you and the person you’re loaning the money to, you can work out that interest rate, but it, the interest rate doesn’t impact whether or not it’s a syndicate or a.
Private money loan, correct? That’s correct. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So we know you’re an attorney, so how does your background as an attorney shape the way you approach these types of projects like wealth building and capital protection type projects? Yeah, I think what my background does for me is help me to really manage risk.
So I hear a lot of people saying, this is risky. That is risky. And I just don’t think of risk in terms of black and white, right? I think of risk as a spectrum and I think of risk as something that can be mitigated. Um, and so a lot of times I find myself walking people through what types of risks are involved.
You know, their level of comfort with those risks and what they can put in place to mitigate those risks. Because, you know, with any type of investment, there’s gonna be risk, but there are particular risks to this type of investment that people need to understand. And it’s not black and white. It’s not if this or that.
It’s, it’s usually a, a very complex, um. Mix of things that can happen and the person really has to understand like, what is my, my risk tolerance? What is my temperament? You know, and how does that play into how I react to things, you know? Um, and they can take that information and be more proactive. And so as an attorney, that’s a lot of what I do, right?
I help them identify those risks and say like, okay, how do we plan for those risks? How do we contract for those risks? You know, what else can we do to. Put ourselves in the best possible position. To make sure that our money is safe, to make sure that our legacy is safe, because a lot of times people are loaning out their retirement income.
I loan out my retirement income, and so future me is counting on me currently to do the right thing, to be the most protective. Um, and so a lot of times I’m using my attorney background to help people with those decisions. Yeah. And, and that is so very important because again, we, going back to the emotion we can get so emotionally caught up because, you know, especially when we, we go to those, um, seminars.
And you have the best person with the gift, the best gift of gab talking on stage. Yeah. And they make you believe that you can create the world in two days. You can, you know, you can, you can climb on Everest in a day. They, they, you know, because they have the gift of. Yeah. And so we get so emotionally caught up in what’s going on that we just, all we see are what they’re saying.
We are blinders on. We, we can’t see the risk because they don’t emphasize the risk, they don’t talk about the risks. Or if they do, it’s glossed over. So we can get so emotionally caught up that we make decisions, uh, based on that emotion. And then many times we don’t have, we can say Mia Culpa. But we don’t have the, the room to undo that agreement.
So this is where you come in and you put eyes on it as a lawyer, um, versed in this type of environment. And you put, you can put eyes on it and see the things that are red flags. And again, I’m going to have. Ashley’s information in the show notes, and at the end of this, I’m going to add it to the description of YouTube, which I should have done before I did this.
So anything you wanna add to that, Ashley? Yeah, I, I actually find myself, um, coaching people on the other side as well, right. So I do come across a lot of people who are very skeptical and risk averse as well. So instead of being the one in the crowd who is. You know, drinking the Kool-Aid and ready to take action, they may be the one in the crowd who’s like, none of that is possible.
Everything is a scam. Um, and so sometimes I find myself talking to people who are just. They’re just baffled that some of these things are even possible. It’s just, it’s very new to them. It’s a very new world. And so helping them come from the place of, I’m a total skeptic. I do not believe my money can make more than 12% because I’ve never seen it.
I’ve never heard of it in anything that sounds like it has been a scam in my experience, you know? And so I might be in a situation where I’m helping people understand like, look, the wealthy have been doing this. For ages. Okay? We are just now being brought on board, okay? And there we are just now getting access to this type of information.
You have to open your mind, right? And think about how this could be possible, right? You have to really be a, a critical thinker. And so I find myself on both sides, right? Helping people see like, okay, not everything’s a scam. Just because you haven’t heard of it, doesn’t mean it’s a scam. Then on the other side as well, like, well, okay, well if it sounds like a duck and quacks like a duck, maybe it is a duck.
Let’s examine it. Let’s examine it further. And so it can be, it can be either side. Yeah. And that’s why I do this work because, um, a lot of things that are, have been in practice for ages that are, you know, things that have been done by the Rockefellers, the, you know, the Carnegie, all those people who have suites of lawyers who do these kinds of things.
We were never exposed to that. So now a lot of that is trickling down to the ordinary man. And that’s why I do this show because I want people to understand that there are possibilities beyond what we know. We’ve been introduced to. Well, we were first of all told work hard. And you know, you’ll be rewarded in the workplace.
And at the end of it, you get a pen and a pension. Well that’s, that no longer exists, right? And then now we’re told, okay, work hard. You know, buy the house, get the picket fence. Well that is also going away. Because average home is costing in the 400,000 for somebody who makes 20,000 a year. That’s kind of like pie in the sky.
So these are things that I like to bring up on this show. Um, and if there are things that are pie in the sky kind of investments, I, I’m not touching it, I’m not introducing it to my audience, but something like this that I have been a part of and know that it exists. In that, um, just like anything else, if you are risk averse, you can talk to somebody like Ashley.
Um, and if you’re not satisfied, you can go talk to another lawyer or another person who’s done this work. Um, somebody like me again, who’s done this and know that it is possible to sit back. Cross my leg, lean back in my, my chair, my, um, my recliner, which I don’t have, and, and, and enjoy myself because my money is working for me, right?
So I bring this kind of thing because I want people to be exposed to, other than savings account, earning you 0.0 0.01. You know, there are lots of options out there to make money, but we need to open our eyes and open our, our, you know, and be critical thinkers about the opportunities set around. Yep. I agree.
And the bank is already loaning out your money, right? So it is not, it’s you’re, you’re a private lender anyway. Private, yeah. And I tell people that all the time, you’re loaning your money to the bank probably for zero to 0.05% interest. Um, why not get more? Yeah. Yeah. And, and for those who are listening right now, if you don’t have your, your savings in a high yield savings account, go ahead and move your money there.
’cause the bank sometimes won’t tell you that. That’s, that’s an option. I met someone who, um, I was coaching her in a private, in a, um, in a, a pro bono, um, session, and she had six figures. Sitting in a 0.01%, uh, account. And she said, well, the, the banker told me that this, and I don’t wanna move it. And you know, because people are like that.
They, they’re thinking they’re putting it in more risk. No, the bank loves for you to keep it at one per point, 1% so they can loan it out if somebody like me who was getting a mortgage and they can loan it out to me for 6%. Right, right. And you don’t get any of that. Yeah. If you’re listening and you have your money, I mean, and this show is not about banking, but if you have your money in just a regular savings account, explore the possibility of a high yield savings account.
There’s, uh, um, there’s, um, merchant Express, um, there is Ali there, there’s a bunch of them. So, you know, explore that. Anyway, back to the regular, the schedule program. For someone who is curious, curious, but maybe cautious. Mm-hmm. Um, what are a few questions that they may wanna ask before considering private lending?
And I know we alluded to a few of them, but what are some other questions they may want to consider or some other things they may want to think about? Yeah. Um, I actually built a free course on this because I realized that people were enticed by the idea, but they hadn’t really done the work to think about, does this fit my temperament?
You know, does this fit my personality style? Does this fit my risk tolerance? And so some of the questions I would ask are, you know, what? What would you do, you know, kind of scenario based questions. What would you do if a borrower was late? You know, how would you feel? How would that affect your day to day?
I’ve seen people where, you know, the moment the borrower is late, I’m talking about if it was due at 5:00 PM Pacific, it’s 5 0 1, the, the wire has not hit, they are freaking out. And I’m like, wow, okay. We need to calm down. Um, you know, people are late on bills. On a regular basis, you know, so that is not a reason to freak out, but really thinking about like, what would my response be?
You know, is this going to interrupt my daily activity because I’m so anxious about what’s going on? But also thinking about, can I actually envision myself doing this? Because some people will start and get education, but then never do a loan because they’re terrified that they’re gonna lose their money.
Right? So they have to really think about like, what is my, my risk tolerance? Am I more of a high yield savings bond ETF type of person, or am I more of an alternative investments type of person and really, you know, asking themselves those questions before they do something like private money lending?
Yeah, and I would definitely have the link to, um, Ashley’s, uh, free course in the, in the show notes. So. Uh, let’s walk through maybe a typical process for, you know, starting. I, I want to be part of the, uh, private money lending process. I don’t know anything about it. What is a typical process that goes through for you talking to me or whoever talking to me about it, and then eventually me maybe signing up to become a private money lender.
Just roughly. So in order to become a private money lender, there’s no, there’s not usually a formal process required. Like you could decide today that you’re gonna start loaning out your money. Now of course there’s gonna be state specific rules and laws that you wanna comply with, but just generally, for the most part, anyone can do this.
And most people are already doing it. Like if you’re loaning money to family members, friends. You’re a private money lender, right? Mm-hmm. And so to start, you, anyone can start on their own. And that’s usually how people start. And then usually something goes wrong and then they realize, wait a minute, I should have educated myself in this space.
And what I would recommend for starting is starting with the education. So figuring out, is this something I’m actually interested in? Do I want to do, I wanna do it? I have a YouTube page with all kinds of videos about this. So someone could explore and see like, how interested am I? You know, let me look at a free resource.
Let me look at this. Um, but the process from start to finish of working with me would be. Probably looking at a free resource, booking a call with me, a clarity call to talk about, you know, what would this look like for me? Am I actually built for this? Is this something I actually wanna do or do I need more time?
And if I do wanna do it, what are the different options available to me for education? I would walk the person through that and if they wanted to pick one of those ways, I would show them how, if they wanted to wait and be like, oh, I don’t know. Let me talk to my so and so. Let me do my research. And I would be like, take your time.
Okay. Um, and then. Depending on which option they choose, we would get them into that program. And our fastest program is four weeks so they can learn private money lending and become a private money lender and do their first loan within four weeks. Um, our longest program is a self-paced year long program.
Um. I didn’t intend to be. Yes, you are a private money lender. Um, so yeah, so the longest program we have is a year. It’s self-paced. Um, and then in terms of the process of a loan, typically there’s an inquiry stage where the person tells you like, Hey, Dr. Sev, um, I’m looking for $5,000 for, actually, let me give you a real scenario.
I met a fashion designer at a event I was vending at, and. She didn’t know that you could get loans from other people. Um, so she had never heard of private money lending, and she was explaining to me like how her operations work for her. When she comes out with a new line. And so she was saying, you know, it would be really cool if I could buy the fabric in bulk instead of having to buy it piece by piece because it would lower my cost and all these things.
And so a couple weeks later, she reached out for a loan and she said, look, you know, I’m looking for, um, $5,000. I need it for three months. I’m gonna use it for, um, buying bulk fabric. So she was saying if I, if I buy this fabric in bulk, it’ll be 5,000. If I buy it in pieces like I’ve been doing, it’ll be eight to 10,000.
And I said, wow, that’s a huge difference. And so she was like, I just need the 5,000 and then I wanna make monthly payments on it until it’s paid. So I wanna pay over three months. Um, so typically it’ll start something like that. Like it’ll be someone you met, someone you know, someone who referred someone to you because they found out you’re loaning money, and then you can send them to your inquiry process.
However you structured that and then you, you agree on the terms, you agree on the documents, you agree on any service settlement provider, so that could be escrow company or whatever. If it’s real estate title company and then you disperse the funds and you, you wait. Yeah. Yeah. You know, uh, GTO was saying here, he’s the private money lender and he didn’t intend to be.
Yeah. Uh, GTO welcome to my club. Yep. I, um, and, and if that, that thieving boys listening to me down there in Florida, um, years ago, I. We, a group of us, you know, from different Caribbean islands and different countries we were in, um, I was going to the junior college at the time, and there were a bunch of us together.
We always hung out. We, you know, visited each other home and so I was in a car wreck and got some money and this. Friend said, um, he’d like to borrow 5,000 to help with his business, and I loaned the money to him, and I still, I’m still owed 3000 something plus interest. So if you listening to me, you still owe me my money anyway.
See, look, you did that years ago. You were already private money. Yeah. And, and another thing too is Kiva or ki is Kiva. Heard of Kiva Heard where I loaned. Um, I loaned, there was some people that, um, were, had some projects. I think it’s KIVA and if somebody’s listening you can put it in the chat for me. I think it’s k kva.com and I loaned like $20 to this project.
So this person was, was fundraising and I’ve been getting bath, I think it was $15 or something, I can’t remember. So I get back. 30 cents here, a dollar here, uh, 20 cents. So I think that’s, that would be considered private money lending because they were, they were building a business and they needed, I think it was like a thousand.
And different people are given like $20 and $10 in different amounts. Um, so kiva.com is some something that, um, I don’t even know. I know I got paid back, but I don’t even, I haven’t gone in there to get the money. Oh, very interesting. Yeah. But um, again, I, I, I have actually is information so you can book a call with her and explore further because, um, I am telling you that.
These processes and these types of things can be beneficial because, not because it’s for theory, but because I have done these. So, um, that’s the reason I bring her on, because I’ve done something very similar and I know that these things can work, but then if you’re very risk averse that you may not want to consider it or you may wanna consider just investing a small portion, see what happens, and, um, and then, you know, increase, uh, subsequently.
So, um, if you could leave women with one mindset shift about private money lending or access to capital or any of that, what would that be? Yeah. Um, I hear a lot of women, uh, recently just kind of lamenting about. A lack of access to knowledge, a lack of access to strategy and how, you know, behind we are because of not being able to take advantage of certain opportunities and, you know, not being offered a seat at the table.
Just a lot of things in that area. And I, a mindset shift that I would offer is when opportunities come your way, um, and you find yourself. Defaulting to a position of skepticism, consider that that might be an opportunity for access, right? That might be a new table for you to sit at. It might be the information that you’ve been lamenting that you didn’t have access to.
You know, so take a critical view of it, think about it, and don’t just write it off so quickly. Um, that’s the, the takeaway that I would give. Okay, so you’ve given us a lot of tips and shared some wisdom with us. What are you currently building and that we can support and how can people connect with you?
I know I’m gonna have the information in your show notes, but for people who may be just listening while they’re driving mm-hmm. How can they connect with you? Yeah, they can connect with us on Instagram or Facebook. We are lenders and friends, and it’s spelled L-N-D-R-S-N as in Nancy, F-R-N-D-S. So it’s lenders in friends with no vowels, and that’s on Facebook.
That’s on Instagram. Um, we have a lot of educational content on there. They can find me on YouTube at ash e, always a SHE, and then the word always. I have tons of videos on there. And then in terms of what I’m working on, I am building a collective of private money lenders and investors so they can connect with one another, grow together, fund each other’s projects.
Um, I envision a space where. We have idle money and we can grow each other’s businesses, support each other’s projects without always having to go to an institutional lender. Um, that’s something that excites me. And so on our community space, we have a space for investors to ask for funds, and we have spaces for investors to learn.
We have spaces for private money lenders to learn and connect with one another, get continuing education. And so that’s what I’m building. Yeah. Well, um, folks, thank you so much for sticking around and those who are gonna be watching the replay. I will have, um, some timestamps so you can jump to the part, the part that you are interested in.
But Ashley, thank you so much for bringing both strategy and clarity to this conversation. Everyone. Wealth building isn’t just about earning or saving, it’s about strategy. When we understand how our money works, we move differently. I, I, I can tell you, you do move differently when you understand how money can work for you.
Private lending may not be for everyone, but financial clarity is for everyone. So we’ll see you next Sunday at 6:00 PM Eastern when we’ll be joined by my guest who paid off over half a million dollars in student loans and went on to build a financial marketplace. As always, take care of yourself and your money.
See you next time.
