# #328 - How to Build More Predictable Investment Growth - Mark Willis Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-off-rentals-111328/328-how-to-build-more-predictable-investment-growth-mark-willis Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-off-rentals-111328/328-how-to-build-more-predictable-investment-growth-mark-willis.md Podcast: [Living Off Rentals](https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-off-rentals-111328) Published: 2026-05-27T12:00:00+00:00 Episode link: https://livingoffrentals.libsyn.com/328-how-to-build-more-predictable-investment-growth-mark-willis Audio file: https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/livingoffrentals/Living_Off_Rentals_328.mp3?dest-id=1829519 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/living-off-rentals-111328/episodes/328-how-to-build-more-predictable-investment-growth-mark-willis Duration seconds: 2903 ## Resource Joining us in this episode of Living Off Rentals is a financial expert who challenges traditional investing and focuses on building safer, more predictable wealth strategies. Mark Willis is a Certified Financial Planner, three-time #1 bestselling author, and the owner of Lake Growth Financial Services. He is also the co-host of the "Not Your Average Financial Podcast." Listen as he shares his perspective on why most investors don't actually earn the returns they expect from the stock market, how volatility impacts your wealth, and how to build a more stable financial system that works alongside real estate investing. Enjoy the show! Key Takeaways: [00:00] Introducing Mark Willis and his background [03:12] How the 2008 financial crisis changed his perspective on investing [07:50] Why average market returns are misleading [09:26] Averages are meaningless when factoring in volatility [12:26] The impact of fees on long-term wealth [13:48] Dollar-cost averaging isn't a complete solution [15:38] Understanding the sequence of returns risk [17:32] The five Ts of real estate [21:52] What makes a whole life policy good? [27:50] Whole life insurance as an investment [34:17] The "buy, borrow, die" strategy explained [38:06] Concentration can outperform diversification [40:36] The barbell strategy for balancing risk and stability [44:37] Connect with Mark Willis [45:46] How AI is impacting financial planning [48:01] Outro Guest Links: Website: https://kickstartwithmark.com/ Show Links: Living Off Rentals YouTube Channel – youtube.com/c/LivingOffRentals Living Off Rentals YouTube Podcast Channel - youtube.com/c/LivingOffRentalsPodcast Living Off Rentals Facebook Group – facebook.com/groups/livingoffrentals Living Off Rentals Website – https://www.livingoffrentals.com/ Living Off Ren… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/living-off-rentals-111328/episodes/328-how-to-build-more-predictable-investment-growth-mark-willis/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/living-off-rentals-111328/328-how-to-build-more-predictable-investment-growth-mark-willis.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.