From Real-ity TV to Real Estate: Using your Side Hustle to Fund your Life with Tyler Cameron
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Your first foray into reality TV, did you actually make any money? No. What was the first time you felt financially stable? I don't ever feel comfortable. I lived through a financial crisis with my family and we lost not only all of our money, but we lost our family.

my dad was doing really well right before I waited. The housing crisis. The housing crisis. And he was a builder and he was like, Tyler, I was one more year away from really setting myself up for the rest of my life. And I was done. I was good. And then the bottom fell out. It just caused so much strain in the family. And then...

What's up rich friends? Welcome back to another episode of Net Worth and Chill with me, your host Vivian Tu aka your rich BFF and your favorite Wall Street girly. And I'd like to start this episode off by participating in my favorite pastime, complaining. So my husband and I are currently in the middle of renovating a little bit of our apartment in New York City and I just want to rant and

Doing renovations on your place absolutely sucks. It is expensive. It's time-consuming. It's inconvenient. I mean, half of my apartment is just covered in tarps right now. And it is not even a major reno. We are just repainting the home office, getting a new toilet installed, and maybe adding some soundproof windows because I live on a pretty noisy street. And I'm going to be honest, I'm not going to be

I don't think I really understood how expensive an undertaking this was going to be. And on average, Americans pay between $20,000 and $89,000, huge range by the way, for their home renovations. And that's a real hefty chunk of change. So not only is actually being able to buy a home super expensive, but any upkeep or renovations you want to do can seriously add up. And

But today's guest is someone who loves to completely transform homes in no time and look good doing it. From heartthrob to handyman, he's been everywhere from The Bachelorette to his new show, Going Home. Everyone, please welcome Tyler Cameron.

Support for this show comes from Pure Leaf Iced Tea. When you find yourself in the afternoon slump, you need the right thing to make you bounce back. You need Pure Leaf Iced Tea. It's real brewed tea made in a variety of bold flavors with just the right amount of naturally occurring caffeine. You're left feeling refreshed and revitalized so you can be ready to take on what's next. The next time you need to hit the reset button, grab a Pure Leaf Iced Tea. Time for a tea break? Time for a Pure Leaf.

Thank you for having me. From, was it Heartthrob to Handyman? That's the first one I heard. I like that. You like that pun? That's good. That's really good. It's cute. Yeah. So I'm super excited to dive into our convo. Before we kick off, I want you to tell me everything that I am doing wrong in my renovation. Where you're living through it. That's the first part. Oh, really? It's so hard living through a home renovation. Like, I've been doing mine for the past year and a half.

And for a lot, we probably took three months where we were like, we can't live here anymore. Let's just rip the bandaid and get out of here. Oh, so you like stayed at like an Airbnb, like a hotel? Well, my girlfriend at the time, she had an apartment. So we moved into her apartment. But I mean, that's a luxury that not everyone can have. Right. And I mean, it's just...

Everything is magnified and it seems longer and it seems worse when you're living in it. So when you're living through a renovation, it is awful. But no, I'm just making a joke. Living through it is fine, but like...

it's expensive, it seems like it's taking longer 'cause you're seeing it every day. You're not seeing things change, you know? And it also makes you go a little stir crazy, which I've reached the point of going crazy at my house. I'm like, I need a new project. I can't sit in here. I can't do another thing in this house.

It's costing me too much money. It's taking too much time. I'm losing my mind. Yeah. How'd you even get into this space? Because I feel like most people know you from reality TV at first, right? Yeah. So I grew up around him my whole life. My dad was a builder. So my whole life was spent either on the football field or on his job sites. And what I always get so mad at my dad for is he didn't teach me any skills. My dad's a finger pointer.

You know, he can tell. You didn't have to hold a flashlight? No. I mean, you know, I had to sweep the floors and do stuff like that. But like, and that's, I hated that stuff. I'm like, let me learn how to do some carpentry. Let me learn some, some real handy skills. Um,

My girlfriend is much more handy than I am. And 'cause she, her mom like is a DIYer. She figured it all out. She moves plumbing in her own house. She like, she gets it done and Tate has that same mentality where I'm like, I got the finger pointer mentality, you know? - You're just like, oh, I can hire a contractor to do this. - Exactly, I can hire the guy to do this. - And finger point. - What is the hardest renovation or construction project that you've either done for yourself or for money for someone else?

- The harder the products, all depends on the client. Sometimes you just have a client that makes your life miserable. And that's with any type of job that you do. Like, you know, I'm in Airbnbs and short-term rentals now, and I have some guests that are just the absolute worst. And that just comes with any time you own a business, you know? So it's probably 10% of the people you work with are just gonna make your life miserable. And you get to realize, is this gonna be worth the other 90% of it?

And I've had a client that, you know, one still hasn't paid me. You know, I have a client that. How much do they owe you? Like 40 to 60. Wow. You know, and so it's tough, you know, and but like also the client, like we had deadlines we had to meet and they couldn't make decisions and it just prolonged the process so much and like.

Every time I got a call from them, it would just ruin my day. You know, it was and it sucks. But that's just part of the business. And it made me realize that I don't really want to work for a lot of clients. You have to be very picky and choose who you want to work with. I think it's kind of changed my route on how I want to do things. I want to either build spec homes or I want to develop my own rentals and do stuff like that. I don't really want to.

lean in and try and do home rentals or work for people because it's just you're then you're out there beck and call and it's you can't really be the creative you want to be here and you got to you know do everything they want and it's just it's tough yeah how'd you like decide you wanted to get into the short-term rental game because you know that people on social media are always like yeah all you have to do is get a small business known and then you can have an airbnb it's like so annoying it's it's it's so annoying and it's like I feel like it's like the

I don't know, like the meme coin. - Literally, yes, get rich quick. - Yeah, get rich quick scheme. But the thing is, is that, you know, in real estate they have the 1% rule. That rule, which is basically what you own the property for, so say you bought the property for a million dollars. - Okay. - 1% says you should get 1% rent. You know what I mean? But those numbers-- - Oh, so $10,000 a month in rent. - So $10,000 would be your rent. - Okay. - Those numbers don't exist.

Okay. You know, like you can't buy a $300,000 property and expect $3,000 for someone. The rent doesn't match that anymore. Okay. Prices are too high and rent's not high enough. So the only way to make owning rentals work is, you know, a lot of times it's short-term rentals, unless you own it way before and you got good numbers on it and whatever. But for a new investor to come in, it's very hard to find the 1% rule. And the way I've been able to find it is through short-term rentals. And I'm well over 1% doing that. Yeah. Yeah.

Were you ever worried that like there were going to be months where you just like weren't going to be able to cover your mortgage or like? Oh yeah, for sure. Like when I first started this out and I was like listening to like, I was like just praying and hoping we get a booking, you know? It started out very slow. And then it's so funny. I call this one of these guys who's like following my Airbnb. You know what I mean? And he's like, yeah, just call this guy. He lives in India. Yeah.

He'll do your pricing algorithm. And ever since I did that, my bookings went from like 55% to now I'm like 90%. Wait, so the guy in India actually worth the money. He was legit. Yeah, 70 bucks. 70 bucks? Yeah, he was great. He comes in, half hour, changes your whole pricing algorithm. And then I was cooking.

Wait, I need to know what happened in that 30 minutes. Well, he just comes in. He like, he starts saying all these, you know, phrases and just talking all this like terminology and hitting buttons and clicking numbers and things that I would have never known to click, you know? Yeah. Because it's all like, it's all pricing. A lot of people you see on short terminals, they'll have like one number, $700 a night. Yeah. It'll run for 365 days and $700 a night.

But like you need pricing that peaks in the seasons that goes down during, you know, non-season. And then also like they call it orphan nights. Like say you have a booking and then a day in between another booking, like it'll make that price cheaper. So you get it booked. You know what I mean? It's just like all these things that I would never think of that he's mastered and is able to do. So paying that 70 bucks every time I get a new property has made such a big difference.

How many properties do you have now? So I'm at four right now. Four? Yep. Where are they? This is my second year doing it. They're all in Jupiter. Okay. Hometown hero. Hometown hero. I'm trying. We're building two more from the ground up right now. So that's like we'll be at anywhere from six to seven by the end of the year. Okay. So the goal is to kind of get to around 10, I think, in my town. But then I think I kind of like start cannibalizing myself. Yeah. And I kind of want to cap it there. But right now I was like...

I did too, was very pleased with it. And then I was like, all right, let's jump in and do two more. See how that goes and see if I can take, you know, cause I'm managing these properties. Like that's part of the problem too, is I'm over there cleaning the pools when people complain, like I'm doing all like the little stuff, which I do enjoy. I love like solving problems for people and making people happy.

People pleaser. Yeah. And then when I, you know, I'm taking my shirt off and cleaning the pool, they don't mind. I'm just kidding. I haven't done that yet. But, you know, it's been, I've learned that I love hospitality. I love being a people pleaser. I've been that my whole life, I feel like. So now it's like kind of making a business out of it. Yeah. I mean, how are you funding all of this, especially at the beginning? Like,

Where'd you get the money? So honestly, what I've been doing is taking the money I made in entertainment and just funneling it into real estate. And it's brought me, you know, I've been able to buy land, build houses, sell the houses. I've been able to buy these rentals, remodel them, renovate them. And so it's been, it's been great. I've been just taking that and funneling it over to real estate.

How did you know that real estate was going to be the right move to funnel your entertainment proceeds? Because you know a lot of people who come from that world end up spending all their money on designer clothes and cars and in 10 years they have nothing to show for it. But like real estate's a pretty savvy thing to do. Yeah. No, I mean, I've always enjoyed real estate because, I mean, my dad was a builder. My mom was a real estate agent. It's always been a part of our life.

And it's something that I understand. And so, you know, I think people are always like, you need to invest in this and diversify in this. You need to invest in stuff that you know as well. And I think if you know real estate and you know that you can get things done for cheaper and you can kind of create an edge on the people around you doing the same thing,

like take advantage of it you know um for instance like the real estate stuff i'm able to go in i'm able to find a house i create a vision for it renovate it and it's crazy that no one really does that great of a job designing the short-term rentals and so you make cool little bathrooms and make them a little bit funky and you buy furniture that's clean and matches and and and looks good

People go nuts for it. I'm like, you guys really like this property the best? I spent the cheapest amount of money on this one. But like little things go a long ways. And so I've been like being able to find that edge is like, okay, well, my investments are working here. I'm getting a better return than I probably would if I just put it in the stock market because I'm always like that. I always catch myself because I'm always telling my advisor, I'm like, ooh,

we should buy this stock right now. And then it'll go up for like a little bit, then it'll crash. I've done it like seven times. So I'm like, you know what? I'm going to stick to my lane of what I know and I'll just buy real estate. It sounds like you learned your lesson though after the seventh time. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Do you have someone who's helping you manage your investments outside of real estate? Like you mentioned the stock situation, like-

have you learned yet that we should be investing in index funds instead of trying to cherry pick? Yeah, exactly. So I'm, I have people that are helping me with that right now. Um,

So that's been a blessing. But then I also have like mentors that, you know, they always give me their perspective. And I have an 80-year-old mentor who's been my mentor since college. How do you feel? He was a professor? No, he was a big donor for the football team. Okay. And he works in construction and real estate. And he went – I was sitting next to my head coach and he goes –

Hey, Charlie. He's talking to the head coach. He goes, Charlie, I would really love to mentor someone in construction one of these days. And I was like, oh, sir, I'm right here. You know what I mean? And ever since then, we would just meet like bi-monthly and we'd have like breakfasts and lunches. And I was in college and he's kind of seen me do all the things that I do now. And then he's so proud that I've come back and done it in real estate and kind of stuck to it. And, you know, I met with him two weeks ago and he's, you know, you know, Tom, I'm bringing...

I drive down to Boca and I think about all the issues that I have or all my worries and thoughts. And, and then I tell him and then on the way back, I'm just like, okay, how can I implement this? How can I implement that? And having people like that in your life is so important. I think mentorship is like so, so key. I mean, it's literally a cheat code, right? Like these people have literally fallen into these potholes and they're going to tell you how to swerve. So, so he gave me one investment strategy. I want to throw it at you and tell me what you think of it. Cause I,

I mean, he's crushed it with this strategy. So his theory, because he looked at my investment portfolio with all my stocks and index funds, all these things. He goes, Tyler, this is great. You're basically playing not to lose. Yeah. But you're not playing to win. Okay. He goes, if I were to go bet on who's going to win the MVP for the NFL this year,

would I bet on five quarterbacks or would I bet on 30 quarterbacks? And he's like, right now you're betting on 30 quarterbacks hoping to win. He goes, but if you bet maybe two, three, four, or five, then you'll get some really big returns. You may lose sometimes, but you can pick the winners usually. You can pick the Patrick Mahomes, the Josh Allens, the Lamar Jacksons. You're not going to end up picking the

or the Baker Mayfield's having a great year now. But like those guys, you know what I mean? And so he's like, you're not gonna, these portfolio managers are putting you and diversifying you all over the place because they don't want to lose their ass. They want to see you go up a little bit here and there. He's like, I'm invested in, I'm 80 years old. I've been invested in 30 stocks my whole life. And he's like, and I've crushed it. And he shows me the return. I'm like, holy cow.

Okay, so here's my take. Because you're young, I don't disagree with what he's saying. I think you can probably afford to be a little bit more aggressive than, say, my mom or dad could. Like, you and I can afford to be very aggressive in our investment strategy. Picking 30 cherry-picked stocks, though, is still not my vibe. What I would say is if you are trying to focus on a little bit more growth, taking on a little bit more risk—

you can buy into a growth fund. Something that's a little bit maybe more small cap, mid cap versus large cap stocks. So instead of focusing on value, you're focusing on growth. And that's going to let you be more aggressive. But there are going to be years that you underperform and you have to be okay with that. But I think you're very young. You're

It seems very healthy, have a long ways to go before official retirement age. Like I think you can afford to be a little spicier than the average 40, 50, 60 year old for sure. Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah. So he's not wrong. All right. Good. But again, take it with a grain of salt. I feel like back in his day, you could have thrown a dart at a board and everything went up. Everything. Yeah. Everything. For sure. Okay. Okay.

So I want to take a quick little pivot before we get into your newest show, Going Home with Tyler Cameron. You first graced America's TV screens on The Bachelorette and you ended up as runner-up.

Did you have a backup plan if you didn't win, which you didn't, or make it far enough into the show? Like what was your next move post TV? Yeah, I mean, the whole reason to go on the show, first of all, like was just to go experience something different. I was a bum at home. Like I was literally living at my mom's house, working in construction, making like 200 bucks a week. I was finishing up my MBA and getting my GC license and

So I was just like, I saw an ad for something and I was like, this could be funny. You know, I sent it to my buddies and it kind of just snowballed from there. And I had no expectations. Like I was going to go for an adventure and drink beer and talk to a girl. And that was all I planned on, you know, and then it just blew up and it was crazy and

Well, I was like, well, let's make it into something, you know, for here. And then I always wanted to get back to Jupiter eventually and do construction. Like that was still like my passion. And so I was like, well, let's find a way to build a show out of it. And that's how we got to going home with Tyler. Oh, so like you were in fact there for the right reasons, as people hate to say. Exactly. I mean, I was just exactly, I was there. I never anticipated. I really, you know, didn't know about like,

the brand deals or anything like that. What you can make from social media. I just knew that there was a pretty girl on the other end of this. Yeah. There was an adventure. You're a guy who likes to win. I like, yeah, a guy likes to win. There's an adventure. I get to travel all over the world and, and drink beer and hang out. And I was like,

Sign me up. Heck yeah. Seems good. Exactly. And you talk pretty candidly about like your money history and your dating history, even though TV dating didn't work for you. You did eventually end up on a date with Gigi Hadid. I mean, supermodel. Yep. At that time, you shared that you'd only had $200 to your name. Yeah, I was definitely out kicking my coverage there. Yeah.

Like what was, you know, that like being in the public eye where everybody thinks everyone on TV and everyone in the magazines is super rich, but like being in that position financially. Support for this show comes from Pure Leaf Iced Tea.

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Yeah. What's interesting is when you get off the show, you're on, you basically can't make any money. You have this following, but wait, why? Because you're under contract and they do this. So they avoid people going on there to make a bunch of money and do this stuff, you know, the right reasons. Exactly. So I'm over here like living on a living, living a dream, but living on a prayer, you know, like I'm living at my buddy Matt's apartment. He's got a bunk bed. I'm living on his beanbag underneath him in like, uh,

It's just, it was just, I'm like living there for free. You know, there's two other people living in the apartment. They're complaining about me and like, but like coolest time of my life, you know? And, and yeah, and we, you know, we were dating and, you know, I was like my, my mom, my dad, ever since I was a little kid would always make sure I had enough money to take care of my date.

You know, and you always take care of your date. Wait, tell me about that. Yeah. Like you come from a family who's just like the gentleman pays. The gentleman pays. The gentleman takes care, you know, and my dad always took care of my mom, you know, and my mom always like you take care of your woman. And so that's like, hey, if I got 200 bucks, that 200 bucks is going to you. And so that's, you know, and that's how I roll. And that's how I still roll. I believe like, you know, a gentleman should take care of his woman.

And did you ever feel like you had to pick certain dates so that you could afford it? I wasn't really picking the dates. I was just, I didn't know where I was in New York city. I was like, so I don't think, you know, I was like still so new. So I was just like, so where are we going tonight? You know? And she, she had all the cool spots. So yeah. Amazing. And, um,

So let's talk a little bit more about your dating life now. You have a serious long-term girlfriend. You guys are living together. You're renovating your home together. Talk to me about your guys' finances. How do you split them? How do you manage them? The way we do it is basically right now I'm kind of covering everything. And she... Because... She got you. She got me. So she basically... How we met, we started working together. You know what I mean? And...

It's terrible to say, but I was her employer. So I was like writing her checks. And then it got to the point where I was like, she was, we were working together. Like we love working together. That's probably like the greatest thing about us is like, we love working together. We love being with each other. Like, and like, we don't really argue about stuff. We get, maybe we disagree on certain things, but like our work environment. Different backsplash. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And like our work environment is great. And then sometimes it trickles over into like,

You know, into like us laying in bed, still talking about work at like 10 o'clock at night, which is like, we've gotten better at balancing. Yeah. So we've had to learn how to adjust that, but I fired her.

I said, "Tate, you are done." No, we ended up hiring her sister, brought her sister on to kind of fill Tate's role as like kind of like executive assistant. And I was like, "Tate, you're a star. I need you to like, you're so good at design. You're so good at DIY. You have great style.

You're hilarious. Like you, people love you on social media. I want you to focus on that. Okay. I'll take care of everything we got going on right now. And you just focus on growing that, you know, like building a brand, building who Tate is, all this stuff. Cause that's so important now. And she's been doing that and she's been running with it and she's made, she's starting to crush it now. And I'm like so happy for her and so thrilled for her.

And, you know, I still, you know, I want that money that she's making. I want her to put it away, save it, invest. Because she's never, I will say this about her. She'll probably yell at me. But, like, she's never crushed it making money. You know what I mean? She's always, like, she was a retailer at Macy's. She was always just making enough to survive and get by. Yeah, yeah.

But she always, what I love about her, she's so resourceful. And she works so hard because of that. She's one of six kids and she just had to find her own way. She's been doing that her whole time and she's lived many lives. She lived in LA. She lives in Texas being a horse therapist. She always just hustled and found her way.

And I just like, I see so much ability and talent and skill in her. I'm like, now you just need to focus on yourself. And so she's been doing that. She's been doing great at it. And I just can't wait for more of her to come out. And I think she'll be so successful. I love that you just spent the past minute like gushing about your partner. I think that's really, really healthy. Yeah. But also, yeah.

The fact that you were covering your guys' expenses and you told her like, put that money away, like save it for a rainy day. I genuinely think people underestimate and like don't underappreciate like how loving of a thing that is to do. Because you should want your partner to be financially stable on their own. It shouldn't be like a control thing. No, exactly. I want like, I get so excited when I see like her deals come through or something comes through because it's like,

One, like she's finally reaping the rewards of all the hard work that she's put in. But two, it's like she gets a chance to see like kind of be comfortable for once, which she has worked so hard and just but so humble about it and so much humility about it all. And I'm just like, keep going, keep going, keep going. And I just want to keep fueling her fire because I think, you know, it's great to see.

read the rewards of all the work you put in. I remember like the day she got her first deal in this whole social media thing, she was very upset the day before. And she was like in tears. And she was talking about all I do is work, work, work, work, work. And I just run around and run around and run around. I never feel like I see the other end of it. I never see any benefit of it.

And then the next day she got like a huge deal and she was so happy and so thrilled. And it's just like, you know, you just got to keep working hard, keep tapping the rock. And honestly, like social media, like,

And what this world is now, like you don't stop running. I haven't stopped running for five years. - Hamster wheel. - I was like telling her, you just gotta keep going. And then, you know, hopefully you hit your freedom number and you can relax and chill. And then like, that's the goal, you know? And that's why I try to tell her, I'm like, it sucks right now. And it seems like, well, we're always treading water. - Yeah.

There'll be a time when we'll be able to get to the other end of it and it'll be worth it. Can I ask you, what is your FU number? 20 million. 20 million. That's completely fair. Very conservative number. Yeah. I feel like I can live very like... Off of the interest proceeds. Off of the interest of that. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I think that would be... And then I can coach high school football and be a happy dad. Is that the dream? That's the dream. It's just...

Get that number. Live off the interest. Coach high school football. Be a dad. I feel like you would be like an annoying high school football coach though because if I was your son, you would be extra hard on me. Oh yeah, for sure. That sucks. For sure. For your son. Yeah, but because if you're my son...

I'm expecting you to be a leader. Oh my God. And you need to get the lecture in the car ride home. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. It's coming, but it's going to, but cause like I, I love sports. I love the building blocks and the discipline it creates and, and,

the lectures aren't gonna come from if you're not doing the right thing. - Okay. - You know, the lectures aren't gonna come from if you didn't score enough points or do that. But if you're not being disciplined, if you're not working hard enough, that's where the lectures come from. I think that's what it takes. And so, yeah, I can't wait for that. - Yeah. And you talked about Tate, like finally starting to really get her footing under her and like feeling confident about her finances. What was the first time you felt financially stable? - To be honest,

I think I'm in a good place now. I don't ever feel comfortable. Why? Um, I think it's fear of, so my, my father, um, I lived through a financial crisis and lost everything with my, with my family. And we lost not only, you know, all of our money, but we lost our family. Um, oh wait, my dad was doing really well right before I wait. And, uh,

The housing crisis. The housing crisis. And he was a builder. And he was like, Tyler, I was one more year away from really setting myself up for the rest of my life. And I was done. I was good. And everyone would have been good. And he had one big development project he was going for.

And then the bottom fell out and we lost our house on the water that we were living in. And if I talk about the numbers of that, it just makes you sick. And so, and then we moved back to our original house that I actually just remodeled on the show. Like our original family home that way back in the day. And we lived there all in this tight. And like, it just caused so much strain in the family and then parents split, you know, everything. And so there...

My parents gave us everything still. Even when they had nothing at that point again, they gave us everything. And if it was 20 bucks to take our girlfriend to the movie theater, they would do it. But now since that happened, I always live with that fear of will the bottom fall out? Will there be something to happen to cause these properties not to work anymore? So I have those fears and that's why I think I'm never comfortable. But my mentor spoke to me recently because...

I was expressing these fears to him. He goes, well, developer 101, you should always own your home. Flat out. He goes, that way you can sleep at night. If it all goes to shit around you, at least you got a home and you're good. A roof over your head. A roof over your head. You can keep rolling dice. He goes, but if you're out leveraged and you have to pay a mortgage on your home and you're doing all these things and all of it goes to crap, then you got to really work. Yeah.

That was like, okay, good advice. That's my goal for this year is to pay off my home and be done. I'm not like a spender on like luxury stuff. Yeah. I did just buy my girlfriend a car. I mean, not a spender on luxury stuff though, but the girlfriend's a luxury. Yeah. So, yeah. So, but it was like we got in a car crash.

in December. - I don't think I knew that. - Yeah, we got in a car, I haven't posted anything about it yet. We got a car crash in December. - Well, I'm glad that you're both okay. - Yeah, well, she was in my truck and she got T-boned and she drives like this little beat up Ford Escape. And I was telling, and she said she was about to hop in her car and then she realized she had to go pick up like rugs and supplies for one of the Airbnb's so she switched and jumped in my truck. And that was a blessing because

She got T-boned by a car going like 50, 60 miles an hour. And my truck just ate it. Didn't even move an inch. Yeah. You know, and then her car or the other car like flattened. It was another truck. Yeah. If they were in that Ford Escape, it would have been bad. Like her sister was in the passenger seat. Could have been very, very bad. And so after that, I was like...

everyone like we're putting you in big cars only. I'm taking care of this. Like I don't want anything to ever happen to you. So that was my only luxury purchase. I don't think that's a luxury at all. I think that is frankly even just a necessity for your like peace of mind. I talk about this all the time that like everyone thinks that being rich is like the lime green Lamborghini and like the new Dior bag. But like,

Real luxury is knowing that money is not a factor in your decision making and that you can do what you need to do to protect things that are most important in your life. And for the most part, they're not things. They're people. That is a luxury. I think that's a great way to put it. I think that's kind of how I live, I guess, in luxury. I don't really live to be flashy. I live...

I had to drive a beat up old boat that I've had for like 10 years. You know, like my boys are all like, Tyler, you always come on this boat hoping it turns on. Like you make enough money to go buy a nice boat. I'm like, yeah, but there's something about it, you know? And I just like, cause I don't need it. Yeah, I don't need it. I just need to go putter around and drink beer and hang out on the boat and that's it, you know? But it's, it's, yeah. Luxury has never been for me flashy. It's always been, you know, like comfort. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, I don't know if you're even allowed to answer this, but your first foray into reality TV, did you actually make any money being on TV? No. And when you're the lead, you do.

Oh, so like when you are actually the bachelor or the bachelorette, you get paid for that. Yes. But the other like 24 contestants get nothing. No. So, and a lot of people like have to leave their jobs if, cause some people just like jobs, like, no, like I'm not going to let you take off for two months, you know? So I didn't know I was making 200 bucks a week. I was like, I'm, I'm out. My opportunity cost is nothing. Yeah, exactly. Um, I got a suit out of it. I remember they gave me a suit for my, for my, for my proposal.

So that was nice, but yeah, no, there was no payment, nothing like that. - The only thing that you had to give up for the suit was just, you know, rejection on- - Rejection, yeah. - In front of national television. - I still got the suit. - Do you still have the suit? - I think I do, I think I do. - Do you? - It was a Brooks Brothers suit. I think my brother has it somewhere.

I love that. Yeah. That's a nice way to commemorate your time on TV. So let's talk a little bit about your new show, Going Home with Tyler Cameron. What made you want to put this on TV? Like there are so many home renovation shows. Like what was going to make this one special? Yeah. No. Well, I think Jupiter is a gem, like where I live. My hometown is just the most beautiful place. I think I bring a fun vibe.

different group of people to screen. And you'll see it's a great time and it's a beautiful place. And like one of the main characters is just the setting of Jupiter. It's just stunning. Yeah. But you get to see. It's like a sleepy beach town, isn't it? It is. It is. I'm trying to change that sleepy part of it. Yeah.

But I think what you see from my show is a lot of heart, which there's a lot of humor in it. But when I watched it back, I'm like, damn, there was so much heart to it. And a lot of it has to do with the backstory of losing my mom and renovating her home, which was like my childhood home that we grew up in.

Um, so that was a, you know, a big part of it. And, you know, everyone calls me and after watching episode eight, they're all like, man, I can't believe I'm in tears and all this stuff, but it's, it's, it's a great show. Yeah. I love that so much. And I love that it has that like character and tie back to your hometown. Um, when you were thinking of doing this show, um,

Was it more of a passion project or were you hoping to get paid for making it? Passion project. Yeah. Yeah. It was definitely like something that like I want to grow in construction and I want to grow in real estate. So why not bring cameras around it and make it bigger? Yeah. You know, so it's definitely a passion project and and for the amount of work.

and time and effort that goes into a home reno. Home reno shows are a beast. I know. I was just going to say, you actually have to do the reno. You actually have to do the renos. Which takes months. You got to be on camera. You got to have energy. You know, like it's, I was working like from 6 a.m. till 9 p.m. every day. And it was just wearing me out. But like, it was what we love doing and it was fun. And if, when you're around the crew and the cast and

and everyone, it was a ball, you know? And by the time the show got done filming, we were all like in a circle telling everyone, everyone's in tears, telling them how much we love you. And that's cast and crew behind the scenes. Like it was an amazing experience.

I love that. And I want to go into a little bit of the me asking you questions for my selfish purposes. You got it. What is the biggest piece of advice you have for someone who's actually thinking about doing a renovation? Yeah. Do renovations, two ways to take this. First one is if you're going to renovate your home, why are you doing it? Are you doing it to make money? Are you doing it to like, are you trying to get the most value out of your home down the road? If

If so, then I'd focus on your kitchen. I'd focus on your bathrooms. Those are... Why? Those are the sellers. So when... If you have an updated kitchen and you have an updated bathroom, those are things that people walk in the door like, oh, I'm in love with this kitchen. I'm going to buy it. They don't want to walk into a kitchen and be like, oh, I got to update this kitchen. Oh, there's a white fridge. Yeah, there's a white fridge or, you know, it's...

These cabinets are old and they're terrible and they're orange. So updating the kitchens and the bathrooms are definitely big. But then also, I think it's important too to make sure you renovate something for your own piece. Like

when I just did my house, a big area that I love doing was I did the garage and I made it into this sick blacked out gym and it's amazing. It's beautiful. And I also have like a little wellness area outside my bedroom so I can have my getaway in my home because I think

a lot of people don't realize like when, if you have family, you have kids or you have a lot of people staying at your house, you need your own little retreat inside your own home, which is supposed to be your retreat. It does look like dog pound in there. It's sick. I love it. Um, that's awesome. And what,

What would you say are areas that people spend their money on in their home that don't pay off? Yeah. That don't pay off. Well, landscaping for me, because I just, everything dies. Wait, why? I'm just, I'm working on my green thumb. I'm so passionate about landscaping. Oh, you have like a killer thumb? I have the killer thumb. Yeah. Okay. So, but things that don't really pan, you know, pan well, I think, yeah.

It depends. Like people, if you go super, like say like you do a bunch of wall trimming in your house, like wainscoting, all this stuff. Yeah. I think it can add value. Right. But it can also detect like for people from coming to your house and wanting to buy it. Why? A lot of people want to come into a blank slate when they're buying a home.

But if like my house I'm doing for my personal house, we're going in and we're doing all the walls have some type of trim on it. Some type of wallpaper, some type of coloring. It's gonna take a very specific buyer to buy that house. It's gonna have to be someone that really loves French country cottage,

You know, it's not going to be, it's not your typical Florida house at all. And it's not like you, it looks like it's a home in the Northeast. So like, that's a very specific house. I don't know if I'll be able to resell it that well, but I love it. You know what I mean? So I think it's,

If you're going to spend money to try and, you know, and you're worried about what's going to be valuable or not, I think it's kitchens. I think it's bathrooms. I think things that don't really help the value is doing, you know, types of like you slap walls and all that stuff. Like, I don't think that really works.

gives you much value because it's just trendy. It's going to be cool for a few years. Already the wood slat walls are kind of on their way out. Yeah. And they were so hot the last like four years. So I think that right there, unless it's like a very big personal preference, I think, you know, avoiding that. What would you say about someone who may or may not be painting their office a navy blue and

If that is a good idea and maybe adding soundproof walls. Well, just a friend asking for a friend. What is it in your bedroom? It's my, it's like a studio. It's like an office studio. So I can record and there's no echo. Okay. Okay. I was like, what's your friend and her husband doing in that room? Soundproofing it. No, you know, that's,

That right there is you're paying for a luxury to- For me. For you. Because, you know, not everyone's able to put an office or, you know, that's usually someone's room for their kid or something like that. But you're soundproofing it for what you need for your work. So that works for you. When you get the money back down the road when you sell it-

No one's going to care that it's soundproof. Some people may if it's like a very busy, loud road. Like, hey, I soundproofed this, you know, but I don't think it's going to be a big seller. It's not going to get someone to buy the house. Okay. Navy blue room? Fine. I can live with that. Yeah. I can live with that. I just did one of my rooms.

This guy painted the room all red and I was like, oh, I can't, it's like a red room. It's weird. So I did it. I did like a dark green room and it's definitely a little bit more. Yeah. More Zen. Cool. Love that. All right. Let's head into a lightning round. You're going to tell me if you would save on this and do it yourself or spend a professional to do it for you. Yep. All right. Putting in new flooring. Get a professional. Okay. Unless it's LVP or LVT luxury vinyl tile. You can do that yourself. Okay.

Oh, wait, why are they calling it luxury vinyl tile? Isn't it just like the linoleum? Yeah, but it's luxury. Okay, okay, okay, they renamed it. So they can go from $1.50 to $2.20, you know what I mean, per square foot. I see, I see. But LVT, you can figure that one out by yourself. That one's not hard. It's just like plastic on the ground. Yeah, and all you do, you buy a little underlayment pad, you lay that down, you get a box cutter, and you can cut it. It's fine. Okay, all right. Hanging and framing artwork. Do-it-yourself.

Really? Yes. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. It's not hard. Oh, please. Every time I have attempted to find the stud with the stud finder, it has not worked for me. But you don't always necessarily have to find a stud finder. You can get drywall, a drywall kit, and you can hang it to the drywall. A painting is not going to be that heavy. Okay. All right.

Tiling a bathroom floor. So that one definitely hire a professional. So especially if you're doing like your shower because there's, you have to build a shower pan, you have to have slope. So many times I've been to showers and they don't slope or they slope the wrong way. And they don't drain. And they don't drain. Exactly. And then you get mold, you get leaks, you get all that nasty stuff. So definitely hire a professional. Yeah.

Because that is a major mess up. And then you have to rip it all out and do it all over again. Then you're paying for it twice. Okay. Installing a new sink. Installing a new sink. My girlfriend could probably do it herself. I'd probably hire somebody. Yeah.

I'm so like, because that stuff too is like, I don't want leaks. I don't want all that stuff. Like then you ruin your cabinetry, all that. But my girlfriend would probably knock it out. Is she also like still like a human girl though? And no matter what type of plumbing you put in, it always ends up with like a hairball of her hair. Oh yeah. So I have a funny story about this. Okay. So when we were first living together, we were, you know, we used the same shower. Yeah. And...

I had really long hair at this time. And I just kept seeing all this hair piling up in the shower. And I was just, I would just stare at it. And I'm like, I'm really losing my hair. Yeah. This is all coming to an end for me. Yeah. Once the hair goes, I go like my career is done. I'm just like sitting here like panicking, looking at this hair. And then Tate walks in the bathroom one day. She goes,

I'm so sorry about all the hair. It's just like, that's like my one pet peeve is I can't like hair disgust me and I can't pick up my own hair. And I was like, oh,

Thank God. It's her hair. It's not mine. I'll pick it up. No problem. So that was like a funny, like first, like living together moment. Yeah. Your hair still looks good. Thank you. I still got it. I still got it. Still got it. Still got at least five years in there. I'm hoping I got my dad's jeans and not my mom's side of the family jeans. Nice. Okay. Um, painting a room. Do it yourself.

I don't know. The contractors were doing a lot when they were, they did like a special layer in the beginning. Yeah, it's primer. You can buy that. Oh, okay. Yeah, just roll it on. But like, didn't you tell me it's taking forever and it's being too long? Like then you could have probably knocked out in a weekend. No. Yeah. They're professionals. Viv, you call me. I'll have someone come knock it out for you in a weekend. All right.

All right, last one, very important. Putting together IKEA furniture. - Do it yourself. - There are so many steps, Tyler. - There are. IKEA is like a 324 step process. - And the instructions are never in English. - Yes. - And it's a beast. But I guess you can hire a Tash Rabbit.

Yeah. But you know what? It goes back to time value. Like, is it worth your money to sit there and do it or hire a TaskRabbit and get it done? So I remember when I moved to New York, I had all of this furniture and I hired TaskRabbits to like move me in and like help me build it.

All of it like fell apart within like the first couple of months. And I was like, there must've been some dowels in there that you guys didn't use. Definitely missed. Yeah. That you like just didn't put in there. Oh yeah. So. And, and that, but even in construction at the highest levels, you have to just be on people and over them and, and, and.

I get so upset sometimes because when I leave town, we'll sometimes keep things going like work wise. And then I come back, I'm like, guys, none of this is right. You know? And I'm like, so it's like, that just happens in work and in construction. You got to be on people. Okay. Maybe I should have watched a little bit closer. I was like, yeah, you guys got it.

got it. Exactly. Exactly. But then you're like, I don't know what I'm looking at, you know? So it's okay. That's how you learn. Amazing. Okay. Well, first and foremost, thank you so much for being here, but tell everyone where they can find you and where we can watch going home with Tyler Cameron. Yes. I'm on Instagram, Tyler J Cameron. And then going home is going home with Tyler's on Amazon prime. So make sure you check it out.

Amazing. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Net Worth and Chill, part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. If you liked the episode, make sure to leave a rating and review and subscribe so you never miss an episode. Got a burning financial question that you want covered in a future episode? Write to us via podcast at yourrichbff.com. Follow Net Worth and Chill Pod on Instagram to stay up to date on all podcast related news. And you can follow me at yourrichbff for even more financial know-how. See you next week.

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