Part 2

Real Money

My wife, my daughters, and I eventually found ourselves homeless. We lived together in a tent with a queen-size air mattress and a fold-out cot. We had a small refrigerator chest powered by a solar panel and a propane stove top where we did most of our cooking.

Perhaps the strangest part of it all was that I still had money coming in. I just couldn’t keep any of it. I had spent years developing the habit of spending whatever I earned. It didn’t matter whether I was making more or less. Money came in, and money went out. I never stayed in the account.

I had convinced myself that whatever I earned was whatever I could afford to spend. That mindset followed me even when I rented a home. Eventually, I realized that my problem wasn’t simply that I didn’t make enough money. I didn’t know how to keep it.

After leaving the military, I moved from job to job. I worked at Tractor Supply and eventually decided to move to Texas to attend Universal Technical Institute to become certified in automotive and diesel engines.

At the time, I was looking for something I could learn quickly while also giving me an opportunity to rebuild my life. I took an internship with United Rentals, and after the internship ended, I took a full-time position at Planet Fitness to get by while I finished school. It was at Planet Fitness that I first encountered something that would eventually change my life.

There was a man who regularly wore several gold chains. I asked him about them, and he told me something that stuck with me:

“This is real money.”

At the time, I didn’t fully understand what he meant, but I remembered it.

As that comment stirred and echoed, I pondered what he meant by that comment. I eventually began learning about money, monetary history, the Federal Reserve, inflation, and the role precious metals had played throughout history. When I start going down knowledge rabbit holes, I can't stop myself from learning at every turn. I became fascinated by the idea of having something tangible that represented a reserve of wealth. I had that ahhh ha moment to start buying precious metals. Silver. Coins. Eventually Gold

Part 4

Learning

After two years at Baker Hughes, I took a position at the local coin shop where I had been buying our own metals.

That was a major turning point.

• I went from being a customer to learning the business from the inside.
• I learned about wholesale operations.
• I learned how premiums are produced.
• I learned how markets react to price movements.
• I learned how local demand can temporarily change local premiums.

Most importantly, I began to understand that the precious-metals business is about much more than the spot price on a screen.

It is about markets, liquidity, supply, demand, inventory, relationships, and trust.

Around this same time, I also started a YouTube channel called Joseph’s Reserves: Rare Coins and Precious Metals. Through that channel, I am dedicated to teaching the public about the concepts of money, the principles of precious metals and how wholesale and the market reacts to the precious metals all while honoring the story of Joseph in Genesis that pushed me to save 20% of our income.

In Genesis, Joseph stored a fifth of the grain during seven years of abundance in preparation for the years of famine. A fifth. Twenty percent. I decided to apply that principle to my own life. I began setting aside 20% of my income for precious metals. That changed my relationship with our paycheck. I stopped looking at 100% of our income as money available to spend. In reality, I looked at 70% as what we had to live on, because we also committed 10% to a tithe. The other 20% was already spoken for. It belonged to the future.

Part 5

Building Lake Conroe Gold

Today, our income looks very different than it did when I just had a paycheck because now I am building and operating Lake Conroe Gold, but my commitment remains. I still intend to save 20% of our income in rare coins and precious metals.

After a year working at that coin shop, the Lord led me to take a leap. After much prayer and consideration He opened the door for Lake Conroe Gold. I didn’t want to simply open another coin shop. I wanted to build something different. I wanted Lake Conroe Gold to be a high-class, secure, professional place where people can feel comfortable conducting significant transactions. A place where serious investors can make serious purchases. A place where collectors can talk coins with someone who genuinely loves numismatics. A place where stackers know they will receive a fair price. A place where someone who knows nothing, or knows a lot, can walk through the door, ask questions, have a conversation, and leave understanding more than they did when they arrived.

I want to build relationships that last far beyond a single transaction.I don’t want to simply sell you a coin. I want to help you build a portfolio over the course of your life. I want to know what you’re trying to accomplish. I want to help you understand what you own. I want you to know that years from now, you can come back and talk to me. Maybe you’re adding to your collection. Maybe you’re selling. Maybe you need liquidity. Maybe you’re helping your children understand what you accumulated. My hope is that someday, my customers’ children will walk through the doors of Lake Conroe Gold carrying the collections their parents built with me to add to them, divide them, or liquidate them. That’s the kind of relationship I want to build.

Education is one of my biggest motivators. I want people to understand what money actually is and what inflation does to a currency over time. The dollar is useful. I use dollars every day, but dollars can lose purchasing power. Precious metals offer something fundamentally different: they are tangible assets with thousands of years of monetary history behind them. Gold and silver cannot be created with the push of a button. They have been used as money and stores of value across civilizations and generations. I believe people deserve to understand that part of history. I don’t expect everyone to become a serious collector or stacker, but I do want people to understand their options. And, if someone decides that gold or silver belongs in their financial reserves, I want Lake Conroe Gold to be the place they feel comfortable coming to.

Part 6

New Life

Everything I have described ultimately comes back to one thing for me: Jesus Christ is first. My faith wasn’t something I added after building a business. My faith is part of the reason I am here. Christ met me during the darkest period of my life, when I had lost our son, lost my direction, and watched my family struggle. Easter of 2023, I heard the story of God sacrificing His only begotten son, while I was grieving the loss of my son. He changed the way I looked at my life. He changed the way I looked at stewardship. Ultimately, He led me toward precious metals. The story of Joseph has become particularly meaningful to me because it is a story about preparation, stewardship, and storing during times of abundance. Ecclesiastes 11:2 “Invest in Seven ventures, yes, in eight; you do not know what disasters may come upon the land.” speaks to the importance of diversification and preparing for uncertainty.

The principles of not consuming everything you earn and preparing for any future has influenced how I think about wealth. The biblical principles also influence how I want to run my business. I want Lake Conroe Gold to be built on integrity, honesty, stewardship, service, and generosity. I want to treat people the way I would want my own family treated. When you walk into Lake Conroe Gold, I want you to feel safe. I want you to feel respected. I want you to feel like you’re dealing with professionals. I want you to be offered a drink, have a good conversation, ask questions, and hopefully learn something while you’re here.

Most importantly, I want you to trust me. Not because I tell you to trust me, because I earn it. My goal isn’t to make the biggest transaction possible today. My goal is to build relationships that last for decades. If I can help you build a portfolio that serves your family for years, and eventually becomes something your children inherit, then I will consider that a success.

My wife and daughters were with me through all of this. They were there when we were living in that tent. They were there when I was struggling to find direction.They were there when I began rebuilding. They were there when I started buying my first silver. Now they are here as I build Lake Conroe Gold.

That’s important to me because my story isn’t the story of someone who had everything figured out. I’m a husband. I’m a father. I made mistakes. I lost my way. I struggled. I had to learn how to rebuild.

Of course I will never stop learning and better myself, but if I can learn how to save, to build reserves, how to develop discipline, and how to create something for my family’s future, then I believe other families can do it too. You don’t have to start with a fortune. You don’t have to know everything. You just have to start. For me, it started with one ounce. One ounce became one dinner. The dinner became a measurement. The measurement became a habit. The habit became discipline. That discipline began changing my life.

That’s why I opened Lake Conroe Gold. Not simply to buy and sell gold and silver, but I want to build a place where people can learn about real money, build reserves, collect history, protect a portion of their wealth, and develop relationships that can last generations.

If you’re curious about precious metals, if you’re already a collector or stacker, if you’re looking to build a portfolio, or if you simply want to sit down and have a conversation about what you own and where you’re going, come see me.