From Banker to Real Estate Investor: Jodi Satkunam on Building Wealth, Passive Income, and Investing with Purpose

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another inspiring episode of Telling My Story, the podcast where we uncover the journeys behind remarkable people and discover the lessons that inspire personal growth, success, leadership, and purpose. I'm your host, Henry Chiwetelu, and today's conversation is about something that affects almost everyone, money, and what it really takes to build financial freedom. Many people work hard to earn money, but building lasting wealth requires more than simply earning a paycheck. It requires understanding how money works, managing risks, making informed decisions, and sometimes learning how to make your money work for you. Today, I'm joined by Jody Sakunam, a CPA, CEO, real estate investor, and founder of Level Up Investments. Jody spent 28 years working in banking and fintech before turning her experience towards real estate investing. She has been investing in real estate for nearly two decades and now helps accredited investor assess multifamily real estate opportunity. But Jodi's story isn't just about numbers and investment. It's about discipline, taking calculated risks, learning from costly mistakes, and creating a life where money doesn't stand in the way of what truly matters. Today, we are going to explore her journey, Her lessons from investment, passive income, financial independence, and what it takes to make smarter decisions with money. Jodi, welcome to Tell My Story. It's a pleasure to have you here with us today.

Henry, thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it. All

right, Jodi. Every successful journey has a story behind it. What first attracted you to banking, finance, and eventually real estate investing?

Yeah, that's a really great question. So I was in banking for... 20 years, and I had won an innovation contest. And with that innovation contest, we had the opportunity to move to San Francisco and take our concept from idea to product launch. This environment was very different from the bureaucratic environment of banking and was really fast, iterative, and permission-lit. And it really sparked something in me that I couldn't go back to my typical risk job. It wasn't that banking had changed at all. It was just that I felt the need to move at the speed of my thinking. And so at that point, I had been investing in real estate for 20 years and just knew that it was time to do something different. really take charge of my financial future.

Wow, that's really very inspiring. So when did you realize it become important to you?

It really was important when I was looking at my retirement. I have done a really good job of saving money in my 401k and planning for retirement. And as I was thinking about retiring early, I was thinking, I really had this realization that I can't take money out of my 401k until I hit 59 and a half. And if I want to retire before that, I really need a way to fund those earlier years. And I really turned to real estate. I had had some success previously. I owned a tech firm and had sold our office building and did really well with that. We ended up selling and got a large check from the capital appreciation. Meanwhile, we were getting cash flow the entire time we owned the