Earn Your Leisure Podcast

Episode: Angela Yee Cuts Her Mortgage Payment in Half by House Hacking...
Original Air Date: January 5, 2026
Hosts: Rashad Bilal, Troy Millings
Guest: Angela Yee

Episode Overview

This episode of Earn Your Leisure features Angela Yee—renowned radio host and entrepreneur—discussing her journey with "house hacking," a smart real estate strategy that has allowed her to cut her mortgage payment in half. Angela breaks down her approach to personal finance, leveraging reward points, business investments, and the value of staying organized and disciplined. The conversation provides actionable insights into wealth building, entrepreneurship, and maintaining balance while managing multiple businesses.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Angela’s Approach to House Hacking and Smart Real Estate (03:44–06:17)

• House hacking for wealth building:
  Angela explains how buying a two-family house allowed her to drastically reduce her mortgage. By renting out one unit and living in the other, the rental income subsidizes her living costs.
  • "It’s a two family house. So that pays half my mortgage, and my mortgage is less than what my rent would be for something... If I would have had a three family house, it would have probably paid the whole mortgage." — Angela Yee (03:44)
• Financial goal-setting:
  Angela emphasizes setting clear monthly savings targets to prepare for investments and avoid frivolous spending.
  • "Every month I have a goal of how much I want in my account for the next move I’m about to make." — Angela Yee (04:31)

2. Maximizing Spending Power and Rewards (04:46–05:57)

• Leveraging rewards and points:
  Angela details how she uses her Amex credit cards for purchases—especially renovations—to accumulate points for travel and luxury shopping.
  • "I have a new house in Brooklyn that I’m renovating. I’m putting everything on my Amex card so I can get those points. And then I’ll be buying furniture with the points..." — Angela Yee (04:52)
• Spending strategically:
  The group discusses a friend who spends heavily on ads, generating reward points redeemed for luxury items.
  • "He spends $100,000 a month on Facebook ads on his AmEx cards. And he gets like $7,000 reward points back. So that’s $7,000 reward points. He just goes to Neiman Marcus and just goes crazy." — Charlamagne Tha God (05:36)
  • "I bought my first Louis bag and my first Chanel bag with points on my amex card." — Angela Yee (05:52)

3. The Economics and Lessons of House Hacking (06:00–10:00)

• Educational emphasis:
  The hosts stress not to overlook house hacking’s value as a wealth-building tool—highlighting that humility and smart sacrifices pay off.
  • "She’s famous and she’s humble enough to live in a two family home...she understands that it makes economic sense." — Charlamagne Tha God (09:26)
• Risks and realities:
  Angela talks about buying her home sight unseen, showing commitment and calculated risk-taking.
  • "I didn’t even see it." — Angela Yee (09:55)

4. Entrepreneurship and Business Growth Goals (10:06–13:29)

• Portfolio and diversification:
  The conversation transitions to Angela’s many business ventures—juice bars, coffee shops, a podcast, and a newly opened hair supply store in Detroit.
  • "I did open a store in Detroit, also a hair store, a private label. And I can’t forget that; I just opened that in January." — Angela Yee (10:42)
• Balance and self-care:
  Angela shares her method for managing intense workload and maintaining wellness:
  • "I always try to have one day out of the week...that I don’t have a lot to do. That’s when I handle stuff I need to handle for myself...I try to make sure one of [the weekend] days is not super busy for me." — Angela Yee (11:04)

5. Vision for the Future (12:13–13:29)

• Scaling and franchising:
  Angela outlines her ambitious goals for her businesses: achieving large-scale profitability and franchising her coffee shop brand. Education is a core value for her, both for herself and customers.
  • "I want [my businesses] to be huge, multimillion, $100 million dollar businesses... I’m building [the coffee shop] out so that it’ll be franchisable." — Angela Yee (12:19)

6. Live Q&A: Roth IRA Practicalities (13:36–15:33)

• Community engagement:
  During a listener Q&A, the group gets into the technicalities of opening a Roth IRA and explains the necessity of earned income for contribution eligibility.
  • "Yes, it has to be earned income that you receive...once he starts working, then he can start putting money into his retirement account." — DJ Envy/Charlamagne Tha God (15:22)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On house hacking’s power:
  "I think what you have to do is think of what a smart investment is to you. And if you’re living here, you would have been paying rent somewhere else. So to me, that’s money you would have been spending anyway." — Angela Yee (03:51)

• About rewards and lifestyle:
  "When you have goals like that, it makes you realize how unimportant [shopping] can be. Not that you can’t treat yourself, but...let me do something nice for myself." — Angela Yee (04:28)

• On risk-taking:
  "You couldn’t walk in the property before she had it... I didn’t even see it." — DJ Envy and Angela Yee (09:51–09:55)

• On business growth:
  "Every business that I do, I try to make sure that I’m always educating myself on it and taking classes and learning everything so that I become somewhat of an expert on it." — Angela Yee (13:14)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:44 — Angela Yee introduces her two-family house, house hacking strategy, goal setting
• 04:52 — Discussion of Amex points, renovation spending, and travel perks
• 05:36 — Rewards hacking with ad spend (Charlamagne)
• 09:19 — Charlamagne and Envy emphasize humility in house hacking
• 10:42 — Angela’s Detroit store and business diversification
• 11:04 — Angela’s methods for maintaining work-life balance
• 12:19 — Angela’s five-year business goals and plans for franchising
• 13:57 — Q&A: Roth IRA requirements and earned income

Conclusion

This episode is an invaluable resource for anyone interested in practical wealth-building, especially through real estate and entrepreneurial ventures. Angela Yee’s candid sharing offers motivation and real strategies, specifically highlighting the impact of financial discipline, leveraging rewards, and methodical business planning, all while stressing the importance of continual learning.