Afford Anything

Category: FIRE

By

#408: Build YOUR 15 Year Career, with Kiersten and Julien Saunders

When Kiersten and Julian Saunders began dating in 2012, they fell in love quickly, and their relationship felt strong – until they started talking about money.

They broke up as a result of their first money conversation.

Luckily, they got back together, figured out how to have tough conversations, and paid off $200,000 in debt over the next five years.

Then they started thinking about how to hack their careers. They came up with a plan for a 15-year career.

Today, they join us on the podcast to talk about the 15-year career framework and how to approach your career – and your finances – in 5 year stints.

Keep reading...

By

#403: How I Reached Financial Independence, with Chad Carson

Chad Carson’s friends called him a “nerdjock.”

When former college football linebacker Chad Carson graduated from Clemson University, he decided to start a business. But he didn’t have any money.

He was a 235-pound athlete who attended college on a football scholarship. He graduated debt-free with $1,000 in savings from various odd jobs. He wanted to become an entrepreneur, and he knew he was starting from zero.

As Chad viewed it, starting from zero meant he had nothing to lose.

He started jogging around local neighborhoods near the university. Whenever he noticed a property in disrepair, he’d ask if it was for sale.

If he noticed a ‘For Sale by Owner’ sign in the yard, for example, he’d dial the number.

If he noticed a home with an overgrown lawn and no curtains in the windows, he’d leave a note on the door, or he’d knock on the neighbor’s doors to get the owner’s phone number.

By doing this, Chad started a real estate wholesaling business. He’d find off-market properties, enter into a sales contract with the owner, and then ‘flip’ the contract to an investor. He earned around $5,000 for each deal.

The benefit to a wholesaling business, Chad discovered, is that he could get a foothold inside the real estate industry without much access to capital. He was a recent college graduate without any official employment, so most banks weren’t interested in offering him loans. Wholesaling gave him a start in the industry.

But after awhile, he wanted to chase bigger deals. He and a business partner decided to start flipping houses themselves. They earned profits of around $20,000 to $30,000 for each deal.

While this was great, Chad wanted to transition into something that would provide a steady, stable income stream. He was running an active business; he wasn’t accumulating a portfolio of passive investments.

He and his business partner stopped flipping homes and began accumulating buy-and-hold rental properties. Today they have 90 units between the two of them.

A few years ago, Chad realized that the passive income from his investments made him financially independent. He and his wife decided to enjoy their newfound freedom by moving to Ecuador with their two children, ages 3 and 5.

They spent 17 months living in Ecuador, learning Spanish and enjoying a slower pace of life. They recently returned to the U.S. and are considering moving to either Spain or Germany — or maybe Colorado? — for their next adventure.

In today’s episode, Chad and I discuss real estate, financial independence, and international travel with children.

Keep reading...

Written By

Are we in a recession?

👋 Hey there! FYI, this post is part of our First Principles series.

About the series…

When most people talk about money management, they discuss tactics. Occasionally, you’ll encounter someone who elevates the discussion to strategy, rather than simply scattershot tactics.

But what’s missing from both conversations — both tactics and strategy — is a […]

Keep reading...

By

#400: The Lies Told About Early Retirement

F.I.R.E. holds four pillars: Financial psychology, Investing, Real estate, and Entrepreneurship. This September, we’re running four weeks of episodes focusing on each of these four pillars, plus one bonus episode sharing impactful lessons learned from those who have reached F.I.R.E.

Enjoy!

———————————————————————————-

Today we’re sharing three talks given at the EconoMe conference, with each of these talks relating to F.I.R.E. The three discussions are:

FI-Landia is a lie – What I Learned On My Journey To F.I.R.E., with Carl Jensen
What If You Achieve All Your Goals But You’re Still Not Happy, with Rich Jones
How To Never Again Say, “I Can’t Afford It”, with Paula Pant

Keep reading...

Written By

How badly do you want it?

👋 Hey there! FYI, this post is part of our First Principles series.

About the series…

When most people talk about money management, they discuss tactics. Occasionally, you’ll encounter someone who elevates the discussion to strategy, rather than simply scattershot tactics.

But what’s missing from both conversations — both tactics and strategy — is a […]

Keep reading...

By

#390: Ask Paula: Help! My Bills Are Too High

We start this episode with two anonymous callers who have opposite problems: one says her bills are too high, while the other is worried that she’s saving too much.

Anonymous (“Izzy”) saves A LOT. She wants to relax about her spending more, and start including more joy into her life. How should she approach the next 10 or 20 years, so that she can enjoy her financial security?

A different anonymous caller (“Starlight”) has the opposite problem: her expenses are mounting. Her bills make her uncomfortable. She wants to shake up her investments so that she can tap her assets in order to make her payments. Ideally, she’d also like to buy a house in Europe within the next 10 years. How should she do this?

John liked the episode with Bill Bengen, where we discussed the 4% rule.  However, he questions whether that rule should really be applied to the FIRE community.

Steve is a landlord who needs his property to cash flow, but doesn’t like to raise rents. What should he do?

Do you have a question on business, money, trade-offs, financial independence strategies, travel, or investing? Leave it here and we’ll answer them in a future episode.

Enjoy!

Keep reading...

Written By

The Four Pillars of FIRE 🔥

👋 Hey there! FYI, this post is part of our First Principles series.

About the series…

When most people talk about money management, they discuss tactics. Occasionally, you’ll encounter someone who elevates the discussion to strategy, rather than simply scattershot tactics.

But what’s missing from both conversations — both tactics and strategy — is a […]

Keep reading...

Written By

A new, unique take on FIRE

👋 Hey there! FYI, this post is part of our First Principles series.

About the series…

When most people talk about money management, they discuss tactics. Occasionally, you’ll encounter someone who elevates the discussion to strategy, rather than simply scattershot tactics.

But what’s missing from both conversations — both tactics and strategy — is a […]

Keep reading...

By

#379: Invest Anywhere: 4 Benefits and 5 Challenges of Long-Distance Real Estate Investing

Welcome to our First Friday bonus episode.

Once a month, Afford Anything presents a special feature called Invest Anywhere, in which we teach our audience how to invest in real estate from thousands of miles away.

We kickoff today’s episode by discussing current market conditions. Yesterday the Fed raised interest rates by another 50 basis points, which means mortgages are more expensive than they’ve been in years. Additionally, jittery investors worried about an impending recession led the stock market to its worst day of the calendar year so far.

How should we interpret the current market conditions? Is this a good time to buy an investment property? We cover this in the first 20 minutes of today’s episode.

Next, we discuss 5 challenges associated with investing in long-distance real estate investing: (1) fear, (2) accountability, (3) traction, (4) stress, and (5) relationships.

We elaborate on each challenge and offer solutions.

Finally, we discuss 4 benefits to investing out-of-state: (1) competitive ability, (2) diversification, (3) returns, and (4) repeatability. We elaborate on four types of diversification: economic, strategy, business cycle, and asset based.

Enjoy!

Keep reading...

By

#359: The Four Quadrants of A Successful Life, with Andrew Hallam

Money, relationships, health and purpose: life is running smoothly when all four of these elements are working together in tandem, like wheels on a car.

But how can we make spending and investing choices that facilitate stronger relationships, better health and a deeper sense of purpose?

Andrew Hallam, who became a millionaire on a teacher’s salary, shares researched-backed, evidence-based insights into how to find balance, drawing from the worlds of behavioral finance and stock market history.

Keep reading...

Afford Anything