BiggerPockets Money

Belinda Rosenblum is a CPA, a certified coach and her clients include Harvard Business School, Harvard University and the SEC. She’s worked for Arthur Andersen and L3 Enterprises. She’s got money all figured out, right?

Well, she does now…

On today’s episode, Belinda shares her biggest money mistake - ignoring a giant pile of mail as she cared for her recovering father.

Once she cleared that up, she focused on her own finances, growing her net worth to more than $1 million by the time she was 33. She quickly realized that her trajectory was NOT taking her where she wanted to go. So she pivoted.

She took a new job with a huge bump in pay and rode out their boom and subsequent layoffs, taking a package to leave and using that opportunity to travel to India, a life-changing experience.

When she came back, she realized she didn’t need all the things, didn’t need the stress that came with the big corporate job, and struck out on her own, filling a need she saw in her own friends - financial education.

Belinda parlayed her financial knowledge into a multi 6-figures company, pivoting again last year to helping businesses strategically and consistently generate income.

This episode is for anyone who has made a money mistake, anyone who has gotten past one, or anyone looking to start their own business to truly live the life they want.

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Life Insurance is the most exciting topic on the planet!

Just kidding. But just because it isn’t a super exciting topic doesn’t mean you don’t need to know about it.

Today, Joe Saul-Sehy, host of the Stacking Benjamins podcast, joins Scott and Mindy to talk about Life Insurance. Joe comes from a background as a financial planner and was licensed to sell every type of insurance product available.

Joe is here today because he understands how life insurance works - how it's priced, how you can use it, the pros and cons of the product - but he has no skin in the game whether you buy life insurance or not.

He's the perfect person to explain this product from a factual standpoint and let you make the decision of what type - if any - is best for you, based on facts, not commissions.

Joe walks us through the basics and shares how life insurance actually covers you - from term, to whole, to universal life. There's no bad product, only different ways of paying out.

If you're struggling with how to figure out what life insurance policy is right for you, this episode can't be missed.

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Farnoosh Torabi grew up talking about money. Her parents are from the Middle East, and in her culture, they “never miss a moment to talk about money.”

As the go-to girl for finance advice among her friends, imagine her surprise when she sat down and looked at her financial situation to discover tens of thousands of dollars in credit card debt! Farnoosh realized that paying for everything with a card, then paying the minimum balances didn’t lead to debt free life.

Not wanting to continue a life of debt - mainly so she wouldn’t have to tell her mom - she hustled during school. Taking class notes and selling them on her school’s notes system, babysitting, bird sitting, anything that would generate income so she could throw money at her debt and pay it off.

Graduation took her to New York City and a stroke of luck found her a shared apartment with a married couple for $500 a month. Definitely less than she could find on her own. She started off making very little, and strategically increased her income to offset the fact that she “isn’t a good saver.”

Farnoosh has parlayed her own financial knowledge into a career teaching others how to manage their own finances. From books, to podcasts, to television, Farnoosh is everywhere, educating this oh-so-important skill so that others can work toward their own financial freedom.

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Felicity’s story to financial independence is going to be similar to listeners of The BiggerPockets Money Podcast. She got a good paying job, spent less than she earned, intelligently invested in Index Funds and is now financially independent at the age of 30.

Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy.

Except, it’s NOT that easy, actually. She lives in America, and for much of that time, she lived in a very high cost of living city, Boston.

Felicity rented a 250 sq ft apartment with her husband, Fergus, while he was in graduate school - because he didn’t want to live above his means, and he was making less money than she was at the time.

In fact, Fergus is leery of the 4% rule, and would be much more comfortable if they were only pulling 2%-2.5% of their retirement funds every year.

Their story illustrates the point Mindy makes so frequently in this podcast, “personal finance is personal.” Their story also illustrates the path one must take to get to financial independence.

Spend less than you earn. Intelligently invest. Stay the course through the tough times. This too shall pass.

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Doug Nordman wanted to teach his daughter about money. But he knew that to get it right, he’d have to start when she was very very small. So he did. First, he taught her how to count, then he taught her how to add, then he showed her what she could do with money by using cash in transactions.

As Carol got older, she was able to handle the cash herself, learning how to make change, count change, etc. Carol started “earning” her own money, through allowance and jobs - which could only be done after her (non-paid) chores were complete.

Doug’s common-sense approach to teaching his daughter about money is actually quite brilliant. She starts learning about money - and making money mistakes - when the stakes are low. Your 8-year-old making a $20 mistake is far better than your 20 year old making a $10,000 mistake because he or she never learned how to manage money.

Carol joins her dad to talk about how these teachings affected her life - and how she is planning on teaching her own daughter about money and finances. 

Carol and Doug have combined their recollections of this time together and written a book called Raising Your Money-Savvy Family For Next Generation Financial Independence, and it is the blueprint for exactly how to raise children who are ‘good with money’ and how to prepare them to be adults who are great with money.

If you’re struggling with how to teach your children about money, this is a must-listen episode.

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Seth Williams invests in real estate in a way you may have never heard of before. He buys and sells land. And no, he’s not a developer. He literally buys a piece of blank dirt, and then sells it—frequently within days of buying it—for fairly high margins. And he does this without taking out loans for the purchase.

How?

He’s paying hundreds of dollars for this land, as opposed to hundreds of thousands of dollars for a piece of land with a house on top of it. He turns around and sells it quickly, frequently realizing a 300% profit—or more!

Even better? Deals are EVERYWHERE! Land is literally everywhere, and deals can be found very easily. (We discuss several ways to find absentee vacant landowners, many of whom just want to be rid of the property!)

Seth shares what to look out for in a deal so you minimize your chances of getting burned and what makes a deal great. He shares different ways to find these deals and even gives guidance for doing your homework so you know exactly what you’re buying.

If you’d like to get started in real estate but may not have the funds or simply don’t have the time or desire to run a flip, land may be your way in.

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Chris Browning had dreams of creating movies for Pixar - until he started art classes in college and realized that wasn’t his calling.

He was also taking a personal finance class and thoroughly enjoyed it, so he changed his major to finance and never looked back.

Chris should have perfect finances, right? Well…

Chris found himself in debt after graduating in 2009 and working as a bank teller, trying to impress his girlfriend (now wife). He took control of his finances, telling his girlfriend that they needed to reign in their spending so he could pay off debt. But once his debt was gone, he started saving in earnest for an engagement ring, spent everything he had on that, and found himself in debt again when they started planning their wedding.

Life happened, debt continued to stack up until they realized they were $27,000 in debt, with salaries just over that amount - all while living in Southern California.

Living paycheck-to-paycheck makes it hard to throw extra money at your debt. Chris and his wife reviewed their spending and were shocked by what they were spending on. Once they knew where their money was going, they were able to drastically reduce their spending and throw more money at their debt.

It turns out, tracking your spending and sticking to a budget are both excellent pieces of advice that can help anyone turn their financial situation around and start down the path toward financial independence.

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Doc G wanted to be a doctor since he was eight years old. He went to medical school, started his career and quickly realized he actually didn’t like all the parts about being a doc - and didn’t know how to leave the profession. Something he’d wanted for 20 years suddenly wasn’t so awesome anymore.

Cue The White Coat Investor. He’d written a book and asked Doc G to read it and review it for his medical blog - and suddenly Doc G saw a way out!

This way out didn’t have the expected results, however. Instead of jubilation, Doc G was thrown into a spiral of anxiety and depression. Something he’d wanted his whole life, this thing he’d identified with so strongly for so long, and the thought of walking away from such an enormous part of his life was terrifying because now he had a way to do it and it was suddenly real.

Having always saved at least 50% of his income, Doc G went to his accountant - who was unfamiliar with early retirement and sort of threw out a number he needed to save to retire. His financial advisor was a bit more helpful, asking questions like, "how much do you spend in a year?" Not knowing, Doc G threw out a number, which turned out to be really close to what his accountant said he needed. But he was still unsure.

So he did what anyone in the FIRE community would do - he started reading. Everything and anything he could get his hands on. He realized he had enough money to stop doing those things he didn’t like, so he started practicing what he calls "The Art of Subtraction." He removed the things that did not make his heart sing, so that he could focus on those things he DID enjoy.

And his plan worked. He now can spend his working hours doing the things he loves to do, and does not have to do the things he doesn’t. He has focused more time on non-doctor side projects like writing and podcasting - where his enjoyment runs sky high even though the paychecks do not.

As his side projects bring more joy, walking away from the physician thing gets easier and easier.

Making plans for retirement is great, but today Doc G shares how to plan your transition into retirement which can be even more important!

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Marquez Griffin graduated from high school but did not feel that college was his path. His uncle worked in a sheet metal shop, and was able to get him a job there.

He quickly learned that taking a bit of action with regards to his sheet metal training would catapult him higher in his earnings, so he enrolled in trade school and alternated between work and school to learn the trade faster.

His earnings rose as he completed coursework, but Marquez found himself unexcited about his path and started looking for more. Moving in with a friend and his dad turned out to be a real-life Rich Dad event, with his friend’s father introducing him to the concept of saving and investing.

Marquez started listening to audio books and podcasts while working in the shop, looking for information about a better life. This self education led him to Scott’s book Set for Life, and then to BiggerPockets where he discovered that House Hacking, real estate investing and that he could marry real estate with a career and go from salaried trade work to commission based agent work where the sky was the limit with regards to earnings.

He further discovered the job of Signing Agent and has now incorporated that into his work schedule as well. (For more information about Signing Agents, check out our episode 74 at www.biggerpockets.com/moneyshow74.)

Marquez knew college was not his path, so he followed the path he was meant for and is reaching for Financial Independence on his terms.

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Kevin Matthews II started paying attention to finance way back in 6th grade - because his parents said they wouldn’t buy him any more video games, he’d have to buy them himself.

Kevin’s parents telling him no propelled him into a lifelong planner - saving up for purchases rather than buying and figuring out how to pay it off later. And he parlayed his planning skills into a career as a financial advisor, eventually being named one of Investopedia’s Top 100 Advisors in 2017.

Kevin is passionate about teaching people - specifically millennials - how to manage their money. In fact, he’s SO passionate about teaching people how to alter their financial lives, he almost missed the birth of his first child in order to make a video about how $2,000 can turn your kids into millionaires! (Spoiler: He made it back to the room in time.)

Kevin wants you to know how to invest, how to manage your money so that you can further yourself down the path to Financial Independence. Kevin has an excellent video called Three ways to get started investing that discusses three ways we’ve never heard of!

Kevin credits consistency in investing with his client’s financial successes. He also believes that patience is the number one thing investors need - a point that’s been hit home so clearly in the past few months - and that a lack of patience is the biggest mistake investors are making today.

Kevin also shares tips for teaching your children about investing to get them used to seeing ups and downs, so they don’t lose their patience when they start investing with real dollars.

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