This week's Morning Meeting is with SDFD Battalion Chief Alan Arrollado. He explains how in his 30+ years of fire service experience, he's seen numerous economic cycles come and go, but the thing that has remained constant is sticking with the fundamentals. Don't buy depreciating assets, build up an emergency fund for when things get tough and invest in companies that pay a dividend. Simple, but not easy...

In his career in the fire service, Chief Arrollado spent a lot of time working in the busy houses, but also served as the President of Local 145 and President of the San Diego City Employees Retirement System. Through his experience, he says the biggest eye opener for him on his path to financial independence was learning how to mitigate risk. 📉

As First Responders, we do a great job of managing risks in the calls we respond to, yet when it comes to our own financial well-being, a lot of us operate without any safety measures in place.

Chief Arrollado says make a financial plan you can stick with and avoid letting "comparison be the thief of joy" by keeping your personal finance, personal. That'll keep you on the path towards financial independence 👣👣👣 You can find more about him on Facebook and Instagram @alanarrollado

This week's FIREhouse Morning Meeting is with SDFD Engineer Casey Martin. Casey has an awesome story of growing up in rough conditions and learning how to succeed when there's no belay system in place. He explains that when you grow up the way he did, you learn quickly that the only way to get yourself out, is to pull yourself up.

Get your mind right and take steps each day to improve. Like he says, "if you aim to improve by just 1% each day, in one year you'll have done a 360"🔄🔥

Martin and Associates is a husband and wife team, but also includes other firefighters all working in the same shop.

You can check him out on Facebook @CaseyMartinRE, on Instagram @CaseyJamesMartin or on their website makeyourmovesd.com Casey is living the American Dream 🇺🇸and I'm excited to see where this all leads for him. Hope you guys enjoy it

The FIREhouse Morning Meeting with Kris VanLeeuwen. Kris has been on the path towards F.I.R.E 🔥 for some time now and he shares his insights on how to achieve it. He takes a simple 4 step approach to achieve his goals:

1. Stay humble-everyone you meet has something you can learn from

2. Stay curious-he calls it his "probie's mindset" where he's constantly trying to learn more

3. Set goals and write them down-start with the end in mind and work backwards from there. By writing them down, you're more likely to achieve them

4. Take action-Go step by step toward those goals 🏃🏻‍♂️        (Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Successful people talks about this very concept!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awjJVzxa7L8

Kris recommends: Mr. Money Mustache's article on The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement: https://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/01/13/the-shockingly-simple-math-behind-early-retirement/

Broad-based index fund investing: https://investor.vanguard.com/mutual-funds/profile/VTSAX

Follow Kris on Facebook @kristopher vanleeuwen or on Instagram @Kristofransleeuwen

"Learn to be happy with what you have while you pursue all that you want" Jim Rohn

I sat down for a Morning Meeting with former SDFD Engineer and current real estate broker Jeff Whittington. Jeff is 3rd generation in the real estate game and has amazing insight. He reminds us that real estate markets move slowly and that in order to be successful, you must do your due diligence, work with a seasoned professional and don't make decisions based on emotion.  Jeff has applied the firefighter mentality of hard work, customer service and integrity to his real estate business to help him grind through difficult situations and push through to other side.  Find them at WhittingtonRE.com, on Facebook @WhittingtonRealEstateTeam and Instagram @Whittington_team

I hope you enjoy it!

This week's Morning Meeting is with SDFD Captain and CTEC certified tax preparer Bo Rynard. He sits down with me to discuss ways to optimize your tax liability.   His group at The San Diego Tax Team sets the record straight on The CARES Act, your 401(k) and other methods for reducing your taxes. They have millions of financial calculators you need to check out!  http://www.sandiegotaxteam.com/blog/tax-payroll-and-personal-finance-calculators/39923  He says that financial literacy is like planting an oak tree; learning about tax responsibility is a huge branch of that tree. 🌱  This one you might need to listen to twice to get all the advice he puts out. ⏮    Hope you enjoy it!  Find them at www.sandiegotaxteam.com or on Facebook at San Diego Tax Team ✅  https://youtu.be/l8kgvWy1QU4

The FIREhouse Morning Meeting with SDFD MAST Investigator James Shadoan. He and I have been business partners since way back when we started on the fire department as partners in the back seat.

Take his advice about how "who we are as FFs, lends itself really well to real estate investing. You didn't earn your seat on Big Red by being mediocre. Take that same mentality when it comes to investing and be intentional on your way towards financial freedom". Just absolutely NAILS IT! 🎯

I basically taught him everything he knows about fighting fire and he's taught me everything he knows about real estate. It's a miracle that either of us are still alive in either industry 😂  In all seriousness, James is a great partner and uses his background in investigation to dig deep to help our business run smoothly.

He recommends: Rich dad, poor dad by Robert Kyosaki and various other Personal Finance podcasts on iTunes or Stitcher if you're looking for more financial education

Hope you guys enjoy!

The FIREhouse Morning Meeting with Paul Lotze. We discuss the state of the US Economy and what it means for firefighters.  Paul is a wealth of knowledge and an all-around good guy. Prior to coming on the job, Paul spent time as a tax strategist and real estate investor/property manager.  We discussed his passion for helping FFs discover the path to financial education and what he's been doing to help ensure our newest generation of folks get set off on the right path in  Post Academy Training... He also gives his perspective on which sectors have big potential upside in this tough economy and where some opportunities might lie.  All this is well and good, but in the end, if more information was all that was needed to succeed, we'd all be millionaires with 6 pack abs 😂You still need to take action