The Financial Independence Show

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by the prolific Jim Dahle from the White Coat Investor. Jim came full circle from a middle-class Alaskan upbringing all the way to a successful physician with a blog that makes over $1M per year!

So how did he get there...

Well, that's what the episode is for so go take a listen, leave that 5-star review and give us some feedback!

Episode Summary

He feels like he made all the same mistakes you’ve heard everyone makes but he did so with small amounts of money and he did so early

After years of feeling like he was getting ripped off, he started reading through finance books at a used book store and was hooked

Then he started getting heavily involved with online forums

He also realized no one was doing this kind of education for doctors so he started White coat investor in 2011

He was a resident at age 29 and making around $37k per year

His first investment ever was $500 into options at age 10 that he got from a fund provided to Alaskan residents and lost every bit

His mom didn’t go to college but his dad was an engineer

They felt like they were middle-class where they didn’t go hungry or anything but after age 18 he was on his own

When he started college he took out a $5k loan for his freshman year but he used that for housing and got scholarships for tuition and would work the rest of the time for expenses

He got married at the end of his undergraduate degree but realized he wasn’t going to really be able to provide at the rate he was at

His wife’s family had a heavy military background so he decided to join the military to pay for his graduate degree in return for four years of active duty but he was able to enter active duty as a captain.

He would make Major just before getting out

His four-year obligation started at age 31 and would end at age 35

While he was on most of the same base pay as other officers he actually made more through incentives which totaled over $36k more per year!

If he would have stayed longer, he could have even had more bonuses but it still wasn’t near what he’d make on the outside

Now back to his forum legacy...He had a prolific amount of posts (10k+) over the course of 7 years with a special focus on physicians and military

His blog, starting in 2011, was actually at almost the exact same time as Mr. Money Mustache

The goal that started the blog was to make money and to help people get a fair shake on Wall Street

To stand up his blog he just taught himself how to build the website from the ground up

Then we transition into the mindset of high income earners such as Doctors

He goes through a few reasons why you find broke physicians

They’re often financially illiterate

They go from no money to too much money overnight

Expectations from coworkers, patients, and family that they should live rich

Huge student loan sums ($400k+)

No real work until ~31 years old

He gives us some rules of thumb to help avoid some of these pitfalls

The first is trying to stay under 1x for college debt

1 times your eventual income. Ex: Eventual income $250k = up to $250k loans are doable but strive for lower obviously

The second is understanding what your potential payments will be based on specialty because the pay can be very different but the school is often the same

With that being said, don’t burn yourself out because then you probably shortened your career length

Then we get deep off into taxes

The first step is just flat out understanding your taxes. You can do this by getting more involved in doing your taxes instead of just offloading it each year.

He calls out how most of these high-income earners aren’t familiar with some retirement accounts such as profit-sharing plans, individual 401ks, defined benefit plan, health savings accounts, and back door Roth IRAs

For Health Savings Accounts employers actually help you out with the contributions it’s tax-free going in, growing, and if you use it for health, when you use it!

Also, don’t forget that health savings accounts can be invested

And if you either forgot or don’t want to use your HSA money when you actually have a health event, you can always use it later as long as you have proof

If your employer's account doesn’t have the investment options you’re looking for, you can always roll it over to the account you really want once a year

It’s also interesting to note that he still does his taxes

Then we discuss his “accidental” rental property because he ended up with the house in 2006 and found himself stuck with it

Then we shift gears into how exactly he turned his blog into such a profitable business

This covers advertising, affiliate marketing, your own products, and selling your own time

To just show his growth, in just 4 years he was making $180k per year and has now grown over $1M per year

Even though he makes more on the blog versus practicing medicine, he still loves his job and wants to keep working at least half time

All that drives home the fact that he feels like he’s already living his ideal life and has no pressure to retire

Key Takeaways

Income doesn't solve all: We try to put a decent focus on earning potential and not just savings rates but this is another example of which one is a must. If you don't have a balanced spending plan, no amount of income will save you as we see with so many high-income earners.

Get your hands dirty: I loved that Jim recommended getting into the weeds with your taxes. Something that important might be handled by someone else on a larger scale but you should absolutely get in there and learn as much as you can to protect yourself.

Retirement isn't everything: It was so awesome to see someone who wasn't even focused on retirement. Coincidence that he's also one of the most successful people in personal finance? I think not. His energy is solely focused on getting better, not getting out.

Call to Action

Figure out a way to increase the aspects of your job you love and minimize the parts that you don't. That could include going off on your own but if that's not you, just focus on doing this within the bounds of your current employment

Join the Community

We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community!

Sign up for our exclusive newsletter

Join our Facebook Group

Leave us a voicemail

Send an email to contact [at] TheFIshow [dot] com

If you like what you hear, please leave a rating/review!

The FI show on iTunes

The FI show on Android

Additional Links

Check out Cody and J's Side Hustle Course!

Contact Jim:

White Coat Investor Facebook

White Coat Investor Twitter

White Coat Investor Blog

Learn More About Your Hosts:

Fly to FI (Cody’s Blog)

Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by the prolific Jim Dahle from the White Coat Investor. Jim came full circle from a middle-class Alaskan upbringing all the way to a successful physician with a blog that makes over $1M per year!

So how did he get there...

Well, that's what the episode is for so go take a listen, leave that 5-star review and give us some feedback!

Episode Summary

He feels like he made all the same mistakes you’ve heard everyone makes but he did so with small amounts of money and he did so early

After years of feeling like he was getting ripped off, he started reading through finance books at a used book store and was hooked

Then he started getting heavily involved with online forums

He also realized no one was doing this kind of education for doctors so he started White coat investor in 2011

He was a resident at age 29 and making around $37k per year

His first investment ever was $500 into options at age 10 that he got from a fund provided to Alaskan residents and lost every bit

His mom didn’t go to college but his dad was an engineer

They felt like they were middle-class where they didn’t go hungry or anything but after age 18 he was on his own

When he started college he took out a $5k loan for his freshman year but he used that for housing and got scholarships for tuition and would work the rest of the time for expenses

He got married at the end of his undergraduate degree but realized he wasn’t going to really be able to provide at the rate he was at

His wife’s family had a heavy military background so he decided to join the military to pay for his graduate degree in return for four years of active duty but he was able to enter active duty as a captain.

He would make Major just before getting out

His four-year obligation started at age 31 and would end at age 35

While he was on most of the same base pay as other officers he actually made more through incentives which totaled over $36k more per year!

If he would have stayed longer, he could have even had more bonuses but it still wasn’t near what he’d make on the outside

Now back to his forum legacy...He had a prolific amount of posts (10k+) over the course of 7 years with a special focus on physicians and military

His blog, starting in 2011, was actually at almost the exact same time as Mr. Money Mustache

The goal that started the blog was to make money and to help people get a fair shake on Wall Street

To stand up his blog he just taught himself how to build the website from the ground up

Then we transition into the mindset of high income earners such as Doctors

He goes through a few reasons why you find broke physicians

They’re often financially illiterate

They go from no money to too much money overnight

Expectations from coworkers, patients, and family that they should live rich

Huge student loan sums ($400k+)

No real work until ~31 years old

He gives us some rules of thumb to help avoid some of these pitfalls

The first is trying to stay under 1x for college debt

1 times your eventual income. Ex: Eventual income $250k = up to $250k loans are doable but strive for lower obviously

The second is understanding what your potential payments will be based on specialty because the pay can be very different but the school is often the same

With that being said, don’t burn yourself out because then you probably shortened your career length

Then we get deep off into taxes

The first step is just flat out understanding your taxes. You can do this by getting more involved in doing your taxes instead of just offloading it each year.

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by Marc from Vital Dollar. Marc's story is so impressive with being able to walk away from his job after just 18 months of blogging.

Even more impressive is the fact that he's shown the ability to repeatedly create, grow, and sell his blogs which have amassed over $1 Million in total revenue.

So listen up and learn how to grow and monetize your digital efforts and hear what it's like to sell a website for over $500k!

After you listen be sure to let us know what you think.

Episode Summary

He was raised by fairly low-income parents but was always raised to take care of what he had

He went to college for business and bible

After college, he wasn’t making much income but started tracking every single purchase and focusing on a plan for retirement

In his late 20's he started swapping his focus from just saving to also increasing his income

In 2007, at age 28, he started doing some web design work and a blog for web design

His only formal education was an HTML class but just kept teaching himself

He didn’t really love client work and focused more on his blog

It took 6 months for the web design blog to make any money

Once he reached a certain traffic count he added ads for a profit

After 18 months, he had enough income to quit his day job

In 2012 he started a photography based blog and sold the web design blog for $500k

We discussed how these six-figure website sales go down

He generally doesn’t bring on employees except for some freelance writers and graphics from time to time

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

We discuss the difficulties of keeping up with things like memberships and invoicing when tech changes get pushed from dependencies like Paypal

For those first two big website sales, he put in the contract that he’d stick around for 30 days to help transition the site to the new owner

He normally keeps one high revenue site while also running two others that can hopefully become money makers and sell the main one as the small ones grow

We then dive into how to select a subject matter for a blog and then how to monetize it

He also discusses how it might be good to start with a service but since it doesn’t scale it’s probably good to look towards a digital course or something

One method he used to earn money early on was to get his product/service into someone else’s email list who already had some established traffic

For investing he keeps most of it in index funds and target funds while also lowering liabilities like his mortgage

Even though he works for himself building websites it still feels like work for him and he looks forward to retiring in 10-15 years with his wife and two kids

Marc’s current spending is about $60k for the family

We asked why he doesn’t just start traveling now since his job is location agnostic but he points out the pains of traveling with kids and spotty internet

He is prepared for when retirement hits though with a big spreadsheet of locations he’s looking to visit including all 59 national parks

Marc’s parting advice is just understanding that it’s going to take time to grow your business but you have to be consistent and be patient

Key Takeaways

Patience: Once you've heard so many experts say something...it's worth taking note. Marc is yet another advocate for being honest with yourself on growth and being consistent with your efforts.

Passions to Paydays: We loved how Marc started his online enterprises with a foundation in something he probably would have written about for free. Passions make that first takeaway of patience so much easier.

Instagram Life Isn't Everything: Marc could absolutely hit the road today. He doesn't need to wait until retirement to work remotely, but he also understands the reality of his family dynamics. It's ok to not be a nomad. Find what works for you.

Call to Action

Really focusing in on patience today. Find a goal that you absolutely  can't complete in less than three months. Now break it down so you have lots of small wins for motivation. Finally, make a chart, checklist, or some form of tracking so you can keep yourself honest.

Join the Community

We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community!

Sign up for our exclusive newsletter

Join our Facebook Group

Leave us a voicemail

Send an email to contact [at] TheFIshow [dot] com

If you like what you hear, please leave a rating/review!

The FI show on iTunes

The FI show on Android

 

Contact Marc:

Vital Dollar Facebook

Vital Dollar Twitter

Vital Dollar Blog

Learn More About Your Hosts:

Fly to FI (Cody’s Blog)

Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by Marc from Vital Dollar. Marc's story is so impressive with being able to walk away from his job after just 18 months of blogging.

Even more impressive is the fact that he's shown the ability to repeatedly create, grow, and sell his blogs which have amassed over $1 Million in total revenue.

So listen up and learn how to grow and monetize your digital efforts and hear what it's like to sell a website for over $500k!

After you listen be sure to let us know what you think.

Episode Summary

He was raised by fairly low-income parents but was always raised to take care of what he had

He went to college for business and bible

After college, he wasn’t making much income but started tracking every single purchase and focusing on a plan for retirement

In his late 20's he started swapping his focus from just saving to also increasing his income

In 2007, at age 28, he started doing some web design work and a blog for web design

His only formal education was an HTML class but just kept teaching himself

He didn’t really love client work and focused more on his blog

It took 6 months for the web design blog to make any money

Once he reached a certain traffic count he added ads for a profit

After 18 months, he had enough income to quit his day job

In 2012 he started a photography based blog and sold the web design blog for $500k

We discussed how these six-figure website sales go down

He generally doesn’t bring on employees except for some freelance writers and graphics from time to time

It’s not all sunshine and rainbows.

We discuss the difficulties of keeping up with things like memberships and invoicing when tech changes get pushed from dependencies like Paypal

For those first two big website sales, he put in the contract that he’d stick around for 30 days to help transition the site to the new owner

He normally keeps one high revenue site while also running two others that can hopefully become money makers and sell the main one as the small ones grow

We then dive into how to select a subject matter for a blog and then how to monetize it

He also discusses how it might be good to start with a service but since it doesn’t scale it’s probably good to look towards a digital course or something

One method he used to earn money early on was to get his product/service into someone else’s email list who already had some established traffic

For investing he keeps most of it in index funds and target funds while also lowering liabilities like his mortgage

Even though he works for himself building websites it still feels like work for him and he looks forward to retiring in 10-15 years with his wife and two kids

Marc’s current spending is about $60k for the family

We asked why he doesn’t just start traveling now since his job is location agnostic but he points out the pains of traveling with kids and spotty internet

He is prepared for when retirement hits though with a big spreadsheet of locations he’s looking to visit including all 59 national parks

Marc’s parting advice is just understanding that it’s going to take time to grow your business but you have to be consistent and be patient

Key Takeaways

* Patience: Once you've heard so many experts say something...it's worth taking note. Marc is yet another advocate for being honest with yourself on growth and being consistent with your efforts.

* Passions to Paydays: We loved how Marc started his online enterprises with a foundation in something he probably would have written about for free. Passions make that first takeaway of patience so much easier.

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by Cody's very own mom Ruth Berman! We wanted to do something special for Mother's Day this year and we think this interview hits the mark regardless of the holiday.

We cover her origins and the unique jobs she and her own parents had. Then, we spend a good bit of time discussing how to raise children in a matter that makes them both savvy and comfortable with money. We think there's a ton of great nuggets in there for parents.

Finally, we discuss some of the ways she's diversifying her income streams and maximizing every dollar. Ruth doesn't see retirement coming anytime soon but she's making some fantastic money moves.

If that doesn't sell you then stick around to possibly catch some dirt on Cody! After you listen be sure to let us know what you think.

Episode Summary

Raised by parents who were older (41 / 57) when they had her

They went through the great depression which really impacted the families relationship with money

Her parents taught her about savings and opened up all the kids' savings accounts

Her mom stayed at home and her dad was a Christmas tree farmer

Since money only came in one little part of the year, they had to be good at budgeting

Ruth was always incredibly frugal because of this

Her first real job was manual printing press work in someone's basement

She started college for music and then swapped to nutrition and massage therapy

Her parents paid for college but she did pay them back $10k

As a follow on to college she had jobs as an exercise therapist and health screener

She had Cody at age 30 while her job as a massage therapist

Ruth discovered investing a few years prior where you would just pick out stocks and fill out a form and mail that check-in... what?

Then we transition into how to raise financially responsible kids.

Her first tip is to simply lead by example.

Cody and his brother knew when they went to the store that they were headed to the clearance section.

She also tried to put incentives on learning in order to learn things like screen time.

Ruth also came up with all kinds of creative games to promote exercise and learning even if it's just for a few pennies..kids will still do it!

She says she has some mixed feelings on allowances if they're not gained through doing some kind of chore

Cody also talks about how his dad would match anything he was willing to save.. don't we wish our 401k was like that?

Ruth is now finding all these amazing health surveys like wearing an Apple watch and sleep studies which pay $2k & $7k respectively

These kind of random income streams are one reason she has no fears that Cody will be just fine despite quitting his job

She is also keeping her big costs low by renting out part of her house and running that house on solar power

Then we start discussing how to handle your kids' college tuition bills

Cody and his brother decided on their own to skip going to a private school and hit the state school instead which was a huge sigh of relief

Ruth then opens up about going through her divorce and the personal transformation following it

She didn't know how anything worked or how any of the bills were paid prior to the divorce

But she just kept trying new things and learning and has become more and more independent

Justin tries to pull some dirt out on Cody from Ruth but Easter egg thievery was about the best we could do...but Cody may have warned her ha

Looking back she wishes she would have saved more earlier, built a smaller house, and went into medical research

Ruth thinks she'll keep working for the foreseeable future but hopes to back off the 40 hour weeks after age 60 and increase the side hustles

Key Takeaways

Try, Fail, Repeat: Ruth found herself with a lot of new responsibilities after the divorce. She could have tried to throw money at them but instead, she tried to do them herself. It wasn't always pretty but she always learned and eventually had a new skill.

Lead By Example: Whether your raising kids or just trying to teach a friend about money, you'll need to practice what you preach.

Growth Mindset: You can either have a growth or a fixed mindset. A growth mindset means that you believe you can grow your skillset through hard work and dedication.

Call to Action

Whether it's your own children or through some volunteer program, find a young person out there and help raise the bar on their financial education!

Join the Community

We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community!

Sign up for our exclusive newsletter

Join our Facebook Group

Leave us a voicemail

Send an email to contact [at] TheFIshow [dot] com

If you like what you hear, please leave a rating/review!

The FI show on iTunes

The FI show on Android

 

Contact Ruth

Send Ruth an Email!

Learn More About Your Hosts:

Fly to FI (Cody’s Blog)

Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by Cody's very own mom Ruth Berman! We wanted to do something special for Mother's Day this year and we think this interview hits the mark regardless of the holiday.

We cover her origins and the unique jobs she and her own parents had. Then, we spend a good bit of time discussing how to raise children in a matter that makes them both savvy and comfortable with money. We think there's a ton of great nuggets in there for parents.

Finally, we discuss some of the ways she's diversifying her income streams and maximizing every dollar. Ruth doesn't see retirement coming anytime soon but she's making some fantastic money moves.

If that doesn't sell you then stick around to possibly catch some dirt on Cody! After you listen be sure to let us know what you think.

Episode Summary

Raised by parents who were older (41 / 57) when they had her

They went through the great depression which really impacted the families relationship with money

* Her parents taught her about savings and opened up all the kids' savings accounts

* Her mom stayed at home and her dad was a Christmas tree farmer

* Since money only came in one little part of the year, they had to be good at budgeting

* Ruth was always incredibly frugal because of this

* Her first real job was manual printing press work in someone's basement

* She started college for music and then swapped to nutrition and massage therapy

* Her parents paid for college but she did pay them back $10k

* As a follow on to college she had jobs as an exercise therapist and health screener

* She had Cody at age 30 while her job as a massage therapist

* Ruth discovered investing a few years prior where you would just pick out stocks and fill out a form and mail that check-in... what?

* Then we transition into how to raise financially responsible kids.

* Her first tip is to simply lead by example.

* Cody and his brother knew when they went to the store that they were headed to the clearance section.

* She also tried to put incentives on learning in order to learn things like screen time.

* Ruth also came up with all kinds of creative games to promote exercise and learning even if it's just for a few pennies..kids will still do it!

* She says she has some mixed feelings on allowances if they're not gained through doing some kind of chore

* Cody also talks about how his dad would match anything he was willing to save.. don't we wish our 401k was like that?

* Ruth is now finding all these amazing health surveys like wearing an Apple watch and sleep studies which pay $2k & $7k respectively

* These kind of random income streams are one reason she has no fears that Cody will be just fine despite quitting his job

* She is also keeping her big costs low by renting out part of her house and running that house on solar power

* Then we start discussing how to handle your kids' college tuition bills

* Cody and his brother decided on their own to skip going to a private school and hit the state school instead which was a huge sigh of relief

* Ruth then opens up about going through her divorce and the personal transformation following it

* She didn't know how anything worked or how any of the bills were paid prior to the divorce

* But she just kept trying new things and learning and has become more and more independent

* Justin tries to pull some dirt out on Cody from Ruth but Easter egg thievery was about the best we could do...but Cody may have warned her ha

* Looking back she wishes she would have saved more earlier, built a smaller house, and went into medical research

* Ruth thinks she'll keep working for the foreseeable future but hopes to b...

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by Bobby Hoyt from Millennial Money Man.  Bobby started off as a music teacher but today is changing lives with his wildly popular Facebook Ads course that the FI Show guys have seen change lives first hand.

In that course, Bobby teaches people how to contract yourself out to businesses and run their Facebook marketing. We're talking $1k+ per month of income with Bobby's first job himself bringing in $3k per month. Somewhere in between teaching band and teaching ads, he realized he had to be his own boss.

Now go take a listen to Bobby's story and see how he pulled off such an amazing transition.

Episode Summary

Bobby didn't talk about money at all with his parents growing up

His dad was an engineer and his mom was a secretary

He said he didn't care about money and all and ended up choosing to be a music major in college

He graduated with $40k in student debt

His big goal after college was to buy a new Camaro

A family friend of his who owned a pool installation business started mentoring him one day on debt payoff and general finance and because the friend was wealthy, Bobby really took it to heart

When he first started teaching music he really loved it

By year 3 of teaching, he knew he wanted to work for himself that teaching began to be a drag on him

He toyed with the idea of also starting a pool business but instead started putting a lot of effort into his blog

His main focus with the blog was focusing on living below your means and student loan debt

He was doing some extreme house hacking by renting a room from his in-laws

He realized he had about $50k saved up, which was about three years of expenses, and that's when he took the leap of full-time blogging

His first six months were pretty scary with not earning hardly any money

Their jeweler came across his blog and mentioned he needed someone to help him with his marketing and hired Bobby at $3k per month

He got discovered by CNBC which really pushed his blog

He had installed the Facebook pixel days before that story went live and that allowed him to make lookalike  audiences

Those audiences really helped him market to the right people and started making a couple of grand per month off the blog

He's always tried to really focus on a personal connection with his audience vs simply numbers

He admits he waited far too long to hire on help because he was getting really overwhelmed

Bobby admits he actually let his mental and physical health take a downturn with the overload

Now that his business has taken off so successfully he has plenty of money so while not wasting tons of money he also isn't super frugal

He also realizes that as an entrepreneur he can't guarantee his future income so when he does want something nicer he buys it in cash so monthly expenses aren't a problem

Bobby doesn't really see himself retiring anytime soon and looks to continue growing the business

He's now doing courses to help others get into the business of doing Facebook ads for local business so you too can step away from the grind

His last remarks are about letting people pass you up and by that he means while you're grinding and saving you'll see those around you spending money and seemingly passing you but you'll slingshot past them soon enough

Key Takeaways

We need to reach the youth: Bobby made a decision to go follow his passion. Which is fine, but he didn't do so considering all the implications, such as the financial ones. We have to reach out and introduce these topics to the high school age kids to at least make it a consideration.

Prep makes bold easy: It seems super bold to walk away from your job to try and be your own internet boss. No doubt it's bold but it's a lot easier when you've prepped and saved three years of living expenses just in case things don't pan out.

Learn, refine, monetize: First you have to find a new skill, preferably one you're really passionate about. Then you need to work towards becoming the expert, steadily refining your skills. Then you monetize it whether it's through providing the service or teaching others.

Call to Action

The call to action this week is to consider some premium content. Whether it's Bobby's course or some other content designed to make you happier or wealthier. Try to find reviews from folks you can trust and invest in yourself!

Join the Community

We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community!

Sign up for our exclusive newsletter

Join our Facebook Group

Leave us a voicemail

Send an email to contact [at] TheFIshow [dot] com

If you like what you hear, please leave a rating/review!

The FI show on iTunes

The FI show on Android

 

Links from the Show:

Millennial Money Man

Facebook Ads Course

Laptop Empires Podcast

Contact Bobby

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

Learn More About Your Hosts:

Fly to FI (Cody’s Blog)

Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by Bobby Hoyt from Millennial Money Man.  Bobby started off as a music teacher but today is changing lives with his wildly popular Facebook Ads course that the FI Show guys have seen change lives first hand.

In that course, Bobby teaches people how to contract yourself out to businesses and run their Facebook marketing. We're talking $1k+ per month of income with Bobby's first job himself bringing in $3k per month. Somewhere in between teaching band and teaching ads, he realized he had to be his own boss.

Now go take a listen to Bobby's story and see how he pulled off such an amazing transition.

Episode Summary

Bobby didn't talk about money at all with his parents growing up

His dad was an engineer and his mom was a secretary

He said he didn't care about money and all and ended up choosing to be a music major in college

He graduated with $40k in student debt

His big goal after college was to buy a new Camaro

A family friend of his who owned a pool installation business started mentoring him one day on debt payoff and general finance and because the friend was wealthy, Bobby really took it to heart

When he first started teaching music he really loved it

By year 3 of teaching, he knew he wanted to work for himself that teaching began to be a drag on him

He toyed with the idea of also starting a pool business but instead started putting a lot of effort into his blog

His main focus with the blog was focusing on living below your means and student loan debt

He was doing some extreme house hacking by renting a room from his in-laws

He realized he had about $50k saved up, which was about three years of expenses, and that's when he took the leap of full-time blogging

His first six months were pretty scary with not earning hardly any money

Their jeweler came across his blog and mentioned he needed someone to help him with his marketing and hired Bobby at $3k per month

He got discovered by CNBC which really pushed his blog

He had installed the Facebook pixel days before that story went live and that allowed him to make lookalike  audiences

Those audiences really helped him market to the right people and started making a couple of grand per month off the blog

He's always tried to really focus on a personal connection with his audience vs simply numbers

He admits he waited far too long to hire on help because he was getting really overwhelmed

Bobby admits he actually let his mental and physical health take a downturn with the overload

Now that his business has taken off so successfully he has plenty of money so while not wasting tons of money he also isn't super frugal

He also realizes that as an entrepreneur he can't guarantee his future income so when he does want something nicer he buys it in cash so monthly expenses aren't a problem

Bobby doesn't really see himself retiring anytime soon and looks to continue growing the business

He's now doing courses to help others get into the business of doing Facebook ads for local business so you too can step away from the grind

His last remarks are about letting people pass you up and by that he means while you're grinding and saving you'll see those around you spending money and seemingly passing you but you'll slingshot past them soon enough

Key Takeaways

* We need to reach the youth: Bobby made a decision to go follow his passion. Which is fine, but he didn't do so considering all the implications...

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by Robert from The College Investor.  Robert has been sharpening his money making skills since elementary school and hasn't let up one bit.

Robert used his career at Target as the foundation of his financial journey but always looked to expand his income streams through investing and side hustles. At a point, he realized how much bad advice there was out there for young people looking to build wealth, especially around debt pay off and investing so he started his own blog to help out.

Now go take a listen to Robert's self-made story and follow along with the show notes below.

Episode Summary

Robert was making money from day one by selling candy bars on the playground

He even helped his dad with his taxes on old school Quicken

His dad was in the Navy and then a defense contractor and his mom was a city government employee

So his jump into entrepreneurship wasn’t seen as natural by his parents

Robert started working at Target at 16 and stayed there while getting his undergrad degree

He ended up working at target for 17 years

Robert graduated with a political science degree after quitting a computer science program

While he had a lengthy standard career, he’s always had side hustles

One of his favorites is flipping deals or finding undervalued items at estate sales

At 20 he started playing  in the stock market with just a few hundred bucks and had really good returns even though he didn’t really know what he was doing

He started his blog in 2009 at age 24 and had some inspiration from Get Rich Slowly

He and his wife were able to put a significant down payment a year later on a house because they had been living with their parents until they got married

When he finished college he did have $43k in student loans but they paid them off in 3.5 years

The house that they bought was a fixer and bought it at a fantastic time with the housing crash so they came out really well on that one

Robert credits his ability to handle 17 years at one business was because he had pretty good luck with great managers for most of his career

He worked from pushing carts all the way to a store manager going from just over minimum wage to making close to $200k per year

Then we shift to things people can do to help themselves get hired from his experience as a manager

He points to communication as the number one and problem solving as the number two most critical pieces when interviewing

Robert highlights how young people have more communication than any group in history but don’t have as much experience with one on one communication

Then we jump into healthcare and how that’s different working for yourself vs working for a company

He reminds us that it’s really not that different it just means your premium isn’t being subsidized

Then we get into some side tangents to minimalism and organization.

His final thoughts are related to making a conscious effort to raise your income instead of only focusing on saving

Key Takeaways

Bloom where planted: Robert didn't work his way up to some new exciting tech start-up. He started pushing carts at Target. Then, he went and turned that into a lucrative managerial position through hard and smart work over time. He made the most of his situation.

Know your path: Robert's story is pretty awesome in regards to increasing his income so much at a company. It's important to keep in mind what your growth potential at a business is. When looking for jobs, don't simply focus on the starting salary. Dig into what your potential for growth is.

Live like no one else: One of the biggest life-changing moments Robert has was living at home a little longer. This allowed him to save aggressively, have a down-payment ready for a house at one of the best times in U.S. history, and start his financial journey off on a solid foundation. He could have moved out at 18 and found an overpriced luxury apartment to have some extra fun, but instead, he made the wise calculated decision and will forever reap the rewards.

Call to Action

The call to action this week is improving your soft skills, especially communication. No matter how remote or automated our workforce may seem to get, interpersonal communication will always be a powerful tool.

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Learn More About Your Hosts:

Fly to FI (Cody’s Blog)

Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

In today's episode, Cody and Justin are joined by Robert from The College Investor.  Robert has been sharpening his money making skills since elementary school and hasn't let up one bit.

Robert used his career at Target as the foundation of his financial journey but always looked to expand his income streams through investing and side hustles. At a point, he realized how much bad advice there was out there for young people looking to build wealth, especially around debt pay off and investing so he started his own blog to help out.

Now go take a listen to Robert's self-made story and follow along with the show notes below.

Episode Summary

Robert was making money from day one by selling candy bars on the playground

He even helped his dad with his taxes on old school Quicken

His dad was in the Navy and then a defense contractor and his mom was a city government employee

So his jump into entrepreneurship wasn’t seen as natural by his parents

Robert started working at Target at 16 and stayed there while getting his undergrad degree

He ended up working at target for 17 years

Robert graduated with a political science degree after quitting a computer science program

While he had a lengthy standard career, he’s always had side hustles

One of his favorites is flipping deals or finding undervalued items at estate sales

At 20 he started playing  in the stock market with just a few hundred bucks and had really good returns even though he didn’t really know what he was doing

He started his blog in 2009 at age 24 and had some inspiration from Get Rich Slowly

He and his wife were able to put a significant down payment a year later on a house because they had been living with their parents until they got married

When he finished college he did have $43k in student loans but they paid them off in 3.5 years

The house that they bought was a fixer and bought it at a fantastic time with the housing crash so they came out really well on that one

Robert credits his ability to handle 17 years at one business was because he had pretty good luck with great managers for most of his career

He worked from pushing carts all the way to a store manager going from just over minimum wage to making close to $200k per year

Then we shift to things people can do to help themselves get hired from his experience as a manager

He points to communication as the number one and problem solving as the number two most critical pieces when interviewing

Robert highlights how young people have more communication than any group in history but don’t have as much experience with one on one communication

Then we jump into healthcare and how that’s different working for yourself vs working for a company

He reminds us that it’s really not that different it just means your premium isn’t being subsidized

Then we get into some side tangents to minimalism and organization.

His final thoughts are related to making a conscious effort to raise your income instead of only focusing on saving

Key Takeaways

* Bloom where planted: Robert didn't work his way up to some new exciting tech start-up. He started pushing carts at Target. Then, he went and turned that into a lucrative managerial position through hard and smart work over time. He made the most of his situation.

* Know your path: Robert's story is pretty awesome in regards to increasing his income so much at a company. It's important to keep in mind what your growth potential at a business is. When looking for jobs, don't simply focus on the starting salary. Dig into what your potential for growth is.

* Live like no one else: One of the biggest life-changing moments Robert has was livi...