February 05, 2019

The Proven Path to Financial Freedom | Grant Sabatier

1 hour 24 minutes

In today’s episode, Cody and Justin bring you an awesome episode full of philosophical discussion to go along with the background of Grant Sabatier who went from $2.26 in his checking account to $1.25M in 5 years!

Our main hope is you come away with a little more insight into Grant’s brain as we tackle some interesting questions like

Do people optimize too much?

Can a journey to FI be harmful?

Does someone need to know their why?

Is becoming an entrepreneur the answer?

If you enjoyed this episode or want to get to know more about Grant, we encourage you to pick up his new book Financial Freedom today!

Episode Summary

Graduated with philosophy degree

Bounced around 4 jobs after college

Was laid off twice

Spent what money he had going on a big trip to Africa

Ended up back at his parents with $2.26 at age 24

He was also carrying credit card debt

His parents gave him a 3 month time limit to figure things out

This was during 2010

He started googling for books about money and landed on Your Money Or Your Life as well as Automatic Millionaire

Grant realized if he was going to be trading life for money, he became focused on how he could make as much as possible

He sat a goal to make $1M and retire as soon as possible

A few weeks later he discovered Google Mobile Ads as well as a free certification course

He was immediately hired upon completion

He started making $50k

It was until 2.5 years later that he found others on the path to financial independence at a young age

He working extremely hard working 7 days a week most of the time

He started building websites plus flipping VW vans and mopeds, and flipping domains

Today he still has over 800 domains

He began to gain a lot of traction with his main job of managing Google campaigns

He attributes this to understanding how he’s perceived, knowing what value he brings, and understanding what his clients need to do to impress their boss

One tactic he had was actually writing messages for the client to express how this deal would be good for them

Then he talks about how easy it is to see the difference between someone just putting in a lot of hours and those they put out quality work

The discussion then swaps to skills which Grant refers to as the future currency

Also to make sure that you learn skills that may not tie together at surface level like analytics, sales, and coding

Great quote I don’t know how to do that is no longer an excuse in this digital age

He talks about how at 18 when graduating from high school, you simply don’t know what you want to be so a structured plan can be tough but you have a huge opportunity to take risks

He argues that too much personality finance writing is about cutting out things that we enjoy or being too afraid of debt

To worry more about making more money vs stressing about something like student loans

He talks about knowing where you want to go and then focusing on how much you need to make to get there instead of settling on what you think you’re worth

Grant talks about knowing where you want to go and then focusing on how much you need to make to get there instead of settling on what you think you’re worth

He also talks about the risks of climbing the corporate ladder and what that can do to your life and family

Then we talk about over optimizing our lives and our budgets

This ties into how much of our life we miss by not living in the moment and how Americans struggle with this more than some countries

He also admits that he gave up to much life and experiences by being so hyoerfocused on retiring

You can be just as addicted to saving money as someone who is addicted to spending it and both are dangerous

His wish is that everyone who finds themselves in a job they didn’t love would take 6 months off without a concrete plan to discover your passions

Becoming FI in 5 years was extremely stressful for Grant

His hope is that FI helps more people help others

He talks about getting to level 3 of finances being so important which he calls breathing room

Breathing room is 6 months to 1 year of expenses saved and you should focus on that before big trips and experiences and then start exploring life

Then he discusses what worry him even more which are people who are happy enough, that make decent pay but aren’t truly fulfilled

After, we get into a really interesting discussion on how we perceive time differently at different ages because at age 7 we’ve already experienced half of life’s new experiences

Then again at age 26 we find time flying by because we’re at 80% of life experience and how we fill so much more alive when traveling to new destinations

We then swap to the topic of the importance of existing and soaking in life and true happiness while we’re working so hard towards financial freedom

We end our episode talking about working with our spouses and selves to understand what a truly perfect life would look like beyond the number

Key Takeaways

Skills are future currency: Grant speculates that, in the future, our economy will operate in such a fashion where each of us represents our own little “island” of talent. Our skill sets and capabilities will determine how much we earn and succeed. Start learning some new skills and building your future currency net worth!

Take a step back and breathe: After Grant set his goal of accumulating $1.25M, he turned his engine on hyperdrive. If he could turn back time, he says that he would have taken a step back to breathe and to realize all of the freedom he had already created at that moment in time. Enjoy the journey!

Budgets Shouldn’t Restrict You: If you feel extremely deprived on a budget like Grant did, it might not be a great option for you. Instead, get the big things right (housing, transportation, and food) and then spend your money on the things that truly bring you joy. You don’t have to cut out your Starbucks!

Call to Action

Take a step back and look at your life from the outside: Is this the life that you want to be living? If not, what steps can you take to move in the right direction?

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!

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 Episode

Financial Freedom: A Proven Path to All the Money You’ll Ever Need

Millennial Money – Grant’s Blog

Contact Grant:

Twitter: @millennialmoney

Instagram: @financialfreedom

Learn More About Your Hosts:

Fly to FI (Cody’s Blog)

Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

...more

View all episodes

By Cody Berman and Justin Taylor

4.8

296296 ratings