The biggest change has been the uptick in Tara’s business. Tara started a small business right around when Rhett was born, but just recently has started to pump a lot of time and energy into it. Things have gone really well for her and continues to be a good thing for our family. Check out her shop here. 

We refinanced our home.

Mortgage rates continue to drop to record low levels and home prices continue to rise in the area we live in. Our home appreciated $80k in value a year and half after we bought it! The refinance lowered our payment and got rid of PMI. With the renters in our basement, our portion of the mortgage is now only $600 :). Having the smaller payment has allowed us to save more, have more fun and enjoy our home more. Our home has been such a blessing to us. 

Covid-19.

Like everyone in the world, we were highly affected by covid-19. My job at BYU decided to make everyone who could, work from home. Luckily for me, I was already making a plan to work from home before everything went down so I was ready to make it happen. I moved my entire office setup to Tara’s crafts room and have loved being home all the time. Working from home has definitely changed my outlook on my job and the future of my job. I have so much flexibility because of this and I love it! If I want to eat lunch with Tara and the boys, I just walk upstairs and can be back to work at a moment’s notice. I also can work from anywhere in the US. In fact, I took 8 days to go to Idaho and worked from there. One of the bright spots of this dumb virus!

Investments.

Almost all of my investments took a sharp decline because of covid-19 and the subsequent “recession”. In March, I saw most of my investments go negative before bouncing back to new highs this August. The market has been acting strangely in my opinion. It certainly made sense for the market to drop when everything shut down because of the virus, but it didn’t make sense when the market quickly rebounded despite record highs for unemployment. There was definitely a lot of pessimism to go around, but the stock market kept chugging along. Most recently, however, the market took another sharp decline and may continue with the election tomorrow. 

Net worth.

Our net worth has grown since the last time I gave an update. Our home continues to grow in value and our investments rebounded from the downturn. Accounting for our home value minus what we owe plus our current investments + cash, our net worth is now $133,680. Not bad for being negative in early 2017. 

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or any future articles you would like from us, please feel free to leave a comment below, or email us at thefundfamily@gmail.com

Index Funds

My #1 choice for investment strategy relies on index fund and more specifically, total stock market index funds. I buy 2 different index funds called VTI and FZROX. Both are basically the same; they cover the entire stock market in the USA. There are a few reason I choose these funds over everything else.

1. Low Fees
2. They don’t charge commissions to buy
3. I understand them
4. I can manage them myself, without having to pay someone

Low Fees

VTI currently has an expense ratio of .03% and no commissions to trade. The .03% ER makes it so you only pay 30 cents per $1,000. FZROX has zero fees. That’s right, ZERO. Because of that, I’ve started putting most of my money into FZROX.

I have always believed that I am the sole person who will take care of my money the best. I don’t want to trust anyone else with my money because they won’t treat it as carefully as I will. Paying someone else to take care of MY money makes no sense, especially if I can do it for free. Vanguard and Fidelity make that very easy.

Understanding Index Funds

One of the biggest deterrents for people not managing their own investment accounts is their lack knowledge. You could spend loads of time trying to understand yield curves and R squared. I try to stick to some basic truths. JL Collins has the best series on stock market advice. I highly recommend reading his series. I follow the same beliefs and would recommend them to anyone.

There are a couple of things to look for when in index funds. 1. The price.

There are a couple of ways to find the price. You can simply google the ticker name (FZROX) and it should pull up with the current price. Or you can go on the site where you will purchase it and search for it there.

2. Risk Potential.

Stocks are “risky”. When you buy index funds, there is always the chance that you could lose money. My advice would be to go into buying index funds with the idea that you are in for the long-haul. “The market always goes back up” -JL Collins.

3. Portfolio Composition.

It’s always a good thing to know what you are buying before you buy it. The portfolio composition has a list of companies in the fund and a list of categories those companies belong to.

4. Rate of Return.

This may be the most important thing to know! How much money can you make on the index funds that you buy?

If you already own VTI or FZROX, you can look in your portfolio for balances and rate of return:

Active v. Passive Investing

There is much debate over which approach is better. Because I don’t have vast amounts of knowledge on investing strategies, I try to keep it simple. I also don’t plan to use my money anytime soon so I can leave my money invested, without having to worry about it.

These are some of the basics to picking winning investments. This approach has allowed me to grow my net worth in the past 3 years from -$10k to $35k. Not only has it grown $45k, I also get to keep most of it since I am not paying commissions or hefty fees.

I would love to help you start investing! Feel free to email me at thefundfamily@gmail.com or comment on this post. Let me know what you do to invest as well!

The Quadrants

Robert Kiyosaki divides how people earn income into 4 different quadrants. The E stands for employee. S stands self-employed, I stands for investor and B stands for big business. Kiyosaki heavily suggests only doing the B and I quadrants because it allows you freedom. With people or money working for you, you are allowed the opportunity to pursue other things you are passionate about without having to rely on a job.

Building Systems

The biggest point of the entire book is told as a story in the beginning of the book. It tells a story of two people who are given contracts to bring water to a town. The first person gets two buckets and goes to work bringing the buckets to the town every day. They are happy to have the job, but it is a lot of work. The second person disappears for a while and finally comes back with a pipeline that brings water straight to the town without him having to bring the water himself. The pipeline is a business system that worked for the second person. Once his system was set in place, he wasn’t having to work hard every day. He did a lot of work up front, but was able to sit back and enjoy his cashflow after that point.

Being Financially Educated

Kiyosaki’s prior book to the Cashflow Quadrant is called Rich Dad Poor Dad. It is an excellent book that I also recommend. In that book (and in this one) he describes his biological father who is highly educated, but poor financially. His Poor Dad relied heavily on his job and had false beliefs about what it took to be rich. His best friend’s dad was not educated, but a very wealth man. He built businesses that didn’t require him to be there and had investments that had his money working for him. Just like in the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, Cashflow Quadrant drives home the ideas that being financially educated is the most important type of education.

Along the lines of being financially educated, Kiyosaki explains that if you are financially educated, risk becomes less of a factor in your financial decisions. You will start to realize that being on the left side of the quadrant (E and S) are actually the more risky ways to earn income.

Conclusion

There were plenty of “aha” moments for me during this book and it definitely helped open my eyes on certain things. I felt inspired to do things that would help move me from the left side of the quadrant (E and S) to the right side (B and I). It’s not a “how-to” book that is going to lay out exactly what you need to do to start a business, but will help you understand what needs to go on before you create these business systems. It will help you start to become a better business person by changing your mindset now. I feel like it has given me a bunch of ideas on how to move to the B quadrant and the courage to start taking the steps required to get there.

You can buy the book here: https://amzn.to/35SkY9W

To check out my other book reviews, go here.

Avoid Debt.

We hope that this will be something that you guys (our kids) will get sick of hearing from us. Avoiding debt also helps teach important lessons about saving and interest. Our hope is to help them not be “normal” as Dave Ramsey would describe and think of debt as a burden, not a ticket into the “good life”.

Save first, Spend Later.

One of the best things we’ve done with our money, is made our saving automatic. Every month, money is deducted from our accounts and added to our “FU” money accounts and our investment accounts. Every month we do this, our money continues to grow. It has helped us not worry about having enough money to save at the end of the month because it forces us to live off of what is left after saving.

Learn How to Budget.

Budgeting is such a simple thing, but is so easy to overlook. It’s amazing to see the difference between the months when we budget and the months we don’t. Making and keeping to your budget will even make spending money the things you want a lot more fun. It takes away the guilt that can sometimes come with purchases because you know you have planned to spend that money.

Invest.

Investing doesn’t have to be complicated. You can learn a few easy techniques and do it all yourself. Doing it yourself will save you lots of money in the long run because you won’t be paying someone else to do it. Just like with saving, always be putting money away before you spend it. 

Learn to be Frugal.

There will be times in your lives when you won’t have loads of cash. Being frugal is the best way to make your money last a long time. Even when you are making loads of cash, being frugal is an excellent way to keep that cash around. Your mom and I have been through times where we had to stretch every dollar we had. Luckily both of us are naturally frugal people, but it is something that can be learned and perfected. Best way to practice this is to budget.

Always Be Learning.

There is always going to be new things to learn and keep up with, especially when it comes to financial literacy. Your mom and I love to listen to audiobooks to help us stay motivated and on the right path. Never be complacent. 

We hope that this will be something that will be taught in our family by example. Some of the best lessons we have learned in life have been through watching our parents. We will probably make mistakes as we go through our financial paths, but hopefully we can provide you with the best tools to make your own financial path successful. 

We love you!

Mom and Dad

If you follow Dave Ramsey at all, you’ve probably heard him talk about avoiding eating out (“Beans and Rice” ring any bells?). He believes that it’s the most important thing to get rid of when trying to get out of debt. When we were trying to get out of debt, we had a really hard time with this, because we LOVE food and especially food we didn’t have to make ourselves. Although we didn’t eliminate eating out entirely during our debt free journey, we did minimize it as much as possible. We are big believers in Dave Ramsey’s principle to avoid eating out if you are trying to get out of debt and strongly believe you should budget a specific amount every month.

Tara and I have been trying to save more and more money every month for a variety of things. Because of this, we have put our budget under scrutiny over and over to see where we can get better. The “eating out” portion of our budget seems to be the biggest culprit for times we haven’t saved quite as much as we would have liked. To avoid going over budget, we’ve tried a few methods to pinch down on our expenses.

No-Spend Months

One of the best ways to avoid eating out all together is to go on a “no-spend month”. Tara and I have done this a few different times and have always had good results. I wrote an article that details this a little bit more in depth that you can read here.

Having “no-spend months” can be difficult and isn’t our preferred method, despite it’s benefits. To compromise, we came up with a plan to use cash every single time we ate out.

Use Cash

At the start of the month, Tara and I decide on a fixed amount of money that we want to spend on eating out. Once we have this figure in mind, we go to the bank or ATM and withdraw that exact amount. This money can be used at any point during the month, but should only be used for eating out. Once that money is gone, it’s gone and we can’t use any other money to eat out.

Dave Ramsey’s envelope method is very similar to this and has helped countless people. This has been the best method to help curb our overspending. We aren’t perfect at this, but it’s definitely been the best way to help us stick to our budget.

It’s simple tricks like these that sometimes can make the biggest difference to a budget. Eating out is definitely one of those things that can eat into your budget and wreck havoc.

What do you guys do to avoid overspending on eating out? Have you guys tried a similar method? What has or hasn’t worked for you? Leave a comment below. Thanks for reading!

We Bought a House

In October 2018, we bought our first house. We had been saving up for quite a while and were happy to finally find something that fit in our price range. If you haven’t read about how we got our home, read it here.

While our house has been really nice to have, it has also stood as our biggest hindrance to FI. Our mortgage is the biggest expense we have and the only debt we have. Tara and I have talked on multiple occasions and have agreed that paying off our house is our top priority going forward. This follows Dave Ramsey’s baby step 6 and is the second to last baby step.

We’ve done our best to make sure our home is a blessing and not a burden. The best thing we’ve done is remodel our basement to have a mother-in-law apartment that we rent out. This helps offset our mortgage costs and helps us save for other things. To read about the remodel process, go here.

We Invest and Save

Ever since we got married, Tara and I have always had a really high savings rate. After we paid off all of our debt in 2017, we started to invest very seriously too. In total, we invest or save about 30% of our income. Our favorite investment is an index fund called VTI through Vanguard. We use that for our personal investments, as well as for our two sons’ college/mission funds. 

We welcomed another son into our family last week, but have already been saving for his future. It was decided early on that we would start saving for both of them even before they were born. As of right now, we put $50 for each son into Vanguard. My goal is to up that amount to $100 each in a year. We aren’t sure how we want to go about giving our sons that money yet, but are open to suggestions if anyone has them.

I recently discovered a new index fund called FZROX through Fidelity. They are a total stock market index fund just like VTI, but have ZERO fees. I also like how they are only $10 per share, but I’m not sold on moving all my money over to it yet. I will write an article on it soon to go over my experience thus far. 

A big chunk of our saving is going towards FU money. If you don’t know what FU money is, read more about it here. Not only does FU money help in unplanned emergencies, it also gives peace of mind. Tara and I both agree that having a big chunk of cash lying around would feel really nice, so we’ve put a decent amount of money towards that. 

I put our FU money into Marcus for a while until just recently when they lowered their rate from 2.25% to 2.15%. Which I was happy with them for the most part, but another account I had with Wealthfront had just announced that they were offering 2.57%, so I decided to switch over. I still have my account open with Marcus, so I may go back at some point. 

My 401k continues to grow. I put in 5% to get the 4% match. I am not super fond of the investment options that they provide nor the fees they take, but you can’t beat a 4% instant return. My work also provides a free 3.5% of your salary every month that helps out. 

I got a raise at work

In February I got a raise at work. 10% increase. I was pretty excited, especially since I didn’t expect it to be such a big increase. I like what I do at my job a lot and can see myself staying there for 5 more years or so. My work also has a pension plan if you stay for 5 years (I have been there 2.5 years). Plus, they have really good benefits that allows me to have babies without breaking the bank. 

 We cut back spending

A few times this year, Tara and I have had a “no-spend” month. We basically only spend money on the essentials like food and gas for an entire month. We aren’t perfect at this because we often get invited to something like a birthday dinner and don’t want to turn it down. 

These no-spend months help keep our expenses in check. We aren’t typically big spenders anyways, but we do love to eat out. We usually end up with an extra $500-$1,000 the month we do these and we highly recommend trying it!

Passive income and Side hustling

Although this hasn’t had a huge impact, we have started making some money on the side. Our blog has earned about $200 since the start of 2019 and continues to make us a little bit of money. 

Tara started a business selling home-sewn baby clothes called Baby Gowns Co. She launched her business about a month ago and has been able to make decent money.

I have also been referring businesses to a company that processes credit cards for merchant accounts and gives me a portion of every business I refer on a monthly basis. 

Besides saving more FU money, accruing passive income has been our 2nd most priority. Passive income and FI go hand in hand and is one of the fastest ways to get out of the “rat race” and into FI. Hopefully we will have more updates on this to come. 

Net Worth

I’m not totally sure how to calculate our net worth with our house. I’ve seen some people only calculate the debt portion while others subtract the home’s worth by what they owe. For now, I am not going to include our home in our net worth.

Our liquid net worth has grown substantially since we started blogging in 2018. There’s been some market volatility, but that really hasn’t hurt us too much. Plus, having a decent chunk of our money in online savings accounts has made it so they haven’t been touched much. 

We plan on continuing to have increases in our net worth from year to year, just like this year. With our savings rate and compound interest, we will start to grow substantially in the coming years. 

Thanks for reading! We have really enjoyed being able to share our road to FI with you and hope you have enjoyed it too. If you have questions for us, feel free to comment below or email us at thefundfamily@gmail.com. Feel free to share your road to FI as well. 

I really enjoy this book and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to become wealthy in the simplest way possible. Collins lays out complicated things, like investing, into very simple terms and makes it easy to understand. I love everything he teaches and follow it closely. Here’s some of the main points of what he teaches and how we apply it.

Avoid debt

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but is always a good reminder. The main point that JL Collins makes is that debt will seriously inhibit your path to wealth and should be avoided as much as possible. “Carrying debt is as appealing as being covered with leeches, and has much the same effect.”

Build up “FU” money

FU money grants you the ability to have options and to be able to say “no”. This is probably my favorite concept of his. I love the idea of being able to have my options open and a good amount of money set aside.

The market always goes up

The stock market is a volatile but through those years of volatility, it has always managed to go up. If you view your investments as long term, you will be far better off than trying to time the market.

You can invest on your own, without an advisor

Collins suggests investing in Vanguard funds and doing it by yourself. With a little bit of knowledge about index funds, you can easily manage your own portfolio, without having to pay advisors. Collins suggest a total stock market index fund called VTSAX or a similar one (we buy VTI).

This book may be the only book you will ever need to meet your financial needs. It’s simple, yet gives you essential knowledge for wealth building. To buy the book you can find it on audible or with the link below. Leave comments if you have any questions or if you’ve read the book already.

For a long time, Tara and I had a saving account through Chase that we kept our emergency fund in. Having it in there was good because it was immediately accessible, but it had a very low interest rate at .01%. I think over the 4 years the most interest we would accrue was 2 cents a month. I wasn’t super worried about the interest rate because the money wasn’t in there to make money, but about 2 years ago, Tara and I started saving for a down payment. We put that money into an online savings account with Goldman Sachs who has a savings account called Marcus with a 1.5% interest rate, no fees and no minimum balance to earn the interest. After a little while, I started to think of how much our emergency fund could earn if we put it in this Marcus account. The only downside is that the funds wouldn’t be available for 2-3 business days, so Tara and I talked in depth about what sort of emergencies we would need to pay for immediately. We couldn’t think of many that we couldn’t just put on our credit card, pull out the emergency fund money and then apply towards the card in less than three days. I consulted Jacob and my dad beforehand too and they were all in agreeance, so that same day I moved our money to the Marcus account, keeping $500 in the Chase account.

If you don’t use credit cards, having your funds available to you immediately is going to be more important. If you do have credit cards, this might be a good option for you. We use credit cards for travel points anyways, so being able to get those would make it worth it for us.

Why we recommend Marcus

The Marcus account now has a 2.25% APY. In the time I’ve had this account, the percentage rate has gone up almost an entire percentage point and is one of the highest interest rates I can find for an online savings account. When you add on the fact that there are no fees and no account minimum balances to earn the interest, it makes a lot of sense to have this account. Whether you are using it for your emergency fund or just for general savings, we highly recommend Goldman Sach’s Marcus account.

You can sign up for Marcus through the widget on the sidebar, they also recommend Marcus as their top online savings account. Or use this link.

Thanks for reading! If you have any questions, feel free to comment below or send us an email at thefundfamily@gmail.com. Feel free to

We were prepared

Luckily, a few years before, Tara and I had decided that we needed to prepare for something like this to happen. We had started an emergency fund and made sure that it would be enough to sustain us for a few months. This extra money gave us peace of mind and made my job loss a lot less painful.

We knew the emergency fund wouldn’t last and promptly decided that I would need a new ways to make income. The first thing I did was file for unemployment. This was a hard decision for me because there is a stereotype and stigma around unemployment, but this is what the system is for- to temporarily help people who need it. This gave us a portion of the income that we had expected while I was working and helped us while I searched and worked towards a new job.

Tara had a part time job at the time, but was able to pick up a few extra shifts to help with expenses. That extra income was a huge help!

Immediately started looking for new options

It was at this time that I decided that I wanted to explore a new field. The one I had been working in wasn’t what I had hoped it would be and I needed a fresh start. One day, a letter came in the mail advertising a master’s program for web development. I had worked in computers before and it was always something I was interested in and felt good at, so I investigated as to what it would take to get a job in that field. I quickly learned that it was something that didn’t require a specific degree and that I could teach myself how to do it. My dad was instrumental at getting me started on the right path by pointing me to places like freecodecamp.org and codecademy.com. Once he introduced me to these sites, I was hooked. Instead of working 8 hour days, I was studying and practicing code.

Within 3 months of studying, I was introduced to a man who worked at the university nearby. He asked me about what I was studying, the experience I had and told me about the openings they had in the universities IT department. He said that they usually will hire people without a lot of experience and urged me to apply. I had never thought that I would be someone that could get a job at a university, especially having very little experience in that field, but  I followed his advice and applied. After 4 different interviews, I was offered the job with about triple the salary I’d been making at my previous job.

Why being let go was one of the best things to happen to me

This job allowed Tara and I to become debt free, start investing, go on cool vacations and do so much more with our lives. We are about to buy our first house and all this was made possible because I was let go. I look back and think of where I might be today if I had stayed in that job and “comfort zone”, even if it wasn’t something I enjoyed or even wanted, and I can’t help but be grateful for how things have worked out. That is why being let go was one of the best things to happen to me.

Thanks for reading! I would love to hear if you have ever had a similar experience or situation. Leave us a comment below and make sure to follow us on your favorite social media platforms.

Part of becoming financially independent is to create a team around you that will help you achieve success. The purpose of the fund family interviews is to help you get to know people who are doing the right things to become financially independent. Our goal is that you will find people that will inspire you to do better. Their stories will vary, but all will have something to say that will help you in your own personal journey. To see past interviews, go here.

Personal

Today’s interview is with Kesley and Ryan Bench

Name: Kesley and Ryan Bench

Age: 22

Your home location: Provo, Utah

Career/Source of regular income: Kesley: Nanny Ryan: Carpentry

What do you do for fun?  K: I play soccer and read R: Play sports, listening/playing music

Success Tips

What has led to your success?

K:Working hard. But also having people around me who are always supporting me

R: Having goals that I can achieve on a weekly, monthly and yearly basis

Advice to people trying to achieve success?

K: Having a goal at what they are trying to achieve, and then working hard to get it done.

R: Know what you want. Not knowing what you want in life makes it hard to truly have success.

How do you measure success?

K: If I accomplished my goals. Or if I gave my all

R: If you do the best you can and learn as much as you can along the way.

What are your success habits?

K: Always giving it my all

R: I have a schedule that I try to stick to weekly that I have saved on my phone

Financial Independence/Retirement Plans

What does financial independence (FI) mean to you?

K: Being able to have enough income from outside sources that we don’t have to work anymore.

R: I’ll echo what Kesley said and add to spend less than what we make.

Do you have plans for financial independence/retirement?

K: We don’t have a specific goal in mind, but sooner rather than later.

R: I don’t have a goal right now

Why do you want to achieve retirement/financial independence?

K: Because I want to retire early so I can travel, or spend time with family. Without the stress of working.

R: So I can pursue other hobbies and develop my talents in woodworking, piano, etc.

If you had to start over, what’s the most important thing you would focus on?

K: I mean I’m pretty young as it is, but I do wish I would have started saving earlier, even when I was in high school.

R: Invested earlier  

Do you have a budget? If so, how do you implement it?

K: I do, my husband and I use the app EveryDollar and we stick to it every month.

R: Yes, we’ve done it through trial and error, but now it’s a habit.

Do you give to charity? Why or why not? If you do, what percent of time/money do you give?

K & R: Yes we give %10 of our income to our church

That wraps our interview with Kesley and Ryan. If you have questions for them, feel free to comment below. If you are interested in being featured on the fund family interviews, leave us your info on our contact page.