Today’s interview is with Josh who blogs at Money Life Wax. I’ve followed his blog for about a year now and I’m so happy that he agreed to do our interview! If you haven’t already, I highly recommend following his blog. To read previous interviews, click here.

Personal

Name: Josh Hastings

Age: 32

Your home location: Loudoun County, Virginia (Northern, Virginia)

Career/Source of regular income: High School Teacher & my wife is a Physical Therapist

What do you do for fun?  Anything outside that is active, work out, read, social get togethers and anything WVU related.

Success Tips

What has led to your success?

The definition of success truly varies person to person, but if you look it up, success refers to the accomplishment of a purpose, desired aim or goal. So while many regard popularity and even financial achievement as success, for me the definition of success is different. Living a life of purpose, spending time with the people I care about and having the freedom of choice is success to me. This lose definition has resulted in putting a large amount of effort towards my wife and I’s financial well being.

Since November 2016, when we had $261,000 in student loan debt, we have been able to reduce that number to $114,000. The reason? Our WHY is stronger than ever and we know exactly what we are going after.  

Advice to people trying to achieve success?

For someone looking to accomplish anything, whether it is something simple or really complex, first realize that if it matters to you it matters! What I mean by that is sometimes we end up in a never ending cycle of comparison that ultimately leads to never achieving “Success,” no matter how you define it.

So the biggest factor when it comes to your success, don’t ever compare yourself.

How do you measure success?

Just my opinion, but financially speaking you can measure success when you reach a goal. However, in most areas of our lives is success really even quantifiable? Success is forever fleeting, but in a good way. If you have a goal of  paying off your debt and you do, well then you’re successful by your standards. Chances are that after you reach that success, you will want more, hence the fleeting part.

What are your success habits?

Some of the success habits I have include reading daily, writing down my affirmations every morning as if I have already accomplished my goals, doing something daily to move my future forward and uplifting at least one other.

I also workout 4-5x per week, which is actually more of a reward. Bookending my days is something I am working on, but having a plan and setting daily goals is something that keeps me on the up and up. Lastly, write down your 5 biggest wants in life.

Financial Independence/Retirement Plans

What does financial independence (FI) mean to you?

Financial independence to me is ability to say yes to your desires, wants and needs, instead of no. What I mean by that is if you just need $50,000 a year to live happily ever after and you have an income stream that you control that can do that, well then you’re financially independent.

To further elaborate, being debt free, owning a few passive income streams and not having money impact every decision you make, aka the ability to say yes more is financial independence.

Do you have plans for financial independence/retirement?

When my wife and I are asked about the early retirement thing I always say this: At the moment we love what we do and we enjoy teaching (me) and being a physical therapist (her). However, that being said we do want to get to a financial independence level where we have met our number, paid off our debt and created several passive income streams.

Nowhere does it say you have to be jobless to be financially independent. However, having the option to stay home with kids or even work on a part time level is a nice fall back plan.

Why do you want to achieve retirement/financial independence?

We all have one life to live. You have to sit and ask yourself is what you’re currently doing truly making you happy and are you living a life on purpose? If the answer is yes, then keep doing what you’re doing.

If that answer is no, well then why are you doing it? Financial independence allows you to make choices and decisions based on what you want to do that align with your values.

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

Wow, what a deep question. I am very grateful for everything that has occured in my life because I look at it all as a learning lesson. So I wouldn’t change anything. That being said, if I could tell my 18 year old self it would be this:

1. Grow and scale an internet business and put 50+ hours a week into it
2. Workout more in college and learn as much as possible
3. Invest early and often
4. Live at home longer
5. Have an 80% save goal from 18 to 26

What tips do you have for others who want to grow their income?

Just do something. That is where everything starts when it comes to money. While many might be stuck in their own head figuring out “What” and “How,” in reality, just go do something. Set a goal to make $75 selling some old junk.

Set another goal to make $100 and do it. Taking action will place you on a path of moving forward. You can start by making a goal to earn $500 extra per month, then look to grow that monthly.

Do you have any sources of income besides your career? If so, can you list them?

Full time I am a teacher in my 10th year, my wife is in her 5th year as a physical therapist. Outside of that we own an LLC that houses a digital marketing company that works with 1-2 clients and our blog Money Life Wax. Additionally, I have done some exterior home sales and business consulting. Our long term goal is to scale our LLC and invest in several rental properties.

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

YES! We have a budget that is pretty strict and includes all of our fixed and variable expenses. We just set out goals and use credit cards to track. For example we have a gas card, a food card and a spending card. As long as we stay below those limits we know we are on our budget! I only recommend this approach if you know you have the discipline to make it happen!

What is your investment philosophy/plan?

This might sound cliche, but start with investing in yourself. Recognizing the fact that 9 in 10 lose money playing individual stocks I would say invest in yourself first. After you invest in yourself (Paying off debt, starting a business, etc) then look into real estate and other investment sources.

Our philosophy: Pay off all immediate debt aside from mortgage. Max out 401K with matching, use all raises to further make 403/401 contributions. Once debt is gone, invest in life insurance policies, stock index funds.

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

We give money to the church we go to and from time to time we donate to specific causes. For example, we gave a $100 check to a school event raising money for wounded 1st Responders. Our personal belief is to be in a financial position to say Yes when asked about donations we care about. Additionally, we volunteer several times a year helping the less fortunate.

Our charity belief system is to get in a financial position where we can give away 20% of our income. For us, this means paying off our debt!

Other comments:

At the end of the day do whatever makes you happy when it comes to money. Just don’t justify or rationalize your current position because of things that have happened to you in the past or already occured.
Enough clever rationalization will keep you right where you’re at, which for many is just good enough. But there is a great life out there waiting for all of us, we just have to put some action in to find it. Focus on earning, saving and stop making money so darn complicated… it’s not!

PERSONAL

Name: Phil and Hannah Kirkeiner

Age: 25 & 21

Your home/airport location: We’re both from Fishers, IN, but currently live in Provo, UT. So our go-to airports are IND & SLC

Career/Source of regular income: I’ve sold pest control during the last two summers to pay for school and trips, and then Hannah works part-time during the school year performing at ComedySportz and ImprovBroadway which are improv comedy clubs in Provo. Besides that we make a few grand a year by taking advantage of bank account bonuses like the ones you can find on Bankbonus.co.

GENERAL TRAVEL

Why do you like to travel?

Travelling is awesome because (1) it motivates me to take action, (2) it’s exciting, and (3) the memories last longer.

I didn’t travel much outside of the Midwest growing up. So to think of California, Europe, Asia, Central America, as real places that I could actually get up and go see whenever I wanted was completely foreign to me. But then I served a mission in Honduras and I could not BELIEVE how different it was from everything I had experienced before! And then ever since I got home I looked at other places on the map and decided I could just GO if I wanted to. And I did, and have since been to loads of places by myself and now with my wife. So basically travelling is a constant reminder that nothing is stopping me from going where I want to go both literally and figuratively. Plus, when you travel with friends the memories last forever and the bond is a lot stronger than when you just hang out at home or in class. I love it.

Where have you been? What was your favorite vacation?

We recently wrapped up a 2 month trip to Europe which was an absolute dream! We travelled through 11 countries – Iceland, then Scotland, England, Spain, France, Switzerland, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia, and finally Italy. We went this last summer from early July to late August after having worked hard the previous few months before.

We lived on a very modest budget, often in private rooms through Airbnb and hostels. Occasionally in more expensive places like Iceland we camped or slept in our rental car. This trip was unique in that we did not plan the whole thing out beforehand, we only planned about a week ahead of time. When we started out we had our flights to Europe and back booked with points but nothing in between was set besides our first night in Iceland and our rental car for that week.

Each place was unique but we especially liked Iceland, Menorca (one of the Balearic islands off Spain), and everywhere in Switzerland. In Iceland we rented a cheap car from Sixt and drove around the whole island. My word, the landscape is impressive. Like a dream. Then Menorca had the clearest, bluest beaches we’ve ever seen. Tucked in the Mediterranean, there were no big waves like you’d see against the Atlantic of Pacific. The beaches there weren’t what you’re used to, either. Each beach was part of a rock-walled cove that jutted inland about a hundred yards or so. It was so cool. Then Switzerland just is gorgeous everywhere, the Alps are blanketed green with beautiful, sharp rock peaks. We stayed in Switzerland for a total of about 10 days, it was the bomb.

That was the most recent trip which was awesome, but in the past we’ve gone to California for fun since it’s close to Utah, Arizona for weddings and whatnot, Costa Rica for our honeymoon, and I went back to Honduras just before we got married. I also did a study abroad in Spain a few years ago which was fun.

What vacations do you have planned? As of now we don’t really have anything set because we got pretty burnt out after Europe, haha. But we have a lot of Southwest points to redeem so next year we want to go to a lot of these places:

• Washington, DC (Hannah’s been a million times but I’ve never been, crazy right?)
• Boston
• Washington & Oregon (we are considering living there after Hannah graduates)
• Cancun, Mexico (we have some hotel rewards we want to redeem)
• Caribbean cruise out of Fort Lauderdale (hopefully whatever job after December graduation is flexible so I have is flexible so we can do that!)

We also go back to Indiana a few times per year to see family!

What’s your dream vacation?

My dream vacation is to island hop in the Pacific on a small plane, where I can scuba dive all over the place and stay in fancy hotels with loads of steak. Hannah’s dream vacation is to hike to base camp at Mount Everest.

TIPS

What advice would you give to people wanting to travel more?

We firmly believe that pretty much anyone can afford travel, regardless of your circumstances . The only difference between those who travel and those who don’t is their priorities. Just make it happen.

How do you afford your travel?

We work hard in the summers with sales to afford life’s necessities, and then get flights for free through credit card signup bonuses. We also use bank bonuses to fund experiences like boat rides and whatnot while were travelling.

What are some ways you’ve learned to save money while traveling?

Hannah actually wrote a little blog post about this on her blog.

Do you prefer to travel domestically or internationally?

Lately it’s seemed like we prefer international travel but there’s a ton to do here in the US. Next year we plan to spend a lot more time exploring our own country before going off to anywhere super crazy.

SPECIFICS

Do you have a favorite airline?

Southwest is our best friend for traveling in and around the U.S. We’ve collected enough points to earn the coveted “companion pass” which cuts the cost of every traveling in HALF because gets my wife on any flight I’m taking for free. We also love the flexibility that comes with booking with points because it allows us to book a flight months in advance on a whim when we get a trip idea, then if we get closer to the date and realize the trip isn’t gonna work out, we can cancel without any repercussions or fees.

Hotel or AirBnB?

AirBnB 100%. We like to travel as thrifty as possible so we love AirBnBs for their kitchens. The first thing we do when we get to our destination is find a grocery store and stock up on simple, easy, and cheap meals we can pack for the day and cook for dinner.

Rental car or public transportation?

We always end up getting a rental car for at least some of our trip. Public transportation is AWESOME, but sometimes it doesn’t cut it when you wanna go off and take a day trip to something out of the way of the city. Plus, when we get rental cars, we know we always have the option of sleeping in the back seat when money gets tight haha. And sometimes if you run the numbers, getting a rental car is cheaper than paying for two people’s public transport anyway (ESPECIALLY if you intend to use a lot of Ubers or Lyfts)

What’s your least favorite part about traveling?

It’s always so hard to openly complain about aspects of traveling because “how can you complain when you’re living the dream?!” That being said… traveling cheap is pretty uncomfortable sometimes. Carrying stuff with you, not ever feeling *really* satisfied after a meal, sleeping in hot rooms with no AC, worrying about your stuff being safe — it gets annoying after awhile. That said, it obviously doesn’t outweigh the rest of the experience!

What do you do in between traveling while waiting for your next trip?

Well we’re both students sooo a lot of homework haha. It always takes a week or so to get the travel itch back after a big adventure, but as soon as we’ve finally fallen back into some semblance of a stable routine we find ourselves planning our next trip. // Travel… haha we live in, arguably, the most beautiful state in the country so when we’re not jetting off to other states or countries, we’re exploring our own state.

MISCELLANEOUS

Tell us about your new website, www.bankbonus.co

It’s a pretty simple concept – banks want new customers so they incentive people with cash to open a checking account with them. Bankbonus.co helps people take advantage and make lots of free money.

What Bankbonus.co does is compile every checking account promotion in the country and allow you to search and filter through the promotions to find the easiest bonuses. Since opening a checking account doesn’t affect your credit like credit cards and other loans, you can open just about as many as you please. On average even college students can make around $3,000 per year by taking advantage.

I’d say the *total* amount of effort required to fulfill the requirements for each bonus is about one hour, so you come out making around $100 to $200 per hour depending on what’s available. I’ve been taking advantage of these bonuses for a few years so my friends and I thought we’d make it a little easier for people. Pretty nifty, check it out!

—

I met Phil in college and learned about his new website there. It is such an awesome idea! Check it out and start earning some free money!

Hopefully this travel interview inspired you to travel more! If you or anyone you know are interested in being interviewed, leave us a comment or send us a message!

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.

Today’s interview is with Will of AlphaFinancialist.com

Personal

Name: Will

Age: 30

Your home location: Houston, TX

Career/Source of regular income: Registered Nurse, Cryptocurrency Miner, Blogger, Online Business Owner

What do you do for fun?

I guess fun is a relative term. I read SEC filings (10Ks, 13Fs, etc.), blog about personal finance and investing, spend time with my wife and dogs, research stocks, travel, and learn.

Success Tips

What has led to your success?

Hard knocks. When I was a young man, fresh out of college, I was eyeball deep in debt. I was in such dire financial straights that I ended up filing for bankruptcy at the ripe old age of 24. I’m a stubborn man, and sometimes I have a bit of a “stick it to ‘em” attitude, so I decided to turn my life around in a major way.

After being in such major debt at a young age, I vowed to change my lifestyle and my view on money and finance completely. Six years later, my wife and I have a household income of over $200,000, I have several passive income sources, and I’ve been accepted to an MBA program, where I will study finance. Additionally, I am preparing for the Series 65 to become a Registered Investment Advisor Agent for the LLC that I formed. We save and invest over $100,000 per year – and each increase in income goes solely towards funding our financial freedom, traveling, and investing. As a result, my wife and I are projected to become millionaires in our early-to-mid 30’s. Now, I want to focus my time and effort on helping others achieve financial success and independence, which is why I formed my blog, AlphaFinancialist.com. I want to inspire others, hopefully those in their teens and twenties, to avoid the costly mistakes that I made and realize that you can live life EXACTLY how you wish by making conscientious choices and developing a millionaire mindset.

Advice to people trying to achieve success?

I would say to anyone who is serious about becoming wealthy: take the plunge, make a commitment to yourself, and realize that wealth is a product of mindset. You CAN change your life and live in prosperity and fulfillment – all it takes is determination and eradication of fear from your life. Dissociate yourself from selling your time for money as soon as you possibly can. Find ways to rapidly increase your salary early in life, and then use that money to establish income streams that will support you indefinitely.

Often, having a salary is necessary early in life if you don’t come from a wealthy background. Choose lucrative fields as a college student that GENUINELY interest you, pursue them with all your ability, and dedicate your income to investing in real estate, businesses and entrepreneurship, and stock investments. Leverage your education into a source to build your empire, and then focus on your investments. AVOID consumer debt at all costs and live frugally. Above all else, follow your true passions in life.

How do you measure success?

I measure success in two ways. First, I believe success is personal and individual. Success comes from being happy, satisfied, stable, and content in all areas of your life. If you make a million-dollar salary, but you sell all your time and hate your job, I don’t consider that success. Success is freedom in life: the freedom to go where you wish, do what you wish, and be who you wish.

Second, I believe success encompasses financial freedom. Financial freedom is different from being rich – it is the ability to live life without relying on any person or employer to support yourself and/or your family. Again, financial freedom is personally defined, as my needs may not be the same as another’s. I believe when you can support yourself indefinitely while simultaneously pursing your dreams and goals, you have reached the pinnacle of success.

What are your success habits?

My biggest success habits include paying myself first (investing a large portion of my income), continually seeking knowledge and learning new skills, thinking outside of the box, pursing my passions instead of chasing a salary, and valuing my time.

I avoid unnecessary materialism, but I don’t scrimp on things that are important to me. I strive to live a full, successful, and purposeful life. I read daily, and never forego an opportunity to improve myself.

Financial Independence/Retirement Plans

What does financial independence (FI) mean to you?

I consider financial independence a state in which one no longer feels obligated to work to continue to maintain their lifestyle. Financial independence is enormously freeing, and you have the opportunity to choose to work, knowing that if you’re employed, your employer needs you more than you need them. I believe financial independence is an achievable goal for ANYONE; the only variable factor is lifestyle. While my wife and I are on the cusp of reaching financial independence, I will continue to work to accumulate wealth so that we can live a lifestyle that includes ample travel, comfort, and peace of mind.

Do you have plans for financial independence/retirement?

While financial independence is a readily achievable goal, I don’t have any immediate plan to retire. Rather, I think that I will soon transition to focusing on business endeavors, investing, real estate, and ecommerce full-time as opposed to working for an employer. I don’t know that I ever want to “retire” in a sense of ceasing to work due to an accumulation of wealth. I believe that I will continue to work, though at my leisure and on my time, for the foreseeable future.

Why do you want to achieve retirement/financial independence?

I want to achieve financial independence solely as a means of security and financial protection. I already spend quite a bit of time focusing on my passions and business endeavors; when I “retire” from my proper profession, I will simply focus on entrepreneurship.

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

If I had to start over, I would focus on making investment a top priority. While I am in a comfortable place now, I could have been years ahead of where I presently am by making smart choices in my late teens and early twenties. Though I feel fortunate to have the level of financial acumen that I do so early in life, I would have avoided the costly mistakes I made in the past and changed my mindset about money and wealth much sooner.

What tips do you have for others who want to grow their income?

While I am a huge advocate for investing, I truly believe that the ultimate way to quickly grow your income is to pursue entrepreneurship. Regardless of whether you are a pilot, doctor, lawyer, or construction worker, if you are employed by someone other than yourself, there will always be a cap on your earning potential.

While you should strive towards entrepreneurship, it may take time to become successful. On your way to establishing successful businesses and passive income streams, focus on making the absolute most amount of money that you can. My wife and I moved across the country to double our salaries. Find opportunities to really squeeze your profession for every cent that you can so that you can focus on raising capital for investing and business. Sometimes, it requires sacrifice and effort. If you really want to speed things along, find the opportunities that are going to help you progress rapidly.

Do you have any sources of income besides your career? If so, can you list them?

Yes, I have several. One of my easiest passive income sources comes from cryptocurrency mining. I have many GPUs and a few mining rigs setup, which required a good amount of startup capital but have subsequently been paid off from the venture. I make approximately $1,000 a month from cryptocurrency mining, simply by leaving my rigs turned on.

I also work on the side as a financial planner, helping individuals come up with comprehensive personal financial plans and investment plans. I charge approximately $60 per hour at this juncture in time to provide financial planning services.

Additionally, I’ve created AlphaFinancialist.com, a personal finance and investing blog focused on helping my readers achieve financial independence and make solid investment decisions. While I do make money from affiliate advertising and sales, I only promote businesses and services that I ethically feel will have a positive impact on the lives of my readers.

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

I have had a budget for years. I built it on excel, and every expense gets tracked this way. Over time, my budget spreadsheet has evolved to include projected balances, auto-summing columns, graphs demonstrating areas of expense, and a whole lot more. Budgeting is, in my opinion, the number one thing that individuals can do to take control of their finances and change their financial outlooks.

What is your investment philosophy/plan?

I spend quite a bit of time analyzing investment opportunities. I believe in buying stocks in companies that are fairly priced, ethically sound, competitively superior, and understandable. When I look for investments, I spend a great deal of time reading over the company and their SEC filings (10Ks, 10Qs, etc.) and valuation metrics such as P/E and PEG ratios, revenue growth, debt and price/book ratio, cash flow, compound annual growth rate, and others. Simply put, I believe in buying solid companies with promising futures at a reasonable price.

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

Presently, I do not give to charity, as I feel as though I still have financial goals that I need to reach to secure my financial future. However, I have spent time volunteering for organizations such as hospitals, meals on wheels, and on missions to other countries.

Thank you to Will and his awesome interview! Everyone should check out his site at alphafinancialist.com. He is an expert in his field, as you can tell from the interview.

Today’s interview is with Ben.   

Personal

Name: Ben D.

Age: 27

Your home location: Provo

Career/Source of regular income: Business owner and college teacher

What do you do for fun? Play with my kids, play sports, geek out over personal finance  

Success Tips

What has led to your success?

I think the biggest thing has been learning as much as I can. I read books, blogs, articles, etc. and try to soak up as much as possible. That’s actually how I started with the concept of FI, by stumbling on a blog. But it’s not just reading, it’s actually applying what I read.

Advice to people trying to achieve success?

Don’t look at it as a sprint, view it as a marathon. It takes time and patience to get to where you want to be. Set goals with measurable actions and track your progress. I have spreadsheets with three years of tracking our money. It’s fun to look back and see how far we’ve gotten the past three years, and it motivates us to keep going.

Read. A lot. The more I read, the more I learn and become successful. Even if you don’t want to read, listen to audiobooks or podcasts. There’s so much information out there.

Don’t do it alone. Get a support system and help each other reach your goals.

How do you measure success?

For me, success is when I accomplish a goal. It may be a small goal like to read one article daily, or a huge goal like buying an investment property. I like to focus on the small daily “wins” and allow those to accumulate to one big accomplishment. It’s the little things that add up.

What are your success habits?

In terms of personal finance, I’ve found my best habit to be to check and keep track of our personal finance on a regular basis. It helps us succeed when we know where our money is going.

Financial Independence/Retirement Plans

What does financial independence (FI) mean to you?

The common definition is when your passive income exceeds your monthly income. To me, that is the ultimate goal because it means I am free to explore life the way I want to. I’m the type of person that gets bored easily with just one thing and it would drive me insane to have the same job day in and day out for 40 years. To be financial independent means I am able to shift gears when I want to try something new without any implications on providing for my family.

Do you have plans for financial independence/retirement?

It’s my goal to be financially independent by 40 years old.

Why do you want to achieve retirement/financial independence?

I’ve never been a fan of having someone or something control my life and my everyday schedule. I love the concept of being free to enjoy life doing things I’m passionate about with the people I want to be with. I’ve never had a full-time “9-to-5” job and it’s my plan to keep it that way and instead use that time to .

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

I would have started saving and investing earlier at a younger age. My wife grew up in a thrifty family and already had solid personal finance principles when we married and had a strong savings account and no debt. My single days were full of spending every penny I earned and I didn’t have any savings and had some debt. It wasn’t until about a year into our marriage that we really started going beyond just saving money in the bank. We paid off all my debt and opened retirement accounts and started investing in properties. I really think if we had known what we know now back when were single, we would be much more ahead and could be financially independent much earlier than 40.

I would specifically focus on tracking my spending/knowing where my money was going and opening a retirement account earlier.

What tips do you have for others who want to grow their income?

Learn as much as you can and just do it. If it’s side hustling, investing, getting a raise, sales, whatever, become the best you can be and don’t be afraid to fail. I hate failing, but I love learning from my failures and figuring out how to improve.

Do you have any sources of income besides your career? If so, can you list them?

We own three rental properties and I own a business. We also do independent contractor work for various companies whenever we can.

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

I used to have a budget with my wife when we first married. After about 3 years of observing our spending habits, we have been able to fall in a groove and no longer stick to a budget. We still meticulously track every penny we spend.

What is your investment philosophy/plan?

Right now, we’re focusing on retirement accounts and property investing. We max out our ROTH IRAs every year. My wife has a 401(k) at her work that we put 10% of her income in every month. We’ve bought three properties in the last three years and are focusing on a “snowball” with our rental income and we hope to be able to build a solid portfolio of cash flowing properties.

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

We donate at least 11% of our income. We strongly believe in giving back to the community. We’ve been fortunate to be in the situation we are and to be in a position to give back.

Part of becoming financially independent is to create a team around you that will help you achieve success. The purpose of these 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.

Today’s interview is with Trevor who started blogging about financial independence at provomoney.com.  

Personal

Name:

Trevor  with provomoney.com

Age:

44

Your home location:

Utah

Career/Source of regular income:

Business Development

What do you do for fun?

I’m an aspiring pickleball player.  

Success Tips

What has led to your success?  

Seeking mentors, whether that be from consuming their books/podcasts/blog or by reaching out to them directly and asking for help.  I don’t like to try and reinvent the wheel.  I find someone who has already achieved what I want to achieve and then I figure out how they got there.  Success leaves clues if not a direct path.

Advice to people trying to achieve success?  

Pick a goal, define how to get there and then create metrics so you always know if you are on track or not.  Let it become a burning desire until you achieve it.

Financial Independence/Retirement Plans

What does financial independence (FI) mean to you?  

When the monthly cash flow from my investments exceeds my monthly expenses.

Do you have plans for financial independence/retirement? Or have you already reached financial independence?

 I haven’t achieved FI yet but I have a date set for when I will reach it.  I’m really enjoying the journey to get there.

Why do you want to achieve retirement/financial independence?

What kind of activities and projects will you spend more time on?  I want to achieve FI so I can have more freedom in life.  The freedom to serve others where and when I want.  The ability to be involved in projects that I feel are making a difference.

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

Getting as close to a 50% savings rate as possible from day 1.  Put that money into my asset column and don’t ever take it out.  

You can follow Trevor’s journey on his blog. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions for Trevor!

If you think you make a good candidate to be interviewed, send us an email at thefundfamily@gmail.com