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 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.
Thanks for the great interview Will, it was good to hear your story.