{"id":510,"date":"2018-04-16T10:18:51","date_gmt":"2018-04-16T17:18:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thefundfamily.com\/?p=510"},"modified":"2018-07-16T20:20:13","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T03:20:13","slug":"the-fund-family-interview-002-ben","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/the-fund-family-interview-002-ben\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fund Family Interview #002 – Ben"},"content":{"rendered":"

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. <\/span><\/p>\n

Today\u2019s interview is with Ben.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Microphone\"<\/p>\n

Personal<\/span><\/h2>\n

Name<\/b>: Ben D.<\/span><\/p>\n

Age<\/b>: 27<\/span><\/p>\n

Your home location<\/b>: Provo<\/span><\/p>\n

Career\/Source of regular income<\/b>: Business owner and college teacher<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you do for fun?<\/b> Play with my kids, play sports, geek out over personal finance \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Success Tips<\/span><\/h2>\n

What has led to your success?<\/b><\/p>\n

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\u2019s actually how I started with the concept of FI, by stumbling on a blog. But it\u2019s not just reading, it\u2019s actually applying what I read. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Advice to people trying to achieve success<\/b>?<\/span><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t 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\u2019s fun to look back and see how far we\u2019ve gotten the past three years, and it motivates us to keep going.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read. A lot. The more I read, the more I learn and become successful. Even if you don\u2019t want to read, listen to audiobooks or podcasts. There\u2019s so much information out there.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Don\u2019t do it alone. Get a support system and help each other reach your goals.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

How do you measure success?<\/b><\/p>\n

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 \u201cwins\u201d and allow those to accumulate to one big accomplishment. It\u2019s the little things that add up.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What are your success habits?<\/b><\/p>\n

In terms of personal finance, I\u2019ve 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Financial Independence\/Retirement Plans<\/span><\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

What does financial independence (FI) mean to you?<\/b><\/h4>\n

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\u2019m 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have plans for financial independence\/retirement?<\/b><\/h4>\n

It\u2019s my goal to be financially independent by 40 years old. <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Why do you want to achieve retirement\/financial independence?<\/b><\/h4>\n

I\u2019ve 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\u2019m passionate about with the people I want to be with. I\u2019ve never had a full-time \u201c9-to-5\u201d job and it\u2019s my plan to keep it that way and instead use that time to .<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If you had to start over, what\u2019s the most important thing you would focus on?<\/b><\/h4>\n

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\u2019t have any savings and had some debt. It wasn\u2019t 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.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I would specifically focus on tracking my spending\/knowing where my money was going and opening a retirement account earlier.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What tips do you have for others who want to grow their income?<\/b><\/p>\n

Learn as much as you can and just do it. If it\u2019s side hustling, investing, getting a raise, sales, whatever, become the best you can be and don\u2019t be afraid to fail. I hate failing, but I love learning from my failures and figuring out how to improve.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have any sources of income besides your career? If so, can you list them?<\/b><\/p>\n

We own three rental properties and I own a business. We also do independent contractor work for various companies whenever we can.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you have a budget? If so, how do you implement it?<\/b><\/p>\n

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.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

What is your investment philosophy\/plan?<\/b><\/p>\n

Right now, we\u2019re 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\u2019ve bought three properties in the last three years and are focusing on a \u201csnowball\u201d with our rental income and we hope to be able to build a solid portfolio of cash flowing properties.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you give to charity? Why or why not? If you do, what percent of time\/money do you give?<\/b><\/p>\n

We donate at least 11% of our income. We strongly believe in giving back to the community. We\u2019ve been fortunate to be in the situation we are and to be in a position to give back.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,48,17],"tags":[18,12,13],"class_list":["post-510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-becoming-wealthy","category-finance","category-interviews","tag-interviews","tag-principles","tag-success"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/cash-coin-coins-64824.jpg?fit=3872%2C2592&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9yM2e-8e","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893,"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510\/revisions\/893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trevorrumsey.com\/thefundfamily\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}