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The Story Behind "The Wealth Dad" - E22

January 29, 2024 / 50:59

This episode features an interview with Shan Cranston, known as The Wealth Dad, discussing personal finance, investing strategies, and the journey from earning $35,000 to building a $500,000 portfolio by age 30.

Shan shares his background, including his experience as a college student with no clear direction and his eventual shift to personal finance after receiving advice from his boss about retirement savings. He emphasizes the importance of understanding personal finance and investing, especially for those starting from scratch.

The conversation covers Shan's transition from a mundane job to discovering his passion for finance, leading him to write two books: "Index Fund Investing 101" and "Investing for Your Children 101." He discusses the significance of increasing income and the mindset needed to succeed financially.

Listeners will learn about effective investment strategies, including recommendations for index funds and the importance of diversification. Shan also shares insights on how to balance investment portfolios and the value of consistent effort in achieving financial goals.

Overall, this episode provides a relatable story of personal growth in finance and actionable advice for listeners looking to improve their financial literacy and investment strategies.

TL;DR

Shan Cranston shares his journey from earning $35,000 to building a $500,000 portfolio and offers practical investment advice.

Video

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[Music]
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tool welcome to the best interest
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podcast hosted by Jesse Kramer where we
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discuss today's best ideas in personal
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finance and investing the best interest
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is a personal podcast meant for
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entertainment purposes only it should
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not be taken as Financial advice and is
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not prescriptive of your financial
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situation here's your host Jesse
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Kramer hey guys Jesse Kramer here
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welcome to Episode 22 of the best
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interest podcast today's episode is a
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little bit different it's an interview
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like some interviews I've had on here
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before and I will introduce my guest in
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a minute but in this episode we don't
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Focus too much on financial tips instead
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we talk about the mindset and the story
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and the the influences that can take
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someone from quote unquote wandering
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through life making $35,000 a year to
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starting a business starting a family
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and investing their way to a half
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million doll portfolio by age 30
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understanding the story and and finding
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parallels in this story to your own life
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that's your mission as you listen
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through this episode so I hope you
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[Music]
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enjoy my guest today is Shan Cranston
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AKA The Wealth dad Shan as you might
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tell is a father of two young children
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he's an author and he's a personal
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finance expert especially when it comes
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to simple effective investing topics
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that you can Implement in your own life
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his first book index fund investing 101
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was released in 2020 and his second book
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investing for your children 101 is set
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for release in a couple weeks here in
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mid July Sean thank you for coming on to
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the best interest podcast
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yeah thanks for having me appreciate you
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or letting me come on absolutely
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absolutely I was hoping Sean you know
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some of our listeners are going to know
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about you but for those who don't can
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you give us a little bit of your of your
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elevator story especially how you got
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involved in personal finance and
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investing
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education sure you mind if I take uh
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take a little bit of time to explain
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this one would love it love it my okay
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so this kind of has to start um when I
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went to College uh so I come from a
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family I've got three older sisters all
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of whom were 10 times more books smart
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than I was like it it wasn't even close
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so the all my sisters were 4.0 students
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in high school and they all had a really
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good general idea of who they wanted to
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become After High School um so I've got
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two I had a teacher or my first oldest
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sister worked in finance first and then
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actually went back to get her Masters to
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become a teacher my middle sister uh
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Works in
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with child cancer patients so she became
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a nurse and then my youngest sister
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became a teacher um me on the other hand
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uh I was kind of the mistake child of
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the family I'm I've got a nine-year
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difference between my youngest uh oldest
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sister they're all two years apart but
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I'm kind of the straggler behind them um
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but but what they gave me at least was a
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good I guess Compass as you'd say to you
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know they went to college they did well
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for themselves they got in careers able
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to support themselves so me coming
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behind them although I wasn't as kind of
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motivated in the classroom uh as they
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were uh I knew College was pretty much
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the route I was going to go to that's
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just kind of what my family was doing um
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so I knew that was going to be
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eventually my path so I got to college
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had no idea what I wanted to study I was
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just kind of happy to be there that was
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just the next step in my life um so I
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ended up studying criminal justice um I
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think I had a fascination with kind FBI
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shows at that time so that was just kind
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of an appeal for me and nothing else
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really stood out like I I would I would
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you would almost categorize me as like
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the kind of classic like Wanderer or
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college Wanderer per se they're just
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there but they don't really have a plan
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of execution as to you know what the
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plan is over the next four years sure um
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and and strangely enough I by the time I
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graduated I actually had the exact same
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GPA like to the 100th decimal that I did
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in high school I think I had like a
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three .16 in both high school and
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college I did just enough to get me by
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the once i' never strived for anything
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greater than that because I I didn't
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really have anything to push me towards
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um and then my first job out of college
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was I was making I think I got a job
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about three months after graduating so I
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was actually pretty fortunate in that
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sense but I was making very small money
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compared to where I lived at the time so
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I'm I'm from the northern Virginia area
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and if you're from this area it's called
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like the DMV um DC Maryland Virginia but
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it's a pretty high paying Area High Cost
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of Living area you're right next to DC
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federal government and the job that I
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got was in the city but I was making
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pennies compared to what everyone else
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is making especially uh my colleagues
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and friends that are around my age so I
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started making $35,000 a year uh working
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full-time going into the city every year
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where my my friends kind of in the same
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class as me who studied like business or
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it were starting around 50 60 70,000 so
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wasn't making the most money but at
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least had a job and I was making money
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yeah that was like 20 2010 or so right
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around then or a little earlier I
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graduated in 2014 2014 seven years ago
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gotcha um and the job wasn't it was
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about as mundane as you could get it was
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literally like an Excel data entry job
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that that's pretty much all it was no no
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real tough skills I was in criminal or
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the criminal justice field I guess I
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could say um but I had no Direction once
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again I was just kind of floating there
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again um and
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then for whatever reason just I can't
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pinpoint why it happened but my light
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bulb just like clicked like okay let's
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let's start focusing here um and then
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like right when I noticed my internal
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light bulb like kind of shining and then
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like me trying to get myself together my
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boss at the time actually brought me
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into his room
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and he said one of the and I have this
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in my introduction uh to my index fund
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investing 101 book but he sat me down
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and he said above all else um focus on
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your retirement first and I was like
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okay that's interesting um little bit of
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backstory my first job was at the Navy
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Yard so I'm surrounded by a bunch of
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former officer Military Officers um
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civil service members um so a lot of
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them are a lot of the people I worked
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with were retired uh enlisted people
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officers um had their pension
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um and he obviously understood the
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importance of a kind of a pension
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retirement plan and wanted to push that
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on to me I'm not sure if he just saw me
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just kind of floating around and thought
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it was a good idea to to push me in that
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direction but that was a seed that kind
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of got planted in my head the only
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financial knowledge or personal finance
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knowledge I had up until that point was
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advice I got from my sister who told me
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she kept $2,000 in her checking account
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and never spent below that so when she
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got new money she would essentially
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spend that down to 2,000 and then that
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was like her zero doll marker she
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wouldn't go beneath that that was my
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budgeting essentially for the first year
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of my life yeah um so so I'm not kidding
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I don't I did not come from a personal
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finance background per se um and then so
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I took took my boss's advice uh I went
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to my kind of HR department signed up
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for the 401K had no idea what it was
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just signed up for it put like three or
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four percent in there and then
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after a couple months I think got a
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couple hundred dollars in there and then
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one day I just logged in and I saw like
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a big green arrow that was pointing up
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and then it said like four or five
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dollars so nothing groundbreaking but I
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saw like the account has increased a
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couple dollars and then I was very
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cognizant of the money I was putting
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away in my savings account at the time
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um although I wasn't good at money I was
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still using that basic budgeting kind of
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$2,000 checking in my head and
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everything that kind of went when I
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would get paid I would give myself $500
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for every two weeks and everything would
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go into savings um so I checked my
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savings account and I knew that I had a
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lot more money in my savings account
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than I did in my
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401k um but my savings account was only
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growing like a couple pennies every
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month so it was weird to see an amount
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so much smaller in my 401k hundreds
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compared to thousands in my uh savings
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account but that was growing by a couple
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dollars so at the time and I'd still say
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I'm not a mathematician but I was smart
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enough to put two and two together like
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wait a minute there's a smaller amount
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of money a couple hundred dollars making
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a couple dollars compared to my savings
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account which has up I think it was
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close to like $10,000 when this was
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clicking um but they was earning like
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five cents a month so I was smart enough
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to be like okay there's something going
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on here um that I'm not understanding or
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seeing
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so I then went home to my at some point
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around this time this my girlfriend at
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the time she's my wife now we moved into
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an apartment together um and I said hey
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I wna I'm not a book reader so this
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caught her by surprise like I want to go
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on Amazon I want to buy a book on
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investing she was like all right
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whatever um she's not a money person
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either so I bought uh what was it
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Investing For Dummies this is probably
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the first book I legit like have read on
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my own as in like going to seek it
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myself in my entire life I'm not kidding
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um and I read it and I pretty much gave
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you everything that a basic personal
00:11:05
finance person would know so your IRAs
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Roth IRAs index funds ETFs stocks bonds
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every basics of
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it and it just kind of got addicting in
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a way um it was starting to make sense
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after I read it why my much smaller
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401K was increasing by a couple dollars
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as opposed to where my savings account
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was only increasing by a couple pennies
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so I was ble to connect these dots and
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then it it was almost like the light
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bulb kept getting brighter in my head I
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was like wait a minute that I can
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actually I can do something here I'm not
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making the most money um but I know how
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to grow this money now uh so my next job
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in my head now was okay I have to
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increase my income um this is my next
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step I'm only making $35,000 a year my
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friends are making double my wife's not
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making that much money um either so
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naturally this is if I want to grow this
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money I've got to increase my income uh
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back to where I was working I'm around a
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bunch of former naval officers um my
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actually one of my bosses at the time
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too was a former Navy SEAL and a lot of
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them got in my ear suggesting that
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trying to apply for the naval officer
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candidate school would be a good route
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um they thought it'd be a good kind of
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Direction path for me they saw like how
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kind of dedicated I was getting after
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you know first six months on the job and
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then through reading the book I
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understood the potential retirement
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benefits that came potentially as an uh
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as a military officer you had the
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pension he had the Thrift Savings Plan
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and I saw it as a great way to kind of
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you know launch a career for myself take
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care of my girlfriend who I was going to
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get engaged to soon and then build a
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great retirement plan for me I I loved
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the idea of a pension um 20 years in I
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was naive at the time thinking like you
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know that'd be an easy 20 years um so I
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started on the path then of applying for
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uh the naval officer candidate at school
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and it took about a year the entire
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process of
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applying and kind of you know getting
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all my stuff together but in that year I
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was reading voraciously essentially
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every book on Amazon you could on
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Personal Finance you name any money or
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Finance investing book and I read it in
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that year that bulb like I said that
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light bulb was just getting brighter and
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brighter and brighter and all the dot
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just kept connecting more so by the time
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the decision came I got the call for my
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recruiter saying that I was accepted um
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fortunately so obviously I was excited
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but it came it was like an infliction
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point in my life I was about 25 now a
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couple years or I was 24 25 couple years
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uh you know out of college into my
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job and then I started think I was like
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okay this is before I'm I even told my
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wife I was accepted I'm kind of talking
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to myself now I was like you know do I
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take this plunge now do I essentially
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sign my I don't want to say sign my life
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away but you know I'm giving up a lot of
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my time and you
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know I don't want to say rights I'm
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giving my time to the military for four
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years where I'm not gonna be able to
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dictate a lot or do I follow this kind
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of New Passion that's developing in me
00:14:14
the personal finance and building
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something out of it I didn't know at the
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time what that would be um I was I just
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knew I had a passion to kind of help
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people like me who had no idea about
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money um so I made the decision I said
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you know what I'm I'm not going to do
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I'm not going to go to the officer
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candidate school I'm going to stick with
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this uh money thing so I told my wife uh
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or she was fiance at the time and she
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started crying like immediately in the
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uh in our apartment and not because like
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she was happy that I said we're not
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we're not doing the Navy um but she was
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crying because I told her a couple other
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things too so once again I mentioned I'm
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not making the most money um we're not
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making the most money I had I was
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fortunate to graduate college without
00:15:02
any student loan debts I went to a local
00:15:04
uh state school and I only lived there
00:15:07
for one year in the last three years I
00:15:09
lived at home um but I did sign up for I
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walked out of college without debt then
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immediately signed up for like a $25,000
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car loan so I wasn't making a lot of
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money we weren't making a lot of money
00:15:20
we had the car loan um we rented a
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two-bedroom apartment that was about
00:15:26
$1,800 a month once again pretty high
00:15:28
cost living area around here so we're
00:15:30
kind of we're doing okay but it wasn't
00:15:34
you know we weren't making
00:15:36
any steady progress I'd say or the
00:15:39
progress that I'd want to see so this
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goes into the the next part is why she's
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crying I told her I said Amber um I'm
00:15:47
not doing the Navy I want to chase this
00:15:50
personal finance fire I've got because
00:15:52
this is where my passion is and also
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we're not going to renew the lease on
00:15:56
the apartment I want us to move back in
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with my parents
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and this that's what signaled the cry
00:16:01
she was like what what are you talking
00:16:02
about we've been we've been living on
00:16:04
our own for two like two and a half
00:16:05
years in this apartment life was great
00:16:08
but I explained to her I said if you
00:16:11
know you're okay with me going down like
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us going down this New Path um I don't
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want to waste any more money renting
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while I'm kind of building a career
00:16:19
that's bringing more income and I want
00:16:21
to save up for a 20% down payment on a
00:16:24
home here uh I want to start building
00:16:26
some equity and real estate this one of
00:16:28
the books I read at the time was Dave
00:16:29
Ramsey so I had the 20% down payment in
00:16:31
my head yep sure I never really ran
00:16:33
numbers I just knew that was the number
00:16:35
I was looking at so we got to we're what
00:16:39
are we what am I 25 now and we moved
00:16:42
into my parents we were there for about
00:16:44
two years and I changed jobs but I was
00:16:48
still working in criminal justice but
00:16:50
the company I was working for was kind
00:16:52
of a business IT company
00:16:55
and this is kind of where I got my first
00:16:57
big jump in income um I knew I didn't
00:17:00
really want to do criminal justice
00:17:01
anymore I I my soul I didn't know what I
00:17:04
want to do I just knew I wanted to
00:17:05
increase my income um and there was a my
00:17:09
company or my former that I was working
00:17:11
for at the time they had their own
00:17:14
essentially accounting product that they
00:17:16
sold to federal government agencies and
00:17:18
they had a massive new contract that
00:17:20
came available so I actually was
00:17:22
fortunate to switch to that contract and
00:17:24
kind of enter the I was a business
00:17:26
analyst so I guess I was in like the
00:17:28
business world now and it came with a
00:17:30
nice increase and then when I was in
00:17:33
there I saw my next big jump was in
00:17:36
there was a business intelligence um if
00:17:40
people don't know what this is It's
00:17:41
essentially uh companies use data to
00:17:44
make um business-driven decisions so
00:17:47
you're working in data and I was able to
00:17:49
learn these skills on my own and wiggle
00:17:52
my way into the bi team and got an
00:17:54
interview with them and was able to um
00:17:57
fortunately get with them and then
00:17:58
another big pay raise uh so now we're
00:18:02
you know we're doing well we're we're
00:18:04
getting close to the down payment money
00:18:06
I think we're at the two-year Mark in
00:18:10
our um kind of our saving plan for the
00:18:13
house and then during this time I also
00:18:15
did a Blog way before I ever did the
00:18:17
wealth dad um it was called Frugal money
00:18:19
man um this was my first first attempt
00:18:23
at trying to you know do my personal
00:18:26
finance Wizardry on the world and help
00:18:28
everyone out sure been there yep so so I
00:18:32
did that for about a year and it it was
00:18:35
honestly looking back on it I enjoyed it
00:18:38
um it was fun it was the first time
00:18:39
connecting with the personal finance
00:18:42
online community um so I was writing
00:18:46
like a blog post a week uh wasn't there
00:18:49
wasn't getting that much many like
00:18:51
viewers but I created like an Instagram
00:18:52
account at Twitter I think the largest
00:18:54
followers I ever got for that one was
00:18:55
like a thousand followers on Twitter
00:18:57
nothing crazy on Instagram but after
00:19:00
about a year I was just burned out I
00:19:01
wasn't making any money um I enjoyed you
00:19:05
know helping people I like doing the DMS
00:19:08
but it was just becoming exhausting with
00:19:10
my job and then trying to write these
00:19:12
blog posts so I eventually just burned
00:19:13
out and I was like you know what uh this
00:19:16
isn't this isn't working as to what I
00:19:19
wanted like I had envisioned in my head
00:19:21
so I canceled it about Christmas and I
00:19:24
said you know I'm just going to take a
00:19:26
take a year and you know think about you
00:19:28
know if I still want to do this personal
00:19:30
finance thing um if I want to give it up
00:19:33
or just kind of let myself you know
00:19:35
mellow out and see how it failed so I
00:19:37
focused on my job a lot after that I got
00:19:40
into bi I was making good money I think
00:19:42
I was able to finally increase my income
00:19:44
from like 35,000 to like
00:19:46
75,000 um still not the biggest money
00:19:48
for the area I live in but it was big
00:19:50
enough for me um that that was able I
00:19:54
was now able to max out my Roth IRA I
00:19:56
was maxing out my 401k at the time um I
00:20:00
was we were making really good progress
00:20:03
together and
00:20:05
then we finally we're my wife was
00:20:08
searching Zillow like crazy because she
00:20:09
was getting cabin fever in my parents
00:20:11
house obviously it's not even her
00:20:12
parents understandable y y yeah and my
00:20:15
we I lived my parents lived in a
00:20:17
townhouse so it's not the biggest house
00:20:19
anyways um and we had our kid we had our
00:20:22
son uh I always mention him on social
00:20:24
media the wealth son sure um we had him
00:20:28
at kind of the two-year Mark there and
00:20:30
he we've raised his first like four
00:20:32
months we raised him in my parents house
00:20:34
but it was obviously it was the time
00:20:36
we're were like all right this there's
00:20:37
not space now we definitely need our own
00:20:39
space and we had I think we had about 60
00:20:41
to$ 70,000 save so we had a 20% down
00:20:44
payment for like a 300
00:20:46
$340,000 house and this was
00:20:50
now where we at we're we're
00:20:53
20 kind of 2020 now um but this was the
00:20:57
time where I was like hey she was she
00:21:00
was excited about you know looking for
00:21:01
houses on Zillow but I was like am I
00:21:03
want to give one more shot to this this
00:21:06
Finance thing I think I've got a I've
00:21:07
got a strategy this time that'll work
00:21:09
better so literally on like January 1st
00:21:13
2020 I created Instagram account the
00:21:16
wealth dead I wasn't on Twitter yet um I
00:21:19
may have created an account but I wasn't
00:21:21
active on it for the first month and all
00:21:24
I was doing really was posting like
00:21:27
Finance quotes from like books I was
00:21:29
reading it wasn't anything like
00:21:30
groundbreaking but I was just kind of
00:21:32
quoting stuff throwing it out there
00:21:34
every day getting like two likes three
00:21:36
likes and it was from like friends or
00:21:39
like family so sure no no no one really
00:21:41
knows who the hell I am um and then I
00:21:45
decided one day I think I found Chris
00:21:48
Johnson on Instagram in my first month
00:21:52
um if anybody don't know who this is
00:21:54
listening to it he's one of the big uh
00:21:56
personal or just money guys on social
00:21:58
media and he was posting really great
00:22:02
content and I noticed it was just like
00:22:05
his tweets he was just repurposing his
00:22:07
tweets on Instagram and I was like wait
00:22:10
a minute that that's actually a really
00:22:11
good idea you're not because what I was
00:22:14
doing was I was essentially giving other
00:22:16
people's words via their quotes but what
00:22:18
he was doing is he's taking his own
00:22:19
words his his own content per se from
00:22:22
Twitter and put it on Instagram and it
00:22:24
was great and I was like that that's
00:22:26
fantastic because I've got a lot more
00:22:28
you know that I want to say um but I
00:22:31
just didn't know how to exactly say it
00:22:32
so then I focused on Twitter in that
00:22:36
kind of next month and literally my
00:22:38
strategy was just post like three to
00:22:41
five times a day every day uh comment on
00:22:44
all the big accounts uh Chris Johnson
00:22:46
was one of them um can't think of the
00:22:48
others at the time but any account that
00:22:50
had like thousands of followers tens of
00:22:51
thousands of followers I was commenting
00:22:53
retweet commenting just to see if they
00:22:56
would notice me um or anyone would
00:22:59
notice me not even them just try to get
00:23:01
followers and then at about March it
00:23:07
started to pick up a little bit um I was
00:23:09
putting out some pretty good content I
00:23:11
got I think that's when I had about a
00:23:13
thousand or 2,000 followers on Twitter
00:23:15
and I got about a thousand followers on
00:23:17
Instagram so if I compared that back to
00:23:19
Frugal moneyman my blog I already blew
00:23:22
that essentially the follower count out
00:23:25
of the water in a three month span
00:23:28
um using the wealth dad content that I
00:23:31
did you know doing the blog kind of
00:23:33
route and essentially EV it's just been
00:23:37
in terms of the wealth dad that's just
00:23:40
what I've been doing every day up until
00:23:42
this day so a year and a half just you
00:23:43
know tweeting every day um repurposing
00:23:46
my uh tweets to Instagram doing a couple
00:23:49
of personal like money updates I'll do
00:23:50
my net worth updates on Instagram I'll
00:23:52
do like my kids accounts and I'll do a
00:23:54
couple other um things but let's go back
00:23:58
to now March when the when my account
00:24:00
started blowing up a little bit that's
00:24:03
when I started thinking to myself I was
00:24:05
like okay this is the time now to
00:24:07
monetize I'm seeing Chris Johnson make
00:24:09
money from courses I'm seeing people
00:24:10
launch ebooks and I got finally got the
00:24:13
idea in my head I said the one thing
00:24:15
that frustrated me a lot about the blog
00:24:16
was I would
00:24:18
write you know what I thought were great
00:24:20
posts and I think I thought they were
00:24:22
great posts but I had a couple readers
00:24:24
reach out to me and they were like you
00:24:25
know I like your content I just hate
00:24:27
reading a lot of you know paragraphs and
00:24:30
paragraphs and paragraphs and I was like
00:24:31
you know that's understandable if you
00:24:32
don't like personal finance um I think
00:24:35
you even kind of get that maybe
00:24:37
sometimes too you write all this stuff
00:24:38
and you know it's gonna be it's great
00:24:40
but you know it just doesn't click with
00:24:42
people they don't want to read a lot of
00:24:43
that sure so I was like okay I know I've
00:24:47
got what I've done personally is I've
00:24:51
grown a fairly large portfolio for
00:24:54
myself and wife relative to my age at
00:24:57
that point I think we had like1 $200,000
00:25:00
in the stock market and it was all in
00:25:02
index funds that's what I understood um
00:25:05
so I
00:25:06
knew where we were compared to our age
00:25:08
financially people would benefit from
00:25:11
that knowledge um and I also coming from
00:25:14
a non-finance background and learning it
00:25:17
myself over the years I knew what the
00:25:19
pain points were for people who had no
00:25:21
idea about this and I knew what kind of
00:25:24
content that beginners and novices
00:25:27
Digest did um and it really benefited me
00:25:30
when I made the book so when I made this
00:25:32
book in March um I filled it with
00:25:35
essentially tons of visual I made it as
00:25:37
pretty as possible um I was noticing a
00:25:39
lot of ebooks were kind of like Google
00:25:40
Docs um nothing wrong with that but once
00:25:43
again I knew I wanted my book to stand
00:25:45
out so I made it colorful I had charts I
00:25:47
had visuals I had scenarios I had
00:25:49
examples and my book was probably about
00:25:52
60 40 written word to visuals and then
00:25:56
when I finally released it the cont or
00:25:58
the feedback that I got from it from
00:25:59
people was amaz they the one thing that
00:26:02
automatically came out is they loved the
00:26:04
visuals they loved how they were able to
00:26:06
relate to it as opposed to the written
00:26:08
content and I think I sold about a
00:26:11
thousand bucks in my first month and
00:26:13
that that blew my expectations out of
00:26:16
the water um this is around April time
00:26:18
frame I didn't I honestly didn't think I
00:26:20
would sell more than like 20 copies of
00:26:22
this book um but people kept soaking up
00:26:25
and they loved it and they were sharing
00:26:26
it with their friends their family I was
00:26:28
got getting messages they were like can
00:26:29
you convert this to Spanish um our
00:26:32
family would this this is like
00:26:34
groundbreaking for us how you written it
00:26:36
and how you designed it and I was like
00:26:38
wow this is this is really something um
00:26:40
and I kept editing and I kept updating
00:26:42
the book for people and then it just
00:26:45
really it grew from there um it was
00:26:47
fortunate to lead into my second book
00:26:49
because it all the questions I got from
00:26:50
people they were like well you know we
00:26:52
have kids how do I invest for my kids
00:26:54
and then my brain naturally clicked
00:26:56
again I said okay well just like where
00:26:58
in the past me and my wife were you
00:27:01
could say ahead of people financially in
00:27:03
terms of our portfolio we also had kids
00:27:05
who had thousands of dollars in the
00:27:06
stock market so I knew I had a knowledge
00:27:09
once again that I could sell to to
00:27:11
people who needed that for that so
00:27:13
that's naturally what led to uh to book
00:27:15
number two um so that's just that that's
00:27:18
kind of my long-winded story on where
00:27:20
where I got to today it I don't think I
00:27:22
have a very traditional background per
00:27:25
se from a lot of these Finance people
00:27:27
online um many kind of come from a
00:27:30
business background or Finance
00:27:32
background or they had a high-paying job
00:27:34
at a college um I had a very checkered
00:27:37
kind of route to get here my my life
00:27:39
changed almost like every year year and
00:27:41
a half in terms of what I wanted to do
00:27:43
who I was um my goals at the time and
00:27:46
and I think you kind of see on social
00:27:47
media my mind still changes um to this
00:27:50
day with the recent kind of mortgage
00:27:52
vers investing um so you know the the
00:27:56
quote unquote wealth that I am today is
00:27:59
much different than the one that started
00:28:01
on January even 2020 um by by a long
00:28:04
shot so I'm definitely definitely
00:28:06
blessed to be kind of where we're at now
00:28:09
um this definitely if you would if if I
00:28:12
would have went went back in time
00:28:14
essentially January 2020 and told myself
00:28:16
this is what it would have become I
00:28:17
would have been like you're out of your
00:28:19
effing mind um there's no way it would
00:28:22
have been able to grow to where it did
00:28:24
um so I'm definitely blessed that it was
00:28:26
able to to get to this point
00:28:28
first off congratulations on all the
00:28:30
success right that's amazing it's an
00:28:32
amazing story um I've got like 20
00:28:35
different questions I want to ask you
00:28:37
Sean now sure I I knew I I was gonna I
00:28:39
was gonna take a bunch of time with that
00:28:40
I just didn't know how to I I couldn't
00:28:42
give you one part of like my past seven
00:28:45
years and it would make sense to anybody
00:28:47
so I had to kind of Lay It lay it all
00:28:49
out no I I understand I understand um
00:28:53
let me see I'm going to work through a
00:28:54
couple of these I'm not going to get all
00:28:56
20 I get it first off the one thing you
00:28:58
just said was how even your your
00:29:01
mindsets and your opinions about
00:29:02
investing have changed even in the last
00:29:04
18th months since you started the wealth
00:29:07
dat account since you released Index
00:29:09
Fund investing 101 I think that's a good
00:29:11
thing right I think that's a good thing
00:29:13
that you learn something new or someone
00:29:16
shows you some math that you didn't
00:29:18
understand before or that you weren't
00:29:19
aware of before and you say oh actually
00:29:22
doing it this way makes a little more
00:29:24
sense than what I first assumed right
00:29:26
that's that's the whole point of what
00:29:28
we're doing out here yeah especially
00:29:30
when it comes to you know the fact that
00:29:32
a lot of us on say Twitter for example
00:29:35
we're all we're all fighting the same
00:29:37
fight we have the same missions in mind
00:29:38
to help people and we should be
00:29:41
comparing ideas and trying to figure out
00:29:42
what's best before we then turn around
00:29:44
to our respective audiences and say this
00:29:46
is the way um yeah I think that's
00:29:49
awesome and I hope everybody listening
00:29:50
thinks that's awesome I want to go back
00:29:54
I want to go back real early to
00:29:55
something you said and and just pull on
00:29:57
this thread and and maybe I'm going to
00:29:59
pull on the thread and it's just going
00:30:00
to pop right out and there's nothing
00:30:01
there but you had mentioned that you
00:30:03
were a Wanderer right you kind of
00:30:04
wandered through college and early
00:30:06
career you were wandering and then one
00:30:09
day for whatever reason a light belb
00:30:11
kind of turned on and that light bulb's
00:30:14
just been getting brighter and brighter
00:30:15
and brighter since yeah so thinking back
00:30:17
to then I mean there really wasn't some
00:30:19
sort of Turning Point seminal moment
00:30:21
that flipped that light bulb switch it
00:30:23
just kind of started glowing on its
00:30:26
own no uh well
00:30:29
H let me work backwards again um so I
00:30:34
will categorize myself even in high
00:30:36
school uh high school and college as
00:30:38
like a Wanderer like I said I I showed
00:30:40
up and did enough to get me to the next
00:30:42
level um but one thing that always
00:30:45
benefited me I told you my GPA was
00:30:47
pretty much the exact same um one thing
00:30:49
that really benefited me at least in
00:30:51
school and it has benefited me now a lot
00:30:54
in the Working World and my business and
00:30:58
uh partnering with other people like
00:31:00
Chris with wealth Squad um is I've
00:31:03
always had kind of
00:31:05
a
00:31:07
innate fear of losing or failing in me
00:31:11
um I've got a sports background uh
00:31:14
played Sports all throughout um
00:31:16
Childhood High School still like to this
00:31:19
day and for what I I just hate the fact
00:31:23
I hate the idea of losing or failing
00:31:26
when I know
00:31:27
I could have done something to change
00:31:29
that outcome um so there was a lot of
00:31:31
instances kind of in high school or
00:31:34
college where there was moments that I
00:31:37
was potentially going to fail I didn't
00:31:38
think that I was going to get to the
00:31:41
next level but then I would just tell
00:31:42
myself I would be like well what's the
00:31:45
the other option is failing and that
00:31:46
that's not acceptable um you're not
00:31:48
going to fail because that's not an
00:31:50
option for you so I was fortunate to
00:31:53
that although I was a Wanderer I always
00:31:56
forced myself not to fail um so that
00:32:00
pushed me you know if I was struggling
00:32:01
in a class I was like all right get get
00:32:02
your ass to class and let's get an A on
00:32:04
the final or if there's a group project
00:32:06
that's struggling there was one time in
00:32:07
college I just told everybody said all
00:32:09
right you guys just stop let me write
00:32:11
this whole project I'm gonna do it
00:32:12
myself um just weird little outof
00:32:14
character things but I would do like I
00:32:15
said I would do enough to get me go um
00:32:18
to the next level but once again I
00:32:19
wouldn't let myself fail kind of in the
00:32:22
big moments so the light bulb if I have
00:32:26
to
00:32:28
think how I associate that mentality and
00:32:31
when it clicked in real life I think it
00:32:34
was when I started thinking that I was
00:32:37
potentially going to marry my
00:32:40
wife and knowing that I probably just I
00:32:44
didn't think of it like in the moment
00:32:47
but I think it's that subconscious
00:32:48
mentality in the back of my head like
00:32:50
you can't fail you can't lose saying
00:32:52
like hey if you're going to go down this
00:32:53
route you can't wander you you you have
00:32:56
to pick Pi a lane now um you can't just
00:32:59
you know start a family and just you
00:33:02
know um just randomly go about life
00:33:05
every year just changing it all the time
00:33:07
You' got to pick a Direction so I think
00:33:09
that kind of just mentality Compass
00:33:12
pushed me um in a direction and then it
00:33:16
just kind of coincided with the finance
00:33:17
thing all of that happened you know when
00:33:19
I was applying for the Navy I was
00:33:21
reading all these books I knew I was
00:33:22
probably going to marry or get engaged
00:33:24
to my wife and
00:33:27
that just focused it all at one time and
00:33:29
I said all right I'm G to put everything
00:33:30
together I'm going to put all my dumb d
00:33:33
uh not going to drink as much um I'm
00:33:36
gonna focus more not gonna let these
00:33:37
distractions do it anymore and I just
00:33:39
focused every day on just being focused
00:33:41
in the moment kind of like what I do
00:33:43
with the wealth dad um I was joking with
00:33:45
a friend the other day she messaged me
00:33:48
about a com or one of my posts and
00:33:51
congratulated me on the success and I
00:33:53
told her I said
00:33:55
honestly there's nothing
00:33:57
if you ask me there's nothing special
00:34:00
about the wealth dad compared to any
00:34:02
other personal finance account I
00:34:04
probably say the exact same information
00:34:06
on a daily basis that almost everyone
00:34:08
else has on Personal Finance the only
00:34:11
difference in my account and the average
00:34:14
Joe personal finance account is I've
00:34:17
been doing it every single day for a
00:34:20
year and a half I haven't given a day up
00:34:23
um and that was once again the back of
00:34:25
my mind I can't I'm not I can't allow
00:34:27
myself to fail that's the only thing
00:34:29
I've been doing that's been helping me
00:34:30
out so much is I've been showing up
00:34:32
every single day uh so just I think just
00:34:35
kind of that you know the fear the fear
00:34:37
of failure in the back of my mind I know
00:34:39
I can't fail my family um and that
00:34:42
that's honestly what pushes me the most
00:34:44
now I'm fortunate now that our income is
00:34:47
a lot crazier than it was you know five
00:34:50
six seven years ago and it makes
00:34:51
everything a lot easier now um but I
00:34:53
still had that same mentality you know
00:34:55
we're making over 200 Grand this year
00:34:57
with all of our combined incomes but I
00:34:59
still have the exact same kind of fear
00:35:01
of failure mentality as when I was
00:35:03
making 35,000 I still spend my money on
00:35:06
the same stuff um still do the same
00:35:08
things I don't you know I didn't buy the
00:35:11
Tesla immediately when I got my first
00:35:13
you know gumroad paycheck from my job or
00:35:16
from my uh from my books I'm I'm pretty
00:35:18
I'm literally the same guy I've always
00:35:20
been since high school um and I you know
00:35:24
just just no longer wandering is all I'm
00:35:26
not wanding or you know I would say I'm
00:35:28
focused wandering now I'm still my wife
00:35:31
would tell you my mind changes all the
00:35:32
time and I'm doing stuff but I at least
00:35:35
do what I need to do on a daily basis to
00:35:37
keep me going in a direction that is
00:35:39
going to provide for my family and not
00:35:41
let me fail them yeah that makes sense
00:35:44
it absolutely makes sense and from the
00:35:46
outside looking in it certainly doesn't
00:35:48
look like you're failing man so
00:35:50
congratulations it looks like you're
00:35:51
succeeding and uh even if you are
00:35:54
wandering a little bit like you said
00:35:56
it's f focused wandering like your path
00:35:58
seems really well defined and you're
00:36:00
allowed to take a step off the trail
00:36:02
every now and then but the trail is
00:36:03
still there yeah um okay Sean so let me
00:36:07
now let's put some of these ideas into
00:36:09
practice imagine I'm listening to the
00:36:11
podcast I'm 25 I'm 28 I'm 30 years old I
00:36:15
want to get into investing and I like
00:36:17
the wealth dad so I'm going to try out
00:36:18
index funds build me an index fund
00:36:22
portfolio what what would you tell me to
00:36:24
invest
00:36:25
in
00:36:27
so I'm going to tell you first and
00:36:29
foremost before you get for the
00:36:31
portfolio as a 26-year-old who's
00:36:33
starting for the first time I know
00:36:35
you're not going to have pretty much any
00:36:36
idea on the funds that I tell you to
00:36:38
invest in anyways you don't have the
00:36:40
knowledge yet but what I'm going to tell
00:36:41
you to do is at least invest in either a
00:36:44
S&P 500 or total stock market index fund
00:36:48
um why I say that is because the s&p500
00:36:51
has an extremely long uh long-term track
00:36:54
record dating back to
00:36:55
1926 of averaging just under 99% in real
00:37:00
returns when you consider uh dividends
00:37:02
reinvested and you account for inflation
00:37:05
so what this is going to do when you
00:37:06
invest in an S&P 500 Index Fund or total
00:37:09
stock market index fund is it's going to
00:37:11
put your money across the essentially
00:37:13
all the largest companies in the United
00:37:14
States um this is your Home Depot uh
00:37:17
Apple Microsoft Amazon all the companies
00:37:19
that you see on a daily basis you're now
00:37:21
going to shift from being just a
00:37:23
consumer in the economy to now you're
00:37:25
going to be an owner in the economy by
00:37:27
owning a piece of each of these
00:37:29
companies through a basic S&P 500 or
00:37:32
total stock market index fund but then
00:37:34
I'm also going to encourage you once you
00:37:36
get comfortable with that to adding just
00:37:38
a simple total International stock
00:37:40
market index fund Port uh Index Fund so
00:37:44
you can my recommendation would be doing
00:37:47
a 7030 split between us to International
00:37:51
um you can even maybe do 8020 uh us to
00:37:54
International depending on how much more
00:37:56
you believe in the US to to
00:37:58
International stocks um but I do believe
00:38:00
it is good to own a globally diver
00:38:03
Diversified portfolio that's not just
00:38:05
focused on the United States because
00:38:07
Anything Could Happen um in the US
00:38:09
economy it it might not always be as
00:38:11
great as it is there could there could
00:38:13
be decades where our econom is in a
00:38:15
slump and you want to be Diversified um
00:38:17
to the rest of the world as well so do a
00:38:20
simple 7030 or 80/20 split between a S&P
00:38:24
500 Index Fund total stock market index
00:38:27
fund and a total International stock
00:38:29
market index fund gotcha so a couple
00:38:32
follow-up questions then so let's say I
00:38:34
do let's say I do the 7030 let's say I'm
00:38:36
70% in a total us fund so I own not only
00:38:40
the big us companies but the small ones
00:38:41
too 70% of my portfolio the other 30 I
00:38:44
go International let's say in the next
00:38:47
year uh International stocks happen to
00:38:50
outperform and just by the basis of the
00:38:52
way the market performs my portfolio now
00:38:55
is actually more like 6040 because let's
00:38:58
say the US market does poorly while the
00:39:00
international market does well do you
00:39:02
recommend that people should I bring
00:39:05
that back into balance or or rebalance
00:39:07
as people say back to 7030 and and if so
00:39:10
how often should I do that yes I would
00:39:14
but I would not sell um I'm a fan of
00:39:18
letting your winners run and what that
00:39:20
means is as your Investments are growing
00:39:23
I'm not a fan of then selling them as
00:39:25
they're on an upward Trend so what I
00:39:29
would do and you can either do this on a
00:39:32
twice a year or just once a year on an
00:39:34
annual basis but what I would do to get
00:39:36
your portfolio back from that 6040 to
00:39:39
7030 is what I call buying more of your
00:39:43
losers um so you're losing essentially
00:39:45
your portfolio that's getting uh
00:39:48
outperformed by your other one who's not
00:39:50
doing as well you're going to put all of
00:39:51
your new contributed money to that fund
00:39:54
and you're going to build back your
00:39:55
asset out allocation that way by buying
00:39:58
more of the losers while still allowing
00:40:01
um that one fund that's performing a lot
00:40:03
better to continue to run um because I'm
00:40:06
a definitely a big fan of letting the
00:40:08
winners run and not stopping the steam
00:40:10
early per se gotcha so I'm sitting at
00:40:14
6040 US 60 International 40 and what
00:40:17
you're saying is for the next few months
00:40:19
I'm just gonna buy us correct I'm just
00:40:22
going to buy the US and it's slowly
00:40:23
going to be 6139 6238 slowly creep back
00:40:26
up to that 7030 Target I like it correct
00:40:29
I like it excellent so 70% or 80% us
00:40:34
funds 20 or 30% international funds
00:40:36
sounds like a great place to start to me
00:40:39
and then from there it's time to start
00:40:40
learning and and as you learn more as an
00:40:42
investor you might decide to change your
00:40:45
own portfolio but the idea of just
00:40:46
starting and starting with that
00:40:48
portfolio balance that allocation I I
00:40:51
like it I like it Sean thanks for that
00:40:52
advice yeah simple and to the point cool
00:40:56
well Sean let's transition then we're
00:40:58
we're at about the 45 minute Point let's
00:41:00
go to the rapid fire
00:41:03
questions the first one good what is the
00:41:06
last material object or personal luxury
00:41:09
that you spent $100 or more on and it
00:41:12
can be for the kids or it can be for you
00:41:14
and your wife because I understand
00:41:15
there's a lot of costs with with having
00:41:17
little
00:41:18
babies material wise is probably
00:41:20
something for the kids to be honest um
00:41:23
like I said I I I'm not kidding when I
00:41:25
say I'm the same person I've been since
00:41:27
I was in high school I go to the gym
00:41:28
every day I pretty much wear the same uh
00:41:30
running shorts so I can't think of
00:41:32
something like I've spent $100 on
00:41:34
myself uh actually no you know I got a
00:41:36
$200 Amazon gift card from my work the
00:41:39
other day and I gave it entirely to my
00:41:40
wife and she spent it on new clothes for
00:41:42
herself that was our that was our I
00:41:45
think the last thing that comes to mind
00:41:47
in terms of just kind of like shopping
00:41:49
um neither of us are big kind of money
00:41:51
Spenders but that that would probably be
00:41:53
it so this this isn't a trick question
00:41:56
Sean but would you say that your
00:41:59
frugality or your you know kind of your
00:42:01
disinterest sometimes in material Goods
00:42:04
is correlated to the fact that your
00:42:05
investment accounts have grown so much
00:42:08
does that make
00:42:10
sense so are you saying like because
00:42:13
because you don't spend a lot of yeah
00:42:15
because you don't spend a lot of money
00:42:16
on stuff you use that money to
00:42:20
invest I mean mathematically yeah right
00:42:23
yeah you put if if the if the numbers
00:42:25
aren't going to expenses they're they're
00:42:27
going to my investment account um
00:42:29
obvious no doubt about that right um not
00:42:33
a not a trick question I didn't mean it
00:42:35
as a trick question it's just it's just
00:42:36
trying to you know exemplify to the
00:42:38
audience sometimes they I get readers or
00:42:41
I'll see people on social media say yeah
00:42:43
well no one has a thousand dollars a bu
00:42:45
a month to invest and in some cases
00:42:47
that's absolutely true and and I totally
00:42:49
get it I'm there with you but in other
00:42:52
cases those thousand a month are going
00:42:55
towards the nicest items that money can
00:42:58
buy instead of going into an investment
00:43:00
account it's all about choices everybody
00:43:02
makes their own choices and and if you
00:43:03
don't choose to spend on material Goods
00:43:05
you'll have more money to to do other
00:43:07
stuff with like invest and you know one
00:43:10
thing I'll add to that too and this is
00:43:12
where once again I've been I'm I'm a
00:43:14
completely different person than I was
00:43:16
when I first started this account or
00:43:17
even when I first started reading about
00:43:19
money back in the day I would more kind
00:43:22
of agree with just your basic statement
00:43:24
if you're not spending as much you're
00:43:25
going to have more uh means to be able
00:43:29
to invest and I was always of the sense
00:43:31
you know cutting expenses is the most
00:43:33
important thing to do for people and it
00:43:35
is definitely important you know you
00:43:37
don't need to be spending whatever 300
00:43:39
400 bucks at the club every month um but
00:43:42
in my journey uh what's helped me the
00:43:46
most because I was a person who wasn't
00:43:47
able to invest a$ thousand dollars a
00:43:49
month um I was only able to do that up
00:43:51
in like recently in the past couple
00:43:53
years um I was I was definitely not
00:43:56
doing this my first couple years of
00:43:57
investing I was doing maybe a couple
00:43:59
hundred bucks um what changed my life is
00:44:01
I just focused on increasing my income
00:44:03
um that I always knew that was my was
00:44:06
going to elevate myself the most um I
00:44:08
wasn't I knew I wasn't going to be
00:44:10
spending as much but that's going to be
00:44:11
helping people who are more natural kind
00:44:14
of spendy people yeah who have those car
00:44:17
desires who have what it go going out um
00:44:20
cutting expenses will help them yeah but
00:44:22
a lot of times in their case increasing
00:44:24
income is going to be a lot easier for
00:44:26
them and it's going to provide them a
00:44:28
much better quality of life because
00:44:29
they're going to hate reducing their
00:44:31
expenses in those areas excellent point
00:44:34
excellent point you got to think about
00:44:35
what makes you happy as well as kind of
00:44:37
what what the longterm goals are yeah um
00:44:40
let's go to the next question Sean
00:44:41
what's your favorite Financial tool or
00:44:44
app or service and why do you like it I
00:44:48
like personal Capital um so this is a
00:44:51
basic TR it tracks all your finances so
00:44:53
all your investment accounts your bank
00:44:55
accounts uh all of your uh liabilities
00:44:58
so like your mortgages your student
00:45:00
loans your credit cards and what it does
00:45:03
is it gives you a nice dashboard it
00:45:05
provides you your net
00:45:07
worth if people don't uh if your
00:45:09
listeners don't what this is essentially
00:45:10
just like your financial value um how
00:45:12
much you're worth financially and it
00:45:15
lists out every account and it shows you
00:45:16
your progress um how you've been doing
00:45:19
where you've been spending uh it's just
00:45:21
a really nice kind of tool that puts
00:45:23
every all of your money into one place
00:45:25
without you having to log into you know
00:45:27
Bank of America and then your Vanguard
00:45:29
account and then your Ally Bank and
00:45:30
things like that or your student loans
00:45:32
it's a nice place to be able to just put
00:45:34
all of them in one centralized
00:45:36
location awesome and full disclosure
00:45:40
there's probably going to be some ad
00:45:41
copy at the beginning of this episode
00:45:43
about personal capital and listeners
00:45:45
that was completely uh unrelated I said
00:45:48
nothing to Sean before he came up with
00:45:50
that he just likes it on his own so you
00:45:52
know it's good it's Lally the only app I
00:45:54
use for finance awesome uh well last one
00:45:57
Sean imagine you have a billboard and
00:46:00
you can share anything you want with the
00:46:02
world what message would you put on that
00:46:07
billboard I like this
00:46:14
question I'd say life is not as hard as
00:46:17
as you
00:46:18
think
00:46:20
um years ago I I wouldn't have you know
00:46:25
I wouldn't have believed that myself I I
00:46:27
thought Life as a Wanderer you know
00:46:29
without Direction I thought life was
00:46:31
going to be hard um now that I've you
00:46:34
know achieved a decent level of success
00:46:37
uh financially with the business I'm
00:46:39
able to now look back and see that all
00:46:42
this really was was just me putting in
00:46:44
the work every single day um once again
00:46:47
like I told you like I told my friend
00:46:49
all I've been doing differently is
00:46:51
putting in the work every single day for
00:46:53
a year and a half where most people even
00:46:55
my old self would have quit after six
00:46:57
months a year um so although life seems
00:47:01
hard it's really not hard that it's not
00:47:05
as hard as you think to get essentially
00:47:07
to that next level to that one% of
00:47:10
people if you're willing to put the work
00:47:13
in every single day for a long period of
00:47:15
time um so that that's what I would tell
00:47:19
you know readers now especially young
00:47:21
people a lot of people are a lot of
00:47:23
young people are discouraged you know
00:47:24
with kind of student loan
00:47:27
you know Co just hit um state of what
00:47:30
they think the economy is a lot of a lot
00:47:32
of doubt in young people so I would just
00:47:34
want to tell them you know it's not as
00:47:35
hard as you think but if you're that
00:47:38
that's saying that you're going to put
00:47:40
the work in though um so hopefully that
00:47:43
answers your question a little bit it
00:47:45
absolutely does it absolutely does and
00:47:47
uh yeah in my own life I can certainly
00:47:50
count my blessings and and pick out the
00:47:51
points in life where I've been lucky and
00:47:54
I can also look at points in life where
00:47:55
I've said
00:47:56
hard work got me through that and hard
00:47:58
work got me here and it usually it's a
00:48:00
combination of both and it's what is it
00:48:02
Thomas Edison maybe or one of those guys
00:48:04
who pointed out the fact that it's the
00:48:07
combination of really hard luck or
00:48:09
really hard work really hard work gets
00:48:12
you to the point where all of a sudden
00:48:13
you can take advantage of your luck when
00:48:15
it comes along so it really is that
00:48:17
combo that's a great answer Sean and uh
00:48:20
I just want to thank you for coming on
00:48:21
the best interest podcast this was a
00:48:23
great
00:48:23
conversation yeah I enjoyed this um I've
00:48:26
done a couple podcasts before and they
00:48:28
were a lot more you know money Finance
00:48:29
related and I love talking money
00:48:32
obviously my name kind of says that um I
00:48:35
liked kind of talking a little bit more
00:48:37
about you know the more about the
00:48:39
mentality uh around you know who I am
00:48:42
what I think has helped to me a lot um
00:48:44
so I definitely enjoyed exploring those
00:48:46
areas a little bit more um than just the
00:48:48
money side so I appreciate it absolutely
00:48:51
absolutely it was really really good
00:48:52
story and fun to learn about you uh
00:48:55
we'll talk to you soon man great to meet
00:48:57
you yeah appreciate it
00:49:00
[Music]
00:49:04
Jesse big thanks to Shawn the wealth dad
00:49:07
for coming on to the podcast today if
00:49:09
you want to connect with Shawn the best
00:49:11
places to do that are on Twitter or on
00:49:13
Instagram where his handle Is atthe
00:49:16
wealth dad and if you're interested in
00:49:18
pre- purchasing or purchasing his books
00:49:21
he's got links in his profiles on social
00:49:23
media to find index and investing 101
00:49:26
and investing for your children 101
00:49:30
thank you again Sean if you want to
00:49:32
reach out to me my email is Jesse bestin
00:49:35
interest. blog or you can find me on
00:49:37
Twitter where my username is bestest JC
00:49:41
and I'm now on Instagram actually at
00:49:44
theore
00:49:46
bestore the best interest with
00:49:49
underscores on Instagram if you find
00:49:52
these interviews valuable and you want
00:49:53
to give back there are three very easy
00:49:56
options for you all free all free for
00:49:58
you always absolutely free option one
00:50:02
subscribe to the best interest podcast
00:50:03
from the app you're listening to right
00:50:05
now option two leave a rating of the
00:50:08
best interest podcast option three leave
00:50:10
a review tell me what you think for
00:50:13
example J oi wrote in and said been a
00:50:16
follower of the blog for a while now I'm
00:50:18
looking forward to more color commentary
00:50:20
on the post content great first few
00:50:23
episodes cheers Jesse big fan
00:50:25
J oy I'm a big fan of you thank you for
00:50:28
those kind words we can continue to
00:50:30
invest in one another because as Ben
00:50:32
Franklin said an investment in knowledge
00:50:35
pays the best interest sharing with
00:50:37
others that's investing in their
00:50:39
knowledge so thank you all thanks for
00:50:41
listening to Episode 22 of the best
00:50:44
interest
00:50:45
[Music]
00:50:54
podcast

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most inspiring
  • 65
    Best overall
  • 60
    Most quotable

Episode Highlights

  • A Journey from Wandering to Wealth
    Shan Cranston shares his journey from making $35,000 a year to building a half-million dollar portfolio by age 30.
    “I want to chase this personal finance fire I've got.”
    @ 15m 52s
    January 29, 2024
  • A Tough Decision for a New Path
    Shan decides to pursue his passion for personal finance instead of joining the Navy, leading to significant life changes.
    “I told her I want us to move back in with my parents.”
    @ 15m 56s
    January 29, 2024
  • Creating Engaging Content
    Sean discusses how visuals in his book resonated with readers, leading to unexpected success.
    “They loved the visuals; they loved how they were able to relate to it.”
    @ 26m 04s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Wealth Dad Journey
    From a wanderer to a focused financial educator, Sean shares his transformative journey.
    “I’m definitely blessed to be kind of where we’re at now.”
    @ 28m 06s
    January 29, 2024
  • Investing for Beginners
    Sean advises new investors to start with S&P 500 or total stock market index funds.
    “You’re now going to shift from being just a consumer to an owner in the economy.”
    @ 37m 25s
    January 29, 2024
  • Investing Strategy
    Sean discusses the importance of rebalancing your portfolio and letting winners run.
    “Let your winners run.”
    @ 39m 14s
    January 29, 2024
  • Financial Tools
    Sean recommends Personal Capital for tracking finances and investments.
    “It's a nice place to be able to just put all of them in one centralized location.”
    @ 45m 25s
    January 29, 2024
  • Life Lessons
    Sean shares his perspective on life being easier than it seems with hard work.
    “Life is not as hard as you think.”
    @ 46m 17s
    January 29, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Family Dynamics04:08
  • Personal Finance Passion15:52
  • Life Decisions15:56
  • Financial Progress20:00
  • House Hunting20:39
  • Book Success26:11
  • Financial Tools44:48
  • Life Insights46:17

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