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[Music]
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tool welcome to the best interest
00:01:18
podcast hosted by Jesse Kramer where we
00:01:20
discuss today's best ideas in personal
00:01:22
finance and investing the best interest
00:01:25
is a personal podcast meant for
00:01:27
entertainment purposes only it should
00:01:29
not be Tak as Financial advice and is
00:01:31
not prescriptive of your financial
00:01:33
situation here's your host Jesse Kramer
00:01:37
hey guys what's up Jesse Kramer here
00:01:40
welcome to episode 28 of the best
00:01:43
interest podcast now nothing against any
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of the other guests I've had on the
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podcast because they have been seriously
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amazing to talk to but today's guest
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might just be the Best Yet now there's a
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little white noise in the background at
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times during our conversation ation I
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hope it doesn't bug you too much because
00:02:02
the wisdom and experience from this
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guest is simply fantastic but real quick
00:02:07
before I introduce Our Guest could you
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please pause the show and then in your
00:02:12
podcast app give a rating and review to
00:02:14
the best interest podcast why because
00:02:17
the best interest it's a growing small
00:02:19
business and I want to keep making this
00:02:21
content for people just like you a
00:02:24
rating and a review it lets all those
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fancy algorithms know that you care
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about this podcast
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and I know I'm asking for your time I'm
00:02:32
asking for your effort and I know that
00:02:34
you don't owe me anything so I really
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appreciate those of you who decide to
00:02:39
sacrifice that time and effort to leave
00:02:41
that rating and review thank you guys so
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with that let's go meet our
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[Music]
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guest my guest today is a financial
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Independence specialist but like some
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former guests he wants to stay separate
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from his real world financial profession
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he wants to keep that separate from his
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online Persona so he runs an anonymous
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account where he discusses simple
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investing real estate investing net
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worth tracking Financial Independence
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tactics and much much more so I'm very
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excited to introduce Shan the FI
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squirrel to the best interest podcast
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Sean good evening how are you my friend
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very good letting the squirt out of the
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bag with the name thanks Jesse thanks
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for having me absolutely well we can
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start there we can start there with
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squirrel because Sean I want to hear a
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little bit about your backstory I'd love
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for you to introduce yourself to my
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audience and maybe part of that story
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can be where the FI squirrel name comes
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from sure sure that sounds good so uh I
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don't have a crazy great story about
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where the squirrel part came from but
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I've been on Twitter for about a year
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two years or so just lurking like most
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people do trying to feel out the
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community to begin with and then uh I
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was on a vacation last winter with my
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family and we went for like a six week
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Mexico getaway to kind of reconnect and
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I had a lot of spare time in my hand so
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I thought it would be a good time to
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finally open up an account and start my
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Twitter account uh so you're always
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trying to it's that pivotal moment
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trying to think of who your identity is
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going to be or what your character is
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going to be I knew I didn't want to be
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uh a non Anonymous just because my plan
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was always to share my finan my all my
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details My Money numbers I want to be
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super transparent so I knew I needed to
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be anonymous to start so squirrel was
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just one of those funny animals that you
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can't help but chuckle at and it works
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in multiple ways with squirrels stashing
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away and saving for a rainy day so it
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just kind of worked out that way and
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I've had a few pretty cringe profile
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pictures over the last year and a half
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and I think I finally classed it up at
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the bow
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tie I think my first one was a literally
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a clip art or something off of Google
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with like it had like Watermark images
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all over it from whoever I ripped it off
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of that's how bad fi squirrel started in
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the beginning well we all know the game
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of the iterations of Twitter profiles so
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so nothing wrong with that it's ever
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ever evolving um but one thing you
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mentioned there was how staying
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Anonymous for the sake of being able to
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share all your details because that is I
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feel like one of the uh one of the
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highlights of your online presence or
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what you bring to the table is that you
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share your your details so I'm just
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curious from your point of view you know
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what's the thought process behind
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sharing all those details what do you
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hope people get out of those details
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from you well when I started I wasn't
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really thinking about other people and
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inspiring because I really didn't think
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anyone would care about my account so
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when I started I really just wanted to
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have what every uh Twitter user a lot of
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us start out kind of making that mistake
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of thinking it's an online diary I I
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thought I was going to
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do put it this way I was too lazy to do
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a Blog I before Twitter I follow
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bloggers for easily five six seven years
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before that and uh I've seen a lot of
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people's kind of financial journey of
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where they've started and what they've
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grown to just by clicking on their
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monthly updates on uh on their blogs but
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I just know that I don't have the
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discipline and the uh the efforts takes
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to continue with a Blog long form
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writing just to me is too daunting and
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Twitter seemed like a really easy way to
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break into it with whatever it is 240
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characters I can give a quick update and
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I don't have to feel like I'm chained to
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this job of a Blog so that's kind of how
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it started with the Twitter account is I
00:06:49
just wanted to do kind of an online
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tracking extra level of what I've
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already been doing ex with Excel and
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then uh it just kind of grown from there
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I I really do love the numbers and the
00:07:03
tracking I'm a I'm a self-proclaimed
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money nerd and I love love tracking this
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kind of stuff so it seemed like a good
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place to start sharing and in the
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beginning when you're looking for some
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kind of traction and getting some
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viewers numbers sell like when you when
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you post your numbers that kind of helps
00:07:19
you build an account and grow an account
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so that fortunately worked in my favor
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that I had some decent enough numbers
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that that people took notice uh and
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since then I just try and uh be
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consistent by posting each month to not
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only keep myself accountable but now
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I've got people who uh are inspired by
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it and want to start doing the same I
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can vouch that long form content can be
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daunting as someone who has written a
00:07:43
lot of long form content it uh gets
00:07:46
timec consuming after a while and I can
00:07:48
also vouch for the fact that once I
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started posting some of my hard numbers
00:07:52
Sean I found that I had more people
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reaching out to me especially people who
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had known me for a while people who had
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known know me say growing up or from
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college they knew I was doing the best
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interest as a project but when they saw
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some of the numbers and they tied those
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numbers in with the behaviors that got
00:08:09
me there that's when they reached out to
00:08:11
me and said whoa now I see the power of
00:08:14
what you're talking about whether it's
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budgeting or index funds and now I take
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you a little bit more seriously Jesse so
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I think there is a real power in numbers
00:08:22
there and I wanted to ask you Sean you
00:08:24
you you mentioned tracking uh about how
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you're tracking all your numbers how VI
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ently do you track your finances what
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does that process look like for you it's
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not as much as you'd think I uh I love
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to preach the numbers to other people
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because I truly do believe it's my been
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my secret to success for a family but it
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I don't ask a lot I what I do my money
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Marathon spreadsheet that I that I
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created and I use religiously for us
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it's it's literally 15 minutes a month
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uh the first oh I should say I ideally
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it's the first of the month it usually
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happens around the seventh or the
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whenever we get around to it but me and
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my wife sit down um I include her in the
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process because I want to make sure
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she's um knowing what's going on and
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aware of our numbers so we sit down
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together I've got the Excel sheet and
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the laptop she's got her phone and our
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just our banking app and she reads me
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the numbers and I just punch in all of
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our money in all of our money out update
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our net worth with our account numbers
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and it's like I said it's about 15
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minutes most of the work has been me
00:09:30
going through 300 iterations of Excel
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spreadsheets nerding out and trying to
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make it better and improve upon and add
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graphs and just getting lost in that
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having fun with it but the maintenance
00:09:41
of the of what we do as far as tracking
00:09:43
is is very very minimal we just uh
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update that once a month just to make
00:09:48
sure that we have to course correct
00:09:50
anything or if we ever have a bad month
00:09:53
we're aware of it it's front of mind and
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we're going to correct the next month
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afterwards knowing that we had a slip up
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um but as far as detailed tracking I'm
00:10:03
I'm not a budget guy at all I uh
00:10:06
apologize to all the hardcore personal
00:10:07
finance people out there that maybe will
00:10:09
shame me for this but like I've never
00:10:11
been a budget person I've I've believed
00:10:14
in always spending less than we make
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which is what we we TR stick to but
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beyond that I would never want myself to
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have to go through itemized budgets and
00:10:25
restrictions and and uh that kind of
00:10:28
detail so when I help people on Twitter
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or when I work with clients I really try
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and preach to them that I'm not going to
00:10:35
be that budget Guru that's going to hold
00:10:38
them to hard numbers I want to make sure
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that they're making the right moves on a
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large scale and I don't want to drill
00:10:45
down those details that that's where you
00:10:47
lose most people I think it was a
00:10:48
learning experience for me Sean I for
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what it's worth I am I would guess like
00:10:54
the 98th percentile when it comes to
00:10:57
zealotry for budgeting and tracking but
00:11:00
I wrote an article probably a year and a
00:11:02
half ago now where I asked maybe 30
00:11:05
other bloggers what they did and I found
00:11:08
out way out on the one end of the
00:11:10
spectrum and a lot of people did exactly
00:11:13
what you do or very similar to what you
00:11:16
do which is they check in once a month
00:11:18
and all they do is they see where their
00:11:20
accounts stand they compare them to the
00:11:22
last month they see what progress
00:11:24
they've made and that's it if they've
00:11:26
lost shouldn't say lost money if they
00:11:29
realize that they spent too much money
00:11:30
well then they change their mindset
00:11:32
moving forward and say okay maybe I need
00:11:34
to pull it back a little bit but they're
00:11:36
not really getting lost in the details
00:11:37
they're really just doing that once a
00:11:39
month check-in exactly and when you say
00:11:41
you're on the one of the spectrum you're
00:11:43
saying you're on the details love your
00:11:45
numbers and budgets hold you accountable
00:11:47
kind of side exactly so how much time
00:11:49
how much how much time do you spend then
00:11:51
is it is it a pretty detailed process so
00:11:53
I use the bud uh the budgeting app
00:11:55
called you need a budget or YNAB yab and
00:11:59
I spend probably um 20 minutes a weekend
00:12:03
would be my guess where I sit down on
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Saturday with my cup of coffee I pull up
00:12:07
my bank account I pull up my fidelity
00:12:10
account I pull up wab and I just punch
00:12:13
in that week's um that week's
00:12:16
expenditures I could sync wab up to my
00:12:19
bank directly I just choose to do it
00:12:21
manually guess move I think right I
00:12:24
think I just I don't really want that
00:12:26
connection to be there between the two
00:12:28
and I'd rather just if I'm doing it
00:12:29
manually it's kind of like I an error
00:12:31
check live I'm with you on that I've got
00:12:34
a strong opposition to over automating
00:12:36
because a lot of people have asked me or
00:12:40
my favorite apps and a lot of them
00:12:41
mentioned Mint or wab where you can sync
00:12:44
it up and I think you lose a lot of
00:12:46
value of tracking when you remove
00:12:48
yourself from the process when you're
00:12:50
automating those things like you're kind
00:12:53
of implying not only is there errors as
00:12:55
far as the tracking data a lot of times
00:12:57
they they categorize things wrong but
00:12:58
beyond that I think if you rely too
00:13:01
heavily on that automation it becomes a
00:13:04
fun gimmick and a fun tool that maybe
00:13:06
you breathe and glance at every once in
00:13:09
a while when something's going bad but
00:13:11
if you're not spending the time to be
00:13:13
conscious of your numbers and categorize
00:13:15
things yourself and and even just
00:13:17
inputting that hard data by hand I think
00:13:19
you lose that value of
00:13:21
tracking I agree it it serves as an
00:13:24
excellent reminder at times when I'm
00:13:26
doing my tracking and I have to punch in
00:13:29
that $70 purchase from some gimmicky
00:13:33
gift shop and I kind of have to sit
00:13:35
there and look at myself in the
00:13:37
proverbial mirror and say oh yeah I kind
00:13:39
of did waste 70 bucks on some stupid
00:13:42
purchase there if it was automated I
00:13:44
might not ever think about that purchase
00:13:46
again but I have to relive it when I'm
00:13:48
doing my budgeting and uh it's just one
00:13:51
of many benefits that I feel I get from
00:13:54
from doing it all myself but I feel like
00:13:56
we need to put that into our mix maybe
00:13:59
the occasional month maybe we should do
00:14:00
that quarterly because I'm thinking
00:14:01
about how many times we would have to
00:14:03
punch in Amazon delivery of some kind
00:14:06
and that might clue us into like oh man
00:14:08
Death By A Thousand Cuts this is how
00:14:10
it's happening it's to each their own
00:14:13
Sean I think it's to each their own
00:14:14
whenever makes you comfortable and uh at
00:14:16
the end of the day I've seen some of
00:14:18
your financial statements I've seen what
00:14:20
you write on Twitter and I think you've
00:14:21
got a pretty good Financial head on your
00:14:24
shoulders and you're you're all set
00:14:26
whether you're doing detailed budgeting
00:14:27
or just once a month
00:14:29
budgeting um yeah I wouldn't say we're
00:14:32
hardcore fi like we
00:14:35
are that Jessica from the fioneers on
00:14:39
Meg Norman had a podcast and I did a
00:14:40
quote a few week a few days ago last
00:14:43
week on uh one of my tweets that Jess
00:14:45
get mentioned and she said something
00:14:47
along the lines of reaching fi allows
00:14:50
you to make suboptimal decisions once
00:14:53
you reach that level of of comfort I'm
00:14:55
butchering the quote but essentially
00:14:58
once you reach a certain level you don't
00:15:00
need to over optimize and you can loosen
00:15:03
things off a little bit and that's
00:15:05
that's where I feel that we're at I I
00:15:06
often joke with people that I need to
00:15:09
get my fi card revoked
00:15:11
because I've SE these people with these
00:15:13
incredible savings rates and I'm just
00:15:15
thinking oh my goodness like if I could
00:15:17
do what they're doing I'd be I'd be
00:15:19
retired by now but live a little bit
00:15:22
looser and our savings rate is hilarious
00:15:26
compared to some of these people like
00:15:27
we're nowhere near like again you've
00:15:29
seen my reports like I I could have a
00:15:31
month income for our family of
00:15:35
145,000 but our expenses are also 12 or
00:15:39
13,000 so that's not a very impressive
00:15:41
margin when it comes to the FI Community
00:15:43
but at the same time where we're at I
00:15:46
don't feel that we need to be squeezing
00:15:48
every last drop out of the out of the
00:15:51
orange like we're we're looking to enjoy
00:15:53
things and we're on a good pace and I
00:15:56
have to remind myself constantly when I
00:15:57
start to stress about money because even
00:16:00
where I'm at I I have catched myself in
00:16:02
moments where I'm thinking about how I
00:16:04
could do better or how we could optimize
00:16:06
more and me and my wife are always
00:16:09
trying to remind ourselves that we're
00:16:12
way ahead and we're young I'm 33 my
00:16:15
wife's 31 we've got so much time that we
00:16:18
don't need to deprive ourselves or
00:16:20
squeeze any harder than we already are
00:16:23
and arguably I I could lighten up the
00:16:27
reain even more but I have a hard time
00:16:29
like we all do
00:16:31
sometimes it's such it's one of my
00:16:33
favorite topics really is that that ven
00:16:36
diagram intersection between spending
00:16:39
saving and fulfillment I think would be
00:16:42
the three things I would think about and
00:16:44
how it looks a little bit different for
00:16:45
everybody uh but I definitely don't find
00:16:48
myself way out on the extreme of some of
00:16:50
the FI community of people you know
00:16:54
making $100,000 per year and living off
00:16:57
of 20,000
00:16:59
per year and saving the other you know
00:17:01
after taxes maybe they're saving you
00:17:03
know 80% of their post tax income uh
00:17:06
because like you said I want to live a
00:17:08
little bit it's just a matter one thing
00:17:10
that the budgeting does let me do is
00:17:13
really focus my money in areas that I
00:17:15
know I'll get the most pleasure out of
00:17:17
and sometimes try to trim the areas that
00:17:19
I don't really care about as much but
00:17:21
it's such an interesting idea and it's
00:17:23
something that I push people to think
00:17:25
about is really to try to understand
00:17:27
where is your spending going to maximize
00:17:30
your happiness and where is your
00:17:31
spending essentially not going to bring
00:17:33
you any fulfillment whatsoever and you
00:17:35
can maximize the former and minimize the
00:17:39
latter yes exactly r ramit or RIT is all
00:17:43
about that cutting ruthlessly on things
00:17:45
that don't bring you that value and
00:17:47
spending lavishly on the things that do
00:17:49
because we always have to remind
00:17:51
ourselves that money is a tool it's all
00:17:53
it is like if you're sitting there
00:17:56
getting jazzed up because you got a big
00:17:57
number in your account that's not
00:18:00
happiness that's just a digit on a
00:18:02
screen like that money is meant to be
00:18:05
spent it's meant to be used and some
00:18:07
people take that saying to the extreme
00:18:10
but I think we need to remember what
00:18:11
that really means like it's it's meant
00:18:13
to be used to give you freedom and give
00:18:15
you happiness so by all means don't feel
00:18:17
guilty about if I spend 70 bucks on
00:18:21
whatever subscription like he used as an
00:18:23
example if that's giv you value do that
00:18:26
every month no no guilt ramit's that
00:18:29
that phrase he just said from ramit seti
00:18:32
for any listeners unfamiliar ramit seti
00:18:34
wrote he's a very well-known blogger who
00:18:37
now is almost more of a personality
00:18:39
celebrity author in the personal finance
00:18:42
space he wrote a book called I will
00:18:43
teach you to be rich and just like Sean
00:18:47
said you know cut ruthlessly in some
00:18:49
areas so that you can spend in other
00:18:52
areas I wrote an article where I call
00:18:54
that bodal spending because I'm kind of
00:18:56
a math nerd and uh I'm I'm happy to say
00:18:59
I'm the first person in history to use
00:19:01
that phrase botal spending and so my
00:19:04
blog ranks number one on Google for that
00:19:06
phrase but the problem is nobody else on
00:19:09
Earth uses the term botal spending so
00:19:11
it's not like it's any traffic doesn't
00:19:14
have that marketing ring to it just not
00:19:15
quite the same no it doesn't it doesn't
00:19:18
that's okay someone in the world
00:19:19
appreciates that use of bodal but uh we
00:19:22
got to find them I I had a couple small
00:19:24
fans within the nerdy personal finance
00:19:26
Community but that's that's about it
00:19:29
um awesome Sean you mentioned at one
00:19:31
point in there you mentioned working
00:19:33
with some of your clients so I was just
00:19:35
wondering could you tell us a little bit
00:19:36
about you know who are you working with
00:19:38
or or what kind of clients those are and
00:19:41
and maybe how how that ties into the
00:19:43
advice you give on fi squirrel account
00:19:47
yeah of course so it's been kind of an
00:19:49
evolution of what I've done as far as
00:19:51
working with clients and coaching so
00:19:54
since I was 19 years old I uh I've been
00:19:58
reading every personal finance book
00:20:01
imaginable I've I I've probably read 300
00:20:03
400 500 I I've lost count I uh the first
00:20:07
one I read was The Wealthy Barber by
00:20:08
David Chilton it's a Canadian classic I
00:20:11
don't know how popular it is in the
00:20:12
States but up here it was written I
00:20:14
think it was written in 88 which was the
00:20:17
year of me so I feel like it's fitting
00:20:21
that it was my first book that really
00:20:22
lit the fire in me so after reading that
00:20:25
I just started consuming and since 19 uh
00:20:29
years old I've been
00:20:32
that money Mentor for all of my friends
00:20:35
for years that they'd come to me with
00:20:37
questions advice and then I think I was
00:20:41
I want to say I was 21 or 22 and my
00:20:44
brother got recorded by one of those
00:20:46
awful World Financial Group skey sales
00:20:50
Insurance type advisor businesses and he
00:20:53
asked if I would come help him for a
00:20:55
training session where his mentor would
00:20:58
would watch him interview me and ask me
00:21:00
questions and find give tips on how to
00:21:02
sell to the person and I sat there with
00:21:06
my brother asking me all these questions
00:21:08
and his quote unquote Mentor sales coach
00:21:10
essentially and after about 15 minutes
00:21:14
of them not being able to lead me
00:21:16
anywhere because I had the answer to
00:21:17
every little rabbit hole they tried to
00:21:20
take me down the guy shut down the
00:21:22
session and said why aren't you doing
00:21:24
this like why aren't you working as an
00:21:25
adviser and he started trying to recruit
00:21:27
me and kind of forgot about my brother I
00:21:29
F I felt bad for him and uh that was
00:21:32
like my first introduction an awful
00:21:35
introduction because again it was like a
00:21:36
salesy insurance type thing so he did
00:21:39
recruit me but I had this huge moral
00:21:43
dilemma because I knew from all of my
00:21:45
reading that it was an awful model and
00:21:48
it wasn't really what was best for the
00:21:49
client so I lasted with that group um of
00:21:53
advisers and I use that term loosely for
00:21:57
probably just under a year and I did
00:22:00
very very little sales I did a ton of
00:22:04
we'll call it pro bono coaching where I
00:22:06
made zero dollars for all of my time
00:22:08
spent but I was loving it I was really
00:22:11
really enjoying working with people and
00:22:14
then I started to get a lot of pressure
00:22:15
from this Mentor saying hey like you're
00:22:18
not producing anything you're not
00:22:19
selling anything and that was the point
00:22:22
where I decided to walk away and say you
00:22:24
know what this this business model is
00:22:27
not for me so from that point forward
00:22:29
probably for the last 10 plus years I've
00:22:32
worked as an independent Financial coach
00:22:35
and I use the term Financial coach
00:22:37
because again in the industry I don't
00:22:40
know what it's like in the States but in
00:22:41
Canada you can call yourself a thousand
00:22:43
different things and uh I don't feel
00:22:47
right calling myself a financial advisor
00:22:49
or planner because I'm not a certified
00:22:51
financial planner but what I really
00:22:54
really enjoy is sitting down with people
00:22:57
or
00:22:58
couples or whoever and really getting
00:23:01
into the nitty gree details and uh
00:23:04
anyone who's in the business knows that
00:23:06
unfortunately doing that stuff doesn't
00:23:08
really make you money it's selling
00:23:10
insurance it's getting a really big book
00:23:12
of
00:23:13
Investments um but I've done really well
00:23:16
with my my own Investments um and i' I
00:23:19
have a good regular job I work a
00:23:21
nine-to-five job for my local government
00:23:22
so this coaching that I do as a
00:23:24
financial coach is purely for my own
00:23:27
pass and my own enjoyment so I really
00:23:30
don't make much money doing it I I joke
00:23:32
with all my clients that take me for
00:23:34
dinner and and that's my that's my bill
00:23:37
or a lot of them I tell them
00:23:40
realistically what I want is I want
00:23:42
people to go on vacation with later in
00:23:44
life so let me help you let me get help
00:23:47
you get some money and get your house in
00:23:48
order and then when I go some warm
00:23:50
climate in the winters you can come join
00:23:52
me for a week or a month at a time so
00:23:54
that's my sell to them as far as what I
00:23:56
get paid is just helping them and
00:23:58
knowing that they're going to be better
00:24:00
off uh so I work with my clients uh
00:24:03
again going through essentially what I
00:24:05
do on fi squirrel I'm giving them
00:24:07
general advice I'm giving them help with
00:24:10
buying a car or getting set up with a
00:24:13
proper mortgage broker or buying the
00:24:15
right insurance and not getting ripped
00:24:17
off by one of those salesmen so I just
00:24:19
like to sit down and kind of comb
00:24:22
through their numbers trim up their
00:24:24
budgets I make them do a budget in the
00:24:26
beginning only once just so we can get
00:24:29
an idea of expenses and where things sit
00:24:33
um but I kind of go through those fine
00:24:34
details that I think most
00:24:36
advisors the good ones do but I don't
00:24:39
think many of them enjoy doing that's
00:24:41
kind of my niche of what I do working
00:24:43
with clients so right now it's just an
00:24:46
inperson business of what I do with
00:24:48
family friends referrals here where I
00:24:50
live um I reached have a few people
00:24:54
reach out to me on Twitter I try and
00:24:55
help but uh so far I haven't really
00:24:57
branched up much as far as online
00:24:59
coaching because I really only have so
00:25:00
much time to donate and I don't know if
00:25:03
I'll ever scale up or not I'm sure one
00:25:05
day if I ever fall on fire from my job
00:25:07
and stop working I'll spend a lot more
00:25:09
time coaching but where I'm at right now
00:25:11
I'm just kind of taking it slow I love
00:25:14
that story Sean it reminded me of some
00:25:17
good friends I have here in Rochester
00:25:19
who found themselves working at a large
00:25:24
advisory company where they had a lot of
00:25:26
pressure from their level management to
00:25:29
sell bloated Insurance products to
00:25:32
unknowing unsuspecting clients and it
00:25:35
really was no pun intended not in the
00:25:38
best interest of those clients there we
00:25:41
go there we go and uh and yeah they
00:25:45
ended up quitting they ended up uh six
00:25:47
of them got together and quit that
00:25:49
insurance company for lack of a better
00:25:50
term I'm calling them an insurance
00:25:52
company and they started their own
00:25:54
advisory where they had the freedom to
00:25:57
really think about what was best for
00:25:59
their clients and uh and they're loving
00:26:01
it and and they're it's still a smaller
00:26:03
company and kind of not quite a startup
00:26:06
but they're doing really well for
00:26:07
themselves they're much happier doing it
00:26:10
and uh and they're doing better for
00:26:12
their clients which is really ultimately
00:26:14
what's most important there yeah I love
00:26:17
hearing that I love hearing when people
00:26:19
have that strong moral compass and
00:26:21
unfortunately if you really need the
00:26:23
money some people they they they have to
00:26:27
go against their Compass because they
00:26:28
maybe need to make a living doing it
00:26:30
thankfully I still had my regular job
00:26:32
and I've done well with Investments and
00:26:34
I've been Frugal since I was a teenager
00:26:36
so I never had that pressure where I
00:26:38
felt I needed to make a sale um I'd much
00:26:42
rather see again people succeed it's
00:26:45
it's a thing born deep into me is that I
00:26:48
just I like seeing people succeed and
00:26:51
sometimes to me seeing a friend a family
00:26:53
member or a client win and do well and
00:26:56
be set up is worth way more than
00:26:58
whatever fee I could ever collect for
00:27:00
them doing some other business model
00:27:02
that is excellent to hear one thing I
00:27:05
like that you you you make those clients
00:27:07
especially if they're a new client or
00:27:09
maybe a beginner in money you actually
00:27:10
do make them sit down and do a budget
00:27:12
and just going back to the budgeting
00:27:14
topic we were talking about earlier
00:27:16
that's something that I push people
00:27:17
towards as well where I found that a lot
00:27:19
of more experienced people I've spoken
00:27:21
to have said yeah I I ran a budget for a
00:27:23
few years and then once I got used to it
00:27:25
I don't do all the details anymore
00:27:28
but for beginners who really have never
00:27:30
had any understanding of where their
00:27:31
money is going I think they get a lot of
00:27:34
benefit out of really going through the
00:27:36
details of that
00:27:37
budget yes I couldn't agree more the
00:27:40
getting an inventory of the numbers is a
00:27:43
necessity because how how can you plan
00:27:46
or how can you make any kind of
00:27:47
strategic adjustments if you don't know
00:27:50
where things are sitting at the current
00:27:52
state so you you need to take that
00:27:53
inventory and I've sat down with people
00:27:56
I kid you not as a couple that not only
00:27:59
don't know where their money goes as far
00:28:00
as spending I've had people that don't
00:28:02
know how much money they make in a month
00:28:05
they literally the bank account is like
00:28:07
the Iron Curtain they never look behind
00:28:09
and all they know is money gets dumped
00:28:11
in there and then money comes out of
00:28:13
there but they don't ever look they just
00:28:15
have this kind of like out of sight out
00:28:16
of mind approach to things so figuring
00:28:19
out how much is coming in each month and
00:28:21
how much goes out like the big reason
00:28:23
why I do it is everybody's everybody's
00:28:26
excited to invest it seems like when
00:28:28
they sit down with me they think I'm
00:28:30
gonna invest I'm G to get rich in the
00:28:31
market and to me there's so many
00:28:33
foundational things we need to go
00:28:35
through before we get there and a lot of
00:28:37
times when they want to invest I say
00:28:38
okay well before we get started what do
00:28:41
you what are your goals or what do you
00:28:42
have in mind and they start they jump
00:28:44
right into I'm gonna do two $200 a month
00:28:47
$200 a month and we're gonna I'm gonna
00:28:48
do that and I've seen a calculator I'm
00:28:50
gonna get rich and I say okay so how did
00:28:52
you get to $2,000 a month like where
00:28:54
does that number come from did you just
00:28:56
pull it out of the sky and then they
00:28:57
kind of give me a puzzled look I'm like
00:28:59
well do you know how much disposable
00:29:01
income you have and for some people $200
00:29:04
might be a ton it might be a stretch it
00:29:06
might be perfect or I have other clients
00:29:09
where for example I have one client he's
00:29:12
uh does oil field sales and he makes a
00:29:15
ridiculous amount of money and he his
00:29:19
company he works for pays for his truck
00:29:21
his insurance his cell phone his gas
00:29:24
like like he has got the ultimate job so
00:29:27
we sat down and we went through his
00:29:29
numbers and he was bringing in like
00:29:31
seven or 8,000 a month and his
00:29:34
expenses were like one or two so I said
00:29:38
DJ you're clearing cash flow $6,000 a
00:29:43
month and you want to invest 200 I think
00:29:46
we can do better and sometimes they need
00:29:49
a push because if you just pull out an
00:29:51
arbitrary number they probably are
00:29:53
really happy they're getting started
00:29:54
which is great but if you again if you
00:29:56
don't have that inventory of what goes
00:29:58
in what comes out you're really just
00:30:01
taking a wild yes and you could be doing
00:30:03
way better or you need to scale back one
00:30:05
of you don't want to obviously overspend
00:30:07
and leave yourself with nothing but I
00:30:09
find more often than not people really
00:30:11
underestimate what they're capable of
00:30:14
and I always try and drive home that
00:30:16
point of if you don't account for where
00:30:20
things are going as far as that excess
00:30:22
money you have the Gap as we call it in
00:30:24
personal finance if you don't account
00:30:26
for the gap it will just fall through
00:30:28
your fingers it will just dissipate
00:30:31
because if you don't give it a job or
00:30:33
give it an assignment or put it
00:30:35
somewhere you will find a way to
00:30:37
mindlessly spend it and often when we go
00:30:40
through that very first budget or cash
00:30:43
flow exercise they're usually in shock
00:30:46
that I make x amount of dollars and I
00:30:49
spend x amount and I should have one to
00:30:53
two to three or a couple hundred they
00:30:55
should have so much money excess but
00:30:58
they have no um recollection of where
00:31:01
it's been going or how they don't have
00:31:03
more of it because they've never given
00:31:05
it a job or giving it a
00:31:07
thought uh routine listeners of the
00:31:09
podcast are going to roll their eyes as
00:31:11
I say for the 38th time in 27 episodes
00:31:15
that you can't manage what you don't
00:31:18
measure it's a famous quote from Peter
00:31:20
Drucker and it's something I write about
00:31:22
on the blog all the time it's something
00:31:23
that I apply to budgeting just like you
00:31:25
just did there Sean you can't manage
00:31:28
your finances unless you are doing some
00:31:30
sort of measurement of those finances
00:31:33
something just as simple as money coming
00:31:34
in money going out and therefore how
00:31:36
much disposable income do I have you
00:31:39
have to be measuring that if you want to
00:31:40
manage and improve your finances I don't
00:31:43
know if you noticed when you when you
00:31:45
emailed my business account but that's
00:31:47
in my signature under my name it's what
00:31:50
what how I put it as what but gets
00:31:52
measured gets managed it's the exact
00:31:53
same idea people need to have a Baseline
00:31:56
and they need to have some form of
00:31:59
measurement or tracking because what's
00:32:01
out of mind what's out of sight it's
00:32:04
never going to work for you but you
00:32:06
heard it here first folks or maybe you
00:32:08
didn't but at least you heard it here
00:32:09
twice so let's go back to these net
00:32:11
worth statements that you that you share
00:32:13
with us on Twitter and that people kind
00:32:15
of can keep track of on a regular basis
00:32:17
can you talk us through a little bit
00:32:18
about what the constituents of your net
00:32:21
worth are and which Investments you
00:32:23
choose to invest in those that you've
00:32:25
ignored over time and and give us the
00:32:27
reason why sure so back when I started I
00:32:31
was a mutual fund guy when I was 19 and
00:32:34
I got into some individual stocks and
00:32:36
I've mainly been in the market um but
00:32:38
probably for the first three four years
00:32:41
from 19 to 22 is I built up a good NES
00:32:45
TIG and I used that money to buy my
00:32:47
first property I moved out finally when
00:32:51
I was 24 I was in my last year of
00:32:54
University and uh it was finally time
00:32:56
for me to kind kind of leave the coupe
00:32:58
so I I bought a condo I was a new build
00:33:01
condo moved in and I noticed it was a
00:33:03
brand new building and there was no one
00:33:05
beside me and I was coming home one day
00:33:07
and I heard a bunch of little yippy dogs
00:33:10
just going to town downstairs on the
00:33:11
main floor and I just thought oh I would
00:33:14
hate to have someone like that move in
00:33:16
next door to me and then for some reason
00:33:18
it clicked that hey maybe I can buy next
00:33:21
door to me and control who lives there
00:33:24
so I uh I did some homework that night
00:33:26
and ran some numbers called the broker
00:33:28
and it it turned out I don't know how I
00:33:30
qualified as a part-time working
00:33:32
University student to buy my second
00:33:34
property next door shows you how strict
00:33:36
the mortgage rules were before before it
00:33:39
should hit the fan but anyway I uh I
00:33:41
bought uh the place next to me so that
00:33:43
was my first rental property uh was next
00:33:45
door uh fast forward a few years I uh
00:33:49
started got married started a family we
00:33:51
bought a house and uh the market wasn't
00:33:55
great so like most people I think half
00:33:58
the real estate people we became
00:33:59
accidental landlords again and we just
00:34:01
kept our other place so I have two
00:34:03
condos side by side that I rent so
00:34:05
that's part of my net worth as far as
00:34:07
the hard assets go is I have my house
00:34:10
that I live in and then my two condos
00:34:13
that I rent out otherwise um all the
00:34:15
rest of my net worth numbers are made up
00:34:18
of various registered and non-registered
00:34:21
accounts between me and my wife uh I
00:34:23
combine all our finances together
00:34:25
everything we do is as a group as a
00:34:27
couple our bank accounts all the same
00:34:29
that was a glorious day when we finally
00:34:32
merged our bank accounts I hated the
00:34:34
idea of you pay the utilities I pay the
00:34:37
rent or trying to keep tabs now the joke
00:34:40
is always who's getting dinner tonight
00:34:42
because it all comes out of the same
00:34:43
account so it's much much easier that
00:34:45
way I know everybody has a preference
00:34:47
that's our preference is to combine
00:34:48
everything so that's what our net worth
00:34:50
numbers are made up of but over the
00:34:52
years uh to be honest when it comes to
00:34:55
that real estate side I've been very
00:34:57
fortunate I've had great tenants um to
00:35:01
me it still work after realizing how
00:35:04
hands off and passive and easy and
00:35:07
liquid uh Market Investments can be
00:35:11
that's really opened my eyes to real
00:35:12
estate I know there's a lot of real
00:35:13
estate Bulls out there that that love
00:35:15
the game and props to them but to me
00:35:18
there's the few of those drawbacks of
00:35:21
liquidity being the biggest one for me
00:35:23
if I want to sell it could take weeks
00:35:27
months uh depends on the market and I'm
00:35:30
paying realtor fees I'm paying legal
00:35:32
fees to close and transfer title there's
00:35:34
all these factors where with an index
00:35:37
fund if I want out I'm out I'm out
00:35:40
within a minute it's it's it's almost
00:35:42
instantaneous and uh just having that
00:35:45
freedom to be nimble if I had to or to
00:35:49
adjust anything and again there's no bad
00:35:53
tenants in my index fund there's no one
00:35:55
potentially that's going to trash my
00:35:56
play place or again I've been very
00:35:58
fortunate and lucky but uh I take very
00:36:01
good care of my place uh both my rentals
00:36:04
so when someone moves out I'm going in
00:36:06
there and taking a day off work to patch
00:36:08
all the walls put a Fresh coat on
00:36:10
everything I'm crazy type a clean freak
00:36:14
that's how I deal with stress so I'm
00:36:15
going in there and scrubbing Gro lines
00:36:17
and I when people move in it's it's as
00:36:20
good as a brand new condo every time so
00:36:22
when I have turnover it's always a big
00:36:25
pain in the butt I just got actually
00:36:27
were this last week that one of my
00:36:28
places is going to be turning over in
00:36:30
September and I'm already dreading the
00:36:33
two-day process of me going in and
00:36:35
making it brand new again so I might
00:36:37
need to assess soon about exiting the
00:36:40
real estate game but where I am in uh in
00:36:42
Alberta here in Canada it's oil country
00:36:45
and oil hasn't been kind to Alberta the
00:36:48
last few years and real estate in turn
00:36:50
hasn't been strong so I'm kind of in
00:36:53
that tough spot of do I just rip off the
00:36:55
Band-Aid and sell and recoup whatever I
00:36:58
can or do I fill it with a new tenant
00:37:01
and start the dance all over again so
00:37:04
given uh given real estate's work I I
00:37:07
think ideally over the next few years
00:37:09
I'm going to start to exit and then go
00:37:11
purely to Market where it's a lot more
00:37:13
passive and hands-off I know uh 5 AM
00:37:16
Joel I'm not sure if you know who 5 AM
00:37:18
Joel is but I do I do so so he was on
00:37:21
episode seven of this podcast and he had
00:37:24
mentioned how he and his wife recently
00:37:27
got out of I think one or two of their
00:37:29
real estate Investments and might be
00:37:31
moving further and further in that
00:37:33
direction for exactly the reasons you
00:37:35
just stated Sean uh the stress that can
00:37:38
come with whether it's someone moving
00:37:40
out whether it's someone calling in the
00:37:42
night or even if it's a great tenant
00:37:44
who's never given you a problem just
00:37:46
that little voice in the back of your
00:37:47
head that always is on alert and is
00:37:50
always adding a little bit stress to
00:37:52
your life is that worth it maybe as
00:37:54
you're coming up through the net worth
00:37:56
ranks it is worth it but eventually you
00:37:58
hit some point where maybe you're at
00:38:00
that point Sean where the reward isn't
00:38:02
really worth the risk anymore I think
00:38:05
what people fall in love with real
00:38:07
estate with is the leverage I I struggle
00:38:10
with this with with Market investing
00:38:12
investing you can leverage your
00:38:14
portfolio just the same as real estate
00:38:16
and it's borrowing to buy an asset that
00:38:19
you're speculating is going to go up
00:38:21
it's the exact same as real estate but
00:38:23
people have a lot more faith in real
00:38:24
estate because it's a lot less volatile
00:38:26
it's hard asset it's can seen as it's
00:38:29
seen as much safer and don't get me
00:38:31
wrong I'm not uh vouching for leveraging
00:38:34
your Market portfolio at all but I think
00:38:37
people fall in love with that leverage
00:38:39
of real estate because when you are
00:38:40
moving up the net worth ranks it it
00:38:43
helps you to really juice your returns
00:38:46
when you're at the lower end of that and
00:38:47
you want to start getting faster growth
00:38:50
you can put in those low down payments
00:38:53
and get that get the high loan value and
00:38:56
really get a strong return on your money
00:38:59
uh and it can really help you grow that
00:39:00
net worth quickly um I think that's part
00:39:02
of why again where I'm at now I don't
00:39:05
really need that extra leverage and I'd
00:39:07
rather not have that risk of tenants and
00:39:11
to be honest if I could go do it all
00:39:13
over again I just wouldn't do condos
00:39:16
because I have two condos side by side
00:39:18
and everybody knows someone who has a
00:39:20
horr story about a special assessment of
00:39:23
some kind and if anything happened
00:39:25
heaven forbid and my building I'm
00:39:27
getting a double Bill and uh my wife is
00:39:30
more the emotional side of our money
00:39:33
relationship and she's never been a fan
00:39:35
of our rental property she's always
00:39:37
begging every time someone moves out
00:39:39
please please please let's sell it and
00:39:41
I'm the one running the num saying ah
00:39:43
it's cash flow positive it's an asset
00:39:46
it's paying down I'm giving logic logic
00:39:48
logic and she's more on the side of like
00:39:50
you know what I just it stresses me out
00:39:52
I don't like it so I think that's why
00:39:54
ultimately we are going to go towards uh
00:39:57
divesting from them just because again
00:40:00
with a condo you get condo fees that go
00:40:03
up almost it's inevitable I was
00:40:05
president of my condo board for six
00:40:07
years and I did everything within my
00:40:09
power to keep those fees low but you
00:40:12
can't fight insurance premiums you can't
00:40:15
fight damages and maintenance and
00:40:17
routine things and it just it just goes
00:40:19
up whereas I feel like people that do
00:40:21
single family housing or something
00:40:22
that's Standalone that's an asset in
00:40:26
land that's yours forever and I think no
00:40:28
matter what those ones will do a lot
00:40:30
better as opposed to being at the mercy
00:40:32
of multiple people in a condo type
00:40:36
situation that is very interesting risk
00:40:39
reward calculations that that you're
00:40:41
taking on uh my brother and I have
00:40:44
frequently talked about if we want to go
00:40:46
into something similar it might not be a
00:40:48
condo but it might be a rental house say
00:40:50
here in Rochester New York and and
00:40:53
that's one of the cons what you just
00:40:56
that story you laid out is something
00:40:57
that we have in our con column which is
00:41:01
penants or uh things that are completely
00:41:04
out of your control is maybe the best
00:41:06
umbrella that covers all of those
00:41:08
potential risks tax assessments natural
00:41:12
disasters bad tenants that is the
00:41:15
landlord's worst nightmare and if we're
00:41:17
just coming into it as amateurs and it's
00:41:19
kind of something we're doing on the
00:41:20
side is that something that we're really
00:41:22
prepared for so it's a question we're
00:41:24
asking ourselves and probably question
00:41:26
that any potential real estate investor
00:41:28
out there needs to ask
00:41:30
themselves yeah it's definitely not for
00:41:32
everyone but it has its place as you're
00:41:35
talking about you and your brother doing
00:41:36
an investment I think about the day that
00:41:39
my kids uh get to University or
00:41:43
somewhere along those lines where I
00:41:45
think I want to help them thinking back
00:41:48
if I could have done a house hack
00:41:49
earlier in my life oh man I would be all
00:41:51
over it if I knew about that I I
00:41:53
probably didn't start really getting
00:41:55
deep into that kind of stuff until later
00:41:56
in my 20s uh when I was already into a
00:41:59
deep relationship with my now wife who's
00:42:01
very much would never do tennis she
00:42:03
would never be down for it but I think
00:42:05
about my bachelor days and oh like house
00:42:08
hacking is it's it's a hack it's a life
00:42:10
hack I think it's such a genius thing
00:42:12
and seeing as um housing costs and
00:42:16
living expenses are everyone's biggest
00:42:18
number I think as a bachelor if you're
00:42:21
able to find a good tenant or friends
00:42:24
it's crazy not to consider something
00:42:26
like a house hack it's a lot of people
00:42:28
when I sit down and go through their
00:42:30
numbers they either have I have a few
00:42:33
single friends that own big houses like
00:42:35
three four bedroom houses and it's just
00:42:38
them and I'm always suggesting have you
00:42:39
ever considered maybe having a tenant or
00:42:42
or people that again pay an outrageous
00:42:45
uh rent somewhere and realistically
00:42:47
they'd be far better off if they were
00:42:48
able to swallow having a tenant it's all
00:42:51
about finding the right fit obviously
00:42:53
and I'm not one to speak because again
00:42:56
logically I say I would love it but
00:42:58
being as type a clean freak as I am I
00:43:00
probably could never coexist with like
00:43:03
98% of the population I think back of
00:43:05
all my days of Lacrosse and sharing
00:43:08
hotel rooms with teams on trips and just
00:43:10
having my half of the room Perfection
00:43:12
and the other half an absolute disaster
00:43:14
and I just think oh I could never live
00:43:16
with these guys so house hacking well
00:43:19
one solution for you sea might be like a
00:43:21
a duplex or a Triplex or it would have
00:43:22
been the solution potentially for a
00:43:24
bachelor Shan but house hacking for
00:43:27
those who don't know and fill in the
00:43:29
holes here for me Sean is is that you
00:43:31
act as the landlord in some way and the
00:43:35
tenants that you have their rent covers
00:43:38
the entire expense of the house so you
00:43:42
as a landlord essentially get to live
00:43:43
there for free so it might be two two
00:43:46
sides of a duplex it might be a
00:43:48
four-bedroom house where you rent out
00:43:50
three of the bedrooms but either way
00:43:52
your tenants are paying the vast
00:43:54
majority if not the entire mortgage on
00:43:57
your behalf y exactly you've nailed it
00:44:00
you're able to subsidize that largest
00:44:02
cost of living by having a mutual
00:44:05
benefit of taking on friends or people
00:44:07
you don't mind living with and helping
00:44:09
them subsidize your living expenses it's
00:44:12
it's a beautiful thing yeah yeah
00:44:14
especially as as a young person looking
00:44:15
to grow that net worth it really does
00:44:17
work and I think we have mutual friends
00:44:19
on on Twitter and other places who are
00:44:22
who are doing that as either young
00:44:24
Bachelors bachelorettes or young coupl
00:44:27
and uh it's a way to really really
00:44:29
catapult your your net worth growth in
00:44:31
your 20s and
00:44:32
30s uh all right Sean let's go into the
00:44:35
famous rapid fire questions and the
00:44:38
first one is what's the last material
00:44:41
object or personal luxury that you spent
00:44:43
$100 or more on it's a great question uh
00:44:49
I am trying to think I don't spend a lot
00:44:51
of money on myself typically but
00:44:54
something that's coming to mind uh
00:44:56
we bought this summer so lucky my wife
00:45:00
made a unilateral decision she bought
00:45:02
one of those inflatable pools for a
00:45:04
backyard and it could not have worked
00:45:07
out better I at the time I was very
00:45:10
skeptical and nowhere could I have seen
00:45:13
the heat Dome that Canada has been
00:45:15
dealing with I'm sure some of the States
00:45:17
has been seeing as well but we've had
00:45:18
temperatures that are just absurd like
00:45:21
38 degrees 40 degrees celus which I no
00:45:26
Fahrenheit 100 over 100 for sure and
00:45:29
that's not typical for where we live so
00:45:31
having that pool out on our deck in the
00:45:33
backyard has been incredible and it was
00:45:36
like 120 bucks from Walmart and I was
00:45:39
really skeptical on the quality of his
00:45:41
thing but I can tell you it has been the
00:45:44
best 120 bucks we have spent in a couple
00:45:47
of years I'd say I love that and for any
00:45:50
listeners curious uh 38 Celsius is about
00:45:53
100 Fahrenheit exactly 40 cius is about
00:45:56
104 and that is Toasty next question
00:46:00
Sean what's one good habit you're trying
00:46:02
to form or a bad habit that you were
00:46:04
trying to break as far as good habits go
00:46:08
uh I'm always looking to read so last
00:46:12
year I'm a big spreadsheet nerd and last
00:46:14
year in 2020 uh again I didn't even see
00:46:17
covid coming but it just worked out
00:46:19
perfectly that I made this impressive
00:46:22
spreadsheet of habits and I had what was
00:46:25
called my weekly rhythms where each week
00:46:27
I had I think I had like seven or eight
00:46:29
different habits of things I actually
00:46:31
checked off on Excel on my phone each
00:46:34
day as like a confirmation I completed
00:46:37
and reading 30 pages a day was my big
00:46:40
thing for
00:46:41
2020 and I didn't just stop at 30 pages
00:46:44
I would read Way Beyond 30 was the
00:46:47
minimum but once you get going you can't
00:46:48
stop yourself so I probably read 40
00:46:52
books last year and it was just the year
00:46:54
of self-improvement it was was wonderful
00:46:57
uh and then this year of course like
00:46:59
most Sprints when you're tracking
00:47:01
something unfortunately when you hit the
00:47:02
Finish Line sometimes you stop in
00:47:05
2021 I have not been reading so that's
00:47:08
something I think I definitely need to
00:47:09
get back into just get back into that 30
00:47:12
pages a day type thing to get me to get
00:47:14
the ball rolling to build some momentum
00:47:16
because yeah I really enjoy reading and
00:47:20
self-improvement and uh I think it's
00:47:22
something that's going to help me a lot
00:47:24
and uh you and me both in terms of
00:47:26
trying to reform the reading habit I
00:47:28
used to be a voracious reader I still
00:47:30
love reading I still buy books as if I
00:47:32
were a voracious reader which means my
00:47:35
my two read pile is higher than ever and
00:47:38
I just need to get back into it I need
00:47:40
to get back into it see we need to
00:47:42
revoke your fi card get the library app
00:47:44
Libby is where it's at those ebooks oh
00:47:47
just Chef kiss I just download a book
00:47:49
and if I happen to not finish it and it
00:47:51
gets returned I just take it back out
00:47:52
again I actually maybe I should look
00:47:55
into that because my little hack that
00:47:57
I've been using recently is a it's a
00:48:00
website called Better World Books where
00:48:02
I've been able to get used books
00:48:04
delivered to my house on average for
00:48:07
about $4 do a book and then uh at least
00:48:11
I get to keep the hard copy I get to
00:48:12
take notes in the hard copy and it's
00:48:14
mine forever if I if I so choose so
00:48:17
that's been working out pretty well for
00:48:19
me but still at the same time you know
00:48:20
it's easy for me to spend 50 bucks on uh
00:48:23
on 10 used books and then some of them I
00:48:26
read some of them I don't but I'll look
00:48:27
into the Libby app you're not the first
00:48:29
person to have mentioned it to me and it
00:48:30
sounds really cool it's a lifesaver I
00:48:33
feel like if I bought books I would do
00:48:35
it more for the aesthetic of having just
00:48:37
a beautiful bookshelf I think of uh Owen
00:48:41
on Twitter what's his hand what's his
00:48:43
hand he's got unleash unleash the not
00:48:46
and he's just got these book pictures
00:48:48
it's like book porn and I look at it I'm
00:48:49
like oh this is amazing just the colors
00:48:52
so yeah I feel like I would probably
00:48:54
fall into that I have a hard rle rule
00:48:56
that I will only buy a hard cover book
00:48:59
if it's something worthy of reading
00:49:00
again that I want to keep so I the books
00:49:02
that I do have are things that I know I
00:49:06
will go back I have a couple books that
00:49:07
I I read once a year just because I I
00:49:10
really enjoy going back they're that
00:49:12
good to me that I need a hard copy but
00:49:14
for the most part the ebook one and done
00:49:17
when you've read as many personal
00:49:19
finance and self-development books after
00:49:21
a while some of them don't stand out as
00:49:23
much as others so it it makes it a
00:49:24
little bit easier to have that hard rule
00:49:26
of only buying the best uh what's your
00:49:29
favorite Financial tool or app or
00:49:31
service and why is it is it unfair to
00:49:35
say my own money Marathon spreadsheet no
00:49:39
no it's not unfair at all that is by by
00:49:42
far I guess I've I've tried other stuff
00:49:45
but like I mentioned before if it gets
00:49:47
too fancy and too automated I find it
00:49:50
loses value and to me putting in that 15
00:49:54
minutes a month of punching in my
00:49:55
numbers and going through that practice
00:49:58
keeps everything front and center and it
00:50:00
makes sure that I'm in align with
00:50:02
exactly what I'm aiming to achieve so I
00:50:06
find a lot of tools just remove that
00:50:08
that value for me or I've gotten
00:50:11
frustrated when they don't track things
00:50:14
correctly again being type A having to
00:50:16
go back and correct like 47 entries
00:50:18
because they put down something as
00:50:20
insurance or property when it's
00:50:21
something else that always drives me a
00:50:22
little bit nuts as far as apps go so
00:50:25
yeah my money Marathon spreadsheet and
00:50:27
again I just try and keep it as simple
00:50:29
as possible I don't know if you've ever
00:50:31
taken a look at it but it's it's as
00:50:32
simple as all the money that came in
00:50:35
that month one column all the money that
00:50:37
went out that month toal up spits out a
00:50:41
redder agreed are you cash flow positive
00:50:43
or you cash flow negative and that's as
00:50:45
simple as it is that's it's almost too
00:50:48
simple where people maybe don't see
00:50:50
value because they're thinking where's
00:50:51
the bells and whistles but to me it I
00:50:54
don't want to distract from the most
00:50:56
important thing and to me it's that cash
00:50:57
flow so even as my net worth numbers
00:51:00
have climbed and my accounts have grown
00:51:03
I'm always trying to keep myself
00:51:05
grounded in the cash flow because those
00:51:08
net worth numbers are by and large
00:51:11
Beyond My Control it's the market is
00:51:13
going to do what it's going to do this
00:51:15
last month has been vicious for a lot of
00:51:18
people and accounts have dropped and
00:51:22
maybe it would really rattle a person to
00:51:24
me doesn't bother me at all because
00:51:26
that's all future Sean future family of
00:51:30
ours money and it's not really a concern
00:51:33
of mine to me I need to make sure that
00:51:35
this month I'm bringing in more money
00:51:37
than I'm spending and I'm controlling
00:51:39
the controllables and taking care of
00:51:41
what I can I haven't taken a look at the
00:51:44
money Marathon spreadsheet but I will
00:51:47
after we're done here Sean and in case
00:51:48
any listeners want to is that something
00:51:51
that that they can get their hands on y
00:51:53
it's just on my uh my Twitter bio I'm
00:51:57
Fiore squirrel and it's just a gumroad
00:52:01
link and it's a free download and I have
00:52:05
no intention if anyone's concerned of
00:52:08
monetizing my Twitter or creating a big
00:52:10
email spam list I literally just put it
00:52:12
on there so whoever wants it can just
00:52:14
click on it and take what they want from
00:52:17
it excellent well we'll put a link to
00:52:19
that in the show notes all right Sean we
00:52:22
actually did have one question coming
00:52:23
from Twitter our mutual friend Adam sha
00:52:26
who was here last week on the best
00:52:28
interest podcast Adam asked what did fi
00:52:31
squirrel want to be when he was younger
00:52:34
oh good question digging deep into the
00:52:37
history of fi
00:52:38
squirrel well depending on what age you
00:52:41
asked me I I probably would have ranged
00:52:43
from anywhere from a professional
00:52:44
lacrosse player who probably would have
00:52:46
made next to no money as a professional
00:52:49
athlete or um your classic firefighter
00:52:54
probably I uh that was kind of a dream
00:52:56
of mine back before I met my wife and I
00:52:59
I was going through my business degree
00:53:00
in University and I met her right at the
00:53:03
end of my degree and she was just
00:53:05
starting her Nursing degree and she
00:53:06
convinced me not to do fire because as a
00:53:10
shift working firan and a shiftworking
00:53:12
nurse she was scared what the family
00:53:14
Dynamic would look like so she convinced
00:53:16
me to stay at my uh my government job
00:53:18
which I've been dying a slow death at
00:53:21
right now and uh recently we actually
00:53:23
recently uh rekindled my dream of
00:53:26
becoming a firefighter I think I'm uh
00:53:28
considering a career change now and
00:53:30
looking to apply and kind of make that
00:53:33
jump I don't know if I'm too old 33 is
00:53:35
not that old but as far as firefighter
00:53:37
years I maybe have skipped my prime of
00:53:39
my days but that might be in the cards
00:53:41
for uh for me in the next few years here
00:53:44
wow that is very interesting and uh you
00:53:47
made me think of something I'm GNA send
00:53:49
you a little gift after this not sure if
00:53:51
you'll like it or not but but we'll see
00:53:53
I'll send you a little gift
00:53:56
oh the suspense is gonna kill
00:53:58
me love it and the last question for you
00:54:02
Sean what message would you put on a
00:54:05
billboard to share with the world and
00:54:09
why okay so my billboard uh I'm gonna
00:54:13
try and keep it not too platitude is uh
00:54:19
but my account typically focuses on
00:54:21
money or being positive and just being a
00:54:24
good person and and as important as I
00:54:25
think money is I'd rather keep my
00:54:27
message about being a good person so my
00:54:31
billboard would say something along the
00:54:33
lines
00:54:35
of be the person that you needed in your
00:54:39
deepest darkest
00:54:40
moment so I just think that a lot of us
00:54:44
at different points in our life have
00:54:46
really needed help we've needed a mentor
00:54:50
or a support or someone that's there to
00:54:53
to lift Lift us up
00:54:55
and I think if you can take all of those
00:54:58
characteristics of what you really
00:54:59
needed and apply it to being that person
00:55:02
for someone
00:55:03
else uh I believe in a world of Karma
00:55:06
and I think just being that support for
00:55:09
someone you will have that given back to
00:55:13
you one day when you truly need it and
00:55:15
even if you never get that given back I
00:55:17
think just giving that gift to someone
00:55:19
of serving and being there for them is
00:55:23
what the world really needs we just need
00:55:25
more of people who
00:55:28
are what's the term when you're giving
00:55:31
with no expectation of getting anything
00:55:33
back altruistic altruism I studied in
00:55:36
University in one of my philosophy 101
00:55:38
or 102 classes and it really really
00:55:41
stuck with me that philosophy of giving
00:55:44
without any expectation of reciprocity I
00:55:46
think if more people took that approach
00:55:49
and lived a life of service and helping
00:55:52
other people it would truly trans form
00:55:55
everything I think of uh Ty Romper how
00:55:58
do you say his last name tot or Todd yep
00:56:00
he is just my one of my favorite I I
00:56:03
rant about him probably bi-weekly I'll
00:56:05
say something about him on Twitter but I
00:56:07
truly think if the world was full of
00:56:10
ties my goodness like this would be just
00:56:13
an amazing place it is an amazing place
00:56:15
to live but I look at a guy like that
00:56:18
and he is I kid you not probably my
00:56:20
number one follow because he just
00:56:22
inspires me every day to breathe energy
00:56:26
into people to be positive to help
00:56:29
others to be a good dad like I just I
00:56:31
can't say enough about people like that
00:56:33
and I think more people need to follow
00:56:36
Tai and start trying to be their best
00:56:39
version of that kind of person follow Ty
00:56:42
follow Shawn because sea I think you
00:56:44
have that same energy so Sean you
00:56:47
mentioned it before but how can people
00:56:49
reach out to you anywhere on Twitter DMS
00:56:53
is probably the best place uh you can
00:56:55
reach out for any kind of uh advice or
00:56:58
coaching questions or anything I've
00:57:00
talked about here I'm I'm glad to expand
00:57:02
upon H now that I've had my first
00:57:04
podcast with you thank you so much for
00:57:06
having me on on now that I've done this
00:57:08
I feel like it's a little less
00:57:10
intimidating and uh I just got to say
00:57:13
what you do on your spaces what you do
00:57:16
with your group your panel is just I'm
00:57:19
so jealous of what you guys got going
00:57:22
and if if uh if I could ever find the
00:57:24
time to commit I would just love to do
00:57:27
what you guys do Talking Shop Talking
00:57:29
Money personal finances Is My Jam you
00:57:32
guys are my people so I'm sure if I'm
00:57:35
ever able to catch the see my time
00:57:36
Zone's tricky because where I am a lot
00:57:38
of times when you guys are running it
00:57:39
it's right during dinner time I got two
00:57:42
crazy kids and my house is just it's
00:57:44
just not conducive to chatting over
00:57:47
spaces regularly but if I can ever jump
00:57:49
on I'm going to request that mic and I'm
00:57:51
going to throw in whatever piece I can
00:57:53
to contribute to the Mass Masterpiece
00:57:55
what you guys run every week I just love
00:57:56
what you guys do thank you so much I'm
00:57:59
sure the other guys will hear this but
00:58:01
if not I'll be sure to tell them and I
00:58:03
think we'd love to see you there we'd
00:58:04
love to have you on thank you Sean fi
00:58:07
squirrel huge Fanboy huge
00:58:09
[Music]
00:58:15
Fanboy another huge shout out to fi
00:58:19
squirrel thank you for coming on the
00:58:21
best interest podcast squirrel that was
00:58:22
an awesome conversation I'm excited to
00:58:24
have have you back and if you want to
00:58:26
connect with FIS squirrel I've included
00:58:28
his links his Twitter profile in the
00:58:31
show notes if you want to reach out to
00:58:33
me you can email me Jesse bestin
00:58:36
interest. blog or follow me on Twitter
00:58:38
where my username is bestest uncore JC
00:58:42
if you find this valuable and you want
00:58:44
to give back there are three easy free
00:58:46
options for you always free absolutely
00:58:49
free you can subscribe to the best
00:58:51
interest podcast from the app you're
00:58:52
listening to right now or you can leave
00:58:55
a rating or a review of the podcast let
00:58:57
me know what you think I love love
00:58:59
hearing back from you guys we can
00:59:02
continue to invest in one another
00:59:03
because as Ben Franklin said an
00:59:06
investment in knowledge pays the best
00:59:07
interest sharing with others that is
00:59:10
investing in their knowledge so thank
00:59:13
you guys thank you for listening to
00:59:14
episode 28 of the best interest
00:59:23
podcast