As I’m studying real estate, I naturally start looking at my money. They go hand in hand. You can’t invest in real estate if you can’t manage your money. I’m now mixing it up and listening to Real Estate podcasts and money podcasts. Not just about basic money management, but about investing and the Financial Independence Retire Early (F.I.R.E.) movement.
I’m intrigued. Maybe more intrigued then I was about real estate. I’m listening to regular people just like me who had turned around their finances and are now financially free. I learned about a couple who travels the world permanently and are fully retired at the age of 35. I learned about another couple who racked up over $200K in debt, managed to pay it off in 5 years and fully retire before 50. No 6 figure incomes, no inheritance, no lottery to help. How is this possible?
I learned the simple math to calculate how much money I need in my portfolio to retire. Then I learn about how to invest. Surely it can’t be this easy. It turns out it requires 5th grade math. I take the same approach to learning about money as I did with real estate. The skeptical approach.
I listen, I read, I take notes and I verify these concepts on my own. I get active in the F.I.R.E. community, start asking questions and applying the principles to my own situation. I start inventorying my money, my net worth and my assets. I start setting goals, automating my finances and overhaul the way I’m managing my money. I start investing in my own personal education and start buying online courses on investing and money. I live next to the library, so I’m reading more than ever. I grow more and more confident and realize that I can fully manage this on my own.
I fire my financial planner of nearly 20 years and take full control of my retirement accounts, investing even more aggressively then I was before. Since I’m no longer paying someone to invest my money, my portfolio grows even more rapidly. I open brokerage accounts and rollover my IRA on my own and my confidence grows even more.
Watching my net worth grow is the equivalent of watching the weight drop off the scale when you’re on a diet and exercise program. Its addicting. I study millionaires and realize that the idea of trading time for money is a road that leads to a lifetime of work, handcuffed to a desk during the best hours of the day, during the best days of the week, during the best years of your life.
For every book I read, every successful millionaire I studied and every podcast I listen to, I started to see patterns of behavior. Above all, I see a MINDSET toward money I had never understood in the past. I re-read Rich Dad, Poor Dad and it solidified my change in mindset toward money.
I grew up in a family of immigrants who believed in the basics – education, hard work, and saving your money. These basics equated to 40+ years of work before saving just enough money to enjoy when you’re too old to enjoy it. It also meant loyalty to a job that wasn’t as loyal in return. I thought that was normal. In most people’s minds – it is.
But why is it that my instincts are telling me that there’s more to life than work and saving money? I need to trade time for money in order to pay bills right? How else are you supposed to earn a living? Apparently I’m doing it backwards and I’m working too hard. Trade money for time. Let your money do the work for you.
Mind. Blown.