Over at BiggerPockets, we all have much love and respect for our trusted video editor, Joel Esparza . He brings phenomenal work quality, timing, and communication to every project he’s on, but many of us don’t know his inspiring and truly impressive backstory. Joel is originally from Venezuela, which has experienced rampant inflation over the past decade putting its citizens in economic turmoil. Joel went to school in Argentina and was able to leave without debt thanks to an inheritance left to ...
Oct 08, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 238
It didn’t take Addison Freeman long to realize what worked in school, wouldn’t work in real life. Those who got good grades and followed the standard playbook weren’t rewarded as plentifully on the investing front as they were in the classroom. When Addison realized it would take her over thirty years to hit millionaire status on the conventional track, she knew she needed a change. Addison started to look for, as she likes to call them, “super assets” or assets that grow while putting cash in y...
Oct 04, 2021•52 min•Ep. 237
Strong frugality is hard to come by. Not many people would write off their solar system as a business expense and use bitcoin mining to provide heat to their house , instead of using a space heater. These are just two things that Yourri, an engineer and diversification whiz, has done to make his balance sheet as optimized as possible. Yourri has spent the better part of the last decade at school and was able to graduate with a phenomenal job doing something he loves. He makes $120,000 a year but...
Oct 01, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 236
High-income earners have a better shot at retiring early than those making a median income. That being said, with more money comes more investing risk. After the great recession, Bob Haines was sitting on a $300,000 loss from leveraging too many properties to flip. This put the possibility of retiring early multiple years behind. But, even with a money mistake as large as Bob’s, he’s been able to retire at age forty-four, a good twenty-one years before the standard retirement age. You could say ...
Sep 27, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 235
A rock-solid financial position consists of a few things: budgeting, expense tracking, living below your means , and making extra income. Once those are accomplished, you’re on track to start investing heavily and financial independence is in sight. This is exactly the position Lynsey (mother to Mindy’s pool boy) is in. Lynsey and her husband bring in a moderate salary from his job and her businesses of jewelry making, relationship counseling, and their garage and basement house hack . For a lon...
Sep 24, 2021•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 234
Life can be challenging at times. When you think you’re in a stable spot, the universe tends to throw you one (or many) curveballs. In the realm of financial education , the smart early decisions we make can help alleviate the stress of these curveballs. This has happened almost to the tee for today’s guest, Karen Ferrero . Karen grew up in a small town to a middle-class family. She was a first-generation college graduate and worked throughout high school and college . She later took a job and b...
Sep 20, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 233
Kari and her wife made some big moves over the past few years. They packed up their stuff and left the San Francisco Bay Area for a relocation in the midwest . Unlike the Bay Area, the Midwest has many affordable housing options with plenty of chances to house hack . So, that’s exactly what the couple did! They bought a duplex in rough condition, put in close to $80,000 of renovations, and now get $900 a month from the side they’re renting out. Although this renovation allowed them to live for f...
Sep 17, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 232
Not everyone has the vagabond spirit of those who choose to optionally live out of their cars , trucks, or vans. While this isn’t up Scott and Mindy’s alley, it’s been perfectly fine for today’s guests Tien and Brandon. After deciding to end their lease before a road trip, Tien and Brandon found living in their specialty-built van wasn’t just habitable, but preferable for their lifestyle. This was especially true after paying pricey southern California rent. All this happened after making some i...
Sep 13, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 231
Retiring early can be a daunting task. Not only do you have to do more, with less time, but you have to stay diligent on your budgeting , expense tracking, and investing if you want to hit your goal by a certain age. Today we talk to Lisa, who wants to retire next year, in her mid-50s. While most people think early retirement means retiring in your 20s and 30s, this isn’t necessarily true. Retiring 10 years early, like Lisa, is a massive accomplishment, but requires the same skills needed for re...
Sep 10, 2021•52 min•Ep. 230
Most college students know next to nothing about money. Even worse, many of them sign on to expensive student loans with almost no plan on how they’re going to pay it back. While this is the average, some people, like Nathan Kennedy, host of The New Money Podcast , did things differently. Although he overspent a bit going out in college, Nathan graduated with a degree and $40,000 in cash, a MASSIVE amount for any college student. Through applying for grants , working at on-campus jobs, and colle...
Sep 06, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 229
“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.” This is the topic of today’s episode, where we interview Jenny for a Finance Friday review. Jenny is finishing up her fourth degree and has been working throughout grad school to help her family. Her husband brings in a sizable income, but he wants to retire in 2030 and spend more time with their (future) kids. Jenny has great control over her fixed expenses , but as for her variable expenses...not so much. Her family is consisten...
Sep 03, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 228
What do you think of when you think about retirement ? Are you on a tropical island drinking fruity cocktails out of a coconut? If you dream about that sort of retirement, Steve Adcock may have some revealing words for you. Retirement isn’t just about doing nothing all day, it’s about exploring your passions , and sometimes working more than you did before, to accomplish things that truly matter to you. Steve decided to leave his high-stress IT job after 11 years of work. It was eating away at h...
Aug 30, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 227
Sometimes having a lot of cash can be dangerous. Would you rather be sitting on months (or even years) worth of emergency reserves or have your money be challenging inflation by sitting in investments like index funds or real estate? This is the question that many people have, and also one that today’s guest, Phil, is having as well. Phil and his wife live in a relatively low cost area and bring in a very solid income. They’ve been maxing out HSAs, 401(k)s , and other accounts all while having a...
Aug 27, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 226
A lot of people in the financial independence community successfully get out of debt, but not many of them get out of debt and then start a monthly six-figure side business . One person who has done that is Deacon Hayes. Deacon was raised by a single mother on welfare who taught Deacon that debt was a way of life. When Deacon married his wife, they both collectively realized that the only way for them to live the life they wanted to, was to get out of debt. Deacon did whatever he could to pay of...
Aug 23, 2021•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 225
Making too much money is a good problem to have, and it’s one that many people in the Bay Area experience. Today we talk to Laurin, a mother of two, making $281,000 a year when combining her salary with her husband’s. They’re doing everything right: paying off the mortgage, contributing to their 401(k)s , and saving up for an emergency reserve . With all these investments and income, Laurin is wondering whether or not her investing strategy is optimized. Her mortgage spans 15 years , so she’s de...
Aug 20, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 224
Dee Olateru doesn’t have the traditional FI story, but it didn’t take her long to catch onto the concepts that now allow her to live a life exactly how she sees fit. Dee immigrated to the United States from Nigeria when she was sixteen. Without the ability to get student loans , Dee had to work throughout school, apply for every scholarship available, and borrow money from friends and family to pay for her undergrad degree. While she made it out of college without student debt, she still had som...
Aug 16, 2021•45 min•Ep. 223
Investments galore! This week, we talk to Jeana and Scott, a couple with a hefty amount of investments under their belt. We know what you’re thinking, “what type of stocks and real estate are they investing in?” This is where you might be surprised. Jeana and Scott are investing in three gyms, a gas and oil investment, a documentary, a 24-unit apartment building, a 52-unit apartment building, a senior care business , and...a $20,000 dog! Seriously! This is one of the most diversified couples we ...
Aug 13, 2021•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 222
Darius Smith always knew how to make money, but wasn’t very good at saving it. Growing up, he had jobs ranging from delivering phone books, to running paper routes, to even putting up eviction notices on homes. He opened his first bank account when he was around nine years old! So how did Darius end up with almost $170,000 in debt ? An even better question may be, how did Darius pay off all that debt in only a few years ? Darius spent time at multiple different colleges, racking up $40,000 in st...
Aug 09, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 221
Entrepreneurs work long, stressful hours, and as a result, they get paid the big bucks. This is the position that Stephanie, a freelance Salesforce consultant is in. She makes a respectable income, bringing in $14,000 after tax! But, that income comes at a cost. While Stephanie is currently contracting out work to a few part-time employees, she spends at least 50 hours per week on the business. She’d like to get to a point where she can step back and work 20 (or so) hours per week and have a sys...
Aug 06, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 220
You may have heard the term “ real estate syndication ” thrown out quite a lot over the past few years. It seems like almost every real estate investor is either starting a real estate syndication or investing in one. So what’s all the hype about? Is this an investment opportunity that you’re missing out on, and if so, is it truly passive as many people claim? We’ve brought the master flipper, rehab estimator , and syndicator himself, J Scott , back to the BiggerPockets Money Podcast so he can s...
Aug 02, 2021•2 hr 8 min•Ep. 219
Combining finances can be complicated, but what’s even more complicated is combining one salary with two inconsistent business accounts. How do you manage the household’s budget when you don’t know what will be coming in every month? This is the question Roshan and her husband have for us today. Roshan works as a teacher making a very steady income and has access to retirement plans like her pension and a 457(b). Her husband, on the other hand, runs a seasonal flower business that brings in $30,...
Jul 30, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 218
Rahkim Sabree “aspired to be poor” when he was growing up. He saw his parents collecting section 8 housing vouchers, getting food stamps, and thought that this was the way life was. He didn’t grow up around many homeowners. All of his friends lived in apartment rentals and were in the same financial situation as him. There were no “financial literacy talks” at Rahkim's dinner table. It wasn’t until Rahkim left college and got a banking job that he decided to look at where his money was going and...
Jul 26, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 217
Amanda is making a teacher’s salary and spending her weekends working a part-time job at a grocery store. She contributes to her retirement accounts, but she could be sitting on a passive income gold mine that she doesn’t realize. Attached to Amanda’s home are a casita and a mother-in-law suite. The casita is rented out to long-term tenants and the mother-in-law suite has been used as a short-term rental for some time. But what if instead of keeping her casita as a long-term rental, she converte...
Jul 23, 2021•53 min•Ep. 216
After years and years of working in licensing, Diania Merriam opened up her credit report and saw that she was (collectively) $30,000 in debt . This forced her to ask the question, “what am I working for?” It made sense at the moment: you get your paycheck, you can go out to a fancy dinner, you get another paycheck, you can buy yourself something nice. But Diania wasn’t happy, or at least as happy as she thought she’d be. She realized that she didn’t want to be stuck in a job she had to go to ev...
Jul 19, 2021•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 215
It’s hard to imagine what someone is going through once they’re given a cancer diagnosis . The last thing many people want to think about during such a troubling time is finances. This was true for Zachary , who’s combined net worth with his partner more than doubled while he was supporting her throughout her chemotherapy and cancer surgeries. Even though it was a medically troubling year, Zachary and his partner were able to almost double their income , while keeping expenses fairly low. This a...
Jul 16, 2021•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 214
Growing up in Mexico, Saul Tijerina didn’t fully understand the concept of financing. It wasn’t that he couldn’t conceptualize financing, it was more that he wasn’t around it enough to think of it as an option. In Mexico, everything was sold for cash, whether it was a home, a car, or a new TV. Owning something meant that you really “owned it”, not just “I’m paying this off.” It’s no surprise that when Saul came to the United States to work, he was in for a financial shock. New car? Finance it. N...
Jul 12, 2021•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 213
Starting a strong financial position in your youth is probably the most important thing you can do to hit financial independence . Sometimes that strong position includes maxing out retirement accounts, like Roth IRAs, 401(k)s, or even HSAs (health savings account), but sometimes, it doesn’t. Scott and Mindy talk to Kirsten about the potential option of pausing her retirement contributions to buy a duplex so she can house hack. While this may seem counterintuitive, pausing retirement contributio...
Jul 09, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 212
It’s nice to hear a fan of the BiggerPockets Money Show talk about how they are on the path to financial freedom . It’s even nicer when we hear that the fan, Melissa Yi, went from a negative net worth to now $100k+ due to some simple tips from Scott and Mindy. Melissa had stints in her childhood where she was facing homelessness, not knowing where her next meal was coming from. She worked hard after high school and ended up at a job that offered to pay for her college education. A year away from...
Jul 05, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 211
Teachers do a lot more than we give them credit for (as shown throughout the past year and a half), but sadly, they don’t get paid terribly high salaries. Today’s guest, Stephanie, is a music teacher for young children and is debating whether or not she should make a career change to up her income to higher levels. Stephanie has a good amount in savings and investments but wants to take on a duplex to house hack and save money on monthly housing costs. Scott and Mindy walk through the pros and c...
Jul 02, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 210
Growing up, Bola Sokunbi had some serious financial influence from her parents. Her father would tell her “Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish” while her mom showed her the importance of being an independent woman who could financially stand on her own. They both influenced her to become the financial author, mentor, and teacher she is today with Clever Girl Finance . Bola split her youth between Europe and Africa, and when given the chance to go to college back in Europe, her mom cashed out h...
Jun 28, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 209
