The Financial Independence Show

Sometimes personal finance can just sound like a bunch of jargon. Today’s episode gives you all the foundational definitions you need to navigate your FI journey. We have episodes that dive deeper into some of these topics (linked below). But today is all about explaining the lingo you might hear on the show week to week. Some of the investing terms we discuss include: ETFs vs. Index Funds Expense Ratios The 4% Rule / Rule of 25 Rule of 72 Tax-advantaged accounts IRAs / 401Ks We hope this empowers you to confidently speak to your investing journey and help others along the way. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend! Links from the Episode The deep-dive episode on Roth vs. Traditional The deep-dive episode on the 4% rule The deep-dive episode on the Mega Backdoor Roth and Solo 401K Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFIshow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

Can you really retire at 27? That’s what Jon Farber is here to talk us through today.  He was able to achieve financial freedom at 27 and leave his tech sales job via real estate. He started with house hacking, and then eventually scaled up to include a portfolio of long-term rentals and short-term rentals. He’s also dabbled in online courses and runs a real estate software business helping people find deals. Since reaching financial freedom, Jon now splits his time between the U.S. and Columbia. He has a team of virtual assistants who currently help with the day-to-day and growing of the business. He’s basically been able to put his 7-figure business empire on autopilot. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the links below for more content, and don’t forget to share this podcast with a friend! Links From the Episode Jon’s Instagram Jon’s Twitter Jon’s Website YouTube Interview https://youtu.be/HRkppxCstdw Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFiShow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

If you want to make it big in real estate you need some sort of advantage, right? A big social media following, experience, connections… something. Our guest today, Soli Cayetano from Lattes and Leases, will show you how that couldn’t be further from the truth. In 2020, Soli was a senior in college trying to navigate a pandemic. She had no family in real estate, no rich uncle, and no investment experience. Plus, she lived in the Bay Area — one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country.  She became obsessed with educating herself about real estate investing and surrounded herself with accomplished investors. Fresh out of college at 22, she built up the courage to purchase an out-of-state investment property in Cincinnati, Ohio — and the rest was history.  After working her 9-5, she would continue to work 5-9 to build her real estate portfolio. She went from having no social media or connections in real estate to using social media to raise $5M+ in private capital and buying 25+ units in less than 2 years. This allowed her to replace her income, quit her job, and become a full-time real estate investor. Today, she can be found traveling the world and teaching others how to reach financial independence via real estate. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the links below for more content, and don’t forget to share this podcast with a friend! Links From the Episode Out of State Investor Academy (Free Summit) Follow Soli on Instagram Lattes and Leases Website YouTube Interview https://youtu.be/q3M22CunX_Y Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFiShow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

Retiring early is certainly not a race, but the guests we have today are one of the fastest we’ve ever seen to do it. James and Emily retired in less than 2 years from the day they began making moves towards early retirement. They both had frugal habits with James coming from an especially low-income background. They met at a local community college and were both able to graduate college debt-free through a mix of financial aid and a little help from parents. Emily would take a job starting at $60k and James was at $35k per year in Huntsville, Alabama. Even though they were in an affordable area with $95k of income, they weren’t saving a dime. In 2016, James was at work and someone said they came across a website that changed their life. The website was Mr. Money Mustache. James immediately dove into this site as well then came home adjusting water heaters and spitting out all the things they were going to cut from their lives…probably too aggressively he’ll admit. They estimate they cut their expenses down to $35k the next year after discovering the topic. After cutting their expenses down as low as they could they looked to accelerate their path even more through real estate investing. They bought their first property in the Summer of 2017 and quickly scaled to 11 properties. Most of these units were purchased for under $50k, and all of them bring in over 1% of the cost back via rent. Example: A $50k house that brings in $500 is bringing in 1% every month All of the homes were bought using traditional mortgages and when they retired, they had enough money cash flowing every month to cover over 2x their expenses. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the links below for more content, and don’t forget to share this podcast with a friend! Links From the Episode James’ and Emily’s Website Follow them on Instagram Their Short-Term Rental Course All Their Free Resources Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFiShow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

You can learn the mechanics and math needed to reach financial independence in a couple of weeks. The math is intimidating to so many people but it’s not the math that keeps most people from reaching their goals. It’s their mindset. That’s where Adam Coelho’s expertise comes in. Adam Coelho is the host of The Mindful FIRE Podcast, a show about crafting a life you love and making work optional using mindfulness, envisioning, and financial independence. Adam believes crafting a life you love starts with answering the question “What do I truly want?”. He helps people answer that question so they can start living the life they dream of right now. He’s also a father, husband, entrepreneur, speaker and facilitator. For the last 13 years Adam has worked in sales at Google, where in addition to his core role, he’s taught mindfulness, envisioning, and emotional intelligence to over 2,500 Googlers around the world. We truly believe that these mentality skills are even more important than any level of comprehension to something like a tax code. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the links below for more content, and don’t forget to share this podcast with a friend! Links From the Episode Free Envisioning Guide Mindful FIRE Website Adam’s LinkedIn Adam’s Instagram YouTube Interview https://youtu.be/z3cO_nH9yP8 Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFiShow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

In this episode, the hosts debunk bad personal finance takes found on social media, including the misconception that luxury expenses motivate individuals to work harder. They discuss the importance of personal finance management, the truth about 401(k)s, the value of a good credit score, the controversy of going out to eat while paying off debt, and the misconception that most successful people are dumb and lucky. They emphasize the importance of personal responsibility and taking action for achieving financial stability and success.

We like to think we put out some of the best financial independence content for you as a podcast listener. But it’s hard to argue that Brad Barrett has influenced more podcast listeners than just about anyone else in the financial independence space. Brad is the host of the wildly successful podcast, ChooseFI. ChooseFI has been downloaded over 65 million times with 4,700+ 5-star reviews. In today’s episode, we touch on some of the following with Brad: How he discovered financial independence His main takeaways after hundreds of interviews How the FI space has changed over the last several years Why the small details don’t matter Designing your dream life on your FI journey and much more If you enjoyed this episode, check out the links below for more content, and don’t forget to share this podcast with a friend! Links From the Episode ChooseFI The FI Weekly Newsletter YouTube Interview https://youtu.be/PVmZN9nkVaE Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFiShow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

We’re hopping in the time machine and re-airing one of our most popular episodes. In this episode, we share our opinion on some of the biggest money topics. While this episode originally aired in 2019, our views have remained largely the same. These tips have helped us grow our combined net worth to over $3.5M! So don’t sleep on the fundamentals. Some of the major topics include: Credit Card Balances We discuss why you should ALWAYS be using a credit card The need for setting up autopay to pay off the full balance Neither of us recommends carrying any balance Rent vs Buy Keep in mind closing costs, HOAs, insurance, etc It’s much more complicated than just comparing a mortgage to your rent If you can go beyond and do things like house hacking, then buying is certainly a great option New vs Used Justin recommends buying a car that’s 5 years old on a deal Then keep that car for two to three years and try to sell it before you hit 100k Good vs Bad Debt Obviously, there is some debt that’s terrible such as credit cards with 15% interest Then there is a middle ground where it’s debt that doesn’t earn revenue but allows you to invest more Going to College Going to a community college first isn’t a no-brainer It’s so important to be intentional Many trades and technical skills don’t require a college degree Filling Up Savings Accounts Inflation can be destructive Many people have avoided investing during uncertain times Buy and hold Life Insurance What kind should you get? Does whole life insurance ever make sense? What do the experts say (our episode with Sa El) Financial Advisors There’s value to using a tax specialist but most don’t need a financial advisor It may be a good idea to pay a one-time fee for an advisor to help set up a plan you’re comfortable with These advisors often charge at least 1% which can really add up You can see how much these fees are costing you by using Empower’s Fee Analyzer tool. We truly believe these fundamentals can radically change your life regardless how far you are into your journey. If you got value out of this episode, please share it with a friend! Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFIshow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

Buying a home and then flipping it or renting it isn’t the only way to be a real estate investor. What if you could just find incredible deals on homes and then line up a buyer looking for a good deal to flip or buy? That’s exactly what Mike DeHaan from the Collecting Keys podcast is doing, and it’s the core of what wholesale real estate is. Mike started in real estate by hustling to complete a few flips and using the proceeds to buy his first rental properties. Eventually, he started to feel a bit burnt out though. Instead of flipping the properties himself, Mike decided to sell the right to buy the properties to other investors (aka wholesaling) and the rest is history. As of today, Mike owns over $12 million worth of real estate and has completed 300+ transactions. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the links below for more content, and don’t forget to share this podcast with a friend! Links From the Episode Collecting Keys Podcast Collecting Keys YouTube channel Mike’s Instagram YouTube Interview https://youtu.be/6XU7ez8udEI Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFiShow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)

We typically focus a lot on the micro (saving, earning, and investing), but today, we’re talking all about the macro. Emmanuel Daniel is a Singapore-based entrepreneur, writer and global thought leader in finance. He was listed as a top 10 global influencer in the “Fintech Power 50” list for 2021 and 2022. In simple terms… he knows his stuff. Some of the topics we discuss include: Interest rates – how they’re set, where they’re headed The banking industry as a whole The digitization of everything Crypto and blockchain technology The world economy The Great Transition Biggest risks to our economy and various other topics. If you enjoyed this episode, check out the links below for more content, and don’t forget to share this podcast with a friend! Links From the Episode Emmanuel’s Website The Great Transition <- Emmanuel’s Book Emmanuel’s LinkedIn Emmanuel’s Twitter YouTube Interview https://youtu.be/tRgHlPx8PQE Join the Community We’d love to hear your comments and questions about this week’s episode. Here are some of the best ways to stay in touch and get involved in The FI Show community! Grab the Ultimate FI Spreadsheet Join our Facebook Group Leave us a voicemail Send an email to contact [at] TheFiShow [dot] com If you like what you hear, please subscribe and leave a rating/review! >> You can do that by clicking here << Learn More About Your Hosts CodyDBerman.com (Cody’s Blog) Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)