RPF0321-Nicole_Bryan_Interview
00:00:00.000 | Today on Radical Personal Finance, we interview Nicole Bryan.
00:00:03.680 | Nicole has a fantastic story.
00:00:05.760 | She began her career with very few advantages working as a teacher in the school system.
00:00:10.000 | However, at this point, she's managed to build financial freedom to the point where by the
00:00:15.120 | age of 40, she anticipates being completely financially free.
00:00:20.360 | Nicole, welcome to Radical Personal Finance.
00:00:22.040 | Nicole Bryan, Founder, Radical Personal Finance
00:00:23.200 | Thank you for having me.
00:00:24.880 | So I've invited you on.
00:00:26.160 | You're a listener of the show and you have your own unique financial journey to share.
00:00:31.000 | I love to have listeners of the show on because it profiles that you don't have to be a world
00:00:35.240 | famous financial expert in order to share real life experiences with other people.
00:00:40.360 | So I'd love you to start simply by sharing with us a little bit about your story as it
00:00:45.400 | relates to money.
00:00:46.400 | Nicole Bryan, Founder, Radical Personal Finance
00:00:47.400 | Sure.
00:00:48.400 | I am originally from Jamaica.
00:00:49.720 | I came to the US when I was 13.
00:00:54.120 | And so we grew up pretty much in poverty, even though it didn't feel like it as a child.
00:00:59.840 | Now in retrospect, I realize that we really didn't have a lot.
00:01:03.320 | My parents struggled a lot throughout.
00:01:06.640 | We celebrated when my dad would get a job.
00:01:08.360 | We would always like go outside and like dance and celebrate.
00:01:13.240 | Then I went to boarding school when I got to the States.
00:01:16.600 | Then to Georgetown.
00:01:17.840 | And I remember when I graduated, my dad, you know, said to me, "You're going to go out
00:01:23.400 | and make money now, right?
00:01:24.400 | You're going to become an attorney or something huge where you won't ever have to worry about
00:01:28.360 | money again."
00:01:29.880 | And I was like, "Well, I'm actually going to be a teacher."
00:01:35.000 | He was really bummed.
00:01:36.720 | I will never forget.
00:01:39.080 | And I said to him, "But you don't have to worry about me.
00:01:41.560 | I promise you I will take care of my money.
00:01:43.880 | I'll take care of my finances, even though I'll be making less than $30,000 a year.
00:01:49.480 | And I owe Georgetown a whole bunch of money."
00:01:53.160 | And so I think my journey started there because I actively started to educate myself on finances.
00:02:00.280 | I read a whole bunch of books, Suz Orman from back in the day, anything I could get my hands
00:02:06.680 | on because I really wanted to follow my passion at the time, which was to teach and help kids
00:02:11.680 | in the inner city.
00:02:13.600 | But I didn't want to be a burden to my parents.
00:02:16.800 | And so that's my story.
00:02:17.800 | Since then, I've done a whole lot with it.
00:02:19.520 | I started to use my summers as a teacher to do real estate first as an agent and then
00:02:25.760 | later as an investor.
00:02:28.480 | And then over time, I've really built a real estate portfolio as well as my financial knowledge
00:02:35.800 | that's now allowing me to provide a lot of support to friends, families, and colleagues.
00:02:42.880 | And you're on the cusp of financial independence, right?
00:02:46.760 | Very soon.
00:02:47.760 | Oh my gosh, Joshua.
00:02:49.120 | I am on the cusp.
00:02:50.880 | I cannot wait.
00:02:52.960 | I can't tell you.
00:02:53.960 | I cannot wait.
00:02:55.960 | So is this accurate?
00:02:57.520 | You're on track.
00:02:58.520 | You're almost 40.
00:02:59.520 | You're on track to be financially independent at the age of 40.
00:03:02.200 | And throughout your career, you've worked in public education.
00:03:05.360 | Is that accurate?
00:03:06.360 | Throughout my career, yes.
00:03:08.480 | I have not left the public education sphere.
00:03:11.000 | However, I have used some of my summers or evenings at some points when I was able to
00:03:18.360 | build a real estate portfolio on the side.
00:03:20.600 | Awesome.
00:03:21.600 | So we'll get into some of those details.
00:03:22.600 | But first, I want to ask a question about growing up in Jamaica.
00:03:26.120 | So do you have any insight?
00:03:28.920 | What was it like to have a family income that was seasonal?
00:03:33.020 | You said you would celebrate when your dad got a job.
00:03:36.720 | What would your family's financial situation be like when he was working versus when he
00:03:41.160 | was not working?
00:03:42.960 | Interestingly, I think it was more difficult when we came to the States, to be honest.
00:03:51.080 | My dad had more consistent work when we lived in Jamaica.
00:03:54.660 | He was a correctional officer.
00:03:56.140 | And so at times, there were down times, but he mostly was working.
00:04:01.820 | My mom's a stay-at-home mom.
00:04:03.960 | Times were still tough because it's Jamaica.
00:04:08.680 | Income wasn't great.
00:04:09.680 | It was a family of four kids.
00:04:13.680 | We would celebrate when he would have some downtime to make his clothes because he was
00:04:16.920 | a tailor.
00:04:17.920 | So we rarely bought clothes.
00:04:20.320 | It was a lot harder when we came to the US.
00:04:23.760 | We moved to Brooklyn.
00:04:24.760 | We lived in an apartment.
00:04:26.560 | And I felt it a lot more there.
00:04:29.080 | And I think it's because we had less family support.
00:04:34.080 | We didn't know that many people.
00:04:36.600 | And I think it was just more expensive to live in America.
00:04:38.600 | It just is.
00:04:39.760 | There's a lot more debt in this country.
00:04:42.600 | Why was his work seasonal?
00:04:44.280 | Or why was his work intermittent?
00:04:46.840 | In the States or in Jamaica?
00:04:48.040 | In the States.
00:04:50.380 | Because he didn't really have a career.
00:04:52.120 | My parents didn't graduate from high school.
00:04:55.000 | They came here as immigrants in their early 30s.
00:04:57.840 | And you get a job for a while, and then you get laid off.
00:05:01.240 | Or you came here in the '90s.
00:05:04.320 | It just was never consistent.
00:05:05.320 | How were they?
00:05:06.320 | He worked in various factories, and then he would get laid off a lot.
00:05:11.000 | How are they doing now?
00:05:13.460 | A lot better, actually.
00:05:14.460 | Both are doing a lot better.
00:05:16.520 | My parents are very driven and very hardworking.
00:05:20.860 | And so even without having a high school degree, they've done well for themselves.
00:05:25.800 | I mean, there's just a lot to be said for getting up at 5 a.m. no matter what.
00:05:32.720 | Getting up on time.
00:05:35.040 | Going the extra mile.
00:05:36.440 | My parents both embody that.
00:05:38.040 | They just do.
00:05:39.040 | And I think that's a secret to their success.
00:05:42.560 | My dad is a truck driver.
00:05:44.720 | He works a lot.
00:05:45.720 | He works for Amazon and does a whole bunch of stuff.
00:05:48.520 | He feels good about his finances.
00:05:49.720 | He doesn't complain about it anymore.
00:05:52.580 | And my mom is in the healthcare industry.
00:05:55.040 | She's a nursing -- a private nurse assistant.
00:05:59.200 | And she just gets called from all these wealthy people who always want to work with her because
00:06:03.560 | she's so awesome at it.
00:06:05.520 | She takes care of their parents, their elderly parents, and she's great.
00:06:10.240 | So they're doing well.
00:06:11.240 | So let's go back to your story now and chart out the specific steps that you've taken that
00:06:17.800 | have brought you to, as we said, right on the verge of financial independence at this
00:06:22.280 | point.
00:06:23.280 | At what age did you graduate from college, and what was your financial situation at that
00:06:27.080 | time?
00:06:28.080 | I graduated at age 22.
00:06:30.560 | I had just turned 22.
00:06:33.960 | I had about $30-something thousand in debt, student loan debt, and about $8,000 in credit
00:06:42.360 | card debt.
00:06:44.280 | But beyond that, I didn't have any other debt.
00:06:45.760 | So I'd say maybe about $40-something thousand in debt.
00:06:48.520 | And I was working as a teacher, making about $30,000, if not a little bit less.
00:06:54.480 | Did you have any money or any savings to offset that debt?
00:06:57.880 | No way.
00:06:58.880 | No way.
00:06:59.880 | I had to pay my way through college.
00:07:02.480 | I supported myself through college.
00:07:04.360 | So how did you live as a new teacher making a relatively low income?
00:07:09.040 | How did you live in order to be able to make progress toward your debt?
00:07:11.960 | It's a great question.
00:07:13.360 | I did what I think everyone should do, and what most millennials are doing now, but back
00:07:17.440 | in the days it wasn't that popular.
00:07:18.760 | I moved back home.
00:07:21.280 | I moved home for about three years.
00:07:24.880 | And within that time frame, I paid off all of my debt.
00:07:28.120 | I put all my money towards my debt.
00:07:30.880 | And by the time I moved out, I moved out into my first home.
00:07:34.560 | I was about 25.
00:07:36.720 | I saved aggressively.
00:07:38.360 | I worked every summer.
00:07:41.400 | And because I was teaching, I think my job paid.
00:07:46.360 | We had a loan forgiveness program, so they helped me with like, I don't know if it was
00:07:50.480 | 10% of my debt or 20%.
00:07:52.080 | I got some support because I was working in the inner city, and there was a loan forgiveness
00:07:56.440 | program, so that helped too.
00:07:59.640 | What did you do during the summer to earn extra income?
00:08:02.600 | I taught summer school, and I got a real estate license, so I started selling houses.
00:08:09.080 | Tell me about that process.
00:08:10.080 | What inspired you to go into real estate?
00:08:14.520 | My dad had a friend in his 60s who owned a real estate company.
00:08:20.000 | I don't know what, I don't even know how it started.
00:08:22.040 | He was working with someone.
00:08:23.200 | He came by the house, and we just started talking.
00:08:25.640 | He talked to me about how it worked.
00:08:28.000 | I had always been ambitious and liked to try new things, so I was like, "Okay, I have my
00:08:31.640 | summers off.
00:08:32.640 | What if I try?"
00:08:33.640 | He said, "That would be great.
00:08:34.640 | You could work in my office once you get your license."
00:08:37.320 | And so I just, I did it.
00:08:38.320 | I took my, you know, when summertime came around, I did both summer school and got my
00:08:42.280 | license and started working in real estate.
00:08:45.880 | I think mostly through him.
00:08:47.760 | And along the way, I decided it just made sense for me to buy my own house because of
00:08:52.920 | what I was learning.
00:08:55.560 | How many real estate transactions were you doing over the course of the years?
00:08:59.880 | I'm trying to get a sense of what your weekly schedule might be.
00:09:03.880 | So tell me a little bit about how you integrated these two things and how many transactions
00:09:08.040 | you did, et cetera.
00:09:09.040 | That's a great question.
00:09:10.520 | I would say over, it depends.
00:09:12.320 | So during the summer, I was able to do a lot more because I had more time.
00:09:17.000 | So I don't know, maybe in an eight-week period, four or five transactions maybe.
00:09:22.800 | Maybe four on average.
00:09:23.800 | I was very active.
00:09:25.200 | But then when the school year started, it may have been maybe four throughout the entire
00:09:29.840 | year.
00:09:31.760 | So we're talking about an extra, I mean, what, would you make three, four, I mean,
00:09:37.720 | four or $5,000 per transaction?
00:09:39.440 | How much extra money were you making?
00:09:41.000 | About three, four.
00:09:42.000 | I was making about 15 to 20,000 extra.
00:09:44.240 | I remember my salary, I think maybe my fourth year into teaching or fifth year, I was making
00:09:49.480 | 60,000 from my teaching job.
00:09:52.920 | And I remember making 80,000 for the year because I had brought in another 20,000 from
00:09:56.800 | my real estate work.
00:09:57.800 | That's awesome.
00:09:58.800 | That's awesome.
00:09:59.880 | Now you then started investing.
00:10:02.240 | So when did you start buying properties?
00:10:05.640 | I started buying, I think around 2005, around that horrible time to start buying.
00:10:13.600 | In retrospect, it was not the best time.
00:10:15.320 | I bought my first home, I paid $160,000 for it.
00:10:20.960 | And then a year later, I bought a townhouse down the street for 180.
00:10:25.720 | This was back when banks were just giving away money.
00:10:28.040 | Remember those days?
00:10:29.040 | Indeed.
00:10:30.040 | You know, you could be 24 and cool as you're still going to get money from the banks.
00:10:34.400 | Then I bought another property for like 200,000, moved out of my first home, moved into that
00:10:39.280 | property, rented my first home.
00:10:41.840 | And so by 2007, I had about five properties that I had purchased.
00:10:48.800 | And then the housing bust hit.
00:10:50.520 | Oh, yes.
00:10:51.880 | And then my properties depreciated about 40%.
00:10:54.480 | Depreciated, went down in value by 40%.
00:10:57.760 | Went down in value.
00:10:58.760 | That must have been not a very fun net worth statement to create after that.
00:11:03.200 | Oh my gosh.
00:11:04.640 | I remember like around 2007, I was like, "Oh yeah, my net worth is about 300,000 and I'm
00:11:09.560 | like 27."
00:11:10.560 | I was like, "Yes, I'm on track.
00:11:14.160 | Millennial status is coming up."
00:11:15.360 | And then the following year, I was like, "Okay, I don't have any money."
00:11:21.160 | But the good news is that the properties were not...
00:11:24.840 | The mortgage, the rents covered the mortgages.
00:11:28.960 | And so even though I had lost a strong equity position, my tenants were still paying the
00:11:34.400 | mortgage.
00:11:35.400 | So it wasn't the end of the world.
00:11:36.400 | I could still like wait it out, which I did.
00:11:41.040 | I think the good news at that time also is that my income was starting to increase because
00:11:45.880 | I became a principal for an elementary school.
00:11:50.080 | And so I had like a 15, 20% pay increase.
00:11:54.480 | And then a couple of years later, I started managing principals.
00:11:58.000 | So even though my investments weren't doing well in terms of a passive income and equity
00:12:01.840 | perspective, my active income was increasing.
00:12:05.940 | And so that helped me a lot during that time.
00:12:08.840 | Was the primary focus in transitioning to more of a management and leadership role the
00:12:14.200 | increase of income or something else?
00:12:16.200 | No, it definitely wasn't just the increase in income.
00:12:19.200 | I've always been a hard worker.
00:12:24.240 | I had learned a lot and I was doing really well.
00:12:27.280 | I was doing really well in my school.
00:12:30.040 | I had transitioned to a charter school in a curriculum director position.
00:12:36.080 | And my second year in, the principal stepped down and the CEO approached me to become the
00:12:40.960 | principal.
00:12:41.960 | I mean, I had no experience.
00:12:42.960 | I was terrified.
00:12:44.000 | But I had been doing a lot of teacher development work as a curriculum director.
00:12:48.020 | I had built really strong relationships and I was learning the industry really well from
00:12:53.660 | an admin perspective.
00:12:56.860 | And so it was a leadership role that I felt like I needed to do to push myself to become
00:13:01.700 | a better leader and to help even more kids, which was always the passion.
00:13:08.060 | I grew up in Jamaica as a poor kid.
00:13:12.140 | When I was 14, I got a scholarship to go to an awesome boarding school.
00:13:15.420 | And as a result, I got into Georgetown and it changed my trajectory.
00:13:19.100 | So I always wanted to give back to kids who were from underserved areas, who were living
00:13:24.100 | in poverty, because my experience was that education was the way out.
00:13:29.660 | So I had an opportunity to help even more kids as a principal and I did.
00:13:34.020 | My income went up.
00:13:35.460 | I actually feel like during those years, like 2008 to '11, I was working like 24/7 as a
00:13:43.740 | principal and getting my doctorate degree.
00:13:45.980 | It actually would have been a better time to invest in real estate.
00:13:50.620 | I was so busy.
00:13:51.620 | Now, in retrospect, I'm like, "What if I had bought 10 more properties in 2008?
00:13:56.900 | I'd already be financially free."
00:13:59.660 | I couldn't focus on it because I was learning how to be a principal, how to manage adults
00:14:05.260 | and 450 kids, and I was in grad school getting my doctorate.
00:14:09.460 | So I couldn't even...
00:14:10.460 | I had no extra time to do anything else.
00:14:13.740 | But in retrospect, financially, it would have been way better for me to have doubled down
00:14:18.760 | earlier and picked up more properties.
00:14:20.980 | I still had good credit.
00:14:21.980 | So during the down cycle, you basically sat to the side focusing on your academics and
00:14:26.900 | your job, but your portfolio continued because the tenants were paying your mortgages.
00:14:33.140 | Did you start buying properties again at some point in the future?
00:14:36.380 | I did in 2011.
00:14:39.380 | What caused that change to where you started buying again?
00:14:43.020 | I had such a long...
00:14:44.700 | I'm going to try to make it short.
00:14:46.180 | After I purchased my fifth property, I moved... my parents had decided to start a business
00:14:52.500 | and they wanted me to help because, you know, to help lead that business.
00:14:56.780 | It was a group home for the elderly.
00:14:59.500 | They wanted to purchase a property, get patients, and I would help run it with them.
00:15:04.220 | So I moved back in.
00:15:05.220 | I rented my home, moved back in with my parents to help start the business.
00:15:10.340 | And a week later, my dad said, "I changed my mind."
00:15:16.140 | Thanks for telling me now, Dad.
00:15:17.140 | I was like, "I have tenants in my property who just signed a one-year lease."
00:15:21.620 | I was like, "This is ridiculous."
00:15:24.060 | I was so annoyed.
00:15:26.780 | I ended up staying with my parents for longer than I had planned on.
00:15:30.460 | During the time that I stayed with them, they ended up getting a divorce.
00:15:33.180 | Oh, wow.
00:15:34.180 | Yeah.
00:15:35.180 | So they got a divorce.
00:15:36.780 | It was not pleasant.
00:15:38.220 | My parents and I started arguing.
00:15:40.360 | I moved into a studio apartment for like 700 bucks a month and lived there until I could
00:15:47.080 | save enough to buy another property.
00:15:48.600 | Because I never, I was like, "Renting is not for me."
00:15:51.600 | And when I started looking in 2011, I was like, "Oh my God.
00:15:56.080 | What have I been doing for all these years?
00:15:57.880 | These properties are like half price."
00:16:00.600 | So between 2011 and 2014, I bought like four or five other properties.
00:16:07.520 | There was such a difference in the market.
00:16:09.120 | It was a buyer's market, a lot of inventory, tons of room to negotiate.
00:16:13.440 | I was like, "Oh my God."
00:16:16.520 | There's just so much wealth building potential in this market and I took advantage of it.
00:16:21.520 | What type of real estate investment strategy have you pursued?
00:16:25.040 | I think when I just started, it was purely speculative.
00:16:30.240 | Everybody else was doing this whole, "Just buy real estate.
00:16:32.840 | It's going to go up and cash out later on."
00:16:37.080 | I think after I experienced the downturn and saw what it did to my equity and net worth,
00:16:43.320 | I did a lot more reading and educating myself and realized that investing in for cashflow
00:16:50.120 | was the way to go.
00:16:51.880 | So at this point, I'm definitely a buy and hold investor.
00:16:56.400 | I purchased for cashflow.
00:16:57.800 | The property appreciates in value great, but that's not what I go in for.
00:17:02.560 | And my strategy is to buy properties in solid condition that don't need a lot of work and
00:17:09.560 | markets where the vacancy rates are average or below average, where I can get a 20% cash
00:17:16.960 | on cash return and in the next three years, replace my income as a result of it.
00:17:27.200 | I was going to say I have mostly done traditional financing, but banks won't lend you money
00:17:33.960 | after you have 10 properties.
00:17:36.520 | And so as a result of having the maximum amount of properties, I've now started doing a lot
00:17:41.560 | of some seller finance deals.
00:17:47.040 | Are your properties similar in nature, all townhouses, all single family houses?
00:17:52.000 | The first few I purchased were similar in nature.
00:17:54.440 | They were pretty much all townhouses in a particular area.
00:17:57.720 | And then I started to branch out.
00:17:59.760 | The last few I purchased, I purchased a couple of single families, which I turned into duplexes
00:18:04.240 | by renting the basements.
00:18:06.640 | And I started purchasing a couple of rural houses a few years ago.
00:18:14.680 | My most recent acquisition was a quadruplex.
00:18:19.160 | And I now have a sixplex on the contract.
00:18:21.880 | So I think I'm now moving towards multifamily.
00:18:26.000 | Why?
00:18:27.960 | Because they are less risky in some ways.
00:18:33.240 | And what I mean by that is, if I have a single family that's rented for $1,500 a month, when
00:18:40.760 | that tenant moves out, I'm out $1,500 a month, right?
00:18:44.880 | Like I'm out the whole amount.
00:18:47.680 | And that property could be empty for a couple of months.
00:18:50.080 | If I have a quadruplex, and I'm getting $2,000 a month with each tenant paying $500 a piece,
00:18:56.880 | if I lose a tenant, I'm still getting most of the income.
00:19:00.720 | And so I think it's been a way to minimize risk from vacancies.
00:19:07.140 | You really take a big hit from single families when tenants move out.
00:19:10.800 | I think the flip side, though, is that if you purchase right and in a good market, there's
00:19:14.840 | a lot more, I think, appreciation if you purchase right.
00:19:22.080 | Whereas where I'm purchasing my multifamilies, they're pretty much cashflow markets.
00:19:26.800 | I don't expect to make a lot in terms of equity.
00:19:30.600 | But I expect to have low turnover and to always be able to cashflow because I'm not relying
00:19:35.800 | on one or just two tenants to pay the mortgage on them.
00:19:42.600 | You're looking forward to proclaiming yourself financially independent within the next couple
00:19:48.840 | of years.
00:19:49.840 | What's your definition of financial independence?
00:19:51.800 | Oh, gosh, Joshua.
00:19:53.960 | I actually read your definition.
00:19:56.560 | I love it.
00:19:59.160 | My definition is to be able to…
00:20:03.720 | I'll talk first from a financial perspective and maybe secondly about a lifestyle perspective.
00:20:09.820 | But financially for me, it's having enough passive income to cover my mortgages, utilities,
00:20:19.280 | transportation, insurance, food, and basic entertainment.
00:20:25.460 | If I can get that, I have to calculate what would that cost?
00:20:28.640 | How much would I need to earn a passive income for all of those costs to be covered?
00:20:33.980 | And that number is my financial freedom number.
00:20:37.880 | I think that's sort of from a financial perspective.
00:20:40.200 | Are you willing to share that number?
00:20:42.480 | Yeah, sure.
00:20:44.680 | My current number, which I think is on the higher side, is $7,000 a month.
00:20:49.840 | I could do it with less, but I'd rather overestimate.
00:20:54.120 | I also house hack.
00:20:55.440 | What I mean by that is that I have tenants paying my mortgage in full each month.
00:21:02.080 | So I could technically not include my mortgage in that number and it would make it $5,000.
00:21:07.540 | So we'll come back to house hacking in a moment because I know this is important to you.
00:21:10.400 | But continue the theme that you were on about the financial definition.
00:21:14.420 | Now go on to the next thing you were going to say.
00:21:16.480 | I think the other part of this is the lifestyle definition from a financial independence part
00:21:21.560 | is probably what excites me the most because I started working at age 15.
00:21:29.360 | And so I feel like I've already been working for almost 25 years.
00:21:32.640 | And I've always had to wake up to do what is expected of me.
00:21:37.460 | And it's not always been the way I spend my days isn't the way I would spend them if I
00:21:42.780 | were doing my own thing.
00:21:43.780 | If I had my own business, if I were able to choose how I wanted to spend my time, it wouldn't
00:21:49.280 | be the way I spend my time now.
00:21:51.520 | And that doesn't mean that I wouldn't want to work in the inner city and help kids and
00:21:55.460 | help leaders.
00:21:56.460 | It doesn't mean that.
00:21:57.460 | I think it means I may not want to do it for 12 hours today.
00:22:01.280 | I only want to work three hours.
00:22:03.380 | A lot of the freedom side of it from a lifestyle perspective is what is most attractive to
00:22:08.940 | me right now.
00:22:11.720 | I have an 18 month old.
00:22:14.480 | When he's three, and when I turn 40, he'll be three.
00:22:18.320 | And I would love to be able to have the flexibility to travel more with him, not have the atypical
00:22:26.660 | lifestyle where he has to just, he's in daycare and I only see him for two hours when I get
00:22:33.340 | home.
00:22:34.340 | I'd like to have richer, more diverse experiences with him before he starts school.
00:22:40.820 | So that's a big part of it for me.
00:22:43.660 | How do you, what's your approach toward handling and managing the 168 hours that you have in
00:22:51.220 | a week?
00:22:52.220 | You've got a lot of balls in the air.
00:22:53.220 | How do you approach it?
00:22:55.700 | It's so, oh my, it's so tremendously challenging.
00:23:00.140 | So tremendously.
00:23:01.140 | I'm out, I'm out.
00:23:02.980 | I wasn't always good at this.
00:23:06.100 | It's something I am actively working on because I, my role is very demanding.
00:23:11.900 | I'm the second person in command after my boss for our organization.
00:23:15.900 | We have five schools and I manage three of the principals.
00:23:19.300 | So it's a pretty demanding role.
00:23:21.740 | And I started just a few weeks ago, maybe a month ago, working with virtual assistants
00:23:29.540 | because I realized that there are certain procedural tasks that I don't need to do anymore
00:23:35.460 | that I've trained myself to do.
00:23:37.700 | So that's one thing I'm doing differently.
00:23:41.140 | I'm also increasingly accepting assistance from a variety of people.
00:23:46.460 | As an educator, as a teacher, I was very frugal.
00:23:50.660 | Teachers tend to be very frugal.
00:23:52.100 | You make $30,000 a day, I mean, sorry, a year.
00:23:55.420 | I'll take 30,000 a day.
00:23:56.420 | A day, that's great, right?
00:23:57.420 | In a year, and it's like, I have not met a teacher that is not frugal.
00:24:03.340 | So I had to move away from that.
00:24:05.780 | So I need, I have people come if I need my house cleaned, I don't have to do it myself.
00:24:10.660 | If I need babysitting support on a weekend, I need to hire someone for it.
00:24:14.860 | I am hiring out a lot more than I have in the past to get support with basic tasks.
00:24:22.100 | Like I don't spend a whole bunch of time at the grocery store.
00:24:24.220 | I use Amazon Prime.
00:24:26.220 | I've tried to think through how I spend my time.
00:24:29.480 | And whenever I find that there's someone else who can do what I'm doing for less than I
00:24:34.500 | have, than I would cost to do it, then I'm going to, in most cases, have them do it instead.
00:24:41.740 | In many cases.
00:24:42.740 | And I think, so that's my strategy.
00:24:44.340 | But even with that being said, I work tremendously hard.
00:24:46.820 | I'm up at five in the morning.
00:24:48.580 | I have my morning routine.
00:24:50.180 | Then my son gets up around six.
00:24:52.980 | I take him to daycare.
00:24:53.980 | I go to work.
00:24:54.980 | I get back, he's in bed at eight.
00:24:55.980 | And then I'm back at work from eight till ten.
00:24:58.980 | So it's still a very tight schedule to meet this goal.
00:25:04.140 | When you were hiring, when you're talking about hiring virtual assistants to help you
00:25:09.380 | with your work, is that something that you're choosing to do out of your own pocket simply
00:25:13.820 | because it frees up your time?
00:25:15.100 | Or are you trying to convince your boss that this is an organizational move and the company
00:25:19.580 | needs to pay for it?
00:25:21.340 | Definitely not the latter.
00:25:23.900 | I'm not trying to convince, no.
00:25:28.020 | It's a move that I'm making to free up my time.
00:25:30.460 | I can't even convince anyone right now.
00:25:32.700 | It's just, if I have a project that I need to work on and I could find somebody else
00:25:37.580 | to do it for $4 an hour or $5 an hour, or do half of it for $5 an hour, and I do the
00:25:43.660 | analysis and the strategy piece of the task, that's where I'm going to go.
00:25:48.420 | I don't know if it would be recommended in my role at work.
00:25:52.220 | I don't know what the org-wide stance is for me to do that.
00:25:56.540 | But I know that for me to be effective in my job while building my financial freedom
00:26:04.220 | passive income business, I have to do it.
00:26:06.920 | So I pay for it.
00:26:08.420 | I pay for it.
00:26:10.180 | It still works out, no matter what, I've always worked from home.
00:26:14.060 | I've always worked around the clock as an educator and as an administrator.
00:26:17.740 | So it doesn't, I mean, I guess it doesn't make a difference to me.
00:26:24.140 | I've never felt like I could just work and come home and not work more as an educator.
00:26:29.300 | We always bring work home.
00:26:30.300 | So I don't feel like I had that leverage with my boss.
00:26:35.180 | Do you, in looking at some of these changes that you had to consciously make to spend
00:26:40.860 | a little bit of money in order to be more productive, whether that's hiring a house
00:26:45.020 | cleaner or hiring a virtual assistant to help you with some of your work-related, your job-related
00:26:49.260 | tasks, do you get the sense that you're doing too little too late?
00:26:53.940 | Do you wish you'd done this earlier?
00:26:55.580 | Are you, do you wish you'd done it earlier?
00:26:59.540 | There's so much I wish I had done earlier.
00:27:01.940 | So much.
00:27:03.300 | That, absolutely.
00:27:05.380 | I don't know why, if I could say to the audience, I don't know why we are, we are so resistant
00:27:10.740 | to change as humans.
00:27:12.740 | I, there's, I've always been an avid reader.
00:27:17.380 | I've read many, many financial books, many productivity books.
00:27:22.180 | So it's not an intellectual issue.
00:27:24.380 | And for most people, it isn't.
00:27:26.380 | It's just actually taking action and doing it.
00:27:29.180 | There's nothing I'm doing now that I haven't read about, that I didn't read about five,
00:27:34.460 | 10 years ago, right?
00:27:36.300 | Like leveraging your time, outsourcing, taking bigger risks, all of that stuff, like getting
00:27:43.980 | rid of your limiting beliefs.
00:27:46.360 | There's a lot that I think, and it probably was triggered by having my son, things that
00:27:51.940 | I always, that I knew that I wasn't doing either consistently enough, intensely enough,
00:27:57.500 | or aggressively enough that I am now doing, because I've given myself this timeframe.
00:28:02.100 | I'm like 40.
00:28:03.580 | I'm not kidding.
00:28:04.580 | I've told everyone.
00:28:05.580 | No going back now.
00:28:06.580 | I've even told my boss, told everyone, like, when I get to 40, two years from now, I will
00:28:15.220 | be financially free.
00:28:16.220 | And I am currently working backwards from that number.
00:28:20.180 | And that's, it's scary because everybody knows I've made that commitment.
00:28:27.100 | But I think it's also been very inspirational or inspiring because I have to, I get up at
00:28:34.980 | five, I'm going for it.
00:28:37.380 | I'm up late.
00:28:38.380 | I'm more inclined to try new things.
00:28:41.300 | I need a virtual assistant because I'm not able to write a real estate contract on a
00:28:45.980 | property because I have a project for my job.
00:28:49.860 | And that means I'm not going to make my goals for this year, my passive income goals.
00:28:53.580 | When I think about it that way, it's a no brainer.
00:28:57.940 | Yeah.
00:28:58.940 | Why and when and how did you start sharing your financial goals with others?
00:29:05.780 | You guys have great questions.
00:29:09.580 | Okay.
00:29:10.620 | Why, when and how?
00:29:13.460 | Let's start with why.
00:29:17.740 | I think I would say the why is that I like to help people.
00:29:24.220 | I like to be around people who are driven and there are a lot of people around me who
00:29:32.860 | from my experience, either don't dream anymore or have entirely given up on their goals.
00:29:39.580 | There's just no, it's not even in their schema that they could want something and go after
00:29:44.580 | it.
00:29:45.580 | And it's very depressing.
00:29:46.580 | It always, it always depresses me.
00:29:48.780 | And so I started sharing what I was doing and why I was doing it as a way to, I would
00:29:56.340 | say in some ways kind of model that even if you don't make the goal, just have a purpose,
00:30:02.420 | something you care about to show, to inspire, to support, to motivate all of those reasons.
00:30:12.500 | And in terms of when, as an educator, I had to plan for my students.
00:30:22.340 | For them to learn to become great readers, great citizens, I had to plan every lesson
00:30:26.860 | for them for the entire year.
00:30:29.700 | As a principal, I had to write 20, 30 page strategic plans for my school, for my organization.
00:30:37.100 | And I used to do that every winter.
00:30:39.160 | And I'd say about four years ago, in the winter, I was like, "I'm writing a 30 page plan for
00:30:46.380 | my job.
00:30:47.380 | I don't even have a two page plan for my life."
00:30:49.380 | It's just like something hit me.
00:30:53.260 | I think I was reading, it's either John Maxwell or Brian Tracy.
00:30:57.180 | I can't remember which one.
00:30:58.380 | One of them has a book about goals that's really good.
00:31:01.420 | And I don't remember the title right now.
00:31:02.940 | - Brian Tracy has a book, it's called Goals.
00:31:05.220 | That's the title of it.
00:31:07.220 | - Maybe that's a bad judgement.
00:31:09.980 | I recall putting this book down in December, in the middle of my 20, 30 page strategic
00:31:14.860 | plan.
00:31:16.100 | And just like this light bulb went off, I was like, "I don't have goals for my life,
00:31:21.900 | but I have a 30 page strategic plan for my job."
00:31:26.380 | And I started writing my butt off.
00:31:30.300 | That winter vacation, by the time I picked my head up, I had 10 pages with my vision
00:31:35.880 | for my life.
00:31:36.880 | And I still had that document, which I share today with my mastermind groups.
00:31:41.140 | And I wrote it and I kept reflecting on it.
00:31:44.660 | And then the first year I was living it, but not as intensely as I'm living my vision now,
00:31:50.540 | but it definitely started that momentum for me.
00:31:54.940 | And I think as a result of that, I started to have more consistent levels of success.
00:32:01.340 | And I was like, "Holy crap, this stuff works."
00:32:04.060 | You know, at first I was like, the goal was buy three houses a year and read 15 books.
00:32:10.300 | It was like some basic stuff, but the vision was big, but the goals were smaller.
00:32:16.060 | And now I still have this pretty big vision, I think, for me, for my life, but my goals
00:32:21.240 | have gotten bigger.
00:32:23.420 | So I'm gaining more traction towards them.
00:32:25.620 | So the when is about four years ago.
00:32:28.020 | I think the why is so that everyone gets that we can do what we want to do.
00:32:34.740 | It's not easy, but it's worth it.
00:32:38.580 | And I think my how has always been through constant learning.
00:32:41.700 | - Are you a handywoman?
00:32:46.140 | - In what ways?
00:32:47.140 | - Are you out there looking at your properties, walking on the roof, getting in there and
00:32:51.820 | fixing stuff?
00:32:52.820 | Or how do you handle, with the demands of your job, how do you handle the maintenance
00:32:56.660 | and repair needs of your investment portfolio?
00:32:59.580 | - Sure.
00:33:00.580 | Great.
00:33:01.580 | I'm not, I don't consider myself handy at all, nor do I like to be hands-on.
00:33:07.180 | I like to leave things like that to the experts, people who are good at it, so that I can do
00:33:10.700 | what I do best and make more money that way.
00:33:13.980 | The part of real estate that I enjoy is making the deal.
00:33:16.500 | It's like doing the math, calculating the cash flow, the passive income streams, and
00:33:21.620 | like making sure it's a great deal.
00:33:23.980 | And I lock it up, I'm like, okay, I'm good.
00:33:26.540 | Could somebody else manage it for me now?
00:33:28.060 | I'm not into doing that work.
00:33:30.580 | I have property managers for most of my properties, except for two, which I manage on my own.
00:33:37.980 | They charge anywhere between 8% and 10%.
00:33:41.380 | They take care of repairs.
00:33:42.820 | They send me estimates first, which I approve.
00:33:45.460 | They get the job done.
00:33:47.100 | If tenants move out, they get the property to be rented for a fee, things like that.
00:33:53.960 | If for me to be able to scale this by 40, I can't be doing handiwork.
00:33:59.740 | I can't be that hands-on.
00:34:00.740 | It's not the best use of my time.
00:34:04.360 | And I think I was more hands-on earlier in the game when I needed to learn it, which
00:34:09.220 | I think is helpful.
00:34:12.100 | And when I also had more time, didn't have a child, I wasn't a principal, so earlier
00:34:17.380 | I was more involved.
00:34:19.300 | But at this point, I wouldn't recommend it.
00:34:23.940 | I think unless you're just starting out, I really wouldn't recommend, if you're trying
00:34:27.500 | to scale, doing so much of the work yourself if you're also doing a full-time job and a
00:34:32.100 | whole bunch of other stuff.
00:34:33.100 | A few moments ago, you were talking about your schedule, and you said you get up at
00:34:38.780 | 5 a.m. and you have a morning routine.
00:34:40.860 | How do you mean that term, "morning routine"?
00:34:44.700 | Morning routine, I'm sure the Miracle Morning is a pretty popular book.
00:34:50.060 | Hal Elrod, he has a huge following, read that book a few years ago.
00:34:56.460 | It outlines what he calls "savers," which are six things to do every morning to prepare
00:35:03.540 | yourself for a successful day.
00:35:05.460 | I actually had a really, really difficult pregnancy with my son and found that book
00:35:11.260 | at a really good time.
00:35:12.780 | And I say to my sister, jokingly, if it wasn't for the morning routine, God help how it showed
00:35:18.660 | up in this world.
00:35:19.660 | People would not like me.
00:35:20.980 | But it consists of the S is for scribing, so journaling for a few minutes each morning,
00:35:30.100 | sharing gratitude, things like that, affirmations, visualizing your goals, exercising is the
00:35:38.460 | E. R is reading.
00:35:41.380 | And then the second S is silence, which for me is meditation.
00:35:47.140 | And so it's either spending a minute on each letter, five minutes on each, ten minutes
00:35:51.100 | on each, it depends.
00:35:52.100 | I don't get all six of them in every morning, but what I do as much as I can is, my gratitude
00:35:59.460 | journal is really important.
00:36:01.060 | I do that every morning.
00:36:02.860 | I read my goals.
00:36:04.820 | So I start my day with revisiting my goals for the year, as well as how I break them
00:36:09.940 | down into monthly goals.
00:36:12.100 | Very helpful because sometimes I forget.
00:36:13.940 | I'm like, oh, I said I was going to do this this month, but I'm behind.
00:36:18.140 | Like for the month of April, I have like, my year long goal is to do something special
00:36:24.340 | for my parents every month.
00:36:26.260 | So it's April, I'm like, wow, you know, I haven't done anything for my parents yet.
00:36:29.140 | I need to go get that done.
00:36:30.940 | You know, we forget.
00:36:33.740 | I typically recently have not gotten exercise in, which is something I'm working on.
00:36:38.500 | It really bothers me.
00:36:41.700 | When I don't, I try to get that in in the evening.
00:36:44.340 | I'm an avid reader.
00:36:45.500 | So as a part of my morning routine, I'll read something uplifting or one of my books for
00:36:50.060 | the month that I'm reading.
00:36:51.740 | And then I just, then I start my day feeling like I've invested in myself.
00:36:56.620 | I'm clear what my goals are for the day and my intentions.
00:36:59.700 | And I just, it feels more purposeful.
00:37:02.580 | Let's go back to house hacking.
00:37:07.220 | I know you've mentioned this word a couple times.
00:37:11.140 | Tell us what house hacking is and some of the different ways you've employed this concept
00:37:15.340 | throughout your career.
00:37:16.340 | I'm doing this a lot more than I have in the past, I think, or a lot more effectively.
00:37:23.260 | It's really leveraging your home as a way to, I would say it's similar to Robert Kiyosaki,
00:37:31.180 | Rich Dad, Poor Dad author always says, you know, your house is not an asset.
00:37:35.500 | Everyone in America thinks that you own a home, you have an asset, but it's really a
00:37:39.660 | liability because it's debt.
00:37:41.660 | It's debt that you have to pay back to a bank or to whoever.
00:37:47.020 | House hacking is a way to turn your home into an asset because he's right.
00:37:52.860 | You buy a property, now you have to pay $1,000 a month to people.
00:37:55.660 | It's not really an asset unless there are people in your home who are paying your mortgage
00:38:00.060 | for you.
00:38:01.740 | In that case, it's an asset because it's actually putting money into your pocket, especially
00:38:06.420 | if what they're contributing is above and beyond what the monthly mortgage is.
00:38:10.820 | So it's a way to leverage your home to create income.
00:38:19.220 | I started, when I purchased my first home, my mortgage was $1,200, principal insurance,
00:38:24.940 | taxes, and interest.
00:38:26.960 | And I remember saying to my brother, you have to move in with me because that's a whole
00:38:31.020 | lot of money.
00:38:32.020 | So you paid $600 and I paid $600 a month.
00:38:35.020 | Now that I think about it, I guess I started my first home, I did have some income.
00:38:41.380 | It wasn't fully house hacking because I wasn't living rent free.
00:38:45.660 | But the more I think about it, the more I realize that I've always tried to have at
00:38:49.820 | least one other person in the property with me helping me with the mortgage.
00:38:54.620 | I've gotten really good at it now to the point where...
00:38:59.060 | So at the bottom of the market, it was 2012, in my area, the market dipped like 40%.
00:39:05.560 | And I picked up a 4,100 square foot home that was, back in the days, it had sold for $600,000
00:39:13.980 | and I got it for $320,000.
00:39:17.540 | And it's huge.
00:39:18.980 | So that's a lot of space.
00:39:21.580 | It's six bedrooms, three and a half baths, three fully furnished levels, way more space
00:39:27.300 | than I could ever need.
00:39:29.500 | And as a result of that, I literally live in this house where I have a tenant in my
00:39:35.580 | basement who pays $1,100 a month who I never see.
00:39:39.260 | I can't even tell he lives here.
00:39:41.540 | And then I have two other roommates who contribute another 1,000, which could be a lot more,
00:39:46.380 | but one is a really close friend of mine.
00:39:47.780 | So he has a deal.
00:39:50.440 | But essentially, I get to live here without paying for my mortgage because what they're
00:39:56.180 | contributing is above and beyond what my current mortgage payment is.
00:40:03.300 | And in addition to that, it's awesome because they take the trash out and they help with
00:40:07.340 | babysitting and all that stuff.
00:40:08.340 | It's such a nice deal.
00:40:09.340 | I love it.
00:40:10.340 | Why doesn't everybody do this?
00:40:11.340 | Yeah, I've never understood many people's just desire to live alone.
00:40:19.340 | I don't get it.
00:40:21.100 | I get how somehow for some people it's somehow important, but it's different when you have
00:40:27.260 | a family as far as having people in the next bedroom.
00:40:29.940 | There can be many more challenges.
00:40:32.660 | But I'd rather live with people any day than live alone.
00:40:35.620 | And house hacking is a perfect way to do that and make it financially profitable as well.
00:40:41.940 | As you just described, I think many people, if you just take a little thoughtfulness,
00:40:46.780 | can put together a deal wherein you buy the house and rent out enough rooms and you can
00:40:53.740 | either cut your costs substantially or even, as you just described, get to the point where
00:40:59.340 | you're making a profit on it.
00:41:00.940 | Isn't that amazing?
00:41:02.340 | It is absolutely.
00:41:04.180 | And for me, when I wrote my vision for my life four years ago and I wrote out exactly
00:41:10.860 | what I wanted, I had envisioned the house I live in now.
00:41:14.340 | Because when we walked into this house, I was like, "Oh, the basement has three bedrooms
00:41:18.620 | and it has a bathroom."
00:41:19.620 | And there's something about having clear goals and knowing what you want that just really
00:41:25.060 | helps.
00:41:26.140 | Because before moving into this house, I knew I'd be living rent-free, mortgage-free.
00:41:31.700 | So this is a steal.
00:41:33.980 | So I think it takes intentionality.
00:41:36.580 | It's totally doable.
00:41:39.420 | But it doesn't feel like I'm living with people.
00:41:42.340 | I have a huge level to myself.
00:41:44.900 | I mean, how much more space could we possibly want?
00:41:47.860 | Yeah, indeed.
00:41:48.860 | But yeah, it's completely doable.
00:41:51.660 | Totally.
00:41:52.660 | You've built this real estate portfolio by building off of the back of your employment
00:42:00.500 | income, which started off relatively low as a teacher and now as a professional, I'm sure,
00:42:05.420 | is at least middle income.
00:42:08.420 | How has the financing process been along the way and what have you done that's allowed
00:42:13.780 | you to leverage a normal income into such a substantial portfolio with regard to your
00:42:19.900 | financing?
00:42:23.180 | As I mentioned earlier, the financing process when I just started was pretty easy.
00:42:28.140 | Because back in 2006, you could get a loan even barely without having a job.
00:42:33.340 | So I think I got in, my first few properties I got in just because I had a stable income.
00:42:40.060 | You're a teacher.
00:42:41.060 | That's a stable job and I had good credit.
00:42:42.540 | Pretty much was all it took.
00:42:44.420 | My first couple of properties were, I still was smart about it.
00:42:47.940 | I would purchase for like 3% down, live in the property for a year or two, move out,
00:42:54.500 | rent it, do it again.
00:42:55.500 | You know what I mean?
00:42:56.500 | So I was always able to get in with pretty low down payments.
00:43:01.780 | Because you started with them as a primary residence, right?
00:43:04.500 | Yes.
00:43:05.500 | So I never needed the 10%, 20% down because I would always purchase as an owner-occupant.
00:43:12.860 | Live there for a year or two, move.
00:43:15.220 | Purchase again as owner-occupant.
00:43:16.700 | Live there for a year or two, move again.
00:43:18.380 | So if you think about it, it's purchasing these properties with 3% down.
00:43:23.260 | Let's say it's $150,000.
00:43:24.260 | That's 3% down, it's like $5,000.
00:43:27.860 | And then getting closing cost assistance from the sellers, you know, if possible.
00:43:34.500 | And I could save $5,000 as a teacher working in the summertime.
00:43:39.460 | Or I could purchase the property because I'm a real estate agent and I have to, and I kind
00:43:47.500 | of have more of an inside scoop.
00:43:49.980 | So to be able to leverage my real estate license to get better deals.
00:43:53.820 | That helped me out too.
00:43:54.820 | So I could use my commission towards either the down payment or the closing cost or something.
00:44:02.380 | Have you done that on all the properties that you've bought?
00:44:05.180 | Not all.
00:44:06.180 | I did it a lot more earlier on.
00:44:08.420 | I don't do it that much anymore because I'm priced out of my current market.
00:44:14.980 | So I've started purchasing properties out of state.
00:44:20.540 | Because again, I'm looking mostly for cash flow and my market is no longer the best,
00:44:24.300 | one of the best cash flow markets out there.
00:44:27.420 | Last question, back to the theme of financial independence.
00:44:34.540 | Have you wondered, and I know this is a legitimate question, not trying to insult your plan,
00:44:40.420 | but have you wondered with this aggressive goal of being financially independent at 40,
00:44:45.460 | have you wondered sometimes if it's all worth it?
00:44:48.300 | If you're not sacrificing too much now for the future?
00:44:53.420 | I wonder about it a lot.
00:44:54.580 | I think about it a lot.
00:44:56.100 | I also think that it's something important for me to think about because I'm such a future-oriented
00:45:02.140 | person.
00:45:03.140 | I've read this book about that there are some people who are all, who are like, you're either
00:45:07.540 | present-oriented, future-oriented, or past-oriented.
00:45:10.420 | And again, I forget the title, but I've always been future-oriented.
00:45:13.780 | So that's a danger because it impacts one's ability to enjoy the present.
00:45:18.340 | So I definitely want to check myself because I don't want to create this illusion that
00:45:24.220 | something will magically happen at 40, I become financially free, and life is perfect forever,
00:45:29.940 | right?
00:45:30.940 | Life will always have challenges.
00:45:33.280 | There are no guarantees.
00:45:35.040 | And so I try to keep myself grounded and remind myself of that by not thinking that I'm not
00:45:42.900 | in search of this perfect life at 40.
00:45:46.500 | I am in search of freedom at 40 to not go sit on a beach and sip margaritas.
00:45:52.420 | That is not my goal.
00:45:54.500 | I will continue to work.
00:45:56.940 | I think what, I would say the reason I'm not as concerned nowadays as I used to be is that
00:46:06.460 | I don't actually have the illusion that I'm going to be like 40, financially free, and
00:46:12.020 | never have problems and just sit at home.
00:46:15.620 | I have a purpose, and I see my purpose as figuring this out for myself because there
00:46:24.780 | are millions of people who have no idea how to do this at all.
00:46:30.940 | And it is not dissimilar from my purpose in helping kids in the inner city.
00:46:36.340 | It doesn't feel that much different to me.
00:46:39.020 | It's different content.
00:46:40.820 | But I think education helped to get me out of poverty, and I wanted to help kids get
00:46:45.100 | out of poverty living in inner cities, so I decided to teach.
00:46:49.740 | Financial awareness helps adults get out of poverty, and I really want to and need to
00:46:55.140 | help.
00:46:56.500 | It's similar, it's the same calling, so different content, maybe different audience, but I would
00:47:02.180 | like to do that on my own terms, at my pace, with my time, from the location that I choose.
00:47:10.420 | But it still works, and it's still a part of this bigger passion of helping others out
00:47:15.580 | who are in situations where that support is needed.
00:47:21.540 | Does that make sense?
00:47:22.540 | Dave: It does.
00:47:23.540 | Nicole, this has been awesome.
00:47:26.500 | Final thoughts, share with us anything you'd like to share, and also tell any listeners
00:47:30.580 | who'd like to find out more about the work that you're doing, get in touch with you.
00:47:35.220 | Just share any final thoughts of encouragement or advice, and also any contact information
00:47:39.100 | you'd like to share, please.
00:47:40.580 | Sure.
00:47:41.580 | I would say, first I want to thank you for this opportunity, Joshua.
00:47:45.780 | It's talking about writing your goals down and having them come to fruition.
00:47:51.180 | This is an example of that.
00:47:52.500 | I listen to your show so much.
00:47:55.460 | I would encourage people to do that.
00:47:58.340 | There is so much free information nowadays, it is ridiculous.
00:48:04.940 | There's so much out there that we could learn.
00:48:07.140 | There are so many ways to think about this.
00:48:09.180 | I've learned a lot from hearing how you think about financial freedom versus somebody else.
00:48:14.860 | I encourage people to read, go to the library, it's free.
00:48:18.940 | Listen to podcasts on your commute.
00:48:21.180 | Seems like very generic advice, but it's so helpful.
00:48:27.580 | This also sounds kind of cliche and trite, but if we're not willing to dream anymore
00:48:38.740 | and have a purpose and find our purpose, whatever it may be, it's not clear.
00:48:43.740 | Life just seems so meaningless.
00:48:47.100 | My encouragement to anyone out there would be to really think about your purpose.
00:48:52.220 | If you don't know what it is, think about what you like to do or what you would like
00:48:55.980 | to do.
00:48:56.980 | Whatever it may be.
00:48:57.980 | Put a plan in place around it.
00:49:01.380 | Because it actually, with a clear plan, things will start to happen.
00:49:06.220 | That's what has started to happen for me.
00:49:09.220 | I recently started financial freedom masterminding.
00:49:12.980 | I'm having a blast with it.
00:49:15.900 | Surrounding yourself with like-minded people works.
00:49:18.260 | I made a goal to do that this year.
00:49:20.180 | Now I'm leading two masterminds as a result of it with awesome like-minded people.
00:49:25.780 | I can be found at facebook.com/financialfreedomlovers or via email at financialfreedomlover@gmail.com.
00:49:39.980 | I just again want to thank you.
00:49:41.700 | That's all I have to say.
00:49:42.940 | Just go after your dreams.
00:49:43.940 | Mad Fientist: Nicole, thanks for sharing an inspiring story and continue to encourage
00:49:49.500 | others.
00:49:50.500 | I love to have educators on this show because it does seem my experience has also been similar.
00:49:56.300 | It seems like many people who go into teaching automatically assume that it's a sentence
00:50:01.660 | to a lifetime of poverty.
00:50:04.220 | And personally, I think it's a little bit silly.
00:50:08.220 | Number one, as a teacher, you can make a ton of money if you approach it a little bit differently.
00:50:13.380 | And oftentimes, there's a broken concept that somehow it's noble to not make money
00:50:22.060 | where I view money as simply a measure of the value that the marketplace puts on your
00:50:26.140 | work.
00:50:28.140 | But the neat thing about your story is to demonstrate there are a lot of advantages
00:50:31.700 | of being a teacher.
00:50:33.740 | And as you've been able to exploit some of those advantages, flexible schedule, stable
00:50:38.820 | income, summer's off and show how even within the context of teaching, it is possible to
00:50:45.900 | build financial freedom.
00:50:47.100 | So keep preaching the message and helping other teachers do well because I'd love
00:50:50.820 | to have many more teachers teaching because it's something that they love to do rather
00:50:56.780 | than something they are forced to do.
00:50:59.100 | Nicole Johnson: Yes, well said.
00:51:01.020 | I completely agree.
00:51:02.020 | Mad Fientist: Great!
00:51:03.020 | Nicole Johnson: And I will.
00:51:04.020 | Mad Fientist: Absolutely!
00:51:05.020 | Thank you, Nicole.
00:51:06.020 | Nicole Johnson: Thank you so much.
00:51:07.020 | Have a good day.
00:51:08.020 | Mad Fientist: Thank you.
00:51:09.020 | Thank you for listening to this episode of Radical Personal Finance.
00:51:11.700 | If you're interested in building financial freedom for yourself and your family, please
00:51:15.780 | subscribe to the podcast with our free mobile app so you don't miss a single episode.
00:51:20.500 | Just search the App Store on your mobile device for Radical Personal Finance and download
00:51:25.040 | our free app which also contains an archive of every past episode of the show.
00:51:29.860 | If you have received value and financial benefit from the content of today's show, please
00:51:35.220 | consider becoming a supporting patron.
00:51:38.180 | Radical Personal Finance is listener supported and it's your direct financial support which
00:51:43.340 | enables me to bring you this content.
00:51:45.640 | In addition to your voluntarily paying for the content you've just heard, as a supporting
00:51:50.340 | patron you will receive a number of member-only benefits including a private Facebook group,
00:51:55.780 | access to our weekly Q&A calls and discounts on future products and services.
00:52:00.260 | Details can be found at RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.
00:52:02.260 | Again, RadicalPersonalFinance.com/patron.