Earn & Invest

2020 was a year of great social upheaval, protests, and even riots. Some of the worst that we have seen in decades. Many of us, however, remember when four police officers who had been videotaped beating motorist Rodney King were found not guilty of criminal acts in 1992, the city of Los Angeles erupted in what at the time was the worst rioting seen in the US since the 1960s. The loss of life and destruction of property left a significant scar on the city. By the time the riots ended, 63 people had been killed, 2,383 had been injured, more than 12,000 had been arrested, and estimates of property damage were over $1 billion. The Rodney King riots not only reduced taxable sales in the city immediately following the unrest, but has had a lasting impact on the economic performance of the city of Los Angeles.A 2017 study showed the communities most affected by the L.A. Riots have seen little, if any, economic growth during the past two-and-a-half decades, In some neighborhoods, unemployment and poverty have worsened despite efforts by community leaders to boost economic development.Natalie Torres-Haddad was born in El Salvador but was brought up in Inglewood California in the early nineteen nineties. At the age of ten, everything changed with the LA riots. She could no longer play outside, her parents put bars on her windows, restaurants and stores were looted and burnt down to the ground in her neighborhood. And she grew up wanting to do something about it. Accordingly, she went to college to learn about finances to help her community. She got a major in finance and international business but unfortunately she still didn’t understand the meaning of true financial literacy.During her second year of grad school, burdened by student and credit card debt, a mortgage, and running a burgeoning nonprofit, she lost her job and suffered a severe bout of depression which culminated in a short stay in an acute psychiatric hospital. The moment of clarity she experienced shortly thereafter would ultimately change her trajectory and introduce her to the five steps that made her realize that everything would be ok. Natalie Torres-Haddad is a two time TEDX Speaker, An international Award Winning Author of Financially Savvy in 20 Minutes, a bilingual podcast host, international keynote speaker and educator.  She has been featured in the Huffington Post, LA Times, 60 second docs and a Honda commercial playing herself as a Financial Expert.She now is a successful real estate investor and enjoys a career traveling across the country advocating for financial and women’s empowerment and teaching the foreign language of financial literacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Let me start with Ron Friedman’s Forthcoming book: Decoding Greatness: How The best in the World Reverse Engineer Success.Ron Starts the book with a story: and I’m going to quote it here. Ron says:“By the time Steve Jobs finds out he’s been betrayed, it is already far too late. The press conference is over and the news is out. Slowly, it dawns on him: Apple’s head start is about to disappear. The year is 1983, and we are in Cupertino, California. The computer company Jobs cofounded is barely seven years old. Its rise has been meteoric. In a few short years, Wall Street will place its value at over a billion dollars. But now, just six short weeks from the release of Apple’s boldest innovation yet, the Macintosh, Jobs discovers he’s been scooped. The blow arrives from more than twenty-five hundred miles away, in the lavish ballroom of New York City’s famed Helmsley Palace hotel. Onstage, standing before a gaggle of reporters, Bill Gates has just announced Microsoft’s plans to develop a user-friendly operating system—one with more than a few striking similarities to the Macintosh.”Gates was a vendor of Jobs the time. So inevitably, the next day, there is a face-to-face showdown. Friedman says… “Jobs wasted little time tearing into him. “You’re ripping us off!” he yelled, his underlings glaring, all eyes on Gates. “I trusted you, and now you’re stealing from us!” ”Gates took it in quietly. He paused a moment, not once looking away. Then, he casually delivered a devastating line, rendering the entire room speechless: “Well, Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbor named Xerox, and I broke into his house to steal the TV set and found out that you had already stolen it.”You see…”among Xerox PARC's countless inventions was a personal computer most people have never heard of: the Alto. It offered many of the same features that would come to distinguish the Macintosh, like graphics that made computers easier to use, and a mouse for communicating commands. Except the Alto was developed a full decade earlier.”And both Gates and Jobs had reverse engineered their groundbreaking products from the alto.Friedman goes on to say“The practice of reverse engineering, of systematically taking things apart to explore their inner workings and extract new insights, is more than an intriguing feature of the tech industry. For a surprising number of innovators, it’s a tendency that appears to have emerged organically, as something of a natural inclination”Today on Earn & invest we discuss reverse engineering and it’s role in creative and successful endeavors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

J Money is an acclaimed blogger and entrepreneur. In 2008, while searching for an apartment he landed himself a $350,000 house and a dyer need to learn how to budget. While searching online, he discovered the world of personal finance and started what would become a multi-award-winning blog Budgets are Sexy which followed his goal of accumulating a seven figure net worth. Along the way he launched and eventually sold Rockstar Finance a curation and community platform with over 5,000,000 views as well as started several philanthropic organizations, won 12 industry awards, and has helped buy or sell over a 100 financial blogs including many of his own. He has been featured in several media outlets including Forbes, Inc Magazine, The New York Times, LA Times, Kiplinger, Entrepreneur, and Business Insider.In 2019, J sold Budgets are Sexy for an undisclosed amount in the mid 6 figure range in part to spend more time with family and in 2020 launched a curation site for The Motley Fool titled All Start Money.He is also a husband and proud father of three boys.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to JR Gondek and Vanessa Martinez, when we hear the word “wealth,” many of us think about money. But wealth is about so much more than that. All of the aspects of our lives that matter most to us―our family, our legacy, our community, the causes we care deeply about―contribute to our wealth and the richness of our life. Together, they compose our family value. If we are only managing our family’s money, however, our family value is at risk.Current financial advice often focuses on returns and rarely puts those returns into the context of the unique goals, family history, and legacy that a person or multiple generations of a family are trying to achieve.Plus, a fireside chat with my son Cameron G about the secret financial lives of teenagers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

According to Alexis Gerst, Author of Leading Remote Teams: Embrace the future of remote work culture, We are cruising through uncharted waters.What started as a brief two-week quarantine has turned into a years-long pandemic that has changed how we work and communicate forever.She goes on to say that Remote work has become a crucial part of every business that wants to survive in this ever-changing reality. And it's up to the leaders to make working from home work for everyone involved.Those who manage to adapt will thrive; those who struggle will be left behind.When it comes to leading virtual teams, working remotely, and making sure that your team does not lose its identity, you, as a leader, have to be the first to adapt, inspire, and motivate. While many feel that the edge of the pandemic is receding and vaccines are ensuring a return to something that feels more like normalcy, the question remains.Is remote work here to stay? And just as importantly, are you prepared?Alexis Gerst is a detail-oriented leader with a passion for remote work culture. As an Acquisition Program Manager, Alexis is experienced leading technical teams toward the procurement and sustainment of critical weapon systems. Alexis earned her Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Engineering Management from Southern New Hampshire University. She is a proactive problem-solver skilled at maximizing productivity through team collaboration, superior communication, and confident decision-making.In Leading Remote Teams: Embrace the Future of Remote Work Culture, Alexis champions the future potential of remote work, explores the advantages of a workplace paradigm shift, and delivers tactical tips for remote leaders to enable team success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Real estate investing is a wonderful tool. But the key to financial independence or any other worthwhile financial goal has nothing to do with real estate.” So says Chad “Coach” Carson in a July 2020 blog post on Bigger Pockets, a real estate investing platform which offers content, tools, and a community of over 2,000,000 members to help people avoid mistakes; learn valuable tips; find partners, deals, and financing and make the best investing decisions possible.Chad goes on to say:Instead, the basics of building wealth—whether that’s with real estate, stock investing, or starting a business—has three basic steps:1.   Save money2.   Invest the money wisely and3.   Harvest your wealth so that you can live off your investmentsWhile it’s fun to talk about investing, and occasionally you’ll see content on harvesting and living off your investments, learning How to save money (which isn’t that sexy) is the first step and the key to achieving success with real estate or any other wealth-building path that you take.Search any financial independence forum, blog, or podcast, however, and you’ll see that Real Estate is a hot topic that garners quite a bit of attention. But should it?This year, at Camp Mustache, a yearly retreat dedicated to the teachings of Pete Adeney aka Mr. Money Mustache I was privileged to lead a panel discussion involving a group of real estate rock stars and tease out the role it plays in their financial independence journeys.Kavell Taylor is a commercial and residential real estate investor with a portfolio currently valued at almost $10M. She also manages commercial and medical office buildings for a New Jersey-based developer. Santana Perez is a real estate investor in her early 30s, pivoting from a career in energy trading and corporate finance. After growing up in the foster care system and spending 21 years in poverty, Santana discovered FIRE in 2018. Since then, she has single-handedly built a $1M real estate portfolio of 10 doors while raising her son as a single parent. And Ming Mercer began real estate investing in 2014 in her early 20s, then quit her W2 job in 2020 when her real estate income surpassed her family's expenses. With a portfolio of $2M at age 29.I present to you the Real Estate Rockstar Panel recorded live from Camp Mustache on Sunday April 18th 2021. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edelman Intelligence recently conducted a research study for Upwork, a freelance-jobs platform in Santa Clara, Calif. It surveyed 6,000 working freelancers and employees between June 15 and July 7 of 2020. And they found that among other things: 59 million U.S. workers performed freelance work in the past 12 months, an increase of 2 million people year over year. The composition of the freelance workforce is getting younger, as 50 percent of Generation Z , 44 percent of Millennials, 30 percent of Generation X , and 26 percent of Baby Boomers freelanced at some point in the past year. The top two occupations for new freelancers are in technology and finance/business operations. 96 percent of new freelancers say they will do more freelancing in the future. 58 percent of workers who are not freelancers and are new to remote work due to the pandemic are now considering freelancing in the future. Although we didn’t need a pandemic and social distancing to prove the importance that freelancing plays in our current economy, 2020 has brought to light much about this often talked of mechanism for making a living. Platforms such as Fiverr and Upwork have created a thriving digital and remote freelance environment in which many are either making a full time living or at least fulfilling their side hustle needs.The question remains….Is this the wave of the future or just a fad? And more importantly, can you really make a living doing full time freelance?In 2015, Alexandra Fasulo (aka the freelance fairy) quit her lofty NYC public relations job after working for just 4-weeks. She had no plan, no money, and no idea what would come next. She just knew she couldn’t work for a company any more.What she soon realized is that quitting that job was the best thing she could ever do. It thrust her into the world of freelancing on Fiverr.com, where she is a 6-figure freelance writer, and freelancing personality on podcasts, talk shows, and blogs around the world.In this broad ranging interview, we talk about how she stumbled into freelancing, the types of jobs she has found most lucrative, and address some of the hate she has received from going public with her success. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No one knows when the financial independence retire early or FIRE movement actually started. Some say it was with the publication of Vicki Robins book Your Money Or Your Life in 1992. Others point to Jacob Lund-Fisker's blog Early retirement Extreme in 2010 or the advent of Mr. Money Mustache in 2011. Either way, mainstream media discovered the movement in 2018 and the community and philosophy have grown quite a bit in just the last three years. Or have they? Today on Earn and Invest we ask a simple question. Has the FIRE Movement evolved? Our panelists for the most part discovered financial independence in the early 2000’s and have collectively reached millions of listeners and readers.JL Collins is widely known as the Godfather of the financial independence movement and wrote the ever popular and best selling book The simple path to wealth. He blogs at jlcollinsnh where his stock series has been credited as one of the best resources for new investors. Brad Barrett is a recovering certified public accountant as well as the calm and cool voice of arguably the most listened to fire podcast out there, ChooseFI. And Jillian Johnsrud paid off all our debt, traveled to 27 counties, lived abroad for 4 years, and took 5 mini-retirements, all while bringing up 6 kids. She is a progress coach and the host and creator of the Everyday Courage Podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guest today, Dan Chan, is an internationally renowned, award-winning magician & mind-reader. In 2016 Buzzfeed profiled Dan with an article titled “Meet Silicon Valley's Favorite Magician.” Since then, Dan has performed for many of the world's largest corporations worldwide. In November of 2020, he was featured in Business Insider as the Billionaires magician.His client list reads like a who's who of Silicon valley including Google, Apple. Facebook, intel, and oracle. But magic wasn’t always at the forefront of Dan’s career. Before he was a full-time magician, he was a pre-IPO employee at PayPal where he crossed paths with the likes of Elon Musk and many of the soon to be founders of Silicon Valleys most promising start ups. He had only vested 13 months of his stock options when he decided to give up the remaining 3/4 to pursue performing magic full time. Since then he has performed over 5000 plus shows for many of the most recognizable companies in the world. Dan has an insatiable drive to become what he calls “legendary” which has spurred him into many money making and experiential adventures including working in Michelin rated restaurants, and, of all things, day trading.In the first part of the interview we discuss his career trajectory, what he has learned from performing magic for high flying tech companies, and his pivot to creating in a virtual world.The conversation continues in the after show where we unexpectedly dive into a controversial conversation of what it means to have “enough” and when he will be content with his career goals. Don’t forget to listen to the very end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MIT (Sloan)$237,636UCLA (Anderson)$220,112Michigan (Ross)$193,720UC-Berkeley (Haas)$203,068Dartmouth (Tuck)$230,080 These are the 2019 estimated total costs of completing a masters of business administration at the above noted institutions. As expensive as this sounds, an MBA continues to be a reliable magnifier of salary potential. According to a 2018 survey by the Graduate Management Admission Council, 2016 and 2017 grads saw their post-MBA salaries rise by a median of $40,000. Among respondents surveyed, 82% agreed that B-school increased their earning power.But is it worth it? While no one would argue that the next CEO of a billion dollar multinational company is well served by these two expensive years of education, the grand majority of us have much less lofty aspirations.Maybe we want to start our own small business venture. Create a product or render a service. Free ourselves from the constraints of employment and control our own destinies. Live the great American dream. What sort of education will serve us best?When Alan Donegan went to a traditional business support service To get help with his business idea the experience was so off putting that he almost gave up. Alan’s three-page letter of complaint landed on the desk of Simon Paine who met Alan for coffee for what was to become the beginning of a movement to democratise entrepreneurship. What Simon predicted was to be the worst meeting of the year turned out to be the best meeting of the decade as they swapped ideas, knowledge and opportunities.Simon had been coaching grassroots start-ups in disadvantaged communities across the south-east and knew that business plans didn’t help anyone. Alan knew that the only way to know if a business idea was going to work was to sell. They decided right then and there to work together to provide a solution.And Thus, the Rebel Business School was born  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices