Afford Anything

#104: This week, I answer 4 questions about quitting a depressing job, learning how to ask probing questions, saving for a downpayment, and more. Edward asks: How can I learn from other people around me? I'm 28, and my wife and I have some money that we'd like to invest. We know people who've had both successes and losses in the investing world, but when I ask them questions, they tend to become a little more private and shy away. How can I encourage them to open up, so that we can learn from them? Sara asks: For the last 2 years, my husband and I have lived on one income and used the other to pay off our student loans. We also saved $40,000 to make a downpayment on a house. We need to move to England for 2 years, and we'll buy a house when we return to the U.S. In the meantime, what should we do with the $40,000 downpayment that we've saved? We'd hate to see the money in a savings account, but it doesn’t seem wise to invest in index funds. What should we do? Britney asks: I’m at a job that I hate. I’d like to start a small business and find other part-time work so that I can quit my job. I’m planning to move in with my in-laws, so my cost-of-living will be low. Do you recommend that I start a blog as a side hustle, so that I can pay the bills after I quit my job? A listener in the Midwest asks: I’m a 37-year-old single woman living in the Midwest. I live in a one-bedroom with my 5-year-old son. I bring home $3,800 per month. My rent is $1,150 and my son's preschool is $700 per month. I have $40,000 in retirement savings and a $3,000 emergency fund. I don’t want to be making rent payments in retirement. Should I take $20,000 from my 401k to make a downpayment on a rental property? ____ I answer these questions in today's episode. Enjoy! For more, visit the show notes at http://affordanything.com/episode104  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#103: On today’s show, I'm sharing this random smattering of lessons on money and life.⠀ ⠀ 1) Simplify everything.⠀ 2) Risk = Probability x Magnitude.⠀ 3) Curate.⠀ 4) Never delay gratification.⠀ 5) Know your net worth, relative to your lifetime earnings.⠀ 6) Don't half-ass anything. (Whole-ass a few things.)⠀ 7) When you're not at work, don't be at work.⠀ 8) Yes, and.⠀ 9) Money can't make you happy, but a lack of money can make you unhappy.⠀ 10) Every conversation about money is really a conversation about values.⠀ 11) The less you try, the better.⠀ 12) Work with your nature, not against it. ⠀ 13) The thing should be its own reward.⠀ 14) Practice radical self-reliance.⠀ 15) Achieve being through doing.⠀ 16) What is stated, happens.⠀  ⠀ I elaborate on each of these in today’s episode. In addition, I’m also sharing my mini-keynote from FinCon on the importance of authenticity and passion in online business.   Enjoy!   You can subscribe to show updates at podcast.affordanything.com -- just throw your email address into that big box above-the-fold. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#102: This week, I'm back to answering questions posed by listeners of the podcast. An anonymous listener asks: Should we continue to rent out our home, or should we sell it? We bought a home in California but have since moved to New York and have been renting there. After all expenses on the rental are accounted for, we receive $150/mo in profit. We estimate that even with repairs factored in, we'll still be in the positive. However, my husband thinks it's better to sell the property and invest the profits. I think we're better off keeping the house and having someone else pay the mortgage. Who has the better idea? What would you do?   Jessica asks: My husband and I are about to relocate from the mid-west to Colorado Springs, and we anticipate making $80,000 from the sale of our house. Should we take the proceeds from the sale and put it toward our next home? Or should we put that money in index funds instead? For context, we plan on buying either a duplex or triplex, or doing a fix-and-flip like we did with our current home. Terri asks: How can I find a good real estate agent - especially one who is good with short sales and foreclosures? What are the signs of a good real estate agent? Laura asks: My husband and I currently own a three-family home (in which we live on the bottom floor), but in light of getting a new job that requires me to commute an hour each way, we are thinking about either converting the three-family home into three condo units and selling them, or buying another house and keeping the three-family home as a rental. There's another factor to consider, though: the property is located on a peninsula, and with sea levels rising, we don't think it has long-term potential (in terms of equity). What should we do?   For more, visit the show notes at http://affordanything.com/episode102  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#101: Robin Dreeke is former head of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Behavioral Analysis Program. His primary role, at the time, was to thwart foreign spies and  recruit American spies. That's not an easy task. To accomplish this, Dreeke needed to gain people's trust -- even when they had no reason to trust him. He spent years developing and testing systems on how to develop trust with others in high-stakes situations. Today, he joins us on this podcast to describe The Code of Trust, a set of practices that he developed during his days as a high-ranking counterintelligence expert.   This system is based on 5 simple principles: Suspend Your Ego Be Nonjudgmental Honor Reason Validate Others Be Generous   Tune in to hear him elaborate on each principal, and discuss how this applies to anyone who wants stronger, more trustworthy relationships at work and home. For more information, including links to resources mentioned in this episode, visit http://affordanything.com/episode101  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#100: Over a year-and-a-half and two million plus downloads later, the Afford Anything podcast has hit another awesome milestone: the 100th episode! To celebrate, I recorded this one live from Ecuador with my good friend Brandon, otherwise known as the Mad FIentist. If you've been a listener since the early days, you may remember Brandon from episode #7. He was the first guest to appear on the podcast, and I'm thrilled to have him back on for round two! In this episode, we focus on life after financial freedom: What projects has Brandon been working on? What are the biggest lessons he's learned from being FI so far? How does he maintain motivation to get things done now that money isn't an issue? What does a typical day look like for Brandon? How Brandon's wife became a FIentist after some initial resistance. Why full-time travel after FI didn't work out for him and more! Enjoy, and thanks for listening! For show notes, go to http://affordanything.com/episode100  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#99: Thirteen years ago, Joshua Dorkin's friends teased him about starting a website that seemed to have no future. "I would get calls from my buddies who would literally call me on my cell phone [and say] 'Hey Josh, we just walked past a penny on the ground. We were thinking about picking it up and mailing it to you." At the time, Dorkin had just launched BiggerPockets, a then-nascent website about real estate investing. "I was working a full-time job making no money as a teacher," Dorkin says, "... and then [I] quit that job, reliable income, to blindly create this platform for other people. And I was helping other people get rich, and I was broke." Dorkin spent the next 8 years working mostly as a one-man operation as he tried to monetize a fledgling website. "We were struggling and scrapping by on every AdSense check that we could collect," Dorkin says. "The business really wasn't making serious money for probably getting close to a decade." The story has a happy ending. Today, BiggerPockets has grown to more than 870,000 members. The podcast has almost 250 episodes and the blog features more than 8,100 articles. In today's episode, I have a heart-to-heart with BiggerPockets founder Joshua Dorkin about the blood, sweat and tears that's required to start a successful online business. What lessons did he learn along the way? What regrets does he hold? And what advice would he share with other aspiring online entrepreneurs? We don't talk about real estate investing in today's episode. Instead, Joshua and I focus on the harsh realities of growing an digital empire. Enjoy!   You can find more information in the show notes at http://podcast.affordanything.com/episode99 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#98: How much money should you invest in a side hustle or side business? How do you know if your side hustle idea is viable? What if you want to start 5 or 6 side businesses? Should you lump these together under a common business umbrella? Or should you separate them out? These are the questions about side hustles -- asked by listeners Adalia and Brionna -- that I answer in today's episode. My friend Joe Saul-Sehy from the Stacking Benjamins podcast joins me to chime in with his views on building side businesses, as well. Joe and I also answer two non-side-business-related questions, as well. Skye asks: -- You talk about saving 50 percent of your income. What exactly does this mean? Steph asks: -- I have $10,000 in credit card debt and $48,000 in student loans at a 5 percent interest rate. I have a $1,000 emergency fund and $32,000 in retirement funds. My dad is willing to give me money to repay my student loans; should I accept this? And if so, should I put this money towards student loans or retirement? We tackle these questions on today's episode. Enjoy! Links and more resources can be found in the show notes at http://podcast.affordanything.com/episode98 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There are more heroes than villains in this world. We have seen a tremendous outpouring of love and support today. Please support the cause that's calling you, whether it's supporting the victims of the Las Vegas shootings, or disaster relief in Puerto Rico, or ongoing humanitarian crises that don't make headlines. Please support the victims of the Las Vegas massacre at https://www.gofundme.com/dr2ks2-las-vegas-victims-fund Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#97: How can you be awesome at your job? That's the question that today's guest, Pete Mockaitis, and I tackle on the latest Afford Anything podcast episode. Pete hosts one of iTunes' top 10 career podcasts, called -- appropriately -- How to Be Awesome at Your Job. In typical nerd fashion, I launch our interview by asking him: "What is the metric by which 'awesome' is determined?" Here are a few other questions that I hurl his way: How to Get a Raise: Imagine that you enjoy your job; you don't want to quit. But they're not paying you what you're worth. You've asked for a raise, several times, and they've said no. What do you do? Angle for a Promotion? Or Focus on a Side Hustle? Let's assume that you're employed full-time, and your goal is to make more money. What's more effective: [Option 1] Focus on your full-time profession, putting in the extra hours to angle for a promotion? -- OR - [Option 2] Be an average employee and focus your excess time and energy on building a side hustle? Tough it Out, Then Retire Early? Or Not?: You feel ambivalent about your job, but it pays well. Should you pivot to an alternate career path, even if this causes an income drop? Or should you milk the big paycheck for 10 years, save and invest like crazy during that time, and escape into an early retirement?   What nuggets of wisdom does Pete share in today's episode? Here are six takeaways: #1: If you want to be awesome at your job, focus on these six areas: 1. Be present. 2. Be deliberate about how you direct your time, energy and attention. 3. Be thoughtful. 4. Communicate well. 5. Build strong relationships. 6. Manage your career. (We dive deeper into these points -- especially number two! -- in this episode.) #2: Apply the 80/20 rule to your decisions. Ask yourself: - What are the 80 percent of great results coming from 20 percent of my efforts? - What are the 80 percent of negative things that I don't like? What focused 20 percent of efforts can get rid of 80 percent of the negative? #3: "Wastefulness comes from inefficient methods in pursuing things." #4: Invent what people want. Not what you think they should want. #5: Learn the 2 questions that improve every decision: What must be true for this to be a good decision? How can I test that? #6: How can you find happiness at work? You'll need to be satisfied with RED: rewards, experience and demands. Rewards - Your compensation, security, advancement potential, and your pride in the organization and its activities. Experience - Your day-to-day experience at work, appreciation from others, enriching and psychologically safe environment, compelling tasks, sense of purpose, learning and growth, and autonomy. Demands - What are total hours needed and the flexibility of those hours? Find more at http://affordanything.com/episode97 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

#96: Today I tackle 4 real estate questions that come from the listeners. Chris, age 25, says: Over the next 30 years, I'd like to acquire 15 rental properties. Then, at age 55, my wife and I can retire and travel. To begin, I'd like to buy a duplex, live in one unit and rent the other on Airbnb. Once I gain some equity and save enough for another downpayment, I'd like to purchase another duplex, move in, and repeat this process. However, I'm reluctant to get started for one reason. There's a decent chance that I'll need to move out-of-state within about a year or two. I don't want to be an out-of-town Airbnb host. Should I follow this plan, even though there's a good chance I might move away soon? __ The next caller, who remains anonymous, says: I love your rental property income reports; they give me a great understanding of your numbers. But you have economies of scale on your side. Your payments to your accountant, attorney, bookkeeping software, etc., are spread out across 7 rental units. When I start investing, I'll only have one unit. How well would your worst-performing property fare if it was your *only* property, and you had no other economies of scale? __ The third caller, "Anonymous from Orlando," says: I own my house free-and-clear, and I'd like to buy another one. Should I take out a conventional mortgage on my second home? Should I cash-out refinance the equity in my first home? Or should I open a HELOC? __ Finally, our last caller asks: I'm interested in rental property investing, but I don't want to deal with any hassles. Should I use a turnkey company? Tune in to find out the answers! - Paula Find resources to things mentioned in this episode at http://affordanything.com/episode96 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices