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Speaker 1: Heyba fan, Mandra here all right. I know everyone is

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Speaker 1: missing Tiffany while she's on this much needed epic vacation,

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Speaker 1: but listen, I'm still here, y'all. I got you. I'm

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Speaker 1: kicking off this incredible beginning of summer with a special

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Speaker 1: series of guest co hosts, starting with the one and

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Speaker 1: only Chris Browning from the Popcorn Finance podcast. He's joining

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Speaker 1: me next Wednesday, June ninth. Chris is basically someone who

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Speaker 1: invented the perfect snackable money podcast with his show, which

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Speaker 1: was recently featured on a list of great podcasts from

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Speaker 1: none other than The New York Times. Not shabby at all.

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Speaker 1: This week, though, I've got a little something special for you. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: we've recorded dozens of episodes of this podcast, but if

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Speaker 1: we had to choose our favorite episode ever, it could

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Speaker 1: very well be this conversation we had with Christina and

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Speaker 1: Aman of our Rich Journey last year. Christina and Aman

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Speaker 1: are former government employees and parents of two who use

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Speaker 1: savvy investing strategies and a whole latta hustle to retire

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Speaker 1: before age forty in Portugal. Now they help other people

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Speaker 1: pursue fire financial independence early retirement on their YouTube channel,

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Speaker 1: Our Rich Journey. They get super candid with us on

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Speaker 1: the show, revealing just how much they squirreled away before

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Speaker 1: they determined they had enough in the bank to retire forever.

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Speaker 1: But look beyond the dollars and cents, really what left.

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Speaker 1: The biggest impression on us had to be the insanely

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Speaker 1: palpable waves of joy they exuited. It was seriously contagious. Honestly,

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Speaker 1: it sent Tiffany on her own journey to find joy

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Speaker 1: in her business and success, and it helped me get

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Speaker 1: back in touch with that twenty two year old girl

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Speaker 1: I used to be the one who turned down a

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Speaker 1: job to travel internationally after college. She's someone I honestly

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Speaker 1: didn't know I was still allowed to be in my

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Speaker 1: thirties with a kid and a husband and a mortgage.

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Speaker 1: That was until I spoke with Christina and Aman. Suddenly

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Speaker 1: I remembered what all my hard work and passion for

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Speaker 1: saving and investing husband for my own ticket, not just

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Speaker 1: to wealth, but my own version of a truly rich

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Speaker 1: and fulfilled life. Okay, Okay, that's enough rambling for me.

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Speaker 1: Here's our conversation with Christina and Amman. I'd love to

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Speaker 1: hear from you, guys. Feel free to hit us up.

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Speaker 1: We're at Brown Ambition on Instagram, or you can shoot

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Speaker 1: us an email directly at brand Ambition Podcast at gmail

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Speaker 1: dot com. We are joined today by the fabulous Our

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Speaker 1: Rich Journey. The brains behind Our Rich Journey, Christina and

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Speaker 1: Amman Browning. Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for having us.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you. We have been looking forward to this.

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Speaker 3: We were so excited about this call. So we are

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Speaker 3: so glad to be speaking with you guys.

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Speaker 4: Now we're geek.

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Speaker 5: I'm like, ugh, I just don't our audience is going

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Speaker 5: to love you.

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Speaker 1: Oh money too. Let me brag on y'all for a

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Speaker 1: little bit because your story is so inspirational and I

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Speaker 1: know that our audience will love you. But as we mentioned,

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Speaker 1: the Brownings come from the San Francisco Bay area. You

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Speaker 1: guys both worked for the federal government until your late thirties.

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Speaker 1: You decided, let's just quit our jobs. Let's just retire. Now,

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Speaker 1: how about that? With what a ten and a twelve

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Speaker 1: year old at the time.

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Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, well so they're eleven and thirteen now, so yeah,

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Speaker 3: they were about ten and twelve at the time.

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Speaker 2: What better not only quit your job.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, very casually. Well, no, I mean, I'm kind of

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Speaker 1: making it seem easier than it was. You guys planned

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Speaker 1: for this. You joined the Fire movement before you even

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Speaker 1: knew there was a Fire movement? Is that right?

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Speaker 6: Oh, that is totally right. I love how you said

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Speaker 6: that too.

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Speaker 3: It's like we didn't even really know what we were

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Speaker 3: doing as we were doing it in terms of classifying

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Speaker 3: it as a Fire movement, because when we started, it

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Speaker 3: wasn't like this huge thing. It's not a huge thing now,

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Speaker 3: I would say, but it's much bigger than when we started.

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Speaker 3: So Fire is really financial independence retiring early. And the

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Speaker 3: concept is really that you save as much money as

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Speaker 3: you can, you make as much money as you can,

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Speaker 3: and then you invest that money and then that money

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Speaker 3: will grow enough to a point where you have enough

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Speaker 3: money that you can reach financial independence and retire and

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Speaker 3: never have to work again. So that whole sort of

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Speaker 3: introduction to Fire was we were sort of working on

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Speaker 3: it and doing all these things towards Fire, but there

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Speaker 3: wasn't really we didn't know the name of it at

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Speaker 3: the time when we started.

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Speaker 1: We'll talk about I mean, so take us back to

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Speaker 1: eight years ago. Was it eight or nine years ago

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Speaker 1: when y'all decided as a couple was it was it

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Speaker 1: one big conversation where y'all where you were both like, hey,

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Speaker 1: we should retire early? How soon? Eight years? How's eight years?

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Speaker 1: And then you put it like, how did that? How

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Speaker 1: does it work as a couple? How do you decide

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Speaker 1: we are going to both strive for this goal? Get

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Speaker 1: on the same page and talk about the steps that

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Speaker 1: y'all took in your early thirties to be able to

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Speaker 1: retire before.

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, it was a AHA moment for me

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Speaker 2: at work. I was at work working for the federal government,

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Speaker 2: and I was going through the motions every day in

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Speaker 2: the rat race. And I was at work one day

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Speaker 2: and I received an award for my length of service

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Speaker 2: with the federal government for ten years. And at this

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Speaker 2: awards assembly, there was another federal employee that had gotten

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Speaker 2: an award for thirty years of service. And I just remember,

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Speaker 2: at this assembly, my ten years was just insignificant. They

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Speaker 2: hurried me off the stage. It was nothing. And at

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Speaker 2: that moment, I realized that I didn't want to be

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Speaker 2: here thirty years just to get another piece of paper.

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Speaker 2: And so I went home. I had this conversation with Christina,

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Speaker 2: and you know, there were so many things that we

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Speaker 2: wanted to do besides just spend the rest of our

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Speaker 2: lives in our cubicle. And so we had this conversation

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Speaker 2: and we didn't really know how we were going to

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Speaker 2: do it, you know, we had it was just a goal.

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Speaker 2: A goal was to be able to develop enough passive income,

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Speaker 2: either with real estate or with the stock market, to

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Speaker 2: be able to quit our jobs and live off of that.

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Speaker 2: And so when I went home and me and Christina

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Speaker 2: had this conversation, what Christina did is what she always does.

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Speaker 2: She was like all in for she said, let's do it.

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Speaker 2: Let's figure out a way to get it done.

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Speaker 1: Plus your heart. I mean, my husband and I can't

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Speaker 1: even ngram what to order on door Dash. I mean

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Speaker 1: that's like a two hour conversation. Well, now, I think

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Speaker 1: y'all's relationship, I mean has to be so strong, such

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Speaker 1: a foundation of trust, and I just and it comes

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Speaker 1: across from me and your YouTube channel and your videos.

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Speaker 1: You can really tell that y'all are all in with

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Speaker 1: each other, and that's that's beautiful to see. TIF what

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Speaker 1: do you want to ask now?

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Speaker 5: I just want to know, like what in your I know,

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Speaker 5: so you have that initial excitement, but what were there

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Speaker 5: things that made you nervous about about this journey that

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Speaker 5: you were like, how were we going to handle these things?

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Speaker 4: Some because I'm sure there are certain people who were.

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Speaker 5: Listening and they're like, I'd love to retire early, but

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Speaker 5: I'm nervous about dot dot dot And how did you

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Speaker 5: handle those things?

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Speaker 2: There was a list. I think the biggest thing on

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Speaker 2: our list was the amount of money that it would

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Speaker 2: take to retire to do it. You know, we have

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Speaker 2: this thing called a fire number, and it's a number

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Speaker 2: that you calculate and it's based off of the amount

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Speaker 2: of money that you would need in an investment portfolio

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Speaker 2: in order to call yourself financially independent. And just calculating

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Speaker 2: that number and seeing that number on paper, that was

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Speaker 2: very intimidating. So that was one thing for sure.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, and I think you know it's for us.

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Speaker 3: It's really like, when we have maybe these challenges, are

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Speaker 3: we thinking, Okay, how much is it going to take

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Speaker 3: in order to retire? Because I think one of the

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Speaker 3: things that man forgot to say is when he came

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Speaker 3: home and we were talking about it, he said, I

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Speaker 3: want to retire before I'm forty, and so for us

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Speaker 3: it was like, wow, that's not a huge amount of time,

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Speaker 3: So what are the things that we need to do

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Speaker 3: in order to make that happen. So I think the

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Speaker 3: challenge for us too was at the time, like I said,

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Speaker 3: there wasn't a lot of information out there, There wasn't

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Speaker 3: a lot of information in general in terms of how

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Speaker 3: to pursue fire. And Aman and I also both came

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Speaker 3: from backgrounds where we didn't learn about investing or even

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Speaker 3: saving money, really making money extra money, how do you

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Speaker 3: go about doing that? So we didn't have that type

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Speaker 3: of background in terms of learning how to really deal

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Speaker 3: with our finances. So that was definitely a struggle. I mean,

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Speaker 3: I think part of it is really becoming comfortable in

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Speaker 3: how do you make these real estate transactions, how do

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Speaker 3: you make these stock market investments, and really becoming financially

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Speaker 3: literate and understanding how to try and grow our money.

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Speaker 3: So I think a lot of people when they're on

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Speaker 3: the fire journey, that can be a struggle because it

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Speaker 3: can seem sort of overwhelming.

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Speaker 6: You have to make all this money, and then you

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Speaker 6: have to figure.

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Speaker 3: Out how do you grow your money because you can't

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Speaker 3: just allow it to sit in a savings account. It's

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Speaker 3: not going to happen. You're not going to get that

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Speaker 3: type of money to retire early. So those were some

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Speaker 3: of the challenges that I guess the biggest challenges that

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Speaker 3: we had when we're pursuing.

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Speaker 1: Fire and you had so you're in your early thirties.

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Speaker 1: You have two girls at the time.

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Speaker 3: They're young, right, yes, so they were I think around

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Speaker 3: three and five, probably Christie.

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Speaker 1: Why didn't you just completed law school?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, I was.

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Speaker 6: I actually started law school.

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Speaker 3: I went to law school at UCLA, and the girls

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Speaker 3: were down in LA with me, and Aman was actually

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Speaker 3: working at the time, but he was working in San Francisco,

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Speaker 3: and so he was coming back and forth every weekend.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I cannot even imagine, you know, I was

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Speaker 3: there with the girls at law school, but every single

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Speaker 3: weekend a mon was driving down or flying down from

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Speaker 3: San Francisco to LA to be with us and support us.

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Speaker 3: It's like he didn't even skip a beat. And so

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Speaker 3: for us, yeah, that was part of the journey, was

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Speaker 3: really trying to manage to get in like two separate households,

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Speaker 3: managing little kids on this.

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Speaker 6: Journey of fire.

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Speaker 3: And really trying to make everything work because at the

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Speaker 3: same time we're supposed to be saving money and making money.

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Speaker 6: So yeah, that was another challenge.

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Speaker 1: Your thirties are like that decade, and I'm right where

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Speaker 1: you guys were eight years ago. So I am listening

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Speaker 1: with these big olds, like, tell me what to do,

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Speaker 1: because this is the time in your life where year

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Speaker 1: of responsibilities get bigger. You have the baby, you get

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Speaker 1: the house, maybe you get a dog, you get a

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Speaker 1: you know, you move to the burbs or whatnot, and

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Speaker 1: you start to I feel the pressure of it all,

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Speaker 1: you know, the pressure of providing for my child, creating stability.

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Speaker 1: And what I love about you guys is that you said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: we have it. I'm sure you guys had a decent life,

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Speaker 1: I mean comfortable life. You both had great careers. Christina,

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Speaker 1: you went to law school. You also worked for the

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Speaker 1: federal government, but you chose to like even aim higher

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Speaker 1: at the time when you started to think about retiring

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Speaker 1: before forty, Where were you at financially? Were you just

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Speaker 1: basic four when k investors? Had you guys already bought

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Speaker 1: your properties, Had you had experience in the real estate

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Speaker 1: or did y'all start from Okay, let's start getting into

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Speaker 1: real estate, because I know that was a cornerstone of

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Speaker 1: your investing strategy, right, Yes.

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Speaker 2: So you know we were doing what most people, well,

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Speaker 2: I don't say most people. We had the fundamentals in place,

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Speaker 2: so we had an emergency fund and we were putting

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Speaker 2: away about ten to fifteen percent of our income into

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Speaker 2: our retirement accounts. But a lot of the pressures that

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Speaker 2: you talked about. If we were to I guess get

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Speaker 2: deeper into some of those pressures, we would have failed

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Speaker 2: victim to lifestyle creep. And so what started to happen

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Speaker 2: to us in our thirties was that we had to

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Speaker 2: make a serious shift. And it was good that we

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Speaker 2: had this shift, and I had this moment at work

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Speaker 2: when I did, because we were at that point where

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Speaker 2: we were going to be starting to make more money.

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Speaker 2: A lot of these pressures were going to start to

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Speaker 2: pop up with the kids and with our friends, and

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Speaker 2: you can really fall victim to those things like getting

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Speaker 2: a bigger house, like driving a nicer car, and so

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Speaker 2: for us at that moment, breaking loose of this consumer

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Speaker 2: culture and deciding to live in a smaller house, to

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Speaker 2: drive an older car, and then take whatever extra money

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Speaker 2: that we started to make and instead prioritize that money

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Speaker 2: into our investments. It was definitely a crossroads for us,

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Speaker 2: and we can definitely attribute our success to making that shift.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and I love how you say, Mandy, that you

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Speaker 3: know you're sort of at the stage that we were

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Speaker 3: eight years ago, right, Because when you're in your thirties,

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Speaker 3: you start to notice that you're.

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Speaker 6: Maybe potentially making more money.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 3: You may have more responsibilities at your job, you may

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Speaker 3: be starting a family, you may be buying a house.

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Speaker 3: All of these things are sort of coming to fruition.

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Speaker 3: Things that you may have wanted in your twenties, you're

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Speaker 3: starting to get more and more of them in your thirties.

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Speaker 3: And so that is one of the big things I

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Speaker 3: think for people pursuing fire is really not getting attached

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Speaker 3: to or not falling down that whole of lifestyle creep.

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Speaker 6: As you start to get more money.

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Speaker 3: It's not this concept that, oh, you have more money

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Speaker 3: so that you can spend more money.

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Speaker 6: It's this idea that when.

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Speaker 3: You're making this more money, you were able to live

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Speaker 3: off of less money before. When you make more money,

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Speaker 3: it doesn't mean that you have to spend more money.

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Speaker 3: The idea is that you can save that money and

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Speaker 3: then invest that money, and then that is starting to

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Speaker 3: grow during your fire journey. And you don't even have

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Speaker 3: to have the goal of retiring early. It could just

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Speaker 3: be that you want to be financially independent so that

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Speaker 3: when you get older, money is not.

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Speaker 6: Going to be an issue for you.

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Speaker 3: You can do whatever type of job makes you happy

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Speaker 3: and you don't have to think, I can't have this

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Speaker 3: job because I'm not going to make enough money to.

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Speaker 6: You know, pay all the bills for my family and

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Speaker 6: things like that. So if you have this idea when

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Speaker 6: you're in the thirties.

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Speaker 3: Of not falling down that path of lifestyle creep, then

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Speaker 3: you're way ahead of the game in terms of where

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Speaker 3: other people are.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I just got to get my husband on board

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Speaker 1: with that.

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Speaker 5: So there's an African properb that my dad would say

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Speaker 5: that you cut your coat according to your size.

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Speaker 4: You know, that's so many.

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Speaker 5: People they're like, oh, I'm bigger, now I need a

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Speaker 5: bigger coat, or like I'm or they you know what

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Speaker 5: I mean. You keep increasing and so it just you're

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Speaker 5: keeping the pace of the increase, not realizing like, do

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Speaker 5: I really need to continue to increase. I mean, I'm

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Speaker 5: a cheapo, so I was like living my cheapest life

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Speaker 5: when I was thirty. So I also I lost my

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Speaker 5: job then. But one thing I really want to know,

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Speaker 5: because this is something that I struggled with when I

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Speaker 5: was in my early thirties and I was starting my business,

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Speaker 5: is like, what do you do for insurance? Because honestly,

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Speaker 5: back then my insurance was yoga, water and prayer.

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Speaker 4: So what do you do for insurance? What do you

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Speaker 4: do for insurance?

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Speaker 6: Was it in that order? Tiffany?

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Speaker 4: First?

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Speaker 6: I think you know that is one of the big

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Speaker 6: things too.

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Speaker 3: You know, when you are accumulating more things, you have

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Speaker 3: to understand that you need insurance in place to protect

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Speaker 3: those things. You know that you do not want to

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Speaker 3: be in a worst case scenario where something happens and

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Speaker 3: you're not insurance. It could be your house, it could

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Speaker 3: be health insurance, it could be car insurance, it.

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Speaker 6: Could any of these.

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Speaker 3: You know, for you, Tipany if you're starting a business

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Speaker 3: having business insurance when you were in your thirties.

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Speaker 6: But the idea is that insurance is supposed.

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Speaker 3: To prevent you from losing all of your assets, because

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Speaker 3: how terrible would it be While you're gaining more money,

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Speaker 3: you have more assets, and something happens and you're not

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Speaker 3: properly insured and then you can lose everything. Like right

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Speaker 3: before we fired a mon, we were in the States

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Speaker 3: and a mon got just this horrible, horrible food poisoning.

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Speaker 3: And I'm not just saying like he was throwing up,

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Speaker 3: he didn't feel well. He was hospitalized for a week.

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Speaker 6: It was.

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Speaker 2: It was awful.

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Speaker 6: It was really bad.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I don't even want to go to how

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Speaker 3: bad it was. But it was worst case scenario. And

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Speaker 3: thank god we were insured because the hospital bill was insane.

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Speaker 3: It was an insane amount of money, and then we

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Speaker 3: still had to pay our portion of it. But if

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Speaker 3: we had not been insured, and this was right before

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Speaker 3: we were firing too, if we would not have been insured,

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Speaker 3: there would have been a huge impact on our wealth.

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Speaker 6: And so I think, you.

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Speaker 3: Know, a lot of people when they're younger, they want

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Speaker 3: to hope for the best. They think they're healthy. You know,

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Speaker 3: they don't need to be insured because nothing's going to happen.

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Speaker 3: But even here, COVID is a great example of things

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Speaker 3: that can happen that are unpredictable, and so you have

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Speaker 3: to make sure you're properly insured.

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Speaker 1: Have we mentioned the fact that y'all live in Portugal yet?

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Speaker 1: Can we just reiterate that y'all didn't just quit your

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Speaker 1: jobs and you know, kick back in the US. You

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Speaker 1: were like, no, let's take on a whole new country, Portugal.

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Speaker 1: Talk to me about especially when it comes to healthcare.

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Speaker 1: I've watched this video already on your YouTube channel. I've

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Speaker 1: watched them all, so I'm just trying to pretend like

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Speaker 1: I haven't been stalking y'all for the past three weeks.

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Speaker 1: But anyway, talk about the cost of health care in

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Speaker 1: Portugal and do you think that you could like, was

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Speaker 1: Portugal the key element of why you were able to

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Speaker 1: retire early because of the lower cost of living? I

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Speaker 1: don't even know if there is a lower cost of living,

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Speaker 1: But do you think you would have been able to

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Speaker 1: retire early in the US or do you decide to

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00:17:04,119 --> 00:17:07,680
Speaker 1: go out of the country for those financial reasons? And yeah,

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Speaker 1: to Tiffany's question about health care costs, how are you

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Speaker 1: guys covering your healthcare while in Lisbon?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so I'll go back to kind of when we

363
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Speaker 2: were first calculating our financial independence number, we based it

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Speaker 2: off of the location that we planned on retiring in.

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Speaker 2: And when we did that calculation, we had identified a

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Speaker 2: couple of different numbers based off of different areas in

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Speaker 2: the world that we were interested in, but we had

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Speaker 2: one big number that was based off of retiring in

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Speaker 2: the San Francisco Bay Area because that's our hometown and

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Speaker 2: we know that our children may eventually want to go

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Speaker 2: back to the US, and so we wanted to base

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Speaker 2: our number off of the highest number, and as a

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Speaker 2: part of that number definitely included healthcare. And I remember

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Speaker 2: looking at healthcare plans, and that's one of the things

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Speaker 2: that I think holds people back from leaving their jobs,

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Speaker 2: especially government employees, is the good healthcare. And so for us,

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Speaker 2: we had to break from those golden handcuffs by including

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Speaker 2: the cost of health care in the US and our

379
00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:14,040
Speaker 2: fire number. And so we you know, we did that.

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Speaker 2: But while we were on our journey, we stayed the course,

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Speaker 2: even though we could have left a lot earlier and

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Speaker 2: moved to a lower cost of living area. We met

383
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Speaker 2: our San Francisco Bay Area number, but in the end,

384
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Speaker 2: we chose we chose Lisbon, and it has been a

385
00:18:27,400 --> 00:18:31,040
Speaker 2: pleasant surprise as far as the cost of healthcare because

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Speaker 2: for our family of four, our health care is less

387
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Speaker 2: than two thousand dollars a year.

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Speaker 6: A year, yes, isn't that crazy?

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Speaker 2: In California it would have been a month, right, like.

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Speaker 1: A you know families.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, hey, let me tell you this though. It's like

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Speaker 3: we have been to the hospitals here already too. It's

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Speaker 3: like we've gone for the girls have asthma, so they've

394
00:18:55,040 --> 00:18:57,080
Speaker 3: had the minor asthma things that we have to go

395
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Speaker 3: get treated at the hospital. We've even had done to work.

396
00:19:00,480 --> 00:19:02,680
Speaker 3: Actually a moan was at the dentist earlier today. So

397
00:19:02,800 --> 00:19:04,080
Speaker 3: Noah has braces.

398
00:19:04,480 --> 00:19:06,440
Speaker 2: But I might get me some braces just because.

399
00:19:10,560 --> 00:19:13,760
Speaker 3: But you know, we have had such an incredible experience

400
00:19:13,760 --> 00:19:16,160
Speaker 3: with the healthcare here. I mean there's nothing. We don't

401
00:19:16,160 --> 00:19:18,600
Speaker 3: have any language barriers. When we go to speak to

402
00:19:18,640 --> 00:19:21,800
Speaker 3: the doctors, to the nurses, to the staff, everything is

403
00:19:21,880 --> 00:19:24,400
Speaker 3: so smooth and we just show them our card and

404
00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:27,280
Speaker 3: and sometimes we have a very small copey and other

405
00:19:27,320 --> 00:19:28,520
Speaker 3: times it's like, oh, we don't have.

406
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Speaker 6: Anything at all. It's just you walk in and you

407
00:19:30,400 --> 00:19:32,480
Speaker 6: walk out. It is so simple.

408
00:19:32,560 --> 00:19:40,159
Speaker 5: Yes, wow, my husband works for the Mandy your husband

409
00:19:40,160 --> 00:19:42,200
Speaker 5: works for the city, right, and so does mine.

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00:19:43,080 --> 00:19:46,280
Speaker 1: And that for the federal government. Yeah.

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00:19:46,359 --> 00:19:49,000
Speaker 5: So, and my husband works for the state. Well he

412
00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:51,240
Speaker 5: works for the city, but his pension and everything is

413
00:19:51,280 --> 00:19:54,360
Speaker 5: through his state. And that's been the thing that's been

414
00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:58,120
Speaker 5: like holding like a pensions us because yes, well it's

415
00:19:58,119 --> 00:20:00,320
Speaker 5: not the pension honestly, because I could get like, you know,

416
00:20:00,359 --> 00:20:02,760
Speaker 5: we make more than enough that I would. I'm not

417
00:20:02,760 --> 00:20:05,760
Speaker 5: worried about that the pension payout. It's more so his

418
00:20:05,880 --> 00:20:09,640
Speaker 5: insurance is so amazing, especially in the United States, especially

419
00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:12,120
Speaker 5: in the East Coast, because I live in Jersey and

420
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Speaker 5: it's like, ah, he would love to leave any day now,

421
00:20:15,200 --> 00:20:17,320
Speaker 5: but he's got about five more years and it's like

422
00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:20,480
Speaker 5: the cost of health insurance in the United States, it's

423
00:20:20,480 --> 00:20:22,800
Speaker 5: so much so that it's like, bruh, wh need to

424
00:20:22,800 --> 00:20:24,359
Speaker 5: take that with us because you could take it with you.

425
00:20:24,640 --> 00:20:27,320
Speaker 5: So I totally get it. And yeah, but you know,

426
00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 5: I don't I wouldn't mind moving to Portugal, but I

427
00:20:29,280 --> 00:20:30,240
Speaker 5: know he wouldn't want to do that.

428
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:33,439
Speaker 3: But yeah, I know so many people have seen our

429
00:20:33,520 --> 00:20:37,200
Speaker 3: channel and we have videos on Portugal now and.

430
00:20:37,119 --> 00:20:39,440
Speaker 6: Everyone's like, I never even thought about Portugal.

431
00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:41,520
Speaker 3: Now Portugal is at the top of my list and

432
00:20:41,560 --> 00:20:45,760
Speaker 3: we're like man, Portugal is amazing. It's like this hidden secret,

433
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:48,199
Speaker 3: and it's not so hidden anymore. I think more and

434
00:20:48,240 --> 00:20:52,199
Speaker 3: more people are finding out about it. But just I

435
00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:54,120
Speaker 3: mean the healthcare.

436
00:20:53,720 --> 00:20:56,680
Speaker 6: Alone is something to think about because.

437
00:20:56,840 --> 00:21:00,439
Speaker 3: Just moving here and having the lifestyle or the pace

438
00:21:00,480 --> 00:21:04,000
Speaker 3: that they have here in Portugal, it's just amazing.

439
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:06,919
Speaker 1: Well, talk to me about the key for me is

440
00:21:07,080 --> 00:21:09,879
Speaker 1: I mean healthcare. And it's fascinating to hear what you

441
00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:12,520
Speaker 1: guys are spending on healthcare in Portugal versus the US.

442
00:21:12,840 --> 00:21:15,040
Speaker 1: But let's go back again to the early days. What

443
00:21:15,119 --> 00:21:17,800
Speaker 1: were some of the and so when you described how

444
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:19,960
Speaker 1: y'all were saving back then, I think that really resonates

445
00:21:20,000 --> 00:21:22,480
Speaker 1: with me because that's what I had been doing since

446
00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:24,760
Speaker 1: in my early twenties, saving that ten to fifteen percent

447
00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:26,720
Speaker 1: and my four oh one K and feeling very smart

448
00:21:26,760 --> 00:21:29,399
Speaker 1: about it. But what was the first step y'all took

449
00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,400
Speaker 1: to ratchet up your investments? How did you start investing?

450
00:21:32,720 --> 00:21:35,320
Speaker 1: Did you just max out your four one ks? When

451
00:21:35,400 --> 00:21:37,399
Speaker 1: you max them out? Where did you go from there?

452
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:40,240
Speaker 1: Can you walk us through like laddering up your investments

453
00:21:40,280 --> 00:21:42,840
Speaker 1: and build and really what it took to build and

454
00:21:42,840 --> 00:21:45,360
Speaker 1: grow your wealth in your thirties, Oh certainly.

455
00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:50,520
Speaker 2: So you know, it started with having our fire number

456
00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:53,280
Speaker 2: in place, and then so with that number, we were

457
00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:55,840
Speaker 2: able to kind of figure out what we needed to

458
00:21:55,880 --> 00:22:00,000
Speaker 2: get to as far as a savings rate in order

459
00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:02,040
Speaker 2: to retire in ten years based off of the returns

460
00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:05,959
Speaker 2: in the market or our returns in real estate. So

461
00:22:06,359 --> 00:22:10,160
Speaker 2: with that number in mind, we just tried to get

462
00:22:10,240 --> 00:22:13,439
Speaker 2: our savings rate up, and I'll say that our savings

463
00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:15,959
Speaker 2: rate by the end was as high as seventy percent.

464
00:22:16,640 --> 00:22:19,359
Speaker 2: So we went from saving ten to fifteen all the

465
00:22:19,359 --> 00:22:22,240
Speaker 2: way up to seventy percent. But we didn't do it overnight.

466
00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,639
Speaker 2: We just got one percent better as much as we

467
00:22:25,680 --> 00:22:28,399
Speaker 2: could and as soon as we could. So, you know,

468
00:22:28,440 --> 00:22:31,919
Speaker 2: if we just were able to lower our bills and

469
00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:36,080
Speaker 2: increase our salary, and then that gap grew our savings rate.

470
00:22:36,440 --> 00:22:40,000
Speaker 2: And so with that additional money that we were saving

471
00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:44,280
Speaker 2: and making, we were prioritizing our investments. And we have

472
00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:48,200
Speaker 2: something called a pay yourself first budget, but it's really

473
00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:52,280
Speaker 2: heavy on paying yourself into your investment accounts, and so

474
00:22:52,359 --> 00:22:56,359
Speaker 2: we started with our tax advantage accounts first and putting

475
00:22:56,400 --> 00:22:58,800
Speaker 2: as much money into those accounts because those are the

476
00:22:58,840 --> 00:23:03,359
Speaker 2: real accounts that you can really see uh wealth growth

477
00:23:03,359 --> 00:23:05,840
Speaker 2: in because of the because of all the tax incentives

478
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,919
Speaker 2: and tax advantages, and so that was a big priority,

479
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:10,960
Speaker 2: was maxing out our tax advantage accounts.

480
00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:14,040
Speaker 1: Now you're talking about your four oh one K your

481
00:23:14,160 --> 00:23:17,040
Speaker 1: I know you guys use an HSA, what a tax

482
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:18,080
Speaker 1: advantage accounts?

483
00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:22,760
Speaker 2: So we we talk about the basically the four accounts

484
00:23:23,280 --> 00:23:26,400
Speaker 2: that we call the four pillars of fire for us

485
00:23:26,640 --> 00:23:29,159
Speaker 2: was the four oh one K, the HSA, and the

486
00:23:29,240 --> 00:23:33,880
Speaker 2: roth IRA. So maxing those out at a minimum was

487
00:23:33,880 --> 00:23:36,400
Speaker 2: was really big for us. And then after that we

488
00:23:36,480 --> 00:23:42,560
Speaker 2: moved to basically a regular brokerage account, so just investing

489
00:23:42,640 --> 00:23:46,359
Speaker 2: in Vanguard and investing in low cost ETFs and index

490
00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:51,040
Speaker 2: funds at the same time that we were also investing

491
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:53,400
Speaker 2: in the stock market. We had read all of these

492
00:23:53,400 --> 00:23:56,480
Speaker 2: books on real estate investing and really type people to

493
00:23:56,520 --> 00:23:58,800
Speaker 2: read something and then to take action with it. So

494
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:01,280
Speaker 2: we had gotten all the real estate concepts down as

495
00:24:01,359 --> 00:24:02,800
Speaker 2: much as we were going to get them down, and

496
00:24:02,840 --> 00:24:05,840
Speaker 2: then we went to work. So we took an FAHA

497
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,439
Speaker 2: loan and we bought our first house in the San

498
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:10,719
Speaker 2: Fransco b area with three percent down and it was

499
00:24:11,080 --> 00:24:12,800
Speaker 2: it was it was a fixer upper, and we did

500
00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:14,960
Speaker 2: something called a live and flip where we lived in

501
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,640
Speaker 2: the house, fixed it up, got equity in that home,

502
00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:21,040
Speaker 2: and then use that equity to buy other properties and

503
00:24:21,080 --> 00:24:24,280
Speaker 2: with an FAHA loan. That's the that's the best way

504
00:24:24,320 --> 00:24:27,000
Speaker 2: for someone to get started in real estate is doing

505
00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:29,160
Speaker 2: something like a live and flip because after you've lived

506
00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:31,359
Speaker 2: in that home for three years, you can sell that

507
00:24:31,440 --> 00:24:35,520
Speaker 2: home and keep one hundred percent of your profits up

508
00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:38,040
Speaker 2: to a certain amount depending on if you're married or single.

509
00:24:38,400 --> 00:24:40,359
Speaker 2: And so that was that was a big game changer

510
00:24:40,400 --> 00:24:41,040
Speaker 2: for us as well.

511
00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:44,119
Speaker 3: So I think, really, you know, there's there's different ways

512
00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:47,439
Speaker 3: that you can reach financial independence or financial independence and

513
00:24:47,440 --> 00:24:50,840
Speaker 3: retire early. So you could do it through investing in

514
00:24:50,920 --> 00:24:53,399
Speaker 3: the stock market. So in the stock market, you know,

515
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:57,520
Speaker 3: if that is someone's plan, then they absolutely want to

516
00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:00,600
Speaker 3: make sure that they're maxing out their tax advantage accounts

517
00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,440
Speaker 3: first because then you're protecting more of your money from

518
00:25:03,480 --> 00:25:06,440
Speaker 3: it being taken away by taxes, and by protecting it more,

519
00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 3: then you can allow it to grow more. So the

520
00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:11,000
Speaker 3: idea though is that you have to max out that account,

521
00:25:11,080 --> 00:25:13,000
Speaker 3: but you have to go beyond that. So once you

522
00:25:13,040 --> 00:25:15,760
Speaker 3: max out your tax advantage accounts. Then the idea is

523
00:25:15,800 --> 00:25:18,159
Speaker 3: that you open up a traditional brokerage account and you

524
00:25:18,200 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 3: start throwing money there as well. So there's one way

525
00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:24,399
Speaker 3: to reach financial independence. But then the other way is

526
00:25:24,440 --> 00:25:28,160
Speaker 3: also through real estate. If you want to start investing

527
00:25:28,280 --> 00:25:31,840
Speaker 3: in real estate and putting money into different real estate

528
00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 3: real estate properties and creating rentals and creating rental income,

529
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 3: that is another way. Or you can just invest in

530
00:25:39,840 --> 00:25:41,600
Speaker 3: real estate and do like what a mon said is

531
00:25:41,640 --> 00:25:45,399
Speaker 3: basically flipping the properties and then eventually selling them and

532
00:25:45,440 --> 00:25:47,639
Speaker 3: taking the profit from that. Or you can do a

533
00:25:47,640 --> 00:25:51,640
Speaker 3: combination of real estate and investing in the stock market.

534
00:25:51,880 --> 00:25:54,840
Speaker 3: But it all comes down really to these fundamental pieces.

535
00:25:54,880 --> 00:25:58,280
Speaker 3: When you're pursuing fire, is that the idea is that

536
00:25:58,560 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 3: somehow you have to find to try and make more money.

537
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,960
Speaker 3: And it could be through getting ah more money through

538
00:26:05,960 --> 00:26:08,320
Speaker 3: your salary, or it can be doing different side hustles,

539
00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:10,680
Speaker 3: but then it's saving more money and then it's focusing

540
00:26:10,720 --> 00:26:12,359
Speaker 3: on that investment piece as well.

541
00:26:12,720 --> 00:26:16,119
Speaker 1: Y'all. Side hustles. Literally, I get so many giggles out

542
00:26:16,119 --> 00:26:19,919
Speaker 1: of hearing about how you guys found creative ways to

543
00:26:19,960 --> 00:26:21,480
Speaker 1: build wealth. First of all, I'm like where do you

544
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,280
Speaker 1: get the energy with two bait? Like two little girls,

545
00:26:24,400 --> 00:26:27,439
Speaker 1: and y'all are like what building furniture out of wine

546
00:26:27,440 --> 00:26:33,840
Speaker 1: crates and digging through ikeas reduced like returns bins and

547
00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:37,280
Speaker 1: like selling flipping furniture online. Talk about how y'all brought

548
00:26:37,320 --> 00:26:39,840
Speaker 1: in extra money and like what was the most meaningful

549
00:26:39,880 --> 00:26:42,440
Speaker 1: source of extra income y'all created?

550
00:26:42,840 --> 00:26:45,240
Speaker 2: You know, we always talk about this because looking back

551
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:47,240
Speaker 2: on it, we laugh about some of the things that

552
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:50,280
Speaker 2: we did. But for us, it's weird. When you're on

553
00:26:50,359 --> 00:26:56,320
Speaker 2: this journey, it's like your mind like produces income out

554
00:26:56,320 --> 00:26:58,719
Speaker 2: of out of nowhere. There's literally money in the streets

555
00:26:58,800 --> 00:27:01,439
Speaker 2: and you just have to go pick it up. So, actually,

556
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:03,520
Speaker 2: someone sent us a message today because one of our

557
00:27:03,640 --> 00:27:08,960
Speaker 2: side hustles was we had Christina was writing tooth fairy

558
00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 2: letters on Etsy. She created an Etsy store, and my

559
00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,880
Speaker 2: favor it was like it was it was so funny

560
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:17,560
Speaker 2: and when she when she came up with this idea,

561
00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,240
Speaker 2: I was like, people really people really buying letters like that.

562
00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:21,280
Speaker 2: They're families that do that.

563
00:27:21,920 --> 00:27:22,160
Speaker 6: Yeah.

564
00:27:22,160 --> 00:27:24,919
Speaker 3: But but someone actually reached out to reached out to

565
00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,040
Speaker 3: us today, which is so funny, asking us about you know,

566
00:27:28,080 --> 00:27:28,840
Speaker 3: the details of it.

567
00:27:28,920 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 6: How do you do it?

568
00:27:29,600 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 3: How are you sending it out? Are you sending it

569
00:27:31,520 --> 00:27:33,679
Speaker 3: out already pre packaged? Do you send it out to

570
00:27:33,720 --> 00:27:35,399
Speaker 3: the parent or to the child? So it was so

571
00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:38,400
Speaker 3: interesting because you know, people are interested in finding these

572
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 3: new ways to make money, and so I just thought,

573
00:27:40,720 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 3: you know, this is a creative thing. But like you said,

574
00:27:43,080 --> 00:27:47,080
Speaker 3: we we uh, we're not too shy to go dumpster diving.

575
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:49,320
Speaker 6: We did that at one point, and I'll tell you

576
00:27:49,320 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 6: the specific specifics of that.

577
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,520
Speaker 3: We were driving around in Oakland, which is in the

578
00:27:54,560 --> 00:27:58,600
Speaker 3: San Francisco Bay area, and we drove past this huge

579
00:27:58,760 --> 00:28:01,960
Speaker 3: dumpster and it had all of these, I don't guess,

580
00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:04,159
Speaker 3: not brand new wine crates, but it had all of

581
00:28:04,160 --> 00:28:06,800
Speaker 3: these wine crates in them, and they were so beautiful.

582
00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:08,320
Speaker 6: It's like these wine boxes wood.

583
00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:12,000
Speaker 3: Yes, And there was a liquor store that had dumped

584
00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,440
Speaker 3: them all out into this garb, into this dumpster getting

585
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:17,560
Speaker 3: rid of them. And we went into the to the

586
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:19,560
Speaker 3: liquor store and we said, are you dumping these? Are

587
00:28:19,560 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 3: you you don't want these? Can we have them?

588
00:28:21,960 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 6: And so they said yes, So we filled.

589
00:28:24,680 --> 00:28:28,119
Speaker 3: Up our car with so many wine boxes and then

590
00:28:28,160 --> 00:28:30,640
Speaker 3: we took them home in our garage was just piled

591
00:28:30,680 --> 00:28:33,240
Speaker 3: full of wine boxes and we ended up selling those.

592
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,840
Speaker 3: We got them for free, and we ended up selling

593
00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:39,200
Speaker 3: them on like Facebook and Craigslist, and people were just

594
00:28:39,320 --> 00:28:42,200
Speaker 3: it was so easy to sell because people thought they

595
00:28:42,240 --> 00:28:45,000
Speaker 3: were really beautiful wine boxes and they couldn't find them anywhere,

596
00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:46,719
Speaker 3: and people were willing to pay us for that.

597
00:28:47,280 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 4: Yeah.

598
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 1: I was like a bougie broke hipster ten years ago

599
00:28:49,920 --> 00:28:52,600
Speaker 1: living in Queens with my boyfriend at the time, my husband. Now,

600
00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:55,200
Speaker 1: we were the dumb dumbs. Not the dumb dumbs. We

601
00:28:55,200 --> 00:28:57,840
Speaker 1: were the ones buying wine, trying to find wine crates

602
00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:00,720
Speaker 1: on Craigslist and begging liquors or was to give them

603
00:29:00,720 --> 00:29:03,560
Speaker 1: to us. Y'all stumbled upon a little jackpot right there.

604
00:29:03,720 --> 00:29:04,800
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I would love that.

605
00:29:05,520 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, we did that.

606
00:29:06,240 --> 00:29:08,560
Speaker 3: I mean we also, like Aman said, we had flipped

607
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:12,120
Speaker 3: our properties. So one of the things we found at Ikea,

608
00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:14,680
Speaker 3: which is I feel like Ikeas everywhere, I mean there's

609
00:29:14,720 --> 00:29:17,760
Speaker 3: even an Ikea. There's like five Ikeas in Portugal here,

610
00:29:17,800 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 3: but in Ikea they have this as is section. So

611
00:29:21,320 --> 00:29:23,880
Speaker 3: that was another one of our side hustles. We discovered this.

612
00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:26,120
Speaker 3: I'm not saying like we are the only ones who've

613
00:29:26,160 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 3: discovered it. But we discovered that you can buy these

614
00:29:30,200 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 3: items in the as is section and they're anywhere.

615
00:29:33,960 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 6: I mean, you can get things for.

616
00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:38,080
Speaker 3: Ninety percent off of yes, up to ninety percent off,

617
00:29:38,320 --> 00:29:41,040
Speaker 3: or if they're you know, if they're no longer having

618
00:29:41,080 --> 00:29:45,280
Speaker 3: a certain product, like an entire free or entire kitchen display,

619
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:47,920
Speaker 3: you can get for up to ninety percent off. So

620
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:51,800
Speaker 3: we started buying these really nice items in Ikea and

621
00:29:51,880 --> 00:29:53,160
Speaker 3: reselling those all sets.

622
00:29:53,240 --> 00:29:55,880
Speaker 2: That's what we had a niche. How our niche was kitchen.

623
00:29:56,640 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 2: It was basically like kitchen construction material, so the cabinet's,

624
00:30:00,080 --> 00:30:04,080
Speaker 2: the countertops, refrigerators, hoods, all of these different things. When

625
00:30:04,080 --> 00:30:07,840
Speaker 2: Ikia changes out its kitchens in the showroom, they would

626
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:10,920
Speaker 2: put their entire kitchen down into the as this section

627
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 2: and we'd be waiting for it, pick it right up.

628
00:30:14,640 --> 00:30:16,960
Speaker 2: It was ninety percent off, and you can resell this

629
00:30:17,040 --> 00:30:21,320
Speaker 2: stuff and make a lot of money. My kids hate

630
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:23,080
Speaker 2: Ikea now because I was taking them in there all

631
00:30:23,080 --> 00:30:27,080
Speaker 2: the time. And this is a side thing, but every Wednesday,

632
00:30:27,200 --> 00:30:30,560
Speaker 2: kids eat free at Ikea, so we were there every Wednesday.

633
00:30:31,200 --> 00:30:35,080
Speaker 1: They're probably thinking those meatballs, but I know I lived

634
00:30:35,120 --> 00:30:37,240
Speaker 1: up that if I furnished my whole first apartment was

635
00:30:37,280 --> 00:30:38,560
Speaker 1: the Ikea as a section.

636
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 5: I was like, oh, no, we will have qute things,

637
00:30:41,120 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 5: but cute things on a budget.

638
00:30:42,320 --> 00:30:43,720
Speaker 4: So I feel, you I never thought about this.

639
00:30:44,800 --> 00:30:46,880
Speaker 1: I am a victim of lifestyle creep. I'll fess up

640
00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,720
Speaker 1: to it. We bought our house and it was West

641
00:30:49,760 --> 00:30:54,080
Speaker 1: Elm all the way y'all, And I feel foolish, but

642
00:30:54,520 --> 00:30:57,120
Speaker 1: it's true. We did West Elm, And like Creighton Barrel,

643
00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,000
Speaker 1: you want to have nice stuff. And I always can

644
00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:03,120
Speaker 1: considered myself to be you know, I mean, I've been

645
00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:05,160
Speaker 1: doing personal finance for over a decade, and I you know,

646
00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,640
Speaker 1: I know better, but the allure of just being comfortable

647
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 1: and having nice things, especially for people who you know,

648
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 1: for me personally, coming from family, we weren't like super poor,

649
00:31:15,240 --> 00:31:17,880
Speaker 1: but we didn't have like really nice stuff. And you know,

650
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,720
Speaker 1: you want to you want to like enjoy the fruits

651
00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:24,200
Speaker 1: of your your hard work, and that felt like a

652
00:31:24,240 --> 00:31:27,680
Speaker 1: way of acknowledging the hard work and about you know,

653
00:31:27,800 --> 00:31:31,920
Speaker 1: investing in our own comfort. But I'm a little surprised,

654
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:34,479
Speaker 1: you know, two years out from that renovation, where I'm thinking,

655
00:31:35,000 --> 00:31:36,840
Speaker 1: you know, was that the best way to celebrate our

656
00:31:37,880 --> 00:31:42,320
Speaker 1: you know, our success, like giving another company all this money,

657
00:31:42,400 --> 00:31:45,520
Speaker 1: you know, like there's probably other ways. So I'm I'm

658
00:31:45,520 --> 00:31:47,680
Speaker 1: thinking so much about some of the choices I've made

659
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:51,200
Speaker 1: and how emotions play into that, you know, especially as

660
00:31:51,200 --> 00:31:54,560
Speaker 1: you're starting to build and build a family and earn

661
00:31:54,600 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 1: more in your thirties.

662
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:58,880
Speaker 3: Like y'all said, yeah, I know, I think definitely there's

663
00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 3: this idea that and Aman and I talk about it

664
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:05,400
Speaker 3: a lot. Actually, it's like you can make short term

665
00:32:05,560 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 3: sacrifices for long term gains. And that's really how we

666
00:32:09,040 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 3: thought about it. When we're thinking about or even if

667
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 3: you're thinking about how much it costs to do X,

668
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:17,880
Speaker 3: Y or z, converting that into hours of work, right,

669
00:32:17,920 --> 00:32:20,040
Speaker 3: it's like, would you put that many hours of work

670
00:32:20,080 --> 00:32:21,520
Speaker 3: so that you could have this or so that you

671
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:24,400
Speaker 3: could do something or do that? And so that's an

672
00:32:24,480 --> 00:32:28,600
Speaker 3: interesting way to start to think about it. But also realizing,

673
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 3: you know, what is in your future, what do you

674
00:32:30,320 --> 00:32:33,280
Speaker 3: look for, what do you look forward to the most

675
00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:37,120
Speaker 3: in the future, and really thinking about it at that way,

676
00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 3: thinking that you know, if I if I maybe don't

677
00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 3: spend my money in this area, or if I cut

678
00:32:42,400 --> 00:32:46,000
Speaker 3: back in this area. It may be a little hard initially,

679
00:32:46,360 --> 00:32:49,239
Speaker 3: but if you're looking at the long term results, what

680
00:32:49,280 --> 00:32:52,040
Speaker 3: you can get in return for maybe not buying the

681
00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:55,200
Speaker 3: big TV or the new car or something like that,

682
00:32:55,560 --> 00:32:59,840
Speaker 3: then you can start really pursuing fire in a meaningful

683
00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:03,320
Speaker 3: way where you're really focused on cutting out expenses, not

684
00:33:03,360 --> 00:33:05,680
Speaker 3: buying big expenses, and really trying to make more in

685
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 3: funnel towards your investments.

686
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:43,480
Speaker 1: Y'all didn't just focus on cutting cutting cutting expenses. Y'all

687
00:33:43,520 --> 00:33:47,000
Speaker 1: still took time and you invested in experiences that meant

688
00:33:47,040 --> 00:33:49,120
Speaker 1: a lot to y'all. Could you talk about how you

689
00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 1: balanced experiences and things that you would continue to splurge

690
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:55,600
Speaker 1: on and then balance that with your mission to save

691
00:33:55,640 --> 00:33:56,480
Speaker 1: as much as you could.

692
00:33:57,080 --> 00:33:57,360
Speaker 4: Yeah.

693
00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:01,960
Speaker 3: I would say one of our biggest expences in terms

694
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:03,840
Speaker 3: of what we cut that we really wanted to do

695
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:06,440
Speaker 3: that we're able to figure it out, was traveling. Like

696
00:34:06,520 --> 00:34:11,160
Speaker 3: we lived in Spain, we lived in Japan, we now

697
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:12,239
Speaker 3: live in Portugal.

698
00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,840
Speaker 6: We traveled to Hawaii a lot. Among's brother lives in Hawaii.

699
00:34:15,719 --> 00:34:19,239
Speaker 3: So we were definitely a huge travel family and that

700
00:34:19,360 --> 00:34:21,600
Speaker 3: was very important to us and we really didn't want

701
00:34:21,640 --> 00:34:24,080
Speaker 3: to give that up. But it can be expensive for

702
00:34:24,160 --> 00:34:28,440
Speaker 3: a family of four traveling abroad all the time or Hawaii.

703
00:34:27,920 --> 00:34:29,400
Speaker 6: And making these trips.

704
00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:33,080
Speaker 3: And so we figured out travel hacking where we would

705
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:37,360
Speaker 3: take out credit cards and we would use the bonus

706
00:34:37,360 --> 00:34:39,880
Speaker 3: points for the credit cards by taking them out, and

707
00:34:39,920 --> 00:34:43,960
Speaker 3: we would use them for hotel stays and for airfare,

708
00:34:44,080 --> 00:34:47,120
Speaker 3: and we were able to start traveling for free. Now,

709
00:34:47,160 --> 00:34:50,920
Speaker 3: I would say though, that this travel hacking concept is

710
00:34:51,200 --> 00:34:54,239
Speaker 3: absolutely not for everyone. I mean, you have to understand

711
00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:56,439
Speaker 3: how credit works. You have to start off with good

712
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:58,759
Speaker 3: credit and maintain good credit, and don't go in this

713
00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:01,360
Speaker 3: rabbit hole where you're just trying to spend money on

714
00:35:01,400 --> 00:35:03,680
Speaker 3: your credit card so that you can get the points.

715
00:35:03,680 --> 00:35:06,080
Speaker 3: It doesn't work like that. There's a it's a bit

716
00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:09,160
Speaker 3: more nuanced than that. So it's not for everyone, but

717
00:35:09,239 --> 00:35:12,280
Speaker 3: for us. For Aman and I, we had excellent credit.

718
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 3: We never had any debt on our credit cards. We

719
00:35:15,239 --> 00:35:18,720
Speaker 3: always paid our credit card off in full every single month,

720
00:35:19,120 --> 00:35:22,040
Speaker 3: and so by figuring out travel hacking, we were able

721
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:25,839
Speaker 3: to continue to travel the world and still enjoy all

722
00:35:25,880 --> 00:35:27,680
Speaker 3: of the different things we could by traveling, but we

723
00:35:27,719 --> 00:35:28,640
Speaker 3: got to do it for free.

724
00:35:29,080 --> 00:35:31,000
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Tif and I love to talk about what

725
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:34,600
Speaker 1: how to not you know, fall into that to that

726
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,440
Speaker 1: black hole of credit card spending just to get some points.

727
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:41,080
Speaker 5: Yeah. Absolutely, So the struggle that I have is not

728
00:35:41,800 --> 00:35:45,520
Speaker 5: it's not the living frugally got that you know. And

729
00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:49,680
Speaker 5: so but did you ever feel like are we over sacrificing,

730
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:53,319
Speaker 5: because that is something that I struggle with that I

731
00:35:53,520 --> 00:35:57,520
Speaker 5: sometimes struggle with the enjoying on the other side. And

732
00:35:57,600 --> 00:35:59,239
Speaker 5: so do you ever feel like, you know, you were

733
00:35:59,239 --> 00:36:03,120
Speaker 5: oversackled sacrificing And if so, how did you manage that

734
00:36:03,480 --> 00:36:05,200
Speaker 5: or if not, how did you avoid that?

735
00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:08,360
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think that for us, we didn't feel like

736
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:11,839
Speaker 3: we were over sacrificing because we built in things on

737
00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:13,880
Speaker 3: our journey so that we could enjoy things. So, like

738
00:36:13,920 --> 00:36:16,160
Speaker 3: I said, we did traveling. We traveled quite a lot,

739
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:18,319
Speaker 3: and we also this is something that we didn't save

740
00:36:18,360 --> 00:36:20,400
Speaker 3: any money on, but we still did it. We were

741
00:36:20,560 --> 00:36:23,319
Speaker 3: from the We're from Oakland, like I said, and we

742
00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,319
Speaker 3: went to a lot of warrior games and we didn't

743
00:36:26,360 --> 00:36:28,680
Speaker 3: get the nosebleed seats. We were sitting you know, I

744
00:36:28,719 --> 00:36:31,560
Speaker 3: wouldn't say on the floor, but maybe five rows back

745
00:36:31,640 --> 00:36:34,120
Speaker 3: off of the floor. So that was one of the

746
00:36:34,120 --> 00:36:36,600
Speaker 3: expenses that we splurged on when we were in Oakland.

747
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:40,759
Speaker 3: But I like to tell people a lot that you

748
00:36:40,880 --> 00:36:45,000
Speaker 3: should you should enjoy the journey. You should enjoy your

749
00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:49,320
Speaker 3: journey towards fire, because sometimes it's not all just about

750
00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:52,000
Speaker 3: that destination of being able to retire. Right If you're

751
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:55,800
Speaker 3: miserable on your journey, you're not spending a single time

752
00:36:55,960 --> 00:37:00,759
Speaker 3: doing anything. You are are you know, not going out

753
00:37:00,760 --> 00:37:03,400
Speaker 3: with your friends, or you're not doing anything with anyone

754
00:37:03,440 --> 00:37:07,320
Speaker 3: your family members. It's a miserable journey and it's not sustainable.

755
00:37:07,480 --> 00:37:10,319
Speaker 3: So you have to you have to figure out what

756
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:12,920
Speaker 3: the right balance is for you. So we're not I

757
00:37:12,920 --> 00:37:16,840
Speaker 3: wouldn't encourage everyone to just you know, count every single

758
00:37:16,920 --> 00:37:21,440
Speaker 3: penny and live in a way where they're just not

759
00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:23,040
Speaker 3: able to enjoy anything.

760
00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think this is a this is a

761
00:37:25,040 --> 00:37:28,560
Speaker 2: misconception about the Fire movement, is that the people that

762
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:32,520
Speaker 2: are on this journey are eating beans and sacrifice and

763
00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:34,960
Speaker 2: they don't have cable or Netflix, you know, they don't

764
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:39,600
Speaker 2: go anywhere. That's that's absolutely not true. To do this,

765
00:37:39,920 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 2: you have to just find creative ways to enjoy yourself

766
00:37:44,080 --> 00:37:46,560
Speaker 2: and you have to figure out a way to make

767
00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:49,360
Speaker 2: more money. That's the other side of the equation, preach

768
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:52,399
Speaker 2: on it. Say it again that I wish the Fire

769
00:37:52,440 --> 00:37:54,480
Speaker 2: movement talk more about is you have to get out

770
00:37:54,520 --> 00:37:57,640
Speaker 2: there and if you're in your thirties, twenties, if you're forties, fifties,

771
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:01,640
Speaker 2: you have to get on the grind liked. People would

772
00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 2: say to us, how do you how are you able

773
00:38:04,040 --> 00:38:06,799
Speaker 2: to do this with kids? You're in law school. It's like,

774
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:09,799
Speaker 2: we don't know anything else but this. So we didn't

775
00:38:09,800 --> 00:38:13,200
Speaker 2: set a low bar. We set a high bar and

776
00:38:13,280 --> 00:38:17,879
Speaker 2: that's all we knew. So for us, we don't define,

777
00:38:17,920 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 2: you know, our journey in any particular way. It's just

778
00:38:21,280 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 2: it is what it is. That's why we called our

779
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:27,920
Speaker 2: YouTube channel our Rich Journey, because this is this is

780
00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:30,880
Speaker 2: how we live our life. When people find out what

781
00:38:30,960 --> 00:38:35,120
Speaker 2: our budget is here in Portugal, we live pretty luxuriously.

782
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:37,839
Speaker 2: You know. We spend four thousand dollars a month here

783
00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:41,680
Speaker 2: in Portugal. And you know, for some people they say,

784
00:38:41,680 --> 00:38:43,840
Speaker 2: oh my god, that's too much, or some people say,

785
00:38:44,040 --> 00:38:47,359
Speaker 2: oh that's not enough. But it's relative and I think

786
00:38:47,400 --> 00:38:49,640
Speaker 2: anyone that's on this journey, they have to figure out

787
00:38:49,680 --> 00:38:53,359
Speaker 2: a way to do it relatively well so that they

788
00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:57,440
Speaker 2: enjoy themselves. Someone reached out to me today and they said,

789
00:38:57,480 --> 00:39:00,359
Speaker 2: you know, we're on this journey and we're wondering whether

790
00:39:00,440 --> 00:39:03,680
Speaker 2: or not we should start to cut some of the

791
00:39:04,040 --> 00:39:07,799
Speaker 2: activities for our children. And I immediately thought, no, why

792
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:12,279
Speaker 2: would you. No, don't do that. Don't sacrifice your child's childhood.

793
00:39:13,280 --> 00:39:16,440
Speaker 2: You know, for this journey. Figure out different ways to

794
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:20,520
Speaker 2: approach the problem, you know. So that's what we did

795
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:23,200
Speaker 2: on our journey. We would we would encounter a problem

796
00:39:23,360 --> 00:39:27,759
Speaker 2: like childcare, like travel, like owning a home, and we

797
00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:30,279
Speaker 2: would just figure out a way to get through the

798
00:39:30,360 --> 00:39:32,960
Speaker 2: challenge or over or around it. But we never we

799
00:39:33,040 --> 00:39:34,320
Speaker 2: never let it stop us.

800
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:36,759
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean your girls were in basketball, you said

801
00:39:36,760 --> 00:39:40,280
Speaker 1: they do swimming like you've never You've always encouraged those hobbies.

802
00:39:40,320 --> 00:39:42,600
Speaker 1: I mean, now they're YouTube stars, so it's not going

803
00:39:42,640 --> 00:39:45,840
Speaker 1: to be their new hobby. But before we let y'all go,

804
00:39:45,920 --> 00:39:47,959
Speaker 1: we have I really want to talk to y'all about

805
00:39:48,040 --> 00:39:51,399
Speaker 1: your investing philosophy and how you are weathering because your

806
00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:54,560
Speaker 1: investments are mostly still in the US, right, Yes, so

807
00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:56,719
Speaker 1: talk to us about because I know people listening right now.

808
00:39:56,760 --> 00:39:59,799
Speaker 1: I mean, let's not let's let's not men's words here.

809
00:39:59,840 --> 00:40:02,600
Speaker 1: Like we are. We're the US is being crippled by

810
00:40:02,640 --> 00:40:05,160
Speaker 1: this current pandemic and economic crisis. I mean, we have

811
00:40:05,880 --> 00:40:08,480
Speaker 1: what tens of millions of Americans out of work. My

812
00:40:08,560 --> 00:40:12,239
Speaker 1: own fathers is still laid off. Congress can't get their

813
00:40:12,239 --> 00:40:16,560
Speaker 1: act together with these stimulus checks and federal you know,

814
00:40:16,640 --> 00:40:19,640
Speaker 1: unemployment benefits are in limbo right now. So there's people

815
00:40:19,680 --> 00:40:23,560
Speaker 1: out there who are truly, truly hurting. And even people

816
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 1: who have been doing it quote unquote the right way

817
00:40:25,640 --> 00:40:27,520
Speaker 1: and investing in their four one k have seen their

818
00:40:27,560 --> 00:40:32,040
Speaker 1: four one ks you know, take dips this year. So y'all,

819
00:40:32,239 --> 00:40:34,520
Speaker 1: y'all have retired. What do you say to people who

820
00:40:34,520 --> 00:40:36,799
Speaker 1: are feeling like, oh shit, like is this the right

821
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:39,400
Speaker 1: time to be putting money in the market, and how like,

822
00:40:39,480 --> 00:40:43,160
Speaker 1: how can we trust that things will work out? Talk

823
00:40:43,160 --> 00:40:45,560
Speaker 1: to us about your approach to investing right now in

824
00:40:45,600 --> 00:40:48,279
Speaker 1: this moment, you know, how you're weathering what's happening in

825
00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:50,880
Speaker 1: the US, even though you're in Portugal now. And what

826
00:40:50,920 --> 00:40:53,680
Speaker 1: do you say to people who are feeling a little

827
00:40:53,719 --> 00:40:56,319
Speaker 1: gun shy about getting into the market now?

828
00:40:57,000 --> 00:40:59,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you know, that's that's a great question. And

829
00:40:59,400 --> 00:41:04,160
Speaker 2: I always tell people this, don't invest money that you

830
00:41:04,200 --> 00:41:06,480
Speaker 2: that you need to live off of every day. So

831
00:41:06,680 --> 00:41:10,000
Speaker 2: before you even buy your first investment, you should have

832
00:41:10,480 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 2: the fundamentals in place. You should have your credit paid

833
00:41:13,160 --> 00:41:16,319
Speaker 2: down and emergency fund in place, and then you can

834
00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 2: start investing in the stock market. Because when you invest

835
00:41:20,440 --> 00:41:23,279
Speaker 2: in the stock market, you shouldn't need that money in

836
00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:25,520
Speaker 2: the next five to ten years. This is this is

837
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:29,360
Speaker 2: long term money. You shouldn't want this money for decades.

838
00:41:29,840 --> 00:41:33,840
Speaker 2: So what's happening right now? It is. It is completely awful,

839
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,080
Speaker 2: you know, but if you have a plan in place,

840
00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:40,799
Speaker 2: this should not distract you. If it's not taking away

841
00:41:40,800 --> 00:41:43,080
Speaker 2: from your income. If you still have your income and

842
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:45,560
Speaker 2: you still have the ability to invest, you should be

843
00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 2: investing that money. Don't get consumed by what's going on

844
00:41:49,480 --> 00:41:53,640
Speaker 2: in the world. Yes you should should you should definitely

845
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,719
Speaker 2: be involved in it socially and politically. But if you

846
00:41:57,760 --> 00:42:01,480
Speaker 2: have your investments on cruise control, then money should be

847
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:03,120
Speaker 2: the least of your worries right now. You should just

848
00:42:03,239 --> 00:42:06,480
Speaker 2: let that money ride. So I always say that, you know,

849
00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:08,440
Speaker 2: once you have those fundamental things in place, and you

850
00:42:08,480 --> 00:42:12,080
Speaker 2: have your investments on cruise control, then you can focus

851
00:42:12,160 --> 00:42:13,200
Speaker 2: on everyday life.

852
00:42:14,000 --> 00:42:16,799
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I would also say, you know, when you

853
00:42:16,840 --> 00:42:20,840
Speaker 3: think about the stock market, it seems so backwards because

854
00:42:21,320 --> 00:42:24,920
Speaker 3: when the stock market plummets, a lot of people are

855
00:42:25,120 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 3: pulling their investments out because they're afraid that they're going

856
00:42:29,080 --> 00:42:31,520
Speaker 3: to lose all of their money. So it's like, let

857
00:42:31,560 --> 00:42:33,759
Speaker 3: me get let me get my investments out. I'm going

858
00:42:33,800 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 3: to take the loss, but it's better than not having

859
00:42:36,600 --> 00:42:40,240
Speaker 3: any money at all. And then then the stock market

860
00:42:40,320 --> 00:42:42,480
Speaker 3: ultimately goes back up, and then if they would have

861
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:45,240
Speaker 3: just left their money in, they would have been better

862
00:42:45,280 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 3: off in the long run. It's almost like you sort

863
00:42:47,520 --> 00:42:50,520
Speaker 3: of have to go against the herd mentality when it

864
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:54,400
Speaker 3: comes to the stock market because once you once you

865
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:58,560
Speaker 3: learn more about the stock market and understand the history

866
00:42:58,600 --> 00:43:00,600
Speaker 3: of the stock market. And this is not to stay

867
00:43:00,640 --> 00:43:03,040
Speaker 3: that the history of the stock market will predict the

868
00:43:03,080 --> 00:43:07,400
Speaker 3: future of the stock market, but historically, since forever, the

869
00:43:07,480 --> 00:43:11,080
Speaker 3: stock market has always ultimately gone up. And so when

870
00:43:11,080 --> 00:43:13,600
Speaker 3: people are thinking, I don't know if I should invest

871
00:43:13,680 --> 00:43:16,759
Speaker 3: right now because the stock market just dropped something like that,

872
00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:18,680
Speaker 3: or maybe I should pull my money out because I'm

873
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:20,520
Speaker 3: losing money and I don't want to lose it all,

874
00:43:20,840 --> 00:43:24,680
Speaker 3: the idea should really be if the stock market has

875
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:29,919
Speaker 3: historically always gone up, then when the stock market goes

876
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:34,040
Speaker 3: down is an excellent time to invest. Is an excellent

877
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:36,960
Speaker 3: time if you have any money, to throw your money

878
00:43:37,040 --> 00:43:39,920
Speaker 3: into the stock market when it's down, because when it

879
00:43:40,040 --> 00:43:44,720
Speaker 3: ultimately goes up, then you are then you're you're making

880
00:43:44,760 --> 00:43:46,200
Speaker 3: money and you're getting a return on that.

881
00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:46,879
Speaker 6: And the same thing.

882
00:43:46,880 --> 00:43:48,440
Speaker 3: If your money is in there and you keep it

883
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:51,239
Speaker 3: in there rather than sell it and it ultimately goes up,

884
00:43:51,280 --> 00:43:53,680
Speaker 3: then your portfolio is worth more.

885
00:43:54,400 --> 00:43:57,080
Speaker 2: But I think, Mandy, you want to know what we're

886
00:43:57,120 --> 00:44:00,560
Speaker 2: doing right. You want to know how we're weathering this storm,

887
00:44:01,120 --> 00:44:04,279
Speaker 2: and I think I think a lot of people have

888
00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:10,000
Speaker 2: that question. But when we first started our plan, we

889
00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:16,520
Speaker 2: devised a plan that involved front loading our investments into

890
00:44:17,440 --> 00:44:21,640
Speaker 2: very aggressive index funds, so technology and total stock market

891
00:44:21,920 --> 00:44:24,120
Speaker 2: index funds. And then as we got towards the latter

892
00:44:24,200 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 2: half of our journey, we started to build up what's

893
00:44:27,040 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 2: called the stock market Emergency Fund for dips like this

894
00:44:30,640 --> 00:44:35,080
Speaker 2: that was over two years worth of living expenses in

895
00:44:35,160 --> 00:44:37,200
Speaker 2: case the stock market were to drop and we would

896
00:44:37,280 --> 00:44:39,600
Speaker 2: have to make that switch from not pulling from the

897
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:41,719
Speaker 2: stock market, because you don't want to pull from the

898
00:44:41,719 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 2: stock market when it drops and instead pull from our

899
00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:48,880
Speaker 2: stock market emergency fund. And so when March hit and

900
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:53,200
Speaker 2: the stock market crashed, we thought, okay, are we going

901
00:44:53,280 --> 00:44:56,880
Speaker 2: to have to make that switch? But two three months later,

902
00:44:57,320 --> 00:45:01,160
Speaker 2: the stock market has fully recovered. So this is this

903
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:05,960
Speaker 2: is the the I mean, this is the thing about investing.

904
00:45:06,320 --> 00:45:08,120
Speaker 2: When you have a plan in place, you already know

905
00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:12,640
Speaker 2: what to do before it happens. But what we've found

906
00:45:12,719 --> 00:45:15,640
Speaker 2: is that we haven't had to even rely on some

907
00:45:15,719 --> 00:45:20,719
Speaker 2: of those contingencies because the stock market has always recovered.

908
00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:25,040
Speaker 2: And I always say this on our YouTube channel. You know,

909
00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:27,239
Speaker 2: the stock market's going to go up and down, but

910
00:45:27,360 --> 00:45:30,240
Speaker 2: in the end, it's going to go up. It always has.

911
00:45:30,640 --> 00:45:32,880
Speaker 3: And I will say also, you know, just to piggyback

912
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:35,120
Speaker 3: off of what Aman said. With that crash in March

913
00:45:35,160 --> 00:45:38,560
Speaker 3: twenty March twenty twenty, there were a lot of people

914
00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:41,839
Speaker 3: at that time they were selling out their portfolios because

915
00:45:41,840 --> 00:45:44,080
Speaker 3: they didn't want to take any more of a loss.

916
00:45:44,239 --> 00:45:48,200
Speaker 3: And on our channel, we actually created a new portfolio,

917
00:45:48,520 --> 00:45:52,280
Speaker 3: just sort of a very many portfolio to show people listen,

918
00:45:52,480 --> 00:45:55,960
Speaker 3: if you invest now, it's a good it's a good thing.

919
00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:58,880
Speaker 3: You can start growing your money by investing now. It

920
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:01,640
Speaker 3: doesn't matter that they're was a huge crash. You can

921
00:46:01,640 --> 00:46:02,800
Speaker 3: start investing now.

922
00:46:03,239 --> 00:46:04,520
Speaker 6: And so many.

923
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:06,640
Speaker 3: People were like, why would you invest now, it's a crash,

924
00:46:06,680 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 3: it's the worst time to invest, And we're like, no,

925
00:46:08,560 --> 00:46:10,880
Speaker 3: that's the very opposite of how you should be thinking.

926
00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:14,120
Speaker 3: You know, you should continuously be investing whether it's a

927
00:46:14,160 --> 00:46:17,000
Speaker 3: good whether the market's doing well or whether it's doing bad.

928
00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:19,600
Speaker 3: You should just be dollar cost averaging into the market.

929
00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:22,359
Speaker 3: But when the market is doing bad, it is an

930
00:46:22,440 --> 00:46:24,120
Speaker 3: excellent opportunity to.

931
00:46:24,200 --> 00:46:25,160
Speaker 6: Grow your wealth.

932
00:46:25,200 --> 00:46:28,120
Speaker 3: And so that's what we're really demonstrating with this portfolio

933
00:46:28,160 --> 00:46:31,240
Speaker 3: to our followers is like, listen, when people are running

934
00:46:31,520 --> 00:46:33,840
Speaker 3: and trying to cash out their portfolios when there's a

935
00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:37,880
Speaker 3: big crash, don't do that. Do the opposite. Do the

936
00:46:37,920 --> 00:46:39,760
Speaker 3: opposite and start building your wealth.

937
00:46:40,440 --> 00:46:42,880
Speaker 1: I think y'all really illustrate beautifully the power of the

938
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,200
Speaker 1: mindset when it comes to building wealth, Like you've got

939
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:48,960
Speaker 1: to really you've got to look at your emotions, as

940
00:46:49,000 --> 00:46:51,719
Speaker 1: my lovely therapist always says, look at the thought or

941
00:46:51,760 --> 00:46:54,520
Speaker 1: the feeling and just acknowledge that it exists, and then

942
00:46:54,600 --> 00:46:58,640
Speaker 1: just attack it with reason and logic. And I love that, y'all.

943
00:46:58,640 --> 00:47:01,040
Speaker 1: I've been following that is that, y'all, where you share

944
00:47:01,080 --> 00:47:03,080
Speaker 1: your portfolio and how you invest at the bottom of

945
00:47:03,120 --> 00:47:04,960
Speaker 1: the market or at least you know, you never know

946
00:47:05,000 --> 00:47:06,840
Speaker 1: when it's the bottom, but how you guys invested in

947
00:47:06,920 --> 00:47:09,120
Speaker 1: the spring and I and I love that lesson. I

948
00:47:09,160 --> 00:47:11,239
Speaker 1: just think people have to be ready for it and

949
00:47:11,760 --> 00:47:13,120
Speaker 1: really want to. I want to home in on the

950
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:15,279
Speaker 1: point that y'all made too about that emergency fund. And

951
00:47:15,360 --> 00:47:16,719
Speaker 1: just to be clear, when you say it's a stock

952
00:47:17,000 --> 00:47:19,520
Speaker 1: stock market emergency fund, you don't have the money in

953
00:47:19,560 --> 00:47:22,160
Speaker 1: the stock market. It's your emergency fund, so that you

954
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:26,120
Speaker 1: don't touch your money, yes, just cash, right, regular old Yeah.

955
00:47:26,160 --> 00:47:29,279
Speaker 1: So that's key because you know, people think that like

956
00:47:29,320 --> 00:47:31,520
Speaker 1: if you're if you're worried about losing everything when a

957
00:47:31,520 --> 00:47:34,200
Speaker 1: market goes down, then you're probably not investing money that

958
00:47:34,239 --> 00:47:37,000
Speaker 1: you're willing to put away for the long term, like

959
00:47:37,040 --> 00:47:39,399
Speaker 1: your money that you want to hold with your money

960
00:47:39,400 --> 00:47:41,160
Speaker 1: that you want to be able to access if an

961
00:47:41,200 --> 00:47:44,040
Speaker 1: emergency happens. That should be really, it should be liquid,

962
00:47:44,160 --> 00:47:46,600
Speaker 1: it should be available to you. It should be enough

963
00:47:47,200 --> 00:47:49,560
Speaker 1: for the you know, for whatever a period of time

964
00:47:49,600 --> 00:47:52,240
Speaker 1: you feel comfortable with you guys, two years seems reasonable

965
00:47:52,239 --> 00:47:57,560
Speaker 1: because y'all are you know, you're you're entirely without you know, well,

966
00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:00,759
Speaker 1: you have your passive income, but you've left, you've left

967
00:48:00,800 --> 00:48:03,440
Speaker 1: your jobs, and you're living your fire lifestyle. But for

968
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,120
Speaker 1: other people maybe at six months or year's worth of expenses.

969
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:08,880
Speaker 1: And I love that y'all have that cushion because it

970
00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:12,640
Speaker 1: helps you kind of like stamp down those emotional fears

971
00:48:12,680 --> 00:48:14,839
Speaker 1: around when the market dips, like oh no, I've got

972
00:48:14,840 --> 00:48:17,600
Speaker 1: to take my money out because I don't want to

973
00:48:17,600 --> 00:48:19,080
Speaker 1: lose it, because we need to have food on the

974
00:48:19,080 --> 00:48:23,200
Speaker 1: table with that emergency fund, y'all, you provide a cushion

975
00:48:23,200 --> 00:48:25,680
Speaker 1: for yourself, and you provide the security that you can

976
00:48:25,800 --> 00:48:28,759
Speaker 1: continue with your investing strategy, continue building your wealth, and

977
00:48:28,760 --> 00:48:31,680
Speaker 1: you don't need to sacrifice that when your emotions start

978
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:34,640
Speaker 1: to take over. I think that's a really important point

979
00:48:34,640 --> 00:48:37,359
Speaker 1: for people, and that's why we're always like, before y'all

980
00:48:37,360 --> 00:48:39,520
Speaker 1: start asking about investing, I'm talking to my dad and

981
00:48:39,520 --> 00:48:41,799
Speaker 1: my uncle Mark. He will call me all the time,

982
00:48:41,800 --> 00:48:43,279
Speaker 1: what about hurts? Should we invest in.

983
00:48:45,239 --> 00:48:46,520
Speaker 4: Bankrupt Yes?

984
00:48:47,360 --> 00:48:49,279
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I'm like, listen if my uncle Mark

985
00:48:49,360 --> 00:48:51,920
Speaker 1: is talking about it. Do not do that. Don't go

986
00:48:51,960 --> 00:48:55,279
Speaker 1: to Hurts. But my dad he still saves money in

987
00:48:55,320 --> 00:48:57,480
Speaker 1: his coat closet. I'm like, you trying to talk about

988
00:48:57,480 --> 00:48:59,360
Speaker 1: investing in Hurts. Can I get you to put some

989
00:48:59,400 --> 00:49:02,760
Speaker 1: money in the bank? First? Is so backwards? Go ahead?

990
00:49:03,560 --> 00:49:05,520
Speaker 4: No, and no shade to the people who listen.

991
00:49:05,560 --> 00:49:08,080
Speaker 5: But if you're willing to do the blessing loom, that's

992
00:49:08,160 --> 00:49:08,960
Speaker 5: not a blessing.

993
00:49:09,520 --> 00:49:11,000
Speaker 4: I think you can try this.

994
00:49:11,719 --> 00:49:13,399
Speaker 5: That's a little shady because so many of my dream

995
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:14,520
Speaker 5: catchers are like, girl, I want.

996
00:49:14,360 --> 00:49:16,720
Speaker 4: To do a blessing loom. It's not a blessing loom.

997
00:49:17,560 --> 00:49:18,680
Speaker 1: I've never heard enough before.

998
00:49:18,920 --> 00:49:20,120
Speaker 4: You never heard of the blessing loom?

999
00:49:20,360 --> 00:49:21,400
Speaker 1: Quits quick sidebar?

1000
00:49:21,480 --> 00:49:21,800
Speaker 4: What is that?

1001
00:49:22,440 --> 00:49:22,600
Speaker 3: No?

1002
00:49:22,680 --> 00:49:25,239
Speaker 5: We talked about it on the podcast, Remember I said,

1003
00:49:26,160 --> 00:49:28,600
Speaker 5: it's it's basically the pyramid scheme, but they keep renaming

1004
00:49:28,600 --> 00:49:31,160
Speaker 5: it blessing loom. Pyramid scheme where you bring more people

1005
00:49:31,160 --> 00:49:33,000
Speaker 5: in and they bring money, and then you move to

1006
00:49:33,040 --> 00:49:35,839
Speaker 5: the center or to the top and they see yeah,

1007
00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:37,880
Speaker 5: but they just keep calling it new things. But I

1008
00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:39,719
Speaker 5: did want to ask, like what because I want to

1009
00:49:39,719 --> 00:49:42,319
Speaker 5: get just a little nitty gritty, like what percentage are

1010
00:49:42,320 --> 00:49:45,120
Speaker 5: you living off? Of are you doing it where you're

1011
00:49:45,160 --> 00:49:47,640
Speaker 5: anticipating like on average is seven to eight percent return

1012
00:49:47,680 --> 00:49:51,040
Speaker 5: and you're living off four percent of your of what

1013
00:49:51,120 --> 00:49:54,560
Speaker 5: your investments yield or is it more so you're living

1014
00:49:54,560 --> 00:49:58,439
Speaker 5: off you if you have rental properties or is it?

1015
00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:02,000
Speaker 5: And then two, like what was your fire number? Because

1016
00:50:02,000 --> 00:50:05,120
Speaker 5: I know, like my financial advisor, my financial planner, you know,

1017
00:50:05,400 --> 00:50:08,319
Speaker 5: I mean, I guess technically I don't have to work now,

1018
00:50:08,440 --> 00:50:10,560
Speaker 5: I guess. I mean, I just like I like doing

1019
00:50:10,560 --> 00:50:14,080
Speaker 5: budget Nista, but I my husband and I help out

1020
00:50:14,120 --> 00:50:17,720
Speaker 5: a lot of people. So what we spend a month

1021
00:50:17,840 --> 00:50:20,759
Speaker 5: is like half of what we spend actually goes to

1022
00:50:20,880 --> 00:50:23,160
Speaker 5: us and just the rest goes to helping family and friends.

1023
00:50:23,320 --> 00:50:24,640
Speaker 4: But so like, what's that?

1024
00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:25,960
Speaker 2: What was that number for you?

1025
00:50:26,040 --> 00:50:28,440
Speaker 5: Like, it's we set aside this amount plus with the

1026
00:50:28,480 --> 00:50:30,200
Speaker 5: real estate coming in, we should be good.

1027
00:50:30,280 --> 00:50:31,319
Speaker 4: I'm curious about that.

1028
00:50:32,080 --> 00:50:34,480
Speaker 6: Yeah, so we don't have the real estate anymore.

1029
00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:36,560
Speaker 3: Okay, we sold our real estate and then we put

1030
00:50:36,560 --> 00:50:40,040
Speaker 3: that in the stock market. But our fire number was

1031
00:50:40,080 --> 00:50:42,839
Speaker 3: based off of living in the San Francisco Bay area.

1032
00:50:42,880 --> 00:50:46,000
Speaker 3: So I'll caveat with that caveat that that our number

1033
00:50:46,160 --> 00:50:48,840
Speaker 3: was over two million, close to two and a half million,

1034
00:50:49,560 --> 00:50:52,320
Speaker 3: But again this is because we live in the sand.

1035
00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:55,719
Speaker 3: Our fire number was based off of living in the

1036
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:58,800
Speaker 3: San Francisco Bay area. So some people will probably think

1037
00:50:59,040 --> 00:51:01,040
Speaker 3: that that can be very very high, or some people

1038
00:51:01,200 --> 00:51:02,960
Speaker 3: actually think like, maybe that's low.

1039
00:51:03,200 --> 00:51:05,600
Speaker 6: So it's really relative to where.

1040
00:51:05,360 --> 00:51:08,200
Speaker 3: You plan on retiring, where you live, what your family

1041
00:51:08,280 --> 00:51:11,200
Speaker 3: size is, and what type of stuff you plan on

1042
00:51:11,280 --> 00:51:14,120
Speaker 3: doing in retirement, and how much is that stuff going

1043
00:51:14,160 --> 00:51:16,320
Speaker 3: to cost. So ours was close to two and a

1044
00:51:16,320 --> 00:51:20,000
Speaker 3: half million dollars, but I will say because we moved

1045
00:51:20,080 --> 00:51:25,160
Speaker 3: to Portugal, we are living off of obviously not close

1046
00:51:25,200 --> 00:51:28,440
Speaker 3: to that, because when you calculate your fire number, the

1047
00:51:28,520 --> 00:51:30,880
Speaker 3: ideas that you can live off of four percent of

1048
00:51:30,920 --> 00:51:35,239
Speaker 3: your portfolio in order to cover your monthly expenses and

1049
00:51:35,280 --> 00:51:38,400
Speaker 3: then in turn your annual expenses. So the idea is

1050
00:51:38,400 --> 00:51:41,440
Speaker 3: that you can pull four percent from your portfolio, and

1051
00:51:41,480 --> 00:51:45,359
Speaker 3: then your portfolio could continue to grow so that you're

1052
00:51:45,440 --> 00:51:48,560
Speaker 3: only pulling from the gains in your portfolio. You're not

1053
00:51:48,640 --> 00:51:51,920
Speaker 3: actually pulling from the principal balance, so it continues to

1054
00:51:52,000 --> 00:51:54,600
Speaker 3: grow and you're able to continuously pull out four percent.

1055
00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 3: And that's based off of there's a study called the

1056
00:51:57,680 --> 00:52:01,279
Speaker 3: Trinity Study that really explains this cont of the four

1057
00:52:01,320 --> 00:52:04,160
Speaker 3: percent rule, how you can live off of your portfolio

1058
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:08,120
Speaker 3: and the portfolio allocation that you have, whether it's stocks

1059
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:10,960
Speaker 3: and bonds or one hundred percent stocks one hundred percent bonds.

1060
00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:13,920
Speaker 3: But the concept is once you get your fire number,

1061
00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:16,080
Speaker 3: you're supposed to be able to live off of four

1062
00:52:16,160 --> 00:52:19,440
Speaker 3: percent of that and pull money from your portfolio, and

1063
00:52:19,480 --> 00:52:20,960
Speaker 3: that pays for all of your expenses.

1064
00:52:21,440 --> 00:52:23,319
Speaker 6: But we are here in Portugal and our.

1065
00:52:23,239 --> 00:52:25,759
Speaker 3: Expenses are much much lower, like we said, I mean,

1066
00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:29,520
Speaker 3: we gave you the example of the healthcare how much

1067
00:52:29,600 --> 00:52:32,239
Speaker 3: cheaper it is, or i'd say how much more affordable

1068
00:52:32,320 --> 00:52:34,959
Speaker 3: it is here in Portugal. So for us, we don't

1069
00:52:35,000 --> 00:52:38,240
Speaker 3: have to pull a full four percent. We pull under

1070
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:40,800
Speaker 3: four percent. And if you ever are in a situation

1071
00:52:40,840 --> 00:52:43,120
Speaker 3: where you're pulling less than four percent, then it's even

1072
00:52:43,160 --> 00:52:48,400
Speaker 3: better because then your portfolio can continue to grow even more.

1073
00:52:48,480 --> 00:52:50,319
Speaker 3: So the idea is if you're able to pull less

1074
00:52:50,320 --> 00:52:52,600
Speaker 3: than four percent, it can grow even more.

1075
00:52:52,680 --> 00:52:54,160
Speaker 6: And so that's a perfect situation.

1076
00:52:54,680 --> 00:52:59,120
Speaker 3: But I would say for people that have different locations

1077
00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:01,919
Speaker 3: in mind. For example, like we said, we were thinking

1078
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:04,279
Speaker 3: about the San Francisco Bay area and we were thinking

1079
00:53:04,320 --> 00:53:05,120
Speaker 3: about Portugal.

1080
00:53:05,360 --> 00:53:07,040
Speaker 6: For us, it was really.

1081
00:53:06,719 --> 00:53:10,360
Speaker 3: Important to not retire until we hit the mark for

1082
00:53:10,680 --> 00:53:12,840
Speaker 3: the higher cost of living, which is the San Francisco

1083
00:53:12,880 --> 00:53:13,320
Speaker 3: Bay Area.

1084
00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:16,280
Speaker 6: And again that's because if we come.

1085
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:19,080
Speaker 3: Here to Portugal and we decide, you know, four or

1086
00:53:19,080 --> 00:53:21,719
Speaker 3: five years down the road, we want to return to

1087
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:24,160
Speaker 3: the Bay Area, or you know, our girls will be

1088
00:53:24,200 --> 00:53:26,680
Speaker 3: going away to school soon, not soon soon to me,

1089
00:53:27,080 --> 00:53:30,440
Speaker 3: but you know in another four and six years if

1090
00:53:30,440 --> 00:53:32,920
Speaker 3: they returned to the States, maybe at that time we'll think, oh,

1091
00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:34,960
Speaker 3: we should return with them, or maybe we want to

1092
00:53:34,960 --> 00:53:37,040
Speaker 3: live back in the States. If we would have picked

1093
00:53:37,040 --> 00:53:40,600
Speaker 3: a fire number associated with living in Portugal, then we

1094
00:53:40,719 --> 00:53:43,400
Speaker 3: would be stuck. We would be limited in terms of

1095
00:53:43,440 --> 00:53:45,880
Speaker 3: where we can go after that. So for people that

1096
00:53:46,080 --> 00:53:50,320
Speaker 3: have multiple areas in mind, I would recommend picking the

1097
00:53:50,440 --> 00:53:53,319
Speaker 3: higher cost of living area, and then when you go

1098
00:53:53,440 --> 00:53:56,000
Speaker 3: live in a lower cost of area, you're pulling less

1099
00:53:56,000 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 3: than that four percent and your portfolio is able to

1100
00:53:58,200 --> 00:53:59,520
Speaker 3: grow even more because of it.

1101
00:54:32,520 --> 00:54:34,160
Speaker 1: Now I wanted to know, because you guys have your

1102
00:54:34,160 --> 00:54:36,239
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, I know you have a course now in

1103
00:54:36,280 --> 00:54:39,520
Speaker 1: stock investing. When y'all were planning, you know, sources of

1104
00:54:39,520 --> 00:54:43,400
Speaker 1: income or planning your portfolio and hitting your fire number.

1105
00:54:43,440 --> 00:54:47,000
Speaker 1: Did y'all think, okay, we'll also bring in income from

1106
00:54:47,040 --> 00:54:48,880
Speaker 1: our YouTube and maybe we can teach people and have

1107
00:54:48,920 --> 00:54:52,360
Speaker 1: a course. Was that part of your plan or was

1108
00:54:52,400 --> 00:54:54,600
Speaker 1: this just like a happenstance, Because it doesn't strike me

1109
00:54:54,640 --> 00:54:56,840
Speaker 1: that you guys set out, because that's honestly one of

1110
00:54:56,880 --> 00:54:58,799
Speaker 1: the things that kind of annoys me about some fire.

1111
00:54:58,840 --> 00:55:01,040
Speaker 1: I'll just be totally frank. Christina knows I can be,

1112
00:55:02,320 --> 00:55:03,759
Speaker 1: but like, yeah, I mean I kind of roll my

1113
00:55:03,840 --> 00:55:05,759
Speaker 1: eyes sometimes because people are like, oh, yeah, I'm going

1114
00:55:05,800 --> 00:55:07,440
Speaker 1: to retire early. Then I'm going to teach people how

1115
00:55:07,480 --> 00:55:08,800
Speaker 1: to do it, and that's how I'm going to retire

1116
00:55:08,840 --> 00:55:11,680
Speaker 1: early by making money off of the courses. But y'all

1117
00:55:11,680 --> 00:55:14,040
Speaker 1: strike me as totally different, whereas it's kind of a

1118
00:55:14,520 --> 00:55:16,360
Speaker 1: you know, you did your fire thing and then people

1119
00:55:16,360 --> 00:55:18,279
Speaker 1: were asking you to start a channel, and you did it,

1120
00:55:18,320 --> 00:55:20,680
Speaker 1: and now you just happened to be YouTube stars.

1121
00:55:21,360 --> 00:55:21,560
Speaker 4: Yeah.

1122
00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:24,239
Speaker 3: I love that you asked that, because you know, right

1123
00:55:24,280 --> 00:55:28,240
Speaker 3: now we have we have almost three hundred thousand subscribers

1124
00:55:28,320 --> 00:55:29,000
Speaker 3: on our channel.

1125
00:55:29,640 --> 00:55:33,400
Speaker 6: But when we started, we started a little over two years.

1126
00:55:33,200 --> 00:55:37,359
Speaker 3: Ago and it was the lowest start ever and when

1127
00:55:37,600 --> 00:55:40,720
Speaker 3: when we actually retired. I don't think we had even

1128
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:45,680
Speaker 3: hit fifty thousand subscribers at that point. And so for us,

1129
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:47,960
Speaker 3: when we started the channel, it was more like a

1130
00:55:48,000 --> 00:55:50,280
Speaker 3: friend had mentioned it to us because we were talking.

1131
00:55:50,440 --> 00:55:54,000
Speaker 3: We were always talking to family members and friends about listen,

1132
00:55:54,040 --> 00:55:56,239
Speaker 3: you guys should be doing this, you should save this money.

1133
00:55:56,280 --> 00:55:58,240
Speaker 3: I mean, we were sort of getting a little extra

1134
00:55:58,280 --> 00:56:00,880
Speaker 3: into people's business, saying hey, why don't you invest in this?

1135
00:56:00,920 --> 00:56:02,160
Speaker 6: You should say this, you do it.

1136
00:56:03,320 --> 00:56:05,920
Speaker 3: But it just became something that we talked about so

1137
00:56:06,080 --> 00:56:07,680
Speaker 3: much that one of our friends said, hey, you should

1138
00:56:07,680 --> 00:56:09,960
Speaker 3: start this channel, and we thought, well, that is pretty

1139
00:56:09,960 --> 00:56:13,800
Speaker 3: cool because then we could tell people about fire, like.

1140
00:56:13,160 --> 00:56:15,520
Speaker 6: Like when we didn't know what fire was when we started.

1141
00:56:15,520 --> 00:56:17,440
Speaker 3: If someone was sort of guiding us and telling us

1142
00:56:17,560 --> 00:56:20,680
Speaker 3: about all these concepts, that would be really cool. So

1143
00:56:20,719 --> 00:56:24,440
Speaker 3: we started the channel, and we we absolutely did not

1144
00:56:24,600 --> 00:56:27,000
Speaker 3: think that our channel would grow like it was. So

1145
00:56:27,040 --> 00:56:29,600
Speaker 3: it was definitely not something where we're like, oh, yeah,

1146
00:56:29,640 --> 00:56:31,120
Speaker 3: we can we can rely.

1147
00:56:30,960 --> 00:56:31,840
Speaker 6: On YouTube and.

1148
00:56:33,680 --> 00:56:36,359
Speaker 3: Just retire early and live off of YouTube or something

1149
00:56:36,440 --> 00:56:37,040
Speaker 3: like that.

1150
00:56:37,040 --> 00:56:38,960
Speaker 6: That was definitely not the case.

1151
00:56:39,440 --> 00:56:42,200
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and it became it became kind of like

1152
00:56:42,840 --> 00:56:45,520
Speaker 2: a gift that we couldn't give up. And when I

1153
00:56:45,520 --> 00:56:48,200
Speaker 2: say a gift is we have this ability to be

1154
00:56:48,239 --> 00:56:52,840
Speaker 2: able to really share and inspire people with our YouTube channel.

1155
00:56:53,080 --> 00:56:55,480
Speaker 2: So when we start our YouTube channel, we were doing

1156
00:56:55,520 --> 00:56:57,279
Speaker 2: it like two or three times a week, but since

1157
00:56:57,320 --> 00:57:00,480
Speaker 2: we retired, really do it once a week. But it's

1158
00:57:00,480 --> 00:57:02,799
Speaker 2: something that we want to keep doing because so many

1159
00:57:02,840 --> 00:57:06,319
Speaker 2: people are getting getting value out of it. But what

1160
00:57:06,480 --> 00:57:10,120
Speaker 2: happened was because we made so many videos, people were

1161
00:57:10,160 --> 00:57:14,040
Speaker 2: asking us like questions that were there were very linear

1162
00:57:14,160 --> 00:57:16,640
Speaker 2: questions like how to get to a to z and

1163
00:57:16,680 --> 00:57:18,120
Speaker 2: we would say, oh, you got to go back to

1164
00:57:18,320 --> 00:57:22,360
Speaker 2: video one hundred or video fifty five, and so we

1165
00:57:22,360 --> 00:57:24,920
Speaker 2: were like, okay, we need to do like a course

1166
00:57:25,000 --> 00:57:27,920
Speaker 2: they walk someone from a to z. And so that's

1167
00:57:27,920 --> 00:57:29,800
Speaker 2: when we came up with the idea for the course.

1168
00:57:30,880 --> 00:57:33,000
Speaker 2: But it was, you know, all of this was just

1169
00:57:34,040 --> 00:57:36,920
Speaker 2: it just it just kind of started to happen because

1170
00:57:36,920 --> 00:57:39,000
Speaker 2: we were being asked to do these things.

1171
00:57:39,240 --> 00:57:41,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I will also say that, you know, people

1172
00:57:41,360 --> 00:57:43,160
Speaker 3: have been asking us for a while to do the

1173
00:57:43,200 --> 00:57:45,360
Speaker 3: course and we're like, yeah, you know, maybe maybe we'll

1174
00:57:45,360 --> 00:57:48,000
Speaker 3: get around to it. But what really prompted us to

1175
00:57:48,040 --> 00:57:51,480
Speaker 3: do the course was COVID. Yes, because we were stuck

1176
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:55,120
Speaker 3: in the house for over over and over a month.

1177
00:57:55,160 --> 00:57:57,360
Speaker 2: Oh yes, if you see that course, my hair was

1178
00:57:57,400 --> 00:57:59,360
Speaker 2: looking raggedy the whole course.

1179
00:58:01,760 --> 00:58:04,400
Speaker 3: I know it's not as bad compared to people some

1180
00:58:04,440 --> 00:58:06,560
Speaker 3: people in the States, right, but yeah, we were just

1181
00:58:06,600 --> 00:58:09,520
Speaker 3: getting fidgety, like, oh my gosh, we cannot.

1182
00:58:09,120 --> 00:58:11,120
Speaker 6: Just sit in this house and do nothing.

1183
00:58:11,280 --> 00:58:14,080
Speaker 3: And we were telling people, you know, go out and exercise,

1184
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:17,120
Speaker 3: go out and read or exercise in your home, read, write,

1185
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:20,120
Speaker 3: do what you can to stay productive. Don't try and

1186
00:58:20,160 --> 00:58:22,880
Speaker 3: be busy, because busy is just sort of taking up time.

1187
00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:24,560
Speaker 6: What can you do to be productive?

1188
00:58:24,640 --> 00:58:26,360
Speaker 3: And then we thought, you know what, why don't we

1189
00:58:26,440 --> 00:58:29,200
Speaker 3: just sit down and really focus on creating this course?

1190
00:58:29,560 --> 00:58:33,760
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, because we had that extra time,

1191
00:58:33,840 --> 00:58:36,160
Speaker 3: it was it was really a fun project to be

1192
00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:36,800
Speaker 3: able to do.

1193
00:58:38,440 --> 00:58:41,800
Speaker 1: I mean, y'all are so young, you're clearly incredibly intelligent.

1194
00:58:43,040 --> 00:58:47,600
Speaker 1: You guys have so much, so much energy, Like, so,

1195
00:58:47,680 --> 00:58:49,560
Speaker 1: what does retirement look like for y'all? Can you kind

1196
00:58:49,560 --> 00:58:52,480
Speaker 1: of paint the picture? You know, do you see yourselves

1197
00:58:52,960 --> 00:58:55,800
Speaker 1: kicking back on beaches? Like what does your retirement look like?

1198
00:58:55,840 --> 00:58:59,600
Speaker 1: Do you think you'll be satisfied, you know, with with

1199
00:59:01,000 --> 00:59:03,280
Speaker 1: obviously you you know, sitting back in the house is

1200
00:59:03,600 --> 00:59:06,160
Speaker 1: not what you're excited about. I think those of us

1201
00:59:06,160 --> 00:59:08,360
Speaker 1: in quarantine are all just like, get us out of here.

1202
00:59:08,760 --> 00:59:11,080
Speaker 1: But talk about how do y'all plan on spending your

1203
00:59:11,080 --> 00:59:13,840
Speaker 1: retirement with the next fifty years ahead of you.

1204
00:59:15,000 --> 00:59:16,439
Speaker 2: Oh, we spend a lot of time at the beach.

1205
00:59:16,520 --> 00:59:21,280
Speaker 2: Don't don't don't knock that. That's really nice, sou And

1206
00:59:21,320 --> 00:59:23,400
Speaker 2: that's one of the nice things about living here in

1207
00:59:23,400 --> 00:59:26,000
Speaker 2: Portugal is that we're near the water. The outdoors are

1208
00:59:26,040 --> 00:59:29,439
Speaker 2: really amazing, so we do spend a lot of time

1209
00:59:29,520 --> 00:59:33,360
Speaker 2: in the outdoors. We wanted to retire early. A big

1210
00:59:33,400 --> 00:59:35,840
Speaker 2: reason was so that we could spend more time with

1211
00:59:35,880 --> 00:59:39,120
Speaker 2: our girls. You know, after your children leave your house,

1212
00:59:39,480 --> 00:59:43,000
Speaker 2: you have already spent ninety percent of the time you're

1213
00:59:43,000 --> 00:59:44,920
Speaker 2: going to spend with them while they're in your house.

1214
00:59:45,120 --> 00:59:47,480
Speaker 2: After that, they're gone and they're you know, they're going

1215
00:59:47,520 --> 00:59:50,000
Speaker 2: to live their lives. So that's a gift that we

1216
00:59:50,040 --> 00:59:51,720
Speaker 2: also have, is that we get to spend more time

1217
00:59:51,760 --> 00:59:54,360
Speaker 2: with our kids. We get to coach our daughters in sports.

1218
00:59:54,480 --> 00:59:58,480
Speaker 2: Christina swims with Malia, I play basketball with Sona we

1219
00:59:58,560 --> 01:00:04,680
Speaker 2: volunteer a lot. Recently, we've been doing calls with underserved

1220
01:00:05,080 --> 01:00:08,600
Speaker 2: kids talking about financial independence, talking about talking about money

1221
01:00:08,640 --> 01:00:12,400
Speaker 2: and financial literacy. And so what's really great is that

1222
01:00:12,440 --> 01:00:14,640
Speaker 2: we get to do whatever we want to do whenever

1223
01:00:14,640 --> 01:00:17,920
Speaker 2: we want to on Sunday nights. We don't have that

1224
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:21,520
Speaker 2: anxiety that Monday morning is rolling around. So it's just

1225
01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:24,960
Speaker 2: it's really an unexplainable feeling to be able to have

1226
01:00:25,040 --> 01:00:27,280
Speaker 2: this freedom. And it goes back to what we talked

1227
01:00:27,280 --> 01:00:31,040
Speaker 2: about earlier, making that short term sacrifice for the long

1228
01:00:31,120 --> 01:00:34,320
Speaker 2: term gain. And yes, we're we're young, and we have

1229
01:00:34,800 --> 01:00:37,000
Speaker 2: you know, we have a lot of things that that

1230
01:00:37,080 --> 01:00:40,040
Speaker 2: we're working on, but they're all things that we're passionate about.

1231
01:00:40,320 --> 01:00:42,040
Speaker 2: And that's what we didn't have the ability to do

1232
01:00:42,080 --> 01:00:45,200
Speaker 2: before when we were working forty hours a week. You know,

1233
01:00:45,280 --> 01:00:47,480
Speaker 2: now we have those forty hours back to do whatever

1234
01:00:47,520 --> 01:00:48,600
Speaker 2: we want to do with them.

1235
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:51,520
Speaker 3: And I really love that you asked that question too, Mandy,

1236
01:00:51,560 --> 01:00:56,520
Speaker 3: because I think when people are thinking about financial independence

1237
01:00:56,560 --> 01:00:58,439
Speaker 3: and retiring early, you know, there's a split. You could

1238
01:00:58,440 --> 01:01:00,680
Speaker 3: just do financial independence and you can you to do

1239
01:01:01,120 --> 01:01:04,640
Speaker 3: the job that you love, or you can actually retire early.

1240
01:01:04,800 --> 01:01:07,800
Speaker 3: And so I think when people are on that retire

1241
01:01:07,880 --> 01:01:10,840
Speaker 3: early path, if they ultimately want to retire early, they

1242
01:01:10,880 --> 01:01:14,800
Speaker 3: really need to envision what they think their life is

1243
01:01:14,840 --> 01:01:18,920
Speaker 3: going to be like when they retire, because I'll tell you,

1244
01:01:18,680 --> 01:01:21,520
Speaker 3: if you're just sort of running from something, if you're

1245
01:01:21,600 --> 01:01:24,040
Speaker 3: running from your job because you don't like your job

1246
01:01:24,240 --> 01:01:27,240
Speaker 3: and so that's the reason you want to retire, your

1247
01:01:27,320 --> 01:01:30,840
Speaker 3: retirement may not feel very fulfilling because then you're in

1248
01:01:30,880 --> 01:01:32,520
Speaker 3: retirement and it's sort of like, well, what do I

1249
01:01:32,560 --> 01:01:36,200
Speaker 3: do now? But if you really envision what your life.

1250
01:01:36,080 --> 01:01:37,480
Speaker 6: Can be like in retirement.

1251
01:01:37,640 --> 01:01:39,880
Speaker 3: If you love to travel, if you love to cook,

1252
01:01:39,920 --> 01:01:42,080
Speaker 3: if you love to spend time with your kids and

1253
01:01:42,120 --> 01:01:44,560
Speaker 3: your family, if you love to work out, if you

1254
01:01:44,640 --> 01:01:47,600
Speaker 3: like to build things, those are all things that people

1255
01:01:47,640 --> 01:01:51,160
Speaker 3: can run towards versus running away from something. So they

1256
01:01:51,200 --> 01:01:53,600
Speaker 3: really have to think about if they want to pursue fire,

1257
01:01:53,720 --> 01:01:55,240
Speaker 3: what's the purpose behind that.

1258
01:01:56,000 --> 01:02:01,920
Speaker 1: I love that you guys have inspired me to expand

1259
01:02:02,120 --> 01:02:05,880
Speaker 1: my own possibilities for what the next decade and beyond

1260
01:02:05,920 --> 01:02:08,880
Speaker 1: can look like. And I love that you guys have

1261
01:02:09,600 --> 01:02:12,800
Speaker 1: you've proven to I think so many people like don't

1262
01:02:12,840 --> 01:02:14,760
Speaker 1: even know how to imagine a world where they don't

1263
01:02:14,760 --> 01:02:18,120
Speaker 1: work for someone else, you know, like or and if

1264
01:02:18,160 --> 01:02:20,040
Speaker 1: they don't work for someone then it's like owning their

1265
01:02:20,040 --> 01:02:23,520
Speaker 1: own business or whatever. But what about a world where

1266
01:02:24,200 --> 01:02:27,920
Speaker 1: you're just free to, you know, work on what you

1267
01:02:28,040 --> 01:02:32,520
Speaker 1: find fulfilling, be with your family. Like it's really it's

1268
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:34,760
Speaker 1: it's a little sad to me that this is such

1269
01:02:35,160 --> 01:02:38,840
Speaker 1: like an extraordinary mindset to have. But you guys, truly

1270
01:02:38,880 --> 01:02:42,720
Speaker 1: are extraordinary because you have You've seen it, and you said,

1271
01:02:42,880 --> 01:02:45,040
Speaker 1: this should be the normal, Like this should be the norm.

1272
01:02:45,480 --> 01:02:47,400
Speaker 1: This will be our normal. We are going to create

1273
01:02:47,440 --> 01:02:50,160
Speaker 1: the life that we want. And I it really resonates

1274
01:02:50,200 --> 01:02:53,560
Speaker 1: with me if you can't tell, because I feel like

1275
01:02:53,640 --> 01:02:59,160
Speaker 1: I am on this path toward this a good life,

1276
01:02:59,160 --> 01:03:02,360
Speaker 1: but a good life according to the you know, what's

1277
01:03:02,400 --> 01:03:06,720
Speaker 1: what's considered the norm in America and what's considered a

1278
01:03:06,720 --> 01:03:09,520
Speaker 1: good life according to I don't know what the mainstream

1279
01:03:09,720 --> 01:03:13,600
Speaker 1: idea of a good life is. And I'm starting to

1280
01:03:13,640 --> 01:03:16,800
Speaker 1: even challenge my own expectations and challenge some of the

1281
01:03:16,880 --> 01:03:19,200
Speaker 1: own some of my own ways of thinking about the

1282
01:03:19,240 --> 01:03:21,880
Speaker 1: next couple of decades in my life. And I mean

1283
01:03:21,920 --> 01:03:24,080
Speaker 1: even just being stuck in quarantine with my baby. You

1284
01:03:24,080 --> 01:03:25,760
Speaker 1: can probably hear me in the background. He's a very

1285
01:03:25,880 --> 01:03:30,280
Speaker 1: vocal eater. He gets really mad, he's very angry. He's

1286
01:03:30,320 --> 01:03:33,720
Speaker 1: my child. But even just being in quarantine, I'm like, oh,

1287
01:03:33,800 --> 01:03:35,680
Speaker 1: so I could just work at home and be with

1288
01:03:35,720 --> 01:03:39,520
Speaker 1: the baby all the time. This isn't that bad anyway.

1289
01:03:38,920 --> 01:03:42,160
Speaker 1: I just want to thank y'all because I'm so glad

1290
01:03:42,200 --> 01:03:46,680
Speaker 1: that you are sharing your story and and I know

1291
01:03:46,720 --> 01:03:49,280
Speaker 1: that forget about you know you can, we can forget

1292
01:03:49,280 --> 01:03:51,720
Speaker 1: about race for a second. I mean, the show is

1293
01:03:51,760 --> 01:03:54,840
Speaker 1: called Brown Ambition, so it's always there. We acknowledge we

1294
01:03:54,880 --> 01:03:57,560
Speaker 1: are two black women speaking to an audience, and first

1295
01:03:57,600 --> 01:03:59,880
Speaker 1: and foremost we want to talk to other black women

1296
01:04:00,160 --> 01:04:02,680
Speaker 1: and how to build wealth because we understand that, you know,

1297
01:04:02,680 --> 01:04:04,560
Speaker 1: there's not a lot of people like us talking to them.

1298
01:04:04,600 --> 01:04:08,280
Speaker 1: And I am you guys are like unicorns, you know

1299
01:04:08,360 --> 01:04:11,720
Speaker 1: in the Fire movement, a black couple with two daughters

1300
01:04:11,760 --> 01:04:14,560
Speaker 1: and your girls seeing them. And I even said this

1301
01:04:14,600 --> 01:04:16,880
Speaker 1: to Christina in the email. I really meant it, if

1302
01:04:16,880 --> 01:04:20,040
Speaker 1: only I had seen your two girls talking about financial

1303
01:04:21,200 --> 01:04:24,960
Speaker 1: financial h What am I thinking? Like? What are we

1304
01:04:25,000 --> 01:04:27,880
Speaker 1: talking about investing? Investing in wealth building? At a young

1305
01:04:27,920 --> 01:04:30,680
Speaker 1: age when I was you know, twelve or thirteen. Y'all

1306
01:04:30,720 --> 01:04:34,080
Speaker 1: are so important and your stories are so important and

1307
01:04:34,120 --> 01:04:37,760
Speaker 1: I and thank y'all for using your time when you

1308
01:04:37,800 --> 01:04:41,919
Speaker 1: could be doing anything else to educate and pour back

1309
01:04:41,960 --> 01:04:45,160
Speaker 1: into communities who may not be getting this kind of knowledge.

1310
01:04:45,240 --> 01:04:48,080
Speaker 1: I it just it's I'll shut up now, but it's

1311
01:04:48,160 --> 01:04:49,600
Speaker 1: just y'all are the best.

1312
01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:50,800
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.

1313
01:04:51,160 --> 01:04:54,640
Speaker 6: Know it's so nice. It's it's so nice. So you know,

1314
01:04:54,720 --> 01:04:56,200
Speaker 6: we wanted to talk to you guys anyway.

1315
01:04:56,280 --> 01:04:59,560
Speaker 1: So it was just like, oh, it's your baby that

1316
01:04:59,640 --> 01:05:00,800
Speaker 1: this is it right, like.

1317
01:05:02,840 --> 01:05:04,120
Speaker 4: A pitome of brown ambition.

1318
01:05:04,240 --> 01:05:05,920
Speaker 5: And I think that it's just good for people to

1319
01:05:06,000 --> 01:05:08,920
Speaker 5: see that life can be lived differently, you know.

1320
01:05:11,480 --> 01:05:14,080
Speaker 1: And one hundred million less words than what I.

1321
01:05:14,080 --> 01:05:19,000
Speaker 5: Used now, so just for me, just because Amandy and

1322
01:05:19,040 --> 01:05:22,800
Speaker 5: I are the way we live is so different, so

1323
01:05:22,840 --> 01:05:26,800
Speaker 5: they get to see different sides of like from both

1324
01:05:26,840 --> 01:05:29,200
Speaker 5: of us being bosses in our own right, but via

1325
01:05:29,240 --> 01:05:31,160
Speaker 5: the corporate side or owning your own business. So this

1326
01:05:31,280 --> 01:05:34,520
Speaker 5: is just a nice we're pree from. This is another

1327
01:05:34,600 --> 01:05:37,720
Speaker 5: way to live and people can find themselves in your journey.

1328
01:05:37,760 --> 01:05:39,720
Speaker 4: So we do really thank you, thank.

1329
01:05:39,520 --> 01:05:42,400
Speaker 6: You, thank you guys. Yeah, I'm so glad we able

1330
01:05:42,520 --> 01:05:43,040
Speaker 6: to talk to.

1331
01:05:43,000 --> 01:05:48,480
Speaker 1: You well, Thank y'all, and and go live your fabulous life,

1332
01:05:48,680 --> 01:05:52,080
Speaker 1: you know on the two folks. Where they can find you,

1333
01:05:52,080 --> 01:05:57,080
Speaker 1: your your our Rich Journey on YouTube, on Instagram, anything

1334
01:05:57,080 --> 01:05:59,200
Speaker 1: else y'all want to anything you'll want to promote.

1335
01:06:00,200 --> 01:06:02,120
Speaker 6: Oh no, you know you mentioned our daughters too.

1336
01:06:02,160 --> 01:06:04,200
Speaker 3: They have their channel out so it's called Our Rich

1337
01:06:04,280 --> 01:06:05,280
Speaker 3: Journey Junior.

1338
01:06:05,640 --> 01:06:07,360
Speaker 2: So we'll show the kids some love.

1339
01:06:07,640 --> 01:06:09,560
Speaker 6: Yeah, check the girls out also.

1340
01:06:09,760 --> 01:06:12,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that's really where you can find us is

1341
01:06:12,040 --> 01:06:16,520
Speaker 2: on YouTube or Instagram at Rich Journey and send us

1342
01:06:16,520 --> 01:06:20,360
Speaker 2: a message. We eventually get to all of the questions.

1343
01:06:20,360 --> 01:06:22,240
Speaker 2: I mean, we are retired, we have nothing else to do.

1344
01:06:26,360 --> 01:06:26,880
Speaker 4: I love it.

1345
01:06:27,120 --> 01:06:30,800
Speaker 1: Join the journey. That's how you always end your YouTube videos.

1346
01:06:32,160 --> 01:06:35,440
Speaker 1: Go join the journey. Thank y'all for sharing your story

1347
01:06:35,480 --> 01:06:37,040
Speaker 1: with us. I would love to have y'all on the

1348
01:06:37,040 --> 01:06:41,840
Speaker 1: show again sometime in the future. But be well, stay healthy. Yes,

1349
01:06:41,960 --> 01:06:43,880
Speaker 1: I mean, honestly, y'all should be wishing us luck. I

1350
01:06:43,880 --> 01:06:46,120
Speaker 1: feel like we're the one. I feel like y'all are

1351
01:06:46,120 --> 01:06:48,560
Speaker 1: on the right track in Portugal. But yeah, be well,

1352
01:06:48,560 --> 01:06:50,919
Speaker 1: stay healthy and thank y'all again for coming on the show.

1353
01:06:51,240 --> 01:07:09,400
Speaker 6: Yes, thanks so much, guys,