Speaker 1: Episode sixty eight, Frontloading your Life with Robert Farrington of
Speaker 1: The College Investor. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where
Speaker 1: you'll learn to save money, embrace simplicity, and live a
Speaker 1: rich your life. Here your host Jen and Jill. Hello everyone,
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. My name is Jen,
Speaker 1: my name is Jill. We're back. We are back, and
Speaker 1: we have another great guest for you today. It's all
Speaker 1: about frontloading your life. And you've probably heard a lot
Speaker 1: about the financial independence retire early movement, and it sounds
Speaker 1: very overwhelming and all of this saving just so you can,
Speaker 1: for what to sit on your couch for like forty
Speaker 1: years in early retirement now. So we are talking to
Speaker 1: Robert Barrington and he is giving us a more accessible
Speaker 1: approach to the same type of concept but referring to
Speaker 1: it as frontloading your life. And it just seems a
Speaker 1: lot less restrictive to me. Yeah, it kind of seems
Speaker 1: like what we're already doing in the frugal lifestyle, but
Speaker 1: with some intentionality to it. So yes, yes, and we
Speaker 1: love intentionality. So you know what I also love is
Speaker 1: the fact that you are back from maternity leave. My
Speaker 1: first episode back from attorney to leave. It's the second
Speaker 1: so excited. Never mind, she is back, but she doesn't
Speaker 1: want to talk about it. We'll talk about it in
Speaker 1: the next episode. We'll be excited the next time we record. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: hold up my excitement. All right, So we're going to
Speaker 1: get into that interview. But first, our love, lovely sponsors
Speaker 1: and partners. Yes, also brought to you by burning the
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Speaker 1: lived satisfaction. Wow, that's a good one. That's a good one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a new look on the burning the candle at
Speaker 1: both ends. Well, speaking of that, um, we don't want you,
Speaker 1: we don't want you to burn any candles on too
Speaker 1: many ends. So we're gonna be talking about sustainable way
Speaker 1: to position your life to be better later on by
Speaker 1: doing more work up front, but not so much work
Speaker 1: that you maybe get sick and get shingles like I
Speaker 1: did once. That would not be good. Yeah, or that's
Speaker 1: a story for another time. I think we talked about it,
Speaker 1: but maybe early early early on, maybe like our first episode.
Speaker 1: Probably I can talk more about my shingles later. So
Speaker 1: we've got UH Robert Farrington from the College Investor UM.
Speaker 1: He's been writing The College Investor for over ten years
Speaker 1: now and he has a wealth of information about UM
Speaker 1: student loan refinancing, student loan forgiveness, paying off student loans,
Speaker 1: increasing your income, all to benefit you so that you
Speaker 1: can start investing to really reach your dream life earlier.
Speaker 1: That's his passion. He loves investing, UH, and he realized
Speaker 1: that not a lot of people could invest because of
Speaker 1: their student loan burden. He is such a nice I
Speaker 1: and we're so so excited that he joined us for
Speaker 1: a little interview today. So without further ado, here is
Speaker 1: our interview with Robert Fairington from The College Investor. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining us today, Robert. We're so
Speaker 1: excited to have you. Thank you guys so much for
Speaker 1: having me. I'm excited to be here, welcome. When I
Speaker 1: first heard you wanted to be on the show. I
Speaker 1: was really excited because there's so many things that you
Speaker 1: could speak to, like on investing in student loans, Like
Speaker 1: we could spend several episodes with you, because you have
Speaker 1: so much to offer people. But I really love the
Speaker 1: concept that you've coined about, like frontloading your life. I
Speaker 1: think that that is so cool and so that's really
Speaker 1: what we want to focus on today. That's good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I talked about front loading your life
Speaker 1: I want to say, like four years ago now, and
Speaker 1: with everyone talking about fire late, it's kind of becoming
Speaker 1: more mainstream. But I think it's a great concept, and yeah,
Speaker 1: we can dive in and really talk about what frontloading
Speaker 1: is and how it can apply in your life. For sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like fire is super like it's not very
Speaker 1: accessible to a lot of people, Like it's very very extreme,
Speaker 1: But I feel like frontloading is a little more accessible
Speaker 1: and easy to grasp. So, like what do you define
Speaker 1: it as and like why is it so awesome? Sure?
Speaker 1: I mean the goal of frontloading is to stash as
Speaker 1: much money away as early as you can, and like
Speaker 1: I my challenge would be like eighteen nineteen twenty, like
Speaker 1: in your early twenties, you know, but if you're not
Speaker 1: listening to this still later it's just you know, as
Speaker 1: early as you can put as much away because one
Speaker 1: of the biggest rules of money, and I want to say,
Speaker 1: like Warren Buffett said this is that compound interest is
Speaker 1: like the most magical thing that's ever existed, because it's
Speaker 1: a it's a math, it's math, and it's time. Right,
Speaker 1: So the more time you have, the more time your
Speaker 1: money has to grow. So if you start stashing anything
Speaker 1: in your twenties, like you are such a leg up
Speaker 1: over in your thirties or your forties or your fifties.
Speaker 1: So you know, that's why I really want to see
Speaker 1: what we can do to save early. Because I also
Speaker 1: talked to a lot of people in their mid thirties
Speaker 1: now because I'm in my mid thirties and no one
Speaker 1: ever thinks back on their twenties and says, man, I
Speaker 1: wish I saved less, Like it's never the thing that
Speaker 1: I mean. I don't know, maybe you guys have heard,
Speaker 1: but like I had saved less. No, And you know,
Speaker 1: when you're also in your early twenties and thirties, you
Speaker 1: have like the most ability to do things that you
Speaker 1: don't think you can, Like, you can live on a
Speaker 1: little less sleep, and you can eat you know, a
Speaker 1: little bit less stuff, and you don't you can live
Speaker 1: in a trailer even if the internet sucks. I don't
Speaker 1: you know what, You could live in a trailer. You
Speaker 1: could live at home with your parents. Like, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of ways that you can hack your savings to
Speaker 1: put more away early, and simply by doing that, you
Speaker 1: set yourself up for financial success so much faster than
Speaker 1: somebody else. But you know, there's a lot of barriers
Speaker 1: to it too. I mean there's a lot of you
Speaker 1: gotta know how to do it. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: psychology involved. It's like, are your friends gonna judge you?
Speaker 1: Is your family going to judge you? Like that's almost
Speaker 1: harder to deal with than the map, right, Like, but yes,
Speaker 1: in your thirties and forties, all of a sudden, the
Speaker 1: rules are going to be reversed, Like you're gonna be
Speaker 1: living much more financially savvier, and your friends will be
Speaker 1: looking at you like, how did he do that? What
Speaker 1: the heck happened? Like you know, and they don't ever
Speaker 1: remember the fact that you refused to go out with them.
Speaker 1: Maybe in their twenties, but now here they are ten
Speaker 1: years later and they're like, Wow, you already at a
Speaker 1: house and no debt and all this stuff, and you know,
Speaker 1: things like that. So that's why I'm all very bullish
Speaker 1: on frontloading. What is the goal of front loading if
Speaker 1: you could summarize it like that, Yeah, so you can
Speaker 1: save the most before you have kids and houses and
Speaker 1: large expenses and all these other things in your life
Speaker 1: that add up. So if you can just put the
Speaker 1: money away early, then you can just let it grow
Speaker 1: over time, and as you encounter different seasons of life,
Speaker 1: everything becomes a lot easier in those seasons because you
Speaker 1: already have a little nest egg built up from when
Speaker 1: you were more flexible and able to do it. So
Speaker 1: for those of us listening who are like, this sounds amazing,
Speaker 1: more money, I want that. What what are some things
Speaker 1: that we should be doing to front load? Yeah, so
Speaker 1: you have the biggest expenses in your life, the number
Speaker 1: one biggest expense for everybody's housing. So how can you
Speaker 1: save on housing expenses? I'm bullish on living at home.
Speaker 1: You know what, Like, if you're eighteen to twenty five,
Speaker 1: if you are not like making good money, you should
Speaker 1: be living home with your parents and saving a bunch
Speaker 1: of money, right or living with five six seven roommates.
Speaker 1: I don't care, like fill it up like two persons
Speaker 1: per room, but like you know, you can get your
Speaker 1: housing expenses down, you know, down to a hundred twos
Speaker 1: per month, you suddenly have a lot of extra income
Speaker 1: that you can put towards other things, getting out of debt,
Speaker 1: saving for retirement, saving for future things that you want
Speaker 1: to get, like maybe a house or things like that.
Speaker 1: So housing is the biggest and that's what I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people also feel the least ability to
Speaker 1: hack and save on. Yeah, it sounds like it's not
Speaker 1: just about though, living at home or cutting expenses because
Speaker 1: I can see all of our older parents listening to this,
Speaker 1: like what, I don't want my kids still living with me.
Speaker 1: But the difference in what you're saying is to then
Speaker 1: do something with that saved money. I think where a
Speaker 1: lot of times we can get caught in this or
Speaker 1: a pitfall with that is I I'm saving on expenses,
Speaker 1: so I'm just playing video games all day, or I
Speaker 1: don't have a lot of bills so I don't have
Speaker 1: to have a good paying job, or I don't need
Speaker 1: to be saving. So you're kind of not just saying
Speaker 1: cut call, but you're also saying stack up totally. And
Speaker 1: you're right because like sadly, I know the people that
Speaker 1: have also you know, at twenty two, they live at home,
Speaker 1: but then they're driving like a brand new BMW like
Speaker 1: this she doesn't work out, Like, no, don't do that.
Speaker 1: You should definitely be saving that difference. Um. And then
Speaker 1: also you know your parents might not like it, but
Speaker 1: you know you're not going to have this failure to
Speaker 1: launch potential where you know, if you save for like
Speaker 1: three or four years post college and they gave you
Speaker 1: that benefit and you know you can still pay rent
Speaker 1: to your parents and support with groceries and do other things.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying like you have to be scott free,
Speaker 1: but versus renting a one bedroom or a studio apartment,
Speaker 1: you could be saving of the difference right there, right um.
Speaker 1: And so you can definitely be adding that to your
Speaker 1: front load pile, which is like I said, could be
Speaker 1: saving for retirement. It could be getting on a student
Speaker 1: loan debt or any other debt you might have and
Speaker 1: setting yourself up for financial success. And then there's other
Speaker 1: things too. You know, the next big expense for most
Speaker 1: people is transportation, right, So what does your car situation
Speaker 1: look like? Are you, you know, buying a new car
Speaker 1: at least in a car that you shouldn't be or
Speaker 1: can you go out and get I don't know, I
Speaker 1: love the term the Dave car from you know, the
Speaker 1: Dave Ramsey community, but like, you know what, go get
Speaker 1: like a Honda Civic two thousand bucks and just go
Speaker 1: with it, like, you know, that's cool, Like I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: you know, Or do you even need a car? Like
Speaker 1: could you live in an area maybe in a more
Speaker 1: metropolitan area, taking public transportation, biking, walking, um, you know,
Speaker 1: potentially ride sharing depending on your area, that could significantly
Speaker 1: save in your expenses. Um, depending on how much and
Speaker 1: how far you need to go. You kind of need
Speaker 1: to assess that. But that's another huge potential for savings,
Speaker 1: particularly when we're growing within our society and culture of
Speaker 1: working more remotely, more remote jobs becoming available. I think
Speaker 1: we need to also then look at, well, then how
Speaker 1: necessary is my car now? Some of these other pieces
Speaker 1: aren't quite catching up. We still think we need a car,
Speaker 1: but it might not be the case. So even looking
Speaker 1: at do you even look for remote jobs just so
Speaker 1: you don't have to own a car anymore, I know, right,
Speaker 1: And like, here's a scary stat that I just saw
Speaker 1: the other day and it's from experience, and they said
Speaker 1: that the average new car payment in two thousand nineteen
Speaker 1: is five four dollars a month. Not crazy, And I said,
Speaker 1: the average new car loan is thirty two th dollars
Speaker 1: with a sixty eight month term, so over five years
Speaker 1: that you're paying off these loans at five and fifty
Speaker 1: bucks a month, Like that's just ridiculous to me, because
Speaker 1: like you can go buy such you know, more frugal
Speaker 1: things out there, and you're just screwing yourself. Like I'm
Speaker 1: not here to tell you yes or no. Like at
Speaker 1: the end of the day, you do you, but at
Speaker 1: the same time, like, are you gonna be happy with
Speaker 1: your life ten years from now because you bought a
Speaker 1: nicer car today? I don't know, like you know, And
Speaker 1: that's the thing I hear so many times games from
Speaker 1: younger people who are living at home or cutting expenses
Speaker 1: in other ways, and they're like, yeah, because I'm not
Speaker 1: paying rent so I can afford a six hundred dollar
Speaker 1: car payments, Like Oh no, that's not what you want
Speaker 1: to be doing. I did the same thing, yeah, when
Speaker 1: I was living at home, and it wasn't like a
Speaker 1: six hundred dollar car payment, but it was definitely like
Speaker 1: I had fifty thou dollars of student loans, but I
Speaker 1: was still able to justify getting a I did it.
Speaker 1: So that's the thing is I did this. I thought
Speaker 1: I deserved myself a new car after college. I bought
Speaker 1: myself a brand new, accurate t L and my car
Speaker 1: payment was seven thirty dollars a month, right, and like,
Speaker 1: granted it was like one nine percent, and like it
Speaker 1: was only a three year loan, and I felt like
Speaker 1: I was getting a good deal on it, but like
Speaker 1: it was just so dumb, like no one cares. And luckily,
Speaker 1: I mean I drove that car for ten years until
Speaker 1: I got rid of it, um, you know. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, like there was no point in that
Speaker 1: that was really just throwing money away for silly reasons.
Speaker 1: And like you and it's hard because when you're young
Speaker 1: and you feel like you to deserve it, and you
Speaker 1: have this money and you can afford it, maybe you know,
Speaker 1: you feel like you can justify it. But I also
Speaker 1: think it's okay to tell yourself and be justified by
Speaker 1: others that it's okay not to do that too. Well,
Speaker 1: this is tough because we're also talking to a crowd
Speaker 1: primarily whose prefrontal cortex is not fully developed, so that
Speaker 1: future thinking and logical reasoning is not even all there yet.
Speaker 1: So it's biology. But it's funny, you see that, because
Speaker 1: on the same token we're saying this, we're also seeing
Speaker 1: this trend of like people on Instagram and like these
Speaker 1: Instagram influencers that are showing off their fancy things and
Speaker 1: YouTubers that are driving ferraris and yet like people are
Speaker 1: aspiring to that and they want that, and that's clearly
Speaker 1: a thing, right, But at the same time, they don't
Speaker 1: want you to work potentially to get there right right right,
Speaker 1: or how can I have it now totally? And that's
Speaker 1: the that's the like you said, it's hard to explain
Speaker 1: this to people, but because they just it's it's just
Speaker 1: not an easy concept. So one of those things that
Speaker 1: you don't necessarily grasp, you know, naturally. But like I
Speaker 1: broke this down to another article, and let's just say
Speaker 1: you have this goal of having one million dollars at
Speaker 1: age sixty two, right, So nothing crazy. But if you
Speaker 1: started at twenty two years old, you would just have
Speaker 1: to save thirty six hundred dollars a year, three a
Speaker 1: month starting at age twenty two, and you can have
Speaker 1: a million dollars at age sixty two. Okay, But if
Speaker 1: you wait until you're twenty nine years old, just at
Speaker 1: the end of your twenties, you know you're starting, You're like,
Speaker 1: I'm starting before thirty that amount doubles almost a year, right,
Speaker 1: And that's the difference that those eight years make and
Speaker 1: over the forty years that you're going to invest that money.
Speaker 1: And that's what it's hard to grasp because, like you know,
Speaker 1: we our brains aren't wired to think that way. Um,
Speaker 1: but that's how the pathworks to care. When you're younger,
Speaker 1: you know, you don't think that age is going to
Speaker 1: have into right, and then it just it gets worse
Speaker 1: if you wait until your thirties. So like, if you
Speaker 1: want to do the same math, you know in your
Speaker 1: thirties here, let's just say you wait until thirty nine,
Speaker 1: So a decade later, it's fifteen thousand, three hundred dollars
Speaker 1: a year to save a million dollars by age sixty two. Right,
Speaker 1: So now you're talking twelve hundred bucks a month instead
Speaker 1: of that original three a month, and that's not gaining
Speaker 1: any interest or anything on that invest like you know,
Speaker 1: eight nine percent return on your money over that same
Speaker 1: period of time. Yeah, that's why start young. How do
Speaker 1: you find the balance between working hard now and living
Speaker 1: in this season that you'll never get back? Yeah, and
Speaker 1: that's a hard one, and you know, there's no right
Speaker 1: or wrong answer for anyone. I think it comes back
Speaker 1: to striking that balance, like you do have to always
Speaker 1: take care of yourself and your priorities first, which I
Speaker 1: think for most people is you know, take care of yourself,
Speaker 1: to care your family, kids, all that, and then see
Speaker 1: how you can take care of both of those things
Speaker 1: for the future. So I think we also lose sight
Speaker 1: of like why why are we even bothering talking about
Speaker 1: saving money? Like who cares? Right? And the real goal is, well,
Speaker 1: I'm trying to take care of myself and my family
Speaker 1: a decade from now, and I don't want to be
Speaker 1: in a better place than I am today. So that's
Speaker 1: where I think it's changing that mindset of why you're saving,
Speaker 1: what's the purpose of saving? And then I also think
Speaker 1: it's about finding the balance. So you know, we talk
Speaker 1: a lot about you know, saving money, which is important,
Speaker 1: but you know there's also the earning money as well.
Speaker 1: So if you have a choice of how you're going
Speaker 1: to spend an hour of free time you have because
Speaker 1: you know, let's say we have young kids. I know,
Speaker 1: you have a young kid, Like finding an hour is challenging,
Speaker 1: and finding that hour it could also be at like
Speaker 1: nine pm at night because the kid went to bed
Speaker 1: and you finally have a little bit of time and
Speaker 1: that's the only time when your brain is functioning well
Speaker 1: because when you have a new born, that all doesn't
Speaker 1: work all the time. Like challenging, Like, yes, it all
Speaker 1: doesn't work all the time, so so real. So it's
Speaker 1: really deciding on how to get the most bang for
Speaker 1: your bucks. So you know, spending an hour, you know
Speaker 1: you could potentially save. You could you know, cut some costs,
Speaker 1: you can coup on, you can try to find a deal,
Speaker 1: you could do that kind of thing. Or maybe it's
Speaker 1: about earning money. You know, maybe you have some time
Speaker 1: that you could uh go out inside, hustle, resell something
Speaker 1: you have online. Uh, maybe you've got you know, some
Speaker 1: baby stuff you no longer use because your your son's
Speaker 1: grown up a little bit, you can resell some of
Speaker 1: that stuff. So like it's not just about you know,
Speaker 1: trying to say, but it's also about just figuring out
Speaker 1: the best use of that short bit of time you have.
Speaker 1: And that changes with every season. Like when you don't
Speaker 1: have kids, like you have a lot more time you
Speaker 1: can go outside, hustle and earn more money, work more
Speaker 1: work over time. When you have kids, you have to
Speaker 1: think more critically how you're gonna spend your time, and
Speaker 1: you know where, maybe that's gonna be more of a
Speaker 1: saving season of life, more of a cutting cost season
Speaker 1: of life. Things like up. Yeah, I think that's so
Speaker 1: important to note is that one doesn't trump the other.
Speaker 1: In every season of life. You have to figure out
Speaker 1: what's right for you in what season. So sometimes making
Speaker 1: money is more accessible and other times you have to
Speaker 1: think more about saving. I think that's so important saving
Speaker 1: in family, right, like you're never going to get back
Speaker 1: those years with your children. But at the same time,
Speaker 1: like you know, when you're single and you don't have anything,
Speaker 1: it's like do I watch Netflix or go out to
Speaker 1: the bar on Friday night? Or should I go drive
Speaker 1: rideshare and make a couple of hundred bucks tonight, Like
Speaker 1: you know, when you have a kid, that's not Neither
Speaker 1: of those are options. Netflix isn't even an option at
Speaker 1: that point. So like changes with the season, yeah, and
Speaker 1: being able to recognize what season you're in, my goodness,
Speaker 1: Like what kind of idiot would walk outside and not
Speaker 1: know what season it is? So being able to even
Speaker 1: see what season you are currently in and plan accordingly
Speaker 1: and know that that season isn't going to be for forever.
Speaker 1: So if you do have opportunity to side hustle, like
Speaker 1: you mentioned, Robert, you have that energy to do it
Speaker 1: when you're young, you're not most likely going to be
Speaker 1: doing as many side hustles when you're sixty five, totally.
Speaker 1: And that comes back to that whole front loading thing, right,
Speaker 1: It's you have this ability when you're younger that you know,
Speaker 1: you just have less of the ability when you're younger.
Speaker 1: Of course, there's always gonna be some exceptions to the rule,
Speaker 1: but like you know, it is just frankly a lot
Speaker 1: easier to front load inside hustle and earn more and
Speaker 1: save more in your twenties and early thirties than it
Speaker 1: is later in your life. What would you say, Robert,
Speaker 1: to the person who's on a tight income and yet
Speaker 1: doesn't have a lot of time, what would be the
Speaker 1: most important thing for them to prioritize. Well, Number one
Speaker 1: is organization. Even have a conversation if you're not organized
Speaker 1: with your money, So what's you're spending? What's your expenses?
Speaker 1: And the reason I even bring this up is when
Speaker 1: I have this conversation with people, I would say nine
Speaker 1: of people couldn't tell you how much they're able to
Speaker 1: save each month. They couldn't tell you what their income
Speaker 1: and expenses are each month, and it's frankly shocking if
Speaker 1: they're trying to get out a debt. Specifically, I see
Speaker 1: this a lot when I talk to people with student loans.
Speaker 1: They don't even know what their loan balances are. They
Speaker 1: don't know what their monthly payments on their loans are,
Speaker 1: and they don't know like when they'd be done paying
Speaker 1: off their loans. So you can't even start that conversation
Speaker 1: of you know where to go until you get organized.
Speaker 1: So I'd say, if you're struggling, spend that first hour
Speaker 1: of free time you have because you're busy and you're
Speaker 1: doing stuff to just lay it all out there, whatever
Speaker 1: that looks like for you, Maybe spend the first hour
Speaker 1: of research in different ways to lay it out there,
Speaker 1: and then the next day do it right, like whether
Speaker 1: that's a spreadsheet or using a tool like Mint or
Speaker 1: Quicken or personal capital or you know, some people like
Speaker 1: planners still with like you know, real paper, Like that's cool,
Speaker 1: Like whatever works for you, do it, and then once
Speaker 1: you know where you stand, you can make rational decisions
Speaker 1: of what am I gonna do with my next free hour?
Speaker 1: Is my ex three hour going to be about maybe
Speaker 1: looking for a cheaper apartment, or is my next three
Speaker 1: hour going to be like how what like type of
Speaker 1: side hustle might make sense for me? You know, it
Speaker 1: really depends on where you're at your season of life
Speaker 1: and what your budget looks like. But you can't even
Speaker 1: think about that until you're organized. Such a good point.
Speaker 1: And and I didn't even realize that there would be
Speaker 1: that number of people who wouldn't even know what their
Speaker 1: expenses look like, what their income looks like. We take
Speaker 1: it for granted, Jill, because we're nerds, I know. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like it's one of those things like as long
Speaker 1: as my bank accounts not overdrafting and I'm not getting
Speaker 1: an alert, like things must be working out. My direct
Speaker 1: deposit must have come in and my expenses must have
Speaker 1: all worked out, and I'm good for another month. But
Speaker 1: there's no clear picture of like what I could say,
Speaker 1: what I could earn, what that looks like? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And to think about it, and like what you said,
Speaker 1: once you have that grasp, then you can think about,
Speaker 1: like what your next hour is going to be, Like
Speaker 1: am I going to look for a side hustle or
Speaker 1: or taking these like small chunks, like doing it in
Speaker 1: small steps instead of just thinking about the big picture
Speaker 1: and getting overwhelmed by it, which I think is something
Speaker 1: else's front loading allows you to do, is to have
Speaker 1: it in a smaller time frame totally. And I know
Speaker 1: the podcast listeners here that they're they're a little different
Speaker 1: right there, and they're enjoying this journey that they're on
Speaker 1: and trying to improve their personal finances. But for a
Speaker 1: lot of people, it's kind of like I have no
Speaker 1: inspiration and I don't want to deal with it, and
Speaker 1: then something happens. There's an event, or they read something,
Speaker 1: or they hear something, or friend talks about it and
Speaker 1: they get like a burst of inspiration and they have
Speaker 1: you have, like I always joke, we have like a
Speaker 1: window as like personal finance influencers of that short time
Speaker 1: to get them to do the next step. But if
Speaker 1: that first step of inspiration fails, like they're not going
Speaker 1: to take any action again until they hit that next burst, right,
Speaker 1: and so like if you can break it down into
Speaker 1: small chunks and do things manageably and then they see
Speaker 1: a small win and then that gives them a little
Speaker 1: more motivation to get to the next small win. Because
Speaker 1: the hard part with money is that none of it's overnight.
Speaker 1: All this is like years long processes, whether you're saving, investing,
Speaker 1: paying off debt, whatever. Like there's no magic one that
Speaker 1: tomorrow is going to all be different with this, this
Speaker 1: isn't on our list of questions. So if we're throwing
Speaker 1: your curve ball, we can. But with with that, where
Speaker 1: do you see room for enjoyment? Because at the same time,
Speaker 1: where we say now is the time that you have
Speaker 1: the energy to do the side hustle, save, go hard
Speaker 1: at your finances, the same is true about now is
Speaker 1: the time that you have to enjoy to be able
Speaker 1: to get away, travel hike, be active. How how could
Speaker 1: somebody know we touched on this a little bit? But
Speaker 1: where is their room to say, I'm going to statue
Speaker 1: away money, but I'm also going to be able to
Speaker 1: give myself permission to go on vacation. Yeah, like it's
Speaker 1: and have to be mutually exclusive, but it does need
Speaker 1: to be thought about how you're gonna do it. So
Speaker 1: what do you get enjoyment in? And like how can
Speaker 1: you hack those? I don't know. Personally, I'm a big
Speaker 1: fan of side hustles because I get enjoyment and entrepreneurship
Speaker 1: and earning money. And like I used to love to
Speaker 1: go to garage sales and estate sales buy things and
Speaker 1: resell things because one I like, I don't know, I
Speaker 1: like antiques and I'm like an old soul and I
Speaker 1: like going and seeing that kind of stuff and then
Speaker 1: I like reselling it. So I found enjoyment in that.
Speaker 1: Um But you know, like there's a lot of free
Speaker 1: things to do that we dismiss and take for granted.
Speaker 1: So go out, go to the library. Go you know,
Speaker 1: if you like movies, you don't need to pay for
Speaker 1: a movie. You can go to the library and rent
Speaker 1: pretty much any DVD that's like out right, like if
Speaker 1: you like an old Blockbuster, go to um. You know,
Speaker 1: outdoor activities are all free. But even travel, you know,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ways to hack your travel now,
Speaker 1: Like you know, depending on what you do and how
Speaker 1: you spend it's like find it where words card. You know,
Speaker 1: you can use those miles and points to potentially hack
Speaker 1: your travel so that it's free. And is it fast
Speaker 1: and easy and quick? No, it might take you a
Speaker 1: couple of years to get there. But you know, if
Speaker 1: that's where you're also atting your season of life, you
Speaker 1: probably shouldn't be taking big trips more than every once
Speaker 1: or every other year, right, Like you know, it all
Speaker 1: it all lines up to where you are, and I
Speaker 1: think it's just thinking critically about it and being organized
Speaker 1: and mindful about how you divort your time money. Right,
Speaker 1: good word, Robert On that note, I don't know what
Speaker 1: could top it, but I've got an idea. It's another
Speaker 1: good word that we like to use. It's the bill
Speaker 1: of the week, that's right. It's toime for the best
Speaker 1: minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born
Speaker 1: and his name is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage.
Speaker 1: Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have
Speaker 1: to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton.
Speaker 1: This is the bill of the week, Robert. Every week
Speaker 1: we asked somebody to submit their favorite bill, and we
Speaker 1: select the person who is next in line to play theirs.
Speaker 1: And when we have guests, we invite them they get
Speaker 1: to skip the line. So what is your bill for us?
Speaker 1: So you know, one of my pet peeves slash like
Speaker 1: most interesting to hack bills is my electric bill. So
Speaker 1: in San Diego here we get our gas and electric
Speaker 1: is one bill and for the last like a couple
Speaker 1: of years, it's like how low can we get our
Speaker 1: electric bill? And you might think that's crazy, but like
Speaker 1: doing a lot of little things in our house have
Speaker 1: made a big difference. So, like we switched every light
Speaker 1: bulb in our house from you know, these old lights
Speaker 1: to l a ed light bulbs. And that was like
Speaker 1: an investment. I mean it was like two said, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you guys know those bulbs are like
Speaker 1: eight nine bucks of light bulb. It's kind of crazy,
Speaker 1: but it reduced our electric bill, no joke, by fifty
Speaker 1: dollars a month. Wow. Right, And so now like here
Speaker 1: we go, like everyone's like, oh, are you gonna get
Speaker 1: solar and do all this stuff? Like solar makes no
Speaker 1: point for us. So our average gas and electric bill
Speaker 1: combined is fifty dollars a month. Thirty of those dollars
Speaker 1: are like all the mandatory fees and taxes and like
Speaker 1: distribution charges that like you can't do anything about. So
Speaker 1: our actual like electric bills down about ten bucks a
Speaker 1: month for the usage portion. And you know, we keeven
Speaker 1: a pretty steady around there um. And it's just by
Speaker 1: being very mindful about what you use. And I don't
Speaker 1: even think I'm going to get below that because like
Speaker 1: you know, the internet is always on, right, Like you
Speaker 1: have these things that are plugged, Like we just aren't
Speaker 1: gonna be turning off anytime soon, the refrigerators going. But
Speaker 1: like just being very mindful about what you can control
Speaker 1: and what you can't control, and understanding how you're build
Speaker 1: because now when I challenge my friends and neighbors on this,
Speaker 1: a lot of people are getting solar. And like, you know,
Speaker 1: if you do these simple things and invest in your
Speaker 1: two hundred three hundred dollars and like some energy saving things,
Speaker 1: there's no way that any kind of solar panel you
Speaker 1: buy for any size house makes sense today. As much
Speaker 1: as we want to say that solar is the thing,
Speaker 1: the cost of it is fifteen to twenty years on
Speaker 1: your r O I assuming that everything is staying the same,
Speaker 1: and I don't think it's going to So, you know,
Speaker 1: do you really want to spend fifteen thousand bucks on
Speaker 1: a fifteen year project or you want to spend two
Speaker 1: hundred dollars today and enjoy the same reward that you
Speaker 1: would get. Preach that was an educational bill. Knowing how
Speaker 1: you get bill? Yes, yes, so profound and also also
Speaker 1: sounds like a hashtag. And then you know, I have
Speaker 1: to say it. So I'm in southern California, It's like
Speaker 1: put the asterisks there because I know every state is different.
Speaker 1: I want to say, like Mr money Mustache shared his
Speaker 1: power bill the other day and it was like the
Speaker 1: weirdest thing I've ever seen, and he was in Colorado,
Speaker 1: So like, your utility may be different. Sure, yeah, I
Speaker 1: know how you hashtag get bill for sure, but I
Speaker 1: it does make me want to replace the rest of
Speaker 1: our bulbs with LEDs, Like I think we're at like
Speaker 1: half and half right now. And it's summer, so our
Speaker 1: our energy bill is extremely high right now, so I might,
Speaker 1: I mean, it seems worth it. It was. It was
Speaker 1: surprising how much it was. And we have, you know,
Speaker 1: all this recess lighting in our kitchen and stuff, and
Speaker 1: so like, you know, the kitchen is probably the room
Speaker 1: where we leave the lights on the most because you're
Speaker 1: in there, and so like just by switching them out, Like,
Speaker 1: it was surprising how much of a difference it made. Yeah,
Speaker 1: good bill. If you want to submit your bill of
Speaker 1: the week or maybe teach us a lesson about what
Speaker 1: we can do to get our bills lowered, visit Frugal
Speaker 1: Friends podcast dot com, slash bill and you can leave
Speaker 1: us a message on our speedpipe or Google voicemail. Your
Speaker 1: pick perfect. And now it's time for the lightning. I
Speaker 1: said that I was going to start doing it in
Speaker 1: that voice when I came back from Eternity leaf. Oh,
Speaker 1: I love the goals that you've said, Mary yourself. Upon return,
Speaker 1: I'm like slowly getting into it is a lot for me.
Speaker 1: So many hormones. So you talk a lot about passive
Speaker 1: income on the College Investor, and I think that that
Speaker 1: is a perfect example of front loading your life. It's
Speaker 1: actually I was reading one of your articles about passive
Speaker 1: income and that's where I saw it on your website.
Speaker 1: So today's Lightning Round is all about passive income and
Speaker 1: it's just real quick and we could do I mean,
Speaker 1: we will do an entire episode about the passive income
Speaker 1: one day, but not today today because it's the lightning
Speaker 1: because it's the Lightning Round, all right. So, Robert, what
Speaker 1: is passive income? It is income that you get to
Speaker 1: make and enjoy for doing nothing in the future. Not
Speaker 1: to say you don't to do anything up front, but
Speaker 1: you enjoy the fruits of your labor all the way out. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's all the equivalent of hoeing the land, planting the seed,
Speaker 1: watering it, and then letting the rein to the rest.
Speaker 1: You got it, exactly. Oh yeah, I've spent some time gardening,
Speaker 1: rode a tiller. Robert, what are your favorite ways of
Speaker 1: making some passive income? So the easiest way is a
Speaker 1: bank account, right, so you can get like two and
Speaker 1: a half percent on your savings account right now for nothing.
Speaker 1: You just literally go to your bank, put some money
Speaker 1: in it. Boom, you get two and a half percent. Right.
Speaker 1: That is like the idealist form of passive income, and
Speaker 1: then you can do things like investing. I like investing
Speaker 1: in the stock market for the long term. You average
Speaker 1: like eight nine per year all the way into the future.
Speaker 1: And then you know, you have things like real estate,
Speaker 1: which you're like, I don't know, I call him semi
Speaker 1: passive because you don't really get to like totally be
Speaker 1: hands off. You could. There's different ways to structure it,
Speaker 1: but you know, you get you buy the house, you
Speaker 1: spend the money. You might spend some time, right, but
Speaker 1: then you get your rent check every month. Great way
Speaker 1: of pet get passive income. Yes, my favorite is the
Speaker 1: book that I wrote a few years ago. I published
Speaker 1: it in twousand and seventeen, and I did all the
Speaker 1: work then and now I just watched for the deposits
Speaker 1: from Amazon every month, and that is so nice. That's
Speaker 1: why I'm publishing another one. Robert. Any pitfalls that we
Speaker 1: should look out to avoid with passive income, The big
Speaker 1: thing is is there's no such things like get rich
Speaker 1: quick kind of things. There's no overnight successes here. So
Speaker 1: when we're talking about it, like risk and reward is
Speaker 1: always perfectly correlated, right, So two point five percent it
Speaker 1: is what you get safely. You put your money into
Speaker 1: bank account, it's insured all safe. The more you earn
Speaker 1: above and beyond that, the higher the risk is that
Speaker 1: you could potentially lose your money. So going back to
Speaker 1: my rental, you could theoretically have tenants that like trash
Speaker 1: your property or your house burns down. Like that risk
Speaker 1: really does happen. It's very rare, but like you know,
Speaker 1: you could lose money. And that's what you always have
Speaker 1: to remember when it comes to these things. And that's
Speaker 1: why the goal is, you know, you invest for the
Speaker 1: long term because ideally, over thirty forty years, you know,
Speaker 1: all these little risks and road bumps you have over
Speaker 1: time will even themselves out. And it sounds like even
Speaker 1: diversity in that that it's not only within having tenants,
Speaker 1: but tons of other opportunities for some passive incore and
Speaker 1: active income. Yeah exactly. So, Robert, what do you have
Speaker 1: going on over at College Investor And where can people
Speaker 1: go if they want to hear more from you? Since
Speaker 1: there's so much more that they can hear from you totally,
Speaker 1: So you can come to the college investor dot com
Speaker 1: and we talk a lot about student loan debt, investing,
Speaker 1: passive income side hustles talking a lot about paying for
Speaker 1: college right now because it's that time of the year,
Speaker 1: and you can listen to us on the College Investor
Speaker 1: Audio Show as well if you are not a reader
Speaker 1: and you prefer to listen, which if you're listening to
Speaker 1: this is probably you. So that's perfect transition. You've got
Speaker 1: stuff for tactile learners, auditory visual that's the goal. That
Speaker 1: is the goal. Yes, So if you want to learn
Speaker 1: more about paying off your student loans, making passive income
Speaker 1: so that you can invest in front load your life,
Speaker 1: definitely check out the College Investor dot com or the
Speaker 1: audio show. And thanks so much for coming on Robert.
Speaker 1: This has been great. Thanks for having me, guys, it's
Speaker 1: been fun. Well, that was great. I'm so glad we
Speaker 1: did that. Yeah, we do one of our better decisions really,
Speaker 1: of all the things we've done together. Glad we did that,
Speaker 1: for sure. I think Robert is so great. I have
Speaker 1: so much respect for him, So I'm honored that we
Speaker 1: could have him on and talk about something as cool
Speaker 1: as front loading your life because I think and you
Speaker 1: don't hear that phrase a lot, and so I think
Speaker 1: that we should use it because fire and financial independence
Speaker 1: retire early. It's it's overused at this point, and it's
Speaker 1: just a better term that can redeem how laundry might
Speaker 1: feel for people. When I think of front loading, I
Speaker 1: think it's like a front loading washing machine. So this
Speaker 1: is a better association. Yeah, don't don't think of your laundry,
Speaker 1: think of the financial opportunities you have in your life. Done, done,
Speaker 1: figured that one out. And since we're talking about investing,
Speaker 1: the month's book for book club is The Simple Path
Speaker 1: to Wealth by Jail Collins. This is a book that
Speaker 1: taught me how to set up my investments. It taught
Speaker 1: me almost everything I know about investing is the foundation
Speaker 1: for everything. So I think it's a really great time
Speaker 1: to read it, whether you are at the beginning of
Speaker 1: your journey or whenever you're ready to start investing. The
Speaker 1: Simple Path to Wealth by Jail Collins is a killer,
Speaker 1: killer reading. I'm excited about that one. I'm gonna yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm going to do that. And if you want a
Speaker 1: free copy of this book, you have an opportunity to
Speaker 1: get one by here's what you gotta do. You gotta
Speaker 1: leave us a review on iTunes or Stitcher, then screenshot
Speaker 1: that review and email it on over to us at
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends Podcasts at gmail dot com. And for every
Speaker 1: five reviews we get emailed to us, we select one
Speaker 1: winner out of that, so your chances are pretty good,
Speaker 1: and we select that at the end of the month,
Speaker 1: and then we send it to you and it may
Speaker 1: or may not be a used copy, but all the
Speaker 1: content will be there. It is a used copy, I
Speaker 1: know because I buy them so and everybody else should
Speaker 1: know at this point too, if you've been listening and so.
Speaker 1: The Simple Past Wealth is available in most libraries, but
Speaker 1: since it's a self published book, it may not be
Speaker 1: available in everyone. So this is definitely the month you
Speaker 1: want to email us a review. Just like Angel zero
Speaker 1: six one zero, who sent us this five star review.
Speaker 1: You can do it just like this one. She says,
Speaker 1: love this podcast. I'm so glad I found this podcast.
Speaker 1: Jen and Jill provide awesome and practical tips you can
Speaker 1: actually use. Thank you for sharing nice Yes us reviews
Speaker 1: like so much Angel, so helpful, so uplifting, so encouraging. Yeah,
Speaker 1: or you can do like the next one that says
Speaker 1: frivolous stupidity and it's one star review. Yeah, either one
Speaker 1: of you could do that. Um left to us to
Speaker 1: enter for a chance to win either one, you know,
Speaker 1: so we can know who you are. No exactly exact
Speaker 1: address to show up to with your book, Yes, right, exactly.
Speaker 1: So that's it and that's all. Thank you again for
Speaker 1: listening to the Frugal Friends podcast. See you next week.
Speaker 1: Frugal Friends is produced, edited and mixed by Eric Syria.
Speaker 1: Frivolous stupidity. I hadn't seen that one. Oh my gosh. Yes,
Speaker 1: they use the word vapid. Oh WHOA good for them? Yeah,
Speaker 1: And they say that we're a four star podcast, but
Speaker 1: we're not. We're four point five stars, so sorry. In
Speaker 1: their review they say that we're four star, but they
Speaker 1: give us one star. Yeah mm hmmm, I don't know.
Speaker 1: They love their words, so they do have a and
Speaker 1: they have a lot of them. Again, they use the
Speaker 1: term valley girl, which I'm fine with because I can't
Speaker 1: change the way my voice sounds. Yeah. I can't change
Speaker 1: the way my voice sounds either. Yeah. But anyways, back
Speaker 1: to my shingles. I if you don't know the story,
Speaker 1: my husband I paid off our debt two years, three
Speaker 1: years ago at this point, but at the very beginning
Speaker 1: I tried to side hustle my way out of debt
Speaker 1: and not change my spending at all because I thought
Speaker 1: I could do that, And two months into doing all
Speaker 1: these side hustles, I contracted shingles from how stressed I was.
Speaker 1: That's um, yeah, I know that's real, right, Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: a real story. Yeah, and that's um, that's a very
Speaker 1: overwhelming response to have, very clearly acute stress, Like I
Speaker 1: can't say that. I know many people who have experienced
Speaker 1: stress induced shingles, particularly in their twenties, so it is
Speaker 1: something to be aware of. With these side hustles and
Speaker 1: front loading and fire goals that had We do have capacity,
Speaker 1: I know, and uh, I mean even in my healthiest state,
Speaker 1: some would refer to me as a workaholic. So that
Speaker 1: was a very unhealthy state for me, and I it
Speaker 1: made me kind of give up the pursuit of quote
Speaker 1: unquote fire like specifically. We're still investing and doing all that,
Speaker 1: but I just can't go as hard as all of
Speaker 1: these other people. I just I will get too wrapped
Speaker 1: up into it. And I guess shingles again. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: don't want you to get singles again, especially now I
Speaker 1: have a baby, and the baby doesn't care when I'm
Speaker 1: in pain, only when he's hungry for that free food.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, Oh my gosh, you said a zinger before
Speaker 1: we start recording, as that Kai is just like his dad,
Speaker 1: will do anything for free food, and he does agree
Speaker 1: the words zinger. Yeah on that note, yes, bye bye