Like a Boss

FIRE Starter: How Creating a Side Project Can Boost Your Marketability and Income

Gen Y Finance Guy Side Hustle 4 Comments

Zach spent his first three posts providing us with nine actionable tips for savings, investing, and growing wealth in your 20s (part I, part II, and part III). The information in that series could change the rest of your life if you follow it. Today Zach is sharing the benefit of side projects and how they can help you develop skillsets that you can eventually monetize. To me, a side project is synonymous with a side hustle – in my opinion, something everyone should have. Not every side hustle will be commercially successful but that doesn’t make it a failure. I’ve personally had lots of side hustles that have paid off indirectly years later when I could tap those skills I …

Income Report

February 2019 – Detailed Financial Report #50 – Net Worth $1,086,876 | Income $59,020

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Another one bites the dust! Yes, I recently watched the movie “Bohemian Rhapsody,” thus the opening to this post. I thought it was an excellent movie and the music was great!  February flew by. It was a short month but it also happens to align with Mrs. GYFG going back to work and me traveling again after being on a travel hiatus for the last quarter of 2018. I was gone seven of Mrs. GYFG’s first ten days back at work. I felt bad about the timing and tried to make up for it the rest of the month. Our nanny also started with us full time this month and she’s been working out great. We really got lucky! So …

My Commercial Real Estate Portfolio with Rich Uncles

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Real Estate (RE) has become a much larger percentage of my overall net worth than I had anticipated when I put together my blueprint to a $10M net worth. Back in early 2015, I estimated that RE would make up about 22% of the total net worth pie. Per my latest detailed financial report (December 2018 – when I’m writing this post), RE currently accounts for 50% of net worth. Below is a chart of where I thought we would be from an allocation standpoint back in 2015 vs. what our actual allocation looks like today. There are a couple of drivers that are responsible for this shift in allocation mix: (1) The 2015 projection was my best guess as to the …

4 Years into Our 20 Year Journey to a $10,000,000 Net Worth

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I’ve been itching to write this post for some time. I really can’t believe it’s been four years since I announced publicly that the GYFG household was chasing such an ambitious goal – a $10M net worth in twenty years. I received a lot of doubt at the time, which is understandable, because for most people this is a goal beyond the realm of possibilities – either by circumstance or their own self-limiting beliefs. I get that the income levels required to achieve such a BHAG are insane, but to me, they were never impossible. I see the world through a different lens. I credit a lot of this ability to The Slight Edge, which taught me how to visualize exponential progress …

Chasing FIRE

Chasing FIRE Interview #5 – Cody from Fly to FI

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Today we continue our Chasing Fire interview series (<- click the link to see all interviews in this series). I have always enjoyed reading and listening to interviews to learn how people got to where they are, so as to learn from the successes and failures of others. Each individual’s story and path is unique, and we can certainly gain insights from those generous enough to share their stories. My job as the host is to find interesting people that will inspire and motivate you, as well as myself. I plan to share one high-quality interview per month (maybe even less frequently) and the questions may change over time. I anticipate this to be an iterative process and I would love your feedback in …

Income Report

January 2019 – Detailed Financial Report #49 – Net Worth $1,046,938 | Income $27,522

Gen Y Finance Guy Monthly Financial Reports 5 Comments

Poof! January has disappeared, and with it went 2,678,400 seconds. And you thought money was slippery? At the end of the day, money is only a measure of how much time freedom you have. If you think about the 4% rule, its basic premise is to accumulate 25X your desired annual burn rate in order to sustain you for a 30+ year “retirement” (in quotation marks because everyone’s definition of what this looks like is different). You have to dive a level deeper to realize that, before any appreciation, dividends, interest, or rental income, “25X” is really a measure of time –  25 years worth of living expenses – in today’s dollars. That is 25 years worth of TIME FREEDOM! Financial Independence …

From the Mailbag #3 – BK Shares His Success Since Reading The Blog

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“My takeaway from these past three years is to take massive action and to continue adding value to people around you.” – BK It’s been a while since I shared a piece from a reader writing in. The previous two email conversations I shared were from readers seeking some guidance, but today we have a reader sharing a success story. I don’t know about you, but I’m a real sucker for success stories.  RELATED: From the Mailbag #1 – Savings, Investments, Credit, and Debt RELATED: From the Mailbag #2 – I Want More, Can You Help? Below, BK shares his success in doubling his salary in just over three years. He realized that fortune favors the bold and asked for more …

FIRE Starter: Advice on Saving & Investing in Your 20s [Part 3]

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Zach is back with Part Three of his nine actionable tips for saving, investing, and growing wealth in your 20s. If you missed Part One or Part Two, take a moment to get caught up, and then come back to read Part Three. The information in this series could change the rest of your life if you follow it. A Quick Reminder of Why I Started This Series For the astute observer, you will notice that I have added three new series to the blog: LateFIRE, FIRE Starter, and Chasing FIRE. Notice a theme? They all capitalize on the explosion – one might say the COMBUSTION – in the FIRE (financial independence retire early) movement. But let’s set the record straight: on …

0% Interest

Confession: I’m a Sucker for 0% Interest Offers

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Not too long ago I came clean about my love affair of ten years. Today, I’m back at you with another confession. Please don’t be too quick to judge me until you read through the details. I’m a sucker for 0% interest. There. I said it. Well, I’m not a sucker for just any 0% interest offer – it has to be the right offer. My first experience with a 0% offer was back in college when I signed up for a credit card that came with 12 months of 0% interest. This was back when my savings account was paying 5%. So for 12 months, I played the arbitrage game and charged everything I could (tuition, books, groceries, gas, etc) …

Level Up

19 Ways to Level up in 2019

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Still being in the new part of this year and all, I thought it would be appropriate to put together a action list for those wanting to improve their financial situation in 2019 and beyond. The reality is that if you don’t take action now, you likely won’t take action later. Remember: building wealth in order to achieve Financial Independence is the direct result of simple disciplined steps made consistently over time. Notice that these are not “goals,” but rather a punch list of 19 EASY ACTION steps you can take to ensure that your financial house is built on a solid foundation. To make it super easy, I challenge you to choose at least 12 items; you can take just one action a …