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An update the community on recent activities, discussion about the opportunity cost of college and potential alternatives, a ChooseFI scholarship announcement, and a few voicemails from the ChooseFI community.
What you’ll hear in the show:
- Brad recaps his trip to the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in Omaha, and a visit with the ChooseFI local group in Omaha.
- Jonathan shares how he recently cut his grocery costs by nearly $700.
- Use up the foods that are stockpiled in the pantry
- Shop at Aldi’s; it’s nearly impossible to spend more than $100 in a trip
- Repeated meals requires purchasing less meals
- How is Jonathan’s Skinny Waist Fat Wallet challenge going?
- Review of Monday’s episode with Ryan Carson at TeamTreehouse.
- Is college the obvious choice, or are there other good options for young adults preparing to enter the workforce?
- What does Brad recommend that people consider while making this decision?
- John, from the ChooseFi community, suggests that some companies still look for college degrees, as opposed to a coding certificate. How can someone manage that?
- How does Treehouse support students by helping them find jobs at the completion of their degree?
- ChooseFI wants to sponsor someone to go through the Treehouse program. Brad and Jonathan will set up a scholarship application on the website.
- Neil, from the ChooseFi community, suggests that students looking for internships should be both persistent and creative when contacting a company you might want to internships with: not all internships are advertised position.
- Todd shares some life hacks for $300 expenses per month:
- Eliminate costs of mortgage or rent
- Use free transportation to save on gas expenses
- Find ways to decrease or eliminate grocery bills
- Internet is free at the library
- Voicemail from Kevin in Sydney, Australia: The podcast makes him feel good about self-improvement, and requests more info about property investment from ChooseFi.
- The power of pursuing financial independence is the lifestyle changes that it allows.
*Update | on May 15th after the release of this episode we became an affiliate for the Treehouse Code School
Resources mentioned in this episode:
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As Jonathan would say, “The FIRE is spreading my friends!”
3 thoughts on “074R | ChooseFI Scholarship”
Hey Brad & Jonathan. I agree with the person that left the voicemail. I feel that Real Estate is the fast track to FI. The point of reaching the “FI Number” is to know how much money you will be receiving each month to live off without working for it and pay little in tax.
I started my path with Real Estate. My first and for now, my only property, cash flows $1k/mo for me. I manage it myself but that is literally minutes per month. As I add to that portfolio my monthly cash flow will increase. All of it is virtually tax free. For a person like me that does not make a large salary and supports a large family, my personal savings would probably never get me to FI. But, buying Real Estate and then leveraging that property to buy more is a guaranteed way to help get me there a lot faster. If I can get 2 or 3 more that cash flow about the same amount, that would get me to the $40k per year income amount that most FI people are striving to get to anyway. Yes there are risks, but as long as you buy it right so it has positive cash flow to start with and in a good area where rents can be expected to rise and home values to increase as well, then you are pretty much guaranteed that you can at least always get it rented and be cash flowing.
I too would love to do a joint venture on a property with you if you would like. I am considering a great one now, the only thing stopping me is the larger down payment it needs. If I had a partner, it would make it a done deal. Cash on cash return is 17%.
Hi Jonathan and Brad! I just want to personally thank you for ChooseFI. From the moment I started listening on April 3, 2018, I have been hooked!!! Any free moment I have is spent listening to your podcast in order to actively take steps towards improving my life. You guys have no idea how much you have helped me!
My husband and I have significantly reduced our expenses by eliminating unnecessary subscriptions, tracking our food spending habits and the most major change was me quitting my job. For over a decade I had been working as a courier which required me to drive over 200 miles every day for work. I spent over $600/month in gas alone. Not to mention, being on the road much of the night and day caused me to waste so much money on fast food and snacks.
I found another job that was similar to what I was doing but the great thing is that this company provided the vehicle, paid for the gas and offered benefits that I was not getting before as an independent contractor. It sounded like the perfect transition. Me quitting my old job saved us over $1000/month in expenses (gas, food, car maintenance). Unfortunately, this new job was not all it was cracked up to be. The health insurance “benefit” was astronomical, the vehicles were not well maintained, the neighborhoods I was expected to deliver to were unsafe and the company was extremely disorganized.
If I hadn’t been on FIRE, this probably would’ve been an extreme disappointment and upset to our finances, but because of the reduction of our expenses, it was actually a very soft blow. When my husband and I realized that me rushing to find another job wasn’t necessary I felt such a huge sense of peace, calm and happiness! For the first time since I was 14 years old, I was not working and it felt amazing.
I had been so used to being “busy” all the time working split shifts. I’d leave the house at 9am and wouldn’t be done work until 10pm. It’s only now that I realize that I was truly caught in the rat race! I was literally working night and day just to be able to afford to work night and day….wow!
Since quitting almost a month ago, I have been able to provide my husband and I with healthy homemade breakfast, lunch and dinner; tend to some much needed decluttering of our home; while casually doing Uber or Care.com assignments to pay for a couple of the household expenses. The most amazing thing that has happened is that I have been able to take my time to intentionally decide what type of job I want to do next.
I was beyond excited when I heard about Treehouse and even more ecstatic when you guys said you were offering a scholarship. The chance to have a career and not just a job is something I didn’t think would be possible for me without a college degree. Please keep me informed about the application process because I would love to apply! I know that this is something that I will excel in.
Thank you so much for all the amazing content you share with us! You guys are setting the world on FIRE! Keep up the great work!
Listening to this episode, I really got a chance to think and apply it to my life story. I am 24 (graduated in 2011/2015 high school and college respectively) and have been in the work force ever since. In high school I was afforded the opportunity to take community college classes throughout my high school career at the expense of my summers, and in tandem with my volleyball extra curricular’s, I was able to graduate college in 4 years with my masters.
Utilizing many vehicles that I both new and didn’t understand yet, I was able to wiggle my way into this situation debt-free. In hindsight it’s easy to say yes I did this smart, I knew to do that, etc, but in reality it was hard work (working 40 hours a week, playing D1 volleyball, and going to school full time) and not for the faint of heart.
Listening to this episode, I am thinking to myself… maybe its time to get out of the rat race and start to become financial independence since I worked so hard to put myself in this situation – why continue to work so hard? Why not work harder to not work so hard? Thanks for the thought-triggering podcast! I am a huge fan.