Justin grew up without a lot of money in a small town. His parents divorced when he was eight, and his mother eventually quit her job to attend school. Necessity is the mother of invention, and a year of no income led to some very creative ways to squeeze more value out of every dollar.
This “invention” stayed with Justin for his entire life, and he applies it to every facet of his finances. From his very low rent (in a high rent area) to his ridiculously low grocery bills to collecting travel rewards points, Justin gamifies every cent he spends.
Today we hear how Justin actually made money from his college scholarships and military stipends, how he negotiated a smoking deal on his rent, and how his five tenets of grocery shopping pay off.
Justin calls this “the lazy path to financial independence,” but really he’s just being incredibly efficient with his resources.
If you’re looking to cut expenses, listen to this show with a notepad handy.
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In This Episode We Cover:
- Justin’s journey with money
- The idea of squeezing the amount of a dollar and cutting something out of your life
- Joining the military through the ROTC program and getting free tuition from the government
- What a career starter loan is and what his decision-making process was
- What his position looks like after going to college
- The moment he got serious about creating wealth
- The reason he is still very unhappy after achieving his goals
- The first investment he made
- His expenses
- How he lived on $24,000 a year in Boston
- What’s inside his sacred freezer
- The importance of getting to know your specific local grocery store
- His commandments on groceries
- On saving $69,000 a year
- Investing in real estate
- On retirement
- How he found his apartment
- And SO much more!
Links from the Show
- BiggerPockets Forums
- The FI Show
- FlyToFi Show
- BiggerPockets Money Podcast 26: Graduating College on Track for Financial Independence with Cody Berman
- BiggerPockets Money Podcast 71: 5 Years to Financial Freedom Through Real Estate Investing With Sarah P.
- Mr. Money Mustache
- BiggerPockets Money Podcast 03: Cutting Your Grocery Bill in Half with Erin Chase from $5 Dinners
- BiggerPockets Money Podcast 57: Financial Freedom, House Sitting & Travel Hacking With GoWithLess
Books Mentioned in this Show
Tweetable Topics:
- “Wasteful wasn’t just inconvenient, wasteful is dangerous.” (Tweet This!)
- “There was never a good debt story.” (Tweet This!)
- “Loans that you don’t take out aren’t necessarily a bad thing.” (Tweet This!)
Connect with Justin
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1 Comment
Great stuff, how refreshing, I like his honesty and respect his ability to save, and he really isn’t lazy but very detailed and organized and knows his total spend each month. Food is probably the hardest thing for me because I love it, and I’m thinking about it all wrong.
I need to simply my meals and start utilizing my freezer. I really don’t use my freezer for anything but frozen vegetables/fruits and ice cream:) Thanks for having Justin on as a guest. He still lives a great life in Boston while still saving a huge amount of money. If he can do that in a place like Boston, anyone can apply similar principles in lower cost markets.