{"id":107330,"date":"2019-02-11T00:02:20","date_gmt":"2019-02-11T07:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/renewsblog\/?p=107330"},"modified":"2023-04-26T22:44:33","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T04:44:33","slug":"biggerpockets-money-podcast-59-playing-fire-scott-reickens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/biggerpockets-money-podcast-59-playing-fire-scott-reickens","title":{"rendered":"Playing with FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) with Scott Rieckens"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Scott Rieckens<\/strong> was raised in a Navy family. He lived on base and often shopped in the commissary. It gave him a rather skewed sense of what things actually cost. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fast-forward to adulthood. He <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">knew<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> he should be investing, but he wasn\u2019t sure what to do exactly. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With no outstanding consumer debt, he was ahead of his peers. But his savings rate was miniscule. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both he and his wife were contributing to their 401(k) plans\u2014certainly a good move. However, they were missing out on some pretty massive growth by investing in a money market account instead of the stock market.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then one day\u2026<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scott queued up the latest Tim Ferriss podcast episode. He heard a story about how a guy and his family lived on around $25K a year. The guy was from Colorado and called himself Mr. Money Mustache. And just like that, Scott&#8217;s life was transformed.<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"\/renewsblog\/2016\/03\/28\/financial-freedom\/\" target=\"_blank\">Financial freedom<\/a> became his new passion. Although it took some time to get his wife on board, they\u2019ve now completely reset their lives. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019re looking for ways to talk to your spouse about financial freedom, THIS is an absolute MUST-LISTEN episode!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here<\/a>\u00a0to listen on iTunes.<\/p>\n<h2>Listen to the Podcast Here<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"200\" scrolling=\"no\" src=\"https:\/\/playlist.megaphone.fm?e=BIGPOC2595496728&#038;light=false\" width=\"100%\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Read the Transcript Here<\/h2>\n<div style=\"overflow-y: scroll; max-height: 400px; background: #eee; padding: 20px; border: 1px solid #ddd;\">\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Welcome to BiggerPockets Money Podcast, Show Number 59, where we interview Scott Rickens from Playing with Fire.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i> \u201cI just thought, let\u2019s focus on happiness because I don\u2019t think my wife and I are very far off as far as what our real goals are. What our happiness list is. Let\u2019s start focusing on that instead of saying, hey, you\u2019ve got to stop spending money. Because that\u2019s not fun\u201d.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>It\u2019s time for a new American dream, one that doesn\u2019t involve working in a cubicle for 40 years, barely scraping by. Whether you\u2019re looking to get your financial house in order, invest the money you already have, or discover new paths for wealth\u2019s creation, you\u2019re in the right place. This show is for anyone who has money or wants more, this is the BiggerPockets Money podcast.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>How\u2019s it going, everybody? I\u2019m Scott Trench and I\u2019m here with my co-host, Miss Mindy Jensen. How are you doing today, Mindy? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Scott, I am doing fantastic. I am super excited to listen to another Scott. It was nice to be one-third of the show that isn\u2019t Scott on today\u2019s episode. I\u2019m really excited to hear Scott\u2019s story. I mean, I\u2019m excited to share it with everybody because as you said a moment ago, his story is so great because it isn\u2019t exceptional. That doesn\u2019t mean that it\u2019s boring. It means that it\u2019s relatable. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It isn\u2019t some random thing that he like won the lottery in order to get to where he\u2019s at. He did what everybody else has done\u2014stop spending so much money. Start saving more money. And look, you can watch your savings grow. You can literally watch your net worth get better and better and bigger and bigger simply by doing these same things that are relatable and repeatable that Scott shares in this episode today. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Yeah, I love just how deep he goes into his mindset and how his living paycheck to paycheck lifestyle on two median salaries was frustrating for him and he felt like he wasn\u2019t getting ahead or getting a new life. And then just how he nurtures his passion for FIRE once he discovers it and how he brings along his family and how they kind of assessed all of the options. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I mean, it\u2019s just a fantastic story for anyone looking to make a change that maybe needs to get a spouse on board or need to kind of weigh and figure out all of the soft and hard costs of aggressively pursuing this thing we call FIRE. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Yeah, this is an excellent episode for anybody who like you said, needs to bring their spouse on board. This is a very common question that I get over and over through e-mails and the forums and on BiggerPockets, BiggerPockets.com\/forums if you have a question, is how do I get my spouse on board with investing in real estate or how do I get myself on board with pursuing the financial independence and its lifestyle. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Scott gives really great ideas and idea isn\u2019t the right word\u2014his story is a perfect way to introduce this to your spouse. And he takes it and instead of framing this in a confrontation manner, he frames it more as a question with his spouse. What is it that you want out of life? And if you\u2019re having struggles with convincing your spouse to even just look at this idea, this episode is one that you need to listen to and one that you need to listen to with your spouse.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>And what\u2019s shaping up to be what we think is an awesome documentary called Playing with Fire that will be released to the preliminary audience a few weeks after the show, our episode of the podcast here is released. And then look for it some time in early March. It\u2019s Playing with Fire. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Yeah, that\u2019s going to be a really awesome show. I would like to point out that my husband\u2019s in there. I don\u2019t know how much of the actual movie he gets into but in one of the trailers I saw, I did see the side of his head. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Yeah, he\u2019s famous now. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>He\u2019s going to be famous. Okay. Before we bring in Scott, let\u2019s hear a note from today\u2019s show sponsor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Taking financial risks might make sense at the time, but when they turn into big mistakes, we end up stressed and scrambling. Being good with money in and adhering to processes can be tough, especially if you\u2019re running a business. For business owners, it\u2019s important to avoid financial mistakes in a simple accounting solution like FreshBooks can help. FreshBooks is a cloud accounting software that ensures your financials are properly tracked, organized, and your business is compliant come tax-time. Here\u2019s how FreshBooks helps.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>First, it keeps you organized with smart and simple time-tracking for you and your team. Second, when it\u2019s time to collect, you can create and send super polished invoices in about 30 seconds or less. It lets you record and organize expenses with a tap of your mobile camera and finally, it gets you paid in a snap by accepting credit card payments directly on those invoices. <\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>Best of all, FreshBooks keeps you compliant with helpful reports you\u2019ll need for tax season. Right now, we\u2019re offering our listeners a free 30-day trial of FreshBooks, no credit card required. Go to FreshBooks.com\/BPMoney and enter BiggerPockets Money into the \u2018How did you hear about us\u2019 section.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Okay, huge thanks to the sponsor of today\u2019s show. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Scott Rickens from <i>Playing with FIRE <\/i>documentary, welcome to BiggerPockets Money podcast. I am so excited to have you on the show today.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, thank you, guys. I am so happy to be here. I am an avid listener of the show and I am not just saying that. I really love your show and all of the guests that you have on. It\u2019s like, hanging out with our friends. So thank you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>I love hearing that. Thank you for listening. Okay, we can just sit here and thank each other forever. But let\u2019s not do that because that\u2019s not exciting for anybody but me. Why don\u2019t you walk us through where your journey with money begins?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, so I had an interesting upbringing. I was raised in a Navy family. I\u2019m a Navy brat. So I grew up primarily on Navy bases. What\u2019s interesting about that is everything is a little bit cheaper. The government subsidizes the Navy Exchange and the Commissary, which is our grocery store. And the Navy Exchange is our mall. So I grew up in kind of exotic areas. I was in Hawaii. I was in Puerto Rico. I was in Washington, D.C., Virginia Beach, San Diego. Those last couple weren\u2019t very exotic but you get the gist. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Sometimes, specifically in Puerto Rico, primarily I was in my teenage years and I was really\u2014the memory was starting to take hold and I was starting to notice things and apply things. That\u2019s where the lessons were coming in. That was kind of an isolated area. We didn\u2019t leave the base very often and when we did, because I was young, I couldn\u2019t drive or anything like that. So we would just kind of stay on base. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So that was like the beginning of me understanding money and starting to earn money. I used to go off the back deck of our house, which was on the east shore of Puerto Rico, and go spearfishing for lobster because our neighbors would have a lot of people coming in to visit because they were in Puerto Rico and you have a place to stay. And they would hit up me and say, hey, Scott\u2014I need four lobster tails for tomorrow\u2019s dinner. And I would charge ten bucks a tail and I\u2019d go out and I knew all the little spots and I\u2019d go snorkeling and spearfishing for lobster. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So that\u2019s like how I first started making money. I was thinking about this the other day and I realized that no wonder I\u2019ve always chosen jobs that were fun, because I could never go back from that, snorkeling for money. So I set a dangerous precedent early, early on. But I also realized that by living on these military bases, I had sort of a warped view of what things cost. And then from there, we moved to a small town in Iowa. And again, the cost of living was cheap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so the cost of living in general has always been a bit warped for me. Then I met my wife. I got into my earning years. I met my wife and we ended up down in San Diego. I think that whole upbringing and that lack of awareness with cost of living really sort of supported this lifestyle that my wife and I started going down. And I\u2019ll get into why hers did the same in a different way. But in my case, it was let\u2019s go move wherever we want. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We would go on vacation and we\u2019d hang out at this place and go, I just want to live here. And then we\u2019d go, why don\u2019t we? And that\u2019s actually what brought us to San Diego, was we wanted a place that had a healthy economy and a place where we could really earn good money and have opportunities but we also wanted a sort of vacation lifestyle. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And after doing some research, we found a little island called Coronado off the coast of\u2014off the downtown skyscape of San Diego was perfect. It\u2019s close to this major metropolitan city and it\u2019s still an island vacation home and it happened to be a place that my dad worked way back in the day, with the Navy. So it\u2019s kind of always been a second home. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So we just said, sure. Let\u2019s do it. And the reason why Taylor felt that way is because she grew up in a little bubble herself where\u2014she grew up on this little island community outside of Seattle and just never really had to pay attention to money. Her family wasn\u2019t wealthy beyond belief or anything. They got there really early to this little island community when there weren\u2019t a lot of people there and they ate cans of beans to be able to afford this little lake home. That\u2019s what they tell us, anyway. But she never was in wont of anything. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Between the two of us, we both came to this head of let\u2019s just do what we want. It\u2019ll work out. And that\u2019s what got us to San Diego. So fast forward six years, we moved here at the very bottom of the market in 2011, 2012 when everything was kind of at its bottom as far as real estate goes and rent had taken that huge hit. It was just at the bottom. So cost of living when we got here wasn\u2019t insane yet. But fast forward six years and this city has absolutely exploded. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We\u2019ve come out of that recession. And the lifestyle creep had continued. The cost of living was increasing. I had up until that point always brushed aside the idea of personal finance or learning about investments as, that\u2019s a whole Master\u2019s Degree in and of itself. There\u2019s a bajillion books out there about it. I don\u2019t know which one to read. I tried <i>Rich Dad, Poor Dad<\/i>, I didn\u2019t seem to get too much out of that. I felt like I basically was making the excuses on not investing my time into fixing this problem that I was feeling\u2014and seeing\u2014but really, feeling, which was, we\u2019re never really getting ahead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so my money journey but to reaching the point where I learned about FI, I think I covered that pretty well and I was driving to work one day still feeling that stress and anxiety and lack of knowledge which turned into like guilt and self-loathing and all kinds of interesting, terrible things. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I was listening to a Tim Ferriss podcast because I was hooked on podcasts that were talking about startup culture or how to accelerate or optimize. Because I was trying to come up with a million-dollar idea as my way of fixing this issue. Instead of looking at our savings rates, I was looking at how much more I could earn to fix the problem. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I was driving to work and I heard Mr. Money Mustache come on the Tim Ferriss podcast and it\u2019s about a 15-minute drive to work and it\u2019s about 15 minutes into the podcast. I pulled over, found an excuse to be late to work, and listened to the whole thing. And that\u2019s where I found FI. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>So that\u2019s awesome. By the way, that\u2019s a great podcast that everyone should go check out. It\u2019s Tim Ferriss and Mr. Money Mustache. Going back a second, can you give us a little picture about the nuts and bolts of your financial situation over the six-year period? Were you earning a relatively high income, a relatively low income, or were you accumulating consumer debt? What did that kind of look like?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, so my wife and I never accumulated consumer debt. We were very, very fortunate. Our parents had instilled one very important rule into our brains which was always be able to pay off your credit card. Use them sparingly and don\u2019t get into that kind of trouble. But I did have student loan debt. Taylor had a little bit when I met her but she paid it off pretty quickly. She had some scholarships and did really well on paying them down. She\u2019s very astute at those types of things, just generally keeping the house in order.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">For me, I had racked up quite a bit more student loans because I didn\u2019t have the scholarships. So I had about $36,000 in student loans coming out of college. And up until about two years ago, I was still paying those down because I only paid the minimums the entire life span of that loan until the last payment. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So between that, car loans, or lease payments, and we never had a mortgage. So it was just car loans, student loans, and then like a perpetual credit card monthly payment, that was our debt story. So we were very fortunate on that front. We never got ourselves into any significant debt to have to crawl out of\u2014that said, we were always living primarily paycheck to paycheck. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We did a couple of set it and forget it things really early on where we knew that 401Ks are something you should do. That was the extent of our knowledge. You should do that. Okay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Did you do that?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>So we did that and we would set that up. So that was something that we were growing our net worth to some extent early on from the start of our careers. And I think in the last five years or so before finding FI, we had opened ROTH IRAs and tried to max that out while we had the money to, which was rare. I think one year, we did. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so, yes. We were definitely starting to fund our retirement accounts lightly. But other than that, we were living paycheck to paycheck. We were finding ways to spend the rest of our money in lavish and exciting ways for a good solid decade together.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>And it\u2019s always easy to find a way to spend that money. I mean, there\u2019s always something you could buy. So what was your income? Do you remember what your actual income was? What was your savings rate\u2014you said that you knew the 401K was something you should do. Were you doing the bare minimum to get the company match or not even that, or you were funding it completely?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, so my wife was funding her 401K to the max because there was a company match. And I had never actually had the ability to do a 401K so it was always Taylor doing the 401K because I had been an entrepreneur for about eight years and when I found FI, it was about six years. And so I never set up a solo 401K or a IRA or any of those options. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So yeah, she would always fund those. I know the numbers in 2016\u2014we made a combined $142,000. And we spent $132,000 of that. That does include us putting money into that 401K. But that worked out, I believe to about an 8% savings rate. And that was a good year. That was a fantastic\u20142016 was like our peak earning year at that time. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So right out of college, I made $28,000 a year. I think my wife was a little bit higher than that. And then we progressively stepped up over the years. We would move around and figure something out or get a promotion or whatever. So we were always growing our earning potential. But yeah, it accumulated to about $142,000 in 2016.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>So you\u2019re in this position and you discover this Mr. Money Mustache podcast with Tim Ferriss. What is it about that situation that was so revealing to you, or eye-opening? You\u2019re saying that this life, you were feeling like you were getting stuck and not going anywhere in your life. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ll let you take it from there. You kind of get what I\u2019m asking.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>I think I do. And that\u2019s going to put a nice bow on this. So, you know, if you hear that story, you hear well, Scott, you didn\u2019t get into incredible consumer debt and you guys did save 8% in 2016. These aren\u2019t terrible situations. But what was happening was, it was this constant force of opposition, kind of the dark side. It was kind of like, the Death Star was just always looming in the background where the cost of living was continuing to rise around here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We had talked about never having a mortgage a little earlier. San Diego, the real estate prices here have just completely skyrocketed to astronomical numbers. And there are still areas where the homes are in the $500,000-$600,000 range. But typically, those areas are not the nicest neighborhoods. And in late 2015, we had our first child. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so that was becoming increasingly important to myself and my wife that we live in a neighborhood that feels safe. We got school coming up in the horizon. We needed\u2014we liked the idea of having a solid public school system because if you go private here, that\u2019s another salary we\u2019d have to go find. This is what I\u2019m saying, is that it wasn\u2019t so much that we were in these dire straits and I found this thing that just became a huge epiphany and I took a hard 180. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And yet, it was because we were looking out into the distance and I was saying, this isn\u2019t sustainable. We\u2019re living in an unsustainable lifestyle. The only way that this gets better is if I earn significantly more. And for me, the reason why I pulled over to the side of the road is because I didn\u2019t feel like I had any more to give. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I felt like every day, I was getting up, I was going straight to Starbucks and picking up a high octane grande cold brew and a sandwich so that by the time I got to work, I was already fueled up and ready to go so that I could get a solid eight to ten, eleven hours in before I headed home. And by the way, work had cold brew on tap, which I continued to sip through the day. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I was just constantly wired to try to do the best job that I possibly could and then get home and hopefully have a couple of hours max with my new baby, my wife, our friends, all the things that you try to fit in and then it\u2019s rinse and repeat. It was like, oh man, and by the time you get to the weekend, you don\u2019t feel like doing anything. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so, for me, when I was hearing his depiction of his own life where he was casually getting up and hanging out, maybe going to do this and that and hanging with his friends, a lot of community involved in his conversation and I thought man, I missed what I was looking for. I missed those days where somebody would just knock on the door to see if you were home. That wasn\u2019t happening where we are. It\u2019s a big city and everybody\u2019s so busy and we were so busy that we weren\u2019t inviting that community in. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so, I think in some ways, I had felt like that sort of childish wonder and that childish optimism that I think a lot of us start out with. I felt like it had slowly been shipped away with all these obligations and burdens and this 9 to 5 thing. It\u2019s not that I don\u2019t like to work. I love working and I love the creative process and I actually really liked my job. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It was just the earning that I had to do to meet the demands of our lifestyle that I wasn\u2019t even sure that I liked. Because I just never felt right. So that was where the epiphanies were happening for me. It was really less about the numbers. It was more about the emotion of it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>It sounds also that like when you used the word unsustainable as one of the key words I kind of picked up on or how you were feeling about your life, and it seems like basically what I\u2019m gathering is, you were optimized to the full extent on the income side. There wasn\u2019t really\u2014you were already working 11 hours a day and giving it your sweet best efforts. So it\u2019s like, how do I actually earn more money? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That seems very difficult from where you were sitting originally. You\u2019re not a business owner, it sounds like, at the time. So how do you earn way more money? I don\u2019t know. But that\u2019s where Mr. Money Mustache kind of came in and said, here\u2019s a part of your, a piece of the puzzle to your financial equation that is completely under your control that you can kind of go after and fix. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, I suddenly realized that that savings rate was the million-dollar idea. That by hitting that savings rate as hard as I could\u2014and that was the one thing I could control. I didn\u2019t need to listen to another Tim Ferriss podcast. I could just go and dive into this FIRE lifestyle and see what they have to say about cutting our expenses and how this whole thing worked and how on earth are you retiring at 30? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">That was fascinating to me and so I stayed up until 4:00AM sometimes. I had to hit the cold brew a little harder but it was worth it. Everything takes effort. You still have to work at it and so I was working at this new thing. But oh my gosh, the flood gates opened. It was like, I was so excited. And yeah, so that was the beginning of our personal finance journey, our money story. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">It was hearing that podcast and then immediately diving in. And then I really respond to Pete\u2019s writing. I get his sort of jokey, sort of irony style and also, he\u2019s just an incredible writer. So it was just really enjoyable to just really dive in. I felt like he was spoon-feeding me all these things I should have been learning my whole life in nice little compact blog posts. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I got so hooked on it that I was looking for other material that he was participating in. As a video producer and a content producer, I explore all kinds of mediums. So it was podcasts, it was blogs, it was what\u2019s on YouTube? And I was finding little bits and pieces and that led me to Brandon over at the Mad FIentist and Paula Pant and all these amazing people within the FIRE community. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And he\u2019s giving me suggestions on books. I don\u2019t think I read a book for five years and all of a sudden, I\u2019m reading J.L. Collins\u2019 <i>A Simple Path to Wealth, <\/i>breezing through it and thinking it was such an easy read and thinking well that\u2019s the only investment book I\u2019m going to need. I\u2019m just going to have to go pay that forward. But when I got to the YouTubes and realized that there wasn\u2019t a whole lot to check out and going on the financial independence subreddit and there was actually a thread like, what are some good personal finance documentaries? And everybody was like, there really aren\u2019t that many. Minimalism is kind of close. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I was like, hmm, this is what I do. Hmm, this would be a really cool way to get to know these people because I\u2019m sitting over here, listening to all this stuff and consuming this and going, I want to be friends with all these people. They sound amazing. How do you do that, you know? I remember the first idea I had was, at one point in time, Pete had mentioned in a blog post that he liked San Diego and I thought, I could offer my place to him. And I came into Taylor and I was like, I found this guy online and I think it\u2019s really cool that dah dah dah, and I was thinking maybe we could invite him down and we could go get a hotel locally and let him stay at our place. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And she\u2019s looking at me like, this is a terrible idea. You\u2019re going to freak him out before you start. And I was like, yeah, you\u2019re probably right. Oh, my gosh. Maybe I\u2019ll just make a documentary about it. Maybe that will get me in the door. Be careful what you wish for. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Well, let\u2019s tie it into this. It sounds like you sparked the idea and you immediately dived in and consumed lots of content on the subject and completely immersed yourself in it. What actions did that look like when it comes to actually taking control of your personal finances? Did you start tracking them? Did you start to put the spreadsheets together? Did you use Mint? Did you make any changes in the expense side? What did that look like?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, so for me, I\u2019m not an Excel spreadsheet guy. I\u2019m not a math guy. That\u2019s not how the brain works for me. I\u2019m on the creative side over here. Hitting the easy button is the best way to get started for me on this front, so I went straight to Mint. I had already been feeling this for years so I had a Mint account set up. But it did me no good because I never had a long-term goal associated with what we considered at the time pure and utter deprivation. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">What do you mean I can\u2019t go to sushi dinner? What do you mean\u2014what are you talking about? What do you mean we can\u2019t go to this vacation? No. Let\u2019s just keep doing that. We\u2019ll figure out another way. We had this lottery mentality. Things will work out. So I went back to the \u2018easy\u2019 button on Mint and really just started formalizing Mint a little bit. I got in there and really made sure expenses were being pointed to the right topics or trends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I remember thinking, this feels like a very overwhelming task. How far back do you go? And there\u2019s a lot of data here and I\u2019m not a data guy. And so I thought, let me just give it a three months\u2019 combover. I just went through and filtered three months\u2019 worth and I thought, that will give us a decent picture. And that\u2019s something I recommend to everyone, if you\u2019re just getting started, is get on Mint. Hit the \u2018easy\u2019 button. Find a good, solid financial tracker like Mint. There\u2019s a couple of others out there but I think that\u2019s one of the easiest. And just give yourself three months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I\u2019m actually doing this with my parents right now. Kind of like holding my mom accountable and she doesn\u2019t like it. And it\u2019s been an interesting little ride. Just go back three months. It makes it easy and it makes it something that you\u2019ll actually do. When I got in there, I saw things I didn\u2019t like. And that happens. And so I was kind of on that journey on my own. I hadn\u2019t really brought Taylor into this fold quite yet. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I had started to pass some links to her and I would e-mail her some things and particularly, Mr. Money Mustache posts and a couple of podcasts. You know, I would ask her about it kind of casually afterwards. And you know\u2014because I was nervous. I was nervous to bring this stuff up to her. I wasn\u2019t the only one spending money in the house. We had had somewhat of a contentious relationship with money up until that point. There was nothing broken but we also weren\u2019t working on it in any way, shape, or form.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And there was definitely plenty of times where I could recall some kind of argument or fight happening, not knowing how to process or deal with those things. I\u2019m not even sure what my stance on the argument was and then we just kind of brush it under the rug. That felt a little bit better and we didn\u2019t want to be fighting with each other.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I had no incentive to be bringing it up to her yet. I wasn\u2019t prepared. I kind of\u2014I think I was lucky in that I was \u201csavvy\u201d enough to see that upfront. That this was a big idea. And I had a feeling that this was my ticket out of here to move. That was something I had been feeling like I wanted to do for a long time. So I took it slow. So that was my first item was get on Mint, go back three months, check out what\u2019s going on there. Lick your wounds. Get over it. This is your reality. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Did you share this spreadsheet or your spending tracker with your wife? Did you show her what you had been spending and go, hey, let\u2019s go look at this and see how this works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>No, I didn\u2019t. I didn\u2019t bring that up right away. Like I said, I sent her some links. I was kind of dabbling in that. She wasn\u2019t really responding to it and so I was just thinking, how on earth am I going to do\u2014I remember running down the boardwalk and I was listening to a podcast, as I love doing, and I remember hearing on The Mad FIentist, he was talking about how\u2014he was talking about the relationship with his wife and how he and Jill had gone back and forth. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">She knew that he was into this stuff. He wasn\u2019t really into it. He never really demanded that she come into the fold. Somehow come around and she had written him a little on his computer and it was this beautiful, heartfelt letter about like how she had suddenly had this emotional connection and an epiphany to why this was so important to him. She sort of was like inviting him to let her come on board and to start this with him. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And I remember just like\u2014oh, man. That was a big one for me. I was really into that episode and I loved it and I took a lot from that. Which was, okay, this is something that isn\u2019t necessarily immediately apparent to everyone. Which is actually something Taylor said to me later on, which was, well if this is so amazing like this, why isn\u2019t everybody doing this? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so I think that was kind of in her head. So I got really lucky one night. I had this one idea, let\u2019s just write down a list of things that make us happy. And let\u2019s start with happiness. I had just gotten done reading <i>Happiness is the Only Logical Pursuit<\/i>, which I think is my favorite blog post by Mr. Money Mustache, of all time. And I just thought, let\u2019s focus on happiness because I don\u2019t think my wife and I are very far off as far as what our real goals are and what our happiness list is. Let\u2019s start focusing on that instead of saying, hey, you\u2019ve got to stop spending money. Because that\u2019s not fun.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Here\u2019s the other thing. My wife, she works really, really hard and she\u2019s really worked hard to get to where she is. And so, to tell her that she can\u2019t spend money anymore, it\u2019s kind of like, I didn\u2019t even feel right about that. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s how you should go about talking about money and going, okay\u2014this is the thing we need to do. Let\u2019s rah rah around this thing that we need to do. And it\u2019s like, well no, you\u2019re telling someone how to live and then you\u2019re suggesting that you cut back and cutting back isn\u2019t fun until it is and that\u2019s a journey to get to that point, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Luckily, I was smart enough to say, let\u2019s just write a list of the top ten things that make us happy on a weekly basis. And that\u2019s what she did. In fact, I suggested that to her and it just happened to be on an afternoon or an evening when we didn\u2019t have a lot going on. I ran up and took a shower and came back down and she had done the list. She had already written this thing. I was like okay, that\u2019s great. I don\u2019t even have one yet. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So I\u2019m a processor. That\u2019s a vastly humongous question. So I had to take a couple of days and then we went to a park or something and just sat down and just kind of revealed it. So my wife\u2019s list was very simple. It was, have coffee with my husband. And cuddle with my baby. And read her a book to go to sleep. And have dinner with the family. And I really like coffee and I really like chocolate. I really like wine. And go for a walk. So it was like, exercise, family, community, friends, and wine and chocolate. Pretty much. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I said, look, the only things that I see that costs money on this list are wine and chocolate and I think that\u2019s really interesting. And the other thing that I saw on this list is the beach and we are spending astronomical amounts of money to live next to this beach. So how important is it? It doesn\u2019t even cut the top ten. And that was the first time that I started framing what would inevitably be my pitch to how we would approach this. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>So I love that you reframed the discussion and I think this is really important because this is a question that I get a lot in e-mails from people who are listening to the show, even on the bigger pockets forums. How do I convince my spouse? And sorry, ladies, but it is typically a man asking this question. How do I convince my wife to come on board? And I really like how you reframed this whole discussion from confrontational, you have to stop spending money. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Well, who wants to hear that? Nobody wants to hear that. They want that to be their idea and if you\u2019re telling me to stop spending money, you\u2019re not the boss of me\u2014I\u2019m going to go spend more. So I really like how you changed it from this confrontational demand to more of a questioning, hey, what does your ideal day look like? You said you were working 8, 10, or 11 hours a day\u2014were you working 50-60 hours a week? And how much time was your wife spending at work before this whole thing?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, so we both were probably burning the midnight oil about that much. I would say 50 hours is probably an average. That would fluctuate quite a bit. Being in video production, you have sort of your normal 8 to 5 or where you\u2019re kind of getting stuff prepped and you\u2019re doing sales and you\u2019re meeting clients and you\u2019re pitching ideas and all that stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And then when you get into production itself, that can sometimes be a one or two-day blitz or a two-week blitz. You might be in town and it might be kind of an easy day or you might be on the road and you\u2019re actually putting in 15-16 hour-days. You\u2019re getting the most out of that day, going to sleep and getting right back on the train.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Not to mention travel, not to mention lugging around 12 Pelican cases that are 60 pounds a piece. Sometimes we\u2019d be in rural Alabama and be like, 110 degrees and humid. Oh, man. It\u2019s a young man\u2019s game and I was getting a little older and feeling it a bit. So Taylor, on the other hand, she\u2019s in recruiting and she\u2019s a commissioned salesperson. And if never ends. You just have to keep picking up the phone. You can\u2019t just rest on your laurels with that type of job. So yeah, we were both feeling pretty tapped on that front.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>So we heard what was on Taylor, your wife\u2019s list. What was on your list?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>So I remember when I heard her list, I just thought like, I knew I loved you but this is a beautiful reminder because my list was so similar. You know, there\u2019s some man stuff on it like going fishing and playing competitive sports, stuff like that. But I mean, it was pretty much the same thing. Exercise, family, have a nice coffee, having a couple of bears. You know. Just real simple stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And outdoors was really a focus for me and it was very in line. And that makes sense. We got together in the first place. We had similar interests and similar values. And really similar goals. But we hadn\u2019t spent a lot of time really focusing on that stuff. It\u2019s like, you fall in love and then you get together and then kind of day to day goes by and the next thing you know, it\u2019s ten years later and you have kids and you have jobs and you\u2019re trying to make it all work. That\u2019s insanely hard, especially with kids. My goodness. That\u2019s a whole another ball game. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so we had an impression of that, already feeling a bit trapped. And then we had to add the kid and it\u2019s a whole another animal, literally. You\u2019ve got an animal in your house. What am I going to do with this animal?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Once you kind of compared these lists, did that help you get on the same page with pursuing the goal? What did that conversation look like once you had it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>It was the beginning of our discussions with this stuff and I remember about a week after that discussion\u2014well, in that discussion, I very candidly pointed out the beach isn\u2019t on the list. I want you to strongly consider living around here. I think up until that point, Taylor\u2019s idea was, we\u2019re staying in Coronado. We\u2019re never leaving. This is my forever home.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And after that discussion, she was open to going on Zillow and checking out various neighborhoods in the San Diego area. Which was a huge win for me because up until that point, we weren\u2019t leaving. We weren\u2019t leaving this island, and this island is like getting to the point where a lot with a tear-down home that you literally cannot live in, may be condemned, is $700,000, $800,000, $900,000. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And that was at that time. I think it\u2019s even worse now. And those prices are in like this one corridor where traffic is insane and every single day, military traffic is coming on and off the island and there\u2019s no quality of life in that little corridor. So the odds of us being able to afford a place was low and if we were able to afford it, it would be the money pit. It would be like, we were working to live and so thank God that was the start of that, to say maybe we can go off the island. Maybe we can go across the bridge and look at some other stuff.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">In the meantime, I was trying to find material, media that I really thought might resonate with Taylor because what I sent her up until that point really hadn\u2019t quite hit her. She didn\u2019t really respond to Pete\u2019s sort of abrasive, jokey kind of style because she felt a bit judged. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">She hadn\u2019t come through that journey that I had already and I had a little bit more callous on me than she did on that front, so that just didn\u2019t resonate with her and I was like, well, why not? It just made a lot of sense and a few others just didn\u2019t quite hit and it wasn\u2019t until I found\u2014it was the episode, the pillars of FI on Choose FI with Brad and Jonathan. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I sent that to her and she was driving up to L.A. for work and like, once she got up there, she sent me a whole list of notes. She called me and was like, I get it. This was amazing. I can\u2019t believe\u2014that\u2019s when she said, why isn\u2019t everyone doing this? And I was like, oh. We got something here. Okay. And from there, I sat back for about a couple of weeks, maybe a month and let her kind of go on her own journey. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I would continue to share stuff that I found inspirational. She took a deep dive and found her own stuff, her own voices and we took a little pause together and I didn\u2019t want to push anything because I knew this was going to be a full-on reset and those should not be approached lightly. So that\u2019s how we kind of got started after that list.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>So how long after you asked her to make that list did she discover the Choose FI episode?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>I would say that was within a couple of weeks. It was really right off the bat. Once the list happened, everything sort of kind of started to fall into place. Once she heard that episode, then it was okay, I felt comfortable sharing Mint. Now we can talk about what\u2019s really happening here and starting to share ideas and go, let\u2019s talk about this together. Can we make it work here together?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And then it\u2019s not me saying, it doesn\u2019t work. It\u2019s us coming to the realization together that it\u2019s going to be a hard life. It\u2019s going to be a long working life to stay here. And then we started looking outside of Coronado in other areas because we were thinking about buying a home. I had done a lot of research on the real estate side. I was very, very interested in getting into real estate, had been for many years, never felt like it was possible. Now at least I felt like it was possible because we could explore places in San Diego.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And that was a very painful journey. Taylor was still breastfeeding, which was a whole career in and of itself. She was still working her career. She was stressed. And all of a sudden, we\u2019re going around looking at real estate. She doesn\u2019t really want to leave the island yet but she likes the idea of retiring early. And she ended up getting shingles. And you can get that from stress. That can present itself from sheer and utter stress. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So we hit a stress point that was really high, really early. For me, that was an indication that A, we needed to be more careful, pull back. Let\u2019s stop this whole real estate hunt. That\u2019s not important right now. But it was also an indication of, I don\u2019t think this is working. Because we weren\u2019t finding things that we were happy with on the other side of the bridge because the cost of living here is still high. The price of homes are still high and the lower the price, the worse the neighborhood is, as if all real estate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So, it was getting to the point I think where she had to kind of hit rock bottom to be open to a new way of life. And what we had realized was that the top three\u2014house, cars, food\u2014they were the problem. And we couldn\u2019t just move down the street to fix the house issue. Because we lived over here on this island, we needed two cars. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And then food prices, just going to Von\u2019s or what would be the equivalent of a SafeWay or a Hi-B or wherever you are in the country, a big supermarket, was still really expensive. And we were trying to ween off of the pretty expensive restaurant habit. And so those were the three big things. We started with food and that fell pretty easy. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And suddenly, we had a little bit of a win. Okay. We have stopped eating out. Okay. I\u2019m starting to make breakfast burritos in bulk and taking them to work. That\u2019s saving me a ton of money because now I\u2019m not spending $6 a morning on a sandwich at Starbucks. And that was something I realized suddenly was we needed some wins. We needed some validation that we could do this and that it would work. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So that was like the beginning. It was like okay, we\u2019ve got this under control. We\u2019re saving $600, $700, $800 bucks a month just by making these small changes. That\u2019s going to make a big difference because now we had this calculator we could put this through, which was, what\u2019s that going to equate in ten years? If we take that same amount of money and we invest it and it grows, what\u2019s that really mean to us? We had never put that money through that kind of filter. It had always been, can we afford that thing? Do you have the money? It\u2019s in the bank. Yes, you can. Right on. That was our life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And now, it was. Can you afford that thing? Well, it\u2019s not about what you can afford, it\u2019s do you even want to give up that freedom on the back end? How much further away will you be from that goal? That really is the carrot. The thing about FIRE that I absolutely love the most is there\u2019s no better pitch. It\u2019s like, would you like to get rich and gain all of your freedom back and be happier and less stressed? Yeah? Oh, okay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Well here\u2019s the thing. I don\u2019t think you can beat that. So yeah, that was our first win and that\u2019s when we started looking at, I think my wife started becoming more open to okay, well if we move to a place where you don\u2019t need the cars\u2014and remember, walking and exercise and stuff were on the happiness list\u2014maybe we can downsize. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Maybe we can design a life where we only need one car. Or at the very least, let\u2019s get cheaper cars. My wife was leasing a brand new BMW. I was leasing a brand new Mazda, which I thought was super frugal and awesome. We were financially illiterate and we had a lot of undoing to do. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>So what does that look like? How did you resolve the housing and transportation sides of the expense category?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>We were bike-riding to Jovi\u2019s first swim lessons and I had started to dabble in the idea of turning what would eventually be a move away from California altogether into an adventure. And I had started to seed that idea into Taylor\u2019s mind. And she wasn\u2019t having it. She wasn\u2019t interested. But I kept doing it because I knew at the very least, the one hook could be an adventure because she is adventurous since she likes those types of ideas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I kept seeing that and I just thought, you know, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s working. And we\u2019re riding our bikes and it\u2019s like 10:30 in the morning, in Coronado it\u2019s 72 and sunny. It\u2019s the most beautiful day. We\u2019re going by the marina over to the public pool that is like the most epic public pool ever to bring our daughter to her first swim lessons, which is kind of an iconic moment in your life. And I\u2019m on a high. I mean, I\u2019m on a life high. And I thought, I don\u2019t really want to leave here either. This is so wonderful. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">You know what? Maybe she\u2019s right. Maybe we can figure this out a different way. Maybe we can hit our savings rate real high but just know that housing is going to be tough. Maybe I can still find that million-dollar idea for earning. This is going through my head. And Taylor, who\u2019s in front of me. She goes, you know what we should do? We should just get an RV and we should just drive around the country. And that would be really fun. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">What? Huh? I couldn\u2019t believe it. It was like I\u2019m almost to the point where I was about to give up and then she comes through. Oh, my God. So that afternoon, I am not making this up\u2014there was an RV show at Qualcomm Stadium where the Chargers used to play, in the parking lot. And I said, great. Let\u2019s go have some fun. So we went and we looked and we shopped RVs and stuff and I\u2019m on this huge high. Pretty soon, we realized we didn\u2019t want to live with a toddler in an RV and that would be a bad idea.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But that opened up the first spreadsheet I ever created, was I created a budget for six months to go around the country and to check out these various cities that I had already done a ton of research on that had lower cost of living and all these different tax structures and all on the West Coast with a sizable airport next to it. Good population. All of these things I wanted. And I thought, it\u2019s time to learn a little spreadsheeting. And I did that. And I got in there. I got my hands dirty and I created a budget with the RV and without the RV.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And it actually worked out to be fairly similar if we could get decent rent prices and just drive ourselves or fly ourselves. It wasn\u2019t that much of a cost savings. You think, in your head, if you get an RV and travel around and then you\u2019re avoiding rent but it didn\u2019t really shake out to be that. And I think the happiness factor was also something to be very aware of, was living in an RV with a toddler\u2014that might be a little too extreme when you\u2019re already trying to shift your life around completely.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Living in an RV sounds great when you\u2019re not living in an RV. My parents live in an RV and it\u2019s real small when there\u2019s more than zero people inside. And I know that I am going to get a ton of e-mails from people\u2014I live in an RV and I think it\u2019s awesome. Good for you, I\u2019m not moving in with you. But you know what? If you want to live in an RV and that\u2019s what you want to do, that\u2019s what makes personal finance so awesome. It\u2019s personal. I am not ever going to live in an RV but I can see the appeal.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">You keep saying, \u201cHere on the island\u201d\u2014do you still live there? Where do you live now?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>No. So I had that list and I showed Taylor this budget and I realized with that budget, I actually put it against our current spending, and I had never done that\u2014I even set up, I knew that if we lived in a different place, we would save money. I hadn\u2019t actually done the numbers on what kind of impact it could make. And by her turning around and saying, maybe an RV, I fell off my bike. And then going through that, having that budget, I suddenly realized, if we go on an adventure for a year and I quit my job\u2014and I can freelance, because I know a lot of people in the industry and I can pick up a job here and there\u2014and you can continue to work. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Taylor works remote and we always knew we had that option\u2014if we did this, we would save, I think it was something like $60,000 over the course of the year and then I started plugging that into the retirement calculator. And that\u2019s me freelancing. That was me taking like half-time off. I only have to earn half of what I\u2019m earning now, and I think I can do that. And it was such an epiphany of like, we are spending so much money. And if we just recalculate this life, we can start enjoying it so much more, work so much less, spend so much more time together. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Even going on the road, which kind of sounds like an undertaking. It actually ended up being the catalyst. It was a convenient catalyst to say, let\u2019s just pull the ripcord. Like really, we\u2019re driving eighty miles on the freeway. Pull the ripcord and let the parachute just take you out of that car, off that freeway and somewhere else. And that\u2019s what we did. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Once we kind of came to that decision together, it was like, I couldn\u2019t believe it. And I am a very impatient person when I have a good idea and I want to see it come to fruition. I already know what it\u2019s going to look like. Let\u2019s get there. So this was\u2014we made this decision in May and I remember Taylor said, when do you think we would move? And I was like, June? I\u2019m ready. Let\u2019s go. She was like, you are on crack. That\u2019s not a good idea. Come on, now. Come back down to reality. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And she said, let\u2019s do December. And I thought, I can\u2019t live with that. I just, no way, no how. I\u2019ll go nuts. It\u2019s like putting a rat in a cage kind of thing. So we settled kind of right in the middle and said August 1. And that ended up being the right move. Thank you, Taylor. And so we started getting our house in order and figuring out how we\u2019re going to do this and putting the plans in place. And then we wanted to go check out these various cities. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We had boiled it down to Boise, Idaho, Spokane, Washington, Reno, Nevada, Bend, Oregon, and I always forget the last one. I think the last one was just kind of rotating. It was just kind of like maybe this or maybe that or maybe this. It ended up coming down to those four places and we started going around. We had already lived in Reno so we kind of already knew what that was about, which was why it was on the list. But our adventurous souls\u2014we didn\u2019t want to go back to a place we had already been. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We wanted a fresh start. We went to Spokane, Washington, and it\u2019s a great place. It was definitely contending. Boise, we never ended up making it to Boise because on our journey up the coast, we stopped in Bend, Oregon and within an hour of arriving\u2014and on the way in, you\u2019re going, what is this place? There\u2019s something magical and weird about this place. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And then you roll in and you see Mount Bachelor and The Three Sisters and Broken Top and they\u2019re all like snow-covered on the tops but you\u2019re in like high desert, 75 degrees. There\u2019s craft breweries on every corner. There\u2019s people walking around with kids and it was like, where are we? And we walked through what\u2019s called Drake Park next to the DeShoot\u2019s River which was this beautiful river that\u2019s super fresh water that runs right through the middle of the town. And it was like, I don\u2019t really want to go anywhere else.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>But there\u2019s no coffee or wi-fi in there.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, I know, right? Wow, we gotta go. See you later. It\u2019s not going to work. Scott, that was the first epiphany that we had when we got there was, Taylor realized that there was life outside of Coronado. That there was other places that had walkability and casual lifestyles and a good feeling when you were there. Thank God we hit that first. We didn\u2019t have to go through this pain of, we don\u2019t like this for this reason and getting all picky and weird about it. It\u2019s just like, we fell in love with it right away. It made that journey that much easier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>And Bend is less expensive than San Diego.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Absolutely. Yes. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Okay.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Perfectly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Well, I want to stop there and make a point. Actually, the house I live in now, I\u2019ve lived in for five and a half years. Before this house, I have never lived in a house for more than five years and I probably have a skewed few of moving because, I\u2019m not an Army brat or a Navy brat but a corporate brat. We just moved around a lot and I think a lot of people had this upheaval sense that, oh, I\u2019m leaving everything I learned, everything I know. It\u2019s okay. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">There\u2019s airports that will take you back to where you grew up and there\u2019s the internet. It\u2019s this new thing where you can do Skype calls and you can still stay in touch with people even though you don\u2019t live next door. And frankly, how often are you seeing those people that you live next door to when you\u2019re working 80 hours a week trying to afford the house that you can barely afford because it\u2019s so expensive. What did we say on the real estate podcast, Scott? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Within a two-hour drive of any major metropolitan area in America, there is a more affordable place. I mean, what\u2019s a two-hour drive? If you could live within two hours of San Diego and still see all your family\u2014and it doesn\u2019t sound like your family actually lives there, anyway. It\u2019s just a nice place to be. You can still go visit San Diego. They have airports there, too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>That\u2019s right. That\u2019s right. We weren\u2019t literally leaving our friends behind. And we didn\u2019t see them all that often anyways, which sucked. I mean, we would have loved to. Even if we freed up our time, they\u2019d still be running around as busy as they are\u2014and that\u2019s the other thing about a place like San Diego, too, is there\u2019s actually so much to do. There\u2019s so much going on at all times in these metropolitan areas.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">What we did is we designed it where, we wanted to find a place between 150,000 and 200,000 in population. Because oftentimes, in that type of setup you\u2019ve got enough people where there\u2019s a lot going on\u2014well, I shouldn\u2019t say a lot. But enough going on that you feel like there\u2019s a nice variety and you\u2019re getting some culture and some arts and some of that fun stuff. But it\u2019s small enough where it feels like you know your neighbors and there\u2019s a sense of community and people look out for each other.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And what\u2019s really great about it is oftentimes, there\u2019s one obvious event that\u2019s happening in a smaller town that everybody wants to go to instead of a place where there\u2019s a major metropolitan city where there\u2019s 15,000 things that you totally want to go see. Which also is a problem because, now which things should I go to? Not to mention, are our friends even interested in coming because they\u2019ve already got plans to go to this other thing? It\u2019s like, it\u2019s a fundamental shift in the way we live by just yeah, making a small choice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">By the way, I must caveat about this because I\u2019ve gotten in trouble with this before. We could have found a place outside of San Diego that we could have lived that would have saved us money. And it is possible to live a FIRE lifestyle in a high cost living area or in the surrounding areas of a high cost living area. I know that. But as you said earlier, the FI journey is all relative to each individual and it\u2019s flexible.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so this is my story of what I\u2019m talking about. This is all relative to what we wanted, what our goals were, what our tastes are, what is important to us, what our happiness was. And in that context, we made the choice to leave. So I just want to throw that in there as a caveat and not get into too much trouble over here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>I think that\u2019s a great point and I think that\u2019s a great story. I think this move has resulted in you being able to accumulate more assets and build that net worth and move towards financial independence. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, here\u2019s a secret that my director from the film would be upset if I told you\u2014we have effectively doubled our net worth in a little less than two years. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Whoa.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>There you go. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>I mean, we\u2019re on a fast track and it\u2019s been hard. It really has. There\u2019s been a lot of struggles. There\u2019s been some pain. We didn\u2019t get it all right every time but anything that\u2019s worth doing is going to have some obstacles. It\u2019s going to have some pains and some learning. You\u2019re going to have failure to succeed. Those things are going to happen. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I mean, I can tell you unequivocally that none of it was scary enough not to start. 100%. And we ultimately don\u2019t regret a thing. I mean, there\u2019s definitely things that we would have done differently. There\u2019s different choices we would have made but if we hadn\u2019t made bad choices then we wouldn\u2019t grow from them and we wouldn\u2019t be getting better at this. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Well, you mentioned it. Let\u2019s talk about it. What is this film, for people who don\u2019t know?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Oh, that thing? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>This little thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, that little thing. It\u2019s called <i>Playing with FIRE<\/i>. It is a full-feature length documentary that we made that covers one family\u2019s journey on a path to FI, which happens to be us. And we also get to go out and meet many of the influences in the FIRE space. I like to call them friends in the FIRE space. And meet the community that makes up this wonderful framework\u2014whatever this is, a movement, a framework, an idea. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The coolest thing about this and why I think it was important to make something now is that it feels it was at a tipping point. It feels like it\u2019s starting to become a part of the zeitgeist. We\u2019re still naming it. We\u2019re still figuring out what everything is. And that makes it interesting. It\u2019s fluid. It\u2019s volatile. It doesn\u2019t always make sense. There\u2019s all kinds of stuff going on and that makes it a really interesting story. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So we try to get out and meet as many of the folks that we possibly could that would give us the kind of access necessary to tell us a compelling and entertaining story. So that not only can we try to dispel the myths of the FIRE movement. You hear this stuff all the time and you get the Suzi Harmons of the world and what not. I hate even mentioning that there because that was probably part of her goal. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">But you just see a lot of articles, a lot of naysay, saying if you retire too early\u2014blah blah blah, you kind of address all of those things. And the idea was, if we can share this framework and this world with as many people as possible then we can at least do our part to pay it forward. One, two\u2014we can really liberate people who are feeling the same struggles that Taylor and I were. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And then three, we can have something for this amazing community that hopefully they can use as a calling card and they can use to point to and say, see, we\u2019re not crazy. This is what we\u2019re doing. It makes sense now, right? Like, it\u2019s not about spreadsheets. This is about happiness. This is about time. This is about freedom. So that\u2019s what we set out to do and we are so close. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I am actually talking to you today from Coronado, believe it or not, and I am getting in a car and driving to L.A. tonight to meet up with the editing team and Travis, the director, and we\u2019re going to work on the final finishing touches and we\u2019re hoping to picture lock in the next couple of days. So we\u2019re getting very, very close. Very close. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Nice. So if I\u2019m listening to this show and I\u2019m anxiously anticipating it\u2014do you have any type of semblance of a time when I may be ready to check my calendar and mark it off?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yeah, we are gunning for some time in March. We are hoping that, first and foremost, there is an amazing kickstarter campaign that we ran and we had an overwhelming amount of people come in and support that. So I think there\u2019s about 800 that backed that level that gets the movie early. And we\u2019re hoping to deliver that by mid to late February. So we are within a month of that link going out to those folks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">After that, it\u2019ll be about a month or so in between and we\u2019re thinking mid-March to late March of 2019, we will be getting it out into theaters and putting on some sort of screening tour and kind of rallying the troops and making it an event and making it fun. But our hope is to release it theatrically through\u2014it\u2019s a theater crowdsourcing platform, Tug. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And essentially, if you want to see the film come to your town, you can become an admin and we can help support the marketing of that and they can also maybe hit up all of their friends and get some word of mouth marketing going. And if they meet the minimum threshold of tickets then the theater will open its doors to that group and play the movie. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So it\u2019s a really cool way for us to not have a million-dollar Hollywood budgets to open it up to thousands of theaters and instead, let the people who want to see it bring it to their town and that way, we\u2019re being a bit democratic about it. And that\u2019s the U.S. distribution plan as it stands today, early on. And in the meantime, there\u2019s some interesting little tidbits there. We submitted it to Hot Docs, which is a crazy name for a film festival but apparently it is like the world\u2019s foremost documentary film festival up in Toronto. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">So if that happens, the way film festivals work is they have people who are buying stuff and looking for movies to put on platforms, so that could be an interesting twist to get it on Netflix early or Amazon or one of those types of platforms. And then eventually, no doubt about it, we\u2019ll have it on iTunes and Vimeo as what they call Video-on-Demand. So we can at least get it out to any country around the world that has that ability to get on those platforms. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And then at that point, we\u2019ll start looking at international if we need to but as you can hear, one thing leads to another thing leads to another. We\u2019re not quite sure how the dominoes will fall so we\u2019re sort of ready for any sort of way it will go. But our ultimate goal is to get this thing in front of as many eyeballs as we possibly can after we pay for it. We just need to pay for it. We just need to pay for the darned thing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Pay off the movie and then help to change as many lives as possible and make sure they\u2019re aware of financial freedom and a way to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Exactly. Yep.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Awesome. And I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t say that we had the opportunity to write a book about this story as well, which I didn\u2019t see coming but as a journalism major, I was pretty excited about it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>What do you have there? Is this a copy of the book? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Well, maybe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b><i>Playing with FIRE<\/i> by Scott Rickens. Wait, that\u2019s you. Tell me about the book.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>So the book is just a little more in-depth look because you make a movie, the analogy I like to make is we\u2019ll go and sit down with our favorite human beings, these influencers that changed our lives. We\u2019ll have these two hour-long epic conversations and like five minutes of that will get into the film. You really have to break it down to try to fit in as much of that story as you can.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And so, with the book, we had a little bit more of an opportunity to get more in-depth into Taylor and I\u2019s story, into these influencers about how they influenced us. And we tried to write like what my editor called a financial memoir, essentially. It\u2019s more about an emotional journey than a how-to of what it feels like to go through this. So for anyone who\u2019s nervous to get started or doesn\u2019t know how to get started, sort of has heard of FIRE, has heard of personal finance but doesn\u2019t really know how to begin.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">The idea was that we can get them sort of emotionally ready and maybe inspired on that front and give them some framework on who they should be paying attention to and how we did that, how we put that into sort of an action plan without getting into too much detail. It\u2019s a beginner\u2019s guide.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b><i>The Beginner\u2019s Guide to Playing with FIRE<\/i>. Where can I get this, besides already in my hands?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>It\u2019s on Amazon. It\u2019s on Barnes and Noble, Hudson Books, a lot of those types of places. The audiobook will be hitting the internet any minute now. It says it\u2019s pending in the backend, so I\u2019m waiting for that to hit. And I had the fortunate ability to work with Pete, Mr. Money Mustache, on the foreword of the book which is so beautifully written, we almost just scrapped the whole book and just printed that. Talk about a humbling moment. He actually just sent me his audio version of the foreword so I\u2019ll be uploading that to the audiobook so you can hear it straight from the man himself.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Oh, that\u2019s awesome.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Love it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Okay. Well, Scott, this was fabulous. I\u2019m so excited to hear your story and I\u2019m so excited because I really love how you got your wife on board and I love how you just changed your whole mindset and it wasn\u2019t this huge mountain to climb. Like hey, I was not making massive mistakes but I certainly wasn\u2019t furthering myself down the path. And then I changed it up and now I\u2019m here. I\u2019ve doubled my net worth in two years. That\u2019s pretty amazing. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Thank you so much for taking the time to share your story with us. And now\u2014we\u2019re not done yet. It is time for the <i>Famous Four<\/i> questions. These are the same four questions that we ask all of our guests plus a demand at the end. Are you ready?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>I\u2019m ready, I think.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>What is your favorite finance book?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>My favorite finance book, because I\u2019m only through two chapters of\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b><i>Set for Life<\/i> by Scott Trench?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>It\u2019s an amazing book.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>It\u2019s a great audiobook. The narrator just has such a smooth and wonderful voice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>It\u2019s fabulous.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>It lulls you into inspiration in ways unprecedented for. <i>Set for Life<\/i> excluded, <i>The Simple Fact of Wealth<\/i> by J.L. Collins\u2014if I didn\u2019t say that book, he would have had eaten me for breakfast. I would hear about it. For anyone who knows him, I say that lovingly. And also because that really is a book I wish I had found so much earlier on in my life\u2019s journey. I think it\u2019s one of the easiest reads to quickly understand how the markets work and gives a really good pitch for how to passively invest your money in the stock market. So I highly, highly recommend that book, as most people in the FIRE community do. And as my favorite. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>I\u2019ll chime in. The narrator of that book, Mr. Collins, actually does have that smooth intonation voice that\u2019s very incredible. So definitely consider checking that book out in Audible or thinking about reading it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Yes, if you\u2019re going to consume that information, having Jim read it to you is the best way to consume that. You know his voice. He was on Episode 20 of our podcast and he\u2019s like James Earl Jones or Barry White with this really deep, smooth, amazing voice.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Love it. What was your biggest money mistake, do you think?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Okay. The person will not be named in this conversation, but we found out while going through this journey that while we had been putting money towards a 401K, we didn\u2019t know where that was invested and we didn\u2019t really know what we were doing. I mean, honestly, like I said earlier\u2014we were like, okay, we\u2019re putting money towards a 401K. We\u2019re good. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">We found out that it had been invested in a money market while we had the most unprecedented rise in stock market value in our lifetime and that hurt to find that out. That was a big mistake not to pay attention to that early. But as I say, that\u2019s on cost fallacy. That\u2019s the thing, right? You can\u2019t go back and dwell on that. You have to go forward and make the changes you can make today so that\u2019s what I tell myself as I cry myself to sleep. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>I just love that you\u2019re saying, hey, we made $142,000 one year and spent $132,000. But my biggest mistake is an opportunity cost from investing. I think that\u2019s really a wise and remarkable thing to say.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Well, thank you so much. I\u2019m going to take that to heart. I\u2019m going to write that down in my inspiration wall. I think that\u2019s the right way to think about it, though? All of the other decisions were probably dwarfed by failure to invest optimally. It all boils down to getting started in that savings rate. But actually completing the journey comes down to investment approach. It\u2019s a great point.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Yep. What is your best piece of advice for people who are just starting out?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Oh, man. There\u2019s a lot of really good tidbits. The one that just comes to mind, I would say is, try to frame your decision-making around happiness. That will get you so much further. Because it\u2019s very easy to get harder on yourself. This process, this FIRE framework, it\u2019s simple. And that\u2019s what I love about it so much. I think that\u2019s why it\u2019s catching on so well. It doesn\u2019t make it easy, right? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I think what makes it easier is continuing to focus on happiness. Start diving into that. I hadn\u2019t even asked myself really, what made me happy. I just kind of thought I instinctively knew. And happiness in and of itself is a lifelong pursuit and a journey you really need to go down and you tend to. So I highly recommend\u2014here\u2019s another little tip. I highly recommend creating a personal mission statement. J.D. Roth has a excellent post on this where he pulls from a bunch of different sources and he kind of gives you a framework. I did that.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I even went as far as kind of creating my own, which I\u2019ll post a blog about as well for those who are interested. Because as an entrepreneur, I had written three or four mission statements for businesses and they are hard. They take time. And they\u2019re very important and they\u2019re very valuable when you get them right. I just couldn\u2019t believe I hadn\u2019t done one myself and I was like, come on, take care of yourself first, right? <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">And the rest will follow. So I think having a personal mission statement makes it much easier to understand what guides you, where your happiness will lie, and what your goals should be. And I think putting your decisions, especially about money, through that framework will always help. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>All right. We\u2019ll go onto the last question. And the most difficult one. What is your favorite joke to tell at parties?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Okay, full disclosure. I looked this up on the internet and I found this one. This is my favorite. I don\u2019t tell jokes at parties like this. Though you guys and this whole segment\u2014you\u2019ve almost convinced me otherwise with the ridiculous hilarity that ensues with the backend of these episodes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Okay, are you ready?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Yes.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>All right. I\u2019ll see if I can do this right. Here comes the delivery of a lifetime. A blind man walks into a bar and a table and a chair\u2014all right. I got some laughs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>So, a deaf bear walks into a store and he\u2019s trying to buy a pair of scissors. So he takes his fingers and he makes the scissors sign, this little click, click, click, click. And the clerk sells him\u2014gets it and finally gives him a pair of scissors. And everyone\u2019s wondering\u2014and I\u2019m wondering if you can guess how the blind man is going to communicate that he would like a pair of scissors to the store clerk. Do you guys know?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Nope.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>He says to the clerk, I\u2019d like a pair of scissors. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>I like it, I like it. Such a repertoire. You even pulled the joke from the exact same topic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>You set me up. You set me up. I had to pull that one out. I felt obliged to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>You are a national treasure.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Don\u2019t encourage him, Mr. Rickens. Okay, from HonestlyMom on Twitter, her four-year-old\u2019s favorite joke is, why don\u2019t dinosaurs take a bath? Because they\u2019re dead. Which I thought was really cute. Plus I want to give her four-year-old a shout-out. I don\u2019t know what your name is, little four-year-old, but HonestlyMom, thank you for sharing your four-year-old\u2019s favorite joke.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">My daughters have been giving me a ton of jokes so on upcoming episodes, if our guests does not have one, my daughters will share them for you and they\u2019re pretty awful, so Scott Trench will probably love them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Perfect.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Okay. The last of our <i>Famous Four<\/i> is a demand. Tell us where people can find out more about you.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Yes. You can find out more about me at PlayingwithFIRE.co\u2014that\u2019s .co. We\u2019re on Twitter actively, Instagram most of the time, and Facebook hardly ever. But we are on all three of those platforms and that\u2019s where you can find us. You can always reach out to us via e-mail. <a href=\"mailto:hello@playingwithFIRE.co\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">hello@playingwithFIRE.co<\/span><\/a>. And every week or two, I go through that list and I respond personally to everyone. So that\u2019s where you can find us.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Wow. Clear out your inbox because you\u2019re about to get swamped. Okay, Scott Rickens from <i>Playing with FIRE<\/i>, the movie, the book, the website, the Twitter, the Instagram, everywhere. <i>Playing with FIRE<\/i>. Thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your story. This was hugely helpful. To me, I love being able to direct people, places where they can start their journey and this is an excellent overview of yours.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>Thank you guys so much for having me. It\u2019s an absolute honor and I love what you guys are doing. Keep it up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Same!<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>I love what you\u2019re doing. Keep it up. Let\u2019s hang out.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Yeah, we\u2019ll hang out. Let\u2019s do it. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>All right, I\u2019m coming to Denver.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Woohoo! We\u2019ll be here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>All right, that was Scott Rickens from <i>Playing with FIRE<\/i>. Mindy, what\u2019d you think?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Oh, my goodness. I cannot say enough good things about Scott. I love his story. I love his ability to tell it in a really relatable and a really interesting way. I am in this space. I\u2019ve been in this space for five years now and like we said in the beginning, what\u2019s so remarkable about this story is that it is not remarkable at all. There is no secret sauce to this financial independence dream. You can do it. Make more money, spend less money, increase your savings rate. Over and over again, we hear the same thing and it\u2019s just prood that it works.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott Rieckens: <\/b>What I thought which was really wonderful about the way he presented that was he didn\u2019t come on here and say, this is the right away to do things. We should do it this way or we should do it this way. He came in and said, here\u2019s my story. Here\u2019s how I felt about something. Here\u2019s the options that were presented to me. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">I blew my mind when it was a possibility. Here\u2019s how I decided to pursue it and here\u2019s all the emotional reasons why I went ahead and made these major changes to the most important things driving my financial opposition so I could live this life. And I think that\u2019s like a really powerful way of communicating all of this stuff. It\u2019s something that you can relate to and understand. Sometimes I\u2019m guilty of thinking, this person is not behaving very efficiently in pursuit of financial independence. But you don\u2019t get that from Scott at all, right?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Yeah, and something that came up after we stopped recording but before we said goodbye to Scott completely is that this whole entire journey was two years long. Almost two years to the day that this episode releases is when he heard that first Mr. Money Mustache episode of the Tim Ferriss podcast. And this is even more mind-blowing, the fact that he did this, is the fact that he did this in two years.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Yeah. It\u2019s such a repeatable scenario for you if you\u2019re anywhere close to the same situation, both working full-time jobs in any city and feeling like you\u2019re not getting ahead. There\u2019s no point to what you\u2019re doing. There\u2019s no\u2014you\u2019re not happy or you want to make a change. What he did\u2014his thought process, how he brought his spouse along. All that stuff, are, I think really good nuggets of wisdom to think about applying it to your own life.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>I absolutely agree. So if you are new to this journey. If you know somebody who is new to this journey. If you know anybody who is having a difficult time convincing their spouse to get on board with them, please share this episode with them. You can find it at BiggerPockets.com\/MoneyShow59 and it\u2019s obviously, it\u2019s anywhere they have podcasts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Scott, should we get out of here?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>We should but before we get out of here, just a quick plug. If you enjoyed the show and you want to always listen to BiggerPockets Money podcast whenever we have a new one, feel free to subscribe to us on iTunes, Google Play, wherever it is that you\u2019re enjoying the podcast. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Thank you, Scott.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>Just a little plug there. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>Thank you, Scott. Yes. Please hit \u2018Subscribe\u2019 and we come out every Monday, although every once in a while we have a bonus episode and you will get notification of that if you are subscribed to us. All right. From Episode 59 of the BiggerPockets Money podcast, this is Mindy Jensen and Scott Trench and we\u2019re wishing you BiggerPockets. This signoff is courtesy of Dan, who suggested it to me in private message. You can private message me on BiggerPockets. You can also e-mail me at <a href=\"mailto:Mindy@BiggerPockets.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">Mindy@BiggerPockets.com<\/span><\/a> or Scott at <a href=\"mailto:Scott@BiggerPockets.com\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"s2\">Scott@BiggerPockets.com<\/span><\/a>. You can send the show a note at <\/span><span class=\"s2\">Money@BiggerPockets.com<\/span><span class=\"s1\">. And there we go.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>On that note, I have one more final thing. One of my buddies recently had his ear reattached in a surgery. It was on New Year\u2019s Day, actually, emergency ear attachment. And I remember walking out of there and the surgeon had come out and we\u2019re all anxiously awaiting the news to see how this is going to go. And the surgeon says, \u201cWishing you a Happy New Ear\u201d. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Mindy: <\/b>I\u2019m like, is this a real story, Scott? Or is this some dumb joke?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Scott: <\/b>It was a real story, of course. Anyways. Goodbye, everybody. <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Watch the Podcast Here<\/h2>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Playing with FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) with Scott Rieckens | BP Money Podcast 59\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HhvzUTe_uWU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Help Us Out!<\/h2>\n<p>Help us reach new listeners on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/itunes.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/biggerpockets-money-podcast\/id1330225136\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">iTunes<\/a>\u00a0by leaving us a rating and review! It takes just 30 seconds.\u00a0Thanks! We really appreciate it!<\/p>\n<h2>Podcast Sponsors<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-74647 no-display appear\" src=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/freshlogo-300x225.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" title=\"\">The all-new\u00a0<strong>FreshBooks<\/strong>\u00a0is accounting software that makes running your small business easy, fast and secure. Spend less time on accounting and more time doing the work you love.<\/p>\n<p>For a 30-day unrestricted trial, go to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/freshbooks.com\/bpmoney\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FreshBooks.com\/bpmoney<\/a><\/p>\n<h2>In This Episode We Cover:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Scott&#8217;s <strong>journey<\/strong> with money<\/li>\n<li>How he started <strong>making money<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The advantages and disadvantages of <strong>living in a military base<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The reason he ended up<strong> living in San Diego<\/strong> with his wife<\/li>\n<li>How he discovered <strong>financial independence<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The reason they never accumulated consumer <strong>debt<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>His recommendation on how to <strong>track your spending<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>How he manages his <strong>personal finances<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The steps he took to <strong>convince his wife<\/strong> to pursue financial independence<\/li>\n<li>The importance of <strong>happiness<\/strong> when pursuing financial independence<\/li>\n<li><strong>And SO much more!<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Links from the Show<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/forums\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Forums<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/podcast\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.playingwithfire.co\/the-documentary\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Playing with FIRE Documentary<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/tim.blog\/2017\/02\/13\/mr-money-mustache\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Tim Ferris Show &#8211; Mr. Money Mustache \u2014 Living Beautifully on $25-27K Per Year<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mrmoneymustache.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mr. Money Mustache<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mrmoneymustache.com\/blog\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mr. Money Mustache Blog<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.madfientist.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mad Fientist<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.madfientist.com\/podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mad Fientist Podcast<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/affordanything.com\/podcast\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paula Pant<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mint.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mint<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.madfientist.com\/sane-fientist-interview\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sane Fientist \u2013 My Wife\u2019s Thoughts on Financial Independence<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mrmoneymustache.com\/2016\/06\/08\/happiness-is-the-only-logical-pursuit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Happiness is the Only Logical Pursuit<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.choosefi.com\/021-pillars-of-fi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ChooseFI Episode 21 &#8211; The Pillars of FI<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tugg.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tugg<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/renewsblog\/biggerpockets-money-podcast-20-the-simple-path-to-wealth-index-funds-explained-with-jl-collins\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">BiggerPockets Money Podcast 20: The Simple Path to Wealth\u2014Index Funds Explained with JL Collins\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.getrichslowly.org\/personal-mission-statement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">How to write a personal mission statement<\/a><\/li>\n<li><em>Mindy&#8217;s email<\/em> &#8211; mindy@biggerpockets.com<\/li>\n<li><em>Scott&#8217;s email<\/em> &#8211; scott@biggerpockets.com or money@biggerpockets.com<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Books Mentioned in this Show<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/richdadpoordad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Rich Dad Poor Dad<\/em><\/a> by Robert Kiyosaki<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2Dhq9DY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>The Simple Path to Wealth<\/em><\/a> by JL Collins<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2WMKZEj\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Playing with FIRE<\/em><\/a> by Scott Rieckens<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/setforlife\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><em>Set for Life<\/em><\/a> by Scott Trench<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Tweetable Topics:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;The FI journey is all relative to each individual and it&#8217;s flexible.&#8221; (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22The%20FI%20journey%20is%20all%20relative%20to%20each%20individual%20and%20it&#039;s%20flexible.%22%20BP%20Money%20Podcast%2059%20biggerpockets.com\/moneyshow59%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Anything worth doing is gonna have some obstacles, it&#8217;s gonna have some pain, it&#8217;s gonna have some learning and you&#8217;re gonna have failure to succeed.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22Anything%20worth%20doing%20is%20gonna%20have%20some%20obstacles,%20it&#039;s%20gonna%20have%20some%20pain,%20it&#039;s%20gonna%20have%20some%20learning%20and%20you&#039;re%20gonna%20have%20failure%20to%20succeed.%22%20BP%20Money%20Podcast%2059%20biggerpockets.com\/moneyshow59%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It is not about spreadsheets. This is about happiness. This is about time. This is about freedom.&#8221;\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22It%20is%20not%20about%20spreadsheets.%20This%20is%20about%20happiness.%20This%20is%20about%20time.%20This%20is%20about%20freedom.%22%20BP%20Money%20Podcast%2059%20biggerpockets.com\/moneyshow59%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;Cutting back isn&#8217;t fun until it is.\u201d\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/home?status=%22Cutting%20back%20isn&#039;t%20fun%20until%20it%20is.%E2%80%9D%20BP%20Money%20Podcast%2059%20biggerpockets.com\/moneyshow59%20%40biggerpockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tweet This!<\/a>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Connect with Scott<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.playingwithfire.co\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Playing with FIRE<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/playingwithfire\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scott&#8217;s Facebook Profile<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/playwithfireco\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scott&#8217;s Instagram<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/playwithfireco\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Scott&#8217;s Twitter<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"mailto:hello@playingwithfire.co\" target=\"_blank\">Email Scott<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scott Reickens was raised in a Navy family. He lived on base and often shopped in the commissary. It gave him a skewed sense about money. Fast-forward to adulthood. He knew he should be investing, but he wasn\u2019t sure how. Then, he heard a story about a man who lived on $25K, and it inspired him to change his life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":353007,"featured_media":107485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6473],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biggerpocketsmoney"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/353007"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}