171: Putting Happiness Over a Bigger Paycheck with Brandon Richard Austin

BiggerPockets Money Podcast

BiggerPockets

Investing, Education, Business

4.6 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 15 February 2021

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most people would consider $80,000 a year a respectable salary, but what if you were making that much during college? That’s what today’s guest, Brandon Richard Austin, made in his sophomore year. As a journalism major, he started doing freelance writing work, and a client of his ended up offering him a remote position on the team.

So there Brandon was, making $80,000 a year, working 12 hour days, all while juggling school at the same time. Thankfully, Brandon wasn’t a big spender. He didn’t go out and buy a new car, a new watch, or even move out of his parents’ house.

Brandon was able to start investing in index funds and early cryptocurrencies, netting him some pretty stable returns (at least from the index funds). After completing college and still having a very low cost of living, Brandon asked himself if the job was worth all the stress. He decided it wasn’t and voluntarily chose to take a pay cut to work somewhere else where he was happier and had more control of his work.

Brandon still lives at home and advocates doing the same for people his age. Not having a housing cost (or having very low housing costs) is one of the best ways to put yourself on the path to financial freedom. This low cost of living situation has allowed Brandon to be on the path to financial independence while still valuing his happiness.

In This Episode We Cover

Why many people who grew up frugal feel guilt when spending money
The importance of tracking your little purchases so they don’t add up
Whether or not taking a pay cut is worth less stress/more freedom
Why index funds are such a great asset to hold for the long term
Setting your financial freedom goal and seeing it as a marathon, not a race
Minimizing your housing costs as much as possible (especially when you’re young)
Developing an investment philosophy that speaks to you
And So Much More!

Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/moneyshow171

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the bigger pockets money podcast show number 171 where we speak with Brandon Austin from rinky
0:05.7	Do finance and talk about leaving a high paying job and reaching financial independence on your own schedule.
0:11.7	Don't try to outsmart the market, you know, I know a lot of people they look at market or like you know market movements and hindsight like with Tesla right now for example
0:20.8	They'll look and say oh if I bought here I would have you know made $100,000 and it's very easy to look at charts
0:28.5	You know just the way charts are you can look at them and think that way, but it just doesn't work like that you know
0:33.9	You need to I would say be more practical in terms of and recognize that hindsight is 2020
0:40.7	Hello. Hello. Hello. My name is Mindy Jensen and with me as always is my enterprising co-host Scott trench
0:46.4	Ah, well, you're always just so resourceful coming up with these Mindy Scott and I are here to make financial independence less scary less
0:54.0	Just for somebody else to introduce you to every money story because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone
1:01.0	No matter when or where you're starting. That's right whether you are
1:05.1	Stop saying that's right whether you want to retire early in travel world going to make big-time investments in assets like real estate
1:11.1	Or start your own business will help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way so that you can live life on your terms and pursue your dreams
1:27.2	Scott I am super excited to being branded in today from rinky-do finance
1:31.6	We talked to him about the show name
1:34.1	We get a song stuck in your head if you're from the late 80s and had a babysitting job
1:38.4	And we also talk about reaching financial independence on your own schedule
1:44.1	We discussed leaving a high-paying job
1:46.6	That was really interesting to me that he left a high-paying job and purposely took a lower paying job
1:52.0	Which is something I think a lot of people struggle with
1:54.8	Yeah, I think that it's a
1:57.2	Interesting take-on on finance and something that like hey if you listen to this and you're in the first part of it
2:02.4	You might say oh, yeah, well, I lose this parents they paid for college and so this is a wealth-boating approach
	...

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