I got a job with a local newspaper that was paying basically nothing. And then I got laid off. And all of a sudden, my student loans had ballooned up to $33,000. I was out of work. I was on unemployment. That was terrified. So I decided that then and there that when I got a new job, I would figure this whole money situation out. I was going to make a budget. I was going to figure out how to pay off my debt so that I just wouldn't ever be that

terrified with money again. And I kind of made making money and paying off my debt my entire

hobby slash personality.

Welcome to the real Estate and Financial Independence Podcast.

I'm your host, Chad Carson.

You can also call me coach, and this is a show all about helping you get out of the financial grind so you can do more of what matters.

Whether your first-time listener or a long-time listener, it's always an honor to have you

back for another episode.

The title of today's episode is how Budget Girl paid off $30,000 of debt and bought two rental properties while on a low-income.

This is an interview with a fellow YouTuber friend of mine named Budget Girl, and who goes in the real world by Sarah Wilson.

And this is really a story of two parts.

Part one, Sarah graduated from college and had student debt of about $30,000.

And she had a really uphill climb.

I've had a journalism career where she was not making as much money as she had hoped.

And also had some challenges with losing a job earlier in her career and not being without work for a period of time and just having that insecurity and that desire to pay her debt off.

And so she talks about that journey and using creativity and side hustles and frugality and fun frugality

to make that work. But then once she got her debt paid off, she also transitioned and got

the bug for real estate investing, in particular house hacking. And so we talk about her duplex deal. She lives in College Station, Texas, where Texas A&M University is. And so she bought a duplex, moved into one side, and we talk about the details, how does she get the loan, how does she buy it, how does she come up with the money to buy it, whether the numbers, the rent, etc. And then she's also recently gotten into the Airbnb game with a really interesting twist. She has a trailer that she's remodeled. And this is like an RV pull behind kind of trailer. And she's renting that out Airbnb. And there's some good and there's some bad with that. So we talk about the numbers. All about the numbers today, as you would imagine from Budget Girl. It's just a really good conversation that I think you'll enjoy with the numbers of her deals and her real estate deals and also just her story, which is very inspiring. Now, before we get to the interview, it's time for my weekly behind the scene segment where I share a short snippet of what's going on with me and my real estate investing, finances, or business behind the scenes. And so this week I thought it would be

appropriate since I'm interviewing Budget Girl to talk about budgets. Now, before you leave and

pause this or fast forward, budgets are kind of like talking about taxes, right? Who wants to talk

about that? But I want to mention that if you want to make progress with your business,

if you want to make progress with real estate investing or progress financially towards

...