Welcome to the bigger pockets money podcast show number 272 finance Friday edition where we interview have you and talk about where to direct your investing focus.

So that leads me with 1300 left over and I'm just trying to understand what would be the best place for me to put that if I wanted to retire or not even retire just be financially free and let's say 15 years or something like that.

Hello, hello, hello, my name is Scott trench and with me as always is my sunshine in her pocket co-host Mindy Jensen.

What a glowing introduction Scott.

Yes, Mindy and I are here to make financial independence less scary less just for somebody else to introduce you to every money story because we truly believe that financial freedom is a table for everyone no matter when or where you're starting.

Why does this switch of room make me so giggly?

I don't know but it's your sex should out.

Whether you want to retire early and travel the world go on to make big time investments in assets like real estate or start your own business will help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way so you could launch yourself towards your dreams.

Mindy, I am so excited to talk to have here today here.

I think he's got a phenomenal background and story. I think obvious a big follower of Dave Ramsey and what I think we kind of unpacked is that if you are going to follow the baby steps of Dave Ramsey and you're going to pay, you know, be completely diverse.

Pay off the mortgage first before kind of really committing heavily to other types of investments build out that year long emergency reserve kind of follow those those steps.

I think it changes the math on how other types of investments may make sense or be prioritized.

For example, maybe it makes more sense to become an entrepreneur earlier if you have such a strong financial base and make a median upper middle class income with that.

Maybe that's a path to explore more heavily than someone who's investing in real estate and earning, you know, a much higher income and trying to get the maximum returns on each dollar of cash flow invested.

And so I think that that was an interesting discussion and potentially a new framework to put into some folks minds and put a bug in their ear.

Yeah, I really like the different opportunities that he has available and because he has kept his debt non-existent, he has no debt other than his mortgage because he has a handle on his expenses because he is spending less than he earns.

He has a lot more options than somebody who has a lot of debt credit card debt student loan debt, you know, whatever kind of debt they have somebody who is in a different financial position doesn't have as many options as he does.

Another thing we talked to after we stopped recording, we talked to him about finding what his bare bones numbers are and that is something that I would suggest anybody listening do.

If you are looking for your emergency reserve fund, what is your bare bones amount of money that you need to live your life, your mortgage, your utilities, your food budget, how like if you're cutting out restaurants,

you'll need a little bit more in groceries, but not as much as if you were going to restaurants as well. There's a whole lot of things involved in this, but finding out what your bare bones, bare bones budget needs to be is really enlightening for all the opportunities that it opens up once you know your numbers.

Absolutely. I think that that's critical in figuring out how much emergency reserve you really need and being really comfortable with that and there's a huge psychological impact of that in terms of your tolerance for risk and those types of things.

Our Mindy before we bring in Javier our attorney makes me say the contents of this podcast are informational in nature and are not legal or tax advice and neither Mindy nor I nor bigger pockets is engaged in the provision of legal tax or any other advice. You should seek your own advice from professional advisors including lawyers and accounts regarding the legal tax and financial implications of any financial decision you contemplate.

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