331: From Food Stamps to Six-Figure Flips and Debt-Free On a Teacher’s Salary
BiggerPockets Money Podcast
BiggerPockets
4.6 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 29 August 2022
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How would a six-figure side hustle change your financial picture? Think of the possibilities—being able to travel, becoming debt-free, or even buying your dream home. For most Americans, income is capped at what you make through a salary. There isn’t enough time, creativity, or energy left at the end of the day to make more. But, one specific subset of employees does have an upper hand that most people overlook—teachers. With a sizable summer break, teachers can make more than many others, even with their median incomes.
Someone who took full advantage of this lucrative scheduling was Skyler. Skyler was raised in a very frugal household, resorting to food stamps and government subsidies at times. But Skyler was poised to turn a hard past into hard assets and later, financial freedom. He used financial aid to heavily discount his college tuition, rent-hacked (sometimes for free) into his mid-twenties, and thought of every decision as a return on investment.
As he slowly whittled down the debt he had accumulated through school, real estate caught his eye. Skyler not only beganselling homes on the side as an agent but performing live in flips during the off-season of his teaching career. Thisskyrocketed his net worth, debt payoff schedule, and timeline to financial freedom. He’s made so many wise moves that Skyler will soon be saving eighty percent of his income all while living for free abroad!
In This Episode We Cover
Turning frugality into financial success through smart money-saving moves
Student loan payoff and using the “debt snowball method” to become debt-free faster
Live in flips and how to make six-figure, tax-free wealth through this lucrative side-hustle
The true price of adopting a child in the US and why it’s something worth saving up for
Making the most of your median-income job by building wealth in the background
Geographic arbitrage and living for free (and tax-free!) in other parts of the world
And So Much More!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast show number 331 where we interview Skyler and hear how he and his wife |
| 0:06.6 | Use geographic arbitrage and hustle to save 80 to 90% of their teacher salary |
| 0:12.6 | Invest in real estate travel the world adopt two kids |
| 0:16.0 | Basically, he's gonna make you feel like a total slacker, but it's such a great story |
| 0:20.8 | As much as I love my profession. There's a lot of victimhood in it of like I'm a teacher |
| 0:24.9 | I don't make enough so I'm not going to be able to do these things and it's much more of a perspective of you have time |
| 0:30.7 | And what are you gonna do at that time? How do you ever you utilize that's whether it's a second job? |
| 0:35.2 | You're making things with your hands. You're you're doing some type of craft |
| 0:38.9 | I don't know what that is for everybody, but utilizing that hustle and that time to make things happen and to not be afraid to ask |
| 0:45.2 | Questions they don't do a great job teaching you about 457s and HSAs they just kind of throw you it and say here's your pension |
| 0:51.2 | We have a pension to fall back on to when we retire and that's like our safety safety net |
| 0:55.1 | And so really asking questions and and then utilizing that time that you have these probably the biggest steps |
| 1:00.7 | Hello, hello, hello, my name is Mindy Jensen and with me as always is my total slacker co-host Scott trench |
| 1:05.8 | Hey, I'm not a total slacker. Do you save 80 to 90% of your teacher salary invest in real estate travel the world and adopt two kids? |
| 1:12.4 | I do invest in real estate with me as always is my kind of slacker co-host Scott trench |
| 1:18.9 | Scott and I are here to make financial independence less scary less just for somebody else to introduce you to every money story |
| 1:27.6 | Because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone no matter when or where you're starting |
| 1:33.3 | That's right |
| 1:33.8 | Whether you want to retire early and travel the world going to make big-time investments in assets like real estate start your own business or |
| 1:39.6 | Achieve financial freedom with a low-income job like teaching will help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way |
| 1:44.9 | So you can launch yourself towards those dreams |
| 1:46.9 | Scott I am super excited for Skylar to join us today |
... |
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