348: Finance Friday: How to Start Investing After Becoming Debt-Free
BiggerPockets Money Podcast
BiggerPockets
4.6 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2022
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Unless you’re a money nerd, knowing how to start investing from scratch isn’t as easy as it seems. With so many options out there and the economy faltering, how do beginners avoid getting burnt? Is something like real estate investing out of reach for new investors in times like today? These questions become even more complicated if you’re like today’s guest, Steven.
Steven recently became debt-free (woohoo!) after paying off six figures worth of combined student, auto, and credit card debt. But because he’s been so focused on paying off debt, investing isn’t coming easy to him. With a baby on the way, he wants to be sure he’s making the smartest moves possible to put himself, his wife, and his child in a position to succeed. But real estate investing, stocks, and other assets aren’t his only worry.
With two job offers on the table, both with separate benefits and drawbacks, Steven is suffering from analysis paralysis, unsure how to move forward. Should he take the job with higher pay and remote flexibility or go with thelower-paid job that offers career growth potential? Thankfully, with Scott out on dad duty, Mindy doesn't have to serve as the lone suggester. Joining her on this episode is J Scott, experienced investor, father, and author of the newest book, Real Estate by the Numbers!
In This Episode We Cover
Paying off $100K in debt and how today’s guest did it in just three years
Finding your financial tribe by attending meetups, joining Facebook groups, and connecting on the BiggerPockets forums
Flexibility vs. finances in a job and which is more important for a new parent?
Eating out expenses and how investing a few meals’ worth of expenses could change your child's future
How to start investing as a beginner and the dangers in diversifying for those who want to build wealth
Side hustles, moving to inexpensive areas, and more financial tradeoffs for a flexible lifestyle
And So Much More!
Links from the Show
BiggerPockets Money Facebook Group
Finance Review Guest Onboarding
Listen to All Your Favorite BiggerPockets Podcasts in One Place
Apply to Be a Guest on The Money Show
Subscribe to The “On The Market” YouTube Channel
Listen to The “On The Market” Podcast: Spotify, Apple Podcasts, BiggerPockets
Check Out Mindy’s 2022 Live Spending Tracker and Budget
The Money Date: What You Should (And Definitely Should Not) Do to Align Your Finances as a Couple
7 Tips for Successfully Investing in ANY Market Condition With J Scott
Our Phantastic Life Youtube Channel
Click here to check the full show notes: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-348
Interested in learning more about today's sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Check out our sponsor page!
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast, Finance Friday edition, where we interview Stephen |
| 0:05.1 | Van and talk about having a baby and setting up your financial runway before starting to invest. |
| 0:11.2 | I grew up kind of poor. I talked to my grandma about it the other day because I remember there was a |
| 0:16.2 | point where we couldn't afford $29 marching shoes and so I've never had more than 50, maybe even |
| 0:22.9 | 100 bucks to my name ever in my life. So I get to college and they gave me like a $2,000 refund. |
| 0:28.6 | And so I believe there's two types of people in this world that didn't grow up with money. |
| 0:32.5 | Either you didn't grow up with money and you saved every penny or you didn't grow with money |
| 0:37.4 | and you spend it. Oh I spent all my money. Oh my gosh. Hello, hello, hello. My name is Nindi |
| 0:42.4 | Jensen and joining me today is the inimitable Jay Scott Master of Everything. Nindi, I have |
| 0:49.2 | absolutely no idea what that word means but I'm gonna assume you didn't just insult me there. I am |
| 0:53.6 | thrilled to be here. It means you're okay. I'll take it. Jay and I are here to make financial |
| 0:58.5 | independence less scary, less just for somebody else to introduce you to every money story because we |
| 1:04.1 | truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone no matter when or where you're starting. |
| 1:10.1 | Yep and whether you want to retire early and travel to world, whether you want to go on to make |
| 1:14.5 | big-time investments in assets like real estate or maybe you just want to start your own business. |
| 1:18.7 | We're going to help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way so you can |
| 1:22.4 | launch yourself towards your dreams. Before we get into the show, here's a word from today's |
| 1:26.6 | show sponsors. Jay, I am super excited to talk to Steven today. He has an interesting set of |
| 1:33.0 | circumstances where his investment portfolio is on the low side but the reason for that is because |
| 1:40.6 | he has a hundred thousand dollars in debt that he and his wife just got finished paying off. So |
| 1:46.4 | that is something that we need to celebrate. Hooray! That's a big deal. A hundred thousand dollars. |
| 1:54.5 | That's like a whole salary or let's be honest. That's like two or three salaries that they paid |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BiggerPockets, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BiggerPockets and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.