386: How to Build Wealth While Working for Tips
BiggerPockets Money Podcast
BiggerPockets
4.6 • 2.9K Ratings
🗓️ 20 February 2023
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Look up any “how to retire early” guide online, and you’ll see some basic information: invest in your 401(k), take advantage of your employer match, buy real estate, and invest the rest in index funds. While this type of advice is by no means wrong, it’s geared almost entirely toward W2 workers with consistent income and a full stack of benefits. Those waiting tables, bartending, or doing any other service industry work don’t fall into the “predictable income” category, so they often get left behind when spreading the word about building wealth.
We wanted to fill the informational gap and give service industry workers EVERYTHING they need to know to turn tips into early retirement. The perfect person to teach us all about it? Barbara Sloan! She’s the author of Tipped: The life changing guide to financial freedom for waitresses, bartenders, strippers, and all other service industry professionals. In it, she teaches those working for tips how to turn their inconsistent (and frequently non-taxed) income into a portfoliothat will make them set for life.
Barbara walks through her money story, from getting deep into debt, moving to New York City with just $700, working at bars and Wall Street, and how she turned a fluctuating income into financial independence. She gives actionable advice on how ANY service industry worker can start saving, set up an emergency fund, and build wealth, even if they’re not making a high income. She also explains why tip work like bartending and serving makes the ultimate retirement plan for those that have already hit FI!
In This Episode We Cover
How to reach financial independence even when working for tips or on a low income
Why reporting income for taxes is a MASSIVE benefit when building wealth
Building “buffers” and how to set yourself up for time off (even if you’re not getting paid for it)
Health insurance, retirement accounts, and how service-industry workers can get on par with W2 worker benefits
Building a budget and why tracking your expenses is CRUCIAL on a fluctuating income
The busiest times for tipping work and how to make the MOST money during every off-season
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
Share your Money Moment
How to Become an “Overnight” Success in 10 Short Years with David Greene
Finance Friday: How to Get to Early Retirement Even Faster
Click here to check the full show notes: https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/money-386
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 where we interview Barbara Sloan and talk about |
| 0:04.6 | service industry professionals and how financial independence is possible on a lower income. |
| 0:10.1 | Work on your mindset. Mindset, I love to start with because it's free. So start to build your |
| 0:16.0 | abundant mindset. Once you're able to take actual financial steps, for many people it takes time |
| 0:24.4 | to develop the poppers, I would focus on two things. Increasing your income, I have a whole chapter |
| 0:29.5 | in the book on how people to service industry can increase their income and two, start taking |
| 0:34.0 | all of your spending. Right? We, everyone in the personal finance space is covering the same seven |
| 0:39.4 | pillars, which largely boils down to earn more and spend less invested difference. Hello, hello, |
| 0:45.1 | hello, my name is Mindy Jensive and with me as always is my voice of reason co-host, Scott Trench. |
| 0:50.4 | Well, thank you very much Mindy for that very gratuitous introduction. Oh, that was better! |
| 0:55.2 | That was so much better than mine. That's why you're the boss. Scott and I are here to make |
| 1:00.3 | financial independence less scary, less just for somebody else to introduce you to every money |
| 1:06.0 | story because we truly believe the financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when |
| 1:12.5 | or where you're starting. That's right, whether you want to retire early in travel world, |
| 1:15.6 | go on to make big-time investments in assets like real estate, start your own business, |
| 1:19.6 | or achieve financial independence as a service industry professional. We'll help you reach your |
| 1:24.4 | financial goals and get money out of the way so you can launch yourself towards those dreams. |
| 1:28.1 | Scott, I'm so excited to talk to Barbara today. She is the author of a new book called Tipto, |
| 1:33.9 | where she gives financial advice to people in the service industry professional, specifically people |
| 1:40.9 | who are making their living off of tips. They don't make an hourly wage or they do, but they make the |
| 1:47.2 | sub minimum wage of $2 an hour, $2 15, $2 55, whatever it is, it's peanuts, it's not even worth |
| 1:55.2 | counting. They live off of their tips and she has fabulous advice for people who work in the service |
... |
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.