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In today’s episode, Cody and Justin bring you an awesome episode full of philosophical discussion to go along with the background of Grant Sabatier who went from $2.26 in his checking account to $1.25M in 5 years!
Our main hope is you come away with a little more insight into Grant’s brain as we tackle some interesting questions like
- Do people optimize too much?
- Can a journey to FI be harmful?
- Does someone need to know their why?
- Is becoming an entrepreneur the answer?
If you enjoyed this episode or want to get to know more about Grant, we encourage you to pick up his new book Financial Freedom today!
Episode Summary
- Graduated with philosophy degree
- Bounced around 4 jobs after college
- Was laid off twice
- Spent what money he had going on a big trip to Africa
- Ended up back at his parents with $2.26 at age 24
- He was also carrying credit card debt
- His parents gave him a 3 month time limit to figure things out
- This was during 2010
- He started googling for books about money and landed on Your Money Or Your Life as well as Automatic Millionaire
- Grant realized if he was going to be trading life for money, he became focused on how he could make as much as possible
- He sat a goal to make $1M and retire as soon as possible
- A few weeks later he discovered Google Mobile Ads as well as a free certification course
- He was immediately hired upon completion
- He started making $50k
- It was until 2.5 years later that he found others on the path to financial independence at a young age
- He working extremely hard working 7 days a week most of the time
- He started building websites plus flipping VW vans and mopeds, and flipping domains
- Today he still has over 800 domains
- He began to gain a lot of traction with his main job of managing Google campaigns
- He attributes this to understanding how he’s perceived, knowing what value he brings, and understanding what his clients need to do to impress their boss
- One tactic he had was actually writing messages for the client to express how this deal would be good for them
- Then he talks about how easy it is to see the difference between someone just putting in a lot of hours and those they put out quality work
- The discussion then swaps to skills which Grant refers to as the future currency
- Also to make sure that you learn skills that may not tie together at surface level like analytics, sales, and coding
- Great quote I don’t know how to do that is no longer an excuse in this digital age
- He talks about how at 18 when graduating from high school, you simply don’t know what you want to be so a structured plan can be tough but you have a huge opportunity to take risks
- He argues that too much personality finance writing is about cutting out things that we enjoy or being too afraid of debt
- To worry more about making more money vs stressing about something like student loans
- He talks about knowing where you want to go and then focusing on how much you need to make to get there instead of settling on what you think you’re worth
- Grant talks about knowing where you want to go and then focusing on how much you need to make to get there instead of settling on what you think you’re worth
- He also talks about the risks of climbing the corporate ladder and what that can do to your life and family
- Then we talk about over optimizing our lives and our budgets
- This ties into how much of our life we miss by not living in the moment and how Americans struggle with this more than some countries
- He also admits that he gave up to much life and experiences by being so hyoerfocused on retiring
- You can be just as addicted to saving money as someone who is addicted to spending it and both are dangerous
- His wish is that everyone who finds themselves in a job they didn’t love would take 6 months off without a concrete plan to discover your passions
- Becoming FI in 5 years was extremely stressful for Grant
- His hope is that FI helps more people help others
- He talks about getting to level 3 of finances being so important which he calls breathing room
- Breathing room is 6 months to 1 year of expenses saved and you should focus on that before big trips and experiences and then start exploring life
- Then he discusses what worry him even more which are people who are happy enough, that make decent pay but aren’t truly fulfilled
- After, we get into a really interesting discussion on how we perceive time differently at different ages because at age 7 we’ve already experienced half of life’s new experiences
- Then again at age 26 we find time flying by because we’re at 80% of life experience and how we fill so much more alive when traveling to new destinations
- We then swap to the topic of the importance of existing and soaking in life and true happiness while we’re working so hard towards financial freedom
- We end our episode talking about working with our spouses and selves to understand what a truly perfect life would look like beyond the number
Key Takeaways
- Skills are future currency: Grant speculates that, in the future, our economy will operate in such a fashion where each of us represents our own little “island” of talent. Our skill sets and capabilities will determine how much we earn and succeed. Start learning some new skills and building your future currency net worth!
- Take a step back and breathe: After Grant set his goal of accumulating $1.25M, he turned his engine on hyperdrive. If he could turn back time, he says that he would have taken a step back to breathe and to realize all of the freedom he had already created at that moment in time. Enjoy the journey!
- Budgets Shouldn’t Restrict You: If you feel extremely deprived on a budget like Grant did, it might not be a great option for you. Instead, get the big things right (housing, transportation, and food) and then spend your money on the things that truly bring you joy. You don’t have to cut out your Starbucks!
Call to Action
Take a step back and look at your life from the outside: Is this the life that you want to be living? If not, what steps can you take to move in the right direction?
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Links from the Episode
Contact Grant:
Twitter: @millennialmoney
Instagram: @financialfreedom
Learn More About Your Hosts:
Fly to FI (Cody’s Blog)
Saving-Sherpa (Justin’s blog)