Adulting Is Easy: Making Personal Finance & Real Estate Easy Lauren K Aumond

Lauren kicks the interview off asking about how Alex and his wife got into the wedding venue space. Their interest in the wedding space started when they were planning their own wedding over 5 years ago. It was important to them that they go away from the barn look that so many venues have now. They have both a groom and bridal suite. And they wanted it to be close to the airport. They do offer some additional amenities, like games, fire pit, water feature, and putting green. And they offer everything they feasibly can as part of their packages. So, they aren’t nickel and diming as much as competitors do. The packages cover the venue and alcohol. Peak season is May – Thanksgiving mostly on Fridays and Saturdays as far as weddings go. Alex and his wife do welcome other events at their space to fill the weeks and off-season, like baby showers and holiday parties. Even a church sometimes rents the space! Naturally, Lauren dives into the personal finance side of weddings for engaged couples, including what happens when people break up. One question is: who’s paying for weddings nowadays? Lauren frames some of her questions from her short-term rental experience perspective, like when she asks about reviews. Over time, Alex and his wife are adding more services to their packages to increase revenue to $1 million. Finally, the conversation turns to the future, and a new partnership path Alex is going down.

If you liked this episode, you’ll also like episode 86 When Entrepreneurship Pays Off.

About Alex:
Alex Nelson is the developer & owner of The Midnight Gem, a wedding & event venue that booked 100 weddings during construction. He’s also a venue consultant and hospitality entrepreneur.

Connect with Alex:
https://twitter.com/WeddingVenueGuy
https://themidnightgem.com/

Connect with Lauren:
https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy
https://www.instagram.com/@adultingiseasyreal
https://www.housemoneymedia.com/

Lauren throws Andy a curveball right at the beginning by asking WHY he paid his house off. This is a very controversial topic in the personal finance world. Turns out, he had an OK reason, but the interest rate was pretty low…. Next, she asks how much money people need for retirement. Andy has a different take than she’s heard before. There’s a difference between wanting to retire after 59.5 and wanting to retire early. The planning is different, but a margin for error is important. Then, Andy and Lauren transition to discussing real estate, which Andy got into around age 40. Unfortunately, his desire to enter this space was predicated by a family tragedy. On the slightly bright side, his first deal was a win in a lot of ways. This leads to a conversation about net worth versus cash flow, and when in your lifetime you should focus on each. If you start with net worth, Lauren wonders how long it takes to transition to income, and Andy has an answer for how it went in his own life. It turns out, Andy potentially over contributed to his retirement accounts, locking up millions of dollars and causing him to take a hard pivot in his 40s. Lauren was on the path, but realized it and dialed down her retirement accounts in favor of a brokerage and real estate before it ballooned too much. Naturally, Lauren must ask Andy about his early retirement health insurance plans. In his final thoughts, Andy tells us about one regret he has: not taking advantage of Roth options once they came into existence. He also tells us about a great decision he made: getting life insurance for his wife.



If you liked this episode, you’ll also like episode 167 Wealth Blueprint: Using Your 9-5 To Buy Assets and Retire Early or 173 about passive income streams.



About Andy:

Andy began investing for the long haul in 1994 at age 23. He invested 25-40% of his income into growth mutual funds for over 20 years. Over time, he became a multi-millionaire, but his net worth was tied up in retirement investments which are not accessible until 59½. That’s when Andy began investing in income producing assets. He began acquiring rental properties, peaking at 4 in 2019. Andy added additional income streams by buying music rights and loaning money to friends and family. Next, he then added dividend ETFs in 2021. In 2022, he discovered selling options and now makes over $100k/year in this niche.

Andy formally retired from his Engineering job in corporate America at the end of 2023 after replacing his 9-5 income while having no debt including a paid off house. He has multiple sources of income in five different niches. Andy has also appeared on Dave Ramsey’s “Millionaire Hour” as well as The Millionaires Unveiled podcast.



Connect with Andy:

https://twitter.com/MillionaireDoor

Facebook: A Millionaire Next Door

www.eliteoptionsacademy.com

Web: www.MillionaireFinancialCoach.com



Connect with Lauren:

https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy

https://www.instagram.com/@adultingiseasyreal

https://www.housemoneymedia.com/

Allie is so passionate about young professionals succeeding. She kicks off by telling us about how she started a PR firm and ended up hiring a lot of young professionals. Allie started teaching them things they didn’t learn in school, like how to request PTO or set a meeting, for example. Eventually, she built a company around this passion, teaching and training young people. Not long after that, Ascend acquired that company, Ampersand. Lauren asks more about the young folks she was hiring at the PR firm. Interestingly, when Allie was hiring, she didn’t care what college they went to or even if they graduated! Initially, Allie started by offering a lot of amenities at the office. So, she transitioned to offering flexible workspaces and times. Lauren is curious about how much personal finance they knew. The answer is very little. They didn’t negotiate their salaries. They didn’t understand retirement accounts. Lauren asks if young people should go to college, and of course it depends on what they want to do. Then, Allie goes into the different ways students are paying for school. The moral of the story is: start with the free money first (scholarships), then maybe consider work study, then Federal loans, then private loans. Currently, the interest rates on student loans start in the 4’s and go up to 16%. Lauren and Allie then get into talking about the bad rap that student loans are getting right now. Whether to take loans out and how much to take is a huge decision, but it can be an investment depending on schools and majors. Then, the two discuss whether student loans should be forgiven or not. A huge recommendation Lauren had never thought about is this: pay even $25 per month while you’re in school! This keeps some of the interest from accruing while you’re in school!



If you liked this episode, you’ll also like episode 45 Student Loans and also episode 26.



About Allie:

In 2023, Allie Danzinger became Senior VP and GM of AscentUp, whose mission is to be the undisputed leader in driving student outcomes, when they acquired her company, Ampersand. Allie’s passion lies in helping young professionals from the classroom to their careers as they build confidence, secure jobs with livable salaries, and become successful members of the workforce.



Connect with Allie:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/alliedanziger

https://learn.ascentup.com/

https://www.ascentfunding.com/

https://ascentup.com/ultimate-guide-paying-for-college/



Connect with Lauren:

https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy

https://www.instagram.com/@adultingiseasyreal

https://www.housemoneymedia.com/

Devine got tired of being tired. That’s when he decided to take the financial reigns and start preparing for an early retirement at 45 or 50 years old. His cousin encouraged him to get into computer engineering, which is a great career. But when he started out, although he was making good money, he had student loans, then he added auto loans, then some credit card debt as well. On the bright side, he was putting some money in his 401k right away. When he got married, she had some credit card debt as well. She was on board with changing mindsets and focusing on getting out of debt, but she didn’t want things to get too extreme. They are still loving their life while attacking their debt. They also touch on the idea of having net worth be part of your emergency plan. Devine started with the debt snowball method, but he switched to debt avalanche pretty quickly. His mindset had changed. Devine got a huge promotion/raise at work, so along with their hard work that went into paying the first half ($40k), they can pay the other half off soon now! There are a lot of lessons there. Devine doesn’t just focus on growing income. He budgets his expenses as well. Then, the conversation transitions to the future, which involves more beefing up their emergency fund and investing for cash flow through boring businesses or real estate. Devine also does freelance writing as a side hustle. In the meantime, he's going to keep paying down his debt and sharing his journey.



If you liked this episode, you’ll also like episode 45 about student loans, 126 crying over debt to $1 million next worth, or 147 $51k in debt to house hacking.



About Devine:

Devine Beathea is a systems engineer living in Arizona. He decided to get his life together about two years ago at age 30. That means paying off debt and getting in control of his spending. So far, Devine has paid off $40k of debt and he is set to pay off another $40k this year. He writes about Finance, Fitness, and Fatherhood because he wants to show how millennial dads can invest in themselves and their families.



Connect with Devine:

https://www.instagram.com/thewealthbuildingdad/

Medium: Devine Beathea

https://twitter.com/DevineBeathea

https://thewealthbuildingdad.com/



Connect with Lauren:

https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy

https://www.instagram.com/@adultingiseasyreal

https://www.housemoneymedia.com/

Lauren opens by asking Andrew why he started The Personal Finance Podcast. He started it in 2020 to share his passion with others. He loves hearing about people’s “lightbulb moments” when they unlock an ability to build wealth and therefore unlock some time freedom. Then, Lauren and Andrew transition to discussing ways to grow your income passively. There’s a spectrum of income from active to passive, and they two discuss items along that spectrum: dividend investing, stocks, bonds, REITs being the most passive and digital products being less passive, but still more passive than a job. Real estate can be passive. Then, Lauren asks about the difference between side hustles and passive income. When it comes to passive income streams, you should be targeting cash flow versus quantity. Andrew tells us how to come up with our desired cash flow number to target. Hint: cover your expenses. Andrew believes that in a lot of cases you should focus on increasing income at your W2 first. He also goes into detail about the difference between financial freedom and retirement. Speaking of retirement, this begs the question of how much we should plan for Medicare and social security. Andrew likes HSAs, retirement accounts, brokerage accounts, and real estate for retirement planning. Lauren asks about using these accounts for retiring early, and he prefers the flexibility of the brokerage account. The best thing about being in this space is when people get excited and START investing. Time is your friend when it comes to investing and compound interest. Patience when starting matters. Andrew emphasizes that investing is for the long term, so it doesn’t matter what the stock market is doing right now. Lauren suggests becoming best friends with your future self, and helping them by investing now.



If you liked this episode, you’ll also like episode 122: Finding Passionate Income with Brian Luebben.



About Andrew:

Andrew Giancola is the creator of MasterMoney.co and The Personal Finance Podcast. Like Lauren, Andrew is also a Tampa Bay area native. He loves playing pickleball and raising his two kids with his wife, Irene.



Connect with Andrew:

https://mastermoney.co/

https://twitter.com/mastermoneyco



Connect with Lauren:

https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy

https://www.instagram.com/@adultingiseasyreal

https://www.housemoneymedia.com/

Lauren opens by askingBrian how he came to the conclusion to change paths from the business path to the missionary one. He truly felt God was leading him in that direction. That was the best way for him to have a positive impact on the world. Then, they dive into how people can invest on low incomes. Don’t wait until you make more! And remember, wealthy people buy luxuries last.

Then, they dive into the HACKER(RRR) method:

Hack your lifestyle, for example, with house hacking; pay attention to your transportation too

Allocation budgeting: 50% spend, 40% invested, 10% give away

Cash is King investing (intro to investing)

Exponentiality: infinite returns

Spending -- Saving -- Investing

Review

Repeat if it’s going great

Rework if your initial investments aren’t working (especially if you’ve changed)

Reward: allow yourself to take the full 50% (even if it’s a big chunk)

Brian’s last piece of advice: don’t waste your life by not enjoying your success! They close by talking about Elon Musk’s response to Lauren’s tweet about whether 20-somethings should match their 401k’s or not.



If you liked this episode, you’ll also like episode 104: How a Family of 4 Lives on Less Than $60k and Still Invests.

About Brian:
Brian Tibbs is a once low-paid missionary with multi-million-dollar net worth. At age 26, Brian was investing in real estate, an executive in his dad’s financial services company, and co-owner of another small online retailer. But Brian felt called down a different path. Over the next 3 years, Brian married Jill Bramhall, resigned from his father’s company, sold his online business and liquidated 60% of his real estate portfolio, and moved, sight unseen, to Guatemala. They became missionaries, raising over $20 million for their cause and building over 150,000 sq. ft of churches and related facilities. Brian and his family made very little money as missionaries, just $9.20 per hour. Their modest salary forced them to create a wealth-building philosophy that didn’t require a big paycheck. Living under this financial constraint is how the HACKER Method was discovered and implemented. Although Brian has retired from full-time missionary work, his desire to serve others remains a primary focus. He launched The Unexpected Investor with the singular goal of helping other people who also feel financially constrained transform themselves into wealthy, powerful, and generous investors using the HACKER Method.

Connect with Brian:
https://theunexpectedinvestor.com/
https://www.instagram.com/unexpectedinvestor/
https://www.youtube.com/@unexpectedinvestor
https://twitter.com/unexpectinvest
https://www.amazon.com/HACKER-Method-Unexpected-Investors-Building/dp/1962074129/ref=sr_1_1

Connect with Lauren:
https://twitter.com/AdultingIsEasy
https://www.instagram.com/@adultingiseasyreal
https://www.housemoneymedia.com/