Saving Money on a Low Income & Hitting Financial Freedom

Saving money on a low income can be challenging, but when done creatively, you'd be surprised by how much someone with a lower income can save and invest. Even with Nate being the only breadwinner for the family, he and his wife were able to max out their retirement accounts, buy rental properties, start doing BRRRRs, and reach financial independence (on a lower income!)
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Books mentioned in today’s show 👇
The Complete Tightwad Gazette: www.amazon.com...
Building Wealth One House at a Time:
www.amazon.com...
Rich Dad Poor Dad
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Episode #197

[@brandonbunch5056]

It was nice hearing from someone who doesn't make over $100k. Please do more of these as it relates to a much higher percentage of your listeners (assuming).

[@patty3451]

I love this guy, because he is obviously a practicing Christian with great family values. What drives him is wanting to provide for his family. I'm super impressed how he has built his wealth. Way to go!

[@nateforbes]

Thanks Patty! I am glad it encouraged you.

[@jjharrison4099]

We have five kids and are about to close on our fourth house. We love Dave Ramsey and BP and we stay out of consumer debt but we leverage our rentals so this guy sounds a lot like us! We also work for a nonprofit but we try to live simply but also have fun! Thanks for the inspiring podcast!

[@nateforbes]

@@jjharrison4099 I am glad it encouraged you! Keep up the good work! It sounds like you are well on your way to accomplishing your goals. Keep focusing on having fun along the way, you might as well enjoy the journey.

[@daphne7897]

Yes I was able to pay off all my debt & my house with the Dave Ramsey plan! Best thing ever, changed my life! Just from watching his show on Utube.

[@CourtneyRobinson]

I have listened to this three times, it’s one of the most relatable podcast for me. This is how I was raised, and then went on to raise my children and still live today.

[@nateforbes]

Thanks @Courtney Butler - Robinson, I am glad you can relate to our story! I really enjoyed listening to your episode as well!

[@carsonsl]

This has to be “the best” show on real estate investing ever! It’s so refreshing to hear the simplicity of life, and non-conformity to consumerism. I’m convicted and I do some of the things mentioned, like meal prep, used cars. It was entertaining to watch the reaction of the hosts in disbelief mainly because it was my own reaction. Excellent 👏👏👏

[@nateforbes]

Thanks Scott, I am glad it encouraged you!

[@LashusJourney]

Great story, very informative👏💎✅. I did Dave Ramsey FPU back in 2013 it changed my life, found BP back in 2019 and now we’re on our 5th property.

[@nateforbes]

Awesome! Congratulations! Keep up the great work! What is your ultimate goal with real estate?

[@LashusJourney]

@@nateforbes thank you! My goal was always financial freedom and to retire from my day job so I can stay home and raise my kids, and with us having 5 rentals and great cash flow I think I’m at the point where I can walk away from my job. We’re thinking about scaling to 10-20 rentals.

[@nateforbes]

@@LashusJourney That is wonderful! Keep up the good work!

[@LashusJourney]

@@nateforbes thank you, you as well 🙌

[@Savannah-ed4rv]

@@LashusJourney What about terrible renters? My family has had nothing but problems renting. My brother's house was destroyed inside at about '$10,000 worth of damage!

[@brendaharpole7259]

Wow! I have such admiration for this man, his wife, and family. They are setting such a strong foundation for their family.

[@nateforbes]

Thanks Brenda!

[@Savannah-ed4rv]

My first time here, and I truly enjoyed this interview. Very encouraging and helpful . So sorry about your father , Nate. My husband had cancer and it's a tough thing to get though. Thankfully you spent a lot of time with him so you have those memories.

[@nateforbes]

Thanks Savanah, it was/has been a hard time but we were thankful for all of the time we had with him. Thanks for watching and I am glad it encouraged you!

[@jennesont4791]

I relate a lot to this man's story. We also put frugality ahead of earning, we prioritized me raising the kids over money and we want the mortgage GONE even if it doesn't make the most sense, just because we will sleep better without it. We buy our vehicles cash after doing our research and we aren't squeemish about second hand where it works. Where we differ is that we were not aggressive with savings as a young couple, we valued privacy over the financial advantages. We have discovered we are not happy as landlords. The stress is terrible and cost of repairs, upkeep and dealing with delinquent tenants is a huge financial drain for the hope of a gain when we sell... its mot free money thats for sure!

[@nateforbes]

@Jenneson T, thanks for watching. I appreciate hearing other people's stories as well. Thanks for sharing.

[@dianekelly9648]

Thank you for sharing the information and focus on living a simple life. This was truly inspiring! With dedication, focus, and intention we can have a full life.

[@nateforbes]

Thanks Diane! We love the simple life, the best things in life are free :)

[@melaniec3819]

This is a real guy you can tell!! Appreciate your honesty and bless you and your family!

[@nateforbes]

Hi Melanie, thank you for your kind words!

[@melaniec3819]

@@nateforbes Your welcome

[@JahmekyaNo1]

I work in a field which uses my college degree but I don’t use half that stuff to any great extent. I must say that it all helps, though.

[@donnapoole7341]

You are a good man, and care about your family. Great job on your income .

[@nateforbes]

Thanks for the encouraging words!

[@ambivertical]

Great interview. He has a very relatable story.

[@markbrown7630]

Hi just came across your podcast whilst on KZbin

[@lbslott]

I admire them. We’ve been on one main income with me staying home with the kids for 16 years now. We struggle every month. 😔 I try to keep track of expenses but we always go over. We live frugally too, I often look at what I can cut, but there’s just not much to cut left. We can’t move because we live in my old grandmother’s home so can’t/don’t want to sell it. I feel so discouraged many days. We save but then wind up having to get money out of savings to pay bills. I wish we had started earlier and wish I would’ve started a business before I had kids too.

[@nateforbes]

Don't lose hope, you can get there, it might take longer and it will look different than everyone else but your frugality you have nurtured will be a huge gift if your income increases or you ever get a windfall of some kind. This environment is very hard to invest and make the budget, keep pressing on and remember to find joy in the little things along the way.

[@ingababy5196]

Why aren’t you working if your husband don’t make enough money?

[@aarondawkins8668]

So It sounds like you have paid off the houses quickly, have you just allocated all the rental income towards paying these off?

[@nateforbes]

Yes, and any other money we could squirrel away.

[@aarondawkins8668]

Thanks for the reply

[@ingababy5196]

I don’t enjoy being a Landlord so we’re using solely Investing in the market as our way to build our wealth. I went through FPU with Dave Ramsey, so we’re slow and steady.

[@nateforbes]

Nothing wrong with slow and steady. Keep it up!

[@1dyrfullymade]

Praying for Nate. That was a traumatizing Year.

[@nateforbes]

Thanks Brittany, I appreciate that! It was a traumatizing year but it is now part of our story and was something that has grown our faith and knitted our family closer.

[@slf5141]

I would rather have money in property than in retirement accounts

[@nateforbes]

agreed!

[@brittany2755]

Love your guys videos! What does FI mean? Maybe a stupid question 🤷‍♀️

[@nateforbes]

Hi Brittany, It means Financial Independence, which is when your passive income pays for your lifestyle.

[@TheFirstRealChewy]

We need to focus on reducing our monthly expenses. Doing that would have allow us to have more money to invest and also mean we need less to reach FI. Unfortunately, FI looks so far out of reach.

[@nateforbes]

Hi Jermaine, just keep making positive steps and try to find joy in the simple things. You will continue to make progress and before you know it you will be where you need to be. Just focus on step at a time. You can do it!

[@joaquinlopez]

I love when BP and Dave Ramsey are on the same sentence 😍

[@nateforbes]

His information really helped us early on for sure! Thanks for listening. Where are you on your journey?

[@joaquinlopez]

@@nateforbes great job buddy! We are on BS6, planning this year to buy a 4plex, probably the only not Dave Ramsey step haha.

[@nateforbes]

I think that would be ok to veer from the plan as long as you have plenty of cash flow for capex vacancy reserve etc. great job getting to step 6! That is Huge!

[@joaquinlopez]

20% knowledge, 80% behavior, thank you sir 🙏

[@Savannah-ed4rv]

Dave Ramsey is an angry old man. I can't watch him anymore because he calls so many people "stupid", for example, which does nothing to encourage me when I know I've made so may mistakes.

[@BasutuEquestrian]

Great interview!

[@nateforbes]

Thanks! I hope our story encouraged you.

[@nosirrahm]

This sounds so stressful to me. I guess I’m not cut out for this type of financial independence.

[@nateforbes]

Every path is different, yours will be different than mine, just don't lose hope that it is possible for you. I hope good things come your way.

[@lisabarone2281]

I missed something. What is it that he refers to as "the burr"?

[@nateforbes]

Hi Lisa, thanks for watching! It is BRRRR - Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat It is described well in David Greene's book. "Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple" In short it is a way for you to recycle all or most of your money while leaving 25-30% equity left in each property through finding the right property and forcing appreciation by sweat equity, renting it out and refinancing to get your initial money out. This allows you to grow while keeping your initial seed money.

[@sparklemotion86]

I'm not trying to knock his story but I wish you would really have someone who is true low income. He was blessed by not having college debt when he graduated and then he got a job with his father-in-law which doubled his income. To say the college degree is worthless is completely disingenuous because most places won't even look at your résumé without the college degree. How do I know? Because I don't have one, but I did end up with a big loan.

[@rosettejones5050]

You can't save money and hit early retirement with a family on a low income...33k is a low income 29k is a low income 25k is a low income

[@nateforbes]

Rossette, it is much harder to do it but it is not impossible. Read the book, "Early Retirement Extreme: A Philosophical and Practical Guide to Financial Independence" by Jacob Lund Fisker for motivation. It takes sacrifice but it is not impossible.

[@rosettejones5050]

@@nateforbes thanks I will keep this book in mind...I have heard of it....but the budget...ya know...

[@rosettejones5050]

@@Kenya1984 Sanna 100k as a couple is not low...you have the benefit of each others incomes. I am sure others in the Bay area try to survive on $15 an hour. That is low income. Maybe if you make 100k and have 5 kids under 10 years of age but I think we respectfully disagree

[@rosettejones5050]

@@nateforbes I bought this audio book per your reccomendation. It is 9 hrs long though. But thanks for your insight and motivation

[@jasonhorrocks1336]

I know Jordan

[@tonyl6385]

Here's my question, if you have one income which sounds as though it might be below $60k a year. I'm guessing you took out mortgages for each property. How much did the bank lend you for each one? It can't possibly be alot because of the limited income and after the fourth property were you considered an investor by the banks and if so did you have to put down approx 30%? Your story is great but you leave out major information that's vital.

[@nateforbes]

We cashed out refid our primary residence so we were able to pay cash. We then used the BRRRR method to get our cash back out, used the BRRRR method again with a duplex and then a single family. We bought two more single families with 20% down. At this point we had one paid of single family. We then used savings from index funds we had saved for 15 years to pay off most of the portfolio making our cash flow strong. We never had more than four loans at a time.

[@holdencawffle626]

One huge ones You know what I'm talking about

[@subin344]

Camera is terrible

[@purevibeskitchen]

Hmmm 🤔 Clear for me.

[@darlenepaul2918]

This is so blurry! Looks like you smeared baseline on the lens

[@saairabibi8977]

He asked to be in debt!! There are useful degrees!!

[@lifebeyondthesalary2458]

Pay off your mortgage. You never know what will happen tomorrow. We payed off our mortgage with our last house & sold our rent house & our old house & bought this one free & clear. No joke. Have never had a mortgage on this house. With the cost of inflation, if we’d have had a mortgage payment on this house, we would have lost the house. Or been very house poor. We never got any government payments. Not even one. Hubs never lost his job thankfully. I’m a stay at home, homeschooling momma. So 1 income household but do have other investments. Have acquired some debt again but working to pay it off (Mostly medical bills, but not all). Life happens. The benefits of having a paid off house COMPLETELY OUTWEIGH the benefits of having a mortgage. I’ll take peace of mind any day of the week!

[@nateforbes]

It sounds like you are doing great! A paid of mortgage is a great thing that provides peace of mind especially with one income and homeschooling the kids. Thanks for sharing your story!