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Episode 2640:
Lisa Harrison of MadMoneyMonster.com shares a powerful message of hope and resilience in personal finance, illustrating that even with a history of financial missteps, achieving early retirement is still within reach. Through her own journey and mistakes with money, Lisa highlights the transformative power of adopting a frugal mindset, investing wisely, and the importance of not letting past errors define your financial future.
Read along with the original article(s) here: https://madmoneymonster.com/2018/01/25/proof-can-royally-mess-up-money-still-retire-early/
Quotes to ponder:
"Right around that same time, we committed to living a frugal lifestyle and making the state of our finances a major priority in our lives. What we wanted most of all were options. And we realized that money gives you options."
"We’re living proof that you can royally mess up with money and still retire early, really early."
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[00:00:00] This is Optimal Finance Daily, episode 2640, proof you can royally mess up with money and
[00:00:06] still retire early by Lisa Harrison of MadMoneyMonster.com.
[00:00:11] And I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Mariam.
[00:00:15] Now let's get to today's post as we optimize your life.
[00:00:23] Proof you can royally mess up with money and still retire early by Lisa Harrison of MadMoneyMonster.com. I didn't find the fire or fire community until I was in my 30s. But hey, better late than never. I constantly remind myself that it's not a competition, but it's still difficult to not compare myself to my peers. After all, it's basic human nature. Financial woes in our 20s and 30s
[00:01:41] Since Mr. Mad Money Monster and I didn't meet when we were in our 20s, we had plenty
[00:01:46] of time on our own to living a frugal lifestyle and making the state of our finances a major priority in our lives. What we wanted most of all were options, and we realized that money gives you options. If only we had realized this
[00:03:02] a little bit sooner, we could have avoided some of the stupid things we did with our money.
[00:04:02] Buying a rental property. I overpaid for a rental property
[00:04:04] at the height of the bubble in 2007.
[00:04:07] Eating out.
[00:04:09] We used to think nothing about dropping upwards
[00:04:11] of $100 a few times a week at restaurants.
[00:04:15] Spending foolishly on entertainment.
[00:04:17] Spending money on movies, meals, and trips were our normal.
[00:04:22] And frequent clothes shopping.
[00:04:24] There was a time when I bought a new outfit every week.
[00:04:28] Every week. to us. Investing, investing, and investing some more. All extra money now goes towards our mortgage debt and into low fee index funds. And we started tracking our net worth. Tracking our net worth is super easy and it's been our single biggest motivator for building wealth. If you're not already tracking yours, I highly recommend you loving it. Maybe you're saving for a down payment, a wedding, a dream vacation, your kid's college. I've found that Monarch makes it so easy to help you reach your financial goals, whatever they are. I definitely wouldn't be able to allocate my finances or plan as clearly without the help from Monarch.
[00:07:02] In fact, Monarch is the top-rated, all of self-vindictiveness. It's a silly type of self-torture that distracts us from being grateful for what we do have. The solution? Self-compassion. Let's all recognize that we made the best decision we could, given our level of knowledge and maturity at the time.
[00:08:21] And if we want to tell ourselves stories, we can also imagine that all could have gone