Hey profiteers, we're back with Sean Merron, co-founder of Mastermind Hunt. That's the app we co-founded together to help people find mastermind groups to join. If you missed the last episode with Sean, make sure you go back and listen to that first. Then come back here to listen to this podcast! This podcast will be particularly helpful for entrepreneurs and side hustlers, but you'll still benefit if you're not. If you just want a team to help you get inspired, give you fresh ideas about money, and hold you accountable, mastermind groups are great for that too!



So tune in now for our mastermind tips and get the code for your FREE month of Mastermind Hunt!







What We’re Chatting About This Week



Sean and I are the co-founders of Mastermind Hunt, and we’re chatting about how mastermind groups can help your money. Both of us have had entrepreneurial and personal interactions with mastermind groups, and we’re really excited to get right into it!



Without further ado, here are our top 5 tips!



Someone to Keep You Accountable



Telling your mastermind group members your goals helps keep you accountable. It also keeps you motivated and excited about hitting your goals. If you don’t have anyone to hold you accountable, chances are you’ll keep deferring your goals and end up finishing much later (if at all). 



If you’re writing a book and you tell your mastermind group you’ll finish 2 chapters of your book by the next time you meet, you’ll hear about it from your group members if you don’t hit that goal!



Getting Into Good Habits



It’s important to break bad habits and form good ones. For example, not logging onto Twitter first thing each morning would probably help you reach your goals faster. 



Getting organized and scheduling are other areas many people have a hard time with. If you’re a morning person and have more energy early in the day, don’t waste your time on Twitter first thing in the morning. Start with your most important task first thing in the morning and get that done.    



Another good habit is making a to-do list every morning. Number that list in order of most to least important and make sure you finish the tasks on your list. Your mastermind group can give you more suggestions and keep you accountable for continuing these good habits. 



Fresh Ideas for the Problem



If you have a problem you are trying to solve, you can bring it up in your mastermind group. You have your own ideas, but your group members may have different ideas and you might not always agree. But the great thing is all these fresh ideas can lead to an even better solution. 



Go into your mastermind group with an open mind and listen to everyone’s perspective. Some people may have less or more experience in a given niche, but diversity is important. A newbie can offer a simple solution, whereas someone more seasoned may offer a more complex solution. It’s valuable to have these different levels of experience.



Partnerships and Opportunities



Mastermind groups can create business opportunities you might otherwise never encounter. Maybe you’ll meet your next business partner, or maybe you’ll find a six-figure job opportunity in your mastermind group (yes, this all really happened in our groups). 



Another benefit is the opportunity to cross-promote your business, it’s a great way to help each other succeed. Mastermind groups emphasize collaboration, not competition.



Lifestyle Upgrades From Other’s Mistakes

Please welcome this month's guest, Sean Merron! Sean is not only a friend of mine, but we actually co-founded a company together called Mastermind Hunt. You may have heard me talking about Mastermind Hunt before, which is a platform that connects people together to run mastermind groups. Please check it out, and listen to this podcast to get a code for a FREE month of Mastermind Hunt!
Now let's get back to Sean. He's going to be talking to us about masterminds, financial independence, and his plans to retire by 34! We'll find out about all those things in today's Personal Profitability Podcast, so make sure to tune in.

What We’re Chatting About This Week
Sean has been working full-time as a software engineer for the past 15 years. When he discovered the concept of financial indepedence/retire early (FIRE) about 7 years ago, he decided to do everything he could to make that happen, including side hustles to make more money. He also became very passionate about personal finance and started a podcast called 2 Frugal Dudes, as well as his site The Early Retirement Roadmap. He also joined mastermind groups, and one group member convinced him to attend FinCon. We met at FinCon, became friends, and the rest is history!
Mastermind Groups
Mastermind Hunt is something we created together, with Sean and his software development background, and my finance and marketing background. It launched this year at FinCon, a little over a month ago. Sean also started another mastermind group at the first FinCon he attended. He knew from experience that finding other people with similar goals and holding each other accountable for those goals was very beneficial.
He decided that starting a mastermind group with people he met at FinCon was the perfect opportunity to keep in touch and get to know them personally. The connections made in his mastermind group helped him and his fellow group members immensely, and really helped establish himself in the personal finance community.
Personal Finance Philosophy
If you couldn't tell by the name of Sean's podcast and site, 2 Frugal Dudes and The Early Retirement Roadmap, he is all about lean spending and bigger savings. But that wasn't always the case.
Out of high school, Sean got a job doing tech support for a bank and making $40,000 a year. For a 17 year old, that was a sizeable amount of money. With that, came opportunities to spend more money on a fancy new car, a big house, and other luxuries. After a while, Sean and his wife realized that they were oblivious to their finances. Once he discovered the concept of early retirement, he started doing everything he could to make it happen. This included being extremely frugal at first, but they were able to pay off $80,000 in debt! He and his wife are now feeling pretty good where they're at, and are on target for their early retirement.
The Early Retirement Roadmap
When Sean decided to pursue early retirement, he first set up his long term goals, like what type of lifestyle he wanted to have. Then he determined what his expenses were, where he could cut back, and how much he needed to save. As he started accumulating wealth, he then determined his investment plan. He needed to decide what type of funds to invest in, what tax advantages he could have, and his portfolio as a whole. The most important thing is to write down a plan and stick to it. When he shared his plans with others, he was encouraged to turn his knowledge into something. This resulted in his first ebook, The Early Retirement Roadmap!
Next week,

Hey Profiteers, welcome to the September 2018 income report! If you follow the Personal Profitability blog, you probably know that I publish an income report every month. Normally, we post a video to YouTube as well, but this month we're going to do something special and run this as part of the Personal Profitability podcast!

What We’re Chatting About This Week
This September, I hit my highest income, ever! This includes when I had my day job AND my side hustle. Of course, that side hustle is now my full-time business (mostly online freelancing). Are you ready for this number? The grand total is…$18,128! That's mindblowing!
We're going to dive in further and break down the profits and losses in this income report. If you're watching my YouTube video, I'll show a screenshot of my QuickBooks account. If you want to check out QuickBooks for your accounting needs, please check out my affiliate link to learn more.
Income for September 2018
My affiliate income was $208.70, which includes income from Empower (affiliate link) and an email advertising service.
I also made $50 from a quick consulting call, $3,600 from a live event sponsorship, and $625 in speaking fees from a few talks I did. Finally, the biggest chunk of my income comes from writing- a whopping $13,644! That all adds up to the $18,128 I brought in this month!
Expenses for September 2018
For advertising and promotion, I spend about $7 every month. Credit card payment fees added up to $28, and computer and internet expenses totaled $846.79 (accounting software, subscription services, website hosting, electronics, etc). The web hosting company I recommend and use is Siteground. Next up, I actually got a refund of $189 on a conference fee I prepaid for, but got a refund since I spoke at the conference.
Employee payroll doesn't show up on my regular income reports, but this is what I pay myself every month. This month, I paid myself $2,233.72. I do this because as an S-Corp, if I get a paycheck, I pay both sides of the self-employment tax. Profits I earn above my paycheck are taxed at a lower rate as pass-through income. This saves me money on taxes. For meals and entertainment while away on business I spent about $133, and $207 on outsourced labor. On postage and delivery I spent $13.
Next up, I paid $940 in payroll taxes (I don't include this number in my income reports). Telecom expenses (anything related to internet and cell phone use) added up to about $96.

Today is the final episode with my very good friend, Sandy Smith. We're going to hear about her experience as a house flipper and a landlord…she has some really interesting stories for us! We'll hear about the time she had to kick a tenant out and almost lost the house to the city! If you are curious about investing in real estate, you won't want to miss today's episode. Sandy's going to drop some real gems of wisdom on us, so tune in now!











What We’re Chatting About This Week



Getting profitable with real estate investing isn't always easy. If you want to get into long-term real estate investing, there is a lot you need to know. Sandy is quite experienced in this area, and she's going to share her 5 lessons learned becoming a house-flipping landlord!



Look For a Good Deal



Don't just get hung up on the location, size, or design of the house. Maybe you're paying a little more, but the house is updated and ready to go. Maybe you're getting a real bargain, but you need to fix it up quite a bit. The bottom line is, make sure the dollars make sense for what you're getting. You also have to negotiate, don't just buy at asking price.



Don't Be Emotional



Don't get fooled by those house flipping shows on HGTV. Also, don't get too attached to any house, especially if you're not the one who will be living in it. Business is business. If you have tenants that are messing around and not paying rent, don't hesistate to kick them out! If you listen to tenants' sob stories, you could end up losing the house if they don't pay rent!



Have the Right Team in Place



Having the wrong team can cost you a lot of time, money, and energy. Sandy once had to fire a contractor that cost her $30,000 and six months' worth of time! She learned first hand how having the right team is super important. No one cares more about your money than you, so if they don't respect you and your money, fire them.



Make Sure You Have Enough Capital



It's easy to underestimate the cost of everything. Whatever you think it's going to cost, add 15-20% to that number. Even double that number just to be safe! So if you think you need $100,000 to fix up that house, have $200,000 on hand just in case something goes wrong.



If you’re interested in using your IRA to invest in real estate, check out Rocketdollar!



Screen, Screen, Screen Your Tenants



The person who is most likely to damage your property is your tenant. That's why screening for the right tenant is extremely important (again, don't involve your emotions!). Sandy once evicted tenants because they were selling meth and crack out of her house. Not only that, but she was told the town had the ability to seize her house because of her tenants selling drugs out of it! This is only one out of many horror stories she has, so learn from her experiences.



This Week's Guest



Hi, I'm Sandy.



Way back when the dinosaurs roamed at the end of 2008, I started paying a little bit more attention to my debt. As the year faded into 2009, the idea to build a website to keep myself accountable to eliminating my debt burst into my mind. I hopped onto Blogger.com and created a blog that I named My Cheapass Blog. I really didn't begin my blog for anyone else to see; it was just a way for me to have the total amount that I owed at my fingertips.

Welcome back for episode 123! This is our third episode with Sandy Smith this month, and we're talking about something near and dear to my heart since I started blogging. Speaking of that, this month is the 10th anniversary of the Personal Profitability blog! On the podcast today, Sandy and I are talking about frugality, something she is quite an expert in. Tune in to get some great tips on how to be frugal and boost your savings!
Next time, Sandy's going to share some funny and interesting stories about her other job as a landlord- check back next week for that! In the meantime, if you like this podcast, please share it with someone who could benefit from better spending and budgeting practices (almost everyone)!

What We’re Chatting About This Week
Sandy and I have both been blogging about frugality, budgeting, and other similar topics for over a decade. Blogging about personal finance eventually led to us finding each other and becoming friends, both online and in person. Between the two of us, we have a lot of valuable personal finance knowledge to share with you. So let's dive in to some money tips!
Stop Spending on Things You Don't Value
This is much more practical advice versus those who tell you to stop spending, period. Focus instead on spending money on things you value and reducing spending elsewhere. If traveling is very important to you but you still have debt to pay off, maybe try going out less on the weekends and save up for one big trip instead.
Look for Budgeting Big Wins
Living expenses can be a big win. Find the cheapest place you can live in, or consider downgrading your current place to a smaller one. Saving on your rent or mortgage can be huge!
Stop Wasting Money on Car Payments
Car payments are also an area you can win in. If you keep your old car after paying it off rather than trading it in every two years, you can save over a million dollars over the next 30-40 years! Remember, it's only a vehicle to get you from point A to point B. And, it will depreciate the moment you buy it!
Live on a College Student Budget
Live at home with your parents, live on a few hundred bucks a month, etc. If you could get by with so little money back then, you can do that now. Even for just one year. Just because you earn more now doesn't mean your lifestyle needs to reflect that. Spend less than you earn, save and invest the rest!
Get Out of Debt So You Don't Have to Pay Interest
You will end up paying SO much more on your debt when you accrue interest. This forces you to keep working more than you want, and taking time away from the things you want to do. The faster you can get out of debt, the faster you can have a baby, get a house, and just live your life!
This Week's Guest
Hi, I'm Sandy.
Way back when the dinosaurs roamed at the end of 2008, I started paying a little bit more attention to my debt. As the year faded into 2009, the idea to build a website to keep myself accountable to eliminating my debt burst into my mind. I hopped onto Blogger.com and created a blog that I named My Cheapass Blog. I really didn't begin my blog for anyone else to see; it was just a way for me to have the total amount that I owed at my fingertips. Here we are years later and have learned enough to help others with their own debt.
I started this blog with well over $105,665.31 in debt after a failed business and some massive student loans…at least, that's what I said that I owed. In actuality I owed a friend another $5,000 and I would receive a notice in the mail that I owed $10,000 in back taxes and penalties. This blog has been a chronicle of my journey of getting out of it without filing bankruptcy.
My $120,665.31 debt represented everything that I had done wrong. Now, I am here to help YOU get your finances together.
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