89: Retire Before Mom & Dad, with Rob Berger

Rob Berger grew up literally with Rich Dad, Poor Mom. While his mother almost lost her house after his parents divorced, his father was filthy rich, picking him up in a Rolls Royce for weekend visits.

Throughout high school and college, he spent every dime he made, and graduated with around $55,000 in debt - and a wife.

Upon graduating law school, he felt that “If I don’t save something, it would be a missed opportunity - even if it was $100 a month.”

Keeping up with the (lawyer) Joneses took him in a big way - fancy car, fancy watch - and it wasn’t until he started listening to Dave Ramsey and hearing all those people scream “I’M DEBT FREE!!!” that it clicked. He didn’t want the fancy things anymore, he wanted to be debt free.

He started saving in his retirement accounts, while simultaneously paying down debt because “it would be insanity to forgo contributions to your 401(k) so you could pay off your 6% student loan debt or credit card debt you can transfer to a 0% card. Even if you don’t have a match, you only have that one year to contribute. When the year is gone, that opportunity is gone.”

Rob discovered that small changes in his daily habits didn’t have a very big impact in his daily life, but these small changes had a HUGE impact in his net worth. As he turned down opportunities to spend money, he saw his net worth skyrocket, until his money was making more money than he was!

Rob has taken everything he learned on his own journey, and put these tips into a book aimed not at Early Retirement, but Financial Independence - encouraging everyone to attain the freedom to pursue their best life.

In This Episode We Cover:

• Rob's journey with money
• Lived rich dad poor dad life
• Saved money for retirement
• How his lifestyle and position changed transitioning from a law firm job to a government job
• Psychological component of a side hustle
• Leaving the big law firm changed his mindset about money
• Making $100 in 6 months to $30k in 18 months doing blogs
• How he treated his salary money and side hustle money differently
• The moment he paid down his debts
• The reason why he decided to sell the business
• What prompted him to write the book called, "Retire Before Mom and Dad"
• What his book all about
• And SO much more!

Links from the Show

• BiggerPockets Forums
• FinCon
• PT Money
• Frugalwoods
• BiggerPockets Money Podcast 10: Designing a Frugal But Luxurious FI Life by Age 32 with Liz Thames
• Mindy's email
• Scott's email

Connect with Rob

• Retire Before Mom and Dad
• Rob's Twitter
• The Dough Roller Money Podcast

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