Liebster Award

I was honored to be nominated for a Liebster Award from my friend GenYFinanceGuy. I’ll admit I did not know what this was when I first saw it. A bit of googling, showed it’s a pretty cool way to spread the love around the net for new blogs that the nominator finds value in.

What are the rules?

• Share 11 facts about yourself so readers can get to know you better.
• Mention has to be made to the person that nominated you.
• Answer the 5-11 questions that were asked by the person that nominated you.
• Nominate other bloggers to receive the Liebster Award and ask them 5-11 questions.
• Let your nominees know either by leaving a comment on their blog, sending them an email, calling them out on social media, etc.

So… here we go.

11 Facts About Me

1. I was one of Houston Magazine’s Men of Style in 2014. It was a super cool experience. I got to do a full photo shoot with a stylist, make-up artist, pro-photographers and a cool venue. The magazine had a release party where I (and 11 others) got to be the toast of the party.
2. We’re big gardeners (as may be evidenced by the blog). I had never planted a single thing in my life until 2012. Since we’ve bought a house, we’ve built 2 garden beds, planted 22 (not a type, 22) fruit trees. We’ve harvested tomatos, peppers, cucumbers, okra, peas, every type of green and lettuce and plenty of things I’m forgetting.
3. I grew up in an entrepreneurial household. My dad owned a small business and some rental property. I grew up working in his warehouse from age 10 and up. I did every role that existed in that company as well as all kinds of maintenance on the rental houses.
4. I hustled all over the place when I was younger. I owned a lawn company, sold frozen foods door to door, sold gifts on Valentine’s Day out of parking lot, wholesaled and resold speakers/audio equipment, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a dozen others.
5. I’m a huge college sports fan (which is why I still have cable, gasp!). I grew up in Arkansas, which doesn’t have pro-sports, so we’re all die-hard Razorbacks. Our poodle hides in the closet during football games, because he doesn’t like my yelling
6. I’m a big sci-fi/fantasy fan. I couldn’t count how many books I’ve read in that genre. My favorite author in fantasy was Robert Jordan and his Wheel of Time series.
7. I love to travel. I spent a summer in Mexico and a summer in Europe in college but haven’t done much of it recently.
8. I’m sometimes overly competitive even for silly things, even if it’s video games, board games, pick-up basketball or whatever. I hate losing and I hate not being the best (it’s why I’m angry by the time I play 18 holes of golf).
9. I enjoy DIY projects, we’ve painted our kitchen, built a lot of outdoor stuff, and am learning to build furniture.
10. My drink of choice is a gin and tonic (with barrel aged gin)
11. We’ve got 2 awesome dogs, a toy poodle and a bullshit (bull dog / shih tzu). Yes that is actually a thing.

Questions from GenY

What is a quote or mantra you live by?

I’ve become a big fan of Stoicism the past few years. I think it’s probably the philosophy that aligns with my beliefs and values by far. A couple of my favorite quotes are below but Meditations by Marcus Aurelius and Letters from a Stoic by Seneca are must reads. They’re gold all the way through.

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
― Seneca

What is the worst financial decision you have ever made?

I bought a brand new car after college. the junker I’d been driving for a long-time finally gave out. Instead of getting a used affordable car with decent gas mileage, I decided I was an adult, with a good job, and I deserved something nice to drive for once. I went out and bought a new Toyota 4Runner. I made monthly $500 payments for the next 5 years (at least it was 0% interest). I still have that car. I love it and plan to drive it in to the ground, but there won’t be a new one after that.

What is the best financial decision you have ever made?

The best financial decision I’ve made was my choice in college. I had always had dreams of going to the Ivy league or something on par (Stanford, etc) but my parents financial situation deteriorated a lot in my last few years of high school. I’m was pretty much on my own.

I could have chosen to take out some massive loans to go to some relatively prestigious universities, but I couldn’t bring myself to take out the debt. Instead I went to the University of Arkansas, which I loved, on a full scholarship, and graduated debt free with a lot of great experiences.

Imagine a life where money was no object, where financial freedom is no longer a dream, because you have already reached it? What is the number that would make this dream a reality for YOU and how would you spend your time?

I would probably sell most of my stuff, put the important things in storage, and spend 2-5 years just slow traveling. I like the model of traveling an area, then choosing the place you liked best to live for a few months (2-6). So for example, bum around all of Brazil then decide you liked Buzios the most and stay.

I want to keep writing and maybe do some speaking. I also like the idea of making a real attempt at building a sustainable, permaculture farm.

What is your favorite Asset Class to invest in (i.e Real Estate, Stocks, Bonds, P2P Lending, etc)? Why? And what platforms do you use (i.e TD Ameritrade for stocks, Realty Shares for Real Estate, Prosper for P2P, etc).

I am a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) so I’m more comfortable with financial assets that probably 99% of people, even our fellow bloggers. I’m pretty comfortable with individual stocks, as well as ETF’s for diversification. I don’t have any P2P lending, though it’s something on my agenda this year, and I’m looking to purchase my first rental property.

What is your favorite online financial resource, paid or free (i.e. mint, personal capital, blog, podcast, TastyTrade)?

I enjoy Personal Capital and Mint, however I’m still waiting on Tradeking/PC to sync up so I can conveniently see my investments in there. But I use them regularly on the spending side. I’m a fan of many of the blogs in the network, and there are dozens of great ones, both super popular and unknown. I have started using Y-charts for stock research and I enjoy that.

(Check out my favorite travel tools)

When it comes to building wealth, do you spend more time figuring out how to cut expenses or increase income?

My expenses could certainly be lower. I’m not on the MMM level. I drive a small SUV to work, we have cable, and I still like eating out once a week or so. However, we’ve been smart on the big wins, our cars are paid off, we bought a house below our means with a locked in 30 year rate barely above 3%, and no student loans. We also have a roommate that offsets a huge percentage of our home costs and we’re not big shoppers. At this point there’s not much left to cut that wouldn’t take a real lifestyle change.

So the short answer is I’m focused on my income. It’s more than doubled since I graduated college, and I hope to keep that trajectory. In addition I hope to eventually monetize my writing to some extent, continue to build passive income through dividends and P2P lending, and I’m sticking my toe in the real estate waters.

How many hours a week do you watch TV?

More than I should. Week nights vary from 0 to 2ish hours, for a 5 day average of 6 hours on the weekdays. Weekends are hit or miss. If it’s college football season I might spend most of Saturday in front of the tube, otherwise it’s mainly just Sunday night, when all the best HBO and AMC shows come on. So let’s call it 10-12 hours per week?

I also like white noise, so a lot of the time I’m working I leave something on in the background.

If you had to recommend 1 book, what would it be? And why?

I think the 4 Hour Work Week really opened my eyes to the ways we can live our lives outside the conventional 9-5. Less the tactics and more the vision. That led me to some of my other favorites like Vagabonding by Rolf Potts. If your looking for a life philosophy, see the Stoics mentioned above.

(Check out my reading list here)

What is the best piece of advice you have ever received?

Work harder than the people around you. Be the best.

Since I was a kid, I was always willing to put in the time and that’s what put me at the front of my high school class (getting me a free ride to college) and it’s what put me at the front of my college class, giving me access to the best internships and job offers available at our school. There’s nothing extraordinary about it.

When you’re not Geeking out in Finance, what else do you enjoy?

I enjoy being outside, so like you can see from a lot of my posts, we love to garden and I like permaculture. I’m pretty big in to fitness and sports, and work out 3-4 days a week, as well as being in a few basketball, flag football and volleyball leagues. I’m love Arkansas sports and a pretty voracious reader of both fiction and non-fiction.

Bonus: Would you be willing to be a guest on my new podcast launching this summer? If so, please shoot me an email at mrgenyfinanceguy@gmail.com

I’d love to be on the podcast.

My Nominees

• Eli at The Currency of Time
• Bridget from Money After Graduation

My Questions

1. What is your drink of choice and who you would like to have one with?
2. Most influential person in your life?
3. Most influential book you have read?
4. Are you already living your ideal lifestyle? If not, what do you need to do to get there?
5. What is your favorite podcast we may not have heard of?
6. Best financial decision you’ve made?
7. Worst financial decision you’ve made?
8. What are the things you love doing away from the blogs?
9. What’s #1 on your bucket list?

Hope you enjoyed!

Cheers,

Adam