BiggerPockets Money Podcast - 21: How Losing 260 Pounds Spurred Job & Investing Success with Tony Gayden

Episode Date: May 21, 2018

Tony Gayden grew up in a lower middle class household where money and finance were not discussed. He sought comfort in food, eventually reaching 476 pounds and drowning in debt. In this episode, Tony shares his weight-loss journey and how he... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money Show, show, show number 21. I had all of these different things going on at the same time because I knew that I wanted to be in basically an indestructible financial position. Being unemployed for six months and being drowning in debt, I did not ever want to return to a point where I felt like I was in trouble. So I was trying to create an indestructible financial position and build up my wealth to a point where, Even if I lost my job, I'd be okay. It's time for a new American dream, one that doesn't involve working in a cubicle for 40 years, barely scraping by. Whether you're looking to get your financial house in order, invest the money you already have, or discover new paths for wealth creation. You're in the right place.

This show is for anyone who has money or wants more. This is the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast. How's it going, everybody? I'm Scott Trench. I'm here with my co-host, Miss Mindy Jensen. How are you doing today, Mindy? Scott, I am doing fantastic. We had a great weekend this weekend. The sun is shining bright and beautiful. And I am just having a really great time. I am so excited to get to today's guest today.

His name is Tony Gaden. And I first became aware of Tony through the Bigger Pockets forums. As you know, I am in the forums all day, every day, chatting about real estate and personal finance. And like, I see the same people over and over again. And Tony is a frequent contributor. And he gives really good sound advice. And that's one of the things that really catches my eye is when I see somebody who's continually giving really great information because, you know, real estate isn't really hard, but you don't know what you don't know. So when you see somebody giving, just like embodying the whole bigger pockets mentality of sharing and helping out without expecting anything in return, it makes an impression. Yeah, this guy absolutely is just a fantastic human being. I love Tony. I love everything

he stands for, everything he's accomplished, how he's accomplished it, what he's planning to do, what he wants to do, how he's helping other people. This is just absolutely incredible. It's a guy who started with his journey at 476 pounds, working the overnight shift at Walmart, making less than $20,000 a year and $50,000 in debt. And guess what? There's no cheat codes. It's just an incredible story of perseverance, consistency, and fundamentally doing the right things day after day for a long time. And you'll hear all about it, all about his journey, all the specifics, and where he is today and how great things are going for him over the course of the next hour and 15 minutes, a little bit of a longer show today. Yeah. And towards the end, Scott, you made a very astute observation. Tony didn't get any help with this. He didn't luck into anything. In fact, no part of his story revolves around luck. Every bit of it revolves around doing the work. There's no magic pill for losing. wait, there's no magic pill for getting out of debt, and he shares how he didn't use a magic pill

for anything, and he still did it. Yeah, absolutely. And I can't claim the same for myself. I had a college education paid for. I didn't have any debt. I got lucky in making a great connection with Josh and being introduced into this community and to a great career. Yeah, that doesn't take detract from some of the things that some of the rest of us have achieved by having a little bit of luck along the way. But Tony is just hard work. and these opportunities that came to him were really just through sheer persistency over years and years and years and years. And he just kind of bit by bit built his position from that. So really impressive. I love his story. I don't even want to continue talking to you. I want to jump right into his story.

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How's it going? Absolutely great. How are you doing today, Scott and Mindy? We are doing fantastic. I'm having an awesome day and I am super excited to talk to you, Tony. Oh, I'm super excited to be here. You know, this is a dream come true for me. I thought we could start from the beginning.

And can you tell us how you got to rock bottom? What was your life like before you kind of hit the age of around 26, 27? So the truth is, right, that I did not have what most people were considered to be a great life before I reached, you know, adulthood. In fact, in most of my adult life, it was pretty bad for me. But the thing is that before, you know, I even got interested in finding, you know, financial independence and real estate or anything, I was basically the epitome of just rock bottom. I was horribly overweight. I was broke and I was in terrible shape. And, you know, I was living shiftlessly. I was just, I had nothing. And I had to turn everything around. So I had gotten to the point where I weighed 476 pounds.

okay and not only that but I was working in a retail job on the overnight shift making less than 20,000 a year. I dropped out of college. I was living off of credit cards living way above my means. And, you know, I was close to $50,000 in debt on top of that. So I had fallen completely off and given up on life and everything that life meant. Well, let's take a step back. How did you find yourself in this position? You know, what was the, childhood and early adulthood like where this built up because, you know, I don't, you didn't get to this position overnight. So, you know, I think a lot of our users are finding themselves in positions where things aren't going so well for them. Can you maybe relate a little bit of that for us? Oh, yeah. Of course. So, you know, I grew up in a,

you know, lower middle income household. Both of my parents, they worked, nice working class household, but we didn't talk about money. And at the same time, a lot of my family, you know, we had bad eating habits. And for me, food, it was my best friend. I fell in love with it. I remember being 14 years old and weighing over 300 pounds. So as I grew up, I got up to the point where I was up in my 20s. I moved out of my parents' house. And at that point, it became even worse for me. So I didn't want to continue in college. I didn't know what my purpose was in life. So I took a job. and I just was working this job. And I'd come home and I would eat bad.

I wouldn't do anything. I'd just sit around and play video games all day. And I would think to myself, oh, well, you know, this is just the way it is. This is, you know, I got to keep eating. I got to, you know, I was addicted to food. I'm not going to even joke there. It was a drug to me. It wasn't anything less than that.

And that's one of the really, oh, I'm addicted to heroin. I'm addicted to cocaine. You can cut heroin and cocaine out of your life. and then never have that temptation again, but you need food to survive. So while still consuming your drug of choice, how do you get over it while still doing it? That was the hard part for me. And I didn't think I could get over it. And I ignored the problem for a long time.

I just absolutely ignored it. And what happened was one day, you know, I went to work. I worked in a big retail store and they had a large industrial scale there, right? And this scale could weigh up to a thousand pounds. And so for some reason, my curiosity got to me and I hopped on this scale. I had to see how much do I weigh? You know, I hadn't weighed myself in 10 plus years. You know, they didn't even have scales that could weigh over a certain amount.

So I hopped on this scale and I saw that number, 476. And it was like my heart stopped. I felt horrible. I mean, I felt like I was just going to die. I didn't know what to do. And I was, you know, I was panicked. And I would love to say that, hey, yeah, I immediately started losing weight, but the truth is, no, it didn't work like that, right?

I was panicked, but it wasn't enough to motivate me to really turn my life around, not for a few more months after that. So what was that transition? What kind of finally got you to the point where you're like, you know what, I'm going to make a change, and I'm going to start working on this and getting my life, making some improvements in my life. How did that come about a few months later? So it was a few months later. It was around Christmas time, right? And what I remember is we had taken some family photos, right?

And I couldn't believe how I looked when I saw these photos. I looked so huge. And I said to myself, I'm going to make a New Year's resolution that I'm going to lose this weight. And I'm going to stick with it this time. You know, I tried a lot of times before, but I thought this time is going to be the time. So I made that New Year's resolution. But it turned out, I couldn't wait until New Year's. I was so motivated at that point.

You know, I hit the rock bottom. I couldn't wait. So on the 26th of December, I just said, all right, I'm starting today. And so I remember it was December 26th. It was right after Christmas. So I got my good Christmas dinner in, you know. And I said, starting today, I'm going to diet and exercise, et cetera, right? But what I didn't know what was going to happen was it snowed, right?

I didn't have enough money at that point in time. for a gym membership. I didn't know anything except for the fact that here it was, the ground had like probably three or four inches of snow on it. And I was so motivated. I remember going out in the snow and walking for 30 minutes, my feet were freezing. It was, you know, it was so cold. But I was like, nothing hurts worse than the way I had felt when I was that overweight. Nothing. So I could have walked for hours that day. I was that motivated and that's the motivation that I used to push me to keep going. So I think it's really important. When Scott first asked you, oh, you started off at rock bottom, that sounds really awful like that. I was like, Scott, don't say it like that. But you know,

but that's true. But that's true. Like you were down and down and down and then you finally hit rock bottom at 476 pounds and said, you know what? I'm done. I'm so over this. I think it's a really important place to start is, you know, what is your rock bottom? What is your lowest? And today is my rock bottom. However it is, I'm done. I'm fixing it. I'm going over. I'm changing my life. So, you know, you went on your walk for 30 minutes. What did you do the next day? The very next day I began planning. And, you know, I looked at all the things that I had done wrong in the past. The reasons why all my former and previous diets had failed. And I put together a plan that I thought for sure that would work. What the plan came down to was I would exercise for a minimum of 30 minutes every day. And that could just be walking at first.

You know, I wasn't in good enough shape to do any jogging or any really intense exercise. But I thought, well, I was doing nothing before. So doing this 30 minutes now, it's more than nothing. The second thing, I was like, okay. So they talk a lot about eating healthy, et cetera. Well, what I wanted to do was I wanted to make a diet that I knew I could stick to. So I planned it all out, smaller portion sizes, lower calorie count, but it was all stuff that I enjoyed. So it was fruits and vegetables that I liked. You know, I'm not going to sit here and eat. Well, I have to eat this boiled chicken breast.

I was like, no, I mean, my problem was I was eating too much. I could focus on those other things later after I lost the weight. So that's what I thought. I was like, okay, so I'm going to put this plan together. And then what I did was I said to myself, okay, so what am I going to do when my friends or my family want to eat out? And I decided I was going to take the hard route. I was going to go and I was going to be like, no, I just can't do that. You know, I'm going to eat as best I can, but I'm not going to go out and eat every other day.

And I'm not going to, you know, enjoy your cake. And I know it might hurt your feelings, but it's something that I have to do. and I have to change my life or I'm not going to have a life to, you know, to change. So walk us through that first month. And by the way, when I started off, I got a little over-excited, I think. And the reason is because I know some of the details of your story, like the overall. And I was so excited for not the rock-bottom part, but the build of this part that we're getting to right now that I think it was a little over-eager. Tell us about rock-bottom.

No, no, no. What a story is about your, this part here. So tell us about that first month, though. So you had this plan. What was that like? Were we able to stick with the plan and move forward for that first month? Or what was some of the challenges? The first month was very hard.

And let me say my mother's birthday is on January 7th, right? So every year I take her out to dinner for her birthday. And so here I was. I was taking her out to dinner. And I was like, what am I going? I was panicking because I didn't know how I was going to be able to eat out at this restaurant and still maintain. in my diet. So I looked up all the menu for, it was a red lobster, and I looked up the entire

menu, and they had calorie counts, everything online, and I planned out my entire meal, like two days before I even took her out. You know, and that's how dedicated I was. And at the same time, I'm telling my family and friends what I'm doing. And of course, they'd all heard this before. So they were, you know, hopeful, but they were skeptical at the same time. So they were like, Well, if this fails, then we'll still support you. And I'm like, well, I almost felt like I was doing it out of spite then. I want to succeed out of spite. Hey, however you succeed.

Yeah. So, I mean, after I made it through the first, it was probably about three weeks, things started getting easier for me. I built a routine. I built a plan. And then all I had to do was stick with that plan in order to keep going. I was just going to ask if you saw any results after those first three weeks. So I didn't have a scale that could weigh me that heavy.

And that's kind of the scary part, right? So I didn't know if I was losing weight or not. I just knew that I felt like I was getting healthier. My clothes felt a little bit looser. My clothes were still very large. And I still looked very much out of shape. But I felt like I was making progress. So there was no real way that I could measure if I was actually losing weight or not.

And that didn't actually come for about, I don't know, three months, right? And then that's when I got online and I found a scale that could weigh up to, I think it was 400 pounds. And so I decided to buy the scale. It was quite expensive. I think it cost me over $100 for this scale. But I was like, I have to know if I'm making any progress or not. And this was after three months. and I knew my clothes felt a lot baggier, but I had no clue what I weighed. So I bought the scale. I weighed myself. And at the very first way in, I remember I had dropped down and I was 375 pounds. So I had lost in three months over 100 pounds.

That's incredible. Oh, my goodness. Did you have any doctor supervision or were you just like, I'm going to do this? Now, I realize a lot of people, you know, they suggest to get doctor supervision, but I just, I just went for it. I thought nothing was unhealthier than just being that overweight. So I just knew I had to do it. How are you feeling at that point? Were you feeling better about everything as this was happening? Or was this a daily struggle that was really hard for you the whole time? You said it got easier after three weeks, but was it? It did. It got a lot easier. And, you know, as my clothes, they fit a lot looser. I just knew that I was getting healthier. I'd be outside walking and I could walk. I mean, it's, started off with just a nice slow pace. Next thing I know, I'm speedwalking, right? And when I was about 375, I was doing a light job sometimes, right? Because I just wanted to go faster. I wanted to push it as far as I could. I wanted to do as much as I could. I didn't want to slow down.

I wasn't satisfied with, you know, just walking. I wanted to run. I was doing this so that I could live my life. And that's what it was really all about. So I started building things up. So after about three months, you know, and I saw that progress on the scale, I got so motivated. I went out and got a gym membership. And I didn't have a lot of money at the time, but I thought to myself, this is a small price to pay. I'll go every single day. And, you know, if a gym membership is $50 a month, then, I mean, it's less than $2 a day for me going every single day. And it gives me something to do. And I decided that I wanted to make this, you know, fitness a regular part of my life. So I really got into it. I started lifting weights. I started doing everything at that point. You know, I started

really hitting it hard. And, you know, it wasn't just 30 minutes a day anymore. I was going to the gym and working out for an hour and a half, two hours a day at that point. Because I mean, just the difference in when you see progress, it motivates you. It really does. When you see that kind of progress, it motivates you to want to push harder. And, you know, I was like, I can do this. I finally knew that it, This is possible that I was not going to fail this time and that I was going to reach my goal. And that's exactly what I did. So what did the end of the year look like? So it really, it started before the end of the year about September.

So the weight loss, it started hitting other aspects of my life. It started pushing me to, hey, I got to get out of this dead end job. Hey, I got to learn about finances. I got to bring myself up. up above the level where I was before. And so what I did was I started applying at other jobs. I started applying all over the place. I just had this boost of confidence. And this confidence, it was telling me, hey, you're better than this job. You're better than, you know, working retail on the overnight shift. You know, you're the kind of person who is capable of doing anything

you want to do. So, you know, I started applying for jobs. I applied. And I finally got this great job as a cable splicing technician for AT&T. And, you know, it was a decent middle-income job. And the funny thing I remember about this job was because we had to climb ladders, there was a weight requirement. You know, you had to weigh below 275 pounds. So I pushed really hard. And the day that we had the weigh in for the job, I weighed in at, and this was in September, I weighed in at 270 pounds. So I was five, just five pounds. But if I hadn't lost that weight, I would have never gotten that job.

And that job took me out of the retail and it changed my life. I tell everyone to this day that when I got that job, that was when I really started changing my life. And the honest truth is that that's my favorite job ever. And it might not have been that great of a job. And it wasn't that great of a pain, you know, looking back. but that was the job that changed my life, and that's why I loved it so much. What were you making before?

Do you imagine what company you were working at and what you were making before and after this transition? So I worked at Walmart full-time on the overnight shift. So I made a little less than $20,000 a year. And I was living pretty low-income. I lived in town and what some people consider a pretty bad neighborhood. So just was skating along. And I didn't have anything going on. That's the truth.

And so basically, when I got this job, it was my first real taste of what it was like to be middle class. I'd never experienced it before. And the truth is that it made things worse for me. Interesting. Yeah. So I would love to say that, you know, I instantly became this great saver and I saved all my money. The opposite is true, right? Suddenly I found myself able to get credit cards.

is able to borrow this money, and I found myself sinking into this debt. I was like, oh, well, I've got this $50,000 a year job, so I can buy furniture now. Or, oh, I got this $50,000 year job, and let me just put this on the credit card and that on the credit card. And it really began making things worse for me, but that's not even half of the story. Okay, so when you said I hit rock bottom before, that was the point in my physical fitness, I hit rock bottom. So the point where I hit rock bottom in my finances was about to come up. So this wonderful job that I had finally gotten, it brought me up into the middle class.

The truth is that I didn't even know what was going on, but that was right back in 2008, right? And there was a little thing called the recession going on. So I'm a young, I'm in my 20s. I didn't really watch the news. I had no clue what was going on. But one day they called us into the office and they said, you guys are all being laid off as part of a group of 12,000 people across the entire country who are going to be laid off and you're going to lose this job. So I'm pretty resourceful. I figured, oh, no big deal. I'm going to start, you know, I started applying immediately for other jobs and it surprised me when I wasn't able to find one where the jobs at. All of a sudden, I looked around and there weren't any jobs anywhere. They all were just, I mean, it was, it was like,

everybody was looking for a job at the same time and the few jobs that there were available, you know, everybody was fighting for. So after 60 days, all of a sudden, I found myself unemployed for the first time in my adult life. And so I was like, okay, well, maybe I'll find a job in the next few weeks before, you know, and I didn't. After about two weeks, all of a sudden, I realized, if I don't apply for unemployment right now, I am going to drown. You know, I started getting my credit card statements. I started getting all these bills in the mail. And I was like, I don't have any money to pay these. And I had this little 401k. I cashed it out just so I could pay my bills. So I put it for unemployment and I kept looking. And I'm like, okay, I'm going to find a job sooner or later.

Well, sooner or later turned into nearly six months. And so I was unemployed for six months all the way up until, you know, mid-2009. And it was about the lowest I'd ever been in my life, you know. And meanwhile, I'm still, you know, I'm able to stay in physical shape. You know, I'm not the most happy person at this point, right? And I didn't give up my gym membership. I remember that. I was like, you know what?

I can't let myself slide backwards. I can't let myself gain that weight back and let the stress of this situation forced me back into where I was before. I still had kept the weight off. I'd even pushed even lower. I'd gotten down to about 225. And even though I wasn't employed, I knew that it was very important that for my future, that I stay healthy and that I keep this weight off. So yeah, finally, finally one day, I get a phone call. And for a while, I'd been wanting to work in law enforcement. So I'd applied, got a few different law enforcement jobs on top of everything else, and including applying to get my old job at Walmart back, which they did not hire me.

But finally, one day they called me for the state of Kansas called me to work at a prison as a correctional officer. Now, back, you know, before I would have never stopped. But here they were. They were talking, oh, well, we're going to pay you 26,000. dollars a year. And I'm like, man, this is barely a step above Walmart. But it was a job. And I knew that I needed to take it. I needed to take it because sitting at home on unemployment was like death to me. It was, I mean, it was worse than death. It was awful. I just felt like I was shiftless and purposeless and nothing was ever going to happen. And so just getting back out there, getting back in the workforce was super important. And, you know, the fact that it was in law

enforcement, the career that I'd really wanted to do, I decided, hey, I'm going for it. So I hopped into this job. Fortunately, there was a ton of overtime because if it wasn't for that, I would have still not been able to pay my bills. I think it's really important to highlight the fact and congratulate you on the fact that you're like, you know what, this isn't my dream salary, but I need to do something. And I've had a job loss and I've been on unemployment. And it does not make you feel proud. to cash that check when you go and cash it. You're like, well, I got to pay rent, so I guess I'm going to. But it's not something that makes your heart sing.

I have a cousin who wants to live in his little city and he had a job. It was great. And then he lost his job. And he's like, well, there are other jobs out there, but I don't want to move. Yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Are you financially independent? Do you get this option?

You need to work and pay your bills unless you have money to pay your bills outside of working. I think you do need to contribute to society. and, you know, don't live off the land or whatever. And, you know, so good for you for taking the $26,000 a year job. It's not amazing, but now you can eat. Yeah, I think what Tony's also showing here is that, hey, by taking this job, he was able to find opportunity. And opportunity is not going to flow to you while you're sitting at home, collecting

unemployment. It's going to flow to you when you're working hard and kicking butt at your profession. And that's where he's saying, hey, I was able to do this overtime and make things go from there. So it sounds like to kind of, when did this journey start? Was this 2006 that you started with the weight loss? Yeah, it was December 2006. Okay. So 2007 flows around. You get the new job in 2007. And then in 2008, midway through that year, late in that year, you get laid off. Then you're six months on unemployment through 2009. And your health is really, really continuing to be good. You're 225. But you're very frustrated professionally. And with, you're,

your kind of purpose. And then you get this job at the prison and that starts to provide some benefits, even though it wasn't exactly exactly what you wanted, right? Is that a fair kind of summary of where we're at to this point? Yeah, very good summary. And, you know, I wanted to make a career out of law enforcement. I wanted to not just law enforcement, but I wanted to shoot up to the highest levels. And my thought was, you know, becoming a federal agent, that was my dream. You know, I wanted to do it. I figured that I was physically capable. I figured I was mentally capable and I decided to start pushing towards that. So I was lacking the experience.

So what I did was, you know, I started off at the state prison. I applied to work at the federal prison. And one day, it took 11 months, but they called me up and they were like, hey, we have a job. And, you know, I went in for the interview and they saw that I had that experience and they hired me. And then about two years later, I worked there for two years. I get a call for a uniform, a federal law enforcement officer position in Arizona. And so I had never lived anywhere outside of Kansas City. I'm originally from Kansas City. So I didn't even hesitate, though. I said, yes, I accepted the job. I was 31 years old. And I packed up everything I had and moved across

country and this was the first time ever and it was scary. I'm not going to joke there. It's scary moving, you know, being away from family, being away from friends. But it opened up opportunities to me that I didn't even believe were possible. It really changed things in me because I wasn't trying to live up to other people's expectations anymore. I was living life for myself and for my purpose. And it allowed me to do things the way I wanted to do. And I decided when I moved to Arizona that I wanted to get into financial shape. I wanted to be in the best financial condition ever. But I had no clue how to. And one of my coworkers, actually, he was on the same path I was. And he lent me a book that I'm sure a lot of people on your podcast know about.

It was called The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. Now, I didn't know anything about Dave Ramsey at that point. I didn't read financial, you know, blogs or anything. So I picked up this book with an open mind, and I read it cover to cover. And I remember I read it in like a day, you know, and it made sense. You know, the way he writes is really simple. I absolutely loved it. And I was like, you know what?

I got to do this. This is what I was looking for, you know, basically a roadmap to tell me how to get out of debt, a roadmap to tell me how to start building wealth and a roadmap to, you know, finally start getting to where I want to be in life instead of, you know, just drowning in this debt. So it was back in 2012. I remember that because I spent the entire next year and I followed the plan exactly, you know, the baby steps, you know, the emergency fund, everything. And after I read that book, though, it opened my mind to the possibilities.

And what I really wanted to do was start to learn more. So when you were talking about your weight loss, you knew the moment that you stepped on that scale for the first time, 476, you knew you had a number from which to work from, right? So I'm curious to know if you had a similar type of experience with your money when you looked to this way. After you read the Total Money Mankover by Dave Ramsey and started taking the baby. steps. Did you know what your net worth was, how much debt you had, how much progress you made in that first year, that kind of stuff? Yes. So I tore apart my finances, you know, just like he said

to do. And really, I wanted to create a budget. And you can't create a budget unless you know how much money you're spending. So I printed off all of my bank statements and, you know, I started categorizing everything. And I saw that I was basically wasting just tons of money on things. that didn't make any sense. I saw that I was over $50,000 in debt. I saw that I had all these student loans that were not going anywhere. And I said, I can knock this out. I can do this. You know, I'm going to knock these bills out one at a time, start from the smallest and going up to the largest. And that's exactly what I did. And I remember I had three different credit cards. And the first one only had a little under $1,000 balance on it. But I knocked that one out.

And I just remember being so happy. I was like, oh, I knocked out one of these credit cards, you know, it's gone. So I knocked out, you know, the credit cards first. I had a little bit of furniture that I bought that I still owed money on. I knocked that out. I paid off my car payment. And then I was like, okay, well, all I got left these student loans. And so a lot of people will just be like, oh, well, student loans, no big deal.

It's low interest rate. You know, you can spread it over long term. And I was like, no, I'm going to knock these student loans. out too. So I really started putting every penny I had to pay on those student loans off. And it was a little over a year. And for the first time in my life, I was, you know, absolutely debt-free. And it was an amazing feeling. I remember the student loan company actually sent me a letter to say, hey, your debt is paid off. And I still have that letter somewhere. I don't know what I'm I was so proud. I was like, oh, I'm free, you know. So you paid off $50,000 in debt in,

did you say a little over a year? What was your salary at this time? So I had started working for, you know, this uniform law enforcement agency. And my pay when I started had been a little over 40,000 a year. But then that was in 2011. But by time I hit 2012, I was hitting about 60,000 a year with overtime. So basically, it might have been more than that. It might have been like 70 with overtime, but I was putting, I was saving, using more than probably 60% of what I made just to pay off those debts. And not only that, but I had a car that I sold. I had stuff. I sold things. Everything that, you know, that I read in a book he said to do, I did in order to pay off debts. I cashed out 401K. I took, You know, I had a raw fire rate at that point.

I completely cashed it out to pay off these debts. I was like, I don't need any of that. I need my debts paid off. So, you know, I did it. And after that, I found myself wondering what now. And, you know, Dave Ramsey, he said, okay, well, start, you know, putting your 15% into your retirement. And that's what I did at first, but it wasn't very satisfying.

No, that's not a satisfying contribution when your first. starting, but it gets really great when it's had time to grow. I really enjoy putting money into my 401k now because I can see that it grows. It does grow. So I have a couple of comments. First of all, we never said congratulations on losing 265 pounds. That's enormous. That's a real accomplishment. And, you know, if you're not watching this on video, go to YouTube and check out the video and look at what he looks like now. Tony, you said you wait in today right before the show. you weigh? So I weighed 211 pounds this morning when I went to the gym. And this is probably one of the lowest I've ever been in my adult life. And I feel absolutely wonderful. And I can't even say,

you know, that it was easy, right? But this is what people don't tell you. Losing weight, it's not the hard part. The truly hard part is keeping it off. And it requires, you know, a change of mindset. It requires that you dedicate time to it every day, that you continue to watch what you're eating years later. And you will fall off track from time to time and you will go up a little bit sometimes and then go down sometimes. But overall, if you're good 95% of the time, you're going to keep that weight off. And, you know, it's truly a lifestyle change.

The same thing that I use to help me lose weight is what I use to help get back in financial condition. You know, I figured out what worked for me. I figured out what I had to do personally, what worked best for my situation, and then I implemented it. Then after I got to where I wanted to be, you know, where, you know, I was out of debt, then I started tweaking the plan so that I could get better results. Yeah. And there's such a correlation with the success you found with weight loss and getting out of debt with some of the other stories that we've heard, both the Frugal Woods and the waffles on Wednesday and every other guest we've had have said, once I discovered this debt-free thing, once I discovered this, I jumped in with both feet

and I cut out everything. And, you know, it's just, again, here's another example of you first, you decide, oh, this is amazing. I can totally do this. I'm going to go whole hog and look at what you got. I mean, 11 years later, I'm sorry, I'm not making these comments. My mom's from the South and some of these colloquialisms are just. around Wade. I'm not, I'm not saying you're a hog. No, no, don't worry. You know, you go in,

you go in whole hog and you look at, you lost 265 pounds. That's an enormous accomplishment. You paid off $50,000 in debt making $60,000 or $70,000 a year. That's ridiculous. I mean, that's paying everything and like not spending any money at all. And yeah, the incredible thing is we're not we're not even done yet right you have this you have a journey left about how you've built wealth after you paid off all your debt that you're going to share right yeah it's it's a crazy story when you think about it just it you know it seems like i get knocked down and then i come up and you know i tell everybody i have to work twice as hard to get half as far as most other people but i i will keep pushing you know no matter what happens tax season is one of the only times

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and start building something amazing. Get more with Northwest Registered Agent at Northwest Registered Agent at Northwest Registered agent.com slash money free. And so after I had finally, you know, gotten out of debt and I'd started really getting into investing. And here I was with this 401K. Well, we call it the TSP. And I thought to myself, okay, well, now what? You know, I mean, this isn't very exciting. So I started reading other books. I started looking for other pieces that could lead me in the path that I wanted to go because I wanted to be more than just an average. I wanted to be far above average. I wanted to reach a level of wealth. I wanted to reach a level of financial independence that the normal person will never see.

And so I started buying just tons of books. And one of those books, and it was suggested to me by the very same person who, you know, my coworker who, you know, let me borrow his copy of the Total Money Makeover was Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And so, that really, really opened my eyes the way the money was created, the way the wealth was created. And it opened my eyes to real estate. And I never truly considered real estate before that. And when I read that book, all of a sudden, it enlightened me. And so I knew, I had to learn everything possible about it. And I had to do it because that was the best way for someone to make wealth. and long-term wealth, and it excited me. It excited me for the first time about truly building this

wealth. And I was like, hey, I can do this. I can do this. So I started looking, you know, for more information about real estate. And that's actually how I came across Bigger Pockets. I was searching online for information about real estate. And I came across the Bigger Pockets blog. And this was back in 2014. And on the way, page and I said, oh, look, they have forums. Ooh, I can ask people questions. It made me excited. And so I got on there and I started asking questions. And, you know, everybody was very friendly. They started answering my questions. And I just decided to just jump in. At this point, on top of the 15% that I was putting into my retirement, I was saving. I was saving a ton of money because I knew I'm going to buy

real estate. I'm going to buy a property and I need the money to do it. And I didn't really know that much about it back then, but I did know that I was going to need 25% down payment because I wanted to buy a multifamily. And so that's why I started saving and really just putting into a savings account and the rest is history. And that's how I got into real estate. Can we go just a little bit into that history and hear about the first purchase? So, you know, how much did you save and where was that first purchase. So at the time, I lived in Arizona. I lived in a very small town. It was called Wilcox. And it's about 85 miles to the east of Tucson. So I knew that I didn't want to invest in real estate there. So not knowing what I was doing, I was like, oh, well, I can't invest here, but

Phoenix is in Arizona. So they have a great real estate market. So I started looking at every piece of real estate I could. And the more I read the articles, they kept saying, well, you know, you can get these multifamilies with four unit with just, you know, regular financing. So I was like, okay, I'm going to buy a four unit. I never been a landlord before, never done it. And I was like, uh, yeah, I can do that. You know, didn't know anything about long distance investing, but I'd read rich dad, poor dad. And that's what Robert Kiyosaki said he did. He said he didn't, you know, manage his own properties. And he invested far away. So I thought, well, I can do that. So I went out to Phoenix.

And I remember going there every weekend for a month or two and looking at real estate. And I would write down every property that I was interested in seeing. And they were usually two to four units. And finally, I found this great property that I thought, oh, yeah, I'm going to buy it. And I got this thing inspected. And it was a disaster. It was the worst probably shape of anything. You know, it had termite damage and needed a new roof.

What are the tenants? The water wasn't working. They had just put these tenants in probably two days before I had got it under contract. And I chickened out. I was like, oh, my goodness, I'm going to lose all of my money, right? And so I backed out after this horrible inspection. I was like, no, I can't do this. Well, my friend who had lent me, rich dad, poor dad, he came up to me, right?

And he gave me a little tough loving. He was like, you're a coward. He said that to me. He's like, you're a coward, right? Now, I don't like being called the coward. And it was like, I'm going to prove you wrong. So I got back out there and I started looking for properties again. And I found this property in Phoenix and it was everything.

I wanted. You know, it was four units, it fully occupied, it had a recent remodel, and it was right in the price range I was looking for. So went and I got it under contract, sight unseen. That's how, you know, I didn't even go look at it. I'd never seen it before. And I was like, I'll be okay. You know, I wanted this and I knew that, you know, I would go look at it during the inspection and everything, you know, if it didn't work out, I could back out again. But I didn't intend on backing out. So, you know, I had to jump through quite a few hoops, but I ended up closing on that property, and that was my very first real estate purchase. And the funny thing is, I was still renting an apartment when I bought it. So here I was renting an apartment, and I had bought this place, and it was $179,000.

I had to put $45,000 down. And then on top of that, I had to pay all the closing costs. So it was over $50,000 that I needed. So even saving as much as I did, I only had about $30,000. So at that point in time, I got a little braver and, you know, I wasn't as scared of debt anymore. So I decided I was going to borrow against my retirement, my TSP, you know, which is a 401k equivalent. And I was going to take out a loan so that I could, you know, pay the rest of the cost for that down payment. That's how much I believed in it.

And I had done the numbers. I don't know if there was a bigger pockets calculator back then or not, but I didn't have it. So I created this cool Excel spreadsheet. And I was like, hey, you know, this is the repair cost. This is, you know, the property management costs. And I found a great property manager. I met him on bigger pockets. And he turned out, this guy is amazing, you know.

He saved my butt because he was so good. And I'd love to give him a shout out. I mean, if that's okay. You know, he's a member of Bigger Pockets. Sure. Yeah, his name is Dick Rosen. And, you know, he's just a great property manager. And he's, you know, he held my hand, even though I didn't know what I was doing.

So I want to go back and touch on a couple of things. First of all, your first property, you did not chicken out. You took the information that became available to you and made an informed decision to say, this isn't the property for me. So that's not a chicken out. But I'm glad you did because then your friend was like, no, you got to do this. Then you found a property that you were looking for. You found what you wanted.

You decided that you ran the numbers. That's the point that I wanted to make. You ran the numbers and decided that it worked for you. And this Bigger Pockets website you keep talking about sounds really awesome. Is that www. www. com slash C-A-L-C or slash Cal for the calculators where you can use to run these numbers and see if it's going to make sense because not every property makes sense as a rental.

not every property makes sense as, you know, a flip. And there are some properties that don't make sense at any price. So good for you for running your numbers, figuring out that it works, and then finding somebody to manage your property for you. Oh, yeah. You know, it worked out great. And, you know, I love you guys. And honest truth is that, you know, without bigger pockets, you know,

I wouldn't be nearly to the point where I'm at right now because it opened up, you know, a lot of the information that I needed. It helped me not just in real estate either. You know, I listen to all the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. I love everything about Bigger Pockets. So it's just me spending most of my day, you know, browsing the web forms, reading the articles, listening to your podcast, watching your videos on YouTube. You know, it's kind of ridiculous.

But, you know, I'm a huge fan. And I thank you for, you know, just give me the information I needed to get where I want to be. So that's awesome. Yeah, it is just incredible in here. And one other detail I want to point out is that you borrowed against your TSP to help supplement your down payment here. It's borrowing against your 401k retirement plan is kind of a similar type of thing. And a lot of people try to do that.

But the difference between you and a lot of people who are trying to do that is you were already saving at an extraordinary rate. And all this did was help you speed up your purchase by a few months. You would have been in position to buy that property three, four, five, six months. down the road, right? That's a dangerous, dangerous strategy for someone that does not have their financial house in order. It helped you achieve your goal a little faster for someone that was in your position. So I think that that's just like an observation I wanted to make about like you would put in all this work ahead of time to be in such a really strong financial position to get into that.

And then the last part of really looking forward here is can you give us like a small like a couple minute highlight of what your career has been like in the time since you've bought that property, both professionally and your portfolio? Oh, of course, of course. So, you know, I kept pushing forward. And like I said before, my goal was to become this federal agent. So back in 2015, I'd been in Arizona for about four years. I get a phone call and I kept applying. So I didn't think that it would ever happen. But, you know, I kept applying and I get a phone call. And they asked me to come in and, you know, go to this interview. So I go in for the interview and, you know, I nailed it. You know, they, they thought I was a great candidate and they wanted me on the job. And, you know, I passed the interview. All I had to do was get through the next step. So it took a few months. But, you know, I finally got the final firm offer and hire me, you know, as an agent, you know, with Department of Homeland Security in Omaha, Nebraska. And, you know, You know, the reason that that was important was because, you know, I'm originally from Kansas City and allow me to get almost back home.

So I'd be two and a half hour drive to my home. I'd be able to see my family more often and, you know, really be in a place in a job and in a position that I'd always dreamed of. So before I did this, I started following some of the other advice that I had read on Bigger Pockets. So I moved out a little small town and I actually moved to Tucson. and I had read about something called house hacking. So, and I was like, house hacking, huh? What's this, right? And so this was only a few months after I'd bought my first property. So they were like, well, you can buy this property with an FAAJ loan and three and a half percent down if you move into one of the units.

So, you know, I was like, oh, that sounds really cool. Three and a half percent down, I'd get another fourplex. So I looked all over Tucson and I found this fourplex there. and first thing was that I asked my real estate agent in Phoenix, do you know a good realtor in Tucson, right? And she was like, yeah, I know a great realtor in Tucson. He's also a real estate investor. And, you know, he buys small multifamily. That's his specialty. And I'm going to hook you up with him. So she gave me his number and, you know, because she do that I was really serious about, you know, getting this property. So I tell him, hey, I'm serious. I give him the pre-qualification letter for

the FHA loan and I tell him, you see anything in my price range, bring it to me and I will buy it, right? So he calls me up on the phone one day while I'm at work and he's like, yeah, here's this property. It's in Tucson. You know, it's about one mile from downtown. It's fourplex. All the utilities are separate. The rents are, you know, I think it was 600 a month per unit and it's 152,000, which is, you know, just in the price range I was looking at. And he was like, but we have to act fast. And I was like, well, I'm not even going to look at it. I haven't even seen any pictures.

Offer them full price right now because it was such a good deal. And so I signed all the paperwork electronically over my phone. And I hadn't even seen the property. He didn't know, you know, it could have been falling apart. But I was so wanting it so bad. And I didn't realize he had brought me a pocket listing. and it wasn't even listed yet. So he brought it to me first because he knew I was serious.

And that was the kind of reputation I built up that quickly. I want to jump in really quick and ask you to clarify what a pocket listing is because a lot of our real estate listeners will know, but some people may not know what a pocket listing is. So a pocket listing is when a realtor might have a listing, right? and they want to market it to, you know, someone who they know is a serious buyer before they put it out to the general public. You know, just for speed's sake, if they know they have a serious person who, you know,

was willing to buy rather than putting it out there on the MLS and then going through a whole bunch of offers and, you know, time consuming, et cetera, if they have someone who they know is going to buy and they know is willing to pay the full price, they'll just offer it, you straight to them immediately. And since he was already working with me and he knew that I, that was right in my price range, he offered it to me first. And so the very day that it was offered to me, I put in that full price offer and I was able to get it. And I think that's important too that you put in a full price offer. So what I see a lot, I'm in the forums all day long. That's my job. And so I'm right there with you. I see you all the time. And one of the things that I see is people

will say, oh, well, this doesn't fit the 70% rule. And the 70% rule is after repairs, you should offer 70% of the price of the house. And I'm sorry, if you're listing a house for $100,000, you're not going to accept an offer for $70,000. And especially in this market. So not trying to get a steal of a deal, just, hey, any deal is a good deal. Sometimes it's priced right. And you should go for that. And knowing what the market is, knowing what your prices are is so important. And jumping in and taking advantage of a pocket listing at full price is like a dream client for the agent and a dream deal for you. You're not fighting with anybody to get this property. Yeah. And in terms of finances, it really ended up being a great deal because I ended up living for

free. I mean, absolutely, you know, on top of living for free, I was actually paid to live there. You know, my mortgage payment on that place is a little over $1,000 a month. but, you know, with three tenants, I was bringing in 1,800 a month. So it was paying my entire mortgage and all of my utilities. And, you know, so I might have had, you know, a couple hundred dollars on top of that, you know, minus repairs and, you know, maintenance, et cetera. But it allowed me to save even more money and getting even better financial position. So by the time I was getting ready to move to Omaha, I started to, I mean, I already had a enough money saved up at that point to buy another property. But I didn't because I didn't know

the Omaha market and I didn't want to take that risk until I, you know, had a good, good enough time to learn it. So before you move to Omaha, what does your portfolio look like? You have the two fourplexes in Arizona. Yeah, that's right. I have a fourplex in Phoenix and I have a fourplex in Tucson. And I live in the one that's in Tucson. And I just never have. lived in the one that's in Phoenix, but, you know, it's a non-owner-occupied one. And also at that point, you know, I still invest in my 401 or TSP. Then I also had a Roth IRA, which I'd cashed out earlier, but I started putting money back into it. Then on top of that, I was like, well, you know, I'm kind of interested in, you know, stocks. And so I opened up a brokerage account on top of that.

And then, of course, I had six months' worth of emergency reserves in cash, just like Dave Ramsey said to do in his book. So I had all of these different things going on at the same time because I knew that I wanted to be in basically an indestructible financial position. Being unemployed for six months and being drowning in debt, I did not ever want to return to a point where I felt like I was in trouble. So I was trying to create an indestructible financial position and build up my wealth to a point where even if I lost my job, I'd be okay. Can you repeat what year this was when you moved back to Omaha? I'd never lived in Omaha before, but it was back to the Midwest, but it was 2015. Okay. And what was your journey like from 2015 to the present?

So, you know, my pay increased a lot. And part of it is I am a workaholic and I will work a ton of overtime. And the other thing is that, you know, I love my job. So I volunteer for everything. So every time, you know, there was an opportunity to come up to travel or go somewhere, I would do it. And, you know, my job, the new job allows me to travel a lot. And I was able to increase my income probably $30,000 a year just from. you know, working a whole lot extra.

But then once you include the rental real estate income, all of a sudden, you know, I'm making over $150,000 a year. And this is coming from a guy who was making $20,000 a year. Yeah. You know, so. At Walmart on the overnight shift. You know, I still, to this day, I live far below my means. I have to.

And so I moved here to Omaha and a person making that much money, they usually. Usually, you know, like a normal person would go out and they'd buy an expensive house that's at the very top of their budget. But I bought a house here a year after I got here. And I was like, okay, I'm going to buy a decent house in a nice neighborhood. But it's going to be a live-in flip. And at first it was going to be a live-in flip. Now I'm going to call it a live-in burr because I haven't heard too many people say that before. So it's going to become a rental after I move out.

But I'm going to refinance it and put some good tenants. in here after I'm done here. But I decided to live in a housing, even though it's a single family house, it's far below what I could afford. So when I bought it, it was $125,000. But I came through and I've already, you know, remodeled the bathroom, you know, changed all the piping and done a whole lot of work. I still have a lot of work to do. But by time I'm done, it should be worth a little over $200,000. Wow. Nice. Yeah. And so I looked at it as an investment, you know, And that's the way you should look at everything in your life. You know, I had to change the way I look at everything.

You know, it's not so much about trying to impress people or trying to live at the top of what you can afford. It's about trying to, one, invest and make wealth for yourself. It's about living below your means. And I consider it temporary sacrifice so that I can have a wonderful future. And so, you know, sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes I feel like I'm living too little below my means, or too much below my means, but it's been worth it so far and it's really changed everything for me. So when I started, I had negative net worth and I've already gotten my net worth over half a million dollars.

And, you know, that's incredible. And that's since 2012. And it's not where I want to be. You know, I want to go a lot further than that. Obviously, I want to be a millionaire. That's my first real goal. I want to be a millionaire. That's your first real goal? Come on. My goal is a big. You have to have big goals, you know? Yeah. I don't know. 276 pounds lost is a pretty big goal to me. Well, you know what? The weight loss and the way the way I go about doing things in life is all based on that weight loss. The weight loss was the catalyst that fed everything. You know, I started pushing for reaching my goals. I started to started working harder and harder. And there's no such thing. I can outwork anyone. Everyone else, you know, they, they only push so hard, right? And I wanted to push. I had to because I was behind.

You know, everyone else, you know, they grew up since their teenage years learning about money. That's what I felt. And here I was. I was starting my financial journey at 31 years old, you know. So I was like, I'm behind. I have to get ahead, you know, or I'm not going to make it. And I was the same with the weight loss. I didn't start losing weight and start getting into shape until I was 27. Meanwhile, there's people who've been physically fit since they were 10 years old. And so I'm over a decade behind, considering in my mind, no matter what I'm doing, I'm always starting from a position of disadvantage.

And I have to push harder because I'm starting at that position of disadvantage. You know, I think that's important to look at this and say I'm starting at a position of disadvantage, but I'm not letting that stop me. I weigh 476 pounds. It's real easy to just say, oh, I'm never going to lose that weight and be done. It's so easy to say I'm $50,000 in debt. There's no way I can pay that off. I'm not even going to try.

Yeah, I think most people would say that that is, it is fair to say that you're starting for a position of disadvantage. You weigh a 176 pounds, working a $20,000 a year overnight job at Walmart and or $50,000 in debt. That's a fair assessment of disadvantage. And was incredible about it. your story here is that I don't really see the point in this where you got lucky. Oh, no.

That's excellent. Where did you get lucky? Because like a lot of people that are wealthy, they're like, yeah, I got lucky, whatever, you know, but like I don't see that in this, you know, at no point here where you like, I hit the home run on this property purchase or I hit the home run on this job. It was like, no, I worked really hard. I lost 150 pounds. And then I got a job where the weight required, but it was 200.

75 pounds and I was just under that. And then I got laid off within six months along with 12,000 other people who didn't deserve to get laid off. And then I had to start over again working $26,000 a year. And then I worked my way up from there by making overtime pay. Like, where's the luck? Where did you get lucky? So actually consider myself extremely lucky. I think that the right things that needed to happen to me in order for me to make those decisions that I made, they happened. You know, and they might have been negative things,

but if it wasn't for the fact that I lost my job, I would have never gotten down the path of financial freedom. If it wasn't for the fact that I weighed 476, I wouldn't be in the greatest shape of my life right now. You know, I would have just been content with being just average. You know, I would have been just skating along, you know, I'm maybe 20 pounds over.

Wade, you know, but I tell everyone that because I was, you know, faced with these challenges, I am where I am right now. And I'm grateful for every experience that I've had, even the bad ones. Unbelievable. Yes. And that was a good observation, Scott, because there are a lot of people whose stories involve luck. My story involves a fair amount of luck. I mean, there was a lot of preparation, but there was also a hefty amount of luck thrown into there, too. So good job, Scott. Well, I think we should probably move on to our famous four here. I mean, unless you have any other points that you want to share with us before we move on to our last few questions here, Tony. Oh, no, I just want to tell everyone that, you know, basically, if there's any problem in your life, if there's anything that you want to get through, you just have to keep trying.

You have to keep pushing towards your goals. You have to. I mean, it's 100% necessary that, you know, the main thing is you can't give up. Don't give up. That's a great piece of advice. And you look at your life, you didn't give up. And now look at where you are. This is awesome.

Okay. What is your favorite finance book? And I'm sure that I already know the answer to this question. Well, you do. You do. But I'm going to throw a little twist on it for you. So back in 2012, you know, while I was working through trying to, you know, building goals for my life, I decided I wanted to learn Spanish.

So I decided, okay, well, I love this book, the total money. makeover by Dave Ramsey, right? But I want to, you know, learn Spanish. So I'm going to use it to help me learn the language. So I bought La Transformation Total de Su Dinero. The audio. And I have listened to this probably, I don't know, 30 times. And I absolutely love it. And, you know, I mean, it combines, you know, both helping me learn Spanish and learning about money. And, you know, even though I don't follow everything the Dave Ramsey says anymore because it was the catalyst that helped me learn about money, you know, I consider it necessary reading or listening for everyone. So.

Can you get that title one more time for the show notes? Yeah. La Transprobation Total de sui de sui de Janeiro. Okay, great. That will be in the show notes. Along with the English version, if you choose to listen in English. And then there's actually a second book as well that I, you know, I fell in love. with this book, and this is a lot more recently. And I realized when I was reading it, it was

describing everything that I had already been doing. And that would be Grant Cardone's The 10x rule, right? And so basically what he's saying in the book is, you know, for success, you have to give 10 times the amount of effort as what you originally thought was necessary in order to accomplish any goal. And looking back on not just, you know, my, financial story, but my weight loss story, absolutely 100% true. And I recommend that book for anyone who is trying to, you know, reach the next level. It was the Spanish language title. So I don't have a Spanish language version of that book yet, but maybe soon, maybe soon. Dees-exis?

What's that? Dece-exis? How do you say? Dease. Deis. Deis-Xes. Dese X. X? Yeah. A regla, Dese X. Obviously, Spanish is my first language. All right.

What was your biggest money mistake? Well, let's frame it this way. Since you started your journey to financial independence, what was your biggest mistake from that point? Okay, so my biggest mistake and since I started my journey to financial independence has been that I didn't realize. And, you know, this is part of anybody's journey is that I didn't realize that debt isn't this horrible bad thing necessarily and that you can use debt in a positive way. So at first, when I started my financial journey, I was debt-averse.

I didn't want any sort of debt. And I was trying to pay for everything with cash. And I was like, well, I'm going to buy, you know, my property's cash only, you know, just like I had read. But, you know, it took me, you know, reading a few other books to really open my mind. eyes to, okay, there's debt that's not bad for you that you can use to your advantage. And, you know, as long as you're not pushing yourself or stretching yourself out in a bad way, it can work out quite well. I love it. That's a great point. Yeah, I think when it comes to debt, you just have to be comfortable with it. You know, some people are comfortable with no debt.

And they're not comfortable with any amount other than zero. And that's okay. That's not bad. That's just their preference. I like a lot of debt. When it comes to buying houses, I guess I should clarify, When it comes to buying houses, I don't want to sink all my money into my house. I want to have that payment instead. Yeah. And to this day, I don't have any credit card debt. I do use the credit card. Like I used it on a recent rehab that I did.

But I paid all of that down. So, you know, I don't like to have any debt. And if I try to pay for everything with cash aside from the real estate. Yeah, I like to pay with everything for everything with a credit card and then pay that off because I like to get the point so I can go travel. Exactly. Okay. What is your best piece of advice for people who are just starting out? You have to be consistent.

Whatever it is that you're doing, if you're trying to reach your financial goals, you have to be consistent. You have to keep doing whatever it is that you're doing. You can't push hard for a week or two and then stop and then expect to reach your goals. You have to keep going over the long term. And what it might mean is that you're not pushing quite as hard as, you know, like, imagine going to the gym. And, you know, I see this at the gym all the time. There's someone there and they're working out super hard. You know, they're just getting back into it and they're just killing themselves working hard, right?

But two weeks later, they burn out and they don't go to the gym. And then you'll see them, you know, maybe once a week there because they're not consistent in what they're doing. So that goes over to your money too, right? I consistently believe in, you know, you got to consistently, you know, save your money. You got to consistently invest your money. You got to, you know, when you're working on losing weight, you have to consistently exercise. You have to, you know, it's, you have to be consistent with your diet. It's all about consistency, you know, and it's about doing something over a long period of time.

And you will get results. You will get results if you're consistent over a long period of time. Fantastic. I think that's a great piece of advice. This is the toughest question of our famous story. What is your favorite joke to tell at parties? Okay, so I had to look one up for the show, but never lend money to a friend. Okay, it's dangerous.

It could damage his memory. Fantastic. And completely on topic, too. A money joke. Thank you. Tony, where can people find more about you? The best place to find more about me is on bigger pockets. I'm on there pretty much every day. But when I'm not on bigger pockets, you can look me up on Facebook just under North Omaha Investments or under Tony Gaden. Or you can send me an email. My email address is Tony at north Omahainvestments.com. Great. And we will put all of that in the show notes so people can link and send you notes. Beware, you will get a lot of emails.

Awesome. I can't wait. I love talking to people. Well, your wish is about to come to. All right. Tony, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to chat with us. I will be in your neck of the woods, but you will not. Where are you going? Tomorrow I am going to China, at Beijing.

And, yeah, I'm going there for work. You know, my job, they allow me to travel a lot. I'm going to Beijing. Last year, I went to Palau, Morocco. I've been to Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia, Turkey. You know, I travel all over the world. Last year, I was out of town for more than four months, you know, just for my job. Oh, wow.

So, yeah, it's pretty exciting job. I get to meet a lot of new people, see different cultures. And, you know, I love my job. I couldn't really see myself ever, you know, retiring, like, early. I know a lot of people on your show talk about trying to, you know, retire early and leave the workforce. but I love my job. And this is, you know, it's my dream come true working here. So I don't know, Scott. It sounds like he got lucky with his job. Yeah. That's, well, after, yeah, after all that, now he's lucky of putting himself in position. I did. I really did. Fantastic. This has been incredible.

Thank you so much for sharing your story and taking some time out today. We appreciate it. Hey, thanks a lot, Scott. Hey, and Mindy. Okay. Bye, Tony. All right. Bye. All right. That was Tony Gaden with absolutely incredible wall-to-wall story from rock bottom to overnight success, quote-unquote, over the last 10 to 13 years, 10 to 12 years. He actually had kind of a like rock bottom, get up a little bit, hit rock bottom again, get up a little bit, hit rock bottom. I was thinking of the song from probably before you were born, Chumbawumba,

I get knocked down, but I get up again. You're never going to keep me down. And that is Tony to a T. he does not let anything keep him down. And did you see his smile the whole time he was telling his story? He's the kind of person you just know he's happy all the time. Just happy all the time. He was rightfully so excited to share his story because it is an incredible story.

And he should be proud of what he's accomplished. Johnny, I hope you are proud of what you've accomplished. It's absolutely fantastic. It should be an inspiration to everyone listening to this podcast as something that, hey, if Tony can do it starting from those positions of extraordinary disadvantage in this journey, you can do it too. You know, this is something that is a willpower and effort and long-term fundamental-focused approach that is really repeatable by anyone who is willing to put in the effort and the drive and the time.

Yep. Put in the effort, the drive, and the time. Tony should be absolutely proud of this because he did it. Nobody helped him. In fact, you could say that life tried to throw all sorts of obstacles at him and he's like, Nope, not today, sucker. It's my time and I'm going to do this. And I'm so happy that he told his story. I mean, I love his story. Now, Scott, I think we should very awkwardly transition into asking our readers what they want from us. Oh, yeah. So if you're listening to this podcast,

we've heard some feedback and we're trying to, we're working on procuring some stories of some families that have made a transition from me just kind of scraping by paycheck to paycheck to really moving on towards financial independence. So we're working on that. What is another topic that you'd want to hear from? What's another type of issue surrounding the concept of the movement from anywhere from rock bottom all the way towards fat fire, you know, getting beyond just basic financial independent? What's a topic that you want us to talk about and just go over with guests on the show? If you could send those ideas to Scott at biggerpots.com and Mindy at Biggerpockets.com, along with your favorite joke, that would be very helpful to us in putting together

future shows so that we know that we're able to continue providing you, the listeners, with the topics and content that you want to hear more of. I could not have said it better myself. Okay. Scott, we've already gone pretty long on this show. So I am going to say from episode 21 of the Bigger Pockets Money Show, this is Mindy Jensen over and out.