More Money Podcast - 111 How to Reach Financial Independence - Pauline Paquin, Blogger at Reach Financial Independence

Episode Date: June 7, 2017

Want to learn how to reach financial independence, so you can sit by the beach and do whatever you want? Well, it's not exactly easy but it is absolutely possible. I chat with Pauline Paquin, blogger at Reach Financial Independence, to discuss how she was able to leave the 9 to 5 world, work remotely in Guatemala, and live a life most of us could only dream of. Long description: Ever dreamed quitting your 9 to 5 and working remotely from your laptop in paradise? Sounds like a dream, but it can actually become your reality...if you follow in Pauline Paquin's footsteps. Pauline has figured out the secret sauce to living a financially independent life, like so many of us fantasize about on a day-to-day basis. But it wasn't just luck, and no she didn't win the lottery. She started out by graduating university debt-free and investing her savings into a rental property. The income from the rental helped pay for her to travel abroad, but she knew she needed do something extra to not always live on a shoestring budget. So, she started freelance writing and eventually started her own blog — Reach Financial Independence. Since then, she's also started another blog called Make Money Your Way, and has bought two other money-making blogs — Frugaling and Savvy Scot. Pauline also shares one of her big inspirations and motivators in her life — Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You to Be Rich. One of the biggest lessons she's learned from Ramit's teachings is that you should adopt an abundance money mindset instead of a scarcity mindset. This essentially means stopping the thinking of "I can't afford that" and changing it to "How can I afford that? What do I need to do in my life to reach that goal." Having the right mindset when it comes to money is a big key to reaching your goals, no matter what they are, and I'll admit I absolutely have the same money mindset when it comes to my life. I hope you enjoy this interview with Pauline, and make sure to scroll down below for more info about my Rich & Fit Bootcamp course, or click here to visit the registration page. Check Out Pauline's Best Blog Posts Crossing from a Debt Desert to a Financially Independent Oasis Top-Paying Side Gigs for a Second Income Stream that You Should Consider Make Your Career Soar and Reach Financial Independence Follow Pauline on Social Follow Pauline on Twitter Like Pauline on Facebook Follow Pauline on Instagram Follow Pauline on Pinterest Register for the Rich & Fit Bootcamp I mentioned in this episode that myself and business partner Jaclyn Phillips have finally launched our Rich & Fit Bootcamp course together, and I want to share all the juicy details with you! First, visit the registration page to learn more and to register before the cut off date of Wednesday, June 7. But also, check out our webinar replay to find out what we'll be teaching and what the course platform will look like when you get access to it. If you do want to register, and want to take advantage of a special deal going on right now, use the promo code rfpromofirst10 to get 50% off your purchase price! And if you have any questions and aren't sure if this is right for you, please email me, happy to chat! Learn more about the Rich & Fit Bootcamp For more podcast episodes, check out the podcast page. Show notes: jessicamoorhouse.com/111 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello and welcome to episode 111 of the Mo Money podcast. I am your host Jessica Morehouse. Thank you so much for joining me for another fabulous episode. I've got a few more episodes in the queue for this month and then I'm going to be wrapping up for the season. Much needed break do I need? Oh my gosh. It has been a, I'm at episode 111. So yeah, I deserve a break. It's been a long two years. Speaking of that, yeah, last week, June 3rd was my two-year podcast-iversary, if that is a word. I'm going to say it is. So wow. Thanks for, if you've been like a listener from the beginning, also happy two-year anniversary to you for listening to my podcast. Really appreciate it.

I am so excited to chat to my next guest for this interview. I've been following her since I started blogging, quite honestly, so several years ago, almost five years ago, I suppose. And I, of course, got the fabulous chance to meet her in person at FinCon last year. Gosh, that conference is great for meeting some awesome inspirational people. I'm talking about Pauline Packin. She is the blogger and founder of some of my favorite blogs, including Make Money Your Way and Reach Financial Independence. She is from France. She is. And she's just like an all around awesome woman who has proved that you really no matter where you're from, what you are doing in your career,

if you want to switch things up and have a completely different lifestyle, you can make it happen if you really want to. And you want to put the hard work and effort into it, which is exactly what she's done. And she'll explain more about her story in this episode. She's definitely living kind of something that I used to dream about. Well, not so much now because I am self-employed but before when I was working my nine-to-five it's like wow wouldn't it be amazing to kind of work in my own terms work kind of remotely from my laptop and live in some tropical island and that is kind of what her life's about which I mean I'm not living in a tropical

island I'm living in Toronto so not the same anyways, we talk more about all that stuff and some tips on just like making money in different ways, side hustles and all that great stuff. But before I get to that interview, I kind of mentioned last week, I launched my e-course, the Rich and Fit Bootcamp, and we're wrapping up registration today. Today is the last day that you can register. So depending on when you're listening to this episode, it may be too late, but if not, then it's not too late. So make sure to go to rich and fit bootcamp.com to learn more about what my course is all about. I am doing it in conjunction with my pal and business partner, Jacqueline Phillips. She's a fitness coach, fitness model. She just became certified as a yoga instructor.

She is awesome. And we've created a seven week intensive e-course to teach you how to tackle and master your finances and your fitness at the same time. Two of the biggest struggles that most people have, especially when me and Jackie first met two years ago, was struggling with my fitness. She was struggling with her finances. We came together, create the rich and fit bootcamp to kind of create a solution for both of those issues. So again, rich and fit bootcamp.com is where you can find more info about that or just go to the show notes for this episode, Jessica Morehouse.com slash 111. All right, so enough of my yabbering. Let's get to this fabulous episode with Pauline. Thanks, Pauline, for joining me on the show. I'm excited to chat with you. Me too. Thank you so much for having me.

You're welcome. I've been following your journey for several years. I didn't realize, like, when did you start Reach Financial Independence? I feel like it was around the time I started my blog. Yeah, it was about the same time. It was 2012. So it's been a while. Yeah, I know. Time kind of flies. I can't believe it's been that many years. I love you. It's like half a century or something. I know. It really is. Still going. But yeah, so I've been following you for a while and I finally got to meet you in person, which was so lovely at FinCon. I'm so glad we got the chance to meet because I really love what you're doing and what your story is. And you're kind of living the life that I think a lot of people dream about. So I definitely want to chat about all of that. But I'd like to kind of start from the beginning. So, you know, right now you're kind of working for yourself, doing a lot of different things things so you have that flexibility and freedom in your life but before that you kind of you are originally from Paris and you worked a regular nine-to-five job uh yes and no actually I went to college I did the good girl kind of thing

never missed a year and my past the last couple of years of college were business school and a company was actually paying for my tuition in exchange for part-time labor. That's nice. So that was my first try at a cubicle. I was working for a big multinational and I knew I wanted to get out. I mean, I had not even graduated so because I had no student loans or nothing I saved a lot of money and I found myself out of college with like 25 000 dollars and because I had been hustling really hard and studying very hard not to miss a year I wanted to see the world it was um my my big goal I wanted to travel so I thought okay I can just go travel and blow my 25k or I could buy a rental property and go travel

with the rent money so I bought a tiny studio in the outskirts of Paris and went traveling with the rent which was about 10 or 15 dollars a day so that was a really tight budget I had to camp a lot couch surf eat rice and beans but I was living the dreams in my it was just amazing and after a year I didn't want to come back. So I found a job in Guatemala, actually, 12 years ago. And worked in a hotel for a while as a hotel manager, then in a law firm. But I was always kind of a consultant and free agent, let's say. Then I came back to Europe for a little bit, started a company with a friend from business school, ended up in London, back to Cube because our company failed with the construction crisis in Spain. We were selling equipment for hotels.

And then what happened? Oh, yes. Then I wanted to save more money and have paychecks again to get a second rental property. So I spent two or three years back in a cube in the UK saving aggressively so that would be the last time I had to go through that ordeal and I did it went to the bank got my mortgage uh waited for my Christmas bonus and told my boss that was the end of it. So that was back in 2010. And when I left, a couple of my friends hired me to become a travel writer for their websites because I had traveled quite a bit.

So I was writing a lot about travel, but eventually it felt like a job to travel, if that makes any sense. First you think, hey, that's the dream, I'm getting paid to travel, wow. But then you end up ordering lunch and you have to take pictures of your lunch instead of digging in. And you have to go to a museum where you'd rather just go for a walk in the park because you need to write about the museum. So I got burnt out after a couple of years and thought, hey, if my friend can pay for all my travels, how about I start my own website?

Maybe I can earn double that. So what can I talk about that I would not get tired of and money came naturally I had been reading a lot of personal finance blogs the concept of financial independence I knew naturally I mean I I didn't study anything I I knew there was a way to save hearts so you could exit early but I didn't put a name on it and then I found all these blogs and I was like oh my god I'm not the only one swimming against the currents I want to be part of that community so yeah that's how my first blog was born yeah Yeah. I'm curious because you had like a,

the very smart idea to invest in property and then just use that rental income as a way to kind of do what you wanted. What made you think to do that? Um, the real estate investing right off the bat? Well, I didn't know much, even though I went to business school and studied economics before that. I didn't really understand the markets. It was all very complicated for me, all the ratios, all the curves, all the charts. You had to study hard and eventually even stock managers don't beat the market so back then even investing in index funds they were charging you like 20 dollars for each trade so it was a lot of money and no one can predict the trends basically so I felt like if you invest in real estate and everything goes wrong at least you

have a roof over your head yeah that's true and you also have a lot of ways to make money with real estate so obviously you have a tenant paying you rent but if you put $500 worth of paint, maybe the house will appreciate $2,000. And then if you're in a good neighborhood, the house can also appreciate just by intrinsic value, etc., etc. You have the leverage. If you're able to get a mortgage, you can put 20% down but charge rent based on the full value of the house. So there are many ways to make money with real estate and it seemed like less likely that every single way would go wrong so a safer bet something I would understand rather than stocks I agree I've never been one to do kind

of the stock game it just seems I don I don't know, I'm just not really interested in it. And it does seem a little bit too complex at times. But yeah, when it comes to real estate investing, it does seem, you know, it can go bad, but it could also go well. And it's just like, you know, as long as it's kind of more of a longer term investment, and you keep hold of it, you know, during those bad times, don't sell when, you know, the market's bad, then you'll kind of be okay. And I think that's definitely something that I personally hope to do. I mean, we bought, me and my husband bought our first place recently, but I'm hoping in the future we can kind of add to that and have tenants and stuff like that.

You can build up the empire. Exactly. So do you just own that one place now, or did you kind of own a few others? No, so after that, I relocated to Guatemala, and I bought a little house by a lake, which was completely run down, and turned it into a guest house. So now I have a four-bedroom guest house which is lovely because I really needed a home base after traveling so much and living here

living there I had bad experiences as a tenant I had really bad landlords yeah would not refund deposits. So I have a trauma with renting. I hear you. So I really wanted to buy something and I bought my house in Guatemala in cash. So on top of that, I don't have to worry about the bank. So it's not a good financial decision I don't recommend it if you're looking at growing your net worth it's an emotional decision with which I'm perfectly fine because it's home and it feels like home absolutely so now I rent out my place when I'm traveling and I also built another house for myself because I was a bit tired of having guests on top of me all the time. And so I have these two houses in Guatemala and I camped my rental in the UK.

Oh, wow. Yeah, that's a bit of an empire there. I'm curious, why did you decide on Guatemala? I mean, it looks amazing. I would love to move there. But why did you decide to kind of have a bit of a home base there? Well, it is a fabulous country. I'm completely in love with it. And like I said previously, I lived there 12 years ago.

And back then, the internet was really bad. So calling home was a hassle. Plane tickets were like $1, 1500 when i wanted to go back to europe so it was complicated but other than this you have fabulous uh nature it's amazing you can start your day in the mountains and go surfing at midday and come back to thermal springs in the afternoon and i have dinner in a little colonial town everything is like two hours away from the next attraction people are super friendly they're really happy um you know when you have these surveys about the happiest people on earth, Guatemala always shows up and people

have a smile on their face. They are just very positive people and it's nice to be in such an environment. Life is really cheap so you can have a housekeeper for example for 15 or 20 dollars a day which is very convenient for a guest house owner like me yeah and taxes are low so it's it's pretty much heaven for me yeah it is remote um but now that I earn more money and travel is easier and communication like whatsapp and facetime and skype and stuff makes it way easier so I'm two or three times a year I'm abroad and the rest of the time I'm in paradise yeah no I feel like when I think of you know typical financial freedom it is like having enough money to live in a tropical paradise where I could just, you know, if I want to work, then I can, you know, have some kind of virtual job where I just am on my laptop.

And it kind of seems like you were able to do that, which is nice to know that it's possible. Well, one thing people do when they think about financial independence is say, OK, for $1,000, I can live down in guatemala yes you can do that but what if i don't know your parents get sick overnight and you need to pay three thousand dollars for a last minute flight yeah can you afford that as well what if you get sick uh private hospitals are really expensive because you don't really want to be in a public hospital in guatemala can you afford that as well right so day to day my life is super cheap and because i own my house i think with my staff i have two staff and a boat and a dog and stuff and i don't think i'm spending a thousand dollars but i'm flying to Europe two or three times a year and that's a thousand dollars each time so yeah you can have the tropical dream you know the romantic

illusion that you're going to be in your hammock sipping beer all day but can you afford to live in your home country if you can then you're golden yeah and whenever you decide to come back you can do it so interesting I cringe now when I think okay I can come back to Paris but I would have to fork out like three thousand dollars for rent yeah and that seems ridiculous so I know I can do it I'm happy about about that. But yeah, for me, in the balance, Guatemala Waste is more favorable. And I prefer the way of life that I have. But if I start having kids, for example, I wouldn't want them to live in the jungle where you have no school. So yeah, you have to think long term when you weigh your options.

Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit Superstore.ca to get started. So you started your blog, Reach Financial Independence, as a way to, you know, make some extra income on top of some of your other investments. But you also now own a couple other websites. And I guess that's kind of just like you, you know, start with one place and then start buying a couple others. Is that kind of the same idea? Just kind of another way to do the passive income streams?

Yes. Rich financial independence has always been my kind of personal journal. So I talk about life in Guatemala. I talk about the money moves that I make personally. But I wanted to start another site because there was no space within my brand to talk about other things that I like for example my second site is called make money your way so I talk about all the ways to make money because when people were saying hey you're financially independent well it's pretty easy for you because you have so many streams of income and I said yes what about you oh you know I just have my day job because life is hard and there's

no time so I created make money your way to show you that there are literally thousands of ways of making money from getting a cooler with water bottles to the park on a hot Saturday and selling one dollar water bottles to investing real estate starting a blog etc etc and one thing I have going is I see opportunity everywhere so if you tell me hey I have a couple hours each evening but I don't know what to do I would be like okay so you can tutor a kid from neighborhood you can walk your dogs you can do this and this and that and I never run out of ideas so yeah that was a new outfit and then because I lived in the UK for a while I thought the personal finance niche was underserved there so I bought a site called the Savvy Scott which tackles personal finance from

the UK point of view so that's been interesting as well and my last purchase is called Frugalink and it's only been a month so I don't really have a vision for it yet but I kind of like the name and let's see where it goes definitely that's awesome I always kind of wonder you know I hear lots of bloggers that sell their blogs when they want to kind of do something different but I don't hear too many people that actually buy them and what they do with them so it totally makes sense why you're just kind of using them as another, I don't know, like kind of different shops, I guess. You're kind of selling different things in the form of selling different types of information, I guess. And it makes sense. I really like the idea of starting a website that's all about ways to make money,

because I feel like in personal finance, lots of people will focus specifically on debt or saving or budgeting. But I feel like not enough or, you know, not many bloggers focus on. But how, you know, once you've kind of budgeted, you know, as much as you can, the next step is obviously to make money. And, you know, me, I'm a prime example. I wouldn't be where I am today if I didn't have all the side hustles that I have. And I have been doing, I guess, side hustles since I, about six years. So it's helped me tremendously kind of reach some of my financial goals. So I'm glad that you're have all of these ideas, because I think lots of people, yeah, rack their brains

are like, I don't know what to do. Does that mean I have to go get a part time job at a shop? Not necessarily. No, there are. I mean, there are so many ways to make money you can find the one that fits for you for example i'm looking for extreme independence and not being stuck in a place or at a certain time so blogging is perfect because i can blog from japan at 3 a.m i can blog uh for two hours i can blog for eight days straight my the work i put in will uh determine my income obviously but like last year i stopped blogging for a couple of months and everything kept going and everything was fine so that fits perfectly. And I like writing. That goes without saying. That helps. But it totally fits my personality.

But I have a friend who loves baking, for example. So she started doing really cool cakes for her son for his birthday. And every birthday, there would be 20 moms around the cake, marveling at the beautiful Batman or Cars cake. And after a while, she said, okay, I'm going to make cakes for your kids too. That will be 50 bucks. And there it was.

Because you're good at something, you enjoy doing it, and the more you enjoy yourself, and the more people are going to notice. And before you know it, you are going to notice and before you know it you're going to be the cake person or the blogging person or the music person whatever but there is a way for everyone to make extra money even if you don't have time or you think you don't you know just cut the tv for an hour and think about something you like. I know I get that question all the time. People are like, how do you have time to, you know, work a day job and also do everything you do outside

of it? I'm like, you just find the time, especially when you're really passionate about what you're doing, you know, outside of your nine to five, you find the time to do it. And also, you know, making money is kind of fun yes when the hobby start paying the bills yeah like I remember my first um blog income was like 150 dollars but so far I had put a hundred dollars on my blog to buy hosting and a domain name so I thought okay I've been having fun writing all of this for two or three months and now someone's paying me to blog and I still have to pinch myself sometimes and make sure I'm not dreaming but yeah I actually make a living off my writing and you can make a living pretty much of any hobby because if you're good at it

there will always be a beginner who wants to learn and who wants you to teach them so yeah there's a way absolutely absolutely so uh before i let you go since you do uh are kind of the expert when it comes to financial freedom well actually i have two questions. One will be, was there anyone that you kind of looked up to or like an example you had for, you know, this is what I want to do in terms of financial freedom? Or was it just like, no, I just I kind of know the life I want and it doesn't exist in this cubicle. Let's start with that question. First, I'm always curious because for me, I definitely have certain people that I'm like, oh man, I want to have that life. I want to be like them. So I'm going to try to do all these things to see if I can get to that point. When I first started, I took a lot of crap from my friends and family, actually.

They would call me cheap and they would say, my last year of college I was saving for that round the world trip and I told my friends we're not going out anymore you you guys are going to come to my place and you're going to bring your own booths and I'm going to cook dinner for everyone and we're going to socialize at my place and they're like oh my god you're so boring and what's wrong with you and what I love is, so we're 15 years out of college and my friends write to me and one of them said, I'm so sorry I gave you crap. Please teach me.

You know, I see where you are now. And I don't promote my blog to family and friends because of that, but he actually Googled me and found my URLs. And he was like, wow, you've done so much. How did you do it? And I was like, dude, I've been at it for 20 years. Practice. It's been a marathon.

Yeah. But in the industry, one person I've always liked was Ramit Sethi from IWillTeachYouToBeRich.com. And he went very early from let's eat ramen and save money to that's stupid. I'm sorry, guys. You really need to make more money. And so now his motto is to live a rich life. So define whatever priorities you have. I want to travel the world. maybe you don't want to clean your house and you want a housekeeper and everyone's saying like oh my god a hundred dollars

a month for a housekeeper that's ridiculous but that's your luxury that's your indulgence you want that okay go hustle for 400 bucks and go pay your housekeeper so ramit's uh principles are just um be the best person at what you do so you have a ton of money to outsource whatever you're bad at or whatever you don't want to do and stop sweating the small stuff because you're going to be so good you're going to make so much money then you can go on holiday you can invite your parents to dinner you can treat your friends to a weekend in Tahoe doesn't matter you're doing great and I like that attitude it's it's an abundance mindset instead of a scarcity mindset yeah I like too. Because there's definitely something to be said

for being frugal and cutting back. I think that's an important, just a good personal finance money habit to have because it does come in handy sometimes. But also to have, yeah, not have that scarcity mindset all the time and maybe kind of shift once you've kind of worked with your budget and know how much money you can spend and know how much you have to save to reach, you know, the level you want to, then the abundance kind of factor kicks in. And then you're like, okay, so what do I need to do?

There is no sitting on earnings. I mean, you will always have a bottom floor. You need to eat. You need a roof over your head so that's gonna cost you probably at least fifteen hundred two thousand dollars a month but if you earn twenty five hundred you can earn three thousand five thousand ten thousand whatever yeah there is no ceiling and all that buffer is your freedom money. So the bigger the buffer, the easier it is to become financially independent, much more so than just cutting $20 a month on cable. Exactly, exactly.

Okay, so my last question for you is if someone listening right now is like, yeah, that is definitely kind of my goal. I don't want to, you know, stay in my job forever. I would love to be able to be financially free enough to choose what I want to do and what I when I want to work, what I want to work and what would your piece of advice be for them when they're just starting out on this journey? All right. So if you want to increase your income, think about something that will be effortless for you. So I'm a pretty good piano player, for example. So I was a music tutor for a few years and I really enjoyed it because it kept me in the music niche but I was also able to meet other teachers, was very social,

I had the kids, I loved teaching. So on top of a day job, sitting two hours in a music room was not an effort. Having to stand two hours after work to feed burgers or a wait table would have been a real drag. Sometimes you're like, oh, I cannot monetize that. But think about what people have you for. Like if you're handy, for example, if your mom has you hang mirrors in the bathroom and fix the AC, you can market that skill.

If your friends always ask for recommendations or ask you to install the program on their computers, well, after a while, you can charge for that skill. So just think about stuff you've been doing as a hobby and find a way to market that. It's much easier than picking up a second shift that's a burger joint. Absolutely, absolutely. No, I think those are some great pieces of wisdom.

Thank you so much, Pauline, for joining me. I'm glad I caught you when your, you know, Wi-Fi was fast and running for me. Yeah, that was great. Thank you so much. It was really fun talking to you. And that was episode 111 with Pauline Packin. Of course, check out the show notes for more information about her and what she's up to now, jessicaross.com slash 111. But again,

you can go to two of her blogs, makemoneyyourway.com or reachfinancialindependence.com to find out more about her and what she's up to and how she can help you reach financial independence too and make some extra money on the side. Thanks again to Pauline for joining me and thank you for listening to this episode. And also thank you in advance for maybe looking into and possibly registering to my course, the rich and fit boot cam, which is closing registration today at midnight Eastern time. So, uh, if you want to kind of, you know, take this summer to really get your stuff together, including most specifically your finances and your fitness, your health, then this is the course for you quite honestly.

And what better, like I personally always like to focus the summer on getting fit. I don't know. Most people are like, no, it's too hot and sweaty, blah, blah, blah. I don't know. For some reason, I'm always like, yeah, this summer, this summer, maybe because things calm down a little bit in my life, work-wise and all that kind of stuff. I like to kind of dedicate the summer to kind of really focusing my time on me and, you know, working on all that stuff. So if you're like me, and that sounds like a good idea, go to richandfitbootcamp.com or check out the show notes, jessicamarose.com slash 111 to learn more to register before registration closes,

because it's going to close and that's going to be it. We may launch again in the future, but no guarantees, no firm date in the queue yet. So you don't want to miss your chance. And also as a special little bonus, if you are interested in signing up, but maybe need some financial assistance, that is totally understandable. We do have a special promo code that you may want to use to get 50% off the cost again I will include that special promo code in the show notes so you have to go there to find it just go to jessicamaros.com slash 111 and you'll find it right there and you'll join us and a bunch of

other students who've already enrolled and it's going to be a lot of fun. Also, oh yeah, I forgot to mention course starts this Sunday. So, uh, hope you're ready to get sweating and get working. It's going to be a ton of fun. Uh, thank you again for listening to this episode. I will have a new fresh episode for you next Wednesday and, uh, it's going to be the best because I'm the best and you're the best and we're all the best. So thanks again and check you later. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.