More Money Podcast - 118 Listener Series - How Lilian Was Able to Retire Early After Immigrating to the USA

Episode Date: October 5, 2017

 The American Dream is alive and well, and Lilian Hurn is proof of it! Originally from Lima, Peru, she immigrated to the USA in 2005, but has since retired early and dedicates her time to teaching others how she did it. Long description: I know I’m not American, but the idea of the “American Dream” has definitely made it’s way over the border into Canada, and I can’t help but cry ugly tears every episode of Sharks Tank I watch when someone new to the US has managed to go from zero to millionaire. So, when Lilian Hurn reached out to me after finding my podcast on YouTube and asked to share her story for my Listener Series, I was so excited to be able to have her on the show. She literally is proof that the “American Dream” is alive and well. Originally from Lima, Peru, she immigrated to the USA in 2005 to work for Microsoft. She ended up meeting her husband there, and they’ve both worked together to fulfill their own dream of retiring early. Now in their 40s, they consider themselves semi-retired, with Lilian’s husband working occasionally as a consultant, and Lilian spending her days as a Spanish-language financial literacy educator. She not only has her own blog called Super Baratisimo Gratis, she also has her own YouTube channel teaching others about the power of personal finance in Spanish! Learning how to live frugally, work hard, save more than she earned, and earning money outside of her full-time job are what helped Lilian achieve one of her biggest goals in life. She truly is an inspiration, I’m just so glad I ended up putting my podcast on YouTube a year ago! Since Lilian has her own blog and YouTube channel, she also had some great tips for listeners who want to be able to achieve their financial goals too. Here are some of my favourites. How to Talk Money with Your Partner Be persistent (but not annoying). Sometimes it can take a few times to convince your partner to be open, so don’t ever drop the subject and forget about it. Try a different tactic, because it’s so important to be on the same page with your partner Focus on setting goals together. That’s the best way to motivate your partner to get involved in budgeting, tracking your spending and saving for your future. When you have goals outlined clearly that you can both work towards together, you’ll become a stronger partnership for it. How to Reach Your Financial Goals Faster Don’t just rely on your day job to get you there in the time you want. To get to your goals faster, you may need to look outside the box and earn more on the side. Lilian sold stuff around her house she didn’t need on eBay and cut back on unnecessary expenses like a storage locker that cost her husband $50/month. Learn More About Lilian Check out Lilian’s blog Super Baratisimo Gratis Subscribe to her YouTube channel Follow her on Facebook Follow her on Twitter For full episode show notes visit: https://jessicamoorhouse.com/118 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 118 of the Mo Money podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse, and welcome back to my listener series. I am so excited to be doing the listener series once again. And if you're new to the show, all the listener series really is, is a chance to listen from listeners of the show. It's very simple. Basically, I just started getting inundated with awesome emails from listeners of the podcast sharing their personal finance journeys with me. And I'm like, hey, wouldn't this be cool to share it with you? So I started contacting everyone who's emailed me, seeing if they want to be on the show. And now, bam, we've got the listener

series. So I am excited to kick off the listener series with my first guest, Lillian Hearn. She has an amazing personal finance journey that I know you are going to love. But before I get to that interview, here's a few words about this episode's sponsor. Support for this episode comes from Credit Card Genius, the only tool that compares over 50 features of 150 Canadian credit cards using math-based ratings and rankings that respond to your needs instantly. Now you can get rewarded faster without all the headache. Visit creditcardgenius.ca to learn more. Once again, that's creditcardgenius.ca.

Thank you, Lillian, for joining me on the show. I'm so glad I have the chance to talk to you for another listener series episode. Thank you, Jessica. I'm so excited to be part of this podcast. Thank you so much for the opportunity. You are so welcome and so i feel like you might be one of the first uh listener series or or just like uh people that have emailed me saying that you found my podcast on youtube so i think that's pretty fun i'm like oh i always kind of wondered who are

those youtube people they they generally sometimes they leave comments but generally they just kind of like listen and then leave whereas i feel like the people that find me on itunes are a little bit more vocal. So I'm glad that you sent me an email. So I know you're out there and listening on YouTube. Yeah, I mean, I love YouTube and I find a lot of information there. And then I found your podcast there. And the reason why I love it is like people share their personal stories.

So that's kind of helped me to, oh, I can do this. Oh, I should be doing that. Give me some ideas and also encourage me to continue to be the way that I am. Right. Absolutely. So I want to dive into your story because you were able to do something I believe a lot of people dream about, myself included, being semi-retired by 40, which is sounds like a dream for sure. But, uh, you obviously had to work hard, save hard, be very strategic in order to get to where you are now. So where did, where did you start? Um, uh, and I know you have a bit of an accent and you, you have, and we'll get into this also. You also have a Spanish language blog yourself, which is amazing.

I wish I knew Spanish so I could read it. I feel like I'll just use Google Translator and then see what's going on over there. But I would love to know kind of where you started that helped you get to where you are right now. Yeah. I'm Peruvian or original from Peru, Lima, the big city. I moved to the United States back in November in 2005. I met my husband working at Microsoft. I was working at Microsoft Peru,

and my husband was working at Microsoft Redmond. So we have, yeah, it's an interesting story. We have, so we worked together for a couple of years, and we established a relationship and then we got engaged. And at the end of the day, we decided where we were planning to live. So I moved to the U.S. in 2005, in November. I have like a specific time that I could not work because the papers. Right.

They need to be happy. But then, yeah, I find my first job as a contractor in Microsoft. I was working also as a contractor in Microsoft, but I was not a full-time employee. And then moving here in the U.S., I find a contractor job also with Microsoft for a year. And then after that, they hired me as a full-time employee. And I has been 12 years with Microsoft until December from last year when I decided to retire from Microsoft and start doing my own small business. And yeah, a portion of the the majority of my savings was working at Microsoft. My husband and I, we saved pretty much almost 50% of our salary. He was working. He was working at Microsoft also for a little bit and then moved to another company, consulting company. and his background and my background is IT.

So we are very technical people. And so that's how we save most of our money. But also coming in the U.S., sometimes you get so excited. I get so excited. I'm like, oh, here are new scenes for the house, new scenes for the wedding. So I started spending money also as I made it, right? But then one point we say, no, okay, what is our goal? Are we going to continue to work forever in these companies until we are 60, 65?

No. So we kind of sit together and it was not an easy conversation for sure. I think having a conversation with your partner I was more of the saving aspect. My husband was more of the spending. There is a thing, I think you mentioned your podcast,

YOLO, you only live once. Yes. So he was more than that, but we have a series of conversations. We go out for dinner and I kind of bring the subject a little by a little. I have to try many times because at the beginning it was more, okay, oh, you're checking what I'm spending, right? So that's kind of, I would say, one of the advice for couples to start talking about this subject.

And it's just, it has to, you have to try it two, three times. Yeah. Get it. And the only thing they have to kind of cross the board on the table is, okay, what is the end goal? Yes. As a couple, we have to have that. Otherwise, I mean, we don't have that end goal. It is hard for couples to get into the savings, into the investment portion and thinking about retirement, right? Absolutely.

That's what most of my income coming from Microsoft. And then I always have been looking for opportunities, even if I was working at Microsoft, looking for opportunities where I can make more money. I will sell on eBay stuff that my husband had in the garage. Mm-hmm. Or stuff that he will have in the storage unit. He will pay, I think, $50 a month when I just moved to the U.S.

I said, no, I mean, that's crazy. That is crazy. Yeah, so we started cleaning that and selling all that stuff. And yeah, it was not easy in the beginning, but then he got used to when the money was into the savings account and how that was growing. A little bit on savings because, you know, banks don't pay you too much. But when he got into that sense, okay, now I can sleep better. I have some money in the bank.

I don't need to be worried about this and this. So he got to, and now he's very, he's a person who's looking at our budget, how much we are spending. I mean, we don't say no to us if we want something, a trip, or we want to eat next week, twice a week, we do that. But it's kind of a reward for us if we have been saving for all these years, right? Right. Absolutely. Yeah. So I'm so curious. So you were able to semi-retire at a young age, and you brought it up to your husband, like, this is a goal that I think we should both try to achieve. Is he also semi-retired right now? He was in that mode last year after working, I think, 14 years in Accenture, which is a consulting company.

So he didn't work for a year and then he didn't have anything else to do, right? He didn't have something like I have my blog and I do other things at home. They always keep me very busy for now. So he had the opportunity to come back to work as a consultant and he opened his own business company last year in July. Very cool.

Right now he's working as a consultant for the Bill and Melinda Foundation and the reason why he went back to work it is the opportunity of the money that they were offering to him that he can say, no, honey. Yeah. So he didn't want to, but he said, hey, it's a good company to build on the foundation.

The money they're paying me is way higher than I used to work for a company. He said, no, I'm going'm opening my company and going back. And he continues to work until now. His contract is going to end in June and he's going to take another break and decide what he's going to do. But really right now with the investments and the money that we have saved. And he doesn't need to go back to work, basically. And that's kind of like the point of it all. Even though he chose to go back to work and maybe he'll take a break, maybe he'll go back to work, he has the freedom, the financial freedom that he can make that choice. And I think that's the kind of the important thing to take away is most people don't. Most people have to work. There's no other option because they have debt or they are living paycheck to paycheck. So to get to a place where you have enough money in your investments and your

savings that you can decide, you know, if you want to work, where you want to work and for how long, that's pretty special. Yeah. I think when, I mean, when I finished my relationship with Microsoft last year, this is something that I talked to my boss. This is a conversation that we have for a year before I do this. And this is something that I talked to my husband and say, hey, I want to end that relationship

in good terms with Microsoft. And I cannot prepare my bosses in that way, in my performance and my bonus and everything was not impacted. But it's just in the sense of me, like I need to make sure I don't burn any bridge. Because I love the company. I mean, I love the job that I was doing. It's just I end one cycle working for a company and I say, no, I need to do something for myself. Yeah. To start something.

I think I lost my sense of, okay, waking up in the morning, oh, let's go to. I mean, there were some days that, yes, I mean, I love Microsoft, it's an amazing company, but there were some days, oh no, it's so rainy. I don't want to go to work, but I have to, right? I have to show up. And that sense, okay, someone owns me and I have to go because otherwise I don't get the paycheck, right? So that sense, I didn't like it. And I said, no, this is not for me. So I did it. I'm done. And now.

And now you're doing what you want to do. Do you have a sense of, like, do you feel like you will ever go back to kind of a full-time corporate job? Or do you think that's kind of in the past? You're just going to do your own business now? I think that's kind of in the past you're just gonna do uh your own business now i would i think that's in the past but i never say no i mean it has a right now i'm saying no that's that's the past and no any more working has a full-time employee for another company but i can come back there if there there is a possibility to come back for three months, four months to do a consulting portion in Microsoft, another company, if the opportunity is there and the pay is good,

I will jump in and do that. But for a specific time period, no, like, I mean, I'm thinking three months to six months, no more than that. Exactly. So I'd love to talk a little bit more about your blog. When did you start it and why did you, well, a couple of things. Why did you want it to be Spanish language? Obviously, that is your first language, but did you find there was just a lack of personal

finance and just helpful information for people that speak Spanish? Yes. The reason why I opened my blog after the recession in 2008 when the market went down, the house prices, everything was a chaos. I started two years after that. So I started my blog in 2010. And I found only one, a couple of blogs in Spanish that they were talking about the coupons because I was into the coupons and to the savings, how I save money.

Even if I was producing good money, the Microsoft pay me and my husband was getting a good salary. I always look for things like I can save here. So what I have to pay full price. Yeah. So I was doing that and a little bit of that. And I found two blogs that were doing something like that. And I said, well, I don't see anymore. So this is an opportunity for me to connect with my Spanish community to write in Spanish because working here at Microsoft in Seattle,

everything is English. I don't see too many people even in the stores here or my neighbors. They're all Americans and they speak English only, right? So I still have that need to connect. Oh, there is another Latinos here that I can talk, I can connect. So I connect with these two blog ladies. They have their blog and they help me. Oh, yeah, you can work for me, like write something for me.

So I start working at night with them and specific blog posts that they need. And then I start my own blog because they help me. So I started in 2010. With my work at Microsoft, obviously, I cannot give it 100% to the blog. I only blog in the night when I have some time and Saturday and Sunday. But then since last year, it started on December when I ended my relationship with Microsoft

and said, no, we need to start doing more work here. So I started putting more money into the site, into marketing, and really since I started in 2010, thanks to the community, thanks to the bloggers,

they are there to help you. I have many opportunities working with many brands and right now I'm getting an income from the blog. Nice. Yeah, as I mentioned, just looking different source of income because you don't know where your money is going to come. You can generate this source of income. So that's what was one of my goals. And what is the name of your blog?

Because I feel like I do a terrible, like I probably won't pronounce it right. Yeah. So I was looking for a naming. I say, well, super baratissimo or gratis, which is super cheap or free. Okay. So I post things like giveaways. When the brand is launching a new product, they have samples. And that's my way to catch people's attention. But then I also talk about blog posts,

how to pay your credit card or how to talk to your husband about money, right? All this stuff I'm going through my life, I put it on my blog, obviously in Spanish. So yeah, I'm wondering, it seems like you've always, you know, you're, you know, very smart with your money. Has it always been the case? Like, how did you learn to deal with money? Because I feel like a lot of people that especially, you know, are lucky enough to get a really good corporate job that pays well, they usually just blow all of their salary and they're

not like, they probably wouldn't even think to save like 50% of their salary. So how did you figure out how to maximize the income that you were generating? Yeah, I think that was at the age of 13. I saw my mom when I was growing up in Lima, Peru. She was working until 11 p.m. My dad was working until 11 p.m. And I have my older brother raise us. And there were four kids. I mean, my

little sister and my older two brothers. So we are four. And I sat down and bothered him and I said, oh no, I'm not having kids. Because four kids is too much to deal with. And also the money was not enough.

Right. I mean, we have food on the table. We have clothes. No, the fancy clothes or the new clothes or the brand new clothes, of course not. So, since then, I said, no, the only way that I'm going to get out or have a better life with the current situation that we were living there, it is I need to study. I need to start making some money. And I saw my mom. I mean, she worked until midnight sometimes with my dad.

And my mom would be the person who will be saving all my dad's paycheck. Even if my dad was a little hesitant, like, no, I need it for Friday, right? He will get with friends. But even with that, there will be some arguments about that. But at the end of the day, my mom was like, okay, give me the check. I'm cashing in and saving it. And they got a – my dad's a teacher and also a mechanic. He works in the afternoon, has a mechanic.

So my mom will save that money to buy this big machine, which I don't know how I say in English. It was a big machine. It was $6,000. So they saved $6,000 to get this big thing. They basically put me to a private university in Lima, Peru, where I finished my computer science degree. Oh, wow. Yeah. That's amazing.

Yeah. So I guess that kind of hard work ethic and just that frugality that you saw from your mom definitely kind of seeped into your life, which I totally get. I feel like that's kind of like where a lot of people that are good with money at the beginning is because their parents kind of showed by example how to handle money. Yeah. And I say, I mean, many people has, I mean, you and I, many people has these kind of situations. And I think we should not be ashamed. We should be embracing that. Because if I didn't went through that kind of situation with my mom, with four kids, with the money was not enough, I would not be here today.

Yeah. With the education they have, with the savings they have, and the freedom they have. So one thing they did is after I finished, I always send money to my mom. Every month I send money to my mom for her expenses. But in December when I quit my job on Microsoft, when I ended my relationship with Microsoft, I called my mom and my dad and I said, hey guys, thank you so much because I'm 40, being a semi-retired, this will not be possible without your help and support and the education that you guys provide that to me.

So they were so happy that we can do that. Aw, that's so nice. No, seriously, because they didn't pay for this private university. I paid half, but they helped me. Yeah. Seriously. Back in Lima, I was, I think, I mean, I got like a half scholarship, a quarter scholarship between the years. I think it was $250 to $400 a month for this private university.

Wow. And Peru is not. Yeah. That's a lot of money there. That's a lot of money. Back in these years. Wow. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That's a lot of money. Back in these years. Wow. Yes.

Yeah. That gives you some perspective. Yeah. I'm so curious, coming from Peru, now living in the States, was that a hard transition? I'm always so curious about people who make that big, you know, jump. I always, like, compare, like, I moved from Vancouver to Toronto. Not a big deal, but it was a big, it was a big deal in my life. So I can't imagine what your move to a completely new country, different language was like. Oh yeah. I mean the English, I mean, I knew a little bit of English,

but not too much. So that was a big change also for my family. Right. But I went, I jumped on the two feet. I mean, I say, okay, my husband and I, we are going to start a relationship. We are going to live together first time. And so I was so excited. So it was a mix. Okay, a new marriage,

a new house. Well, we didn't have a house at that time. It was a condo that we rent. It was the transition of the three months, they have to wait to work because I need to have my social security ID in order for me to work. That was a little hard and also the weather, right?

Being at home, I would not be able to drive because I have to get my driver's license and stuff like that. That was a little hard. Yeah. The first three months. But then after that, I just jumping with the two feet of thronging. And you adjust.

I mean, sometimes we feel like, oh, no, it's going to be hard. What is going to happen? Sometimes you just have to do it. And as humans, we adapt to situations, right? To new environments. It's just embracing and go for it. Yeah. And just give it time. Like for me, I found the first year in a new place was really hard, but now I've been here for almost four years and it's like, oh, you kind of forget about how hard it was at the beginning because you're like, oh, it's fine now. Yeah. I mean, we had that, I mean, to the weather,

to the situations. Yeah. Awesome. So I would love to know now that you are semi-retired, what do you like to do now with all your free time? I know that you, you know, obviously put way more time and energy into your blog, but yeah, what other kind of things are you up to that, you know, obviously put way more time and energy into your blog. But, yeah, what other kind of things are you up to that, you know, are kind of nice benefits of being semi-retired? Yeah. So my husband and I always talk to your partner, right? We have a goal after he finishes his contract in June. We are going to rent this house. We own a house, big house here in June. We are going to rent this house. We own a house, big house here in Seattle.

And we want to rent the house so we can move out to a sunny place because we don't like the weather here. Yes. Sounds about like something I do. So in the morning I work on my blog. So I wake up and do the work on the blog and stuff. In opportunities, I can make some income. So that's taking care in the morning. In the afternoon, I start the cleaning, the remodeling, having people here, fixing the bathroom and stuff like that. And that's when I do my chores.

I love to listen to here on YouTube, the podcasts about money, finance, investment. And at night, I work a little bit on my blog or learning about investing. I think it's not just savings. I was thinking before savings, okay, I just need to save, save, save. No.

No. It is invest that money. So what are some of the things that you've learned about investing that kind of surprised you? My husband has managed all the investment. He's pretty good money. And that's one of the source of dividend income that we are getting that we say, okay, we're good here. So I start, I knew investment a little bit for my husband, but I didn't play with it. Right.

So I say, no way. I'm opening my own investment account and't play with it. Right? So I say, no way. I'm opening my own investment account and I'm starting doing it. And so I invest and I started last year and I invest about, right now I have seven companies and they're investing

and I kind of put in my head, okay, what are my goals for this investment? So I'm looking at 10-year investment portion, and I'm looking at investments that pay dividends, and I'm looking at companies that I know and I use. So my learning is, okay, what is your methodology, your philosophy of investment? You have to have that clear in order for you to invest. And obviously you have to have the money, right?

If you have debt, okay, take care of that debt first, looking at different sorts of income, how you can generate income from your work, but look for other opportunities to pay that debt first. Then when you have some money, when you have some savings, then me as a woman, I feel like, okay, I don't know too much. So that makes me feel no independent. And I say, no way, I need to start learning and reading. So I got a book. I seen the book. It is Warren Buffett invests like a girl. That was pretty good book.

They kind of give me a little guidance. Didn't told me, okay, where I should invest, but give me a little guidance and confidence. Okay, I can do this. I just need to put my hands on it and start learning and play with me. I'm playing with money. My husband always looking to, but yeah, investing in these companies

and my goal is to have by the end of this year to have at least $5,000 in dividends they're getting for the full year. Nice. Yeah, I feel like investing is always kind of the last thing people think about, but it's a game changer once you really – and people are afraid because they think it's overcomplicated because lots of people overcomplicate it. But I think it's definitely something that you shouldn't avoid. Savings is important.

Budgeting is important, of course. But investing is so important, too. I'm thinking, I would say investment is the way how you are going to insurance good retirement. The lifestyle that you want, that retirement that you want. Investment, in my opinion, investment on the market or investment in property, that's the things that are going to take you to that level of retirement that you want. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Lillian, for joining me on the show. Once again, what was the name of your blog?

It is superbaratisimoogratis.com. Beautiful. I will link to that in the show notes in case anyone wants to check it out and learn some Spanish. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you, Jessica. You are so welcome. You're so welcome. And that was episode 118, the first Lister Series episode in season five.

And that was Lillian Hearn, the listener that you just heard on my show. If you want to be like Lillian and join me on a listener series episode of the Momany podcast, you can do it. It's not too tricky. All you have to do is go to the show notes at jessicamorehouse.com slash 118. I'm going to put some more information on how to get in touch with me to see if you can be on the show, which would be super, super fun. I'm going to put some more information on how to get in touch with me to see if you can be on the show, which would be super, super fun. I know you'll love chatting with me. I'm very chattable. I don't know if that's a word, but it is now. So hopefully you will decide to take this opportunity and share your story with the world. I think a lot of people can probably learn from

your successes and your failures and your journey in entirety. And before I let you go, and there's also a few more details I want to share with you, so do not go away. I just want to share a few words from this episode's sponsor. A big thank you to Credit Card Genius for supporting the Mo Money podcast. If you're not aware, they are the only tool that compares over 50 features of 150 Canadian credit cards by using math-based ratings and rankings that respond to your needs instantly. Now you can get rewarded faster without all the headache. If you want to find the best credit card for you, make sure to check out creditcardgenius.ca to learn more. Once again, visit creditcardgenius.ca to learn more.

So thank you again for listening to this episode of the Momany Podcast. If you're not aware, if you didn't listen to yesterday's episode, well, I am running a contest right now, guys, basically the whole season of the podcast. So October, November, December of the show, I'm going to be drawing a winner each month to win a $25 Amazon gift card. If you want to be that winner, well, it's super easy to enter. Just go to the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 118. But basically, you just have to give me an iTunes review, send it my way with your contact details,

and you will be in the running to win an Amazon gift card. Easy peasy, literally will take you two seconds to leave me a review. And also, also, I will give you a shout out on a future episode as my way of saying thank you, thank you, and thank you. Well, thank you again, again, again, for listening. I'm going to see you back here next Wednesday with a fresh new episode of the Momany Podcast. So if you haven't subscribed to my show on, I don't know, iTunes, SoundCloud, YouTube, whatever, might as well do it now because I've got a lot of great episodes coming up and I don't want you to miss a thing. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network.

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