Since joining the FI (Financial Independence) community, every day I’m discovering more awesome blogs and individuals to learn from. So I decided to start a series of guest posts under the “Financial Hero Series.” I got the idea from PoF’s Christopher Guest Post. (PoF is full of great ideas; I like following his footsteps 🙂 You can check out my Christopher Guest post on PoF here.
This series features amazing personal finance masters and financial professionals whom I admire and look up to. Each hero will answer a set of questions from me and sometimes add their own Q&A. I’ll publish this series of posts once every few weeks.
Today, I’m honored and excited to spotlight Josh Mettle who podcasts at Physician Financial Success. Josh was resolved to become the best mortgage officer after a horrific experience with a bad one when he was working on purchasing a rental property. And indeed, he turn out pretty awesome, very knowledgeable and personable. I’m sure you will find lots money and life pearls from his responses to my questions below.
What do you do for a living?
Author, podcast host, real estate owner/manager, and mortgage loan officer
Why do you blog?
As I began to serve dentists, physicians, and other medical professionals, I quickly realized they were among my most financially strapped clients. Sure they had decent income coming in each month, but they also had nearly as much money going out, year after year, I was seeing many clients make very little progress towards escaping the rat race.
[Wow, you are one of the few people who are not doctors and yet know the financial plight that medical professionals face.]
Why is your blog awesome?
Physician Financial Success is awesome because our guests are awesome! Our guests are incredibly diverse and have interesting perspectives on life, money, and financial success. The goal is to challenge conventional thinking, teach our listeners something new or blow up a sacred cow if humanly possible, all while having a little fun and a few laughs.
[You can listen to DWM’s podcast on Josh’s Physician Financial Success here.]
How many days left until you obtain financial independence?
Well that is a great question. If I were to answer that according to my goal of financial independence when I was 25 then that day is today. My mother and I currently own and operate about 100 positive cash flowing rental properties and if I wanted to, I could stop my day job today. But who wants to do that? If you do, it’s time to change what you are doing on a day to day basis. Maybe that doesn’t mean you stop practicing medicine all together, but rather practice with a less rigorous schedule, travel and practice where needed most, serve a mission, there’s a million ways to trade your medical education and willingness to serve for sustenance to survive. It’s up to each of us every day to figure out how we can best add value to the world while making progress towards the future vision of one’s self. That’s what fulfillment is, it’s making progress towards whom YOU want to be one day, never forget this journey is a game to be played, to win, to be enjoyed for all its ups and downs.
[I had to highlight and italicize this part “how we can best add value to the world while making progress towards the future vision of one’s self.” I can’t agree more!-DWM]
Any sage advice on money and marriage?
Marriage, kids, investing, health, your vocation, they all take work, they are all hard, and you will need to find your way around the obstacles before you find your ultimate success. Stay balanced, stay focused, stay the course, and don’t allow yourself to chase all that glitters.
What are the top 5 things you’d tell your younger self?
1. Be patient, investing is like an ultra-marathon and you don’t need to sprint to get started, just get started.
2. Invest automatically. Figure out how much you want to save and automatically have it debited from your checking to your investments every two weeks. This is my #1 regret for not starting sooner.
3. Never invest more than 5 to 10% of your capital in any one investment, no matter how much you’re in love with the idea.
4. Steer clear of areas you know nothing about, or at least start super slow with 1 to 3% of your savings until you have learned a few things about the industry.
5. Invest for cash flow as well as capital appreciation. For me, this was buying rental properties that I could fix up, raise the rents, and bank the cash flow forever. My strategy is not buy and hold, its buy, hold, die, and pass on to the next generation. Once you are clear about your strategy, it makes deciding on what you should buy very simple.
What is the #1 money mistakes you’ve made that want your readers to avoid?
Making large trades based on emotions, tips, or a whim. When the juices are boiling, like when the excitement you feel when you are test driving a new car, that’s when to practice extreme position sizing, put one foot in at a time, let the emotions settle, learn as you go, you can always add more to the investment idea as you go along.
What are the 3 most important money lessons you teach your kid(s)?
1. Invest automatically, start young building the habit regardless of the amount
2. Invest for the long game, you don’t need to hit home runs to win long-term
3. Always have cash available for the downturn, the next one is coming right around the corner!
What are the 5 smartest money move you’ve made in your life?
1. Buy and hold cash flow positive real estate, by time I retire I will own 100 + free and clear rental units, regardless how long I live, I will never outlive my savings and hopefully neither will my children.
2. Subscribe to multiple financial newsletters, find bulls, bears, gold bugs, and macro trend economists to help you shape your view of the world. Stay balances in your vision of the world and work to understand where each is coming from and find validity in their views.
3. Get used to holding cash and not being 100% invested. This is really hard, try doing nothing with your cash for 12 months, it’s insanely hard to resist doing something. I’ve watched 2 massive real estate and equities sell offs in my adult life, I now keep a portion of my investment funds liquid for that day when tech, real estate, high yield bonds, or any other asset class implodes.
[Totally interesting idea. I’m used to investing 100% of my cash in index funds, using credit card balance transfer checks with 0% interest free promotional periods ranging 15-21 months for those market dip, jump in and buy like crazy moments.-DWM]
4. Not getting divorced… This one might sound odd, but nothing derails financial success like divorce. Why not spend a couple thousand a year on the love of your life, spoil them, do something outrageous – borderline foolish, I promise it will cost less than divorce!
5. Spending freely on organic foods, vitamins, fitness memberships, and equipment. Against the grain I know, but ask yourself what is money? Money is freedom. Freedom to do what you want, when you want, and how you want. What good is that if you are diseased, dying or living less than optimally? Nada, it’s worthless, so I spend freely on anything I think can give me a physical edge or gain.
What are 3 things you’d do if money is no object?
1. Delta has this cool flight ticket called the Around The World Ticket, it allows you to fly anywhere around the world, unlimited stops for a month or two. I’m not sure on the details, but I’m sure I want to do it! How sick would that be, traveling the globe with 15 or 20 stops in between? Winning!
2. I would hire more coaches, I would really love a nutritionist, a relationship/love coach, a guitar coach, a surfing coach, I would work hard on getting better at more cool stuff.
3. Spend more time with my kids!
When did you first start contributing to your own Roth IRA?
19 and I’ve never missed a year since.
[That’s awesome, I didn’t start funding my Roth IRA until age 30. That’s why I’m starting Mini Wise Money’s Roth today at an age of 8.-DWM]
When did your child first contribute to his/her Roth IRA?
I’m currently not… Didn’t know I could start them one before they are 18, Google tells me I was wrong about that. I just penned an email to my CPA about the pros and cons.
[Let me know what you find out in terms of the pros and cons. I’ve researched and only found pros so far :)-DWM]
What does financial independence mean to you?
1. Never having to think about money
2. Being able to do WHATEVER I want, WHENEVER I want
Any questions you want to ask and answer to lend more insight to our readers?
I think this idea of starting an IRA for kids is an awesome idea, would love to know more. Thanks for bringing it to my attention 🙂
[You can certainly open Roth IRA for kids, as long as they can demonstrate earned income. Learn more here. -DWM]
If you are looking to purchase home, Josh is one of the best home mortgage officers. You can find out more about his services here.
Why Physician Home Loans Fail ebook Read this eBook Josh generously made available to you.