MtoM #47 - Millionaire Military Officer

This is the White Coat Investor podcast, Milestones to Millionaire, celebrating stories of success along the journey to financial freedom. Here is your host, Dr. Jim Dali.

This is Milestones to Millionaire podcast number.

47, Millionaire Medical Officer.

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All right, we've got a great interview for you today.

Let's get Jared on the line.

All right, our special guest today is Jared. Welcome to the Milestones to Millionaire podcast. Thanks.

It's a pleasure to be here.

So tell us, what's your profession and how far are you into it? How far are you out of your schooling?

So I'm active duty, Air Force, currently working in network security, and I've been out of school for about eight years at this point.

All right, and what is your approximate net worth?

So we just crossed a million just this month, I think, or last month, I guess. But with the up and down of the market, we just re crossed it.

You may cross it back and forth a few times yet. Congratulations to you. Well done. Thank you for your service. And that's pretty awesome. You know, there's a lot of doctors out there who do not become millionaires. Eight years out of school, and so that's really impressive. Very, very nice. What's your net worth divided up into how much is, you know, various investments, houses, et cetera.

Yeah, so all of ours, it's all in investments. Being military, we don't own a house or anything. So about half of that's taxable, and the rest is all Roth IRAs, 401ks tsp.

And the investments inside those accounts, Mutual funds or what?

Just about everything is indexed. Total market index funds. My TSP split up in about 80, 20 in the C and the S fund, kind of to mimic a total market index as well.

So basically a total, total stock market approach, correct?

Yeah, I recently got into Bitcoin just because of my brother, mostly. So I have a very small portion. Mostly my fund money just for speculative investments is in. Is in crypto.

It wasn't what made you a millionaire, though, huh?

No, not even close.

Yeah, maybe if you bought it in 2011.

Gosh, my brother was trying to get me to buy it in 2011. Actually. Not 2012. I wish.

Yeah.

FOMO is real. FOMO is real. All right. What's been your range of income throughout your career?

So when I was single, just out of school, it was around 60,000. Since then, getting married bumped up to 140 and today it's about 210.

Okay, so that's pretty awesome. So that is not all. As a military officer, I've seen the pay charts. Unless you've got some pretty special pay there. Correct. What does your spouse do?

So my spouse, she's a PhD, she's a research scientist working with the Army Research Lab. And so we both make about the same. So that's really helped bump us up over the years.

Yeah, for sure.

So, I mean, this is pretty awesome. Eight years. What were your secrets to success? How did you become so wealthy so quickly?

So I think the biggest secret for us is just kind of living below our means. We haven't really inflated our lifestyle as we've progressed, and so we've just kind of stayed content. I'm still driving the same car I've had since college, an 07 G5. It's been totaled twice at this point. So we're just very content. We're not buying the latest gadgets. We canceled our Amazon prime subscription to help us refrain from just the one click buying. And we're just very, very content. I'd say content is the word. We're not looking for the next flashy thing. We're very happy with what we have. And we still go on vacations. We still live very well, but we're very just content.

Good savers. It sounds like you save.

Well, yeah. I mean, absolutely. We definitely save about 40%, 40 to 50% of our income. And we've maintained that over the years.

That'll do it. So, I mean, take me back. Why did you decide to do this? Why did you go, we're going to save 40 or 50% of our income? I mean, that's weird. People don't do that, right? Unless they're like, you know, into reading fire blogs and fire books. And this is a priority for you. You didn't accidentally become a millionaire eight years out of school. You didn't accidentally save 40 or 50% of your income. Tell me how you or why what the motivation was. Why did you decide to do this?

So it started outside of school when I graduated from the. So I went to the Air Force Academy and I graduated out of there making Good money for a kid just out of. Just out of college. And at that point, I didn't understand. I didn't know anything about finance, and I was kind of spending pretty frivolously. But when I got married, my wife turned me on to Dave Ramsey. Since then, I think I've grown out of a lot of Dame Vancouver's teachings. But initially, for a kid who didn't know anything about finance, it was a great start. And from that, that's when I started diving into fire blogs and learning about fire and what that was and learning about different investments and the difference between a savings account, an investment account, a brokerage, a bank. And I think since then, that's really what set the fire under me and my wife. And I think, I mean, who you marry is probably the most important decision you're going to make in your life. And I married very well. I definitely married up. And my wife and I, she's really encouraged, encouraged my financial education. And I think that's really what has kept us going.

So when you came out of school, did you have any money? I mean, did you have any sort of, you know, significant net worth, or were you pretty much at zero at that point?

So one thing my father did that was great for all, for me and my siblings, I'm one of five kids. But he taught us about Roth iras when we were in high school. He didn't teach us much past that regarding finance. But I had a Roth IRA that I had been putting some money and not a ton throughout all of college and then out of the. Because I went to the military academy, I left there with a $36,000 loan at 0.75% interest. So I had that basically that free money that I was putting into my Roth. And so that helped me get out of it, get out of school with a negative net worth. But at least it was. I mean, 0.75% interest is not bad. And so that helped me really get my Roth started and getting my investing started early. So I think when I got married with my wife and my. Our total net worth was probably about negative 20k if you include her school and car. All the debt that she had and.

I had so really didn't come out with a silver spoon. It doesn't sound like no big inheritance that got to a million dollars. I mean, your parents obviously didn't pay for your school, and it sounds like she had student loans. So pretty much you guys did this on your own. This is money you earn?

Absolutely. Yeah. We spent the first year of our marriage doing Dave Ramsey, paying off the 70,000 in debt that we had. And then from then on, yeah, it's just been us two. No silver spoon, no inheritance, nothing like that.

I'm guessing given the fact you came through the Dave Ramsey school of thought, you don't have any debt now, is that correct?

We do not. Not at this time. But I do do the credit card game. I got really big in the credit card game when I found out that how lucrative it was for military. And we've traveled to Italy, Ireland, Canada, all for almost nothing doing credit card games. I think Dave Ramsey would probably cry because I have close to 50 credit cards at this point.

Yeah, a lot of, lot of card hacking. You know, if you can keep a spreadsheet well and stay on top of it, you know, and that's, that's the trick. You just have to treat it like.

A side gig, really.

That's exactly what I do.

You just have, you happen to get paid in points and so on, but obviously there's a lot of cards, particularly with the sign up bonuses that can really add up in a hurry.

Yeah, absolutely. I think I've tracked 10 to $15,000 in rewards over the last few years. Each year.

Wow.

So let's pretend there's somebody back where.

You were eight years ago, 10 years ago, whatever. A PhD, you know, a military officer.

Someone coming out of the academy, whatever. They want to be a millionaire in eight years. What advice do you have for them?

The biggest thing that helped me was just starting, as soon as I learned about finances, just starting to invest then, and I just. Keeping it simple, keeping it simple with simple index funds. I didn't get complex, I didn't try to speculate. I just bought the market and let that ride. And then just learning to delay gratification, I think that's probably the key. If you can learn to delay gratification, wealth will follow. You can do anything. If you're okay not having the newest car, not having the, the nicest house, and just telling yourself, I'll have those things one day. But for now I'm going to focus on building that future, building the fundamentals first.

Now you got some goodness from your parents as far as a little bit of financial teaching. Do you have any kids now?

Yeah, so obviously I have one kid. I'm on paternity leave. I've got one kid who's a month old and my other kid's three.

Okay, so I imagine you haven't taught either of them much about money yet. Do you have Any plans to down the future?

Yeah, absolutely. Right now we're teaching my kid how to count, so we're working on counting coins. But yeah, definitely in the future. I recently read Doug Nordman's book on the book he wrote with his daughter and kind of what worked for them, what stuck for financial education. But I think the biggest thing I'm going to do with my kid is just make sure I'm open, telling him about all the things that we're doing financially. Maybe not telling him exactly what our net worth is or how we're doing, but explaining to him different financial concepts, because I didn't get a lot of that as a kid, and I think that's just the key.

So did you find it difficult at all to balance being a parent, starting a family, and still being financially successful? I mean, it takes a lot of time to be a parent. It also can start sucking up a lot of resources that could go toward building wealth. How do you manage to balance that?

I think the key. So, I mean, we put our kid in daycare, so I mean, that's kind of the biggest financial cost early on. But I think it all goes back to just being okay with where we're at, what we have. I don't need to buy my. I mean, I'm not out buying my kid the nicest things. I'm not. We are not shopping. Like, all of his clothes are secondhand. Our newborn. All of his clothes are secondhand. Not because we can't afford to go out and get new things, but they don't need it. We plan on spending a little bit more for their education as we grow up or as they grow up. But I think the key is just remaining content with what we have. I don't think it's getting. Getting the newest, best shiny toys for my kid is going to really affect him in the next 20 years. So I think we just do our best to have a loving household. But I feel like kids don't cost as much as a lot of the articles you read.

Yeah, the $800,000 you got to spend on a kid between the time they're 0 and 18. Some of those articles are a little.

Ridiculous, to be honest.

So you, I mean, you're an academy grad. You have more than the average amount of discipline. How did your discipline affect your ability to budget and invest and do what you've done? Do you think that had a big impact?

I don't know if it had a significant impact because I think most of the academy guys I know are way more disciplined than I am. I'm pretty easy going when it comes to those guys. But I think it definitely does have a good. I'm great at building spreadsheets. I'm great at building the plan and sticking to it. And I think with my wife, I think that was key. And having a partner who was with me the entire time who is backing the plan and not fighting in any way. So I think maybe my ability to compartmentalize each different thing. We have a budget, that's one thing. Here's the plan for that. We have an investing strategy. Here's the plan for that. Maybe that definitely helped and might come from the academy.

You're good planners, it sounds like. So, any plans to celebrate?

So we already did. I mean, we went out for a nice dinner. I think this Christmas there will be some nicer gifts. My wife doesn't know yet, but I got her nice pearl earrings, a nice pearl necklace, so she'll really enjoy that.

Well, this doesn't run until January 3rd, so I think you're okay with your gifts. You won't hear about this till then.

Excellent. Good. She doesn't listen to finance podcasts, though, so I think I'm safe.

Well, you are a great American. Thank you so much for your service. We really appreciate what you're doing for us.

Thank you. It's an honor to serve.

And thanks for coming on and sharing your story. I know there are people out there who will find it very inspiring. You know, there's lots of people listening to this podcast. They're not doctors and dentists, you know, and they don't make $800,000 a year, you know, and they're excited to hear about someone that can become a millionaire so quickly with more of a regular job. So thank you for coming on.

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Hope you enjoyed that interview. It's great to be with our military.

Members and see them being successful. I've spent time in the military, and.

I know there's lots of people in.

The military that are not financially successful. And there's a reason they put up all those payday lenders and all those car dealerships and all kinds of other businesses right outside the gates of our military bases. So it's good to see them making good decisions and having success. I think there's a lot of lessons you can take away there, but the main one is be consistent, have a plan. If you have a plan, you actually follow the plan. As long as the plan is reasonable, you're going to be successful. And I think that that demonstration that Jared's plan was pretty simple, but he just followed through on it is really a good example of just how simple your plan can be. It doesn't have to be super complex. You don't have to have gazillion asset classes in your portfolio. And it's fine to keep it simple, fund it adequately, save adequately, and follow your plan. And it's amazing what happens after a few years of following a plan. All of a sudden you wake up.

And you have more money than you.

Know what to do with.

If you're finding our podcasts informative and helpful, we would encourage you to sign.

Up for our monthly newsletter.

It is totally free and includes useful, actionable information not available on the regular blog posts or this podcast. It's almost like being in a secret club. The kind of club that can boost your knowledge and enhance your wealth at the same time, with no strings attached. Sign up today@whitecoatinvestor.com Newsletter. You can do this and the White Coat Investor can help.

It turns out not everybody has the US Government paying for their education. I'm not sure if that's a good.

Deal or not to go to the.

Air Force Academy, but for most of us, we ended up paying for school with loans. And you got to get on top of those loans. Paying them off is actually, in a lot of ways, the trial run for becoming financially independent.

If you can pay off two or.

Three hundred thousand dollars of loans in two, three, four years, you can become financially independent in half a career. It's the exact same financial muscles you're building and the exact same methods that you implement in order to accomplish those goals. So I encourage you, whatever you're working on, to get after it, get it done.

It's a new year, New you.

Let's reach milestones. And if you'd like to come on here and share your milestone with others.

Use it to inspire others and celebrate.

With us, Please do so. Whitecoatinvestor.com Milestones is where you apply to be on this podcast till we have you on, or until next week. We'll see you. Keep your head up, shoulders back. You can do this and we can help.

Bye My Dad. Your host, Dr. Dahl, is a practicing emergency physician, blogger, author and podcaster. He is not a licensed accountant, attorney, or financial advisor. So this podcast is for your entertainment and information only and should not be considered official personalized financial advice.

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