Your Network is an Asset | MHFi 027

In this episode, Doug and Carl interview Amberly Grant, creator of FinTalks (formerly FinZoom) and all-around-awesome human. Here are a few highlights of our discussion: How Amberly met Mr. Money Mustache FinTalks: something great born out of a place of depression Unexpected adventures The future of FinTalks Travel Ottawa to LA to NYC to Ottawa to Thailand Finding local connections Escaping a bad situation Favorite places Safety when traveling alone Real estate What a house is to Amberly Leveraging your network Amberly’s perfect day Keeping busy HIIT The joy of being productive Links: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki The Wealthy Barber, Everyone’s Commonsense Guide to Becoming Financially Independent by David Chilton The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins ChooseFI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence by Chris Mamula, Brad Barrett, and Jonathan Mendonsa Go Natural English (teaching English abroad) Amberly’s Website Amberly’s Facebook Meet Amberly When we think of Amberly Grant, just one thing comes to mind: energy! This girl is on the go and passionate about her many pursuits. Amberly is (deep breath): an avid traveler, teacher, reader, real estate investor, business school graduate, and Senior Project Manager at a tech company. And she speaks four languages! She loves to achieve and lives to help others. Recently, Amberly channeled her love of all things personal finance and her extroversion by creating an online group of people who get together weekly to discuss life and money. This group, known as FinTalks (formerly FinZoom) is a space for people to share what they’ve learned about finances and help others share and grow in their FI journeys. If you’re interested in being part of this free and awesome group, check it out and let Amberly know! Our Discussion We started out by talking to Amberly about how she got involved in the personal finance space and how she first met Pete (Mr. Money Mustache). She then told us all about the origins of FinTalks. Amberly was going through a difficult time. She was going through a breakup … just as COVID was hitting. Being trapped in lockdown after a rough breakup would be hard on anyone. But Amberly knows that the best way to grow and get out of a rut is to focus on helping others. So she started FinTalks! On top of that, Amberly started making Facebook Live presentations, where she would distill complex finance topics into easily digestible nuggets of wisdom. Even though she started slow, Amberly’s dedication caused her presentations to steadily grow in popularity. We then delved into Amberly’s background and how she first became interested in personal finance. Like many of our guests, she watched her parents struggle with poverty and vowed that her life would be different. In fact, she set the intention very early in life that she would be a millionaire one day. She talked to us about the personal finance books she started reading at age 15 (!) and how it set her off on a course to success. Amberly then talked to us about her love of travel, which was inspired by her love of reading. Amberly always remembered the places she had read about and wanted to see them in person herself. She also loves nothing more than challenging herself, and travel is part of that. Amberly travels mostly alone, and she has some great tips for other solo travelers (especially women). She loves to immerse herself in a new culture and make new friends on the fly. Some of her travel highlights include bike-packing trips across the Pacific Northwest and some late nights partying in Thailand while she taught English there. We also asked Amberly about her perfect day and week. Because she loves to stay so busy and enjoys her work, her work would definitely be a part of it. We also discussed the psychology of staying busy and why it’s also important to slow things down. Finally, Amberly talked to us about her real estate investing strategy. Amberly never wants to pay her own mortgage and has set up her life to ensure she doesn’t have to! She also let us in on her plans for a new property management company, which is in the works. We hope you get inspired by our conversation with Amberly. We know we did! ____ ★ Let’s hang out at the EconoMe Conference! ★ Carl is speaking at EconoMe and Doug is attending. You can save 10% by using this coupon code: 1500 *Affiliate link so we get a commission if you buy something.