Know Your Blogger Series

Financial Wolves

I started Financial Wolves in late-2019/early 2020. I’m super passionate about the concept of making money on your own terms. So, I thought it was fitting to have a “wolf” type theme to play into the fact that I’m from Minnesota. It’s not the thought of being a wolf to pry off of “sheep” by any means. Actually, it’s about being a wolf to create your own path to financial freedom.
Income is powerful and so is hard work. If you put in time to learn and put your best foot forward to creating your story, chances are it’s going to work out.
Check out our Q&A with Financial Wolves here.

Learn how to make more money with Financial Wolves.

Each week at Personal Finance Blogs, we publish interviews from amazing bloggers from the personal finance space. This week, we are featuring the blog, Financial Wolves.
During these weekly features, we are hoping to provide a way for you to interact and learn more about different blogs in the personal finance space.
Below, you can read more about the story behind Financial Wolves, learn about the author, and learn personal finance tips from Financial Wolves to help you improve your financial situation.
A big thanks for Financial Wolves for this interview! Now, we will turn it over to the author for this interview.

Tell us about Financial Wolves

I started Financial Wolves in late-2019/early 2020. I’m super passionate about the concept of making money on your own terms. So, I thought it was fitting to have a “wolf” type theme to play into the fact that I’m from Minnesota. It’s not the thought of being a wolf to pry off of “sheep” by any means. Actually, it’s about being a wolf to create your own path to financial freedom. Income is powerful and so is hard work. If you put in time to learn and put your best foot forward to creating your story, chances are it’s going to work out.

What makes you and your blog unique?

I like to think that I keep a pretty open mind. I’m very income oriented. You can always reduce your expenses or reduce your expenses so low that it may impact your lifestyle or your well-being. Don’t get caught up in the penny and dollar type decisions. Focus on income first, then ensure you save that income and you’ll do great.

I first learned this when a path to online entrepreneurship led me to proceeds in 1 year that took me 7 years to save that much in my 401(k). After that, I was like whoa. Maybe the slow method of saving isn’t the most optimal approach.

What does “being good with your personal finances” mean to you?

Habits. Repetitiveness. Discipline. You simply need to develop good financial habits upfront, then practice repetition over those habits and then be disciplined to not get out of control with your spending.

What are some habits you practice to keep your personal finances in order?

First, whatever I can do to minimize my time focused on my personal finances without sacrificing my output/goals the better. This sounds counter-intuitive but I want the value of my time to go to things like making money, finding better investment opportunities, etc.

The moment I spend hours over a budget or coloring a diagram about my debt payoff is the moment I lose sight of the bigger picture. Building wealth. So, I focus on setting up things like automatic recurring transfers, reevaluating my asset allocation and use software for tax planning optimization.

What are your three articles people should read to get to know you and your message better on your site?

Great question! There are a few that I’ve worked extremely hard on. Beware they are extremely long, but warranted.

70+ Ways to Make Extra Money – This is my master list of all ways to earn. Bookmark this because it’s only going to have more and more ideas added to it.

15+ Online Business Ideas to Crush a Day Job – This is one of my favorite posts that includes some amazing interviews from online entrepreneurs. This will get your ideas running wild about how the world of online business can unlock freedom.

How to (Actually) Make Money Online – Noticing a trend here? Probably… But yes, I believe there are real ways you can make money digitally. I’m not talking about surveys and other stuff like that, I’m talking about real market opportunities that are happening right in front of you. That you might just not notice yet.

For someone looking to improve their financial situation, what’s your best advice?

Find a side hustle as soon as possible. You never know where that side hustle might take you. It could be just a short-term way to earn extra money to get out of debt or it might become a whole new career. Or, you might even become a new business owner along the way.

The risk relative to the reward is so worth it. The reward can take you to a whole new level financially and you’ll learn a ton about yourself along the way. The downside? You spend time but don’t earn as much as you’re time is worth (you’ll still learn something new along the way).

In your opinion, what’s better? Renting a place or buying a house to live?

Buying a house to live by far. There are just too many benefits from buying. First, if you live in a house for 2 years that you own, your capital gains are completely tax free at the federal level (up to $250,000 for singles and $500,000 for married filed jointly).

Second, the flexibility that owning can give you is way too underrated. Yes, you’ll have a huge commitment with your mortgage but your equity can be easily monetized if you need it. The property is a real asset that has cash flow value if you every need to rent it.

Finally, the cost of borrowing for a home is insanely low and can be accessed easily. There’s a reason why families that take the long-term approach to real estate build generational wealth…

In your opinion, what should you do first? Pay down debt, or invest?

Depends on your cost of debt. If your cost of debt is less than 4.5%, then you should just invest all the way. Generally, the market returns about 8-9% on a pre-tax basis. If you tax-affect that return, you are looking at a conservative after-tax return of 4.8%-5.4% so you are coming out ahead over the long-term.

What is your favorite investment class and why? (stocks, private business, bonds, real estate, crypto, precious metals, etc.)

Private business, real estate and stocks in that order. First, I love, love private business opportunities because the rate of return can be exponentially better than real estate and stocks. If you own control of a private business, you are in the driver’s seat and that is extremely valuable.

I like real estate for different reasons. Real estate is proven, sound and stable. It provides you a ton of flexibility to compound cash flow and capital appreciation together. This is a great way to build wealth.

Finally, I love stocks for all different reasons from the above. First, you don’t own control so that’s a disadvantage but it’s highly liquid. You can get your cash at anytime these days. Plus, with micro investing platforms for no-cost investing. You have no excuse to not get started these days.

If you received a $5,000,000 windfall tomorrow, what would you do with the money?

First, buy a flat in Amsterdam for about $500,000 to $750,000. That’s a lifestyle choice. I know I want to live there. I’d know I’d be happy having that experience and optionality. It would improve my happiness.

Then, I’d buy a lifestyle business for ~$1 million that is around one of my hobbies. Preferably a lifestyle business that can be operated from anywhere and is already cash flowing.

Finally, I’d put the remaining in a near 50/50 mix of real estate property and stocks/bonds. This would ensure that I would always have assets and some stabilized cash flow in case things went dramatically wrong.

What’s a non-money related interest you have and what do you love about it?

Travel, photography and video. I’m not great at the photography and video part yet but the world fascinates me. People fascinate me. There is so much out there to learn and see that we can’t leave Earth without answers, so I want to find them.

By traveling and documenting it visually through video and photography, you can have everlasting experiences and memories in case the opportunity to travel goes away (uhm, COVID). I’ve seen a lot and I’m fortunate to be able to look back on those experiences when times get tough.

I’ve noticed that I’ve grown significantly as a person the more I’m in uncomfortable or challenging situations. By traveling, you’ll find those discomforts while also seeing the perspective of the world through the lens of someone else.

How You Can Contact Financial Wolves for More Information

You can learn more about Financial Wolves at https://financialwolves.com/, like them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/financialwolves, and follow them on Twitter at @financialwolves.

Thank you for reading this interview, and thank you, Financial Wolves, for providing us with some great personal finance tips!