Chris & John
- Sep 1, 2020
- 3 min read

Ep 82: Achieving Financial Independence and Retiring Early with Rachel Richards

Reaching financial independence and retiring early is the holy grail of personal finance. But what does financial independence really mean, and how can we achieve it? Our guest today has some ideas. Rachel Richards is a former financial advisor and bestselling author of Money Honey and Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement. She is also a real estate investor with over 35 rental units, as well as a professional speaker, and an entrepreneur. Rachel is well-known for retiring at the age of 27 and living off $15,000 per month in passive income. In this episode, Rachel shares her early foray into real estate and the mindset shift that occurred when her and her husband bought their second property and realized it was the way to achieve financial freedom and realize her dream of retiring early. She talks about the process of writing two books, scaling her real estate business, and creating multiple streams of passive income, as well as learning from her mistakes. Rachel also shares some advice for those looking to manage properties out of state, write a book, or share their unique gift with the world. Tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

Rachel introduces herself as former financial advisor, author, real estate investor, and retiree.
Reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and when Rachel first became interested in real estate.
Rachel’s mindset shift from first property to second – it was the way to financial freedom.
How Rachel got part of the commission back by representing herself as the buyer’s agent.
Having a full-time job while looking at properties on the weekend and writing a book at night.
Writing Money Honey; it was more of a passion project than about making money.
Realizing she had a passion for writing and she could help people and writing a second book.
Setting your product apart from the thousands of others out there is what will make it sell.
Rachel suggests using social media to be authentic and show your audience who you are.
How Rachel achieved her goal of retiring at 27, with passive income from rental and royalties.
The process of scaling their profits by reinvesting the cash flow from each new property.
You either have to sacrifice money or time to achieve your goals – Rachel did the latter.
Decreasing expenses is limited, but there is no limit on how much money you can make.
Making sure to have cash reserves versus investing everything and taking on that risk.
Safeguard against a downturn through large cash reserves or multiple streams of income.
Some of the first steps to creating passive income; do you have more time or money?
Using Amazon Merch or Redbubble and print-on-demand for a stream of passive income.
Rachel and her husband’s future plans include moving into something even more passive.
Rachel’s biggest mistake with one of their rental properties and how they solved it.
One of the big resources Rachel has relied on: The Real Estate Investors Association.
Rachel’s advice for hiring a property manager our of state – ask for recommendations.
Rachel’s advice for someone wanting to write a book – start with your budget in mind and prepare to be vulnerable.
You don’t have to be an expert – everyone has a unique gift to share with the world.

Tweetables:

“There are thousands of personal finance books out there, so why would mine be any different? And I think, when you are thinking about writing a book, that is the question you have to ask yourself, is why would somebody buy my book over the thousands that are already out there?” — @MoneyHoneyRach [0:11:43]

“I think a mistake that a lot of new entrepreneurs or business owners make on social media is that they use it as a promotional platform but, to me, building that personal relationship with somebody and building that trust, that’s more important than promoting your stuff.” — @MoneyHoneyRach [0:13:59]

“You have to sacrifice something as you’re getting there. You either have to sacrifice money, which normally means sacrificing your quality of life, or you have to sacrifice time.” — @MoneyHoneyRach [0:20:32]

“You don’t have to be the number one expert in your field, but I truly believe that everyone has a unique voice and a unique gift they can share with the world, and mine happened to be writing about money in an entertaining way that really resonated with female millennials.” — @MoneyHoneyRach [0:43:14]