On Tuesday I announced the 2022 Millionaire Money Mentors (MMM) Labor Day Sale.
In that post I shared some stats on the site, the sale details, and some comments from members/mentors on how being part of MMM has helped them.
If you want to cut to the chase and simply take advantage of the sale asap, you can do so at the main MMM page or read details of the sale in that first post. FYI, we still have copies of the special bonus (Passive Income, Aggressive Retirement) left on a first come, first served basis.
But if you’d like to stick around a bit, today I’m sharing some more member/mentor responses to the following question:
“How has being a mentor/member of MMM helped you?”
Here are several quotes, separated by dashes to indicate where one person’s comment ends and another’s begins:
As one of the older members it’s too late to apply some of the wisdom floating around here, but I’ve made some friends that are worth a great deal. Also I believe in being a lifelong learner and there are a lot of things new to me I’ve been able to learn more about. It’s just a fun experience to be able to talk about financial things freely, that’s hard to do in many of my face to face relationships because pride, ego, etc. get involved when you talk about money. Here most everyone is already a success or definitely on their way there. It really makes a difference in being able to be open and honest.
—————————————-
Thank you for creating this forum!!
I try to read most every thread even if it might not directly pertain to me (such as RSUs), as there is so much collective knowledge in all the wonderful folks here!
As to “concrete ways” MMM has helped me, there are many, however the biggest one is I am about to go into business with a fellow MMMer. We close in a few weeks, Lord willing and the creek don’t rise!
I know I’ll be asked about this, and as you know me I like to talk, however let me say that out of deference to my business partner I might not be able to say a lot more until a later time when we might decide to do a reveal. I think it would be okay to say we’ve been working on this for over 18 months, our starting point is in the low 7 figures, and we project “hockey stick” growth.
Please wish us well in our new endeavor! Thanks!
Let me also say a big thanks to everyone for giving me an opportunity to give back!
My son would also say thank you for fading the heat! Imagine if I didn’t have this venue, and I was dumping all my supposed profundities on him!
Seriously, I have learned so much from everyone, and hope I have said a thing or two that has helped others.
—————————————-
Here are a few concrete things that are more ‘hard money’ benefits:
- Got me to invest my excess cash on hand & set up automatic investing in my Vanguard account generating. I haven’t calculated the returns, and I’m sure it wouldn’t look great right now with the market decline, but it was definitely the right thing to do!
- Introduced me to tax loss harvesting, helped me offset $4,100 in realized gains, saving me about $700 on my tax bill
- Helped me recognize some issues with my asset allocation (too much in bonds for my age) and helped me maximize/optimize growth
Still “concrete” benefits for me, but not monetarily quantifiable (yet):
- The forum has become like a FIRE library! Any topic I am interested to learn more about, it’s out there! I “borrow” information constantly for myself and my family/friends. It saves me SO MUCH TIME in trying to research topics as I know I’ll get quality information searching here first!
- Career Advice – 1000% this will ‘pay dividends’ to help me on the E side of things. I value the feedback on this topic so much as I am not in a place right now where I’m interested to put more energy into additional income streams.
And on the personal side, I have to say the outpouring of support & empathy I see everyday is worth its weight in gold. Personally y’all have:
- Helped me navigate my situation with aging grandparents
- Helped to keep me focused on goals, grateful for what I have, and also willing to spend more on what makes me happiest
- Inspired travel destinations & activities (Upcoming Travel is one of my favorite threads!)
- Inspired me to invest in my own health & wellness
I agree – this place is the best!
—————————————-
I have benefitted greatly with advice on the Earning side of things. There’s even a decent size thread for posterity with that episode. The support and advice was invaluable while the end result was a total comp increase of over $10,000 annually. While I had some help from my brother, this group provided me with enough confidence and insight to actually embark on that journey.
There have been plenty of other learnings that have had a less quantifiable impact. This forum is where I begin and end most days.
—————————————-
I needed this place 30 years ago. For those of you keeping score, that was when I was starting my 30s.
Before this I thought forums should be free. I’ve been on [site] since the late 1980s (before the Web), and in the 1990s I moved up to dial-up BBSs and forums. In the later 1990s when The Motley Fool tried to monetize their forums then we all immediately left and moved to other free discussions.
When Morningstar’s Vanguard Diehards forum was plagued with malware in their ads and a couple of trolls — and the moderators wouldn’t moderate them — I watched the creation of Bogleheads. When it was clear that [these sites] would be excessively moderated, there was still the MrMoneyMustache forums and (eventually) Facebook groups.
It was “free”, and it was all worth more than I paid for it. Yet in 2020, it still seemed ludicrous to pay real money for a forum. I still feel self-conscious explaining paid forums to other people.
It turns out that I’ve been seeking this MMM forum for a very long time before it was built. All those years of free forums have made me recognize the real value of this place.
The first group that I’ve ever joined explicitly to talk about millionaire questions is Dave Jacobson’s (free) Millionaire Roundtable at Coach Connections. It’s a monthly Zoom call, and it’s very valuable for hearing origin stories and discussing questions. Dave and a few of his financial coaches get their value out of it by understanding the next levels of financial management and estate planning. However it’s limited by being a monthly Zoom call. I’ve gained many valuable connections from it yet the group’s conversations never really gain momentum outside of the call.
In a similar vein, my spouse and I are members of [a] Facebook [FIRE] group. (Her favorite part is the inspirations of Non-frugal Friday, a regular “Could we?” discussion at our house.) On the other hand it’s Facebook, and it’s far better for consuming content than for creating it or discussing it.
Before MMM, the only paid sites which seem worth the fees are for mastermind groups and for building businesses. As much as I appreciate their goals, I had no desire to write books or create content sites with the deadlines and hotseats of masterminds. I’m not interested in building a business. I’d rather explore financial independence and write about it on my own terms.
Ironically I was already spending money to [attend many other] events. I’ve made many friends there, and I’ve learned a lot about discussing financial independence. Yet those group conversations are pretty much suspended when the event ends…until the next event.
I knew @ESIMoneyBlog and [mentor] from their other sites (and FinCon) and their teamwork at Rockstar Finance. I joined here because I eventually (finally!) realized that I could afford the experiment. I’d already joined the BiggerPockets Pro membership, and I can afford that too, but it’s a real estate focus.
I also joined here because I’d intended (for months) to get around to writing a Millionaire Interview. I knew that if I paid real money for this forum then I’d taunt myself into finishing the interview before my membership renewed. And I did.
In the process of writing that interview, I realized that I couldn’t afford to not be in this forum…and after that epiphany the value really gained momentum.
It’s hypothetically possible that I could actually learn a few things here. (Old dogs, new tricks.) I haven’t learned anything totally unexpected, although I’ve learned a lot more about things that I’d already read a little about. For example, I’ve learned from you experts about real estate syndications and landlording…and those deep dives into the details have helped me confirm that I’m not interested in participating in either of them.
I already knew how pernicious Just One More Year syndrome is, but I’ve learned a lot more about it from people here who can already do math and assess risk. (JOMY is more complicated than it seems!) I’ve also confirmed all of the ways that financial independence includes the freedom to work, especially throttling back to part-time consulting instead of full-time employment. My understanding of that is especially important to explaining it to families.
I’ve belatedly realized that a paid forum is much more likely to avoid the trolls and haters that I’ve encountered on so many other sites. My first question here was about gifting our third house to our daughter and son-in-law. I can’t even imagine writing about that on [other] forums…let alone on Facebook groups.
Interestingly, my daughter and son-in-law are much more confident about this gift because a team of real no-foolin’ millionaires already understands these issues and has advised us on the best ways to complete the process. I’ll blog about it someday, of course with the permission of those two.
Among my first sentences written here were:
“I joined this forum to level up with our excess net worth. As my spouse and I start our 60s, I want to understand the issues of reaching $10M in our 80s.”
I’d be happier with throttling our net worth down to $2M (because our pensions are worth far more in cash flow) but now I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to handle $10M if it happens.
Over the last 20 months, this forum has become my safe space to discuss more of the “personal” in personal finance. That’s eventually going to lead to my third book, and you’re welcome to read it here as we create it.
—————————————-
The #1 thing so far can’t be defined with any tangible value. For me the #1 thing is mindset. As a working executive in a Fortune 500 company, I’m surrounded by the hard-charging, high drive, high work ethic people, and almost all plan to work into their 60s, “don’t know what they’d do if they weren’t working”, etc. I’ve always been one of those high drive, high work ethic people, but man, the idea of working to 65…that is NOT me.
This forum helps me immensely with mindset — seeing the other side, people who’ve made the transition to retirement early, and loving it. It’s helped me balance the mindset and given me more focus on defining the retirement plan. That’s the #1 thing I’ve gotten out of it.
Lots of other things in terms of learning and understanding new things, but that’s the big takeaway for me so far.
—————————————-
I’ve been having a blast learning from all the various stories and wisdom here.
I still go back and re-read all the advice people gave to me when taking on a new job, with a lot more disposable income.
Concretely:
- I’ve started doing a lot more dividend investing for long term cash flow
- I started saving for the down payment of a future house, slowly at first, but something
- I continue investing into the stock market to get a bigger egg before diving into real estate, and others thought this was fine.
- I love reading all the great articles [mentor] posts along with his summaries, the discussions around different topics I read through.
I only have two people who really understand financial decisions and care as much as I do in my circle, so having somewhere to binge read and talk about money as much as I want is wonderful.
—————————————-
My wife and I started discussing early retirement about a year ago. Sites like MMM and The Retirement Manifesto helped convince us that early retirement was possible. We both retired at the end of April this year.
MMM also introduced me to real estate syndications. We’re currently invested in a couple deals with DJE Texas and are looking for more.
Lots of other things as well but those are the big ones.
—————————————-
I too, had a hard time identifying a place where it was not a taboo exercise to discuss lessons learned and pitfall avoidance to fellow financial minded conscious professionals. I find this forum as a place to reaffirm future plans for my family and a priceless avenue which encourages supporting engagement and contrarian viewpoints. The few financial strategy discussions that I have in person are lead mostly by me being the teacher. Through this forum, I tend to be a student or at least receive a confirmation that my approach is sound and valid. I like this.
I have learned more about syndications and wealth transfer strategies. I also enjoy reading about philanthropic initiatives that fellow members are implementing. I also like that there are no ads shown to be distracted from the valuable conversations at hand. Thanks for making that a conscious choice with the platform, John.
I also enjoy forming the relationships, especially with the ones who are here in FL and elsewhere who would not mind traveling for an in person meetup. I’m getting [excited about] our upcoming “conference” in April.
—————————————-
A short list:
- Confidence to finally buy rental RE
- Use an HSA and invest the money in said HSA
- Get over the feeling that I didn’t know enough to get to FI
- Stop feeling guilty about spending the amount of money we currently spend. Our plan was overkill, there’s no need to stress.
- Recognizing my original FI plan was overkill because my tax assumptions were wrong
- People value things differently. This is OK and doesn’t mean myself or anyone else is wrong. This helped my wife and I communicate better on money topics.
A follow-up THANK YOU to everyone here for making contributions to MMM and giving me a happier life. I have an outlet and entertainment source here that I never thought I would have.
I just finished up an hour conversation with a friend of my wife who has dug herself a very deep financial hole (CC debt in excess of her annual net income). She asked my wife if I would be willing to talk her through her rationale for the sale of her home to pay off medical and credit card debt. Honestly, she has made some pretty poor decisions to put herself into quite a mess, but she has no one to give her any sound advice and I am trying to help.
—————————————-
That’s it for today! There will be much more in a couple days!
I hope you can see the true, tangible value that the forums is providing — many more times than the annual cost. The MMM forums help people earn, save, and invest money, of course, but they also help people save TIME (in getting to FI, in retiring earlier, etc.) which can be even more important (I wish someone had talked me into retiring a decade earlier).
I invite everyone to join MMM now while the price is as low as it’s going to go.
I hope to see you there soon — there are only a few days left in the sale. Again, you can access the sale here or visit the original post for additional details.
Leave a Reply