Today we are doing an interview to get to know David who runs the website filledwithmoney.com He has a pretty remarkable story has overcome some setbacks, and thought he’d offer some valuable insight to the Blind Luck Community. 

 Over at  filledwithmoney.com he offers investing tricks, life hacks, and ways to maximize your income. What I like about his work is he actually does what he preaches reaching at networth of $250K by age 24 and $400K by age 26 and a goal of $1 Million by age 30.  At the rate he’s going he’ll have no problem hitting it!

If you haven’t done so already check him out filledwithmoney.com or over on twitter @FilledWithMoney

 Now the introductions are done lets kick off the interview. 

 Blind Luck Project (BLP): Hey David, good to virtually meet you’ve clearly got a few things figured out and I think it’s great your leading by example on how to aggressively save, invest and reach financial freedom at an early age in true FIRE fashion instead of what the average American does which is load up on debt at an early age and work until 65+

 What inspired you to the early retirement goal?

 David Filled With Money (DFWM): GREAT to virtually meet you as well! You’re one of my closest friends and I’m so glad to have met you. It’s been fun getting to interact, tweet, and talk to you.

 My first job out of college inspired me to the early retirement goal. My starting salary out of college was $52,500 per year. After maxing out my 401k, HSA, insurance contributions, and taxes, I was living on between $20-$25,000 per year. That was difficult.

I contributed to the tax advantaged accounts every paycheck and every paycheck, I felt powerless. I had no choice but to say yes to every single one of my employer’s requests because otherwise, I wouldn’t put food on the table. That’s when I decided that I didn’t want this to be my life going forward.

 I wanted to join the financial independence, retire early (FIRE) movement so that no one can control me. It really didn’t feel so great when I had no other choice but to let myself be controlled because I couldn’t eat or have a roof over my head otherwise.

 BLP: how did you come up with the $1 Million goal? Is this when you know you’ll have enough to retire or a nice round number to get you started?

 DFWM: This was more of a nice round number to get me started. I don’t need a lot of money to live on. I can usually make do with spending just $20 - $25,000 per year in order to survive. It helps to live in a mid cost of living city like Houston, Texas.

So I figured one million dollars would get me a safe withdrawal income of $40,000 per year, which would give me a good margin of safety to retire on. Even though I want to have $1 million by 30, that is not my FIRE number anymore. I recently updated that number to something closer to $1.5M.

I realized that I wanted to buy a house someday and given that housing prices just has gotten out of control recently, I realized that I need more money to live on! I also recently changed jobs to my dream job so I didn’t mind working a 9-5 as much as before to having more than $1 million.

BLP: What do you want to do when you retire? You’ll have lots of time to enjoy yourself!

DFWM: Oh man! Do I already have plans! I plan on pursuing passion projects that interest me. If they happen to make money, then that’s great, but if not, then that’s great too. I’ve always wanted to start a YouTube channel AND still continue blogging. I still love blogging after 1.5 years later so I don’t want to neglect my blog.

I definitely agree that I can’t just sit around and do nothing because that’s just not who I am. However, once I am early retired, I want to pursue these projects that I just never had the time to do during the weekdays because of my 9-5.

Sure, I can pursue them during the weekends but it just doesn’t feel the same. I want to pursue what I want and when I want to. Not having to schedule around my employer’s schedule by booking strategic PTO time and such.

BLP: there are a lot of personal finance websites out there what makes yours different and what do you hope people take away from it?

DFWM: The thing that makes me different is that a lot of personal finance websites are from people who’ve already made it. It’s hard to see the struggles that they had to overcome such as the tech crash or the financial crash.

There’s a smaller subset of the personal finance blogs that are from people who haven’t already made it and are on the journey. You can follow my progress or a lack thereof in real time and that’s a big differentiator!

I hope people take away that it’s definitely possible to navigate the corporate life even after having a low starting point of $52,500 salary as soon as you graduate college. It’s not going to be easy and there’s going to be so many mistakes.

However, it’s definitely more than possible.

 BTW here is a link to the website: filledwithmoney.com

BLP: Since your not currently retired what is your 9-5 job?

DFWM: I’m currently working in finance. I started my career in banking, lending money to companies. And now I’m working in industry, which has been MUCH better to work in terms of coworkers, culture, work life balance, subject matter, and the like.  

BLP: What advice do you have for anyone just starting out even if their goals aren’t as ambitious as yours?

DFWM: I would say be mentally prepared to stick through it all. There’s going to be MANY tests throughout the years that you have to pass in which the right answer is almost always to stay the course. There’s always going to be people who don’t believe that you can reach financial independence and be rich as the average person. These people WILL be vocal about that to you.

There’s also going to be bear markets like in 2022 that’s going to make you question why you’re investing so much every paycheck in the first place.

The answers to these challenges throughout the journey will almost always be to stay the course. Keep investing consistently no matter what. As long as you’ve mentally prepared for these challenges before hand and just stay the course, everything should work out in 20 years.

BLP: I often share some of my failures to encourage others and show setbacks are normal and just part of the process.  What’s the biggest financial setback you’ve experienced?

DFWM: The biggest setback I’ve experienced was losing something close to $40,000 gambling and day trading stocks. My first Vegas trip, I came out with a $1,500 win and thought that as long as I quit while I’m ahead on the tables, I can make consistent income with gambling.

It just never seemed to work out like that. After college, I made trips to casinos and did quite well for the first six months. I was up close to $20,000, casinos took a keen interest to my arrival, and pit bosses would be very interested in my play.

Then the following six months, I ended up losing $20,000 and then another $20,000. I can’t imagine how much that $40,000 total would’ve turned into if I just invested it in the S&P 500, just six years later. I would imagine something close to $60,000.

 $60,000 is life changing money for me right now. But alas, I can’t change the past.

BLP: if you were to do something different when you were just starting out what would it be?

DFWM: Do not gamble and do not day trade. I did everything else right. I invested to where I felt like I was living paycheck to paycheck. I saved and invested as MUCH as I could. I more than doubled my income in just 3 years.

 Avoiding that one mistake of gambling would’ve made the world of a difference for me right now. It’s one of the harshest lessons I learned.

BLP: What is the biggest financial mistake you see people around you making?

DFWM: Not being able to see the impact of an extra $1,000/month investing has on their lives. Many people don’t even start investing because they think $1,000 per month won’t make a dent at all. Then in 10 years, I can only imagine that they’re going to start wondering and wishing they started earlier.

BLP: what books have inspired you that you’d recommend to someone looking to get started on their FIRE journey?

DFWM: I’ve read no books on financial independence, actually. All I’ve read are blogs such as Physician on Fire, Financial Samurai, and 1500 Days. Man, was that life changing. I’m so grateful I stumbled onto the blogs and the fact that they had all this right money advice for free.

BLP: Do your coworkers/ family know about your goal of early retirement? What do they think?

DFWM: My coworkers do not but one of my past coworkers did. That was one of the biggest mistakes of my career telling him about my goal because in December 2021, he referred me for a job.

The company was VERY interested in hiring me. However, he was too friendly with me during the interview and he brought up my FIRE plan right next to his coworker who was also interviewing me. I saw his coworker’s expression change from interested in hiring me to, well, not interested at all.

I didn’t get that job. Even though they were interested in me from the beginning. If there’s a group of people you should never tell your FIRE plans to, it’s your coworkers. He had no ill intentions and I don’t blame him. However, if I never told him about my plans, he wouldn’t have brought that up at all.

My family doesn’t think that early retirement is possible. They are so ingrained in the idea that you should be working till 65. I hope to buck the trend.

BLP: What did you want to do for a living when you were a kid?

DFWM: I wanted to be a lawyer. Then when I realized just how much better I am at numbers than writing/communicating, I switched over to business and majored in finance. I am eternally thankful for that decision.

BLP: When your not working on your website, working, or researching investments what do you like to do? Any interesting hobbies? 

DFWM: I LOVE to play tennis. Also, I recently got into growing a plant that my friend gave me so I’ve been having a lot of fun with that! A lot of the plants I tried to grow in the past didn’t work out but this one miraculously did so I want to look into starting a garden.

BLP: How do you stay so driven? A lot of people have dreams but what’s that “why factor” that translates into action toward your goals for you. 

DFWM: It’s my parents. They sacrificed everything for me to come to the United States from South Korea and I just couldn’t imagine not doing everything that I possibly can that’s within my control and power to not repay them back by being the best I could ever possibly be.

BLP: Something people don’t about you? A weird talent or something you’ve done?

DFWM: During one of my interviews in college, the company flew me all the way out to California and put me in the nicest hotel I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I mean, the hotel had two TVs in the room!

So I figured I should look presentable and used an ironing machine for the best first time ever in my life for my button down shirt. I had no idea how to use it and I ended up leaving the ironing machine face down on the carpet with it still plugged in. Yes, I left a small burned hole in the carpet.

I told no one from the company or the front desk about it. I was just hoping it’ll be fine by the end. No one followed up with me about it so I’m sure it’s all good now!

BLP: If people have never been to your website what article are you most proud of? Why do you think they should check it out?

DFWM:  If you don’t ask, you don’t get. People should check it out because it has the biggest impact to changing your decisions after reading the article. I know it opened my eyes.

BLP: if you were to retire but couldn’t stay in United States where would you go? 

DFWM: I would love to be in Europe. Italy or France. I had thought developed countries would be very expensive to live in. But Italy or France is very affordable to live in AND you can easily go to a neighboring country for leisure as well. It’s awesome.

BLP: what’s something you splurge on or feel spending extra money is worth it?

DFWM: Traveling. Getting to see another side of the world is not an experience that you can get often. When I went back to South Korea in 2018, we traveled across the country and visited places I never knew existed. It was such a life changing trip and no amount of money would’ve made me say that it wasn’t worth it.

BLP: What advise would you give your 16 year old self?

DFWM: Don’t focus so much on extracurricular activities. In high school, I was the captain of the Science Olympiad team, Tennis team, chess team, Math club, Number Sense Club, Calculator club, and the like. I got no scholarships in return and colleges really didn’t care that much anyway.

I wish I either started working and/or started a blog or YouTube channel.

BLP: I get the hunch that your always have something in the works, any exciting plans or projects you’d like to share with us?

DFWM: Nothing in the works! I’ve wanted to start a YouTube channel since last year but my blog, that I love to work on, has been time consuming so I haven’t been able to invest the time into it.

They’re just ideas I have but I’m not working on the ideas at all.

BLP: Where can people find you?

DFWM: Over on Twitter or over on my blog! I’m most responsive on Twitter. Thanks for having me, Adam! The interview was a ton of fun.

BLP: Been fun catching up with you and getting to know you!  Keep up the great work! You’ve clearly got that intangible element that drives you to excel no matter what the obstacle is! 

-Cheers!

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