10 Questions with Family Money Plan

Today is the 55th edition of our periodic guest post series called 10 Questions. We have a list of 17 questions we pose to fellow financial bloggers, and they are free to pick and choose 10 or answer all of them. Let us know if you would like to be featured in a future edition of 10 Questions.

Andrew comes to us from FamilyMoneyPlan.com, where he talks about paying off his mortgage early, and teaches people to take control of their finances. Andrew, take it away!

Tell me about your blog and why it’s great.
I’m coming into the blogging world with quite a few years of personal finance education and application under my belt. We started with our blog just before we became mortgage free and now we are starting as a financial freedom site.

I think the great part about FamilyMoneyPlan.com is that it’s a real couple that has gone through the trials and tribulations of family finances and is now seeing some success from those experiences. 6 years ago we decided to buckle down and pay off the mortgage of $320,000 and we paid it off at the beginning of this year. So when we set our minds on something, we do it.

Now with starting down the financial freedom road its even more exciting and people will get to follow along on our journey. Plus, it’s nice to be starting on the road to F.I.R.E. and people who are discovering us can sign up for the newsletter and follow along. We hope to help and inspire a lot of people along our journey.

Another unique thing is that we also donate 20% of what the site makes to charity; right now that’s the Autism Society. My sister has autism so it’s very close to the heart.

The final thing is that we are in it for the long haul. I don’t start something unless it’s going to be for the long term. So I hope that comes across to people, there are a lot of sites that start up and die off for various reasons, but we are going to be around for a very long time.

Tell me how you’re going to change the world with your blog (dream big or don’t dream at all!).
I’m sharing my family’s personal financial journey as a reference for others. When I was starting out there were a lot of theories and ideas from others that I followed blindly because I didn’t know any better and a lot of them didn’t work out.

Now I’m coming from more of an established perspective of what has worked and what hasn’t worked for me. I’m hoping others can learn from my mistakes and see that it’s not a perfect straight line to success, but as long as you keep at it you should find your way. I’m still making mistakes and trying new things, which is part of the fun.

As far as chasing the world, I plan on creating a series of guides that will help people get their money issues in order. They will be step by step and action oriented.

These guides will be affordable and workable which is going to be my site’s unique angle.

What goals do you have for your blog, short and long term?
My goals for the blog in the short term are to start a podcast, and keep writing about personal finance. There are a lot of areas to cover and I want to make sure I do a good job simplifying them without losing the point.

Personal finance can get complicated and I am trying to cut through the junk to make sense in a simple way. Right now I’m exploring my thought processes and as I get more writing under my belt I will be able to explain things quicker

My BIG long-term goal is my blog to be a go-to site for personal family finance. Long-term I plan to cover a lot of different topics that people can use as references as they go along. The more issues I can cover the better I can serve my readers. I’m trying to lay everything out as simple as I can. I find that the world of finances can get overly complicated, and that’s when most of us drift off. So I want it to be a family site that can be a go-to resource for families.

What post are you most proud of and why?
There are a few posts I’m exceptionally proud of, the first one is How we paid off our mortgage in 6 years, mostly because that goal was our sole focus for such a long time and it feels like a good way of closing the door on it.

That and my very first post because I was so nervous to post it. Just basic new blogger doubts that we all have but it was great to get it out there.

Another one was my first RockstarFinance post My First Money Lesson. It goes into how my parents set up things for me when I got my first allowance.

Do you enjoy writing?
Yes!!! I absolutely love writing. I hear a lot of other people saying that it’s hard to get motivated to write but for me right now, at least, I have about 100 -200 posts that I want to write and it’s all a matter of time. Honestly there are some days where I wish I could just shut out the outside world and write from the time I get up until I can't physically type anymore. I love it!

1500 Days is about early retirement. Do you have early retirement dreams? At what age do you think you will retire?
I’m starting this journey of early financial freedom. My goal is set on 10 years starting at the end of this year. We will be totally debt free by the end of 2016, and I think I have set things up somewhat to get there quick enough, 10 years sounds long and short at the same time. I think by making it a goal and having the blog to keep me accountable is going to be a huge driving factor in my success.

If blogging isn’t your full time gig, what is?
Eventually blogging will be my full time gig. Right now, I’m just a guy who works behind a computer. I love to build systems. I’m starting to manage social media for businesses too, which is pretty cool and fun.

In the long run, ideally I would like to have the site be my full time gig. That’s the plan. Though I’m still in the early stages of this whole evolution.

When you are 90 and look back on your life, what do you hope you have accomplished?
I’m going to live until I’m a 128 but at 90 I’ll hope to have inspired people to be financially better. What I mean by that is that I hope I will have inspired people to rid themselves of the stresses and pains that comes from being under the thumb of debt, and other financial burdens that we impose on ourselves.

Most of us experience these pains and they are tough. So I hope that when I look back on my life I’ve served as a good role model, and be an inspiring example to others and hopefully made a difference in as many lives as I could.

What is the best money management or investment tool you have come across?
I love Mint. There are a few new ones coming out that I would love to check out but being in Canada it’s not as easy. We usually get things later on; we don’t have a lot of financial app services compared to you. I actually wrote a post about it coming out in July. I really want to start using Personal Capital if and when it comes to Canada.

But my best tool ever was an Excel spreadsheet. I budget on a monthly basis and I detailed everything in it so I knew where things were coming in and what expenses I had. I just like the format of the excel sheet.

It’s helped me plan into the future and work through ideas. Something about coming up with the solution on your own really strikes a cord. It’s probably the same realization that we all hit, but coming to it on your own really makes it stick.

The spreadsheet is how we figured out how quickly we could pay off our mortgage as quickly as we did.

How do you handle people with different views on money, i.e. spendy people?
I love hanging out with “spendies” mostly because I’m a saver and watching other people buy things is a way of living through them vicariously. I’ve been doing the frugal thing my whole life so it’s nice to have those other personalities around. It gives me a different experience being with them.

A long time ago, I would see the things they bought and want them, now I realize that not buying those things is what makes me richer. So I’ve been able to handle that better.

Another way I handle them is by acknowledging that there are different people out there, and without them spending our economy doesn’t do too well.

Did you grow up with money? How did your money situation growing up influence you?
No I wouldn’t say I grew up with money. We were a single-family income, so there wasn’t a lot of extra money floating around. My parents were savers and knew how to stretch their dollar. As a kid, I always wanted things, but I usually only got stuff when it was a birthday or Christmas.

This was great, it made me hungry. It created desire, so it made me come up with ways to afford things. I hear of people who got everything growing up and they don’t have that same hunger.

Growing up hungry for things made me start thinking about money earlier on than other friends. I learnt how to manage my money early because that’s what my parents did. I think it influenced me to have drive for acquiring things that were important to me.

Did your parents teach you about money as a kid? How so?
My parents taught me that money was a responsibility. When I was young my dad sat me down for my first allowance and made me save half. That set me up for good habits. Though he may have done it that way just so I didn’t blow it all on candy and hockey cards. The half I was saving was for something bigger, something I would have to spend months saving for. From that point onwards I always knew the benefits of saving.

A few other things they taught me was to pay down your debts, or better yet, don’t get into debt at all. I think I learnt a lot from my parents just by example. Their habits were more frugal and they learned to appreciate life without spending money, they have their things that they enjoy and are fond of but they are selective with what their money goes towards.

Its great because as their child, I get to use them as a template (or role model) I know their way works and I’m trying to use what they have done and improve on it.

What is your favorite style of beer – and what is your favorite beer in that style?
I’ve always been a Guinness fan, it reminds of when I was younger and living/backpacking through Europe.

Lately I’ve been very particular to Stella, and Innis and Gunn Rum Casket beer. It’s really, really unique flavor. I really like it.

We notice a lot of frugal people are into board games – what is your favorite?
There’s the game Cash Flow by Robert Kiyosaki. I used to set up networking nights and games around it. There’s two parts to the game, the first is escaping the rat race and being financially free, and then once you are free you can get into the bigger deals. It’s like monopoly on steroids. You get an Income and Expense sheet and have to decide what you do with your money. It’s totally a geek thing but I love it. More importantly I love playing it because I get to teach others about finances and help people learn about their habits and becoming financially free.

If I make it out to Fincon I’ll bring it to play if you want. It’s a lot of fun to play and you learn a lot about money and money personalities, both yours and others around you.

The other one is Blokus; I could play that game all day.

What is the best thing you’ve read lately?
I’ve just finished reading It’s Only Money and It Grows on Trees by Cara MacMillan it’s just coming out and I liked it. I had the opportunity to interview her so that was pretty cool.

I picked up Charles Duhiggs new book “Smarter Faster Better”, I haven’t read it yet, but his first book the Power of Habit radically changed everything I do and how I handle good and bad habits.

What do you do for exercise?
I have a two-part exercise system. From October to March it’s all recreational hockey, I play 3-4 times a week if I can. That is usually enough for the winter.

As soon as that’s over I run and walk outside. I’m getting ready for a big walk too. A friend and I did 50,000 steps last fall this spring the goal is 100,000 steps in a day. It’s about 20 hours and I have no clue if we can do it, but I’m going to try. Life is all about challenging yourself and seeing what you can accomplish.

Do you have anything special to offer our readers?
Yes I do, if you readers go to FamilyMoneyPlan.com and sign up for our newsletter they will get a copy of our eBook “Money Principles For A Happier Life”, plus members of the newsletter get special bonuses along the way.

Thanks so much, Andrew! Keep up with him on Twitter, Facebook, and at FamilyMoneyPlan.com.