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What would Paula Pant do if she had to start all over again today?
Paula Pant of Afford Anything quit her full-time job to travel the world a decade ago and hasn’t looked back since. She built a real estate portfolio that generates over $40,000 per year in income for her (after expenses) and also a thriving online business.
We chat with Paula about…
- How do you structure your life after you achieve the goals you had for yourself?
- Revisiting places you’ve already been to versus visiting brand new places
- How Paula’s goals have changed as she has aged
- How to bid for a trailer or RV on Ebay
- What Paula would do if she had to start all over again.
- Getting caught up in the game of FIRE
Enjoy this chat with Paula Pant, and please subscribe to us in iTunes if you enjoyed it!
Show notes and links from today’s episode
- Afford Anything – Paula’s Blog!
- Afford Anything – Paula’s Podcast!
- The Happiness of Pursuit by Chris Gillebeau
- Tim Ferriss Interview with Mr Money Mustache
- How Brianna makes $1MIL per year with Amazon FBA – our podcast episode about Amazon FBA
- Gwen’s Instagram for her cat, @king_mew_the_floof – cute cat pics
- Moviepass (looks like it’s no longer unlimited and capped at 4 movies/month – bummer)
- Gwen & J’s Etsy Mastermind
Key takeaways from our chat with Paula Pant of Afford Anything
1 – Paula wasn’t told to “THINK BIG” growing up because her family worked hard for their life in the United States and taking big risks could set them back.
We talk with Paula about her experiences growing up between Ohio and Nepal and how her family had to hustle and not waste any time to achieve a comfortable life in the U.S (because they started their life in the United States at age 40).
For these reasons, Paula was encouraged by her family to pursue a more stable career and life path and not rock the boat. Her family also couldn’t necessarily understand her desire to travel since they worked so hard to get to the U.S. in the first place. Why did she want to leave so soon?
Paula was bit by the travel bug in her twenties though and hit 30 countries visited by 30.
She’s now traveled all over the world and made this traveling her lifestyle due to her smart business sense, comfort with risk, insane hustle and over $40,000 in passive income from the rental properties she’s purchased over the years.
If Paula hadn’t overcome the mindset to choose a conservative, safe life, she wouldn’t have achieved the success she has today.
2 – Plan for the future, don’t live in it.
J mentions that she took the Gallup Strengths Finder at work and her top strength was that she lives in the future.
This is a bad thing because it means that she is not really enjoying the present.
Paula loves the quote “plan for the future, don’t live in it” and it’s how she tries to live her life now.
It’s easy to get caught up in the goal of financial independence and forget to live life for the present.
3 – How to buy a camper trailer or RV on Ebay
Paula just bought a camper trailer off Ebay for $5200. She plans to travel the United States focusing on the West Coast.
She gives two important tips for saving money on buying an RV or a trailer:
- be willing to bid online
- be willing to travel to get the trailer (she drove to West Virginia to pick it up over 4th of July weekend!)
Paula recommends buying a trailer on Ebay over Craigslist because there are buyer protections in place on Ebay. If she showed up and the trailer wasn’t as listed, she wouldn’t have to go through with the deal.
One thing she mentioned though is that she had to stop at ATMs all along the way from Vegas to West Virginia because she couldn’t take out $5,000 in cash at one time from one ATM!
4 – If she had to start all over again, Paula would build a business online.
J brings up the Tim Ferriss interview with Mr Money Mustache where Mr Money Mustache says that he would encourage his son to start a business online versus going the traditional employment route (and MMM used the traditional employer wrote to hit FI).
Paula agrees that there is tons of opportunity online and no income ceiling.
If she had to do it all over again from scratch, she wouldn’t get started as a freelance writer as she did. She would actually start an Amazon FBA business!
Paula caveats that advice though to say that high income professionals who have invested significantly in education and expense to get their careers, would probably be wise to continue doing that career.
Very interesting though!
Check out our other podcast episodes about Amazon FBA businesses if you’re interested in taking this advice:
5 – Vegas doesn’t have to be expensive!
Paula lives a very affordable life in Vegas…to everyone’s surprise. People think Vegas and think expense and vacation but that doesn’t have to be true in practice.
She has access to the outdoors and an affordable place to live. She has awesome friends and a support network around her there.
J mentions a vacation hack where she got grocery delivery from Von’s in Vegas and saved $$ on her recent bachelorette party.
Vegas doesn’t have to be expensive!
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