This is part three of a series of interviews affectionately deemed “The Average Millionaire Interview Series” exclusively here on Live Off Dividends. Despite contrary belief, millionaires are real people who face adversity just like you and I. This interview series allows us the unique ability to gain some incredible perspective from these amazing, successful individuals.
My hope for this series is that it will provide an inside look into the lives of a variety of fairly normal, or “average” if you will, individuals that just happen to be millionaires. We all come from different backgrounds and have unique experiences and opinions and that’s exactly what makes these interviews so important. The insight provided in these interviews is invaluable and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I have.
This interview was done with Jason Edwards. Let’s jump right into it.
1.) Tell us a little bit about yourself. How old are you? Where did you grow up? Where do you live now?
I am 47 years old. I grew up in a small-town in Minnesota. I now live in Rhode Island have been on the East Coast for 20 years. I hope to someday return to the upper Midwest, but generally like where I live.
2.) How much education did you receive?
I have a Ph.D. in Communication Studies with an emphasis on rhetoric and politics. I am one of the few people in the FI community that loves politics. It is what I do my research on and teach for a living.
3.) What is your current occupation? How long have you been doing that? What were some of your previous occupations?
I am a college professor and the chairperson of our department at a mid-size university in New England. I have been teaching at my current university for 15 years and teaching college courses for 25 years. I have worked the typical teenage jobs like fast food, grocery store. I was also a college speech and debate coach and have worked as a front-desk coordinator, detox technician, and a community correctional facility. For a time I also worked as an Education and Political Affairs Coordinator for a local agency.
4.) Is your current occupation your dream job? If so, what do you like most about it? What would you change about it if you could? If not, what is your dream job and what has prevented you from pursuing it?
I love what I do. I never thought I would be teacher when I was in college, but I kind of fell into it. I thought I would coach speech and debate or go into the foreign service for the state department. I think what I dislike the most is the customer service mentality of students and the administration. The ivory tower isn’t all its cracked up to be. However, I still love teaching and research. I hope to do it for the rest of my career. Maybe not full-time after a few years, but I hope to always teach and be on a college campus.
5.) At what point did you realize you were a millionaire? How old were you and how did it feel?
I am not quite a millionaire, but I did have a million dollar turn around in eight years. I went from 150k or so in negative net worth to over 950k at the time of this writing. That fluctuates daily based upon the market. I hope to hit 2 comma club by the end of 2021, but that depends on the stock market.
6.) What were the most important steps that you took to get where you are today?
I think there are a couple of things. First, I dedicated myself to saving at least 30k in investments for the past 8 years. Mind you I did have about six figures in investments, but a lot more student loan debt. 2) I taught extra courses and every extra duty I could at my university for extra money for the past 10 years. I hope to back that down a bit now that my wife is earning more money. 3) I earned Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which knocked our debt down about 50k, but I also paid off over 150k in debt on my own. Still have a ways to go before we are debt free.
7.) In general, how do you feel about debt? Are you willing to utilize debt to get further ahead or would you rather be entirely debt free?
Generally speaking, I am not a fan of debt. I don’t know if the borrow is slave to the lender as Dave Ramsey says, but it is a pain. If I was a braver man I might try the leverage game with real estate, but generally speaking I am not a fan and prefer to be free. However, I don’t condemn folks that do it. Staying out of credit card debt and car loans and the like is probably the most important.
8.) Do you track your net worth? If so, what does your process look like?
Yes, I use Personal Capital. I am not a spreadsheet person, but I do check Personal Capital way too much.
9.) If you could change any one thing in the world, what would it be and why?
Wow that is a tough question. I would probably change how the world grows in concert with each other. I think that there is so much uneven growth and dealing with global problems that it creates inequities everywhere. I would like to be different then I think you can tamp down some of the global animosity that exists.
10.) What are some of your short term goals, say less than 5 years out? What about long term?
Short-term goals. My top goal for my job is to write another single-authored book. I have written one and edited 3 other ones with co-authors, but I would like to write another book. I hope to reach FI in five years. I hope to be at my job for another five years to obtain health care should I want to retire. I want to lead more global study tours for my students.
Long-term goals would be to reach FI by the time I am 53. I would like the option to retire by the time I am 55. I want to leave a financial legacy for my son. I would like to get to the point that I would be able to teach at another university and possibly other ones abroad. I have a pretty good reputation in my field, but that might come after I am 60. I would like to live abroad for a year or two with my wife and son. Giving him an international experience is important to me.
11.) If you had to give just ONE piece of financial advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Start investing earlier. I didn’t start until I was 33. Even just 2k a year would’ve made a ton of difference. I plan on making my kid investing when he gets his first job/income.
12.) How would you describe your perfect day?
I think a great day would be going to the gym in the morning. Coming home having breakfast with my family. Some activity with them for the day (e.g. museum, going to see some historical site, bowling, whatever). Then at night meeting friends for dinner and drinks and just sitting in a good bar/pub talking about life and issues and whatever. I really like people and need that kind of comraderie.
13.) Do you have any side hustles? If so, which are your favorites?
I sell tradelines and give plasma. That makes me about 8-10k per year. I also teach extra classes but would like to back that down a bit. Too much work.
14.) What was your biggest financial mistake? What lesson(s) did you learn from it?
I took out some student loans when I didn’t need them. The vast majority were for school/living expenses, but I took a loan or two that I didn’t need too. That was probably about 10k total.
15.) What is your favorite place to vacation and why?
I love Mexico. I used to live there for a short time a long-time ago and got a degree in Spanish as an undergrad. I love Iceland because it is the first place my wife and I took a trip together. However, I am not really a fan of going to the same place twice. I want to try new places. Maybe that will change, but there are so many countries I want to see.
16.) If you had $20,000 given to you, how would you spend it and why?
If you asked me that question last year I probably would’ve put it into my kids 529 plan. However, if I have to spend it I would definitely take a NICE vacation. It has been a while since we took a vacation. We have traveled, but it was always tied to work. I would like to go somewhere where I don’t have to work. That hasn’t happened in like 7 years. I think it is time to remedy that.
17.) What is your favorite personal finance related book?
The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins is something I wish I could give all my undergrads.
18.) If you aren’t retired, when do you expect to retire? What are your retirement plans?
I don’t know if I will ever truly quit working altogether. My dream is to be able to retire by 53-54. I could then retire from my current job and make sure we have health care until Medicare. Then I would like to teach for another university closer to my family for a few years. I would hope that one of those gigs might be abroad. And then when my son goes off to college I would love to teach at universities across the world for a couple of years just to see what it look like. Getting to travel and be paid to do it would be AWESOME!
19.) Favorite non-personal finance related book?
I think every politically minded person should read my books of course (ha, ha). No seriously I love a book called The Lover’s Quarrel by Elvin Lim. It explains historically the political development of the U.S. and gives the roots of why we have as much discord as we do in the U.S.
20.) Do you have a product, service, website, etc that you would like to tell us a little bit about?
I don’t have a product or anything. I do some financial coaching on the side to help people. I absolutely LOVE coaching. It is so much fun to see other people do well and to know you might have had a small hand in that. That is probably why I like teaching so much.
21.) If you could step into my shoes, what would you have asked yourself that I didn’t? How would you have answered?
Another tough question. I guess I would ask what is the reason you want to obtain a certain level of financial success. Why pursue FI or FIRE?
My answer is that I want the option to leave the workforce if I need too and also leave a legacy for my son. This sounds corny but I love oil paintings, particularly portraits. I have a dream of 7 generations from now an oil painting of my wife and I hangs in someone’s home (hopefully our descendants) and they live a good life and give back to people and help the world and they look at that painting and say they started this. I would hope that by the time that 7 generations that the people who would be there would be deeply involved helping the world. They would give a lot more than they took.
Concluding Thoughts From Our Interview With Jason Edwards
Jason and I are on the same page with Personal Capital and recommending The Simple Path to Wealth. Jason gave us some great advice. Particularly, to start investing as soon as possible and don’t take out more loans than you need. He also showed us how diligent saving/investing coupled with hard work can make you successful. Although Jason is just shy of a million dollar net worth, his $1M+ turnaround in just eight years is nothing short of spectacular. I hope to update this post in the next few months to affirm Jasons millionaire status.
I hope you enjoyed our interview with Jason as much as I did and that you learned a thing or two. Here’s to the Edwards descendants, seven generations from now, admiring the oil painting of Jason and his wife hanging above their fireplace mantel.
If you’d like to check out the previous installments of this series you can find them below:
Average Millionaire Interview Series Part 1 – Steve Ankerstar
Average Millionaire Interview Series Part 2 – Craig Smith
Would you, or do you know someone who might like to take part in our next Average Millionaire Interview? Feel free to reach out via our Contact page!
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I use Personal Capital to track my net worth. It’s phenomenal, honestly. I login almost daily to keep an eye on things. If you want to check it out, use my link to sign-up here. (It’s free)
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