What if you could make $10,000 in just 100 days? That is exactly what today’s guest, Jackie Mitchell did. And we are bringing her back to tell us all about how her challenge has changed her financial perspective, what side hustles she did, and what her new financial goal is.
Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to the BiggerPockets Money Podcast. My name is Mindy Jensen and with me as always is my everyday is hustlin’ co-host, Scott Trench.
Thanks Mindy, that was a clean intro. Unlike the Rick Ross song which would have us lose our family friendly status here on BiggerPockets Money. BiggerPockets has a goal of creating 1 million millionaires. You are in the right place if you want to get your financial house in order because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you’re starting, including if you just want to make that first extra 100 bucks.
Jackie Mitchell is a 26-year-old rising TikTok star based in Columbus, Ohio. Jackie, welcome to the show. We’re so excited to have you back on the BiggerPockets Money podcast.
Thank you guys for having me back. I’m super excited to be here again.
I am super excited to talk to you. So Jackie, when I first met you, saw you online, you were on TikTok where you were sharing your $100 a day for 100 days side hustle challenge. And we talked to you kind of in the middle of that challenge back on episode 470. Before we get into updates, let’s give a little bit of a recap. What is your current job and can you give us a brief overview of your history with money growing up?
Sure. So I currently work in the nonprofit sector. Both my husband and I work full-time. Like I said, I live in Columbus, Ohio. Um, grew up with a healthy view of money. I think my parents instilled a good idea of what it meant to be financially responsible. So, you know, I was given an idea of what it meant to spend money, what it meant to earn money. I was always the kid who wanted to do a lemonade stand, always the kid who wanted to find some weird way to sell something at, you know, a garage sale or or thrift and flip something. I always came up with little business ideas. None of them ever stuck, but, you know, that was kind of me growing up is I I kind of always had that that drive or that um, knack for earning a little bit of extra money. Um, and my parents helped me understand what it meant to steward money well. So I’m really thankful for that.
Let’s go into this $100 a day, 100 day challenge. What was your impetus for starting this challenge?
Yeah, so at the time, my husband and I had been married a couple of years, rented for a few years, and we really wanted to solidify our goal, and our dream, really, of being able to buy a house. And at the time, I had calculated, you know, to be comfortable without like, you know, digging into kind of our reserves, um, we needed about an extra $10,000 in order to make that down payment realistic for us.
You know, so there were a couple ways we could go about it, certainly. Um, both he and I, um, had brainstormed a few ways, but one of the easiest ways, um, we found was just to break it down into everyday bites. And for me, I was the one who had more flexible hours at my job. I was the one who was kind of already connected to some of these like side hustles that I’ve been doing since college, since, you know, even high school some of them. Um, and so once I realized that 100 times 100 is 10,000, you know, I thought, is it so crazy if I just try to challenge myself to make $100 a day for 100 days? And that’s kind of where the challenge was born. I posted it mainly to keep myself accountable and people definitely did keep me accountable. So then I was stuck. I really had to do it. I had to follow through.
Did you end up making your $10,000?
Yeah, I I ended up making close to $11,000 actually. I think, um, eight days early I hit my goal of $10,000 and I think I landed somewhere around $10,800 for the final day total.
That is awesome. So did you put did you buy a house? Did you put down the money and?
Yep. Woohoo! We’re in our house right now. I’m recording this from our brand new house. So, you know, actually towards the end of our challenge is when we started home shopping and we shortly after, um, I I finished that challenge actually within the next month moved into our brand new home. Well, brand new to us, but our new home, yes.
I have a question here. Did it get easier to make the $100 a day? Were you able to do it faster and faster by the end or was it pretty consistent the whole way through?
Certainly. For a couple reasons. The first one being, um, when you learn a new side hustle, there’s always that like learning curve of getting started, understanding the platform, whether it’s, you know, something like user interviews, um, something like a focus group, data annotation, Prolific, any of these sites come with a learning curve for sure. But then secondly, I ended up um, starting to earn from social media, which was unexpected for me. And so by the end of the challenge, I would say about a third to a half of my daily income was generated through TikTok’s ad program, um creator program, which was crazy.
I love that. Okay, one of the biggest questions that your viewers had for you was on how you are going to pay your taxes. Um, was filing taxes easy or was it kind of a nightmare because you had all these different tax forms to to return?
I mean, really it’s just the same form over and over again. So, um, it depends on how much you like filling out forms. Um, but yeah, you know, from the get-go, I said I was going to overshoot how much I set aside, um, for my side hustles just because I would rather over save and then, you know, have more in my tax fund than I needed. So I set aside about 30%. I definitely overshot that like I said. Um, but then when it came time to pay, I just paid. Um, I actually make quarterly payments, um, because with that kind of work, 1099 work, um, I believe it’s, it’s, I don’t know if it’s required or if it’s just preferred, but the government really would like you to pay um, every quarter for that. So I actually went ahead and made one quarterly payment in um, 2022 and my final payment in 2023, yes.
Did you hire a CPA for that?
I didn’t, um, but I did have a family friend kind of check it, um, just to make sure he thought I was doing all the right things. So while we didn’t hire him and I did most of it myself, I did have someone check it, but now I feel confident enough to be able to be doing it myself and I’m I’m doing quarterly taxes again the same way.
Okay, when we spoke last year, you were doing uh, data annotation as your, as one of your big side hustles. What was your favorite side hustle? What one paid the most and what one paid the least?
It’s a really good question. Um, my favorite side hustle, besides I think social media, which is the one that I’ve kept up the most since this challenge, would probably have to be Prolific. Um, Prolific is a site that a lot of graduate programs or um, PhD programs use to collect data for research, um, for either papers or different studies, some of them social, some of them, you know, regarding psychology, some of them, a lot of them actually this year, um, regarding the election. Um, but these are short studies. So while focus groups, um, are great, a lot of those are longer, like maybe two hour studies that you get paid to do, Prolific is anywhere from like a minute to maybe 20 minute studies and they pay by hour. So while, you know, you may not, you may not get a lot from one study, you’re doing, you know, five to 10 an hour and I was averaging I think around $20 to $25 an hour on that site and there there was a good stream of income. I do know that they have a wait list sometimes. So I always caution people, join it, join the wait list. It’s always worth it. I’ve never heard anyone get into Prolific and be like, yeah, I hated that site. Everybody who gets in really likes it. So that was probably my favorite just because the the studies are fun, they’re interesting, they’re short, and it pays well and once you get in, there’s a good stream of them.
In terms of my, the ones that paid the most, I would say focus groups always pay the best per hour, but they are harder to come by. So that is the downside, right? So I only do focus groups, I think the last one I did was two months ago now. I’m in a couple different focus group like emails or or sites that kind of send you ones that have been pre-screened for you that they think you might be a good fit based on your profile. Um, the last one I did, in-home study, they sent me some cleaning products and I reviewed them and I didn’t end up having to have anyone come to my house. I just did like a in-person video, I did a video and then sent it to them of me reviewing the product and that paid $500. So, you know, $500 for maybe three hours total of work. That’s a great, great hourly rate. But again, the downside is they don’t always come, you know, into your inbox very, very often. So I would say I do those when I can. I love them. They’re fun and there’s no wrong answer, right? So that’s the other part that’s fun about things like Prolific and things like focus groups, um, there’s no wrong answer. It’s just your opinion. So to be able to just give your opinion for three hours, I mean I talk, you know, probably eight hours a day. So to be able to get paid for three of those, that’s great. But again, um, the downside is just that they’re harder to come by. And then the ones that paid the least, I um, had actually trialed, um, I’m trying to think of the name, Amazon has a tasking site that is I think similar to sites like data annotation and Prolific, um, and I was asked by some viewers to join and kind of give my honest review and I just found the pay rate to be way too low. So I tried it once and it just wasn’t for me and I don’t recommend it. I think there’s sites that pay better.
What have you kept doing, or yeah, tell us about what happened after the challenge and your house your home purchase and what have you learned from or or kept doing following that?
Yeah, I think, you know, after my challenge, I was kind of on a high of like, I can’t believe I did this and so I think I should always do this forever. Um, and I slowed down a bit. I don’t do it every day like I thought I might, um, but I do still side hustle for a couple different reasons. Um, the main one being I really enjoy social media. So I’ve put a lot of effort into continuing my platform and I’ve really enjoyed um, the opportunities that’s that have come from that. But then there’s there’s still great opportunities. I mean, I still like doing Prolific. I still love doing a focus group. Like I said, I just did one a couple months ago and it paid for like half of our Christmas gifts this year. So, you know, I love to do it for things like traveling, gifting, any like out of the ordinary expenses. I think these are great ways to just kind of, you know, boost your regular income. And so that’s how I kind of treat them now that we’ve hit our big goal of buying a house.
Are you saving up for the next goal?
Yeah, I mean, um, right now I would love for us to not have to dip into our reserves to buy a new water heater. So that is going to be on the top of my list in the new year. Our water heater is quite old. So he’s ready to kick the can. And um, I’m going to Europe with my friend and I’m doing that completely with side hustles. um, which I’ve done before a couple times in the past. Actually our our honeymoon was completely side hustled. um, in 2020, um, like February of 2020, I went with my friends to Paris and that was side hustled. So this will be my third trip that I’ll side hustle.
Let’s look at some of the numbers involved with those side hustle trips. Are you and are you combining them with uh, like credit card hacking or are you just paying for them with the side hustles?
The first two I did not combine with credit card hacking just because, um, I was in college for the first one and then we had just kind of gotten like a nice travel credit card when we went on our first trip together as a married couple. Um, but this time I am using some points. It’s actually the day of recording is supposedly travel Tuesday, which is one of the best days to book for the next six months for airlines. So after I, you know, log off of this, I think I’m gonna hop on and see on Google flights any deals that I can get and then that’ll kind of decide our itinerary. So I will be doing that and hopefully spending some points. Um, but the last two times, no, um, it was all out of pocket through either earnings from sites like, like I said, focus groups, swag bucks, anything like that, um, just earnings that I saved up.
Stay tuned for more after a quick break. But while we’re away, we would love to hear from you. Do you currently have a side hustle? Answer in the Spotify or YouTube app while we’re gone.
Welcome back to the show here with Jackie Mitchell. All right Jackie, you know, you you went through a 100 day slog to save up $10,000 and beat your goal. And that’s awesome. Um and that’s something that’s going to inspire, has inspired and will inspire for many years to come to a lot of people out there. But it’s one piece of a broader kind of long-term financial strategy and I would say probably not sustainable for most. Most people wouldn’t want to try to keep that challenge up for an indefinite time horizon. I love how you limited it to 100 days and a specific goal there. How are you starting to zoom out now and think about your larger financial goals and your journey to wealth wealth building, now that this challenge is complete? You know, we’ve heard a little bit about the travel hacking, but how are you thinking about broader personal finance in light of the the success you had here?
Yeah, you know, for me, one of the biggest things I learned from my challenge was that little bits really do add up. I mean, I know it’s a simple concept, but gosh, like until you really see the results of that, it seems incredulous. So I think one of the things that this challenge reoriented me on was the idea of just spending a little bit more on our mortgage each month, just showing a little bits extra. Um, to me, it always seemed like people who paid off their house were paying, you know, you know, $5,000 extra a month or or you know, they were paying double their mortgage every month and that’s not true. Um, we’ve already shaved off a couple years on our mortgage just by making extra payments, rounding up, you know, a couple hundred dollars here and there. Um, and so while I’m not attacking our mortgage with the same intensity that I was attacking our down payment because it didn’t seem as urgent, it is nice to know that however hard I want to attack that, the opportunity is always there and little bits always make a big difference. So for us, paying off our house early would be amazing. Um, I’m 2, I’m actually 27, I just turned 27 and, um, you know, to be able to pay off our house by our mid-thirties would be the goal. And I think it’s something that, you know, through this side hustle challenge, um, through social media, just through, um, learning about how we can go about that in a healthy way that seems balanced and still enjoy time with our friends and family. I think that’s my biggest goal for my thirties.
Um, and then just to love on our friends and family. I mean, to be honest with you, I always say that, you know, finances are a part of life, but they’re not the point of life. So I would like to be in a place financially where I’m always able to have people over. I’m always able to spend on my friends, spend on my family, you know, I’m always able to have experiences with people that otherwise, if I didn’t have my finances in order would be either difficult or impossible for me. So beyond spending and um, kind of trying to pay off our house early, I think our goal is just to feel comfortable enough to be able to host and love on people the way we want to.
I love that. I am, um, not 27 and it took me until I was about 50 to learn that lesson. So I’m so delighted that you’ve learned this early on. Uh, you seemed like you have a really good, solid financial footing, which is frankly not that common in your age group. So, uh, it’s January. Many people are focused on getting their finances in order as part of their New Year’s resolutions. You’ve pivoted to budgeting and specifically reducing grocery costs. What are some tips you have for people who are looking at their budget and saying, how did I spend $2,500 on groceries last month?
Yeah, I’ve got a couple tips. Um, the first one being you cannot leave anything up to chance. You may think that you’re good at estimating and guestimating what you need for recipes and what, you know, kind of ingredients you want to buy, but when you get into the grocery store, I mean, this is true of me, marketing will get you every time and you will spend more than you think. So for me, the most important part about grocery budgeting is naming every single item that I’m going to buy, listing those out and then going into the grocery store as if I’m a shopper for someone else. So I’m I’m not shopping for me in that moment. I’ve got a list to fulfill and that’s not my own list. But, you know, budget eating doesn’t have to be boring and I’m really passionate about that. Um, I think variety is huge when you’re budget meal planning. Um, you just need to make sure that you’re not eating the same things day in, day out. If that works for you, that’s great. But for me, that is the biggest reason why I end up eating out is if things get monotonous at home and takeout looks enticing. You know, that’s a different, that’s a different flavor and I’ve I’ve been eating the same thing. You know, I made a casserole on Tuesday and I’ve been eating the same thing every day since then. So I think that’s a great idea. And then also, you know, just personally, me and my husband have found that, um, lunch items are expensive. And so for us, cooking every dinner as a family of two to serve at least four to six people and then packing those leftovers for lunch the next day is always more cost effective. Leftovers for lunch are the way to go. We’re very pro-leftovers in this house.
Embracing leftovers can be a real help because like you said, you’ve got these leftovers. I had a really great dinner last night. Now I’m going to have it for lunch. I don’t necessarily want to eat like I I don’t make a lot of chili because I tend to make a lot of chili and then I’m eating chili for like 14 months in a row and I don’t really want that. But also chili freezes really well. So if you have extras and you don’t want to do this, pop it in the freezer and you know, bring it back out when you haven’t had it for the last 17 days.
Absolutely.
Are you familiar with Budget Bites? budgetbites.com and Beth, uh, I believe it’s Beth Moncel.
I don’t think I am.
Oh, I’m going to change your world. Jackie, we interviewed her on episode 299 and she breaks out all of her recipes, here’s the ingredients and here much here’s how much they cost. So this recipe has a tablespoon of olive oil, that’s 17 cents. And this recipe has, you know, a pound of ground beef, that’s $4.99 or whatever. So it starts making you think about exactly how much each recipe is going to cost you at home. All of her recipes are amazing. My friend JT has like a whole calendar and you look through his calendar, it’s budget bites, budget bites, budget bites. They’re really, really great recipes. And then conversely, if you are, you know, in a tight spot and you want to make an inexpensive meal, you can go through and look for one that is inexpensive or look for one that has ingredients that you already have in your cabinets.
I think that’s fantastic.
Yeah, she’s an awesome, awesome blog with, I don’t know, 10 billion recipes, something like that. My my my count might be a little off.
You know, you bring up a great point, um, when it comes to budget eating, um, you do have to have the essentials and I love that she’s counting that, um, because you know, there are a lot of times where people will share recipes and then you realize that half of the things that they’re using are things that they consider pantry essentials that are like very odd or niche or specific. Um, so I always tell people spend the $80 on pantry essentials. I’ve got a list on my page, um, that I pinned because that’s like my most asked question. Um, but things like flour, sugar, salt, um, soy sauce, peanut butter, these are things that you spend on once when you get into your house or when you’re starting out, um, cooking at home, um and then you’re not going to be replenishing those all at the same time. So it is an initial investment of maybe $80 to $100 but you’re never going to have, you’re never going to run out of all of those things at once. So once a week, pick up whatever ingredient that you’re out of, garlic powder, pick up flour, pick up peanut butter and then you’re good because you always have that base to refer to. And so what I really try to do is encourage a nice little, you know, I I don’t have a lot of space in this house, but I love my house so much, but I don’t have a pantry. So I’ve just got some cabinet space, um, of just pantry essentials and I think that makes the biggest difference, especially for people in my age group. Cooking seems daunting and it seems more expensive than take out at first when you don’t have those pantry essentials, but those will pay off 100% of the time.
What do you spend every month on on food?
We spend $80 a week on our groceries. So I guess that would be 20 or, yeah, $240 a month.
That’s pretty good. I don’t know anybody else who’s doing that. Um, we’ve been doing this show for a long time. Uh, so that might be the best ever for two, um, that that I’ve ever heard. And is that include all take out, everything? Like your food budget is is 240 to 300 bucks?
Yeah, so we always say we don’t go out to eat unless it’s a special occasion. Um, and, you know, that’s just the way we’ve set up our lives. We like having people over. so if someone’s going to hang out with us, we’re always willing to have them bring over an extra pound of ground beef or whatever, um, or splurge to buy an extra little bit of ingredients for friends, but other than that, um, it’s just the two of us. We cook every meal at home. Um, because of that, yeah, we’re we’re down to $80 a week. Um, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Like I said, we eat dinners and then we pack leftovers for lunch the next day and then we prep breakfast grab and go items. So something like oatmeal bars, overnight oats, eggs, something easy, fruit that you can just kind of grab and go and not have to worry about.
So you you bought a house. Would you mind sharing a little bit more about the house? Um is this, you know, how could you give us like a mortgage payment or some some sort of idea of of how much house we’re talking about?
Yeah, absolutely. So this is a three bed, two and a half bath, um, in Columbus, Ohio. Um, we spent just over 300,000, um, and our mortgage is about 2300 a month. Um, so, you know, for us that was right around what we were looking for. It was a mad dash in Ohio for uh the real estate market. So we kind of bought the first house we set eyes on and liked and it worked out for us.
Awesome. And what is your um mortgage rate on the house?
We’re at 6.325, I believe.
Got it. Okay.
That’s great for the current interest rate environment.
Better than I thought, better than I thought when I was getting some estimates, so I’m happy for that.
And then last question here and I’ll tie it all together with why I’m asking these in a second. Uh what what is your what do you do for your cars? Um uh do you have one, do you have two?
We have two cars um that we have both owned since we were teenagers, um hand me downs of hand me downs. Um and we put a new motor in one. Um they’re not pretty but they’re functional and they get us to work. So that’s where we’re at with our cars right now.
All right, we got to take one final break and then we’ll be back with more.
Thanks for sticking with us. Now, back to Jackie.
Awesome. See you have two 10 plus year old cars that are paid off. And then you’re going to emerge in six, seven years, it’s going to be faster than that, I’ll bet you anything. uh, with a paid off house and you know, maybe replace one of the cars or whatever um during that time period. And you keep this budget this food budget that low, you’re going to have every option in the world. And it’s because you’re you have such tight control over the big three here. I mean the house, you know, you got to have a house, um, and you decided to go go that route with with purchasing. I think that’s almost certainly the right call in a place like uh, the Midwest like in Columbus where you’re at I believe. And then you have the paid off cars, I mean you’re going to be able to save 50, 60, 70% of your income while once that that house is paid off and I imagine you’re not blowing all the money somewhere else um, on this. So you’re like what a fantastic situation to find yourself in at 27 here. One of the burning questions I think that folks might have though is why are you paying off the mortgage instead of investing? And I agree with your decision by the way, just to just I I just think the question needs to be asked.
No, I appreciate it. You know, this is, um, my most controversial take is that I am throwing extra at um, the mortgage. Although we do invest, um, and we both have retirement accounts, um, you know, for us, the non-monetary value we place on not having any debt is huge. Part of that is personal. Part of that is, you know, my myself watching my parents pay off their house um, when I was growing up. Um, that was huge for me. um, and and and you know, just hearing what a relief that is even though sure, you can you can gamble and and not even really gamble, there are good methods of, you know, investing that then can yield some returns to us, it’s always been about eliminating our debt. um, and we include the house in that. So again, while there are other ways to invest and I think that’s great for people that want to do that, um, I I like to say that yeah, it’s a it’s a non-monetary value that we hold to be completely debt free and this is the fastest way to go about it and I sleep easier every night when um that mortgage goes down a little by little. So.
So, here’s another way of looking at it in defense of your decision here, for all the folks saying that you should be investing, um, on that. You pay taxes. I don’t know what your household income is, but let’s call it with the, let’s imagine you had 120k in household income here. You would be paying taxes at a 22% federal bracket, 22 to 24%, and you throw in Ohio, I don’t know what Ohio taxes are like, um from a state perspective, but you’re probably paying 25% blended income tax um on that that income. If you were to get gains on an investment in the stock market, you’d have to get a materially higher rate of return than 6.325% in order for it to actually on after tax basis beat the early payoff of your mortgage on there. And so it’s not that big of a spread. It’s not like 6.325% versus 10% you could get in the stock market, for example. It’s probably closer to a 2% um potential spread and the peace of mind from having a paid off mortgage is absolutely worth it for tens of millions of people compared to that 2% spread on there. And you’ll be able to stockpile as much wealth as you want into investments without that, you know, a big the lion share of that 2,300 a month payment that you’re making. So I I think it’s a great call and that used to be clear cut, I would have fought you about it three or four years ago. Uh even though it’s a feelings call. But I would say it’s it’s like the math is definitely not not saying don’t do this at this point. So if you ever need that argument for somebody who’s asking you about it, I think you got it. You’re you’re making a really great decision with paying off mortgage.
Good. Okay.
And what I’m hearing her say is this is a decision that she has chosen consciously. She’s not just throwing extra money at her mortgage because she doesn’t have anything else to do with it. She’s not just throwing money at her mortgage because somebody somewhere said maybe that was a good idea. She looked at it, she looked at her husband, she looked at their mindset about having debt and said we don’t want to have the debt. It’s not just it’s not just this off- off-handed decision. So that’s I mean, that’s the most important. Jackie’s money is Jackie’s money, so Jackie can do what she wants with it, but Jackie should be doing it consciously, which she absolutely is.
But this is a finance podcast and we’re going to get YouTube people commenting on and why Jackie’s making a big decision on it. So we have to defend it off.
Yeah, no, I love that you are defending that. And if anybody has an issue with it, you can email Mindy@biggerpockets.com and we can have a nice little conversation.
I do have one more question though. You you said you were contributing to like retirement accounts on top of that. Could you walk us through how far you go? Are you you taking matches and then everything else goes to the mortgage?
Yeah, so we are taking our matches. Um, my husband handles the retirement actually, so I have little to no, um but I’ll just give you the broad overview of what I know, um, is that we do take our matches because that to us is free money. Um, and then beyond that, we’re contributing just, yeah, I think up until our match, I believe.
And last question here. Is everything on top of that going to prepaying the mortgage?
No.
Okay, where does the rest of it go?
Um so I just started grad school. So some of it goes to grad school. Some of it goes to long-term savings. For us, a car is definitely in our future like I said. And then um that that’s all high yield savings. Um and then some of it goes to travel savings. Like I said for us, we don’t spend a lot um day-to-day, we don’t spend a lot month-to-month and we’re pretty boring. We eat every meal at home and we like to do things for free. So we like to splurge on travel. Like I said, you know, that is important to us, especially at our age. So that’s an expense. And then yeah, you know, in the next year or so, um, that’ll look like maybe contributing to some 529 plans with the hope of eventually having children.
Yeah, again, Scott, I hear intentionality in this spending and in the way that her money is working for her and that is absolutely the best way to go about it is is doing it because you’re doing it on purpose. Um Jackie, our audience is mainly focused on the FIRE movement, financial independence, retire early. Do you identify with any parts of the FIRE movement?
Definitely to some degree. I think I’m not on fire as much as some fire people would like me to be. Um but I’m somewhere in the middle. Certainly paying off our house early falls in line with that. When it comes down to retiring early, I could see us retiring either myself or my husband, but not both, I believe is kind of our goal right now or at least allowing one to stay and if we have children, God willing, um, you know, stay with the kids. So that’s kind of our long-term goal. But again, I enjoy my day job and I enjoy my side hustles. So to me like I I see myself as a person who always will be working in some capacity. So to retire early may not be the choice for me, although I think it’s a great goal for many people. I’m just someone who deeply enjoys working. I mean, I don’t know why, but even I I worked at a a restaurant in the evenings up until about two years ago and I loved that and missed that and didn’t know what to do with my evenings when I was done with that. So for me, I think I think there’s always work in the future, um but not out of necessity but out of a a love to do it, I think.
What is the driving kind of philosophy behind your the way you’re approaching your finances, um, and what what what could be, you know, you you mentioned kids, you mentioned all these things. Is it just this kind of notion of flexibility or is there a more specific goal 10, 15 years down the road?
Yeah, I mean, broad view, um, just to be honest, like a lot of this is just stewarding what we have well. Um, that’s something we take very seriously in our personal lives, my husband and I, um, out of partially religious beliefs, um, and just, um, our our own personal mantras. So, um, you know, long-term goal is not to maybe um, is not to maybe accumulate more and more, but to be comfortable and be paid off. Um, so that everything would be paid off, that we would have a comfortable monthly income and that we would be able to provide for a future generation. Um, I would say is our long-term goal.
I think that that is going to happen, uh, Jackie, based on what I’m hearing here. So I think you’re going to be way past that and you’re going to have really fun, um, fun, fun situations in about fun problems and and opportunities in about 10 years.
Jackie, what advice would you give our listeners who are looking for creative ways to get their finances in order for the new year?
So, I think there are two categories of um, of work, um, and if you can find the second category, I think that’s where your your money is um, and and your longevity is. Um, you can always work for money and there’s always going to be side hustles. There’s always going to be extra jobs, evening jobs, right? So in terms of like could you get a job waitressing? Could you get a job doing XYZ? Absolutely. Um, I encourage people for longevity to find something that they at least somewhat enjoy and I know that’s hard to say when it comes to work. So I’d like to simplify that by saying you have to understand what it is about completing a task that you enjoy. Do you like being on your feet? Do you like checking off checklists or do you like being left alone and being creative? I mean, these are some big questions you have to ask yourself that I think have guided me into realizing things that I do like and things that I don’t like. Um that helped me on my side hustle journey, that helped me just in life as well. Um, and then, you know, the internet is a great resource, um for research as well. I’m I’m always a big proponent of Reddit. Um I know the fire community, um has a great uh, Reddit um, page and a lot of resources. Um, the same is true for a lot of side hustles. Um, there’s a one in particular that I used a lot during my side hustle challenge. Um, I think that’s called R/beermoney. Um, and it’s just that, it’s just little extra bits of money, you know, it’s not going to pay maybe your entire mortgage, maybe it will, um but it’s just beer money. Um and that’s a great resource to find sites that I used for my 100-day challenge that, you know, maybe pay $25, $30, $50 a day, um, that you can stock. So if you want to do something like me, it’s always worth searching on Reddit. Um, people are always willing to give more information I think than you think, but you have to know the questions to ask.
I love it. Okay, Jackie, our listeners who do not yet follow you on TikTok, where can they find you?
Yeah, you can find me on TikTok @jackiemitchelll, um, I believe there’s an extra L there, so it’s J-A-C-K-I-E-M-I-T-C-H-E-L-L-L. Um, but if you search Jackie Mitchell, I should come up. Um, and I’m on TikTok and I’ve got a uh, if you’re interested, a weekly newsletter where I send out all the recipes that I use on $80 a week uh, along with some side hustle um, reviews, some thrifting reviews, budget reviews, um, it’s called Thrifty Weekly and we just kind of talk life, budgeting, and how to make things work on even the smallest of incomes.
Okay. And how do I sign up for that newsletter because I want to get that.
In TikTok, my link is in my bio.
Awesome. Jackie, it is always so much fun to talk to you. I’m so thankful that you had time for us to share what you’ve been doing and where you’re going next. I am super, super excited for your future because I know it’s going to be an absolute rock star future. So Jackie, thank you all the other things that I just said before. Thank you so much. I really, really appreciate your time and we’ll talk to you soon.
Thank you guys for having me. It was great to be on again.
Scott, that was Jackie Mitchell and that was so much fun. I loved hearing about her side hustles when she was halfway through and I really, really think that side hustling, especially when you’re younger, can just be the difference between being in debt forever and paying off that debt, saving up your uh, your emergency fund, and even saving for a house. I am so happy that she came on the show today. What did you think of the episode?
I I thought, I think she she is fantastic. Um, you know, I think I think that the headline is the side hustles, right? As it should be. That’s a really cool experiment that she did that’s going to inspire and and help a lot of people. But the story is really one of all of the basic foundational principles that we talk about all day long here on BiggerPockets money. and at this stage in a career, with her career and um, and what they’re doing, expense control is the number one thing that’s going to make a difference in terms of how much wealth they’re going to accumulate. It’s not how they invest businesses or other things there. It’s just is there enough of a gap between income and expenses and is that being accumulated rather than blown? And they have such tight control, um, with a very reasonable home purchase, um, with their food budget, $80 a week is absurdly good. And then their transportation with the paid off cars from childhood that they’re they’re just going to be able to save an enormous percentage of that income. And that’s only going to make the game super easy for them at 35 with a paid off house. Um, even if, you know, in a future state there are kids in the picture around there, their intent to have one parent stay at home and the ability to control expenses on the food side is gonna is gonna give them such flexibility for their entire life that it’s just going to be a wonderful, wonderful set of options, um that they’re never gonna have to compromise with her and her husband. So what a fantastic story. I love it. Um you know, if if she wanted FIRE would be well well within reach in the next seven to 10 years as well with this story, with uh this situation given how things could compound. Um but she’ll fire anyways, um one way or another in the next 10 to 15 years. So I loved it. I think it’s an inspiring story and I think there’s a ton to learn.
Well, and I just like the intentionality that she and her husband are uh, living their life through and they don’t and their mindset. They don’t seem like this is a hardship. They don’t feel like they’re giving things up. They like cooking at home. They see how much they’re saving versus their friends who aren’t cooking at home at every meal. They’re seeing how much more they can put towards their mortgage with these little side hustles that she actually enjoys. I’ve done focus groups. I think they’re a lot of fun. I haven’t done them in, you know, several years, but I think a focus group is a super fun time for, you know, an evening. You’re talking to people that you don’t know, you’re talking about products that you may or may not like. It’s just, it’s an interesting way to make a couple hundred bucks really quickly. And she’s, you know, she’s enjoying things. She’s not doing things that she doesn’t want to do, or she’s trying it out and saying, yeah, that’s going into the no pile. But she’s just having a really great time doing what she what she wants to be doing while earning extra income that she’s then putting towards her house. So to quote Dave Ramsey, live like no one else now so you can live like no one else later. I absolutely agree with your assessment, Scott, FIRE is going to come for her even if she chooses not to retire early. She’s definitely going to be financially independent.
And Dave Ramsey is a key word there. If someone wants to replicate some of her success, they should follow Jackie, but also Dave Ramsey, like this is classic Dave Ramsey playbook and it works. It’s really, it’s a really powerful system. Um I’d argue you can build more wealth a little faster with different plays like in real estate, but this is so certain of a path to success or you know, among the highest probability of paths you’re ever going to find.
All right, Scott, should we get out of here?
Let’s do it.
That wraps up this episode of the BiggerPockets Money podcast. He is Scott Trench. I am Mindy Jensen saying, happy 2025 and also Cheerio, followed Snow.
