Our bread & butter to build wealth: House hacking

What’s the common thread between meditation, long-term investing, and running the dishwasher?

💭

For years, Tyler’s dad drilled into him the habit of pre-cleaning plates before loading the dishwasher.

If you know Tyler, you know he’s always found sneaky ways to dodge house chores. But now as a married man 🫢, there’s no escaping them—just finding smarter ways to get them done.

So, he ran a little experiment over the past few weeks.

At first, he cleaned the plates less and less. Now, he barely scrapes off the chunky leftovers and tosses everything in.

The result? They came out cleaner than ever. ✨🍽️✨

And there’s your answer: meditation, long-term investing, and running the dishwasher all prove the less you do, the better the outcome. Couch potatoes 🥔ftw!

But let’s be real. Some of us like a little spice in life. 🌶️

While we enjoy a laid-back stroll to freedom, a little challenge keeps life interesting.

So to speed up our journey to freedom and, more importantly, to diversify our portfolio, we’ve ventured into real estate together. 👩🏻‍🤝‍👨🏼

So this letter, we’ll share

• our bread & butter in building wealth—House hacking 🥖🧈
• and it’s beauty 💰

But before we get to that garlic butter bread…

Airbnb & VRBO hosts, friendly reminder:

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No gimmicks here. 🙅🏻‍♀️🙅🏼‍♂️ It makes zero financial sense for us to keep this price after the official launch.

This special offer is our way of saying thank you to those who believe in us and the tools we’ve poured our heart and soul into creating. 🥹

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OK, back to house hacking…

Imagine this

Gauguin pays $2,000/month in rent.

Van Gogh, on the other hand, house hacks his own home and makes $100/month in cash flow.

What’s the financial gap between them after one year?

At first glance, it looks like $25,200:

• $24,000 ($2,000 × 12) saved by not paying rent
• $1,200 ($100 × 12) in extra cash flow

But wait—there’s more.

Van Gogh isn’t just avoiding $24k in rent; he’s investing that money. If he puts it into an index fund with a 10% annual return, that’s an additional $2.4k in gains.

And we can’t forget the equity he’s building by paying down his mortgage. Conservatively, let’s say that adds another $3,600 to his net worth over the year.

So the true financial difference?

• Van Gogh: $31,200 ($24k saved rent + $2.4k investment gains + $3.6k equity)
• Gauguin: $0 in equity, investments, or gains.

That’s a $31,200 gap in just ONE year—and it only snowballs from there (hello, compound interest)! 😰

And if Van Gogh’s home appreciates in value and he knows how to take advantage of business tax benefits? Game over. 😵

And that, my friends, is the beauty of house hacking. 💫

P.S Looking for the best RE agent in Seattle? Look no further, check him out!

What’s house hacking?

Tyler introduced that term when we first started dating. Who would have thought less than 3 years later, we’re living it. 😳

Here’s how it works:

You buy a property, live in part of it (like one unit in a duplex, two floors in a townhome or a single room in a house), and rent out the rest.

And the rent you collect helps cover your mortgage, bills, or maybe even puts some extra cash in your pocket. 💰

So house hacking is like getting your house to pay you back!

But nothing in life is too good to be true, it comes with it's own set of drawbacks. We’ll dive into those in the next letter. 💌 Stay tuned! 💋

Hope it's helpful for your journey to Freedom 🙏

Love you to freedom and back, 🫰

Angie & Tyler

Things We are Loving Right Now ❤️‍🔥

📚 Read

• 📖 A shocking psychological thriller: Angie’s read ~6 murder mystery books this year, and this one by far is the most captivating one! OMG such a page turner, she devoured it in just a few days. One of those rare gems 💎 where she couldn’t guess the ending at all. It’s packed with murder (of course!), psychotherapy, and childhood trauma. Dark, right? 🤭 But sooo good!

• 👽 Meaning in absurdity: If you know Tyler you know he’s been a hardcore UFO believer since before it was cool. 👽✌️

  It’s common to speculate on what exactly is behind the phenomenon: interplanetary extraterrestrials, future humans time traveling, interdimensional beings from the multiverse? 🤨

  Bernardo Kastrup takes a radical position in this book, seeing UFOs less as evidence of coherent interaction with other forms of life and more as absurd and incoherent. 🛸

  Beneath that absurdity though is meaning. If you interpret it right, you will see the true nature of reality is non material, or so Kastrup claims. 🤔

  Get ready to have your mind bent by this one if you take the plunge. 🤪