How amazing would it be if your investments would pay enough passive income so you could focus on what YOU are passionate about?
That is exactly what one of our clients, Pamela Reed, had done in her own life! Learn how she did it, and what she sees as the next phase of her journey.
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Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
How This Client Retired So She Could Live Her Passion With Pamela Reed
I’ve brought on a very special guest. Pam Reed is someone who we have only gotten to know more recently because she has been working with us as a client. I want to get into her story because it’s fascinating to see where she has come from, where she is now, and where she’s going. An interesting thing about Pam is that she has become a certified life coach, specifically helping married women. Although she and her husband helped couples, she has been helping married women to strengthen marriages.
It’s ironic because, on the date of this recording, it’s Valentine’s Day. It’s cool that we’re talking about this because love is in the air. You have to have that ability to connect and create strong bonds with your family and your loved ones. I want to talk to her about that, especially after she has been on this journey of financial freedom but also on a journey of helping save marriages, and creating her ripple effect through lives like yours. Pam, welcome to our show.
Thank you. It’s so good to be here, Chris.
Tell us more about your story, where you came from, where you were raised, and all that stuff.
I am a girl from an area called Norfolk, Virginia. It’s in the Southern part of the state that I presently live in. That’s where I come from. I come from little humble beginnings. Upon graduating college, I was able to land a government job. That was a huge deal for me to go on and work for the Federal government. I had worked there for 27 years. It was a rewarding career. I grew a lot. I grew up pretty much in the Federal government in the Washington DC area. After college, I moved on up here to a major metropolitan area and took root here. Shortly after arriving, I met my husband.
Together we have been here building our lives. A big part of that life was the work that I did every day. It was rewarding. I grew in my career and myself as a person. Amazingly, a couple of years ago, I was given the opportunity to take an early out. After having been on this financial freedom journey, which I’ve been on for much of my young adult life, I toyed with the decision but I went on and did it. I’ve been pretty much in a retired state from that traditional job now for not quite two years but working on two years. It’s interesting. Life has taken on a new chapter. I’m excited about it.
You even talked about starting with humble beginnings but now, you’re over $1 million in net worth. I talk sometimes about how I grew up in a trailer park for part of my childhood. It’s amazing to see. You’re like, “I hung out with not-great kids.” Bless their hearts but it was pretty much a scarcity world. It was constant family fighting. It was not a pretty place to be. I even referred to it as my dark years because it was depressing a little bit. You came from humble beginnings as well to where you are now in much a better place.
Mine was very much a middle-class family. It was a conservative type of upbringing. I didn’t have all kinds of knowledge about all of the different ways to build wealth and things like that. It has been a lot of learning and development.
How were you taught about money growing up? What did your parents teach you?
They were very much, “Save your money. Don’t spend recklessly.” It’s implied, “Money doesn’t grow on trees.” My dad is a pastor, and I was part of a very small church that was planted that then grew as a full-time minister. I inwardly internalized it because it was a very small congregation at the time. I developed my money stories. It’s not necessarily things that were verbalized to me but it’s putting the pieces together in my head to what made sense to me, “You have to save. You don’t want to run out.”
It was a scarcity mentality that developed for me from growing up and my thoughts about everything. Some of it was implied but not necessarily said but it was very much, “Save your money. Don’t get into debt,” which was good but at the same time, I was trying to understand how are we making it with this small church growing up. I’m a Christian. God supplied all of our needs. I’m like, “The money is going to run out. There weren’t that many people there today.”
“I know that you’re the God of abundance but I feel scarce right now.“
It was interesting how we have those stories. They’re hard to shake as adults. They can be hard to get rid of.
A lot of people can relate to that too because I know a lot of our audiences may or may not have grown up in a conservative type of home. A lot of people that follow us are faith-based too and probably struggle with some of those same things, or maybe were simply taught to save, and that’s it. That was taught, “Save. Don’t have debt. Have that Great Depression mentality when it comes to money.“ That’s what I was taught, “Be cheap and that sort of thing.“ What for you was the turning point? Where did you start to get past all of that traditional saver mentality?
What’s so interesting is I have to reflect. I don’t know what lit the fire per se. I can’t say. Once I became an adult, I had this urge within me to be smarter with my money. My sister introduced me to the book Rich Dad Poor Dad. That gave me more of a process, a framework, or a method to go about our money and what we should work toward. That book has pretty much been what I followed in all of our financial decisions throughout. When I say we, it’s my husband and myself, our household, and our finances.
That drove us to want to have passive income. I bought the game. I remember one time I took it home to our family. I sat down at the table and said, “I’m a millionaire.” I wasn’t a millionaire at the time but I was declaring it and sharing with them some of my ideas about money. We ended up playing the game together. It greatly impacted me.
That’s awesome. A lot of people are going to ask, “How did you do it?“ There are a lot of people I know who have read Rich Dad Poor Dad. Some of them even played the cashflow game too. When I first read Rich Dad Poor Dad, I was reading from a financial advisor scarcity perspective. It didn’t quite click until I made that extra shift toward abundance around money and those things. For you, what was the journey? How were you able to get to the point where you’re, “I‘ve got this passive income. I‘m doing it.“
I almost think this might have come before Rich Dad Poor Dad. My father, bless his heart, when we were about to make our first home purchase, was like, “You should get a place, live in a part of it, and rent the other part out.” That has now become known as a house hack. Back then, it didn’t have a name. I followed that advice. That stuck with me and my husband in our search for our first home. We looked for that style of the house. It was a two-family house. We ended up purchasing one in Washington, DC. That was the first place where we lived. We had that, lived in it, and rented it out.
Shortly, not too long after, we got these big suburb dreams and moved out into the suburbs but we still kept that property. There were so many times when we thought about selling it but we did not sell it. That has been the piece for us that is produced. We refinanced it. We take advantage of a business opportunity, refinance, pull out cash, and buy another property.
We went through this one phase where we were able to utilize cash from it and do some flip properties. With the flips, we got some chunks of cash. Sometimes it lasted. We always would do something smart with it. Some of the stuff didn’t pan out but we had that property because it was appreciating. We were able to leverage it and produce more wealth by having it. It’s jumping. The value is going up.
That’s a huge factor of the net worth that we built within that. Along the way, I invested in my retirement plan through my job. I pretty much got to the place from a tax strategy too where I was maximizing my contributions. I made my tax venture better at the time. That was building as well contributions to my 401(k) plan. That factored as well into us amassing the net worth. In 2019, we purchased a four-unit building as well. That building had appreciated.
We had this time when all of the real estates went up. That has appreciated. Those properties have propelled our net worth coupled with my retirement fund. They propelled us over $1 million. I didn’t even realize when it was over $1 million. We were chugging along. We got the numbers. We had to do an appraisal for something. I was like, “We’re over $1 million.” I hope that gives you what we did along the way. The whole time, I always was trying to optimize our cashflow, spending, and the management of our money. Be smarter about doing different things. We were smart with what we had.
What shifted once you came into our world? Where did you take it to that next level?
I’m retiring early. I’m not 59. If you’re not 59 years old, and I got quite a few years before I’m 59, you can’t get into that tax-deferred money without a severe tax penalty. Here I am. On paper, I’m this millionaire. I want to take advantage of this opportunity because I want to begin to do more business-building or income-producing things from more of the passion side. I was like, “Money Ripples.” I’ve been listening to your show for some years now. You would do different scenarios with how you can take what you have and utilize what you have to grow your wealth even more.
Those particular episodes always struck my interest. I was like, “I’m going to reach out to Money Ripples.” I talked to you one time before and didn’t take advantage. I was like, “This time I’m going to do it. I need somebody to try to help me figure out how can I use some of this money that we have to build more money and sustain myself without having my traditional regular paycheck money anymore.”
I reached out and met with Craig who’s a great guy who works with you all. He introduced me to a different tax strategist that I could speak with in a CPA firm. With them, we can look across what I had and put into place things that I had never done like cost segregation of our properties. If I do the withdrawal, the distribution, or whatever you want to call it, I can still offset a great deal of the tax liability that would surface from me taking money out of this money before I’m old enough.
That was what helped a lot. I got with a tax strategist. They looked at our situation and realized we hadn’t done cost segregation. We had these different strategies they could put into place. We could still put out money to make more money, not just to buy luxury items but we can then take that money and get even more cashflow from having used that money out of the retirement fund.
Tax strategies lessen the taxes you have to pay, which gives you more money to invest. You can take that money and create cashflow versus sitting there in a retirement account until you’re 60–plus.
Tax strategies lessen the taxes you have to pay, which gives you more money to invest. Click To TweetThat is exactly what we have done. We did a couple of things last year. We got another property and some mineral rights. That was part of it. Sometimes you get to a point. We didn’t know other opportunities that exist. We are coming on board with Money Ripples. We have learned of other things that exist, and I know there are even more. Based on whether we want to do growth or cashflow primarily, you will share with us the best strategies, tools, and things we can take advantage of. That has been great as well.
I want to talk to you pretty quickly about your next passion and where you’re leading now with your business. What would be some advice you would give people listening? Maybe it’s advice you give to yourself back in 2019. What would you recommend people do?
If you’re serious about getting to the next level, invest in coaching or mentoring to help you get there. Had I done it earlier, it would have probably been a little less to invest to get it but I could have been doing these things even sooner. I could have been putting these strategies into place even sooner and been even further along. The more you delay it sometimes by DIY-ing it, it extends the time it will take you to reach your goal. It’s an investment that pays off to speak with someone. Money Ripples is not your typical financial advisor but they help you build cashflow and wealth. Take advantage. Cut some of those years off trying to figure it out on your own. My investment is paid off already. Don’t see it as money leaving you but money coming to you.
It’s an investment. That’s a good point.
That would be my advice.
You did well. I‘m so impressed that you took things that you learned from Rich Dad Poor Dad and said, “Let’s give it a shot. Let’s try it.“ I’m impressed because sometimes we get people that are a little too apprehensive or scared to try it. You are already doing it. Our job is a little bit easier because all we had to do is tweak a few things, and then you‘re off to the races running. That says a lot about you and your level of faith. You’re willing to try. That’s impressive.
Thank you. That’s the thing. You will feel like you know a lot because I read a lot and I listen a lot but sometimes, you need that next level. It may cost you a little bit of money to get it but it’s well worth it.
Tell us about your next. Now, you don’t even need the money. This is cool but you’re now living your passion. Tell us why are you so passionate about helping married couples, specifically even helping married women.
I am married. I did go through a struggling piece in my marriage where you can feel, “We have outgrown each other. We don’t have that chemistry anymore.” You get into a space sometimes where you are not feeling it in the way that you did. Everybody is like, “I want to be happy.” I got into this place. Having been in that space, I recognized how you can get in that space. I was blessed to pretty much do some self-coaching but got some coaching indirectly that helped me to begin to see myself.
What happens often is you lose yourself as a woman, a wife, and a mom, especially if you’re a mom as well. You can lose yourself in your marriage. Your thing is the marriage. You pointed all your fingers at the marriage but sometimes there’s a lot going on with you. I want women to reconnect with themselves from a healthier space and the whole space within themselves. They can look at their marriage. There might be still some things that can be done in your marriage, tips, tools, and strategies, or some different mindset shifts that need to take place but often, there’s a lot that’s going on with you and who you are. That’s exactly what it was for me.
Having experienced this, now I’m so in love with my husband. I see none of the things I saw before. It all was because of myself and the change I made in myself. He didn’t do any big sweeping changes himself. There was a lot going on with me. I know that can be the case for many other women as well. I see marriage as the foundation of many families. In helping to restore women and couples, then we’re helping families throughout the world. It impacts generation to generation. That is my mission to save marriages and families. The health of families is so greatly related to marriage, which is at the foundation.
In helping to restore women and couples, we're helping families throughout the world. It impacts generations after generations. Click To TweetThat’s one thing I mentioned in another interview. Someone said, “Tell us how you balance everything.” At first, I said, “You should focus on what’s most important.“ I started to say family, “My kids aren’t the most important. First, it’s me. I have to fix my stuff, be centered, and ground myself, then it’s my marriage itself, and then it’s my kids.” A lot of times, people skip the whole marriage or their selves and go right to helping their kids, and then they wonder why they feel they’re never fulfilled and happy. They figure that if they leave, everything will change. That doesn’t happen that way. It doesn’t work.
Many people have children but before the kids, there’s your marriage and yourself even within that.
If they wanted to improve themselves or their marriage, what’s a good first step that somebody could take?
You want to look at yourself. I would like to start with, “What do I want?” We have never defined, “What am I looking for? What do I want?” The second question is, “Who am I? What do I want?” A lot of times, we’re going, “I’m a mom. I’m a wife. I’m a husband. I’m a dad,” which is partly who you’re but then if you dig deeper and often from what we want, we can define a little bit who we are at the same time. It’s getting to the root of who we are, what we want, and what makes us happy. Many people can be very stumped by that. What makes me happy? How can I have more of that? Do I have any now? How can I have more? From there, you can work your way into what’s going wrong again and how can I get there.
That’s why the Mark Twain quote is so important for coaches like us. The quote says, “I can help people get whatever they want. I just can’t find anybody who knows what they want.“
What do you want? Who do you want to be? It’s those questions.
It’s easy to get what you want. It’s better if you know what it is. That’s very wise counsel. If people want to learn more about what you’re doing or they want to get in touch with you, what’s the best way they can do that?
You can reach me on Instagram. I’m @PamelaHReed. You can certainly direct message me there, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can. I love to work with anybody and share more about what I’ve shared. Reach out. I’m there for you.
That’s great. If you’re on Instagram, you probably already went. You’re probably already there but I encourage you to check out Pam’s stuff. I can’t emphasize that more. We talk about money on the show all the time but at the ultimate heart of what helps a society prosper, it is the family or that nuclear thing. If you ever want to see a society degenerate or become almost destructive, all you have to do is have a destructive family environment. Pam, I do see that ripple effect you’re doing, and that’s massive. We need it more than anything. Thank you for being out there. Thank you for making yourself free so that you can be out there living this mission. I appreciate that.
You’re welcome. I appreciate this opportunity. I appreciate the show.
Likewise. We love having you.
You see the ripple effect here too.
We got ripple effects going all over the place here. Pam, thank you so much for your time. Everybody else, go check out Pam’s Instagram page @PamelaHReed. Here’s some wise advice. How can you shortcut your path? A lot of times, you can do it alone, or you can do it with somebody walking beside you. That’s your choice. Make it a warm and prosperous week. Make sure you go and walk that path so that you can get everything that you desire and want for your life.
Important Links
- Pam Reed – LinkedIn
- Rich Dad Poor Dad
- @PamelaHReed – Instagram
About Pam Reed
Pam is a recently retired Federal Government employee who has longed for financial freedom since beginning her career over almost 30 years ago. Through much discipline, coaching, money management and investing she has reached a net worth of over 1 million dollars and has taken an early retirement.
Pam has recently become a certified life coach and just launched her coaching practice transforming lives from a place of being stuck to a place of thriving. Her niche is helping couples reconnect and save families from being separated.