When I began seeking out other personal finance enthusiasts a couple years ago, one friendly voice I found was a Twitter account called Heavy Metal Money. The Minnesota headbanger behind the account, Chris Luger, describes himself as "a single dad, retired from tech and crowd surfing his way to FIRE" (Financially Independent Retired Early).
Well, horns up to that! Since we started keeping tabs on each others' personal finance journeys, Chris has achieved his goal of FIRE through aggressive savings/stock market investing and real estate investing. You can read all about it here:
Something I appreciate about Chris is that in addition to spreading the word about financial literacy, he also gives back to the community in a very tangible way: he's the founder of The Luger Foundation, which assists families with medical bills surrounding pregnancy complications, premature birth, and NICU care. A metalhead who helps babies, what's better than that?!?
Without further ado, let's here what Chris has to say about personal finance, making a difference, and of course heavy metal:
Hey Chris! Thanks for being down for the interview!
Of course! Thank you for reaching out!
When I entered the “personal finance content creator” space, I was excited to find another heavy metal enthusiast. What inspired you to combine metal with discussions about money?
Right?! Me too! When I first met you as well! I think music and metal are so much of my personality. When I started blogging, I thought about how to share my journey and messages about financial education. How could I make it uniquely my voice? Let’s combine those things I’m most passionate about, Metal and my pursuit of Financial Independence, and Financial Education.
I noticed you have been posting a lot of great articles lately! Any reason for the uptick?
I’m glad you like it. Thanks! Reaching FI! :) It took about 9 years, but I was able to retire from my W2, 9-5 job. It has given me more time and freedom to write and contribute to the Blog. I have time to focus on many of the other things that are important to me. I'm relaunching my podcast now called The Extreme Personal Finance Show. And should have episodes dropping in July!
I appreciate that you are transparent about your own financial situation, like explaining in a blog post that an inheritance helped you in part to pay off your mortgage. What do you think readers should keep in mind when coming across the wide assortment of personal finance content that’s on blogs and social media?
Thank you. I think understanding Personal Finance is Personal. What works for some, may not work for others. There is good content out there, but there is also some misleading content or false truths. I think learning as much as you can from a variety of sources and forming your own strategies that align with your goals is best.
Joining local groups, and talking with others about earning, saving, spending, and investing is important. By surrounding yourself with others who are successful, you begin to learn how those people treat and think about money. I think normalizing talking about money and personal finance with others is something we all can do more. Try to avoid only talking to friends and family. Of course, they provide some influences -- however, they may not always provide the best guidance or advice. For example, I had family tell me that buying rental properties was the stupidest thing I could do. Or, I had a friend that said that paying off my home mortgage was a huge mistake.
We all have those things that are important or what we find value in. Find what is important to you and your family, and focus on that. Focus on saving and investing in those things you find the most value. I encourage others to try not to compare yourself to others. It is so easy to get caught up in “keeping up with the Joneses” Focus on yourself, your family, and the progress you make to your own financial goals.
(Hear more about Chris's FI journey on the Stacking Benjamins Show.)
What do you think is the most important thing (or couple of things) to know for people who are just starting their personal finance journey?
I get this question a lot. Like we said -- find what is important to you and your family, and focus on that. What are most important to us? Paying off debt, Saving for retirement? Getting married? Having Kids? Paying for College? Buying a Home? Earning more money? I’d like those starting out to not get overwhelmed. Let’s not take on too much at once. This can cause stress and anxiety, and leads to no action.
One of the main things when just starting out is tracking our expenses. It is so easy to spend mindlessly on stuff that doesn’t matter. Getting a better understanding of where all the money is going. Things like fast food and eating out, this was my big realization of hundreds of dollars a month. Start by looking at the last 3-6 months of expenses and look at what we are spending money on. Ask ourselves are these purchases really important to us? Did you unconsciously drop $20 on snacks at the gas station?
Then, of those expenses, are there credit card payments? Are we paying only the minimum payments? This is something we’d like to avoid if at all possible.
Tell me and readers about why you started the Luger Foundation and some of the families you’ve been able to help.
Thanks for the opportunity. The Luger Foundation is my way of paying it forward. I was born early and spent 64 days in the NICU. After I was home and healthy, my dad was setting up a payment plan with the hospital to pay the thousands of dollars for my stay and care, and my mom’s emergency c-section. The hospital told my dad that our entire bill was paid for in full, anonymously!
Imagine the weight lifted off of a 20-year-old new dad and family.
Approximately 68% of bankruptcies in the USA are due, in part, to medical debt. This is why we want to help those families. We want to help prevent this stress and financial hardship.
There are a couple of ways The Foundation helps families. We help at the time of care. Many families that have premature births and spend time in the NICU need parking passes, meals, and places to stay as many are from out of state. We provide these resources.
Another way we can help is paying portions of the medical bills directly to healthcare providers after the family is home and recovering. We’d like to help ensure that these bills don’t spin out of control causing more debt.
If you or someone you care about is experiencing financial hardship due to premature birth or pregnancy complications, please fill out our intake form at https://www.thelugerfoundation.org/help.
Now back to metal! Have you been to any good concerts lately, metal or otherwise? What are your favorite “flavors” of metal?
Haha yeah! I had recently attended Milwaukee Metal Fest! What a fun time. A great mix of Power Metal, Death Metal, and Thrash. The recent Judas Priest and Sabaton Show was killer! Over 50 Years and Priest still BRINGS IT! Thrash is probably my favorite sub-genre. But I don’t discriminate. Metal is Metal and if I dig it, Great! I have few shows coming up yet this year: the no-repeat weekend Metallica M72 Tour, Kittie in Chicago, The Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, and Megadeth with All That Remains and Mudvayne in Minneapolis. Along with the Sepultura and W.A.S.P shows!
Horns up! Thanks for talking with Metalhead Money!
Find Chris's blog and social links here.
Donate to The Luger Foundation here.
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To learn more about budgeting, band finances, and other personal finance topics, order Money Hacks for Metalheads and Old Millennials: The Revised and Expanded Second Edition in paperback and ebook formats: https://amzn.to/3AjB1j6
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