On today’s episode of the Financial Independence Podcast, I speak to Patrick Aime from Aime to Invest!

Patrick’s journey to FI is an incredible one. He…

Moved from his home in Rwanda to attend high school in Europe and college in America
Stayed in America after college and started working in the feast-or-famine world of sales
Started his own company and grew it to $5 million in revenue in four years
Used his success in business to invest in rental properties and live a lavish lifestyle
Lost everything during the 2008 global financial crisis and had to declare bankruptcy
Found FIRE and drastically reduced his expenses and started saving for the long term
Rebuilt a smaller business and started investing in short-term rental properties in Mexico
Utilized geographic arbitrage to lower his expenses even further
Hit FI 8 years after declaring bankruptcy and became a millionaire 2 years after FI

Patrick shares everything he learned during his rollercoaster financial journey so hope you enjoy the interview!

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Full Transcript

Mad Fientist: Hey, what’s up, everybody. Welcome to the Financial Independence Podcast, the podcast where I talked to some of the best and brightest in personal finance to find out how they achieved financial independence.

I’m really excited about today’s show. I’m talking to a buddy of mine named Patrick, who I met way back in 2016 at FinCon San Diego, which is a financial conference.

And he was a Mad Fientist listener at the time. And just came up and talked to me and my wife. And I quickly realized one, he’s a really fun guy to talk to, but also he had a really interesting story to tell. So I’m excited to share it with you today. Patrick’s story is a bit of a rags to riches, to rags, to riches story.

And there’s lots of stuff that he learned along the way, and I’m excited to dive into some of it, but a brief summary… he built up a multi-million dollar business over the years, and he was living the multimillion dollar entrepreneur lifestyle a bit. And sadly it all came crashing down during the global financial crisis.

So he had to eventually declare bankruptcy and start from scratch again. And when he was rebuilding up his life and his business, he realized he needed to get his personal finances in order. And that’s how he ended up finding the financial independence world. And that led to him completely changing his outlook on spending.

And he ended up trimming his expenses to less than 50% of before the financial crisis. And he was able to build up his business and his investments, and he was able to reach financial independence in just eight years after declaring bankruptcy. So it’s an incredible story with lots of lessons learned, no doubt. So without further delay, Patrick, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it!

Patrick: Thank you for having me on, Mad Fientist. This is an honor to be on your podcast.

Mad Fientist: So we go way back. We met back in 2016 at FinCon San Diego. And I have to say out of my entire decade of being the Mad Fientist, I think when I met you, that was the coolest I ever felt. And it just so happened to be, my wife was there and she got to experience it too. So yeah, if we just go back to 2016 and we were just milling around in some big convention hall and you came up to me and you just said some very kind things in front of my wife, and I could just tell by her face, she’s like, what is going on here?

This guy is like, he looks like a really nice normal guy smart. And he’s saying all these really nice things about, you know, just weird financial writing on the internet. And yeah. So I have to say thank you for that. That was a highlight of being the Mad Fientist.

Patrick: That was crazy. I remember that too. I was talking about how I first met you. I actually was, I met JD Roth first, and then I was like "Do you know the Mad Fientist?" He was like, of course, you know, because I knew I had listened to your podcast when you interviewing him. And I know, is that, can you introduce me to him and was like, Hey yeah, sure.

You know, so, and then when I met you, I was, I was star struck, dude. I remember when I asked you to get to take a picture with you and your wife was looking at us, like what’s going to picture him here.

Mad Fientist: Exactly

Patrick: Yeah, and for me, I I’m the sports marketing industry. So we do a lot of big corporate events or we know the big sporting events. So I get to meet a lot of celebrities you know, Hollywood and sports celebrities. And but I don’t get as star struck as, as well as when I met the Mad Fientist, that was like, I gotta get a picture.

Mad Fientist: That’s what you said that, yeah, that, that reminded me. You said something about like, yeah, like you had met some famous basketball player or something and and yeah, you’re more excited to meet me. And like, I was just as dumbfounded as my wife, because I’ve just been writing some weird financial stuff into the internet and never expected any sort of a response like that.

And and yeah, it was, it was pretty special. So I, I appreciate all the kind words and it was good to meet you all those years ago and hear some of your story, which I’m so excited to get into today, obviously. And so yeah, thanks for taking the time.

Patrick: Being on your show is definitely a highlight of my FI experience because you’re the reason why I started this whole FII journey and to be on your show after all these years is basically a bucket list type of opportunity for me. So thank you again.

Mad Fientist: Oh, no, my pleasure. And yeah, like I meant to do it a long time ago because when we met in 2016, I was like, wow, Patrick has such an interesting story. I need to get them on the podcast, but then completely forgot all about it after that. And then it wasn’t until recently, just a few months ago, you had tagged me on a YouTube video that you had published.

And I watched it and was like, oh yeah, this is why I was to have Patrick on all those years ago. So I’m so excited. We’re getting to do it today. So for my audience who is not familiar with you, could you maybe just tell a little bit about yourself and how this whole FIRE thing came about for you?

Patrick: Definitely. So I’m originally from Africa, east Africa, the small country called Rwanda, and we’re best known for having a mountain gorillas that you can actually visit in the mountains in the wild, which is one of those experience that you have to to do if you have a chance. And so I grew up in Africa, very modest lifestyle, single mom.

And when I was 14, I had a chance to go to high school in Belgium and and I took it. And then so I went to high school in Belgium. I was playing basketball. And then a few buddies of mine, teammates, were playing in the US and so had a chance to go to college in the US.

And of course that took it because being from Africa, having a chance to live in America, it’s too big of a dream. You know, because for us going to Europe is somewhat an achievable dream because it’s not that far and a lot of people have done it. And so for a kid out of Africa, especially my country Rwanda, a lot of people go to Europe or even South Africa, which is a modern African country to really experience I guess the first world living.

And then when I got a chance to come to the US I took it and my plan was to come here do the whole collegiate experience and then go back to Europe and play at a pro level, like a lot of my friends were doing, but I hurt myself my second year. And then it wasn’t the same anymore.

So that dream was was done. And the...