He worked his way up to making six figures, he said, but his income didn’t necessarily make him wealthy.

“I was as good at spending money as I was at making it. I spent everything,” said Luebben, adding that it was only when someone explained the concept of net worth to him that he realized, “I’m worth $0. I have no assets.”

That was in 2019. He was living in Smyrna, Georgia at the time and decided to change his spending habits so he could save up to buy a home.

Using the ‘money dials’ spending philosophy to save $25,000 in one year

When Luebben got serious about saving, he started tracking his expenses to understand exactly where his money was going. That’s when he realized he was spending a lot of money on things that he didn’t particularly care for.

He learned about a budgeting philosophy called money dials, coined by personal finance expert Ramit Sethi, and decided to implement it.

Money dials are essentially spending categories like travel, health, food, and experiences that you can either turn up or down. Sethi encourages everyone to take the time to understand what money dials are the most important to them. For those categories, give yourself permission to turn the dial all the way up. As for the other money dials, turn those down.

In other words, don’t spend money on things that aren’t important to you.

“For me, I love spending money on travel and food. Those are my two major money dials,” said Luebben. “Everything else in my life, I ruthlessly cut out.”

If the purchase didn’t “fire me up,” added Luebben, he didn’t buy it. “I didn’t care about having a fancy watch or nice clothes or a cool car. I didn’t need any of that. I drove a used Camry.”

Becoming a more conscious spender helped Luebben save about $25,000 over the course of 2019, he said, which was enough to put 3% down on a multi-family property in Georgia.

The purchase improved his financial standing even more: He “house-hacked,” meaning he rented one of the units and lived in the other, and went from paying about $1,000 in rent to living for free in his own home, as the rental income he was bringing in covered his mortgage.

A year later, he bought a second multi-family property, which he also house-hacked. He continued living for free (in the new home) and started profiting from his first property, which he fully rented and became a true investment property.

Luebben sold both homes in 2023, which Insider verified by looking at his settlement statements, and plans to pivot into commercial real estate.

Saving enough money to quit his job in 2022 and live off of ‘passionate income’

Luebben continued excelling in his sales position and earning promotions.

He figured he was on track to, over time, become his boss’s boss. But when he looked at the person in that role, he didn’t like what he saw: “He was booked back-to-back in 15-minute increments. He was unhealthy, he wasn’t able to watch his daughters grow up because he was working so much, and I realized I didn’t want to be him.”

He’d already started building another revenue stream with his rental units but it wasn’t enough to replace his full-time income.

In early 2022, Luebben discovered another revenue stream: his daily podcast, “The Action Academy.”

He started it in October 2021, encouraged by someone he met at a mastermind event who told him he had a knack for talking to, and connecting with, people.

Courtesy of Brian Luebben

Luebben never intended to monetize the podcast — and for months, Action Academy didn’t bring in a single dollar. Until January 2022, that is. A mindset coach Luebben had hired offered him affiliate revenue, a cut from every successful referral through a link in the podcast’s description.

“What ended up happening was, I inked an affiliate deal with the mastermind group that I was a member of and I was organically talking about the coaches that I used,” Luebben said. “And then people were signing up left and right for these services. That turned into anywhere from $12,000 to $19,000 a month.”

At the same time, he was making six figures from his sales job and bringing in rental income. He started to see a scenario in which he could comfortably quit his 9-to-5.

Luebben considered that the podcast income could be a fluke.

But three months and $60,000 in savings later, he felt comfortable quitting and living off of his side-hustle income, which he calls his “passionate income.” It’s different from passive income, in which you’re making money in your sleep; Luebben is putting in time and effort every day to produce his podcast.

Today, at 28, Luebben still posts daily episodes but no longer runs podcast affiliates. His main income stream is his financial freedom coaching business, the Action Academy Community, which brings in six figures, according to documents viewed by Insider. He’s also the author of “From Passive to Passionate.”

His spending priorities haven’t changed: He still prefers to spend his money on food and travel. And he now has more flexibility to work wherever he wants.

“I’ve done the podcast every single day, across 33 countries,” he said. “I never miss it.”