Is it Easier to be Sexy or Wealthy? with Joney Talks

My guest is Jonathan from Joney Talks! He’s a Belgian personal finance blogger & podcaster with a unique approach to life & investing. He believes we’re all weird in our own way, so we might as well embrace it.

Jonathan pulls from a breadth of life experience—he’s lived in Norway, Luxembourg, France & Belgium—to tell stories and educate people about money matters. I found him to be insightful and open-minded.

We discuss Joney’s successful parking-spot investments. He’s also invested in cryptocurrency & individual stocks he says were heavily discounted. You’ll enjoy this episode if you ever felt apprehensive about taking financial risks.

Topics discussed:

Visually appealing investments
When assets are a reflection of you
Investing in trailer parks, storage unit & parking spaces
Winn-Dixie grocery bag full of money to the VIP
Buying a $150,000 house as an investment
Successful investing is mostly boring
Jonathan’s investments in the stock market
Loan obtained for buying parking spots
Diversifying investments in the US & Europe
Europeans investing in the S&P 500
Investing in what’s around you
Being debt-free & generating passive income
Different money mentality of Americans vs. Europeans
Downside of sharing your salary with friends
Iceberg as representation of success
Gaining higher caliber friends from podcasting
Joney Talks! recap of FinCon 2019
Taking criticism as feedback
Value of being yourself

Questions asked:

How do you think about risk as it pertains to personal finance & investing?
How does parking spot investing work?
Do you also invest in individual stocks?
Are Europeans more likely to invest in European companies?
Are your [blog] readers also interested in investing in real estate?
Is [college tuition] subsidized by the government?
Do you think that your previous work impacted your decision to invest in oil companies?
Do you remember the moment you decided that you were going to start a blog?
I’ve read where you view money as a tool that’s often misunderstood, why do you say that?
What is your end goal?
How far are you from financial independence?
Are you aggressively paying down your mortgage?
Are you trying to live on a small percentage of your income every month?
As a new blogger, do you find it hard to be specific with numbers (income, net worth, etc.)?
Did you get a chance to attend Ramit Sethi’s talk?

Fun questions:

If you had to live in Paris or Oslo, which would you choose?
Bruges is probably the most visited place in Belgium, would you agree?
Where would you suggest someone visit in Belgium besides Bruges?
What is the most you’ve ever spent on a hotel room?
If someone dropped a €1 million in your lap tomorrow, what would you do with it?
Who is your dream guest on your podcast?
Were there any blogs that you didn’t read before FinCon that you are now reading?
If you could go to the moon, but it would cost you 1/3 of your assets and you would have to be gone for 6 months and leave your job, would you go?
Do you like solitude? Do you like to be alone?