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A social worker's journey from paycheck-to-paycheck to a fully funded 6-month emergency fund, maxed-out IRA contributions, home ownership, and more (E16)
90 Plays10 months ago
If you think that only those with high incomes, and/or those who don't encounter many challenges in life, can achieve lofty financial goals in just a few years, this episode is for you.
Lindsey is a social worker living in an expensive city in New England. With a lower income and a long list of obstacles she's encountered throughout her life (e.g., growing up with divorced parents who fought about money, navigating paying for undergrad and grad school, moving to an expensive city, recovering from debilitating injury, surviving the resulting period of no income, fighting for fair compensation), Lindsey had every reason to live (and stay) paycheck to paycheck. Instead, here is what she accomplished in a four-year timeframe: fully funded 6-month emergency fund, maxed-out IRA contributions every year (+ more in a 401k!), home ownership, accelerated paydown of student loans, cash-funded car purchase, and more.
Listen to Lindsey's experiences to hear how powerful it is to use specific, measurable, motivating goals to help you achieve your dreams and resist any temptation to spend your money on what society tells you you "should" do.
If you have a story to share and are interested in being on this podcast, reach out to Jeff at wisemoneymentor@gmail.com.
For more information about Jeff and the coaching services he offers, check out his website at www.wisemoneymentor.com.
Create your podcast today! #madeonzencastr
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Transcript
Introduction to Jeff and Lindsay's Financial Journey
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Wise Money Mentor Podcast. I'm Jeff, a personal finance and budget coach, and the host of this podcast. My goal is to help you get the clarity you need to take control of your finances and feel truly confident that you are using your money to build the life you want. Through this podcast, we share stories and principles that help you do exactly that. I'm excited to dive into this episode, so let's go.
00:00:43
Speaker
Hey Lindsay, welcome to the Wise Money Mentor Podcast. How are you today? I'm good. Thank you so much for having me here to talk with you. Yeah, I'm really excited to chat about your story, primarily because when I when I came across your story, it was in the YNAB fans Facebook group. So again, another shout out to Brooke and Celia who run that group. They do a great job. It's a ton of work. But when I saw your post, I thought, oh, man, that's her accomplishments are awesome. So just so everybody can like level set on
00:01:14
Speaker
your financial background in terms of these accomplishments, I'm gonna read a bit of the post. okay um So that everybody knows what I'm talking about. So ah Lindsay posted, it's my four year anniversary using YNAB or you need a budget. And I have some successes that I'm happy to share. I went from paycheck to paycheck. So that was the starting point, everybody. She was paycheck to paycheck. And here we are four years later. And here's the list of things that Lindsay has accomplished in her life financially. One, fully funded emergency fund for six months and more. Two, maxed out Roth IRA each year plus last year I was also able to do 10,000 in a 401k account. Three, open a high yield savings account and I'm now just getting under $100 a month in interest.
00:01:58
Speaker
Four, bought a house during the worst market in my lifetime and still managed to save a healthy down payment and get a good rate because my credit score was so high and I didn't have credit card debt. Five, bought a used car with cash. Six, have a healthy home savings fund for maintenance. Seven, have a healthy vacation fund for the first travel in two years. Eight, All of my required expenses are now covered in advance.
Lindsay's Financial Background and Early Challenges
00:02:24
Speaker
9. Paying down my student loan to finish three years faster. This really works. I'm still YNAB Roke. Love this method.
00:02:33
Speaker
Yeah, I'm laughing because some of those things I'm like in shock of and also I haven't planned a vacation yet and I really need one. So to to be continued. Yeah. Well, it was fun to like read the list. I'd read the list and then I'd take a peek over to see your face and like to see the like smiles because like that's that's a pretty good list of progress in a four year window. from going paycheck to paycheck. So like how did it feel hearing somebody else read your story, read your list? I'm like, who's that? What? That's a lot. i mean i And to be to be frank, the way that the last one is written is I haven't finished paying off my student loan, but I am on track. And that is just great because we had the like pause during the pandemic, and I actually saved all the money that I would have put towards that.
00:03:26
Speaker
And I'm now using that as like, hey, look at this. I have extra money to pay off my loan if I want to earlier. But it's kind of a buffer right now. Got it. Regardless, like still making progress on it. That's awesome. But regardless, congrats on all of those accomplishments. They're incredible. So anyway, I'm excited to pick your brain about them, about your experience and your story. Before I do so, anything you want to share with those listening, just to set some background on yourself, like yourre ah who you are, just a little bio, if you will. Yeah. um I'm in the Northeast um New England area, ah one of the highest cost of living states, but I can't leave because all my family's here and I love them.
00:04:07
Speaker
um I love dancing. I love crafting. um I'm a super kind of nerdy person, but I also like being stylish and fashionable. um And we'll talk about how to achieve those things in a budget-friendly way. budget-friendly way um I love my cats. I'm married. um And I'm really focused right now on just living my life in a really full way, but also a mindfully like intentional way. um and I feel like I'm in my 30s and I'm feeling good about that. I feel like I'm where I'm supposed to be. That's awesome. ah well Could you also just like take us into your background with money? like Take us into how you were raised with money, your earliest experiences where money suddenly became real in your childhood or moving into college, whatever that may have been. Just give us a little background on that.
00:04:59
Speaker
Yeah, so um like I said, I grew up kind of in a small town and in New England. um There's a college town, so there's so you know things to do around there. My parents divorced when I was five years old. um Neither of them remarried, so it kind of felt a little bit like growing up with single parents, um but like switching between them. um and so ah We didn't spend a lot of money growing up. um I remember wearing a lot of my brother's hand-me-downs. We would thrift shop a lot. ah We spent more time on experiences than consumption, I think. um My mom comes from a pretty frugal family in New York City through where they grew up through the Depression. so Their mindset was really much in like the
00:05:48
Speaker
save, save, don't spend mentality. Whereas my dad, um he grew up in a pretty ah challenging household as well in California, but he came from like sort of the 60s, 70s mindset of just like kind of do what you want lifestyle. um And so I kind of didn't really understand like a healthy functional mindset with money. It was either like don't spend your money at all, or once you get your money, just like indulge and enjoy. um And actually at one point I was like 10 or something and I was...
00:06:26
Speaker
um at my dad's place and I recall him experiencing a bankruptcy um and like I think it was from credit card debt and from then on I just had this horrible fear of credit cards and I was like I'm never ever gonna use them ever and I didn't until like later on in college when I was like at graduating and I was like I probably should get one now. um but ah but Since then, i just it's been a really hard kind of journey and in terms of how to like understand my finance finances and what my savings should look like and how to spend my money intentionally. Do you think that around that 10-year-old mark is when you first noticed the difference in money between your parents and you like started to observe the contrast or was it sooner?
00:07:14
Speaker
It's hard to say. My mom kept the family home and I know my dad paid child support and money was a source of contention and stress in my family. ah So it's more of like, a I'm going to avoid this at all costs because I don't want to cause an argument between anyone. And um and then, you know, like I grew up and my mom did really want to try and teach me things, but it just, it was hard to be able to listen and and stick with it. because It just got into the weeds a little bit. Yeah, that makes sense. when i So I have a few people in my life who come from ah divorced households and ah like I've heard them express how challenging it was, like approaching college, like the decision, the finances, like all of that. So I'm curious, what what was that experience like for you with your parents?
00:08:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, both my parents really did want me to have a wonderful future and they love me so much and they've always been like supporting of me. um But when it came to college, I personally didn't really understand the college process. um I was like 18. I didn't.
College Decisions and Cost Management
00:08:21
Speaker
really understand money and I didn't understand loans. um So when I originally went to a school, it was a really small private liberal arts school out of state. And gosh, looking back on it, that was crazy that they even sent me there because it was probably like $40,000, $50,000 a year, which is literally insane. um And I ended up going there for a year and then I realized I had a conversation with my parents. I think it was like,
00:08:48
Speaker
probably spring break or something where we're trying to like, you know, you have to re enroll in the next year. And they were like, we can't afford this. And I was like, okay, what can we do? And I tried to apply for, you know, I had been actually working in college, I was doing work study my first year, because I knew it was hard. financially. um But the next year I was like, okay, I'll be an RA and I'll actually we won't have to pay room and board, you know, like I'll get a pretty good stipend. I was getting grants, I had some loans, but it was like subsidized. um And that was really when I started to realize like, oh, okay, money but isn't just like something that we have, we, it you know, you can't just use it if you don't have it.
00:09:26
Speaker
um And they didn't want me to have like crippling student debt, which I really appreciate. um Unfortunately, I did not get that RA position and it was really heartbreaking. I had to go home. We just could not afford it. So I went home and I enrolled in my state school. I actually got free tuition because of my grades. I got scholarships and I did live in the dorms for one year, which they helped pay for. I think it was like maybe five to 10,000 for like food and board, which is like still crazy high, but no more than like renting, I assume. um and And then I lived at home the last few years and I worked and that was how I made it through college without
00:10:08
Speaker
student debt. We didn't have to repay some of the first year loans, but my dad and mom had pledged that they were going to do that because again, I was 17 or 18 years old, and I had no idea what that meant. So they were like, well, we'll do this. well this will be like our college know gift to you, and I really appreciate that. but yeah and You mentioned that when your parents said, hey, like after one year, this we just can't afford this, something's got to change. Today, you express gratitude because they didn't want to give you a ton of debt, but I'm curious, how did you feel at the time? You're 19 years old, 18, 19 years old.
00:10:45
Speaker
What was it like at the time? Oh my God, I can't believe you didn't give me this. It was more like, why did you say okay before? um I wish that they would have told me earlier, hey, like this is great that you want this, but it's just not within our means and let's look for other options because in the end, um I'm really happy with where I am in my career and what I've accomplished, regardless of where I went and the name of the school just, yeah, sure, I could have had connections and like, you know, that, that sort of, I don't know.
00:11:23
Speaker
Yeah, no, I understand. It just didn't matter to me. What's interesting though is I think a lot of parents might approach the college stuff with, ah oh, I don't want to disappoint my child as though the child has these like built-in expectations, but the child has no idea. like what It's society. It's social, cultural norms. Yeah. yeah But it's interesting to hear like, no, I didn't feel bitter about them saying, hey, we got to pull out of the school after a year. It was more like, okay, well, if it was so unwise to be here, why did I come here to begin with? Like, why was I, why were you encouraging or whatever? And I think they got swept up in it too. Like, I think that they just really wanted me to have what, you know, they didn't. Yeah, that makes sense. and So what was the experience like
00:12:09
Speaker
financially for the rest of school where you did some in a dorm, then you moved a home and you lived there, saved some money. like What are your observations of like the ah ROI, I guess, looking back at your undergrad? um Well, so i graduated I graduated college. um I almost didn't graduate college because of challenges with school requirements, but I did get like summa cum laude, so I did really well. And um i I had worked a little bit, so I had some money, but right out of college I got a summer job. um I was making like 12 bucks an hour, but I was still living at home. So even if I couldn't have afforded to live on my own,
00:12:52
Speaker
um I had my household and you know a lot of people still have to do that today, so you know I relate to that. um I lived there for a year and then I i actually, at my boyfriend um now, husband, at the time, we decided, hey, like let's like experience life. Let's move to a city. So we moved to the bigger city in our our state and we lived there. um Looking back, we were talking about it and we were like, wow, that was crazy. Neither of us had jobs. I think our savings was maybe like $1,000 or $2,000. It was bad. But we did it. you know you you kind of just When you're in your 20s, you just do it. You don't have responsibilities at that point, I think. And so you can try things out. And so we did that. We we moved to Boston, and I realized um my undergraduate degree,
Graduate School and Financial Struggles
00:13:46
Speaker
I couldn't do anything.
00:13:48
Speaker
my your thousand oscar And I was like, oh, I wish they had told us that. So I worked in retail. I loved it. i loved Like I said, I like fashion and style and clothes. And so I worked in the secondhand retail shop, which was great because of my thrifting hobbies. And so I worked there and I started to apply for grad school. And again, I kinda got swept in the, hey, you're supposed to do it this way, um where I was like, oh, well, my undergrad, I went to a state school, it's okay, but my grad school, that's really where it matters. And so I wanna go to a program that's like prestigious and really well connected did and can get me the career that I want. And I'm so glad that I did go to the school I went to, but I went to night school
00:14:42
Speaker
And when I got accepted, I finally got the job in my my career field, which is sort of social work um therapy. And i I was working with children at the time and going to grad school at night. um And I went, I picked the program that gave me the most ah scholarships and grants because it that grad school is I want to say sometimes it's even more expensive than undergrad somehow, even if we're not even paying for room and board, which is crazy to me because I was living in an apartment, but somehow it was still more expensive. out That is pretty crazy.
00:15:19
Speaker
um you know I've been thinking, I listened to different podcasts the other day about college and its value. And I've been thinking about the ah ROI or return on investment from college based on the career path. Yes. Because you mentioned like, hey, I went through undergrad and yeah, the first year was really expensive. The rest was more manageable. And and this was all where you were aiming towards a ah profession where a unknown you didn't know this, but um It was one where coming out of undergrad, the credential didn't suffice, like you needed a ah graduate degree to make money. But I'm curious, like, as you look back on college and the value of that investment relative to the career you chose, like, how do you think about that calculus now?
00:16:05
Speaker
I am very bothered with it in terms of my field of work. um In terms of like social work or any kind of care field, the cost of education is extremely high compared to what most people make. I have made decisions in my career to find that balance of what I financially need to make but like have the life that I want and what ethically and morally I want to do for my clients. so What we pledge is that we do some work either pro bono or at a lower rate, and then we do some private
00:16:41
Speaker
um you know, for insurance based work. And that's how I kind of balance it out. But when I went to grad school, the first time i I really had focused on doing the public service loan forgiveness program, because I knew that I was going to be really, really underpaid for my work. And they do have these federal programs that, you know, hypothetically, you can work for the state, you can work for nonprofits and you can get, you know, repayment after 10 years. um Unfortunately, I'll tell you why I could not do that um in a minute, but that was my initial goal. And that's why I went to the more ah private level grad school versus a state grad school, which ultimately I, you know,
00:17:27
Speaker
looking back I probably could have done and been completely fine with going to the state grad school and I you know but that's something that I learned along the way. As I've been thinking about your story, unlike others I've spoken to where it seemed like they lived in ignorance financially and they just spent too much and went too far and at some point had a reckoning financially It doesn't feel like that's really your story. I think your story was more of besides that first year in college, which your parents stepped in and it seems like they took some ownership of like, Hey, we will cover the student loans or whatever from that first year. But it feels like from there, it's just a matter of, um, like your chosen profession and the reality of what the earnings, uh, look like in that profession versus just the cost of living. And you just trying to like keep up.
00:18:21
Speaker
like making sure your income, your earnings somehow keep up. And that's why like during ah graduate school, you did the nighttime program, you worked retail, all to like try to min like prevent the thing that I just described that others experience where they go to college or go to graduate school, they rack up a ton of debt. And then they, um, at some point have a reckoning and have to crawl back out of it. It's almost like your story was one of your paycheck to paycheck, but sincerely like trying to hold literally paycheck to paycheck, not just not the cliche version of like, Oh, money was tight. but And I was probably overspending our credit cards for you. It was, I'm trying to survive and keep, keep up with what it costs to live based on where I'm living and the profession I chose. Is that like.
00:19:11
Speaker
You just reminded me of an experience. I remember being in grad school at night and I got a call saying, like, I couldn't afford my health insurance through the school anymore because I was only able to work part time when we had an internship. In my field of work, you have to do unpaid internships. And at one point, I think I was on that like the state health program, which we have subsidized health care where I live, which is an amazing, amazing program that all states should have. um And I was on food stamps at one point because I literally could not afford to go to school, work and and just have everything that I needed. That was only for like one year, but I eventually like you don't got back to working more full time. um But it is it is crazy that like people who are just trying to make a difference in the world and just work, you know, I know people who have worked multiple jobs and it's it's just, it's kind of a reality that I think
00:20:10
Speaker
Our country needs to discuss more but that said I'm not gonna say like I wasn't Reckless with some of my money. I think when I started to have a job That was the first time I was like, oh I have discretionary income. And I do recall like being somewhat impulsive with like buying crafting supplies or things that I thought were going to make me feel happy or enjoying my time while I was working so hard. um And I do regret those purchases because had I not done that, I probably would have had some extra money on hand.
00:20:50
Speaker
that could have just like you know helped me have that buffer or go towards things in the future. But at the time, it was better for my mental health to to be able to do things that I enjoyed. Yeah, that makes sense. So is that the story of like ah just you just marched through grad school, it's just a matter of getting the time, and then you started working in
Overcoming Personal and Professional Obstacles
00:21:11
Speaker
discretionary income? Or you had mentioned like there was something that happened in grad school that or happened a little later, what was going on? So I think it was about one year before my last, like it was like the last year of grad school um in the spring. I had one more year left. Sorry. I apologize. Um, and I, I had a slip and fall ice accident and I had a traumatic brain injury. It put me out of work and school for about six months. Wow.
00:21:42
Speaker
It delayed my second internship, which is the most important one. And it delayed my graduation for a year. So I not only could not work full time for a year after that I had planned, I you know, had to pay additional costs for school. And it just, it also, you know, cognitively is, actually it's one of the hardest things I think anyone can go through. Because you just, you're wiped out, your brain doesn't work, you can't think clearly, your memory is impaired, you're emotionally drained. And so that was something that I think was a pretty ah difficult time for me. Yeah, all all of those things with your health,
00:22:29
Speaker
And as you said, you paused being able to receive income, which was important. You paused being able to make progress on your ah degree, which was important. But yeah, life continues. You still have rent. You still need groceries. You have medical bills. You have all these things that are still going, but yet the things that would lead you to generating more income for yourself had to pause yeah like that. I can't imagine that would have been, that would be really frustrating. Yeah. And the things that, you know, I think we deal with and in this field of work is um we don't get paid for our professional development or our internships, whereas some other fields of work you do, um we actually have to pay the program and we have to pay for the credit. So it's, it's actually worse. Like I'm, I'm basically giving free labor.
00:23:16
Speaker
And I loved my internship. I loved what I did. I ended up working there after I graduated for about five years. um But I had a conversation with the person who hired me, who ran the company. It was a nonprofit organization and he offered me, I think it was like $14 an hour. And I said, that is not okay. I don't accept that. I'm a master's level experienced worker. I've been working for, at this point it was probably about five, six years under my belt.
00:23:55
Speaker
in the field. And I was appalled and is slightly insulted. And he said, Well, you had been working for nothing last year. So this by your choice. This must be good for you. And I was like, No. I'm glad I stood up for myself. No one else had done that. No one else had done that. And I told my supervisor I wanted to do it and she supported me. And I i don't even know if it ended up, I think I ended up getting a couple more dollars an hour, but that was the first she ever advocated for myself. Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, you may have only gotten a couple of dollars per hour additional, but the value of of actually standing up for yourself and the precedent that that would set for yourself and the rest of your career is huge.
00:24:44
Speaker
it really set my my confidence increased in who I am as an employee and what I deserve. And actually we can we can probably talk about that too. Yeah, because a lot of people, in fact, I'm not gonna like dive into the comments, but a lot of people when they see a post on social media, whether it be Facebook or Reddit or what have you about, oh, I went from paycheck to paycheck to like having all this money and doing all these things, And then people automatically get suspicious and think, yeah, but your income probably increased by like eight X and you're now like working, making a ton of money. This wasn't a situation of, I i graduated and now I'm making six figures. This was, I i looked at my tax returns. I was making like 20, then 30, and then I think ah for a year or two, and then I made 40, and then a couple of years later I made 50.
Financial Planning and Wedding Adjustments
00:25:40
Speaker
These were like small, incremental changes. I was not, I didn't even know about retirement accounts until my 30s.
00:25:49
Speaker
I did not start my RA until 2020. So maybe we could jump ahead to like what I did after I finally got my first job. Yeah. I was going to say, because you had mentioned a few minutes ago that you um started working. The income went up gradually over time. And at some point, you started to notice a little more discretionary income. Yeah. that you could, meaning you were slightly above literally paycheck to paycheck. yeah and And that you now looking back, you have some mixed feelings about the spending that you did during that time. But that seems like a pretty like pivotal moment for you financially and how to think about money. So talk me through what led to you
00:26:31
Speaker
like noticing, hey, I have the discretionary income. I don't think I'm using it very wisely. I'm going to be more deliberate in what I'm going to do with my finances and get more informed, more educated about that area of the world. Talk me through that. Yeah. So I think it was like the year after I had finally graduated grad school, I was working full time without anything else going on. So that was the point where I was like, OK, now my paycheck actually is going towards something else other than school. um and survival. And so I had started bullet journaling and one of the things I did that I wrote in 2018 was establish a budget and financial savings plan. That was literally the number one thing on my list. I wrote cut personal items and clothing. um I wrote save $10,000.
00:27:25
Speaker
I didn't check that off for a while. um you know i I did make intentional goals that some of them I didn't fully complete you know until years later, but they were very, very much on my mind. And then um a year later I was engaged and we were starting to plan a wedding and that was something where we realized the cost of the wedding was not our, r you call it like r ROI or a turn on investment.
00:27:55
Speaker
It just didn't match. um We actually planned like two or three different weddings due to that kind of cost benefit analysis, if you will. um And as we were planning our wedding, um ah we actually had been trying to send out invitations. And that was the week the pandemic shutdown happened. I was like, hey, maybe we should wait to send these out. And then I was like, maybe we should just, you know, not can't let's just cancel it. um That was pretty devastating emotionally, because, you know, you grew up with the messages of like, let's get married, let's have a wedding. bohdadadada um But during that pandemic time, my husband actually was not working.
00:28:39
Speaker
at all. He is sort of like a gig contract worker. um I was working full-time and we had a lot of time on our hands and so I actually started to ask around for friends advice on like what people do to you know manage their money and and ideas and someone suggested YNAB and so that was sort of my first foray into intentional planning of my money. What I love about that experience or what you shared is that it started with specific goals that you wrote down even as just an accountability thing to yourself and you acknowledge you didn't accomplish all of them or that it may have taken you longer than you anticipated to accomplish them
00:29:24
Speaker
But in my coaching business, when I work with people, it is pretty consistent to that clients do not have like a codified list of goals or financial priorities. They have the general ones, get out of debt, safer retirement, travel. It needs to be more specific, really specific, small achievable goals along the way, so that you feel motivated to keep going. Yeah, it's those big ones are gonna take a while. Yeah, and I think that.
00:29:56
Speaker
um It suddenly is starting to make sense how you have the list that you have in your Facebook post of all these things, because now I can connect the dots that all of those things started as like goals you wrote down in your notebook or journal or wherever, right? I have a picture I'm holding up in front of him, everybody that shows um my home fund. And I wrote like little, I drew a house and I wrote little boxes and I filled them up every time we saved money towards a home.
00:30:27
Speaker
ah down payment. I wrote you know invest money. I wrote open a high yield savings account. They always tell you to do it. I did not open one until this year, dear listeners. um I highly recommend doing that ASAP. it It was one of those things that takes you 10 minutes and I was so overwhelmed by the concept of something new or different that it took me four years to do that. I don't know why. um but that's awesome wrote these down it kepts It keeps you accountable, but it also helps you with your vision for yourself and your life. That doesn't matter what other people have or want. It matters what you want and how you get there is going to be completely different from someone else.
00:31:12
Speaker
Yeah, you mentioned you talked about planning for the wedding and the cost came into play COVID had a big role impacting it. You just showed me that picture of saving up for a house. So talk me through how did you navigate like how did it ended up end up in terms of planning the wedding, like what did you guys decide to do, like in terms of how big to go for the wedding versus saving for the house, like talk us through that. We had a conversation on a beach in the summer during the pandemic, like you did, you just had to get out and do something. And we were evaluating, okay, well, we're not having a wedding this year, I think it was literally the week that we were supposed to get married, we we decided to just go out and
00:31:54
Speaker
spend some time together and and touch base about our life goals. And we discussed maybe not doing the wedding and using the money to start a life together and and and buy a house. And so that was a good conversation we had. I think about six months before the pandemic, I had actually decided to go on a no buy challenge. And I, again, wrote in my journal what that was. I wrote, you know I'm not allowed to buy new things. takeout, coffee, household decor, all the like extra things that we use to fill our lives that are not fulfilling. But I was allowed to like buy like necessities like groceries and toiletries, cleaning things. um
00:32:41
Speaker
I focused on replacing things buying thrifted or used items, I still do that today my house is filled with vintage antiques that are beautiful but cost anywhere from like zero to $100. So we really shifted our mindset financially. and we put everything extra that we had towards a home down payment. And because it was during the pandemic, actually one year we decided to move in with his mother who's um you know a little bit older and was on her own. And so we decided simultaneously to move in with her to help her, um but it was also gonna benefit us because we were able to save a year's worth of rent um trying to buy a house in literally the worst economic and housing market ever.
00:33:28
Speaker
um ah you know But we didn't want to postpone our life anymore because we had to stop having these milestones of like get married and have a wedding. We just said, well, you know what? We're going to just shift that. We're not going to follow this script. We're going to write our own narrative. And we eloped and it was beautiful. And we planned it in one week and we shot it and we we did it actually at the original venue that we were going to get married in that would have cost over $10,000.
00:34:00
Speaker
entirely, not just the venue, like the whole thing, the whole shebang. And I was like, well, you know what? I like love this for us. This is the most meaningful thing for us. What's ah really interesting about that is, obviously, we've talked about with college, now with weddings, there are social norms that are just expected. And you're kind of like, cultivated by society growing up to adopt those as things that you want or should want for yourself. And what I love about your experience is that you you and your now husband ah kind of detached yourself from that and stepped back and looked at
00:34:43
Speaker
What do we actually care about? like What are the things that if we're going to spend, we want to spend on? And what are the things that we don't actually really care about and thus we don't want to spend on? So for you, obviously the wedding came into play, saving for a home was important to you. but the furnishings are not as important to you. like The and antiques are more, like meaning you're okay with the furniture and the stuff that you have. like It's beautiful, and that's just not an area that you care to spend on, whereas saving for a home was. It's the value, and um materials, they change. Actually, I think the older can be better.
00:35:21
Speaker
In terms of quality, um longevity, our home itself is over 117 years old. And it is still here and it is going to be here long after we live in it. And I feel like the value of where you put your money, money is going to come and go. Money is like a wave and you just have to know where to put it so that you get the most out of your life. It reminds me of advice that my wife and I received when we were getting married, which was, identify the couple of things that matter most to you in this process and spend on those.
00:36:00
Speaker
And then for everything else, be okay with not the optimal. ah yeah Or it also reminds me of like you hear a lot about spend ah freely on things you love and then like cut spending on other things that don't bring that much ah value or in your words, fulfillment to your life, cut those. And I imagine as young working professionals, the motion of moving in with your husband's mom, um you decided we'll make this sacrifice of some independence so that we can save for our own home and you like you are willing to go through the difficult part of that year or however long it was in order to realize your goal of saving for your own home. I just think this is a great example for listeners of stepping back
00:36:52
Speaker
thinking through critically with any loved ones who are involved, what do you actually want for your life? Like what actually is important to you and brings fulfillment to you versus what society tells you you should want? And then as you do that process, document the specific goals you have for your journey. Like what do you wanna achieve in life? What do you wanna experience in life? What do you wanna see in life? and And then set up your systems financially in a way that helps you ah allocate the right energy and money to the things that you just identified as mattering most to you.
00:37:28
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, the tools that I used, if, if anybody's interested is bullet journaling, which is very, very user friendly and it it kind of caters to your direction and your goals. YNAB you need a budget helped me very, very much in targeting and keeping track of my money and spending. high yield savings account. um And then there were some other people that i I listened to that
Tools and Reflecting on Financial Stability
00:37:52
Speaker
were super helpful. I mean, there's a wide range, but fine. Feel free to share. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, there was um Tori, she she runs this program called Her First 100K, and I have achieved that goal. I'm very, very proud. I did not achieve it until this year. That includes retirement, assets, home, all that.
00:38:10
Speaker
Um, and she helped me, she's got a very feminist approach, which is very empowering for a female, um, in the workforce. And she helped me negotiate my worth in my employment. Um, when the house you love helped me with the housing process, because you just don't know where to start, including what's a mortgage and what's, you know, a loan, a commential loan, how to save a down payment when that matters or not. Um, and And the no buy exercise was one of the best ways I could evaluate the value of things um in my life and and how I want to go about spending my money.
00:38:53
Speaker
Yeah. When you mentioned like, Hey, I'm at a hundred K that suggests that you're like saving consistently for, uh, retirement, presumably. and yeah Um, behind now but that's, but you're like on a path. Right. Um, and you got to start somewhere. Same thing with the high end savings account, like got to start somewhere. Should you've done it earlier? Sure. But you didn't, but you did it now. Right. So like just build on where you are now. Like, how do you think about and living below your means today now that you guys have, like like your income is more stable, your husband is more like self-employed freelance, so his he has more variable income. But how do you think about, I guess, the cost versus savings debate living day to day?
00:39:42
Speaker
I think I had done the percentages somewhere. I can't remember exactly what it is. and i'm i'm We're probably saving upwards of 40%, I think, but that's including retirement, you know emergency fund, household, things like that. I'm only spending like maybe 20%. I'd have to do the math again, but i like when I say when I broke, I mean it. like I eat out like two, three times a month maybe. And oftentimes I'm like, hmm, I think I'm going to skip that alcoholic beverage because it's just like an extra $10 that I don't want to spend. it doesn't give me I needed to meet the value of that enjoyment of the activity. like I'd rather you know go out for coffee the next day with a friend. or you know
00:40:29
Speaker
buy that gift for someone if I really want to. So I i do stick to that budget um pretty closely. And the mindset that I have from growing up of don't spend is still there. But because I use the YNAB tool to spend my money intentionally when I need to, I feel good about it. I don't feel the anxiety of like, oh my gosh, I want to buy you know this new really cool gadget or outfit for myself. I spend the money that was for that. yeah And I feel like I'm taking from the things that really are important, like retirement, because that's already done. That's set. And and so it's just the mindset shift, I think. And I think that um like your savings rate of say it was 40% something close to it. That's fine. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. It's fine.
00:41:23
Speaker
but um
00:41:26
Speaker
Like you've seen during graduate school with your traumatic brain injury that there are curve balls in life. After you like overcame that, you started working professionally, you guys are in a groove, you're saving, et cetera. Like have any curve balls ah come in your life that then impacted your ability to work or generate income or like have those continued and what has the experience been there? I think the biggest thing is you know when you're a homeowner, it's the house. I think the the curve balls are what breaks and what you have to fix and how much that is is always much more than you think. um And so that's why I'm really focused on having a healthy ah savings emergency savings fund for those. And actually, my emergency savings is separate from my house savings and that I'm really proud of.
00:42:14
Speaker
Um, because the mindset is I'm allocating these funds for whatever I need to work on in the house or fix in the house. And then my emergency savings is really for like a literal emergency life or death or medical emergency, or you can't work. Um, I found, I found when I, I was writing my savings versus shared living. Um, and I i definitely, yeah, it's almost 75, like 60% or 70% savings towards the beginning. I got really focused on savings, but see, now I don't know where to put that money. yeah Maybe I'll have a kid who knows. When we were preparing for this conversation, you told me about the car accident you had in 2021. Yeah. and and so and the The gist of it is like it pretty bad, like a pretty severe accident. I literally could have died. I
00:43:10
Speaker
don't know how I didn't, I walked away completely unscathed. And at the time, as you recovered from that, physically and mentally or emotionally, you took some time away from work, right? I did actually I took a I i said, I think I need to leave my job. um This was the one I had been working out for about five years. And it was getting to a point it was it was not the roots of ROI, I was putting a lot more in than I was getting out of it financially and also emotionally. And I took I decided to take a month off. It was in the summer. So that's a good time to take a month off. But I had that a little bit of savings at that point where I I had, you know, could pay myself essentially, to not work. And I did some evaluation of my
00:44:00
Speaker
ah career planning and I found a job that fit perfectly with my work-life balance and I negotiated my work in terms of getting a livable decent income um and I did that about I think it was maybe a year or six months before we ended up buying a house um because I wanted to make sure I had a stable income before I committed to like literally the most expensive purchase I'll ever
Advice for Young Professionals
00:44:29
Speaker
make in my life. but Yep. I'm sure a lot of people listening, they always hear, save for an emergency, build an emergency savings. And and like your experiences, like it came to really benefit you in terms of,
00:44:45
Speaker
grappling with the aftermath of that car accident, what looking for a new job and being able to wait for the right job for you and what you're looking for from life. So I'm curious, I guess, could you articulate how it felt in that moment after the accident? Obviously the accident had its aftermath, the trauma associated with it. I don't mean to like underestimate that or undervalue that at all. But what I'd really like to hear from you is, When you decided or when you thought about, should I take time away from work? Should I leave my job? um And knowing you had the money to pay yourself, I want to know how what that felt like. And then when you're looking for a new job and maybe you came across other options that weren't great, but they came sooner. So like I could get a job, but no, this doesn't feel right. I'm going to wait out for the right one. How did that feel being able to pay yourself to give yourself time and space to find a new role?
00:45:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think actually I could have taken off more time than I did. um The mindset of taking time off work was a very, very emotional one. I loved my job. I loved the people I worked with. It it was a very emotional job. And when I went through this traumatic car accident, um I don't think I had the emotions left to give my job. I did work for actually about three to four weeks after the car accident, which is shocking, but I didn't want to leave them in a lurch. So I had that time to kind of plan ahead for when I was going to be yeah um basically unemployed. And i I did that intentionally. So again, I didn't try to do anything just like on a whim.
00:46:32
Speaker
And when I took the time off, I definitely just like kind of stepped away from work. I did take, you know, a couple like a couple weeks of sort of vacation. And then when I started to look for my next job, it was not hard. Again, I work in a pretty necessary field of work and people need it. um And so I'm very lucky in that. But I wrote a list of what qualities I wanted in a job. I wrote the income bracket I wanted to be in. I worked, I looked at the role, like the level that I felt like I was qualified for. And I stuck to that when I was applying or getting recruited for jobs. And I asked a lot of questions about their work-life balance and their
00:47:21
Speaker
you know, what the tasks were. And I i found one that fit with me, um you know, emotionally, culturally, and also one that I felt would allow me to achieve the goals that I had written in my notebook. And they definitely do. It's very, very fulfilling to feel that satisfying place of like, I'm where I'm supposed to be. And I'm feeling comfortable in that. That's not a place that I had been in for most of my adult life. And like I'm 33 and I do feel like I can breathe you know. I'm curious Lindsay so I at the top of this podcast I read your list.
00:48:06
Speaker
of one through nine, the things that you've accomplished over the last few years. I'm curious if you could like forecast or predict what's 10, 11, 12, 13, like what's next? Like what are the ah financial goals, priorities, et cetera, that you're focused on right now? This is hard for me. um I'm getting a little emotional. I think a lot of women and they probably men and you know female and trans folk identifying people would relate to this. um Parenting and being a parent is a financial consideration that I have. I i know people say you'll make it work no matter what, um but I've never felt like I could do it until I had
00:48:55
Speaker
myself financially stable. I never wanted my kid to be in a position of anxiety around that. And so that is something that I have to kind of explore for myself is you know parenting and and being a mother and taking care of that person um and how to do that in a way that feels responsible. And I think finances can play a role in that. um So that's something I'm thinking about. And
00:49:27
Speaker
I, you know, hey, at some point, it'd be really nice to add a half bath to my one bathroom. That would be kind of a really fun, fun, I don't know. um You know, that would be great. We're saving, we, and like I said, we, when we're saving for our house fund, I have subcategories. I have like the basement mortar repair. I have the driveway, I have the roof, I have our appliances, and literally I am like funding those categories individually. I don't know if that's the best way to do it, but it's how I can kind of organize this giant, you know, amount of money because when you spread it out, it actually doesn't look like that much. Yeah. no There's just a lot with a home. and If you were to
00:50:17
Speaker
Like if there's somebody listening who's in a similar boat that you were as you navigated school, ah college, undergrad and graduate, where truly paycheck to paycheck, you found your chosen profession, you're super passionate about it, but maybe it's not the most lucrative financially. and Like what advice do you have for somebody who's in that position to be successful based on like where they're headed in life? I think the biggest thing for me was meeting either with like career counselors or doing some kind of career planning questionnaires for yourself. um You need to have a vision and a goal before you start taking steps towards it. I just, I always wanted to be in this profession. I always wanted to do what I was doing since I was like, I don't know, in fourth grade. It definitely formed more clearly as I got older how I was going to achieve that.
00:51:16
Speaker
um But I think for folks who just go to school, just to go to school, I don't really recommend it. I do not. There's a lot of different ways you can get to a career that supports you financially. There are so many trades that we need in our society that are necessary and honestly can pay a lot more than an English degree. And i think the I think we need to do a lot of reflection on how we achieve the goals in our career and how we get there. um I think we need to reevaluate that. Yeah, I think what I would add to that is you will never regret giving yourself the freedom of time and space financially, like living below your means, if you can get there, just frees up so many things. um So for someone who's approaching college, like getting to a point where you
00:52:17
Speaker
can earn scholarships or grants or what have you. There's so many out there. There's so many out there and it gives you time and space because like not everybody knows in fourth grade what they're going to be, right? and so but But they need some like playground to experiment with on yeah in finding their path. And then when you're in your like post-education career, The same thing applies. Life's going to throw you curveballs. You will never regret having the excess to allow yourself time and space to navigate life's curveballs, whatever they look like. I think that's one piece of advice from your story that I would share with others. Another one that comes to mind for me, again, is the specific goals and priorities.
00:53:04
Speaker
You just talked about it, but having those ah North Star specific dreams so that then you can calculate how to get there and you can bake into your life how to get get make those come to fruition I think is really important. and I think in terms of the goals, break them down, give yourself short-term goals yeah to get done within a month get medium term goals, two, three months, and then get those long term, a couple of years out vision for yourself. Totally agree. And the last thing I would highlight is try to get your point yourself to appointmentally where you are evaluating what you truly want versus what society tells you you you should want. And then
00:53:48
Speaker
show the discipline and the sacrifice required to buck the trend, if you will, of and aligning with social expectations. And as said, be ruthless in trying to make your dreams, based on what you want, come to fruition. So I'm i'm grateful, Lindsay, for your willingness to share your story, your experiences. I'm confident that it will help somebody who's listening to this podcast. So thank you for joining me today. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate that you're sharing these messages to help others. I love that. Thank you so much. We'll chat soon. Bye.
00:54:44
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this episode. If you enjoyed it, be sure to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss future episodes and please leave a rating and review. If you have a story to tell about your own financial journey and you're interested in doing so on this podcast, please email me at wisemoneymentor at gmail dot.com. For more information about me and the coaching services I offer, check out my website, www.wisemoneymentor.com. Thank you.