How to Talk Money With Your Partner

Episode Summary

Talking about finances with your partner might be scary at first, but it is SO WORTH IT to push through the initial discomfort in order to create a shared money language as a couple. Today our head of marketing, Julia, is chatting with her boyfriend Jeremy about how they created a joint financial plan for their lives, including what they've accomplished so far and what they're looking to do next.

Episode Notes

Talking about finances with your partner might be scary at first, but it is SO WORTH IT to push through the initial discomfort in order to create a shared money language as a couple. Today our head of marketing, Julia, is chatting with her boyfriend Jeremy about how they created a joint financial plan for their lives, including what they've accomplished so far and what they're looking to do next. 

Listen to the Tim Ferriss Show podcast episode Julia and Jeremy recommended: "How to Get Unstuck, Do 'The Work,' Take Radical Responsibility, and Reduce Drama in Your Life."

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Transcript

  • I don't know how long ago but like when we first started this, you could not talk to me about money for like five minutes without me getting like really upset, or defensive, or you know, whatever. Like, we just literally could not have a conversation about money. Yeah, it was terrible. But the more we did it, and like the more we communicated, and the more we kind of learned how to like strategically approach conversations, the easier it got. And now we love talking about money. And if you're going to save and invest and like, achieve your financial goals, like you have to be able to talk about money with your partner and do so in a constructive way.

    This is Allegra Moet Brantley, and you're listening to the coffee and coin podcast where women talk wealth. I'm the founder and CEO of Factora, a company on a mission to lead 1 million women to 1 million in net worth. Because when women have more money, we'll have more power to be the change we want to see in the world. If you're ready to hear real women share their real numbers and investment journeys and have a sneaky feeling you should be doing a little more with your money, you are in the right place. Just sit back, relax and turn me up.

    All opinions expressed by Team Factora and podcast guests are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Factora Incorporated. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be used as the basis for investment decisions. Team Factora. And podcast guests may maintain positions in the securities or investments discussed in this podcast. Hello, my name is Julia. And I'm the Head of Marketing at Factora. And in case you didn't know, this past Monday was Valentine's Day. And whether you celebrate it or not, one of the questions that we get all the time at Factora is how do you structure finances with a partner. So I'm here with a very special guest, my boyfriend of almost five years, Jeremy.

    Hello, good afternoon,

    the last podcast episode that we recorded. Everyone made fun of me because I was like I think boyfriend's a stupid word. And I just like what if I just called you like big guy instead? But then he was like, Well, do I get to call you big girl. And I was like, I think that's actually a one way street. And big guy actually never ended up sticking so boyfriend it is. But if you have any suggestions, let me know. So because it was Valentine's Day, and because we get this question all the time, we're going to do an episode all about how to do partner finance with a significant other or, honestly, with any partner, even if you don't have a partner, I think this episode will be good to get some creative ideas about how to structure finances with any kind of partner, even if it's just an investi, which I Factora means a friend that you invest with. So I really want people to be able to listen to this episode and take away some tactical learnings for how to structure their finances with a partner. And so what we're going to do is give you a breakdown of all the numbers because this is a coffee and coin podcast after all. So we're going to be talking salary, fixed expenses, lifestyle expenses, and then we're going to break down by major category, how we approach it. So like travel, individual savings and investments, joint savings and investments, etc. So I thought that we could give them a little background as to like where we were as a couple when we first met, like financially

    so blissfully ignorant. Yeah, absolutely. Do you want to start? Now you go. Okay. So let's see. Boy, that was like 2017. So I was I think I was like 20 or $30,000 in debt. I had some credit card debt, some student debt. Oh, my God. That's not even including student debt. Yeah, so I was probably like 60 or $70,000 in debt. I was a full time actor, which I made a ton of money at. He's being sarcastic 100% full time actor and Austin, Texas making not that much. I honestly couldn't tell you like a yearly salary. It was so infrequent. But I was also like driving for food deliveries. So like, I was definitely making less than 50,000 a year.

    Yeah. Yeah. And when we met, I was living in San Francisco. And I was earning maybe 65, maybe $70,000 A year and I was spending at least 30% of my income on rent, which is crazy to think about now. And I do have to give a shout out to Jeremy because we met and he was still living in Austin. And long story short, he moved to San Francisco so that we could be together full time. And he made it happen. He didn't have a job lined up but he drove Uber Eats and he drove Uber while we were living in San and just go together just to like pay the bills. He contributed his rent, like, it was a less than ideal career situation. But it was amazing that you just did that really without a plan, and you just made it happen.

    Yeah, I mean, you know, you do crazy things for love. And looking back on it, that was certainly pretty insane. I mean, driving Uber in San Francisco, definitely lucrative, but to a certain extent. I mean, I had to keep my sanity. So I was probably making over $50,000 doing that. But just barely. But it was all worth it.

    Yeah. But so. So we moved to Austin. And now we're obviously in a much different place together, but also separately, financially. So I guess, give them a little rundown of where you're at now.

    Yeah, so where I'm at now. Now, I'm 32. So, about five years older, about to turn 33. I am a real estate agent. And last year, I made $150,000. In commissions, before taxes, you know, they kind of get us on the taxes, but certainly the most money I have ever made in my entire life. And leading up to that I really, like was very intentional about paying down my credit card debt. Not my student loan debt, because, you know, hopefully they'll get forgiven one day. But, you know, so now I have no credit card debt. I don't I just have like a car payment. And yeah, I made 150k.

    Last year. So and that was in your first year of real estate being a real estate agent.

    First year real estate. Yeah. And, you know, obviously, it was a once in a lifetime year for real estate. There was just everybody wanted to buy a house. So that was definitely helpful. But I mean, I definitely hustled and worked a ton to get there. So yeah.

    And I think just some additional context he was doing before that he was doing sales for a software company that is that pretty much exclusively sold to restaurants. And so when the pandemic hit, that company pretty much just immediately stopped and laid off a ton of people.

    Yeah, yeah. So I was doing software sales for restaurant management software. And, and even that I was making like, 70k a year, I was like, Man, this is awesome. I got benefits, and I'm like making more money than I ever had. And then, you know, a friend of mine, a real estate agent was like, Hey, you should you know, you're interested in real estate investing, like, you should get your license just to do your own deals, and like, maybe help some friends. I was like, Yeah, that's a good idea. Let's do that. And then I started that process. And then I got laid off in March. And then I was like, Well, I guess I'm doing real estate full time. Because, you know, didn't have anything else going on. I was like, on unemployment. It was weird. sad times.

    Yeah. Yeah. But turn into something really amazing. I also I love that you're a real estate agent, because you're not a desk guy. Like, Jeremy needs to be moving. He needs to be grooving. He needs to be out and about. And he's doing stuff like he's, he's, uh, you're very active, you're definitely gonna be out, like doing making stuff happen. So yes, I think it's an amazing. It's an amazing career path for him. So when I moved to Austin, I was making 80. And then I switched jobs. And then I made 120. And then I started working at Factora. And now I make 75. So we decided to combine our finances. I think, when like two years ago, one year ago. Yeah, like I think it was a year ago, a year ago, because we were living together, we were sharing all these expenses, we actually really decided to buy a house together. And I think that was probably the catalyst for deciding like, Okay, we should probably just combine all of our finances. And I think we got to a point where a lot of couples get to where they're like, This is dumb, like, I don't want to be Venmo on you for groceries. We go out to dinner, I'm not going to Venmo you whatever. So combining our finances has been a process and a journey and it has not been a one and done thing for us. If we've come back to this so many times we keep trying new things and refining it. And I think we're finally kind of getting to a place that's like close to being somewhat systematized.

    Yeah, no, I mean, I'm really glad that you that you brought that up because that's actually something I'm going to touch on later is like it is not a it's continuous work. And like in a good way like you want to be continuously refining your your process and like making sure that you're on the same page. But yeah, it's certainly not like a one and done thing. Yeah, it's definitely something you have to work towards and like communicate on make sure everybody's on the same page. Yeah,

    it really is. It's like a puzzle because the pieces of your puzzle are constantly changing. So my puzzle pieces are my salary, I own a home separately from Jeremy. You know, I have my own savings and stuff, Jeremy has his variable income, his own payments and his own savings and all that stuff. So trying to figure out how to like, put the puzzle pieces together to optimize and make us stronger. So So you know, now, you know, our salaries. You know, Jeremy made 150. Last year, I think he's on track to make a lot more this year. But that's what he made last year before taxes, and then I make 75. We also run an Airbnb out of our primary residence that cash flows is about $500 a month. Yeah,

    it cash flows us 500. So that means like, we're making like 2800 a month on it paying our 2250 mortgage. Yes. And then we have the rest on top of that.

    Yes, yes. So so we were like, Hey, how can we be super strong and smart and strategic about your variable income and my lower lower than I would prefer income. And so we decided that, okay, we can live, if we keep all of our lifestyle expenses at 75k, then we can just save and invest all of your commission. And I still think that's the, that's the goal, for sure. But it doesn't always work out that way. I would say for the past few months, really, since I would say the holidays, mostly, I've been a little careless. And I've had to dip into other funds to cover our credit cards, which sucks. It's the worst feeling in the world. But the important thing is to just come back, like refocus and bring your awareness back to spending. Because it actually feels a lot better when you're when you're mindful about what you're buying. And it feels, you know, at Factora, we're all about values based spending. And it feels really good to bring that awareness back and think really critically about is this purchase really in line with my values. And Jamie and I have a lot of big goals. And when I think about those goals, it really excites me more than the $100 eyebrow lamination that I really want to get that I'm not getting. So the way that I'm bringing my awareness back to spending is super old school. And it's high touch, but it's worth it to me. So I've tried, we've tried budget apps like copilot and you need a budget. But at the end of the day, I'm an old school gal, okay, I'm an old school big gap gal. And I, I like pen and paper. So every couple of days I go through and actually like write down and make a list of all the things that we've spent on our joint credit card. And I keep a running tally, it helps keep me so aware of what we're spending. And that was the piece that was really missing for me was the awareness. Because when I do the apps like co pilot or whatever, the whole thing, like we struggled so much with you need a budget, like we watched YouTube videos,

    we had we had like help requests, we attended

    webinars like we really tried to make it work for us. But it's a complicated system. And you know what isn't complicated. And

    so, something I do want to say that you're that you keep touching on, which I love is like bringing awareness back to your spending. And I think it's really important to remember, like, it's so important to feel in control of your spending, because I feel like it's really easy to not want to look at your credit card statement. And then you just keep doing that month after month. And it feels like you're kind of a little out of control. And you're like where am I spending all this money? Oh, who cares? I got another paycheck. But it's just even if you're over, it's still overspending as long as you're, like, aware of what you're overspending on, and you're consciously making the effort to not do it. You know, it's it helps.

    Yeah. And it's been I've, I've had to do a lot of work around our money conversations, because Jeremy is the natural, non spender, and I tend to spend more, and Jeremy actually listen to this really great podcast, I don't remember, if we can find it, we should link it in the show notes. But it was basically one of the things that was mentioned was that in every single partnership, there is the gas when it comes to money and there is the brakes. And that's instead of fighting against that, why don't we embrace that beautiful duality. It's like we're so lucky that we get to balance each other out that way, even though it doesn't feel totally it doesn't feel like a beautiful thing in the moment. Because we would go we would have our monthly like, money meetings, and I would feel attacked because all of the spending was about was my

    Why are you spending all of our money? Yeah, yeah.

    But but it so it took a lot of just maturity for me to take full responsibility and be like, You know what, you're right. Like I do spend the majority of our money on things that we don't really, truly need. And it's

    okay. I mean, yeah, everybody needs a gas, and everybody needs a breaks. And actually, I think it was the Diana Chapman podcast, maybe with Tim Ferriss. Yes, I'll try to find it. We can link it in the show notes. We'll

    link it in the show notes. Okay, so to quickly go back to that ideal scenario, right, so we're living on my, I guess $75,000 salary, which I think we actually are going to hit this month, I think, oh, exciting to be able to do it. Wow. And then all of Jeremy's commission checks we save and invest. Do you want to talk about what we do with those checks?

    Yes. So Well, I mean, kind of like what Julia said, sometimes we have to dip into those to cover some like overspending, which is totally fine. But we, I basically take a split of our joint investments. So anything that we both are investing in I, I do 50% of each check towards like our next real estate investment. And then I'll do 10% to our travel fund. And then I will give us each 20% of that commission check to use for our own personal spending, you know, like emergency funds, brokerage accounts, other like personal investments, so 50, and then 220s, and a 10. Makes 100.

    You said that, like you were trying to make change? Yeah, I'll take 15 to 20. Okay. So I think that this is a really cool thing, I actually really love it, because we are essentially outlining our priorities in this percentage. So like the majority of his commission is going to 60% Or is going to joint ventures as in joint investment or travel. And usually we do travel together. And then we each get one 20% to do with what we please. So we're making a really big investment in our future. But we're also still saving some money for our own personal savings and investment goals. So I kind of wanted also just to complete the full background picture of what what we how we structure our finances. So we just kind of basically covered our income and what we do with it. But now I kind of wanted to go through our fixed expenses, which are the expenses that we have to pay no matter what. Cool. So you want me to just go go down the line? Yeah, go down the line. I mean, it doesn't, you don't have to get super granular with

    it. Yeah. Okay. So our fixed expenses, our joint fixed expenses, we have a mortgage for 20 to 35 per month, and that gets covered by our Airbnb earnings, then we've got a car payment, or just one car, hopefully too soon, but just one for now. And that's 420 a month with insurance. And we've got our tiny home in the backyard. With insurance, that's about 560 a month. And then our new windows that we got on our house, we put that on a zero interest credit card. So that'll be done in like 15 months, but that is about 250 a month. And then our utilities come out to like 300 a month, that's like water, gas, electricity, internet, Julius phone is 85. And then our health insurance combined is about 400 a month, and then I spend 600 a month on therapy. And that's pretty much it for fixed expenses. And

    just to be clear, not all of those expenses get taken out of that $75,000 salary joint account.

    Right. So the two things that don't get taken out of that is the tiny home, which is for 560. And then my therapy, which is for 600. And that actually comes from a monthly passive income check that I inherited. When when my dad passed that my parents owned a property in California, it gets like X amount of dollars per month. And I get like a small sliver of that. So the tiny home and my therapy gets covered.

    Yeah. And then your car payment gets taken out of your

    Yeah, the car payment. I just I just paid for. I mean, yeah, it just comes from my commission checks. Yeah.

    And so. So those are kind of like our fixed expenses. Our what we aim to keep our spending under is i My Psalm $75,000 comes out to about $4,900 after taxes. So let's call it we have about $1,000 of fixed expenses that come out of that joint salary. So we have $3,900 in terms of spending money per

    month, right. And that includes like spending on groceries and like right household necessities.

    Yeah, yeah, exactly. And the way that we spend that money is we have a joint credit card where we put all of our expenses, basically whether they're shared or not, there are some expenses that Jeremy will like if it's if he has an expensive real estate client gift or something he'll cover that from his commission. But we basically put everything on that joint card and we keep it really simple. We just use a Chase Sapphire Preferred I know some people get really fancy with like the credit cards, but we keep it pretty simple and we've been able to pay for quite a few flights and hotels, which is just the sapphire preferred so I we also each have our own separate card cards, I mean, we each have multiple credit cards, because it's good for your credit, if you're responsible about it, but I have a separate credit card that I use for my health. So I like to see a functional nutrition doctor, then my insurance doesn't cover it. So I always pay out of pocket for that, and like supplements and stuff. And just to keep track of that stuff, I pay for it with my own credit card. So is there anything else that you wanted to say about spending?

    Yes, and I definitely touched on this a little bit at the beginning. But I think it's super, super important that you and your partner are on the same page when it comes to like, what is a joint expense? And what is a personal expense? I think it can be really easy to just assume that it's obvious that like anybody would know, like, Yeah, I'm paying for this cup of coffee. And that counts for are like going out money. But some people might have like different opinions. So it's always good to iron that out ahead of time. And like, there were several things for us like that, where it was like, oh, yeah, maybe you're right. Maybe this is a personal expense. And like, I need to stop using the joint credit card on it. So it's always just good to keep communicating.

    Yeah. And just keep coming back to it and keep working on it, even though it can feel really uncomfortable sometimes.

    Yeah, for sure. But we're getting

    we keep working at it. And we I think we're getting to a place where talking about money it is if we just keep it focused on our goals. It's so fun.

    Yeah, yeah. When you're both after the same thing, it just takes the stress and like the tension out of it just kind of the general weirdness because it is, it is tough to like, approach your partner and say like, Hey, I think you're spending too much money on this thing. And like, it's really easy for people to get defensive

    people as in me, well, no, it's true.

    I mean, I definitely get defensive, too. And you know, get a little like trepidatious about trepidation. That conversation, like what kind of conversation we're having, like, I certainly don't want it to turn it into like, a me versus you thing, because it really can, can go that way very easily. So it's just really important to keep the Wii in mind, because you're a team when you when you join finances. You are a team.

    Yeah. I yeah, I think so. Spending is something that I think people talk about in terms of partnerships. But I also wanted to talk about how we handle like our joint stuff. So like, how do we handle saving and spending on travel?

    You mean, like what?

    Okay, I wanted to talk about how we save and spend on travel, because I think a lot of people have questions about that in a partnership. But what we do is we just like we've talked about, we save 10% of his commission, check into a joint fund. And then regardless of whether we're traveling alone, or separately, we dip and we use that font to pay for travel. So I just went to Mexico on a bachelorette trip, and I use that fund to pay for it. Even though, you know, it's technically our joint travel fund this summer, Jeremy went to a fish show. And he just raised his eyebrows, like three times in a row, because I went to many fish and went to many fish shows and he took out of that account, and I obviously did not go. So that's how we handle travel. It's like it's a joint pot, regardless of who's actually going. Right. And then for what about joint investments? How do we decide?

    Yeah, so I mean, that is that really depends. It depends on how much money we have in our joint investment account at that time, and like what's possible with that money? You know, I think like we both have a goal that we constantly talk about. And at least this is still the case for me. But I want to get to a place where we can make $10,000 a month passively on our investments. So with that goal in mind that really informs like what is actually on the table in terms of what we can invest in. So for instance, you know, we didn't go out and buy a house in in an area that could cashflow Well, instead, we bought a tiny home with a very low payment that can cashflow a lot more than just like a single family rental. So like at that particular point in time because real estate has been so crazy. We thought it was a good idea to just buy a tiny home and use land that we already owned to to make that passive income.

    And I would say we're pretty much on the same page about anything that we have been so far about anything that we want to invest in. It's like if you have an idea, or I have an idea, usually we're like yeah, that sounds great. Yes, save for it. But I think if we are ever not in a place where we're on the same page, that's what our individual savings and investments are for. So if I wanting to invest in a laundromat or something? And Jamie's like, Nah, I'm out, then I would just use my own personal investment fund that gets funded with his commission check to do that on my own.

    Man, when you put it like that, funded with my commission check, just make it a joke and cool cut. They're very sick.

    Jeremy makes a lot of excellent jokes that everyone always understands. So good.

    Yeah, but no, that's a great point. I mean, I feel like we're usually really aligned. Like, if you want to invest in a laundromat, I am super in. Yeah. Yeah.

    Okay, so I hope that that was helpful. Partner finance is so personal. And just like we say, finances personal. And it really is just laying out all your pieces on the table. And also, I think it is a combination of laying out your financial pieces, but also, you know, your personal pieces, like Jeremy and I have very different histories with money in terms of growing up. Like we had to sort of work through that together. We worked through, obviously, you know, our strengths and weaknesses, when it comes to money. Clearly, I am the gas. But I also bring a lot of strategy to the table, and a lot of ideas, I have a lot of ideas. And I think Jeremy brings a lot of breaks to the table. And also, you know, a lot of thinking through execution. And he's also a real estate agent, which makes this, which is so valuable to have in a partnership. So bringing all your pieces to the table and figuring out how they can work together I think, is a really fun, but difficult challenge. And if you're starting out, trying to combine finances with somebody, I would say just get the conversation started. That's like the first step. And then make a list of all your assets, all your debts, and then make a list of all your goals, and then see how you can make those things fit together and work.

    And I'll add like work through those growing pains that you will inevitably come across. Like, I don't know how long ago, but like when we first started this, you could not talk to me about money for like five minutes without me getting like really upset, or defensive, or you know, whatever. Like we just literally could not have a conversation about money. Yeah, it was terrible. But the more we did it, and like the more we communicated, and the more we kind of learned how to like strategically approach conversations, the easier it got. And now we love talking about money. And if you're going to save and invest and like achieve your financial goals, like you have to be able to talk about money with your partner and do so in a constructive way.

    Totally. Okay, so to close things out, I just have four quick questions for you. Oh, boy. Okay. So what do you appreciate about the way we've spent money so far?

    Um, I would say, our abundance mindset, or at least like our desire to work towards that mindset, I think, like spending money, and this is where the gas comes in. Thank you very much. Spending money from a place of scarcity? Or just like, yeah, like, you just don't have enough and like, you just want to watch every single penny. It just creates a lot of tension and a lot of stress, and just all of those bad feelings that can surround money. And then that starts to like, bleed into your personal relationships, and it's just not healthy at all. So like, just, yeah, our abundance mindset.

    Yeah, I would say we're good at that. I think we both agree that money is absolutely limitless. Totally. And we can have as much of it as we want. Totally. I think that's a really great mindset to have. Okay, what's one thing you would change about the way that we handle our money?

    Less impulsive spending? Yes. And that goes both ways. Yeah, I definitely spend impulsively. But,

    yeah, what was your last impulsive purchase?

    Probably today, getting three tattoos instead of one.

    How much were those tattoos?

    400 bucks,

    but they're sick. They're so cool.

    They're the I've been thinking about them for a really long time. And I like floated all three ideas to her. And when I got there, I was expecting to just do like one, maybe two. And she was like, I have time for all three. And I was like, man, okay,

    let's do it. Yeah, it they're so great though. And I love it. So okay, what are your dreams or goals in life?

    Well, we've touched on one of them before I want to make $10,000 a month passively. So like six figures a year without like, I say without lifting a finger. I mean, you know, you got to make send some text and make some phone calls. But that's definitely a big one. And then I want to I want to work less than 25 hours per week.

    I love it so I

    can take more trips and spend more quality time with people I love.

    I love it. I just have one closing thought that I think is relevant to love relevant to Valentine's Day and relevant to partner finance. It is actually it's kind of like a nondenominational sort of prayer. But I love it so much. Here we go. May God give you grace never to sell yourself short grace to risk something big for something good. And grace to remember that the world is too dangerous for anything but truth and too small for anything but love.

    Amazing for your family.

    And we actually have a podcast email, it is podcast at factorial wealth.com If you guys have any suggestions or ideas, or compliments you want to send our way go ahead and shoot us a note because we'd love to hear from you. We will see you in the next episode. Happy spending.

    If you enjoyed this episode, come join us in a well circle. It's our live online 12 week course and community where we teach you how to create a personalized financial plan alongside hundreds of other women building wealth. It will change your life and your money for good. You can apply at factorial wealth.com forward slash wealth circle. That's factorial wealth.com forward slash wealth circle. See you in the next episode.

    Hey coffee and coin listeners. This is Whitney the head of product at factorial wealth. It's currently the month of June which is factoria Hq remote month. That means we have scheduled no in person meetings for four weeks in order to get outside of our city limits and become reinvigorated and re inspired by new scenery before our next well circle begins on September 8, I am recording this podcast from beautiful Lake Tahoe, California, where I right now have a clear view of the mountains and the water and the boats. And it's truly breathtaking. Needless to say, I am feeling reenergized even though I'm still working a full time plus more schedule. But I think there's just really something about, you know, forcing yourself out of your normal routine. So a couple of reminders for you this month, I will be hosting and investing a one on one put your money to work webinar on Tuesday, June 22 at 2pm Central Time 12pm pacific time, it's completely free. So make sure you register and invite your friends you can do so in our show notes or from the Instagram bio link in factory's Instagram. Also, don't forget to enter in our best self summer giveaway. three winners will receive our six figure savings course on in the city simplify and thrive course, a three month membership to flourish nutrition and a $100 athletic gift card. So winners are announced every Friday through the end of June.

    This is a leg up in a wet Brantley, and you're listening to the coffee and coin podcast where women talk well, I'm the founder of factoria, a company on a mission to lead 1 million women to 1 million in net worth. On this podcast, I sit down with factorial alum to share their financial stories, real numbers and how they've transformed their financial lives to prove that it's possible for anyone listening.

    The last inside scoop podcast that team factorial recorded we all shared our personal values, which you know, obviously feed into all aspects of our lives, including, you know, professionally and financially. So to recap, my values, our movement, which encompasses exercise and travel, balance, living a steady low fuss, life, insight, finding the deeper meaning of things, commitment, just knowing that I can count on you and you can count on me, and productivity, living my 24 hours a day to the fullest. And I think the concept of remote man, and getting away, you know, in one way or another really hits on every single one of my values, which is a big indicator for me that I am working for the right kind of company with the right kind of people. Now I want to get into some tips that I've learned for how to plan a successful remote month while still working full time. But first, I wanted to brief you on my background, if you don't know it already, so that you just understand why having this kind of flexibility is so important to me. I entered corporate America as soon as I graduated college, like many of us do. And my vision for the next 10 years was to continue to get promoted, get pay raises, you know, manage a team, max out my 401k and then hopefully retire on the earlier side of things. At age 16. I was always going to be working for someone else I was going to have to be available when they said I needed to be and just you know always having someone else in charge of my paycheck. But I was okay with this structure for a long time because I believed it was the safest route to making a living and being able to enjoy my life and my retirement. And I also prided myself on the work I was doing because I definitely thought it was innovative and ultimately a great learning experience. But we get tired. We're humans. And after about a decade, I became exhausted. And I felt my physical and mental health really starting to decline because my schedule was just completely owned by someone else. And by age 30 All I wanted to do was retire I couldn't think about anything else and I had 30 plus more years to go so that was not a good mindframe to be in at all. So I was just naturally feeling a little bit stuck, which is actually the time I came across the factorial wall circle and it really couldn't have come out.

    a better time for me, because the well circle pushed me to expand my money mindset and come up with a new goal, which is to hit financial freedom by age 45. And just setting this new goal got me pumped about my career again, because although it's a bigger goal, it seemed more in reach than waiting till age 60 to retire. But I knew that I needed to make a significant investment to, you know, help me reach my goal. Now, I am not much of a risk taker at all. So entrepreneurship had never been on the table for me, I never considered it until you know, that moment when I realized I wasn't going to hit my goal, playing it safe. And that's when there was, you know, a big shift in me, the old me had always valued money and security above all else. But the new me now values freedom, above all else, this is really a monumental turning point in my life. Because now here I am, going all in, in the business asset class, as a founding member of this, you know, wonderful startup factorio, which I love so much. And I wholeheartedly believe in its vision and purpose. And just even aside from being driven by the company's overarching mission, I'm excited about my business investment. Being a business owner, just being able to gain back more control in my life, and building systems that I'm planning will allow me to work less as the business becomes more and more mature. So this is a very different way of thinking from my old self, when I was in the corporate world where I would, you know, the more experience I would gain, the more money I would gain, but also the more responsibilities I would gain. And ultimately, the more time I would have to commit, aka my freedom would shrink as my experience grows, which when I stopped to think about that, it really felt backwards. For me, I want you know, my freedom to increase as my experience grows, don't get me wrong, there is a lot I miss about my w two job. For one, I knew I was always gonna get paid. That's not always a given when you're a business owner, you know, no business, no money, and to at least have the option to shut my computer at night or on the weekends and let my brain take a break or even take a week long vacation. factoria is not quite in the place where I can do that yet. But the systems we are designing are meant to get us there. You know, just to say entrepreneurship is not for everyone, there is a lot of risk involved. And there is a lot of upfront time. So going the corporate route is going to be the better option for most people. But just keep in mind that whatever your work environment, your intelligence and your experience is extremely valuable. No one can take that away from you and is what is going to give you the power to be selective about working for companies that align with your personal values, which I think is truly important. I also realize that's a lot easier said than done, especially when you have corporations luring you in with their big paychecks. I think it was harder for me mentally than financially to give up my $140,000 paycheck and benefits for zero income for six months, I had to continuously remind myself and I still do sometimes that I'm investing in an asset in order to hit financial freedom by age 45. And I'm 35 now. So I have 10 years ago, to reach this goal. What I'm shooting for is $15,000 a month in passive income coming from my paper asset accounts, I real estate investments and my business asset. So I know that it is a big target. But if I don't put it out into the universe, how will I achieve it? So even though I do have a ways to go until I'm fully free, what this remote month has reminded me of is that it's not an all or nothing thing on our way to financial freedom, we get to experience financial flexibility. I mean, that looks very different for people that could look like working from wherever you want to around the globe or transitioning your role to part time doing a job share taking a sabbatical, you name it, but I think having your eye on reaching financial flexibility before financial freedom will help break up you know, your five to six decades of working hard and earning an active income. And it's truly possible in any kind of work environment. You just have to be creative. All right, let's circle back to Lake Tahoe and talk about some of the lessons that you know I've learned in in planning a successful remote month, disclaim

    This is not a vacation. So you can't wing remote months. Like there's a lot of thought and and coordination involved, which is why I compiled my learning so far into seven tips that I want to share with you all. Tip number one, which may seem a little obvious, but it's a good reminder, pick a month that works for your work team, your partner and your family. So factorial HQ collectively picked a month that was outside of well circle season, which is our craziest times of year and agreed upon having virtual only meanings, whereas normally we do in person collaboration two days a week. So this month was, you know, good for my work family. With a lot of heads up, my husband was able to plan his schedule around being remote with me this entire month, which is awesome. And obviously, if you want to include your kids or your parents, you'll just have to make sure that that time works for all of their schedules as well. So yes, a lot of coordination involved. Tip number two, choose your location strategically. My husband and I are active people. So we knew that if the only activity location had to offer was sitting on the beach all day, we wouldn't be too inspired. So we wanted a place that had a lot to offer. Other things we thought through or you know how many grocery stores are there around us what kind of grocery stores we've been trying to stick to a gluten free dairy free diet as much as possible. So being close to a natural grocer was key. And Fun fact, I discovered my new favorite miso hummus from New Moon natural foods in Tahoe City, I need to figure out how to smuggle some back with me to Texas. Is there a hospital close by for emergencies? Is there a pharmacy nearby? Does Amazon and FedEx deliver to our location within the first week of being here an important package was able to get to me which was key and you know, so I had no issues there. Tip number three, consider all your costs. Are you able to offset your housing by short term renting your place back home? Or can you do a house swap? Or can you stay somewhere rent free. Our primary residence is not Airbnb proof yet, meaning we don't have an easy way to lock up all of our valuables or important documents in one space to comfortably let strangers roam our house yet. So short term renting was a great option for Allegra and Juliet to subsidize, you know their rent this month. But my husband and I weren't quite in position to do that this time around. So we limited our search to a location where we wouldn't have to pay rent. And so we naturally had to tap into our family resources. And my grandfather bought this adorable lakefront condo in the 1970s I believe and it's been in our you know, it's been in our family ever since has been our family vacation spot ever since. And he's kept it in amazing shape. He did a remodel in the early 2000s. And I'm just so grateful he encourages our family to use it as much as as we can. So this is an amazing taho situation that we have, I recognize we are very fortunate. This is also a tourist destination though. So eating out is very overpriced, which is another reason we are really trying to cook our own food and eat in every meal. Except, you know, on some weekends, we'll definitely go out but my main money goal while I'm here is to stick to my normal budget and my normal expenses not having to withdraw anything additional from my emergency fund. I definitely want to keep that intact or having to withdraw from my investment accounts because I absolutely want to keep those compounding Tip number four, go for a substantial amount of time, you know, where you can really have the opportunity to settle in and get into a new routine remote month is not a vacation, you know, we still have to be productive, get all of our work done, hit our deadlines, and moving around every few days adds a lot more stress and time. I mean, this also means you're gonna have to look for a place with a washer and dryer, closets, kitchen pantry, AC heater. Yes, even in mid June, we had to run the heater a couple of mornings. But these are all things that we typically take for granted. But, man, if we don't have these things when we show up like it's going to be a very difficult month. So definitely think through all those little details. And then you know, we really wanted to feel like we were living here like this was our home. Something important for my husband was being able to sign up for a month membership at a local gym and that's part of his routine back in Austin which he wanted to carry over to remote month and I absolutely agree with it.

    The cool thing is he found a gym right in town and it's within jogging distance, which our gym at home is not. So this is an even better routine. Okay, tip number five, know how you'll get around. And we knew that we were going to need a car for a month. But the drive back and forth between Austin would take at least six days for us, which would cut almost a week off of our times. That was not really an option for us. We probably needed to rent a car. We looked at the bus system here, but it was pretty limited. And we kind of tried to think through who might have a spare car they could let us borrow in California, but we couldn't really think of anyone either. And if you are aware of the rental car situation these days, it is very difficult and expensive due to the increased demand and decreased supply of of you know the pandemic. So we ended up using Turo, which is like Airbnb for cars. You know, it's an app where people list their personal cars that you can rent. And so we looked at our Turo options if we flew into Reno, but they they didn't really have good options. It was kind of limited. So then we decided to search Turo, and the if we flew into San Francisco, and someone in the Bay Area had this awesome four wheel drive Audi available, so we were able to snag that it's been fun driving that around. So we have a car for the month, which has been extremely helpful for all things. That brings me to Tip number six, check the internet and cell service at your desired location. Ideally, before you arrive, I know that's kind of hard to do. But I have to give a few video presentations this month. So this is a big factor for me. And guess what? The Internet here in our condo is actually pretty terrible. It tends to give out if my husband and I are both on video calls at the same time. But our cell service is really good. So one of us can jump on our hotspot, you know when needed because we have unlimited data, thank goodness. For those who don't know, you can test your Wi Fi speed by just typing into Google Wi Fi speed test. And it'll tell you how strong your connection is. So that's always the first thing I check when I arrive. And sometimes my hotspot is stronger than the Wi Fi in the house. Side note something to consider if you and whoever is joining you for remote month have meetings at the same time, make sure you can figure out space where you both can go and you don't interfere with each other. My husband and I had overlapping calls on day one and we are sharing a workspace. So we quickly had to come up with a solution that one of us would either go upstairs or outside if we had overlapping meanings. Okay, and my last tip for you tip number seven. Think about if you're going to invite company, when you know you're hyped about remote your remote mountain plans and you're sharing the news with your family and friends, they're undoubtedly going to someone's undoubtedly gonna want to come with you. So hosting can be so much fun, and it can be extremely exhausting. At the same time. If your main goal is to recharge, you may have to decide that you will invite guests only for one weekend or maybe not at all. And if you're wanting more of an adventure, go go go situation the whole time, then you'll just have to coordinate who comes up when so we decided to host one weekend of Texas friends. And when we can have California friends and the rest of the time in our free time. We want to spend relaxing, reading, exercising, and you know exploring. So if you have the opportunity to take a remote month, I just encourage you to do it. It's an enlightening experience. And it really just gets you unstuck, especially if you're interact. And just remember too that anything is possible as long as you put it out into the world, get creative and then just take incremental steps to achieving it. And if you want to bring more freedom into your life through building wealth, definitely apply to the wealth circle. You won't regret it. It was a life changing experience for me and I'm confident it will be for you to enrollment begins in August and spots tend to fill up very quickly within just a few days. So if this is something you're planning to do, be ready as soon as enrollment opens up. And other than that, thank you so much for tuning in and happy summer

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