Original subtitles

My name is Paula Pant,

and I'm the founder of AffordAnything.com.

We are here to help people

save, earn more, invest, retire.

The way that we manage our money influences every aspect of our lives,

and yet no one ever formally teaches it to us.

Because of that, people are missing out on opportunities to make money.

We have expert Ro$$ Mac coming to the stage.

For me, it was always Black wealth matters.

And the way I wanted to do that was through information

and educating the community.

Welcome to this week's episode of Maconomics. I'm your host Ro$$ Mac.

We are joined now by financial expert Tiffany Aliche

who is also a New York Times best-selling author

of Get Good with Money.

I'm almost like the preschool teacher of financial education.

I really focus on the fundamentals.

Budgeting, saving, credit, debt, and learning to earn.

These are the first steps to what I call financial wholeness.

He's now become a personal finance guru,

and not because he made millions,

but because he cut back in some radical ways.

On the Internet, my name is Mr. Money Mustache,

and 15 years ago, I had a dream

and was able to retire just before my 31st birthday.

The thing about money is it really is not very complicated,

but what can you use it for other than just buying more stuff?

You can buy freedom with money,

where you never have to worry about money again,

but that's not what we're trained to do in this country.

So everybody wants to get better at money, right?

Maybe your budget is out of whack.

Your debt is mounting. You don't know how to earn.

This year, we're gonna try something strange and different and hopefully fun.

I'm going to gift one of you

one year of personal financial coaching.

You'll win a year of financial and investing coaching from yours truly.

Now how do you enter to work with me one-on-one?

I want you to create a video, and in that video,

I want you to share who you are, what you need help with.

I'm looking to get some financial help because we're trying to start a family.

Hopefully, by the end of the year...

I've got a little money in savings,

and I'd love to learn some ways to have it do more...

I've never put a budget together. I don't even know where to start.

I just have no idea how much I should be paying,

how much I should be saving...

$30,000 of student loan debt, which I may pay off in my 50s or 60s...

How do you get ahead without taking out loans...

Honestly I have no idea what we're doing when it comes to retirement.

I am definitely in a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle...

I currently have minimal funds in my bank account...

I never had that financial education...

Are we investing in the right areas...

I definitely need help managing my money...

- I really appreciate your help... - Could really use your help...

- ...help. - I need help.

Hi, I'm Kim and this is John.

We are earning a lot for the first time.

Uh, we're also spending a lot and want to know what to do

with that money.

Uh, whether that's early retirement, or even what the options are.

Kim and John are kind of the perfect candidates

for financial freedom and early retirement.

That just means you have more free time, more mental health,

more time to spend with your kids.

Hi, I'm Ariana.

I am an emotional spender.

I am currently buried in a mountain of debt.

I am super, super, super excited about meeting Ariana.

Teaching women how to gain confidence

about their money is kind of my jam.

My name's Teez. I got a big payday.

A lot of money sitting in the bank.

I know I should invest it, but I don't know where to start.

Teez, I would look at him and say he's the epitome of a normal athlete, right?

You come from the inner city,

then you're thrust into making a lot of money.

He doesn't necessarily know what to do with it.

Hi there. Um, I'm Lindsey. I've been living paycheck to paycheck.

I have two jobs,

but I still haven't been able to save up any money,

and I'm trying to break out of this cycle.

Lindsey doesn't realize it, but she has so much going for her.

And so if she wants to launch a new career,

this is absolutely the best time in her life

for her to be able to take those risks.

When I was in high school, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

I was like, "Yes, this is what's gonna happen."

Go to college, go to fashion school, get an internship, get a job,

and by the age of 35, be a name-brand designer.

One day, I begged my mom for a sewing machine.

I wanted to make my ideas come to life.

Then we started looking at fashion schools for me to apply to.

That's where I really learned to hone my skills.

I will say I never completed school,

but I at least learned the basics.

So, I had this plan,

but things change.

Hi. How are y'all doing today?

- Good. How are you? - Good.

- We have a keg of beer so far. - Watermelon...

Watermelon, hell yeah.

I have two jobs right now. I am a waitress at a beer garden,

and I am also a bartender at a brewery.

I have you at $7.00 today.

Two jobs, 50 hours a week.

- Y'all doing okay? Lovely. - Yes, thank you.

I don't really have a lot of time to be me.

Here you go.

Because it's all about making that money just to survive.

I've got y'all's beer ready. Sorry about the wait.

When I get my paychecks, the first thing I do is pay my bills.

But, when you're waitressing, you don't know how much you're gonna make.

I have not been able to pay all my bills for about 14 months now.

My biggest issue is not just that it doesn't pay more money,

but I wish I could have health insurance.

I struggle with depression and anxiety,

and I would like to take medication for it

because I know that it would help me.

However, I can't afford that.

The amount of money I make definitely eats at me inside.

How I strive to be this image

that I grew up to believe was successful.

I just don't feel like where I'm supposed to be

at this point in my life.

I feel like I am putting in a lot of work and a lot of labor and a lot of hours,

and there's only so much that I can put in,

but I don't want to be living paycheck to paycheck anymore.

Hey, Instagram.

Today, we're talking about reimagining the way we earn money.

So that's exactly what I did when I ditched my nine-to-five

and built an online business.

And I want to help you find a sustainable way to make money.

A way that matches your talents and sparks your passion.

So, tell me about you.

Well, I am a waitress, and I am a bartender,

but my ultimate dream is to do something with art.

- Lindsey, how old are you? - I am 27 years old.

- Twenty-seven. Okay. - Yes.

So, I'll tell you about myself in my twenties.

When I graduated from college,

I got a job as a newspaper reporter and I made $21,000 a year.

That's the equivalent of making $11.50 an hour.

I was always really frugal, but I kept trying to save money.

- To improve my financial situation. - Right.

So in spending,

the average American spends the majority of their money

on the big three. Housing, transportation, food.

If you cut back on those three things,

that's where you're going to get the biggest savings.

Downsizing your house or apartment,

taking on a roommate, renting out a room on Airbnb,

those are ways you can significantly reduce your housing costs.

Okay.

And you live someplace where a car is necessary,

go for the cheapest option

that will safely get you from point A to point B.

Nothing fancy, just utilitarian.

Wonderful. All right, so tell me more about, like, your food habits, generally.

I would say a majority of what we spend our food money on is take-out.

- That's one thing I want to stop doing. - Hmm.

My fiancé and I are both in the service industry.

We've been around a kitchen all day.

The last thing we wanna do is

spend an hour cooking.

First of all, restaurant food is more expensive

than food that you make yourself.

- Oh, absolutely. - Then there's delivery charges.

And you're in the service industry, so I'm sure you're a good tipper,

which is great, but like, that adds up.

It does.

So instead of getting take-out, start meal prepping.

Go to the grocery store once a week.

Do a big batch run of pre-cooked meals for the whole week.

Fantastic.

Spending less is the quick and easy solution,

but there's a limit to how much you can frugal down.

There's no limit to how much you can make.

I just wish I was making more,

and one of the main drawbacks to the service industry

is the lack of benefits.

You could try to find some type of side hustle

or some type of work that you do on your own...

Hmm.

...that makes enough money that it compensates for that.

- Okay. - Right?

So, let's talk about the income side of the equation.

- That's where the real potential exists. - Yes.

What I saw was that in order to make more, I was gonna have to go independent

and start my own side hustle, start my own business.

There are two different types of side gigs that I want you to be thinking about.

Okay.

One is gig economy stuff.

And so that's immediate, short-term, quick cash,

something where boom, you can make money today.

What other types of jobs do you think could fill in that gap?

I used to, uh, dog sit for families.

I love dogs. I love being around animals.

- A side hustle dog walking or dog sitting... - Mm-hmm.

...that's gonna get money in the door this week.

And then also there is the art aspect.

I'm really good at illustration.

If you can sketch really quickly,

imagine if you went to a dog park

and you walked up to someone and you're like, "Hey, I love your dog."

"Do you mind if I just do a little 2-minute sketch?"

You give them that sketch.

You put your phone number at the bottom.

By the way, I walk dogs.

I love that idea!

And then the other type of side gig is building out your own business,

but it's going to take a lot longer.

At some point, I would like to get out of the service industry.

Deep down at my core,

I am an artist, and I always have been.

I do a little bit of everything.

I do painting.

I make costumes.

And that's been my dream my entire life of what I would like to do.

So the most important thing is that you have the hustle.

I've got the drive and the heart.

I feel like I just don't have the know-how.

- Easy. Easy. I got that. I got that. - Awesome.

Art is my passion.

So I would love to find a way to make money from my art.

That is the ultimate dream.

Growing up, you look at playing football as this big dream.

You know, the promised land.

It takes one person to break through the generations of poverty

or living paycheck to paycheck.

I love the pink one.

Go show Daddy. You can show him.

Oh, Mama. A princess.

You look sweet!

You got on your crown.

Who your best friend?

My best friend Mama.

Oh.

You played me.

I thought Daddy was your best friend.

Somebody like me, a young, Black African-American male,

that come from where I come from,

I thought football was the only way to make money and make a lot of it.

It's off! Tabor!

Picked up by Tabor. Tabor racing to the end zone!

After my third season in college, everybody was talking about me.

One of the best quarterbacks in the nation is Teez Tabor.

This could be a pick six! Touchdown! Tabor!

Once I realized I can make a career out of it,

it was no way I could stay in school.

They talk about you making beaucoup bucks.

You got people you gotta take care of.

With the 53rd pick,

in the 2017 master football league draft,

the Detroit Lions have selected Teez Tabor.

My first check says 1.6 million.

A young kid from Maryland, 21, instantly rich.

But I had to pay my agent out the gate, and taxes is 40%.

I bought my mother a house.

I bought this house.

A couple jewelry pieces.

Those were the big purchases.

I went to Paris. I went to Saint Lucia, Hawaii.

Man...

But I went from 1.6 to two-something.

Two eighty. I'm like, "This will go fast."

I'm gonna cool off 'cause I see how quick it can go.

Only goal in mind was keep playing football.

The money will keep coming in.

I played two seasons in Detroit.

On the sideline, he makes the catch,

right in front of Teez Tabor.

Everybody in the NFL know if you're not producing at a high level,

they're gonna get rid of you.

I ended up getting released.

After I got released from Detroit, I ended up going to San Fran.

But I break my foot right before training camp.

So, they had to release me.

Right there.

My world came crashing down.

Let's take it back down.

There were some long nights. Some long nights thinking like, "Why me?"

"Why get me all the way here and then take it away from me?"

That made me take a step back and open my eyes up to my money.

One of my good friends told me about the guy who they feel help people

with their finances.

- What's good, Brodie? - Yes, sir.

- Oh. How you livin', fool? - I'm good. How are you?

Man, I'm all good, thank you.

I'm a financial educator.

I opened up my brokerage account to start buying stocks at the age of 18.

I'm 31 now, but I'm close to being financially free already.

My kids will be financially free.

What we're talking about right now is the future,

and the way you get invested in it right now

is getting out of your own logic of thinking.

You know, I ended up working at Morgan Stanley for three years,

so for me it's like, man, I just want to start helping our community get

better exposure to investing. Better exposure to financial literacy.

Like, when did it trigger in your mind, like, "All right, I need to be investing,"

or any conversations like that?

I felt like after my second season, when I ended up getting hurt,

me realizing like, "What are you going to do?"

Football's been my life since I was four years old,

so when I step outside this box,

I don't even know where to go, like, where to even start.

I'm a fish out of water.

-Mm-hmm -You know...

We gotta look at this and say like, "What happens right now?"

- If you never get another football check. - Right.

And you don't know where to start.

The easiest way to become a player at the game,

just put your money in the S&P 500

because on average, that's gonna grow at 10% each year.

So what is that... You said S&P S...

S&P 500. They made... They made an index to say

we're gonna buy all of these 500 companies.

So, look, when you're thinking about investing, here's the...

Put it in layman's terms, right?

By buying a stock, you literally are able to buy

a very small piece of a company.

An index fund is literally a basket of stocks.

You're not just buying one stock. You get to buy a basket of them.

And what's great about it, it gives you inherent diversity.

In the S&P 500,

you have all the sectors that you could think of.

Retail companies. There's banks. You got healthcare companies.

Technology companies. You got oil and gas, airlines.

Now, obviously, the market,

you can have disclaimers that the market could go down.

There are years the market could go down 10%,

but Warren Buffet, if you Google him right now,

he's going to tell anybody...

He's the smartest investor of all time. He make money the slow way.

Right? He's going to tell you, anybody at the crib,

Mom and Pop, Grandma know, Uncle Ray Ray know,

- just put your money in the S&P 500... - Put your money...

...and it's gonna really build over time.

- All right. Let's get into it. - For sure.

Whoo!

- Not so fast! Want fast? Okay. - Run in the grass though! Be careful!

Our parents always taught us how to, like, fend for ourselves.

A hustler's mentality, so,

that's what they did teach us, uh, but as far as, uh, savings plans,

investment plans,

we... we don't know. It's... It's a language that's never taught to us.

Daddy gonna catch you. Daddy gonna catch you.

I wanna go to the skies.

You wanna go to the skies?

I just wanna help my daughter.

- Okay. One... - One, two, three, four.

I wanna make it easier for her

than, you know, my people's made it for me.

Whoo. Yum.

The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind

"and another..." Look, he's chasing the puppy.

He's chasing the puppy.

He's chasing the puppy. "...his mother called him Wild Thing"

and Max said, 'I'll eat you up!'

"so he was sent to his bed without anything to eat."

Oh no!

Money was something to be spent growing up.

My parents came from the Dominican Republic

when I was three.

And I distinctly remember my parents having a lot of conversations

around like, "Well, we deserve this," or "I want this so I'm going to buy this."

I was the first person in my family to go to college.

It was like, "Just take out loans. It's fine."

But no one explained to me my student loans were accruing interest

from the minute I signed them.

Or like, why are you allowing an 18-year-old

to take out $25,000 a year?

Like, how is that okay?

And now I'm sitting here with $108,000 in student loans.

The credit card spending started when I was young.

I got my first job out of college,

and I wound up getting an apartment in New York that I couldn't afford.

With no savings.

And it went from there.

Brunch was easily, like, $100 every weekend.

And then, like, my friends were going out,

and, you know, they were all buying new clothes.

I couldn't always afford it.

But I was like, "I deserve this," or "I had a really hard week. It's fine."

And then we had kids.

And then Amazon and Target became things.

I got more credit cards.

Buying things for the kids,

buying clothes, buying things to entertain ourselves with.

I look around sometimes,

and it's almost like I see dollar signs everywhere.

If I look back at the credit card statements,

I couldn't even tell you what it was.

And just like buying to buy.

My husband was covering the majority of bills

so I can focus on paying things off.

And it just didn't happen. Like, I tried.

I wound up getting personal loans to pay off the cards

to make it one lump payment and a lower interest rate.

And that decreased my monthly payments,

which was helpful because, you know, I wasn't making that much money,

but then it freed up all my credit cards.

And they wound up getting maxed out again.

Okay.

It feels like I'm just gonna always have debt.

Like, I just am not making the right decisions.

One of the first steps you have to take when you're that deep in a hole,

is you have to ask for help.

I know firsthand there are other people that were in debt

that are no longer in debt.

Tiffany Aliche was a preschool teacher who lost it all and fell into debt

during the recession in 2008.

I was 30 years old with $300,000 plus in debt.

I was like, "Okay. Let me start with the bare-bones basics."

Let me list my bills. Let me figure out what my expenses are.

She pulled herself out of debt

and began teaching financial literacy seminars to women.

What I just shared with Ariana is even though I made

every mistake possible with my money,

I was able to regain my footing,

and so can she.

So, how do you feel that you do when it comes to spending?

Depends on the week.

Um...

There are some days that I'm really good,

and I spend literally no money on anything,

and then there are other days where it's not so great,

and I talk myself into buying things that we don't necessarily need.

- Before you spend any money... - Mm-hmm.

...there are four questions you should really ask yourself.

And those four questions are:

- Do I need it? - Mm-hmm.

- Do I love it? - Okay.

- Do I like it? - Okay.

Do I want it?

Need it, love it, like it, want it. I'm gonna write these down for you.

Okay.

"Your needs are," I must have this thing

to maintain the health and safety of myself and my family."

- Okay. - Right?

So give me some examples of some needs.

- Mortgage, groceries. - Mortgage. Mm-hmm.

Loves are this.

I want you to imagine if you had... Who is one of the wealthiest people

in the world that you're like, "There's someone that can talk about wealth."

- Oprah. - I was gonna say, yup!

- Everybody, right? If you had... - Oprah money.

- You get a car! You get a car! - Everybody!

Yeah! Like...

Yes, if you had Oprah money, what would you do or do more of?

Oh God.

- Go on vacation. Travel with the kids. - Right?

And often times we skip over love 'cause it can be a little pricey.

- Yeah. - You know?

So we skip right to likes and wants.

So a like is something that will bring you joy

for about less than six months.

And so wants are just...

There's no joy there, just temporary satisfaction.

I feel like most of the things I buy from Amazon fall into that category.

- Okay. - It's like...

- It's easy to press that purchase button. - Yes.

I want you to think of your needs and loves like a quadrant, right?

So needs and loves are on this side and then likes and wants on this side.

So when you are focused on your needs and your loves,

you're really living in more of your life.

And when you're focused on your likes and your wants,

you're really living less of a life.

At the end of this journey, if I can... not be afraid of money,

if I can have the confidence to know that I will get out of debt

and I will stay out debt,

it would be huge.

Do you want kids or kitchen?

I don't care.

Okay.

I'll do kids.

- Just yell if you need me. - Okay.

Beep, beep, beep, beep.

There you go! All right!

I'm an engineer.

- Nice job! - Nice job!

When COVID hit, they cut a bunch of the team.

And I was just part of the... part of the cut.

I'm a stay-at-home dad now.

Good, buddy. Oh, should we put gas in the car?

- Like that's my primary responsibility. - It's Dad.

Right now, John does everything.

Like everything.

It's a lot.

And it's not always been that way for us,

but he's had to learn all of it.

- I'm super happy about it. - Yeah.

'Cause I have an amazing bond with our kids.

You do, which is so beautiful.

And I'm, like, really jealous all the time.

And then my ego gets jealous of, you know, how successful you are.

- Like, 'cause you are really successful. - Yeah.

It's just so ingrained that the way I contribute as a man

is to make money.

What's up?

When he started being a stay-at-home dad,

I really struggled with becoming the sole income maker

and working so much and being unavailable for my kids.

Hello!

- Hi! - How are you?

I am a psychotherapist and women's empowerment coach.

There's all kinds of different ways that you can embody a change,

a transformation.

Part of the reason that we chose to have John stay at home

is because my business was growing financially.

It was exponential growth.

In 2018, it was maybe 70K for the year.

And then in 2020, it was about 150,

and then this year, in theory, I'll be around 300.

But every time we make more money, we spend more money.

I want to kind of like, go to the other end of the spectrum

and learn how to save,

but we need... we definitely need somebody to help us with that.

But we learned... Yeah.

You're about to meet a young man who retired at the age of 30.

Let's get rid of this mop.

When you do the math on this, it's something like $10,000 of haircuts

that this $40 device has saved me.

He preaches his financial gospel on his popular blog,

Mr. Money Mustache.

It has become a worldwide cult phenomenon,

which has grown to reach about 23 million different people

since its inception.

I've gotten Mr. Money Mustache's emails for years,

and I didn't even think that was a possibility

that you could retire early.

I just assumed that my life was going to be just what's expected.

You work until you're 65, and then you can finally have a life.

- Happy to finally meet y'all! - How are you doing?

So like, what brings you to me,

and what's your goal in changing your life?

We're on the cusp of a high income.

And so now that we have this resource,

we want the tangible steps where we can set ourselves up

for the next five, ten years with a plan.

So that we can be financially independent after that.

Like, what tangible steps did you take at age 30?

I was just earning kind of an engineer's salary,

which back in that day was $80,000 a year...

Hmm.

...and cutting our expenses where we were living on $40,000 a year.

You invest the surplus in just a standard index fund,

and it just kind of builds up.

And then when we got to the level of investments,

um, that was enough to live on,

that was when we felt safe quitting our jobs.

And the definition of "enough to live on"

just very roughly is that you have 25 times your living expenses

in investments.

If your expenses are $100,000 a year,

you need 2.5 million dollars invested to sustain that lifestyle.

So it's not really your income that matters. It's your spending choices.

So I think the first step would be figuring out where your money is going,

like, what do you think is the most spendy stuff?

- This is the embarrassing part. - Okay, this is great.

So I see shopping, which is a very big category.

- Yeah. - It's almost $2,000 a month.

- Lots of Amazon. - Yeah.

Let's see.

I just purchased dumbbells for my Soul Cycle classes.

Ballet slippers,

birthday supplies,

hair stuff,

more dog stuff.

Everybody's brain has this thing that I call the PJM.

It's Purchase Justification Machine...

...and it's a little machine running in their head and it's like...

...and it spits out excuses for why you really want to buy something

even if you don't actually need it.

So the idea is to throw some dirt and grit into the gears of this PJM

to slow it down.

What that means is asking yourself questions like,

"Am I really gonna use this thing? How often would I use it?"

Anything you could throw in front is going to slow down your purchases,

and you'll end up spending less.

The second-highest category is groceries.

How many cheeses did you get this time?

Four.

You're spending $1,200 a month on groceries.

That is like banquet-level spending for a small family.

- You must be... - Doesn't feel like it to us.

You must be feeding, like, royalty every night.

You potentially could get that down to 500,

and that's $6,000 a year,

$60,000 a decade, just by tweaking your food spending.

Literally have no idea how you could possibly do that differently.

I wonder if I could come to like a guest grocery shopping.

- Yeah, let's do that. - Great.

- Five years from now... - Okay.

...what would you like your lives to be like?

The idea of retiring early sounds amazing.

I'm totally into it,

but also creating more space and time to be with the family,

to have, um, the bandwidth to, like, actually be present.

Yeah. That sounds really sustainable.

Like, your plan is not very far-fetched at all.

It feels far-fetched to me. I'm glad you think so.

Okay.

Let's go play with your train set.

The last few years,

we allowed ourselves to be more consumeristic

to cope with stress...

Only one.

...and as a reward for the hard work that I do.

All right. Three.

So at the end of the day, I'll, like, buy myself clothes

or I'll buy them a toy...

...but now, like, we're ready to start making good long-term decisions

as opposed to just, like, getting through that time period.

So, like, right now, realistically,

all else fails, in two years,

you would technically blow through your savings.

Right.

For me, we got to get all the expenses down.

Because you want to invest a portion of these savings.

Right? And still be comfortable.

How much did you splurge on a couple chains, a couple earrings,

a couple watches?

- Sixty... - 60K.

So let's do this.

Right now, if you would've put $60,000 into the S&P 500,

the stuff we was talking about, that $60,000 today...

...would be $112,000.

Hmm. All right.

Right? Nah, this ain't broke.

I want you to see the numbers to just say, "Okay. I've been missing out on money."

Know what I'm saying? That one little thing you forgot about.

'Cause we bought a watch and something with it.

So for me, my biggest thing is to just show you how the money works.

When you own it, you in the game.

- Okay. - You feel me? Like you done laced them up.

You between them white lines, and you really in the game.

You feel me? It's game time.

The only thing I know it's second and ten, third and five,

X receive a cut split. Like, I don't... That's what I understand.

I just know that I got this much money and I don't have the knowledge

on how to keep it.

Or how to really make it run a marathon for me.

That's why I'm just trying to learn.

So, first things first. Whenever you're doing a budget,

a budget is just a picture of what your money is doing.

And if you don't like that picture, you have the option to change it.

So your "money out" list looks like this.

So let's talk about money in. What do you take home monthly?

Um, about $5,000.

And then you said you had a second job?

- Yes. So I'm... - Okay.

I picked up some virtual assistant work.

Which is about $700 a month.

- Sounds right. - Okay.

The good news is, there's actually money here.

Yeah.

At your job, do they allow you to split your paycheck?

Yeah.

See if they'll do it up to five splits.

Split it before you get it.

Your five splits are your bills account for the home,

your Ariana bucket for bills,

you have your spending account,

and you have two savings.

Savings has two functions. For emergencies and dreams.

So you're going to put some in your emergency savings account

and some in your dream savings.

So this is your budget. That's it. A little bit of automation,

then you don't have to at the grocery store scramble.

- Yeah. - Because you know,

"I put aside my money already. It's there. I asked my job to do it."

It's there for you to lean into instead of your credit card.

I've tried almost every budget under the sun,

and it's never really worked before.

So this is really the chance.

I'm ready to, like, do this work.

I'm ready, like, to get to the point of financial wholeness

that Tiffany keeps talking about.

Nina, here!

Hey!

Hi there.

Nina! Stay! Come here.

Okay? Go get it!

The piece of advice that Paula gave me

was to bring a sketchbook

and draw people's dogs really quickly.

Hi! I'm sorry to bother you. I hope you don't mind,

but I went ahead and I drew your pup because she's just so pretty.

She's so happy.

Also, I started my own dog-walking/dog-sitting business.

So I included my info on the back.

Wow, that is so beautiful!

- Thank you so much. - Thank you!

I couldn't help but notice your dog.

He's just so happy and he's so cute, and I kind of had to draw him.

So I wanted to go ahead and give you this sketch.

- Thank you! - My pleasure.

I was able to draw four dogs in two hours,

and that ended up being a big hit.

If there are some trips I get stuck in, I'll definitely give you a call.

- Thank you! - Of course!

But the fact is most of the people need dogs covered for the weekends,

and being in the service industry,

that is usually when I'm scheduled the most.

Last time we saw each other, after that,

I made the decision to quit one of my jobs.

While I saw myself with potential at that job at one point in time,

it had turned into a dead-end job.

This sounds like a breakup!

It does sound like a breakup!

Uh...

"I saw the potential, but it was turning toxic."

That's exactly what happened though.

But right now, I'm just struggling with the transition...

- Okay. All right. - ...of losing that second income.

You don't want to be reckless with your life and your money,

but then right there in the middle,

in between cowardice and recklessness, that's courage.

And that's what I see in your decision to quit the job

that wasn't paying you enough, wasn't honoring your time and talent.

You're making me emotional just to hear that.

But it is allowing me to focus on my side gigs

and focus on what I really want to do for the rest of my life,

getting out of the service industry.

So, I had my first art market this last Saturday.

The prints are 20 apiece, by the way.

Okay! I love the doe one.

- That one and the jellyfish one! So cool! - Hell yeah!

- Oh, this is gorgeous too. - Thank you.

I took some high-quality photos of the paintings that I already made,

and the beautiful thing about prints is if I need to recreate them,

I just go to the store.

I already have the files that I need to print out,

so I don't need to put in extra energy for it.

- You know what the word for that is? - What?

- Scalable. - Scalable!

- Scalable. It's scalable. - Okay.

You can multiply your income without multiplying your effort or time.

I know.

Do you think this is something

I should look into making it a weekly thing?

So not only should you be making this a weekly thing,

you should also be looking at all the other ways

that you can scale your art career.

Okay.

Look at mass-producing your prints.

Look into creating NFTs, non-fungible tokens,

which will allow you to sell your art digitally.

Wonderful.

For you especially,

and for anyone whose, like, whose side hustle

is their intended second career,

it makes even more sense to, like, lean hard into it.

Okay.

There's no blueprint for building out your business

from the ground up.

Lindsey's making great progress, but she also quit her waitressing job.

So she quickly needs to figure out

which of these new gigs is gonna bring in the most money.

Hey, you think it's gonna be cold up there?

You think I need a jacket?

Yeah.

- For real? - We gotta help Daddy pack!

Where is Daddy going?

You got socks.

Yeah, yeah!

You silly.

After I broke my foot, I ended up getting on it back healthy,

and Chicago called me.

Oh, you packing your princesses for Daddy. Good job.

Now they invited me to training camp.

Basically, training camp is a trial. For me, it's to try to make the team.

Ninety people get invited to training camp,

and they going to take the best 53.

Ro$$ was just telling me.

One, I got to start taking this financial stuff serious

'cause I don't know how to do anything else.

And two, I need to get on my grind because right now,

there's no money coming in.

He brought me back down to earth. "Okay."

If I don't do those two things, then they can look real scary real soon."

My man being at training camp is end all or be all.

From a financial pressure.

"I'm tellin' Teez," Bro, if you wanna continue to live your lifestyle,

you gotta make the team."

At the same time, I'm like,

"Bro, assume you don't make the squad, what're we doing?"

So you been lookin' good in terms of setting up the brokerage account?

Yeah, I set it up, but I was a little...

I ain't putting no money in there yet. It was a little frightening.

It was a bunch of numbers, and I seen Nasdaq, Apple, S&P 500.

0.3%, I don't know. I ain't do nothing yet.

I set it up, but I ain't get too far.

That's a fact.

Now most people be scared, you know what I mean?

But, you know, we wanna make sure you get over that.

- Right. - Take your investing virginity. Let's go.

So the best step that we're going to do is obviously buy two index funds, right?

So you got the S&P 500, and we're going to do the Nasdaq, right?

So how much you say you want to start with?

- If I'm you? - Yeah.

I'm starting with ten racks, then you'll hold it. I ain't gonna lie.

I'mma just start with 1,000 just to get my feet wet.

Get your feet wet! If it were me, I'd be putting another zero on that boy!

- You tryin' to get me some money! - And you're gonna hold it.

- So now, here's the thing. Right? - Mm-hmm.

- And if I'm you, in all honesty, right? - Okay.

The biggest thing is this frequency button.

Now I'm recommending setting it up monthly.

You won't have to think about it.

- I should put it every month. - Yeah, I would.

Just like every month, you paying the car note or the mortgage payments,

you pay your e-trade next, or actually you pay your e-trade first.

So when you say, "Man, I just want to get my feet wet"

and only put a stack in, 1,000,

what's making you say I don't want to put a lot more in?

Uh, 'cause I don't... It's new, you know what I'm saying?

It's so new that I don't want to... I guess I don't want to fail or mess up.

Mm-hmm.

Most people are going to be hesitant to do something

when they don't know much about it. They think, "I might lose money."

But when you really realize you losing money by not doing it,

it's really the biggest like...

Your bank account probably is gonna give you, if you lucky, .06%.

- So in other words, no money. - None.

By holding your money purely, right,

you're losing the value of your money because of something called inflation.

And what I mean by inflation is the rising prices of goods over time.

Remember when we was kids, bro? We could literally go to the corner store

with a dollar, right?

We could get four bags of chips.

We could get some penny candy. We could get 50-cent Zebra Cakes, right?

Now with that same dollar,

bro, you lucky to get one bag of chips and a ten-cent bag to put it in.

So the price of everything will go up.

So it's like, okay, how can I ensure

that my money still going to be able to purchase

what I want to be able to purchase?

The only way you do that is by investing.

If I would've did what I was supposed to do

with the money I had when I first got drafted,

it might be a different story for me right now,

just because my financial situation would've been more smoother than it is.

As we get closer to roster cut-down day,

we'll keep a close eye on all of the big moves the Bears might make.

Every year, the 53-man roster cut-down day

always brings some pretty big surprises.

Overall it feels like the 53's relatively set.

So at this point, it's just a matter of waiting things out.

Hey, Mama.

What are you doing, Daddy?

Daddy's chillin'. Daddy just got off work.

So, any... any word?

No, not yet.

I should know something before Labor Day.

Okay.

Now that I'm 25, hopefully by the time I'm 45,

that same energy,

that same knowledge, that same passion I put into football,

if I can get my stocks and my investments

and my financial stuff straight from 25 to 45,

at 45, I should be set up.

Hi!

Hi, Ariana! How are you?

Good. How are you?

I'm good. I'm good. I'm good.

How's the homework going? Like, you know, talk to me.

The homework, I think, went well.

The separate accounts has been really, really helpful so far

because I don't have to think about anything.

The minute my check is released, it goes into these different funnels

and, like, I only carry the card

that is associated with my spending account.

So, any more major or even minor changes

that you found yourself making as it relates to your money?

The "need it, love it, like it, want it," um,

has that made me... stop a purchase?

I don't think so, but it's making me pause at least.

The fact that you are celebrating the awareness,

you know, I'm proud of you. I know we have a lot of work to do,

and we're going to get to it, but you're doing it! You're doing it.

- I promise you, you are. - Thanks.

I know I'm making progress,

and I know that I'm working my butt off to pay off all this credit card debt.

At its peak, I think it was like $65,000.

I feel like I'm like halfway done.

I'll put that right there. Actually, it's perfect. It fits.

But I still hold so much guilt and shame over it.

Getting over those feelings,

I think, is where I need to... to focus on almost,

because that's where I feel the most stuck.

Shame is one of the worst emotions because it doesn't say,

"You made a mistake."

It says, "You are a mistake."

And it keeps you in bondage. It shields you from solutions.

If you are constantly afraid of your money,

that is going to negatively affect the way you navigate with money.

If you are someone who has this awesome money mindset

of abundance and growth,

then that is going to affect the way your money shows up in your life.

Your money will never do better than what your mindset will allow.

I got you!

It makes me feel like a bad partner,

like a bad mom,

that my past decisions

are affecting my family so much.

The fact that I'm paying more than $2,000 a month in debt is ridiculous.

It's half of my take-home pay.

There's so many experiences I want to give my kids

that I'm not able to.

And you work so hard, and you're trying...

to make like a better life for your family.

If I didn't have these huge debt payments,

there'd just be a lot more flexibility.

Si! Si! Yeah!

Oh, she's ready...

We would be able to afford a house with, you know, four bedrooms.

You know, something as simple as that.

- Bye! - Bye!

My husband probably wouldn't have to work overtime every week.

Say "Bye, Papi!"

And I'm living on a month-to-month basis with the fear that my car will break down.

There's like, 140,000 miles on it.

If my car were to break down,

I don't know how we would buy another one.

Yeah.

Oh!

So we are at the Costco parking lot in beautiful park-like Superior, Colorado,

and I'm kinda excited to meet John here.

See if we could teach this young man how to grocery shop.

He wasn't familiar with Costco, so he was comparing everything

to their previous levels of spending.

This is half the cost of what we usually get,

but we'll have to grind it ourselves.

That makes it better.

That is significantly cheaper than a shredded bag.

I think we did a $400 shopping trip there,

but it's the equivalent of $800 to $1,000 of their previous grocery spending.

I want this one!

I don't know if we need these dog toys.

What did you find?

The basic idea is bulk pricing,

which means lower markups.

So, really, it's cutting your cost per calorie.

It's also allowing you to make bigger meals for your family super cheap.

Thank you!

So, uh, how do you think we're doing so far

with us being, like, you know, a couple months into our little program

of trying to optimize your life?

We think that we cut about $3,000.

So $3,000 per month is now cut off of your expected future budget?

- Yeah. - Yes.

Now if you really did that, that's... that's pretty serious

'cause that's like an entire family's budget...

- Very true. - ...is now shaved off of your budget.

- Yeah. - We dropped groceries down to $1,000.

Basically the Amazon shopping fell to $168.

- That's quite a drop. - Yeah, it was quite a drop.

Dining and drinks, we didn't go out as much.

Presumably, this surplus is going somewhere into investments.

So yeah, index fund, stock investments.

Yeah.

So have you felt it's been like a harmonious process as a couple,

or have you felt some of the typical stress?

Um, has it been a uniting or a dividing force?

Ultimately uniting.

But yeah, for sure, dividing a little bit.

There was that solid week there.

- Where I went into food-saver mode. - Yeah.

Where you're like, "Everything in the fridge has to be eaten,"

but it definitely stirred up some conflict.

Frugality is sometimes a dirty word in the United States,

but the idea is that a millionaire is made $10 at a time.

$10 are like bricks in your castle of becoming a millionaire.

Eventually, the idea of that is just to discourage people

from just making impulse purchases.

Like, "Oh, I'm walking past an ice cream stand"

so I'll just buy a couple ice cream cones for $10."

That can happen four times a day.

So $40 a day becomes $10,000 over a year,

just vaporized with nothing to show for it.

So have you gotten into any spreadsheet projections,

where you could have enough to be financially independent?

I made a spreadsheet based on what you were telling me,

where the 25 X your annual spending

is your FIRE number.

Lots of people are using the term FIRE,

which stands for "financial independence retire early."

For me, I just call it early retirement.

The FIRE number just means how much invested money do you need

to fund your desired lifestyle?

So your main idea is you would like to have a retirement budget

of $9,000 per month, right?

- Yeah. - Which is, times 12, $108,000 a year.

Mm-hmm.

If you multiply that by 25, you'd need a little over, uh, 2 million,

- 2.5 million dollars... - Yeah.

...of investments to cover that.

How long would it take you to save up to that level

under your current plan of earning and spending?

By 2042.

So Year 21, we would hit our FIRE number.

I see. So you're thinking it would be 21 years...

- Yeah. - ...until financial independence.

- Which is not an early retirement. - Yeah, but this it not...

- It is not an early retirement. - No.

But if I continue to grow my business,

and I really hustled for the next five years,

like, we could... we found that we could retire in like, five years.

- Yeah. - It really just depends on

how much we want to hustle

versus, like, create time for our family.

How we want to spend our money, all of that.

If you make a big change, we'll adjust the spreadsheet,

and then stuff'll look better.

- Great. - Yeah.

- Oh, nice foot pedal! - Yeah.

I think the only roadblock

is that they still have quite a high baseline of spending

even after making some changes.

You got this!

Like they still spend about twice

what I would think is a reasonable maximum

for a family of four.

I kind of wish we could get them a little more hardcore.

So, I know that I had mentioned to everyone previously

I struggle with anxiety and depression.

I don't know why I get like this.

I don't know why I get all excited about things at first,

and it seems so possible, and I was making such good progress.

And then something...

...just tells me I'm not good enough.

And that's one of the main reasons that

I really, really want to get health insurance

and get myself someone I can talk to because I found that the only thing

that really helps, um, is having consistent therapy.

Right now, it's really hard to tell

what are legitimate money worries and what is just in my head.

The Chicago Bears' 53-man roster is set!

Right now, Teez Tabor is weak and slow. Not a good look for...

Teez Tabor cannot play corner back.

Certainly can't play it in the system...

Teez Tabor bounced around.

Now he sticks around with the Bears on the practice squad.

Just got back from, uh, the facility.

Got some good and bad news.

Feelin' a little bummed about the news. Um...

I didn't make the 53-man roster, but they want me back on practice squad.

So it's good and bad.

Um, not feeling too good

about, you know, the position that I'm in right now,

but there's more opportunity out there for me,

so just gotta keep grinding.

Okay, so this is going to be a really quick update

because so much has happened and I'm in the middle of work. Um...

So... my car broke down yesterday.

Andrew's currently...

Thank God he's a mechanic.

He's currently working on it.

He has bought me a new alternator,

a new radiator, a new battery.

All I was thinking is that I hope that it's fixable.

- Done! - Thank you!

'Cause I can't afford a car payment right now

and I don't have enough money saved up to buy a car outright.

Okay.

More updates about things.

I think we, like, landed in this process

at a really transitional point in our lives

where we're going from struggling to save

to finally getting to a place where we might actually save money.

You know what I would love to have is like a conservative...

- Yeah. - ...or best-case scenario.

Yeah, if we do that, then we still have to save 136.

You're supposed to be saving 50% of your income

if you want to retire early,

but we're not coming anywhere close to that.

So that feels like a huge challenge for us.

I'd be lying if I said I no longer got down on myself sometimes.

Adjusting to being my own boss and that mental shift

has been a lot for me.

However, if and when I do get in these modes again,

I reassure myself, "Look, you were able to make this happen."

"There's no reason that you can't do what's ahead of you."

All right.

How's the hustle?

Where do I even start?

The major one that I'm super excited about

- was signing a deal to do a mural project. - Uh-huh.

So it's 11, uh, concrete pylons,

and they want me to paint an abstract background

and then paint characters on all of the pylons.

- Eleven? That's a big project! - It is!

And because it's a big project, I drafted out an entire plan

of how much materials were gonna cost.

I did my research, and I looked into how much mural artists make.

So, I was able to get my bosses to agree to 3,500.

- Wow. - Yeah.

It's not bad at all.

I could definitely see myself doing this professionally.

And when I think about it, that's one of the reasons

that I moved to Austin in the first place. I fell in love with Austin's murals.

So I thought, you know, maybe one day I can figure out

how to make it into this business, and it's finally happening.

That's awesome!

So the other big thing, um,

one of my regulars at work, he owns his own independent fashion company.

And he hasn't been able to keep up with the demand.

I was serving him beer, then I lean in and I go,

"You know I went to fashion school, right?"

- Hey! What's up? Good to see you. - Hey! Good to see you.

We've got some really awesome stuff that we're working on.

We've been assembling and doing, uh, the jackets and whatnot.

We have these right here for you you can start on.

Okay.

I started crying a little bit because I realized

I'm finally doing something with the skills I went to school for.

So I really see a future with this company.

- Complete that. I'll set this here. - Appreciate it.

The mindset that you have where you're like,

"I'm surrounded by opportunity." "I'm surrounded by abundance."

That mentality speaks a lot to the success that you've had.

You've really got me into this hustler mentality and I love it.

I feel like I'm always networking. I'm always looking for opportunities now.

- Awesome. - Yeah.

How is your side hustle income adding up?

So, with the mural project that I've started,

- I got 35% down... - Mm-hmm.

...so I add that up with the things that I got from the market.

And I keep getting dog-sitting stuff, just sporadically.

- Yeah. - And I've saved about 2,800.

Wow, that's amazing.

That's amazing.

I can't remember the last time I had this much money saved up.

I know it's a small amount, but it's more the principle of,

"I was able to get to this point."

Your creative career is, like, growing.

You know, just from the beginning of this journey to now, it's... Pssh!

There's Lindsey Incorporated, and that's your business,

and then there's Lindsey the individual, and that's you.

- So here is my suggestion. - Okay.

Open a brand-new bank account

that's automated specifically for all of your business income.

Everything that comes in through all of your creative career projects,

have it go directly to that bank account.

When it's time to file your taxes, it'll be easier to spot deductions.

It puts Lindsey Incorporated in a position to grow financially,

and it makes you legit from a lending and credit perspective.

And imagine billing one of your new mural clients

from a business account.

It gives you instant credibility as an entrepreneur.

That's, like, step one

of growing something that is going to be bigger than just you.

That's so exciting.

To me, what it means to be finally doing something with art,

and this may sound hokey,

but it feels like something I was meant to do.

It can be an uphill battle, but I feel like I've got a good start.

I can see me doing these things for a long time,

and after a while, it is going to start adding up.

And that in itself is the most gratifying thing in the world.

Hi. How you doin'?

I see you got on...

How you livin'? You know I gotta come clean.

- How you been? - I'm good. How are you?

Man, I'm all good, man.

Catch me up in terms of kinda where you at with the team and all that.

What exactly does the practice squad mean?

Practice squad is like,

"Okay, well, something happened to somebody on our active roster."

"We need a guy that, you know, we've been grooming."

"You know, a guy that knows our system that we feel like can go play for us."

- Mm-hmm. - So that's what the practice squad is.

You do everything that active do.

- It's no different. - Okay.

- Just on game day, you don't play. - Got you.

From a, like, finance standpoint, like, how much do you make on the practice team?

So P squad, you get 10K a week.

Is that money guaranteed?

- Or you could technically get cut? - Yeah. They can terminate you at any time.

Oh, wow.

The average person, their earning potential is linear.

It goes up. You get wiser, get a promotion, it keeps going.

When it come to athletes,

their earning potential plateaus before the age of 30,

and it just starts going down.

You need to start planning for your last day, day one.

And now, you investing! Talk to me.

What questions you got for me? You in the S&P and the Nasdaq, right?

- I bought two more too though. - What you got?

Apple and Facebook.

Couldn't have went better.

Yeah, I seen it, one day I had went on the E-Trade app,

and, like, it was in red a little bit.

What happens if the S&P goes down?

It's not a "what if," it will go down.

- Oh. - That's the thing you can be certain of.

Every day, it's a roller coaster.

It goes up sometimes. It goes down.

But the thing is that if it does go down, don't panic.

Don't take your money out because it's going to go back up.

Every month, we buying a little bit, and you're gonna look back in five years

like, "Damn, I wish I would have bought more!"

Mm-hmm.

I think you should pull, you know, upwards of a thousand dollars every month.

- I'm saying more. - That we can invest.

- More like five! Ten! - Yeah, five racks every month.

Aight, so last time, you only wanted to start with a G.

Mm-hmm.

And now you sayin' you down to do like five racks a month. Why?

'Cause I see it's... it's good.

I put 1,000 in there now, my 1,000 is more than 1,000.

And I ain't do nothing.

As we continue to grow,

you gonna get more and more comfortable with it.

And the money management. Right? It's a lifestyle. Right?

And I think you gonna get adapted to it

and start making way better, sound financial decisions,

as well as great investments.

So, towing the car home,

plus all the car parts is like $1200 altogether.

I was just like, "Okay."

Is the car fixed-fixed, or is it like Band-Aid fixed?

It's fixed-fixed but feels like a Band-Aid because the car is like a 2004.

- So I'm trying to save up some money... - Okay.

...until I'm able to put a down payment on something.

So an emergency came, your worst-case fear emergency came,

but you handled it

because you had the money flowing to your emergency account.

And let me tell you that your voice, it's going in my head,

- "This is what the emergency fund is for." - Yes.

"This is an emergency, it's okay. Just spend the money."

Automation is the new discipline.

That calls for celebration.

So now let's talk about credit cards. How many credit cards do you have now?

- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven... - Okay.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

- Okay. - Nine if you count like, PayPal.

So what is going on your credit cards? What do your swipes look like?

- Target is my nemesis. - Mm-hmm.

Like it is with many people.

I've been doing a lot of Whole Food deliveries.

- Because... - So food shopping.

Food shopping.

Here's the thing.

Every time you swipe your credit card, you're literally taking out a loan.

So if you can't pay them off in full every month, ask yourself,

"Do I want to spend an extra 16% on this?" Because that's the average interest rate.

So I want you to make the shift from spending from credit

to spending from checking.

Okay.

I want the next month a no-credit-card-usage month.

You know, 'cause that's gonna be a reframe.

- Yeah. - That's literally your word of the day,

to reframe.

Okay.

Can I get an iced grande America no, please?

What I would really love to see Ariana do with her credit cards

is to consistently pay them every month in full.

I would like to see that she honestly stops spending

from credit cards altogether,

that she leans into the money that she has set aside for spending.

All right, so I just got out of Target.

I stuck to my list.

Um, I only bought a couple things for the kids,

and I paid with my debit card

even though that was quite anxiety-producing.

But it's funny 'cause I know there's enough money on my debit card

to cover whatever I bought. I still didn't want to do it.

He was talking about pushing the ball forward in the right direction.

The other one on top.

It feels like we did a lot of the really simple things,

like less Amazon spending, more conscious grocery shopping.

So we've decided to downsize and sell our house here in Colorado.

We can't reduce our spending that much.

So the biggest expense we have is our house.

Every year, our mortgage on this house is like $36,000.

So if we can cut that in half,

we can invest that $18,000.

Also, when we downsize,

we can have a short-term rental on that property

and hopefully pay for our new mortgage.

So we can definitely hit our FIRE number way sooner

and then have a choice about work.

If housing is expensive where you live,

then you should be more efficient.

And you can really catapult yourself to early retirement a lot earlier

if you're willing to take such a bold step.

I guess the idea is just having the house in good condition.

- So it looks nicer when you're selling it. - Exactly.

- Okay, so the plan here... - Yeah.

We're gonna max this area out with shelves.

Yeah.

Starting with some 18s and then doing 15...

Actually 16s and 15s.

- All the way to the top. - Okay.

It often takes longer to find a person like a contractor

to come help you with something.

Just do it yourself, build the skills.

It's incredibly satisfying.

And it just happens to save you a shit-ton of money.

Good enough.

At this point, we're gonna get serious.

- I'm still cold. I'm gonna keep mine on. - Yeah.

Pete has a lot of resources on frugality,

but our work with Pete has centered around

our mindset when it comes to money.

Yeah.

Pete's coaching has been

more about being deliberate and responsible in your choices.

I think the main thing we were learning from Pete

was to live our life in a joyful, responsible way.

Like, I think his main message to us has never been, "Only save money."

It's been, "Save money, but also don't wait to live your life

and spend time with your kids."

Should I get tortillas prepped?

Here. I'll start cutting an onion,

and then you can sauté them up.

Okay.

- You want me to throw some butter in? - Yeah.

So I've learned a lot about food spending in this process.

We are not spending the money we did before with take-out every night.

What are you doing?

- I'm cutting avocado. - Okay.

Getting away from Uber Eats and ordering take-out,

I think that contributed a lot to no longer being paycheck to paycheck.

That allowed me to actually save

the money that I was earning through my art projects.

There is more breathing room.

Carey just got promoted to head chef at his company.

They are offering him free healthcare.

And as his partner, I can get on his healthcare for a small price.

So whenever I do get health insurance,

one of the primary things I want to take care of has been mental health.

I think therapy is always a good idea.

So I'm very anxious to be getting started with that again.

While I have been painting,

the pylon project at Hop Squad is kind of cool.

People will come up to me,

ask to take pictures, and they'll ask for my business card.

I've had people tell me they're looking for a fence

in their neighborhood painted with a mural or little things like that.

So I've got a few leads that way.

Hop Squad really, really, really want to support my art,

and they gave me this amazing opportunity

where I'm going to be doing art classes once a month for them now.

You just have paint markers here. They're very easy to use,

so you don't have to worry about brush strokes.

And after you're done...

The best part of that too, is whenever I do my art nights,

they want me to set up a booth and set up my paintings for sale.

My entire goal was to get out of the service industry,

and I feel like I am actually planting roots

for my future, and it's flourishing.

When I started this process,

I didn't think I was in the right place in life,

but I realized along the way,

once I started doing things that I love

and building something, creating something from the bottom,

that is success to me now. Success is happiness.

Been a pleasure. Good evening, everybody walking in.

The Bears and Buccaneers in Tampa.

I just got some real good news.

Got an exciting phone call.

I'm playing my first game with the Chicago Bears

after six weeks on practice squad.

I'm going against Tom Brady and the Bucks.

Should be fun.

Teez! Let's go! I had to come to your first game, baby!

Third and ten.

That's broken up.

Teez Tabor is the one who knocked it down.

There we go, Teez! Yes, sir!

I was just so excited because I haven't got to play

in an NFL game for almost three years,

so it's just a long time coming.

Going from practice squad to active roster,

there's a big difference in the pay.

The money coming in now is different than when I first got in the league.

I already know I'm putting certain amount in the S&P like I'm paying a bill.

So I'm just getting started,

but I'm definitely setting my family up for the better.

- Daddy's hair are messy! - It's all messy?

- Need to comb all of it. - Yeah, you gotta get it right.

When I look at Chelsea and Ariah with this new knowledge,

it definitely makes me feel like a better provider.

Eye! You know, eye!

His blue eyes!

To be able to help especially those two people in my life...

Okay, let's go take a look!

...for life.

And... And that's the biggest thing.

I think it looks amazing.

I think he just needs some lip gloss, then he's all done.

You look so beautiful!

I'm very passionate about

giving the knowledge I got back to the community.

Helping them have a different outlook on money and how to use it.

See, when I got to the NFL, it was... it was showtime for me.

Man, I'm looking... I'm looking sweet now. I can finally buy my own shoes.

I got my own crib. You know what I'm saying?

I got my own jewelry. You know...

I mean, I was spending it before I got it.

Growing up, you ain't had no money, so you didn't have to manage money.

They don't teach us this in the classroom.

They teach us how to be, you know, consumers.

They teach us how to take on debt. Ain't gonna teach us how to keep money.

But sometimes in our culture, we want to get rich quick.

- Mm-hmm. - I wanna get rich quick. Right? Like...

It ain't no shame, right? It ain't no shame in it.

But I blew so much money on...

you know, the fake lifestyle that we want to live, for real.

Forget all the Instagram. Forget all the glitz and the glamour.

Like, forget all that. It's fake.

All that little baby chains, it's... it's not real, for real.

What's real is really investing my money.

Everything that I've learned from Ro$$ has definitely, like, changed my life.

It changed my mindset.

It changed my outlook.

It shifted my focus on what it needed to be.

And with that, there's no price tag that you could put on it.

The knowledge that I've gained is priceless.

I know we've been on a good track, but how do you feel?

- And where are you? Any big news? - Um, actually, yes!

- Okay! - I... I'm getting a raise at work.

- Okay! - Yeah.

I was told a little bit ago, um, and I'm waiting to see when that kicks in.

Look how your... More money is coming into your life, right?

When you look after money,

literally more money will come to you

because you're looking after the money that you have.

That's what's happening. You're getting on the other side of,

I like to call it post-traumatic broke syndrome.

- You know I've been there. - That's exactly what I'm feeling.

- Can I give you another update? - Yes, of course.

I paid off everything that had an interest rate of 10% or higher.

Yes!

So the only things that are left are things that are like 10% or lower.

Okay, that's awesome!

I don't remember when, like, my credit card balances

were ever this low.

Now, instead of feeling like a mountain, it's like I'm walking up a hill.

It doesn't feel like something that's insurmountable anymore.

It feels like, it's like, I'm almost at the finish line.

It's like a really great feeling.

So credit card debt's gonna be done soon.

- Yes. - So I want you to think now,

'cause here's where I was, I had $35,000 in credit card debt.

And I paid it all by being very aggressive.

- Just like you. - Yeah.

And then I was like, "Student loan debt, you're next!"

That's how I feel now!

- But... here's the thing. - Okay. Yes.

- Credit card debt is cancerous. - Yes, it is.

- We have to cut it out. - Yes.

But student loan debt, usually the interest rate is fairly low.

- Oftentimes under 5%. - Yeah.

And so you don't have to be as fast with paying them off.

I want you to start to enjoy

the money that's happening to you.

- You know what I mean? - Yes, that would be amazing.

The way you're navigating with your finances now, you can do that.

Isn't this cool?

It's like a sculpture.

In the beginning, the money is for security.

After that, what is the money for?

Some day trips that I wanted to go, like, see the pyramids nearby.

The money is to help explore the world.

The money is to lean into new experiences.

The money is to help create the life that you really desire,

and that is your reward for taking care of it.

They have a subway, which is really cool, and apparently Ubers are like $3.

Something that Tiffany really pushed me to do

is set up this dream fund.

So Andrew and I are planning a trip to Mexico City.

This would be a lot of fun for us to do. Just me and you.

So I thought his was absolutely beautiful.

- Casa Boho? - Casa Boho.

This money was specifically set aside for this trip.

So there's less guilt associated with it, right?

Like, it's not like this money was earmarked

for debt or something else.

I wanna do a couple nice dinners.

I haven't had to think about a budget since I've started working with Tiffany.

My direct deposit is set up so the correct amount of money

goes into every single account.

It has lifted, like, this huge weight,

knowing that everything is set up and I don't have to touch it at all.

This mindset shift around giving myself grace

and being patient with myself and, like, setting up my money in a way

that gave me space to do the things that mattered to me

while also paying off the debt.

It's been, like, life-changing.

Ready? Where are we going?

To the airport.

We're going to Costa Rica! We're on our way.

And we are gonna go on vacation.

When I tell people to cut down their spending,

I'm really trying to talk them into cutting out waste.

Going on a family vacation,

like a trip to Costa Rica, is totally different.

That's something you're gonna remember forever.

Your kids are only young once.

So if you can afford it, that's probably money that's worth spending.

I'm packing.

Yay!

How long is this trip gonna be?

- Five weeks total. - Yeah.

That's a pretty reasonable, like, uh, early retirement test.

Yeah, mini retirement, we learned that term recently.

I like the idea of doing that once a year, having an extended break

rather than waiting till we're, you know...

- Yeah, I think that's a good idea. - Yeah.

So what's the status of your... your nice house back in Colorado,

while you're on this vacation?

We were able to rent it out for two weeks.

- What! Oh, that's awesome! - Yeah.

This whole process has been about, like, "How do we use our resources?"

Money being one of the resources to expand the amount of time

and prioritize our kids.

It's not the material stuff. It's the time that we care about.

I've never taken off this much time from work.

What was most special about the mini retirement

was that we got to bond and, like, really get to know each other.

And we just don't have time for that in daily life.

Oh, you found another slug?

- Yeah! - Be gentle with him, okay?

We don't have time to sit on a beach

and like, talk about shells.

It doesn't, like, happen.

So that was really special.

The trip was kind of a representation of, like,

"Okay, we can, like, hustle and make all this money

and then not use it and just throw it all on the stock market."

Or we can take time now to be available and present for each other

and have real healthy, happy relationships.

I feel like the definition of money has shifted from a way to create

short-term comfort, short-term relief

to long-term freedom.

I definitely have changed the way I think about Amazon

and spending in general because we have a really solid goal

that we're working towards.

Being able to retire in the next five, six, seven years

is such a bigger reward

than anything I could purchase ever.

The ultimate goal of money is to not have to think about money.

If your spending is low, then all the other problems

just kind of evaporate.

I'm just hoping that Kim and John are feeling more confident

and less overwhelmed,

and I'm sure their spending is gonna improve.

But even more important than that is just that their mental understanding

of how bright their future is gonna be, that needs to sink in,

and then they're gonna feel empowered to make more changes after that.

Money is just a tool.

You can use money to build yourself up financially,

but money can also be used to destroy yourself financially.

But ultimately, the good news is you get to decide.

You are in charge.

What I'm most happy about

is I can see that Ari sees the finish line.

You know, I'm not talking to a woman who's hopeless anymore.

It's not just teaching the person how to budget

or teaching the person how to invest. This is a lifestyle.

If Teez is to keep up this pace of investing in the S&P 500

on a monthly basis, being disciplined, being consistent, right?

Literally in 20 years, he'll have close to four million dollars.

When you shift your focus and you think about what you can earn

and how to grow your income,

part of that is shifting your focus

to really ask yourself the question, "What value can I bring to the world?"

Lindsey has so much creativity and skill

that by making that her career, she will naturally make a lot more money,

because the thing is,

you make money based on how rare and valuable

the thing that you're bringing to the table is.