Shownotes
In part two, Kristen shares her journey from working in education to quitting her job — and helping her husband quit his — while simultaneously taking on a major expense of IVF treatment.
She also sheds light on some of the mistakes she made that she would change if she could go back and do the process again.
They also discuss how to navigate “worst-case scenarios” with any Sexy Money Goals.
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Transcripts
you can plan and plan and plan, absolutely.
Speaker:But you do have to get to a point where you just make that decision.
Speaker:And you just go for it.
Speaker:And if you have some of the safeties in place to catch you, if anything
Speaker:goes wrong or there are blips, or it takes longer than it should.
Speaker:Then that's good, but ultimately you do just have to take that leap.
Speaker:Welcome to the Know Your Worth Show, where we teach you how to think about
Speaker:your money differently so that you can achieve your sexy money goals.
Speaker:I'm Sydnee your money Maven and owner of Know Your Worth.
Speaker:And I'm Kristen Sid's Dimepiece bestie team member and busy mama
Speaker:twins here to make sure that those of us without a financial degree can
Speaker:still level up with each episode.
Speaker:Let's get started on reaching your next goal.
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:Hi.
Speaker:Welcome to the Know Your Worth podcast.
Speaker:I am one of your hosts, Sydnee Your Money Maven.
Speaker:I'm Sid's Best Done Peace bestie.
Speaker:And Kristen, off to a good start.
Speaker:Yeah, we're on episode four and we're sort of continuing the last episode
Speaker:where we talked about my sexy money goal of leaving my corporate position and
Speaker:kind of taking my business full time.
Speaker:And now we're going to talk about Kristen's experience.
Speaker:Hmm.
Speaker:Yeah, so you talked about leaving the corporate world and so I was a teacher
Speaker:I was in the educational system for 12 or 13 years, so pretty long time.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it was really interesting when you were talking in the last episode about
Speaker:how you grew up around entrepreneurs and always not being shameful about money.
Speaker:I grew up the exact opposite.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Like everyone in my family was in a corporate system, or Yeah.
Speaker:They just were like my grandma, Janet, who was my best friend
Speaker:and soulmate, she was a teacher.
Speaker:So she was the whole reason, as soon as I could even talk or read mm-hmm.
Speaker:I was going to be a teacher.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:That's just what I was going to be.
Speaker:So I never even knew that that existed.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:That way of thinking.
Speaker:My mom just retired from.
Speaker:The same job she had from the time she was pregnant with me.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:Like she was a receptionist at a hospital.
Speaker:And my dad went back to school while my brother and I were growing
Speaker:up and became an accountant.
Speaker:And now he works for a small business in Altoona and he's
Speaker:the financial controller there.
Speaker:So they've always been.
Speaker:In those, that corporate world.
Speaker:And so I just kind of grew up this is what we do.
Speaker:My parents were super young when they had me, so money was always really tight.
Speaker:We never wanted it for anything, but we didn't have extra things.
Speaker:And even when they would advance.
Speaker:In their lives.
Speaker:I remember we would get a new car or something and that was like a
Speaker:big deal and they would not tell the neighbors about it or park in the back.
Speaker:They never wanted anyone to feel bad about themselves.
Speaker:When they would get ahead.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:It was just when I just grew up like money is the root of all evil.
Speaker:And I think I had really warped ways of looking at money.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Which I didn't realize until my late thirties.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So I was just wanting to point out that our backgrounds are so different.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:When it comes this, and I really admire the way you grew up.
Speaker:I want my kids to grow up that way.
Speaker:Just thinking that like possibilities are pretty much endless.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So anyways, I started teaching, went into school counseling.
Speaker:I did that for a pretty long time and I pretty much thought
Speaker:that's what I would retire from.
Speaker:And when my husband and I got married, he owned a fitness company in Virginia and.
Speaker:Super successful in that field.
Speaker:He's very passionate about all that kind of stuff.
Speaker:And so I was counseling, he was doing that.
Speaker:And then we started to try to build our family and long story, long we hit
Speaker:a series of road bumps miscarriages, four years of trying to have a baby.
Speaker:Just very, very stressful, very unsuccessful.
Speaker:And it was hard.
Speaker:I mean, it's hard to have any job when you're going through that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Try to compartmentalize that part of your life.
Speaker:But in my job, I worked in a K to five school, and as the school counselor, I
Speaker:was the mandated reporter for the school.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So anytime a child was being mistreated or abused, it became my issue.
Speaker:And so several times a week, I would be measuring bruises on kids.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:And talking to the police and And then I would go home at night and
Speaker:take a pregnancy test and be like, oh, okay, those people get to be parents.
Speaker:And I don't.
Speaker:So it really started to wear on me mentally and that was the
Speaker:first time I was like, I'm going to have to find another route.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:because I can't do this forever because it was kind of
Speaker:changing who I was as a person.
Speaker:And then just how we talked about in your episode, things just
Speaker:kind of start to fall into place.
Speaker:I was presented a different opportunity.
Speaker:That was something that was completely different than anything I'd ever done.
Speaker:It was a sales opportunity and I started working at it and I quickly
Speaker:matched my counseling salary and I was like, I'm getting out of here.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I did not have a calculated plan like you did.
Speaker:You talked about like having a budget and looking at your numbers.
Speaker:And I literally looked at one check and I was like, you know what?
Speaker:I think I can make this work.
Speaker:But you know what?
Speaker:You knew it matched.
Speaker:Like you, you saw the income come in, it matched what you had.
Speaker:And you were like, okay, I can do it.
Speaker:It's, yeah, that's, that's a plan.
Speaker:That's a plan in a way.
Speaker:It's a plan.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But it was also sales, so it was also very contingent on working, doing that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Keeping it going.
Speaker:Which, which I have no problem working hard, but it wasn't like my skillset,
Speaker:so I feel like I could have probably had like couple more months under my belt.
Speaker:But I was just so desperate to get out of there and it seemed, it
Speaker:just felt like the right choice.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:You know how when something just feels like the right choice.
Speaker:Definitely.
Speaker:I left my job that was in 2016 and I did that for another year and a half.
Speaker:And then I started to replace Chris's income and his dream had always
Speaker:been to invent his own product.
Speaker:And he was like, I want to leave my job.
Speaker:We can swing it again.
Speaker:We did not do a lot of calculating together because
Speaker:we're both a little impulsive.
Speaker:And so then in December of 2000, 17, he left his job and we started I V F,
Speaker:which was like, everybody quit your jobs.
Speaker:Oh.
Speaker:And then we're going to drop $50,000 on trying to create a baby.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So I think whenever I called and told my dad, I think he probably
Speaker:put me on mute and screamed into the board and then unmuted it and
Speaker:was like, that sounds great honey.
Speaker:But um, Yeah, so that was a tough decision.
Speaker:But I feel like I wasn't as calculated as you were when I left and it works
Speaker:out in the end okay, now I'm mm-hmm.
Speaker:Eight years into it.
Speaker:Yeah, it works out in the end, but there was a lot of stress in the
Speaker:meantime because I feel like I didn't.
Speaker:Have all my ducks in a row.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It was more impulsive and emotional.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:If that makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah, it definitely does.
Speaker:It definitely does.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Did you know what you were going to do for insurance and things like that?
Speaker:Like with I V F, had you already thought about that route at least?
Speaker:because that's sometimes like one of the biggest barriers for leaving
Speaker:corporate is like the insurance piece.
Speaker:The insurance,
Speaker:and that's, That's funny because one, nothing under I V
Speaker:F is covered under insurance.
Speaker:Makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But Chris had always been on my insurance because he had his own fitness company.
Speaker:And the school district insurance, that's how they get ya teachers.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Before I left, I think when I left, I did a year like sabbatical
Speaker:first to dip my toes in.
Speaker:So I got to buy my insurance, yeah.
Speaker:Pay for half of it.
Speaker:And then we just went into the, What's it called?
Speaker:The marketplace?
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And just got our own insurance and honestly, that has never
Speaker:been like a huge hangup for me.
Speaker:It's kind of one of those things like.
Speaker:It a necessary evil.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And I probably take for granted that we just pay for it.
Speaker:And it's expensive and it's not easy.
Speaker:And I don't actually know what it even pays for because honest to God.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Why aren't your eyes, teeth, and health all on the same insurance?
Speaker:I would agree.
Speaker:Why?
Speaker:Why is vision, dental, and regular insurance all separate?
Speaker:It doesn't make sense.
Speaker:Doesn't make sense.
Speaker:But that's also something I think that whenever I got that question a
Speaker:lot, whenever I was going to leave, what do you do about insurance?
Speaker:Whatcha going to do about insurance?
Speaker:It was like everybody's biggest fear is like, what about insurance?
Speaker:What about insurance?
Speaker:Was that a for you?
Speaker:A little bit.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think it was initially, but again, like if I want to do something, I
Speaker:will spend the entire day looking it up and then just make the decision.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I think I did determine pretty quickly that you can go in the market mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it's not a big deal.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But what we did was we just switched to Alex's insurance.
Speaker:And it's funny because it was like that was the bad thing to do
Speaker:or wasn't the right thing to do.
Speaker:It was fine.
Speaker:We just switched over to his company's insurance when I left, but his
Speaker:company's insurance was so expensive.
Speaker:Oh really?
Speaker:And I think that's one of the biggest ploys of like corporate work is you
Speaker:think that you're getting a deal and it's going to be better by being on
Speaker:like your company's insurance plan.
Speaker:It's not always the case.
Speaker:No.
Speaker:So when we were on his, we were paying.
Speaker:I think like $1,300 a month for the two of us on his company's insurance.
Speaker:They were, I think, subsidizing maybe like 300 bucks of it or
Speaker:something, like a small piece of it.
Speaker:I'm not really sure what it was, but we were paying like over a thousand
Speaker:dollars out of our own pocket every month for our insurance, and Alex
Speaker:and I never went to the doctors.
Speaker:We never had anything wrong.
Speaker:Knock on wood.
Speaker:We were very blessed with that.
Speaker:But like that was crazy.
Speaker:So then after about almost a year of us being on his company's insurance, Policy.
Speaker:We had some friends who recommended that we go into the market for
Speaker:things and now our insurance is like $300 a month for both of us.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it's so much better.
Speaker:We can go to any doctor, like it's not just in, in Pittsburgh,
Speaker:it's not Highmark, U P M C.
Speaker:We can go to any doctor.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:As long as they're on this list that's really easy to find on their website.
Speaker:So a lot of people were really like held up by that.
Speaker:What are you going to do for insurance?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I can't leave because of the insurance and my family needs insurance.
Speaker:And I was like absolutely.
Speaker:I'm not saying go without it, but but do your research.
Speaker:Do your research.
Speaker:It's so easy to find in the marketplace and it's way cheaper.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Than you think it is.
Speaker:It's way cheaper than you think it is.
Speaker:And it's just like anything else it seems scary and it seems like this mountain
Speaker:that you have to climb, but like mm-hmm.
Speaker:Once you do your research and just get it, you kind of forget about it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So you have to pay it every month, but otherwise and as a
Speaker:business owner, it's a deduction.
Speaker:If you have your own business and you're providing for yourself,
Speaker:it's a deduction on your taxes at the end of the year, mm-hmm.
Speaker:That's helpful too.
Speaker:That is helpful.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah, that was definitely a hangup of my parents retirement was a hangup.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:The predictability of getting a paycheck that, you know, what it
Speaker:is every month, which honestly.
Speaker:As a teacher, I worked so hard.
Speaker:I showed up early, I stayed late.
Speaker:I went to volunteer events.
Speaker:I, and that's, it's all noble work and it's all great, and I'm
Speaker:not saying anything about it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Other than it was a game changer for me when I could.
Speaker:See the correlation between like how hard I worked and my paycheck.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:That's a completely different ball game.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I completely agree with you.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Completely agree with you.
Speaker:That's, that was what I was thinking too, like whenever we were, it's just the
Speaker:harder you work, the more that you see.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And you can still do all the good things that you wanted to do.
Speaker:You can still teach if you want to teach, you can find other
Speaker:routes to, if that's what it is, but you're not trapped anymore.
Speaker:And like at the time, my sexy money goal, which actually was the most unsexy
Speaker:thing it could probably be, was to make a baby with a scientist through I V F.
Speaker:But my goal, that's a pretty sexy money goal.
Speaker:I mean, it turned out, yeah.
Speaker:But yeah, spoiler alert, we have five-year-old twins
Speaker:through I V F or almost five.
Speaker:But what I was going to say is, I couldn't work harder as a teacher
Speaker:to make more money to Yeah.
Speaker:Pay anywhere near what we had to pay for that lottery ticket to try to have a kid.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And so my heart really goes out To everybody who has to go through that.
Speaker:Because I mean, you either pick up a side hustle or you pick
Speaker:up a crap ton of debt Yeah.
Speaker:To get to that end goal.
Speaker:And it's not one of those things where you're like, I want this physical
Speaker:object that like I could live without.
Speaker:Like once you have that feeling inside you that you want to be a
Speaker:parent, like you want to be a parent.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And you will do what it takes and you will incur the debt and you will.
Speaker:Sell pictures of yourself online.
Speaker:No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker:I'm totally kidding.
Speaker:But my point is like, sexy money goals aren't always sexy to the outside world.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:You're absolutely right.
Speaker:That's, and that's what it's all about.
Speaker:It's I mean, helping other people understand why you had your sexy
Speaker:money goal is a big part of other people having their own Yeah.
Speaker:And realizing that they can have that goal.
Speaker:And that's a very.
Speaker:Good goal.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It is a sexy goal.
Speaker:It's exciting.
Speaker:It's huge.
Speaker:It's a really big commitment and it's a really big hurdle.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And it has to propel you forward.
Speaker:And so when I had to, learn that sales job or go out of my comfort zone of
Speaker:talking to people, because it's not my comfort zone, it did propel me forward.
Speaker:I pictured like.
Speaker:Holding my baby when I woke up in the morning.
Speaker:I did not picture there being two of them there.
Speaker:That was just a bonus.
Speaker:But I, I pictured all those moments that I wanted, and that is what made
Speaker:me do the things that were hard.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Whereas sometimes I felt like in teaching or in that world, I just got into like a.
Speaker:It was almost like being in a coma.
Speaker:You're like sleepwalking.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I was passionate about my job and I liked my job, but I mean,
Speaker:you get beat down out there too.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And so sometimes you do fall into a trap of just going through the
Speaker:motions and I don't feel like you always get the privilege of doing
Speaker:that when you have your own business.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because you have to steer the ship.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And I, so I remember that kind of thought process.
Speaker:When I worked at the last company, I worked for my boss, wanting to get
Speaker:everybody to be like a self-starter.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:If you can't figure it out, Google it, research it.
Speaker:And I remember doing that to a point, but then being like, you have to help
Speaker:me with this if I can't figure it out.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:She was a really good teacher where she was just like, no, you figure it out.
Speaker:Like you figure it out.
Speaker:So she really pushed, the people below her to really do their own
Speaker:research and do their own work.
Speaker:But it is interesting that then you just feel like annoyed.
Speaker:You kind of feel stuck.
Speaker:You feel like no one's helping you.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:When you're in this corporate role of you feel like somebody else should know
Speaker:this answer, but whenever you have your own business, You don't know the answer.
Speaker:No one else is going to tell you YouTube, you have to Google YouTube.
Speaker:YouTube is your best friend.
Speaker:Google is your best friend.
Speaker:But it's really, I feel the mentality and the feeling towards,
Speaker:it's just like when you're in a corporate position and you have those
Speaker:questions, you feel a lot more stuck.
Speaker:You feel more like you're in that like coma of it is what it is.
Speaker:It's what it is.
Speaker:I don't know, I guess, yeah.
Speaker:Until Friday.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And I think too, like there's always a fear of getting.
Speaker:In trouble or doing it wrong when you work for someone else, especially in
Speaker:education, because there's the parent side and then there's the administration side.
Speaker:And yes, everybody wants you to solve your own problems until you solve it wrong.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And then you're screwed.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:And so I feel like when you do have your own business and you break out
Speaker:of that, like you're pretty much the only person you have to answer to.
Speaker:Yes, you have clients and things like that, but I mean,
Speaker:in the end, you are your own.
Speaker:YouTube.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:So if you could go back and change anything about
Speaker:leaving corporate, would you?
Speaker:Mm.
Speaker:I mean, no, because I, I love the way that things have turned out.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And my life has taken a lot of different turns and I'm not
Speaker:really doing that job anymore.
Speaker:But I found.
Speaker:New people to work with and for, and new things that I love, and
Speaker:my kids get to see me working in a flexible way and working hard.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Even though they don't really understand it yet.
Speaker:But one thing I would probably change is I might've waited like another
Speaker:year to get my ducks in a row a little bit tighter financially.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I probably would've encouraged my husband to stay
Speaker:with his position for a while.
Speaker:I feel like I was in such a hurry to help his dreams come true.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:That.
Speaker:I just feel like the timing was maybe a little off, but I mean, who knows?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:We could have waited another year and the ship could have sailed and
Speaker:we could have missed this opportunity.
Speaker:So I try not to have a ton of regrets about it, but I think financially in a
Speaker:black and white way, there are probably some things I could have done differently.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And we had a financial advisor at the time and we did talk to the people
Speaker:we were supposed to talk to, but.
Speaker:In the end, you're the one making the decisions about where your money goes.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Even if somebody advises you differently.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:I know it makes a lot of sense.
Speaker:Yeah, I know.
Speaker:And I, I think that's what a lot of the holdup.
Speaker:With a lot of people is oh, I might be in a better position next year
Speaker:or in two years, or in three years.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Or they have a five-year goal.
Speaker:And you can plan and plan and plan, absolutely.
Speaker:But you do have to get to a point where you just make that decision.
Speaker:And you just go for it.
Speaker:And if you have some of the safeties in place to catch you, if anything
Speaker:goes wrong or there are blips, or it takes longer than it should.
Speaker:Then that's good, but ultimately you do just have to take that leap.
Speaker:And I think in the back of my head has always been like, okay, if it doesn't work
Speaker:out, then I'll renew my teaching license.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker:And I'll go back and you'd have to drag me back through the doors,
Speaker:like with my fingernails scraping on the carpet at this point.
Speaker:But I would do it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:If I had to.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:If I had to do it for my family and if I had to do it for myself, I would do it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But once you get a taste of what life is like on the other side, even though
Speaker:it's hard, I'm not saying that this is easy to have your own business or work
Speaker:in a different kind of environment.
Speaker:You don't want to go back.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:It's like the worst thing.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I would agree.
Speaker:I would agree.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And maybe not for everybody.
Speaker:Yeah, I was just going to say that.
Speaker:Maybe not for everybody.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:because I, always try to think that whenever I talk to some of my My
Speaker:friends or just people that you're in a conversation with that defend corporate.
Speaker:And that's great that I'm not, you can, you don't have
Speaker:to defend it from, the world.
Speaker:It's not like one is better than the other, but for certain people, one
Speaker:is definitely better than the other.
Speaker:Like for me, corporate was not right for me at the time then, and
Speaker:it would be not fun now either.
Speaker:I completely agree with you.
Speaker:But I think that if you want to stay in your corporate job, and you are listening
Speaker:to gain clarity over that, you just have to figure out what's important for you.
Speaker:Is building a business that's yours important to you?
Speaker:Is giving back to the community important to you?
Speaker:Is having more freedom and flexibility important to you?
Speaker:And that goes along with what we talked about in the last episode, is.
Speaker:With your sexy money goal is really finding out what your
Speaker:values are and aligning your day-to-day life with your values.
Speaker:And that's why people say, oh, when you do what you love, you
Speaker:don't feel like you're working.
Speaker:It's not necessarily what you love, but if what you're doing aligns with where
Speaker:your values are and it provides you the time, the energy, the capacity to do
Speaker:what you love, then it is what you love.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:It, it doesn't have to be the topic of what you're doing.
Speaker:Doesn't have to be.
Speaker:The thing that lights you up, but what it provides for you is what lights you up.
Speaker:And like for my dad, what I'm doing right now, freaking nightmare.
Speaker:Like this would not light him up.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:He likes security.
Speaker:He likes safety, he likes predictability.
Speaker:He feels motivated by bonuses and recognition within his company.
Speaker:And those things are all great.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:I admire the hell out of my dad.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:He has done great things for the company that he works for,
Speaker:and that is where he feels best.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:But for me, that isn't where I would thrive.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:No, I completely, completely agree.
Speaker:Completely understand that.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And you're right, one is not better or different than the other.
Speaker:It just depends on what your personality is.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Or your goals.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So if you have to give advice to anybody else that would be leaving their corporate
Speaker:position, what would you tell them?
Speaker:I would tell you to, just really evaluate what your values are what
Speaker:stresses you out, what the plan is if it fails, because I am always like, I
Speaker:am a plan from the worst case scenario and work your way backwards hoping that
Speaker:you never hit the worst case scenario.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But just so I know that if I do what the plan is mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I think talking it over with open-minded people who you
Speaker:trust to give you solid advice, but who you are not swayed by.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So if that trusted person is going to give you their honest opinion and it
Speaker:doesn't align with what your heart really wants, being able to push through anyways.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And do it otherwise.
Speaker:But sometimes I think it's great to talk to other people about stuff like
Speaker:this because if you don't know where you stand and they advise you in a way
Speaker:that like you feel in your heart, you're like, That's not what I wanted to hear.
Speaker:You almost figure out what you wanted to hear.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Or what you actually feel by hearing what you didn't want to hear.
Speaker:Yeah, I absolutely agree.
Speaker:I don't know if that makes sense.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I, I mean I followed, but yeah.
Speaker:I don't know if anybody else did, but you and I are usually on the same wavelength.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I just think being calculated about it in terms of your emotions
Speaker:and your mental stability too.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Not just your finances.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And.
Speaker:Kind of stuff.
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:And I think to build off what you're saying too, like one of the things I
Speaker:think is a good idea to do before you leave your corporate role or before you
Speaker:launch your business or you take that plunge is when you're talking to other
Speaker:people about it and you're asking them think about how you're asking them too.
Speaker:So it's good to get advice from people who have left their jobs, whether it's
Speaker:that they're leaving permanently or they're just leaving for something new.
Speaker:You can ask them different questions on what were some of
Speaker:the, and it can be as, as detailed or as general as you want to be.
Speaker:But if you ask those people like, Not, this is what I'm doing.
Speaker:You have to agree with me one way or the other.
Speaker:But hey, I'm thinking about this.
Speaker:Did you experience any roadblocks?
Speaker:What were some of the things that you went through?
Speaker:If you could go back and change something, what would you do?
Speaker:So it's easier, I think, sometimes when you're telling people.
Speaker:What your plan is to sometimes allow them to provide feedback in a constructive way
Speaker:so they feel like their opinion's heard.
Speaker:Wow, that's so good.
Speaker:But also doesn't sway you too much.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:because it also might provide really good information.
Speaker:So if you want to go tell your parents that you're quitting your job and
Speaker:you're taking your business full time, if you go and say it to them like,
Speaker:hey, I'm doing this, but I was just thinking a couple things through and
Speaker:I'd love to hear your thoughts on, if I do hit a sales roadblock, what do
Speaker:you think would be like a good outlet?
Speaker:This is kind of what I was thinking, but do you have any thoughts on it?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or, have you guys ever been in a situation where you couldn't
Speaker:meet rent, ask your parents that?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Have you ever been in a situation where, You couldn't make rent on
Speaker:your house, what would you do?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:What would your approach have been?
Speaker:And if they say no, I never put myself in that situation.
Speaker:Say, oh, okay, so what was your backup?
Speaker:If something ever happened, what was your backup?
Speaker:Lost a job?
Speaker:Or yeah.
Speaker:And, and they can be a little bit more than self-reflective that they probably
Speaker:have been in a scary situation and provide some feedback and insight.
Speaker:Rather than being judgmental about it.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:I know that.
Speaker:So I think there's different ways to ask the people around you or
Speaker:talk to the people around you too.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And sometimes it's hard to posture that.
Speaker:because again, like I can talk really fast and just shoot right
Speaker:from the hip with my own thoughts.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:But if you can think about the conversations that are giving you
Speaker:pause or the ones that are making really nervous to make the decisions.
Speaker:Think about just taking a different angle to it.
Speaker:Hey, I'd love to do this.
Speaker:Can you help me in this way?
Speaker:Or hey, if you're talking to your parents and they're really good at budgeting and
Speaker:spreadsheets, Hey, can you guys help me?
Speaker:Put this plan together.
Speaker:I want to build this model out and then tell them what your insight is.
Speaker:Tell them what your theories are.
Speaker:It'll show a little bit more of your skills and expertise on
Speaker:why you think it's a good idea.
Speaker:It'll give them some validation and it kind of makes that
Speaker:conversation of I'm quitting just a little bit easier sometimes too.
Speaker:Giving people a little bit of controlled ownership.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think too
Speaker:When you said about asking parents like, what about people who need to
Speaker:talk to a spouse or a partner Yeah.
Speaker:Who might not be on the same page.
Speaker:I was really fortunate that my partner was on the same page and he saw what
Speaker:my job was doing to me and he was like, I don't care what you have to do.
Speaker:I just want my wife back.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:So I was fortunate in that regard.
Speaker:What would you say to somebody whose spouse is not on board?
Speaker:And that's hard because I think that, so from some of my clients, I've dealt with
Speaker:a lot of spouses that, not a lot, I'd say.
Speaker:I'd say the majority of our clients, their spouses are very supportive.
Speaker:But we've had a couple that their spouses are not supportive.
Speaker:and this gets a little touchy, I don't want to be, that's a pretty hard question.
Speaker:Yeah, it is a hard question.
Speaker:I, I hope that you have a spouse or a partner that supports you mm-hmm.
Speaker:In all of your dreams and endeavors.
Speaker:But if you have spouses that, or partners that are just very weary
Speaker:of things or very safe, again, for me, data is the strongest support.
Speaker:I would recommend creating a budget for your business your tentative business.
Speaker:Thinking about, what's the upstart, what's the cost startup,
Speaker:if you haven't started it yet, What do you need to start it?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:What are the tools that you need to start?
Speaker:Go on Google and look up all the prices for them.
Speaker:Put it in an Excel spreadsheet.
Speaker:Write down every single thing that you need to start that business down to
Speaker:the pencils that you want to start.
Speaker:Go in super, super granular detail.
Speaker:Think about every part of that business cycle and what you need, the software that
Speaker:you would need, how much that would be a monthly recurring cost, and, and kind
Speaker:of get that three month upfront cost.
Speaker:And if you have that that's kind of the business side.
Speaker:Then you have your personal side of what's your household budget?
Speaker:If it's as simple as just saying, this is what my income currently
Speaker:is, I want my income to be the same thing, then just use that.
Speaker:But if you can reduce your income and say, this is what my income currently
Speaker:is, this is what our expenses currently are, I just need to be able to cover
Speaker:our expenses and maybe have a little bit of a buffer if you have an emergency
Speaker:fund or you know, Savings or retirement or anything kind of already there,
Speaker:maybe that can fluctuate a little bit.
Speaker:You can be a little bit riskier.
Speaker:Again, you know your partner, right?
Speaker:So if they're going to want to see a little bit more risk they just want to
Speaker:see your thought process through it.
Speaker:That's where I would recommend starting, because to me it's really hard.
Speaker:One, it's already hard to say no to your partner when they're excited
Speaker:about something, in my opinion.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:So if your partner is just ready to say no to you, when you're really excited
Speaker:about them, there might be a deeper conversation that needs to be had.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:But if your partner is excited but very weary or doesn't want you to do
Speaker:something risky or you don't have the funds for it, Then show them the plan.
Speaker:And again, you have to be prepared to lay down this plan and follow it yourself too.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:And have a backup plan.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:All else fails.
Speaker:What can you go and do to make up for that?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Are you in a, a position where you could just go and apply for another job because.
Speaker:A lot of people are right now, it's not that it's so easy to find a job, but
Speaker:it's easy to find a supplemental job.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:That you can just make things work.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:If I knew if this didn't work again, I could go work at the restaurant
Speaker:down the street, but also I could go be an accountant, and make
Speaker:an entry level salary that would cover all of our bills right away.
Speaker:We live within our means.
Speaker:Check that too.
Speaker:Are you living within your means?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Are you and your partner living within your means?
Speaker:If you're not living within your means and you are going to make this big scary step.
Speaker:You really have to change your lifestyle for it.
Speaker:You really need to talk about the lifestyle changes that come with that.
Speaker:There's a lot of sacrifices that come with it.
Speaker:There are, yeah, there definitely are.
Speaker:Vacations, shopping, food, I mean it's, there's a lot of different things.
Speaker:Again, there are a lot of benefits.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But I think it's having a plan to support that and again, trying to posture some of
Speaker:those conversations in a way that allows your partner to express their concerns
Speaker:and you're not brushing them off because.
Speaker:I also have a tendency to do some of that where like I can be like,
Speaker:no, I've thought this through.
Speaker:This is what we're doing.
Speaker:This is it.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And it's not that I don't want my partner to have, I don't want Alex
Speaker:to not have an opinion, but I just, I want him to agree with me on it.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And see that I've done the research and that, like I've, done all this
Speaker:legwork and I think now we're at a point where he does trust all the data
Speaker:and the work that I go into it, but, a couple years ago we hadn't had like
Speaker:massive decisions like that yet, right?
Speaker:So I really did have that conversation a lot where it's
Speaker:okay, what are you concerned about?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:What do we need to work through?
Speaker:What do we need to make sure is in our budget?
Speaker:What can we not cut out?
Speaker:What do we not want to cut out?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What are we not willing to cut out?
Speaker:And mine is sometimes as simple as fancy cheese and red wine like,
Speaker:and obviously our mortgage payment.
Speaker:But you know, there was a, I didn't have a lot of, didn't keep the cheese.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like I didn't have a lot of incidentals that we were like,
Speaker:we must be able to do this.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like I said, I was lucky with that, but I really did go through that plan of okay,
Speaker:I need this many clients at this rate.
Speaker:This is all of my software costs, so I know this is what my top line
Speaker:revenue for the business has to be in order to pay myself this.
Speaker:So I think that that's definitely a good way to have a
Speaker:conversation with your partner.
Speaker:But again, if you go through all of this data with your partner and
Speaker:they are just unwilling to hear the conversation, then there's probably a
Speaker:deeper conversation that needs to be had.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:What, what's at the root of this?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Because if it's something that you can't support with data and
Speaker:kind of prove with data in order to make your life better mm-hmm.
Speaker:Then there's probably another conversation that needs to be had.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I love that you said, gave the data piece and talked about like
Speaker:having factual examples because in.
Speaker:My relationship, I will go in like emotional guns blazing with my
Speaker:plan that is written on a napkin.
Speaker:And then if it doesn't go my way, the conversation, I'm
Speaker:like ready to flip a table.
Speaker:Like, why don't you trust me?
Speaker:Why don't you want what's best for me?
Speaker:It's not mature at all, but I'm just saying if I had had you
Speaker:as a friend at the time mm-hmm.
Speaker:I probably would've been able.
Speaker:If I needed to to roll out the blueprint and be like, this is
Speaker:what it actually looks like.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Rather than like straight from my heart, here's a spreadsheet.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:You also said something in your last episode that I just thought
Speaker:about while you were talking.
Speaker:You said, when you left your corporate job, you were like, I wasn't, you said
Speaker:something about like I wasn't tied down, I didn't have kids and things like that.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And I do think too when I made this decision, I didn't
Speaker:have children yet either.
Speaker:And I think when you do have a full fledged family, a decision
Speaker:like this is a lot harder.
Speaker:Yeah, it is.
Speaker:Like if, if I had to make this decision now with two, four year olds at home
Speaker:who have daycare costs and doctor costs and extracurriculars, and I
Speaker:would've been way too scared, I think, to emotionally make that decision.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So I think I would've Definitely needed.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:The whole spreadsheet.
Speaker:And I think that's an important point.
Speaker:You are at different points in your life when decisions come easier mm-hmm.
Speaker:And can be a little looser.
Speaker:But, If you do have a lot of responsibility, like talking to a
Speaker:bookkeeper or an accountant or a financial advisor before you make a
Speaker:leap, like this is obviously yeah.
Speaker:Probably your best, best move for your peace of mind.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Yep, absolutely agree.
Speaker:And so for, to give a little bit of color on this, so I have clients that have been
Speaker:making these decisions and who they've talked to, if you want someone to help you
Speaker:prepare the data and really get granular on it a bookkeeper is going to be great.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And accountant's going to be great.
Speaker:A tax accountant or c p a, they'll probably be a lot more expensive.
Speaker:And if you're looking at a financial and analyst, any of those ones
Speaker:that if you're going to a company to look for that, they're going
Speaker:to be a little bit more expensive.
Speaker:Bookkeeper's going to be a little bit less Friends that are accountants, friends
Speaker:that work in Excel spreadsheets and analyze data in any capacity can really
Speaker:put this together for you very quickly.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:Not to downplay the work that goes into it but in terms of putting Excel
Speaker:spreadsheets together and formulas, their minds just work that way.
Speaker:It's the minds are in Excel spreadsheet.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:So if you can sit with a friend over coffee and say, Hey, I'm,
Speaker:I'll buy you a bottle of wine.
Speaker:I'll get you a coffee.
Speaker:Let's go, I'll go buy you dinner.
Speaker:Can we just sit with my laptop and I talk my thoughts through and
Speaker:you put them into formula form?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Wow.
Speaker:You can knock it out in a couple hours to have a basic open or budget blueprint.
Speaker:Yeah, budget financial statements and things like that.
Speaker:We have tools on our website too, where you can buy some of these tools.
Speaker:So we've already created the Excel sheets for them that you can go on
Speaker:and take a look at Some of those.
Speaker:Spreadsheets of a basic business financial statement where you can
Speaker:plug in all the expenses and it'll create financial statements for you.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, So again, if you're looking to like, make this yourself I.
Speaker:There are templates out there on Google Sheets, there are templates
Speaker:out there everywhere, Etsy, there's so many good resources to create this.
Speaker:And then again, if you're sitting with a friend that's just a good
Speaker:in Excel, has some data background, can do these formulas for you very
Speaker:quickly, that's really helpful.
Speaker:So if you have a friend that's a bookkeeper or a friend that is in
Speaker:data of any kind, they can really sit with you and prepare this pretty
Speaker:quickly in terms of what your family can afford and as an overall picture.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Again, a bookkeeper can help with this, like putting together what the whole
Speaker:plan is, but someone with a little bit more of a financial analysis background.
Speaker:Is going to be a better tool for you here too, because my husband used
Speaker:to work for Northwestern Mutual.
Speaker:So the language, they have a holistic approach.
Speaker:That's what, the fancy they use at Northwestern Mutual High level.
Speaker:They have a holistic approach to your finances.
Speaker:And so you can sit with your financial advisor if you don't have one
Speaker:then it's a great idea to get one.
Speaker:They're.
Speaker:Pretty easy to find.
Speaker:Recommendations from friends and family are always encouraged with that.
Speaker:And if you do have one, give them a call and just say, I'm
Speaker:thinking about quitting my job.
Speaker:I'm thinking about taking this full time.
Speaker:Can we just talk about some of the things to consider?
Speaker:And that's where they can look at what the status of your retirement
Speaker:planning is at that moment.
Speaker:And they can also talk about what you need to have in your savings
Speaker:in order to make that work.
Speaker:They can also talk about what your day-to-day looks like.
Speaker:because typically when you have a financial.
Speaker:Advisor, you have to create some sort of like a background budget
Speaker:for them when they're looking to create a financial plan for you in
Speaker:terms of retirement and investments.
Speaker:So they might already have an idea of what your general income looks
Speaker:like, general expenses, and they can kind of give you an overview of
Speaker:what this looks like in five years.
Speaker:Okay?
Speaker:If you take a break from investing for five years or.
Speaker:Retirement savings for five years, or if you hadn't even been doing that
Speaker:anyway, but you were thinking about starting, what does it look like to
Speaker:pause that for another five years?
Speaker:Or delay that for another five years.
Speaker:So that's where your financial advisor can really help you with that bigger approach.
Speaker:And then if you have a C P A or a tax accountant, That you meet yearly
Speaker:with, or quarterly with for tax saving strategy or just to submit your taxes.
Speaker:There's someone that you can talk with about how you want
Speaker:the business to be structured.
Speaker:Do you want it to be an L L C?
Speaker:Do you want it to be just a sole proprietor to start?
Speaker:Do you want it to be an SS Corp?
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And those people can talk through some of that background
Speaker:with you on the setup of it.
Speaker:They won't really, they won't always help with the.
Speaker:Budgeting and the planning just because they have a lot.
Speaker:Of other workload that sometimes doesn't fall under that realm.
Speaker:But they can really help with things to think about in terms of
Speaker:tax savings and tax deductions.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:But if you're looking to start this and get this planned out, if you
Speaker:have a bookkeeper that you know that you could work with, that would
Speaker:be a great place to start because That's what the bookkeepers do.
Speaker:That's what we do is day to day we're in all of that detail.
Speaker:And then looking at those financial projections and then being able to analyze
Speaker:and interpret those for our clients is kind of the realm that we're in every day.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:So that's where I would recommend starting.
Speaker:If you don't feel comfortable doing it yourself mm-hmm.
Speaker:You can absolutely do it yourself and do it for free and do it very well.
Speaker:Or ask a friend to help you with creating the spreadsheet.
Speaker:And that's a great way to get into the basics of planning to leave.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Good.
Speaker:I hope everyone just goes after all of their dreams of quitting corporate.
Speaker:Don't you just do your dreams, baby, and know that you can.
Speaker:I mean, we really believe that everything is attainable with a plan.
Speaker:And you have the tools right in front of you to especially
Speaker:now start a business, launch a business like for really, for free.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Or very minimal, minimal cost.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And do it right.
Speaker:Do it well and to have the confidence in yourself to be able to make that leap.
Speaker:All the tools are there.
Speaker:I think we should do an episode on how you actually start the business.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like What do you need?
Speaker:And if you guys have questions, you can put them on our social
Speaker:and we can answer those.
Speaker:But if you've been like tossing around I have a skill, then I need to monetize.
Speaker:Like how do I even begin?
Speaker:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker:We can definitely talk to you about that.
Speaker:Yeah, we definitely will.
Speaker:Yeah, we absolutely will.
Speaker:Kuku.
Speaker:Nice friends.
Speaker:Until then.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Absolutely.
Speaker:Thank you all for listening.
Speaker:I hope you enjoyed this podcast.
Speaker:Mm-hmm.
Speaker:And join us in for the next episode.
