$161,000 of student debt. Gone in 16 months.

Kristen is a critical care and pulmonology PA, and that's what she did. I asked her to walk through it because nobody teaches us this stuff, and most of us graduate with a big number and no plan beyond making the minimum payment forever.

She talks about how she budgeted, how she prioritized the debt, and how she stayed motivated when it meant living well below what her paycheck would have allowed. A lot of it comes down to being willing to look at the number instead of avoiding it.

To be clear, this is Kristen's story and what worked for her situation. I'm not a financial advisor and this isn't financial advice. Take what's useful and get real guidance for your own numbers.

What we cover:

• How Kristen paid off $161,000 in 16 months
• Building a budget she could actually stick to
• Prioritizing debt repayment as a new grad
• Staying motivated through an aggressive payoff
• Why financial literacy gets ignored in medical training
• Her work in critical care and pulmonology

Resources:

Free Application Timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Pre-PA Counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Pre-PA Academy: https://prepaclub.thepaplatform.com/landing/academy

Mentioned in this episode:

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Alright, guys, what's one thing that you don't really ever talk about in undergrad or PA school?

Money and finances.

So today I have Kristen, who is a critical care and pulmonology PA who paid off a crazy amount of debt very quickly and does financial coaching to talk to us about money.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club podcast.

If you want to learn how to become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Welcome to the podcast, y'.

All.

My name is Savannah Perry and I am your host.

Thank you so much for joining me and for being a listener of the.

Pre PA Club podcast.

We're so excited to have you as part of this great community.

We have our Facebook group as well.

If you're not in that, it's just the Pre PA Club on Facebook, but.

We'd love to have you there as well.

I'm really excited for today's episode.

I connected with Kristen on Instagram.

I actually saw another PA account kind of post about her and I was like, oh, my gosh, this girl knows what she's talking about and is a great example because she hustled so hard to pay back her loans.

So she's got some advice on that today in our show with if that's.

The right path to take for you.

And how to go about kind of evaluating your financial situation because PA school is expensive and, you know, there's a lot of different ways to go about it.

So we'll get into that in just a second.

She was also our guest on our latest Day in the Life event a couple weeks ago and she was awesome.

That video will be posted shortly on YouTube.

If you don't subscribe, it's just YouTube.com thepa platform.

And we have another event coming up next Thursday.

If you're listening to this in real time, we will have Nan, who is one of our coaches, and Josh, who is a PA in Texas.

They are both infectious disease PAs.

So Josh works in outpatient medicine and Nan works in inpatient medicine.

So we're going to be kind of talking about their jobs and comparing those and learning more about what they see and what they do.

So that's really exciting.

We'll be posting some question boxes on Instagram this week to get questions for them and we would love to have you join us there as well.

And then hopefully that replay will be available too.

But alright, let's jump into today's episode and as always, if I can ever help you out or answer Your questions, you can find me on Instagram at the PA platform.

Shoot me an email.

We have a contact form on our website thepaplatform.com and happy to point you in the right direction.

Now I'll go ahead and say this now actually instead of at the end, but I may say it then too.

So Kristen has recently developed, and you'll hear us talk about it, a financial online course.

It's called Cash Flow Cornerstones.

It is the basics.

So we're not getting into in depth investing.

We're talking budgeting, planning out, paying off debt, kind of the simple things.

If you are frustrated or confused by your finances finances, this is a great place to start.

I've been able to kind of check it out and I really enjoy just learning about all different methods.

So that will be there's a link in the description number one.

Number two, she's given us a very special discount code because it's in the launch phase right now of PA promo.

So P A P R O M O.

So if you want to check that.

Out, that'll get you $20 off of the pre sale price, which is really great.

And yeah, I think it'll be extremely helpful.

And honestly we should all learn in high school, college and grad school.

But maybe one day I want to thank mypa Resource and PA School Prep for sponsoring the Pre PA Club Podcast.

So mypa Resource is a personal statement editing service that edits only PA school essays, only edited by PAs and most of us have admissions experience, so I am one of the editors.

Definitely check them out if you need help with your content, grammar, flow, making sure that you are on track for for turning in your application and you can use the code futurepa for a discount on any of their service options.

PA School Prep is an online course that focuses on the anatomy, physiology and med terms that you'll need for PA school to make sure you feel confident going into that first semester and that.

You are able to handle what PA.

School throws at you.

So check that [email protected] and also use the code futurepa for a discount there and how you became a PA. Sure.

So my name is Kristen Burton.

I went to Butler University, which is a private university.

I started my undergrad sort of in the I knew I would go to grad school.

I knew it would probably be in the healthcare space.

I considered like optometry, physical therapy, medical school, PA school, all those things and essentially like my undergrad counselor talked me into PA Really, I wasn't as familiar with it as I probably should have been when I made the decision to go for it.

But about maybe sophomore junior year I decided to pursue the PA path.

So I spent the kind of last half of undergrad working towards getting all the mini admission requirement boxes checked off.

And then I again went to Butler in Indianapolis.

I've worked a couple of different places.

I spent a decent amount of time doing cardiology, which was mostly inpatient, a lot of structural heart disease, and now I'm currently working in pulmonary critical care.

I work night shift, which is a little bit different.

So I'm full time nights.

So it ends up being a lot of critical care and just a little bit of pulmonology.

You're like doing real medicine.

I feel like what I do is fake medicine.

So you are in there.

So that's interesting.

What made you choose to work nights?

So I never thought I would work nights, actually I did like some rotation night shifts and I was like fine, never working nights again.

And then I heard about this job.

It was at the same hospital that I was doing cardiology act, and it's seven on, so like seven 12 hour shifts on nights and then 14 days off.

So I was like, gosh, that's a lot of time off.

I could pursue so many different things.

So I ended up electing to be full time nights simply because I could not resist taking that schedule.

Honestly.

Oh my gosh, that's really cool.

So that.

So you'll work seven nights on and then you have two weeks off and then seven nights on.

So essentially you end up working two weeks a month, right?

Yeah.

So I've calculated it out.

I work 17.3 weeks a year.

Oh my God, that is crazy.

I need to like.

So like my husband, he works seven on, seven off.

But it's.

Yeah, but it's days and like every other week.

Right.

And then every then twice a year he gets a week off where he'll just be off for three weeks and neither of us know what to do with ourselves because I'm like, you gotta go back to work.

No, I'm just kidding.

But it's just crazy.

Like it's such an interesting schedule.

But that's awesome.

So do you switch back to days when you're off?

I do.

So my husband works a regular 9 to 5 job.

So when I'm off I go completely to his schedule.

I go to bed at like 9 and get up at 5 like a regular person.

So it works out because you know, two thirds of the time, I'm on, like, a regular day shifts, shift schedule, and I feel like I can do, like, normal things during the day, so.

That is awesome.

That's really cool.

Yeah.

I mean, like, cool jobs are out there, y', all, and that's what I mean.

Whenever this airs, we'll probably have already done your day in the life, which I'll post on the podcast in the future for anyone who didn't get to come.

But I'm excited to hear more about what that's like, too, so.

But it's a cool job, honestly.

Yes.

And, I mean, so since we're going to hear about that later, I do want to talk a lot about finances, money.

This is the stuff that I feel like.

Okay, so it's like everyone wants to talk about money and finances, but then nobody wants to talk about it too.

And, like, it's almost like a taboo thing, but then it shouldn't be.

I don't know why that is necessarily the case, but I want to hear kind of how you got into an interest in money and finances and what that journey's been like.

Yeah.

So my whole kind of financial journey was really actually driven by PA school.

You know, the average cost is, like, almost $100,000.

So we're all kind of going through the same process when all of us decide to go to PA school.

But like you said, you know, really no one talks about it.

It's fairly sort of taboo.

So when I went to go to PA school, I was like, you know what?

I want to go to this program.

It's a great program, and that's it.

I didn't.

You know, it was like, as long as I get in, that's the end of the story.

I gave zero consideration to the class of tuition or any of those things.

I didn't look for any scholarships.

I literally.

I mean, because of a whole bunch of nuances with my program, a lot of my student loans were private, which I didn't even really care about or realize that that was bad at the time.

So I finished school with $161,000 in student loan debt, which is a lot.

Yeah.

So I'm like, you know, I get my first job, and, like, I'm going to be rich.

Right.

Like, I have this salary.

I'm overhappy for it.

Great.

And then I tally up my student loans, which, unfortunately, I hadn't even done yet, realize the amount, find out that my minimum payment is going to be like, $2,000 a month for the next decade.

And I'm like, you know, this isn't going to work.

So I realized I would need to make a new plan and essentially decided to just dive into the realm of personal finance.

So I started, like, doing podcasts and books and getting in these little communities on social media and just, like, learning everything that I possibly could literally to get myself out of the massive hole that I created.

So I do that, and I realized that PAs make good money, but I'm like, this process is still going to be way too long if I just take my paycheck and then pay off these loans.

So I was like, I'm just going to work.

I'm going to get all these PRN jobs and I'm going to work all these hours, and I'm just going to do this.

So I did.

I think at one point, I think I one point had four PRNs in a primary job, or it might have been three in a primary job.

Regardless, I work.

I mean, I just worked like nobody's business.

I put in, like, minimum 80 hours a week and ended up paying off the whole 161,000 in 16 months.

Oh, my gosh, that's crazy.

So I.

Okay, so just so people have a comparison.

So Butler's private?

Yes.

Okay.

So I went to a public school, and that's where, like, I mean, I do think, like, my parents are both teachers.

I think they raised me to, like, I don't think I had a full understanding of money, like, as that I do as an adult.

Like, I did not realize, you know, how much vacations cost or how much, you know, I went to a public undergrad, and Georgia has a really great program, so my full tuition and most of my fees were covered.

So my parents helped me a little bit with stuff then.

But, like, they sacrificed to do that, which I did not realize at the time and I've since thanked them for.

But when I was choosing PA schools, I had the choice between a private school that started sooner and I would have graduated a little bit sooner, or the school I went to where it was public and I was able to live at home part of the time.

And my loans would have been probably three to four times as much if I went to that private school school, but I would have done it if I had to.

Like, if I hadn't gotten into the public school, that's what I was gonna do.

But I came out with.

I think.

I think my loans were, like, between 45 and 50,000 at the time I graduated, which is nothing compared to, like, what a lot of people have.

But by the time I paid it back, which people don't, don't realize, like, you're accruing interest the whole time during school.

So by the time that 45 I had taken, had accrued interest and continued accruing interest, I ended up paying back about 75,000.

And I did that in around, I think.

I think once I actually started working on it and paying it back, it was like a little over 10 months.

So your, your number, like, blows mine out of the water.

That's like, that's wild.

I watched a lightning speed.

Like, most people honestly just take the full term and they do think about it.

Yeah, you know, that's fine.

The easiest way to convince someone not to do that is to have them plug their loans into, like, calculator to tell you the total amount that you're going to pay back if you take the whole term.

And you'll go, okay, this is ridiculous.

See, that's what I was going to ask you.

Like, how much would you have had?

How much would that have been if you just paid that the whole time?

Oh, gosh, I honestly, I can't remember.

And it was almost six figures, but it's because mine, almost all mine were private.

And my interest rates were atrocious.

Like, I'm talking 9, 10, 11%.

Like, oh, my goodness.

And I, you know, I willingly signed up for these without really thinking too much about it.

And then you just don't, you don't realize how big of a deal the interest rate is and all that when you're going through the process.

I think with most PAs, you know, you're like, I want to get into a program like laser focus on the goal.

And then you just sort of put the financial aspects maybe on the back burner.

Yeah, that's crazy.

Yeah.

I think I only had federal ones and the rate was around, like, between 6 and 7%.

But I remember looking one day and I didn't look at my loans till the end.

Like, I did not look at them until, I think, I mean, my last semester.

And I was like, I wonder how much money I owe.

That's so dumb.

But anyway, because I couldn't pay it.

Like, it wasn't like I could do anything about it.

But I remember looking, and at one point I was accruing, like, interest of $50 a day.

Like my loans were.

And I know numbers are higher than that, but I was looking, I was like, oh, my gosh, to me, when I did look at it, it just felt like this huge weight that I wanted gone.

Like, I could feel those loans, like, weighing down on me and I was just, they gotta go.

Like, I wasn't okay with that.

And you mentioned something that I think is a good point, like not applying for scholarships.

I didn't look either.

I mean, and I think that was such a mistake because they are out there and there's a good bit of grad schools, particularly for healthcare people, PAs, like, there's a good amount of scholarships.

And so even, I mean, it would have been worth the time.

I even graduated a semester early.

I had a whole six months I could have been sitting there applying for scholarships.

But I did it, you know, so that's.

Those are things I think people definitely need to, like, think about.

Yeah, even if you can't get a full ride scholarship, like Those little thousand, $2,000 scholarships add up, especially when you factor in the interest that you would be paying if it was a loan instead.

So, like add those things up, apply for as many as you can.

There's more out there than you think.

Actually, I have this weird, like, limiting belief.

I'm like, scholarships don't exist for grad school, which is completely false and a million people have proved me wrong.

And then I got to, you know, reap the benefits of my own mistakes.

But yeah, just a quick Google search will show you there are plenty out there.

Okay, so you decided, like, this has gotta happen.

I gotta pay back my loans.

I'm gonna work like crazy.

Paid those off.

So are there any, like, throughout that process, were there any, like, mistakes you made or like, things you did to kind of help with your mindset of making that your goal?

Yeah, there were, you know, it's hindsight's always 20 20.

When I was looking for PRN positions, I think I probably could have optimized that a little bit better.

Like, subsequently, I found multiple options for PRNs that paid much more than the ones that I had taken.

So I think my progress could have been faster if I would have maybe done some more digging from a PRN perspective.

And then I also made the very rookie mistake of not inquiring at the time if my PRN position had tail coverage, which fortunately I found out retrospectively they did.

But that is a huge problem that you need to for sure look into on the front end.

I made that mistake and only recently did my colleague apply for a PRN and then found out they didn't have tail coverage.

I was like, oh my gosh, I never asked that question.

You know, like, those were probably some relatively large mistakes.

I Made along the way, I did do some things that I think really helped me.

One thing was I tracked our network through the whole process.

Your net worth is your assets minus your liabilities or what you own minus what you owe.

And, you know, I was working so hard, I just felt like I was getting big paychecks and money was just disappearing.

So, you know, to track your network through that and see with every debt payment, your net worth increases, even though, like, your savings account doesn't increase, that was really motivating for me.

I still remember the day our network went from negative to positive because, trust me, we started out like, negative six weeks figures.

So we were like, negative.

And then, you know, the day that we switched over, we're still in debt, we're still working on it, but it was like, big accomplishment.

I just felt like, you know, I helped a lot.

And then I sort of set this big reward at the end.

I love to travel.

We really want to travel internationally.

And at the time, we just completely put that on hold so that we could pay the loans.

So we did a big international trip at the end.

And I just like, you know, when I was down or whatever during the process, I would like, hop on Google or Pinterest and look at all these places and be like, where should we go?

Where should we go?

And just sort of give myself a pump up with my little reward that I created.

Once you, once you hit that goal, did you quit all your extra jobs?

Not immediately, but probably within three months.

Yeah.

Pretty quickly afterwards.

And then I went for a long time, really, without working much extra until right at the tail end of our mortgage payoff journey, I got the bug again.

And I'm like, all right, I'm just going to put in some hours and I can pull this off.

So I worked some extra for a couple of months leading up to that, but that was my primary job.

I don't have any of those PRN positions.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Which I want to talk about that too, but because I, like, I'm just so impressed.

I said like.

So we were saying at the beginning, like, I saw you on Instagram because you were doing a live with somebody else.

And she was like, hey, I'm doing this live.

Will you share it?

And I was like, wait, like, this is really cool and I want to follow her and talk to her.

Yeah.

You were like, PA financial goals.

But I do think, like, what you've done is impressive and it's something that, like, in PA school, they don't talk about this.

Like, I don't remember.

The only money talk I remember was they, I think a bank came at the end of our program and brought us lunch and told us about maybe their like, like loan refinancing program or something.

And like what they were talking about I didn't really understand or know or really probably even pay attention.

Like it wasn't super helpful.

It wasn't like, I don't know, just no one, no one really helps you.

It's hard.

There are very few resources and then you just sort of graduate and someone pays you and you get a job and you're like, I'm not sure how to proceed, you know.

Yes, we had a financial advisor come to our program.

That's who it was.

I remember also.

Getting nothing out of it.

Yes.

Also you just have to remember that the financial advisors make money when you invest money with them.

So they're never going to tell you to put all of your money towards your student loans because then that means you're not investing.

So it's a biased opinion.

I'm not saying that they're evil hearted people.

They're not.

But it's not the same as your older sister being like, what about this?

There's a motivation for them behind their presence.

That's.

Yeah, you're right.

And that's who came to talk to us too.

That's exactly.

It was a financial advisor and they, you know, wanted to help us but it was just, it was over my head and at that point I had no money.

Like I had no reason.

I was like, I don't have any money.

Like what do you want?

So interesting.

Okay, I feel like there's like a million things we could talk about.

But anyway, what are some resources for, for someone, let's maybe talk different levels but maybe someone who's in PA school, maybe starting PA school or kind of in, in the process.

Not really, doesn't really have a paycheck.

What are some resources or things that they can do to just help them learn about finances and money and then we can talk more of like a new grad just starting job kind of spot and there's probably some crossover, but yeah.

So I think while you're in school the main thing to do is just establish really good baseline habits of like budgeting, tracking expenses and get a really decent understanding of your student loans.

If you want to learn a little bit about just kind of money in general, especially debt payoff.

The whole Dave Ramsey group is really good at the debt payoff approach to things.

I personally use other resources for investing I found them be lacking in that department.

But from a pure debt payoff standpoint, you could listen to the Dave Ramsey show or one of his books would be a great first money book.

They're usually very straightforward.

They're written with the understanding that you have no baseline financial knowledge.

So you could just pick it up, take a read.

I know you're busy, obviously, in your PA program, but if you have time for a podcast for a book, that'd probably be where I would start.

But the thing I would emphasize so much is just to get in the habit of budgeting.

Even though, like, your income on your budget may literally be your student loans, just the whole process of you getting a sense of, like, what a month looks like financially, what your expenses look like, not only will it help you when you graduate, but it can also help you map out your student loans.

Like, if, you know, you know, this is what I need each month, expense wise.

You can figure out how many, like, what student loan amount you need each month, and then multiply that out by the year and make sure that you're taking out unnecessary loans.

So there are multiple reasons why I would start there.

It seems odd, you know, like, I don't have an income.

What's the point of budgeting?

But there's actually, like, a lot of positives that come out of it.

Okay.

Yeah.

And I think that's a good tip.

That's something I didn't do till after I was done with PA school and because I didn't have, like, really any income.

So once we did have a paycheck, like, I remember for an entire year, I tracked our budget, and the first few months, we didn't make any changes.

Like, we just.

I just tracked it, like, whatever we spent money on, I put it in.

And then after a few months, I was able to kind of look at and say, like, okay, like, we're spending a lot of money at the grocery store.

Like, maybe we should try to cut that back a little bit.

And we could kind of adjust.

Adjust things a little bit.

So, yeah, I think.

I think if for someone who.

Especially who's never done that is really helpful, that's actually something we were talking about.

I have a group of girls, we do Bible studying recently.

We were talking about that because we're all, you know, kind of like in our, like, early 30s and they.

It's like a mix of teachers and all kinds of stuff.

And they were just talking about how, you know, it's like we don't realize.

Like, you don't realize and see, like, what even comes out of your paycheck.

Like, you do.

Like, a lot of people just never even look like.

There are taxes and, you know, fees and like all like, insurance and retirement.

Like, you.

Like, until you actually look at a paycheck, you don't even see everything that is coming out of it.

Right?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Honestly, I, like, no grasp of taxes at all until I got paid.

And then I started looking like, wow, this is like,.

Yes, it's like a shocker.

Like, yeah, you hear these, like, salary numbers and then you get your paycheck.

You're like, wait, I think there's a mistake here.

Yeah, something's wrong.

But yeah, that's part of the game.

Okay, let's talk about you paying off your mortgage, which I think is like the coolest thing ever.

Wait, how old are you?

Can I ask that question?

Yeah.

So I'm 29.

My husband's 30.

That's crazy.

Mortgage free, people.

He turned 30 in August.

So we're like, we did it by 30.

And yeah, that is wild.

So are y' all like, debt free?

Yes, we are like, debt debt free.

Like, our cars are paid for, our house is paid for, student loans are gone.

We don't have credit card debt.

So, yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

So many goals.

And I know a lot goes into that.

So that's what, like when I think.

I think talking about finances publicly can be hard sometimes.

I think sometimes there's a lot of assumptions made, but, like, it's.

It's something that, you know, everyone's path is going to look different.

Like, if you compare to us.

Like, technically, I've had less debt than you, and, like, maybe I should have it paid off sooner, you know, like, so we just have different.

Different life journeys, different opportunities.

But that's really, really cool that you've been able to, like, prioritize that.

I just feel like that has to be such a great feeling to like, wake up and know that you own your house.

Like, that's so cool.

Yeah.

It's still kind of sink in it because our expenses now are like, astronomically low.

Yeah.

Which is.

Was our primary motivation behind doing it.

If you talk to a lot of people, the decision to pay off a house early is.

It's not like a straightforward decision, I think.

You know, when I say, like, I have student loans with a 9% interest rate, nobody would really argue with me and say, you need to pull that off.

Like, that's high interest.

Set a mortgage Is different.

There are very valid reasons to keep a mortgage.

You can earn usually more than what you're paying for your mortgage interest in the marketplace if you invest well.

So it's by no means like a choice that should be everyone's automatic or is correct for everyone.

But for us, like we bought our house.

I live in the Midwest, I live in Indiana.

So A, housing costs are low.

And then B, we bought a dump of a foreclosure.

Like my mother in law says, it was livable.

I don't even count it as livable.

It was just disgusting.

Literally there were 30 dead mice in the wall in one spot.

When we were remodeling our house, it had sat empty for years.

It was gross.

So we've slowly remodeled it and done all these things.

But we live in a three bedroom ranch that we got a steal on.

So for us to pay off our mortgage is a lot different than somebody paying off a $300,000 loan of the mortgage.

Yeah.

So you have to kind of put it in perspective in that regard.

Like, you know, we knew because our mortgage was smaller we could do it quickly and it wasn't going to delay other investing that long.

But again, it's not the right decision for everyone.

But I think really it was probably the right decision for us.

Yeah.

And there's some give and take there.

So.

Okay, so what are your thoughts on this is a question I get sometimes, like big purchases during PA school, like things like buying a car.

I've even had people ask me and miss you to hear your thoughts because I'm my own.

About using loans to pay for like a house payment.

Like to buy a house and use loans to pay for that.

Yeah, that's.

That is just not my style.

First off, like.

You're taking something that you're paying interest on your student loans and then you're using it to pay interest on something else that's actively depreciating.

So like a car in particular is probably one of the worst things you can do with your student loan.

That is sort of a financial black hole.

There's.

I mean, there's no one that really argue that a car is a great asset to begin with.

So you're just combining insult to injury.

I would highly recommend not doing that while you're in PA school.

If you need a car, I would buy like the lowest dollar vehicle that you can afford.

I literally drove a $4,000 Chevy Cobalt the whole time.

And for like the whole time I was paying off my student loans afterwards.

You know what it like, drove me around, it was reliable and it worked.

So I would say, like, definitely don't use your student loan money for a car, a house.

Still not really my style.

I personally feel like you should try to be in a good financial situation when you buy a house.

You know, ideally have A, an income, B, like a reasonable down payment, C, some money set aside because things break.

Like, you know, our furnace broke within a few months.

That was like $5,000 to repair.

So while you're a student, you don't have an active income.

You probably don't have substantial savings.

I wouldn't think it would be a really a wise time to buy a house.

There's always, you know, particular circumstances for different people, but for the majority, I would say it's probably a bad plan.

Yeah, I agree.

I mean, that's what, like, we had a very close, like, friend who was in med school with my husband, and they were looking at doing that, and I was like, wait, have y' all run these numbers?

Like, this just does not make sense to me.

Um, and that's why I think, like, that's where the numbers and interest and.

Everything can get so confusing.

For sure.

But okay, so what, what?

So, like, you were learning about finances and obviously like meeting your own goals.

What influenced you to start like a blog and an Instagram account and kind of take that leap?

Honestly, it was just realizing that almost every single one of my friends and everyone around me, like, colleague wise, was just in the same boat that I was in.

And a lot of the resources available assume like a certain baseline knowledge or they're not necessarily formatted in a way that's approachable for our generation.

I just felt like, you know, I've accumulated a decent knowledge base on this topic and I felt like I could share it.

So I kind of got on social, started this business, started doing one on one coaching, and then recently have done an online course.

Realistically, the world's a virtual place now.

You know, people are sheltered at home and, you know, not everybody wants to talk about money.

Like you said, like, face to face with someone.

Some people just want to take in knowledge, do things kind of in private, and not have to have that conversation or feel like embarrassed to tell all of your details to someone else.

So that's been my latest thing, in addition to one on one coaching, is doing it online course.

Okay, I want to know a little bit more about that because so what?

So you're not like a financial advisor, any of that.

You are a pa so what is the difference in like talking to someone with like one on one coaching versus like talking to a financial advisor.

I've, I've personally talked to a financial advisor and did not.

I didn't feel like I learned anything more than what I already knew, if that makes any sense.

I feel like they just kind of told me like, basically like step one, step two, step three, does it?

And I was like, okay, well, like, but what do I do?

Like, I don't know.

So where does, where does like a coaching signs, like doing financial coaching?

Like, what does that look like?

So like we had a financial advisor up until recently that we used for investing advice.

And then ultimately we shifted to investing on our own.

But in our conversations with him, his focus was, I mean, really truly like investing, you know, investing approaches, retirement approaches and that sort of thing.

It wasn't like, let's talk about your whole financial picture.

So that's sort of the difference between, at least in my experience, between a financial coach and a financial advisor.

Like when I'm working with a client, it's literally like, let's go through all of your expenses.

You know, why did you spend $1,000 last month at Whole Foods?

We have to make a new plan.

You know, it's those kind of things.

And it's also just looking at like where your money is going, what your short term and long term goals are, and not necessarily investing advice of like, you should buy this fund or you should invest in this stock, which is sort of left to the formal like CFPs and financial advisors.

Okay, that makes sense.

It sounds like there's also just like more accountability there of someone to help you kind of be like, check yourself on that one.

Okay, interesting.

So who is like, are you specifically working with PAs?

Like, who is that helpful for?

A couple of my clients have been PAs or pharmacists, but plenty have had just any career.

It has not been by any means limited to PAs, although I do think, you know, probably I'm most relatable to PAs because that's what I am.

And we probably have a little income, maybe even comparable student loan debt burden.

So our story is just generally kind of mesh.

Yeah, like you can relate better.

So.

Yeah, that's interesting.

Okay, so tell me about the online course.

Yes.

So it is geared towards people that are just starting out on their financial journey.

This is not like advanced investing or, you know, financial independence or anything along those lines.

It's literally like, okay, I don't know where to begin with money.

Just step by step, what are the things that you need to do like, what are the basic fundamentals that you need to understand and then implement in your life so that you can make progress.

It's honestly would be perfect for like a late student or a new grad, especially someone with a new income that's really just not sure where to direct their money or how to get organized.

This would definitely be a good place to start.

Start.

It's six modules, it's online and it's self paced.

So you can kind of go through at your own speed, go through all the different modules and activities at your own pace and just sort of have the privacy of learning about this stuff at home without having to again, tell anybody to get all your financial information.

Nice.

Yeah.

And that's something I think people like that's hard to do is, you know, to lay it all out there and ask for feedback.

Especially if, you know you're spending $1,000 at Whole Foods and you don't really want to stop our whole food shut down.

So not a problem for me.

And honestly, not that healthy.

So.

Awesome.

Well, where can people kind of find you and follow along and send you all their questions?

I'm on social media at thrivewithkristen and then my website is thrivewithchristen.com I'm also on Pinterest and Facebook, but honestly I'm much more active on Instagram and on my website.

So feel free to hop on there.

I do a free email on Mondays.

It's just like random tips, tricks.

Sometimes it's about investing.

Simple.

Just about debt.

But that is a free thing that comes out on Mondays.

And then again, yeah, follow along on Instagram and I'd love to meet you, talk to you, DM me, whatever your questions are.

Sam.