280 | How Jeanne Paid Off Almost $20k While Cash Flowing 3 Trips

My client Jeanne was skeptical about whether she and her husband would ever be able to get out of debt.

During our time together, they ended up paying off much more than she ever imagined.

In this episode, Jeanne and I chat about our work together, including how much debt she and her husband paid off, the trips they were able to take in the process, and the power of focus in your personal finances.

• • Jeanne and her husband’s money journey before coaching
  • the importance of knowing the details of your debt
  • feeling guilt and shame for having debt
  • the problem with applying mainstream financial advice for attorneys
  • Jeanne’s family’s travels and how it felt to come back from the trips with no debt
  • balancing managing your money with having fun and living your life
  • what Jeanne was not willing to do to get out of debt
  • how Jeanne identified what’s important to her and used that to guide her spending
  • what Jeanne and her husband were able to accomplish with their finances in only 6 months
  • how it feels to be in the place she’s in now with her finances
  • the most important thing Jeanne learned through coaching that has changed everything about her finances
  • Jeanne’s words of encouragement for others who are struggling with their finances

You’re listening to Personal Finance for Lawyers. I’m Rho Thomas, and as a busy wife, mom, and former Biglaw associate, I know all too well the tension between the culture of the legal profession and pretty much everything else you want to do in life. That’s why each week, I’m bringing you the information and tools you need to improve your money mindset and manage your money to create true wealth. Because ultimately, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and flexibility the money affords.

Hey friend. Welcome back. Today, I’m bringing you a conversation with my client Jeanne. When Jeanne first came to work with me, she was a little skeptical about whether she and her husband could actually make progress with their debt. Fast forward to 6 months later, and they have made way more progress than she ever thought possible without changing their lifestyle too drastically. You are gonna love their story, so let’s get into it.

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[Rho] Welcome to the podcast, Jeanne. How’s it going?

[Jeanne] It’s going well. How are you?

[Rho] I am well, thank you. Thank you for being here.

And for everyone listening, Jeanne is a client of mine. She is an attorney at a boutique firm in the Midwest. And she and I are going to talk about the work that we did together and all that she’s been able to accomplish.

So, Jeanne, before we get into all of that, tell us about your money journey before you started coaching.

[Jeanne] Before we started coaching, I feel like you’re going to laugh at this, but I was very pessimistic, specifically about our ability to get out of debt and even more specifically about my ability to ever pay off my student loans.

And I had discovered you on LinkedIn, I think. And hearing about your journey and your husband’s journey with student loans was both kind of inspirational and discouraging. I was like, okay, I am suspicious. I don’t know how, does this work for me? How does this work in my life?

[Rho] Yeah, I remember you were very, very discouraged and you were like, I don’t know how I’m ever going to pay these off. This is just going to be here forever. I’m like, Jeanne, I can see the plan. It’s going to work.

[Jeanne] Yeah. So we had a little push/pull at first about that – about, you know, whether or not I could believe in the process and all that.

[Rho] Yeah, but I think that so many attorneys can relate to that because it is a unique situation that we come out of school, we’ve got six figures of student loan debt. And then you’re seeing other people that came out, and it’s like, I paid off my $20,000 and you’re like, good for you, know.

[Jeanne] Oh, exactly.

[Rho] Yeah, but I think because of the experience that my husband and I had with having the multiple, multiple 6 figures, when I see other people’s stuff, I’m like, no, I can definitely see the plan of how you can get there. So I know that I have a different perspective than you might’ve had, than some other people have, because it does feel like a lot, you know. So I get it.

[Jeanne] Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, so I think that was probably the biggest…. I think that we talked a lot, especially in our first couple of meetings, about… kind of my background.
You know, like again, I remember like being pre-law school or being in law school and, you know, making those kind of annoying decisions like, oh, do I get my brakes fixed or do I pay my electric bill or, you know, doing that kind of juggling.

And I feel really happy and grateful to not be in that kind of, super broke, paycheck to paycheck, every, every struggle is possibly going to be sinking the ship financial status.

But I was also struggling with feeling like we weren’t doing everything the way that we should be doing or doing everything that we could be to set ourselves up and to set our kids up for the future.

[Rho] Yeah, you know and I think that for a lot of people where maybe when you were in school, you did have that, okay, I’m figuring out making these decisions. Do I pay this or do I pay that? Once you get into practice, you’re no longer in that survival mode, but then it’s like, you almost just kind of tread water.

That’s how I’ve described it before, where it’s like, you’re not really moving forward. You’re not drowning, but you’re also not, you know, moving to the shore either. You’re just kind of like, here, I’m here. I’ve got the money to pay the bills, you know.

And I think a lot of people get stuck there because, okay, there’s more money coming in, and I’m able to pay my bills. And, you know, there we are.

That was my experience where we made money, we paid all the minimums on our stuff, and we went out to eat, and we did, you know, we did all these things.

We weren’t thinking about like, oh, well, how do we save? How do we maybe pay this off faster?

I remember a time where I didn’t even realize that you could pay debt off faster. Like I thought that you just paid the amount that the bank told you to pay. Yeah. So yeah, I think a lot of people can probably relate to that experience as well, where maybe we’re in that more survival mode in school. You get out, you’re making money, and it’s like, okay, well, life is good. This is fine. And you’re not thinking, you know, a little further ahead.

[Jeanne] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

And one of the other things I think that you and I had talked about is that I was kind of really lacking in focus because we had sort of, I guess, still have, but that’s another, that’s a later story – had, you know, some consumer debt, we had some credit cards, that kind of stuff.

And not really understanding how to prioritize those or how to allocate the money in the best way or in the most thoughtful way toward moving towards our goals in the future.

[Rho] And you saying that actually reminds me of one of those early sessions where we did the spreadsheet, laying out all of your information. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of knowing the information, knowing what’s going on with your debt, and the interest rates and all that kind of stuff?

[Jeanne] Oh my gosh, yes.

So we did the spreadsheet, which is kind of like a snapshot thing, of like, this is where our finances are as of X date. And I dutifully like I looked up the credit card balances, and I looked up the interest rate, and I was appalled at the, I had two cards, both of which had interest rates that were over 25%. I knew that they had balances on them. I knew that they were drawing interest. I did not have any idea what that rate was.

And I think that after we had that conversation, I was just like, I want these gone like yesterday. I cannot believe I am spending that much money on interest to like Chase or I think it’s Chase. I don’t remember, but you know, like, It was just, I was like, no, I want this to be gone, like immediately.

[Rho] Yeah. And I think it’s one of those things where most of us don’t go in and look at that information and know, okay, this is what I owe to this bank and that bank. This is the balance. This is the interest rate.

Because then having that information, you were able to make more strategic decisions about how you tackled that debt versus just making a payment here or there doing things. Like I remember when you saw those, you were like, oh no, we are getting rid of this right now.

[Jeanne] Yes, 100%.

And I think that I was, because again, we were making our payments, we were covering all of our bills, nothing’s late. We’re not, you know, having 45 cents in the checking account or whatever.

And so I was kind of like, eh, we have a little bit of debt. It is what it is. I wasn’t really cognizant of what those rates were or what the true balances were. And that was, I think that was a huge step, too, of just being like, okay, we’re we’re going to be armed with the knowledge, with the facts, you know?

[Rho] Exactly.

[Jeanne] And and we have talked a lot about this in our time working together is like, I tell my clients all the time like, don’t hide from the facts.

We have to know what the things are so that we know how to work with them. And then again, not at all following that in my own personal life and my own financial life.

[Rho] It’s so easy to see for other people though, you know? And I think sometimes there’s a lot of emotion that gets tied up in personal finance for people.

And especially for us as lawyers, where we are, the ones, we’ve talked about this before, where it’s like, if the bar is here, we’re going above and beyond. And so it feels bad sometimes to have this area where maybe you don’t feel as knowledgeable, right?

You feel very knowledgeable in your practice area, and giving advice to your clients and all of that, but then for money, for a lot of people, it’s like, I don’t really know about that. I don’t, like not knowing. I don’t like not, you know, being able to do what I want to do. So I’m just going to not pay attention to it. You know, I’m just going to bury my head in the sand and not worry about it.

So I think that’s a completely common situation that many lawyers find themselves in, where it’s like, you’ve got all the things, all the advice to tell people, but then when it comes to doing it for yourself, especially in an area that feels emotional, like personal finance, it’s like, ooo, I’m not going to touch that one.

[Jeanne] Yeah. Oh, yeah, absolutely. And I feel like we have talked about this a lot, too, is that there is an element of, like, of guilt and of shame.

And in a lot of ways, I think kind of baked into our culture of that if you are in debt or if you have credit cards and that kind of stuff, that is not just a problem financially, but that is also a moral failing that you have done something bad or something like that.

And that I feel like that can also be weird. for us, again, as attorneys, because we’re trying to tell people how to comply with the law, how to get through things in the right… And, you know, I’m a transactional attorney. I’m not like in criminal defense or something like that. But, you know, like a lot of it is about like compliance, like you have to file A, B, and C to get status X, Y, Z from the IRS, you know, and to be kind of out of compliance is a thing that feels weird. It feels icky and bad, you know?

[Rho] Yeah.

[Jeanne] Icky, technical term.

[Rho] Icky, that’s a perfect term.

No, but you know, that’s one of the things that I don’t like about just the mainstream messages that we get about money. And especially, I think, when you are an attorney, people assume, well, you make all this money, so you shouldn’t have this, you shouldn’t be in debt, you shouldn’t, whatever, whatever, right?

But the truth of the matter is, we do. And especially because like we talked about, we’re coming out of school with six-figure, multiple six-figure student loans. So you’ve already got a chunk of your income that’s going to that. And then if you’ve got some other things that you’ve got, you know, maybe you’ve bought or things like that, well, if you’ve never learned to manage the money, it doesn’t matter how much you make. You still can get into some sticky situations with it. So I know exactly what you mean about the icky messages that we receive.

[Jeanne] Icky!

[Rho] But yeah, and I think being able to take the time and learn about your finances, even educating yourself on what’s going on with your personal finances, looking at the debt balances, the interest rates, all of that can help you to make some different decisions.

[Jeanne] Yeah, 100%. And again, it turns out I’ve been giving my clients good advice is like, let’s find out the facts. Let’s really know this stuff. Not I think this is this. Let’s know.

[Rho] Yes. And I’ve used, I’ve used an analogy before of a child who’s afraid of the monster in the corner, but when you actually shine a light on it, it’s like your jacket hanging over a chair, right? I think that’s what’s happening sometimes with our personal finances, where it feels like this big monster in the corner, but when you actually shine a light on it, it’s like, it still might not feel good to see this much debt or this interest rate or I’m spending that much, but it takes some of that fear away because now you know exactly what you’re working with, and now you can create your plan of attack.

[Jeanne] Yep. Yep, 100%.

[Rho] So I would love to talk about some of the things that you were able to do while we were working together. And we’ll get to specific accomplishments, but I want to talk about some of your travel that you were able to do.

I always love to highlight when my clients travel because I think people think personal finance means I can’t do anything and I’ve just got to sit in the house.

So can we talk about some of the travel that you were able to do and how you’re able to fund it?

[Jeanne] Yes. Yes. So when we first spoke, and I think that this was part of probably a thing that I said in our first meeting too, is like, I’m not going to stop going on vacation, and I’m not going to stop going out to eat.

Because like, being able to see new places and be able to do that stuff is a huge joy in my life and as is going out to eat, because, you know, everybody loves food, who doesn’t.

So we started working together in like January or February of this year, and it’s now the very beginning of September.

So I think that I already had a couple, or at least some idea of what we were going to be doing for vacations. So what my travel plans were was to spend a week in Washington, taking my kids to golf camp and staying with my best friend.

Taking a family vacation to Colorado to go to the mountains, and accompanying my husband on a work trip that he had in Southern California that ended up being the like second week in August, right before my kids went back to school.

And I honestly, I think when I told you about these plans, I kind of expected you to try and talk me out of doing these things, but you were like, okay, what can we do? How much money do you think we need for these trips?

And we talked about kind of the budgets and okay, how much is lodging, and what are you gonna do? Do you need.., you know, the Colorado trip, pretty straightforward like we rented a house off of like Airbnb or one of those type of sites.

And a lot of that is just like, you know, trinkets and national park admission passes. Like that’s not an expensive kind of trip.

So we, you know, we sat down with like, okay, you paid the deposit on the house. What is the remaining balance that you have to pay? How much is it going to cost you to get out there because we drove out there and all of that?

So again, pretty straightforward. And then it was the California trip. And it was like, well, we decided to do this because I found this crazy screaming deal for direct flights to Los Angeles for like 120 bucks a person or something like that.

And I was like, okay, my husband already has to be out there for work. Let’s go. Let’s go, you know, do this thing.

And again, I expected you to be like, I don’t think you should do that. But the conversation that we had was more like, okay, if this is the thing you want to do, how do you, how do you make this happen? How much money do you …are you going to need?

And then what we were able to do is through just savings, some of it from our tax refund, some of it just from, you know, our regular income, was able to basically to cash flow all of those trips, despite the fact that they all took place within basically six weeks over the summer. I was real tired when we got back from California, real tired.

But it felt really good to be able to do that and not come back from, again, a ton of travel over the summer with like a just massive credit card balance going into the fall and going into school and going into the holidays, you know.

That we were able to make some progress in paying off some of the debt, but and have the cash to take those vacations, spend what we wanted to spend. We weren’t like, you’re going to have to trust me on this one. We were not traveling in budget, like in budget land. We were doing it. We were doing it right.

And to be able to come back, though, and not be like, oh, well now my credit card is $4,000 higher.

[Rho] Yeah. And that’s why I wanted you to talk about that, because I think a lot of people do have that experience of, okay, I’m on vacation, but in the back of my mind, I’m thinking about how much we’re racking up. And when I get back, I’ve got to figure out how I’m going to address that credit card bill.

And I know, I think a lot of people just assume that when you’re getting on top of your finances, when you want to save, you want to pay off debt, then that means you’re going to have to not travel, right?

We associate, you know, doing the right thing, quote, right thing with your money with doing nothing fun.

And I think that there’s a balance, right? And we’ve talked about that a lot where you don’t want to go too far to either side, where it’s like, I’m just going to sit in the house and do nothing, but then you also don’t want to be like, YOLO, spend it all.

There’s a balance because that’s what makes it sustainable.

And like you said, and we’re going to get to this as well, but like you said, you were able to still make progress on paying off your debt, but then you were able to cash flow these trips and have a great summer with your family.

And I think that’s what it’s about, right? Like being able to do those things that are important to you, but then still being able to set yourself up for those goals that you have.

[Jeanne] Yes. There’s this, I guess, pervasive, specific one person, I don’t know if we’re allowed to say his name, but there’s one person in the kind of financial planning and, you know, getting out of debt sphere, I guess. that talks a lot about, like, you should never do anything if you’re in debt.

And I feel like that feeds a lot into that kind of feast or famine mindset is that like, well, if I’m not following that dude’s plan, then I am going to just YOLO, like, let’s go do whatever we want.

And that it is possible to still do these things, again, to go on vacation with my family, to take advantage of this trip that my husband had to go on anyway, and to be able to go and, do some cool stuff.

[Rho] Yeah. And I will say, I think we know who you’re speaking about, but I will not take anything away from him and the work that he does because he has helped a lot of people get out of debt. But there are other approaches, right?

And I think too, especially like we’ve already talked a couple of times about the kind of unique situation that lawyers are in, that we’re coming out of school with a mortgage, basically, right? Like mortgage size student loan debt.

And it’s going to take a lot longer to pay off than someone who has 20,000, 50,000, something that’s a little less, where maybe you do just, kind of grin, bare it, and go ahead and do nothing for, a year, a year and a half, whatever, and pay it off versus if it’s something that’s going to take you a little bit longer and you want to actually stay the course and see it through, then a little bit more balance, I think is necessary.

It’s a little harder to just sit and do nothing and power through for that longer time period, you know?

[Jeanne] Yeah, for sure.

[Rho] The sit and do nothing and never go out to eat and whatever until you pay everything off, that has worked for some people and that is great for them. I wasn’t doing that and I don’t expect anybody else to do that.

[Jeanne] I appreciate that because I, and again, I think that I probably told you in one of our first meetings too, is like, I am just not going to do that. And if that is part of us working together, like this is not going to be a relationship that we should embark on because that’s just not a thing that I am willing to do.

[Rho] Yeah. Well, and I think where you pull back, at least for me and what I teach my clients, where you pull back is those areas where you’re spending more than you realized. And maybe that area is not very important to you.

So like you told me off top, travel is important. I am going on vacation, right? I’ve had people that are like, I am still going to get my nails done, or I’m still going to have my house cleaner or whatever that is.

And we talked about, like, what are those things that you value, right? What are the things that are important to you? Let’s make sure that you are still allocating money to those things, but then areas that are not those things, how can we maybe cut there? Are you spending more than you would like to be?

And so then you’re able to open up some of that money that is currently being spent on things that don’t matter as much so that you can still spend on the things that you do and have that money available for your goals.

[Jeanne] Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Well, and we talked, I think some of, some of my stuff was the impulsivity stuff of getting that, you know, like you’re taking a break from drafting something and just scrolling on TikTok or on Instagram and like clicking and just buying whatever nonsense that is, you know, the algorithm thinks you want or things you need.

To like to just stop doing that was, I think, really beneficial to my finances because it’s like, well, I don’t, I don’t need this stuff. And I would much rather have, you know, I would much rather have another dinner out or, 1/2 a plane ticket, than a makeup palette that I’m never going to use.

[Rho] Yeah.

[Jeanne] I don’t wear that much makeup. Like, come on.

[Rho] But yeah, I mean, I think that’s exactly it. Being able to identify the things that you want to spend on versus those things that you don’t care as much about. And that’s how you cut back on your spending, but you don’t feel deprived in the process because you still are feeding that piece of you that wants this, right? That part that is important to you, you’re still allowing room for spending on that.

And so you still feel fulfilled because I’m doing this thing that I want to be doing and you don’t miss the, you know, makeup palette from the TikTok shop or whatever, but you would have missed one of those trips. Like you would have missed not taking that trip, right?

[Jeanne] Yes.

[Rho] And so it’s that intentionality, bringing more intention to how you’re using your money versus just, all right, well, I’m going to buy this and I’m going to spend here and I’m going to do that. I think that’s really what it’s all about.

[Jeanne] Yes. Yeah. Or what I would have probably done is go on the trip anyway and come back and been like, well, this bill, is really, really high. And again, not know what the interest rate was on it, not know what that was costing in the long run.

[Rho] Exactly. So tell us about what you have been able to achieve with your finances this last six months.

[Jeanne] So we have, like I said earlier, we cash flowed 3 trips over the summer. We were able to pay off one of the credit cards that I was appalled by with the 25% plus interest rate. We have made a big dent in the other one.

And then we’ve paid off, and I have been very lax in my accounting about all the totals and stuff like that. But I would say the total of amount that we have paid off in six months is probably north of $15,000.

I don’t think it would hit 20, but again, 15 plus is …that’s really good in my book.

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[Rho] Hey, popping in here with a quick update. Jeanne sent me her final numbers after we recorded this conversation, and she and her husband actually paid off just shy of $20,000 in the six months, so she was right that it didn’t quite hit 20, but they were super close. Alright back to the conversation.

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[Jeanne] And again, without, without being like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna never leave my house, you know, like we, again, we went on all these trips. We had a friend visit, and we went out for a fancy dinner.

We, my husband and I had our anniversary, our anniversary is actually today, but we went out for our anniversary last weekend and like had a fancy dinner and it was, and it was great. And we, again, we just, paid cash for it out of our checking account. Like we didn’t put it on a credit card that we have to pay later.

[Rho] Yes. Can you tell us about, well, first, happy anniversary to you.

[Jeanne] Thank you.

[Rho] That is such a blessing. But tell us about how that feels. Like you cash flowed these trips.

And for those of you out there, she’s got a family of four. One of them was just you and one child, right? You and your son.

[Jeanne] Correct.

[Rho] So 2 trips for a family of four and then one trip for two. And then on top of that, paid off a credit card completely, knocked out a big chunk in the others. And still, you know, were paying down the other things because you’re still paying your minimums and all of that. So, you know, $15,000 in six months, while still taking your three trips. How does that feel?

[Jeanne] I think it feels amazing. Like looking at that number and how it has grown from the beginning and the beginning of this year to now. It’s, I mean, it’s also it’s also a huge relief to see those lines, some of those lines being zero, and to know again, and we’ve talked about this, like I still use that card.

There’s like a couple of subscriptions and that kind of stuff on those, but that every month it just goes back to zero, because we have the cash available to just pay that.

[Rho] Yes.

[Jeanne] And so it feels, it feels really good.

And it feels, much, it feels like I am much more on top of things like that. Our finances are not a thing that is happening to us, but a thing that we are doing and managing.

[Rho] Yeah. Oh, I love that. I love that because I think when you are not on top of your finances, when it feels like it’s just happening to you, there’s always this, at least I’ll speak for myself, there was always this feeling of like, okay, when’s the other shoe gonna drop? What’s next? What could be coming?

You know, like you’ve always got that in your mind of looking out for that next thing because you don’t have that visibility, that clarity on this is what’s going on with my finances.

This card is paid off. And even though I put a few charges on there, I’ve got the money in there and I’m paying it right back off. This money is going to this other card, chunking that down month after month.

You know, like that experience is night and day.

[Jeanne] Yes. Yes and knowing too that we are like that we have a plan and that there is a plan to continue to address, you know, the the last like lingering credit card and then to pay off….

So my husband’s car loan has like a fairly small balance on it. It’s like 7000. And then, you know, again, to have the plan to like, okay, we’re going to pay that off after the credit cards are done. And again, to have kind of an order of operations and to know what happens next is really nice.

And also to know that, you know, unlike when we were in law school, like I am not one flat tire away from eating ramen for a month, you know, that we know how we can accomplish these things and shift things around if need be.

And then once whatever emergency or if something happens, then we deal with that and then we get back on the plane, you know?

[Rho] Yeah, that’s exactly it. Yes, I love that. Now, one thing I wanted you to talk about, you touched on it a little bit earlier, but you were talking about the focus and being able to focus on the specific goals that you have.

Can you share a little bit more about how learning about focus has helped you?

[Jeanne] I think that the focus has been the most important thing that I probably have learned from us working together.

Because again, when we first started, I was like paying, you know, like I was paying above the minimums, but I was paying above the minimums on multiple different things.

So I was like a few extra hundred bucks here and a few extra hundred bucks here. And again, like they were just kind of not going away.

And the first time we spoke or the, maybe the second or I don’t know, it was early in our, you know, kind of dealings with each other, but not that initial consultation when I was like, I don’t know about this. And when I was like, okay, I’m in, let’s do this. And you kind of drew this little drawing on like an index card or a little piece of paper or something. And it was like, if you target this one thing and you put all of your resources towards that. And then, all of that, then that one thing will be done and resolved. And then you can move on to the next thing.

And that was, for whatever reason, that was just like mind-blowing because I was like, oh, you mean this technique that I have been doing for years and years that is not working, is not working. Okay.

But again, to concentrate on, again, just pay the minimums on the other stuff, pay off the thing, and then move on to the next thing. And it doesn’t have to be paying off the debt. It can be, okay, I’m going to pay off, you know, this card, and then I’m going to shift to saving for my next vacation. And then I want to have, you know, $3,500 in the bank before I go on this next vacation. Then I’m gonna go to the next card or the next, you know, like, but again, to keep those, keep that focus rather than being like, I’m gonna drip and drop here and there. And again, kind of feel like you’re treading water.

[Rho] Yeah.

[Jeanne] So like I’m swimming to shore now.

[Rho] Yes. I really wanted you to speak on that because I know that was one of the big things that you talked about getting from this whole process.

And I think it’s counterintuitive because a lot of people approach it exactly like you were before, where it’s like, if I pay above the minimum, that’s good.

I’m paying above the minimum on these three different cards, that’s good. But what really happens is you’re kind of diluting your effort because you’re able to get a little bit ahead, but then the interest creeps back up. And now, you’re not making the progress that you thought you were, versus if you consolidate that effort and put all of that toward one, you’re going to pay that off completely.

Now you don’t owe that minimum payment anymore. You don’t have that hanging over your head anymore, and you can move on to the next thing and the next and so on. So thank you for sharing that.

[Jeanne] Yes. And it sounds, I mean, again, it sounds. so simple, but I, I believe that a ton of people are doing that too, because again, we were doing that. It’s just like, okay, well, you know, a couple hundred bucks extra like to here and here and here.

If that 600 bucks or whatever it is, is all applied to the one, that’s a substantial reduction in that particular balance. And you can see that and you can feel that.

[Rho] Yes. Oh, I love it.

[Jeanne] Also, it’s also satisfying to watch that, you know, to be like this big chunk and just be like, with the balance, you know?

[Rho] Yes. I love that. Well, Jeanne, tell us, do you have any words of encouragement for anyone out there who is where you were when we first started working together?

[Jeanne] Do I have any words of encouragement? I have some statements of fact. How about that?

[Rho] Let’s hear it. Yes, give it to us.

[Jeanne] One, you may have the capability to do this on your own, but you’re not going to.

And two, this lady, she knows her stuff. And the same way that I tell people, in my practice, like, this is a thing you can do on your own. But I absolutely understand why you might want to pay me to do it for you, because I am the expert in doing these things.

And Rho, you are the expert in this stuff. And the time that I invested in the money that I invested in doing this has 100% transformed our financial outlook.

[Rho] Oh, I’m so happy.

[Jeanne] Oh, don’t cry on me.

[Rho] I will not cry on you.

[Jeanne] Okay, good.

[Rho] So thank you for those kind words. And listen, I think it’s exactly like you said, like you had to be willing to invest the money, to invest the time to do it, right?

But you bringing your effort coupled with my effort, my knowledge, my experience, look at you now. Look at you guys. I’m so proud of you. I’m so proud of all the work that you’ve done. And I know that this is just the beginning. You’re going to keep going, keep building on what we’ve done.

And I can’t wait to hear about all the amazing things that you guys do.

[Jeanne] Oh, yeah.

And I’m going to I’m going to keep emailing you our pictures from our fantastic vacations.

[Rho] Yes, that you’re going to cash flow.

[Jeanne] Yes, that we’re not putting on credit cards. Or if we’re putting on credit cards, we put it on credit cards for the points and then we pay it off.

[Rho] Boom.

[Jeanne] Exactly.

[Rho] Well, Jeanne, thank you so much for being here and sharing your story because I know it’s going to be an inspiration for others out there listening. I greatly appreciate you.

[Jeanne] Thank you for having me.

****

Alright I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Jeanne. I hope you’re feeling inspired to get clarity on what’s going on with your finances and take the steps you need to take to improve them. If you’d like me to help you, just like I did Jeanne, schedule a consultation at rhothomas.com/call, and let’s talk about whether it would be a good fit.

Alright, that is it for this week’s episode. Please share this episode with a friend who might find it inspiring. Sharing is how the episode grows, or how the show grows and more lawyers get access to this information. As always, I appreciate your support.

As we close out friend, I pray that you take the information you learn here, apply it in your life, and open up to the realization that wealth is available to you. As you do that consistently, week after week, you’ll continue to take steps to take back control of your time, build wealth, and live the life of freedom and choice you deserve.

Talk to you later.