Maybe talking about your spending shouldn’t make you feel bad? Maybe a hobby doesn’t have to become a side hustle? Maybe striving towards early retirement by living extremely frugally isn’t the ideal path? These are just some of the fresh takes about personal finance I discuss with my next guest Mykail James, founder of BoujieBudgeter.com.
Having had her interest in personal finance sparked in her early school days, Mykail naturally went on to obtain her MBA in accounting and become a Certified Financial Literacy Instructor. But what’s unique about Mykail is she likes to use her fresh take on finance to reach people outside of the normal personal finance bubble.
That’s why she uses pop-culture references, relatable language, and Instagram as one of her main platforms to help her audience understand confusing concepts like budgeting, saving, and investing…and actually feel good about it at the same time!
Because living your best life shouldn’t be about doing something extreme and unsustainable, like living on practically nothing for years or side hustling until you burn out. You can live your best life and still work towards your financial goals as long as you practice being intentional and well, take some of that traditional financial advice with a grain of salt.
For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/250
I’ve been following A Purple Life on Twitter for a while now. So, when I saw her tweet about finally quitting her job because she’d reached her financial independence number of half a million dollars this summer, I knew I needed to have her on the show to share her story!
Purple (that’s what I’ll call her to keep things simple) started her personal finance blog back in 2015 when she was only 25 to document her journey of becoming financial independent and eventually retiring early. Originally, her plan was to have enough saved up to retire by 2025 when she would be 35. But, as she saved and invested her money, and lived well below her means, she was able to achieve FIRE five years early!
Not only that, she made the decision to follow through with her plans during the pandemic. From the outside looking in, that seems like a fairly bold move, but not by Purple. As she explains in our interview, it didn’t have much effect on her plan to retire at 30. She had a solid investment plan, she understood her personal risk tolerance and didn’t freak out in March when the market tanked (unlike many of us), and she also knew that if she had to earn more income, she could through the job she was leaving.
Another thing I want to point out that we didn’t really discuss in this episode is that Purple is a person of colour. You may not know that since she’s anonymous online, but I think this is very significant. When you look at the FIRE community as a whole, it’s very white. Purple is actually the first guest I’ve had on my show who achieved FIRE and isn’t white. I’m pointing this out because I’m hopeful that moving forward, and by sharing more examples like Purple, that the FIRE community will become more diverse and better represent what our world actually looks like.
For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/249
I almost never slide into anyone’s DMs, but if I do…it’s to beg them to be on my podcast. So when I saw some news articles online talk about Dan Price, CEO of Gravity Payments, and the effects of the $70,000 minimum wage increase he implemented 5 years ago (a story that went viral globally!), I thought this was my chance to just ask and see what happens.
And it worked! Not only that, Dan has since written a book called Worth It all about his journey of becoming an entrepreneur, going from no money to millionaire status, and then making the radical decision to cut his million-dollar salary to $70,000/year so he could increase the wages of all his staff.
In this episode, we talk about his relationship with money, his experiences mingling with the 1%, income inequality, universal basic income, and what he hopes to achieve with his $70,000 minimum wage into the future. All I can say is I hope more CEOs take a page out of his book (pun intended) because people not only deserve a living wage but a wage the can make a huge difference in their overall quality of life.
For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhosue.com/248
Ask and you shall receive! Having a guest on to talk about starting a family and what to do with your finances has been a popular request from listeners, so I’m excited to finally share this episode!
I of course thought of having Shannon Lee Simmons on the show to talk about this. Not only is she an amazing guest (listen to her on episode 151 and episode 184), she’s also a mom and offers baby-proofing your finances services as part of her financial planning firm – The New School of Finance.
Shannon mentions in this episode that as a financial planner, she works will people all the time who come to her worried that they have to achieve a certain amount of wealth before they can start a family. But the truth is, people all around the world have kids in different circumstances, and they make it work with little or a lot! It’s all about your expectations and figuring out how to balance them with your income.
Moreover, you don’t need to buy all the things! Although having kids can be expensive, there are a number of ways you can save money and make it work within the constraints of your income. It may mean cutting some expenses, or putting a pause on some future plans. But people do it all the time, and so can you.
For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/247