Journey To Launch

Episode 488: How Cindy Zuniga Paid Off $215,000 of Debt in 48 Months

Cindy Zuniga went to law school to make an impact in her community. After three years in law school and $215,000 of debt later, Cindy realized the real cost of her decision. Her first year out of school she paid $24,000 towards her student loans. However, only $4,000 went towards her loan's principal balance, and the other 20,000 paid off just the interest on her loan. That's when Cindy said enough is enough and devised a plan to pay off all of her debt in 48 month. Find out how Cindy paid off $215,000 in 48 months and kept her expenses low while living in New York.  In this episode you will learn: What to consider before taking out student loans for a degree How to educate yourself and your family about student loan debt 3 reasons to refinance your student loans How to stick to your financial goals in any environment Tips for talking about finances with your partner How to lower your expenses, save money, and more What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including: The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here./' Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB –  Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide

Episode 487: Burnout, Boundaries, and The Risk Worth Taking w/ Teri Ijeoma

What if the biggest risk you take is the one that changes everything? In this episode, I chat with Teri Ijeoma, trader, entrepreneur, author, and founder of Trade and Travel, an investment education company that has taught over 40,000 students how to actively invest. Teri left a toxic career as an assistant principal, taught herself to trade stocks while traveling the world, and built one of the top investing courses. Now she's back with her debut book, The Risk Worth Taking, and she's sharing the full picture of what the journey has actually looked like. Teri opens up about everything that's happened since we last spoke from growing her company to a team of 40 and navigating the burnout that came with it, to making the difficult decision to step back, downsize, and move from Puerto Rico back to the U.S. in search of a deeper community. She shares how a health scare became a turning point, why she chose to prioritize herself over expectations and obligations, and what it meant to finally bring a new dream to life by finishing her first book. It's an honest conversation about success, reinvention, and creating a life that aligns with what matters most. In this episode, Teri Ijeoma shares: How she scaled back from 40 employees to two and transitioned her course to self-study Her Smart Risk Framework, the 4 C's, and how it applies beyond investing What Trump Accounts are, who qualifies, and why she wants every parent to know about them The story behind her new novel-style investing book and how it teaches trading through fiction + more What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including: The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Trade and Travel Course: tradeandtravel.com The Risk Worth Taking (Book): Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books a Million, and Black-owned bookstores JTL Episode 483 with Dr. Kemi Doll (fibroids and endometriosis): journeytolaunch.com/episode483 Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB –  Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide  

Episode 486: Single Mom Takiia's Amazing Story: How She Went From $100,000 in Debt to $500,000 in Savings

Getting rid of six-figure debt is no easy feat but Takiia Anderson is proof that it can be done. After graduating from law school, Takiia had accrued more than $150,000 of debt. As the single mother of a 2-year-old little girl making only $34,000 a year, she knew that something had to change. Takiia went on to save over $500,000 and pay for her daughter's college education at the prestigious Spelman College. She shares all of her tips, tricks, and personal finance advice on her blog, The Frugal Bitty. In this episode we discuss: The overall steps Takiia took to go from debt to having a large savings today The things that she gave up to pay off her student loan debt Her decision to save for her daughter's college costs while still being in debt Takiia's plan for investing when she first opened her daughter's college saving account Why she stopped investing in retirement to save for her daughter's college education The money lessons that she taught her daughter Passing on generational wealth and not generational debt What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including: The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Single Mom Masterminds 700,000 Swing From Debt to Savings Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB –  Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide

Episode 485: How To Take Control Of Your Life, Make Big Changes & Reset Your Money With Jill Schlesinger REWIND

Jill Schlesinger, money and media legend, joins the Journey To Launch podcast to discuss how you can reset your life, her new book, "The Great Money Reset," and how to use her Fab Five framework to discover where you really want to be on your journey to financial freedom. We discuss events that shaped Jill's impressive career, why everyone should have a pink notebook and how life is about so much more than money. Jill is a CFP and Emmy and Gracie award-winning business analyst for CBS News. Her career is focused on translating complicated finance into understandable, relatable topics for everyday viewers and listeners. She covers the economy, markets, investing and anything else with the dollar sign. Jill also has her podcast, "Jill On The Money," which won a Gracie for best national talk show. In this episode, you'll learn more about: What the "Fab Five" questions are and why you need to implement them in your life Why people are afraid of change and how to move past your fears to reset your life Actionable advice on how to advance your career and "keep the faith" + more What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when y The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Listen to episode 27: The Art Of The Side Hustle With Chris Guillebeau Read Jill's book:The Great Money Reset Check out the FIRE Calc Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB –  Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with Jill: Website Instagram: @JillonMoney Twitter:@JillonMoney Facebook:@JillonMoney Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide

Episode 484: Life Lately: Working Less, Living More & Embracing Uncertainty

Financial independence isn't just about reaching a number, it's about designing a life you actually want to live. In this solo episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of what life looks like now.I share a candid life update on everything from my current workout routine and newfound hobby of gardening to navigating one of the busiest parenting seasons of the year with three kids. I also open up about the intentional trade-offs I'm making by working less, earning less, and embracing a slower pace, because the flexibility I've gained is worth more to me than maximizing income. Plus, I reflect on some exciting milestones, including Journey to Launch turning 10 years old, winning a Plutus Award, the evolution of the FIRE Calc, and what I'm still exploring as I think about the next chapter of my work and life. If you've ever wondered what financial independence actually looks like after the milestone is reached or how your priorities can shift once you have more freedom, this episode is for you In this episode, I share: How I'm currently splitting my time between personal life and work  What it means to live in the Commander stage of financial independence and why I would not trade it Honest reflections on parenting, birthday season spending, and the concept of lawnmower parenting An update on the FIRE Calc, Journey to Launch's 10-year milestone, and what's next for the platform + more What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom: A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps Updated corrections from the original hardcover Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including: The Fire Starter Course The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode: Plutus Awards: plutusawards.com Check out the FIRE Calc Get your paperback edition of Your Journey To Financial Freedom if you haven't already. Apply to Share Your Journeyer Story, here. Join the Journey to Launch Book Club to dive deeper into financial freedom with guided discussions and resources here! Join The Weekly Newsletter List to get updates, deals & more! Leave Your Journey To Financial Freedom a review! Get The Budget Bootcamp Check out my personal website here. Leave me a voicemail– Leave me a question on the Journey To Launch voicemail and have it answered on the podcast! YNAB –  Start managing your money and budgeting so that you can reach your financial dreams. Sign up for a free 34 days trial of YNAB, my go-to budgeting app by using my referral link. What stage of the financial journey are you on? Are you working on financial stability or work flexibility? Find out with this free assessment and get a curated list of the 10 next best episodes for you to listen to depending on your stage. Check it out here! Connect with me: Instagram: @Journeytolaunch Twitter: @JourneyToLaunch Facebook: @Journey To Launch Join the Private Facebook Group Join the Waitlist for My FI Course Get The Free Jumpstart Guide