Episode 215- Nine Money “Mistakes” That I’ve Made (and I’m still making) + What I’m Doing to Improve Them

Jamila Souffrant 0:00

You're listening to the journey to launch podcast, nine money mistakes that I've made. And in some cases, I'm still making, what I'm doing to improve them and why some of them I actually don't mind making.

Intro 0:14

Welcome to the journey to launch podcast with your host Jamila Souffrant, as a money expert who walks her talk, she helps brave Journeyers like you get out of debt, save, invest and build real wealth. Join her on the journey to launch to financial freedom

Jamila Souffrant 0:39

Hey, hey, hey journeyers I am going to be doing a solo episode. I know some of you guys love this. So if you're new to the podcast and you're looking for more like interviews with experts and other people, you may want to find another episode but if you like the sound of my voice and you're brand new, or you're an odd journeyer that means you've been listening for a bit you like when I do these solo episodes. I think you will enjoy this one so get prepared. Get ready.

Oh, one thing I want to tell you about this amazing podcast the dreams and drive podcast hosted by my girl Rana Campbell so the dreams and drive podcast also known as D ID helps individuals learn how to take their dreams out of Park and put it into drive. If you're someone who's currently struggling to put an idea of yours into action, or need some inspiration from others on how they put their ideas into motion despite setbacks. This show is definitely one you should check out. Rana has over 250 guests from a variety of industries sharing their dream driving journeys. She also has so episode highlighting her own journey into entrepreneurship and now motherhood. I also was on the show Episode 181 if you want to check that out, but I really do love how Rana encourages her people her dream drivers to put their dreams into motion, get it out of Park and put it into drive. So check out the dreams in Drive podcast wherever you listen to this podcast, and go to dreams and drive calm or the Instagram dreams in Drive. For more on the show.

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If you want the episode Show Notes for this episode, go to journeytolaunch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this episode. in the show notes. You'll get the transcribed version of the conversation, the links that we mentioned and so much more. Also, whether you are in OG journeyer or are brand new to the podcast, I've created a free jumpstart guide to help you on your financial freedom journey. It includes the top episodes so listen to stages to go through to reach financial freedom, resources and so much more. You can go to journeytolaunch.com/jumpstart to get your guide right now. Okay, let's hop into the episode.

On the podcast today in this episode, I'm going to be sharing some money mistakes that I've made in the past and some that I'm still making. gasp a so called money expert that makes money mistakes. Yep, that's me. I make mistakes all the time. I know what I'm doing for the most part. I mean, Hello, I'm here. And I've got this far. But there's a lot I can learn. There's a lot I can do. And I kind of want to show you by being honest and transparent that listen, there's always more to do more to learn. No one is perfect. I am surely not perfect. And I'm still learning so I'm going to be sharing some money mistakes I've made in the past and I'm still making and you know what some of my mistakes I'm actually not regretting I don't regret them, some of them and even the ones that I'm making now. I'm just like, ah, I know I can do better but it's it is what it is. So hopefully by sharing what is happening in my own life and personal finance and business This will help you on your journey. Okay, let's get started. I'm gonna start with the first one. And these are really in no particular order. I right now have nine on my list. I may add more as I start talking, but we'll see how this goes. So the first one mistake that I've made in the past is actually Buying a luxury car. You know, I actually did a whole real I thought this was very creative, by the way on my Instagram at journey to launch where I talked about when I was commuting from Brooklyn to New Jersey, when I had my corporate job. I ended up buying a luxury car. I had my older car that I had in college, and I was writing that I was writing that it was a Nissan Altima. It was a What year was it? I think it was a 96 Nissan Altima, and I loved it. I mean, I was fine with that car, I would have literally kept it until the wheels fell off, and the wheels almost fell off. Like even if it worked. Now, I probably would still have that car. But I remember driving to work in the Holland Tunnel and the car shut off and it had been shutting off a bit on and off. And then you know, go get it fixed and forgot what the issue was. But this time, the car shut off in the Holland Tunnel. And if you guys are familiar with New York, and then the Holland Tunnel, you know, it's it's a big tunnel. Hello connects Manhattan to New Jersey. And here I am in the middle of the Holland Tunnel in the morning. People want to get to work and you know how New Yorkers are.

They were just like, get out of the way. Like it was such I feel like I feel like it was a little traumatizing. So this was after many times at this car broke down. So I eventually got rid of it. By the way. Yes, I did get out the Holland Tunnel. The car like shut off and it started to smoke. But then it did turn on it was like one of those things. Sometimes it turned on sometimes it did it. And so it turned on and had to go really slow people how to go around me, but we made it out. Anyway, fast forward to now I'm like, I deserve a nice car. You know, I've been riding with this car to the wheels fell off. And it was at this point too, that I had just moved in. I forgot maybe I was at my Dumbo apartment that I bought, which I talked about in another episode, I bought a condo in Dumbo Brooklyn. And so it was like a luxury high rise. So for someone at my age, it like I was living the life like it was had a doorman brand new like apartment, it had a gym, we have classes like, and I just felt really good living in that space. And so when I needed a new car, I was like, Listen, I need a car that's going to match my vibe, like, you know, here I am doing the thing working and paying my bills and making it making a way in the world, I should now have a car that reflects that. And so I ended up buying a BMW 328 exci black coupe. And I, in retrospect, knowing what I know now, would not necessarily do it again. But I can't lie when I had that car. And I did buy the car. So at first I want to finance it. And then I ended up having enough money where I could just pay off the remaining balance over the next couple months. And I just did it. So after a couple months, I did own it outright. But this was if I'm remembering correctly, like, I paid a lot of money for this car, I think it had to be maybe like, it was like either like high 20s like maybe like 20,000 or $30,000 for this car. And you know, I'm in my 20s. And I'm like, Alright, I'm living life. Now here's why that was a mistake. Now I did buy it use.

So it wasn't a brand new car. But I was commuting from Brooklyn to New Jersey every day in this luxury car. And of course, it felt good to be walking to that car to get in it. But then the drive the commute did, it did a lot to the maintenance and just upkeep for the car. Because while I was under warranty, and some things were included, the just everything started to wear it down faster. And plus, on top of that I had to put in premium gas in this car. So with my Nissan, I put into regular gas with this car I had if I was you know, following the rules, I had to put premium gas in it. So as you can imagine, even though I paid it off, it was just a lot of gas money, add on top of that tolls that I was paying, which was already going to be part of the expenses for commuting, but then it was just a lot. So I said that was one of my mistakes. Because yes, I would do that differently. Now I wouldn't know what I know now to invest that money or did something else. But you know, I actually like the fact that I had that portion of my life where I was just enjoying luxury and life as it was because I didn't know any better. And you know, when you know better you do better. But within my ignorance, I had a great time. And when it was time to give it up this is I knew it was time to give it up. So when I had the car initially I you know was closer to the city. So my commute wasn't that that bad. Plus, I was for the most part single. I think I even got this car before my husband and I got married and no kids. Now fast forward a couple years I am pregnant with my first son married, and I've moved further in to Brooklyn at this time now we bought the house that we're living in now. And I remember getting Trying to get the car seat. So we had our son, our first son at that point in and out of this car in the backseat this coupe, and it was a nightmare. And I was like, Okay, this is not going to work. You know, this doesn't make sense anymore. Plus the warranty was coming up where it was not going to be under the certified warranty anymore. And I was like, This doesn't make any sense to keep this. And by the way, my commute at that time was about one and a half hours each way and about 100 miles roundtrip. That's how much mileage I was putting on this car. Okay, so I ended up selling the car. And then I got a more economical car to fincar I have now on a Honda, it makes more sense for where we are in life. But it is a money mistake that I say is a mistake.

But it's also a lesson and I can't lie, I kind of enjoyed it. Okay, so that was one. Mistake number two is saving too much. You're like Jamila, saving too much. How can you possibly save too much. So I will, I will say like saving as my superpower. You know, it's like one of the things that I'm good at, like, if there's money coming in, I will find a way to save something. Even if it's a penny, I will find a way to save it. And so I was always good at saving. And I talked about this, in previous episodes that you know, one of my biggest memories or not biggest but the most impactful is my mom taking me to open up a savings account when I was about six years old. And you know, we didn't have much growing up. But one thing as immigrants and as a daughter of a single mom, it was instilled in me that when you get $1, and you save a portion of that, and that's kind of like how my grandmother and my mom survived and thrived in this country, because they had to make best with what was due. And so they just found ways to save money. And it just always stuck with me. So I've always been a saver, you know, I got my job at 14, my first job at 14 and I saved that money when I was working. And I spent a little but not a lot. And then same thing happened when I got my internship in college, I saved the majority of that money, which then helped me buy the condo in Dumbo. So saving has done me really well right. And even when I started to work for the first couple years of working, when I was you know trying to just make mortgage payments in the Dumbo apartment, and then just live life that wasn't saving as aggressively. But then as my income rose as I started to get my bonuses I was able to save again. And so saving has always been something that he enjoyed, I always enjoyed seeing my savings account grow. And it came in handy again, when I intentionally started the journey to financial independence. Because part of that, you know, other than investing so saving to me, I'm not talking about investing talks about saving just cash, I was able to save up by the time I realized I did not want to work in corporate America anymore, I realized we need a really good savings account so that I can take this leap, leave this really lucrative job behind to venture into entrepreneurship. But we need money to cover that because my husband, he was going to keep working, he's still working, but my husband's income doesn't cover all of our expenses. So I knew that we had to save up a good amount of money and what the community calls an fpu fund to help sustain that. And so we were able to save up, we stopped putting money in our investments for about eight, nine months, and then see the majority of that money. So again, saving is something I am good at. And I'm proud of it. But in a way, saving too much is a thing.

I think it depends on the way in which you're saving and how you feel about it. Because if you are lucky enough to be able to save to get to that emergency fund, and then to an fpu fund so that you can leave your job travel, do the things you want with this cash that you built up. Amazing. But if you're not enjoying your current life, like the now and right right now, you know you're not enjoying life, but you have the money. But because you're saving, because maybe you're always expecting something to happen, or maybe you don't know, that can lead to not enjoying life not enjoying your hard work. And in some instances, I feel like I've over saved. Were there things that I wanted to do that I should have done or could have done and I didn't because I was more focused on the number in the bank account. Right. And at a certain point, it gets to be hoarding money. And my thoughts have changed and starting my financial independence journey. You know, at first it was all about how much can I save, you know, what's the maximum amount, and it wasn't necessarily always focused on the quality of the journey. And that's totally changed now. And I'm all more about what's the quality of my journey now. Right? It's not about having a gazillion dollars. I mean, that's nice to almost working on that. But what can I do now, like right now, so it's not about saving and to have, let's say $10 million at 55. Now of course I'm still working towards that. But if I'm saving to investing to have $10 million at 55, but my life right now is not something that I enjoy, I can't do the things I want, we can't go the places we want to eat where we want. To me, that is not a good trade off. And so I would say that saving too much has been a mistake that I'm actually still working on. actually see, it's still in my business, you know, we have I have a savings account for the business. And I even have I used to profit first system, I loosely use the profit first system, and I'll link that in the show notes for this episode. But essentially, you know, I have different bank accounts. So every time $1 comes in the business, it goes to a certain percentage goes to taxes, operating expenses, owners pay profit, and so forth. And so I have been able to save a healthy amount of money in operating expenses and into to owners pay and in other areas. And what I find is that I still even though the money is there, don't always spend it when I need to spend it and invest in things for the business, even paying myself at this point, I probably can give myself a raise, and be confident that I'll continue to make money to replace like, you know, the money coming out of my owners pay. But there's something in me that still says no, you never know, I still want to keep you know, this amount of savings in. And so I would say that saving too much for me is something I'm working on, I'm working on deploying my money in a way that works for me not just in the future and make sure I'm secure. And I have that safety net. But then I'm also enjoying it now. So that's a big thing that I'm working on shifting and I'm currently doing, and there's a book actually want to read it. I'm assuming that it actually does talk a little bit about this, because while I'm talking about saving investing as the same thing to like, over saving and investing to that you get to the point where you have a lot, which is great. You know, we talked about generational wealth, especially for people of color, especially for black people, I want my kids to have more than enough of a starting point. So I don't think that there's ever too much. But I think if it sacrifices your your happiness, or well being in the meantime, that you need to pull it back and this book die with zero, getting all you can from your money and your life by Bill Perkins. I have not read this book yet. I do want to read it. I'm interested just because of the concept. And I actually would like to have him on the podcast. So if you know him or if you're listening, hopefully we'll get in touch to have you on because I want to talk about this concept a bit like how do we make sure we're getting enough in the now for our money that is working for us?

Okay, number three. So I'm up to number three, not checking my budget on a more consistent basis, gasp budget. You know, I am a fan of budgets. I think everyone should have a budget. I think it depends on where you are, what level you're at how comfortable you are with your money, you know, the journey or stages that I talked about. If you're just coming in into this whole world, you are just trying to make a way in terms of not overspending, trying to earn more, because you're in the red every month like you literally your expenses cannot cover your income, then you should have a budget regardless, but you should be more on top of your budget in that scenario, because it's important for you to get out of the red so that you can find that gap in your income and expenses to make a way and the best way to do that is to have a budget. So when I talk about not checking my budget, as much as I probably should, it's more based on when I first started this, like when I first found out about financial independence. And I started even before journey to launch was official. And this was just me doing my own money work. I was checking my numbers, my budget, my net worth, like on a daily basis. Okay, I was trying to squeeze as much as I could out of the income coming into the household so that we could plot away to reach financial independence. And so it was very important for me to check the budget often and it felt good doing it. I felt so on top of things. as I progressed and become more comfortable and have hit a lot of my goals like just money goals, I found that I have slacked on my own budget. So I still do a budget every month that happens every month, I still reconcile my budget every month, but I'm not checking it as often. So when I do check it that one time that month or twice that month, I find myself having to do a lot of catch up right and reconciling what has actually happened to what I set out that was gonna happen. So with the budget just really quickly, you know, you're setting at the beginning of the month, what you're going to do, you're giving every dollar a job. And so when you give every every dollar a job, you're telling it where to go. Now what you're supposed to do for this to work so you can do a budget, write all the numbers of what you're going to spend on, you know, your rent, mortgage, groceries, all the things you can write that down, but if you never look at it again, then It almost doesn't matter if you're trying to use that to guide your decision making. And so if you're going through the days and weeks not looking at your budget and your spending, but you're not reconciling it, there's really no way to know if you're on track. So if you said you're going to spend, let's say, you have a restaurant line, I have a restaurant budget line, okay. And let's just say you said, I'm going to spend $500 on restaurants this month, but then you never check it, you know, maybe you're keeping a running total in your head. And now it's like the end of the month, and you're like, oh, Tom, do my budget. And now you reconcile everything you're going back throughout your receipts and your statements to see how often you ate at restaurants and how much you spent, you might find that instead of the 500, you said you were going to spend you spent 800. Because our mind if we're keeping things in our mind, we're typically under valuing or cost cutting it because we don't want to believe the true total. And so if you're checking your budget every week, every day, then you'll know. So mid month, you would have known that, wow, I'm I'm already at $400 spent at restaurants. And it's only the 15. So therefore, now I need to guide and make decisions to guide myself and make decisions better on the restaurant part of my budget. And you can still overspend right, you can still say yourself, Well, you know what, there's a couple events coming up, they're very important to me. So I'm going to take that money kind of real, reallocate and take find money elsewhere in my budget to put towards restaurants, but you consciously know that versus not knowing that. And so for me with budgeting, what I found that I've been doing is like checking it like once or twice a month at the end of the month. And then I'm not using it to guide my everyday decision making. And I gotta be honest with you, like I don't actually want to get to a space where I am obsessing. And you know, for some people, it's obsessing for some people, it's just what they enjoy. But I don't want to get to a place where I actually need to like reconcile my budget every single day, right, but I do need to check it more. So it's a mistake that I've been making, I can acknowledge it Hello. But it's something that as mistakes go. For me, it doesn't necessarily throw us off track, we're still on track to meet our goals, we're investing again, we're saving again. But I feel like we can do better. And so for me, it's a mistake I'm making that I'm going and working on changing. In the money launch club, we even did a budget challenge. So depending on what this episode comes out, we challenge the whole group. So the money launch club is a membership community to work on their budgets together, and decide if they're going to do a daily, weekly. And so we had our weekly budget meeting. And then we do, we had working sessions where we're all working on our budget. And so that definitely has helped, and it's helping me get into a new kind of groove with budgeting. So that's number three.

Number four, not being fully optimized, quote, unquote, for my expenses. So what does that mean? One of the things that I talked about in terms of making a way with your finances, getting to your goals, you know, there's the income, income side of things. So that is earning more, and having more money come in. And then there is the expense side, which is okay, what are you spending on, and there's all kinds of things in our budgets, right, there's the bigger ticket items like mortgage, rent, groceries, then there are the smaller everyday things. And so when I say not being fully optimized, I'm pretty sure I can go through my budget right now, and probably find a couple $100 to save on a monthly basis, right? Like I can probably read look at my mortgage rate, look at different accounts that I have cancel a certain things here and there. And I know that right. But I would say that not being fully optimized is like a mistake, quote unquote, but it's not something I regret not doing. Because I'm also at the stage in my finances, where probably I can save a couple $100 doing this on a monthly basis. But spending the time to do it at the level I am can be used better, because my time is very limited at this point. So when I think about spending an hour to look into saving $50 versus that hour to work on something in my business that can bring me in $5,000 I'm going to spend that to do that. I'm gonna I'm gonna spend my time to bring in $5,000 versus saving $50. Now, that doesn't have to be the case for you. Right? I'm at the stage in my finances, where that makes sense. But if again, you're in the beginning stages and you're trying to at least get out of the red people to pay your expenses and your debts, then it may best serve you to work on yes your income of course, but also to spending time to do this to be optimized with your expenses to take the time to call your service providers. And again, it's not that I should not do this, okay because at every level Why not? But It hasn't been something I found the time to prioritize to do. And I recognize that, but I'm not going to fully beat myself up over it. I've gotten to a place again, where I want money to flow in and out of my life. I don't want to be attached to money, per se, I don't want to be, I don't want my self identity to be wrapped up in my net worth, or how much money I make. And so for me, like even just thinking about like saving $1 or two here and there, it's not it doesn't energize or excite me. To me, it kind of brings back a scarcity mindset, right. And so I'm working on changing that. And that way, I know when I discover things, when I feel a certain way I can, I can talk about that to you differently from a more congruent and authentic space or place, right. So not being fully optimized. Number four is something that I know is a quote unquote mistake, but it's also actually something I'm not like beating myself up over based on where I am in my journey.

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Alright, number five, taking too long to decide on making an investment in something or being afraid of making that investment you know, it's not the being afraid that's a mistake. It's It's knowing that I should do something or invest in something and then not doing it. So that comes in the form of like there's a course or program or thing that I need to do. Whether it's for my like personal life and or for my business that I'm just like, Oh, just spend the money on this thing. Why are you taking so long to make this decision and it can be as small as I'll give you an example. We had one of those blenders and it kept breaking and it was so frustrating. It was a hot mess like us trying to use this blender that kept breaking that we see us like in my head I knew I should just buy a blender like jameelah just buy a new Blender but I kept using this broken down Blender it will take forever to set up like it's kind of crazy even me saying this out loud. I think my husband went to like BJs and just pick up a new blender and the amount of energy and frustration this new Blender has brought like it's it's like a new member of the family this new Blender I'm like Where have you been all our lives and the crazy thing about it is that I don't even know how much he paid for it okay, but it didn't even matter the fact it could have been $1,000 Blender like the the kind of piece that this new Blender has brought to my life I'm like why did you take so long on buying it in the first place like you were dealing with this broke down thing for so long, acting like you didn't have the money to do it or just didn't have the time to do it. And here you are now with this new thing and it's making the world of a difference in your household. I know you're thinking like How can a blender have such an impact on your life? I don't know. So something as small as a blender to something as big as a program that I know I need to invest in like I've been eyeing this person program for a while there's this person I want to work with.

And so I've made that mistake of taking too long to invest in something. And so I've been just thinking, when I'd have that come up, you know, I asked myself a couple questions. For me the biggest thing, especially when it comes to investing in like a program, or course, especially for the business, it's about, okay, are you one gonna dedicate the time and energy you need to implement this thing? So I don't want to just buy it and have it there for the sake of it? Right? Are you going to really take the time to implement this? And then the other question I asked myself, is this something you know, you need and are putting off? So if I know that I've thought about this a couple times, I even got gone to the sales page or, or went further down the process to discover or want to know more, and I keep wasting time by not doing it, then, you know, I know something I need to do. The other question that I asked myself is, if I do buy or invest in this thing, and it does not work out, or it's not what I expected, or things come up, and I can't really utilize it, will I be homeless? Will I not be able to pay my bills, because it was such a big chunk of money, right. And typically, it's no, even if it's a lot of money for something that I'm investing in. Even if it doesn't work, it's not our last dollar. So for me, that's been a really important like, so I've seen myself take too long to, to make an investment in something or to buy something that I know I need. And I'm just like, nope, you need to act faster, because you wasting time thinking it through or putting it on the back burner, it just keeps coming up. Or you know, you can make your life a lot more easier. You can get to where you're going faster. I don't necessarily want to just say faster, but it can be more enjoyable. And make more sense. If you just do the thing you've been thinking about, okay, invest in that thing, what is the worst that can happen, you can learn, you can get to the next level. And so I've been taking that approach a lot lately. And again, I also want to be super congruent with the way I talk to you guys. Like, I'll tell you that, Hey, take, take that course, join the money launch club, take that extra thing, or do that extra thing, it's going to help you and it may be a little scary, because you're like, do I need it, there's extra money. If I can't do what I'm telling you to do, right? If there are things I know, in my heart in my head, that I need to invest in that I'm not because I'm afraid, but then I'm telling you, you should do it. Like I just feel like that's not that's not authentic. So I've also been like, Okay, what would I tell my juniors to do? What would I tell you guys to do? What would I want you to tell me to do. And so I kind of also operate from that.

Alright, number six, being hesitant to sell and caring what people think of me. So I actually say those are two kind of very intertwined things. And when I say sell, I mean with the business. So a couple of the things I talked about before were like spending money, and like expenses. And this now is on the income side of things. So for me and journey to launch, you know, journeys launch has been doing really well. I do see this being a million dollar business one day. And so I have to operate as such, right. But in order for me to get there, I am going to have to be comfortable with selling and with marketing. And you know, I gotta say, That's not something that comes easy to me. You know, whenever there is like an open enrollment period or a launch, right, so when the doors open for the money launch club, or the phi course or something that I'm selling, like I actually get, I don't want to say anxiety, but things just I feel like are not as smooth for me, right. And I think a lot of that comes from caring too much what people think of me and almost like to the point where I'm making up things in my head, right? Because I'm thinking, well, if I send this email asking for this sale, or telling them about this thing, they're gonna think this to me, right? They're gonna think Why is this not free? Like, why is she still is this too expensive, I'm thinking about all the negative things that could be possibly said, but myself about what I'm selling. And so it kind of impacts when it's time to sell like it comes off, maybe not as confident there. I said it. Guys, I'm being really transparent here, right. And so in order for me to get to be a million dollar business, in order for me to impact continue to impact I should say, I already know that, um, you know, a lot of you guys say that it's whatever already doing is impactful. But in order for more people to hear this message in order for myself and my family to be comfortable so that I can continue serving. And you know, a lot of things that I do are free, this podcast is totally free, and all the things that I do are free, right. But in order for me to get to that next level, it does involve selling and whether that is selling a program, or the membership or course, whether that is when I partner into affiliates, whatever that looks like, selling and being confident about what I'm selling is going to be key. And so I've noticed that if anything's gonna hold me back from creating a million dollar business, it's going to be me getting over my hesitation to sell and caring what people think of me because I gotta be honest, the people who join my program So people who are in the money launch club, the people who even if you don't buy anything, per se, like in terms of my products, and you're just like listening to the podcast, which I appreciate 100% is they love it. They're just like, um, can you do more of this? You know, can you can you provide more? Like, when are you opening up doors again, like people. So I think once your as long as you're doing it from a place of authenticity in terms of what you're selling, what you're doing, what I'm doing, I know is quality. It's impactful. It's good work, then getting over being hesitant and also getting over what negative people have to say, right and off. A lot of times, like the negativity is in my head. No one has ever yet. They may be thinking it, but no one has ever said to me Jamila, why are you selling that? You shouldn't be selling that that's too expensive? No one said that to me it. So why am I assuming that that's what people are gonna think. Right? So just like a little peek in my head of just being an entrepreneur trying to scale and not trying to scale scaling and making more. That is one of my biggest hurdles. And it's something that I'm really working on this year for sure.

Okay, number seven. Okay, this one, I feel like I was like, should I say this as a number, but I'm gonna say it. So number seven in terms of money, mistakes, and you're gonna be like, how is this a money mistake? And I'll tell you in a bit, it kind of relates to number six to number seven is frequenting a gossip sites? or spending my time like in really just negative unproductive spaces? You're like, how does that relate to money? First of all, I just want to say this, there is nothing wrong with indulging in guilty pleasures, because I love you know, going to the shade room and looking at what's going on with the celebrities of the world and the gossip, right. But sometimes I find myself like on these like gossip sites. And like, why are you here? Because, yes, it's like something that helps pass the time. But I also feel like I'm not feeding my brain with positive messages, because a lot of the things on those gossip sites are very judgmental, and negative. And so while it's like cool to, like, look at, I feel like sometimes I'm internalizing the judgments that people are having on other people who are just like me, who are putting themselves out into the world who are making money online. And that kind of goes back to number six, if you connect the two. So sometimes, you know, there are some points where I'm like, why am I on this gossip site like this is not helping you because you could be doing something more productive. And again, I do want to stress that I you know, this is not to say that you enjoy that and it doesn't affect your work not to do it. I love you know, reality TV. I love a good Real Housewives franchise, like one of the one of those Come on, I typically watching it, I like that, you know, I have one of my friends is totally into the gossip stuff. And so she's more in the know than I am in terms of just like celebrity stuff, right? And so like, it's sometimes fun to just like, talk about that kind of stuff. So I'm not saying that you shouldn't. But if it's impacting you, the way that I feel like it connects to impacting me in selling and caring what people think. Because basically, when I'm reading those messages, and people are being very judgy of other people, that's where I'm internalizing, whoa, someone's gonna think this for me, if I say or do this, or if I put myself out online and post this picture, what if people are going to say this about me, right? So the connection for me, it is really closely related to making money. So it is a money mistake. And so I've done things. So you know, part of this was also to share, like what I've been doing to help me not make these mistakes. So some of the things is one, you know, I'm just honest with myself, when I find myself that I'm going to the sides, I'm saying Why are you doing that? Like is, what is the underlying thing going on in your life right now? you bored? Are you feeling insecure about something so I kind of just I'm real with myself, instead of judging myself and feeling bad about it, I'm just like, Whoa, I try to just observe where I am at that moment, just to see if there are patterns that come up, at one time I blocked the site on my phone, the site's like, I would just block it, I'm like, I'm not even gonna, like make it so I can access it, I'm gonna make it a block site. So I did that at one point. That's number seven.

Number eight, not spending more in my business. So I mentioned before journey conscious doing well. And when it came time for doing my taxes, I owed a lot of money. And this was in addition to the money that I already paid throughout the year for estimated quarterly tax payments. And so I was talking to the person that does my taxes. And he was I was like, so you're saying I could have like hired someone like I could technically hire someone full time? And he's like, yeah, you're, you're kind of at that point. Or at least you can, you know, pay your contract. You can you can give more time to your contractors, you can get more help and Lord knows I need the help. Okay. And so I'm thinking, Wow, so you have this money. And again, this goes back to saving a lot, right? So I talked about one of my points being having too much money in savings in terms of you in the business. It's not that you have too much but in this case, right. I can either I just have this money sitting in cash earning 0%. Or I can use this to take a risk to invest in my business by hiring more help hiring someone with the expertise that I need to get done, maybe a copywriter, a marketer or graphic designer, something that's going to help me maybe even hire someone full time who's really dedicated to helping this business grow. And then I wouldn't have like this much taxes, right, or not even just the taxes part. But I can also push my business forward, because I'm not spending all my time in this minutia day to day work. So it's really again, I feel like 2021 is going to be the year of leveling up. Because if I plan to get to a million dollar business, I'm going to have to spend more in my business, I'm going to have to step away from the hoarding. That's not into me kind of where I am with my personal finances. But in business, like hoarding in a business, it's not going to work, it's not the same. And that is kind of where the disconnect comes in. I think when you are a personal finance person who's mostly thinking about how to save money, which is great, right, like a certain level, but if you're talking about like making money, and getting to different levels, you have to invest, you have to take risk, even with the business. So that's kind of where I am now. So just thinking about ways, like what's going to be my next step, in terms of just even hiring, what does that look like? How much should I spend more on that this year?

And then I think the last thing, which I think it has little undertones in the previous point is, so number nine, operating from a scarcity mindset and not an abundance mindset. So I kind of talked about that in the previous points, especially the last one about not spending more in the business and over saving. But really, and I was reading Rachael Rogers books, we should all be millionaires. And, you know, in it, she said that her husband like said to her, like, stop making every dollar your last dollar, like every dollar that comes in, it's not your last dollar. And I realized that I actually operate like that, which is why I over Save, and I'm afraid to sometimes spend money, because it sometimes feels like oh, yeah, you're doing good now. But what's gonna happen next year, like, Oh, you just made like this amount of money, that's good. But are you going to make that next month, and so that scarcity, that is not being abundant, because what what got me to make that much money is going to help me make that same amount of money or more, even if it's not the money because sometimes I don't want to tie my success to any thing based on like the amount. But the person who I am that was able to do that, right, the person who was able to quit their job, walk away from a six figure plus salary, start a business, like literally from nothing that now earns multiple six figures. That person can do anything, that person who can make money if she needs to, right. And so it's more about trusting myself, and not feeling like every dollar is the last dollar. Right? That there there's going to be more and I've never even before journey to launch. I've never gone without right maybe it never has been as much. You know, I've never, I haven't always lived in my own place. We like I talked about my childhood, we didn't always have a lot, you know, we had enough. But that's the thing I've always had enough. So going back to this thinking, like, Listen, you'll never be without, you know. And so for me, it's important to remember that as I'm taking risk, as I am investing in myself in my business as I'm sharing my journey with you so that you guys can take it to whatever level is your next level and enjoy the journey to like that is what I'm trying to show you. So I think my whole list came down to nine things. Some are longer than others. But I hope you enjoyed this, if any of this resonated with you. So you're like yes, that's a mistake I make or Oh, I used to make that mistake. Let me know. So tag me on social media, I'm at journey to launch on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Most of my people I feel like most of you guys hang out on Instagram and sometimes Twitter. So take a screenshot of you listening share with me like a mistake that you're making or one of my mistakes resonated with you and then um you know, comment interact, I'd love to see and hear your feedback.

Don't forget you can get the episode Show Notes for this episode by going to journeytolaunch.com or click the description of wherever you're listening to this and you can still grab your jumpstart guide for free to help you on your journey to financial freedom by going to journeytolaunch.com/jumpstart.

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