Episode 385: Retiring Early, Paying Off The Mortgage, & Having Space To Focus On Joy With Journeyer Leilani Reed-Logan

Leilani Reed-Logan 0:02

Even if I wasn't able to retire at 30 because I had long past that road, maybe I could do certain things that weren't going to kill me, but may also allow me to retire earlier than I had planned. So definitely, was skeptical, absolutely, when I first started listening to you and my friends thought I was a little crazy, too, with this idea of, you know, there are people out there that like, stop working at 30 and they don't go back to work. And it's like here, right? No one does that. T

Intro 0:32

minus 10 seconds, 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. 54321, you.

Jamila Souffrant 1:04

Okay, journeyers, what if I told you that there was an AI tool that could help you get out of debt? Yep, it's true. Fortress is a revolutionary AI tool designed to get you out of debt swiftly and effectively. I've tried it myself, and I must say, I am very impressed. Fortress gives you custom strategies and solutions to help you get on track with your debt. You put in some details about your debt and circumstances like your debt balances goals and more, and then it gives you solutions to help you get on track. My favorite part of this tool is being able to ask questions that are specific to your situation. You can ask it to explain financial concepts, and it will suggest strategies you may not have thought about. After helping you understand your best options, it continues to support you, ensuring you know exactly what to do next. This hands on approach helps you stay on track and work towards achieving debt freedom. You can try the app now, over 75,000 people have already signed up. The best part, it's completely free. You know, I like to hook you guys up. Go to journey to launch.com/fortress to get started. That's J, o, u r n, e, y t, o, l, a, u n, C, h.com/f, O, R, T, R, E, S, S, to get started. Hey, hey, hey. Journeyers, welcome to the journey to launch podcast. I hope you've been enjoying the summer rewind series of episodes. These are episodes that were previously aired on the journey to launch podcast, and they were also case studies mentioned in my book your journey to financial freedom. The last few episodes that aired before this one were based on people paying off debt. So if you found yourself or find yourself in the cadet stage, the second stage of the five journey or stages where you are focused on paying off consumer debt, hopefully those episodes were useful and inspiring for you if you didn't listen to them, you can always listen to them after you listen to this one, but this next batch of episodes are focused more on people who are on the financial independence journey, and they are starting from different various starting points. Again, all of these episodes and interviewees were mentioned in my book your journey to financial freedom, a step by step guide to achieving wealth and happiness. The book is available wherever books are sold. You can head over to your journey to financial freedom.com to get your copy and check it out. Now let's get into the episode.

If you want the episode show notes for this episode, go to journey to launch.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 an OG journeyer or 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 to listen to, stages to go through, to reach financial freedom, resources and so much more you can go to journey to launch.com/jumpstart

to get your guide right now. Okay, journeyers, I'm really excited for this guest, because she is literally just like you. She is an actual journeyer. She's a long time listener of the podcast, since 2017 I believe, and she messaged me on Instagram and just was telling me about how much progress she's made with her finances, or how she was able to achieve her own version of independence. And I was so inspired by her story, I knew that you just had to hear it. So welcome to the podcast. Balani, excited to be here. I just want to talk a little bit about where you were when you first heard the podcast. Like, I love to like, kind of orient people to like, kind of like the beginning of when you realize that there was this thing called financial independence, then we could talk about. Bit what you've accomplished and where you are today, and then we'll get into all the juicy details.

Leilani Reed-Logan 5:04

So you're right. I actually discovered both you and I believe, the fire movement in 2017 and I was in this place of just discontent with my with all of it, like it was just a weird place to be in at the time, and I had started, yeah, I actually decided I was going through, like a self proclaimed midlife crisis, I believe, when I turned 40. And so when I was introduced to the fire movement, it was two years later. I was 42 and I started by finding, actually, a couple of podcasts that were focused on the fire movement, specifically as it related to purchasing property and also related to living a frugal life. And I knew that I didn't want to do either of those things, but this idea of the fire movement, of fu money, if you will, made me happy, right? And so I continued to look and read, and of course, ran across a couple of books at the time, I think, where there were a couple of people who had retired at 30 or 40. But in my mind, I thought that that was just a one off, that that wasn't something that a lot of people were doing. And so the more I listened to these podcasts, the more I realized that people were actually doing these things. But in my mind, this was not something that black people did right. Most of the people that I listened to were predominantly white men, but I kept listening because I was intrigued, and I somehow found you, and then when I heard your voice, I was like, is she black? Like, I was looking for pictures, because I'm like, you know, do black people do this? Like, that was, it was just the first time that I had run across someone who looked like me that was talking about this fire movement thing. I definitely was intrigued. That's kind of where I was, you know, from, I guess a mental state when I first started to hear about the fire movement, I knew that I need to do something different. I just did not know what that thing was. And so, you know, the fire movement had me intrigued. And so now fast forward, five years later, I actually was able to leave my job on my 45th birthday, one of the terms, I think I picked up on your show, what initially, anyway, I was going to do what I was calling a mini retirement. And so I thought that I would leave for two years, and then I would figure it out, and then I jump back in, or I figure out what I was going to do next. And now that I am two and a half years into this, I am like, I'm never going back. So actually, I think out of boredom, and probably partially out of all of us going through covid, I've started a couple of businesses unrelated. One is really related to my past career and deals with professional coaching. And the other is actually a cocktail experience business. So I'm living my version, I guess, of fire at 47 years old.

Jamila Souffrant 8:07

Oh my gosh. I I love it. I love it. And I just think it's beautiful. It's just kind of how I felt when I first found out about the financial independence retire, early movement, the fire movement, was like, this has been around, like people are actually doing this, where, where has this been all my life? And same experience as you start to listen to the podcast, read the blogs, predominantly white men, learned a lot, but I was just like, oh, you know, like, I'm getting things from this. I know I can get more from this. I don't know other people could get more from this. If there was just, like, a different perspective, like a different voice saying it. I love that we can be walking around right like on our paths. And I think we all have this, you know, like the hero's journey. We're all our heroes in our own life. We're on our paths, we're on our journey, and we can continue drudging along, or maybe we're happily walking along. And there's so many other paths that we can take that we don't know, that are available, that are maybe, like, hidden by a bush or like, but this is like, this is a little glimmer, you know, like, this little shiny coin. At first, it looks like dirt, but you're like, Wait, what is that? But you have to let your curiosity, even if you don't believe it like, you're like, that's not a coin, but you're like, you know what? I'm just gonna go see if it's a coin. You just have to kind of just try. And I feel like that's kind of what it seems like happened for you. It's what happened to me. I just love it. So I want to get into a bit how you first felt about attempting the journey. Because I often get people who email me or message me and they're just like, well, Jamila, that sounds all good, but like I'm in my 40s or 50s, I'm starting late. What you're talking about is for people who are young, who are starting early, and so I can't really not for me, I love to talk about how you switch that mindset to feel like you could accomplish something.

Leilani Reed-Logan 9:51

Yeah, absolutely. And it's like you said, it's, is that a coin or is it not right? And so when I found you, I was a little skeptical. I. Yeah, because I was raising kids that were the age of the target market that I thought that you were focusing on. So, you know, I had kids in their 20s, and so this idea, you know, really living a life where I was taught to believe that I am supposed to go to school, get a job, and actually work that job until I retire. And it's funny, because I think about I started my career in banking, and I had worked for a particular bank for like six years, and I was talking to my dad, daddy's girl all the way, and I mentioned that I had planned to leave this job now I had only been there for six years. I was very young, and he had major fit, like, there's no way you're going to leave that job. That job has the benefits. Mind you, I really couldn't afford the health care at the time, right? So, yeah, they may have had good benefits, but they weren't benefiting me, and I really didn't value retirement at the time. And then a couple years later, I actually left a bank, and he actually told my mom that he thought that I had lost my mind completely, and that we, you know, they made it needed to get me checked out, because there was something going on. Like, that's how serious he was about moving from job to job. And so this idea of actually being able to quit your job, like the stuff that you had worked for all of your years. And you know, at points of success, I was able to promote myself, and I moved up, I made good money, and then I was actually going to, like, just throw all of that away. Like, what do you mean? No one does that. And so I definitely was a little skeptical. But, like, that coin, I kept listening, and then I realized that even one, I could at least share the material with my young kids. Maybe it would be beneficial for them or two, even if I wasn't able to retire at 30 because I had long passed that road, maybe I could do certain things that weren't going to kill me, but may also allow me to retire earlier than I had planned. So definitely, was skeptical, absolutely. When I first started listening to you and and my friends, thought I was a little crazy too, with this idea of, you know, there are people out there that, like, stop working at 30 and they don't go back to work. And it's like, yeah, right. No one does that.

Jamila Souffrant 12:15

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's the thing too. Like, I know not every situation or story is going to relate completely to a person listening. But I always like to say, like, I've had various people on who have achieved financial independence in different ways, right? Like through real estate, through super frugal living, like they sell everything they're living in a van, right? And so it's just like you get to pick and choose, though, the way in which you do it, and if something is not working or it doesn't appeal to you, I think I even had a dumpster diver in on one of the earlier episodes, right? Like you don't have to do that, but it's just showing you like it's just expanding the mind to show you what other people are doing and what's possible for you if you were to apply these levers in your life. I love to kind of talk about where you were in terms of money at this point. So you talked about, like, kind of having, like, a good corporate career, where were you in terms of your debt and how you were managing money? I believe you're married. So like, how was that also that conversation, or that the dynamic of money with you and your partner?

Leilani Reed-Logan 13:18

Yeah, so when my husband and I first started dating, it was back in 2003 and we were both divorced. We both had two young kids that we brought along with us, and we also brought along quite a bit of debt, considering what we were making. So at the time, I think combined, we had about $50,000 worth of debt, and we probably made $50,000 combined, if that, and we did that for several years. And so we didn't own property. We were renting. We had two car notes. We had the credit cards that I think I had had since I was 18, when the college people made me, you know, sign up for all of them. And so it was crawling out of that debt. And I think by getting through that, which it did take, probably until it probably took about 10 years to kind of get out of it, that debt piece of it. But I didn't want to go back to that. So I think when I came into this fire movement thing, I was in a place where I didn't have a lot of debt. We had some, you know, maybe some little small credit card things or whatever. We may have had a car note or something like that, but it wasn't a lot of debt, and I was making probably pretty close to $200,000 a year, and because of fear or whatever, it was, probably all of the wrong reasons, but it benefited me. I always had this mentality that something was going to go wrong. So either I was going to get this job and these people weren't going to like me, and so they were going to tell me to go home, or one of us were going to leave our job or lose our job, or someone's going to have medical issues or something. I always had these, you know, this, this fear, these thoughts about from a financial standpoint, because I had people that I knew that had lost their homes, and. I just couldn't imagine doing that, and so I lived in this kind of state of fear. But what that did for me is, when I was able to advance and increase my income, I continued, to a certain degree to live as if I didn't have it. And so I had money that I'll say, unfortunately for me, I just kind of buried away in a savings account again, you know. So I had some risk issues there as well, with with investing and things of that nature. But I did save, and I did stay kind of, you know, below my means of living. My husband, money is not his strong suit. That's not what he does, right? But I appreciate him, because he allows me to kind of plan that, like, let that be my lane, and plan and kind of, you know, do things like that. And I think from the time that we started dating until probably about 2013 we had the debt, and I would keep this little journal thing that I still have, by the way, and it was like my New Year's resolution. Every year I would write, you know, how much debt we had, what the assets were, did we have college savings, every anything that I could think about, credit scores that was financial, you know, financially related. And we would sit down and we would go through them, you know, he would listen to me, but it was like, Okay, you go do that, right? I'll just, I'll make a little money I can make, and then you go figure out how to what we going to do with them. And so by the timing, I got into 2017 we didn't have the debt. I did have a savings account. I'm not sure how much was in it. It wasn't a significant amount of money, but it was more than I had, I think, ever saved. So I had, you know, I think I was still calling an emergency fund, because, again, had the whole fear, that's the way I live, right? And so I had that, and we did not have a lot of debt. And so then for me, it became about, how can we save more money? How can we and, you know, invest differently. It wasn't invest more, right? It was take the retirement stuff that we had, and do different things with it. And so that became a part of kind of our discussions around what's next, right,

Jamila Souffrant 17:08

right. Okay, so one of the things I would do want to get back to is, you know, you said when you first started out like you were making maybe 50,000 maybe less, but You increased your income by the time you left your job to 200,000 significant increase, amazing. And I feel like you said you worked in banking.

Leilani Reed-Logan 17:30

I started my career in banking, and then I shifted over into career human resources.

Jamila Souffrant 17:35

So just in terms of, just like a mini overview, like, what would you say allowed you to increase your income other than time, right? You had some some time in the game, right? But like, just because you're working somewhere for a long period of time doesn't mean you earn that much more. So what would allowed you to earn that much more over that time period? If someone is thinking about, you know what I one day, I in 10 years, 15 years, I want to quadruple 10x my salary. What would you say is the ways that you did that?

Leilani Reed-Logan 18:04

So initially, back when, when I first started my career in banking, it was kind of known then, and I'm not sure if it's still the same now, but you really weren't going to advance much, at least where I was, if you stay with the same bank. And so I start initially, I started by I only worked for two banks, but I started by moving around in the bank that I worked, and then I actually moved to a different bank. Now, at the time, the increase probably was like $2,000 it wasn't a lot, but for me, it was a lot right at the time. And so I am always curious, and I also bore pretty easily. And so I started working at the bank as a teller. And whenever there was, like, a low time or anything, I would run across the lobby and sit with one of the senior individuals, you know, like, what do you do? Show me what you do. Like, how do you do that? That allowed me in that environment, when an opportunity came available for my manager to give me a chance, because she saw that I was curious. So that was in that case, when I moved into to the other bank, I actually moved up into a manager role. That was my first like official management opportunity, and I was lucky enough to have someone take a chance on me who knew me from banking. Had never worked with me, but she knew me. She actually hired me as a teller. And then, now, 10 years later, almost, she brought me into the organization, and she worked, she worked in human resources as well, and I think she appreciated that I was able to kind of move around, because, I again, I get bored. I can't sit still. And so I started a career there, and I think I continued to do that. I was curious. Yes, I had, I did go back to school. I had a master's degree that actually came about because I got pissed off because I didn't get accepted to a job that I wanted as a trainer. And so it was like, I'm a show. You, you know you're not going to be able to tell me I'm not qualified, right? And so I went back to school. But then again, I met this, you know, a re it wasn't reintroduced to this individual who gave me an opportunity. And I think I continue to want to learn, and I continue to do, like, the certifications I was active in, you know, some of the organizations I met individuals who I learned from, and when there were opportunities that came up, the biggest one being I was asked to relocate from where I grew up, you know, knew everyone to where I am now, in South Florida. And it was a lateral move at the time. There wasn't, you know, it was a very small increase, and it was a higher cost of living. But after trying to talk myself out of doing it, I decided to do it. My husband was on board, and we left. And I think that having both sponsorship and mentorship, so I had people who were helping to kind of guide me along the way, and then I also had people who were willing to speak up for me in a room. It allowed me to have that opportunity. And then it just kind of continued from there, you know. But again, I was raised, we got to, do, you know, 10 times more to even be able to sit at the table. And so I had that mentality as well. Didn't know that it was gonna work out for me. It just did. And, you know, I would, I think that some of that is just being curious. I think some of it is luck. I think some of it is the people who you cross on your journey. I definitely think it's how you treat people. And it just worked out for me. And so those opportunities continue to come beautiful.

Jamila Souffrant 21:39

I love it. Thank you for sharing that. And I mean, again, it just reinforces the importance of income. I mean, apart from what allows you to increase your income, like those characteristics and those traits and the luck and the favor of all that, like that matters. But I feel like the income side of it is so important to where that is, where most people should be focusing their energy like the expenses, and understanding investments are important. That's a part of the puzzle. By being like the biggest piece of the puzzle that allows someone like you to reach their goals, someone like me who's reaching their goals is income, and it's finding ways to leverage your skill sets and to increase them in whatever market you're in, whatever is your lane, so you can earn the most and then use that money to buy back your freedom, buy your time back. So with that, now that you were earning more money, you said you guys were in a pretty, you know, decent place when you found out about financial independence, but you weren't investing as much. So I don't know about you, but I know for me, when I first found out about financial independence, like the saving and like managing money, was like, All right, I kind of like, that's okay, but it was like, almost keeping you on like a treadmill that stays still, right? Like you're still in the same place, but learning about fi financial independence and investing, that's where it's like, that's where you build wealth, right? So what things did you change in terms of investing that then allowed you to get your net worth up, to be comfortable, to end up leaving your job.

Leilani Reed-Logan 23:07

I don't believe that I knew what an index fund was until your show, and that was something that I definitely researched. And again, I did not invest independently, but I was fortunate enough to work for a company that had a pension, profit sharing and 401, K, which, in a lot of cases, is unheard of, right? But I wasn't doing anything with it. And again, going back to the fact that I was pretty conservative, I don't think that I even allowed them to risk investing in their portfolios, right? So I was, you know, kind of conservative there. And so the index funds kind of help with that, because I felt like it was maybe not as much of a return, but at least it was a little safer, a little bit more return than a CD, which is what I was, you know, I was accustomed to those certificate of deposits. And so I went in and I started to adjust both my investments in retirement to some of those index funds, and also for my husband. The other thing that I did I'd had a 401 k from the time I started working and again, you know, one of those things you do when you don't know any better. When I left my previous jobs, you know that money ended up spent somewhere or paying off something? I don't know. I did not reinvest it, but I did have the 401, K now, and prior to getting into this whole fire mentality, I would sometimes contribute, and then sometimes I wouldn't. If there was something that I wanted to do, I would posit I never went over the match amount. So if they match 3% of they match 6% then that's what I contributed. That's what it that was it. And I don't think my husband actually contributed at all to his 401 k. And so I actually upped my 401 K to 10% up to his to 10% and, you know, started to do some of that. The other. Thing that I did that I know I got from your show was around estate planning, and this was a little later on. This was actually the year before I decided to leave. So it was in 2019 we had a legal service through our benefits, and so of course, you had to pay for but it definitely was cheaper than going out and hiring a lawyer and all that stuff. So I signed up for that benefit that last year, and did estate planning. So that was one of the things I did not necessarily related to money and investments, but definitely something that I had heard and talked about. It definitely relates back to financial kind of freedom in my mind. The other thing was my health care accounts. So we always had various plans where you pay more per month, but your premium, your premium is more or less. And so I always did that. And so this idea of an HSA kind of scared me, and I didn't necessarily want to do that. You know, I had young children, and my husband had had some some medical stuff, and so it was kind of like, I'm going to stay with the safe stuff so that we don't have to pay all this money out of pocket. But I did eventually shift over to nhsa, and so when I left, was able to take that money with me as well, and and also invest some of that as well. You know, there were a lot of things that were, you know, financial, small steps for me, you know, and again too, because I was making really more money than I needed, right? Like, I wasn't spending it, I was throwing it into a into a savings account. I actually started to, like, dump it on my house. So when I first, actually, before we relocated here, just to give you numbers, like, the first house we bought was like $86,000 and it was 1500 square foot brick home. I had a nice yard, you know, not in the best neighborhood, but it wasn't in the worst either, right? And I love my little house, and it was $86,000 and I had refinanced my little house, and my little mortgage was like 800 and something dollars, and my property tax is like 500 bucks. Like, it was ridiculous. So then when the relocation thing happened and we moved here, I remember meeting with my real estate lady, and I was like, my budget is $100,000 that's it. And she was like, Honey, I don't know what you think you're going to get $100,000 that's not going to work here. And so the house that we ended up buying was right at $215,000 now mind you, I think my income at the time they had been around 60, they told me that I could afford like, a $500,000 house. I was like, There's no way I'm doing that. My husband had quit his job, and so we didn't know how long it was going to take him to recover. So it's kind of like, yeah, no, I'm going to get my I'm just $215,000 house scared me, but whatever we're doing it. So we did the house, and then it was like, I can't have a 30 year mortgage, because that means I'm going to have to work for 30 more years. And so what do I do? And I started to pay principal payments towards the mortgage. And if there were bonus checks or overtime or whatever it was, it went towards paying off that mortgage. So that was another thing that I think I started to do from a financial space after listening in 2017

Jamila Souffrant 28:07

Wow, wow. So many amazing changes. Now I want to just give people some episode numbers to go listen to. So Episode 141 I did an episode with J L Collins. We talk all about index funds, if you want to listen and learn about that. And then episode 40 was all about HSA, so the health savings account. So check that out. If you just need more episodes to dive in on, and I'll put those in the show notes. I want to clarify right now. Do you have a mortgage? Or did you pay that all off.

Leilani Reed-Logan 28:40

I paid it off, amazing. So I actually I quit my job in February, and I think by July or August, I just paid the house off. I think initially I had planned to just continue to make the mortgage payments, because again, I was going to go back to work in two years. I was doing the mini retirement that you talked about your podcast, that was my thing, and so I continued to pay the money. And I'm like, Well, I'm taking money out of the savings account to pay the mortgage. I'm still earning, you know, gaining interest on it. I have the money sitting in the account to pay it, so why don't I just pay it off? And I want to say it may have been about 120 $125,000 and paid it off so we have no mortgage. Their house was paid off in eight years.

Jamila Souffrant 29:26

Hey, journeyers, if you are loving this podcast, then you will love my book, Your journey to financial freedom, a step by step guide to achieving wealth and happiness. I wrote this book for you. This book is for you if you want a clear and enjoyable path to having more money, options and a rich life. This book is for you if you hate your commute and the fact that you need to seek approval or permission from a boss. I hated that when I worked. This book is for you. If you weren't born into wealth, you didn't marry rich or win the lottery, but you still want. Freedom. This book is for you. If you're at a crossroads, a major decision or event is imminent, maybe a career change, marriage, starting a family, pressures are reaching a tipping point, and the discomfort and the desire for more can no longer be ignored. And this book is for you. If you find yourself zoned out at meetings, looking out the window or daydreaming about the life you truly want. So go pick up your journey to financial freedom.com. So I can show you how to map out how to get from where you are today to where you ultimately want to be and enjoy the journey while you're on the path, head over to your journey to financial freedom.com. To see where you can pick the book up. It's available on Amazon, bookshop.org, Barnes and Noble, your local bookstore everywhere. Go to your journey to financial freedom.com. To get the book now, I

want to kind of go back to your mind sad or your intentions. You said, at first you thought about doing your mini retirement, so you're only going to take a short amount of time off. What were you going to do for that time? Was it that okay? I don't need to work. The mortgage will be paid off, and I'll figure it out in two years. And then how did your plans change from I'm not doing two years like I'm just make this permanent.

Leilani Reed-Logan 31:15

So initially I think that I was going to take the two years off to take a break. I had no intention of working. I think, I think a couple of times there were some things that had come up where I'm like, Okay, well, maybe I can teach part time, you know, something that I enjoyed doing. I was willing to do on a limited basis. But as far as working a full time job, I had no intention to do that. I needed to decompress. And I started with one year, then I said two years, and that was my time frame. And so at that time, I had not paid off the house. And at first I had, like, this five or seven year plan, and I would write these things down every day, and I'm doing calculations on all of the money and all of the stuff and the mortgage and how much is left. And, you know, calculating, like, how I can dump, like, bonus checks and things like that that I haven't even earned yet on this mortgage to get rid of it. And the goal was to actually leave my job and do the two years once I paid the mortgage off. But that wasn't happening fast enough. And so my seven year plan turned into a five year plan to a three year plan. And next thing I know was a year and a half, and I'm like, You know what? I have to do something different. So that's where the two years came. I had not paid the house off. I was just going to pull the money that I had from the savings account, and I would give myself like an allowance every month. And that allowed, really me to maintain kind of the lifestyle that we had created. And that was the plan. And so once I left, and I started kind of dabbling in these possibilities, and I had people coming to me asking me if I wanted to do certain things. And then, you know, just the horror of covid and everything that was changing, I think it helped to shift very early, some of my thoughts like, Why do I have to go back to that? What could I do to not have to go back to that? You know, I started to kind of calculate, you know, based on what I had say, like, how long would this money take me? Right? What amount of money would we need to live on in order for it to last for as long as I can make it last? Like that was just the way that I was thinking. And so, the thing about it, too, I think, really has to do with the limiting mindsets, you know, you were talking about, you know, expanding the money. And for me, I never thought that I would make $100,000 let alone $200,000 so there were these limiting beliefs and this fear and these thoughts that I would tell myself, and I think that that's that carried on when I left my job. But yet I have this my son, who is un millennial. Actually, he may be whatever comes after the millennial. You know, he would say, Well, why do you have to do it that way? And my response would be like, because that's the way you're supposed to do it, right? But it's it made me start to change. Why do I have to go back into a corporate environment? Why can't I take some of these opportunities? Although I've never seen myself as like an entrepreneur. It's kind of like, well, I mean, I know the stuff. I know how to do the work. That's what I was being paid to do in my company. So if I have people coming to me asking me to do some of this stuff, then why not try it? And let's just see what happens. And shifting my mindset to say, well, you are marketable. You can find a job. Even if you had to go to Target and push the cards right. You could find a job to do to make money and bring an income. And I think once I realized that I didn't have to worry about health insurance because my husband still worked, so we had that and that I could I was marketable enough to actually go and get a job if it came to a point where I had to. And so that really changed the way I looked at kind of the space that I sat in at that moment. Yes,

Jamila Souffrant 34:43

and don't you love like, I mean, my kids are a lot younger than yours, but I think in general, just a thought occurred to me, like, if you want to know, like, if you have a fixed mindset about something, I feel like, present that to like a child, or see what a child like does with something really mundane that you already like a paperclip, that you have established. Just a paper clip, and at a certain age that it's like a million things to them, other than just the paperclip, it's a weapon, it's an airplane, it's like all these things, right? And as we get older, we lose creativity, while they say, like, sometimes the people who are doing the most amazing things, sometimes they're almost naive or ignorant to the limits because they don't even know. So they just try it because it's just like, why not? Like, and so with kids, like, oftentimes I'll see my kids doing something, I'm like, why are you doing it that way? And like, like, I'll see them put on a shirt, like, we're not going anywhere. And they'll put on a shirt, a new shirt. I'm like, You're not going anywhere while you put it on, because I like it. I want it. And part of me is just like, my adult Igor self is like, that's wasteful. Put it back until we go out and I'm like, No, that's your saber. Kind of like, conservative mindset. This child is living their best life. They don't care. No one's going to see them in it. They are living their life in this shirt, in the couch all day. They just want to be in it, right? So I just feel like that new perspective, like, I think it's if you have people like that in your life, children, young adults, who sometimes you think like they're not thinking clearly. Sometimes they're thinking more creative than we can imagine. It would be helpful for us as older people to kind of like, look at them and mirror that. It's

Leilani Reed-Logan 36:15

so funny that you said it about the clothes, because I think about, you know, we work and we buy these things, and then, often times we reserve them for special occasions. I think about my parents china cabinet. You know, the China only comes out on holidays. And when I left my job, I'm like, You know what? I'm going to use the China. I'm going to burn the candle, I'm going to do the stuff. What am I saving it for? You know, I spent money for, you know, for it. I because I liked it. It brought me joy, which actually was one of, I think your podcast as well, little different. I didn't do it the way they talked about it. But the whole thing about, you know, you go around the house, you touch them, it makes you happy, you keep it, and if it doesn't, you get rid of it. I don't remember the name of it, but it's a thing. But I did adopt this whole like, kind of mindset of what makes me happy, and if it doesn't make me happy, then I don't want to do it. I don't care if it's a thing, if it's a person, if it whatever it is, does it make me happy? And it really, even from a financial standpoint, helped me decide what I bought. So if I went into a store and I picked up a dress, and, you know, I look at the dress and I was like, does this make me happy? And if it did, I bought it. If it didn't, I put it back. And that became, you know, even with people, I mean, I literally did a Facebook thing where I went onto my Facebook account and I actually pulled up every friend that was on my Facebook account, and their face brought back a positive memory for me. I kept them, and if I frowned, I deleted them, and it really just opened up a space. And I still do it. And it's so funny, because people around me now, I will hear them say, that doesn't make me happy, right? But it really I needed that, like that boundary in that space, and I know we're talking about financial stuff, but these are still other things that came from your podcast that made me think as your kids with a different perspective of saying, Okay, well, why can't I wear this shirt? I, you know, I like it. It makes me happy, right? So I definitely can relate to that. Yes,

Jamila Souffrant 38:01

yes, love it. And you have older kids, and it sounds like you always financially aware and paying off debt over time, and even, like, you know, increasing your income. But you also had kids, right? And so I think one of the other things is like, how do you do this with children, even if they're like, adult, young adult children, right? Like, you still feel responsible in some ways for some things, especially if they're still living at home. So, like, how did you navigate balancing, kind of like, what you did for your kids, how much you spent on them, versus what you were doing for yourself and making sure you were okay? Yeah, it's

Leilani Reed-Logan 38:35

funny. You say that because you have, what, three small kids, yes, yeah, there's no way that I could do that. You know, I see people, and I've now yet since met, met people with very small kids that actually quit their job and travel the world. And I'm like, How is that possible? The fortunate thing, you know, and some I guess, would say unfortunate thing for us, is that we had kids young. I had my son when I was 21 years old, you know, I was a single mom for 10 years. And so I think that unfortunately, probably for him, he was kind of accustomed to McDonald's being, you know, a special occasion, right? Or not necessarily wanting, like, the name brand stuff. He didn't see mommy wear it, and so he never really had a desire to want it either. Still to this day, thank goodness he's still that way. And don't get me wrong, because you know, a guy, have to talk about privilege from the standpoint of my parents, both high school graduates, worked two jobs for most of my life, and so they wanted me to go to the predominantly white private schools, and they wanted me to have the things that they didn't have. They bought me my first car, right? So I had, I was able to move back into the house with them and my son once I had accumulated all of his debt. So there definitely was some privilege there that helped me. But for years, I did my own hair, I did my own pedicures and manicures definitely were things that I spent money on. You know, without even having my doesn't make me happy. Mentality, I guess, to a certain degree, I did it because vacations were non negotiable for me. And so I made a way, regardless of where we were from, a dead standpoint, we were going to take one trip every year. And so my husband and I decided to set aside, I think it was like $50 a paycheck or something crazy. It's like 1200 bucks, 1500 you know, a year that we had until we took that trip, that was the one thing that I was going to do, regardless if it was a road trip, you know, whatever. It didn't matter. I just had to get away. So that was a non negotiable for me. With my sons. It's almost like I don't know if they ever went without because when there were opportunities where I could do things, and even when my husband I got together, we could do things that things that benefited them and not us. Then we did that. And I think about when I had my son initially, my first two apartments were one bedroom apartments because that was all I could afford. So he had the bedroom, and I slept on a pull out sofa so he didn't go without. He didn't miss he didn't know that there was, that there was a one bedroom. He didn't care, and he was like, two or three or something. Those types of things were just, they just continued throughout and, you know, they both have worked at some points. Mine just depends on the day. But they they work jobs themselves, and they bought things that they that they wanted. I never had allowances or anything like that for them. You know, we celebrated holidays and birthdays and things like that. They didn't. They got pretty much what they wanted, as long as they did well in school or whatever. But we just didn't spend a lot of money on stuff that didn't matter. I guess you can say, Yeah,

Jamila Souffrant 41:34

I'm wondering for them, if do you feel like the way you handled money and what you're doing now, like, what they're watching you do now, like, do you see that impacting that the way they handle money? Do they have totally different money personalities, or has something rubbed off on them where you're like, wow, like, the fact that I was doing all this, like, it's rubbing off on them. They're doing this work too, this early on.

Leilani Reed-Logan 41:58

Yeah. So my son to this day, like we just had this conversation not long ago where I told him, I said, you need to get a credit card because you need to establish your credit, because mommy's not co signing for anything, right? And so when you are ready to move out again, I need for you to be able to get this department or whatever you're going to get on your own. So you need to, you know, get the credit card. He refuses to get the credit card. I'm not ready for credit card. Don't need a credit card. Don't need a debt. And I'm like, Okay, I appreciate that to some degree, but you need to do it right. There are reasons why that's that one. So my stepson actually started off wanting to not necessarily go to college, and if he did go to college, he really wanted to stay kind of in, kind of what the types of jobs that he has seen people around him do. And so he has now graduated from college. He's an engineer, and he's making very decent money. And so he's always been one that did take risks and research and play in investments and things like that. He has this big thing now in his house, because he's married with a three year old, and he has this big thing now in the house, that is, that's doing something with, like cryptocurrency. And I'm like, what is it? You know? So his mentality has always been, how do I make extra money? Not that he spends it on, you know, things that he would consider to be frivolous. But it's almost like, I think he is on this, in this mindset of, I don't necessarily want to do this for the rest of my life, and so whatever I can do to kind of secure financially, my future and my sons, then that's what I want to do. So yeah, some of it, you know, I don't think that I would have ever given myself credit for, but I think some of it has probably rubbed off.

Jamila Souffrant 43:34

That's great. And you know, I want to talk a little bit about what you're doing now. Like you said, you have your businesses. You never thought you'd be an entrepreneur, but look at you now. So how's that going for you? Like, how hard is it to earn money as an entrepreneur? I don't want to, like, put it in a negative frame. Maybe it's easy. Maybe money flows to you in that way. But what is it like now, not working for anyone else, being in control of your own schedule? Maybe the better question is, is this break or is this freedom everything you thought it would be when you were looking forward to it? Yeah, I

Leilani Reed-Logan 44:07

don't think that I thought it would be this. My husband actually has made this comment to me several times over the last couple of years about having his wife back, like he feels like he has me back. And you know, the few times that I did, like entertain these potential offers that were coming that took me back into the corporate space, he was like, No, I like you like this, you know. So I need you to stay like that, right? And I feel like the things that I had kind of taken for granted, the relationship, the friendships that I've had for years, some of them, I only, I guess, allowed to be surface level, because I've learned things about my friends that I've known for years that I didn't know right, like, it's so it's reconnecting and actually, really being present and being there and listening and learning that that is, like, just invalid. Able. And then, you know, with the business, I think my mindset has been, and still is, and probably will continue to be, I don't have a desire to, like, Empire build at this point in my life, right? I don't have small kids, I don't have people that I'm responsible for, really, at this point in my life. And so it really is more about doing more of the things that I enjoy, and just so happens that those things could generate income. So the bar attending thing was interesting for me, because that was one of the things that I wanted to do when I quit my job. I wanted to go to bar attending school. Why I was always the person behind the bar. I would do parties and stuff for people for free. I enjoyed that. I'd rather be behind the bar than doing the small talk stuff, because I had to do small talk stuff at work, I didn't want to do more of that. And so I had people saying to me, Well, why don't you think about doing that as a business? You know, you can do that as a business. And I just kind of shook it off like whatever. And so one day, I did a tasting at someone's house, and it was just because we were getting together, and I had a stranger say to me, you need to do this as a business. Like, I would hire you to come do it, like, Could you do it for me? And that just kind of took off from there. And so I it was like, I don't like a lot of the social media stuff. So I'm not good with the posting and the you know, I don't want to be an influencer any of that stuff, right? I just want to stay in my place and do the stuff that makes me happy. The same thing for the coaching thing. And this is something that I probably could give, you know, the fire movement credit for as well, because I know you talked a lot about just similar to the estate planning, but there are things that your company offers you, then get them while you're there. Why not? They're there. They're there for you. Their benefits. Use the benefits. You may have said, it's something like that, actually. But one of the things that I did, because I always went and did these certifications, or these conferences, if you will, that they would pay for us to go to and so I shifted the conferences to certifications, one of which was a coaching certification, because that was something that I, I thought kind of came naturally. I've always enjoyed doing it. I just never had been officially or formally trained. And so while there, I launched into this coaching certification, they paid for it. They're still benefiting from from it, because they've actually hired me to come back and do some facilitating with their leaders. And, you know, I've been doing that now for almost a year, virtually, which I love, because I don't have to, you know, go in and see the people and do the stuff. I could just get on, do my thing and get out right? So it really is a beautiful thing. And then bringing that in with things like, I raised butterflies, and having the time to spend with that, and sitting outside and listen to the birds, and, like you said, having your own schedule, being able to say no and not feel bad about it, being able to kind of take the risk and try to things, you know, without the judgment, it is a beautiful thing.

Jamila Souffrant 47:57

Oh my gosh, I'm smiling so hard right now because you just like icing on the cake, raising butterflies. Like, can you imagine that? Like, close your eyes everyone, like, how beautiful that is. Like, I'm so happy for you, and I'm so glad that you were able to come on and share more of your story. I feel like it's so inspiring and testament to being curious. And I always say, if you have a thought, like, if you have a desire about something, even if you don't think you can do it, like, there's a real there's a reason when you desired it, just following, sometimes just the immediate steps in front of you, not maybe you don't know the whole path, and it sounds like that's what you've been doing. So like, last question, I would love to know where you are on the financial independence journey, you know, I like to say, like, the five stages, like, this is the first stage, the Explorer stage, you're just like, finally getting to, like, you know, stability. The cadet stage, you're getting out of debt, so you're becoming debt free. The Aviator stage, you're building your assets up. And then the commander stage, which is the work flexible stage, where you can choose what you want to do for work, doesn't mean you never have to bring another $8 in, but take your time and take breaks. And then finally, the captain stage the Financial Independence Days like you're done. If you want to play with your butterflies all day, that's all you have to do. So where are you currently on that spectrum, and where do you see yourself in a couple

Leilani Reed-Logan 49:16

years to keep my mental sanity and deal with, like some of the fears and things that I talked about, I would say that I am in the flexible work stage. So there definitely is flexibility there. I don't necessarily have to work now, but I think in my mind, it's like, well, if there are opportunities out there now, then why not do it now, especially if I could do it on my own terms. So I would say that I'm there, and then, you know, I think for me, you know that final like take flight stage really would be the ability to just travel full time, that that's what I would love to do. But again, I have, you know, these fears that I deal with around medical insurance, for example, you. What do we do if we're older and we don't have medical insurance? Like, that's a fear, like, I have to kind of work my way through that before I'm able to decide that I want to risk actually, like, telling my husband, okay, you quit too, and then we're going to go, right? But that's, that's kind of where I am now. And so it's definitely still, you know, being curious and still seeing what's out there. We have actually talked about the idea of possibly purchasing property so that we have kind of this passive income going into, I guess, what we would say would be our real retirement. But right now, it's, it's kind of good so I could sit in this space, you know, for a few years and just see kind of where it takes me.

Jamila Souffrant 50:41

Ah, beautiful. Okay, Leilani, I know you said you're not like great with the Instagram, but, um, you do have a couple businesses, so if you want to share, maybe about like, the businesses where people can find you. So

Leilani Reed-Logan 50:52

the cocktail business right now on Instagram is twist, mix, sip. So it's twits, twist, dot, mix, dot, sip. And then as far as the coaching business I am and going through this process of doing the websites and things now, which doesn't make me happy, but I know I need you, so I'm going to do it. So for now, it really is LinkedIn, and so you can find me at Leilani, read hyphen Logan on LinkedIn, and then the website and all of those things around that will come, hopefully

Jamila Souffrant 51:24

pretty soon. All right. Well, I will try to link all of that in the show notes, and if you enjoyed this conversation with myself, well, Lonnie, let us know. Tag me. Take a screenshot of it, of you listening your feedback, and tag me on Instagram. I'll make sure to tag Leilani if you didn't, but I I want her to see how much of an impact that her story is going to have on you guys. So again, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. Don't forget, you can get the episode show notes for this episode by going to journey to launch.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 journey to launch.com/jumpstart if you want to support me and the podcast and love the free content and information that you get here, here are four ways that you can support me in the show. One, make sure you're subscribed to the podcast wherever you listen, whether that's Apple podcast, that purple app on your phone, your Android device, YouTube, Spotify, wherever it is that you happen to listen, just subscribe so you are not missing an episode. And if you're happening to listen to this in Apple podcast, rate review and subscribe there. I appreciate and read every single review. Number two, follow me on my social media accounts. I'm at journey to launch on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. And I love, love, love interacting with journeyers. There three, support and check out the sponsors of this show. If you hear something that interests you, sponsors are the main ways we keep the podcast lights on here, so show them some love for supporting your girl. Four. And last but not least, share this episode, this podcast, with a friend or family member or co worker so that we can spread the message of Journey to launch. All right, that's it until next week. Keep on journeying. Journeyers. You.

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