Episode 460: The Call No Parent Wants to Get: The Day I Learned What Freedom Really Means

Jamila Souffrant 0:02

This freedom that I am inviting you on that is more than just a number. It's more than even measuring how much debt you have or the material things. It's your ability to be financially fluid, to be resilient, to be confident, despite insecurities or things not going the way you want them to

Intro 0:34

welcome to the journey. To launch podcast with your host Jamila Souffrant as a money expert who wants 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 in 54321,

Jamila Souffrant 1:01

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, let's hop into the episode. Okay, journeyers. Welcome to the journey to launch podcast. I'm your host, Jamila Souffrant, and if you're new around here, I call anyone who is on the journey to financial freedom and independence a journeyer. So if you're down with it, I'm down with it, you're a journeyer. Now this is going to be a solo episode. I have been talking about the release of my paperback version of the book. My book, your journey to financial freedom for a bit now, and it's officially out this week. If you're listening to this in real time, yes, you can have ice cream. So that was my daughter asking for ice cream. And this actually sums up my life, because I was not intending to actually record this content or this specific episode, but it's so timely because it literally just happened what I'm going to share with you, and just like recording this at night, after eight o'clock, trying to get this done, and then having my daughter say, Can I get some ice cream? That's just life. Things happen. I cannot plan, and most people cannot plan for everything. So many things are outside of our control, and I wanted to share a really for me, personal story, which even solidifies more the purpose of this journey that I'm on, that I hopefully have created to help take you on and have shown and taught and reflected back, hopefully to you this journey of financial freedom. So this actually, literally happened today, and I'm recording this the week of the paperback release. And if you're not aware, my days now are very, very slow. They involve less and less work, even with journey to launch, which I'm not mad about. I always say, you know, I'm at that level where I don't have all the money in the world. Definitely not the case. Of course, there are more things I'd like to buy in terms of maybe a nicer car, or there are certain things that I'd love to do around the house, but it's just not a priority yet because of the lifestyle we currently live. And I love my flexibility. I love having so much downtime and so much freedom to not only be there for myself. So I spent a lot of my day working out not a lot, but a couple hours after dropping the kids off, and then just a lot of time with the kids. I have three ages 11, nine and seven, and I actually heard I was listening to someone else, and they said most, like not most, but some parents think when their kids are out of the toddler or baby stage, and they're in school full time, quote, unquote, that they feel like they're going to get more time back, and I feel like I'm actually a little bit more busier, even though the kids are in school until about two o'clock to three o'clock, I have a short window to get things done. And then there's always something to do, especially as they are growing and becoming and coming into their own. And I love doing extra things with them, extracurricular activities and sports. We are We are busy in a good way. I like the busyness. I know some people don't, but I love it. I like ripping and running and exposing them to new things. And so I find that I actually have less time as they are getting older. And I don't know if it will shift. The pendulum will switch as they get more and more independent, they're still pretty dependent on me, even my oldest one, who is in middle school while he is learning to take the city bus and has taken the city bus and takes the city bus by himself. Now I still pick him up by 330 from the bus stop if he doesn't get a ride home from a family friend, and then my younger two, they typically get out of school at 220 now, why am I telling you all of this? I'm telling you this because I have designed a life where the freedom I have and the flexibility I have could not have been possible without starting on this pathway, on this journey to financial independence that I set upon years ago, that if you listen to the podcast from the beginning, you'll hear when I was still working full time and I had a two hour commute one way, and I was at that point. So when I started the podcast, you know, I started my family, and ended up by the time you get later on the years of the podcast, I had my third child. But in those moments, I was still figuring it out, but I was creating frameworks, and what I felt was inspiration for anyone else who wanted to achieve freedom, to experience with me. It is the reason why I was able to quit my job. So distilling everything that I learned being able to save and invest $169,000

Jamila Souffrant 6:51

in two years with my husband, that's you'll find that story in the podcast episodes and in the book, and then also starting journey to launch as a blog, and then a podcast, and then it becoming a business where I was able to leave my job way earlier than I thought and have this life of flexibility. Why again? Am I telling you this because there was something that happened today that really shook me, but also reminded me of why this path is necessary for everyone to embark upon. So I'll share that story with you now. If this is a call No parent wants to get, I usually drop the kids off. You know, we do the morning routine getting them ready to go, drop them to school, and after I drop my younger two to school, I typically go to the gym. I spent a couple hours at the gym, which I love, in terms of, I mean, it's hard work, so I don't necessarily always love it, but I love, I love how I feel. I love the accomplishment of it, and I was finishing up. So typically, I do my strength training, and then I do 30 minutes walking incline on the treadmill, and then I usually cap it off with a sauna, 15 minute sauna. And so as I was literally finishing my walk on a treadmill, I get a call, and it says the kids school nurse. Now it's still pretty earlier in the day, and I know that they were not sick when they left this morning. You know, sometimes you like, Oh, I see a little runny nose, or I hear a cough. So maybe if they're calling me, it's for that, but I knew for a fact all the kids were a one didn't see a sickness on them. So I'm thinking to myself, it's kind of early for a call from the nurse. Maybe there was just an accident, because sometimes the nurse calls if they got hit in the head with a ball at recess or at gym, or they fell, and it's just a courtesy call. But when I picked up the phone, I heard this, like tension in the nurse's voice, so I like I said to myself, wait a second, like, this is not a normal call from the nurse, and just something about the call felt different. So when I answered, the first thing she said was, Is this my son's mom? So he said, his parents His name, and he said, you know, your son had a bad accident at school, and we need you to come pick him up, and he might need to go to urgent care, maybe the emergency room. Are you able to come? Now, they told me on the phone, what happened? I'm just keeping kind of things, you know, a little because we're still uncovering some things. So my heart stopped, as any parent would in this situation, and nothing else mattered. I was like, screw the sauna, screw the gym. I need to get out of here and get to the school. Now, I knew this time he wasn't, he was okay, but I knew that he had gotten hurt, but I didn't know I had to see I had to go to the school to see how bad it was and to create a next step of things and just move quickly. You know, move quickly to get ready to leave. Now, luckily, the school my house, everything's really close to where I live, so getting from the gym to the school took like, five minutes. And. I was, remember trying to stay calm and not freak out too much. I called my mom, called my husband, and said, you know, hey, like this is happening. I will update you once I get to the school, but here's what I know. And got there as fast as I could, and, you know, picked him up, and he was, he was pretty hurt, you know, I held him and I took care of business. First stop, called his doctor. They had an appointment available in a few minutes. Went to the doctor, who's not that far from my house, thank God. And also, so we stayed at the doctor for a bit. The doctor recommended he get X rays. There's an x ray center not too far from my house again. And went to get the X rays. But all in all, this took about maybe three hours to do all the back and forth, and, you know, to cut to it, just so my son is okay. He's He's fine. X rays came back. I spoke to the doctor. Nothing is broken, just very just bruised for now and experiencing all of this, and also, right? So I'm dealing with him, making sure he's good. But then have to have to go pick up my daughter from school now and then I also went to the bus stop to pick up my oldest son. All this happens between the hours of maybe 10 and 330 the extent, you know, the extension of doctors, X rays, picking up the other kids. And I had work to do today. I tip like I said, my work days are pretty slow, but I know I'm the paperback is coming out. I've been kind of slacking. I've been very much slacking, which I'm not, I'm not upset about with myself in terms of, like, promoting on social media and showing up in that way. I just haven't been feeling it. But I said to myself, Okay today, after I go to the gym, I'm not going to scroll on my phone and waste an hour doing nothing. I'm gonna go to the gym, gonna get my breakfast, gonna take a shower, and I'm gonna come do some work before I pick the kids up. That was my plan for today. And furthermore, I knew I knew the next day. So tomorrow, in my looking at my timeline. I was my my oldest son, he has a middle school game. Gonna go to that. It happens to be in the middle, middle of the day, and so I'm gonna go to that. And because he made the middle school team in the school he just got in. So I knew my my work week was going to be not a busy one, and it was going to be a lot of just what I usually have been doing, which is things for the kids or just for me. And as the day wound down, and now I'm sitting here after doing some work, trying to get some things in before I have to go to bed, I thought to myself, Wow. What a blessed life and what a privilege I have to been, to been able to do what I did today, the fact that I was able to drop everything, which wasn't a lot, but drop whatever it was, whatever work, quote, unquote obligations, not have to answer to anyone to why I needed to drop anything because I am my boss felt so amazing, and I was just so grateful for it, because in those moments when there's an emergency or someone needs you and life happens right, the meetings, the deadlines, the plans, The emails, none of that actually matters. And when you think about how many directions we are pulled in in life, it's hard for a lot of people to have been able like to be in that situation or this situation that I had, and I know that, and I'm super blessed to be in this position that I'm in. And I remember I tell I told the kids, I like to reflect back to them, because they're kids, and so they'll often say things like, Oh, you have money. So they know I wrote, I wrote the book. My daughter is always talking about, you must be rich. And I'm like, listen, we are comfortable. We are okay, we are not. We don't have all the money in the world. No, I cannot buy a brand new car or get you everything at the drop of the dime. I feel like, even if I had all the money I would, I still wouldn't do those kind of things, because I like the idea of them learning the value of $1 but I said to her, and I said to him, this is when the younger two were home before I got the older one. I said, you know, I know that maybe sometimes you're like, Oh, why can't we just buy a new car? Or when are we going to go on the next vacation? Like, you know, they ask for things, as kids do and like, I may not be able to right now do that, but I'm able to do this. I'm able to be here for you when it's needed, when you need it. That is the true value of wealth. It's not the amount of zeros in our account. It is not the nice car or even the house that we live in. It's great if you have those things, but the true measure for me, and I think for most people, is the value of our time and our energy. Those are not things. You can generate more of because life, there is an expiration date on our lives, and we don't even know when that is. And it was even just more clear to me, just you know, a freak accident at school could lead to a place where it could have been so much worse. Thank God it wasn't. And just a reminder for me, how freedom shows up. This freedom that I am inviting you on, that maybe you're already on with me, is more than just a number. It's more than even measuring how much debt you have or the material things. It's your ability to be if I financially fluid, to be resilient, to be confident, despite insecurities or things not going the way you want them to the fact that I was able to drop whatever work was needed to have been done today or leave the gym without thinking twice and stepping away. That is wealth. That's the flexibility and control over the time that I wanted when I started this entire journey. This the podcast, the blog, back when I go back to it, it all came back to did not want to be in my car, commuting two hours a day, did not want to be in a cubicle. And honestly, because I know a lot of you are in that place right now, it's it's okay if you are there, because those necessary steps and places in my life allowed me to have the experiences and the tools to lead me here. So wherever you are, it's for a reason, but it was those experiences that had me dream of a different life,

Jamila Souffrant 16:52

the next evolution of my journey, which was, how can I be more in control of my time? And it's not a judgment, again, to wherever you are on the journey, but it's a call to action. And I've been saying this. I know the dream and the ambition of reaching financial independence, the true version of it, where you no longer ever have to work and you can just live off your investment. I say, you know, it looks like a trust fund, baby, but you created the trust. You are the baby. You no one did it for you, but you created this, and you have to do it in a short, shorter amount of time than is typically modeled for us. It's ambitious. I know most people don't even they hear it, they roll their eyes. They don't think it can be done. And I know I've seen people do it. I am doing it. And of course, it's going to depend on your lifestyle, how fast you can get there. There's all these factors, right? Your income, your expenses, circumstances. I know things in your control and things outside of your control, but it's why, when I was traveling on my journey, I created the frameworks like the journey or stages to walk you through, like what stage you're in and how to get from the first stage of needing to just be stable to the ultimate stage of financial independence, and then the guac levels, which is more about how you view your lifestyle, how you want it to be. Are you a guac level one where that's someone who does not spend money more frugal, would never buy guacamole at a restaurant, never, probably even go to a restaurant. Or in the middle, guac level three, where you can go to a restaurant and order guac here and there when you want. Or guac level five, you own a guac factory. I created those, those frameworks to think about expenses, because it helped me as I was thinking about coming to terms with where we were with our expenses. Because truth is, if we were a guac level one or two, we would be financially independent. But we're not. We're not that. We are family of five living in Brooklyn, New York. My husband, he is great, but he has a he we're different in terms of the intensity at which we want to do things and experience things I like going out to eat. We spend money on going out to eat. I don't always shop with the list. The point is learning that and actually adjusting the journey as we went, and realizing I did not want to, we did not want to live a frugal guac lifestyle. One or two on this path caused us to rethink our journey as we went along, right and to adjust. But thinking of all that and doing all this, putting it in the podcast and now in the book, your journey to financial freedom, I distilled all that because I know that if I had this framework, or let's just say, I was someone new coming into this, and I saw someone like myself talking about this, I know that I'd be able to take this and apply it to my life. And while the ultimate goal of reaching financial independence is a very ambitious goal, I know for a fact that if you embark. Upon the path and you follow, you don't even have to do all the things in the book, but understanding just some of it, I promise you'll be in a place or further than you even think you can be. Because when I started this, I didn't know that this life that I'm living now, or I'm able to not have all the money in the world, but feel incredibly rich and wealthy to stop what I'm doing and take care of whatever matters to me in that moment, I didn't know that that would be possible when I was looking forward, right 789, years ago, but it is the dreams are unfolding. Sometimes I didn't even know there was a dream and but it's happening, and I know that can happen for you, which is why I say you should embark upon the journey, even if you feel like it's a fool's errand, because you will be in a better place than you are. If not doing it, you yourself will become different. Your bank account will become different. Your skill sets will become different, how you view yourself and other people will be different. Might be scary, but you can have the life you want, and maybe a life you didn't even think you can have that can be achievable for you, and so I did not know that I'd be recording this actual podcast episode. I knew I'd be recording something. I was going to actually go more into this to the strategy in the new chapter, which I'll probably do next week. But I thought that the story of something that actually happened to me, like in real time, and flexing in a way like that quiet wealth that doesn't show up on a balance sheet, doesn't show up in your bank account, necessarily. That is the purpose of all of this. This just reinforced why I'm doing what I'm doing and couldn't have been, you know, obviously it would be great if this didn't happen to my child, but it just it did happen to just remind me of the sacrifices and the seeds that were sowed in the journey years ago, and even that I'm sowing today. It was, it's for just this reason. Again, the paperback version of your journey to financial freedom is out right now. The hardcover has been out since 2023 so if you have the hardcover, thank you, yay. I hope you read it. But the paperback is out and there are bonus content. There's a brand new chapter when life happens, staying on the path to financial freedom through setbacks, shifts and uncertainty. There is a book club guide now in the paperback, the paperback is a little bit smaller, more lightweight, so you can still pick up the paperback. It's a great gift. You can pick it up at your journey to financial freedom.com you get it wherever books are sold, Amazon, your local book retailer, and then also, when you do purchase the paperback, you get bonuses. So you get my free course, the fire starter course, and you also get a worksheet to help you figure out what your fire number is. All that for getting the paperback go to your journey to financial freedom.com. Next week, I'm going to pop in with more strategy from the paperback or just something that will help you, that you can apply. But I hope that this episode inspired you to get going, maybe to read the book if you have it, to get the book, to start a book club once you get it, and to apply what you're learning and putting it to action. You deserve it. I don't know if I feel like I don't know if I would have believed, if someone would have told me. I think I would, because I kind of have that imagination. But I'm telling you, I hope you believe I'll be believing yourself, and I hope you can use the resources in the book to help you again, go to your journey to financial freedom.com. For more information. And if this episode resonates with you, let me know. Respond on social media. Post tag me so I can see it. Let me repost you or see it. It does matter. I do see it, even if I can't respond to everything I see it, I value it. And also, if you did get the book already and you've read it, or in the process, please leave an Amazon review. Very important to help other people find the book, and even on Goodreads. If you use Goodreads to read and to track the book, leave your review there. It matters so so much. Thank you. Thank you. And until next week, keep on journeying. Journeyers, 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 you. 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 podcasts, 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 podcasts, 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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