Episode 462: How to Own Your Time and Design a Life That Puts Family First with Andy Hill

Andy Hill 0:03

So there was some points in time where I wanted to save even more, make make more money and decrease our expenses. That's how you do it. You grow that gap. But if you grow that gap a little too much, you can also squeeze out your spouse, and, you know, create some strife in your marriage. And I did

Intro 0:21

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 in 54321, 4321,

Jamila Souffrant 0:48

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. Hey, hey, hey, journeyers, welcome to the journey to launch podcast today I have on Andy Hill, who's actually been on the podcast a couple times. So welcome back, Andy. But Andy is an award winning family finance coach behind marriage kids and money, a platform dedicated to helping families build wealth and happiness. His advice has been featured numerous places like CNBC, Forbes, MarketWatch, with over 10 million podcast downloads and video views. Andy's message of financial family empowerment has resonated with listeners. His first book, own your time, 10 financial steps to put your family first and escape the corporate grind. I love that title. We'll be out as you're listening to this in January 2026, I'm so excited to have Andy back on the show. So welcome back, Andy.

Andy Hill 2:16

Thank you so much, Jamila, and it's an honor to be back for this is the third time, I think, absolutely. Thank you.

Jamila Souffrant 2:22

Yeah, third. I was looking it up. And so Andy was on episode 32 back in 2018 so if you want to hear what like journey, so launch sounded like, I mean, I feel like it's pretty much the same back in the day in 2018 you can hear Andy's original conversation episode 32 which was titled A conversation about marriage, kids and money. And then he came back on in 2023 where he talked about buying a car, taking $50,000 from his brokerage account to do that taxable brokerage account. So you can listen to those episodes, but we're going to do a little backstory first, and then get into the contents of Andy's book, but really importantly, mostly his life, how he is owning his time, because I think that's most what I find fascinating is this balance that you've found with achieving your goals and making money, but also enjoying time and owning your time.

Andy Hill 3:15

Yeah, absolutely, yeah, just to go back. I mean, a lot of this started early, when my wife and I got married, we didn't have much to begin with, with regard to net worth, but we thought we were making a lot of, you know, a lot of money, because we combined probably made around $130,000 and we were, you know, in our late 20s, enjoying life, and as we started to talk about having a family, that's when things started to change in our mind, a little bit of like, okay, we're not just living for today and living for ourselves. We really want to build something for our family and our future. And one thing that kept on coming up over and over again for my wife was I'm not really digging my corporate job right now, and I would eventually like to move towards maybe part time work or eventually be a stay at home mom, because that's something that I would like to do and feel really close to my daughter. And so when we had that value and that goal in mind together, we said, okay, what can we do with our resources, like our money, to help make that happen? And it might not happen overnight, but what can we do to progress towards that being a goal of ours, where you can own more of your time and move away from the corporate ward for for a period of time, and eventually have that time with our with our daughter. And so over the next, honestly, the next year, the next 15 years, we've moved from this double Income No Kids situation to eventually a single income with kids. And then now we're in this stage of life where we're both working part time, and we're raising our kids. So throughout some financial moves that we've made over that time period, it has allowed us to have that flexibility with time management and kind of really moving our time and money spent towards. Into the things that we value most.

Jamila Souffrant 5:02

Yeah, what would you say? So if you can go back, because you've talked about this on the show, but just for people who have not listened, I think part of your story too is that you've made, like definitely, big financial leaps, whether it was paying off your mortgage and being able to quit your job, what were you say were the catalysts or the things that allowed you to do that back then and talk about that foundation that you built so you can have the freedom now?

Andy Hill 5:27

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. And that first step, really for us was getting that why, that purpose, that reason, and for us in the beginning, it was ownership of more of our time. And for my wife, that was the case. And as I continued it on my corporate career. I wanted a little bit of that too, because I, you know, just felt a little bit consumed by my job and saw all the fun things that were happening at home with my new kids. And I'm like, Well, I want to be a part of that too. So our purpose and our drive, our dream, was like, hey, what can we do to have more of this? So with that in mind, that really was the big step that we needed to do in the beginning, but then from there, it was us collaborating and having discussions together on how we can use that money that's coming in to move towards those values. So what do we have coming in, and where the heck is it going? Because at the beginning, we were spending a lot of it just having fun. And there's nothing wrong with having fun with your wife. Of course, I'm not saying don't have fun with your wife. It's very important to do that, but if you have other goals in mind, what can we do to maybe move towards helping you to save and invest for those types of things that would provide that freedom? And so for us, in the beginning, I had about $30,000 of student loans, and my wife had $20,000 of a car loan. These were things that we thought we needed, the trappings of, you know, suburban life. I needed an MBA so I could look really smart and get, you know, more money in my job. And my wife wanted the luxury car. But of course, we didn't have the money for either one of those things, so we took out loans for those. But once we started to look at our budget and make some plans together, we said, okay, what can we do to pay off this debt and really start to get this snowball going. So we're moving towards starting off our net worth at zero, at least because we had a negative net worth at that time. We had a negative $50,000 net worth when we started our relationship on this journey. So by eliminating that debt, that became a really good kind of Kickstart to our plan, that got us motivated to move forward, and then from there, that's when we really got excited about investing and some other big goals that we can talk about, right?

Jamila Souffrant 7:26

So it sounds like collaboration, being on the same page, or being willing to work, at least, to get to the same page, is really important. I agree, as someone who's also married and did a lot of wouldn't have been able to make it as far financially without having a partner that was on board, right? So you talked about some of the trappings of wanting like a nice car and just kind of following what's around you. How did you break away from that? Because I'm assuming, when you got serious and started to talk about managing your money better, you had to make changes. So how did you balance still having to go to work and be around your co workers or people and be in the world, I always say, like, almost feeling like a superhero, where you know you're one way and you know you're cool, like you don't want to be like, Oh, talking about money all the time, but then you're having these insights and changes that you're doing that might not align with everyone else around you. How did you balance that, and what did you do?

Andy Hill 8:19

That's a great question, because it is always star. It is still hard today, because it does feel like we're high. I like your term there, like, kind of, kind of hiding in plain sight with what we're talking about. But yeah, it's, it's a constant thing that pulled on me then and now of this lifestyle inflation, like, Could we have afforded a bigger, better house? Oh, yeah, you know, I'm sure that mortgage lender would, uh, would have given us the the loan to make it happen. Could we have afforded some fancier cars and things like that? Absolutely, because a lot of our neighbors had those too. But I think what was important to us during the time, and we constantly reminded ourselves that we had a bigger purpose, we had a bigger goal that maybe some other people don't have, and that was more ownership of this time that we have, because that is the precious resource that we can't get more of. And really, with that in mind, we were able to say, okay, yeah, we do want a bigger house, because we have a couple kids coming into the world. But do we need the biggest house, or could we just get one that's appropriate for the size of our family. And yet, if we decided to go from, you know, a four person family to a six person family in the future, then maybe then we look at the house, not buy the house that we think that we're going to grow into, you know what I mean? And also the cars. The same thing we ended up owning, our two cars that we had, I think she had hers for 14 years. I had mine for 12 years, did they start to look old after a little while? And the whole, you know, the nice car all of a sudden didn't look as nice 12 years down the road, yeah, wasn't as new and flashy. But eventually we were able to get cars after those ones died. It's just delaying some of these things that a lot of people just say, yes. And because there's great advertising out there, and there's great shiny new products to say yes to that, we were able to just look back at those goals and say, You know what? This is more important than having the fanciest house, the fanciest car and some of the other, I guess, trappings of life?

Jamila Souffrant 10:16

Yeah, I so relate to that. Because even now, when I think about we have older cars, or cars that are not as flashy, and sometimes, like, I get, I get, I can admit a little conscious about it, like it'd be nice, or I know my husband would like to have a nice car. I feel like I've been saying this forever now on the podcast. And then there are times where I look at like, wow. Like, this whole summer, both of us didn't work. You know, he's a teacher, so he's off in the summer. I create my own schedule as an entrepreneur, because at this point, it is a choice. We have to it's a we can't do both at the same time. Like, if we wanted nicer cars, we'd have to pay for that, and so we'd have to work more. And the fact that we can enjoy our summers and enjoy all this time off when we do have it, I'm like, That feels better than I think having the car, but it's okay that those feelings come up, but I agree with understanding like that they come up, but then valuing your time and energy and the freedom you have more and realize, like, oh, like, that's what's more important for me at this stage in my life.

Andy Hill 11:14

Absolutely, that's the wealth that I want. I mean, like to take your whole summer off, Jamila, especially when your kids are 11, nine and seven, right? That is precious time you'll never have back. Yeah, that is so cool. That's the biggest flex, more than a fancy car or fancy house, in my opinion. But that's, that's where you and I have those types of values that, you know, if somebody didn't have three kids and they were not treasuring the time that they had with them, then maybe they'd be like, Nah, I'd rather have a nice car. And that's okay, too. Everybody's values can be different, and that's fine, but that feels like that, that wealth that you're talking about, I almost liken it to like when I want something on Amazon and I see it and I want to buy it right away, because that button is just right there, and I've already got my credit card in there. But then I hold off for a little bit. Let me do I need this right now? Do I can I just put it in my like list app or something like that, and look at it later? And then sometimes, lo and behold, like, five days later, I'm like, I don't even want that thing, you know? Like, it's kind of like that, but on a grander scale, with houses and cars and clothes and vacations and things like that. But eventually you will get those things if they are still important to you later, right?

Jamila Souffrant 12:21

Well, you talked about too, like it's you're denying yourself of that thing in the moment, but it's delayed. It doesn't mean that you can't have it, you just can't have it right now. Yeah. So one of the feats that you did was you paid off your mortgage, right? And I want you to talk about setting that financial foundation, because I believe that it helped you then take more risk and become an entrepreneur, and I'll do all these things that you maybe would feel more pressure to keep working at a job if you couldn't do that. So talk about those decisions to set yourself up so that you can have this freedom that you have now, absolutely.

Andy Hill 12:53

Yeah, two of the big moves that we made after, you know, paying off the debt and things like that, were achieving Coast fire, which is essentially saving and investing in your retirement funds, essentially just front loading those investments till you get to a point where you'd look at a compound interest calculator and be like man with time and compound interest, this thing's going to take me all the way to millions by the time I'm in my 60s. That's great work. Maybe I could check that box and say pause for a moment, or at least, maybe just take the employer match or just decrease it from where you were at that point. But then from there, one big move that we made, as you said, was paying off our mortgage. And I know that sounds like sacrilege right now, in the era of people holding on to their 3% mortgages or 2% mortgages, or whatever gold you might have. But for us, the math was not more important than the emotional payoff of being able to decrease our expenses quite a bit, and by decreasing our expenses from paying off our mortgage, we started to look at our budget and say, Wow, we don't have to work as much as we are right now because we don't need as much money to pay for our lives. You know when, when life costs less, you don't need to work as much. And that was a nice epiphany for us. So it does sound like a little crazy to pay off your mortgage, especially if you have a 3% one, but if you look at it from the lens of like, okay, our expenses are that much lower now. So not only can my wife keep working part time, but I could go part time with my role as well, or even in a new small business. So between hitting Coast fire, paying off our mortgage and then eventually just saving up a boatload of fu money, this was an easy path for us to say goodbye to the corporate careers.

Jamila Souffrant 14:44

Okay, so Andy, I if I'm listening to you right now and I don't know much of your story, I'm like, Well, they probably made a lot of money. Maybe they live in a low cost of area. Those things are true, fine. But like, what was your financial situation looking like? Do. You have the benefit of high income, if yesterday, you weren't thinking, you're like this, and then you woke up the next day and started to do things differently. What did you do differently? How did it impact your finances on a cash flow level?

Andy Hill 15:11

Sure, yeah. So in the beginning, we started around $130,000

Jamila Souffrant 15:15

combined in income. Yes, okay, in income, $130,000

Andy Hill 15:18

combined income when we started our marriage in late, late in our late 20s, during this stretch of like zero to year 10, while we were building from $0 to a million dollar net worth, our average income was $180,000 as a household income. And just to let you know, I know you have, you're, you're in New York, and we've got different listeners all around the country. We're in Michigan. We're in a suburb, maybe 2030, minutes north of Detroit. It's a nice suburb, but yeah, depending on where you live, if you're in San Francisco, New York, this all means different types of things. So take that with a grain of salt, based on where you live. And for us, yeah, probably between year zero and year 10, we were saving and investing maybe 40% of that income that came in, and that was in the beginning part paying off debt, investing to hit Coast fire, paying off that mortgage, and then building up that fu money fund of about 12 months of expenses before we were able to say goodbye. So hopefully that gives you some detail on the numbers.

Jamila Souffrant 16:20

Yeah, that's great. And I also want to note you said 10 years, right? So this is also not a like, quick, like, I'm going to do something in a year or two. Like, this is a long journey, but you do experience things along the way, I'm sure, every year, and things that happen on the journey. But I just want to note that, because I think that sometimes people look at it and like, oh, like, that's so far away. But yes, it can be doesn't mean you can enjoy the journey. But a lot of times when you hear these stories, whether it's being able to quit a job, pay off a mortgage, get fu money, it's going to take a plan that is long term. Absolutely.

Andy Hill 16:53

This is not an overnight thing. It took a long time, and it took a little bit of heartache too. I don't want to just say this was all roses and sunshine. I think I got a little intense with this whole saving and investing thing. And you know what I had in my brain as, like, a genius idea, and all these podcasts I was listening to that you and I were probably both listening to. My wife wasn't listening to them, and she didn't, you know, have the same, you know, connection in my brain, even though I thought I was talking to her a lot about a lot of these things I wasn't, you know, and so there was some points in time where I wanted to save even more, make make more money and decrease our expenses. That's how you do it. You grow that gap. But if you grow that gap a little too much, you can also squeeze out your spouse, and, you know, create some strife in your marriage. And I did. I really did, at one point in about, think was around 2018, something like that, after we had paid off the mortgage. And maybe she thought I was going to let go of the gas a little bit. And I did a bit, but not enough. I don't think, with regard to saving and investing and maybe getting out of my corporate career, we came to a head. You know, we had a two year old and a four year old. I was still working my 50 to 60 hour corporate job I didn't really have and give enough time to her during this period of time. And so we would have fights. We would have money fights when I would say things, you know, things aren't worth it. And she'd say, yeah, they are, you know. And so we got to a point where she said, I think we really need to go to marriage counseling. Andy, I think we need to get some help here. And so we did. I felt like a kind of a failure at that point Jamila, where I was like, Man, I How did I let this happen? I'm all about, like, being a family guy, and I might I even have a show with marriage is the first word, like, what is wrong with me? What am I doing? But it wasn't until we went to those sessions together and really dove into the issues that I realized that this wasn't a failure, this was a blessing. This was an opportunity for us to spend a dedicated hour talking about this detail that we weren't spending any time talking about because we were too dominated by children at home, or I was too dominated by my corporate life. And as you know, like when you're working a busy job, it's not just the hours that you're dedicating to working there that bleeds into the weekend, that bleeds into scary Sundays beforehand, before you're like, oh my god, I gotta prepare for Monday. So it was just all consuming. Not enough time for my marriage, not enough time for just outlets, and that's where it came to a head. But our time in marriage counseling is about nine months. I think we went at least once or twice a month for those nine months, it was the best thing for our relationship, because we found that middle ground. We found we found the fact that, yes, I felt claustrophobic in my job and I felt like I was trapped and couldn't get out. But then she also felt like, Hey, man, I want to have a good life. I'm doing a lot here at the house too. I feel a little claustrophobic as well. With two children raising them, what can we do to find some sort of middle ground that works for both of us? And that's where we really started to have some great conversations together. So it wasn't all roses and sunshine the whole time, and I think that's important to point out.

Jamila Souffrant 19:55

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Andy Hill 21:31

Yeah, I think she started to empathize my situation, and I started to empathize with hers too. So I let go of the gas a bit and said, Okay, if I really was so excited about hitting these milestones. Let's really celebrate and bring more fun and experiences into our life. That means more time for me and you. That means more vacations. You know, let's utilize this money, this wealth that we've built for fun, and at the same time, what can I do to find a more attainable goal than financial independence, and, you know, saving up so much to buy 10 rental properties for with no mortgage on them, or, you know, save $2 million in investment account, they just felt like unattainable goals, even though I was hearing about people who were doing them, and it was, it was almost like I saw it, but couldn't grab it. So for me, and it came from a blessing from my wife. She said, Hey, we've been saving up money due to this rental property thing. Both you and I seem lukewarm about it. You know, like managing properties, managing tenants, why don't you just take that money and utilize it as sort of a runway for you to try this small business entrepreneur thing that you've been playing around with on the internet for the past five years and give it a go. And that was, like the best thing that she ever said to me. It was just like a pat on the back, just saying, Hey, man, go for it. I believe in you. Give it a shot. And with that about, I think it was about $100,000 that we had saved up, and we're gonna buy our first rental property with it. We decided to scrap that. This was my fu money fund to say, go for it with this small business thing. And money alone was great, but also, I had proven that people were paying me to do this type of work. It wasn't just like a Hey. I hope I figure it out. I had been making money. I had promises of making even more money if I had more time to do it. So I went for it. I said goodbye to my corporate career in January of 2020, and had about $100,000 saved up in expenses to support us during this journey. And then the first couple of months of that year were fantastic. I had my business growing. I spent more time with my wife. I was a better father. I volunteered more. I even joined the PTO, like, to support I was, like, the only guy on the PTO, you know, he's very proud of these things. And then all of a sudden, you know, global pandemic comes in March of 2020, I get knocked on my butt, you know. And things really flipped upside down. I lost some important contracts that I had, you know, there was a client that I had that I had that just said, Hey, we can't even do our business, let alone pay you. I'm sorry. Advertising revenue went down. It was very scary. I got kind of dark, and it was, it was pretty spooky at that point. And I don't know if you've never if you dealt with any of those

Jamila Souffrant 24:14

things yourself, yeah, well, so this kind of gets us into the entrepreneurship conversation as a pathway, because I think it's a great lane to travel in while you're trying to achieve financial independence, if you can create a job and system in which you're getting paid that helps pay the expenses, even invest and save, but you're controlling a little bit of your time, even if you're working, I know for me, when I first started to do this full time, I was working more than I am working now. But it's interesting. You said you saved up the money so that you could take the leap. I did the same thing, but then you did it at a time where the pandemic hit. So let's talk a little bit about sustaining or going through that and the down months or down. Around years because, I mean, it's still, as an entrepreneur, it's still, you know, there's no guarantee, unless you get like, contracts, which, even that can, like, be taken away on what you're doing, right? So how did the emotions come along to do that? And did you consider going back to work? How did that change the journey for you?

Andy Hill 25:17

Sure, yeah. I mean, I would say, even a month or two into that, in the beginning, it was just kind of like, what's happening, what's happening to the world right now. But about a month or two into it, things started to get weird. Contracts went away, advertising revenue went down, and all of a sudden, this promising year that I had planned out did not look so promising. So I got pretty depressed, I got pretty scared, and I'm so glad that I had some people around me that were supportive, not only in our community, but my wife, my father. I had good friends that just to lean on to say, Hey, man, you've got this. You can see through this. I know you can. And then another friend along the way was that big pile of money that helped float us for a little while. There, three months of, you know, just sort of pivoting, figuring it out, changing the plans that I had, a little bit of how I would make money, and then just leaning into other areas where I could be supportive in our general community, with regard to financial education. And as I pivoted, I started to make a little bit more money. I started to figure out how to decrease my expenses and make more money over time. And yeah, between 2020 and 2025, I went from working, as you said, like when you start a new business, you're going to work a lot more hours just to make sure it works. But then I continued to get more comfortable. I have increased my income and decreased my hours work. Worked from Year Zero to year five on this entrepreneur journey, and things have been going really well, but I would say a big part of that puzzle is just having some money set aside, because mistakes will happen. Not Not only it won't always be a global pandemic, but you'll make mistakes, and that's okay, and you're gonna learn from it, but that money set aside was so key in helping it move forward.

Jamila Souffrant 27:02

I agree. I know that there are some people who can be risk takers and not have as big of a net or need a net, but I need a net, and I recommend people, even if it takes you longer to work to get to the net, that safety net of fu money, when and when we say fu money, that is like an emergency fund, but even supersize even more, where it can really carry you through down times and months and months of not having income. And so I just I know that it may then take longer for you to leave a situation or job. And by no means does that mean you should stay in something that's unhealthy, but if it's something that you can withstand and you can fight through, so that you can have security do it. Because if we didn't have the security or net that we currently have, I wouldn't be as relaxed working less now, right? We either I would be more stressed, or we would have to reduce our expensive expenses significantly. But because I have this net, it's I'm able to kind of flow and kind of look at things in a more practical way and not freak out when things are slow for my business and income

Andy Hill 28:07

Absolutely, and I don't know how it's been for you, but that amount of money has flexed for me, even now that I've figured out my balance, I still want to have months and months of business expenses set aside to make sure, oh, if things go wrong or I lose a big client that I've been consistently working on, then I need to make sure that I'm covered. But a big part of that too, as a solopreneur, is just diversifying how that money comes in, because for a while I would have a really cozy client, and I work with them for a couple of years, and I just get used to it, and then things would go it would change, and I'd be like, oh, man, I make I better make sure that I'm diversifying and spending time with, you know, outbound sales and bringing in new things, but then also having that cushion just to say, Okay, give myself some space and time to figure this out. And that's really helped me along the way, right?

Jamila Souffrant 28:56

And I think it speaks to entrepreneurship. I know that it is a nice pathway to travel on while you're reaching freedom, financial freedom, but that the inconsistency that you could bring the more ownership you need to have when you're a solopreneur, that you have to weigh the pros and cons, because not everyone is built to do that. And I know for me, I back not as much now, because I really can't imagine going clocking into work with the amount of things I do with my kids. Like, I don't know if that would it work, because then, you know, I got to pick them up at a certain time, but if I had to, and, you know, I consider it, but I just know that a lot of people who are entrepreneurs have considered going back to work. So if you are working and, you know, you don't like your job, but it's something that you can do. Then use that job to be the funder of your financial dreams. You use it to do what you need it to do so that you can, one day, in a few years, reach the freedom level you want,

Andy Hill 29:52

absolutely and there's that middle ground too, Jamila, that I know some people talk about too. It doesn't have to be just like, hey, I'm gonna stay at my corporate. Job or I'm going to be a solopreneur. What about some middle ground where you can talk to your employer and just say, is there an opportunity for me to work part time here? Like, I like what I do, but I don't like it as many hours as I'm doing it. Like, could there be some middle ground where maybe I'm being paid less, but I have some more flexibility, because I'm a parent, and I want to spend more time with my children during this very important time period of their lives. Could I just work three days? And I know that I've talked to a lot of people who successfully had those conversations. Of course, it has to come with a good relationship with your supervisor, the type of industry that would allow for that type of work arrangement. But those arrangements are out there if you seek them, and if it doesn't work at your employer, maybe consider another competitor that does what you do, but maybe on a part time basis. There's also a third level to that, where it's like, Could I do what I'm doing right now as a contractor or a freelancer and kind of design my own schedule, utilizing my skill set that I've built up for so long, where I'm paid good money to do what I'm doing, and maybe bring that to the market. And then, of course, the last and most difficult one is what we did, you know, like, go off on your own and try to build something fresh and brand new. It's hard, but the payoff could be great too.

Jamila Souffrant 31:16

Yes, yes. And I think ultimately, having the financial foundation first is what's going to give you, hopefully, that confidence to take more risks, to ask those questions, you know, to have those negotiations with your your supervisor or boss.

Andy Hill 31:32

Yeah, that financial confidence is big. When you have that money set aside, it feels a little easier to be like, Hey, I think I will ask this question.

Jamila Souffrant 31:40

So you mentioned before your wife currently works part time.

Andy Hill 31:43

Yes, that's right, yeah. So what we did is we did that fu money, and it helped me to bridge myself for a little while. There, we probably spent maybe 30,000 of that 100,000 just to kind of like, float ourselves for a little while. And as things started to stabilize, we started to look at that money and said, Okay, actually, why don't we do some of those home upgrades and some of those car upgrades? And she always wanted a hot tub, but why don't we get some of those things right now that we've been delaying on for a while and kind of just enjoy ourselves? So we did that. We probably spent another 30 of that on some of those life upgrades. And then, you know, as she started to continue on her corporate career, she said, Well, I don't like what I'm doing either, you know, I don't like this corporate client situation. Things have gotten weird, even as I've gone back on a part time basis. It's like it's just not what I want to do. She always wanted to work with her hands, get out of the email, grind and do something that felt like she was really help helping people. So we decided to use the rest of that money for her to go back to trade school and learn a skill as an esthetician. So she went back and learned how to become an esthetician. And I know there's a lot of ladies that might listen to this and know exactly what I'm talking about. I don't. I can't speak to it too much about how she does this, but she essentially gives ladies skin treatments that make them feel better in their skin, and they and she enjoys it. She gets to connect with other women who are her age and help them out. So she does that Tuesday, Thursday, Friday. And so she always has, you know, Monday off. And then she gets a little plop day out in the middle, right there. She gets a little break again. She loves it, and it allows her to, you know, connect with family, connect with friends, exercise more, be there for her kids during cool events. She my daughter's really into volleyball right now, so she's been super my wife's been super excited to attend those games right at, you know, like three or four o'clock, when it's pretty difficult for a lot of people to do that. So it's just allowed a little bit more balance in her life. And me doing the same thing, I'm working part time, and get to experience some of those great benefits as well. Right?

Jamila Souffrant 33:39

The reason you're able to do that is because you've reduced your fixed expenses, right? Let's talk through like how you're able to do it.

Andy Hill 33:48

Yeah, yeah. So our expenses right now are comfortable living expenses around $7,000 a month. Now that might sound low, but we have no reason to save for retirement anymore, because we have achieved Coast fire, and it's going to grow and give us multi millions by the time we reach our 60s. We have no mortgage anymore, so our expenses are drastically lower because of that, we own both of our cars outright, so there's no payments on those cars anymore. And yeah, I mean, we've just examined our lifestyle and said this is how much we need to earn about $7,000 a month in order to live our comfortable life. So I'm not killing it at my business yet. I hope to in the future, but honestly, I care more about working less and spending more time with my children right now, taking care of my health. I really kind of put my health on the back burner for the past. You know, I'd say 510, years, and I know how important that is for taking care of your life and longevity and things like that. So I'm trying to prioritize some of those other things that I care more about making more money or working more and it's it's really paying off, I really do think.

Jamila Souffrant 34:57

So, yeah, I think the key is. Knowing how much you need to live on exactly. And I think there's a couple things, like, if you're just all new to this, and you're just like, Well, okay, you have to figure out what you currently are expending. Yeah, that is the key, right? And then there's the math of, and not just math, but the emotional work of, well, depending on how much we're bringing in, what can we reduce it to so that extra money can go to financial goals, like saving for fu money, paying off debt, right? And so there are changes that need to be made, whether it is going to be increasing your income or decreasing your expenses. But it sounds so simple, but I understand it's not as simple to execute because of all the emotions that comes with it. But ultimately it is okay. How do I get to a point where, like, I know how much we need to make that's comfortable, and we can bring that in on a monthly basis?

Andy Hill 35:50

Absolutely, yeah. And some of the other things that might pop up for people are like, how does health care work if you're not, you know, if you don't get that? And so we go through the marketplace, we go through the exchange in order to get that, and right now it's gone up a bit more, but we pay about $750 a month for our family of four with a high deductible plan. That's one thing that we need to factor into but at least my business budget that I put in there, and then I pay myself a salary based on the money that I bring in each month. And yeah, it works out, and we still have money for important things that we care about. We we give our kids great birthday parties, we go on vacations, we we've increased our giving to a way that feels good to us to about 10% so a lot of that is like giving back in our community. And, you know, being generous to nephews and nieces when they get their first job and we want to help them to start their first Roth IRA, like things like that make us feel really excited, but we've been really intentional about how we use that money and where we spend it. So when we do increase our income, which I continue to try to do, that just increases all these other boats of areas that we care

Jamila Souffrant 36:54

about, right? Let's talk a little bit about your book. Can you tell us a bit about why you wrote it, who it's for, and maybe give us some frameworks that would be helpful to the audience?

Andy Hill 37:05

Yeah, I wrote it because the story of ours has been fun to share, and I got an opportunity from a publisher who said, Hey, can you bring this to life? And not only can you share your story, but can you share the story of other families who've done this too? So that's what the story is all about. It's called own your time. You can get it on Amazon or Barnes and Noble, and it is the 10 financial steps that families can take to escape the corporate grind and put their family first. And that's really who it's for. It's for families who feel pressed for those two important resources in their life, money and time. So if you're feeling that pull on. Like, is life really supposed to feel like this? Then this book is really for you to help you kind of get out of that grind and move towards more time ownership and then put it back towards the things that you really care about.

Jamila Souffrant 37:54

Yeah, you know, as a parent too, right? Like, I feel like I've always knew that I wanted three kids. This was like, I created this picture and plan in my head without really thinking about the details. But knew I wanted three kids, knew I wanted them two years apart, had it like this, right and then, but I never, I never thought about which I'm experiencing now. How you know the school system if you send them to school, right? Because we're not homeschooling here, but like, how early they get out, and how there is after school, and there's other things, but even without after school, how some of the enrichment programs or sports programs start before, like, the typical work day ends for the adult, yeah, they're not aligned. And I'm just like, so I am so blessed to be able to do so much with my kids because of my schedule. But I think when I was thinking about having kids, I didn't even, I don't know, I didn't think about this part of parenthood and the balance of it. And I just think it's one of those things, until maybe you're a parent, or you see it up close, because you know a parent who's struggling to to balance that, how hard it is to do that. And so I just say, I say all that to say that I'm pretty sure your book will be very impactful and helpful to so many families who are looking for just a reprieve of just the grind, so that they have more time with their kids to do these things. And it may not be a right away solution, but you can help them plan for it ultimately. Well, I

Andy Hill 39:20

appreciate this opportunity to talk about it. Jamila, it's always so great to talk to you. I know you and I are like minded in a lot of these things, so it's it feels really good to talk to a friend about it.

Jamila Souffrant 39:28

Yeah. So Andy, please tell everyone about the book. Well, you told us about the book, but the name of it again, where they can find it when it will be out, which I'm pretty sure this episode will release around that week. And then more about you and where they can find you absolutely.

Andy Hill 39:41

The book is called own your time, and you can find it on Amazon, Barnes and Noble. It comes out on January 21 so if this episode is in and around that time that it's available, if not, you could do a pre order, which is also great for for the goal. And you can connect with me. I've got a podcast as well. It's called marriage, kids and money. You can connect with me there. And. It would be great to keep this conversation going.

Jamila Souffrant 40:02

Awesome. I will link all of that in the episode show notes. Thanks so much for coming on. Andy, thank you, Jamila. 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

Jamila Souffrant 40:28

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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