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

Takiia Anderson 0:02

I remember listening to women who were in their 50s talking about how they have been working for the federal government for 40 years and they still have to stay for another 10 years because they haven't paid off their debt. I asked this lady, I said, and I asked you a question, and she said, yeah, I said, if you knew that you wanted to retire. Why didn't you buy the house or buy the car years ago? And she says, well, I really didn't think about, and I said, I'm not going to be that way. I understand that working is great, but I want to do it because I want to, and I want to do in the manner in which I want to.

Speaker 1 0:33

T minus 10 seconds.

Intro 0:35

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

Speaker 2 0:53

54321,

Jamila Souffrant 1:02

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 back to another episode of the podcast. So happy to have you here. And this episode, as always, I'm excited to share with you, and it's kind of special because this guest was actually found by my mom. So my mom is like my biggest supporter in life, she listens to every episode of the podcast, and when she really, really likes an episode, she will tell me, and she came across this article, and this is what I guess the title of the article was this single mom mastermind 700,000 swing from debt to savings, so she sent me this article, and said, "Have you heard of this? And I usually do hear, you know, with these like big numbers and these articles that are about saving tons of money, typically. Like, I usually see them around, but when I went to go look at the article, I'd never seen that article before. I've never heard this person's story, so I was really intrigued, because if you don't know already, I love getting guests that are not on every podcast. Now, there's definitely a benefit to having a seasoned guest who has been around or who knows the podcast circuit and can do really great interviews, but I really find the interviews where the person has not done a podcast, so it could be a little risky, right? Like, okay, will they be comfortable sharing? Will the conversation go well? But I just love bringing these stories that you typically won't hear or you haven't heard before. And luckily this guest, Takaya, did such an amazing job. And I hope you do enjoy this conversation, because we get into how she was able to go from a single mom who was barely hanging on in tons and tons of debt to being able to be financially free, and basically she was able to quit her job and work on her own terms. So, you'll get to hear more of that as we get into the conversation, but super excited to bring it to you, because again, my mom is the one who told me about it, and it's so funny because I do act quickly. So, she sent me the article. After I read it, I was like, "Oh, this is amazing. Then I went to find the person, so I looked her up, looked on Facebook, realized she also had a blog. And then, probably within 30 minutes of my mom sending me the article, I reached out to ask her to be on the podcast, and she accepted. And I believe it was two days later that we recorded the interview. So excited to have you hear about Takaya Dori. Also, if you want to add me on social media, let me know what you think of the episode. You can do that at Journey to Launch. Make sure you're following me there. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you're listening to this, especially if you're listening to this in Apple Podcast. Also, stick around for the end. I have a little story to tell you about something that happened to me over the past couple days, and it had something to do with Entrepreneur magazine. So, if you have not heard that yet, the story, if you're not following me on social media, or if you're not on my newsletter, because I did share a bit about what happened, stick around. I want to go over with you this whole thing about me, quote unquote, versus Entrepreneur magazine. All right, so without further ado, let's get into this amazing conversation. Hey, hey, journeyers, I'm really, really excited to bring this conversation to you. I have on the podcast Takaya. Anderson, hi to Kaya.

Takiia Anderson 5:01

Hello,

Jamila Souffrant 5:02

how are you doing?

Takiia Anderson 5:03

I'm doing very well. How are you?

Jamila Souffrant 5:05

Good listeners already heard me give a little background, and I am so excited to talk to you, because my mom is actually the person who forwarded me your article.

Takiia Anderson 5:14

Oh, cool, awesome.

Jamila Souffrant 5:15

And she was just like, have you heard of this person? I was like, oh my gosh, no. And so I immediately reached out to you, and she was so surprised, because I literally like wrote her back five minutes. It was like, I'm getting her on the podcast immediately. I'll track you down and found you, because I thought your story was so interesting, and I wanted to learn more. So, the title of the headline that I saw was, this single mom was drowning in debt, now has $500,000 in savings. Yeah, wow. So I had to find out journeys. I had to bring her on the show to talk to her, to find out what she did, to find out her story, because whenever I know, I see like big numbers, like those headlines, because I had headlines like that myself. There's so much more meat, so much more background to the story that I know will help a lot of people. So, welcome to the podcast.

Takiia Anderson 6:03

Thank you.

Jamila Souffrant 6:04

Okay, so first things first, you were able to pay off a lot of debt, and now you swung from a negative net worth to having a large amount and saving. So, let's talk a little bit about how you first got into the debt, and then we'll go back into your background, and we'll get all into the juicy stuff.

Takiia Anderson 6:21

Okay, I am a licensed attorney, so the debt primarily came from attending law school. I started law school back in 1996 and I graduated in 1999 Everyone knows that law school, or any sort of graduate school, really is expensive. It's not as expensive then as it is now, but after three years the amount that I actually borrowed every year, or the amount of the tuition, came up to about $98,000 and then by the time I graduated it was up to $111,000 and I also became a single parent during that time, so in addition to just taking out loans just to cover tuition, basic living expenses, I also had to add in her living expenses for her also, so it just kept on going on and on, and then that doesn't also include the fact that I had a car note, I had credit card debt, it's not just the 100,000 plus of student loans, there was also credit card debt, and there was also car loans. So, it was like, by the time I graduated, I actually didn't even have a job when I graduated. So, I did have a job. I had an almost two year old kid, and truly, I did not know what I was going to do. I wasn't that concerned. I figured everything would work itself out, but I'm sure I should have been a lot more concern, considering I had zero assets and all that debt, but everything worked itself out, but that's actually how I accumulated all that in terms of student loan debt.

Jamila Souffrant 7:50

So, how much debt when you graduated was that 1999

Takiia Anderson 7:54

Yes,

Jamila Souffrant 7:54

when you graduated at that point, how much debt did you have altogether? I

Takiia Anderson 7:58

tried to go back and look and see as far back that I could with Sallie Mae. I would say that with the capitalized interest, I had about $111,000 in student loan debt. I had a car that I had paid for before I went to law school, and I still owed about $2,500 on that, so that wasn't a lot of money. But when you have nothing, that is a lot of money, and I have this unfortunate addiction to credit cards, and so I know that I had at least $10,000 worth of credit cards, and I've had several times where I've racked my credit card bills up to $15,000 and then I paid them back down, so trying to even calculate in total how much money I actually was in debt. It's like depressing, but that's how it was. So, 15,000 at least a student loans. I had about 2500 per car, and then the rest of it, $111,000 of student loans. Credit cards was about 15,000 and then 2500 I would say, for my car. No.

Jamila Souffrant 9:00

So it looks like you didn't get really any scholarships or anything to help you through your law degree, right?

Takiia Anderson 9:06

I did, and that's the sad thing. Yeah, but

Jamila Souffrant 9:09

it didn't cover everything,

Takiia Anderson 9:10

no. And again, because I would have to get special permission from my law school in order to get additional funding, so as a graduate student you get more funding, and so the more dependents you have, the more money they give you. So, for me, I should have only, as a grad student, gotten about nine or $10,000 for living expenses. They allowed for me to take out between 11 and $12,000 So, even though that's only a couple of $1,000 extra, it just started all adding up, and over a three-year period of time that just continues to blossom in volume, so yeah,

Jamila Souffrant 9:44

right. And let me just get back to your mindset. At that point, was at the time you just really weren't even thinking about the debt that you were accumulating, you were just worried about getting through law school, raising your daughter. Like, did you even have a clue what was happening with your debt at that time?

Takiia Anderson 9:58

No. Ever since I was eight years. And I wanted to be a lawyer, so when I finally was like, yes, I got into law school, I got into a great law school. When you go to law school, or you want to be a lawyer, you always think to yourself, this is the sort of life that I want, so I want to be some corporate lawyer. I'm assuming I'm going to make a lot of money, like pregnancy was never in the picture, so I never thought about it, and it's really interesting, because even when you're in your third year or your last year, you're considered a 3l and you have to have an exit interview with a financial aid officer, and I was talking, me and my friends were talking, because none of us had jobs, and I said, you know, they told me I owe whatever it was, 100 and something, and I just had a big smile on my face, I don't think that even at that age, I just didn't have a concept as to how it was going to get paid. They didn't even dawn on me, and I didn't have a plan of action. I figured it would take care of itself. I knew that I could do a deferment for six months, that's all I knew. I said, "I'll figure it out, but something sparked in me where I was like, "This is not going to be good, because my daughter will be going to college. I had already always, ever since she was a child, I spoke that over her, that you were going to be going to college. I happened to attend Howard University, HBCU. I was like, I want you to go to an HBCU, you know, I'm talking to this to a two-year-old kid who has no idea what I'm talking about, but it just wasn't going to make sense. I was like, I can't be paying off my student loans and trying to help you pay for yours, so I need to figure something out.

Jamila Souffrant 11:25

Let me just also ask your age, if you could share when you graduated from law school.

Takiia Anderson 11:30

I was 22 years old when I graduated from college, and then I was 24 going on 25 when I started law school, so I was, yeah, 27 when I actually graduated,

Jamila Souffrant 11:41

and then this is just a quick aside, did you have debt going into law school? Like, did you have, okay, so you really, you started out no debt, graduated all that debt, and then you had an aha moment. At what point was it like immediately after graduation that you said to yourself, "Hold up, this is a problem, I need to fix this?

Takiia Anderson 11:56

No, because it wasn't immediately after graduation, because I don't think that I really understood the ramifications of how much money I had taken out, even for me, and it's funny because I talk to people in terms of how I budgeted eventually, or whatever, but for me back then I never even opened up my bills, I was terrified, so it was kind of like I just ignored it, whatever payment plan Sally Mae, and even I had a $25,000 loan from my law school, which they deferred almost indefinitely, because I explained to them I don't have anything, like I can barely pay Sally May and my rent at the time, so they were really good about just letting me hang on, and but I've never had any concept, I guess it didn't dawn on me until, a, like, you get tired of being broke all the time, and I even referred to in the article how I lived in overdraft protection, and that was I had $600 in overdraft protection, which means that if I go over my balance, I'm not getting any sort of overdraft fees, and every single pay period, once I started working, I was constantly, so something was off, and I'm like, I'm tired of being broke, and again, I don't want to sit here and be spending 2030 years trying to pay this back, so I have to figure something out. And even though I was a low wage earner, and anybody who asked me, I don't remember all my numbers, but I definitely remember how much my starting salary was, and that was $34,102 and I looked at you, have $34,102 as an income, and you have over six figures of debt. Something has to happen.

Jamila Souffrant 13:26

Let me just interject. What did you graduate doing? Like, where did you start working?

Takiia Anderson 13:31

Yeah, I started with a local agency called the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. I was only making $15 an hour, and I stayed there for two months. I have a family member who had a client. She does hair, and she said, "Oh, I have this client who works for the Department of Labor. She's a district director, and they're looking to hire attorneys. And I was like, "Oh, awesome. I went down there, filled out my application, and about three months later they called me in for an interview. So I started my first day in the federal government on october 25 1999 and so that's how it started.

Jamila Souffrant 14:05

How did you start to increase your income or make changes, like you were living in overdraft protection? Like, how do you get out of it?

Takiia Anderson 14:11

So, the way that the federal government works is that there's just these GS levels and steps. So, I was a GS level nine at that point in time, and the starting salary was $34,102 The next year I was to go to a GS 11, and then the year after that I would go to a GS 12. So $34,000 went into about $43,000 and then $43,000 went into about 53,000 and so I was basically stagnant at that $53,000 like that was it. So, in two years, my income increased 20,000 but I wasn't really budgeting that well, and all the expenses relating to my daughter, like she was just going on two when I graduated. So, by the time I started making some money, then I have her in preschool, and that's expensive. So, to me it felt. I was never catching a break, like I would end up with more money, but I had to also spend more money, and primarily in order to take care of her, which is no fault of her own, but that's just how it was. Eventually, I ended up buying the house that I grew up in, and that was by force, because I have an identical twin sister, and she owned the house, and she told me I was paying $400 a month in rent. She told me she don't want to be a landlord anymore, that I had to buy the house, and I'm like, well, I don't have money for that. And she said, well, you're either gonna have to buy it or I'm gonna sell it.

Jamila Souffrant 15:30

You guys owned it together, or she had owned it.

Takiia Anderson 15:32

She owned it. She bought it from my parents. It's the house that we grew up in. My parents bought this house when we were 10. My mother and my stepfather, my mother and my stepfather got married when we were nine, bought a house when we were 10 years old. My parents sold it to my twin, and then my twin sold it to me. So, when I was at the $44,000 level, she sold it to me, my rent to her, because her mortgage wasn't that high. I think she only paid like 30 or $40,000 for it from my parents, so when I bought it, my expenses went from 400 to $700 a month in terms of paying for living expenses, in terms of a mortgage, and that was a struggle for me, and I tried to explain that to her, like I can barely afford what I'm giving you, but I had to do what I had to do, and so at some point in time the market started increasing everywhere, and so I had purchased my home for $94,000 and my mortgage was only $700 a month. So once I started seeing all the increases, and I saw how much the houses were going for in my neighborhood, I started doing more research, or I started doing research, and I was like, hey, people are doing cash out, they're taking cash out of their houses, but everyone was taking cash out of their houses in order to go on trips and to buy BMWs, but that wasn't my game plan. And I remember when I called the mortgage company, or a mortgage company, explained to them that I wanted to take money out of my house, and he said, Were you going to go buy BMW? And I was like, no, I'm trying to pay off my student loan, and he said you're the first person that has ever said that. He said everybody is buying cars, everyone's taking trips. I said no, I just want to pay off at least one of my student loans and at least part of this credit card bill, and I will be happy, and that's how I was able to reduce some of my expenses, and I have a lot of people, especially on my blog, they'll say, "Well, that's why you were able to get out of debt that fast. No, because I don't think that people also have to understand that my daughter was also an increase in expense. So, again, to me it wasn't like I took a break, it was like that was a necessary thing.

Jamila Souffrant 17:36

I want to hop in and kind of dig deeper in some of this stuff, because it's really fascinating. So you bought the house, and your mortgage or your expenses went up a bit, but then the real estate boom was happening, prices were increasing, your house gained some equity, you decided to take out a home equity loan, and how much was that loan? The

Takiia Anderson 17:56

loan was for 159,000 so that bought it from like a $94,000 to I believe 159 I think. So my mortgage went from $700 a month to $1,100 a month.

Jamila Souffrant 18:09

So I'm assuming that the interest rate on your mortgage was less than your all your combined payments on your debt that you paid off.

Takiia Anderson 18:17

Yes,

Jamila Souffrant 18:18

even though I'm doing the math, you increase your mortgage payment by $400

Intro 18:23

Yeah, you

Jamila Souffrant 18:23

probably were paying a lot more,

Takiia Anderson 18:25

yes,

Jamila Souffrant 18:25

in your monthly bills.

Takiia Anderson 18:27

Yes, at least six or $700 because I wouldn't have made any sense. Like, I needed a cushion, and I was like, even if I only save $200 a month, that's fine with me. I just have to have a cushion, and it was just easier for me to pay the $1,100 and then just deal with I still owed Sally May. I still had a bar loan, so that's also wasn't factored, and I had to take out a loan in order to take my bar examination. So I still had loans, and I still had the credit cards, and I just still had debt.

Jamila Souffrant 18:56

When you paid off majority of your debt, how much was left after you did this move of taking out the home I could do loan,

Takiia Anderson 19:01

I honestly don't remember. I would say that I think I only cut it in half, because I definitely know my last year, basically 2006 or 2007 I only had about $34,000 left, so I believe that I still had almost half. So, yeah, I had about 50.

Jamila Souffrant 19:19

You had kind of a credit card problem, a spending problem, you had an income problem, you had expense problem, you had a lot of restrictions and barriers to you getting ahead, but you did find a creative way, you used the market, you used this asset that you had as a home to help pay that off. What were some of the other things that you were doing? Like, I'm really trying to get to how it is that you were even able to pay off the rest of this now, even though you were still on a constricted income.

Takiia Anderson 19:43

The unfortunate thing is that even though I had gotten out of a good deal of the debt by the house, I had no concept of budgeting. I didn't cut back on a lot of spending, like really honest, I didn't have money anyway. So people would come to my house, I had no internet, I had no cable. Like there was no such thing as having internet and cable, I didn't get internet and cable in my house until I actually finished paying off all my debt back in 2009 So, me and my daughter, I would do just DVDs, I would do VHS, because we still were living, we were coming on the off the cusp of having a VCR, and then going into DVD, and I remember when DVD players were like all the rage, and I, I didn't buy one because I couldn't afford it. In my mind, like, I always felt like I couldn't afford it, because if I'm living in overdrive protection, even when I stopped living in the whole overdraft protection, I didn't have that much money left over anyway. So things like a DVD was not important to me. I was going to figure out how to have fun and how to finance things without it, so I didn't do a lot of shopping. Like, I just cut back on a lot of things. I did the basic essential, and what was even crazier was once I started focusing on that last about $35,000 I set me and my daughter up on a, and people think it's crazy, and I did it, $25 a month entertainment budget, and so I told her I was like, look, she was about nine years old at the time, and I said, I'm really, really, really trying to take care of the last last of this debt, we are not going to be going out like we did, because we still would go out, but I wouldn't spend a lot of money, like I would always shop clearance, but to me I was shopping too much, even if it was clearance, and I said, "We have enough clothes, I really want to focus on this. So, $25 a month budget, I would figure out things to do. We were living in Philadelphia at that time, so if I wanted to take her out to breakfast, the only way that we would go out to breakfast, is if I found a coupon from IHOP. There was a supermarket that was up the street from us, and every Friday they had $5 extra large pieces. So maybe once in a while we would do that. I started packing lunches, I made my own coffee. I didn't really give her any money for school lunches, she had to bring her own school lunch, like everything was cut out. Everything was cut out, so that way I focused on paying off this debt. Being in the federal government, when I was there, we used to get bonuses based upon our performance evaluation, so I probably wouldn't get any more than about eight or $900 net, and I would use that to pay off a debt, and anytime, like when I would get my increases, I would always use the extra money, so I obviously knew how much of my net income I had, and so I would look and say, okay, now you're going to be bringing home an additional $200 a month, and I acted like I never had it, so all that money was always going to a debt, always,

Jamila Souffrant 22:39

right? You got really intense, really focused. I'm just so impressed at that drive, because people will say that they want to get out of debt and it's a burden, and they don't really make the necessary changes. Some people, they want to enjoy life and enjoy probably what everyone else is doing, because I'm sure you knew people who had debt too, and they weren't doing what you were doing. So, was that hard for you to make those sacrifices, knowing that maybe you had some friends that were going out to eat, or your daughter's friends might have been living a more luxurious life? Like, did she notice that at all? How were you able to maintain that kind of intensity in your budget at that point?

Takiia Anderson 23:17

Because I had a goal in mind, and for me it was what I was doing, and what I was going through was going to be temporary, and that's all that I looked at it as, and I never really compared myself to other people, because I was in a different circumstance. I'm a single mom, so for me, I have friends that aren't single moms, I have some friends that are single moms, and they have dads that do a lot more, and so I wasn't in that circumstance. I never really got jealous, because I knew at the end of the day that I would be able to do those things, and I have been able to do those things. So there was a couple of times where I remember my sister has a daughter, and my sister wanted all of us to go out to dinner, and I told my sister it's not in my budget. You waited till the last minute. She's like, 'You're telling me that you can't pay like $40 and come out. I was like, 'I absolutely cannot. So I did. I mean, I got some people upset, and even in dating relationships, I would focus all the time on 'I can't do this' or 'I'm really focused on paying off my debt, and I know that my ex-boyfriend, it annoyed him how much I talked about trying to get out of debt, and how I didn't really want to do too much that cost me anything, because I wanted to get out of debt. And it's interesting, because today I showed him the article, and he was like, "Wow. He was like, "You were really serious, and I said, "Yes, I was absolutely.. I said, so when you would get frustrated and upset. I said, you have to understand. Also, I can't rely on anybody, so unless you were going to pay for my daughter to go to college, I have to do what I need to do. And I just wanted it taken care of. I didn't know how long it was going to take, even if it took me 12 years to get out of debt versus the nine years. It didn't matter to me. I just didn't want to be.

Jamila Souffrant 25:00

At the same time, still paying it off, when I knew that she was going to college, that's all that mattered to me. It's interesting, because I was also raised by a single mom, and my mom now, and I have a partner who's really helpful and an equal partner, and financially is there, like physically is there, but regardless, not that if you don't have a child, you don't have this motivation, but they bring on a different type of motivation in you when you're a mother, because even if something doesn't seem feasible, but if it's going to be something that you know that it will benefit your child, or you want something different for your child, because the kind of drive you're describing is similar to what my mom went through in dragging and pushing her way through to get a better life and to put me on a better start, so I love that, and at this point it seems like it took you what, nine or 10 years to really pay everything off?

Takiia Anderson 25:51

Yeah,

Jamila Souffrant 25:51

right. Were you really just focused on debt? At what point did you start saving and investing for retirement and getting this savings account or investment account to be so much money,

Takiia Anderson 26:01

that's a good question. The whole entire time, except for about two years, I was contributing to my retirement, I was contributing to my daughter's 529 plan, and I was still paying off debt. I one day heard Dave Ramsey, and he was talking about stopping contributions for two years, and I was like, oh, that sounds like a good idea, because it was fine for me, because I was like, you know, that's extra money, so once I paid that all off, then once I was free and clear from the debt, and what was interesting was that by the time I paid off my debt, I had wasn't even making a six figure, so I was making like in the 90s, and I know for a lot of people that's a lot of money, so I went from 34,000 to about 90,000 but again

Jamila Souffrant 26:51

in nine years, how long will that take you to do?

Takiia Anderson 26:53

Yeah, so yeah, so I started with the federal government in 1999 and when I started in the 90,000 I was still at eight years into the federal government, was when I got my promotion, but I was still, but I paid off the majority of it by that time. So, by the time I hit my six figures, I had cleared out my debt. So, at that point in time, that was when it was like, okay, now you're going to have to do the IRS max. So, the IRS max, at that point in time, I believe, was 16 five, and so I just kept saving, and then I just kept putting money aside. I also explained to my daughter, I was like, "Hey, now that we're out of debt, we can kind of start taking vacation. So I said, once a year we're going to find some place to go, whether or not it's we're going to do an in-state vacation, and then we're going to do an out of state vacation, but I'm going to save for it. So I've never had debt associated with a vacation ever in over 10 years. Like, I save for that, I put everything aside, I everything. So once the.. and it's obviously once you don't have that sort of debt and you're also making a decent income, I had a good amount of money, so again I didn't spend, like I never went out and was like, 'Hey, I'm gonna go and buy a BMW. I had the same Toyota Camry, and I drove it until it literally died on I 75 here in Georgia. I heard banging noises, and I was like, 'Oh my god, I was like, 'Please don't. My daughter's like, 'Mommy, I hear something. I was like, 'Please don't let this car. And the mechanic was like, 'I told you it was dying. I was like, 'Oh man. So I just never did. And whenever I would even look at apartments, I'm like, 'No, because I want to save money. Like, I never wanted to be in a circumstance where I was spending a whole bunch of money on really anything I wanted to save, and I'm not cheap like that. I wanted to save money,

Jamila Souffrant 28:43

right? And you spent a lot of that period of time in your life, not necessarily. It didn't seem like you were depriving yourself. It seems like your daughter were able to have some really nice experience and develop a deep relationship. Yeah, and it almost forced you to become frugal out of necessity. So it was part of you didn't like earn a lot, you had a goal, but then by the time you did make a lot of money, or you were earning good money, you kept those habits, which then allowed you to keep all that extra income and start investing and saving it. You have people who are doing this. Sometimes I hear when people in the fire community talk about being frugal and saving, and then you have people who are low income or don't earn enough, and they have no choice but to do the things that the people in maybe the fire movement are doing, like they have to cut coupons and not go out to eat if they're being prudent with their money, right? There's no choice. So I find it really interesting that before you even knew that the fire movement or this whole reaching financial independence, like you were just doing this out of necessity, but it puts you on this path to where now, I mean, we're going to talk about some of your goals and what you're looking to do now, but you are in such a great position because you chose to really hustle those 10 years of your life. I

Takiia Anderson 29:57

agree, I agree, I agree.

Jamila Souffrant 30:00

One thing that you mentioned, and I really like this in the article, because I feel like a lot of parents, and this is in me, not just parents, but anyone that's looking to save for something, can really get some inspiration from is that when you first started saving for your daughter's college fund, right? Yeah, weren't saving a lot the first year, it was $135 that you were able to start with for the year, that's like how much you could do.

Takiia Anderson 30:23

Yes, because in the article he says I put it in a drawer. I actually had a little glass canister, or whatever, like I had a glass jar. And when I was in high school, because Oprah wasn't on in 1999 2000 but I used to watch her back in the 80s, and I remember, I don't know if it was Susie or I don't know who was on, but they were talking about spending your cash and putting change, so I was like, okay, because I don't have any money, let me start this. So, when she was three years old, I started using cash, and I would put change in there, and I would even put dollar bills and half dollar bills, and after a year, counted it, and it came up to $135 I already had a credit union account with my bank, and so I opened up one for her, and I went in there, and I said, hey, I have $135 I want to open up this for my daughter, she's at that point in time, by that time she was four. Then I also asked them about, hey, this is my college account, they said this is a college account for her, I was like, for me it is, it's her college account, so they said, well, you know, you might want to invest in some educational CDs, so I started with $25 a pay period with the educational CDs, and I just kept putting money into it, and when I moved to Georgia in 2009 I met a financial advisor through someone I actually connected with on a Facebook page, I've never met this lady, but she said, "Hey, I know somebody who's a financial advisor. Do you want to go talk to her? Yes, I go and I meet her, and she says, "You need to put the money into a 529 plan. So she said, "Stop doing in the educational CDs, and let's just go ahead, and she explained to me how I open it up, and that's what I did. Also, at that point in time, by the time I moved here, I was getting child support payments, but the good thing about it was also that I was finally, because I could afford everything, and I had knocked out all the debt, I could take all of the child support payments, put that in the 529 plan, and then I started matching the child support payments, dollar for dollar, then I started doubling the match. I set it up in my account, and when I went through my payroll, and I put down, I want this going to her 529 plan, so her dad would send me the money, and I would direct it over there, and then I also opened up, let me start my emergency fund, because my financial advisor was like, you need an emergency fund, and I just couldn't, because things always happen, and it's like, I'm like, when she told me you need to have 15,000 I'm like, I'm never going to get 15,000 and she's like, well, with your income, you should be able to, and I was like, not going to happen, not going to happen, and this is another thing that I want people to understand when you have an emergency fund. I know that that seems like a big number, but you don't have to get it in two years, three years. It may take you some time, like to me it took me forever.

Jamila Souffrant 33:11

You were also saving two at the same time, right?

Takiia Anderson 33:14

Correct. And that's another thing. When she told me, 'Oh, you can get this done in a year, and I'm thinking, 'I have a child that's in high school, who's going to be going to college? I have prom fees, I have college applications, I have tours, everything. It took me a long time, like it took me at least five or six years

Jamila Souffrant 33:33

to save up the emergency fund. Yes,

Takiia Anderson 33:34

because something would happen. I've owned a lot of houses in my life, I've been blessed to have owned five and so you buy a house, things fall apart, something bursts, and it's like, okay, I have to dip back into the emergency fund, so it was always something, and sometimes I just couldn't contribute, because even though I was out of debt, it was always something.

Jamila Souffrant 33:57

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Takiia Anderson 35:38

Well, I think part of it was a mistake. So, when I lived in Boston, like I originally said, that I bought the home that I grew up in from my sister, so maybe like two years went by and the neighborhood wasn't great, it wasn't great at all, and I didn't feel safe for my daughter, like I wouldn't even let her go outside, so play, so the unfortunate thing was back then anybody and everybody could get a loan, so I truly feel like at that point in time I was only making $60,000 a year, and I know for a fact that I'm not going to say the mortgage company, but this particular mortgage company should have no way, no how given me a $240,000 mortgage with a $60,000 salary, but they did, and so I ended up renting out the first house, and I went to the second house, and then I decided I didn't want to live in Boston anymore, so I sold both houses. Moved to Maryland, a year later I bought another house. Then I got the promotion to go to Philadelphia, so I sold that house when I was in Philadelphia. I rented when I came to Georgia. I rented for a year, then I bought another house. Once my daughter graduated from high school in 2015 I put the house on the market. I always wanted to live in the city, so now I live in the actual city of Atlanta, and I told my realtor that I want to live in the city, I want to live in a gentrified area, and she didn't believe me, and I was like, I will do that.

Jamila Souffrant 37:12

She didn't believe that you could accomplish that.

Takiia Anderson 37:14

She didn't believe that I would want to live in a gentrified area. I think that people have this idea that when you're an attorney, you seem like they feel like you, I don't know what it is. I knew that she knew that I could, because one thing about me also is that I could always afford more, according to them, and I could, but I've never been that sort of person. So, if you sit there and you are a mortgage officer and you approve me for a $300,000 house, I'm looking for something 240 and below. Period. And I know that not everybody has that opportunity, depending upon where they live, but I never, never will max out what they tell me, because I don't want to be house poor, and I want to live, and so with my circumstance, I explained to her what I was looking for, and in 2017 I bought this house, so I have a house now that I've been in ever since 2017 I have a low mortgage, and I could drive Uber, and I could pay for my mortgage. So that's how I just function. And it's a nice house, it's beautiful.

Jamila Souffrant 38:10

You've been able to accomplish so much, and sounds like you're very resourceful. And there were some risks that you took to get to where you are, and it paid off. So now you have half a million dollars saved up, and as you were talking, I'm just thinking of how did you know how to do all those things, whether it was I know you said you got some inspiration from maybe Susie Orman and Oprah about the saving the change, and it seems like you also got some really good advice from a financial advisor, so it shows you just how important it is if you can't find someone who can help you that can guide you. It's like, can put you in such a better place. But how, in general, did you know to do any of this?

Takiia Anderson 38:46

I didn't. I just wanted to, and I'm not trying to be funny, like my identical twin sister - she's owned as many houses as me. I don't remember ever having any sort of financial conversation with my parents. The only financial conversation that I remember was my stepfather when I got my first job out of college, and he told me, make sure that you invest in a retirement plan, and he was explaining to me about the history of 401 ks, and maybe that did give to leave an impression of how he wished he would have started investing earlier in a 401 k, but they really weren't that knowledgeable about it, so I always knew that I needed to invest in a 401 k, and so I always also knew that when people talk about retirement age, and I was surprised that people really consider 65 or 70 your retirement age, like I feel like it's just too much. So I was like, I don't want to work until I'm 5560 65 I don't want to do that, and my thing was always I just have to continuously contribute as much as I can, and it wasn't like I had a specific age in my mind, like I knew what I didn't want to work up until where everybody else was. I definitely don't want to work, don't want to work until I'm 62 If I work, it's going to be my choice. So that was kind of like my motivating factor. I wanted to be able to have a choice. I don't want to be stuck at a job working for the federal government for 20 years. You hear a lot of things from people, especially on the elevator. I remember listening to women who were in their 50s talking about how they have been working for the federal government for 40 years and they still have to stay for another 10 years, because they haven't paid off their debt, and I remember in one instance I interjected, and I said, "I'm not going to do that. I asked this lady, I said, "And I asked you a question, and she said, "Yeah. I said, "If you knew that you wanted to retire, why didn't you buy the house or buy the car years ago? And she says, "Well, I really didn't think about, and I said, "I'm not going to be that way. I understand that working is great, but I want to do it because I want to, and I want to do it in the manner in which I want to. So, that was also a motivating factor for me.

Jamila Souffrant 40:47

And, of course, your daughter, right? Like, your daughter is the underlying current that was pushing you along, it seems. And, yeah, so now you were able to actually put your daughter through school the first three years, right? Amazing accomplishment. Was she able to not graduate with any debt, or is she still in school? No,

Takiia Anderson 41:02

she has to take out a student loan this last year, because I'm completely tapped out at this point in time. And I was like, I did three years, and I explained to her, you can take out the loan, and I'll figure out how I can possibly pay it off, but she's good. We've talked about a lot of different things, and she knows that I've done a lot for her, because I don't do a lot for myself, and I feel like at the age of 47 I need to start living, so I'm like, a little debt isn't going to kill you, and definitely I will help you out, but right now I just want to experience life,

Jamila Souffrant 41:35

and I'm sure she's learned a lot from watching you, I'm sure you actually had some of these conversations with her, knowing what you know now, helping her grow up to be more astute with her money, but it probably doesn't hurt for her also to kind of not struggle, right, but also to have some grit and to pay off her own debt, like that's not a bad thing, as parents now, where we are in a better position, where we can help our kids out more, it's always that we were maybe so successful because we had to be, we had to struggle a little bit, and correct, we didn't like have a lot, but we had some things that were helpful to us, and now our children are going to be in better positions than we were, correct. But how do you instill them to have great work ethics and grit if everything just comes easy, right? And you're paying for everything, right?

Takiia Anderson 42:19

I agree, because people, they'll say, well, you're the frugal bitty. Clearly, your daughter listens to what you have to say, and I just laugh because I'm like, she doesn't. So now it's to the point that I'm like, hey, I've been telling you, or we've been talking about finances and everything ever since you could actually understand. So I told her not to get a credit card, she gets a credit card, and she runs it up. I paid it off, and she ran it back up again. So, I was like, "Oh no, not again. So, she's gonna learn her way. She's not horrible, but she's definitely not me.

Jamila Souffrant 42:55

I would think that hopefully she gets on board pretty quickly. Hopefully, hopefully she'll..

Takiia Anderson 42:59

yeah,

Jamila Souffrant 43:00

I think you have to learn things on your own sometimes, and no matter how much we maybe teach our children. So, did you actually sit down and teach her how to budget?

Takiia Anderson 43:07

I tried to do that. I mean, I tried to do everything with her. I explained a lot of things about money, as long as it's not her money. So, if I'm spending it, it's completely fine, and that's like with every parent, but we've had conversations about things like she wanted to build her credit, and I explained to her, "Okay, great, go ahead and get a credit card, even though I don't necessarily believe that you need one, but make sure that you put gas on it and pay it off. She works, so she's just gonna have to learn her lesson. I can't even learn it, like, at one point in time, I'm quite certain when she's 21 years old now, so I'm pretty certain in the next couple of years she'll come back and she'll say you were right, but she wants to do whatever she wants to do, and there's nothing I can do about it at this point in time. I truly did my best, she knows my circumstance, and she'll figure it out. I would love to be like my daughter saved all her money and she doesn't when she gets a paycheck, it's gone.

Jamila Souffrant 44:01

So, I want to talk to you also about the whole financial independence movement, retiring early, that whole concept. You are in a great position yourself, and I'm sure you probably have some sort of a pension too. Yes, I do. Your job, what's your plan? Is this part of your goal to retire early? And when do you reach your financial independence mark? Do you have that all figured out?

Takiia Anderson 44:21

It's really, really interesting. I spoke to my financial advisor, and when I spoke to her, because I was like in a panic, because when I decided to retire from my job, I was like, I can't take it anymore, and I said, are you sure I'm in a good financial situation? And she was like, yes. So, what she said to me is, you really only have to work or have enough income just to basically take care of your basic expenses, and I can do that in any form or fashion. She considers me to be semi-retired, because she said you're in a different circumstance, where you're not saving for retirement. She put me in a really, really good annuity, so I'll continue making a whole bunch of money on that, but she knows that I like to save, because the first thing I. Said to her, was I want to start making more money, so I can send you money. She was like, you don't need to do that, but I do. So, long story short, what I plan on doing is, once I get some things together, for example, I still have a car note, and I pay extra on my car note, which she doesn't agree with. But for me, she said, if it makes you feel better, and I was like, it does, because once I pay the car note off, then I'm going to take the car note, and I'm going to send it to you, because what I need to is that I can't get my money from her or from out of my annuity until I'm 59 and a half years old, I can't get my pension until I'm 62 So I said I'll take my car note and I'll send it to you starting next

Jamila Souffrant 45:39

year. You need the payment of the car note, how much you were paying for it?

Takiia Anderson 45:42

Correct. I'll take the payment, the amount of my car note, and I will send it to you, and then you can invest it. And within 10 years, I will have enough of a cushion that I will be able to stop working, or even if I just want to do something here and there, or whatever. But I want to, if I decide to stop working, at least I'll have two years or two and a half years between the time that I quote unquote, I guess officially retire to when I can get my money out, and so that's my plan. But I'm an attorney, I do contract work, but I feel like the world is my oyster, and there's a whole bunch of stuff. Like, I even joke that I'll go to Puerto Rico, and I'll do bike tours, or whatever, like I don't have to make a lot of money, like my expenses are so minimal. I'm very truthful when I say that I can drive Uber and I can pay everything.

Jamila Souffrant 46:30

You're still working for the federal government?

Takiia Anderson 46:31

Oh, no,

Jamila Souffrant 46:32

no, you're not. Okay, so you're not working, you're doing contract work. Yes, but when you separated from them, you were able to keep your pension

Takiia Anderson 46:39

correct with

Jamila Souffrant 46:40

them, but now you're just working to work on your own as contract worker, so more freedom you can choose when you work, it seems like, which is why you said you're semi retired, so that's excellent. And what I loved about your story is you said that that 10 year mark of sacrificing was temporary, and you knew it was a bigger goal, and now you have so much more freedom in your life now. Your daughter, for the most part, is she's a grown woman now, right? So it's like she's going to be responsible for herself. So it's really just you that you need to worry about, and so it's a little bit more flexibility with your time also, which I'm sure feels amazing, like all that hard work

Takiia Anderson 47:16

it is. And it's interesting because when you have a child, just like you were talking about your mom, and there's just certain things that you have to push through. So, I've always wanted to do something different, but I have a child, so I can't just up and leave my job. There are plenty of times where I've been like, "Oh, I want to quit, but I can't. Again, she's an adult, I've gotten her to where she needs to get to, and I remember when I was before I decided to leave my federal government job. I remember sitting there, and it was like I was looking out the window, because my minimal retirement age with the federal government was 58 years old, and I said, I can't do this for another 12 years, I can't. I was like, I cannot do this, like I want my life, because there were things that I thought I wanted to try out, but I had a kid, I got pregnant when I was in law school, and so I can't do all the things that I possibly wanted to dream of and try different careers, and just so, yes, I do contract attorney work with people hiring me also to do all sorts of different things, and I'm like, this is fun, I can make so much money just working on something for someone for like five hours, and I'm like, wow, attorneys get paid this much money, because even though my federal government salary was really good, but it's amazing how much attorneys make out. I want to do different things, and I don't want to be cornered into anything. I just want to live my life like I'd love to take my frugal bitty, and I know that I want to teach financial literacy. That's one of the definite things that I want to do. I want to be able to impart knowledge onto people, because I feel like I understand both ends of the spectrum. I understand what it's like to be not that wealthy. I had to go on food stamps when I was in law school. I was on WIC when I was in law school. I had no idea that I would be in the situation that I'm in if anybody would have ever told me back then I would have ever made a six figure salary, not at all. If anybody would have ever told me you'll be able to pay off your student loan debt within nine years, I would have never believed them. So it's like I under, but even with me not making as much, I did the best that I could, and I know that, and looking back, there were things that I know that I could have done better. I absolutely know that there were things that I, because I did a lot of foolish things, and with my money that I'm just embarrassed about. But there was a lot of stuff that I could have done better.

Jamila Souffrant 49:34

But look at where you are now, and such an inspiring story. The last thing I actually want to mention, because I'm thinking that there might be someone who is listening to you and saying, hey, I want to like find out how to do what you're doing, have some options, and do some contract work. How did you find the situation you're in now? Are you working through like an agency? How did you get this set up?

Takiia Anderson 49:51

So, a girlfriend of mine, when I told her I don't want to go back to my job, I'm going to leave, and she said, well, you can do contract attorney work, and I was like, what is that? And so doesn't pay a lot, but it doesn't pay nearly what I made, but that didn't matter to me, but there are a lot of law agencies that are kind of like companies that will hire, like, for me, if I wanted to get an actual attorney job, like job placement places, there are employment placement agencies that actually have divisions where they hire contract attorneys, and so the contract attorneys come in, and we just basically, it's called document review. There are some contract attorneys where you're actually doing research, you're writing things, it's really laid back, easy, pays the bills. I get health insurance, so for me it works, but if anybody is interested in anything like that, they're an attorney, there are opportunities out there, and one of the blessings is being an attorney. I'm not going to be unemployed. There's just a lot of stuff out there,

Jamila Souffrant 50:48

so hopefully we can get some resources for the episode show notes.

Speaker 3 50:51

Okay,

Jamila Souffrant 50:51

so that other people can tap in, check it out. And I just want to thank you so much, Takaya, for coming on and sharing your story. I know this will help a lot of people give a lot of people some inspiration. There are some single moms listening,

Takiia Anderson 51:04

absolutely,

Jamila Souffrant 51:05

or just people who are not earning a lot of money, or who have the potential to earn money, or who don't have it all figured out. But I think just hearing your story, how you were able to really sacrifice to the work and to live the life that you're living now, that freedom, those options, like when you work, and I think it's going to be so helpful to so many people. So, thank you so much. And let everyone know where they can find more about you.

Takiia Anderson 51:26

I am on Facebook, and I'm the Frugal Biddy. I also have a website, www the frugal bitty.com I do blog posting. I try to do at least two a week. I haven't been doing that, because I'm kind of busy right now, but that's where they can follow me. I'm also on Instagram as the Frugal Bitty, I'm on Pinterest as the Frugal Bitty, so I'm everywhere. And for everybody, if you feel like you can't accomplish this, it's just my soapbox. Trust me, it'll get better. Just stick to it, and just believe in yourself, and those are like my words of advice, because again, if I would have never ever imagined that I would be in this situation ever, but you just have to commit and just stay focused.

Jamila Souffrant 52:11

Awesome, excellent. Thanks so much again.

Takiia Anderson 52:14

Thank you.

Jamila Souffrant 52:15

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 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 coworker, so that we can spread the message of Journey to Launch. All right, that's it until next week. Keep on journeying, journeyers,

Unknown Speaker 53:39

you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai