Financially Naked with Katie & Robert
This month begins a three-month-long effort for me and The Financial Gym team to connect again in person with our community. In partnership with Community Spirit Vodka, we’ll be touring 9 cities and bringing our community together for the first time in almost three years. It’s an exciting time for us and I wanted to spend this month on the podcast talking about community and the importance of it. I think it’s easy to think about community as being a large number of people, but communities come in all shapes and sizes and I often think about our Financial Trainers at the Gym and in our CFT program as building community with their clients to effect change. Joining me today are two Financial Gym clients, Robert and Katie, that I’ve been blessed to be in community with for over 7 years now. They join me today to share their financial journey and the power that having me and the entire FinGym community has had on their financial picture.
What are we drinking?
Katie - Whiskey Sour made by Robert
Robert - A hand-shaken margarita with fresh lime and salt around the rim
Shannon - Vodka Tonic made with Community Spirit Vodka
Podcast Notes
Robert and Katie have been working with Shannon for seven years. This is a huge milestone so Shannon invited them on the podcast to celebrate and talk about their journey together.
They started working with Shannon at a transition point in their lives. Katie was coming to the end of her surgical training and years of fellowships. In addition to a salary increase, there were other factors to consider, and they wanted to put a plan in place! For a lot of folks, lifestyle creep can come with a bigger salary.
Without assets, it can be hard to find a traditional financial advisor. One of her mentors knew Shannon’s dad, so Katie didn’t have to search long for the right financial professional.
Shannon helped Katie and Robert get clear on their goals and priorities. They put a lot of things in place, got very focused on expenses, and started tackling the goals.
Here’s a glimpse of what has happened the last seven years for Katie and Robert:
They honed their cooking skills by eating at home more frequently. Robert packed lunches for Katie to take to work.
As they started progressing towards their goals, the priorities shifted. Other vehicles were leased before Katie purchased the dream car. Travel became a bigger priority. It’s important to be flexible and adapt.
They really enjoyed watching their debt go down, and overall net worth grow as they stayed focused. It was almost an addiction.
When they were getting serious about their expenses, Katie and Robert would themselves, ‘What would Shannon do?’. Knowing she was going to review everything made them more mindful.
Financial health gives you so many gifts, the biggest being the gift of choice.
A few years in, Katie and Robert saved the same amount of money equivalent to the remaining student loan balance. Katie’s mindset around the debt had shifted in those first few years of working together. They decided against paying them off at that time and continued to focus on investing.
Making the payments automatic so they didn’t have to think about it every month helped with that mindset shift.
They got into credit card hacking and using points to travel. They just recently took a 10-day trip to Alaska.
During their latest quarterly review, Katie and Robert went in a little discouraged. When they got into the numbers and goals with Shannon, they realized it would be a great time to finish paying off the remainder of the student loan debt. Robert usually takes care of paying the bills but invited Katie to hit ‘submit’ on the final payment. The payment took a few weeks to process and getting the final email was incredibly emotional.
Shannon shares that getting the email from Katie also made her emotional. After being together for seven years, seeing this huge goal accomplished brought her to tears. Now, they get to be 100% future-focused, which is an exciting place to be!
Katie was also able to purchase her dream car, which ended up not being the BMW, but rather, a Tesla!
The numbers, while amazing on their own don’t fully capture the scope of the life and journey Robert and Katie have lived. They were able to do what’s important to them and enjoy life.
Let’s get to the digits:
Goals / Non- Negotiables:
First Session: Pay off the student loan debt, prioritize travel, have a second child, a BMW convertible, food spending, and a bigger house.
Present Day: Building the ‘F*** You Fund, investing for retirement, continue to enjoy traveling and great food.
Net Worth:
First Session: $-187,000
There were some savings, and Robert had a retirement fund. But it was mostly student loan debt and some credit card debt.
Present Day: $1.7 million total, including the value of their home.
Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is big financial goals like paying off six figures of debt feel more like a marathon than a sprint and when you know you have a multi-year journey ahead of you, surrounding yourself with the right community is a huge part of finding the success you’re looking for.
Random Three Questions
You love to travel! What is your big bucket list trip?
What is a show you like to binge?
If this was your last meal on earth, what would it be?
If you have any topics you would like me to cover on this podcast, or if you’d like to get in the financially naked hot seat, I encourage you to email me at Shannon@fingyms.com, or join the private Martinis and Your Money Facebook group, and let me know what you want to hear.
My biggest goal for the Financial Gym right now is to grow our Certified Financial Trainer Licensing Program. This program is built off of over 10 years of working with tens of thousands of people getting them financially healthy. My goal is that every financial advisor, planner or coach has our certification. Our approach to financial wellness is revolutionary and it’s important for me and my team that anyone who plans to work with people around their finances understands the important lessons we’ve learned along the way. I always say the problems are the same, the zeros are different. If you’re someone who feels like they could use a course in personal finance, this is the course for you. If you’re a personal finance nerd with a passion for helping others, this is the course for you. If you’re a financial professional helping others, this is the course for you. If you’re working with a financial professional, you should insist that they get this designation so that they can become more holistic in their financial planning. So head over or send friends to financialgym.com and under our services, you’ll find more on the certification program.