BONUS Episode - Weekly Wrap-Up - Recap of Wednesdays Show with Latrina Walden, Creating a Successful Business and Inter-generational Wealth

WEEKLY WRAP-UP   On Wednesday’s show, we spoke with Latrina Walden.  She’s an amazing mom, professor, nurse and business owner.  When we asked her how she does it all, she says it takes a “good support system” and “GRIT!”  We believe that.   Curt and were greatly impacted by this episode for a couple of reasons.     First, we identified with the enormity and the heavy burden debt plays in our lives.  For a very long time, the debt left of feeling very hopeless and resolved that it would follow us to our graves.   Finding the Financial Independence community changed that and provided us a roadmap to financial freedom by spending less, saving more and increasing our incomes.   Latrina and her husband have done the same.  At the beginning of this year, she and her husband were underwater with over $560,000.00 in debt.  Having found the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) community last year, they began to get intentional with reducing their spending and putting their incomes to better use saving and paying down their debt.   At the same time, a side business Latrina started began to take off and, what felt like overnight, exploded and quickly became an over six-figure business in just five months!     With the added income this business has brought into their household, they have been able to pay off about $360,000.00 in debt and are on track to pay off the remaining debt by the end of the year.  The business is expected to gross 1.5 million in 2019….INCREDIBLE!!!   Latrina (and Curt) both had an emotional moment talking about the change this business and the impact of becoming Financially Independent will have on their family.  Latrina’s business has changed their family tree.   Creating Generational Wealth, particularly for families of color, is just one more step in leveling the playing field for families.   Wealth cannot make anyone happy but the lack of it can sure make you unhappy.   OUR TAKEAWAYS AND ACTIONABLE STEPS   One of your biggest resources to paying off debt and creating wealth is your income.  If you can find a way to increase your income, you can accelerate your progress exponentially.   There is only so much you can cut your expenses.  Once you have exhausted that - you are left with how to bring in more income into your household.   Take action now!  Latrina and her husband didn’t wait for the business to grow to begin taking action.  They worked with what they already had. The business growing so quickly was an amazing bonus.   Starting a business does not have to be hard.  Latrina began with the two things she was good at.  Started small and grew it organically as customer needs grew.  All of her products are digital and she works with her customers remotely.  These keep her overhead extremely low.   Service type businesses are often the easiest to start.  On previous show we have talked to several people who perform services and have created successful businesses. We have linked below to just a few.   Clean Lots Loan Signing System Freelancer   OUR MONEY MISTAKES - WHAT WE WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY   This week we talked about businesses….   There are several things, looking back, I would have done differently when I started my businesses….   But since this is a Financial Independence Podcast, the one thing I would have done very differently had I to do it all over again, what had a year or two of expenses saved and not the three-six months typically suggested.   It can take quite a while to build up a business to profitability and having a much larger cushion would have alleviated a lot of stress.     I would also recommend this particularly is you work on commission or are in sales and your compensation is inconsistent.     It just gives you added peace of mind.   UPDATES ON SIDE-HUSTLES   May hasn’t been too bad… this month I have earned almost $800.00 with very little effort.   The fun part was finding those color-changing Starbucks cold cups and reselling them on eBay and Poshmark.  I found Poshmark’s fees to be a bit much so I will probably not use them anymore.   I also cashed in on a bank account bonus, that was my biggest haul, in the amount of $350.00!   All I had to do was open an account, keep it above $1000.00 for 90 days and have a minimum of 10 transactions in that time frame. EASY-PEASY And the bulk of the remainder was doing a couple loan signing and courses.     Not a bad month at all.   I didn’t donate any plasma this month, not for any particular reason - we just had stuff going on the mornings I usually go.   We have our garage sale on Saturday, so that will go into the June update.   OUR HOUSE   The most exciting thing to happen this week is WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!  Well, we have an offer. A full price offer in six days.   We agreed to an extended closing period so we will be in it until the end of July.     But we are really excited.  This was Step One in our plan to begin creating our rental property portfolio. HOUSEKEEPING   PLUTUS AWARDS   Plutus awards nominations open up on Saturday June 1st.  If you enjoy are show - one of the ways we can reach more people and help the achieve financial independence is with exposure.     We would appreciate a nomination as a show of your support of our show and the work we are doing.   We will link the website in the show notes.   PODCASTERSU   PodcastersU is open for enrollment!  If you have a podcast idea or a message you want to share with others?  You want to start but just don’t know how to even begin with the task….podcastersU was made with you in mind.   At podcastersU, you will learn everything you need to know to launch your show in six weeks!     You can sign up on the website.  Classes begin on June 6th, which is right around the corner.   ANOTHER MILESTONE!!!   Last week we reached 75,000 downloads which has blown our minds.  We have a big goal and that is to get to 200,000 by the end of the year.     So how can you help us get to that goal?  Share our show. Tell your friends. If you think what we say will resonate - let them know about us.   NEXT WEEK’S SHOW   Tune in to next week’s show!  Do you think there is no way you can reach FI on one salary or while living in a high cost of living area or while raising a family?  Well, then you are in for a treat. On Wednesday, we are speaking with PastorFI. He is just the nicest guy and a fixture in the FI community….and he has a really cool accent too!