Your financial decisions define the life you live. We are no exception. Our personal story has been defined by our financial decisions and paved our path which led us to starting this business and the podcast radmoney.
Financial Decisions Define Your Life
As we venture into this new medium, we felt a great way to start on this journey would be to help you get to know us a bit. To tell you our personal journey and try to answer a common yet complicated question – – “Why should you listen to us or care what we have to say?”
We wanted a relationship that stood the test of time. So we started to look for ways we could set our marriage up for success. That meant making financial decisions that moved us either closer to or further away from the life that we wanted.
Financial Decisions that Changed Our Lives!
Deciding to Get Serious With Our Finances
We knew financial strain and fighting about money were a threat to our marriage. Once we were engaged, we weren’t willing to risk it. So together we made the choice to get serious with our finances and examine the financial decisions we would make in the future more carefully. In order to create the life that we wanted as a married couple!
Deciding to Pursue Financial Freedom
The first thing we knew we had to do was pay off our debt and become Financially Free. Prior to our engagement we spent all our money moving out west plus we both had debt. We knew this was not a solid foundation to build a happy life. So we decided that paying off our debt was our top priority!
Deciding to Align How we Managed Money with our Values
To help us reach our goal of Financial Freedom we took action! That meant making the financial decision to downsize where we were living. We moved to a place that was not only smaller but in a less desirable area. While that might not sound like something you would want to do – it cut our rent in half! And although it was a sacrifice, we also moved closer to work – bringing our daily commute from 15-miles to 1-mile one way!
Deciding to Prioritize What Mattered Most
For us travel and experiences are high on the list of what is important to us. So while we wanted to reach Financial Freedom as fast as possible, we also knew we didn’t want to sacrifice how much we traveled. Saving money on our housing and in other ways, allowed us to continue to spend money on the things that fulfilled us, while also aggressively paying off our debt.
Deciding to Get Honest With Ourselves
When you want to make progress with your financial goals, you have to be honest with yourself. In order to make good financial decisions, you need to have clarity and know what is important to you. That allows you to set priorities and set goals that you’re excited to work towards!
Deciding to Pay For Our Wedding Cash!
Having to pay for the wedding ourselves, and committed to our journey to Financial Freedom. We made the financial decision to pay for our wedding cash! This was important to us because we didn’t want to start our marriage with more debt. but that didn’t mean it was easy.
We knew our wedding had to be in Texas (while we were living in Washington State!). While we would have loved to elope and save all the money…we are glad we didn’t. But it did take a lot of work to plan a wedding that everyone enjoyed, without racking up a lot of debt.
Deciding to Break Free From the 9-5
After finally reaching our goal of Financial Freedom (6-months after the wedding) we decided to save up a year of living expenses and quit our jobs. Having never heard of Financial Independence – this idea blew our minds!
Deciding to Invest While We Paid Off Debt
A lot of financial advice out there says that you should stop investing while you pay off your debt. While we were not contributing to our investments aggressively while working our debt snowball – we were still contributing to our tax-advantaged retirement accounts with our employer. This way we were capturing the employer match and still taking care of our future selves. While we paid off the mistakes of the past.
Deciding to Start radcoaches (R&D Financial Coaching)
We realized that while we had reached Financial Freedom for ourselves, everyone in our town was struggling with the negative impact on their income. While we had become recession proof, others were worried about how they would pay their bills. After a very intense winter with a government shutdown, in a seasonal community, we decided to start working on becoming Financial Coaches.
Deciding to Take an Adult Gap Year
Before launching full-time into entrepreneurship, we took an adult gap year to travel and rest. This was such a critical step because we were both suffering from burnout and needed to recover from years in a very stressful and toxic workplace. Had we jumped directly into entrepreneurship we likely would have needed to quit after a short time, simply due to our mental health.
Deciding to Live with Family
To get through the pandemic and be able to continue to work on this business without having to get distracted, we decided to live with family for a season. (YEP! Housing again!) While not everyone has this option, we were fortunate to have family members who believed so much in our mission that they opened their home to us. Not only was it an amazing offer, but the extra time we got to spend with family was incredibly special and that’s what it’s really all about!
No matter where you are in your life, you can start to make financial decisions that lead you either closer to, or further from the life that you want. No matter if it’s the big financial decisions or the small day-to-day choices. If you want to improve your money mindset and learn to make better financial decisions, listen to and subscribe to the radmoney finance podcast on Spotify or Apple
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