Épisodes

  • 26: AI is the New Homeschool Mom
    Oct 20 2025
     Welcome to Broke is Boring. The podcast where we stop glorifying the struggle and start talking about what really matters. Freedom, living life on your own terms and the money you need to make that happen. We're your hosts, Tiffany and Jane, and we're two mamas who love making money and spending it on the things that truly matter to us. So pull up a seat at our table and let's get into it because Broke is boring and we are here to prove that money does in fact buy happiness. 1, 2, 3.  Welcome back to Broke is Boring, and today we're gonna talk about how AI is the new homeschool mom and she doesn't need coffee or a break. I use AI so often and I think it's really interesting to utilize it in a way that makes us better parents and better homeschool mamas. The truth is it's not going away. It is not. It's only gonna get stronger, faster, better. So we just have to adapt with the times. And I found this really cool little chat g PT hack I wanna share because it has changed our bedtime routine. So you can go into chat, GBT and I say. Help me come up with a, you can pick the time, five minute bedtime story for my 5-year-old son, Luca. And then I ask him who he wants included in the story, and he'll go up and name these ridiculous things because he thinks that's hilarious and I ask it to end. And in a positive light. So he's ready for bed and it sends him on these wild adventures and then always wraps it up as and sends him off to bed. And it's just a FA fun way because I'm not that creative, especially at eight o'clock at night after a long day of momming. And so Chacha, bt just kind of takes that over for me, and it even has sound effects because I have it read it aloud. I miss that. I miss saying that. You can have it read aloud and it even like enunciates different words and so it just reads the story to us and we lay in bed and close our eyes. Okay, so I have definitely used the prompt to make my own, make the bedtime story customize for my kiddos. I have never had it read out loud. That is amazing. I think he may have just changed my life. Yeah, you can use it for anything. And so we're going on these world cruises and so I can say write a, you know, story about, because he's five, right? So he's gonna do different types of work than your kids. But, you know, write a story about wherever we're going, pick a destination, include, historical fiction, make it historical fiction. Include my child in it and include different animals that they have there and highlights of those places that we're gonna see. And put it at a, you know, at their age reading level so they can even read it on their own or do the read aloud like we do. And you can even just take the, that text and go put it on. A blank piece of paper and maybe they'll make a storybook out of it. You can have them draw the illustrations for it. There's so much you can do with AI and it's all free for you. Yeah. Using it and embracing it is really the way to like up your game when it comes to living life now. There's this app that we found during the world cruise called Suno, SUNO, and it customizes songs. So you can say, make a certain artist or like a bluegrass song about my kids being on a world cruise. And you just give it a very small prompt. And this within seconds, this custom song comes out and it included my kiddos names and our location and. It was so fun. I think you can do like 12 free songs a day. We downloaded 'em to our girls' iPads. They were coming up with these cussing songs about stories from our life or our adventures, and it was just so fun for us to share. That's us using ai. Y'all. We we're almost in this disservice with it because there's some dumb song that Luca loves right now called Chicken Macaroni. Chicken Wing. Chicken Wing. Chicken wing. Hot maloni. Yeah. Whatever it is. Yeah. And he said, now I wanna song about chicken and pizza. And I'm like, that doesn't exist. He is like, yeah, but I want you to make that song now because he's so used to AI being customized. And I'm like, that's not a real song buddy. But now I guess I could use the pseudo app and make a chicken and pizza song. Okay. After this we're definitely doing that because as we speak, the boys are bringing us pizza, right? So we are at home alone, podcasting. I just texted the husbands and said, Hey, how are you guys doing at the trampoline park? And also, when are you coming home? Because I'm hungry. To which Jane said, Hey, no. She said, what's for lunch? Oh, the two women who are by ourselves hanging out asked the husbands, they were out with all of the gaggle of children. Hey, what's for lunch? So they're picking up pizza on their way home because I'm not cooking Baker's my last name, but that's as long as far as that goes. So I asked, so I use Gemini more than chat, GBT, but potato, potato, it doesn't actually matter. Both have the same price. $0. Okay. So when I asked Gemini for some homeschooling prompts for this episode, here's like an example. ...
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    14 min
  • 25: Rich Friends and Why You Need Them (But Don't Invite Them to Thanksgiving)
    Oct 13 2025
     Welcome to Broke is Boring. The podcast where we stop glorifying the struggle and start talking about what really matters. Freedom, living life on your own terms and the money you need to make that happen. We're your hosts, Tiffany and Jane, and we're two mamas who love making money and spending it on the things that truly matter to us. So pull up a seat at our table and let's get into it because Broke is boring and we are here to prove that money does in fact buy happiness. 1, 2, 3.  Welcome back to Broke is Boring. Today we're gonna talk about the truth about rich friends, why you need them, and why your circle impacts your ceiling. Ooh, this is such a good one and really was gonna, is gonna stretch some people because we have discussed a lot about growth mindset in other podcasts and now today, I think we really need to focus on that, leaning into that paying for proximity thing. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. We've heard that saying over and over and over again. Take inventory, like pause this if you need to, and name those people that you spend the most time with. And then are those people who bring you up, bring you down or keep you stagnant? I would say they probably don't even need to pause it. You know who you're thinking of and we're here to tell you, perhaps it's time to cut some ties. I always wanna be in a room with people who are smarter than me, who are wealthier than me, who I can learn something from. Because when you are at the top of anything, you're only pulled down, like you fall to the level of wherever the, the weakest link is. Right. I. Want to even clarify wealth here because I have friends in our circle who are significantly more financially wealthy than Mark and I now. We still inspire those couples because of our time wealth, and so we are able to learn from each other in those scenarios, and so it's really important to. Understand where you want to go and make sure you're aligning your circle with those goals. And I think even being on this world cruise has really opened us to a lot of new people because you don't end up on a world cruise unless you've done something that other people don't do, because this is not something that everybody just has all the time in the world for, or the finances to go be able to do. And it's really cool to meet people on this ship and learn their story. Like, Hey, how did you end up here? We've met people who are pro athletes. Mm-hmm. And people who have these incredible companies that they've built. And I just love hearing their stories and learning from them. Yeah, so that's certainly a pay for proximity example. Right? But the thing I have actually really enjoyed about our time on that World Cruise is that I am also validated that there are other young families on this planet making the same decisions as me. Not as many Americans as I would like, but I think we're trending in that direction. And so it has been a wonderful experience learning from other people and also being validated in our decision to take a big trip like that. So one of my all time favorite books, like Truly My Top Three is a book called The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class, and so I just wanna kind of talk about some of those key points in that book because it really hits home and just shows you like who you're surrounded by. 100 per. Scent affects your success in life. You have recommended Keith Cameron Smith's book to me at least three times and so now it needs to go to the top. So we're gonna talk about it today, but I need to really dive in and, and read it. Just, yeah, what are you doing? Not like you don't have time. What's the plan? Oh my God. Okay, so the first one that, and, and this book is just a bunch of one-liners. So actually we were just talking about like, do you listen to podcasts and audio books? Regular speed, one x, two x, whatever. This book I had to actually listen to in real time because there was so many just truth bombs. I had to have a minute to digest them literally. So if I am listening to an audio book that is just like. Golden and delicious. I immediately have to buy the hard copy because I have to underline, highlight. I need to own it in my personal library because it's part of my love language to be able to share that with others. Okay, you need this book? Then I'll write for you. This is, this is a hard copy situation. Okay? The first thing is millionaires think long term. The middle class thinks short term. So in this, the poor mindset is thinking day to day, middle class mindset is thinking month to month. And millionaire mindset is thinking perhaps years in advance. Decade to decade Yep. Is what he says. Yeah. All right. This one is so true. Okay. Millionaires talk about ideas and the middle class talks about things and people, Ooh, baby, I, if I am at brunch with some friends, I wanna talk about business and not boys. That's a T-shirt. Hello. Business over boys....
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    29 min
  • 24: Will You Stop Glorifying Being Busy?
    Oct 6 2025
     Welcome back to Broke is Boring. And today we're gonna talk about how to raise kids who know what the real value of wealth means. As moms here, raising kids in, in these times. We really want to teach values to teach them that generosity is so important. And that freedom that they can get to because their adulthood is gonna look completely different from our adulthood. And I really want to lean into not glorifying that grind culture that we've become so familiar with, I don't want my kids to, when I ask them what's new with them, them to just say, oh, I'm busy. Like I don't wanna keep glorifying being busy. Okay. I have a story with this. So my 10-year-old just applied to a writing contest and she was really proud of it. But she wrote about a story about when we were in Barcelona this past year. For her 10th birthday and my husband and I try to teach our girls to live with an open hand, so instead of a closed fist. And what that means is when you have an open hand, you can give and receive. And when you have a closed fist, you can't lose any money that's in your hand, but you also can't receive any. So we have this open hand concept. We've really like drilled it in, you know, really taught it a lot throughout our parenthood. As we've been parents, so we're in Barcelona, we have this banana from the cruise ship, and it's been in our bag all day and we're on the beach and it is like kind of brown and, you know, smashed a little. But we got it that day. It's still good, but we're not gonna eat it. And we turn around and there's a guy digging through the trash behind us and we said, Hey, why don't we go give this banana to that guy? And. Our 10 year old's like, okay, I'll go do it. And so she did. So she went and gave the guy the banana and instead of us throwing this away, right, and he immediately said, Gracia, and then he started eating it. He walked away and just opened it up and started eating it. So my daughter wrote about that, and she just wrote that what she learned was that she had to be brave because she was in a foreign country. She was talking to a stranger. You know, my husband went with her, of course, but. And then the other lesson she learned is that you, you don't have to speak the same language to be kind. And then when we are reading it to you, your lesson was also that like it costs $0 to be kind. And she, so she added that to the, to the submission for the contest. And it was just like such a proud parenting moment that she, this was what she wanted to write about and reflect on for this contest. I love that. And it just shows who she is as a kid and her heart and you as parents on full display. I'm really proud of her. I'm proud of her too. Thanks. Thanks girl. So like, what does, what does wealth mean to you? Like, again, we always go just toward the financial wealth because that's what we were always taught. And then when I read that book, five types of Wealth that really hit home, like for me being. Together for lunch and dinner every single day. I know it's such a gift because probably 90% of American families are either not present for one or both of those meals, and I know a lot of families out there haven't had a sit down meal together in ages because they pack the evening schedule with. Sports and practice and work and all these things that for them to just sit down and ask how each other's day was, is something that just doesn't really happen. So for me, that's like a huge time wealth thing that I, I really love when I ask someone how they are and they immediately say they're busy. It's, it's a trigger for me because busy is a choice. And if you have a full calendar. You show it to me, I bet I can see the choices you've made to fill that calendar. To me, wealth is an empty calendar, an availability and an openness to receive new ideas. Like, oh, do you want to go to lunch? Sure, because I'm available. And being able to be fully present parents with the girls. When we are working on our phones, they'll be like, oh, why are you on your phone? And we're like because it's two in the afternoon on a Tuesday. This is how we work. And most people have parents who are at work and then the kids are in school. And also then you would go to an afterschool program and I wouldn't see you till this evening. And then we would probably take you to a, some sport. Sport, right? So like, your life is not, your life is different and you're welcome. And you're welcome. Another thing I, another thing I think is super important as Luca grows up is giving him that abundance without spoiling him. And he, as a 4-year-old, a normal 4-year-old is we're experiencing, you know, we're going into all these markets on our world crews, and he's just, I wanna buy that. I wanna buy that. I wanna buy that. And I just have to keep saying, no, no, no. Or I didn't bring money for that. And he. Probably thinks that we have no money at all. But I'm trying to, you know, not lean into buying him anything he ever ...
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    14 min
  • 23: We Built The Lives We Thought We Wanted, Now We're Dreaming Even Bigger
    Sep 1 2025
     Welcome back to another episode of Broke is Boring. Today we're gonna talk about how we built the lives we thought we wanted, but now we're dreaming even bigger. Is it possible to just continue to set goals? You know, if you, you set a goal, you, you achieve it, and then are you done? I think the answer has to be no. I actually find this to be in my business a lot because there's different ranks and so you strive so hard for one rank, you finally hit it, but you never just stop. Don't run to the rank, you run through it because then you go to the next one and the next one and you're, and Dan was like, so you're gonna stop when you hit that this one, right? And and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. That's six figures. I don't need anything more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll stop then. Then you hit it and you're like, Ooh. But the next one is gonna open up even more doors and possibilities. And what I realized is like helping other people. Hit their goals in their business and their ranks in their business. Only just bring me up further and it becomes this kind of like win-win. And then it makes me never wanna stop. And I'm really struggling with this, honestly, like between you and me I retired my husband that well first, no. My first goal in my business when, which I started seven years ago, was to make the same, I would pay for daycare. Mm-hmm. So that way I knew, okay, if I wanna stay home when I have kids, I can. Then I hit that in the first couple months and then I said, okay, let me match my teaching salary. That was my next goal. We've talked about that. $38,000. I did that in my first year. Perfect. Done check. I can do that again, and now I can have this business be my primary income. If I want it to be approved to myself, I can. Then after I did that, my goal was to retire my husband. To, to get to an income level in my business where we would have that option because he was always super miserable in his finance job. And so that was a really big stretch goal that we hit last year. And so we decide, so when we booked this world cruise, it gave us a deadline. It gave us a specific date where we said, okay, he has to retire by that date so we can do this world cruise. And that's just kind of like putting all those pieces into action. Right. So then. I hit six figures in my business, which actually wasn't my goal. Again, money is never my goal. It's always what the money can do for me. It's always a tool. So hitting six figures was not actually a, a goal like it, it was part of it, part of the equation, but it wasn't the goal. So then last year, the day before his 40th birthday, Dan had his last day of work. It was awesome. He rode his bike in and rode, you know, was coming into the driveway and was like, meet, meet with this little, oh, I love that, that it was this little bike thing. That was fun. Okay, so then it was Dan retire and then we want to eventually planned a flag in Europe. So last summer we purchased a home in Ireland. For a variety of reasons, Ireland was the best place for us to plant that European flag. So. So I'm like, oh my God. Okay. I left my job, I made my income, I made enough that Dan could retire. I, I have a mom. I'm a mom of a healthy, happy, sweet kid. We now have this home in Europe. We're on this four month world cruise like. What is next for me? Like I, I'm actually struggling with this because I feel like I've, I have everything I've ever wanted and I, this is the first time in my life I haven't had like a huge life goal that I'm working toward. It's been so fun to watch you go through that, like understanding on the crews, you know, you, you and Dan kind of talked through this like you guys have been really successful at setting goals. Same with Marco and I and achieving them. So in our life, people will always come up to us and say, Hey, what have you guys got going on? Because they always know we have something going on. I'm gonna have something interesting to tell you and. That we're in the exact same position with you right now. When we go back, what do we have going on? What is the next thing? Our rental properties are doing great, and they all have brand new HVAC and roof and plumbing and electric. All the things that we have dealt with, all that sexy stuff. So many years. You know, when we were on the world cruise while there was like bad weather back in Indiana. This was the first winter where we weren't like, oh no, what is gonna happen now? You know, it's rainy again. What is going to flood? And knock on wood, we got through the entire season and it was like, oh my gosh, we did it. Like we have good sustainable properties. This is going well. Well now what is next? Hold on. I do wanna point something out though, because I feel like we're in the one percenters of the people who actually hit make, make that goal and then say, okay, what do I have to do to hit that goal? A, B, C, D. Okay, let me do A, B, C, D. Like, what Gene do you and I have what? Like. ...
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    16 min
  • 22: Why Go To Couples Therapy When You Can Go To Iceland?
    Aug 25 2025
     Welcome to Broke is Boring. The podcast where we stop glorifying the struggle and start talking about what really matters. Freedom, living life on your own terms and the money you need to make that happen. We're your hosts, Tiffany and Jane, and we're two mamas who love making money and spending it on the things that truly matter to us. So pull up a seat at our table and let's get into it because Broke is boring and we are here to prove that money does in fact buy happiness. 1, 2, 3.  Welcome back to Broke is Boring. And today we're gonna talk about who needs couples therapy when you've got Iceland. Hello from Iceland, and we are here with our amazing friend Danielle, who also somehow crushed this romantic getaway that Tiffany and Mark planned. So let's back it all the way up. How the heck did we end up in this camper right here, huddled around our phone in Iceland to record this. Okay, so every year my parents for Christmas give us a Christmas gift of a, it started out as a weekend away. Well the first time they did that, mark and I went to Belgium for the weekend, from Indianapolis for the weekend. Yeah, because. My mom thought I was gonna like spend a romantic evening at melting pot, like having fondue with Mark in downtown Indy. No, no, no, no, no. We're going pub hopping in Brussels. Thanks so much. And so that's what we did. And somehow over the years, it has actually gotten to be one week. So this year she said, Merry Christmas, you get a week away. Where are you gonna go? Well, we went on a world cruise and I'm like, I don't know. I can't think past the world cruise. Go on the world cruise. We come back and we're like, Hmm. Jane and Dan always talked about Iceland on the cruise. Well, no, you said, where should we go? And I said, go to Iceland, but do it in a way you can't do it with your kids, which should be in a camper van. And so we did. So we were like, okay, we're doing it. We booked it. That's, hold on. That's one thing I actually really love about you guys. You always say what you're gonna do. You are like, that sounds great. And then two days later you're like, so we booked that. Like you don't think twice about anything and I really admire that about you. I think that's why Danielle and I have. Definitely connected over the years. Like so we're cousins growing up, we were, how, how different do we have six years difference. Age difference. Yes. Six or five. Yeah. So, so we were close growing up and then Danielle and Ethan came to visit us when we lived in Italy, and I think that was really when we like hit it off and kind of got the travel bug in you guys also. Is that like Yes, a right scenario? Yeah, it really was when we saw you guys in Italy and we saw it was our first experience going overseas and getting to like really hang out with you guys for an extended period of time and we realized we had so much in common. So yeah, ever since then we've loved, like following what you guys do and trying to make our own version of it too. And they've done it so they are traveling all over with their kids too. And so, when you suggested that we do a camper van in Iceland, we're like, okay, yeah, we're gonna go do that. And then what happened ladies? And then we got jealous and we're like, well. I wanna come on that. We, we wanna come. Yeah. That actually sounds amazing, weren't it? And then I was like, there's no way my mom would watch Luca for a whole week. And I don't know how she said it. I think I, I probably planted the seed. 'cause I'm really good at that. Yes, you are. And I'm like, oh mom, Tiffany and Mark are going to Iceland for a week. How amazing is that? They're doing it without kids and, and then I think she eventually offered and we took her up on it immediately. Yeah, that's right. Because I think on the world cruise we had discussed that we have this week away. So Betsy was there also listening to my parents talk about all the shenanigans we've gotten into over the years, getting this week away. And then when she offered to watch Luca for the week, then even Mark and I were like, you have to come. Like this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Let's go. Well then it was like that weekend, right? We went to one of my, I, my cousin's house we're playing, I think we were playing kickball. Kickball that weekend. Kickball, yes. And we're talking about it. And then we ended up, yeah, we ended up crashing along to, I don't even remember our exact conversation, but we were like. We're in, like, that sounds amazing. You want to come And we actually have never done a kid free trip ever. My oldest son's nine years old and we've never been away for any kind of trip. So we went to my mom and was like so what do you think about this? And she agreed. It was really funny because Ethan said that or maybe you said your mom. Asked like, why Iceland? And you're like, yeah, yeah. We were like, we've never been. It sounds awesome. It looks beautiful. And the only, the only rule was that we ...
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    17 min
  • 21: Normalize Wanting More Than a PTO Day and a Patio Set
    Aug 18 2025
     Welcome back to Broke is Boring, and today's topic is normalize. Wanting more than a PTO day and a patio set. Oh my gosh. This title is ridiculous, and also that used to be my freaking bucket list that is as big as I could dream, right? Is getting the next day off work the next federal holiday how to celebrate Columbus Day. For my long weekend, three day. Come on. My God. Remember you used to try to like, strategically match, like get yeah. Get your Friday or your Tuesday so you could have an extra day in there Now. I literally don't even know what day it is. I don't get, it doesn't, it's today. Okay. Okay, so I have a story. So I actually used to have like a real bucket list, like I used to like write it down and have it on my refrigerator. Did you ever like have this? Absolutely. It had like 300 things on it. Of course, I would love to find that it was on a piece of paper, piece of fun, right? So I was in Amsterdam with Mark. We have a lot of fun stories from Amsterdam in this particular tale. We are on a boat, one of those like touristy like boats through the canal. We've been to Amsterdam like 20 times and finally we're like, oh my God, we've never actually done that. Let's go do that. Okay, so we're on the boat. We're going through the canals. Fun way to see Amsterdam because it's just so like unique and being on the water and looking up at all the crazy architecture is just really fun. Okay, mark is looking out the window and we had been living in Italy. We had been checking off a bunch from that bucket list, and we were living the dink life. And he says, we have too many checks on our bucket list. We need a new bucket list. And in the moment I start giggling. And I go, oh, I'm taking a picture of this right now because I will never forget this moment for the rest of my whole entire life. And I did. And I took a picture of him looking out this window and saying, we have too many checks on our bucket list. We need a new bucket list. And we're like 29 years old. It was just this moment that was just like, oh my gosh, how did we somehow get here Where. We have this list of things to do that are just like such big dreams and we did them. And also we're not willing to just go, huh, alright. We did it. I guess. I guess that's how that story ends. No, the story keeps continuing. Add another chapter that's this occupational hazard in the travel business because you book these incredible trips for people and then you're like but I wanted to go, I wanna do that too. So now my bucket list does not have a new patio set or a how to maximize my next PTO day. I no longer have PTO days. I just have days and actually I don't even know if there's anything tangible on my list at all. You have anything tangible on a, on your bucket list? Oh, yeah, you do? Let's talk about it, baby. Okay, so my. Old bucket list was all destinations. Like I don't care about phones and cars and things like that. I just like to travel. So until now they've always been travel related items and I still have places I really wanna go. I wanna go to Antarctica and I'd love to go to Nepal. I wanna do, I'm not gonna climb to Everest Space Camp, but, but I'll do like a helicopter ride around. So there's definitely things I wanna do. But. One of those is get European citizenship. That's something big on my list right now because we just love having options and so. Our family is in this transitional phase right now where we're moving to Ireland and we bought a home there last year, which was, it's a great home. It's, it's not the shiny object home. It's a nice four bedroom, three baths, detached home in, in walkable to town, a nice little suburban neighborhood. It'll be perfect for us, but I found my dream house. Like probably four or five months ago. Okay. So we were actually on the world cruise. We were on our cruise, and I said, oh my God, bakers, look at this house. And they were like, yeah, that's a sick house. And I could not get it out of my mind, like I. You know, when you like see yourself somewhere and I'm like, I wanna be making french toast in that kitchen and I wanna have coffee and drink it right there, and I wanna do all of these things like, you see yourself in that house. But it was, it's expensive. Like it for us, you know, it's expensive as relative for us. It's, it's an expensive house. And so I, I let it as a pipe dream to just say, okay, one day I wanna live in a place like that. And it, it sat for a little while and then it went under contract and I felt, I, I, I felt like a gut punch. 'cause I was like, okay, that house isn't gonna be mine, but maybe in five years when I'm ready, that house will come back up on the market and I can buy because there's truly nothing else like this house. And then. A, a month later it went back on the market and I said, oh my God, Dan, that house again. I just, I couldn't get this place outta my head and I said to him. Like, Hey, could we actually look at this? Like, is this a huge ...
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    13 min
  • 20: Are You Empty Calendar Rich?
    Aug 11 2025
     Welcome back to Broke is Boring. And today we're gonna talk about being empty calendar, rich. So I'm at your house. I wake up early earlier than everyone, and checking out your calendar the other day on your refrigerator, and guess what? Next week is completely empty. I know, because I actually don't have anything going on. So I take this video and I say, do you want to know what true wealth looks like? And then I show your empty calendar and I say, this is true freedom. This is true wealth. There's nothing on my friend's calendar next week to which your response was, okay. So what are we doing next week? But I loved seeing this on your calendar. You could be busy and you're just not. You know what, the things that are on my calendar, they're all trips. Like the week, this week it says Bakers are here. That's what's on the calendar. No, and and you have some haters on social media saying IU Well, she uses a digital calendar. Actually, no, I don't. I actually don't. I first, I don't like the digital ones because they stress me out and I don't want all the notifications of all these things I have to do. I feel like. A digital calendar controls me and I feel like I control a paper. One. When I, when I had my office you know, I ran four teams whenever I was in Denver and I was so intentional with my calendar because if I was in my office, I was going to get drive by conversations and questions all day long. So what I did was I blocked time in my calendar hour meetings throughout the day to get my own work done. And so you, if you're looking at my calendar to schedule something, a secretary or whatever, it just looked like it. I was just so busy. Oh, dude, I was listening to oldies in my, in my office, actually being productive instead of talking to humans. I mean, I think that time is the ultimate freedom out there and finding a way to hack the system where you can live the life that you wanna live. Like it's a nice sunny day, let's go to the beach. Hey, it's gonna rain. Let's go to a movie, or let's make forts at home with our five-year-old. Like when, when you're in control of your day and your life, like there's just so much inner peace in that. Our society really does over schedule us reward that overscheduled life. You know, when you, you meet someone and you say like, oh my gosh, hey, how are you? What do they say? Oh my gosh, I'm so busy. I'm so busy. Like it's a badge of honor. Ew. The cool part about this phase of life is that emptiness in the calendar. That openness to being able to say yes when something cool comes up. So life doesn't have to be scheduled. The beautiful parts are actually usually not. And I have a, I have a a thing to tell you parents who over schedule your kids. Stop it. Stop it. Stop. Please. You are only running yourself out. I have so many friends who say, oh, we have soccer tournaments on Saturday, and each kid has is on their own league. So the parents are splitting up whose goes where, and we have dance Monday, Wednesday, and violin on Tuesday and all these ridiculous things. It's like. You are running your kids ragged and you're run, you're burning yourself out. And of course like have 'em do something fun, but don't do it just to fill your calendar. Do it because they really wanna be there and you really love watching them light up doing something that they love. There's something that the Europeans have figured out that I think the Americans haven't, and that's they just want their kids to be kids. And Americans like clinging on to, oh my God, my kid's really good at dance. I have to go put them now in every dance thing and every dance competition team and all these things to, to have my kid have that one thing that they're perfect at and like, just let them be eight. Like, just let them be five. Right? Like, our son right now is super into. Karate, like he's very into ninjas and all of those things. And so I thought karate would be an awesome choice for him to kind of channel some of that. And he is thriving and loving it, and we're allowed to sit in the back. So I always, it's like my favorite hour of the week. Well, and he'll, you know, do his jab cross and look at me and smile to make sure I watched it. You know, I will go to the ends of the earth to get him in for right. But that's because we want to, not because we feel obligated to have our kids be busy too. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings. It's just my opinion, but just take care of yourself. You are allowed to hurt feelings whenever you say stuff like that because I think sometimes people need to hear something like that, that they're not surrounded by anyone who says it's okay to live differently. It's okay to have an empty calendar. Perhaps you are allowed to say no to everything in your life. That is not a heck yes. So that's how we live life now. And so we also have a, an empty calendar. I actually looked at my calendar for this week. It says Maine. Main, main, main, main, main on every day. There's ...
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    11 min
  • 19: It's Not Expensive, You're Just Underpaid
    Aug 4 2025
     Welcome back to Broke is Boring. In today's episode, we are going to talk about it is not expensive. You are just underpaid sister. So most things aren't actually out of reach. They're just out of reach right now based on your current income. What would you say to someone who says, oh, I'd love to do that thing, whatever it is, but it's just too expensive.  I would tell you to stop shrinking your dreams to fit your current paycheck and it's time to find a new paycheck girlfriend. I think when people are dreaming, they're trying to think about things. That they, that feel possible to them. And that's not a dream. A dream is something that feels impossible. Now, once you set that goal, then you work backwards and you take the next right step to go towards that big goal. And budgeting is not the answer. It is when you're newly on your debt-free journey and you're trying to backtrack of all the things that you did to put yourself in that situation. For sure. You gotta readjust yourself. But you can only cut so much. But you can increase your earning potential very quickly with the skillset and actionable items. Mm-hmm. You can trade time for money. You can create something that's going to make money when you sleep. You can buy a rental property. There's different options that you can do to increase your income. Go drive for Uber or DoorDash for goodness sakes, but that is just gonna baby step you towards some extra income. Towards your goal. The, the first step is to just not accept the income that you have right now. It's possible to, to get more. And as you're thinking about, okay, what kind of business could I do? Think about the types of things that can scale. Just as you mentioned, you could go drive for Uber. Yes. That will get you out of maybe your minimum wage job that you really hate that you're doing right now, and it will get you more flexibility. However, you're still trading time for money in that and you can't scale that. Right. Uber does because they can just get another driver and another driver and another driver. But you as the driver can't scale that. I even found this with our rental properties, so perfect. Great. Right? We have an Airbnb. Well, if that Airbnb is sitting empty, I'm not making any money. So that is a great business opportunity. It's passive, it's, you know, residual in that way. It will continue to pay me over and over and over again. But if that house is sitting empty or we have a long-term rental and we have a month gap between when renters are leaving and coming in, I'm not making money that month. And so. I even challenge you to not settle for that. That's one stream of income for you, but don't have that your, be your entire income. Do something that is scalable, that you can continue to grow. I, and I've seen a variety of examples of this. Like for example we were looking at a, kind of like a campground. One time we were looking at a campground and I said, okay, cool. There are 200 plots that people can have. But what happens then? Like if those 200 plots are all filled, we still can't scale any further in this business. But if you just have a, you know, open area that people can just come and set up their camp. You have way more access to future income than if you're just limited to what you already have. You know, my, my husband and I have coached small business owners for years, and one of my most controversial things I've said over the years business related is. Go ahead and increase your prices. The customers that are going to support you will stick around. And the people I've said that to were floundering in their business going under because they couldn't make ends meet because their prices were so low. And they were, they were doing a lot of sales, but they didn't have the margins that were keeping up with inflation and, and with rising costs. And I said. Stand up for yourself. You have to increase your prices. If you are a if you cut hair and you need to increase prices because rent is increasing or something, it is okay for you to make a business decision because you need more income. We actually had this with a housekeeper once. She said, I can't clean for you anymore. I can't do it for that price. 'cause she had moved and commuting too far with all the gas and extra childcare. And I said, oh, well we love you. What? What would you charge to stay? I'll happily pay more. I love you. Please stay right. And she was like, oh. It didn't occur to me to raise my price on you. I felt bad. No. Like I'll pay you what you're worth to make it worth your time to come out here. Money is so funny to people sometimes. I really encourage people to stand up for themselves and what I've gotten pushback from from some of my coaching clients was, oh my gosh, then I'll lose customers. Yep. You definitely will, and you'll keep those loyal ones and gain ones who are paying you properly from this point forward. What's the alternative to continue going in debt? To continue ...
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    9 min