Guiding Steps to a Wealthier and Healthier Lifestyle

Discover what it really means to achieve financial freedom in our milestone 200th episode! Not only do we promise to help you build a more positive and empowering relationship with money, but we also bring you insights from the inspiring Joseph Oklay,  a certified financial planner, and Alyssa Davis, founder of the Mixed Up Money Finance podcast and blog. Both guests share their invaluable advice on saving money realistically and guilt-free, and building a financial freedom plan.

Does your relationship with money impact your overall well-being? It's a question we tackle head-on in this episode. We explore the inseparable connection between your finances and wellness, with my personal story serving as a vivid example of this. We also spotlight three motivating guests who have not only achieved financial freedom personally but have guided countless others to do the same. Don't forget to check out the linked podcasts for more insight into your journey towards financial freedom. Get ready to redefine your perception of money!

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Chapters

• 0:04 Financial Wellness in Wellness Podcasts
• 14:01 Financial Empowerment and Podcast Reviews

Transcript

Bettina M Brown: 0:04

Hello and welcome to In the Rising a health and wellness podcast for those going through and those supporting those going through cancer. My name is Bettina Brown and I'm board certified in physical therapy, wound care and lymphedema, and you know, for me cancer is very personal. It's affected my friends, my immediate and my not so immediate family, and therefore I created this podcast and fit after breast cancercom to address the multiple dimensions of our lives during and after recovery. Hello, hello and welcome to the 200th episode of In the Rising podcast. This is a huge deal for me because I thought this would be just a hobby and nearly four years later, and having gone through multiple renditions and changes and lots of YouTube videos and lots of Googling and even courses to learn how to make an effective podcast that reaches people but not just people the right people at the right time to help impact them in the right way, and so I'm really grateful for your time today. Thank you so much for being here.

Bettina M Brown: 1:25

Now, what do you talk about on your 200th episode? Do you go back and review all your podcasts and, you know, put in a few voiceovers and a few samples of those, as I thought about that, or do you take a moment just to reflect on what the future of your podcast will be and what's coming up, what's to be expected. And I decided to do a little bit of both, and I wanted to make this podcast about one particular topic of health and wellness. That is maybe not the first thing that you think of with health and wellness, but it's the topic of finances, and having had several family members recently pass away, become very ill, it made me pause again and really reflect on what does health and wellness mean to me? What does health and wellness mean to other people? When I hear some of the other people talk about how to build your financial freedom plan, it seems so out of reach and I just can't feel. There's a little bit of student to teacher, but kind of old school student to teacher, where I'm looking down my nose at you because you just figure this out yourself. And what I really enjoy about my three guests is that I did not feel that at all. I felt companionship. I felt someone standing next to me, providing information, lifting me up versus putting me down, and so I'm going to share with you three of those individuals today. Music I've had some phenomenal people on my podcast, and one of them is Joseph Oakley, who's a certified financial planner who really decided to change his focus from people who are in their 50s and 60s and looking to retire to those people who are in their 20s and 30s and looking to even begin their life, the ones with little kids at home or the ones still trying to save money for a down payment for a house, those really making the decisions in their 20s and 30s that will create the ability to do things such as retire in their 50s and 60s.

Bettina M Brown: 3:49

And he used a lot of what he learned to help secure his own finances and his own financial well-being, but realized that his crew, his people around him that were of his age group and he realized that he was going to leave a big group of people behind and really focused on that. So House Self-Love and Money in Ertwine with Joseph Oakley is a great podcast to listen to. He has so much good to say, but he also has it in a way that does not make you feel like you are a bad person for not having followed all of these rules.

Joseph Oklay, CFP: 4:24

And what I found is when I talked to friends and I talked to other people that were my age, like young families, that really no one had any idea what was going on, and I realized it wasn't because of anything that they did wrong. It was just that we're not really taught any of this in school. We're all going to have jobs, we're all going to make money and we're all going to need to know what to do with that, but we're not taught anything in schools of what we should do. It's algebra and Shakespeare, and then, on top of that, there's really no professional help because, again, most advisors are geared towards working with people that are about to retire.

Joseph Oklay, CFP: 4:57

So I went on my podcasting app and I just typed in young family finance and nothing came up. So I said, well, something should really come up for these people. That's kind of what inspired me to do. The podcast is kind of just seeing in my own life how powerful it is, and you know I don't worry about money myself. I'm very fortunate with that because I learned all these skills and so I can be a better father, I can be a better husband, I could be a better brother, a better son, because I don't have that kind of weighing on me like a lot of people do.

Bettina M Brown: 5:33

I really enjoyed one of my conversations about money with Alyssa Davis, who is the founder of mixed up money finance podcast and blog, and she had a really unique way of thinking about saving. And I have done a lot of research. I read all about the peace puppies with David Ramsey and really took in a lot of pieces and felt like not all of them really applied to me. I like Suzy Orman, I think everyone has a great opinion and view, but sometimes those are just so out of reach. For me to save up money to buy a used car seemed a lot more feasible when I could buy a brand new car for $10,000 20 years ago. Now a used car is completely expensive and I don't live in a place where public transportation is a thing, nor do I live in a place where I would actually feel safe to go on some of the public transportation in the area it's even provided. So saving up for that was not necessarily something I could feel and I felt disconnected from the people giving really sound financial advice. I felt that some of this advice is great at another level that I wasn't at. But what Alyssa Davis does is present her information in a way that feels feasible, without the guilt, without the burden, but it also feels like it can make you feel excited. And one thing that I came away with from her podcast conversation with me was the difference on emergency funds. I really like the idea of having $1,000 in my savings. I love the idea of having three to four to six months worth of money in my savings account, but that's really not where the most of us in America are.

Bettina M Brown: 7:27

But what Alyssa Davis does is she talks about how the lack of money does not need to rule your life and that you can create ways, small ways, to build up your finances, and one of them is to make an account for different things, and at first I was not on board. I was not on board. I didn't want to have an appliance fund and a health fund and when my car breaks down fund. But I also decided that if I knew exactly what I needed to do, I would not have been in as many positions which I will say were not great financial positions in my life.

Bettina M Brown: 8:07

So I decided to try this and, lo and behold, I created these three, four different funds and my general emergency fund, and when my car battery died, I went right to auto zone. I paid for my battery and went about my business, and what was a relief was that it came out of the car fund. So my general fund was the same. My health fund was the same. It came from the place that it was dedicated to and I think she was on to something, and so I really would recommend Alyssa Davis from Mixed Up Money to you. I would absolutely recommend some of her ideas to you, or at least get a feel for it, see if this resonates with you and check her out. There's a lot there. It's a form of money trauma.

Alyssa Davis: 8:57

You would rather disassociate or reject the idea that there's anything happening with your money than actually face it and make a plan and do something about it, because it's easier to just say, oh, it doesn't exist in my mind, so I don't have to worry about it today. But in reality that's just a. It's a form of money trauma. You are not really sure how to take those steps to face that, probably because maybe your family didn't speak about money when you were growing up. It has a lot to do with your upbringing and those kind of money topics that we're spoken about or those things that we used to be told about money.

Bettina M Brown: 9:41

Lastly, I would like to invite you to listen to Virginia Baker-Wolf. She's a money coach and she says that money is a metaphor for life and it gives you a lot of power. And it gives you a lot of power to your story. And she is so big on having gender equality for pay that you should also be vocal about what you expect for income, but not just with your employer, with yourself. So many of us feel like, well, if they feel like I'm only worth this, I'll take it. It doesn't mean that you have to, you know, spend an offer back and anyone, but to realize and always have confidence in that everything that you do, every five minutes of your time, all of your ideas, has a value. And you may not be at a moment in time where you are earning that value that you believe you have, but that does not mean you change your story to adapt to or adapt to an employer. You change your story to adapt to yourself. That maybe this is where I will be for six months, but six years down the road, this is what I will expect, and carrying yourself different, having a different view and really sticking to what your goals are.

Bettina M Brown: 11:08

There was so much about our conversation that was just like boom, boom, pow, just boom, boom, boom, boom about the importance of acknowledging the power of money.

Bettina M Brown: 11:20

And, in a summary of this finance 200th episode, I really want to share one thing I do not anymore feel that we need to only talk about money.

Bettina M Brown: 11:34

We always need to review how much money we don't have, but also know that a pivotal part of our health and wellness journey does involve about money, and that can include those people that are minimalistic and who choose not to spend much of their money, or those that are choosing to live in their forerunner and explore the world.

Bettina M Brown: 11:57

I just read an article where this family sold their entire possessions their house, got a, got a truck and a fifth wheel and now are going to homeschool their kids and travel the country for at least two to three years because they budget accordingly every single month, and they feel like this is really what life is about. And what that did tell me is yes, if I sold my house, I actually could do a lot of the same sort of things, maybe not for three years, but quite a bit. But it was the ability to have some sort of financial stability. And, true, their level of expenditure may not be at my level of expenditure there's maybe a lot less or for other people, their expenditure out traveling is a lot more than what they are able to provide for themselves at that moment. But the reality is this financial freedom means different things to different people.

Virginia Baker-Woolf: 13:01

I think it's both of those things. I think there is a huge taboo about talking about money. You know, people will talk about sex, they'll talk about drugs, they'll talk about death, but they don't wanna talk about money. So that is definitely true and is part of the reason for that to be because we don't wanna show ourselves in our undies. Yes, absolutely. But you know, brene Brown says that vulnerability is a strength, not a weakness. So if you come out with a story that has some issues with it, that's a very, very brave thing to do. And if people laugh at you or make fun of you, those are not your people. Move away from them. Stop telling them your story. They won't help you.

Bettina M Brown: 14:01

That's why I've chosen the topic of finances and these three episodes to be part of, why I'm talking about it on this 200th episode and I'm gonna share other views that I've had on the coming episodes to just talk about all the different wonderful goodness out there, and because I feel so strongly about the importance of a financial basis and a relationship with money, being happy with money, I decided to make that the topic of the 200th episode.

Bettina M Brown: 14:36

So I will have the links to these three particular podcasts. There are more, but these are the three that I felt just hit the nail right on the head with regards to your finances, without making you feel bad, guilty, inferior or unworthy, and really want to make a difference and empower people financially. That will also translate to emotional, relational health, psychological health and really help gain an idea of worth for themselves. So thank you so much for being a part of my podcast journey. I welcome you and I invite you to leave a five-star review because it makes a difference. The more reviews we have, the broader the message will be, and it's not just my voice but all the wonderful guests that I've had on this podcast. All have platforms that are really important to hear as well and may change your life in one small way, like my conversation with Alyssa Davis changed my view on life in a way, and so I'm really excited to have you on the show, and until next time, let's keep building one another up.