Personal Finance 101: 5 Steps to Start on Your Path to Financial Independence

Luisa has done the hard work of really digging in to what it means to be financially independent - starting and closing a storefront business, digging out of debt, gaining financial literacy, and finally applying her lessons learned to help others on their journey to take control of their finances.

On this episode, I chat with Luisa - a personal finance coach, recovering small business owner, nature lover, and investment junkie.  Her entrepreneurial pursuits have involved some very tough lessons.  Together we get into real talk on what it actually takes to face your finances, the emotions that come from our past financial mistakes, how we were able to get past that to make a living doing the work we love, all while helping others.

So if you’re a young entrepreneur, aspiring business owner, or just now starting to look at your finances to get smarter about them, this episode is for you.

What we’re talking about:

• Luisa’s background was in food and beverage in San Francisco. And in 2008, around the great recession, the movement around food in SF felt different; more homesteading and jam making. So she opened up a juice bar with a partner.

• The road to understanding that a 50-50 business investment partnership isn’t 50-50 100% of the time was a life lesson she’ll take with her always. 

• Learning to be a business owner is incredibly hard and important. Luisa was very action-oriented and owned the processes, human capital, and overall operations. Her passion for personal finance actually stemmed from opening her business because that was where she needed the most help - with the numbers.

• Eventually she understood that her knowledge of business finances could be directly applied to her personal finances.

• Dave Ramsey was Luisa’s point of entry into personal finance and getting a hold of her debt. I share what mine was as well.  Luisa listened daily to Dave Ramsey and hearing stories of people with personal finance challenges and how Dave Ramsey helped them inspired her to pursue becoming a personal finance coach herself.

• Once Luisa became a success story with her own personal finance journey, she started High Five SF, where she helps young entrepreneurs with business and personal finance needs.

• Luisa has 5 steps to get started with personal finance

  • #1 - Get organized. Understand what you own and what you owe.

  • #2 - Understand your net worth. This is your assets minus your liabilities. What you own minus what you owe.

  • #3 - Our emotions and our feelings have control over what we do with our money. We need to get our emotions to a place where they are serving us.

  • #4 - Understand the power of choice. Encourage people to start by paying attention to what is in our control. Focus on what is in our control for living expenses, purchasing power, and discretionary spending. These choices aren’t easy, but they are choices.

  • #5 - Begin the journey towards Financial Literacy. We are in a place where there are systemic injustices that are in play for keeping populations, particularly Black, Indiginous, Women of Color, from accumulating wealth. And our systems are not built to teach financial literacy. To combat these systemic inequalities, we need to take ownership of our finances for ourselves and our communities.

• Going through these five steps to get started is emotionally driven. People need space to process through our feelings about money.

• Luisa used to be a total spender and now considers herself an aggressive saver - except when she’s out with friends. She has serious FOMO but shares her ways to stick with her budget.

• But because she’s now an aggressive saver, she is now able to save 42% of her income and in doing so is able to have a solid emergency fund while also building an investment portfolio.

• I provide an overview of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence Retire Early).

• Luisa is most excited about helping others achieve their own personal finance goals. She’s able to help her clients improve their quality of life exponentially.

Connect with Luisa:

You can follow Luisa on IG for tips and inspiration for getting a grip on your money at @highfivesf and visit my site at www.highfivesf.com

 

Links from the show

Dave Ramsey

Jean Chatzkey - Her Money

SavvyGirl Money

Women’s Personal Finance (Women on FIRE) - Facebook Group

Stock Sisters - Facebook Group

Choose FI - Google this for MANY links to Financial Independence websites, blogs, facebook groups, reddits, etc.

 

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