From Beans and Rice to Financial Independence - Episode 44 (Classic Episode)

In another hard-hitting and very inspiring episode, we have Desiree, an OR nurse and financial independence enthusiast, who shares her incredible journey towards achieving financial freedom. She discusses her path to becoming a nurse, overcoming obstacles to pursue her dream, and how she stumbled upon the world of financial independence. Desiree's inspiring story reveals how she paid off her student loans in just three months, her commitment to speaking up as an advocate in her nursing career, and her dedication to living life on her own terms. Her story serves as a testament to the power of financial independence and the freedom it can bring to every aspect of life.

Resource mentioned: Mr. Money Mustache

About our guest:
Desiree has wanted to be a nurse since she was 3 years old.  She is a mother of 3 and an operating room RN. Her oldest daughter has followed in her footsteps and is currently a psychiatric LPN and enrolled to become an RN. Desiree has always been frugal but only somewhat recently found FIRE.  While searching for a new recipe for beans and rice, she stumbled on to the Mr Money Mustache website which promotes a path to FIRE through frugality and focusing on the aspects of  life which is most important to the individual while limiting the resources dedicated to those which hold less personal importance. Having hit her Financial independence number in the last year at 47,  she has moved to per deim. She enjoys time with her 5 year old grandson and her other many hobbies.

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] Naseema McElroy: All right. So I am honored to be able to welcome Desiree to the nurses on fire community. Desiree is goals for me. She is a nurse that is out here living her best life while still actively working as an OR nurse. She has reached the point where her working hard. Money, her investments are working harder for her than she works for her money.

So she does not have to work. So she is at the point where she is actually financially independent. She has breached FI and she no longer has to trade time for dollars, but. She still works. And so I am so honored to have you Desiree here with us in the Nurses on Fire community. I just want to dive into your story of becoming a nurse and how a nurse, just a regular OR nurse like you can achieve financial independence and what that means.

So welcome so much. Oh, welcome for having me. Thank you. So let's talk about your story of getting into nursing. What inspired you to be a nurse?

[00:01:13] Desiree: To work as a nurse and so I was going to be her little nurse she always said when I was little and we volunteered with the cutie at group we'd go to nursing homes and and help out mostly Veterans and do little parties and things so I was in nursing homes around people As a very young age and I was always going to be a nurse.

That's just how it was. I was going to be a nurse. I never thought about anything else. I never thought about doing anything else. And that's just what I was going to do. So I, I didn't get to for a long, long time. I went to school right after high school and it was doing prerequisites and got pregnant with my And so married young, also myself.

And, then the babies kept coming and It, it didn't happen. It didn't happen. It didn't happen. I registered several times, moved to California, got a governor's scholarship, my school was paid for, my daycare was paid for. And three days before I was to start that program, I was told by my husband, we had to move.

So, didn't happen for me. And I gave him the boot years later, went to nursing school and went to college. And was here. I always worked in all that time though. I was working for a rescue mission taking care of mentally ill women, homeless families. I worked for a mental health facility where I took care of mentally ill adults and then mentally ill adults with medical problems as well.

And so I was a registered counselor. I did that. I didn't go to school for that or anything except for the CNA stuff that I did. But I fell into it, I guess, through a volunteer job. I was volunteering. They asked me by first, within two hours of me, they're volunteering if I would work for them. And I'm like, I already said I'd do it for free, but they're like, we got to pay you so you can pass drugs.

I'm like, all right. And. So, finally got to go to school, but I had to go to nursing school kind of the hard way. I always had been poor and I always avoided credit because I knew credit was the ruin of a person, and so I never had any debt or credit cards of any kind. And so I didn't want to borrow any money and thankfully my marriage left me also destitute.

So I had that opportunity for hardship being a single mom and that gave me a Pell grant. So I did not pay for my education except for one year. And so, I had student loan of about I think it was 6, 500 about for that year and that was it. That was the debt I graduated with.

[00:04:04] Naseema McElroy: Wow. I love the way you spin that unfortunate bit into something that made such an incredible career possible for you.

And so when people can harp on the negativities in their lives, you

[00:04:17] Desiree: know, they're all opportunities. Every time you're kicked down.

That just makes you stronger. And, and you have to look at it that way. Like, Oh, what a, what a wonderful blessing. This is my daughter had cancer year and a half ago. Oh my God. And she's an amazingly strong woman. That's my oldest. And that was like, but it was the best thing for her. And fortunately she was also broke, completely broke and in nursing school.

And when she got cancer, because, if she had had a, if she had already graduated, had a job and had copayments and medical bills and things like that, it would have crushed her, but nope, she was poor.

[00:05:00] Naseema McElroy: It happened, it happened when it was supposed to happen. Exactly. Like we don't like to look at things, say things like that, but yeah, like everything that happens in your life, good or bad is an opportunity. And it's really what your response to that is that matters. And then I want to just touch briefly on the fact that you knew that debt would be the ruin of you. Who taught

[00:05:20] Desiree: you that? I grew up on a farm and we didn't have any money and everybody worked, but just, Not, nothing that anybody went to school for, jobs, jobs, we worked jobs and we grew the food, we ate, we had animals and things, but if you get debt, they're going to take your farm from you, then you're going to be homeless.

And so I never wanted a credit card. In fact, I just got our first credit card. We were almost financially independent when I got my very first credit card. And we, and it was just that security of knowing that, well, I'll just, I can pay it off every month because we use it for the, the rebates, but we had enough underneath us that I knew that there was.

That wasn't going to be a ruin of us.

[00:06:09] Naseema McElroy: That's so admirable because, that's just not common today, but I understand that. I understand that. And I respect that. And I'm, I'm sure that that's something that you instill in your kids. Cause they've seen you go through so many levels of just You've been, you've been from, you started from the bottom.

Now you're here, like they've seen you on the come up. And so that builds so much resiliency in children. And so I love that. I love that you learned that and that that's something that they can see. But so you started as a nurse in your thirties working in were you always in the OR?

[00:06:46] Desiree: Yes, I thought I was going to be geriatric or psychiatric. That's what I went in thinking and It might did a one day rotation in the operating room and I had no idea that was even a thing, right? You know how you do those rotations in school and you go into nursing school thinking you're gonna be one kind of nurse But a different kind of nurse walks out, and and I told my clinical instructor I, how do I get here?

How, how can I be this person? And, and so she had been a former OR nurse. And so she encouraged me and helped me to get my preceptorship. And then that person's, the charge nurse at that facility called Facilia, where I work at now and said, you've got to hire her. And so they did, they gave me a residency and I went through their course and.

Really enjoy it.

[00:07:39] Naseema McElroy: That's, it's all about those connections. I love it. So how did you as just a regular old OR nurse find out about this world of financial independence?

[00:07:51] Desiree: Well, I was looking, I like, I've always been very frugal, but I wanted, I wanted my beans and rice to taste better. I, I knew that out in the world there's beans and rice in different cultures all over the world.

Some very flavorful ones. Right. Yes. And so I was looking for something a little different, I was searching for beans and rice and it led me to, I think. The Mr. Money Mustache webpage because somebody on one of the forums or something or comments had said something about eating beans and rice and for some reason it flagged it enough that I ended up there.

And so I started reading from the beginning post, the first post for MrMoneyMustache. com and it was probably about The day or two into I did go ahead and make those beans and rice that night and it was delicious. But I, I kept reading and and I started doing things. And at that point, I still had about 5, 000 of my school loan because I'd just been making minimum.

We didn't have any other debt other than our mortgage payment, and I started doing things. Hanging my laundry up to dry, turning the thermostat down. And then he kept going on and on about riding a bike to work, so I'm like, okay, I finally bit the bullet. I factored in exactly how much is it gonna cost me in money saved in car to ride my bike and make the bike pay for itself, and then start making money.

And my break even point was six months, so I, I got myself a bike and I started riding it to work, and that went really well, I lost weight, I felt better, I, I hurt for a lot of weeks, but then I started to feel better, and then I broke even, and all of that, I gave my car away, cause I was just riding my bike to work, and my husband had his car, so if I needed a car, grocery shopping and stuff and that went well, and I just kept saving, I just kept not spending money, and then pretty soon I saw it piling up in my bank account, because I wasn't.

And I didn't know anything about investing then I set my retirement fund, I think I remember about having a heart attack when I set it to 25%, I thought, Oh, we're going to die. We're going to starve. This isn't going to be enough money. But it was fine. Didn't even notice. It was fine. Right. Yeah.

Didn't even notice it. Yeah. Yeah. The money built up in my savings or my checking account and I just wrote a note, a thank you note, on a thank you card to the loan people and sent the balance to them. And that was, we were done. We were done with that transaction. So great.

[00:10:31] Naseema McElroy: So how far after finding Mr.

Money Mustache, were you able to pay off your, your, the remainder of your loans within

[00:10:38] Desiree: three months? Wow. Yeah.

[00:10:41] Naseema McElroy: So you like, listen, you found them and then you, you went hard. Like you, you weren't playing around

[00:10:47] Desiree: any money. A few years, a few years before my husband, I got married again to a wonderful man. My My husband, I, I told him about it and he thought it was some wacky scheme I was into and he laughed and I mean, he doesn't do the laundry anyway, so he didn't care whether I hung the clothes or not, but a few years before we'd been talking when we did our taxes and we were both making a good amount of money, here I was, that was probably about year three, four out of nursing school.

Maybe, maybe more, and, and we're both making good money, but at the end of the year, there was nothing left.

[00:11:21] Naseema McElroy: Mm hmm. We all know that feeling. And it

[00:11:24] Desiree: wasn't like we were out partying or living life. It was just, we determined we're spending this money on the kids. That's what we're doing. And it's nothing they need anyway.

So we decided to prioritize us. As grownups, because by then they're teenagers, nearly grown, except for the littlest. And so we did started, we started taking trips and it was great. We were having a good time. We're just still spending all our money, but now it's a little more on us instead of just all their activities and stuff.

And so we had already gotten that kind of. Frame of mind, but after reading about it kind of just changed my mind out. What what is money? What is it used for and it became a tool and not just the thing you have yeah And once that light switch flips I just didn't want to spend money on anything unless I had to You know, yes, my thermostats at 63 right now, cause that's our daytime temperature at night.

It's 55, I don't fool around. And so the money started piling up, just start piling up. And then I had to learn how to invest. And so maxed out, then I set my retirement account at 75 percent of front load at work and he does that. He flipped front

[00:12:45] Naseema McElroy: loads also. So let's start, let's, let's, let's stop there because we're just nurses, right?

And yes. And so, like when it comes to putting money into retirement. It's like one of those things, either we kind of do what our coworkers are doing, or we kind of just do the minimum, or some people are so nervous about investing, about putting in money in the stock market, they don't do anything.

How did you at that point learn about investing?

[00:13:14] Desiree: Well, I, I read I think it was, was it the early retirement extreme guy? I forget his name. Yeah. He, I think he has a thing on. Big iron,

[00:13:23] Naseema McElroy: yeah. He has a thing on. Oh no, no, early retirement extreme, like he has a blog, yeah. Huh. Yeah,

[00:13:29] Desiree: yeah, he sold it and then he took it back.

I don't know. He lived in a van. He lived in an RV. I remember that. Yeah. But he had a little kind of what I would tell my daughter thing on there about investing and also Mr. Money Mustache talks about index funds. But the main thing that I learned is how do you even pick a fund, like. I had no idea.

I thought it was some sort of magic formula. You have to have a finance degree or something to understand it. But

[00:13:58] Naseema McElroy: once I figured out, they make it seem like it's really complicated. Low fee, high

[00:14:03] Desiree: yield done. That's it. It's all you got to pay attention to there. And so I switched, set my own account on my retirement fund at work and then started investing in an after tax fund.

But, but the, I changed my thinking. It's not like I'm... Giving money away and it's not my money anymore. I'm, I'm kind of saving it from the man cause, because the government can take it in taxes or I could put it in there. I'm going to put it exactly.

[00:14:34] Naseema McElroy: I tell people that all the time I said, listen, you're going to pay.

You have two choices. You're going to pay the government or you're going to pay yourself. And a hundred percent of the time I'm going to choose myself. So what are you going to do? Right. Right. Exactly. Yeah. So I love it. So I, and then let's go back to talking about, you talked about like you front load all your retirement accounts.

Yeah. So it, so what does that do for you?

[00:14:58] Desiree: Well, for me, I front load because for the past three years, I told them at work, I am one vacation request denial away from going per diem. Y'all know that, because I, I retired in my mind about four or five years ago. Where I was coming to work because I wanted to come and also, you know I've got that whole RN and pulse thing going on.

So I know I can get a job anywhere But I haven't I've stayed I've stayed true to my company that I've got hired from right out of nursing school so I Enjoy them But but I did it. It finally happened. It finally happened in June. I got notified that I would not get the day before Thanksgiving off and, and it, well, they put me on an LC list, but I'm not going to take a chance.

That's pie day in my house. We make pies.

[00:15:53] Naseema McElroy: That's right, girl, right? Priorities. That's what's important to

[00:15:57] Desiree: you. That's the thing. And I, I was already financially independent at that point. So it was just kind of the clock was ticking for them and and, and so I put in my notice and I went per diem the week before Thanksgiving.

I love it. And I, I didn't work this week. I'm not working next week, but I think next week after that I'm working a half, a couple of half days.

[00:16:18] Naseema McElroy: Princess shifts that we like to, we like to call those princess shifts. Princess shifts. Yeah. Yeah. So how long, how long after discovering Mr. Money Mustache in the world of FHI, did it, did it take you to become financially independent?

Like how many years was that?

[00:16:35] Desiree: I had a big help in hand. My husband also, again, we're both, are both adverse to debts and things like that. So that was good. Neither of us. Came in with, we had two paid off cars. The only thing that we had debt on is the house. And we were at a hundred thousand dollars underwater at the time that I found Mr.

Money Mustache. Because of the recession, but then now let's see we, I was fully FI this last summer. Wow. Congratulations. I knew that I could, we could have coasted there in the last few years. Once we saw that snowball rolling, we knew that it would keep going and we just maybe needed.

To cover our own expenses and maybe not even save anymore and it would still happen. Yeah. But so that gave me a lot of confidence and that in easily saying, I take vacations. I take two weeks off at Christmas. So go ahead and stop me. Exactly. And so this year it was just like, basically, I don't work this December.

Sorry.

[00:17:38] Naseema McElroy: So how many years from start to finish was that?

[00:17:43] Desiree: I probably sounded bad on the mic.

[00:17:44] Naseema McElroy: Six, I guess. That's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about.

[00:17:50] Desiree: We were rocking that, 65 to 80 percent savings rate. Yeah. Yes. And but you know, we never felt deprived at all. Thank

[00:18:01] Naseema McElroy: you. Thank you. That was going to be my next question.

Never

[00:18:04] Desiree: once. I never didn't get to see or do or have something because I didn't have the money because my priorities changed. I didn't want that thing anymore.

[00:18:16] Naseema McElroy: Exactly. Exactly. You chose freedom over whatever possession that money to buy because because jacked

[00:18:25] Desiree: up trucks are, that's going to make you be a wage slave.

Yeah. Yeah. You're just going to be a wage slave for what? A pair of shoes? You're going to give away your freedom for that? Yeah. No way.

[00:18:39] Naseema McElroy: Yeah. Yeah. So what is keeping you like being working as a nurse? Like why are you still working? You can totally live off of your money. Your money is working for you like nothing

[00:18:51] Desiree: else.

I don't need to go to work at all. I don't need to make a single dime. I don't need to ever do make a single dime again for the rest of my life. It's all planned out. We, my husband and I just had our quarterly meeting the other day and he showed me. The four year, five year, 10 year, 20 year, 30 year, 40 year.

I say, I don't think I'll be here in 40, but fine. I don't need to make money. I, I'm a nurse because that's who I am. It's not what I do. It's who I am. And and so I, and I worked hard for that license too. I worked hard for it. And so in the state, in the state that I'm in, you have to have a minimum number of hours that you are a Practicing nurse in order to keep your license current.

Mm hmm. And so, but it can be as easy as my grandma living down in the basement, because I look after her now here, so I don't need to even go into, like, the paid job, but I go there because I'm a nurse, and I love what I do I get to speak my mind, and I've been able to do that for years, I get to hit the big red stop button anytime I feel like something's not safe.

And I don't, there's no pressure of getting fired, there's no pressure of never working again or something like that. It doesn't matter to me. They, can't take that away.

[00:20:13] Naseema McElroy: I forgot to mention this earlier, but I love that your grandma's still living with you and that she's still alive. And my grandfather is somebody that's super close to me and, I'm around the corner from him and that's like, that's gold for me.

Right. Like I'll try, I will trade anything for that. So, I love that. The other thing is that you mentioned that is super important. And this is something that I've had firsthand experience with is. Being able to speak your mind and not be in fear of losing your income. I have been in a toxic work environment, very unsafe patient care, a lot of implicit bias a lot of mortality and morbidity that could have been prevented just because of the way that the providers were thinking, and and you've seen it firsthand.

But me being able to not only just walk away from that job, Because I had other choices and because I wasn't dependent on that, but also me being able to speak up and not be in fear that I would lose my income was monumental. And that's something that a lot of people can't do. Can you talk to me about the power that you feel because you're able to do that?

[00:21:25] Desiree: Well, when you, if you're working for a doctor. Then you're working for him and he kind of owns you. If you own a big house and a big truck and you've got credit card debt, you, you can't, you don't have that freedom to save a life by speaking up, and I, I It's nice because everybody at work knows that I have that freedom.

I, I own myself. And so, they come to me. I speak up if they can't, but I, I, I, it saves lives and you have to save your life. And, and then when you feel your pulse and you look online and see that you still have a nursing license, go ahead and speak up and save a life because what else are we there for?

That's why we're there.

[00:22:13] Naseema McElroy: Exactly. We are, we are patient advocates at the core, but I know a lot of nurses that are in fear of losing that income. And so they won't necessarily speak up and that's, and that's about integrity. But it's also about survival. I mean, like people are balancing those things.

And so if you make the choice to ensure that you're financially There's nothing holding you back for being that a hundred percent nurse that we are all, we are all like in this career to do because a nurse is like. There's no other profession that I've found, really. Maybe teachers. Maybe teachers, that, like you're a, a teacher at the core, you are a nurse at the core, and all you wanna do is really serve your patients.

But there are so many things that can get in the way of that, and a lot of the things are financially motivated. So once you take that barrier

[00:23:06] Desiree: away, people are afraid. They're afraid to leave their house. They're afraid of not being able to feed their families. Yes. But Yeah, when you, when you take care of the money part of it, you don't have any fear of any of that, and you can just be free to be the strong advocate that we are all supposed to

[00:23:23] Naseema McElroy: be.

Yes, and that's why this platform exists to, to let you guys know that it's possible, because in this world we're inundated with all this negativity and we're inundated with the fact that we have to be consumers and because we have these nice incomes and this flexibility in our work that we can just, Like it's going out of style, but if we're not investing in ourselves then we're not doing a disservice to our profession and we're not doing a disservice.

We're doing, we're not, we're doing a disservice to our profession. We're doing a disservice to ourselves. And so We need to know what's possible for us and know that at any given time you can set yourself up in 10 years or less in most cases to be able to make work optional. But that doesn't mean that you have to work or walk away from your job.

[00:24:10] Desiree: No, you don't have to walk away from being a nurse. Yes.

[00:24:12] Naseema McElroy: That means that you get to come to your job. Fully as yourself, because you are not bogged down by any kind of financial commitments that you feel obliged to. So, I mean, I love your story and I love that you preach the gospel and I love that you're there at your job because people are seeing what's possible through you, you're able to be an advocate for your coworkers as well, because there's like no fear, I think that's great.

So tell me what's next for you and your family.

[00:24:45] Desiree: Well, I've got my grandma downstairs, so I've been enjoying that for almost a year now. And then I have a five year old grandson with my oldest daughter. And so I just told work, I can only be available sometimes on Tuesdays and Fridays, because the other days I take care of him.

So my daughter doesn't have to pay for daycare, and he and I get to hang out, at least three days a week. I mean, usually he throws the sleep over in there too. And so I really enjoy that. I like doing the simple things now, things that used to be chores, but I like getting

[00:25:21] Naseema McElroy: the dishes done in

[00:25:23] Desiree: the kitchen.

Before it was just something I had to do, but now I'll knock it out of the way early because I'm just going to sit around drinking tea and maybe watch some documentaries or read a book or take my grandson to the park or whatever it is that we're up to that day. I like, I like spending hours drinking coffee in the morning, just like I can, it takes me now at least like two hours of drinking coffee before I'm ready to just do anything else.

[00:25:51] Naseema McElroy: You're fully, you're fully living in what brings you pleasure. I love it.

I

[00:25:56] Desiree: think I'm still in that decompression phase though, because, it's only been a few months now where I, I quit quit, but it'll go in every couple of times a month, so I think I'm still decompressing.

I think I will probably spend a lot more time traveling and Hey, like to hike and go up in the mountains by myself. So go up to my little shack in the woods and sharpen some axes,

[00:26:24] Naseema McElroy: I love it. So now that you have your money just working for you hardcore how does that look like as far as What's like your kid, like what you do or teach your kids or, how does that work for generational planning

[00:26:39] Desiree: or our youngest daughters?

Well, the money is going to, there's going to be a lot of money there. And so once we got to that point where we knew that the snowball was just going to get bigger we did all our estate planning so that we've taken care of all of that. So the kids and we were real open and transparent. All of our children are adults now, the youngest is 19.

So, we, we show it all to them, and I tell them this is where important. is. This is where the money is. So if something happens to me and dad, you guys need to, this is where you look for it, so that they have that. I, I haven't beyond that. They're all, I won't say how capable they are, aren't, but most of my children are very capable.

And and so the youngest is very interested in. Okay. early retirement and just early financial independence. And so she has already saved money, purchased her own car with cash and is now saving up and is finishing up her, her program now that she's working on for school. And then she'll be, she's already got.

Recruiters talking to her. So, so she'll, she'll do fine. And my oldest will do great.

[00:27:59] Naseema McElroy: Your oldest, what follows your footsteps and is the nurse as well. Yeah,

[00:28:04] Desiree: she was supposed to be a doctor, but she got a biology degree and had my grandson. And then I decided maybe the lifestyle of a nurse. She'd like to have more children and be a mom.

So, our lifestyle is a little easier to do that than a physicians, we get more balance.

[00:28:24] Naseema McElroy: Definitely. Definitely. And Desiree, I love your story because it is truly like the rags to riches. Like you've been through so much. I mean, you went through a horrible divorce and I've been there too.

You've had to start from nothing and claw your way out. And you've been able to become financially independent in less than 10 years. And I know it was the support of your awesome husband and all that stuff that you have now. But at the end of the day, you did it. In spite of all the things and it was fun and you did not live in deprivation and people were never well, well, I don't but I mean, I don't see myself really riding a bike to work or I don't really want to dry, hang my clothes, right?

But those weren't things that you repre that that Representing any kind of lack. Those were things that you actually enjoyed

[00:29:18] Desiree: doing. I got physical fitness and my sweaters smell like sunshine.

[00:29:25] Naseema McElroy: Exactly, exactly. And so I think a lot of people think it's just like, that's, I mean, like, how do you live like that?

How do you live like that? And to them, I say, how do you not, how do you not? Choose yourself.

[00:29:39] Desiree: Freedom sure feels a lot better than

[00:29:43] Naseema McElroy: on so many levels, on so many levels. And if there was just one thing that you wanted a nurse to take away from this podcast today, what would it be?

[00:29:55] Desiree: I think just to think about money as a tool, cause that's what it is.

It's not, it's not a thing. It's a tool and it's your time. It's your time. Money is time. And max out your, your, your, your retirement fund. Why give the government your money? Start there. And from there, read some more, learn some more, whatever interests you and keep growing and stepping forward.

[00:30:20] Naseema McElroy: Right. Yes. Listen to more podcasts like this, all those kinds of things to start surrounding yourself with people who are doing the things that you aspire to. Right. Yeah. That's really awesome. So Desiree,

[00:30:33] Desiree: we may seem weird now, but I feel like, I feel like this is

[00:30:37] Naseema McElroy: growing. This is norm. This is, this is my normal.

This is my normal. So, so make a new normal in this year, new normal. So Desiree, I love to talking to you. You are like true goals for me, or I, you have to know how much I really look up to you. I'm right behind you girl. I know, right? I'm right behind you. I'll be there shortly. Yeah, just come on. Yeah.

The water's jump in. I am. I am going to jump in. I mean, I'm there. I'm, I'm there. It takes

[00:31:10] Desiree: bravery though at the end. And I, I saw that with myself, especially in the last year is so hard to just like push back away from the table and say, I'm full. I've had enough, and, and it's, what are the next steps?

Well, it doesn't really matter what the next steps are, once you get here. You just don't have to think about or

[00:31:30] Naseema McElroy: write things, right? Yeah. Yeah. So what are some resources that you feel like people can utilize in order to learn? I know you're you're a true moustachian through and through and true

[00:31:47] Desiree: So so start go to mr.

Money moustache calm Start at the very first article and read your way up. The new stuff isn't gonna make any sense unless you start at the beginning. And start trying things. Start things that are comfortable at first and then keep moving into the areas that are less comfortable. They'll, they'll become more comfortable.

[00:32:10] Naseema McElroy: Yes. A hundred percent. So I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule and taking time maybe away from your grandson to speak to me, but it has been a pure pleasure. Like this has been so awesome. Oh, you just lightened up my life. Like seriously. I love it. I love it. So, yeah, so anybody interested in learning more about the things that Desiree did?

Everything is in the are in blogs, free content that you can consume, Reddit fees, many Mr. Money mustache forums, all these places. And to collect, connect with like-minded people, you're free to join the Nurses on Fire Facebook group. There's all kinds of Facebook groups at musty money mustache has Facebook groups and forums that you can join Like all those kind of places and start surrounding yourself with people that are doing things just like this So, you know what's possible for you again.

Thank you so much. Desiree for joining me. I really appreciate it talking to you I had so much fun And i'm wishing you all the best in your life Living financially free. Thank you. I look

[00:33:17] Desiree: forward to meeting you there. Oh, yes.

Hey there I’m Naseema

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