This Nurse Is Halfway Thru His $400k Debt Free Journey - Ep. 28
Jarrett Jones, a CRNA based outta Houston, Tx originally from South Central Los Angeles. After pursuing multiple medical degrees collectively, he and his wife found themselves in over $400,000 of student loan debt. After discovering Dave Ramey in 2016, they have been on a journey towards debt freedom.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: 03:20 All right. Jarett, welcome to the Nurses on Fire podcast. I'm super juiced to have you on because you've been rolling with me for a long time since the very beginning. So, it's awesome to see where you've gone in your journey and I cannot wait to share it with the community. So Jarett, go ahead and give a brief introduction and then we'll dive into your story a little bit more.
Jarrett Jones: 03:44 Absolutely. Okay, well my name is Jarrett Jones. I'm a CRNA out of Houston, Texas originally from South Central, Los Angeles. Definitely inspires me on the podcast. I'm a huge fan, like you said I'm rocking with you from the beginning. I remember your first Facebook post of how much money you paid off and you were a nurse and I was a nurse. I got so excited to see one of us doing it. So, I've been following you for a while, so just honored to be here.
Naseema McElroy: 04:09 Yay. All right Jarett. So let's talk about your journey into becoming a nurse because like I mentioned before to you, you're a unicorn in this nursing space. You're a black man.
Jarrett Jones: 04:23 Yeah. I'm a black man, yep. Love it.
Naseema McElroy: 04:32 What made you become a nurse straight out of South Central?
Jarrett Jones: 04:32 So, it's interesting. It's like I had no clue what I was going to do with my life. I did terrible in school, got kicked out of school multiple times, got kicked out of school in fifth grade, got kicked out of school in ninth grade, went to one of the worst high schools in the city. Matter of fact, the other day, I was looking at houses back in South Central just to see like what it would be like to come back home. And you know like when you look at like how much the houses cost and then you'd go to like see the school ratings and then they said this school is ranked number 1 out of 10. It is one of the worst schools. And I'm thinking like
wow, I didn't think it was that bad but I guess it was. I'm a proud alum. Shout out to Manual Arts High School, South central. Down the street from SC. And that was the funny thing. So, it's funny how our lives have intersected like so you went to USC and at the time I was like, that's one of the world's, top institutions in the world and we're right there down like this little small school. And for some reason, we just didn't connect. We didn't say, hey, we can actually go to that school. Everybody I went to high school and I was like, nah, maybe I might go to community college if that, maybe I might just get a job. So, I mean my school was literally named Manual Arts. It trained, our mascot is a plumber. Like it's like, Oh Tommy Toilet. So like I just kinda, I just kinda came up just not really thinking about what I was going to do with my life. I knew I wanted to do something. So, USC is right down the street, have no idea how to get in, don't even apply. Number one school in probably the nation and I applied to the Los Angeles City College was the community college, which is further down Vermont if you go further down USC and still don't know what to do, still have no idea what I'm doing in my life. And my counselor at the time was like, Hey, you seem like you're pretty smart though, you know you have no direction. There's an HBCU that I went to in Nashville which I can get scholarships to and I'm like, well now I'm really trying to go to like UCLA 'cause you know you went to USC like Oh I'll try to go to UCLA. That'll be my dreams. At this point, I'm trying to [inaudible] and I go to the community college and she gets me this. I do well. I started getting my act together and start thinking about what I can do in my life and still don't know and somehow wind up at this HBCU in Nashville, Fisk University, best decision of my life at that time. I start, you know, being around people who can really do things, being around people who are super positive, like black people who were really just like the top of the top but still don't know what it, 'cause we don't have a nursing program so I have a business degree. So I go to, I get a business degree at this time, get into Fisk and doing the business program. Still don't know. I get a job in a cubicle and I hate my job. I hate my life. I'm sitting here and I'm dating this girl and at the time, you know she's trying to get into dental school and I'm kind of seeing her like being around all these dentists and medical professionals and nurses and people in that area.
Jarrett Jones: 07:29 And I'm saying, okay, I don't necessarily want to do that. I don't want to do dentistry, but I want to do something in the medical field. Like I want to do something positive, something that's not related to this cubicle. But at this time I'm super like I'm a business person. I've never done anything like that before. I just have an epiphany like I got it, I can be a nurse. And the only reason I wanted to be a nurse was I said, well, I'll figure out what I like to do. Like nursing is so varied. You can do, I mean, you've had people on your show, you know, done OB, done critical care on site. So, I don't want to get my hands dirty and I'm super worried about blood and I'm like, use this cubicle. As I said, I know I'll be a psychiatric nurse, so I'll be like, I'll be like a psychiatric nurse practitioner. That's my goal. So, stop all the business stuff. Become a psychiatric nurse practitioner or I tried to become a psychiatric nurse practitioner. That's like my plan and literally were like one of the first days of clinical, I'm like you know, I think I hate this. I think I want to be a nurse, but I don't like this. I'm making my patients smoke. I'm talking to them about their feelings and I love talking about feelings, but I'm just like, nah, I don't think I want to be a psychiatric nurse. I do like when my first critical care clinicals and I'm like, Oh that's it. Like it's really, I really liked this whole blood and critical care and saving lives and the adrenaline. So, I just completely switched out from what I said I was going to d,o ended up getting in this program that exposes to, I mean after I go to nursing school, get this program that exposes nursing to nurses to the ICU, like it's like the ICU fellowship, whatever. And once I got into fellowship and I was exposed to other nurses were like, Oh, if you think this is cool, you should become a nurse anesthetist. And I'm like, Oh well what's a nurse anesthetist? They're like, Oh well all this critical care stuff you're doing like hang blood, IVs. This is a version of that. So, I start the process of becoming a nurse anesthetist CRNA and you know, spend some time in the ICU. I've spend time in medical ICU for a couple of years, CDIC for a couple of years and apply to anesthesia school. And that was maybe nine years ago. So I could have been a practicing CRNA for the past nine years. Best decision of my life. It was a really roundabout way. I've jumped some steps. But yeah, that's pretty much me.
Naseema McElroy: 09:47 I love it, Jarett. So, then we could just touch on this really quickly 'cause it's not really related, but I'm just really nosy. How does it feel to be like one of few black male nurses and then black male CRNAs?
Jarrett Jones: 10:00 It's bittersweet because on one hand you think, wow, I'm really blessed. Like I walked into a room and you're a representative. But on another hand you have to wonder why aren't there other chances for black men out there? Like what opportunities have they not been given? Because I know I'm not the smartest. I'm not the luckiest, you know, I'm definitely blessed. But yeah, it is bittersweet because there should be more. Like in my class of seven students, there was four black, you know, two and two brothers, and those guys were, are still good friends of mine, incredible people. But it is something that I've think about every day because every single patient I meet, there's that moment when they shake your hand, I say, hi, I'm Jarett, I'm a nurse anesthetist. And they're said, Oh, I didn't know. Nice to meet you. And you know, so you have to go through all that. Like, yes, I'm qualified. Yes, you know, I've done this before. And then of course, then it's always the, Oh well you're excellent. Like you have to be excellent because you've been here before. But I guess it'd be my dream one day when everybody doesn't have to be excellent. Like we're all just here. Like everybody's had the opportunities that I've had. And it's not like just some uniform, random occurrence.
Naseema McElroy: 11:10 Well, I think you're excellent and I'm super like intimidated because of course being a CRNA is my dream job, but I never thought I was smart enough so I totally did not go that route. Even though if I was to do it over again, I would totally be a CRNA. I love my CRNAs, I love my anesthesiologists in general, but in this something I could totally see myself doing. But again, all those prereqs for that program and plus having to work as a critical care nurse or ICU nurse, you know, just, I just couldn't. But I look up to you.
Jarrett Jones: 11:47 Yeah, firmly believe that everyone, obviously everyone's smart enough. You're genius. Whenever I talk to people who, like SRNAs or potential people, I always tell that the time is going to pass anyway and what stops most people obviously used the belief that they can't do it. But what stops most people from doing anything is they're always thinking 20 steps in advance. Like, Oh my God, I got to have to do this and I have to do that. And with me, one of the things that I have in the blessedness, I'd never thought that far in advance. I was talking about what was the next best decision. So when I was in like in the ICU, well even before I got to ICU, my goal was to get a nursing school. So I've looked at all the nursing schools I can get into and I applied to all of them. And some I got into, some I didn't. And then when I got to nursing school and I was like, okay, well how can I get good grades and learn nursing school? And then after I got good grades and learned in nursing school, I thought, okay, well how can I get into an ICU, which kind of put me in a position to apply for it. And then after I got my interviews and I'm like, okay, well how can I pass the next exam? So I never was really worried about, even today as we speak now, I don't ever think about what's going to happen next. So I was thinking about like, what's the next best decision? And I think just a lot of people just kind of talk themselves out of stuff and just think about all these things and think about their past. And I didn't think about, Oh, I came from the worst high school in LA. Oh, I could have been shot. I could have been, you know, gang banging. And I just thought about what's the next best decision today? So, but yeah, I think you're a genius, obviously. You can do whatever you want and you're killing it.
Naseema McElroy: 13:20 Thank you. I'm flattered. Let's dive into your story about paying off debt. So, let's talk about the debt that you came out of school, so is your debt and your wife's debt combined.
Jarrett Jones: 13:34 Yeah. Part of the thing is when you're, you know, I wouldn't be a CRNA if it wasn't for my wife, like just seeing her in scrubs the first time when she was trying to get into dental school. You know, she inspired me so I wouldn't be anywhere without her. So we kind of, you know, she grew up in a working class family. I grew up super poor. Single mom raised me so we didn't have any money to get these degrees. Like we took out loans. So her loans, I mean she took out, you know, over $200,000 to go to dental school. I took out, you know, 150, $180,000 to go to CRNA school and nursing school. I mean I got a little small scholarship for my undergrad, but just all these loans and kind of had to take out the money because our parents didn't have it. And that's one of the things that when we talk about like financial independence or talk about the student loan crisis, a lot of people make the claim, Oh well you can save up for school or student loans are bad. Or you know, you can work during school, you can't work there in CRNA school. You can't work in a dental school. [Naseema Says "You can't work during nursing school"] Ahuh. We didn't have $180,000 and her daddy didn't have $200,000 so like you basically have to make the decision that you're going to take out the loans with the expectation that you're going to pay it back. So you know, there was certainly an investment of dental school and CRNA school, you know, you could pay back if you finish. So I'm pro getting the right degree and I'm pro taking out the loans and making sure that you pay them back because once you pay them back, which the journey I'm on now, then all that money's going to be going to my bank account. I'll be reaching FIRE at some point.
Naseema McElroy: 15:16 Yes. I'm glad you talked about that Jarett, because I think in the community there's certain amount of privilege and we all have privilege, right? There's a certain amount of privilege but kind of like a naivety about like what we had to do to go to school. For us, education is one of those barrier busters for us, like education is what helps us to not forever be in South Central or forever be in West Oakland. Like it's one of those things they tell you, you go to school by any means necessary because that's making it. And I think a lot of people don't understand that concept as far as you know, the people in the FIRE community. But it is like a lot of us were the first in our families to get these high levels of education. We're the first in our families to make this amount of money. So it's easy to say, yeah, like it's easy for me to say, Oh, taking out all those student loans was one of my biggest mistakes. But it's also the thing that got me to where I'm at right now. I cannot not be at this level without the education that I had, even though, you know, as a nurse, I just work, I'm just a bedside nurse, you know? I could do that with an associates degree, but it was that drive and that hustle to get to work, get into school and to make sure that I achieve regardless of the fact that I had to take out student loans to do that. That kind of separates me from people that aren't so successful. And so those student loans, yes. I'm like, Ugh, I hated them. But also I'm super grateful for the opportunity to even be able to pursue a higher education. And I think that's a lot of what's missing in a lot of conversations out there
Jarrett Jones: 17:02 A hundred percent. And everyone, I mean the argument is made now a lot in the FIRE community, well you can just be a plumber and make you know $70,000 or you could just be, and I'm like, yo, I don't want to be a plumber. Like I don't want to be a plumber. I don't want to be a mechanic. I've learned so much like getting out of South Central and obviously, I mean I love it. I love my neighborhood, but I wouldn't have been exposed to the people I've been exposed to. I wouldn't have met my wife, I mean I just came from homecoming last week. No, if you ever go to like a Fisk homecoming or Howard homecoming, you're around these like geniuses. And I just feel like, because what's happened a lot is our mothers and fathers just told us get a degree at any cost. So, a lot of us got liberal arts degrees. And that's happened to me too. Like I had a business degree. There's Business slash Philosophy. So I'm with you with the liberal arts trouble, even though I've learned a lot and you know, some of my friends are professors and everything, so like I understand non-marketable groups, but just because there are non-marketable degrees does not mean they're going to college. It's because now we're going to have a generation of kids who are going to say, well I mean even my son, my son tries to hit me with, I'm going to be a YouTuber full time. I said okay. And I will say anything. But I just feel like I've gained so much through the travels and even paying back the student loans now has not been, it's actually, you know, helped my marriage brought us close together, kind of put us on a straight path. So like I've enjoyed the whole journey. Like wouldn't change anything about it.
Naseema McElroy: 18:33 I love it. Enjoy the journey. You guys, when you started your journey, how much loans combined did you have?
Jarrett Jones: 18:39 So combined with everything but student loans and cars and credit cards, it was $419,990 so 420 grand. And you know, at the point that this is happening, you know, like when they tell you like a frog, I put a frog in a pot, boiling water, you don't really put, put them in hot water, but you kind of warm the water up and then the frog doesn't realize it's burning around. So that was what was happening to me. Like I had gotten out of school, we had student loans, but you know, we both had Audis, you know, expensive cars. We've had a huge house. We both had, I was buying Jordans like almost daily. Like anything drop, KD, Kobe, you know, I spent hundreds of dollars on shoes and purses like, Oh cause you feel like, Oh, I mean literally I would go to dinner with my friends and at this point all my friends were brand new CRNAs so they all have the nice cars. They all have the Range Rover. I Felt that pressure, like not even a pressure but almost like a pressure release. Like, Oh, I deserve this now, so yeah, I deserve this now, so I should do this. And you know, I just basically just made the decision. I didn't make decision, my wife. What had happened was, yo, I want you to go on a date with me. And I'm like, yeah, you know, I gotta like make it all weird. Like, yeah, we go on a date. And she's like, well, it's this dude Dave Ramsey and he's having a conference and I just want you to go. And I'm like, okay, cool. And she's like, all right, I already bought the ticket. It was like 30 minutes or so, and I could kind of heard Dave Ramsey's name because you know, we both went to school in Nashville. I went to FISK, she went to Mehare, so he'd, I'd heard his name, but I was like, yeah, okay I'll go. So Dave has a smart conference and at the conference, like he speaks, his daughter speaks, Chris Hogan, you know like I don't know, just kind of just hit me like, Oh if I pay off my debt and then I don't have any bills then I don't have to work. Like all my money can go to me and eventually I could like retire like super early. It just kinda just like lit a fire. And that was, you went to the smart conference in December of 2016 and by January we were on it. We were fully into the baby steps. Just going super hard working over time, picking up extra shifts. Yeah, it just went pretty amazing. So yeah, we've been on a journey I guess for like almost four years now.
Naseema McElroy: 21:10 Four years. Damn. Has it been that long? Okay. So no dang it does seem like that long ago 'cause that's when I like started. Oh that's four years. Feels like it was just yesterday. Right. So as of this month, how much debt have you paid off collectively?
Jarrett Jones: 21:27 As of this month? It's 287,000 , but we go hard, I mean there's been some months where, I mean, and let me tell you that pretty much what we live on, like percentage wise, we probably live on less than one of our checks. So I guess we live on maybe 20 I guess we pay 80% of debt and maybe 20% is going to live in expenses. Like we're going to like super, like we don't have cable. We had bought our carbon on Car Notes. Our cell phone between both of us is $50. We shop at oldie. Kids are in sports. My kids would be like, man, I'm going to hoop. And I'm like, there's a hoop outside. I don't buy clothes, I'm in scrubs from work. I mean we're just hitting all the levers that they tell you to hit these levers and you just find so many ways to save money. So it's like it's two parts of the equation. It's like you have to spend less than you make. So like you've got to cut your expenses to zero. So like we've cut our expenses by, our expenses are super low. Like, or even cash envelopes and then you've got to make more money. So like I work, you know, if a person works 40 hours a week, I'm working 60 hours a week, sometimes 70 hours a week. So I'm gonna sleep in the hospital sometimes. I'm doing OB. I'm doing a lot. I'm working hard. I mean there was a month, I believe it was, I think it was last month when I worked 30 days straight. And when I say 30 days straight, I'm saying 30 day, like Monday through Sunday, I was in the OR doing cases. I don't want to say it takes that kind of commitment, but you know, when you're looking at like six figure of debt like how you've looked at, you know, it's gonna take a lot because you're going to get distracted. People are going to tell you you're stupid and just got to go hard for a short period of time. You know, 'cause I'm ready to start living my life again, ready to hang out, you know, with kids, you know. Kids are already now, so like when we started our debt journey, kids were about nine. Now, they're 11. So, just as they get older now they start wanting stuff like an hour in the Nike store and now they want the shoes. I'm like, Oh God, now I've got to start. So I need to get out of debt. So I can try to enjoy some. But it isn't a fun ride so far. There have been tough times. There are times when one of the spouses is not on like maybe I'm not on it. Maybe she's not on it. We have meetings, but you know, still say something or I'll say something or Oh I accidentally purchased this or stitch fix or whatever. I might have bought some shoes. But overall, like our goal is just to get out of debt, is financial freedom and financial independence.
Naseema McElroy: 24:04 Right. I love it. So, the steps that you took, where you do cash envelopes, you cut expenses and you increase your income by working more. So those are the levers that you pull. So you're a CRNA and your wife is a dentist. What would she say to people who are like, well, I'm not balling like you so I can't do that?
Jarrett Jones: 24:27 You know, I get it. I respect it. One of the main things is we had a lot of debt. So we have $420,000 of debt and that doesn't include our mortgage. I don't think the average person has that debt. I think that we are an extreme case. So, for person says they're not balling like us, I would say I'm not my balling like you either, but you probably might be looking at $30,000 of debt. So, like our ratio was might be similar, you know like, so you might have like, like a one to one ratio. Like you might have $200,000 of debt and make a $200,000 income one on one. So they might have $30,000 debt and have a $30,000 right. So the game is the same. The numbers are saying we're basically, we're all in the same struggle on the same journey. A huge thing in the debt free community.
Jarrett Jones: 25:13 You know, when people talk numbers a lot of times, and I hate to be that dude, but like numbers don't matter, but it's like the numbers really don't matter. It's really an individual thing. Like so you can't look at somebody's numbers and be like, Oh well they're doing that so it doesn't apply to me. It's like we're all, we all have debt. Either one way or another we are going to have to figure out how to make it work and you just gotta make it work. So the same thing as somebody who has $30,000 of debt and I have, you know, at this point over 200 you know, we both want to be out of it. So see you at the finish line. Let's do it.
Naseema McElroy: 25:49 Yeah. I love that one to one ratio that you said, it's all about perspective, right? Your net worth is probably about the same.
Jarrett Jones: 25:58 Yeah, super, super lows. Honestly. And even, I mean it goes the same way. Like when I see, if on Instagram I see somebody's like, Oh, I've paid off $1,000. I'm like, man, dude, I would love to have that. And so, everybody always feels the grass is greener. Like yeah, over here, you know, I'm looking at all this, you know, six figure debt. Like I'm like, I had the same struggle as you do. So it is what it is. Like we all have to just do the best we can and get out as quickly as we can.
Naseema McElroy: 26:26 Yeah, like I've been told several times that I'm not relatable or what I'm going through is like rich people struggles and I'm like, you know, I think that comes from a place of fear and that's okay. But, as long as you kind of recognize that and understand that I can't be totally relatable to everybody. I can't be all things to everybody, but there is something that I have shared that you can take and apply to your life. Something that will help you, something that'll be beneficial to you. And I'm open to helping every body. And I think that's what matters. And so like when people are just like, Oh man, well I don't make this amount of money so I can't do that. Or you know, well, Oh my God, I couldn't imagine having that much debt. Well I'm not struggling like that so your information doesn't apply. It does. But take what works for you and use that and then whatever doesn't work, just leave it. And that's kind of how I have to deal with those kinds of people. But yeah, I think everything that you have done, anybody else can do. These are things that are super transferable. These are things that anybody can do. Anybody can operate on a cash system. Anybody can work extra shifts. Like what's stopping you from making more than $30,000 a year? Body kitting the budget, you know? So yeah, it's super important. So, what's next Jarett? So, once you finish paying off this debt, which you're going to do really soon... 2020. Hey! Wait, so you have like 200 something thousand dollars a day left.
Jarrett Jones: 28:14 Yes. We are working extra, extra hard. I'm working multiple shifts. I'm getting all the overtime. It's our busy season. So, I'm working super hard. So we are throwing pretty much everything at student loans. That's basically our only bill. I mean we have utilities and mortgage, but pretty much like all of our money goes to it. So everything my wife makes, everything I make, any extra, any extra shifts, I pick up an extra job to pick up and all those there.
Naseema McElroy: 28:41 That's awesome. So when you're finished paying off this debt, the amount of money you'll have to just invest and just spin. That's hell of money, Jarett.
Jarrett Jones: 28:52 God, I can't even imagine seeing a check and it being my money. Like it's going to be like I see all these people like online and your Facebook going on like trips, people just buying stuff. Like I'm like, aw dude, I can't.
Naseema McElroy: 29:12 That'll be cool. So, during this time, I know you're like super hardcore, like Dave Ramsey. Yeah. So Ramsey doesn't believe in investing while you're in debt and you have a massive amount of debt. Have you stuck to that?
Jarrett Jones: 29:26 Well, okay, so I love Dave. Dave is big bro. And there are certain things that I kind of had to steer away because of our income. And one of them was the investing because we're in a higher tax bracket, it's, you know, we had to keep our 401k in order to just get our taxes down on. So like I still max out my 401k but the match, I still invest in my HSA to get my taxes down. So those are like the two main things just because you know, by the time, like my age, like I'm 42 so by the time I get to the end of the journey, I don't want to be sitting there was like $0 million. Especially with that, how the market is doing right now. So yeah, that's one of the things where I kind of steer against what Dave's saying and I understand the reason why he says. The reason why he's saying it, you know, Dave's on a radio show and he's speaking to all of America and you speak into people and you kind of gives like a blank statement. And the blank statement is yes, you want all of your money going to your debt because no, if you have a 7% interest on debt and you know, you could potentially make X amount of money in the market or you could just lose X amount on your market, you should throw out your debt. A hundred percent agree with just our specific situations with our 401K with how much money, you know, we're kind of tried to not go to taxes 'cause we're going to lose that money anyway. The feds are watching. So you know, it's best for us just to like max out anything, in 401K, HSA, anything that we haven't [inaudible]
Naseema McElroy: 30:57 Right. So yeah, David's talking to like the average American, not all make six figures a year and that kind of, what's some advice that I took and it didn't really serve me well. So, when I was paying off all my debt, I did pause my contributions for a year and it cost me $30,000.
Jarrett Jones: 31:25 Oh, okay. Okay. Let me go ahead and max out so I may have to do it yeah.
Naseema McElroy: 31:30 Thank you. I'm glad you could learn from that lesson that I have to take. That's our beef. So yeah, so now I'm maxing out my 403B, my 457. I got an IRA. Like any money, I'm maxing that thing out because yeah, it's different when you have a higher income because you get hit with hecka taxes. And so I love seeing that lower take home pay because I have so much invested. So Hey, I just know I'm invested in me and not an uncle Sam. I mean I love contributing to this country. I don't mind paying my taxes, but I'm not about to pay like all this money knowing that I could be paying myself. So that is there for us to use, to save. It is meant for us to take advantage of and I'm going to take full manage of it.
Jarrett Jones: 32:23 Yeah I understand. And even that, listening to you with the HSA, that was one thing that I learned from one of your podcasts. Just how you can take that money and you have to, I believe you're talking to the lady one time and she had like $100,000 in her HSA or something. And I would just lie, Whoa. Like my mind was blown. I was like, okay, so let me get this straight. You can put this money to the side, have it invested and then take it out and like 59 tax-free without necessarily having to use it for health expenses once you get to a certain age. And I was like, Whoa. I mean so many things that we haven't been taught in our community. Like I'm just glad that you're out here exposing people to this stuff. Especially as nurses, like we don't know this stuff. Like it's like you said, the 401k administrator, it's probably some big scary guy office somewhere and they're not telling you all the secrets of what to do with your money. So, I agree with you.
Naseema McElroy: 33:16 Yes, we have to educate ourselves, but we also have to understand that the reason and the reason why I share is because I'm not that far ahead of you. I'm just learning it. You know? I'm not nowhere near you, but I'm not too far ahead of the next nurse. Right. I just, I learned, I just liked to teach back because I just wished this is information that was shared with me 'cause I would have made some better decisions. And so, I think it's super important that there is somebody who's representative of you or somebody that looks like you or somebody that's doing the same thing as you that can speak to the things that you should do in order for it to be applicable to you in your mouth, mind, you know, it's a mind. We have to see people that are doing the things that we aspire to doing that we have some kind of similar connection to in order to make it tangible. And so, that's why I'm here. I'm just here to help you all out. Like I'm not a genius. I don't know everything. I'm still broke too.
Jarrett Jones: 34:20 Hat's like one of the things like when you talk about when people say, Oh well if they say like my scene was not relatable. I'm like, yo, like she looks like you, she's from Oakland and she's from another, like she pulled herself in. So like, how could that not be related? Like, so like that's one of the things like I'm like, it doesn't matter if she says, you know, she paid half a million. Like she didn't come from a middle and she, but she comes from a millionaire family. She did that on our own. So like you've got to respect. Yeah, I'm just glad and I'm glad that the next people who come after us, they're going to be on a whole another level. Like standing on your shoulders, you know, like picking up all the game that you're talking about. So this is a good thing that you're doing.
Naseema McElroy: 34:58 Well, thank you. And I just feel like it's my obligation. It's my way of paying back, giving back. And I was always taught that when you leave the situation, like you know, when you leave the hood, no obligation is to give back. And so I'm always looking for a way to serve. Best believe I don't make any money. You have this stuff that I do is really out of just service for, you know, wanting to see our next generations or just people, even our, you know, cohorts do better.
Jarrett Jones: 35:31 Absolutely. We would be failures if like the door is open and then we're shut behind us. So my favorite lines, huge days and fan when I love when he says like the streets said he can't come back home. You know, when I heard that and I was back home. So I'm glad that like, you know, we still, you know, keep it, keep it open 'cause somebody helped us, like definitely helped me. A lot of people, they're still helping me.
Naseema McElroy: 35:55 Right. Same here. So, I'm constantly learning. I'm constantly for opportunities to learn and grow. But in also doing that, I'm constantly looking for opportunities to share and pour back into people who are just one or a couple of steps behind me because that's my duty and that's my obligation. And I just, being on this path has been so powerful and so freeing and has opened up so many doors for me that I couldn't even imagine. And this is something that anybody can do and it might look different for you and it should look different for you 'cause you know we're different people, but I just encourage everybody to not only just go on a path to financial freedom, but just to be intentional about all the decisions that you make in your life and always try to strive to do better. And then in that process, strive to teach others. But being in this community and being exposed to such amazing people has really benefited me and I know it's going to benefit my kids and just other generations to come. So I'm super honored to even have the opportunity to get to know you, Jarett. Especially because I mean like, like they said like honestly like Jarett has been rocking with me since my very first post. Right?
Jarrett Jones: 37:14 Yeah. You're the first financial person I really met 'cause that was the thing that's taken way back. At this point, I mentioned you in probably 2017 Subaru early. At this point it was Dave Ramsey who was like somebody like a mythical giant or whatever in this space. Like when I saw your posts saying like, you paid off all the money. You were the first person who actually looked like me. This was before, you know, I knew about Rich Regular or His or Her money, like all the Jameela Journey to Launch, before I knew any of them. You were the very first person who looked like me was appear that I can look to you, especially as a nurse. Like I'm like, Oh, she does this. If she's getting it, I can get it. And so like that's super, I mean, I always remember just, I mean, before you even did a podcast, I just remember like, wow, like I'm going to do it. And you know, we're close. I mean, we're like a year out. I've been excited to just follow you.
Naseema McElroy: 38:13 Well, I'm coming to Houston. When you pay off your debt, we're going to have a party.
Jarrett Jones: 38:20 Yes. Yes. You're welcome. I can't wait.
Naseema McElroy: 38:26 Hey. Well Jarett, it has been an honor to have you on the podcast. I hope to have you back when you pay off your debt.
Jarrett Jones: 38:33 Thank you. Will do. See you next year, 2020.
Naseema McElroy: 38:37 2020 that's where it is. We're starting the decade, the new decade off right. And then before the decade is over, I know you're going to be a multimillionaire, so you know.
Jarrett Jones: 38:48 Yeah. We will speak that into existence. I like that.
Naseema McElroy: 38:51 I mean, it has to be.
Jarrett Jones: 38:53 It has to happen.
Naseema McElroy: 38:53 It is written.
Jarrett Jones: 38:54 I like that. I like that. Destiny.
Naseema McElroy: 38:54 Alright, Jarett. Well, it has been an honor like I said. I look forward to see you on all the socials. Look forward to watching your longer journey. I appreciate you so so much for taking the time out to join me on my podcast.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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