This Nurse is Money Hungry - Ep. 56
Michelle Jackson is the creator of Michelle is Money Hungry. She is a digital entrepreneur and shares her journey of going from financially illiterate to a cash budgeting aficionado. She provides a place where people can admit their financial mistakes and work on improving their financial lives. She encourages people as they change their financial life. She provides tools and ideas on how to save money, make more money, and live their best life she wants to encourage people not to give up. To keep trying until one day…all of that effort hits a financial tipping point.
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Links mentioned:
Car Sharing Site which allows Michelle to only pay $800 a year for use of a car
Turo, the carsharing app where I’ve made over four thousand in 2020 so far
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:00] All right, Nurses on Fire. I am super honored have Michelle Jackson of Michelle is money hungry joining us. And we are going to talk about how to start, where you are and monetize the skills you already have, because we all have the ability to bring more money in our lives. And the more money we can bring, the more financially free we can be.
So thank you so much for joining us, Michelle, how are you?
Michelle Jackson: [00:00:29] I am. Well, thank you so much for having me. It's been one of those days. So I am excited to have this conversation with you and geek out about empowering your listeners with what they already know.
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:43] Let's hope they know, but let's talk about Michelle is money hungry.
Cause people hear that name and they're just. Why, what is that mean? That she's greedy. Isn't like the love of money, the root of all evil well, and all this stuff that can come up when people think about people that are actively pursuing, more money. So let's talk about how you came into that name and, the journey behind it.
And just your background story in general.
Michelle Jackson: [00:01:11] I love this question because I was very deliberate and choosing a name that would create a reaction. This is the, kind of the two points, five, like the, second and a half rebranding of my project. I started my project, like blogging, that kind of thing in 2012.
And it had a completely different name. And. Just as any person, , this project grew and changed and I grew and changed over time. And finally, there was a point where I, I really felt like it was time to do a rebrand of the website of what I was doing. And I decided that the name Michelle is money hungry.
would be a really. Slightly provocative one. And the reason why is exactly what you're saying, is it listed for some people, a very negative response. And I was fine with that. My purpose with the name was to tell myself that it was okay to want more for myself. And I think that I need to be very clear.
Greed is bad. This is not 1980s wall street. Okay. Greed is good. If you're a gen X or, you know, that quote, that wasn't the point at all, but really to tell myself that earning more so I can pay off debt so I can help my family so I can help charities so I can travel. So I can have in vitro if I need to do that.
So I can pay for adoption. Like you need money to pay for these. And the idea that I should be penny pinching. My whole life just made no sense. Now I should say I'm not a fan of like those, organizations that are like, let's, let's charge you 10,000 because we can't like that's bull. But
it's a good idea to grow your income and grow your, financial wisdom and grow your wealth. That was what I was really wanting to have a conversation around and buy. Having that name. I had to be asked the question. Well, why like, by some people, why would you choose that name? It's also kind of funny.
and so it's easy to remember and quite honestly, to get the URL, Michelle jackson.com, that would be like $26,000. So I wasn't gonna, I wasn't gonna pay that for my name online. So this was kind of the compromise, but also every time I see. Michelle is money hungry. I am reminded that it is okay to make more, to want more, to do more with the money that into my life.
And I, you know, really leaned into the name and it's, done well in terms of just people remembering it, that kind of thing. and there's a lot of power. In names when you're naming a child, whether you're, you know, like Elon Musk just learned that with his child is very, I still don't know how to say his child's name, you know?
So there is a lot of power in the names that you speak out for the projects that you do. And my goal was to really assert myself that what I want it was okay.
Naseema McElroy: [00:04:14] I love it. I love it. So, Within all of the brand that you've built and the things that you shared, what have you been able to personally accomplish by being money hungry?
Michelle Jackson: [00:04:29] So I would say that wouldn't, I refer to myself as money hungry. It's just that, but what I would say he is being in the personal finance space and having a specific financial goal for myself.
That was key. And part of the reason why I went into writing about personal finance was I had problems with money and I had problems with money that were both. Created by like my own actions and lack of knowledge, as well as external situations that were out of my control. So I had horrible financial skills.
I had great soft skills. So I was a wonderful employee. You know, I did all the right things, like all the soft skills that actually in 2020 people struggle with. I'm good at, but when it came to. Financial management and understanding the language of money. I didn't have that. And then, many years ago, this became a perfect storm cause at a financial mess.
And then my mom lost her job in the airline industry. and so there came a point where she came to me and she's like, Michelle, I don't know what I'm going to do. I need to live with you because I have no other options. And I had no idea. I thought it was weird that she wasn't like, she, I hadn't found another job because it'd been so easy to find jobs before.
And then this time that just wasn't the case. And so we ended up living together and I had to support my mom while I was in graduate school, working at Starbucks part time. Cause that's what graduate students typically do and student loans. And so I had a financial tsunami that became even worse and I was managing like I was.
In charge of two people. And it was the most, the stressful experience financially of my life. you can't imagine what it feels like to be like, I could be homeless. Like that was literally how bad it was. And. I learned a lot about what I didn't know. I was like, this is not how I want my life to be, and I don't know what to do about this.
and it was so overwhelming and it took such a long time to rebound. I feel a lot of empathy, not some of the empathy and compassion for people. at the time we're recording this episodes, July of 2020. and there are a lot of people who are having the experience that I did and they don't know.
What's going to happen next. Maybe they've lost a job because of coronavirus. Maybe just industry change changes. Travel is not happening if they're in the travel industry, if they're in hospitality. And so, they're finding themselves, maybe they thought that their lifestyle was fine and then all of a sudden the rug was pulled out from under them.
They're like, Oh wait, we've been floating on all this debt. And we didn't even know. And so it's like a come to Jesus moment, like. This is bad. And so I have a lot of empathy for people who are this moment now, and they're just like, we don't know what we're going to do. So I had that moment, but it took a long time.
It's taken a long time to clean up my financial mess and also to relearn how I think about money. And I think that's the huge part. So, as part of that, I fell into the personal finance space and I started reading. Other people's stories. One of the things that, I find now is that people in the personal finance space are getting back to telling their stories.
but there was a period where they kind of stopped telling stories. But when I first got into it, they really, or sharing story-driven content about their personal journeys, about how they paid off debt, about how they. accumulated income, how they negotiated things, how they, dealt with really structured, stressful financial moments.
And so for me, it was so empowering and so inspiring. And I was like, I don't know how long this is going to take, but. At least, I know I'm not the only person having this experience. And in fact, I learned that over 51% of women of color, I had this experience that I did, which is supporting another family member financially.
so I, you know, live here in this town before we start recording, we talked about the town that I'm from and it's a very, very wealthy town. And I'm living in. Studio with my mom, because I was living in a studio when this happened and I felt so alone. Like I'm the only person who's living like this in the whole city that I'm in or anywhere like no one else is having this at the same time.
My neighbors below like two floors below me at the time that my mom and I were living together and my studio, they were an immigrant family from North Africa. And I'll never forget them because they were in a studio as well. And there were 10 of them, two of , the family members were children.
And you never heard them. their place was immaculate. They slept on pallets, so they would roll them out at night and put them back. and so I learned a lot about grace and dignity. They were the most giving people bull that I've ever met. Like just so charitable, hardworking. And it made me feel like.
the stuff that I was telling myself about this experience, I needed to let it go because they came to another country. they spoke some English, but they were just struggling and they just did it with grace and they just each day they woke up and did what they had to do. And so that's what I learned.
It's like each day is a new day and, that's all I can do is take one day at a time. And that's literally what I've done is just take one at a time. And I just learned that. I'm not the only one going through these things. and that was very, very healthy and empowering for me because I was just like, Oh my God, why is this to me?
Like, what do I do? And it wasn't that I did anything just sometimes life happens, you know, just sometimes. That's how it goes. and so I decided that it would be good to share my story and if it helps at least one person, then that would be great. So I started blogging. I still very much love sharing content online.
I don't really refer to it as blogging anymore because I feel like the language is a little outdated. I consider myself a, online content creator. Because I create content a lot of different spaces. but I love sharing my story and other people's stories because then if you're feeling like I'm the only one it's like, no, you're not, you're not there.
And yeah, it sucks. And we're gonna get you through this because we're going to be a community with you and move you through. Yeah,
Naseema McElroy: [00:11:01] Representation definitely matters, but there is like so much stuff there to unpack Michelle, like you share so much and like chills the whole time because how many of us really, and especially right now realize that we are one little life event away from financial disaster, you know?
Nurses my primary audience, like when COVID a lot of nursing jobs were lost or hours reduced. And I've never seen that before, even like the anesthesiologist and, you know, anesthesiologist make bank and then like they're super desirable, but when they stopped doing elective surgeries and, a lot of hospital units were shut down, so resources could be allocated to the COVID unit.
It took a major, hit getting their shifts, even. I mean, you know, in nursing, if the patients aren't there, you don't come to work. So you have the option of, you know, using your, vacation time or just taking no pay. a lot of our administrators are furlowed.
I mean, and. If you were just coasting, which just because you make a good salary.
Doesn't mean that you're not coasting as a matter of fact, most people are. so it's just a lot to unpack there and like your mom worked in the airline industry and. Yeah, there's been ups and downs in the airline industry, but typically by people in their airline industry, it's pretty consistent.
And you know, there's always jobs, even if like one airline goes down, you go to the other airline. I mean, I've had a lot of family in the airline industry, but it's just like, That was it. And then, so not only your mom lost everything, but then you're already struggling grad student working part time in the studio apartment. Now you're living with her. This is the person that's supposed to be taking care of you
Michelle Jackson: [00:12:53] have, not necessarily as an adult,
Naseema McElroy: [00:12:57] but like, but it's still a paradigm shift. You know what I'm saying? There's that hierarchy? There's this. Your mom, then you was not like a sibling it's she still like a care taker, you know? And so that like, but now the roles are reversed. She's dependent on you. And there's so many people like that, especially in our community as, you know, There's a lot of pressure put on the people that may hear it. Right. Because a lot of resources were put behind us to make sure that we were successful so that we can bring other people up so that when other people fall off, like it's the default, like you're going to help.
And so I think. Maybe an immigrant communities. They can't, they understand this and others they're minority communities, but it's not something that's widely discussed or something acknowledged, especially in the personal finance space that a lot of people, especially women of color, people of color have this added burden of having to take care of other family members.
And that's something that. If we're being intentional about our finances, we always have to plan for, but most people aren't intentional about their finances yet they still have to. That's their reality.
Michelle Jackson: [00:14:17] and it's funny that you mentioned that part in terms of being intentional. Now, moving forward for me, I have, and I don't know, announced this necessarily, but I'm on a show, but I have a, my family's money is funny, but I'm not laughing account.
And the idea is, and it was by now, by the way, people, if you're listening and watching, like, she'd be, everything's fine. Yeah, but, so in general, there's an account so that I have funds available so I can help people without harming my finances. It just, it just is what it is. And, in terms of making the decision to help my mom, that was a non-decision it just, I had never thought that it just had never crossed my mind that this could happen.
Right because my mom had been working, so she was like 12 or 14 years old. She always worked. So this, it just never crossed my mind that she would have difficulty finding work. And by the way, like she applied for, this was, you know, Around nine 11. So this is part of it. I wouldn't watch, letters come in now everything's email, but she would get letter after letter of rejections.
she just would apply for so many jobs. I probably saw her get rejected from like three times easily. She just applied for. She applied for everything. So the other piece to that is, there was some ageism, there was definitely something to do with color. It could be that she applied for stuff that didn't fit her skillset.
Like, I feel like there was a lot going on, but the other thing that was going on, but I don't think that people talk about enough is that how we do work was changing. And I think in the early two thousands, that was really starting to happen where. Maybe the role that you did is now done by, by a computer or maybe they, you know, they, they, you know, companies are optimizing a role.
So that one person is doing like two or three things versus like three people doing two or three things. So I think that, that was also what my mom got caught up in was just that how business was being done and how tasks were being managed. Change. And right now during COVID, we've just done a leap year to five years in the future.
Now where we're at now is quite, yeah. Honestly what I thought the trend would before COVID hit. I thought we were trending towards in the next five years. we cut five years out of the trending. and we're here now. So people have to be very aware paying attention to how people are doing business.
you're just going to have to be very aware of what's going on because it's going to hit your bottom line. If you in hospitality right now, they're learning like companies are learning ways to do things differently with fewer staff. They just are, right now, if you are in, like you work at a hotel, they have robots that do things at hotels that are taking over and it's not me wearing like my aluminum and hat.
And like this guy is falling. It's, it's literally, that is what they're doing. The whole foods. There's the new whole foods in Denver. and downtown Denver, it's, it's fairly new. It's like a year old or whatever. And, before COVID we would go and like go to the checkout line and people would help us.
like the 10 items or less, like, there'd be a person there now it's all self help. You do your self checkout, you do it yourself. And they were like, Oh yeah, we're one of like two stores in the state. So they rolled out this new system that eliminated people from the system. So if you're not paying attention to this, this is problematic for you moving forward.
It just is you have to be proactive about how you are making money in 2020, thankfully there's a lot of ways to do it. and, there are a lot of opportunities, but you have to start considering how to make money outside of your nine to five only so that you are protected and empowered and the financial conversations that you have with people.
Naseema McElroy: [00:18:24] But before we go into that, I want to. Talk about, like, just give like the timeline of how you, you were able to get to where you were with your mom, to where you are right now and what that took like once you dug into the personal finance space, what, from those stories, were you able to incorporate into your life to make the improvements, to get to where you are now?
This is a very long timeline. So what I would say is, you also have to factor in just getting like stabilizing my situation enough to even be able to intake the information because it was so, like, I don't think people understand the emotional impact of the instability. So I finally got a job. that took four months to get hired onto, by the way.
When I got that job, it was wonderful, except it was a few years after nine 11 and I was working with international students. Who, by the way that industry right now, experience that I had, then it's a disaster. But at the time I get this job and I'm so excited first week, I'm there. I'm like, Oh, there's a problem.
Now this is at a university we're working with international students, adults. The problem was they had no students because of 911, even years later. Okay. and because of the swine flu, a lot of Koreans stopped coming because the swine flu. So all these things happen. And we were like struggling and the girl who quit my position before me quit because of this.
And so my colleagues every week, that first week, this is what I hear. I'm sorry, excited to get this job. I just gone through this whole thing with my mom's years. Like it's taken years to get through this thing. I'm I'm like I got a job. It took four months to get hired on, but this is great. I only work four hours a week.
Cause that's all the work they got. So I had four hours a week. Job that I finally get took four months to get, anyway, my colleagues who had worked there my entire life, like from the day I was born until I showed up. So they'd worked there forever. They kept talking about, well, when do you think we'll close?
They had no students. Like, it was a legit question. When do you think we'll close? So for months they would just talk about how they would close it. I mean, it was legit. Issue. And if they were worried, they were like, we're going to close. We're going to close the business. What I heard every week, we're going to close.
We're going to close. And then the Saudi Arabian cultural mission, I'll ever be grateful to them. Thank you, Saudi Arabia. They gifted all of their young people money to study abroad, and this would be anyone undergrad through PhD. So young people up to like forties, right? They give them money for tuition, for, like incidentals for accommodation, for their spouses.
Cause they all had spouses. Most of them for their kids, for their dental, anything they needed, they gave the money for. And so overnight he got slammed for years to come overnight. All day long guys named Muhammad would call I'm not joking all day long to an end. They all have a lot of similar names. So some people that sent an incomplete applications, other complete, all this crazy.
It was crazy. So this taught me about feast and famine, and we ended up having so much work after that. And then other countries did the same. So Kuwait did the same thing overnight. Like all the Saudis were coming and all of a sudden Kuwait did the same thing. Actually there's an African country that did the same thing.
So we started getting just this flood of students and that was great. And then guess what happened? The great recession. Okay. So weirdly enough had this stable job and the way I was hired, the state of Colorado doesn't hire people this way anymore because it was so protected, but it was weird because, right before the recession hit.
I was thinking about quitting my job because I'd been there for five years and it was a few years overdue. Like I was like, I need something new, whatever. And I got this energy, like, I don't think I should quit. Like, it was the weirdest thing. And, I was like, I don't think I should quit. And I decided to buy a place and stuff.
So I ended up buying a place. And when I bought my place. I told my realtor. I was like, if I have to work at Starbucks, I want to be able to afford this place. So this is kind of the framework that we were working with is expensive people, but we found an amazing, amazing city bitty place and an amazing location.
and I bought wisely and I spent half the amount that I would have been loaned by a mortgage company. so that's a key note there just because they'll loan you, the money doesn't mean you should take the money. So all these teachers and stuff who were like, we bought a house for $500,000 and I'm a teacher.
I'm like, not how it works. So those are the people I'm referencing. Now who are probably freaking out because they have this huge mortgage, all this expense that they're dealing with. I didn't have that. So I bought this place and then the recession hit. And so I stayed working with them. And it was good until it was bad.
And I was like, I hate this. I hate the commute. I hate that. I'm so in debt and it was why I was working, was just, I needed the money. Like I really needed the money. And so, as I was working, the job, I just kept thinking, this is not how I want my life to be. This is not how it should be.
Like what can I do to get this together? Like, I can't take this anymore. I had a long commute. So the commute was usually, it's like 30 minutes. It should be. but they were working on a highway, you know, how long that takes. So as two hours, each way. And so everyone would commute between Denver and Boulder with a, we got a free bus pass.
So we would do this fall. We would nap on the bus, going back and forth. Thousands of people every day. And ironically, once they finished that, highway work five years later, that was, there was a massive sinkhole ma I mean, so big that it made international news on a pallet, like massive, like massive.
So anyway, this was what I was dealing with. I was like, I'm commuting. I'm exhausted. I just I'm working with all these people. I started my job working with about a hundred people at any given time, either in the building or on their way. By the time I ended it with 600 people in the building or on their way.
And that was dealing with immigration, their kids stalking behavior that happened. I got stopped by a few people, like just a lot. So finally I was like, aye, this is not how my life is going to be. This is not how it works, but I had a financial mess. And so I had to reconcile it. I was like, if I don't get this mess together, I can't like, what am I going to do?
Like, your life is finite. Right? No, tomorrow's I guarantee you the next five minutes. Isn't guaranteed. So I really started having these deep thoughts. Like I would go hiking during work. I was salaried, so all of us would go hiking like that. Wasn't unused, it's Colorado, but I would go hiking for like two hours.
Towards the end. I was like, gotta to go. I'll be back. So I go for two hours and get my mind right. And just do my work. Right. I go to core power yoga because there was a yoga studio, a core powers Colorado company, and it was a block away. So I would do this. I would do yoga and I would just. Or go hiking for myself. It was a little excessive. So I wasn't doing anything that other people weren't doing at work, but the two hours was an hour extra. And so, being a part of the personal finance community and learning from them and learning just. What like the tiny steps, tiny things I could do. And so I started, like, joke that my personal, like my payoff journey is so messy.
So you always hear about these people were like, I had this Excel spreadsheet and this is what I did. And I'm like, that's not what I did. Like, that's not what I did. Like everything was messy because there was a lot of energy that my debt took up. Right. And no one talks about this in personal finance. It makes me crazy.
My debt was complicated because there was so much and, just kind of thinking about it was. Inadequately intense and just trying to manage it was energetically intense. And a lot of it was in a rears, even though I'd been in this stable job for a while. It's just, that doesn't mean that my skills or habits or anything were matching that that just means that wasn't a stable job, that's it.
And, and this mess, and it just took a long time. To just acknowledge that I had a mess and that was keeping me from living my best life, you know? And so I just started, like, sometimes I would pay a small bill just cause it was small bill and I could manage it. That was what I could manage. That was it some bills.
I was like, well, you know, wow, interest rates insane, like maybe I just need to pay some bills. I was like, look, listen, negotiate this. Cause you know, I got $99, but not the hundred 99. You know what I mean? Like, so each I just did what I could energetically manage. And anyone who sits there and talks about, well, this is the way you should do it like that repayment or whatever.
They make me crazy the way you should do it is if you can commit to a process and you keep moving forward. that is the process. And so I've paid over $60,000 in debt. I'm at the tail end of the unsecured debt, this next four to six weeks. Just about done with that.
And I'm so happy. Oh, wait. There's student loans. but the thing is when you're dealing with 30 plus creditors and they're emailing you. This is one creditor would email call text and send letters. Multiply that by 30. Imagine how that feels. You're always under attack. I was always. So I think about that when I craft my personal finance content.
I think about that now, when people are talking about let them choose something new. In regards to people who are unemployed right now, I think about this because I will never, ever, ever forget getting all that contact from people, mail, email, text messages, and, Emails. I'll never forget it. Now. I get nothing.
I get nothing in the mail. I get no mail. I get no calls. I get no text messages. it's glorious, but it took a really long time to get there.
Yeah. that weight. Is like super duper heavy. So people who've never experienced that. Like I remember that just from my father. Cause I, I, you know, like he was bad at her with money.
I just remember like the dodging of credit, like creditors that would call my house. All day,
I learned as a kid, but it was emotionally heavy for me then. And I just remember being like, I don't want that to happen. And when it did happen to me as an adult, it was traumatizing, you know?
So dang. Like, I feel it. But I know it's a lot of people in this space. I have never had to deal with that and don't really know how to relate. And so, like we said, like representation matters and I love that you share your journey because no, it's just not cut and dry, black and white. Like, this is what you do. These are the steps and everybody can, can achieve it. It's about. You are just being consistent on your path and it takes time. Not everybody you can do it overnight. Like it is a journey. And along the journey though, you have been able to unlock so many other things for yourself, which is incredible. And you're able to share your story, which I know is super relatable and super encouraging to other people.
So thank you for that. But let's talk about, especially right now, I mean, you just blew through two major recessions. You were a part of, and now we're in another COVID-19 recession and people are scrambling right now. A lot of people are experiencing layoffs. We've had an ex layoff in our household too.
and people need to know like, What's the next steps.
so what can people do right now to kind of, first of all, collect themselves because a lot of people are still in a place of shock or just like trying to figure out like what's going on in general. What can they do to try to put the rug back underneath them to get some solid budding and try to see what skills they have now to create an income?
Michelle Jackson: [00:32:02] So I think the first thing is you have to give yourself some grace and like, for me right now, I feel like I'm in mourning of what was my reality from before. And my life hasn't changed that much since the shutdown. So I was already working from home. I was already working for myself. I was already going to patios like coffee, shop patios to do my work.
Like a lot of my day to day, life is pretty much the same, but. I think we're all dealing with a loss of a sense of what was, and so I think that it's important to acknowledge. And just more than that, like we're in a process of mourning a loss and. And it's so upsetting and so frustrating, and it's not our fault.
And that's the other piece too. It's like, it's not even our fault, you know? and then you have to be like, no, it's not our fault, but this is the hand we're dealt. And in terms of money and our finances, this is the moment where you start. Going through everything and really getting a picture of where you're at.
It is not a moment to be judging yourself harshly. It's not a moment to sit there and be like, I wish I did. You didn't okay. Like you didn't, you are where you are. I hate it. When people like use this moment to like beat themselves up for what they've done, you did what you did with the knowledge that you had and the habits that you have at this point.
they aren't working for you if you're seeing that they aren't working for you now, then okay. Now let's learn and move on because that's all you can do. And then quite honestly, if you're going to have to look through your budget and cut things aggressively, this does not mean.
That you have to cut stuff and lose quality of life. One of the things that I did, before I quit my job was I looked through my budget and I was like, I am. So part of the reason why I can't get ahead, it is my budget is overinflated. Like I am way overspending on everything. And so I spent time really thoughtfully going through my budget and eliminating certain things and I just switched.
What I was doing with the key thing, being, not losing quality of the experience, quality of life or quality of food tasting. Cause I have a big thing about my food has to be good. I'm not one of those people eat fast food. So, I was like, there's certain standards. That I liked to live at, and I'm not going to lower those standards, but I have to figure out how to do this better.
And it's 2020. So we have apps. We have extensions like honey, we have all these. Tools online to help us facilitate these things. So a good example of that was, about five years ago, four or five years ago, before low cost phone carriers became a thing that people really were comfortable with. I was like, I paid too much for my cellphone.
So about five years ago I was paying for it. One person, it was $125 a month. That's $1,200 a year. That's a vacation. That's insane. I don't even like talking on the phone. The only people I talk to on the phone are my mom and my grandma. And at that time creditor, those were the only people I was talking to.
Okay. my friends and stuff, we would see each other in person. We weren't even chit chatting on the phone. So it made no sense for me to have this expense. So I ended up switching to a low cost carrier. And I think at that time I used cricket. And I loved them. They were really good. So I've used cricket Republic, wireless, Google fi and met mobile.
All of them with the exception of Google fi here in Denver, worked really great. Google find does not work well in Denver. So don't use it, but the other ones were great. So now I spend with minute mobile, which is I currently use and Ryan Gosling owns it. So he sends this little voice messages, which is really hot.
So I'm like thinking Ryan, like, thank you. So during the, the shut-in, he would call us and be like, we're giving you more data. I'm like, you know, like it felt great. You know, my Gosling Sharon were data with me and calling me to personally let me know. So instead of spending $1,200 a month, or excuse me, a year on cell phone service, I now spend 400.
That's a huge difference. I had a paid off car, then it died. And so it was just like, what am I going to do? And then other issues. But it's an alert. It's a hilarious story that I need to do a podcast episode on. So, I was like, I don't want to buy another car. I like having access to a car, but all the expenses related to that it's even with the paid off car, I was paying about 3,500 to 4,000 a year on average.
So I was like, how can I have access to a car? And, and lower that overhead. So now I use a car share and I actually, there's a nonprofit locally here in Denver, a Boulder it's. It operates in different Boulder and Fort Collins. And, I, this year I will pay including road trips. So I have road trips. I already budgeted about $800 for transportation.
Naseema McElroy: [00:37:22] A year. That's my, that's one of my smaller cars car now.
Michelle Jackson: [00:37:27] Yeah. So if you have two cars, if you live in an area that has a really good car share, you might want to kick one car to the curb and have one. You need it. Especially if you have kids, you need to have one car, but maybe you incorporate a car share because then, you will lower that overhead because I don't have to deal with upkeep.
I don't have to deal with gas or I pay the gas, but it's just for each trip that I do. I don't have to worry about that. I have a group, Insurance note that I'm a part of, I paid for the upgrade. So it's a million dollar insurance. So if anything happens to me in the car, I opted for the million dollar coverage.
so, again, I use I'm with a nonprofit. There's a lot of them that are for profit. I love that it's a nonprofit, the local organization. So I like supporting them for that reason. Yeah. And, it's been great and, and friendly. So they actually, all their cars are hybrids. So that's the other cool thing.
So I don't deal with any names, any issues with whatever, if there's a problem, I call them, they come and help me. I love it.
Naseema McElroy: [00:38:32] So do you just like book when you need to use the car? So you have to just like plan in advance when you need to use the car.
Michelle Jackson: [00:38:39] Yeah, but for me, I don't have littles. I live by a light rail.
I live by three light rail lines and I have a bike and I'm walkable to downtown. So for me, it's very like, I don't need the car that much, but if I want to do a road trip or something like that, I just book the car or like tomorrow. at the time we're recording. I have, I am mentoring some, pod-casters women of color and a program and there's a showcase for them tomorrow.
So them and the other ladies in the program, I will get the car so I can drive over to that neighborhood and then come back. So, after this, I'll do schedule it and then we're good.
Naseema McElroy: [00:39:18] That's crazy. So I have a little, but I have a couple of cars, but I, I've never heard of that. car sharing service, like ever. I've never heard of that. That was like a thing. So thank you for picking up on it. But,
I use actually Touro, I put my cars on Turo and that more than pays for my car knows I think like, even in COVID right now, this month, I'm at like, $2,000 that I've made from my card, but let me put a caveat out there.
I do have a Tesla
yeah, because some people are like, you know, they book my car a lot so that, but you know, but I still always have a car to drive and basically we have three cars that don't have. Payments on them because we use that,
Michelle Jackson: [00:40:01] but you still have insurance that you pay and upkeep and that kind of thing. so you may look at the numbers again, even with the Touro and what you're doing with that.
And you might be like, maybe one less cars. So that's one less car on the insurance my point in saying this. I think. This is a good segue. You do what's right for you. You have to figure out what's right for your life, Again, I have no kids. I don't, I not car focus. I don't care about it. I like, it's not an interest for me. I just want car available when I want to go on a road trip.
and how my life is set up it, I don't use it enough to even. Like have that be an expense, right? So you need to know what's right for you and your life that you have to have a car. Because again, in my view, if you have kids, you have to have like, it's just a nonnegotiable, but how many you have that could be a different conversation.
and quite honestly, as. You know, kind of talk about like reassessing, where we're, where people are and what they need to do. Moving forward your overhead. You have to look at your overhead, but ultimately you can't out frugal your life. I know what I like to do. I know what I enjoy, boy, I know that I'm not going to eat crappy food.
I'm just not going to do it. I'm just not, it's not going to happen. So that meant I needed to figure out how to shop better and how to shop smarter. So I shop once a week. I go to the farmer's market. That's, you know, cause they're open. I, actually am looking at a grocery delivery service that's eco-friendly and that's actually partnered with a local vegetarian restaurant here.
It's a really cool service and it's all, he go friendly, so it's all sustainable. And so this is, and my value set out of savings. So I have the same. Thing that I want a lot less money and it's supporting initiatives that I believe in same as the car share, like being earth-friendly and all that stuff.
So it saves me a whole bunch of money. It's nonprofit. I don't know if there are many of them like this across the U S. And it's earth-friendly because those cars are hybrids. So as you go through your life items, it's not, I don't think of it as being punished. Think of it as, how can I win? How can I gain this?
How can I, so I love that when I went through and did all that, I saved the first time through my line items, I eliminated about $13,500 from my yearly budget. Yeah. And well above that now, well, above that I've saved so much money, but my lifestyle looks exactly the same
Naseema McElroy: [00:42:39] you're winning all the time too.
Michelle Jackson: [00:42:41] Well, it's better because they're not stressed out. The only one calls from people. And the interesting thing is now, with these journeys, what I was saying is this, I started this dang journey in 2012, slowly. Slowly it is 2020, and I'm at the tail end. And. And the irony is not lost on me because of how bad the economy is.
It is my view. It's not a recession. I don't want to be a downer. I think it's worse than the recession. and so if you're thinking I am overwhelmed and there's just all this stuff going on, it's like, maybe I should wait, just start now. Like, don't wait, just start now. Take really tiny baby steps that you can energetically manage.
And the other pieces you need to earn more money. I mean, you need to earn more money. There's no way around it. If there's one rule about money that I feel like everyone needs to learn is you need to make more money. Because I think that we always get like all these accolades for being frugal. You know, like I paid just, you know, $7 for this dress, but you don't hear enough conversations about making more.
So how the SEMA is making money with Touro, like in 2020 game, the system, the system is there's so many ways you can do things to make money with what you already have in your life. So she already has this car make that money. You know, I have a great example. I love to write, I love to read and write. And, one of the things that happened is I left my job and I wasn't really sure what I was going to do, but I was like, I'll, I'll be a virtual assistant and I'll work online and I'll do like freelance writing.
And I dabbled in all these things online. And one of the things I found was I hate it for freelance writing. Now the thing is I hated it. Not because of freelance writing. I hate working with the editors. I hated the editors because I couldn't at the time, you know, to the projects I was broke. So I had to say yes to everything, even clients that didn't serve me well.
So, it took years. So finally it just got to the point, even with the good ones like that paid. Well, I had to, I just was like, this is so irritating. I'm over it. So I stopped freelancing for about eight months and I was like, how can I re I think this skill, like how can I use the same skill which was writing and make money in a different way?
I started writing eBooks. I love writing eBooks. I love them so much because they make money today. I looked, they're making money. They make money all the time. Now I can't guarantee you can make money with eBooks, but I can say that I make money with the books and they make money every single day. So I started looking at ways to use the same skills in a different way, and guess who does freelancing again, but only has really good clients?
I do. So I was able to. Be like, okay, well, I'll do freelancing again, but now if you're a problematic, I kick you to the curb and there's two reasons why one is, it takes very little money for me to live my life. Okay. My out outflow is $1,300 a month. Why? Cause they're not financing all the debt that I was financing before.
I have so much debt, but I also have ways that I make money online with my skillsets. some, some of them passive, some of them active, like active would be freelancing cause you're actually writing the posts. But now I have clients that pay me a dollar word. That's you know, and some of these projects are easy.
Some are 750 bucks, 750 words. I can do that for you. No problem. Real quick, grow my brand, write a post. It gets $750. Why people also, why black people and other people of color got pissed because they're like, they're, these are the opportunities that we're not connecting with. This is really upsetting. and that's a whole nother conversation.
My point is you can especially now use your skills in ways that you least expect. So again, I love to write, so I use that same skill set in many different ways. I run a blog that blog makes passive income with affiliate marketing. I created versus using my writing skills and I sell the courses.
I do freelance writing for people and they pay me to write content for them. I have eBooks that I write both fiction and nonfiction and I make money that way. Maybe you are a person who is really good at logistics and you're teacher teachers, huge opportunity in 2020, if you are good at logistics and you're a teacher, you can become a parent, a logistician where you help people with the logistics of their daily lives.
During coven with her kids, all of my parent friends are really pissed off right now, guys, or spouses. You need to listen to the main caregiver right now, because they are angry. I have, I've had a lot of conversations with really angry people and they are working their jobs. They have their kids.
They're having to teach them like, they've got all this stuff going on and now they're dealing with a couple of things. They're dealing with their schedule. They're dealing with having to, how to educate their children. They're dealing with a lot. So there's an opportunity. If you're a person who's like, I can help tutor your kids.
With that stuff. I already know. I can help you with your systems because I'm a teacher and I know how to do all that. That's how I teach your kids. Or like there's all this stuff that you can do , and you can leverage the internet to help you do it so that you're not just working with the community that you live in
You can just work with anyone.
Naseema McElroy: [00:48:23] Yeah, I love it. so let me just say like the main thing is that there is. Finite ways, which you can decrease your income, but you have done it marvelously. And I think that that's the foundation, but there are infinite ways that you can make.
And I don't know, I lost him out of how many income streams you have, but
you know, people think that they have these secure jobs. And if this pandemic hasn't taught you anything, is that nothing is secure. What you have to have a multiple streams of income and you should always be working to find another one.
that's what I, I mean, I'm like always on a mission. We're always like, well, how can we make money here? How can we bring in money this way? And it's not because we need it cause we plan for the weddings around this household? You know? And so when something happens, when you know, well, I have a baby and I don't want, and I'm pregnant and I don't want to work six days a week.
I can cut down to six days a month and be fine, you know? And so these are the things that we have to plan around, and these are the things that everybody. Every single person needs to do an evaluation on what they can offer. And everybody has a unique skill that they can offer. Even if it's not a unique skill.
I mean, go do door dash, go do Instacart, but have a plan for that money. and. Make sure that you're minimizing your expenses, right. That what you have to bring in, doesn't have to be that much. And I think that this is the biggest lesson here, like is that we have. The ability to control our lives, but we give that away to other people all too often, because we're dependent on that check.
Like the things that you had to go through at that university, you know?
Michelle Jackson: [00:50:17] but partly because. In work itself, your employer will let you work as much as you can. Do you know what I mean? So they will increase your workload until you're like, I can't like, this is like any employer and quite honestly, my job, like I had, I, by the end of the 10 years, I had like five months or five weeks of.
Time off I'd I'd done some study abroad, rod programs cause it's education. So people, the idea that that's fine. So I had gone to France to study for three weeks, one year, another year I went to Argentina. So that on paper, there were a lot of things that were great about that job. But then I just felt like it wasn't sustainable.
I think if, if they'd catch me at about 300 students, I probably could still be working there now. Cause my colleagues that were there in 2012, when I quit, they're still there. Almost all of them are still there, but I want to leave with one really sad story and died a couple of weeks ago. And she was only in her fifties.
Okay. Young with young kids, like not teenagers. And so when I talk about your life is infinite or finite, right. And how you want to live it. This was, this is the thing. I have another friend, young woman she's in her mid forties. She just got diagnosed with breast cancer. You have to really have a conversation internally about what you're doing with your life, how you're exchanging time for money.
And for me, I'm like, how can I maximize my time for money? How can I earn a lot more in a shorter period of time so I can spend time with my mom so I can go and have a patio conversation with some random person so I can go hiking. How can I do that? Because I am very aware that, you know, our time is not guaranteed and it's, it's a hard thing to say, but people think they live forever.
I'm wearing a mask because there are a whole bunch of fools who, the bet that the Corona is real. Okay. And I'm like, All right. You can gamble with that. But all the people I know in New York, and I know a lot of new Yorkers, they either know someone who died or they have a friend who knows someone who died.
All of the people I know from New York. Yeah, all of them. I know a lot of new Yorkers. Okay. So if you don't think it's real, that's fine, then that then I want to be configured how you think, which is what about your personal life? Nothing's guaranteed. You might wake up tomorrow and you were bit by a Brown, reckless spider and your, your Sol.
There are black widow spiders in front of my house. So I had to spray everything it's on my mind right now. My point is people take their lives for granted. They think they they'll be here forever. And for me, I was like, I deserve better than what I've been giving myself. And even if it takes forever to figure this out, I'm gonna figure it out.
And ironically, the, the year where it finally is almost done. Is the year when I think we're going to have the worst economic crisis, quite frankly. then, since the twenties. and I am very grateful for all that hard work that it cause for a lot of years, I was like, why am I doing this to myself?
Seriously? I understand why people stay in debt. I was like, why am I doing this to myself? This is horrible. This is so stressful.
Naseema McElroy: [00:53:44] I know the feeling, especially with student loans and trying to deal with student loan, servicers. Yeah,
we'll let everybody know where they can follow you and get in contact with you.
Michelle Jackson: [00:53:55] So, thank you guys so much for having me and listening to my long conversation. you can find me@michelleismoneyhungry.com or Michelle is money hungry with podcasts, which is on Stitcher, Apple, Apple podcasts. I, Spotify and wherever else, you know, you listen to your shows.
Naseema McElroy: [00:54:15] and also I will be happy to have that link to that car sharing service, to see if there's more, nationally across the nation, because I think that's, that's an awesome.
Michelle Jackson: [00:54:25] I will share it, but that one's for sure. A Colorado company, Colorado, nonprofit. Yeah. Right.
Naseema McElroy: [00:54:30] Yeah. Right, right, right. But more people need to know about that because if you can get your housing costs down and your transportation costs down, you are golden.
Michelle Jackson: [00:54:38] I want to mention something. So remember I talked about buying my place and making sure it was really affordable. I only pay $525 a month for my mortgage now, so that, so when I, and I live in one of the best areas in Denver and when people ask me where I live, they're like, Oh my God, I wish I lived there.
And right now there are some townhomes being built in the neighborhood and they're starting at 700. So when I don't live in a crap hole, okay. Like I live in a tiny, awkward place, but a really, really good location. And I'm paying nothing.
Naseema McElroy: [00:55:12] 520. That is like amazing. I love it. Yeah. Your housing costs are nothing.
And the bottom line is you can move somebody there on the couch and they can cover that for you. If you need to, well, all right, Michelle, this has been so great and you are an excellent storyteller, so I've just been in throw off the whole time, but I appreciate you sharing your story. the luck on the rest of your journey, looking forward to, update later on, and I'll share that with the audience, but thank you again so much.
Michelle Jackson: [00:55:43] Thank you for having me.
Hey there I’m Naseema
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