This Nurse is Playing Catch Up - Ep. 64
Financially Intentional started off as a platform to document my debt payoff journey which I began in April 2015. Hear about my life transitions along the journey and where I’m at now.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Naseema McElroy: [00:00:00] All right. So what we're gonna do here is go back way back, back into time, just joking you guys. So I did want to do a catch-up episode just to bring everyone. On the same page and up to date, if you are new listener to the Nurses on Fire podcast, what is thank you for joining me. Thank you for tolerating, my silly laughing and giggling throughout the podcast.
That's just who I am. So I am Naseema McElroy. I'm a labor and delivery nurse. I have been a labor and delivery nurse. Since 2009, when I went back to school after already having a master's in healthcare administration and not willing to deal with, with the bureaucratic BS of being in administration, I wanted to be a full blown nurse.
And have the autonomy to travel the world and maybe go to Dubai and meet a Prince. But whatever that never happened, I came back to the San Francisco Bay area and I am from Oakland, California, West Oakland, to be exact. And I came back to Oakland to, stay with my grandfather. Who was sick during that time.
And I ended up going to nursing school at UCSF, which is right across the bay in San Francisco. So that's how I started my journey as a nurse like I said, I've been a labor and delivery nurse since 2009. I did an accelerated nursing program and in 2008, that's where we are. where did I get started with financial intentional?
Well, I think it's very appropriate that we go back from where I am right now. if anybody has been keeping up with me, I just recently moved back to Brentwood, California, where financially intentional was actually born. I'm back here and I'm going to share how it got started. After working as a nurse for a few years, I did everything that was expected of me.
Right. I had a good career. I was having a baby, not really expected, but it happened. I knew I was going to be a single mom, but decided, especially, you know, when you're pregnant. You have like this whole stability thing running through your brain. And so I decided I was gonna buy this big old house, so I'll never have to move again.
So I bought like 4,000 square foot, five bedroom, five and a half bath house and Brentwood. And I got into this house. Everything was good. I did, I bought the house that I could quote unquote, afford and got into this house, just about a month or so after my daughter was born in 2014. and then basically started struggling.
I wasn't like a broke, broke per se, but I didn't have any savings. And I just remember this house happened. 36 windows and I had to put blinds on the windows and that was going to cost me roughly about $3,500. And I didn't have it. So I had to borrow money from my sister and I'm really independent. So that borrowing money really brought me to a breaking point.
And so, I was like, you know what? At this point, I have been making six figures for some years and been very comfortable, so to speak. And, I was the person that most people turn to for financial advice because it looked like I had it all together. You know, I had luxury car, had the big house, you know, I was doing the things quote, unquote.
But, I was like, really have an internal struggle is because I knew that I could be so much farther. I knew that my money that I was making, wasn't working for me and I just felt stuck because I didn't have any savings and I didn't have anything for my daughter, if anything were to happen to me. So financially intentional was born.
And early 2015, right before my daughter was turning one, I said, enough is enough. And I set off on a quest to like really. Get my finances together. And, initially I thought it was because I didn't know how to invest, but then I realized it was because I just never learned how to manage money. Had, Almost $200,000 in student loan debt.
At that time, my mortgage at that time was about $4,000. Again, like I said, I was a single mom, daycare costs were about $2,000 a month. And so was, I'm really struggling to hold it together. But, Starting to learn about finances really started to set me free. And so on a Google search to, figure out how, like, how to invest better.
Like I said, I thought it was all because I didn't know how to invest. I stumbled across Dave Ramsey and after. The initial, like shock and hesitation. I really started following his principles and set on a path to becoming debt free. after a few months of learning how to budget, I mastered zero based budgeting.
I mastered the debt snowball and from getting started in April. 2015. I was able to pay off all my debt, by November 2017 that did include selling my house at the end. But like I told you, Justin student loans alone, I had $200,000 in debt. By the time I decided to sell my house, I had about 15, $3,000 a day.
And mind you. almost all of that. 50 was new debt that came on the end of the journey because of my divorce and because of IRS debt, because Dave Ramsey, but more on that. So. On April, 2014 is when I really set out on this path to pay down my debt around that same time is when I met my ex husband. And so, we actually got married in, August.
So it wasn't that long in between me starting this journey to when I got married, my marriage was a very short live. So we got married in August, 2018. It was not a great marriage, very abusive. He went to jail in December, 2015 for the abuse. It would have just been a violation other than that, but because of the abuse, he did go to jail.
And so, technically I was married, Until my divorce, which happened in may 2017. So. Our physical marriage to each other, was from like August, 2015 to December, 2015. when we physically live together, he was in jail for a while. I went back to jail a couple of times.
Anyway, that's another story for another day. Bottom line is, is that all this stuff was going on. When I was in the very beginning of my debt payoff journey. when we were in the same household living together, we did immediately combined finances. Yeah. And, get on the same page financially and I'm laughing in the back of my head.
Cause I remember during our, divorce proceedings, when he was trying to argue that because we budgeted so tight and everything was taken care of, you know, we both had our spending money. And I remember my spending money was like a hundred dollars a month and his spending money was like $200 a month.
And then he was like, your honor, she only gave me $200 a month. And that was like this mother. Right. But I was, you know, I kept it cool. I just. It's funny now, but I was really pissed off then because you know, this was a mutual agreement. Yeah. We were splitting our finances, but none the less, we got divorced.
It took a long time. It's like, So much longer than the amount of time we were actually really married to get divorced, where to the Y I wish they would make divorce proceedings similar to what you had to go through to get married. because let me tell you people's true colors come out. But anyway, during the course of our marriage, we had
a car that I actually refinanced in my name for him and paid off during that time. And, during the whole divorce proceedings. it was take a hella long in his car was just sitting in my garage and I was like, let me get rid of that. I sold it. So, in the end, the judge was like, she just got pissed cause I sold it.
And so she made me pay. Him back the price of the car, even though I paid for the car, but anyway, I ended up having to pay for that. And then during that time, because our divorce took place long. I had to change the way I filed. So when you are going through a divorce, you can't file separately. You have to file married, filing separately, which is.
Leaves you in a position where you will miss out on a lot of the tax benefits, that you would be allowed if you were married or if you were single, it's just a jacked up place to be. And so, because I had a file like that and because like I said earlier of Dave Ramsey. Yeah. And I wasn't contributing to my retirement account.
I actually wasn't dropping my taxable income. Therefore I had a $30,000 tax debt. And so, this was like totally at the end of my debt freedom journey that added on almost an extra $50,000 in debt. and that's the debt that was left over when I decided to sell my house. So side note I get a lot of feedback from people saying, well, yeah, of course anybody can pay off their debt if they sell their house.
Well, by the time I decided to sell my house, like I said, I had already done all the work. That was just the last step. And it wasn't even a step that I was taking just to get out of debt. It was a step because I was moving in a different direction. I was already in another relationship with someone else.
And we wanted to be closer to family, which is back in Oakland. And so, you know, I'm the kind of person that I'm not tied to a house. And so I sold my house. Yes, I did make a profit off of it, but it wasn't like a strategic thing. So, anyway, Bottom line is people are always going to hate on you no matter what.
And so that was just people hate. And so I just want to give the haters a little bit of explanation, even though it really wasn't necessary, but so, Yeah, I got divorced. So my house, paid off all the remaining of my debt. And that's where this million dollars in debt comes from because, during the course of my debt included in the sell of my house, which at that time was over $500,000.
I was able to sell it seven 30, which means that I paid off all the rest of my debt. That was low. Yeah. My divorce settlement. I think I had a little bit of student loans left and, IRS debt, but that left me in a position where I was Def free. I moved back to Oakland. I was in, I'm still working my two jobs, but just really in a good place financially because I was debt free.
during the course of this time, I transferred. To another hospital within the same organization that I was working for, before I moved and that hospital proves have been, let's say a toxic work environment. And, it was, was a really stressful situation. Yeah, I've explained it in earlier episodes, but I'll just say this, you know, if you don't know, I'm a black woman and I work in labor and delivery and my maternal.
Morbidity and mortality is crazy when it comes to black women. And for the first time in my life, I had experienced it first hand in a way that. It was heartbreaking. Not only was it heartbreaking and put me in a position where I felt like I would be at any time, I'm in jail, pretty of losing my license, Louis losing my livelihood.
And it just wasn't a good place is to be, and, made some tough decisions around that. but I will come back. Tell that story a little bit later, bottom line is I'm ultimately did leave this toxic work. but there is some followups to that. we lived in Oakland for less than a year before my partner took a position in Reno.
And so Reno, Nevada. Not Las Vegas, Nevada, Reno, Nevada, a place where I never thought I would live, but actually it ended up being really, really nice. I was really reluctant to move there though, because renal to me was always kind of like, you go there for a couple of days. It's like the Bay area, like LA people in LA go to.
Las Vegas people in Oakland go, or the Bay area code to Reno for a getaway or for little tournaments or events or things like that. But it was like, it's kinda grimy. I'm gonna just say that it's kinda like a grimy place. And so I never saw myself living there, but actually we found a really nice place in Reno, which we ended up.
Buying because, my partner had got a position out there. a pretty good position out there. I'm under a contract for about three years. And so we bought a place in Reno really, really nice. I really love where we lived in Reno. and then we moved out there and before we moved, we found out that we were expecting our little baby girl.
Aya who is still not to drive me crazy, but yeah, I'm so moved out there, pregnant with Aya and, lived out there for exactly a year, I think, a year to the date. And what ended up happening was, Aya was a new year's Eve baby, but she wasn't supposed to be born until January 23rd. but around. No I found out that my partner's position in Reno was, terminated, but he still kept his job. So during this whole time, I was only working one of my jobs, so I was still working about a four hour drive away in Fremont, California. And then with his new position, he was going to work in Las Vegas, Nevada, which is about it.
Eight hours drive from her house, but an hour flight. So both of them were an hour flight and we often flew back and forth. So it got to a point where, I had had my baby, he was in this position. had a little, I hadn't had a little bit, I had a lot of postpartum depression. It was a hard pregnancy. I'm old jaw, lost an overreach the whole time.
And so I was really struggling and I needed my family and we were out. There were no family. And so, we decided to move back to Oakland. So if you're keeping tabs, you guys, I have lived in Brentwood where financial intention was started. Then we moved to Oakland and then we moved to Reno and then we moved back to Oakland.
So that is, three moves already. And this is just been since November. 2017 is 2020 y'all maybe if you're catching up room another episode. So we decided to move back to Oakland. got a lot of family support. my dad and my step mom watch my kids every weekend. And if I tell you that's such a blessing.
Like it is truly a blessing. And, while I'm saying that reminds me of how blessed I am just in general. So, what I don't often talk about is when I started this journey, even. Yeah. Like when I was married in the beginning of my marriage, actually one of my older sisters came to stay with me and she stayed with me for a year and she helped me with my baby and.
The way that people have made sacrifices for me, you guys, I am so grateful. My sister flew her and her two sons and her husband across the country to come stay with me. It helped me, just me with my little baby and stuff. So for that I'm it's heartily. Great. Well, my sister was very shy, so I'll never shut her out, but she knows.
And I know she listens because she's my number one fan. Yeah. I don't know.
Say how grateful I am to her for everything that she did for me during that time. And without her financially intentional nurse's on fire, nothing would be possible. So. Shout out to you. Boo. Thank you so much. Moved back to Oakland.
My family helps out with the kids. It was nice to be back. I was around the front room from my 92 year old grandfather. Yeah. Things were great. so another thing I forgot to mention from the time I basically lived in Reno, I had opened up a lawsuit against my former employer, because of all the things that I witnessed and how they were treating, you know, especially black women and labor.
And, so that lawsuit started in August, 2018. And, during that time, or some delays because of me having the baby and other things, but in the background and what a lot of people didn't know is that I was going through this lawsuit against my former.
Employer. and , it came to a head around the same time when, we were actually looking to relocate again out of Oakland and back to where we currently are in Brentwood. And so, that lawsuit ended up in an, in a nice settlement actually. And so a lot of the time we were selling, I'm buying our house.
So by the time we were buying our house and Brent would, almost just within days of each other, that lawsuit settled and, our house close in Brentwood. And this time we didn't get like big old house, you know, with the pregnancy brain and was not pregnant at the time I bought this house. It's a very moderate house.
it is four bedrooms. Three baths, little tiny backyard, but big enough for the kids to plan. And so that's, the landscaping is not like a million bucks, but yeah, so this is the, where we are. We're back in Brentwood, where we all started and, I'm just. Super grateful for my journey. And yes, I have moved four times along the way, but I just want to take you through what I have been through.
And this is just from April, 2015 to where are we on now? We're at September, 2020. Okay. A little over five years. How much? I haven't been able to grow. I have paid off over a million dollars in debt. I have all multiple six figure net worth. I have helped thousands of people on their journey to financial freedom.
I have fully funded my kids' education so that I don't have to contribute a dime to their education. I could be Coast FI right now, meaning that. I don't have to contribute another dime towards my retirement if I don't want to and be just fine in retirement, I have more in retirement right now than the average American has at retirement age.
I, Really really blessed. I mean, and I have just been able to have so many friends and so many people be able to influence me financially that, It's just the average of the company that you keep. And I am surrounded by some amazing people. And, you know, I had the support of an amazing partner who holds it down, you know?
And so I am more than blessed. So where we are right now. So we're selling into the house, still living out of boxes. Y'all like, it's real, still living out of box this, I know a lot of you guys heard my update on my experience buying this house. I actually encountered some discriminatory lending practices, some , pretty predatory lending.
And so I'm up to this date. I have filed. A complaint with the consumer finance protection Bureau with HUD and with the California department of business oversight. my mortgage company has responded to them. And so at this point, I'm just forwarding everything over to my attorney. And we'll take it from there.
So, the immediate financial implication for that was that I had to bring to the table $10,000 more than what I expected, because I didn't want to take the, in health lenders, nasty, nasty loan. and so, That's kind of where we're at for that, but I do have some really, really exciting announcements.
you know, all that I have been through and the people that have, I've surrounded myself with, I have learned a lot. I have grown, I have taken a lot of people through the same process that I have gone through and I have seen a lot of successes and
what I really want to focus on right now is helping nurses become millionaires. And so I am starting a group limited, very, very small group of five to 10 nurses that I am going to put on a path to being seven figure nurses in five years or less. And so this is a very intense program.
This is different from any coaching program that I've done before, because it's really handy. On it's a really, really small group intentionally because we are going to be all up in the numbers. We are going to be doing all the things it's very action oriented. And so I am only looking for a small group of RNs.
That's what really about this life. That's really trying to make some changes and is really on the path to becoming financially independent, even if they don't want to leave their job, because we know that when you can show them to work because you want to be there and not because you have to be there right.
You can serve your patients so much better. So be on the lookout for some more information around the RN accelerator program. And then another investment thing that we're doing is, I shared a couple, so to go with Lisa our CFP episodes that I had been doing, a ride sharing service called Toro, and we're doing some experimenting with that as to where, we were thinking about maybe buying like a single family house and like Detroit or Ohio or somewhere relatively cheap, but we wanted to experiment in this day of buy another Tesla at $40,000. And, put it on Turo, exclusively to use on that platform to rent out.
And so stay tuned for updates for that. But yeah, that's where I am at guys. I know that was a mouthful. That was a whole hell of a lie. You was probably just like woo child, especially if you come in and new to this platform. But listen, I am here for you. I got you guys is back. Please reach out to me and let me know what you guys want to learn, what you guys want to hear.
Okay. Like, this is very much a crowd sharing platform. I want to educate you and meet you where you're at. I want to bring on people that can give you encouragement. I can help you with tools for you to be able to become financially independent. Most of all, I just want to thank you guys. Each and every one of you guys for listening, for continuing to share the podcast for continuing to share your growth and your wins along the process, keep them coming.
You guys, please share them with me tag on your social media platforms at financial intentional at nurses on fire. I want to hear from you. I know you guys are out there doing big things. Don't tell me you ain't. Cause I see all the wins, but a lot of times people are shy on bragging on themselves. And I'm going to give you permission to do that right here.
So thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. Thank you for catching up with me. If you haven't heard an update for awhile, thank you to my new listeners and a special thanks to my OG listeners.
Hey there I’m Naseema
My dream is for everyone to know that financial independence is attainable with a little intentionality. Learn how I can help you finally break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.
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