Like when you go through adversity as a child, there's like two things that happen to you. You either become somebody that learns how to survive or you're somebody who always accepts handouts, right? Like there's the two common results. This is your Bad Ass Journey podcast.
I am Terrine Walsh, serial entrepreneur, growth strategist, executive leadership coach and best-selling author. Each week, I will bring you a guest or thought that will help you align what you love with what you do in order to build that badass life and business you dream of. Welcome everybody to another episode of your Bad Ass Journey podcast. Today's guest is Lizzie Hofer.
I wanted to bring Lizzie on because I know some of you are sitting in overwhelm when it comes to your finances, money, like how to actually maybe even recover after a year like we've had or leverage what your earnings have been because it has been a successful year. We have all sorts of results from a year like we've had so far. So Lizzie is one of the top loan officers in the nation. She is someone that has built her career from basically nothing and had to rebuild it even once she got fired a few years back.
And then also, it's just a woman that I love to connect with because she focuses on family relationships and how to actually live in a resourceful way that I knew you would benefit from. So if you have any takeaways, questions, etc. from today's episode, which I know you will definitely have some awesome takeaways, make sure you let us know and feel free to stop a picture of today's episode, tag it on the socials that you choose to share with us and ask any of the follow up questions you have so we can assist you. Without further ado, let's jump into today's episode.
Welcome, Lizzie. Hello. Thank you for having me. I am so honored to have you on the show.
I purposely reached out because I feel like my listeners and the community in general are sitting in the questions around money and investments and how to really leverage this time as we're all sitting in uncertainty. So I'm excited to get into some money talking a little bit. But before we do that, I would love for you to share a little bit about your background and how you became the number one female loan officer in our nation. So I'm hearing it from other people.
So I am the second daughter of a single mother and I was raised in a border town between Arizona and Mexico called Nogales. And you know, like when you go through a adversity as a child, there's like two things that happen to you. You either become somebody that learns how to survive or you're somebody who always accepts handouts, right? Like that's the two common results.
For me, you know, my mom's Hispanic woman, I mean, it was all about work, everyone contributing, everyone bringing into household. So I figured out how to make money at an early age. So like 13, 14, as well as my siblings were all really hardworking. But I knew that the pathway to getting out of poverty was through education.
So my entire focus, my childhood was to get to college. And when I finally got to college, I realized I didn't have enough money to stay there. My goal was to get there. I didn't have enough money to stay there.
And so I found myself looking for high paying jobs that I could have in the afternoon. So I could go to school in the morning. And that's actually how I found my way into the mortgage industry. I started as a perceptionist and have worked my way up to running a branch at a mortgage company and being a sales owner.
So I mean, it's been a really fun journey. Lots of different like pivots and mistakes and overcoming a lot of different and difficult money. My ex-eds that I've had, you know, but it's been a fun ride. And it's like interesting because I feel like my story just is so similar to so many people out there, you know, I don't really have a fancy education.
I don't really come from wealth. You know, I really come from just figuring out how to be resourceful and just getting to that next step. I think it's okay. Yeah, resourcefulness is it.
But also it sounds like it was combined with a really strong work ethic. And I feel like in our nation right now, we have a little bit of a disconnect on like what it actually takes to build a career, to build, you know, a solid income stream to then even build a business and build solid, consistent revenue streams. And I personally, I love the mortgage industry. I've had mortgage company clients of mine.
I've helped them on different sides, whether it's like managing their leadership team to really become high performers and like sustain work life integration, as I call it. And then there's the other side of like expanding on the marketing and the brand side so that you're attracting the ideal clients. But when it comes to your work ethic, how do you describe your hustle? Because a lot of people started to brand it as a hustle.
But truly to me, it's like how we view ourselves and how we show up in the world in order to generate that revenue stream. So I think it really just comes down to your core motivators. For me, as a poor kid, I was always afraid of losing. And there was so much responsibility on my shoulders to help continue to provide for my family back home that I just felt like it was do or die all the time.
And there's a lot of power that comes with that, you know what I mean? So like for me, it was like I've got to figure it out. And then there's some toxic things that come with it too. But that's a lot of what drives me.
I will say that in my later years, in my career, I've really focused on trying to overcome a lot of that fear because it can really be so detrimental once you actually are successful. You need the deep motivator to get you to work the 15 hours that it takes to get and build a business. And it's like 15 hours every day for years guys. It's not like a short stint.
It's just a day that now is 15 hours every day for both players. And so you need that deeper to fear. But then you have it and then you've built this thing and you can't constantly be worried about it falling apart all the time. It's just it's so toxic you can't run and be a good leader in that fear based mentality.
I mean, there's so many challenges that come with having deeper to fears like that. But it is the reason that I'm so hardworking, right? Yeah. So how do you describe what that core is?
Like what is that core motivator? What was it that helped you establish your career and what is it now? Like what did you have to turn it into to actually find less of a kind of the desperation if it came from a place of lack and scarcity. And now you have more consistency in how you know your skills that can generate a certain level of income for you.
What is it today that motivates you? That's a funny thing to say. Okay. So first it was just straight up survival.
I think survival just in general is really great place to be in motivator because I never tame those survival emotions. Right. So I always like to describe my brain as like a person that rides an elephant to the emotions. And any moment in time your writer can get thrown off and trampled by an elephant like that's just what it is.
Right. And so I never learned to tame my elephant. And so I did getting fired for my job in 2014. Right.
So it went from being survival to just straight up humiliation. And I don't know if you're anybody if you're if you're somebody who's successful, you have some kind of chip on your shoulder. Some dysfunction that started there. But for me, like letting people down, I had this deep sense of responsibility that I carried with me my entire life and feeling humiliated and letting people down was just like, I mean, talk about like the deepest greatest motivator I've ever had.
It's actually the reason that I had any kind of desire motivation to be at the top of my field. I was making plenty of money just being a top producer at my company. But to try to be top in my field, that was a decision that I made as a like, this isn't going to be the way my story ends. Yeah.
You know, so and then as that has changed, right? So I've gone into being more inspired, right? Because I mean, you could only be motivated by anger for so long before really beats you up, you know, and then it started being inspiration, then it's curiosity. It's like, how big can I make this?
Like how even a much better can this be? And then coronavirus hits and then you're straight back in survival. Yeah, right. Learning how to redo everything as an entrepreneur in this environment has been so tough.
Like even like, I was trying to explain this to someone the other day. I run like a 30 person team, right? That's how many people are in my branch. And one day, I had to send them all home.
I didn't have a work from home plan. Like we don't have desk phones at our houses. I didn't check everyone's Wi-Fi connections. There's no way to transfer phone calls, right?
The amount of emails that we all receive now is like triple to quadruple. And I mean it because people just can't communicate effectively. And I know that there's lots of companies that are like, oh, yes, we love this whole remote working and it's definitely opened up the talent pool. But let me tell you, you've got to be prepared for that, right?
So like getting team set up so we could chat, right? Getting a switch phone that we could, you know, do eight by eight transfers for the computer, you know, like just have learning to be able to work remotely. Like that's building, that's fundamental. Yeah.
And it's often an operational impact that your industry to date. Some companies focus that way. But generally it's really because it's such a relational business, like I always look at the mortgage industry. It's like it's the number one purchase someone can make that is at the highest amount, right?
Like that they probably will make in their life, right? And so it has to be a relational connection in order to do that. So of course you're going to have offices, places to meet with your clients, all the things that, you know, the pandemic this year shut down. So how was it then operationally getting back online?
What did you guys do? Talk about going back to the 15 hour days. That's what we all did. I mean, there was, it's just, I, like I'm so proud of what we've survived.
But I like don't like the product, you know what I mean? Like I'm very technology based and so like just really figuring out like I'm proud that we were able to figure this out in six months, you know, it takes company years to do this. But yeah, no, I mean, it's just been chaos. I mean, I don't even know how to describe that better, you know, the number of times I apologize to people for not returning phone calls or missing something.
I mean, and it's like, well, you know, let me tell you like you're like, like when you're trying to transfer a phone call to somebody's cell phone, it's not the same. No, it's not the same as having them be in the office and be at County County. So I think that like for a short period of time, we're going to see all these people say, yeah, we love work from home. And then I think people are going to come back to the office.
I've seen it. It's just not as efficient. Certain people can work amazing from home and majority can't. I think there's a difference in also the volume of work that your team manages that requires such efficiency that any sort of breakdown in that process could, could be crippling.
So it totally makes sense that that was the biggest challenge during this time because the mortgage industry in general with whether it's a refi or, you know, for the, what's it called forbearance or like people were just trying to figure out what the hell do I do with my bills. So there's a lot of like research and analysis in the first few months of stepping into the pandemic. And then there's the now execution of all the new home buyers because people are leaving cities and like now putting their money into towns outside cities. Like I can't even imagine the fluctuations you've been dealing with.
So we normally do one to three trillion times in volume, one to three trillion dollars in volume. Yeah, we're going to do 10 plus trillion this year. 10 plus trillion this year. Which is, and that's as an industry.
But it's just it's so much additional volume and then completely different types of way you work. I mean, it's just, it's such an interesting year, but I will say I'm grateful for having to return back to the basics. Like I had to leave her had to disclose on myself. You know, get in there and start locking up like just fun, like basic loan officer processing stuff that had done years have been things that I focused on a lot.
It's interesting. And so like you can always improve you can, you know, write in our whole workflow for being able to work remotely because I mean, let's face it, this is going to be our new normal for at least the short term. Yeah. You know, at first that was one of the things I wish I had done like in March is I thought that this would be like a month.
Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people did. Yes.
Yeah. And then I was like, well, it's two months of chaos. And then I deserved my time like this is it. Yeah.
Yeah. It's a new operating manual for all like we all have to figure out how to operate and serve our clients and take care of ourselves and make sure our team is is taking care of and it's ever changing. I think it will continue to change and. Yeah, but making that decision three months into it when the volume had quadrupled made it extra difficult.
Yeah. Like almost unmanageable. Like that's challenging. Yeah.
No, that totally makes sense. And in just watching how this year has unfolded and also behaviors now have set in on what people are becoming accustomed to. It's not doesn't take that long. It actually takes three months to like create a new habit of like really set in.
But if everything's changing every three months, I believe in like it's constant, it's continuous development, right? You have to also have the practices in place. I'm like, how are you checking in? How are you consistently making it better?
What do you have to let go of and change? Because it no longer fits anymore. Like when I work with my clients, we're always trying to put those practices in place so that there isn't this mountain to climb when change happens. You actually have the momentum always around change.
And it is something that I know this area as it is adaptability matters in business today. Like we have to be adaptable. Yeah, that's one gigantic thing that like I am not as flexible as I thought it was. Well, it's hard.
It's hard to be flexible when you value responsibility of others at a really high measurable point. So for you, I could totally understand having resistance to changing something because it's not just affecting you. And that in itself is a very thoughtful way to actually look at it. Like I would actually praise that resistance because you're not just bulldozing.
You bulldoze what you have to do. I've seen you in action. Like I know what that looks like. But when it comes to your team and like the impact of others that you were responsible for that thoughtfulness matters, you know, so don't put yourself down for feeling like, you know, I might not be as adaptable at a pace that others might put pressure on.
You are adaptable because look how successful the year has been in all of what's happened. The demand has been high. But I'm sure your team has also been taken care of during this time because of the leader that you are. Yeah, no, and they've been amazing.
And I love them. And thank goodness for them. But it has been, I mean, I think we're all pretty tired. Yeah, no, it's hard to just keep burning.
So curious how are you taking care of yourself during this time? So I will be completely candid. I had not been like taking care of myself literally at all up until maybe two months ago. And I was like, all right, I've gained literally like 30 pounds.
I am very stressed out, have had a single time off. And like, I have this thing, and I don't know how many other women do, but like when I get really stressed out, I lose the hair on my hairline. And so I can always just tell like, even if I'm not like actively acting stress, I'm telling the body is feeling stress based on like your cortisol levels are shifted. Yeah.
Yep. And so I decided that I was going to really start focusing. So I got a personal trainer to come to my house at, you know, five in the morning, you know, and I've spent a lot of time going like I don't have like right now with the position that my business is in, I don't have the ability to just take a bunch of time off. I just, I'm not there personally.
And so like I figured out half days, I'll come and massage or I'll get my hair blown out or, you know, like just being able to figure out like when can I have a half day, you know, if I'm working too solid, like I've got to have like a legit half day, you know, somewhere in there. That's just been something. It's not ideal. Like, this is not the way I want to work.
It's, you know, but it's so you have like two choices in business, right? There's always the choice of doing less. There's always a choice of taking apart all the things. And I know that I'm actively choosing this, right?
Like when I think about what it looks like, it's like me pushing up the tight handed. It's just, it's not ideal right now. But six months from now, right when we have a completely different workflow process, you know, we have spent a lot of time hiring, we're doing lots of training, I will be grateful for the crazy amount of work that I've done this year. Yeah, I'm not, you know, grateful in the moment, you know, right now I feel depleted.
Yeah. But it's also really incredible. Like when you think about it, like, like I'm like, I can't believe all that we've done this year. Yeah.
It is, it is amazing amount of volume, but also, you know, I'm glad you're also having an eye on the sacrifice of self and making sure that you are doing those half days at a minimum for yourself, if that's all that can fit in right now, because it's critical to refuel. Like we can't be the Titans that are constantly like fighting without some rest. And because then ultimately that will not serve any of your business, nor your team, nor your clients, if you break. So it's really important, you know, for our listeners to hear that, yes, it's hard and challenging and you are so busy.
And I don't know if people understand the mortgage industry and the way people respond in that industry to their clients is almost like a 24 seven activity. Like when your clients have questions, when certain rates come in, when different changes happen and the volume of interaction is so high for every single transaction that is made. And so when Lizzie is saying, like, I take my half days, it's because she probably doesn't really even have dedicated weekends anymore, right? Yeah, no, I mean, I do have weekends, but I mean, not every weekend, right?
Yeah, it could bleed. It could bleed. Business can bleed into personal time. Oh, God, yes.
Anyway, I'm looking forward to, you know, more now is 2022. It's going to go all the way to 2021. I get you, but if you were to plan your dream kind of getaway or rest and recharge, what does that look like? Like what is when you dream about it?
If you have, if you haven't in a while, let's dream about it for a moment here, just to give you some, some piece of mind, what would you be doing? Oh, so it's so funny. So when my kids, my oldest daughter is 10, we're going to go on an African safari. We're going to go to Kenya.
And I'm very, very excited about that. So that's huge. Re years. Yeah, when she's between a lot of time, I'm going to need to repub it.
And also design like the best safari that you can, you know, for so your daughter's 10, you have other kids too. Yes, my daughter's seven right now. And then I have a five year old and then a two year old. Oh, when the seven year old is 10, you're going to go on the safari.
Awesome. Yeah, I was like, I didn't remember your kids being that old, but like they'll all be on an age war, they'll remember it. Yeah. Yeah.
And how is it going with you and your husband? Because your husband's also an entrepreneur, right? And so I'm sure his hustle is on like crazy. I mean, he has he been able to work remote.
Like what has the impact been for you guys there? So my husband is incredible. So I just want to say that first and foremost, there's no way that I could do what I do without him being as amazing as he is. His business was a studio, an in person recording studio for podcasting and marketing.
So his business, unfortunately, has taken just a very different turn. And because my business is doubled, he scaled back a lot. We focus a lot about on and the marketing for the business that I run. Yeah, right.
So he's still doing a bunch of things, but he's actually taking any more present place for our children. Right now, because like I'm not even close to the kind of mother I want to be right now. Sure. I mean, tag team is critical.
Yeah, that's an amazing tag team effort. Yeah. And it's so awesome. Cause like, I didn't know, cause this is not the way that our marriage started.
You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's very entrepreneurial. I started several companies, own lots of real estate.
I mean, he's a very intense person. And when everything started to change so rapidly here, we both had to figure out different like molds, right? And so I went from like, you know, scaling back to then just being like 150%, which is like, he hasn't seen this since like six years ago. Right.
Now, and so like, you know, now we have three children. I mean, it is just a completely different set of rules. And he just has been really amazing. That's awesome.
You just know that this is a once in a lifetime market for real estate. I mean, truthfully, like I might not see this again in my career. Yeah. He knows this.
Like, and he also knows that there will be a time for his business too. Yeah, totally. And I think that's good. You know, that the communication between partners in life is so critical during this time too.
Because you are making decisions not only how you operate as a couple in your family unit, but also like financially what the impact is when when one is like taking off, you know, due to demand and the other is slowing down because of you can't be in person. And there's so many dynamics there, but that consistent communication is so key in, you know, how you get through it together, which is awesome. And there's one thing that I didn't realize a lot beforehand, because we're both very independent entrepreneurs, is that that sacrifice, right? So him not like, there's a choice there.
He could have easily pivoted and figured out how to do podcasting and all this stuff online, right? Like, that's a decision. There's no possible way that I could be doing this work without him. So this is not just like my my thing now.
It just doesn't happen without both partners, right? And I think that sometimes with strong entrepreneurial women, because I've seen this a lot, as we talk a lot about like it being our thing, or just like, I guess a strong entrepreneur, right? And so then it's like our thing, but not their thing. Yeah, you know what I mean?
Like mine versus his in a situation as opposed to ours. Yeah, because a very nasculating thing, yes, and a competitive situation in a marriage works like that, just in general, it's just so toxic, you know? Well, it can be I've seen it challenge a lot of relationships, like even in in the phases, I call it phases of a relationship, because we are we are constantly when you are two equal partners that want to have a thriving career and amazing family, you know, have a deep relationship connection with each other, you go through your own personal growth growth, but as a relationship, you're going through those growth spurs as well. And sometimes when it comes to money management, which I want to jump into some money tips here too, there's this mindset of, especially if your partner has a heavy like masculine energy of the protector and the provider, and they are no longer able to provide, like all of a sudden identity starts to shift and they realize their partner who has mastered providing also, like can step in like it can create all these different dynamics that you have to talk about.
And you have to realize that just because I mean, I am going after the things I want and the earning potential, et cetera, it shouldn't emasculate you for, you know, what you're charging for as my husband, right? Like it should empower you to say, look, we can hold it down, go invest in these ways, like get yourself up to where you want to be. And there isn't an equality in how we provide for ourselves. But I think a lot of people struggle with that, because it's like almost like an honor off switch.
I've seen that, you know, a real team. Like there's just no way, like if my husband was not at home right now, there's no way I could do this. Like I'm sure like, I don't even know how this would happen. And I remember us sitting down being like, this is a once in a lifetime thing that we're going to do.
So we get to be double down on this. Yeah, we don't. At what point did you discover that this year that you had to have that conversation? At the beginning.
Yeah, you saw it. Yeah. I mean, once rates went down like this, and it was like, I was like, okay, this is on, this is what it's going to be. And I know you're so funny, I felt like I was so perceptive on that, and then just miss the whole thing that we weren't going to be able to come back to work.
Mm. Yeah. I mean, I, you were dialed in though, you were dialed into your industry, dialed into your business, and you also have that energy of like, I'm gonna make this happen no matter what. So, you know, it's almost like it probably didn't, I could see why it wouldn't show up for you, because you would figure it out anyway.
Yeah, well, I wish I had figured that out. So, yeah. Yeah. But you still have sustained and created the service.
Right. Yeah. Exactly. But like, it's one of the things like, because I'm going into wrapping up the year and really focusing on next year is that a lot of time writing a letter to my clients, my referral partners, just about like what it was like to be an entrepreneur in this environment and thanking them for supporting us.
And then just kind of apologizing to just recognizing that this is not the way we want to do this. Yeah. Yeah. Or these are the areas we are going to improve upon.
Yeah. The cool thing is, is that you weren't alone in the miss of really recognizing because we didn't know, you know, like when we didn't know what was going to happen next, we really didn't. Like there was a belief system that we would be back in face to face and could be back in our offices, etc. I personally immediately knew that it would take till 2021, you know, at some point and probably even like June, just because I assess systems and operations all the time, right?
Like, so, and I also know behavior and I also know how the economy works, right? Like, so there were certain identifiers, which is why I could jump on the bandwagon with my clients and say, hey, guys, you got to look at these things, you know, and like, let's make sure you're planned for this and make sure they have the strategies in place to stay afloat as well as thrive during this time, but also to prepare. So that's really great though, as a communication effort that you're reaching out and sharing with your clients, your process. Because I think that's the transparency that people actually rely on and trust and continue to do business with, because you're being realistic, which is great.
Yeah, you got to let them know. I mean, like people know, I mean, you know, but it's your you standing and your work ethic again, that's lovely. In the effort of money management and tips for obviously 2020 has been a challenging year for a lot of people. So many jobs have been lost.
People have had to figure out how to pay their mortgage, but then you have like the thriving side of people who still were able to sustain their jobs virtually and can invest right now. What are the some of the top tips you would think about or have shared with your audience, your clients that you feel my listeners could benefit from during this time on how to approach, you know, managing their finances? So the very first thing that I'm going to tell you is that you have to have a budget and a financial strategy that's basically economy-proof. Right.
So as a financial person, I can tell you that I will talk to nine out of 10 people a day and nine of them have never even talked about a budget. They look at me and they're like, Hey, tell me what I can afford. Tell me what you know. And the thing is that as a loan officer, majority of people are going to tell you what you max qualify for based on mortgage guidelines, not based on your lifestyle, not based on what's going to be houseport, not projecting how long you're going to live in a property.
And so one of the things that I really think sets my team apart from other places is that we actually have a financial strategy. So I spent a long time looking at what makes somebody houseport. And so the biggest thing that I always tell people is learn to live off of 70% of your net take home income. And that is going to mean sacrifices.
Right. So I have a lot of people who really challenged me on this and they're like, well, I can't live on that. Well, that should be your very first aha moment. If you cannot live off of 70% of your net take home income, it means one, you need to reduce the amount of spending that you have.
And two, maybe you need to look for more income generating opportunities or get a better job. Like, and that's just what it is. So if you can live off of 70% of your net take home income, you have enough money to reduce your debt and you have enough money to stay for emergencies. And I have really preached having three to six months in an emergency fund.
I personally have six to 12. And I always tell people this because you've got to live your life based on a worst case scenario. Like, what happens if all of a sudden there's a gigantic hailstorm and you have holes in your roof, right? It's going to take the insurance company like literally weeks to take care of it.
You got to take care of it right away. Like, there's things that happen in life. Like, my husband had a very severe esophageal tear and almost died. And it happened to be in this time period where Puerto Rico had that terrible storm and it was basically, and most of the food bags come from Puerto Rico.
I don't know if you noticed, like the TDN, like the food distribution bags. And so the hospitals were distributing bags one time for every five days. And there's not even enough food, like it's just enough calories to make it for the day. So if you're getting enough calories to make it for one day, every five days, there was a high likelihood that he could die.
And then they wouldn't up his amount until he was in critical condition. I mean, it was terrible. Yeah. Now, because we had an emergency fund and because we had resources, I just found him private care.
Yeah. A lot of the senior nurses for like wealthier areas had extra TPN. So we took him home, got at home nursing, got a discharge hospital, and we had different resources because I had resources. Yes.
You know what I mean? And so you've got to live your life based on something catastrophic could be happening, right? Like if you had a six to 12 months and you lost your job because of COVID, are you panicking? No.
No. And so that's what I always tell people. So if you live off 70%, you have enough to do stuff. And then what you have the reserves and you don't have them, you start investing in cash flowing opportunities.
For me, the investments that I have, it's like dividends, interest. I love real estate. I love rental income. Here's the thing though, I don't like to be highly leveraged.
Things that are like completely growth stocks or I know that if I buy real estate right now, I'm buying at an inflated price. Now I'm okay with that because interest rates are so low. I'm okay with that if the property cash flows. But I'm never going to buy a property at the highest amount of value that does not cash flow.
That does not make any sense to me. So you have to do things that bring in revenue and never invest based on capital gains. Because those are things that we cannot control. The real estate market could crash, but that property will cash flow.
And that's what I care about. So those are my best financial tips and literally their economy. They work in a great economy. They work in an economy like the one that we're seeing today.
They'll work if the economy gets worse. And so I have a lot on this. I'm actually rolling out an app. It's going to be a beta in December, but it's called the Smart Steps.
So I teach people like, what are the smart steps to becoming financially dependent, making sure that you're not house poor. And then also making sure that you don't live in this poverty mentality. So many people that teach about finances and that preach about how to get out of debt. It's all about being underwater.
It's all about never spending, never getting credit, buying everything with cash. And it makes people constantly live in fear of money. And when you fear something, you will never have it. And even if you did achieve it, you won't appreciate it.
I've seen that happen too, where it's like, you always feel you'll lose it. And so it's really a false purchase, or a false tangible item. I have a question on the 70-30 rule that you have, 70%. How long?
If someone hasn't done that yet, and they really don't think that way, and they're spending 120% of their income and leveraging their credit cards and all the things. Let's say they want to change and really heed the advice you just gave. For how long do you think that 70-30 rule should be in play before it's to the point where they have the six to 12 months aside or the three to six months aside? What are they doing with that 30% that they are not spending?
Is that savings? Is that the best thing? I'm out of debt. And once you have your six months, then you take those funds and you invest.
So you're not average, you say, for an investment property, I still live off the 70-30 rule myself. I live on 30%. Well, my income has also increased dramatically. So it's a different ratio.
But I live on 30% of my and then 70% goes towards debt consolidation. So I pay off my mortgage every month. Investing in other things like we're looking at buying a Ford tax right now. I have the opportunity to do that because I'm in that situation.
But it compounds. And just so you know, when I started this, I made $75,000 a year. I was $48,000 in debt for student loans. I had $10,000 in credit card debt.
My car was under water. I mean, I literally had nothing. I was so under water. And it took me three years to completely get debt free and to get six to 12 months in six.
So awesome. I mean, I think that's such a great tip for people to hear, especially now if they've been sitting in unemployment or figuring out like what to do next, as they're looking for their next gig. Like the spend continues because you have built up this life. I also feel like people shouldn't be afraid to change how they are living.
Like if your expenses need to come down in order to sustain during this time, that 70-30 ratio is really great. I personally have lived with the, I've always tried to make sure my expenses are a fourth, 25% of what I earn. Because then that gives me enough leverage to then go do big, bigger things and be resourceful like you're saying. So when I look at my, my husband laughs at me like when we first met even and we were like merging, because I believe a marriage is a merger.
Like basically I would spreadsheet everything. Like I've got everything on a spreadsheet to really understand, well, now that there's this like joint income and we still have to figure out what we want to invest in, how we want to live, lifestyle, et cetera, I would always then challenge myself to earn that 75% on top of the 25% for our lifestyle. That's what motivated me. Because I never wanted to feel that if I wanted something, I couldn't have it or make it happen.
If I didn't have that money in the bank, I'm not that resourcefulness that you're talking about. So the 70-30 rule is awesome to, if you're sitting and you're struggling and you're in scarcity and you're not sure what's to happen next and you've over leveraged yourself, but you really want to see things happen for yourself. Because my listeners, now I always talk about the vision and then how to strategize to go get it. And I believe anything you want, you can make happen.
This is one of those strategies to lean into financially to get those resources and check and make it happen. So I appreciate you sharing that. One of the biggest strategies to implementing this too is evaluating the people that you spend your time with. So a lot of times I find that people have a hard time shifting their finances because of the peer pressure that they'll feel from not going out to eat all the time, not having the nice things, moving back in with their family.
There's so much pressure there to just keep up with the Joneses that I think that you're going to have to shift. My personal thing is, I mean, I have shift and I know it sounds sad, but the thing is that the friends that I had in high school, I love them to death, but there were all of the same economic status. If you hang out with people that are in scarcity mindset, you feel scarce. And then I went to college and lived with all these people that were like, come from all the families and all this stuff.
But at the same token, like, like a lot of the reason I was in so much debt is because I was trying to keep up with their lifestyles that I could not afford. And finally, when I was like, all right, guys, like, I'm somewhere in the middle between like a poor person and somebody who wants to be rich. Like, there's just, I'm not there yet, but I've got to figure out how to do it. And so I stopped hanging out with them because at this point in time, like, it doesn't fit.
It doesn't fit. Or not the same morals. It's the value system. It's the values.
It's the values. Yeah. And I agree. I think, you know, as you go through the growth spurts in life, it's kind of like saying, I'm graduating high school, but I'm going to hang out with people who have the kindergarten mentality.
Like, we go through growth spurts in what we expose ourselves to, what inspires us and who we are becoming. And if we are not changing who we choose to hang out with to reflect that version of ourselves that we are today, then yes, you will be triggered constantly on past issues that you saw you overcame, but they're still coming up. It's because of who you surround yourself with. And I think that is an important, I think that is actually the top investment to make, is who you choose to hang out with.
And then also, how to, you know, gracefully exit the relationships that no longer fit. I've definitely had my moments of pure I'm abandoning the situation, like every that I've had it. I don't know that I've ever, like, you know, I don't end any relationship. I just kind of stays out.
Yeah. Graceful exit. Yeah. Because the thing is, I would always be there for them.
And I love them. And I want, it's just that what I want for my life. Yeah, different. And I've never felt any guilt about it.
I hope you try to make me feel guilty, you know, who you are. I just know that for me, the people that I have to be the most loyal to are the three babies in my home and my husband. That's right. That's right.
And then that's the place in life you're in. And those are the most rewarding relationships, honestly, is so beautiful. Well, I really appreciate you coming on and share your tips with my listeners and would love to, why don't you share with them how best to connect with you if they have questions or if they're interested in getting a mortgage or whatever it is, like based on today's conversation, how would you like them to connect and find you? So I'm pretty easy to find guys.
I'm Lizzie with OneZ and a Y. And if you put in Lizzie Lones, basically you find me everywhere on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, I have a ton of money to videos on YouTube. You couldn't miss it. Let me tell you.
Yeah, make sure you connect and follow her so that when her app comes out, you guys can have access to it to really get your personal money story in check and really then create that resourcefulness that Lizzie is all about because I know how much you'll benefit from it. And as a thank you, Lizzie, for joining me today. I always love to give my guests an opportunity to ask a question or if there's anything going on in your life or business that I can support you on right now. Yeah, well, what a huge gift because you're like literally the systems genius.
So as somebody who works in the mortgage industry and you work with lots of mortgage banks, what do you think are like the biggest things that we should be focusing on in 2021 as it comes to like team systems technology? Yeah, I think it is that nimbleness like I spoke about earlier where if you haven't, just like how you meet with your sales teams, like how you have like this cadence of keeping performance at a certain level and then also being available to them to shift change pivot, right? Like as I know your cadence and in that regard, same needs to happen in regards to your system and operations, that same type of nimble check in. So if you don't have like a monthly, how are we operating and really asking what are we doing so well that we got to keep doing, what are we not like where are we like falling, failing, hurting, like what do we need to change about that?
And then really asking what you need to add in, it'll allow you to not only have the cadence of communication for what needs to improve on a constant basis or help you decide what would make the biggest impact for your clients or your team, your team will then just realize that they can rely on that time of the month where you're focused in that way to bring all those things to the table. So what I've seen when you're in high volume like you are and systems don't work as fast as your team might need to work, it causes them pain in the moment and they don't have an outlet of like where do they take that? So it could turn into like a bitch fest versus a solution-based opportunity. So if you don't have something like that in place, that's what I would recommend as something that allows you to keep nimble.
I've seen teams do that on a weekly basis depending on the volume and like what actually has to change for you because you kind of have received this cadence of operating during this time and operationally figured certain things out probably on a monthly basis. I would look at that. And obviously if you need a facilitator to come in and assist you with setting that up so that it is productive, that could be helpful as well. But that's what I would look at for 2021 because we are going to see more changes happen and a different type of demand from our client base.
I think it's going to get much harder in the economy before it gets better. So it's really great to see that the mortgage industry is booming at these low rates and people are trying to sustain themselves financially in a certain way. But there are going to be more challenges in 2021 that you're still going to have to respond to. So I think that nimbleness is important.
Does that help? That does help. It's not going to be a problem. Of course.
Yeah. And if I can help anyway, obviously we could chat online because you know I could talk to you forever. And just for my listeners to know since we're closing out today's talk, Lizzie and my first interaction was the best hug of my life. It was the best.
We got tears and everything because it was an exercise we did and one of the group meetings we were in and it was beautiful. And so I always have a hard connection to you, Lizzie. And I'm so proud of you for sustaining who you are through this time. But also I want to be there for you when you need a recharge.
Do not hesitate to reach out because I'm always walking alongside you. But thanks for being with me today. And to my listeners, as you have any benefits, take away etc. We'd love to hear from you.
So do not hesitate to reach out. And we'll see you in the next episode. Wasn't that such a great episode? I know you got amazing takeaways from that.
What I would love for you to do for me if you can help me extend my reach is go ahead and subscribe to the show so you get the latest notification and listen before anyone else. Also, if you could go ahead and post your review, your five star review will help me get other people interested in this conversation and extend my reach of impact. Most of all, I would love for you to share this with your community. It means so much to me to have you as a listener.
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And I'll see you on the next episode.