June 16, 2026 • 18 mins
Episode 200 is here, Legacy Builders!
In this milestone episode, Laura reflects on the journey that started with $372,347 in debt, a dream of becoming a Ramsey personality, and a deep desire to build a different life for her family. Now, after years of hard work, intentional budgeting, debt payoff, saving, moving across the country, and building Accelerate Your Legacy, she shares what life looks like on the other side of doing the hard thing.
This episode is about more than money. It’s about legacy.
Laura talks about moving to Middle Tennessee, buying a home, watching her kids ride bikes at sunset, building a business, preparing for the release of Rosie Earns It Herself, and realizing that legacy does not begin someday in the future. It begins today.
You’ll hear encouragement for the hard middle: making the budget, paying off debt, saving when it feels slow, making big decisions, and staying consistent when the dream still feels far away.
Because the truth is: the hard thing is worth it.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why your legacy begins today, not someday
- How small, consistent financial choices can change your family’s future
- What it looked like to pay off $372,347 in debt
- Why budgeting, saving, and delayed gratification matter
- How to keep going when the dream takes longer than expected
- What life can look like on the other side of financial discipline
Don’t forget to fill out the quick listener survey for a chance to win a $50 gift card. Laura wants to hear what you’d love to see next on the Money and Legacy Podcast.
Your legacy begins today, friend. Go make a difference.
Learn more about working with Laura Sexton
. Join the Facebook group Legacy Builders Network.
· Become a master with your money. Learn more here!
· Checkout the resource library here!
Want to ask a question Laura can answer on the podcast? Connect with her here!
Want to receive a live money or career audit? Apply Here
Send an email to Laura@AccelerateYourLegacy.com or send a DM on Instagram @accelerateyourlegacy
Elevate your coaching with daily devotionals and prayers from 'Seasoned with Salt.' Get your copy HERE!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Laura (00:01):
You are listening to the Money and Legacy Podcast with
Laura Sexton.
I'm helping families pay offdebt, grow wealth, and build a
legacy without sacrificing whatmatters most.
This is where money feels easy.
Hello, Legacy Builders.
I'm so thrilled to be chattingwith you today because today is
(00:21):
episode 200.
I honestly cannot believe thatwe've made it to this point.
When I think about why I startedthe podcast, in case you didn't
know, back in the day, thereason I started this podcast
was because I was auditioning tobe a personality with Ramsey
Solutions.
I learned how to be a financialcoach through Ramsey Solutions.
(00:43):
We paid off all of our debtfollowing Dave Ramsey's seven
baby steps, and I fell in lovewith the idea of being a Ramsey
personality.
I've been a Ramsey Preferredcoach for five years now, and as
that program is coming to aclose and, other money
personality opportunities havenot been available because of
(01:06):
some changes at the company,I've decided that I'm going to
go out and do my own personalitything, or I'm gonna go out and
I'm gonna start doing morespeaking and I'm gonna do more
live events and I'm gonna domore getting out into the public
with you.
But the number one thing thatI'm going to do is this podcast.
I absolutely love it and I'mabsolutely thrilled that that is
what I was asked to do, tostart, to begin, and I have
(01:30):
loved every second of makingthis podcast for you.
So today I wanna talk about acouple different things.
First of all, I wanna tell youabout the move.
I wanna tell you about all ofthe exciting things that are
happening and what happens onthe other end of doing the hard
work, and I'm also gonna talk toyou about the future of this
podcast.
(01:50):
Obviously, it is episode 200.
We're gonna talk about the highsand the lows, right?
And I do want to talk to youabout discomfort.
Now, I might go ahead, dependingon how long it takes me to
record this episode, I might doa whole episode on discomfort.
We might keep it short fortoday, but I wanna talk about
the highs and the lows of whatit looks like to live your dream
(02:13):
and what it looks like on theother side of doing the hard
work.
A lot of times on this podcast,we're talking about what the
hard work is and how to gothrough the day-to-day, and we
talk about how to make thebudget, and we talk about what
it's like paying off debt, andwe talk about our new careers,
we talk about family life andthings like that.
It is the Money and LegacyPodcast, and I wanna focus more
on the legacy piece, and I wannatalk to you about what a legacy
(02:34):
looks like, and I wanna talk toyou about what your day-to-day
operations have to look like sothat you can get to the legacy
that you want.
And your legacy starts today, myfriends.
Your legacy is not in thefuture.
It's not some far-off distantthought.
Your legacy begins today, andwe're gonna talk about it.
So I wanna start off by tellingyou a little bit about where
we're at in our move situation.
(02:56):
We are almost all the wayunpacked.
There are many different boxesin different locations, but my
kids' rooms are unpacked.
My room is not.
The kitchen is almost completelydone, which is very exciting.
We have a beautiful dining roomtable that I got off of Facebook
Marketplace.
And it's starting to feel likehome.
(03:18):
The other day I was like,"Allright, kids, let's get in the
car.
Let's go home." And I was like,"Oh yeah, that's my new house.
My new house is my home." Andwe've been thinking about this
for a long time, and I, I thinkback to how it all started.
My husband and I got married.
We met in 2013, and we gotmarried in 2015.
And in 2016, we welcomed ourfirst little girl.
(03:45):
Now, this precious little monkeywas born, and she did not sleep.
She was rather difficult.
And I don't know if she wasdifficult or if I was just so
new at being a mom that I was sostressed out, and she was
feeling all of my stressfeelings, but she didn't like to
sleep.
And my husband would get up andgo to work, and he worked
nights, so I did not have helpat night, and I had help during
the day when I really didn'tneed it because she was up at
(04:06):
night happy, and I needed helpat night.
But that was not the season thatwe were in.
And this precious little thingchanged our whole lives because
we started looking at thingsdifferently.
We started looking at thefuture.
We started looking atpossibilities and what we wanted
ultimately, and we decided,living behind a place called
Studs Theater was not our ideal,right?
(04:29):
We were living in a part of townthat was not the best for
raising children.
Fun for nightlife, not so funfor raising a family.
So we wanted to move.
And when we looked up andrealized that we were$372,347 in
debt, we were like,"There's noway to live the life that we
(04:49):
want.
It's absolutely impossible.
We're never gonna get there."And that's when we started
talking about bankruptcy, andthat's when we had to make the
decision to change our lives.
And I really credit the day thatwe decided that as the day that
our life changed, not when wemade our final debt payment on
December 31st, 2019, not when wefinally had our fully funded
(05:11):
emergency fund in the summer of2020, which was terrible for
many other reasons.
But the day that we decided weweren't gonna live that way
anymore, that's the day ourlives changed it's crazy to
think the timeline there.
We started paying off debt onDecember 31st, 2016.
That is the day that I have ourofficial dollar amount.
(05:35):
Now, it was more than thatbecause I was paying things off
before he and I really combinedand created our whole ecosystem.
It was me doing my stuff with mymoney, because our money was
separate up until this point.
And December 31st, 2019, we madea pact, a New Year's resolution,
(05:57):
that we were going to startworking together So exactly 36
months later, exactly threeyears to the day, we made our
final debt payment and we weredebt-free.
$372,347 gone.
We were now level playing field.
We were at a$0 net worth,essentially.
(06:19):
So here we are, it's a freshstart.
We go into 2020 thinking thatit's gonna be our year, and it
was obviously not.
It was not for anybody.
But it was that year that Istarted helping people with
their money, and I became thefinancial coach that I want to
be.
I didn't even know this was ajob that I could have, and now
I'm living in it, I'm thrivingin it, I'm helping hundreds of
people a year totally change theway they see money, how they
(06:41):
feel about money.
Money-- They come in and moneyfeels stressful, and they come
out of our program feeling likeit's easy and they enjoy their
money as opposed to beingstressed by it all the time Two
years later, I start talking toRamsey Solutions about joining
their team, and that's acompletely on-site, in-person
(07:05):
job, and what does that looklike for our family?
What does it look like to move?
We started coming out here toMiddle Tennessee and just fell
in love with it.
We said,"This is where we wannabuild our life.
This is what we wanna do.
We're gonna have to start savingmoney." we went back and forth a
couple of times.
Are we gonna live in California?
Should we buy a home inCalifornia, and when are we
gonna move?
Our timeline kept fluctuating,kept moving, and we were putting
(07:27):
a lot of money into savings,trying to save money to buy a
house in California.
We could have done furtherfaster, but we had our kids in
private school, and that's a lotof money out of pocket every
month.
So we didn't make it inCalifornia, and we decided to
move our entire lives to MiddleTennessee.
(07:47):
We had gone back and forth onit, and we said,"Yeah, we wanna
do that.
So after a couple start andstops with this company and
different iterations of I'mgonna be in this position, I'm
gonna be in this position, I'mgonna be in this position, we
pulled back.
Right now, I am simply the, theCEO and head coach here at
Accelerate Your Legacy, and Ilove my job, and I love my
(08:09):
business, and I love my clients,and I'm not upset at where the
Lord has led me.
We've decided this is wherewe're at for now, and that's
wonderful.
we're very happy about that Butlast year, in 2025, I got the
itch to come out and startlooking for homes.
I just wanted to see what areado we wanna live in, where do we
wanna be.
(08:29):
I started interviewing schoolsbecause we found out that the
school that my kids were goingto was closing, and it made
perfect sense for us to move atthis time.
So I came out here just looking.
I wasn't gonna buy anything.
I didn't want to buy anything,and I found this house that we
are in right now, and I walkedin, I was like,"This is our
home." There's just this feelingsometimes that women get that's
just like,"This is it," and Iwas right.
So I told my husband, I said,"Hey, we need to put in an offer
(08:52):
on this home.
We should buy it now and makeessentially double mortgage
payments,"'cause we were payingfor our apartment out in
California.
What we were paying for our twobedroom, one bathroom apartment
is 59 cents cheaper than what wewere paying for this four
bedroom plus an office, threebathroom house with a yard.
(09:14):
It's crazy.
We have a yard.
The kids can go out and play.
The kids can ride their bikes.
I'll tell you about that in asecond We essentially were
making two mortgage paymentsbecause like I said, the
mortgage here is only 59 centsmore than our apartment payment.
So we put in an offer inDecember.
It was accepted.
We closed in January, and thenwe had to make double payments
(09:35):
March, April, May.
Three months of the majority ofour disposable income went
towards a house or rent, somesort of housing, and that was
hard.
It was a stretch.
We had to put in some overtime.
We had to do some extra work.
I had to build up my business alittle bit more, and we were
also packing and moving andgetting things ready, and there
(09:57):
was a lot of planning and thingsgoing on.
But now we're here, and theother night, I put three of my
kids to bed, and the older twowere still awake, and they said,
"Mom, can we go ride our bikes?"I was like,"Yeah, go ahead." And
they're riding their bike up anddown the street at sunset
Splashing in puddles, beingkids.
(10:18):
And I was like,"All right, guys,when the streetlights come on,
come inside." And in thatmoment, I could have cried.
I could cry right now thinkingabout it because it's literally
the thing that we have dreamedup for our kids since we had
that first little monkey back in2016.
10 years ago, this is what I wasdreaming of having for my
family, a place for them tospread out and create a room
(10:42):
that's just theirs, and they candecorate it how they want, and
they can have fun, and they canrun in the streets, and they can
do chalk on the sidewalks, andthey can just have the best
time.
And we're here, and I don't haveto worry about them being in the
street because there's nobodyzooming through our complex.
I don't have to worry about themscreaming and having a good time
'cause you know what?
We have neighbor kids who arealso screaming and having a good
(11:02):
time.
This is the coolest thing.
This is literally the thing thatI have dreamed of, I've prayed
for.
And as the sun set and the skylit up with beautiful colors, I
was just like,"Thank you, God,so much for this beautiful
blessing.
It's exactly what I wanted." Iwalk around my house and I say
(11:23):
thank you over and over and overagain.
I know that I had to put in thework.
I had to work hard to pay off$372,347 in debt.
I had to work hard to save ourmoney, to spend less than we
make.
It's so hard, and it is so worthit.
I've been in this home for acouple of weeks now, and I could
(11:45):
weep when I walk into my officejust how thankful I am that I
have this space where I'm gonnaget to create this vision I have
of this dark, moody library andoffice, and I get to...
I can't wait to show you guysthe journey.
I'm going to be able to workwith more clients.
I'm going to be able to do morespeaking.
(12:05):
I just went and met with myillustrator for my book, Rosie
Earns It Herself, and while Iwas meeting with her, I had two
people offer for us to do booksignings at their place of work.
We're almost done, guys.
The book is almost here.
It's so incredibly exciting.
But let me tell you what's notexciting: putting all this stuff
(12:26):
away, deciding where things go.
The decisions themselves arehard, but can I tell you that
once the decisions are made andthe things are put away, there's
so much peace?
You, my friend have to do somehard things sometimes, but the
benefit of those hard things isso worth it Sometimes we get
overwhelmed in our minds and wecan't fathom all of the things
(12:47):
that are happening And then weget to the other side and we're
so thankful that we went throughthe hard thing.
I promise you the hard thing isworth it.
When it comes to your finances,if you're sitting there and
you're struggling, you're like,I don't wanna make a budget
because it's hard," yeah, it'shard, but the hard thing is
worth it, I promise you.
This is 10 years in the making.
This was not overnight.
It was not an overnight success.
(13:08):
Nobody handed us money.
Nobody gave us, giant gifts, andthis was not done in a lump sum.
This was done little by little,incrementally, consistently.
That's how we got to this dream.
That's how we got here.
And my friends, I'm gonna letyou come along on the journey of
us paying off this house, and Iwill tell you, I was meeting
with my estate planner becausewe're in a new state.
(13:30):
We have to update our trust.
We have to update our wills.
We have to update all of thosethings because you need to make
sure that your will is statespecific, so if you move, you
need to update it.
I was meeting with an estateplanner, and I, he asked me how
much the house was, and I toldhim.
And I was like,"Wait, that's notright.
It can't, it can't be that much.
Hold on." And I told him$100,000less than what I paid for the
house.
(13:51):
I devalued my house by$100,000'cause I can't imagine having a
home this nice and having thismuch money in equity and having
this much potential holdings.
It's unfathomable to me from howI grew up in a town of 800
people To being here, to beingin this place.
(14:11):
It's hard to wrap my mind aroundBut the legacy that I'm creating
with my children is not one ofmaterial things.
The legacy that I'm creatingwith my children is that if you
work hard, you can have nicethings.
We have to take care of thethings that we have.
And I no longer want to buy alot of cheap things.
I used to be a stuff person.
(14:32):
I used to want a lot of thingsbecause I didn't have a lot of
things growing up, so I wanted alot of things, and I wanted a
lot of things around me.
And the only thing I want a lotof right now is books.
I love books, and I'm building alibrary.
You have to have 1,000 books tohave a library.
I used to want a lot of things,but now I want quality things.
I'm too broke to buy cheapthings.
(14:53):
And what I mean by that is Ineed things that are gonna last
a long time.
That's why we bought a home withbrand-new expensive appliances.
That's why we bought a home, andwe're making sure the things
that we buy and things we bringin are good quality things.
Now, there are some things thatwe don't care if they're good
quality yet.
I am buying a couple things offof Facebook Marketplace.
(15:14):
I bought some bar stools.
I don't care if they're greatquality.
I need to be able to sit in themabout my kitchen table.
Our plan was to go to Amishcountry, which is not far from
here, and buy a very nice,well-crafted kitchen table, but
you know what I did in- instead?
I just needed a table for now,so I went on Facebook
Marketplace, and I looked for atable for now, and I found the
(15:35):
most beautiful, delicious,amazing table on Facebook
Marketplace, table and chairs.
It's gorgeous, and it's solidwood.
It was very heavy, and it'ssolid, and I'm gonna get to keep
it, and I'm so excited.
So you find little treasures,right?
There are little treasures thatyou find that are in the most
unexpected places.
We wanted to buy a new table,and I found this one.
(15:57):
I love it.
We don't need a new table.
My kids are gonna take this ta-table to their house one day I'm
building in bookshelves and anentertainment center upstairs
for the kids.
I'm building things.
I put curtains in a wallyesterday.
I didn't even know I could dothat.
This is gonna be a lot more funwhen my husband's here full
(16:18):
time.
Right now, he's traveling backand forth for work.
But guys, the hard is worth it.
200 episodes.
Do you know how hard it is torecord 200 episodes, to find
quiet time when you havechildren running around all the
time?
Right now, my kids are inhomeschool.
It's June, and my mother hasdecided to play homeschool with
the kids, and they're loving it.
(16:39):
It's absolutely amazing Yourlegacy begins today, friends.
Not 10 years from now when youhit that thing that you've been
dreaming of.
Your legacy begins today.
This, the little things that youdo, the way that your kids are
following you around andwatching you, the way that
you're storing up your money andyou're saving your money and
you're building your life, thisis when your legacy starts.
(17:03):
Today is the day that you getall of your dreams to come true
because you write them down onpaper, you decide what it is you
want.
You have to decide what it isyou want.
You write it down on paper Andthen you work towards that goal
little by little.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Be consistent.
Do the things that allow you tobe the person that you wanna be
(17:26):
one day.
If you can do that, you too canlive the dream.
Oh, my legacy builders, I amlooking forward to 200 episodes.
If you have thoughts, if youhave something that you want me
to talk about, if you want me todive deeper into any subject, I
right now have a littlequestionnaire that you can look
for down in the show notes.
(17:47):
It is a quick Google document,and literally it's six
questions.
You fill out the six questions,you ne- leave your name and your
email address, and you'reentered for a chance to win.
I will be drawing a winner inthe middle of July.
So go ahead and get in, fill itout.
There's a$50 gift card.
It's gonna take six seconds ofyour time.
There's literally six questions.
(18:07):
Let me know what you wanna hear,'cause I want this podcast to be
all about you.
I realize I made today all aboutme.
I'm very excited about this200th episode.
I am also, just so you guysknow, I wanna do a little mini
movie money mashup, and I wantyou to be a part of it.
I'm gonna talk about our Disneyvillains and how we learned
money management from them, andthe things that we can do to
(18:30):
avoid the same mistakes thatthey made.
Anyway, we'll get there.
All right, my legacy builders, Iwill talk to you soon.
Thank you so much for being heretoday, and never forget that
today's the day that you can goout and make a difference
You are listening to the Money and Legacy Podcast with
Laura Sexton.
I'm helping families pay offdebt, grow wealth, and build a
legacy without sacrificing whatmatters most.
This is where money feels easy.
Hello, Legacy Builders.
I'm so thrilled to be chattingwith you today because today is
(00:21):
episode 200.
I honestly cannot believe thatwe've made it to this point.
When I think about why I startedthe podcast, in case you didn't
know, back in the day, thereason I started this podcast
was because I was auditioning tobe a personality with Ramsey
Solutions.
I learned how to be a financialcoach through Ramsey Solutions.
(00:43):
We paid off all of our debtfollowing Dave Ramsey's seven
baby steps, and I fell in lovewith the idea of being a Ramsey
personality.
I've been a Ramsey Preferredcoach for five years now, and as
that program is coming to aclose and, other money
personality opportunities havenot been available because of
(01:06):
some changes at the company,I've decided that I'm going to
go out and do my own personalitything, or I'm gonna go out and
I'm gonna start doing morespeaking and I'm gonna do more
live events and I'm gonna domore getting out into the public
with you.
But the number one thing thatI'm going to do is this podcast.
I absolutely love it and I'mabsolutely thrilled that that is
what I was asked to do, tostart, to begin, and I have
(01:30):
loved every second of makingthis podcast for you.
So today I wanna talk about acouple different things.
First of all, I wanna tell youabout the move.
I wanna tell you about all ofthe exciting things that are
happening and what happens onthe other end of doing the hard
work, and I'm also gonna talk toyou about the future of this
podcast.
(01:50):
Obviously, it is episode 200.
We're gonna talk about the highsand the lows, right?
And I do want to talk to youabout discomfort.
Now, I might go ahead, dependingon how long it takes me to
record this episode, I might doa whole episode on discomfort.
We might keep it short fortoday, but I wanna talk about
the highs and the lows of whatit looks like to live your dream
(02:13):
and what it looks like on theother side of doing the hard
work.
A lot of times on this podcast,we're talking about what the
hard work is and how to gothrough the day-to-day, and we
talk about how to make thebudget, and we talk about what
it's like paying off debt, andwe talk about our new careers,
we talk about family life andthings like that.
It is the Money and LegacyPodcast, and I wanna focus more
on the legacy piece, and I wannatalk to you about what a legacy
(02:34):
looks like, and I wanna talk toyou about what your day-to-day
operations have to look like sothat you can get to the legacy
that you want.
And your legacy starts today, myfriends.
Your legacy is not in thefuture.
It's not some far-off distantthought.
Your legacy begins today, andwe're gonna talk about it.
So I wanna start off by tellingyou a little bit about where
we're at in our move situation.
(02:56):
We are almost all the wayunpacked.
There are many different boxesin different locations, but my
kids' rooms are unpacked.
My room is not.
The kitchen is almost completelydone, which is very exciting.
We have a beautiful dining roomtable that I got off of Facebook
Marketplace.
And it's starting to feel likehome.
(03:18):
The other day I was like,"Allright, kids, let's get in the
car.
Let's go home." And I was like,"Oh yeah, that's my new house.
My new house is my home." Andwe've been thinking about this
for a long time, and I, I thinkback to how it all started.
My husband and I got married.
We met in 2013, and we gotmarried in 2015.
And in 2016, we welcomed ourfirst little girl.
(03:45):
Now, this precious little monkeywas born, and she did not sleep.
She was rather difficult.
And I don't know if she wasdifficult or if I was just so
new at being a mom that I was sostressed out, and she was
feeling all of my stressfeelings, but she didn't like to
sleep.
And my husband would get up andgo to work, and he worked
nights, so I did not have helpat night, and I had help during
the day when I really didn'tneed it because she was up at
(04:06):
night happy, and I needed helpat night.
But that was not the season thatwe were in.
And this precious little thingchanged our whole lives because
we started looking at thingsdifferently.
We started looking at thefuture.
We started looking atpossibilities and what we wanted
ultimately, and we decided,living behind a place called
Studs Theater was not our ideal,right?
(04:29):
We were living in a part of townthat was not the best for
raising children.
Fun for nightlife, not so funfor raising a family.
So we wanted to move.
And when we looked up andrealized that we were$372,347 in
debt, we were like,"There's noway to live the life that we
(04:49):
want.
It's absolutely impossible.
We're never gonna get there."And that's when we started
talking about bankruptcy, andthat's when we had to make the
decision to change our lives.
And I really credit the day thatwe decided that as the day that
our life changed, not when wemade our final debt payment on
December 31st, 2019, not when wefinally had our fully funded
(05:11):
emergency fund in the summer of2020, which was terrible for
many other reasons.
But the day that we decided weweren't gonna live that way
anymore, that's the day ourlives changed it's crazy to
think the timeline there.
We started paying off debt onDecember 31st, 2016.
That is the day that I have ourofficial dollar amount.
(05:35):
Now, it was more than thatbecause I was paying things off
before he and I really combinedand created our whole ecosystem.
It was me doing my stuff with mymoney, because our money was
separate up until this point.
And December 31st, 2019, we madea pact, a New Year's resolution,
(05:57):
that we were going to startworking together So exactly 36
months later, exactly threeyears to the day, we made our
final debt payment and we weredebt-free.
$372,347 gone.
We were now level playing field.
We were at a$0 net worth,essentially.
(06:19):
So here we are, it's a freshstart.
We go into 2020 thinking thatit's gonna be our year, and it
was obviously not.
It was not for anybody.
But it was that year that Istarted helping people with
their money, and I became thefinancial coach that I want to
be.
I didn't even know this was ajob that I could have, and now
I'm living in it, I'm thrivingin it, I'm helping hundreds of
people a year totally change theway they see money, how they
(06:41):
feel about money.
Money-- They come in and moneyfeels stressful, and they come
out of our program feeling likeit's easy and they enjoy their
money as opposed to beingstressed by it all the time Two
years later, I start talking toRamsey Solutions about joining
their team, and that's acompletely on-site, in-person
(07:05):
job, and what does that looklike for our family?
What does it look like to move?
We started coming out here toMiddle Tennessee and just fell
in love with it.
We said,"This is where we wannabuild our life.
This is what we wanna do.
We're gonna have to start savingmoney." we went back and forth a
couple of times.
Are we gonna live in California?
Should we buy a home inCalifornia, and when are we
gonna move?
Our timeline kept fluctuating,kept moving, and we were putting
(07:27):
a lot of money into savings,trying to save money to buy a
house in California.
We could have done furtherfaster, but we had our kids in
private school, and that's a lotof money out of pocket every
month.
So we didn't make it inCalifornia, and we decided to
move our entire lives to MiddleTennessee.
(07:47):
We had gone back and forth onit, and we said,"Yeah, we wanna
do that.
So after a couple start andstops with this company and
different iterations of I'mgonna be in this position, I'm
gonna be in this position, I'mgonna be in this position, we
pulled back.
Right now, I am simply the, theCEO and head coach here at
Accelerate Your Legacy, and Ilove my job, and I love my
(08:09):
business, and I love my clients,and I'm not upset at where the
Lord has led me.
We've decided this is wherewe're at for now, and that's
wonderful.
we're very happy about that Butlast year, in 2025, I got the
itch to come out and startlooking for homes.
I just wanted to see what areado we wanna live in, where do we
wanna be.
(08:29):
I started interviewing schoolsbecause we found out that the
school that my kids were goingto was closing, and it made
perfect sense for us to move atthis time.
So I came out here just looking.
I wasn't gonna buy anything.
I didn't want to buy anything,and I found this house that we
are in right now, and I walkedin, I was like,"This is our
home." There's just this feelingsometimes that women get that's
just like,"This is it," and Iwas right.
So I told my husband, I said,"Hey, we need to put in an offer
(08:52):
on this home.
We should buy it now and makeessentially double mortgage
payments,"'cause we were payingfor our apartment out in
California.
What we were paying for our twobedroom, one bathroom apartment
is 59 cents cheaper than what wewere paying for this four
bedroom plus an office, threebathroom house with a yard.
(09:14):
It's crazy.
We have a yard.
The kids can go out and play.
The kids can ride their bikes.
I'll tell you about that in asecond We essentially were
making two mortgage paymentsbecause like I said, the
mortgage here is only 59 centsmore than our apartment payment.
So we put in an offer inDecember.
It was accepted.
We closed in January, and thenwe had to make double payments
(09:35):
March, April, May.
Three months of the majority ofour disposable income went
towards a house or rent, somesort of housing, and that was
hard.
It was a stretch.
We had to put in some overtime.
We had to do some extra work.
I had to build up my business alittle bit more, and we were
also packing and moving andgetting things ready, and there
(09:57):
was a lot of planning and thingsgoing on.
But now we're here, and theother night, I put three of my
kids to bed, and the older twowere still awake, and they said,
"Mom, can we go ride our bikes?"I was like,"Yeah, go ahead." And
they're riding their bike up anddown the street at sunset
Splashing in puddles, beingkids.
(10:18):
And I was like,"All right, guys,when the streetlights come on,
come inside." And in thatmoment, I could have cried.
I could cry right now thinkingabout it because it's literally
the thing that we have dreamedup for our kids since we had
that first little monkey back in2016.
10 years ago, this is what I wasdreaming of having for my
family, a place for them tospread out and create a room
(10:42):
that's just theirs, and they candecorate it how they want, and
they can have fun, and they canrun in the streets, and they can
do chalk on the sidewalks, andthey can just have the best
time.
And we're here, and I don't haveto worry about them being in the
street because there's nobodyzooming through our complex.
I don't have to worry about themscreaming and having a good time
'cause you know what?
We have neighbor kids who arealso screaming and having a good
(11:02):
time.
This is the coolest thing.
This is literally the thing thatI have dreamed of, I've prayed
for.
And as the sun set and the skylit up with beautiful colors, I
was just like,"Thank you, God,so much for this beautiful
blessing.
It's exactly what I wanted." Iwalk around my house and I say
(11:23):
thank you over and over and overagain.
I know that I had to put in thework.
I had to work hard to pay off$372,347 in debt.
I had to work hard to save ourmoney, to spend less than we
make.
It's so hard, and it is so worthit.
I've been in this home for acouple of weeks now, and I could
(11:45):
weep when I walk into my officejust how thankful I am that I
have this space where I'm gonnaget to create this vision I have
of this dark, moody library andoffice, and I get to...
I can't wait to show you guysthe journey.
I'm going to be able to workwith more clients.
I'm going to be able to do morespeaking.
(12:05):
I just went and met with myillustrator for my book, Rosie
Earns It Herself, and while Iwas meeting with her, I had two
people offer for us to do booksignings at their place of work.
We're almost done, guys.
The book is almost here.
It's so incredibly exciting.
But let me tell you what's notexciting: putting all this stuff
(12:26):
away, deciding where things go.
The decisions themselves arehard, but can I tell you that
once the decisions are made andthe things are put away, there's
so much peace?
You, my friend have to do somehard things sometimes, but the
benefit of those hard things isso worth it Sometimes we get
overwhelmed in our minds and wecan't fathom all of the things
(12:47):
that are happening And then weget to the other side and we're
so thankful that we went throughthe hard thing.
I promise you the hard thing isworth it.
When it comes to your finances,if you're sitting there and
you're struggling, you're like,I don't wanna make a budget
because it's hard," yeah, it'shard, but the hard thing is
worth it, I promise you.
This is 10 years in the making.
This was not overnight.
It was not an overnight success.
(13:08):
Nobody handed us money.
Nobody gave us, giant gifts, andthis was not done in a lump sum.
This was done little by little,incrementally, consistently.
That's how we got to this dream.
That's how we got here.
And my friends, I'm gonna letyou come along on the journey of
us paying off this house, and Iwill tell you, I was meeting
with my estate planner becausewe're in a new state.
(13:30):
We have to update our trust.
We have to update our wills.
We have to update all of thosethings because you need to make
sure that your will is statespecific, so if you move, you
need to update it.
I was meeting with an estateplanner, and I, he asked me how
much the house was, and I toldhim.
And I was like,"Wait, that's notright.
It can't, it can't be that much.
Hold on." And I told him$100,000less than what I paid for the
house.
(13:51):
I devalued my house by$100,000'cause I can't imagine having a
home this nice and having thismuch money in equity and having
this much potential holdings.
It's unfathomable to me from howI grew up in a town of 800
people To being here, to beingin this place.
(14:11):
It's hard to wrap my mind aroundBut the legacy that I'm creating
with my children is not one ofmaterial things.
The legacy that I'm creatingwith my children is that if you
work hard, you can have nicethings.
We have to take care of thethings that we have.
And I no longer want to buy alot of cheap things.
I used to be a stuff person.
(14:32):
I used to want a lot of thingsbecause I didn't have a lot of
things growing up, so I wanted alot of things, and I wanted a
lot of things around me.
And the only thing I want a lotof right now is books.
I love books, and I'm building alibrary.
You have to have 1,000 books tohave a library.
I used to want a lot of things,but now I want quality things.
I'm too broke to buy cheapthings.
(14:53):
And what I mean by that is Ineed things that are gonna last
a long time.
That's why we bought a home withbrand-new expensive appliances.
That's why we bought a home, andwe're making sure the things
that we buy and things we bringin are good quality things.
Now, there are some things thatwe don't care if they're good
quality yet.
I am buying a couple things offof Facebook Marketplace.
(15:14):
I bought some bar stools.
I don't care if they're greatquality.
I need to be able to sit in themabout my kitchen table.
Our plan was to go to Amishcountry, which is not far from
here, and buy a very nice,well-crafted kitchen table, but
you know what I did in- instead?
I just needed a table for now,so I went on Facebook
Marketplace, and I looked for atable for now, and I found the
(15:35):
most beautiful, delicious,amazing table on Facebook
Marketplace, table and chairs.
It's gorgeous, and it's solidwood.
It was very heavy, and it'ssolid, and I'm gonna get to keep
it, and I'm so excited.
So you find little treasures,right?
There are little treasures thatyou find that are in the most
unexpected places.
We wanted to buy a new table,and I found this one.
(15:57):
I love it.
We don't need a new table.
My kids are gonna take this ta-table to their house one day I'm
building in bookshelves and anentertainment center upstairs
for the kids.
I'm building things.
I put curtains in a wallyesterday.
I didn't even know I could dothat.
This is gonna be a lot more funwhen my husband's here full
(16:18):
time.
Right now, he's traveling backand forth for work.
But guys, the hard is worth it.
200 episodes.
Do you know how hard it is torecord 200 episodes, to find
quiet time when you havechildren running around all the
time?
Right now, my kids are inhomeschool.
It's June, and my mother hasdecided to play homeschool with
the kids, and they're loving it.
(16:39):
It's absolutely amazing Yourlegacy begins today, friends.
Not 10 years from now when youhit that thing that you've been
dreaming of.
Your legacy begins today.
This, the little things that youdo, the way that your kids are
following you around andwatching you, the way that
you're storing up your money andyou're saving your money and
you're building your life, thisis when your legacy starts.
(17:03):
Today is the day that you getall of your dreams to come true
because you write them down onpaper, you decide what it is you
want.
You have to decide what it isyou want.
You write it down on paper Andthen you work towards that goal
little by little.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Be consistent.
Do the things that allow you tobe the person that you wanna be
(17:26):
one day.
If you can do that, you too canlive the dream.
Oh, my legacy builders, I amlooking forward to 200 episodes.
If you have thoughts, if youhave something that you want me
to talk about, if you want me todive deeper into any subject, I
right now have a littlequestionnaire that you can look
for down in the show notes.
(17:47):
It is a quick Google document,and literally it's six
questions.
You fill out the six questions,you ne- leave your name and your
email address, and you'reentered for a chance to win.
I will be drawing a winner inthe middle of July.
So go ahead and get in, fill itout.
There's a$50 gift card.
It's gonna take six seconds ofyour time.
There's literally six questions.
(18:07):
Let me know what you wanna hear,'cause I want this podcast to be
all about you.
I realize I made today all aboutme.
I'm very excited about this200th episode.
I am also, just so you guysknow, I wanna do a little mini
movie money mashup, and I wantyou to be a part of it.
I'm gonna talk about our Disneyvillains and how we learned
money management from them, andthe things that we can do to
(18:30):
avoid the same mistakes thatthey made.
Anyway, we'll get there.
All right, my legacy builders, Iwill talk to you soon.
Thank you so much for being heretoday, and never forget that
today's the day that you can goout and make a difference
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