Episode 92: How To Organize Your Finances To Pursue Multiple Financial Goals With Danielle Desir Corbett
As we head into the new year, I wanted to share a conversation I had with Sasha Huff, a podcast producer and the host of Because I Can, a podcast about life and all of the lessons we learned along the way. I’m usually the one asking the questions on the show, but I’ll admit that it’s nice to be on the other side sharing my story, thoughts, and perspectives. In this episode we chat about ways I’ve organized my finances so I can tackle multiple financial goals like traveling and paying off my mortgage early. You’ll also hear a bit about my money story and what money was like growing up. We cover a variety of topics including budgeting, best ways to organize finances, homeownership, and early retirement.
A special thank you to Sasha Huff for interviewing me and giving me a chance to share more of my money story on The Thought Card Podcasts (something I’d like to do more of in 2022).
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Danielle Desir: Welcome to The Thought Card, a podcast about traveling money, we're planning saving and creativity leads to hoarding travel building wealth and paying off debt. We are the financial savvy travelers, Hey financial savvy travelers and welcome back to another episode of the Thought Card podcast as we head into the new year. I wanted to share a conversation I had with Sasha huff, a podcast producer and the host of, because I can a podcast about life and all of the lessons we learned along the way. Now I'm usually the one asking the questions on the show, but I'll admit that it's nice to be on the other side sharing my story, thoughts and perspectives. So in this episode I share ways I've organized my finances so I can tackle multiple financial goals like traveling and paying off my mortgage early. You'll also hear a bit about my money story and what money was like for me growing up After this episode. I recommend listening to episode 69 where I share how I became a financially savvy traveler. Lastly if you haven't already, please follow The Thought Card Podcast on your favorite podcast player so you'll get new episodes sent directly to your phone. I'd also really appreciate your support, support the show by buying me a cup of coffee and our purchasing any of my travel and personal finance books. See you in the next episode.
Sasha Huff: This season has really been focused about topics that we generally tend to sort of keep quiet about or we keep it in private. We only talk about it around like the people we really know sex politics and yes, money money is a big part of that. So I brought you on because you are someone that I really admire and respect in the financial sector. I think you're doing amazing things and really helping people. So let's start at the beginning, what really made you become so passionate about saving money and investing and home ownership to the point that you've created your brand around it.
Danielle Desir: Yeah, so I would say that I grew up in a household where money was talked about a lot. So my mom is in addition to being like savvy herself, she's also an accountant and my dad's also accounted as well. So money was always a topic of discussion, it was never off the table. My mom actually helped me open up my first retirement account at the age of 16 and I was actually doing small investments, like investing in CDs and just like fixed assets like that before 16. So I really credit my mom to really exposing me and talking to me about money and savings and even my grandma, I always call her like the master saver, like she always knew how to stretch a dollar and she always stressed that saving is so important. So I think my grandma came with the saving component. My mom came with the saving, investing and I think for me now I'm like taking building wealth really, really seriously at a reasonable age at this point now.
Sash Huff: That's awesome. I have a very similar upbringing in that way. My mom, I remember being in middle school and my mom opening up, or maybe it probably was high school actually 16 I think is probably the earliest you can do something like that. But I remember having like a little deposit book and every time I would make a little money at my job or if my mom gave me 20 bucks to go to the movies, whatever I had left over, she would bring me to the bank and she would show me how we use the depositing book. And I feel so lucky to have had that foundation of understanding the value of money, how to save it, how to invest it. But so many people I think are not getting that type of education and they're thrown into the world, sort of not understanding finances or credit card debt and interest rates and all of those types of things. So I think it's really cool again that you're bringing that knowledge that both of us were so lucky to have at a foundational age to people and building wealth right now. I think for a lot of people our age, millennials and above and hopefully below also are really thinking about how do I build generational wealth that will stay within my family that can set my children up and their children up for greatness so shouts to mom's and grandma's and all them and dad's two for setting you up like that, I think that's amazing. So you have the foundation of this, this is something that's been in your life for a long time. What made you decide you wanted to offer that knowledge to the public and make it such a big part of what you're doing on the daily?
Danielle Desir: Yeah, I would say that when I first started my blog, I had thoughts and that's why my whole brand is called The Thought Card. I had thoughts to share with the world and I wasn't really sure what those thoughts were. I just wanted to have a place where I can share updates and share the things that I'm working on and things that I enjoy. So my blog started off really reluctantly because I wasn't really sure that writing was my strength, but I started the blog and it was more of a lifestyle blog and at the time I was also traveling just starting to travel. So really dabbling into travel. So it was like half travel, half lifestyle because I wasn't, I had a full time job. I wasn't traveling all the time. So just really creating content generally speaking. And one of the articles I wrote was about how is paying off student loan debt faster and quicker. So I shared like 4-5 strategies. I shared that with my network and people really loved it. And that feedback was really reassuring because I said to myself, you know what, maybe I can combine my passions for travel and money because in the middle of, you know, having a full time job and trying to survive. I'm also trying to pay off student loan debt. I'm also trying to travel. So these are things that if I'm struggling with them, maybe other people are struggling with them too. So I started to really focus in on personal finance and I think for me, one of the more challenging things is that five years ago travel was just seen as travel. So if you're a travel content creator, you're only talking about travel destinations and travel really good topics and if you're in a personal finance space, you're only talking about money. So here I was the unicorn really blending these two passions together and for me it made a lot of sense. You need the money to be able to have the freedom to go and enjoy experiences, even domestic or abroad, you need money to pay for school loan debt. Everything I always say that money can help you on your journey or it can be a hindrance depending on what side of the coin you're on. So that's really how I started really talking about traveling money very cohesively and just bringing back to my passion for travel. So my family is from Haiti and by the time I was born my grandparents are already like in early retirement, which I think plays a big part of why I want to retire early because they've been like my entire life, they've been retired actually when I was younger, I would go to Haiti every summer And that's where I learned the language and the culture and I would spend literally four months out of the year in Haiti since I was like 15 to, you know, when I first was born. So that's my exposure to travel. And by the time I got to high school, I realized that I wanted to see more places at the same time, my friends were kind of pulling me away from like, you know, you want to go to the mall and hang out. You don't want to go abroad where no one knows you, but it's just like you're just by yourself. So that's really my story where travel started in my life really just being able to do it all the time and not really taking it as something that's special is kind of just like you go to the same place all the time. So that's where the back story of my travel passions and my money passions and once I saw a little bit of traction on the blog, I knew that this was a gap that I was feeling and I've been running the blog ever since.
Sash Huff: That's so cool because it's true if you want to have those experiences, you do have to sacrifice the mall ratting going and just randomly buying something at Nordstrom or whatever. You know, the extra pair of jeans you don't need and all those things, which, which sounds so much like the avocado toast kind of trope of like stopping avocado toast. But there, even though I don't 100% believe in that there are parts of it that it is a mindset shift of like what is my priority? Where do I really want my money to be going all the time and how do I budget that to make it so that I am able to travel because I think a lot of people, we have very, a lot of similar back stories. Actually, I learned this the first time we spoke to each other, but there's so many more that I'm learning right now because I also saw that I think people see me as someone who travels a lot doesn't work whatever, whatever kind of, that same perspective, but the reality is I'm hoarding my money so that I can take these big trips. I am foregoing the Starbucks coffee every day so that I'm saving a couple 100 a month on coffee or whatever. And that's going into something I actually did an episode called How to Travel when you're on a budget One episode because I felt so passionately and people are always asking, well, how do you have the money to do this? And it's like, well, I mean I'm wearing the same shirt I've had for 15 years because I'm not spending my money on clothes on the forever 21 new things and all of that. And I think that there is a lot of sort of misperceptions on how to build that kind of lifestyle if you are also working and having a life outside of just holding on to all of it. And my mom also retired early, by the way, she was retired for most of my life as well. So I have a, I was just talking to my husband on the porch. I'm like, I want to retire by the time in 45 which is in about 10 years. And he's like, okay. And I'm like, oh watch, it's going to happen because now and I'm surrounding myself with women who also have that and I'm like, well even if it's 50 even if I go for 45 it takes me a few extra years, I believe that setting that precedent now and learning from people like you and being around people who are also actively trying to make better choices around money is what will get me there and I'm going to do it. When do you want to retire? What's like your age?
Danielle Desir: Yeah, 45 is my age. I just turned 30 last week. But even before then when I was 27, I already knew that like 45 is that age where I'm like, I have enough time ahead of me, if I play my cards right, I can amass the kind of wealth that I can technically never have to work a day in my life again, doesn't mean that I won't, probably not, I'm still probably going to write a book here there, you know, I'm still probably going to appear at a speaking gig or do something to bring an income but not having that like dependency where you have to rely on the paycheck or you have to rely on income is the kind of life that I definitely want to leave and I am really inspired by my grandparents had mentioned before, like since I was a little like my grandparents have been retired and it's like they weren't millionaires. So how did they do this? How did they amassed the sort of wealth and now live a lifestyle where they, you know, they live a comfortable lifestyle. So for me that's a big financial decisions I had to make for myself is like I want to retire And when I first met my now husband, it was a conversation that I was very adamant about as well, so letting him know like this is my game plan, this is a plan that I have and he's all for it, which is great.
Sasha Huff: Yeah, and that is so much of it too, is like setting that foundation, saying it out loud, starting to move towards the behaviors that need to happen in order to have that lifestyle and I'm with you, it's like I still, when I say I want to retire at 45 it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm not going to ever bring in income, but like you said, it's not going to be every week that I'm like hustling to try to make the money. I need to pay my rent that day or my mortgage or whatever. And so I think there's also sort of a misconception on what full retirement even means. I just want to be able to work on the things that I'm the most passionate about, that I can do with the most amount of ease and if money follows from those projects, that's great. I'm all for money as the mantra says and I like to say it all the time. I love money and money loves me. I welcome money into my life. I respect money and money respects me and it comes to me with ease and that's the life I'm trying to lead. So with that, what are some of the actions and steps and things that you're taking now to set yourself up for this future that you would like.
Danielle Desir: Yes. So one of the things for me, there's two parts of the coin. So number one is increasing your income so that you can have more of a gap between your expenses and what you can save. So if you make more ideally, hopefully you can save more as well. So in tackling my income has been very important and also tackling my mortgage has been the second thing that has been super duper important to me because ideally what I want to happen like right now with the mortgage, I have to bring in enough money to cover the mortgage and all of my other expenses as a homeowner. However, if my mortgage is paid off then I don't necessarily need to bring in as much money, my income can be lower and I could still have a good life. So right now I'm actively working on paying off my mortgage, which is why I've been able to pay off that $20,000 in three years and let me just say it is so hard, it is not easy when you're a homeowner to like just find extra money in your checkbook to like send off. So that's why I think for me it's, it feels like it's kind of like a snowball, it's a snowball effect, like every dollar that you put towards your mortgage, you're able to really see the reduction in the time that you have. So some of the strategies when it comes to my mortgage payment. It depends because some mortgage lenders allow you to make extra payments, you can make payments like bi weekly, which is great because it shaves off years off your mortgage automatically, which is wonderful. However, a mortgage lender that I have doesn't allow me to do that, so I must make one full payment. So what I have decided to do is every pretty much like my mortgage payment, I divide that by 12. So every single month I put 1/12 of an extra mortgage payment towards my mortgage, which is pretty much the same thing. It's mathematically the same. So that's one of the strategies that have been doing, which has been super helpful and secondly, having extra income. So freelancing freelance writing is one of the things that I love to do and it coincides with having a blog. So it's like I'm already writing right, so might as well write for other people. So writing, book sales, all of that. I have goals for all of that extra income and I throw it as much as possible at my mortgage. But I think I'm a little bit different from most personal finance folks because most people tell you to focus on one thing at one time. So it's like focus the next 10 years on your mortgage. But for me, I'm like well we still want to travel, we may want to get an investment property, we may want to do other things. I mean I still have to invest money so I can build wealth on the side of just paying off this mortgage. Right? So I have all these little pots burning at the same time, which is a little bit different than most people, but for me, I feel like I'm making headway on all of them, even if it's slower than just focusing on one totally.
Sash Huff: I would like you to explain why paying down the principle is what your key focus is. Because I think a lot of people who aren't in mortgages yet or might not be at the point of even getting into one, They might not understand that you have a mortgage and a lot of the times your mortgage payment is actually going towards paying down just the interest rate and not actually the mortgage that you've taken out. And so you're sort of just floating in this space of never really paying it off or taking the 30 full years. So a very brief sort of understanding of why that's been the focus.
Danielle Desir: Sure. So when I mentioned that I paid off $20,000 of my mortgage, that's in addition to what the schedule is. So when you apply for a mortgage and you are accepted for the mortgage and take the mortgage, they're going to give you a schedule. And depending on what schedule that you decide to go with, it's a 15 year schedule and they'll map out every single month as you move through the schedule, you'll see exactly how much you're paying off. Now for me paying off my mortgage quickly means paying off the original money that I owed as much as possible. So when I'm making a mortgage payment, I'm covering what I'm supposed to and then I add on additional money that gets applied specifically to my mortgage amount so that I can lower it down. So for example if my mortgage was let's say $200,000, my goal is to see that 200 become 190K become 180K 170K. And that's what I'm chipping away at every single month on top of my mortgage payment. Then one more clarification is that your mortgage payment is comprised of a bunch of things. So it's covering the interest pretty much you owe this lender money and they're like okay because you borrowed from me, you have to pay me interest. So you're covering the interest, you may have like mortgage insurance. Like I do if you have a particular type of loan, you have also property tax. So there's a bunch of stuff that goes into your mortgage payment. So I hope that clarifies things. But yes, so my goal is let's say if I had $100,000 mortgage to get it down to zero. So zero is that ideal number where I don't owe anyone anything besides just making sure that my property taxes covered for the month.
Sasha Huff: Awesome. Thank you. Yeah, it's one of those things right now, my husband and I are doing the same thing. We're trying to add an extra payment whenever we can so that we're paying down that principle and paying down what we actually borrowed and obviously the less money that's in the borrowed tank because you're paying interest monthly for every month you're continuing to borrow from that lender, you're paying them an interest rate and obviously it's a percentage. So the lower the actual amount of money you're still borrowing exists, the lower your payments will be etcetera, etcetera. So we're all trying to outrun the interest rate as much as weekend, as quickly as possible. So, so yeah.
Danielle Desir: Yes. And I also wanted to mention something, so, one of the calculators that I love using is Dave Ramsey's mortgage payoff calculator. It's a free calculator. So you can put in your scenario and it'll give you like projections. And that has been really helpful for me to visualize and graphically see my timeline. So one of the great things about paying off my mortgage early is that for every one extra payment that I make, I actually saved myself two months off of my mortgage. So for me, it's like if I make sacrifices today, I'm literally buying myself more time to be financially independent in the future. So sometimes I think seeing the numbers and seeing graphs and seeing like, Okay, this extra $100 a month, what's the impact? It can really make a difference. So I think having a calculator can be really helpful in their journey.
Sasha Huff: Yeah. So much of recently in my own life, really sitting down with my finances and seeing them in front of me, it actually also, like you just said, it really makes me more hopeful, like it makes me understand better where I'm at and what my goals are and how I can really achieve those and I think that that is such an important step of all of this is like really sitting down and looking at your finances and seeing where you are. What I find a lot in the conversations that I have with some of my friends who are either in not as great as the financial situation, maybe they're single. Obviously we have the great edition of having a spouse that can contribute in whatever way I don't take that for granted. It makes it much easier for me to be a homeowner and to build this life that I want to build. But a lot of times it's because they're paying no attention, it's like they're swiping the debit card, they're not paying attention to the fact that that I go back to Starbucks all the time because it's just like I remember realizing how much I was spending on like, iced tea and I still get made fun of this. My husband makes fun of me all the time about this, but I'm so like irritated with the $4 iced tea because I'm like, I can make this for two cents at home and I am going and wasting, like it doesn't seem like much but $80 a month is a lot of money, like that ends up being a lot of money when you're trying to reach these other goals. So yeah, I think actually sitting down and looking at it and being able to sort of Look yourself in the eye and see what are my behaviors that are not contributing towards this goal that I'd like to have of early retirement or even if it's not really retirement, it's just being set up for your retirement to feel good. The time's flying man, I'm almost 40, like all of a sudden this retirement is so far away. I don't have to think about it is now creeping in with the gray hairs and I'm realizing if I want this life, I need to really work towards it. So speaking of that, what are sort of some of the money mindset issues that you see your community that are coming to you that are sort of like this is the one, it always ends up being the topic of conversation.
Danielle Desir: One of them is definitely being afraid of looking at your bank accounts that comes up all of the time. And I think that folks don't realize how much stress not knowing your numbers can actually end up you feeling at the end of the day. What I try to do to kind of combat that is I actually set up a weekly money date with myself. So I actually put it in my calendar, it's like half an hour, usually sunday mornings because it's like usually quiet with a cup of coffee. I actually do not recommend doing money check ins at night because if there is something that you need to make an adjustment to, you're going to go to bed angry stress and said, so don't do that. So you want to tackle your money issues as early in the morning as possible and take action. But when it comes to my money check in, when I try to do it is actually have like a spreadsheet that has all of my bills and I just make sure that all my bills are covered, so I don't necessarily have to think about the bills I have to cover. It's all laid out for me. So if you can have a system where you don't have to actually think about your bills, it's just like super plain as day and you could just go through a list, that number one saves you so much time. But also having a practice of actually looking at my bank accounts on a weekly basis, checking my investment accounts, seeing what needs to get done or just celebrating a win. Sometimes you might realize that you have way more than you had or maybe if you're a freelancer, like something came in that you didn't expect to come in. So that has been super helpful. I think secondly folks think that, you know, even if their cash strapped right now that they can't travel, they have this idea that travel has to be super expensive, super pricey and here's the thing, I always say that yes, travel will cost you money, but it's a scale, it could be as little as possible as you want it to be or it can be as much as you want or even more than that. So it's really finding a sweet spot for you between what can you afford and what can you do whenever I'm thinking about traveling or planning a trip. Usually it's never like my dream destinations because most of my dream destinations are out of reach. Like I want to go to New Zealand and Australia and just to fight along, we'll take my whole budget, right? So the way that I make travel possible for me is I think about, okay, let me see how much money I have set aside and then based off that, where can I go, what can I do that allows me, you still have a lot of power. Like you're not giving up your power and you can still have an incredible experience. But putting your finances first can really open you up to more travel versus the other way around of saying I must go to New Zealand this year next year and you know, if you don't go there, you're kind of like sad no, for me, I rather like see if I have x amount of money for the year, where can I go? And I think also optimizing that. So When I first started traveling it would be like one big trip a year where I blow my entire budget on this one trip. Now I gamify things and say, okay, how can I make this pot of money last me for several trips. So I try to find just ways to make it fun ways for me to stretch it and I love a good flight deal. So I'm always here for the flight deals.
Sash Huff: So yeah. Yeah, no that's also helpful and that also can be transferred to really anything, whatever it is that you're saving up for, whether it's travel or you want a new couch or a new bed or you want better let it, whatever it is, that's your thing that lights you up for us. It's travel were like how do I get to the next place for others? It could be, you know, getting that new computer or whatever it is that you're looking for. These are all systems that can be put in place to also save for those things. It keeps going back to, it feels like just having the courage. Finally, if you have never sat down and really look at your finances and I'm not talking about just pulling up your Bank of America statement and seeing what you spent but really plugging it in To those dreaded Excel spreadsheets or your quickbooks or whatever it is and really understanding because the other thing that I find so often to is people actually have more money a lot of the times than they realize they make more money than they realize. But they're constantly in a deficit because they're not paying any attention to that one. McDonald's run that one night out that like maybe in reality that week you shouldn't have had any night out and it doesn't mean you can never go out to eat, but when you're starting to really compartmentalize it, especially week by week, like you're saying, it does bring a little sense of peace because you are either going to look at your week and say, okay, this week I really have to strap in. I have to make all my meals at home. I can't do the online amazon thing this week and maybe the following week you've got the extra $50 bucks and who cares spend it, have fun, go out to eat, get the avocado toast, like spend the money, but you're right. It does bring in such a different sense of peace when you have an understanding of what you actually have available to you. And I find so often even if that salary is maybe not where you want it to be at this point in your life, it's likely that your lifestyle, you're just out spending you actually could have a really comfortable life with all those extra things that you want, you're just not paying attention enough to make those things happen and that's something I think a lot of times, especially for our age, especially for people who work for someone else in a corporate setting and they feel the cap, you know, they might have heard you say increase your income, they might have been like, okay Danielle, I'll just increase my income. Like sure The reality is at that income, you might be able to actually live in nicer life then you're currently living. And part of that is because you're not paying any attention to where that 40,000 a year goes.
Danielle Desir: Yes. And I have some couple of thoughts to share also, I think a lot of people when they think of their salary, they think of that number and they're like that's my take home and that's not when I am budgeting, I use this system called zero based budgeting, which is income minus expenses equals zero. So that means every dollar that I earn has a job. Either it's going to be invested. Either, it's saving either paying off bills giving to charity. So I must actively allocate each of my dollars somewhere. And that's what at the end of the day, when you have zero at the end of the month, it's actually a good thing that means you allocated everything you wanted to. So when I'm sitting down and working on my budget, it's not based off of my salary, it's based off my take home pay. So in my spreadsheet, I reduce the benefits and reduce the transportation costs and all the things that come out of my paycheck. And it's like, what do I have to take home on a monthly basis? And based off of that, I start subtracting. So I think that is super important. And I think if folks have struggling with budgeting a zero based budget makes a lot of sense. It's just income minus expenses is zero. So you don't have to do any mental gymnastics at the end of the day, just focus on allocating every dollar somewhere. That would be really helpful.
Sasha Huff: I like that too because then it's not just I have an extra $500 this month and I'm going to just spend it and then you end up spending $700 again, it just comes back to really paying attention to it. And I think we go from sort of, I say college age, but not everybody goes to college, but we'll just use that as a reference point. college-age, you're out of that, you're sort of getting into your career maybe. And some of you might just be really, you know, starting to gain some footing in that and we're the finance part of it is so often the last thing we think about, unless it comes to complaining about the debt saying I can never get out of it. It's like all of the energy goes towards the sad part of it. But the reality is so much of that is in your control and if you are allocating that money to those things, you're going to a start saving more. If those things are savable, you're putting it into an account and you're still getting to contribute and enjoy your life. Like you work hard, enjoy your life, you get to spend your money, nobody's saying not to, but I think to have that system in place is so helpful, so thank you. I guess I'd like to end with just sort of if someone is listening to this and again, they're like, okay, yeah, you guys are privileged, you've got your money, you've got a marriage, you were raised in a home that cared about money, you're ahead of the game. What are some of the, like the first thing someone could start doing today if they want to start really making this a priority so that they can get all of the wonderful things they want in their life.
Danielle Desir: Yeah, so I would say having an interest, so focusing in and not being on autopilot is so important, like you had mentioned and it may be picking up a book or it may be listening to more money podcast that to me always helps to reiterate concepts or just reminds me of new things I should be looking out to, I may, I may even learn something. So just constantly being in education mode, I think is really good. But secondly, something that we didn't talk about is having separate bank accounts. For me. It's so much easier when I separate and automate my finances. So at this point I have something like 11 bank accounts and I actually decide to open up a new bank account whenever I'm hitting a new goal or I have a bill that is super important. So my mortgage has its own bank account because I'm like, I do not want to play with this money, this money has to be there on time in full every single month. So no mental gymnastics, it gets its own bank account and my travel fund, which is a goal or when I was saving for my wedding, having a wedding fund is a goal goal. So these are pockets of money that I don't want to co mingle, I want to see them separately. I want to be able to trap them separately and save separately. So having separate bank accounts can be really, really helpful. Even if you just after this episode, you open up one for a new goal you have, that's a step, that could be really, really helpful. And then what I do secondly, after I have all these bank accounts, I now automate it. So I automate saving or automate putting money into the account so we can go towards the bill. So the reason why I am able to bend my mortgage and full every single month without thinking about it is because it's taken directly from my paycheck straight into this account. So when it's time for me to pay that bill, I don't have to think about where does that money come from today over budget because this account is dedicated solely towards that one purpose. So I know exactly where to go. So I think those two things are very powerful. So just to recap, if you have a money check in with yourself like one day a week, sit down, look at your finances, look at your bill, see where things are going. It's really good practice secondly, think about the different goals you have or the different pockets of money that you want to put to the side, open up new big accounts for them and then if possible automate the saving process or automate the transfer process. So you're not really getting involved for me, the less I'm involved the better it is because I don't have to mess up anything and I just feel like I always mess up stuff so automating and separating are very, very powerful. And lastly that zero based budget. If you're like budget is not a bad word, it's actually for you. I always say that your budget actually who creates your budget for you, you you are creating your budget and I think of my budget as like the google maps of my money, it's telling me roadblock ahead, stop yield, go full force. You know, it's literally just a guide and what's empowering is that you set the budget. So if you feel like you know what I know myself, I need a little bit more money for leisure then put that in there, put that in there. If you're like you know what, I don't mind living on less then you make the decision. So I hope those were helpful. But those are definitely the things that I think that can help to get you to your next goal.
Sasha Huff: Awesome. I do have one more thing before we go. What is one of the sort of fallacies or misunderstanding about money that you think people have Like what's the one thing that you're just like get that out of your brain.
Danielle Desir: Yeah I think one of them is that we're unable to attract money and I think we touched on this a little bit earlier. I had that same exact like fallacy. Also I thought that my 9-5 had to be the only income that I had and I was kind of like sad about it and I realized that at the end of the day that it's it's way more than that. I realized that have an abundance mindset really can mean manifesting more money. Just for an example. I remember maybe a couple weeks ago my husband was like oh you know I'm missing like a couple $100 or something like that and like in three days it just randomly appeared he got a client and it randomly appeared. So I think what's important is to know that currency that means current, there's current in currency so money flows to you and just being open, being open to opportunities and it doesn't have to be traditional, it could be traditional or nontraditional. So that's what I would say.
Sasha Huff: That's awesome. Yeah. I really encourage If you're listening right now and you haven't explored and you likely have seen this side, hustle discussion and all that kind of stuff and it's not that it comes easy but the opportunities are there and I agree with you staying open to them and seeking them out and not just thinking your 9-5 is the only way to amass any sort of wealth is so important and abundance mindset always.
Sasha Huff: Well Danielle, thank you so much for taking the time to be here. I will put your links in the show notes for everybody to check you out and connect again. Her new book "Managing Your Money As a New Homeowner" is available for order now. It's being released on the second of January. Danielle, thank you so much.
Danielle Desir: I hope you enjoyed this episode. But don't forget there's way more where that came from. When you become a supporter of the show, you'll get bonus episodes, additional tips on affording travel, real time updates as well as strategies for building wealth and creating multiple income strings. Head over to thoughtcard(dot)com forward slash join to support. Also be sure to follow me on instagram. I'm at the Danielle Desir, slide in my DMs and share with me your thoughts about this episode. What did you enjoy what stood out to you? Let me know. I'd absolutely love to connect with you outside of the podcast. See you in the next one.
In this episode we discuss:
Table of Contents
- [2:10] How I became so passionate about personal finance and created a brand around it
- [11:00] How my grandparents inspired me to pursue early retirement
- [12:30] My 2-part game plane for reaching financial independence
- Part I: Increasing income
- Part II: Paying off mortgage
- [14:00] Strategies for paying off your mortgage early
- [15:00] Why I focus on multiple financial goals at the same time
- [21:00] The most common money mindset issues a lot of people struggle with
- [23:00] Why travel doesn’t have to be expensive
- [27:30] Benefits of zero-based budgeting
- [29:30] How to prioritize your finances today
- [32:45] A powerful reframe for budgeting
Positive Money Affirmations
- I respect money and money respects me.
- Money comes to me with ease.
Resources Mentioned
Managing Your Money As A New Homeowner (book): Purchase on Amazon | Purchase directly from author
Mortgage Payoff Calculator by Dave Ramsey (debt payoff calculator)
Wedding Savings Accounts – How To Save For Your Dream Wedding (blog)
Why You Need Multiple Bank Accounts (blog)
Connect With Sasha Huff
Sasha Huff is a creative entrepreneur. She not only makes art but also helps people make podcasts.
Website: www.sashahuff.com
Instagram: @sashahuff
Check out Sasha’s art collection on Etsy
Connect With Danielle Desir
Website: The Thought Card
Podcast: The Thought Card Podcast
Instagram: @thedanielledesir
Twitter: @thethoughtcard
Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy
Episode 21: How To Set Yourself Up For Financial Success By Setting Financial Goals
Episode 69: How I Became A Financially Savvy Traveler
Millennial Wealth Builders Finale: How We’re Building Wealth in 2021

Danielle Desir Corbett paid off $63,000 of student loan debt in 4 years, bought a house at 27, and has traveled to 27 countries, including her favorites, Iceland, China, and Bermuda. Go here to learn Danielle’s incredible story, from struggling financially and in debt to finding creative ways to earn more and live on her terms. Listen to The Thought Card Podcast, where Danielle shares how you can creatively travel more and build wealth regardless of your current financial situation. Reach out to Danielle by contacting: thethoughtcard (at) gmail (dot) com.
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