Having taught personal finance to law students and young lawyers since 2021, I’ve picked up on a common theme.
At the conclusion of class, my students tend to be motivated and excited to get good with money.
This makes sense because we spend a lot of time thinking and talking about what our ideal lives look like. Then, we learn how to use money as a tool to build those lives.
In the weeks following class, I usually hear from several students who want to follow-up about topics we cover in class, like side hustles or investing in real estate.
I’ll meet each student for coffee downtown and give them some feedback on their ideas. I love these money talks over coffee.
My students’ excitement to take control of their money and their lives is contagious.
Their excitement rubs off on me. I leave these conversations motivated to check in on my own money strategies and goals.
When our chat is wrapping up, I always encourage my students to keep me posted on their journeys. I invite them to check-in every few months so I can help keep them accountable and to adjust any plans we’ve put in place.
Unfortunately, less than 10% of my students ever follow-up after these initial meetings.
After a while, I figured out what was going on.
See, every now and then, I’ll run into one of these former students at a lawyer event or hanging around the courthouse. I’ll ask them about work and life and eventually about the money plan we talked about.
That’s when I usually hear something like, “I’m still thinking about that side hustle. I just put it on the back burner for now. I’m going to do it someday.”
Do you see the problem?
As a wise man once taught me, “someday” means “no day.”
Financial freedom is about consistent, intentional choices.
Ask anyone who has reached true financial freedom how they did it, and you’ll pick up on something right away.
You’ll quickly realize that people who reach financial freedom got there by making consistent, intentional choices with their money.
They came up with a plan and they stuck with it.
They didn’t say “some day.”
Achieving financial freedom is not about being the highest earner or the best investor.
It’s about consistency.
There are endless ways to make money. The same goes for investing that money.
You can reach financial freedom as a lawyer who invests in index funds.
Just the same, you can be a consultant who owns rental properties.
Or, an engineer who buys laundromats.
The point is the avenue you choose to build wealth is less important than the consistency of your choices.
For example, if you commit yourself to investing 20% of your salary in index funds, you will be well on your way to financial freedom.
But, if you can’t follow through on your plan for more than a few months, you’re never going to get there.
Of course, we’ve all experienced this tendency in various areas of life. The easiest examples to think of relate to fitness and healthy eating.
How many of us have said we’re going to commit to working out five days a week or eating vegetables every meal, only to give up after a couple months?
It’s not that we want to give up, just that the rest of life gets in the way. We tell ourselves that we’ll return to healthy living someday, which actually means no day.
When it comes to your money choices, don’t let the rest of life get in the way. Money is such a powerful tool when wielded properly and consistently.
Don’t waste this powerful tool.
To help make consistent choices, think about why money matters.
To help you make consistent money choices, the first step is to think about a simple and powerful question: why does money matter?
For me and many others, money is about financial independence, which translates to the power to choose.
When we have the power to choose, we have the power to live a life that conforms to our personal values. That means we can live on purpose, not on auto-pilot.
What does it mean to live on purpose?
It means that we can choose to spend our working hours doing what is meaningful to us. It means we can choose to spend more time with the people who are meaningful to us.
My favorite part during my personal finance for lawyers class is when my students share their motivations with each other. We all learn so much from these honest conversations.
It’s why I believe talking about money is so important. We all benefit from knowing that we’re not alone in our money worries. We can be inspired by hearing what our friends want from their money and their lives.
The more you think and talk about why you want to be good with money, the clearer your motivations will become.
To help you get started, here are three powerful reasons why I want to be good with money:
1. Money can give you choices.
This may seem obvious, but when you have money, you have choices.
You can choose where to live. You can choose who you work for or can work for yourself. On a daily level, you can choose how you eat, exercise, relax, and travel.
This holds true whether you make $50,000 or $250,000. Of course, your options may be different. The point is that when you’ve made good money choices, you’ll at least have options.
2. Money can give you personal power.
This is another way to say that money gives you control of your life situation.
If you are in a bad relationship, a bad job, or just need a change, money gives you the personal power to do something about it. When you don’t have money, you may be stuck.
3. Money can give you time.
When you have enough money to be truly financially independent, you have earned the freedom to do whatever you want with your time.
As I mentioned earlier, you can spend your working hours at a job that is meaningful to you. And, you can spend more time with people who are meaningful to you.
It’s been said many times, “time is our most precious resource.”
When you have money, you can buy your time back.
What would you do with financial freedom?
Years ago, I asked myself this important question. I wrote down my answer and called it my Tiara Goals.
If you haven’t ever actively thought about what you would do with financial freedom, now’s the time to do so. It is extremely motivating.
Even when you feel like financial freedom is only a distant dream for you, it’s important to actively think about what you want out of life.
I’d even suggest that the further away you feel from financial freedom, the more important it is to think about what it would mean for you.
When you’re at your lowest point, visualizing what you would do with financial freedom is a helpful escape.
Don’t forget to write down whatever you come up with.
Here are my 7 Tiara Goals for Financial Freedom:
- Be with my wife and kids as much as I want. Dad never missed a game. Mom never missed a game. Nana never missed a game.
- Not be forced to commute to work on Friday or Tuesday or whatever day, if I need that day for myself.
- Choose how to spend my working hours (representing clients, teaching, volunteering, building a business, etc.).
- Continue to study and learn constantly.
- Take at least one big trip every year.
- Never turn down an exciting or smart opportunity because I can’t afford it.
- Work alongside people that value my contributions.
Keep in mind that I wrote these goals before I had kids and before I was even married. This was also years before the pandemic when working from home was a foreign concept to most of us.
I think it says a lot that I was thinking about these things way back then.
Being consistent means thinking just a little bit about money every week.
My goal is to help you think even a little bit about your money choices every week. That way, your money life remains in balance with the rest of your life, and you can continually evolve and adapt your choices as your life changes.
I want to encourage you to think, and to talk, and to choose. If all I do is help you and your loved ones think more purposefully about your money, Think and Talk Money will be a success.
Maybe your goal is also financial independence, or the power to choose and to live on purpose.
Maybe it’s something else entirely. Whatever it is, discovering your motivation is the crucial first step.
It’s so important that I’ll encourage you to think about that motivation every week.
I’ve learned that money is something that we all need to think about as a regular part of our lives. Not that we should only think about money. Or that we need to obsess over money. Simply that we can’t ignore money.
How sad is it when we realize our hard earned money has just vanished? That at the end of each month, we have less money?
If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. There are a lot of smart people who need somewhere to turn learn about money. Or, maybe just a reminder to actively think about their money.
You don’t have to struggle with making continuous money choices alone.
Most of us could use someone to talk to or something to read to help us learn about personal finance.
I hope Think and Talk Money can be that place for you.
I can’t, and won’t, tell you what to do with your money. It’s your life, after all. But, I will strive to help you think and talk with purpose about your money.
The basic money concepts are easy enough to understand. Consistently making good choices is hard.
Most of us could ace a quiz that asked, “Is it a good idea to spend more money than you earn every month and plummet deeper and deeper into debt?”
Knowing what to do is not the same as actually doing it. Remember, someday is no day.
That’s why it helps to not be afraid to talk about money. For some reason, most of us choose to deal with money on our own. I’d like to change that.
There’s a stigma that we shouldn’t talk about money. I’d like to change that, too.
That way, we all have a better chance of making intentional, consistent choices with our money.
Have you been excited about money in the past only to lose that excitement not long after?
Have you tried talking about money with your friends and family to help you stay motivated? If not, what is holding you back?
Let us know in the comments below.
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