Broke is Boring

Jane Freund and Tiffany Baker

Broke is Boring is the no-fluff, no-filter podcast for women who are done settling—for less money, less freedom, and less life. Hosted by Jane and Tiffany, two moms who traded survival mode for CEO energy, this show is your permission slip to want more—and go get it. We’re ditching dusty money myths, calling out the “play it safe” culture, and spilling the real tea on wealth, freedom, motherhood, and building a life that actually lights you up. Whether you’re scaling your biz, starting over, or just sick of broke energy in your circle—this is your space. Expect raw conversations, real strategies, and a little sass as we normalize big money, bold moves, and designing a life you’re obsessed with. Buckle up—broke is boring, and you’re not. Disclaimer: The Broke Is Boring podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The views expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not constitute financial, legal, medical, tax, or professional advice. The content provided is based on personal experience and opinion and should not be considered a substitute for professional consultation. Always seek the advice of qualified professionals before making decisions related to finances, business, health, or legal matters. We may occasionally discuss topics such as entrepreneurship, network marketing, investing, real estate, travel, and income-generating opportunities. These discussions are for illustrative purposes only and are not guarantees of results. Individual outcomes will vary. In compliance with FTC guidelines, please note that this podcast may include affiliate links and promotional content. This means we may earn a commission or receive compensation if you choose to purchase products or services through links mentioned in the show or show notes. We only promote products and services we genuinely believe in. By listening to this podcast, you agree that the hosts, guests, and affiliated entities are not liable for any loss or damage incurred as a result of the information provided. All content is provided “as is” with no warranties and confers no rights.

  1. 10/20/2025

    26: AI is the New Homeschool Mom

    Welcome to Broke is Boring. The podcast where we stop glorifying the struggle and start talking about what really matters. Freedom, living life on your own terms and the money you need to make that happen. We're your hosts, Tiffany and Jane, and we're two mamas who love making money and spending it on the things that truly matter to us. So pull up a seat at our table and let's get into it because Broke is boring and we are here to prove that money does in fact buy happiness. 1, 2, 3.  Welcome back to Broke is Boring, and today we're gonna talk about how AI is the new homeschool mom and she doesn't need coffee or a break. I use AI so often and I think it's really interesting to utilize it in a way that makes us better parents and better homeschool mamas. The truth is it's not going away. It is not. It's only gonna get stronger, faster, better. So we just have to adapt with the times. And I found this really cool little chat g PT hack I wanna share because it has changed our bedtime routine. So you can go into chat, GBT and I say. Help me come up with a, you can pick the time, five minute bedtime story for my 5-year-old son, Luca. And then I ask him who he wants included in the story, and he'll go up and name these ridiculous things because he thinks that's hilarious and I ask it to end. And in a positive light. So he's ready for bed and it sends him on these wild adventures and then always wraps it up as and sends him off to bed. And it's just a FA fun way because I'm not that creative, especially at eight o'clock at night after a long day of momming. And so Chacha, bt just kind of takes that over for me, and it even has sound effects because I have it read it aloud. I miss that. I miss saying that. You can have it read aloud and it even like enunciates different words and so it just reads the story to us and we lay in bed and close our eyes. Okay, so I have definitely used the prompt to make my own, make the bedtime story customize for my kiddos. I have never had it read out loud. That is amazing. I think he may have just changed my life. Yeah, you can use it for anything. And so we're going on these world cruises and so I can say write a, you know, story about, because he's five, right? So he's gonna do different types of work than your kids. But, you know, write a story about wherever we're going, pick a destination, include, historical fiction, make it historical fiction. Include my child in it and include different animals that they have there and highlights of those places that we're gonna see. And put it at a, you know, at their age reading level so they can even read it on their own or do the read aloud like we do. And you can even just take the, that text and go put it on. A blank piece of paper and maybe they'll make a storybook out of it. You can have them draw the illustrations for it. There's so much you can do with AI and it's all free for you. Yeah. Using it and embracing it is really the way to like up your game when it comes to living life now. There's this app that we found during the world cruise called Suno, SUNO, and it customizes songs. So you can say, make a certain artist or like a bluegrass song about my kids being on a world cruise. And you just give it a very small prompt. And this within seconds, this custom song comes out and it included my kiddos names and our location and. It was so fun. I think you can do like 12 free songs a day. We downloaded 'em to our girls' iPads. They were coming up with these cussing songs about stories from our life or our adventures, and it was just so fun for us to share. That's us using ai. Y'all. We we're almost in this disservice with it because there's some dumb song that Luca loves right now called Chicken Macaroni. Chicken Wing. Chicken Wing. Chicken wing. Hot maloni. Yeah. Whatever it is. Yeah. And he said, now I wanna song about chicken and pizza. And I'm like, that doesn't exist. He is like, yeah, but I want you to make that song now because he's so used to AI being customized. And I'm like, that's not a real song buddy. But now I guess I could use the pseudo app and make a chicken and pizza song. Okay. After this we're definitely doing that because as we speak, the boys are bringing us pizza, right? So we are at home alone, podcasting. I just texted the husbands and said, Hey, how are you guys doing at the trampoline park? And also, when are you coming home? Because I'm hungry. To which Jane said, Hey, no. She said, what's for lunch? Oh, the two women who are by ourselves hanging out asked the husbands, they were out with all of the gaggle of children. Hey, what's for lunch? So they're picking up pizza on their way home because I'm not cooking Baker's my last name, but that's as long as far as that goes. So I asked, so I use Gemini more than chat, GBT, but potato, potato, it doesn't actually matter. Both have the same price. $0. Okay. So when I asked Gemini for some homeschooling prompts for this episode, here's like an example. We are currently in country city region. My daughters are seven, eight, and 10 years old. They're interested in. You know, local animals, right? Generate a one week unit study focusing on this interest, integrating history, geography, science, and a hands-on art or craft project. Please provide resources suitable for their age group. You guys like, this is insane what it can come up with. Now I'm gonna use my brain and look at the output and then choose the things that are right for us. But I didn't have to go and Google and, and grab all of this information and collect it together to put it into something that I can use. Within seconds, the output is going to create something that I can immediately customize to my family. And if you're in a more strict state than Indiana, you can also put in their learning outcomes like the state standards that are required for your kids to follow right into that prompt. And then it will help you ensure that you're checking all those boxes as well. Another prompt says, I'm looking for creative writing prompts for my. 10-year-old that are inspired by blank. Generate five prompts that encourage them to write about a memorable experience, a fictional story set in a place that we have visited a letter to a friend about their adventures, A poem about a. Favorite site or a descriptive paragraph about a new food that they tried. So you're just like encouraging this imagination, this reflective writing, helping the kiddos to like process and articulate their experiences in new places. And this is all happening within seconds. It's so cool for. This output to be able to produce something where I'm saying I'm a much more confident homeschool mama because I have this resource at my fingertips. And I love that you can do it with any H too, because you can make something for your 7-year-old and then just have an update, you know, to a more complex language for your 10-year-old as well. Another fun thing we did on our world cruise or when we're traveling is I can say I have paper clips and glue and water and bowls and apples. Come up with three options for science experiments I can do with this and it, we'll do it like you can list, say, you can just say, Hey, I am sitting at home on a Tuesday and I want to come up with five unique science experiments for my seven, eight, and 10-year-old to do this afternoon. What are some options I can do using normal household items And just see what it produces. It is. Amazing. It is just so cool that you can just dumb it down to say, I have these five items. What can I do with them? Another thing we do is we gamify travel. So I will say, Hey, we're going to Egypt. What are some things that I can do to gamify, gamify our travel with my seven, eight, and 10-year-old? And so give me 10 options. So an example of that is it will say go on a scavenger hunt for the following things. Taste, test this thing and rank them from one to 10. And. It gives me these ideas of a way to integrate our travels and make them more memorable and apply what we're experiencing to some sort of learning or memorable experience for the kiddos. For our family. I love that. So don't be afraid of using AI to help you as a homeschool mom. It is a tool that you can use and it doesn't have to replace you, it just supports you and your curriculum. Okay. So I also use it to be a better parent. Can I give you some parenting prompts? Yeah. Okay. So here's an example. My child is 10 years old and is currently having frequent meltdowns, right? Let's just say that. Or withdrawn. After having a new sibling struggling with homework, motivat, motivation, whatever it is, fill in the blank. My child is this age, they're currently experiencing this specific. Behavior or emotional state, what are three to five potential underlying reasons for this behavior and what are actionable positive parenting strategies that I can try right now to address each possibility? So you're just leaning into, it's, it's, it's gathering information from the whole internet, from so many resources, putting it together to find a solution for your specific problem. It's like a free therapist. Oh my gosh. It's so good. Right. The other thing I like using AI for is I actually can talk to it like it's one of my best friends, so I'm not just like trying to, it doesn't have to be these very rigorous prompts that I'm inputting. I can just like do the voice to text and say, okay, here's what I'm, here's what I'm experiencing right now. What are some suggestions? What questions do you have about my current situation that might help, might help you to help me find a solution to this problem? So you can just talk to it and it's gonna, it's gonna. Create an output for you and one pro tip, be signed in because if you're signed in, then it will remember you and build off of things you've already talked about and have that history between you guys. Here's another super fun one. I want to teach my 10-year-old a

    14 min
  2. 10/13/2025

    25: Rich Friends and Why You Need Them (But Don't Invite Them to Thanksgiving)

    Welcome to Broke is Boring. The podcast where we stop glorifying the struggle and start talking about what really matters. Freedom, living life on your own terms and the money you need to make that happen. We're your hosts, Tiffany and Jane, and we're two mamas who love making money and spending it on the things that truly matter to us. So pull up a seat at our table and let's get into it because Broke is boring and we are here to prove that money does in fact buy happiness. 1, 2, 3.  Welcome back to Broke is Boring. Today we're gonna talk about the truth about rich friends, why you need them, and why your circle impacts your ceiling. Ooh, this is such a good one and really was gonna, is gonna stretch some people because we have discussed a lot about growth mindset in other podcasts and now today, I think we really need to focus on that, leaning into that paying for proximity thing. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. We've heard that saying over and over and over again. Take inventory, like pause this if you need to, and name those people that you spend the most time with. And then are those people who bring you up, bring you down or keep you stagnant? I would say they probably don't even need to pause it. You know who you're thinking of and we're here to tell you, perhaps it's time to cut some ties. I always wanna be in a room with people who are smarter than me, who are wealthier than me, who I can learn something from. Because when you are at the top of anything, you're only pulled down, like you fall to the level of wherever the, the weakest link is. Right. I. Want to even clarify wealth here because I have friends in our circle who are significantly more financially wealthy than Mark and I now. We still inspire those couples because of our time wealth, and so we are able to learn from each other in those scenarios, and so it's really important to. Understand where you want to go and make sure you're aligning your circle with those goals. And I think even being on this world cruise has really opened us to a lot of new people because you don't end up on a world cruise unless you've done something that other people don't do, because this is not something that everybody just has all the time in the world for, or the finances to go be able to do. And it's really cool to meet people on this ship and learn their story. Like, Hey, how did you end up here? We've met people who are pro athletes. Mm-hmm. And people who have these incredible companies that they've built. And I just love hearing their stories and learning from them. Yeah, so that's certainly a pay for proximity example. Right? But the thing I have actually really enjoyed about our time on that World Cruise is that I am also validated that there are other young families on this planet making the same decisions as me. Not as many Americans as I would like, but I think we're trending in that direction. And so it has been a wonderful experience learning from other people and also being validated in our decision to take a big trip like that. So one of my all time favorite books, like Truly My Top Three is a book called The Top 10 Distinctions Between Millionaires and the Middle Class, and so I just wanna kind of talk about some of those key points in that book because it really hits home and just shows you like who you're surrounded by. 100 per. Scent affects your success in life. You have recommended Keith Cameron Smith's book to me at least three times and so now it needs to go to the top. So we're gonna talk about it today, but I need to really dive in and, and read it. Just, yeah, what are you doing? Not like you don't have time. What's the plan? Oh my God. Okay, so the first one that, and, and this book is just a bunch of one-liners. So actually we were just talking about like, do you listen to podcasts and audio books? Regular speed, one x, two x, whatever. This book I had to actually listen to in real time because there was so many just truth bombs. I had to have a minute to digest them literally. So if I am listening to an audio book that is just like. Golden and delicious. I immediately have to buy the hard copy because I have to underline, highlight. I need to own it in my personal library because it's part of my love language to be able to share that with others. Okay, you need this book? Then I'll write for you. This is, this is a hard copy situation. Okay? The first thing is millionaires think long term. The middle class thinks short term. So in this, the poor mindset is thinking day to day, middle class mindset is thinking month to month. And millionaire mindset is thinking perhaps years in advance. Decade to decade Yep. Is what he says. Yeah. All right. This one is so true. Okay. Millionaires talk about ideas and the middle class talks about things and people, Ooh, baby, I, if I am at brunch with some friends, I wanna talk about business and not boys. That's a T-shirt. Hello. Business over boys. We've sat, our families have sat together for four months every single day and we talk about ideas every single day. Business ideas, life goals, family goals. Like that is the core of all of our conversations and why we hit it off so well. 100 if we only just sat around gossiping about all the other passengers on board, we'd probably have some entertainment for sure. But it wouldn't move us ahead in life. So that is a huge. Huge one. And I think that's something really easy to take inventory of and just change the conversation. And when you see people complaining about something, just flip the script, I just say like, okay, that's great. What are we gonna do about it? Like, let's have a solution based conversation here and not just venting for the sake of venting. Okay. Next one. Yeah. Alright, the next one. Millionaires embrace change and the middle class is threatened by change. I would even venture to say I thrive in change. I love the changing environments we've had over the four months. I really am looking forward to what's next. I'm not actually looking for stability. I think I'm threatened by the stability of life. It feels too slow. I'm not listening to life at that one x feed. Growth just never happens in your comfort zone. Hmm. And I will challenge what you said as I am somebody who really likes having a home base like, I couldn't live nomadic like you do just every 90 days moving from place to place. I really like to be home. I really like having my own things, my own bed and my own step. But I, I can absolutely just go do things on a whim. I can have a career change if I'm unhappy. Like I know people who have been stuck in their job that they hate for years and years and years, and they'll, they're gonna be there the next. 10 years too, because they're not gonna make a change. So I, I find that is a big step in, in moving into that growth mindset. I think that's related to number four, which is millionaires take calculated risks and then the middle class is afraid to take those risks. Mm. Yeah, those go hand in hand. 100%. Alright, then next one. Millionaires continually learn and grow while middle class thinking ended with school. Oof. How many people do you know who stopped reading after they finished school? Everyone, no one in my circle, I'll tell you that. Yeah. Books is one of the things we talk about Books and business over boys. If I'm at brunch, we are having like a little mini book club. I want to continually be learning as part of our homeschool curriculum. If you even call it a curriculum that I have is that as a family of five, we just sit down and read books and it's because my husband and I want to model that for our children. I will always. Pay for professional development. This is something I hesitated to do for a while. Like, oh, do I really wanna pay for that masterclass? There's so many free resources out there. And as soon as I started paying for additional education, my income skyrocketed because I had everything in one place. I had paid for it. So I was fully invested in learning. And you become. In a circle with a bunch of people who are way smarter and wealthier than you, you have to learn in those circles. And so I always will value paying for proximity and paying to be in rooms with people I can absolutely learn something from. I just think you don't have to reinvent the wheel. Mm-hmm. The wheel has been invented, so now it is time to go find the people who are doing the things that are working. Toward whatever goal you're reaching towards. And go pay them for their time and for their knowledge to give it to you. Fast track, your success by paying for that proximity. And I think that's why people are always asking us for coaching 100% because we have that, we have the blueprint, we've done it, we've seen it, and people see that and say, okay, I wanna learn from, from them too. So here you go. Now you get our podcast. Welcome to the table, girl. All right, this next one is really good too. Millionaires work for profits. The middle class works for wages. My gosh, trading time for money is just a lesson I don't want my kids to learn. I don't want you to know how much you make per hour. You make. Money per task. If that task takes 20 minutes or three hours, that is what you need to be thinking towards. You finish a project and you create profits from it. You're not just working for a $10 an hour job. I think the most valuable thing is that. When you have your own business, despite it being a multimillion dollar company or a little passion project you do from home on the side, you control that income. It is uncapped and you can do anything you want with it, and you are just not. Like, I don't want someone to tell me for the, for 40 years when I can take my lunch break. Like, I don't, I I, that I'm not participating in that, right? I want to be in charge of my income and I want to determine my worth. And that's really what it is. So one time I mad

    29 min
  3. 10/06/2025

    24: Will You Stop Glorifying Being Busy?

    Welcome back to Broke is Boring. And today we're gonna talk about how to raise kids who know what the real value of wealth means. As moms here, raising kids in, in these times. We really want to teach values to teach them that generosity is so important. And that freedom that they can get to because their adulthood is gonna look completely different from our adulthood. And I really want to lean into not glorifying that grind culture that we've become so familiar with, I don't want my kids to, when I ask them what's new with them, them to just say, oh, I'm busy. Like I don't wanna keep glorifying being busy. Okay. I have a story with this. So my 10-year-old just applied to a writing contest and she was really proud of it. But she wrote about a story about when we were in Barcelona this past year. For her 10th birthday and my husband and I try to teach our girls to live with an open hand, so instead of a closed fist. And what that means is when you have an open hand, you can give and receive. And when you have a closed fist, you can't lose any money that's in your hand, but you also can't receive any. So we have this open hand concept. We've really like drilled it in, you know, really taught it a lot throughout our parenthood. As we've been parents, so we're in Barcelona, we have this banana from the cruise ship, and it's been in our bag all day and we're on the beach and it is like kind of brown and, you know, smashed a little. But we got it that day. It's still good, but we're not gonna eat it. And we turn around and there's a guy digging through the trash behind us and we said, Hey, why don't we go give this banana to that guy? And. Our 10 year old's like, okay, I'll go do it. And so she did. So she went and gave the guy the banana and instead of us throwing this away, right, and he immediately said, Gracia, and then he started eating it. He walked away and just opened it up and started eating it. So my daughter wrote about that, and she just wrote that what she learned was that she had to be brave because she was in a foreign country. She was talking to a stranger. You know, my husband went with her, of course, but. And then the other lesson she learned is that you, you don't have to speak the same language to be kind. And then when we are reading it to you, your lesson was also that like it costs $0 to be kind. And she, so she added that to the, to the submission for the contest. And it was just like such a proud parenting moment that she, this was what she wanted to write about and reflect on for this contest. I love that. And it just shows who she is as a kid and her heart and you as parents on full display. I'm really proud of her. I'm proud of her too. Thanks. Thanks girl. So like, what does, what does wealth mean to you? Like, again, we always go just toward the financial wealth because that's what we were always taught. And then when I read that book, five types of Wealth that really hit home, like for me being. Together for lunch and dinner every single day. I know it's such a gift because probably 90% of American families are either not present for one or both of those meals, and I know a lot of families out there haven't had a sit down meal together in ages because they pack the evening schedule with. Sports and practice and work and all these things that for them to just sit down and ask how each other's day was, is something that just doesn't really happen. So for me, that's like a huge time wealth thing that I, I really love when I ask someone how they are and they immediately say they're busy. It's, it's a trigger for me because busy is a choice. And if you have a full calendar. You show it to me, I bet I can see the choices you've made to fill that calendar. To me, wealth is an empty calendar, an availability and an openness to receive new ideas. Like, oh, do you want to go to lunch? Sure, because I'm available. And being able to be fully present parents with the girls. When we are working on our phones, they'll be like, oh, why are you on your phone? And we're like because it's two in the afternoon on a Tuesday. This is how we work. And most people have parents who are at work and then the kids are in school. And also then you would go to an afterschool program and I wouldn't see you till this evening. And then we would probably take you to a, some sport. Sport, right? So like, your life is not, your life is different and you're welcome. And you're welcome. Another thing I, another thing I think is super important as Luca grows up is giving him that abundance without spoiling him. And he, as a 4-year-old, a normal 4-year-old is we're experiencing, you know, we're going into all these markets on our world crews, and he's just, I wanna buy that. I wanna buy that. I wanna buy that. And I just have to keep saying, no, no, no. Or I didn't bring money for that. And he. Probably thinks that we have no money at all. But I'm trying to, you know, not lean into buying him anything he ever wants. 'cause of course he's not gonna play with it again tomorrow or ever again. And so I think that showing kids that power of delayed gratification is so important, especially in a culture that we have now where. You know, prime deliver something on your doorstep in a day. We get groceries delivered with a click of a button on our phones. And I think that a lot of adults could probably benefit from some delayed gratification. 'cause that's how building a business is. Mm-hmm. Right? They say, I've been doing this for two weeks and it's not working yet. And I'm like, so what are you gonna do? Close your doors? Like of course you have to keep working. And so I think teaching. My son that is, is super important to me. I have a couple stories with this. So the first one is, you know, my 10-year-old wants a laptop. And so we have told her, okay, that is a great goal. Let's figure out how much they cost, which one you want, and then let's figure out what you can do to earn the money for that. I have money. You don't have money, so let's go figure out how to get you money because I'm not buying you that laptop. But that's a great goal. On the other hand, when we were in Cape Town this past on this past World Cruise, we were. We went up to a line to get on this funicular to go up to Table Mountain in South Africa, and the line for the general admission ticket was 90 minutes long, and you could pay almost triple and completely skip the entire line and go straight to the top. And. My children just assumed we were getting into the 90 minute line and so we, they were prepping, they were gonna, the bathroom, they washed their hands, they came out and my husband and I told the girls, Hey, we decided we're doing the, the fast pass. And they just could not believe it. And we tried to explain to them in that moment, sometimes money really does buy happiness and also your time. And so this was a perfect example of us saying, Hey, we're splurging and this is. An opportunity we have because we have money in this moment right now because I didn't buy you all those dumb magnets. You, you can't get a t-shirt on the way out. But yes, we're gonna go skip that line. Everybody cool with that? And so when my kids were also Luca's age. You know, like those okay, you're sitting in line in Target and there are the grocery store and all the stuff that's along the all the gum. Yeah. All the, what are, like the stuff for the impulse buys, right? Mm-hmm. So when my kids were Luca's age, of course, it's like at their eye level, there's toys, there's candy. I mean, they're just like living the dream, just playing with all of it, right? Mark and I told our daughters that none of that stuff was actually for sale. It was just advertised and they believed us like. I maybe think they might still think that's true. You can't purchase that. Oh no, that's not for sale. Oh yeah, I know m and ms are great. No, it's not for sale. And it just like stopped the conversation. They just didn't know that they could buy those things. I just tell Luca I didn't, oh, I didn't bring my m and m money. It's gonna work while it works and I'm gonna ride that wave as long as I can. Oh, I didn't bring my Mario kart money. Sorry. I only brought my. Swimsuit money for our trip. That's right. That's right. So until he understands, I'm gonna ride that way for sure. And, and I love creating these teachable moments along the way. We are budgeting for toys too, and, and we talked about this in a previous episode, that gig culture around the house instead of just an allowance. So Luca has mapped out. All the toys he wants, he knows the exact cost and he's working little jobs and, you know, to, to get that paid for. And, and I really love that. At the beginning you talked about grind culture, so I really wanna talk more about that. Our family, you know, since my husband and I quit our jobs seven years ago. We really wanted to, to quit our careers, to be with our, our daughters, and normalize rest, relaxation, and just the joy of being together. And it has just completely changed our lives. We went from this very busy, very structured life to a, the most being the most time rich people. We know we are available, we are present, and if we are in a place. Doing something, it is only because we want to be there and living that intentional way is just such a cool thing to be able to show our kiddos. I love not having to ask Luca how his day was. 'cause I was there, I was there for every moment of it. I don't need to play catch up in the evening. I was there for it and I love that. And, and kids are watching you. They watch our every single move. They watch how you nourish yourself, how you care for yourself, how you treat other people, how you react. When other people treat you unfair and kindly unkind you. They're, they're determining their worth. Based on how you treat yourself and if you just are so burnt out from that grind, from working so hard to make oth

    14 min
  4. 09/01/2025

    23: We Built The Lives We Thought We Wanted, Now We're Dreaming Even Bigger

    Welcome back to another episode of Broke is Boring. Today we're gonna talk about how we built the lives we thought we wanted, but now we're dreaming even bigger. Is it possible to just continue to set goals? You know, if you, you set a goal, you, you achieve it, and then are you done? I think the answer has to be no. I actually find this to be in my business a lot because there's different ranks and so you strive so hard for one rank, you finally hit it, but you never just stop. Don't run to the rank, you run through it because then you go to the next one and the next one and you're, and Dan was like, so you're gonna stop when you hit that this one, right? And and I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. That's six figures. I don't need anything more. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll stop then. Then you hit it and you're like, Ooh. But the next one is gonna open up even more doors and possibilities. And what I realized is like helping other people. Hit their goals in their business and their ranks in their business. Only just bring me up further and it becomes this kind of like win-win. And then it makes me never wanna stop. And I'm really struggling with this, honestly, like between you and me I retired my husband that well first, no. My first goal in my business when, which I started seven years ago, was to make the same, I would pay for daycare. Mm-hmm. So that way I knew, okay, if I wanna stay home when I have kids, I can. Then I hit that in the first couple months and then I said, okay, let me match my teaching salary. That was my next goal. We've talked about that. $38,000. I did that in my first year. Perfect. Done check. I can do that again, and now I can have this business be my primary income. If I want it to be approved to myself, I can. Then after I did that, my goal was to retire my husband. To, to get to an income level in my business where we would have that option because he was always super miserable in his finance job. And so that was a really big stretch goal that we hit last year. And so we decide, so when we booked this world cruise, it gave us a deadline. It gave us a specific date where we said, okay, he has to retire by that date so we can do this world cruise. And that's just kind of like putting all those pieces into action. Right. So then. I hit six figures in my business, which actually wasn't my goal. Again, money is never my goal. It's always what the money can do for me. It's always a tool. So hitting six figures was not actually a, a goal like it, it was part of it, part of the equation, but it wasn't the goal. So then last year, the day before his 40th birthday, Dan had his last day of work. It was awesome. He rode his bike in and rode, you know, was coming into the driveway and was like, meet, meet with this little, oh, I love that, that it was this little bike thing. That was fun. Okay, so then it was Dan retire and then we want to eventually planned a flag in Europe. So last summer we purchased a home in Ireland. For a variety of reasons, Ireland was the best place for us to plant that European flag. So. So I'm like, oh my God. Okay. I left my job, I made my income, I made enough that Dan could retire. I, I have a mom. I'm a mom of a healthy, happy, sweet kid. We now have this home in Europe. We're on this four month world cruise like. What is next for me? Like I, I'm actually struggling with this because I feel like I've, I have everything I've ever wanted and I, this is the first time in my life I haven't had like a huge life goal that I'm working toward. It's been so fun to watch you go through that, like understanding on the crews, you know, you, you and Dan kind of talked through this like you guys have been really successful at setting goals. Same with Marco and I and achieving them. So in our life, people will always come up to us and say, Hey, what have you guys got going on? Because they always know we have something going on. I'm gonna have something interesting to tell you and. That we're in the exact same position with you right now. When we go back, what do we have going on? What is the next thing? Our rental properties are doing great, and they all have brand new HVAC and roof and plumbing and electric. All the things that we have dealt with, all that sexy stuff. So many years. You know, when we were on the world cruise while there was like bad weather back in Indiana. This was the first winter where we weren't like, oh no, what is gonna happen now? You know, it's rainy again. What is going to flood? And knock on wood, we got through the entire season and it was like, oh my gosh, we did it. Like we have good sustainable properties. This is going well. Well now what is next? Hold on. I do wanna point something out though, because I feel like we're in the one percenters of the people who actually hit make, make that goal and then say, okay, what do I have to do to hit that goal? A, B, C, D. Okay, let me do A, B, C, D. Like, what Gene do you and I have what? Like. Is that something in our genetic makeup? Is that something in our brain? Is that something we learned? Is that self-taught? Like how, how is it that every single person has a dream and a goal and then some people just never do anything with it? I don't know. I don't know where I got this. Like over. Well, I'll tell you a story. A couple years ago I was like really doing a lot of public speaking and I had someone say, it's so crazy, like, you don't get nervous at all speaking in front of a crowd. Like on a whim, I could just give a one hour keynote. Oh, you want me to do it? Perfect. Got it. I'll, let me pop up there real quick. And. It was in that moment I was like, oh my gosh. I kind of forgot. Like people are like super nervous talking to people and I'm from the Midwest. I talked to everybody. This is not scary. And. So I'm having dinner with my mom and I said, Hey, you know, so I had this feedback, like someone said, you know, it's so crazy that I'm not scared to public speak. Where do I get this overwhelming confidence? And my mom goes, oh, you get it from me. And we both just started dying laughing like. What, like a, like confident snapback immediately from Pam. Like she, I was just so proud of her in that moment. Just like recognizing, oh yeah, girl, that's, that's a me thing and I want that for my kids. I want my kids to be like, Hey dude why am I so awesome? Oh, you got that from me, girl. Where do you think you got it? I, that's why I asked. Like I don't, I see people all the time in my business who just have excuses, excuses, excuses, excuses, and, and that is a million times easier than just going out and doing the thing. Right. And I guess it's just, I. When it comes to my business, I don't have, I don't let dumb things get in my way. No, I pivot. I think I attribute my this superpower, I think I attribute this superpower to being a reader, to really like committing to be a lifelong learner. And so, you know, mark and I have said multiple times. In life, we win or we learn and we learn every day. And when it, whenever you say it like that, it just takes the fear out of failure. I'm not failing, I'm just learning. And yeah, I'm gonna continue to learn a lot, but I'm gonna eventually win. And we just keep going. I have that hustle muscle that just doesn't stop. I actually think mine is, I can attribute at least some of it to my positive outlook on life. It's so easy to spiral negative, and every moment you think of something negative, you take away from a moment you could spend on something positive. I say that to my team all the time. Somebody quits, boohoo, you're trimming the fat. Who cares? They're, they were gonna quit anyway. Now, by messaging me being all upset that they quit your business, you've now just taken time away from people who wanna be here. And now you've quite frankly, spent my time reading it. I don't, I don't that, that does not serve anybody. By being negative. I say it to my husband too 'cause sometimes he can get frustrated like on the cruise when people cut him off or cheat in one of their world games or something like that. I'm like, this, this does not positively impact me. I don't need to fill my head with negative things. And, and that seems kind of irrelevant and silly, but I think I just actually, my brain is not crowded with other things and other issues. I see a goal, I. I articulate exactly what it is, I figure out the steps I need to get there. I go, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. I figure out exactly what my path is and then I execute. And I think so many people either have a lack of confidence, a lack of discipline, and they just never take that first step or the first step was harder than they thought it would be. And then they never take the second where I'm like, oh, okay, that was rough. Now I know better. Like what to do next time. Fix it, that messy action. If you are listening to this and some of this is resonating with you, I just want to encourage you to dream bigger for your life. So when you are thinking about your life and where you're at right now. How many times have people just gotten the first job that they were accepted to and then stuck it out for what, 40 years and then been loyal to this company for that long? Just to be a number and a cog on a wheel? Let's be honest, and. They've never like, kind of taken, it's a god's eye view of their life and saying, wait, what? Like maybe the only reason you have that job is because at 22 years old, you were offered it. That flame, that spark that was inside of you, that creativity that you had as a child. Go, go do that thing. Go try that thing out. And I think that's where people's that I haven't gotten there yet. Maybe I'm closer. I don't know. I need to research it. That midlife crisis thing kind of happens. You, you, that ticking time bomb just all of a sudden starts to that snowball starts rolling a little bit faster down the hill, right? And whenever people get to a cert

    16 min
  5. 08/25/2025

    22: Why Go To Couples Therapy When You Can Go To Iceland?

    Welcome to Broke is Boring. The podcast where we stop glorifying the struggle and start talking about what really matters. Freedom, living life on your own terms and the money you need to make that happen. We're your hosts, Tiffany and Jane, and we're two mamas who love making money and spending it on the things that truly matter to us. So pull up a seat at our table and let's get into it because Broke is boring and we are here to prove that money does in fact buy happiness. 1, 2, 3.  Welcome back to Broke is Boring. And today we're gonna talk about who needs couples therapy when you've got Iceland. Hello from Iceland, and we are here with our amazing friend Danielle, who also somehow crushed this romantic getaway that Tiffany and Mark planned. So let's back it all the way up. How the heck did we end up in this camper right here, huddled around our phone in Iceland to record this. Okay, so every year my parents for Christmas give us a Christmas gift of a, it started out as a weekend away. Well the first time they did that, mark and I went to Belgium for the weekend, from Indianapolis for the weekend. Yeah, because. My mom thought I was gonna like spend a romantic evening at melting pot, like having fondue with Mark in downtown Indy. No, no, no, no, no. We're going pub hopping in Brussels. Thanks so much. And so that's what we did. And somehow over the years, it has actually gotten to be one week. So this year she said, Merry Christmas, you get a week away. Where are you gonna go? Well, we went on a world cruise and I'm like, I don't know. I can't think past the world cruise. Go on the world cruise. We come back and we're like, Hmm. Jane and Dan always talked about Iceland on the cruise. Well, no, you said, where should we go? And I said, go to Iceland, but do it in a way you can't do it with your kids, which should be in a camper van. And so we did. So we were like, okay, we're doing it. We booked it. That's, hold on. That's one thing I actually really love about you guys. You always say what you're gonna do. You are like, that sounds great. And then two days later you're like, so we booked that. Like you don't think twice about anything and I really admire that about you. I think that's why Danielle and I have. Definitely connected over the years. Like so we're cousins growing up, we were, how, how different do we have six years difference. Age difference. Yes. Six or five. Yeah. So, so we were close growing up and then Danielle and Ethan came to visit us when we lived in Italy, and I think that was really when we like hit it off and kind of got the travel bug in you guys also. Is that like Yes, a right scenario? Yeah, it really was when we saw you guys in Italy and we saw it was our first experience going overseas and getting to like really hang out with you guys for an extended period of time and we realized we had so much in common. So yeah, ever since then we've loved, like following what you guys do and trying to make our own version of it too. And they've done it so they are traveling all over with their kids too. And so, when you suggested that we do a camper van in Iceland, we're like, okay, yeah, we're gonna go do that. And then what happened ladies? And then we got jealous and we're like, well. I wanna come on that. We, we wanna come. Yeah. That actually sounds amazing, weren't it? And then I was like, there's no way my mom would watch Luca for a whole week. And I don't know how she said it. I think I, I probably planted the seed. 'cause I'm really good at that. Yes, you are. And I'm like, oh mom, Tiffany and Mark are going to Iceland for a week. How amazing is that? They're doing it without kids and, and then I think she eventually offered and we took her up on it immediately. Yeah, that's right. Because I think on the world cruise we had discussed that we have this week away. So Betsy was there also listening to my parents talk about all the shenanigans we've gotten into over the years, getting this week away. And then when she offered to watch Luca for the week, then even Mark and I were like, you have to come. Like this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Let's go. Well then it was like that weekend, right? We went to one of my, I, my cousin's house we're playing, I think we were playing kickball. Kickball that weekend. Kickball, yes. And we're talking about it. And then we ended up, yeah, we ended up crashing along to, I don't even remember our exact conversation, but we were like. We're in, like, that sounds amazing. You want to come And we actually have never done a kid free trip ever. My oldest son's nine years old and we've never been away for any kind of trip. So we went to my mom and was like so what do you think about this? And she agreed. It was really funny because Ethan said that or maybe you said your mom. Asked like, why Iceland? And you're like, yeah, yeah. We were like, we've never been. It sounds awesome. It looks beautiful. And the only, the only rule was that we couldn't share Tiffany and Mark's camper. Tiffany's like, which is the whole thing. I don't care if you come as you, but you're getting your own camper, which is actually freaking hilarious because. And he got the worst camper of the bunch. The cheapest we, we call it the red roof in. We, we have small, medium, and large campers. We're coming to you from Danielle's medium camper as we speak. Had we podcasted mine, camper, the three of us would not have fit. Like it was absolutely so dumb and it is so stupid. And we decided to go for the Four Seasons because we sold a property this week and, and just found the extra money. And we've been really thankful for the setup because having this table in Danielle and Ethan's hamper van has been really fun to play cards and just hang out at night. And then in the mornings you, your Embassy Suites has like. The full setup where we can make coffees and hang out in the morning. So I'm just completely useless. I'm the one who at least started the trip and got you guys here and that I've provided no additional value from a camera, van perspective, correct. Or a, or an Iceland expertise perspective as well. Might I? Yeah. So then let's talk about how we planted the trip. So, so going back to our world cruise, Dan and I are very like thorough in our planning. We have it all mapped out, and then we allow for flexibility, you know, throughout the day. But we at least know which port we're going to, where at dinner, Tiffany and Mark will be like, so where are we headed tomorrow? And we're like. Africa, like South Africa. So I, but I didn't wanna do that on this trip because it was like their trip and we were totally crashing. And we also have never done a kid free vacation either. Side note, have you guys like really missed your kids and thought about them? Because I kind of forgot I had one. I don't know if I should say that on here. I haven't. He's in very good care. I'm getting lots of photo and video updates. It's just so nice to have like, only be. Worried about myself and my own wellbeing and not like, oh, don't play near the stairs, and don't eat that grape while you're running around. And like all the things I think about every day as a mom. And it's been really nice for my brain to just turn off. And so obviously I miss him so much, but I've really enjoyed this like brain freedom that I've had, not worrying about my kids. Yeah. What about you? Yeah. It did. I feel like it, I mean, we would not have been able to focus nearly as much on like everything that we've seen here. If we also were trying to. Like keep the kids from hitting each other. Yeah. Yeah. Like from wrestling, from the box. It's always chaos too. I have two boys a year apart and there's always chaos. So it's been, yeah, a good reset for sure. I guess this is the point where we talk about in downtown Quebec today there was two different children that were like screaming tantrums, crying, and I think Jane was like, these kids are killing my vibe, not my kids, not my problem. And just like, oh, we all feel your pain, but if you could just like tone that down, we're trying to have a nice vacation here. You could just work on that. Yeah, so we didn't wanna hijack their whole trip and like, come in super plan. And so we didn't plan anything until we got here. And Tiffany's like, so what are we doing? And there was absolutely no plan. Correct. So we came up with one and. We just kind of winged it the whole time in this camper convoy that we have. So Dan and I lead the pack in our, you know, nice embassy suites and then Danielle in the middle and Tiffany trying to keep up in the rear we'll post and we'll post on Instagram, the three different vehicles so that you can assess yourself. But yeah, so we, do we go over our trip or do we just talk about how as kid free, I think really just discussing from a marital perspective, like I think it's so unique. I'm super thankful for. Our support systems back home to be able to give us and our partners the opportunity to be away for a whole week. Like, I don't know many other couples that have had this opportunity, especially with their kids so young. Your son's five? Ashlyn Your youngest is four? Mm-hmm. My youngest is seven. And so like having this opportunity with our spouses, having this, the support system has been so great and I'm just super thankful for the opportunity, especially to be with friends on, on this trip. But it's also been great for my marriage. Like you said. It's my tiny camper van has been just great. It hasn't been great for us as well, so we, we've never done a trip without Luca, but when we had a nanny, we used to do Thursday date nights, no matter what, no matter where, what the plans were, how busy we were, anything. We always went out Thursday night and we had two rules we couldn't talk about. Our child and we couldn't talk about business and it was really hard and we just kind of stared at each other for a long time in ea

    17 min
  6. 08/18/2025

    21: Normalize Wanting More Than a PTO Day and a Patio Set

    Welcome back to Broke is Boring, and today's topic is normalize. Wanting more than a PTO day and a patio set. Oh my gosh. This title is ridiculous, and also that used to be my freaking bucket list that is as big as I could dream, right? Is getting the next day off work the next federal holiday how to celebrate Columbus Day. For my long weekend, three day. Come on. My God. Remember you used to try to like, strategically match, like get yeah. Get your Friday or your Tuesday so you could have an extra day in there Now. I literally don't even know what day it is. I don't get, it doesn't, it's today. Okay. Okay, so I have a story. So I actually used to have like a real bucket list, like I used to like write it down and have it on my refrigerator. Did you ever like have this? Absolutely. It had like 300 things on it. Of course, I would love to find that it was on a piece of paper, piece of fun, right? So I was in Amsterdam with Mark. We have a lot of fun stories from Amsterdam in this particular tale. We are on a boat, one of those like touristy like boats through the canal. We've been to Amsterdam like 20 times and finally we're like, oh my God, we've never actually done that. Let's go do that. Okay, so we're on the boat. We're going through the canals. Fun way to see Amsterdam because it's just so like unique and being on the water and looking up at all the crazy architecture is just really fun. Okay, mark is looking out the window and we had been living in Italy. We had been checking off a bunch from that bucket list, and we were living the dink life. And he says, we have too many checks on our bucket list. We need a new bucket list. And in the moment I start giggling. And I go, oh, I'm taking a picture of this right now because I will never forget this moment for the rest of my whole entire life. And I did. And I took a picture of him looking out this window and saying, we have too many checks on our bucket list. We need a new bucket list. And we're like 29 years old. It was just this moment that was just like, oh my gosh, how did we somehow get here Where. We have this list of things to do that are just like such big dreams and we did them. And also we're not willing to just go, huh, alright. We did it. I guess. I guess that's how that story ends. No, the story keeps continuing. Add another chapter that's this occupational hazard in the travel business because you book these incredible trips for people and then you're like but I wanted to go, I wanna do that too. So now my bucket list does not have a new patio set or a how to maximize my next PTO day. I no longer have PTO days. I just have days and actually I don't even know if there's anything tangible on my list at all. You have anything tangible on a, on your bucket list? Oh, yeah, you do? Let's talk about it, baby. Okay, so my. Old bucket list was all destinations. Like I don't care about phones and cars and things like that. I just like to travel. So until now they've always been travel related items and I still have places I really wanna go. I wanna go to Antarctica and I'd love to go to Nepal. I wanna do, I'm not gonna climb to Everest Space Camp, but, but I'll do like a helicopter ride around. So there's definitely things I wanna do. But. One of those is get European citizenship. That's something big on my list right now because we just love having options and so. Our family is in this transitional phase right now where we're moving to Ireland and we bought a home there last year, which was, it's a great home. It's, it's not the shiny object home. It's a nice four bedroom, three baths, detached home in, in walkable to town, a nice little suburban neighborhood. It'll be perfect for us, but I found my dream house. Like probably four or five months ago. Okay. So we were actually on the world cruise. We were on our cruise, and I said, oh my God, bakers, look at this house. And they were like, yeah, that's a sick house. And I could not get it out of my mind, like I. You know, when you like see yourself somewhere and I'm like, I wanna be making french toast in that kitchen and I wanna have coffee and drink it right there, and I wanna do all of these things like, you see yourself in that house. But it was, it's expensive. Like it for us, you know, it's expensive as relative for us. It's, it's an expensive house. And so I, I let it as a pipe dream to just say, okay, one day I wanna live in a place like that. And it, it sat for a little while and then it went under contract and I felt, I, I, I felt like a gut punch. 'cause I was like, okay, that house isn't gonna be mine, but maybe in five years when I'm ready, that house will come back up on the market and I can buy because there's truly nothing else like this house. And then. A, a month later it went back on the market and I said, oh my God, Dan, that house again. I just, I couldn't get this place outta my head and I said to him. Like, Hey, could we actually look at this? Like, is this a huge stretch? And, and I know how to work my husband, right? I got that pitch deck ready to go. I, I know how to, you know, make him, make him see the value in it. And he was on board and I, at first, I couldn't even believe that he was saying yes to it. I mean, Tiffany, this place has an indoor pool. A sauna, a steam room, hot tub. A gorgeous view of the countryside. Like this is a dream. Oh, let's not forget that it has a full en suite for myself. Yeah. Two, two guest, a whole guest wing. Essentially, I get my own wing. I, I approve of this purchase. The view, like it has all the things yeah, so, so Dan was on board and we were standing in our kitchen and we were about to make our offer and figuring out our offer with our realtor. And our realtor texted us , so it's a go question mark And I asked Dan, I said, so it's a go. James is asking, and Dan. Like he just let out air like outta his mouth. He didn't, he didn't say yes or no, but I, I just thought that was a yes. Like so I texted James. Yep, we're in. Go, go make that offer and. And then James comes back to us an hour later and says, we're sale agreed? And Dan goes, what? I, oh my God. Wait, I didn't say yes. And I said, oh, but you grunted. Like that was a yes. Right? So now we're making the biggest purchase of our lives with a grunt. And it's, it's crazy because. I never, ever imagined I would have a home like this. And, you know, we're, we're under contract. Maybe by the time everything is said and done, something will happen and this will not be the home for us, you know? But I, I can't even believe that we're in a place where we could have a place like this. Like the fifth grade teacher in me can't even fathom. A place like this could be mine. And so while I'm never interested in like materialism or things that don't actually amplify my life, like this house, I don't see it for the size and the pool. Like I see it for the memories. I see it for our friends gathering there, for our family, coming for holidays, for all the birthday parties we can have there. It's the memories. With the people we love at such an amazing home like this, it's not about the status for me. And I just, I can't, I can't tell you like how incredible it feels to have something you work so hard for, just be yours with your name on it. I wish I could like capture how excited you are. Like your face is just like lit up talking about this big smile, bright eyes, just so excited. And that's what money can do, right? You, you can frivolously spend money on stupid stuff, or you can be smart with it, save it, and then find that thing and have. The money to do it, like to make this purchase that with intention is going to add so much value to your present and future life. I'll be in 40 70 though, that's for sure. Every time I fly I'll be in the back of coach. To clarify, it's gonna be a highlight of my life as well. So big fan of this purchase. Fully approved. Pays to have good friends, love a good friend with a mansion and a boat. Right. You know, when I was thinking about like what our bucket list includes, of course, same thing that the travel side, we, we certainly have places that we want to go, but we've been so many places. Actually, when we went on the last world cruise and booked it, my mom was like, where are you guys gonna go when you actually retire Mars? And I was like, is that an option? And the thing is, it's just like everywhere's on the list, right? I wanna experience everything. So for us, from a real estate perspective, we actually want to just spend a stupid amount of money on renting Airbnbs 60 to 90 days at a time. And I, we'll get there like I think in the near future, but being more nomadic and also just having that flexibility. To chase Summer, to chase, spring and fall, and run very far away from winter for the remainder of our days. Do you remember that reel that I sent you about winter? No. That I, when I was growing up, I, I loved winter and hated su, or I loved Summer and hated winter and. Then I realize that if I have money, then I can just go fly to summer all year round. And so now, instead of just loving summer, I just love money the end. So what is on your bucket list, right? What are those tangible. Places that you really wanna visit or things that you really wanna do and have, and it's not a patio set and it's not figuring out how to maximize those PTO days to get that bonus, extra day. It's, it's a lifestyle design, as Tiff says, design your life and go live it. So your bucket list is not something that should be pushed into the future and kicked down the road. It should be something you're tangibly working on now. I love having these stretch goals in our bucket list. You know, like how you talked about your, big house in Ireland, even in this moment feels like a stretch goal and it's so close, you can taste it. It's so exciting for us. I'd also like to lean into our travel business and start selling, or continue, frankly, sellin

    13 min
  7. 08/11/2025

    20: Are You Empty Calendar Rich?

    Welcome back to Broke is Boring. And today we're gonna talk about being empty calendar, rich. So I'm at your house. I wake up early earlier than everyone, and checking out your calendar the other day on your refrigerator, and guess what? Next week is completely empty. I know, because I actually don't have anything going on. So I take this video and I say, do you want to know what true wealth looks like? And then I show your empty calendar and I say, this is true freedom. This is true wealth. There's nothing on my friend's calendar next week to which your response was, okay. So what are we doing next week? But I loved seeing this on your calendar. You could be busy and you're just not. You know what, the things that are on my calendar, they're all trips. Like the week, this week it says Bakers are here. That's what's on the calendar. No, and and you have some haters on social media saying IU Well, she uses a digital calendar. Actually, no, I don't. I actually don't. I first, I don't like the digital ones because they stress me out and I don't want all the notifications of all these things I have to do. I feel like. A digital calendar controls me and I feel like I control a paper. One. When I, when I had my office you know, I ran four teams whenever I was in Denver and I was so intentional with my calendar because if I was in my office, I was going to get drive by conversations and questions all day long. So what I did was I blocked time in my calendar hour meetings throughout the day to get my own work done. And so you, if you're looking at my calendar to schedule something, a secretary or whatever, it just looked like it. I was just so busy. Oh, dude, I was listening to oldies in my, in my office, actually being productive instead of talking to humans. I mean, I think that time is the ultimate freedom out there and finding a way to hack the system where you can live the life that you wanna live. Like it's a nice sunny day, let's go to the beach. Hey, it's gonna rain. Let's go to a movie, or let's make forts at home with our five-year-old. Like when, when you're in control of your day and your life, like there's just so much inner peace in that. Our society really does over schedule us reward that overscheduled life. You know, when you, you meet someone and you say like, oh my gosh, hey, how are you? What do they say? Oh my gosh, I'm so busy. I'm so busy. Like it's a badge of honor. Ew. The cool part about this phase of life is that emptiness in the calendar. That openness to being able to say yes when something cool comes up. So life doesn't have to be scheduled. The beautiful parts are actually usually not. And I have a, I have a a thing to tell you parents who over schedule your kids. Stop it. Stop it. Stop. Please. You are only running yourself out. I have so many friends who say, oh, we have soccer tournaments on Saturday, and each kid has is on their own league. So the parents are splitting up whose goes where, and we have dance Monday, Wednesday, and violin on Tuesday and all these ridiculous things. It's like. You are running your kids ragged and you're run, you're burning yourself out. And of course like have 'em do something fun, but don't do it just to fill your calendar. Do it because they really wanna be there and you really love watching them light up doing something that they love. There's something that the Europeans have figured out that I think the Americans haven't, and that's they just want their kids to be kids. And Americans like clinging on to, oh my God, my kid's really good at dance. I have to go put them now in every dance thing and every dance competition team and all these things to, to have my kid have that one thing that they're perfect at and like, just let them be eight. Like, just let them be five. Right? Like, our son right now is super into. Karate, like he's very into ninjas and all of those things. And so I thought karate would be an awesome choice for him to kind of channel some of that. And he is thriving and loving it, and we're allowed to sit in the back. So I always, it's like my favorite hour of the week. Well, and he'll, you know, do his jab cross and look at me and smile to make sure I watched it. You know, I will go to the ends of the earth to get him in for right. But that's because we want to, not because we feel obligated to have our kids be busy too. I hope I didn't hurt your feelings. It's just my opinion, but just take care of yourself. You are allowed to hurt feelings whenever you say stuff like that because I think sometimes people need to hear something like that, that they're not surrounded by anyone who says it's okay to live differently. It's okay to have an empty calendar. Perhaps you are allowed to say no to everything in your life. That is not a heck yes. So that's how we live life now. And so we also have a, an empty calendar. I actually looked at my calendar for this week. It says Maine. Main, main, main, main, main on every day. There's nothing else not taking calls. I'm focused completely on being surrounded by lighthouses and lobster and friends and this morning friends and masks on to wake me up on my birthday. So I am. A huge advocate for finding a way to live life through time, wealth. You don't have to be a millionaire to live this life. That walk we took this morning was freaking free. I, I'm obsessed with , if it's not a heck yes, don't do it. Mm-hmm. I read that in a book about a year ago and that just stuck with me and it really rewired my brain because, especially as a recovering people pleaser, like I just always wanna do what's better for other people and accommodate my own life and schedule and energy levels. To make other people happy. And in the last year I have just stopped doing that. And if it's, if it's not personally benefiting me or my family or my energy level, then like I just don't, I don't participate. And it is so freeing. And that means having an empty calendar. Yeah. So I wanna go back to the scheduling your kids, because you know, when you meet people and they say, you say like, Hey, how are you? They talk about that being busy, but then they also. Go right into complaining about all this crap. They signed their kids and their family up for they have Tuesday dinners from five to 5 22, and that's the time that their family's together. And it's always rushed. No, come on. Life has potential to be so much more beautiful than that. And busy is a choice. Busy is a choice. I love it. So. If you're coming up with a task for this, whenever I'm have coaching clients and they're saying like, oh my gosh, I'm so busy. I, I don't even know where I'd find time to do that. I say, you always have time for the things you make time for, so go make time. We all have that same time. It's just who's using it in the, the way that's right for them. So the task is actually to say no to something this week. It's okay. It's okay. You might hurt some feelings, but you have to be true to you and your calendar and protective of your time. We don't know how much is left in that hourglass, right? So you have to live life on your terms. It is okay if that ruffles some feathers along the way. If. And look at your week ahead and decide if you really, if those things like you really wanna do them, like what of, what things on your upcoming calendar are actually completely unnecessary, and it makes no impact if you're participating in that or not and cut it out and then restructure that time for self care doing something you really enjoy. Doing something extra special with your kids. There's a quote I love that says, the only people that remember how hard you worked are your kids. It's not your boss. It's not your manager, it's your kids. So remember that as you're making these late night commitments and extra things going on in your career, it's your kids who will remember that you did all that extra work. Filling your calendar is, is doing nothing for you. I love that we have this flexibility to be able to say. Hey. Oh my gosh, the sun's shining. We should go take a walk right now, and it's a Tuesday at noon. When Mark and I were having our Friday morning dream sessions when we lived in Japan, we would have our coffee dates before work and we would kind of say, okay, like if we had nothing to do today, what would it look like? Fast forward to five years. What does our life look like if, if we're. Completely ready to just take on the day. And Mark's dream was to be able to mow our grass in his pajamas on a Tuesday. Well, fast forward to today, and you think I'm mowing my grass. You think he's mowing grass? It's because our dreams got bigger. Our calendar got more empty, our lives got more full. And so that is possible for you. You just have to be conscious of it. You can't have an empty calendar. By running on autopilot, it, it is with intention, especially as Americans. So you know what your tasks are. Go make it happen.  Thanks for listening to today's episode of Broke is Boring. Make sure to follow the show, leave a review and share it with a friend who is done being broke too. You can find us on Instagram at Broke is boring and we'll catch you in the next episode. Thanks for being here.

    11 min
  8. 08/04/2025

    19: It's Not Expensive, You're Just Underpaid

    Welcome back to Broke is Boring. In today's episode, we are going to talk about it is not expensive. You are just underpaid sister. So most things aren't actually out of reach. They're just out of reach right now based on your current income. What would you say to someone who says, oh, I'd love to do that thing, whatever it is, but it's just too expensive.  I would tell you to stop shrinking your dreams to fit your current paycheck and it's time to find a new paycheck girlfriend. I think when people are dreaming, they're trying to think about things. That they, that feel possible to them. And that's not a dream. A dream is something that feels impossible. Now, once you set that goal, then you work backwards and you take the next right step to go towards that big goal. And budgeting is not the answer. It is when you're newly on your debt-free journey and you're trying to backtrack of all the things that you did to put yourself in that situation. For sure. You gotta readjust yourself. But you can only cut so much. But you can increase your earning potential very quickly with the skillset and actionable items. Mm-hmm. You can trade time for money. You can create something that's going to make money when you sleep. You can buy a rental property. There's different options that you can do to increase your income. Go drive for Uber or DoorDash for goodness sakes, but that is just gonna baby step you towards some extra income. Towards your goal. The, the first step is to just not accept the income that you have right now. It's possible to, to get more. And as you're thinking about, okay, what kind of business could I do? Think about the types of things that can scale. Just as you mentioned, you could go drive for Uber. Yes. That will get you out of maybe your minimum wage job that you really hate that you're doing right now, and it will get you more flexibility. However, you're still trading time for money in that and you can't scale that. Right. Uber does because they can just get another driver and another driver and another driver. But you as the driver can't scale that. I even found this with our rental properties, so perfect. Great. Right? We have an Airbnb. Well, if that Airbnb is sitting empty, I'm not making any money. So that is a great business opportunity. It's passive, it's, you know, residual in that way. It will continue to pay me over and over and over again. But if that house is sitting empty or we have a long-term rental and we have a month gap between when renters are leaving and coming in, I'm not making money that month. And so. I even challenge you to not settle for that. That's one stream of income for you, but don't have that your, be your entire income. Do something that is scalable, that you can continue to grow. I, and I've seen a variety of examples of this. Like for example we were looking at a, kind of like a campground. One time we were looking at a campground and I said, okay, cool. There are 200 plots that people can have. But what happens then? Like if those 200 plots are all filled, we still can't scale any further in this business. But if you just have a, you know, open area that people can just come and set up their camp. You have way more access to future income than if you're just limited to what you already have. You know, my, my husband and I have coached small business owners for years, and one of my most controversial things I've said over the years business related is. Go ahead and increase your prices. The customers that are going to support you will stick around. And the people I've said that to were floundering in their business going under because they couldn't make ends meet because their prices were so low. And they were, they were doing a lot of sales, but they didn't have the margins that were keeping up with inflation and, and with rising costs. And I said. Stand up for yourself. You have to increase your prices. If you are a if you cut hair and you need to increase prices because rent is increasing or something, it is okay for you to make a business decision because you need more income. We actually had this with a housekeeper once. She said, I can't clean for you anymore. I can't do it for that price. 'cause she had moved and commuting too far with all the gas and extra childcare. And I said, oh, well we love you. What? What would you charge to stay? I'll happily pay more. I love you. Please stay right. And she was like, oh. It didn't occur to me to raise my price on you. I felt bad. No. Like I'll pay you what you're worth to make it worth your time to come out here. Money is so funny to people sometimes. I really encourage people to stand up for themselves and what I've gotten pushback from from some of my coaching clients was, oh my gosh, then I'll lose customers. Yep. You definitely will, and you'll keep those loyal ones and gain ones who are paying you properly from this point forward. What's the alternative to continue going in debt? To continue to lose money every month at the cost of your vanity, of staying open when your business is in the red. That's not the answer. And so if you are willing to take a hard look at your income right now. Versus your expenses versus your goals and make some hard decisions. There's, there's better things on the other side of that.  The other thing that I think makes a big difference is like not always just buying the cheapest version of something, because that's gonna break in in a short amount of time, and then you're just gonna have to buy another one all over again. When we quit our jobs, you know, we had this opportunity cost of we could either stay in our six figure careers or we could become. What our dream was, was a full-time family with our daughters who were one, two, and four. And so I will tie this from  financial conversation towards a time wealth conversation. Yes, we made a very expensive decision by. Cutting ties with our means of income. But we became the most time rich people. We knew we were able to be at parks on Tuesdays and our girls, who, our babies who were the one, two, and 4-year-old had mom and dad with them at all times. So if you have that mentality that things are too expensive, you're just always gonna be stuck in that mindset instead. Just think about how, it's not that you need to dream less, you don't need to shrink anything smaller. You just need income that can grow along with you. So your action step today is to write down three things that you've been telling yourself are just too expensive. Then next to each one of those things, brainstorm one thing that you could do to increase your income to make that happen instead of canceling the dream. Mm-hmm. And I. If you're in the process of starting a new business or you have dreams of starting one and you're narrowing down what that might be, think about is this something scalable? Is this something I have to be present for every dollar is this something I can step away from for a month and, and have someone else lead it for me and still come back to earning even more than you left? Thank you so much for being here with us today. At Broke is boring. Jane and I are only rooting for you and we wish you so much more than luck, so it's not expensive. You are just underpaid. Let's flip that script.

    9 min
5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Broke is Boring is the no-fluff, no-filter podcast for women who are done settling—for less money, less freedom, and less life. Hosted by Jane and Tiffany, two moms who traded survival mode for CEO energy, this show is your permission slip to want more—and go get it. We’re ditching dusty money myths, calling out the “play it safe” culture, and spilling the real tea on wealth, freedom, motherhood, and building a life that actually lights you up. Whether you’re scaling your biz, starting over, or just sick of broke energy in your circle—this is your space. Expect raw conversations, real strategies, and a little sass as we normalize big money, bold moves, and designing a life you’re obsessed with. Buckle up—broke is boring, and you’re not. Disclaimer: The Broke Is Boring podcast is intended for informational and educational purposes only. The views expressed by the hosts and guests are their own and do not constitute financial, legal, medical, tax, or professional advice. The content provided is based on personal experience and opinion and should not be considered a substitute for professional consultation. Always seek the advice of qualified professionals before making decisions related to finances, business, health, or legal matters. We may occasionally discuss topics such as entrepreneurship, network marketing, investing, real estate, travel, and income-generating opportunities. These discussions are for illustrative purposes only and are not guarantees of results. Individual outcomes will vary. In compliance with FTC guidelines, please note that this podcast may include affiliate links and promotional content. This means we may earn a commission or receive compensation if you choose to purchase products or services through links mentioned in the show or show notes. We only promote products and services we genuinely believe in. By listening to this podcast, you agree that the hosts, guests, and affiliated entities are not liable for any loss or damage incurred as a result of the information provided. All content is provided “as is” with no warranties and confers no rights.