Jade Warshaw: Break Free from Debt and Unlock Financial Freedom in 2026 | Finance | E380

Jade Warshaw and her husband were once trapped under financial pressure with no clear escape. Despite their best efforts to overcome $460,000 in debt, no amount of saving or financial planning could break the cycle. It wasn’t until they tackled the mindset and emotions driving their choices that they finally eliminated their debt and gained true financial freedom. In this episode, Jade uncovers the emotional traps that prevent people from building lasting wealth, and shares how you can break the cycle to achieve your financial goals in 2026 and beyond. In this episode, Hala and Jade will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (02:38) Emotional Barriers to Financial Success (08:10) Taking Responsibility for Your Finances (10:05) Unpacking Viral Money Trends and Mindsets (18:54) Financial Red Flags and Emotional Traps (26:25) Emotional Audit: Identifying Financial Behaviors (32:25) Navigating Shared Finances in Relationships (42:08) Entrepreneurs’ Biggest Money Mistakes (46:46) The Financially Responsible Money Checklist (50:04) Raising Kids With Healthy Money Values (55:27) Achieving Financial Peace and 2026 Goals Jade Warshaw is a debt elimination expert, finance coach, and bestselling author. As a co-host of The Ramsey Show, the second-largest talk radio show in America, she helps people pay off debt and build wealth by teaching them how to shift their mindset and actions around money. Jade’s latest book, What Nobody Tells You About Money, provides practical strategies for addressing the emotional barriers that prevent financial freedom. Sponsored By: Indeed - Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/PROFITING Shopify - Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/profiting. Spectrum Business - Visit Spectrum.com/FreeForLife to learn how you can get Business Internet Free Forever. Northwest Registered Agent - Build your brand and get your complete business identity in just 10 clicks and 10 minutes at northwestregisteredagent.com/paidyap Framer - Publish beautiful and production-ready websites. Go to Framer.com/profiting and get 30% off their Framer Pro annual plan. Intuit QuickBooks - Start the new year strong and take control of your cash flow at QuickBooks.com/money Quo - Run your business communications the smart way. Try Quo for free, plus get 20% off your first 6 months when you go to quo.com/profiting Working Genius - Take the Working Genius assessment and discover your natural gifts and thrive at work. Go to workinggenius.com and get 20% off with code PROFITING Resources Mentioned: Jade’s Book, What Nobody Tells You About Money: bit.ly/WNOTYAM Jade’s Instagram: instagram.com/jadewarshaw The Ramsey Show: ramseysolutions.com Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap YouTube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting Newsletter - youngandprofiting.co/newsletter LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new Entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship Podcast, Business, Business Podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal Development, Starting a Business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side Hustle, Startup, Mental Health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth Mindset, Personal Finance, Stock Market, Scalability, Investment, Risk Management, Business Coaching, Finance Podcast

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Hala Taha?

  Today's episode is sponsored in part by HeyGen, Shopify, Life at the Speed of Play, and Indeed. HeyGen helps you create AI avatar videos without constantly being behind the camera. Get your first three videos free at heygen.com/profitting. Shopify is the global commerce platform that helps you grow your business. Start your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com/profitting. Life at the Speed of Play by Mark Pincus helps entrepreneurs quickly test ideas and find the ones worth pursuing. Get two books for the price of one at GetMark'sBook.com/Yap. Indeed helps you attract, interview, and hire all in one place. Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/podcast.

• 0:45Hala Taha?

  As always, you can find all of our incredible deals in the show notes or at YoungAndProfiting.com/deals.

• 0:52Speaker 01

  Money touches every area of our life. And a lot of times we think money is just this thing that's in our wallet and that's it. And it buys us things when we want it, but it's not.

• 1:01Hala Taha?

  In this powerful New Year Kickstart episode, Jade Warshaw breaks down the emotional themes that quietly control our financial behavior and what it really takes to interrupt old patterns and rebuild a healthier financial life going into 2026.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  Fear, anger, guilt, shame, pity, all of those things, hoping to get to that point of acceptance where you just say, you know what? This is what the journey is. If you're getting raises and your lifestyle continues to creep up, you have to ask why.

• 1:32Hala Taha?

  When it comes to entrepreneurs, what do you think their biggest money struggles are?

• 1:37Speaker 01

  It's just the idea of, I know it all. We know everything. When you work hard, you feel like you deserve to spend your money on the things that you want to spend it on. We just want to feel like we're living the life that our work reflects.

• 1:53Hala Taha?

  What is one truth about money that people don't want to hear that they absolutely need to hear in 2026?

• 2:00Speaker 01

  Oh, boy. I could probably tell you a lot of different truths about money, but I think the number one thing is...

• 2:19Hala Taha?

  What's up Yap gang? This new year, most people will set goals around money, but very few will keep them. Why? Because money isn't about math. It's about mindset, emotions, fear, shame, avoidance, and the stories you tell yourself. Nobody understands this better than today's guest, Ramsey personality and bestselling author Jade Warshaw, whose new book, What No One Tells You About Money, exposes the real reasons people get stuck financially and how to break free for good. Before she became a national finance expert, Jade and her husband Sam were drowning in over $460,000 of debt. In today's episode, Jade breaks down the emotional themes that quietly control our financial behavior, like frustration, fear, guilt, shame, and the "I deserve it" mentality.

• 3:04Hala Taha?

  Jade reveals why most people self-sabotage their budgets, how identity wounds shape money choices, and what it really takes to interrupt old patterns and rebuild a healthier financial life going into 2026. If you're ready to stop repeating old patterns, heal your relationship with money, fix your habits, and finally gain traction this year, this episode will change everything. Jade, welcome to Young and Profiting Podcast.

• 3:30Speaker 01

  Awesome. Thanks for having me, Hala.

• 3:32Hala Taha?

  Yeah, I'm so excited for this interview. This is the first interview of the year, and a lot of people are really focusing on their New Year's resolutions. They're trying to figure out how they can make the most money they ever did in 2026. And I know from your new book, What Nobody Tells You About Money, that basically it's all about emotions, and it's not really that math is any sort of budgeting problems. It's really the emotions that are driving all of your money problems. So let's start there. What are some of the common emotions that come along with money that block people from actually achieving their goals?

• 4:10Speaker 01

  A lot of people, they have the plan, like you said, and maybe they've started wanting to do some of the behavioral changes, but those emotions are huge. And one of the big ones is frustration. We're doing all this toil, but we're not getting the traction we want. We're doing all this effort, but we're not getting the results we want. And that's going to make you stop faster than anything. I mean, anybody who's ever done a diet or a fitness plan and not seen the results that they want to see fast enough has quit midway through the process. And it's the same thing with money.

• 4:39Hala Taha?

  So I know that you are not somebody who just talks about this. You've actually went through your own debt crisis and got over it. You also co-host with Dave Ramsey on The Ramsey Show, and you've witnessed hundreds of people and their problems and all the patterns that they show. So what are some other type of emotional patterns that you see, given all your experiences?

• 5:02Speaker 01

  Frustration, like I said, was a big one. Obviously, anger is huge, especially right now, Hala, because there are so many external forces that are just infiltrating our lives that have nothing to do with us. My buddy, Dr. John Deloney, says it like this. He says, "It's not by my hand, but in my lap." And it's the same thing, right? We feel that with inflation. We have felt that with the housing market. The prices are just insane. Obviously, healthcare has gotten so, so high. And because of that, a lot of us feel disenchanted. We feel angry at the system. Student loans are another great example of just these outside forces that are really affecting the way we get to spend our money. It's affecting our buying power. It's affecting our ability to save money for the future. And that makes us mad, right?

• 5:47Speaker 01

  It's not fair that I went to school and I did everything they told me to do, and still, still I'm having a hard time paying my credit card down. Still, I'm having a hard time buying a house. So anger is so, so big. And I'd say probably of the five we talk about in the book of tough emotions, I would say probably the top three. So we said frustration, anger. And after that, I would say guilt. Guilt is one that so many of us wrestle with because it's this idea that I've made a mistake with money, or I've made maybe a series of mistakes with money. How could I possibly trust myself to do the right thing now? Can I trust my instincts? Can my spouse or partner trust my instincts? And that's a really tough one for people to navigate.

• 6:29Hala Taha?

  So I know that you've went through your own issues. Like we had mentioned, you were $460,000 in debt. You and your husband were at one point. So what were some of the emotional blockers that you had that were preventing you from becoming debt free and accumulating debt in the first place?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  So with my husband and I, everything in the book is what we went through. I really like to write from a place of experience. And so in the book, I talk about five tough emotions to navigate. And hopefully you'll get to the point of acceptance. And they're all the ones that we struggled with. So frustration, like I said, fear, anger, guilt, shame, pity, all of those things, hoping to get to that point of acceptance where you just say, you know what? This is what the journey is. And in the book, I talk about it in the same way you think about a marathon. For years and years, I wanted to run a marathon. And there was always an excuse not to do it all. It was like, okay, I'm too busy, or it's too expensive, or it takes too much time to train, or it's going to be too hard on my body.

• 7:29Speaker 01

  Right, there are always these blockers that would come up and tell me not to do it. And then finally, one day, I was like, you know what? The process is the process. Millions of people do this every year. Am I going to be one of the millions who just bites the bullet and does it? Or am I going to keep making excuses? The time is going to pass anyway. And the truth is, the more time I wait, the less advantageous it is for me because I'm only getting older. My kids are still here and they get in the way a little bit. So I finally was like, you know what? Let me just do it. And the truth is, yeah, it's a process. You have to train every single day, knowing that no day is easier than the last. It only gets tougher. And your body, yeah, you do have pains and there are things that you have to endure, right?

• 8:14Speaker 01

  Some days are sunny and 70, and other days are rainy and cloudy and cold. And there became a point that I just said, this is the process. And if I just go through it, the days and the time is going to pass. And when race day comes, I will cross the finish line. There's no if, ands, or buts. I just have to go through the training. And the same thing is true with money. When you are embracing a plan for your money, whether it's to pay off debt or to save for a down payment for a house or to save for a business that you want to start, you have to go through that process. And there are going to be times along that journey that you want to quit. And there's going to be times where you have the aches and pains of life and things that are holding you back. But you just have to embrace that struggle.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  And if you do, you will hit that point of acceptance and eventually you will cross your finish line.

• 9:03Hala Taha?

  So like I mentioned, we're coming up on the new year. Everybody is looking forward to having the best year yet. What is one truth about money that people don't want to hear that they absolutely need to hear in 2026?

• 9:17Speaker 01

  Oh, boy. I could probably tell you a lot of different truths about money because there's so many things that people don't want to hear. But I think the number one thing is it may not have been your fault, but it's your job to fix it. For me, that is the big one because like you said, I take calls from people around the world all day, every day on the Ramsey Show. I mean, it's like 18 million folks a week that are listening to that. And everybody's calling in with different types of problems, but the feeling of it is the same, which is, should I be the one that has to deal with this? Right? It's, well, my spouse, they're not the one doing it. And they're, I'm trying to save money, but they're outspending. Or, you know, my grandma took out a credit card in my name or my parents are the ones that told me to sign for the student loans. Right?

• 9:59Speaker 01

  There's all of this reason that we want to place the blame somewhere else. And I had a colleague and a mentor tell me once, he said, you can't blame your way to a better life. And it always stuck with me. You can't blame your way. And that's the thing. If we can take responsibility and say, hey, there might be a very good reason that this sucks. Right? Like, there might be a very good reason. Somebody may have done you wrong legitimately. You may have been divorced and now you're trying to rebuild and it's tough. Or you worked at a job for 20 years and they fired you. Right? All that stuff is real. But at the end of the day, that person is not going to come back and fix it for you. The chances of that happening are so slim.

• 10:41Speaker 01

  And we spend so much time waiting around for somebody to go, oh, I'm sorry, let me come fix that for you. And they're not coming, Hala. You're the only one that can rescue you.

• 10:52Hala Taha?

  So true. You've got to take accountability. Nobody is coming to save you. You've got to save yourself.

• 10:56Speaker 01

  Yup.

• 10:57Hala Taha?

  Okay, so there's so many different money trends online going right now. So people are talking about girl math. They're talking about self-saving. People really care about finances these days and they're talking about it online. So I wanted to do a fun little quickfire segment, unpacking why you think these trends even exist. What is actually going on culturally that people want to talk about these types of things or are doing certain things differently now? So the first one is loud budgeting. So this is basically how millennials and Gen Z, they're openly setting boundaries now. So if somebody asks them out to dinner, they say, no, I'm sorry. It's just not in my budget. I can't afford it right now. And they're like happily just telling people they can't afford things

• 11:42Hala Taha?

  and setting boundaries with their money. Why do you think that's happening?

• 11:47Speaker 01

  First off, I love that that's happening. And I think it's happening because people are tired of going along with the status quo. I think people are finally realizing that life as we know it kind of sucks. This idea, I'm just going to be broke every year and I'm never getting ahead. I think people finally figured out, it's like they used to say back in the day, the revolution will be televised. It's like, we need to know because then you have the accountability and it's you creating that boundary of saying, I can't go, I'm on a budget. It's the me too that you're wanting. Whenever you're going through a hard time, you think it's isolated to just you. But then when your buddy is like, oh no, I'm going through it too. You're like, oh, thank God. Somebody else is in the same boat as me. So when somebody says out loud, I can't go because my budget,

• 12:30Speaker 01

  that frees up so many other people to go, oh my gosh, me too. I feel broke as well. I'm trying to get my money on point as well. Now suddenly we can have a bunch of open conversations about it and it's not quite so lonely. I wish I had done that. Cause back in the day when my husband and I were paying off debt, not necessarily on purpose, but I didn't talk about it out loud a whole lot until several years in the process. And once I did start talking about it, it was helpful and it gave me the opportunity to really help other people, which was a benefit for both of us.

• 13:01Hala Taha?

  I love it. I feel like it's the opposite of keeping up with the Joneses, which is what I feel like I grew up with. And now everyone is just more open about what they can actually afford, which I think is actually really positive and cool. Okay, the next one is kind of a funny one, girl math. So this is when people justify what they buy through creative logic. The big joke is that girls do this. If I pay in cash, it was free and things like that.

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Girl math, I've been guilty of it, I'll tell you that. I think at the root of that, and I talk about this in the book, is just an I deserve mentality. You know, I think we've all felt it. When you work hard, you work 40 plus hours a week, 60 hours a week, you feel like you deserve to spend your money on the things that you want to spend it on. And sometimes we know, deep down, oh, maybe I shouldn't have bought that. Maybe that was too much. And so we justify it with things like girl math. And I'm not judging anybody I've done it to, but I think that's what's at the core of it is we just want to feel like we're living the life that our work reflects, if that makes sense, right? We're there every day, 40 hours a week.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  Our time is being spent, it's time away from our family, time away from our kids, whatever. And yeah, we want to be able to get out and get a little treat and feel good about it. And so if we have to say, well, the sign said that it was buy one, get 50 free, then we'll just say that that was the reason, right?

• 14:23Hala Taha?

  Yeah, what could go wrong with that kind of a mentality? I feel like I do that a lot. I see an expensive bag and I'm like, you know, I worked hard, I deserve this. What could go wrong with that?

• 14:33Speaker 01

  At the end of the day, we're losing efficiency. And the more time it takes to accomplish a goal, the more chances are that we give up on it. And I tell people all the time, every little bit counts, every little bit. And so if we have said to ourselves, hey, the goal in this season is to save for a down payment on a house, or the goal in this season is to save $20,000 to get that machine you need for your business, then Work at it as though that's the number one priority because all day long, other things are going to fight for that top slot on your priority list. That's just the way it is. And so we've got to get very good at noticing when those things creep up to try to take the top spot. And so it happens very easily when you're like, oh, man, this is my goal. I'm saving $20,000.

• 15:16Speaker 01

  And then your friend is getting married in the Caribbean. You girl mathed it and said, well, if I room with my best friend and every night I order water and I don't even know if Groupon is still a thing anymore, but we do Groupon for this. Then you've girl math yourself right out of what you said was the top priority, which was saving $20,000 to start your hair salon, whatever it is. And so we've just got to become experts at recognizing when those things try to creep in. And the first words to diagnose yourself is when you start to sense or hear yourself say, I deserve. That should be the warning signal. And I talk about that in the book. I'm giving everybody ways to diagnose what it is, what the emotion is that's blocking

• 16:01Speaker 01

  them, and then I'm giving them the antidote to stop it.

• 16:05Hala Taha?

  Okay. Next trend is quiet luxury. So this is when people are showing off very expensive clothes. It might be like a $500 sweater, but it has no logo. So logos are out. It's all about being understated, but luxury. What do you think is actually going on with folks who really care about quiet luxury?

• 16:26Speaker 01

  I like that. I think what's going on is they're deciding if I'm going to spend money, it's going to be for me. And I relate to that wholeheartedly because I come from a background where I had to do a lot to try to fit in. And so you end up doing so many things just to fit into a mold and you're spending money that you don't have to impress people that you're not even sure that you even like. And that can take many different forms. And for a lot of us, yeah, it was, I'm going to make sure. I remember when Michael Kors watches were in style, everybody had that giant wristband of a watch, right? When I was in middle school, you had the Tommy Hilfiger. It's a giant logo, everything to try to prove and show I have the money, I fit in, I belong,

• 17:11Speaker 01

  I can hang. And I think people are getting to a point where they go, you know what? If I'm gonna get something nice, I don't have to prove nothing to nobody. This is for me. And it's like a gut check to even do it that way. You know, if you're gonna go out and spend thousands of dollars on a nice bag, are you gonna get the one that's got the logo stitched all over it? Or are you gonna get the one that you like that maybe nobody's heard of the designer? Right? And I love that. I had a buddy once that said, a really good framework for if a purchase is for you or the people, is if you ask yourself, if nobody ever saw this, would I still buy it? If nobody ever saw the ring, if nobody ever saw the necklace, if they never saw the car,

• 17:56Speaker 01

  would you still buy it? And I think that is such a meaningful practice to have in your own mind before you buy anything. Because then you know, am I doing this for status and clout and looks? Or am I doing it just for me? If I'm gonna make a dumb decision and buy something I can't afford, at least let it be for me and not for them.

• 18:15Hala Taha?

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• 18:56Hala Taha?

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• 19:23Hala Taha?

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• 20:06Hala Taha?

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• 20:33Hala Taha?

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• 21:17Hala Taha?

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• 21:30Hala Taha?

  Okay, next one, de-influencing. This is when creators are telling you what not to buy. What do you think is going on there?

• 21:37Speaker 01

  It's like reverse psychology for some people, but I think for others, I do think it's legit. I tried this myself because I'm obviously on social media all the time. And I myself was like, social media, you gotta be careful because it's your time that is on the table. And even as a creator, it's so easy to get sucked in. And before you know it, you're consuming more than you're creating. And I even told people, I was like, hey, as much as I want you guys on here consuming my content, you need to take a break. You need to delete social media from your phone because this is eating up the time that you need to focus on your goals this year. I understand the struggle that is to tell people the truth, but also know that telling them the truth could affect your livelihood.

• 22:22Speaker 01

  And I think in the end of the day, that does build trust and it makes you not just a trustworthy person to other people, but it makes you true to yourself. So I love that influencers are de-influencing people, that they're telling people the truth. I think we're living in a world right now that people want the truth. They don't want you to sell them something. They want you to tell them the truth. And I feel the same way with money. Tell me the truth. Don't just give me another plan. Don't just tell me something else and give me six more steps. Tell me what I really need to know. And I know I was craving that. And that's one of the reasons I wrote this book, is so that people can get to the bottom of it and not have to sort through a bunch of fluff. Tell me the real truth.

• 23:03Hala Taha?

  So speaking of your book, you talk a lot about engine checklights. You make this analogy that you've got financial engine checklights. What are some of these checklights that people often ignore the most or let it linger for the longest?

• 23:17Speaker 01

  These checklights are kind of like what we talked about earlier, those red flags. One of them is, yeah, the I deserve syndrome where it's like, no, I know I shouldn't buy this, but I deserve it, right? That's an indicator that you're about to do something silly. Other things that are more financial is, yeah, if you're noticing that your account is sometimes overdrawn, or if you're having to switch from using your money to my money is Now gone, now I have to switch over to my credit card. That's an indicator that your spending is out of control. If you're a person, and I mean, I'm talking about extreme things because I come from an extreme background. If you're a person who is having to ask people to borrow money. If you're a person who is thinking about transferring their debt onto a HELOC and rolling it into your mortgage, that's a sign.

• 24:01Speaker 01

  If you're a person who is living paycheck to paycheck, that's a sign. So in the book, I'm going through all of these different seemingly everyday feelings. If you're a person who every time you go out to dinner, if you say, oh, today I'm going to go to dinner with friends. And before you order from the menu, you're like, let me just check my bank account. And you're logging in to check your bank account. That's a sign that things are out of control. You should understand what's going on with your money and be able to spend freely because you understand what's going on with your money. If you have to check your bank account before you have brunch with friends, you shouldn't be at brunch, right? So those are the types of things that I'm talking about in the book. I'm trying to shine light on these day to day occurrences that are really deep indicators as to what's going wrong.

• 24:45Speaker 01

  And it is the same as the check engine light. Because when it pops on hollow, most of us are like, no! And we ignore it. We don't want to see it because in our minds, it means that, oh, my gosh, I'm going to have to go to the shop and they're going to tell me that my entire car is going to blow up if I don't get it fixed today. And it's going to cost $1,800. And we've just already told ourselves this litany of excuses of why this is the worst thing ever. Instead of just seeing it for what it is, which is a gentle reminder that you need to look at what's going on. And if you fix it now, you're going to avoid a bigger blow up in the future.

• 25:21Hala Taha?

  How can people move from being in that stuck feeling? Because a lot of the times when we feel anxious about something or we know we have to do something, we procrastinate, we freeze, we don't take action. How do we actually get unstuck?

• 25:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, so all that you're saying, all of those adjectives that you use, that's fear. And it's different types of fear operating in the background. And in the book, I talk about several different types of fear. But one of them, and a lot of what you were saying, was fear of the unknown, which is, I'm stuck, I'm frozen because I don't know what's gonna happen next. And for most of us, when we get in that portion of life that feels unknown, it's like, huh, let me stop, because I don't know what's out there. And I talk about that in the book, this idea of, if I do X, Y, Z, then it's going to equal something that I can't depend on. And just because it worked for this person, I'm not sure if it'll work for me. And just because these experts are saying it, I don't know if it'll work for me.

• 26:21Speaker 01

  And so we get into this point of creating these irrational ideas of what will happen next. And so in the book, I talk about how to diagnose. First off, is your fear rational or irrational? Because there's two types, right? There are very rational fears out there, and I want to validate that. But most of us, most of us are in the irrational zone. And you know when it's irrational, when it's kind of vague, like the vague idea of, if I do this, then I'm gonna ruin everything. Or if I spend the money like that, then I'll never get to see my family. What are you saying? You'll never get to see your family? Let's drill that down. And so I'm talking about how to drill down those fears, because if you can drill them and distill them down to what it actually is,

• 27:05Speaker 01

  then we can actually find a solution for it. So I tell people all the time, for example, I'll say, hey, money is pretty simple. It's, if you need more of it, you can either lower your expenses or increase your income. That's basically it. And so I tell people, if you're looking for ways to increase your income, yeah, either pick up a side hustle, maybe start a small business. And right when I say that, it's like, hold on. You're telling me I need to give more time to this? Well, what if I miss out on my kid's soccer game? Well, what if I miss out on this? Or what if my spouse thinks I'm neglecting them? And I'm like, let's distill it down. Tell me exactly, and then we can address it. If you're afraid that you're newlywed and your spouse is gonna think you don't want to spend time with them, then we can solve for that, can't we?

• 27:50Speaker 01

  We can have that conversation. We can say, here's what my fear is, because the antidote to fear is light. It just needs to be put out in the open. We can see it for what it is, and then we can deal with it.

• 28:01Hala Taha?

  Some other emotions that I know you talk about in the book are guilt and shame. And you separate them as two different emotions. And I think shame is even worse than guilt. It's like when guilt crosses over into shame. At what point does that happen? And can you break those two emotions down for us?

• 28:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, guilt and shame are diabolical. And let me even start at the top because the first one is regret. Regret is like that basic buyer's remorse that we've all felt, right? You get home, you have the bag or you get home and maybe you bought a new suit or you bought, I don't know, you took somebody out for drinks and you offered to pay and you probably shouldn't have done it. And you're like, dang it, like, I wish I could go back in time and redo that. It's probably not a huge deal, but you just know in the moment that wasn't the smartest thing, right? And usually regret, you can brush it off, just chalk it up to hindsight's 2020. But then the next layer is guilt. Guilt is usually when you've done something foolish like that, but someone else is involved. And this is financially speaking.

• 29:01Speaker 01

  So it's like, ah, I needed to get that car or I needed to get that loan. And I went to extreme attempts to get it. And so I had somebody co-sign for me, right? And then things went south for me. I wasn't able to make the payment on time. Now it's affecting them and I feel guilty that I got them all hung up in my situation. Right? So guilt is when we've done this dumb thing and now other people are suffering because of it, whether it's our buddy or our friends, our spouse, our kids. That feels terrible. Shame is the next level of when it's not just something we did, but now it's an identity that we're owning. So no longer is it, the business plan was stupid. Now it's, I was stupid.

• 29:44Speaker 01

  It's no longer that student loan is ruining my life. It's, I've ruined our lives. And so now you are the mistake. Now you're wearing the identity and now you're the problem. And when that happens, Hala, that is so dangerous because a lot of times it happens in secret and the people around us don't know that we're carrying that. And they don't know that that's how we're viewing ourself. We're viewing ourself as a mistake. We're viewing ourself as a burden. We're viewing ourself as a problem. And I think that so many people are struggling with that financially because Look at the world we're in. There's over a trillion dollars of student loans. There's over a trillion dollars of credit card debt, right? Same thing with car notes. So we're feeling this.

• 30:28Speaker 01

  We're feeling like we've made mistakes that are irrevocable. And that's simply not true.

• 30:33Hala Taha?

  This conversation reminds me a lot about what we learn in sales. If you're trying to get somebody to buy something, but they believe they're a person that won't make use out of it, or they can't do it themselves, or they're gonna fail at it, you need to shift their identity before they're actually willing to buy. This feels really similar. If you need to make a change with your money, you need to actually change your identity and your belief around how you act with money. Can you talk to us about how important identity is with all of this?

• 31:02Speaker 01

  Oh, my gosh. Identity is so important because it's our belief system. And so the way that I try to explain it to people who are trying to get their minds around this concept is I describe it as a vehicle. So I'll say, behavior is the car. That's where you want to go. And then your belief is what's in the driver's seat. So you can say all day, I would love to have the behavior of a person who saves money, right? So you're in that vehicle, you're like, I want to save money. But your belief is what's gonna sit in the driver's seat and push the pedal. So if your belief says, but I've never seen people like me become a millionaire, then suddenly your foot is gonna take yourself off the accelerator and you're gonna go slower and slower. Or if you say, well, I grew up and my neighbors, actually, they were very well off and my

• 31:46Speaker 01

  grandparents were millionaires. Well, you have that belief and so you mash on the gas and you go forward. But then there's another component, which is your emotions. And that's the thing that's steering the wheel. So you can say, oh, yeah, my grandparents were a millionaire, I can be a millionaire too. And you mash on the pedal, but then you go, oh, my gosh, but. And your emotions start taking you in a direction, next thing you know, you've hit a tree. So all of these things have to work perfectly together to take the vehicle to the right destination. And so, yeah, belief, which I would pair with identity, is so, so important because, again, that's what's either gonna mash on the pedal or take the foot off the accelerator.

• 32:24Hala Taha?

  I'd love to go deeper with this and play a little game, a scenario game, where you unpack what is going on with this person's beliefs or identities and what do they need to shift in order to make a change and turn around what's going on for them financially? Okay? So it's called emotional audit. The first scenario is, I make really great money, but I still feel broke every month.

• 32:47Speaker 01

  That's going to be frustration because that's a person who doesn't know how to budget. And they probably think they're budgeting the right way, but they're actually budgeting the wrong way. And this is a person that makes me sad because they've decided that the budget is at fault versus their know-how being at fault. And so this is the person who goes, I'm not budgeting anymore. It doesn't work. And I'm like, yes, it does work. Let's do it the right way. I tell people all the time, a budget has to be detailed, realistic and flexible if it's going to work. So this person's budget is not realistic and it sounds like it's not very flexible either. So that's what I would coach them. I'd say, hey, you're putting the effort in to get the money. Let's create a plan that actually works for you so that when you need money, it's there when you need it.

• 33:31Speaker 01

  And not only do you have the money to do the things you need to do, but you have some money left over to do the things that you want to do. So I'd call that frustration.

• 33:38Hala Taha?

  Okay, next one. I avoid checking my bank account because it gives me anxiety.

• 33:43Speaker 01

  Ooh, I'm going to go with guilt. That feels like guilt. Or it could be fear, but I think it's guilt. I think there's something underlying. I'm afraid to check my bank account balance. That's telling me, you know, there's supposed to be money there based off the fact that you get a paycheck, but there's no money there because you're going out every night or you're taking a bunch of ladies out, spending more money than you actually have, trying to impress them. There's something going on there that you don't want to expose to the light of day because you're feeling guilty about it.

• 34:15Hala Taha?

  I've got $40,000 in credit card debt and I feel paralyzed.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  Hmm, fear. I'm going to go fear because you're feeling paralyzed. Oftentimes, fear will make you completely stop in your tracks. This is the person who goes, I don't know what to do next. I'm afraid nothing will work. I'm afraid there's no hope. I'm afraid that I'll be in debt forever. And so it's just so overwhelming that they don't even start. And so with fear, like I said before, it's so important to get the facts. And in the book, I talk about how facts are your friends. And so let's look at the facts. How much credit card debt do you have? What's your income? Let's do the math and actually look at actual numbers to find out what's possible.

• 35:02Speaker 01

  And let's start putting some facts around the situation versus just letting it float around up in your head and go, there's no way out. I'm scared.

• 35:10Hala Taha?

  Okay, next one. I keep getting raises, but my lifestyle just continues to grow with it and I can't seem to stop.

• 35:18Speaker 01

  This is not in the book, but I think I'm gonna go with some sort of pride. And the reason I say that is because it's like what we talked about before with the quiet luxury. If you're getting raises and your lifestyle continues to creep up, you have to ask why? Is it a presentation that you're trying to put out there and show a facade to the world? Or is it a bunch of quiet luxury things that no one would ever know about? I bet it's not. I bet you're driving an Escalade. I bet you're driving a Porsche. I bet your clothes are extremely expensive and people can tell. I bet you're taking crazy trips and posting them on social media. That's what I think. And I tell folks all the time that when you're sacrificing

• 36:02Speaker 01

  for a short period or maybe a long period to win with money, it shows. And it's okay for people to notice that you're making changes with your money. Maybe you're not spending as much. Maybe you don't go to all the brunches. Maybe you're not doing the things that your circle is doing. And that's okay. That's a hit to our pride. And a lot of people aren't willing to go on that ride in order to win.

• 36:25Hala Taha?

  I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs act that way as well because we're high achievers and we want to just keep achieving and want our lifestyle to go along with that. So I know money doesn't only impact ourselves. It really impacts our relationships, especially marriages and things like that. So what do you think are the common challenges people have around money when it comes to being married and sharing finances with somebody else?

• 36:50Speaker 01

  The two biggest things is we have different goals in a moment and trust. Let's start with that. Because I'm a person who's always gonna suggest if you're married, I think the best way to manage finances is to pair them up. And to say, okay, what's yours is mine, what's mine is yours. But the second part of that is there has to be a high level of trust to be able to do that, right? And we have to have a shared vision on where we're trying to go together. One spouse can't be dead weight. Otherwise, it's like, well, hello, what's going on here? And so that, right there, for some couples, it's very easy. It's almost like intuitive. And I'll be honest, when my husband and I got together, it was intuitive for us.

• 37:32Speaker 01

  I don't know if we were just young and dumb and just didn't have anything to think about, but it was very easy. Same bank account, money goes in, what's our goal? We're aligned, let's go do it. It was easy. But that is not the case for a lot of couples. And let's be honest, all couples are not healthy. And so what that does is it does expose a level of unhealthiness. And a lot of times, you won't even see it until you have those conversations. One spouse comes to the other and says, okay, I'm thinking we ought to combine. I want total transparency. I want to know what you make. You should know what I make. I want to know your debt. I want to know what you're spending on, vice versa. And that creates a lot of uncomfortability. And you have to ask yourself, well, why are you so uncomfortable? Why is it that we're hiding things?

• 38:17Speaker 01

  And so I find a lot of times, that leads to, you know what? I think that we have trust issues. Or I think that it's time for us to go into counseling and figure out what's at the root of this. And none of that's bad. That's actually a very, very good thing because money is so relational. Money is so a part of everything that we do. And I tell people that all the time. It touches every part of our life. It touches our relationships. It touches our spirituality. It touches our emotions. It touches our career. It touches our hobbies, right? It's part of everything that we do. And so it makes sense that there would be levels that are exposed over time that go, oh, that doesn't feel quite right. Maybe I need to look at that deeper. And of course, with relationships, it's no different.

• 39:02Hala Taha?

  And I imagine that the older you are before getting into a serious relationship, the worse the problems are because there's more at stake. Everybody's coming with more baggage, right?

• 39:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, and you're set in your ways. And the truth is, you've done a lot. If I'm talking to somebody who's 23, no problem, right? They're 23, they're getting married for the first time. They're excited to combine finances. If I talk to somebody who's 43, getting married for the first time, it's a whole set of differences, right? They've built a career. They've hopefully built a level of wealth. They've built a lifestyle that they enjoy, and they've done it likely on their own. And so the idea of pairing up with someone who might have a slightly different philosophy on money and spending and debt and entrepreneurship, those conversations, I cannot stress this enough, they have to happen early and often. You cannot save that for after you get married. And then there's the idea of what if you've been married before?

• 39:57Speaker 01

  Or what if there are prior children and you've built wealth, right? These are things that you've got to talk about ahead of time. You've got to bring in a third party to help counsel through it. Because if you think that you're just going to get married to someone because you like them and you love them, and you've never talked about money, and money is not going to come up, you're dead wrong.

• 40:20Hala Taha?

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• 41:05Hala Taha?

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• 41:20Hala Taha?

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• 42:04Hala Taha?

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• 42:48Hala Taha?

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• 43:26Hala Taha?

  Okay, so let's go through a real life scenario. Let's go through my current relationship. So I have a boyfriend. We're very serious. We're hopefully gonna get married one day. And we have very different attitudes towards money. I am a little bit older than him. And I make a lot of money. I'm making close to a million dollars personally a year. That just goes straight to me. I have a company that makes about eight million dollars a year. And I spend a lot. I'll buy bags. I'll buy shoes. I'll drop a couple thousand dollars just shopping. And for him, he's an entrepreneur too. He's doing well, but he's in an earlier stage. And so he's not taking that much money out of the business and we're in like totally different spots. I think he's gonna be richer than me one day, but right now.

• 44:10Speaker 01

  Not yet.

• 44:11Hala Taha?

  Not yet. I've got a lot more spending cash. Sometimes he's like, what? You spend what on what? And we're just really different in that regard. So what should we be doing to prevent anything from going south later on?

• 44:25Speaker 01

  There's a couple thoughts I have. First thing that comes to mind is when you're married, there is a level of acceptance of the things that one spouse finds value in, the other spouse might not. And that's okay, just knowing that ahead of time. For instance, my husband, he loves sneakers. I love sneakers too, but he loves them on a different level. He will drop thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on sneakers. I won't. Now, there was a world, we've been married 16 years now. There was a time where I would have taken him to task on that and been like, I can't believe you're spending money on that. We can't afford that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But now I go, hey, I have figured out. I've become a detective, a professional detective of my spouse.

• 45:09Speaker 01

  And I've understood, hey, he doesn't spend money a whole lot on everyday things, but there's a few things that he really loves. And if he's gonna spend money, it's gonna be a list of five things and sneakers is one of them. Go ahead and let him have it. And it's the same thing with, I would say for you guys. You're gonna learn, hey, this is something they value and I may not value it. But if I value them, I can learn to value what they value. And so it's just a maturity there. Now, don't get me wrong. You're in a different boat. Obviously, you have the money to spend. So it's no question of can you afford it or not? And so for you, I'd be like, yeah, he just needs to learn, hey, Holly might spend money on things that I don't care about, but so does he, right? I'm sure he has a list of things that you're like, why would you ever buy that?

• 45:52Hala Taha?

  Yeah, first-class tickets. That's my girl math. I'm going to 23C in my Prada shoes.

• 45:59Speaker 01

  Right, exactly. And it doesn't have to make sense to anybody else, but if it makes sense to you guys, then there you go. And then the other thing is, let's get controversial. So people call in the show all the time and talk about prenups. I used to be like, no, pretty much hard line on a prenup. But more and more, I'm like, you know what? Depending on the differences in wealth, listen, it might be a good idea. Let's talk about this for a second. So my colleague is getting ready to write a book on marriage and whether marriage is still worth it or not. And in some of the research that he was doing, he was talking about how prenups, in many ways, are like a will. If you know you're gonna die,

• 46:41Speaker 01

  you don't want your assets to be in the hands of the courts, right? So it's like, let me decide ahead of time, so the courts don't decide. And a prenup is the same way. Do you really want the courts to decide what happens if the worst should happen? Now, death is a little bit different. We're all gonna die. But the idea of the courts deciding is what got me. And I kinda was starting to think, and I'm not saying like, this is not Jade Warshaw's stance, but it's something to think about. What if there was a world where people, ahead of time, decided, while they're in their right mind, they're not angry, they're not trying to stick it to anybody, and you decided, hey, if something should happen, what would we do? So you create this prenup ahead of time. There's something to be said about that, is all I'm saying.

• 47:22Hala Taha?

  It's something to think about. I don't know if I would or not. Don't you feel like having a prenup? I just feel it gives too much. I would rather probably not have one.

• 47:33Speaker 01

  It's like Bad Juju.

• 47:34Hala Taha?

  Yeah, it's Bad Juju, cuz then you just know it's so easy to just move on.

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Listen, I said everything I just said. I will also tell you, if my husband came to me talking about sign a prenup, it'd be lights out.

• 47:46Hala Taha?

  You're like, I'm not gonna do it.

• 47:47Speaker 01

  I'm not doing it.

• 47:49Hala Taha?

  Yeah. What are some communication strategies for people who are married? Should they talk monthly, weekly, yearly? How often should they be talking about these kind of things? And do you give any advice in the book in terms of actionable steps?

• 48:02Speaker 01

  So it depends on what's going on. If things feel pretty healthy and everything is kind of going on the right track, yeah, a monthly budget meeting or a monthly meeting to discuss goals. Are we still on the right track? I love that idea as far as a rhythm of just getting in sync. My husband, every month, it's kind of like, hey, I filled in the numbers on the budget. Do we still feel good about it? Yeah. Is anything coming up that we should be thinking about or planning for? He's usually the person that handles that. Hey, we have a trip coming up. Here's what we need to be thinking about. Fine. And then we do a big couple hour long meeting at the end of the year to project our coming year and say, here's the big goals that we're thinking and just kind of dream a little bit.

• 48:44Speaker 01

  So that's the healthy scenario. If you're in an unhealthy scenario, yeah, you need to be in counseling and you need to be bringing this stuff up early and often. Like I said, the best time to talk about this is before you're married. You should be doing this in some kind of pre-marriage counseling and you should be having this conversation with a third party. Because all of us think that our way is the right way. And it's hard to pull our fingers off of what it is that we want. And so you need a third party to help you see clearly and to help you get to a point of compromise. And it's not all or nothing. That's the thing. You have to be willing to compromise because the way you've always done it doesn't necessarily mean that that's the way it's going to be going forward.

• 49:25Hala Taha?

  When it comes to entrepreneurs, what do you think their biggest money struggles are?

• 49:30Speaker 01

  Oh, we're know it all. We know everything. We want to go fast. And I can say that, I mean, my husband and I built a talent agency. That's the business my husband runs to this day. And you have opportunity in front of you every single day and you want to go get it, right? And so one of the biggest temptations is going into more and more debt to try to pull that dream closer and closer to you. That's a big struggle and it's just the idea of, I know it all. I know it. I can do it. I'm smart. After all, I built all of this. And so we get to this, it's like, you know, the paper wings flying too close to the sun. And I think that's the hardest part for people who are entrepreneurs.

• 50:12Speaker 01

  Who want to go fast again, it does go back to that pride, that know it all, that I deserve this. We have to be careful. We have to check ourselves before we wreck ourselves and make sure that we have very, very trustworthy accountability partners in our corner. And I talk about that. The people in your corner, they need to be able to do two things really well. They need to be able to encourage you and say, yeah, you can do it. You got it. You got it. And they also need to be there to be like, hey, you're about to play yourself and you need to stop and you need to sit down. And the most dangerous thing is when you don't have anybody in your corner who can check you. And if you don't, you need it because that's a recipe. Pride goes before the fall.

• 50:57Speaker 01

  So if you're a person who everybody is telling you, you got this, man, man, you're so smart, you're so great, you're so good, look at this. That's a problem. If no one, I don't care who you are, you could be Elon Musk. If you don't have somebody who's saying you're wrong and you need to stop, get ready to fall.

• 51:16Hala Taha?

  I know something that I struggle with is I feel like budgeting is maybe for people who don't make a lot of money. And instead of budgeting, I always think, well, how do I just make more money? How do I just make more money? And that's always where my focus is. I just want to make more money, more money, more money. What are some new ideas I can do? How can I just make more money so that I never have to worry about budgeting? And I can just buy whatever I want and not think about it. Is that wrong?

• 51:42Speaker 01

  No, I don't think it's wrong. I do think that the older, the more mature you get in your money, I think the way you budget and the way it looks, looks a little different. Let's think about it on a scale, right? If you're just the average person, you're making sixty eight, seventy thousand dollars a year, sixty eight, seventy eight thousand dollars a year. Yeah, your budget is going to be extremely detailed because every dollar really does count. You don't have the margin to make a bunch of errors. And whatever margin you do have, has to have a very clear job in order to move you forward. There is no margin for error, right? Then you get a little bit further on in the game and maybe Maybe you're making mid six figures and if you don't have a ton of debt,

• 52:26Speaker 01

  you have a lot more margin. Therefore, again, your margin of error becomes a lot higher, right? Because if you have several thousand dollars to blow every month, especially if you don't have debt, especially if you don't have all these other obligations. Yeah, you can afford, as long as you're doing the things that are on my financially responsible checklist. You do, you have the margin to be a little bit more willy nilly. You go on a vacation and it costs $7,000 instead of $5,000. You can eat that, right? Or it costs $12,000 instead of $10,000. You eat that cost. And then, of course, as you go up and you're making seven figures and you're really doing it. Yes, I believe it becomes more of the blocks of things I'd like to do.

• 53:08Speaker 01

  Because everything else is basically taken care of. Now, if you're a financially responsible person, now, of course, we see every day, athletes, people who win the lottery, people who go from zero to millions very, very quickly, if they never learned how to manage their money. That's a problem because they're not understanding, I must do all of this over here in this block. I must do all of this over here in this block, and then this block is for me to enjoy. If you don't understand the basic concept that the three things you do with money, you give, you save, and you spend, you're sunk. So I do think that the more you earn, it becomes those big bubbles versus the perfect line item budget.

• 53:54Hala Taha?

  That makes a lot of sense. And that's how I think of it as like big buckets or like a big goal that I'm trying to save for. But other than that, everything's more loose, I guess. So you mentioned this financially responsible checklist. You've got to run that down for us.

• 54:08Speaker 01

  So financially responsible checklist, number one, you're a person who is living on some sort of budget, right? Like we talked about, that is just, I know my numbers, essentially. I know what I earn and I know what my expenses are. And I know what piece of margin is going for this and what piece of margin is going for that. I'm living my life on a budget. Number two, I'm a proponent of a debt-free lifestyle. I'm a person who's out of debt. I avoid debt at all costs. So, so important. Number three, I'm a person who carries the proper insurances. All right? So many people don't. Whether it's in the business world or it's in their personal life. I see it all the time. I talk to normal, everyday people about their normal, personal finances. And people are over insured or under insured or not insured. And it's a problem.

• 54:53Speaker 01

  They don't pick up life insurance because they think it's an inconvenience. And I'm like, it's absolutely not. You need life insurance. So, carrying the proper insurance. The fourth one on the list, of course, is a person who values savings. And that comes in a couple of different forms. Of course, you need to be having a cash emergency fund. I would say anywhere between three to six months. Some people do a year. That's your bag if you want to do that. But this is just cash money you get to. You need to be investing at least 15% of your income. If that's the point in your life that you're at, if you're at an investing point, at least 15% of your income. At the very minimum. And then, of course, yeah, real estate. You need to have a primary residence. Renting for a season is fine, but long-term, you need to own something.

• 55:37Speaker 01

  It's like a forced savings account. If you're buying good real estate, it's going up in value all the time. So, those are the three ways that I would suggest saving money for anybody. And then, finally, you need to be, number five would be, you need to be prioritizing generosity. People forget about that one. Generosity is so important. I said it earlier. Of the three things you do, give, save, and spend, giving is at the top of the list. We've all heard the parable, when your hand is open, money comes in and money comes out.

• 56:05Hala Taha?

  So, for entrepreneurs tuning in, something that really piqued my interest was you mentioned insurance, even for your business or as a business owner. So, what kind of insurance should entrepreneurs consider?

• 56:16Speaker 01

  It really depends on what you do. I mean, you've got to have some sort of liability insurance built in. If you're a person who has a high net worth, you need to have some sort of umbrella insurance that is covering you as an individual, whether your business is set up in an LLC to keep you protected. All of those things matter. Making sure that your business is set up, your insurance structure is set up. If you're doing something where you could injure someone or you could piss somebody off, making sure that they're not coming after you as an individual, but that the business is protecting you. So, all of that is so, so important. A lot of people just get excited about getting clients and making money that they're not set up properly. And another indicator of that is, I hate to say it, but people call in all the time and they're not even paying their taxes.

• 57:00Speaker 01

  So making sure that you're set up with the right insurances, the right business entity for what it is that you do and that you're paying your taxes, people, please, you don't want to mess with Uncle Sam. That's ridiculousness.

• 57:14Hala Taha?

  Yeah, taxes suck, but.

• 57:17Speaker 01

  They do, but they're an indicator that you're making money and that's a good thing.

• 57:20Hala Taha?

  Yeah, cool. So Jade, I know that you have two children. What's a money belief that you absolutely don't want them to inherit?

• 57:29Speaker 01

  Oh, boy. In their young age right now, because they're five and seven, the first thing I'm teaching them is that just because they walk into a place, whether it's a store or a theme park, they don't have to buy anything. A lot of times it's like everywhere we go, they want to buy something or they want to have more and more things. And I don't know if it's just the age that they're at, or if it's truly like the level of they've just had a great life and I don't know if it's just that.

• 57:59Hala Taha?

  They're used to it.

• 58:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm used to it. I should get to have something. It's no big deal. But I really want to teach them that stuff doesn't equal happiness. Just because you go to Target, you don't have to buy anything. You can go into a coffee shop to meet a friend and say hello and you don't have to order anything off the menu. You can just sit down if you're not hungry. And I just want to teach them that you don't have to buy something. You can just exist and be and be happy. Stuff does not equal happiness. It doesn't equal contentment. I want to teach them that because it is absolutely true. And I'm going into a deeper thing here, but when you're in a situation where you can see the value of

• 58:41Speaker 01

  life, whether it's a sick family member, none of that stuff matters anymore. Your money at that point doesn't matter. My mom right now is fighting cancer and you get to a point where it doesn't matter. There's no more money. Money can't do anything for me. What I can do though is create memories. What I can though do is sit with them. I can take care of them. I can reminisce with them. But buying something means nothing in those situations. And if I can make them understand that, I'm winning as a parent.

• 59:15Hala Taha?

  Why don't we go a little bit deeper on that? I think a big issue that people have with money is that they never know when it's enough. Right? And I feel like a lot of people prioritize making money, especially high achievers, entrepreneurs, over living actual experiences. Or their whole life is basically fighting this opportunity to just make as much money as possible instead of actually living life. How can we better optimize our lives and not let money control us so much?

• 59:44Speaker 01

  You hit the nail on the head. My husband explains it as a goalpost. The end zone in the goalpost is always moving. Right? You get closer and you're like, if I just do this, that's the touchdown. Then you do it and then you move your own end zone and go, okay, now I gotta make another touchdown. It never stops. And I think that's the danger of money is it keeps pulling you in and pulling you in and pulling you in. So you have to decide what is the point that I am content if I don't make another dollar? And then everything after that is just gravy. I think that's important. I think generosity is an important combat to that. And then the other thing is I do think that it depends on the season of life you're in.

• 1:00:29Speaker 01

  I can say that when I didn't have kids, I would work, work, work, work, work, work, like there was no, why stop? Especially if my husband is working alongside me, why not? Right? But then it's like you get a dog and you're like, well, I want to spend more, you know, I don't want my dog sitting at home all day without me home. And then you have kids and you're like, well, I want to see my kids. And so you have to just remember that the number one thing you can't replace is time with time and presence. And I feel that now as a mom, you know, I go to work or I go and travel for work and things like that. And I'm like, man, these are moments and seconds and hours and days that I won't get back with my kids. That is the thing. And I think we've all seen these reels or these memes that go by and it's like, yeah,

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  at the end of your life, people aren't saying, man, my mom, she really impacted thousands of people and she really made a lot of money. They're gonna go, I remember when we went to Disney and I was scared to go on the roller coaster and she went on the roller coaster with me. Right? So they remember those moments and that's what we're gonna remember. We as the worker, we're not gonna sit on our deathbed and go, man, if only I had just closed that deal. We might say, I wish I had taken that leap of faith on that business, or I wish I had gone after that. That could be a regret. But more so, we're not going to want our business partner at our bedside. We're not going to want the CEO of the company we're trying to land a deal with at our bedside.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  We're going to want our family members there. And so we better make sure we poured into those relationships so that they'll be there. Because I also know what it looks like when somebody hasn't poured into those relationships. And it's like, hey, it's not a magic genie. People aren't just going to be there because you want them to be. If you neglected them, if you weren't around them, if you didn't show any interest in what they were doing, good luck to you because they're not going to be there when you need them because there was never a relationship. That's not going to come out of thin air. So you better invest in them now.

• 1:02:27Hala Taha?

  So good. I know one of the questions that I ask all my guests at the end of the show is, what is your secret to profiting to life? And almost everybody always says relationships, right? That's the number one thing that drives your finances and also just your regular life and having a happy life. So Jade, what does financial peace look like for you?

• 1:02:49Speaker 01

  Financial peace is all encompassing peace. It really is. It's like I said before, money touches every area of our life. And a lot of times we think money is just this thing that's in our wallet and that's it. And it buys us things when we want it. But it's not. It's deeply connected to how we view ourselves. Like I said, our relationships, our spirituality, all of those things. And so when you achieve financial peace, it's just this ability, and you kind of hit on it earlier, to just go about life with ease. It's the, huh, right? The feeling of, you know what? The check was supposed to come Monday and it didn't? Okay, we'll figure it out. There's no stress.

• 1:03:33Speaker 01

  There is the ease of if somebody in your family needs something, you can help them and you don't have to set yourself on fire to help somebody else. You can just help them. And so, yeah, financial peace is an ease of life. It is peace all around. It's the ability to make sure that you're not so focused on money and making things right with that, that you're neglecting these other areas of your life. You're neglecting your own mental health. You're neglecting your relationships. You're neglecting, you're not in the career path that you want to be on. And so when you get your money right, everything else begins to fall into place.

• 1:04:09Hala Taha?

  What is one thing our listeners should do at the start of 2026 to set them up financially for the year?

• 1:04:16Speaker 01

  I would say one thing that you need to do is set up a five-year plan for yourself and make it so clear, where do you see yourself in five years? And put a very, very, very crystal clear why attached to that. And the why will serve as that finish line that we talked about earlier. Because if the goal is just to get, then there's no finish line. But if there's a why, so that I can achieve X, so that my family is set up for life, so that my kids know it's possible, whatever that why is, that's got to be the exclamation point at the end of the sentence.

• 1:04:51Hala Taha?

  So your new book is out now, What No One Tells You About Money. Why should everybody go pick up your book?

• 1:04:57Speaker 01

  They need to pick it up because everybody's trying to get ahead with money and money is emotional. It's three parts. There is the numbers and the math, there's the behavior, and then there's you and your emotions. That's how it works. And most of us have these emotions running unchecked in the background. This book is going to help you diagnose what it is that's keeping you stuck, and it's going to give you the antidote to get unstuck and to help those emotions work for you.

• 1:05:23Hala Taha?

  Well, if you guys want to be young and profiting, you better go grab Jade's book. And the last question I ask all of my guests is, what is your secret to profiting in life?

• 1:05:32Speaker 01

  My secret to profiting in life is knowing that time is going to pass anyway. And you've got three options. You can stay the same, you can be worse off, or you can be better. And I choose to be better.

• 1:05:45Hala Taha?

  I love that. Thank you so much, Jade, for your time. It was a wonderful conversation.

• 1:05:50Speaker 01

  Thanks, Hala.

• 1:05:55Hala Taha?

  What a great kickstart to the year with Jade Warshaw. She didn't just give us budgeting tips. She exposed the emotional undercurrents that sabotage our financial lives and showed us exactly how we can take control back in 2026. So here's what hit home for me in this conversation. It was Jade's truce bomb. It may not have been your fault, but it's your job to fix it. Your money problems are your job to fix. Whether inflation crushed your savings, student loans burned you, or life threw an unexpected curve ball, nobody's coming to rescue you. You can't blame your way to a better financial future. The only person who can change your situation is staring right back at you in the mirror.

• 1:06:36Hala Taha?

  So stop waiting for somebody else to solve your money problems and start taking responsibility and accountability for it today. Second, pay attention to your financial check engine lights. If you're logging into your bank account before you're ordering brunch or switching from debit to credit mid-month or avoiding your balance altogether and not even looking at your bank accounts, those are red flags that are screaming that something is wrong. These are warning signs that you just can't ignore and they won't disappear on their own. You've got to address them now before they turn into a full-blown financial blow up later on. Third, if you're making good money, but you still feel broke every month, your budget is not working. Jade reminded us that an effective budget must be detailed, realistic, and flexible.

• 1:07:21Hala Taha?

  You need to know exactly where every dollar is going, set realistic expectations for your spending, and build room for life to happen as well. Without all three elements, you'll stay stuck in frustration, spinning your wheels without any real progress. Remember, money isn't math. It's emotional, relational, and deeply tied to your identity. The faster you diagnose what's actually keeping you stuck and take action to fix it, the sooner you get to experience true financial peace. Thanks so much for tuning into this new year kickoff episode of Young and Profiting Podcast. Jade's insights offer the perfect reset for anybody ready for a financial glow up in 2026. So if you know somebody who's looking for that, make sure you pass this episode along. And if you benefited from the show, lock in your support right now by

• 1:08:06Hala Taha?

  taking a minute to drop us a five star review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you guys are visual learners, all of our episodes are on YouTube. Just search Young and Profiting. You can't miss us on there. And if you want to follow me on social, you can find me on Instagram at Yap with Hala or LinkedIn. Just search for my name. It's Hala Taha. And before we wrap, I did want to wish everybody the happiest new year. 2026 is going to be so exciting for Yap Media. So shout out to my entire team for all your hard work and for all that's to come this year. And to my listeners, our audience, we love you guys so much. Let's make this the best year yet. This is your host, Hala Taha, AKA The Podcast Princess, signing off.