172 | The Point of It All

Sometimes we get so focused on the numbers and the mechanics of personal finance that we forget what we’re doing it for. It’s important to take a step back and think about the point of our money journey.

In this episode, I share the point of my money journey and invite you to explore yours.

• • what we tend to focus on with our finances
  • the point of my money journey
  • the things my money journey has allowed in my life
  • the importance of the intangible things money affords
  • the point of your money journey

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You’re listening to Wealthyesque. We are a community of lawyers who believe that true wealth is having control of our time. I’m Rho Thomas, and as a busy wife, mom, and former Biglaw associate, I know all too well the tension between the culture of the legal profession and pretty much everything else you want to do in life. That’s why each week, I’m bringing you the information and tools you need to improve your money mindset and manage your money to create true wealth. Because ultimately, it’s not about the money. It’s about the freedom and flexibility the money affords.

Hey friend, welcome back to the show. I hope you’re doing well and having an amazing day so far. Today we are talking about the point of your money journey. So often we focus on the numbers on how much debt we’ve paid off or how much we have in savings or what our net worth is. And that stuff is great. Don’t get me wrong. But for me, all of that is secondary to what my specific money journey has allowed for my life and for my family. For me, the point of it all is about freedom. It’s the freedom and flexibility to live your life the way that you want to, to make decisions for your life the way that you want to, to not be stuck in a situation that you don’t want to be in anymore because of financial constraints, to be able to spend time with your family and have the experiences that you want to have with them. I was thinking this week about this journey that my husband and I have been on over the last seven years with our finances, and it all started when my oldest son was born back in the fall of 2016. I was on maternity leave for 14 weeks. And so I was headed back into the office at the beginning of 2017. And that is what prompted us to look at our finances in the first place because I wanted to return part time the farm I was working with allowed attorneys to do a percentage of the billable hour requirement for that same percentage of your salary and I wanted to do something like 80% So that would be 80% of the hours and get 80% of my salary. But when we looked at our finances and where we were with them, we weren’t in a position to do that. That’s what got us started on managing our finances better in the first place because we had been making good money and we didn’t really have much wiggle room so I couldn’t afford to take a pay cut. Ultimately, the work that we’ve done on our finances has allowed for so much in our lives. And although I wasn’t able to drop down to part time when my son was born at first, I ended up being able to do that I’d probably under 50% during the pandemic to care for my kids. They were three and one at the time. We had been working on our finances for about five years at that point and that work that we had done to improve our finances gave us so much flexibility in what we were able to do financially. I also was able to leave that firm altogether and go full time in my business helping lawyers manage their money better. I really liked the work that I did at the firm. But the work I do now lights me up so much more and I feel like I’m making more of a difference in the world. I also make my own schedule which allows me to be around more for my kids than I would have been able to be if I were still at the firm. And I say all that to say don’t miss the bigger point of the work you’re doing on your finances. Sometimes we can get so focused on the mechanics of managing our money and trying to pay this off and trying to save that, that we miss the bigger piece, the intangible things that the way we manage our money affords, the peace of mind that having your finances in order brings, the lower stress, the options. Our lives have been greatly enhanced by getting our finances in order. We’ve been able to make decisions that would never have been available to us before. And that’s what I want for every lawyer. I think being able to pay off debt and save money is great. But it’s not about the debt balance or the bank account balance. It’s about the freedom, the additional options, the new decisions that are available to you when you have less than or you have more savings. So I don’t want you to get so wrapped up in the numbers and getting your debt down to X number or getting your savings up to y number that you miss the bigger picture. The point is not to scrimp and deprive yourself as much as you can so that you can save as much as you can or pay off as much debt as you can as quickly as possible. The point is to enhance your life to live the life that you want to live. Money is just a tool that we can use to help us get there. The money is not the end all be all. It’s not the ultimate goal itself, but it allows us to get to that ultimate goal for our lives. So I want you to think about what that goal is for you. What is it that you’re doing all of this for? Why are you working on paying off debt or saving money or investing or building your net worth or whatever financial goal you have? What’s the point for you? Because that deeper reason is going to drive you to keep going and stay on track. For me it’s my family and having the freedom to make the decisions that we think are best for us and not have all of the outside pressures from our financial constraints dictating what we do. So what is that for you? Focusing on whatever it is, will help you keep things in perspective as you work on your finances. And if you’d like guidance, accountability, support on your journey, join us in Money Mastery for lawyers, just head to rho thomas.com/join. All right. That is it for this week’s episode. Please do me a favor and share this episode with a friend or two. I want to help more lawyers manage their finances better. So if you could help me spread the word that this information is available. That would be great. Thank you in advance for your help. As we close out friend, I pray that you take the information you learn here, apply it in your life and open up to the realization that wealth is available to you. As you do that consistently. Week after week. You’ll continue to take steps to regain control of your time, build wealth and live a life of freedom choice you deserve. Talk to you later.