My husband and I are going to become millionaires. UPDATE 3 YEARS LATER
On April 26th, 2017 I wrote this post here: My husband and I are going to be millionaires: here’ what we’re doing to bring in the cha-ching in the next 9 years.
I wrote the goal that we would become millionaires within the next 9 years.
It’s April 19th, 2021 and we did it in 3 years. Kids it pays to make financial goals and write that shit down!
We actually did it in June of 2020 but I’m just getting the balls to write this post now.
Currently our net worth now is:
1, 540, 534. 64
WHAT. THE. FUCK.
In this post I’m going to break down the 4 things that I wrote in my first post to tell you what worked or didn’t work and add in anything else that helped us get there.
Before you read on, I’m very open and honest about my debt. You might be thinking this girl has no financial problems she’s a millionaire!
I’m here to change all those thoughts.
I did have debt when we did become millionaires and maybe that’s why it didn’t feel so good to share it, because I just didn’t feel like a millionaire.
I still had around $22,000? (this is an estimate) of credit card debt when we hit a million.
Let me talk about why we decided to put investments before my credit card debt: personal ego haha
Now mostly I would advise against people trying to make other investments before paying off debt, because carrying debt is expensive but in this situation, the credit card debt felt like my personal responsibility. (this is something Dave Ramsey would definitely frown upon but FELT so good to me).
This was a debt that I carried, paid down, and then built back up again. It meant something to me to pay it off myself.
My husband and I both talked about the money we would lose on interest and not making this a priority to pay off, but we both felt good about allowing me to be the person that handles this debt. He would take care of other things.
So that’s why we became millionaires while I was still carrying a hefty amount of credit card debt. BUT since then I am now $5,000 away from being totally debt FREE!! (want to learn how I paid off $20,000 of debt AND created a 6 months savings account, watch here)
Disclaimer: it also didn’t feel good to share that we became millionaires at the height of a devastating pandemic. With all the people losing their jobs, their careers, and financial security. It did not feel like the right time to start boasting about my net worth.
Here’s what worked and didn’t work from my first post:
Step 1: Set our specific goal and rules
< MAKE 1 MILLION DOLLARS COMBINED INCOME BY MARCH 1ST, 2026. >
Here’s where my idea of being a millionaire and making a million dollars needed more education.
You can be a millionaire and not make a million dollars.
Shannon in 2017 didn’t know that.
What my net worth being a million means is all of my properties and my cash minus my debts equals over a million dollars.
If I sold everything I own now and liquidated my accounts, I could have over a million dollars.
It doesn’t mean I have a million dollars in my bank account. It means I have investments (properties or stocks or assets) that total a million dollars.
My property investments are all currently dependent upon the housing market.
My stock investments are all dependent on the stock market.
But now I have a great goal by the time I’m 40.
A combined income of a million dollars.
Okay so let’s see if we broke any rules I had set:
The rules:
This is before taxes.
The million has to be made in a way that doesn’t restrict our freedom or take away from our family, and we also have to make the money either doing things we love, enjoy, or that we don’t mind. (for example: working 3 jobs outside our home is violating the rules)
We will also be having 2 children within this time AGGGHHHHHHH.
We will also purchase 2 homes..AGGHHHHHHH.
1 million is combined income, so not 1 million a piece but wouldn’t that be awesome?
Before taxes? I guess this one doesn’t apply to us because we have a million in net worth not in income.
Was the million made in a way that didnt’ restrict our freedom? Check. We were both able to be at home and go for mid day walks and enjoy our weekends and weeknights.
2 children? Check. Well, technically. We’ve got 1 and a half. The half is growing in my belly right now.
We will also purchase 2 homes. Check. We purchased one home and paid off our other house.
Step 2: Getting real clear about money beliefs, money issues, and money blocks. (This one was mostly for me)
BEST LESSON EVER.
This lesson right here is the one that truly shifted everything for me. I was holding back on making more money, asking for more money with clients, and knowing I am worthy of bringing in more money from this 1 thing.
My thoughts, my beliefs, my habits they were dictating everything that was going on for me financially. If I didn’t work on those things I wouldn’t have been able to allow myself to become a millionaire.
It sounds crazy to say but allowing yourself to become wealthy is the hardest part about becoming wealthy.
It’s not the working in your business on your business or at a job, it’s not signing the clients, it’s not the budgeting or the saving.
It was being afraid of what people would think of me. It was being afraid of people leaving me or my relationships changing when I did become wealthy.
It was the constant management of self sabotage.
It was the inner work of knowing I’m wealthy enough to allow myself to pay off debt and build a savings.
It was reminding myself that my life isn’t going to look like everyone else’s and that’s a fucking okay.
It was driving a 99 Toyota Corolla for years and not feeling like a failure or ashamed that I still didn’t have all the things when other people did.
It was reminding myself to stay the fucking path even when I had all the doubts and fears creeping in that…maybe I wasn’t doing the right thing.
Maybe everyone else in our life has it figured out and we’ll never get there.
It was moments of investing in our businesses that would bring up fear or doubt.
That’s the ACTUAL work of becoming a millionaire.
This is the stuff 90% of the world skips over because it’s too scary. It’s why people don’t go to therapy, have vulnerable conversations with loved one’s, or go after that thing they really want.
I’ve put together all of the journaling prompts that helped me to get here in a 44 page journal.
In this journal I started to uncover all those crappy thoughts I was having around money that was causing me to:
undercharge for my work
not look at my bank accounts
not pay off debt
and not save money
In this journal you’ll learn:
Grab the questions that improved my income by $13K in 2 months
Learn what is the aligned action for you to go next level
Break through your limiting beliefs around why you're not making the BANK you want
Learn how I raised my prices by $8K and STILL booked clients
Because it’s all in who you are and what you want to become. That shit is scary.
IF you want to become a millionaire, THIS is where you start.
Not even with budgeting, saving, investing, cryptocurrency, blah blah.
THIS is where it begins.
Step 3: Where is our money going?
This is what I truly believe in to become a millionaire, you have to budget your money.
You have to be consciously deciding where you want your money to go every month and not only that, you have to consciously decide where you truly want your money to go in the future.
Because the decisions you make about your money TODAY decide where you will be financially in the future.
I didn’t really understand that until this past year. Budgeting our money started in 2018 and from there I felt way more in control of my money but just this past year I started utilizing my budget to pay off debt and save money.
When I first started using You Need a Budget (my favorite budgeting software) I used it to figure out where I wanted my money to go.
BUT this past year I started to see what my money could really do for me besides paying for manicures or coffee.
What if I invested in my money or paid off debt or saved money?
You know the big girl things of being financially stable. I didn’t understand how much my debt was costing me or how much not having a savings was keeping me stuck financially.
Once I started realizing that if I didn’t have debt that I could be making a 7% return on my money if I invested it? I was like WAIT A MINUTE.
More on that can be found here in my post rich vs wealthy.
IT was really eye opening!
Step 4: Stepping into abundance
Here’s what I wrote in 2017:
Have you ever been somewhere and thought about how nice it would be to be able to do or have that little extra thing?
Maybe it’s doing the gel manicure instead of the regular manicure?
Maybe it’s getting a massage monthly?
Maybe it’s getting the latte instead of the coffee?
Maybe it’s buying the dress you truly want instead of getting the one that’s cheaper?
But I know you’re not doing it, because you can’t afford it right? Or else you would.
What I’m learning is that the more I say YES to those small little desires, the more money I make.
Here’s what I think about that now in 2021:
AAGHHHHHHH?? Don’t really like this one.
I think this was well intentioned coming from the lack mindset I had. I was a person that never spent a dime on myself or always bought the cheapest dress for myself. It was important for me to start to see that I was worthy of the quality dress, of a latte once in a while, or doing something nice for myself.
BUT I would say.. balance it SHANNON haha After I started making good money I felt like I found imbalance, I started spending too much and focusing less on my debt. I was so focused on MORE abundance I wasn’t taking care of my current financial status.
I think I may have drank too much of the “this makes me feel good so it will make me more money” Kool aide. I constantly thought oh this makes me feel good I have to keep doing it to stay in a good place in my business.
I thought that in order for me to feel good I had to spend money!? The pandemic of 2020 taught me that I don’t.
There was no option of spending money and when I didn’t have the option, I found other ways to FEEL GOOD! Could you believe that?!
I can feel abundant and feel good without spending money.
BONUS STEP #5: MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME!
YEEES. YES. YES.
During this time we started another business, I revamped my business model and raised my prices.
We saw how amazing it was when you open yourself up to other sources of income. I had only a limited number of ways money could come to me and same for my husband.
We started asking each other.. well what other ways we can make some money?
Just asking that question sparked us to other ideas that we could create more income.
Sometimes we would sell stuff around our house but this time we wanted something that would lead to us consistently making more money every month.
That lead us to my husbands new business: Video Game Shadow Box
That business freaking lead us to Comic Con NYC!
Awwwww!
Then during this time I started booking $10,000 coaching clients after raising my prices and kicking myself in the ass.
(If you want to learn how to create a $5,000+ coaching package, read this post here)
So A HUGE FAT YES to multiple streams of income.
What I would say to add to that is a:
passive stream of income
That’s one I’m working on now.
Okay so now that I’m a millionaire, life is so easy and I have no financial worries.
Please. I live in NJ, have you seen our taxes and housing market!?
But I am very lucky to be able to be at this place financially and I’m really proud of my husband and I for going the path less traveled to get here.
To the woman/girl/man/binary/prefers not to identify person reading this:
please keep going. It’s worth it. <3
