Young and Profiting with Hala Taha (Entrepreneurship, Sales, Marketing)

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

65 min
Jan 5, 20263 months ago
Listen to Episode
Summary

Jade Warshaw, Ramsey Personality and bestselling author, discusses how emotional patterns—frustration, fear, anger, guilt, and shame—drive financial behavior more than math or budgeting. She shares her personal journey from $460,000 in debt to financial freedom and reveals actionable strategies for breaking self-sabotaging money habits in 2026.

Insights
  • Financial struggles are primarily emotional, not mathematical—identifying and addressing underlying emotions (fear, shame, guilt) is more effective than creating another budget plan
  • Taking personal accountability for financial problems, regardless of external circumstances, is the only path to change; waiting for others to fix your situation is futile
  • Financial check engine lights (overdrafts, credit card switching, avoiding bank accounts) are early warning signs that must be addressed immediately to prevent larger crises
  • Identity and beliefs directly influence financial behavior—changing money outcomes requires shifting self-perception and identity before behavior change can stick
  • High earners often struggle with lifestyle creep and the 'I deserve' mentality, which erodes wealth accumulation despite substantial income
Trends
Loud budgeting—Gen Z and millennials openly discussing budget constraints and setting financial boundaries with peers, normalizing financial transparencyGirl math and creative financial justification—rationalization of purchases through flawed logic, rooted in the 'I deserve' mentality after hard workQuiet luxury—shift from logo-driven status purchases to understated, expensive items bought for personal satisfaction rather than external validationDe-influencing movement—creators telling audiences what NOT to buy, building trust through honest advice rather than sales-driven recommendationsMarriage financial transparency—younger couples combining finances more openly; older couples with established wealth increasingly considering prenuptial agreementsEntrepreneurial financial blind spots—business owners prioritizing growth and opportunity over proper financial structure, insurance, and tax complianceGenerosity as financial practice—reframing giving as a core financial pillar alongside saving and spending, not an afterthought
Topics
Emotional drivers of financial behavior (fear, shame, guilt, frustration, anger)Debt payoff psychology and breaking self-sabotage patternsBudget design (detailed, realistic, flexible frameworks)Financial check engine lights and early warning signsIdentity and money beliefs shaping financial outcomesLifestyle creep and the 'I deserve' mentalityMarriage finances and spousal money alignmentPrenuptial agreements and wealth protectionEntrepreneurial financial management and business insuranceEmergency funds and savings hierarchy (3-6 months cash, 15% investing minimum)Real estate as forced savings and wealth buildingGenerosity and giving as financial disciplineTeaching children healthy money beliefsFinancial peace as holistic life easeFive-year financial planning with purpose-driven goals
Companies
Dave Ramsey's Ramsey Solutions
Jade Warshaw co-hosts The Ramsey Show and is a Ramsey Personality; referenced for her experience counseling hundreds ...
People
Jade Warshaw
Bestselling author, Ramsey Personality, and financial expert who paid off $460,000 in debt and discusses emotional mo...
Hala Taha
Host of Young and Profiting Podcast; nominated for iHeart and Indie Pack awards; conducts interview and shares person...
Dr. John Deloney
Colleague cited by Jade for the phrase 'it's not by my hand, but in my lap' regarding external financial pressures li...
Dave Ramsey
Financial expert and founder of Ramsey Solutions; Jade Warshaw works with him on The Ramsey Show reaching 18 million ...
Quotes
"You can't blame your way to a better life."
Jade WarshawMid-episode
"It may not have been your fault, but it's your job to fix it."
Jade WarshawCore message section
"Money isn't about math, it's about mindset, emotions, fear, shame, avoidance, and the stories you tell yourself."
Hala Taha (intro)Episode introduction
"If nobody ever saw this, would I still buy it?"
Jade WarshawQuiet luxury discussion
"Time is going to pass anyway. You've got three options: stay the same, be worse off, or be better. I choose to be better."
Jade WarshawFinal question
Full Transcript
Yeah, fam. I have really exciting news after almost eight years of running this podcast. I finally was nominated for an I heart podcast award, which is like the Grammys of podcasting. I'm heading up against the diary of the CEO acquired earn your leisure and all these amazing shows for the best business and finance podcast. If you love young and profiting and you love the show and you want me to win, the best way to help me is to write me a five star review on Apple podcasts and also to subscribe to my YouTube channel and engage on our videos. I also was nominated for an indie pack award. It's the first ever independent podcast and creator awards. That's also happening in a couple weeks and I was nominated for the best business and entrepreneurship podcast. I'm competing against ice coffee hour and a number of awesome shows. And again, if you want to help me win these awards, please write me a five star review on Apple podcasts and follow our YouTube channel and engage on our videos. I appreciate any support. If you guys have been to my free webinars, if you learn from the podcast and you guys know that I never ask you for anything. This is the one time I'm asking you guys to support the show by writing us a review or engaging on our YouTube channel. I hope to take home these wins and thanks again for supporting the show. 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. In this powerful New Year kickstart episode, Jade Warsha 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. 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? When it comes to entrepreneurs, what do you think their biggest money struggles are? 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. What is one truth about money that people don't want to hear that they absolutely need to hear in 2026? Oh boy, I could probably tell you a lot of different truths about money, but I think the number one thing is... 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 had a break free for good. Before she became a national finance expert, Jade and her husband Sam were drowning in over $460,000 of debt. And today's episode Jade breaks down the emotional themes that quietly control our financial behavior, like frustration, fear, guilt, shame, and the eye-deservate mentality. 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 & Profiting Podcast. Awesome. Thanks for having me, Hala. Yeah. I'm so excited for this interview. This is a 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? 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. 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? Frustration, like I said, was a big one. Obviously anger is huge, especially right now, Halla, 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? 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 he 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. So I know that you've went through your own issues. Like we had mentioned, you are $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? 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, 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, 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? 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 answer but 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. And if you do, you will hit that point of acceptance and eventually you will cross your finish line. 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? 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 of my name where my parents are the ones that told me to sign for the student loans, right? 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 it. 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. 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, Holla. You're the only one that can rescue you. So true. You've got to take accountability. Nobody is coming to save you. You've got to save yourself. Yep. 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 quick fire 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 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 and setting boundaries with their money. Why do you think that's happening? 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 that used to say back in the day, the revolution will be televised. 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. 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 because 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. 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. Girl math, I've been the guilty of it. I'll tell you that. I think at the root of that, and I talk about this in the book, it's just that 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 too. 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. 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 by one, get 50 free, then we'll just say that that was the reason, right? Yeah, what could go wrong with that kind of a mentality? I feel like I do that a lot. Like I see an experience of bag and I'm like, yeah, I worked hard. I deserve this. What could go wrong with that? 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. And then your friend is getting married in the Caribbean. You grow math and then 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 grow 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 them. And then I'm giving them the antidote to stop it. 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? 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 Cores watches were in style, everybody had that giant wristband of a watch, right? When I was in middle school, you had the Tommy Hill figure. It's a giant logo, everything to try to prove and show I have the money, I fit in, I belong, I can hang. And I think people are getting to a point where they go, you know what? If I'm going to 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 going to go out and spend thousands of dollars on a nice bag, are you going to get the one that's got the logo stitched all over it? Or are you going to 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, what I still buy it. If nobody ever saw the ring, if nobody ever saw the necklace, if they never saw the car, 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 cloud in looks? Or am I doing it just for me? If I'm going to make a dumb decision and buy something I can't afford, at least let it be for me and not for them. Yeah, Pam, you just realized you're business needs to hire somebody yesterday. How do you find great candidates fast? Easy. Use indeed. When it comes to hiring, indeed is all you need. Stop struggling to get your job post seen on other job sites. Indeed, sponsor jobs help you stand out and hire fast. 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Or would you say ignore that? It's under construction for two years. I've been there. At one point, our site didn't reflect the level we were operating at all. It felt so outdated and every small update required way too much back and forth. That's why I love Framer. Framer lets you design and publish a premium professional website without writing a single line of code. It's fast and you can launch pages in minutes. You're in control, no waiting on developers and the designs look modern, clean and polished on any device. Most founders know your website is your first impression. So let's upgrade it together. Learn how you can get more out of your dot com from a Framer specialist or get started building for free today at framer.com slash profiting for 30% off a Framer pro annual plan. That's framer.com slash profiting for 30% off. Framer.com slash profiting rules and restrictions apply. Yeah, I'm getting here's a hard truth. I had to learn the hard way. 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Money movement services are provided by Intuit payments incorporated licensed as a money transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services. Okay, next one, De-Infolencing. This is when creators are telling you what not to buy. What do you think is going on there? 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 got to 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. 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. 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? These checklights are kind of like what we talked about earlier. Those red flags. One of them is, yeah, that I deserve syndrome. Where is 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 you're 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. 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 every day 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 log in and 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. And it is the same as the check engine light. Because when it pops on, Halla, 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. 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? 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 going to happen next. And for most of us, when we get in that portion of life that feels unknown, it's like, 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 XYZ, 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. 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 going to 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, 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 missed out on my kid's soccer game? Well, what if I missed 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 going to think you don't want to spend time with them, then we can solve for that. Can't we? 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. 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? 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 buyers 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. So it's like, 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-signed 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. 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, how is 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 card notes. So we're feeling this. We're feeling like we've made mistakes that are irrevocable. And that's simply not true. 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 you sad of it or they can't do it themselves or they're going to 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 just about how important identity is with all of this? 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 going to 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 going to take yourself off the accelerator and you're going to go slower and slower. Or if you say, well, I grew up and my neighbors actually, they were very well off and my 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 millionaires. 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 going to mash on the pedal or take the foot off the accelerator. 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. 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 they're 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. 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 call that frustration. Okay. Next one. I avoid checking my bank account because it gives me anxiety. 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, they're 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. I've got $40,000 in credit card debt and I feel paralyzed. 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. 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. Okay. Next one. I keep getting raises, but my lifestyle just continues to grow with it. And I can't seem to stop. This is not in the book, but I think I'm going to 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 for 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 branches. 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. 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? 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 going to suggest if you're married, I think the best way to manage finances is to paramount 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. 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. Once 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? 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. 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? Yeah. And you're setting your ways. In 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 as 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 or what if there are prior children and you 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. Yeah, gang. It's confession time. I thought I had my money handled. I thought I had a good handle on everything going on. But I recently checked my bank statements. And there was subscriptions everywhere, streaming apps, random charges. A few of them were billing me for a long time. I didn't even know what they were. And it was a painful uncovering. So I downloaded the experience app. And now it's like I have a financial assistant in my pocket. The experience app helps you track spending and find subscriptions that you forgot about and you no longer want with your subscription cancellation feature available with an experience premium membership. You securely link your accounts. They scan for recurring charges and you pick what goes in what you want canceled. And then they cancel it. It's as simple as that. They have over 200 eligible subscription types and it's usually done in three to seven business days. If getting your money tight is part of your gross plan this year and you don't want to manually have to do it, this is your move, young and profitors. Get started with the experience app today. Results will vary. Not all bills or subscriptions are eligible. Savings not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected account required. See Experian.com for details. Hey app fam. If you're planning on starting a business, do not just launch it. Build it the right way. When I first started my company, I thought registering the name was enough. I had no idea how many moving parts were involved just to operate legally and professionally. So I ended up using one company for paperwork, one company for a website, another for email. It was messy and expensive. That's why Northwest registered agent is the company I wish I had back then. Northwest is an all in one business formation and identity platform that gives you everything you need to launch and run a legitimate business in one place. When you form with them, you get a registered agent service, a business address to get your home private, a domain website, a professional email, business phone number and built in privacy all bundled together. Now, yeah, fam. I want to take a detour right now and talk to you about the importance of a registered agent. I had no idea what it was. When I first started YAP, I signed up with one and then I never checked the platform because it was only for my registered agent. I didn't even know what it did. Apparently, I learned this the hard way that a registered agent is what notifies you if anybody ever sues you. So I actually got in trouble this year because I didn't even know that an old client that we barely worked with put out a lawsuit and they didn't notify me and I ended up missing a court date and it cost me a lot of money. So you really need a registered agent that you trust that does a great job and I've recently switched to Northwest registered agent. So this never happens again. You don't pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for what you can get for free on Northwest registered agent. Visit NorthwestRegistrateAgent.com-YAP3. That's YAP3 and start using free resources to build something amazing. Get more with Northwest registered agent at NorthwestRegistrateAgent.com-YAP3. What's up young and profitors? We're still at the start of a new year and you know what that means. New goals, new ideas and maybe that little voice in your head saying this is the year that I finally start my business. But let's be real. The what has show up fast? What if I fail? What if this is the wrong move? I've been there and what I learned is that it makes a huge difference when you have the right partner from day one. And the hardest part is starting. For many entrepreneurs, that partner is Shopify. Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform that helps you build run and grow your business. You can create professional looking websites with ready-to-use templates, manage payments, and even use AI tools to write product descriptions so you can launch faster. What I love is how simple Shopify makes everything. You don't need to be technical, you don't need to have it all figured out. It just lets you start. Like I said, starting as the hardest part. Yeah, fam, don't kick yourself a year from now because you didn't take action today. Start your business with Shopify. It's time to turn those what ifs into with Shopify today. Sign up for your $1 per month trial at Shopify.com slash Hala. That's Shopify.com slash Hala. Go to Shopify.com slash Hala. 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 going to 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. Just that just goes straight to me. I have a company that makes about $8 million 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 going to be richer than me one day. But right now, not yet. Not yet. I've got a lot more spending cash. Sometimes he's like, what? He 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? There's a couple of 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 for spending money on that. We can't afford that. But now I go, hey, I have figured out I've become a detective, a professional detective of my spouse. 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 going to spend money, it's going to be a list of five things and sneakers as 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 going to 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, Holla 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? Yeah, first class tickets. That's my girl math. I'm going to 23 C in my prodigies. 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 the other thing is let's get controversial. So people call on the show all the time and talk about pre-nubs. I used to be like no pretty much hard line on a pre-nub. 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 pre-nubs in many ways are like a will. If you know you're going to die, 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 pre-nub 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 going to die. But the idea of the courts deciding is what got me. And I kind of was starting to think, I don't not saying like, this is not Jade Warshaw 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 pre-nub ahead of time, there's something to be said about that is all I'm saying. It's something to think about. I don't know if I would or not. Don't you feel like having a pre-nub, I just feel it gives too much, I would rather probably not have one. It's like that, Juju. Yeah, it's bad juju because then you just know it's so easy to just move on. Listen, I said everything I just said, I will also tell you if my husband came to me talking about sign a pre-nub. It's like, it's out. I'm not going to do it. I'm not doing it. 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? So it depends on what's going on. If things feel pretty healthy and everything's 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 is 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. 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. When it comes to entrepreneurs, what do you think their biggest money struggles are? Oh, we're know-it-alls. 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 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 ourself before we wreck ourself 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. 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. 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, where 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 now think about it. Is that wrong? 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 $68,000, $70,000 a year, $68,000 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 you're making mid six figures. And if you don't have a ton of debt, 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 willing nearly. 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 because everything else is basically taking 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 your sunk. So I do think that the more you earn, it becomes those big bubbles versus the perfect line item budget. 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 it. So financially responsible checklist. Number one, your 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 and short or under and short or not insured and it's a problem. 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. 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. 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. So for entrepreneurs tuning in, something that really peaked my interest was you mentioned insurance, even for your business or as a business owner. So what kind of insurance should entrepreneurs consider? 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. 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 ridiculous news. Yeah, taxes suck, but they do, but they're an indicator that you're making money and that's a good thing. 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? 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 they used to it. 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 them and 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 in B and B 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 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 was 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. Why don't we go a little bit deep around 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? You hit the nail on the head. My husband explains it as a goal post. The in zone in the goal post 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 in zone to go, okay, now I got to 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. I can say that when I didn't have kids, I would work, work, work, work, work, work. Like there was in that 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 dogs 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, 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 going to 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 remembered those moments. And that's what we're going to remember. We as the worker, we're not going to 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. We're going to want our family members there. And so we better make sure we pour it 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. 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? 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, 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. 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. What is one thing our listeners should do at the start of 2026 to set them up financially for the year? 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 what's possible. Whatever that why is, that's got to be the exclamation point at the end of the sentence. So your new book is out now what no one tells you about money. Why should everybody go pick up your book? 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. 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? 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. I love that. Thank you so much Jade for your time. It was a wonderful conversation. Thanks, Paula. What a great kickstart to the year with Jade Warshot. 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 true spam. 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 and crushed your savings, student loans, bird you or life through an unexpected curveball, 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. 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, 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. 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, was 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 blow-up in 2026. So if you know somebody who's looking for that, make sure you pass this episode along. And if you benefit from this show, lock in your support right now by taking a minute to drop us a five-star review on Apple Spotify or wherever you listen to your podcast. 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 Yapathala 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.