S2 E4: Debt Detox – Finding Financial Freedom with Rochelle Miller

In this episode of Diary of a Dreamer, join special guest Rochelle Miller, a certified Maxwell coach, trainer, and speaker, for a conversation about Debt Detox: Finding Financial Freedom. We cover everything from budgeting and smart spending (yes, even when it comes to Starbucks) to the financial roadmap you need to reach your goals. We also compare money management to Mapquest—because who doesn’t miss printing directions before hitting the road, right? Get ready for a fun, insightful chat as Rochelle shares how you can navigate your finances and work toward lasting financial freedom!

Get in contact with Rochelle –

Email: rochelle.miller2@gmail.com 

Instagram: @growwith_ro

Read the Transcript

0:35 Tasha Eizinger: Today we are with Rochelle Miller, who is a Maxwell Certified trainer coach and certified speaker. She is on a mission to guide other people to manage their finances and get financial peace of mind. So Rochelle, thanks for being here. I’m so excited to see you today.

0:55 Rochelle Miller: Thanks so much for having me. Tasha, I’m thrilled to join in and support what you’re doing. And yeah, I continue to get the word out about financial peace, you know? It’s a big thing.

1:07 Tasha Eizinger: Yes. When this airs, it’s gonna be right before the holiday season and all of that holiday fun. So I thought it would be good timing to remind people to not lose our minds, which is kind of hard because obviously I have merchandise on my website to sell so…

1:17 Rochelle Miller: So that no that’ll be perfect because a lot of people going to that season with so much fear and anxiety or they go into it without a plan and then in January, they’ve got the fear and anxiety. Right? So we can help get them a plan before time. That’ll be really great.

1:35 Tasha Eizinger: Absolutely life is all about balance.

1:38 Rochelle Miller: Amen, balance harmony so many things that you can call it, but it’s definitely not about having it all together, that’s for sure.

1:48 Tasha Eizinger: No. I mean, Rochelle, you and I have been dear friends for many years now and we have seen each other at high points and low points. So we know it’s not about keeping it all together all the time because that’s completely impossible.

1:59 Rochelle Miller: The more we can preach that. I think the better the world will be.

2:03 Tasha Eizinger: So obviously I know a lot about your story but I’m kind of curious about how your financial journey began. Were you always interested in money budgeting, being wise with your finances or was there a specific experience that flipped you over and made you reevaluate.

2:24 Rochelle Miller: Yeah, so I can actually remember. So, I grew up in a divorced family. My parents separated when I was in sixth grade and with that, my mom didn’t have a college degree, my dad was in the trades, and the way that they separated, and the way that money worked money, was just always tightened my house. So I was always aware of money. I was always aware that we didn’t have a lot. I have a specific memory of my mom sitting down at the dinner table or, you know, the kitchen table and writing out the amount of money that she brought home on her paycheck and where it needed to go. So, I mean, she was budgeting right off the bat and so I like that’s in my brain very much so.

3:08 Tasha Eizinger: That’s a good example, too. For any parent listening. Not that kids need to know exactly where money is coming from and going. But setting that example of it’s addition and subtraction money goes out.

3:23 Rochelle Miller: Absolutely. And having a plan, right?That’s a big piece of it. But so because of that, there was always that awareness and I always because of growing up with not much. I never wanted to get into that place where debt consumes me and where I was living outside of my means, like, I had, I had a lot of that like knowledge and a lot of that language very early on. So in the midst of money and finances and numbers not being like, I’m gonna go become a financial planner, you know, that was never on my list of things to do, but it was always there, it was always in the background.

3:59 Tasha Eizinger: Yes, so I know that when you and your husband were married. Finances. Like the debt did start piling up. and so I think that’s important because even though you saw this example growing up , and you know what to do. So many of us know what to do. Like I said it’s addition and subtraction, it’s not rocket science . I understand people being confused with investing but when it comes to budgeting it’s pretty cut and dry. So we can all especially right now, with grocery prices and All of it. Money is already tight for a lot of people. And so this can happen to anybody. So, I know you kind of started going down a very specific path when the debt started piling up.

4:47 Rochelle Miller: So a quick background, I might my husband and I met before. I went to college, we met an internship before college and then got married, while I was in college. So you know, kind of had a plan, we were working things out, we were playing working the plan, and then he wanted to go to college, which is fantastic. But as an adult. Now, right now, we’re in our mid 20s, and now, he says, I want to go to college, we start moving around the country.

5:12 Rochelle Miller: Now, we’re adding on, There’s two college debts, we’re moving around the country and we’re faith-based people. So we’re believing God for jobs. We’re not moving with jobs. So, we’re, we’re moving on a whim, a little bit, right? We’re moving on faith, which also means that, okay? Right. We are very much making intentional decisions financially and recognizing there will be consequences but believing that we’re going to get to a better place because of the decisions that we’re making.

5:41 Rochelle Miller: That just simply means that it was tight for years. It was about 15 years in right before we really kind of finally settled. So it was when we settled and so just to acknowledge that there will be seasons, they’re going to be seasons where it’s going to be harder. There’s going to be seasons where it’s going to be tighter, but that doesn’t mean that season’s going to last forever.

6:04 Rochelle Miller: And I think that’s a key thing to remember, right? Is, Right now, we’re in a season where it’s most likely tight for a lot of people, this is not going to last forever. There’s things that we can do. There’s ways out. So when we finally got settled, And we, I mean, honest to goodness a big part of what changed for me and for us, was getting settled into jobs that we’re going to be stable.

6:31 Rochelle Miller: And knowing seeing that there was extra not just, you know, like, Hey let’s go and buy the world, right but going, okay, so now we’ve got a lot of that because student loans are great and we are living in an apartment and we’ve traveled around the country. And so we’ve lived in ways to make things work. But now we’re settled. We’re gonna be here a while. We’re not gonna change, we’re not gonna keep doing the the different things, right? So, Now, we can actually start to plan.

7:00 Rochelle Miller: Now, we can actually start to work something different and there’s a little bit of extra because it was just the two of us. 

7:08 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah. When I also I like that you you mentioned a season and I know for some people so there’s the student loans and then also like some people medical expenses.

7:18 Rochelle Miller: Oh my goodness. Yes.

7:20 Tasha Eizinger: And it’s not just the medical, it’s all the other things that you pay into to survive and function and it really can add up very quickly. And so I think during those seasons like it’s important to give yourself grace and patience, knowing hopefully, it’s temporary, Of course, chronic illness is not temporary.

7:42 Tasha Eizinger: So what are some simple habits that can be done during those time periods to help? People not snowball with too much of that season and really tackle debt, and then how do you shift out healthy habits?

8:03 Rochelle Miller: Oh, man, that’s a big question because when you’re in the middle of the hard, it’s really hard to remember that. It’s not forever. So, step one is a big mindset shift, right? And finding we talked about balance and harmony right off the bat. Finding that place of peace where you can see that the end is not here. This is not the end. This is not my forever. This is not where I have to be.

8:31 Rochelle Miller: A big part of that though, Tasha is recognizing that we are here to partner with God and do things and take action life isn’t just happening to us. We absolutely can jump in and be a part of the process of moving into a different solution. So I think that those two pieces are a big piece, are a big kind of part of this solution, right? Is recognizing that I’m not stuck.

8:55 Rochelle Miller: And if I am stuck, I have to ask for help. So I have to look at different solutions to the problem. I have to see if there’s a different way of doing things than if something’s not working. I have to see, I have to research. I have to talk and ask questions outside of my comfort zone, because if I’m not comfortable, and I don’t want to be where I am forever, it’s on me to make that change, right? I can’t just expect the world to change for me.

9:24 Rochelle Miller: So simple, habits are a lot of those mindset changes. Find a way to encourage yourself. Find a way to have. Find a way to have faith. If there’s, those are kind of like quick things that you can do, finding your encouragement, finding your people who can walk with you through that asking for support. So those they sound big but they really are the little kind of daily things that we can do.

9:49 Rochelle Miller: We just most often, forget them because of many things in our world but then when you can get to a point where you can either see the end in sight or maybe things have changed enough that there’s just a little bit of wiggle room and even in those moments where you don’t feel like you have wiggle room. Honest. The awareness is a first step.

11:11 Rochelle Miller: You have to start looking at where you’re actually at where the money’s actually going, what’s actually coming in what’s actually going out because if you don’t know, It’s really hard to make any changes, if you don’t know. Or If you, well, I think that I’m doing this right, I think that I’m spending $100 on groceries every week. dude, if you’re spending a hundred bucks on groceries every week, kudos right now, honestly

11:36 Rochelle Miller: So that’s where you have to be so honest with yourself. Right? That’s really hard to do. And that’s really hard. It’s hard to be accountable. It’s hard to be honest with ourselves especially when we’re in a place of kind of fear or unknown. So that’s a big kicker that probably is what I would say. The first step

11:53 Tasha Eizinger: Well, I love the awareness aspect of it because it’s so easy to hide and pretend and then you create a much bigger mess. And there was a time period where our family it was, it was like, okay, so much is going out. And I do track our finances but I started tracking it in a different way and was like Oh this is seasonal. This is seasonal. We just got to get through this time period. And then we can play catch up again. Because that kind of the ebbs and flows of life.

12:26 Tasha Eizinger: So let’s say people are playing catch up, they’re making some progress as we love to do and I’m sure there’s been a time period or two where you were making progress and it felt so good. Right. And then we can fall off the wagon if you will.

12:44 Rochelle Miller: You mean, like, when when we were making really good progress on our debt and then we found a couch for sale that we really needed.

12:52 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah, yes, exactly.

12:54 Rochelle Miller: That’s exactly the thing, right? So good, when you get momentum and you are on a path and you’ve got a good journey going and you’re making the steps and you’re walking it, man, that feels really good. And then also FYI, maybe my car just broke down and I need a new alternator or breaks or tires because those things are costly and if you’re on that path of paying things off, you don’t necessarily put things away for the what if because Is there’s a what? If so first things first, keep in mind. None of these are failures. It is not a failure. Here’s the way that I define failure.

13:26 Rochelle Miller: Failure is only a failure, if you don’t learn from it. So if you take a failure and you learn from it, it’s not a failure. It’s a learning opportunity. So in those moments, just remember, it is the season. Figure that out. Make a payment for it, make a plan for it and then get back on track. You know, just, it’s like, okay, we had like a nice little veer off and I’m gonna get right back on.

13:51 Rochelle Miller: So it’s just, it’s real simple, right? But we don’t think about it being that simple because it’s, it’s kind of like when we fall off the diet path, right? And we’re like, Oh my gosh, I just ate three pizzas and had a tub of ice cream, and it was fabulous, and now, I feel horrible. But I’m still really hungry. Okay, cool. Well, if you feel horrible, maybe, let’s make a better choice and it’s just keeping in mind. One choice does not kill the next choice and this choice over here. Doesn’t kill this choice. Back over here. I get to keep making choices.

13:22 Tasha Eizinger: I love it and when you were talking I thought about I’m gonna totally age and date myself but do you remember MapQuest?

13:30 Rochelle Miller: Absolutely.

13:33 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah. Print it off, you to print it off and then I’m terrible with directions. North is always in front of me and so I would like get off the path and then you’re like what it doesn’t tell me how to reroute, and  then it didn’t give you enough of the map. I didn’t know where you were going and see. I’d have to like pull off and ask for directions to get back on track. It’s just kind of like being with MapQuest.

13:57 Rochelle Miller: Yes, that’s exactly. I love it. That’s perfect. Keep that close because that’s exactly it. Just pretend that you’re on MapQuest, and you have to go. Ask for help, right to get back on because we didn’t live in a world of GPS and where everything was connected. So just pretend that you don’t live in a world where everything’s connected and you just have to make a new choice and get back to that.

14:16 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah, and for those I don’t know, the MapQuest reference you can go on a search engine. Choose your favorite one. Read up on the pros and cons of MapQuest because we thought it was amazing at first. But I also love using humor. So like if you can have a way, let’s say you get off course and you’re, you know, and you can just kind of laughing like, Well, this is the MapQuest, you know, if you can have little ways to laugh and get yourself back on track, I think it usually helps too.

14:45 Rochelle Miller: Absolutely. I just recently had to get us back on track because we’re making some big changes. We’re doing a basement remodel. And you know, I had to like it’s it’s hard, you know, especially in this space where I mean, here I am, I’m somebody who I’m I’m a big proponent of being in charge and knowing where things are going and I’m, we made a choice and we’re remodeling the basement and all of a sudden I started going you you this you you know and like I mean literally I’m doing the dance because that’s how it feels internally.

15:15 Rochelle Miller: But I really had to sit down with myself, right. And go. Everything’s okay. Let’s rework the plan, right? And go like we just we got off course a little bit. We had a little nap quest moment, that’s totally fine. Let’s rework the plan and bring it back.

15:34 Tasha Eizinger: And I like using pen and paper or computer, whatever it is and making it logical.Because so much of money is emotional and when you are getting the OOH or the panic or the high of it too, for some people of like spending or where money is going and of course home projects there’s always a million like surprises along the way. So when you do stuff like that if you sit down and you look at it pen and paper or computer, whatever it is and make it very black and white. It takes the emotion out of it.

16:05 Rochelle Miller: That.

16:06 Tasha Eizinger: It’s not bad to feel the emotions, but if you stay there, then you can get derailed further. Probably,

16:11 Rochelle Miller: Well into just piggyback on it and say it in a different way. It’s the logic, but it’s also the documentation. If I, I can have a plan in my head all day every day, but unless somebody else knows about it and especially if you’re in a marriage and you’re in a partnership or you’re just in a long-term relationship, whatever if you’re in a partnership with somebody else and your finances are combined with somebody else, Highly recommend document the plan. Right? Because if it’s in my brain but I don’t share it with my husband, then he’s going to go do the things that he wants to do and he’s gonna make decisions and I’m gonna be like, I’m excuse me. That wasn’t part of the plan and he’ll be like, What plan are you talking about woman like you?

16:55 Tasha Eizinger: Yes, exactly. So communication is important. So I’m hearing awareness, I’m hearing communication creating a plan and having some grace within that planning, knowing it’s not set in stone, it’s adjustable.

17:09 Rochelle Miller: Oh my goodness. Always

17:11 Tasha Eizinger: Re-evaluating things. Right.

17:14 Rochelle Miller: Yes.

17:15 Tasha Eizinger: I’m hearing as you’re talking, I know that you use a specific way to budget. And it’s a little different than other things that I’ve heard out there which I love, I love learning, I think I don’t know, we were driving home from somewhere and we talked for hours about money and finance.

17:31 Rochelle Miller: Always always.

17:31 Tasha Eizinger: I would love for you to share a little bit about what you do. That’s different.

17:36 Rochelle Miller: So, here’s the thing, I use YNAB. YNAB is an app called it’s literally, the company is called, You Need A Budget. And so that’s why it’s YNAB. Search it, go. Look it up. Here’s the thing YNAB works for me. But really what YNAB helped me to do was we live in a digital world and my husband and I are digital.

17:57 Rochelle Miller: So it works for us because we’re very digital and everything’s connected. In the midst of using YNAB, it has some fantastic reports, YNAB helps you to break things down into categories. It helps you to just think about your money in a way of, not just the present, like you mentioned their seasons. Right? So when you have children, Hey, I’m pregnant. I’m gonna need to like, Put some money aside for some diapers, right? And there’s gonna be things that I’m gonna need for like six months to a year, to the next three years kind of a deal.

18:29 Rochelle Miller: Or Let’s take an even a smaller thing that happens which is Christmas every year, right? Like we were talking at the beginning, Cool. Do I want to just be like, Do I need to have one lump? Christmas time to be able to buy all my presents for somebody. Okay. Well, ynab is gonna actually help you to break it down instead of target to think about, Hey, if I want to spend $50 per person on these to 10 people, well, that basically breaks down to about 40 to 40 40 to 50 dollars per month, to get me to Christmas or, you know, to get me to October so I can start going shopping when the sales all happen. So that’s the one piece. I’m a big fan of Ynab.

18:05 Rochelle Miller: I’m a total YNAB nerd but I have a hundred percent recognize that YNAB’s not for everybody and truly. It’s not the tool that matters as long as you have a process that works for you. So one of the other things that I do is I actually still utilize a good old Google Sheet or an Excel file, right? But that’s actually my starting point and when I’m in that space, like I talked about, with reworking my numbers, I go to my Google sheet because that’s where all of my outflow is happening.

18:33 Rochelle Miller: And I’ve got some formulas in there and I actually I love for anybody in your audience, if they’re interested, I’m happy to send them the template because the formulas are in there. All you have to do is plug and play and you can pull up and you know, and I’m happy even walk them through how it works. Like I shared it with one client and they looked at it and they were like, How do we have 2,000 extra dollars at the end of every month or at least that’s what this is telling us? And I was like, Yeah, yeah see that’s why the sheet is helpful because you start to write things down and that’s where like I said, I love ynab but that Google sheet is absolutely my foundation. That I always go back to and lean on when things change and when numbers change,

19:14 Tasha Eizinger: I love it. We’ll make sure that we include the link. To connect with you or something like that. So that way people can get that spreadsheet, which is awesome.

19:24 Rochelle Miller: Absolutely.

19:26 Tasha Eizinger: It’s like a two-step process.

19:27 Rochelle Miller: Absolutely.

19:29 Tasha Eizinger: Then you have your Excel and then you have the YNAB. Do you have an affiliate link for? 

19:33 Rochelle Miller: I do if people want to try so why not? It’s a free trial for 30 days and here again, if you want to contact me if you buy into it, then you get a second free month and I get a free month so I’m happy to share that as well.

19:47 Tasha Eizinger: the comments or something somewhere Yes, so we’ll I’ll include that in in the description. I don’t know.

19:53 Rochelle Miller: Okay. It’ll be part of it.

19:57 Tasha Eizinger: You know, I kind of know what I’m doing here. It’s fine.

20:02 Rochelle Miller: Here again, this is what we do. We were just talking before we officially started about taking action. That’s the kicker, right? When you get to that point where you get so frustrated and that’s what happened with me, right? I went, I’m really tired of seeing the same thing happen, all the time, and getting to the end of the month and going Where did all the money go, and if I don’t know and I just got tired of not knowing and that was the catalyst for me to go. It’s time to make a change.

20:27 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah, and I think also just little changes, obviously it’s the compound effect. I reference Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect, probably every day of my life, but that’s really what it is. It’s just a little things every day that add up. So when you’re updating YNAB and your Excel and all of that, do you do that every week? Every day, every month, how often are you doing that? To stay on top of everything?

30:50 Rochelle Miller: So the Excel document specifically that only gets updated when there’s a change, when in what’s incoming or in, what’s outgoing? So the change recently for us was the basement remodel. So we got a second mortgage. So we have this new added bill that’s going to be there a while. Let’s play with the numbers. So that’s the Excel file got updated. That also meant that Why now gets updated. Now, why? Now let me just define it a little better. The Excel file is specifically just tracks. What’s going in? What’s going out at all? Like one time basis, right? Like, that’s why I only do it when there’s a change. YNAB. I use all the time.

21:29 Rochelle Miller: What that means is when I get paid and my husband gets paid. So we get paid about every two weeks. So every two weeks I’m going in and hey, look, I have all this money. Fabulous. I’m a total nerd. This is where my nerd comes out, right? That I really all. So this is where my total nerdiness comes out, though, because this is like, literally my two favorite times of the month are when I get to sit down and ynab and take this chunk of money and go some here, and some here, and some here, and some here,

21:59 Tasha Eizinger: I love that.

22:00 Rochelle Miller: It’s kind of hilarious but it’s the organization. It’s me. So Dave Ramsey will define it and actually wind up defines them in the same way every dollar has a job. I’m telling my money where to go, my money doesn’t just get to go. Over here, right? So I’m actually telling it where to go. So that’s why that’s in every two week where I’m assigning that money. But then and with YNAB, you can do it two ways. But essentially, you need to have a way with where you’re tracking your expenses. Think about it, like a checkbook. That’s really all that YNAB is it’s a checkbook but it also gives you. Hey, I want my money to go here.

22:39 Rochelle Miller: So when it comes out, I have to make sure that that’s going in, right? So I’m either manually entering that transaction or it’s connected to my bank account and or my credit cards wherever I’m spending the money and it’s going in for me, but then I’m connecting it. So like, hey I have a hundred dollars in groceries and I went to Meijer and now I spent $27.28 on groceries. I no longer have $100 in groceries and it does that for me. I don’t have to think about it Oh, I don’t have as much over there. anymore. No, it just tells me how much I have.

23:12 Tasha Eizinger: When I think one of the things to get started too is sounds like is just writing it down or putting in an excel something. Before you even say this is the budget like figure out, where is your money going? At the end of the month and just take maybe a month and Keep track of all those receipts. I’m like a little old lady. I get my receipt every time I’m like, they’re like, do you want to receive them like? I sure do.

23:41 Rochelle Miller: But you’re absolutely right. That’s the, that’s the starting point. If you don’t know where your money is going, then you’re going. It’s a free for all and sorry. I apparently I’m a dancer and singer. It’s great. This is what I used to do in the classroom with my kids, but that’s

the case right? who’s making the decision about your Is if it’s really boils down to, money, is your money, making the Dec Or are you making the decision and if you don’t know the answer to that question, it’s probably your money doing whatever it wants to do. It’s like a toddler

24:15 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah, and here, we could have a conversation about that. Oh my, yes. Yeah, don’t let your money be a toddler. You’re the, you are the grown up in the situation, even if you don’t feel like it and I feel like, there’s probably some people listening who say, Okay, I know where my money is going. I can’t take on another job. I can’t cut anything else out. I feel like working with somebody like you. Because you do coaching would be really helpful because sometimes it takes somebody outside of you to see it more objectively. Because when you’re in the overwhelm, It can be too hard. Does that sound pretty accurate?

25:01 Rochelle Miller: You’re absolutely right. You know, some of the people that I’ve worked with, they’ve made decisions and they recognize where they’re at, and they’re just feeling at the end of their rope. And, you know what, I get to do is come in and remind them, you’re not at the end of your rope, it’s gonna be okay, right? So that’s one of my favorite pieces. I know you’re you’re in a similar boat where part of the my favorite piece of coaching is the ability to encourage people and remind them. They’re not done, right? I want to come along with you, come

25:30 Rochelle Miller: alongside you and be your biggest fan and your biggest cheerleader and there’s gonna be some hard moments, right? Because when you’re looking at your budget and especially if it’s tight like that and it doesn’t feel like you have any wiggle room. That’s gonna be a hard moment but Okay. we’re gonna walk through that and talk. That together and hopefully find the plan but develop it together. We’re going to talk about options.

25:50 Rochelle Miller: I’m not going to tell you, you have to do anything because here again you’re the adult and the relationship with your money. You are the one who gets to make a decision and you have to be able to think through that with your family, and what’s best for you. And what can you do in the moment versus What can you do in three months, right? Things are constantly changing, but that’s exactly.

26:11 Rochelle Miller: Part of the coaching process is coming alongside and just helping you to think a little bit differently if you’re interested in that.

26:19 Tasha Eizinger: Yeah, and I I know that you and I have had so many conversations and Rochelle you have a great way of connecting to a person’s heart, hearing their Their heart hearing what they’re thinking and breaking it down into very doable steps because I know you’ve done it for me, just as a friend and other areas outside of finances. Well, so I hope that people take you up on that because I know that

26:44 Tasha Eizinger: Money is a part of our lives. It always has been always will be unless you figure out a different system.

26:52 Rochelle Miller: Go back to bartering.

26:54 Tasha Eizinger: Yes, this is the way it is and it doesn’t have to debilitate people. The way that it can at times or own people, right?

27:04 Rochelle Miller: Yeah.

27:04 Tasha Eizinger: Or the adult, you get to come in. Kind of like the fun, aunt. You’re like, Hey, like I’m here to like be a part of your life and we’re gonna have some fun and, and then I’m gonna teach you some stuff and then, see ya. And then they have to go do it themselves.

27:17 Rochelle Miller: Yes, absolutely. There are action steps, right? And there’s things that I cannot do for you. That’s where the homework comes into play. That’s where the accountability comes into play. But it’s it’s so much a matter. You know, the people that I get to work with they’re ready, they’re ready to take the action, they’re ready to do the work and sometimes it’s just, you get so stuck. And so in that tunnel mindset, that you forget about things and honest, the goodness. So much a part of it. For me is recognizing, I came out of a poverty mindset.

27:46 Rochelle Miller: I came out of nothing, I was ever gonna have enough. My life looks a little bit different than that today. I know that there’s ways that it can be done, and if I can do it, I firmly believe in everybody else’s ability to do it.

27:59 Tasha Eizinger: So this is a little controversial. I hear some financial people say, Don’t ever get those expensive coffees ever, not even once and then some financial people say So we know where you stand some like you need to get the expensive coffee sometimes because it doesn’t really add up to a whole lot of money. Anyways, We know where you stand. Can you explain your position?

28:32 Rochelle Miller: A hundred percent, a hundred percent.

288:34 Tasha Eizinger: For those that are listening, she just held up her Starbucks coffee cup.

28:39 Rochelle Miller: I had to let you know, this is what I believe in. I a hundred percent. Believe in doing something for yourself and making helping yourself to feel better. I was gonna say making yourself happy. It’s not necessarily about happy, But it’s, it’s giving yourself a right? little bit of that freedom. So that’s actually it’s I think it actually came from Dave, Ramsey, right? Is give yourself an allowance, My husband and I both get in and allowance and that allowance fluctuates kind of depending on other priorities.

29:08 Rochelle Miller: But with that allowance, we’re not allowed to ask each other questions about where that money goes. It’s essentially like cash. Like, here have some money, go do what you want to do, but I firmly believe in that even if it’s five dollars a week because then, yeah, you can go get your coffee as long as it’s under budget. But it helps you to just have that

little bit of like, I have this little bit of thing, that’s mine, and mine alone, and I don’t have to share it with the kids and with the groceries, and with the car maintenance, and with the mortgage, right? It’s yours. It’s that little bit of like play, enjoy and pleasure and I’m a hundred percent believer in play. Enjoy and pleasure in our lives.

29:48 Tasha Eizinger: One of my little things that I like to do. I go to Trader, Joe’s, because they have some beautiful flowers that are like five bucks. And if you get Astromeria flowers, they last forever and so I sit them out and it’s just like a little bit of happy, you know?

30:02 Rochelle Miller: Yes.

30:02 Tasha Eizinger: So I just think it just fills my heart when I look I’m like Oh they’re just so pretty, you know. So it can just be something very simple I’m hearing is There needs to be like, within reason, you’re not saying go get your $10 coffee every day. There’s a balance. So we’ve come full circle today, it’s all about balance.

30:24 Rochelle Miller: Yes, and honestly, one of the mentors that I have, He actually uses the word harmony instead of balance, because it recognizes, I think it recognizes more. The ebb and flow of things. I think there’s something about balance where it has to be equal and I don’t live in that place, right? That’s why the harmony makes more sense. Because harmony means that this thing can be happening here on like this high high level and this thing can be happening here, but that’s actually, okay. On his, I’ve pulled them together and I’ve decided that those things are okay. And then they might flip and I have again decided that those things are okay but that’s where you’re absolutely right.

31:10 Rochelle Miller: The priorities, the conversation, the plan, all of it comes together to make out this harmony space where everything can live together Without having to be fair, not fair, but without having to be equal.

31:24 Tasha Eizinger: So I always learned something from you. Every time we talk, And I love that, you know, the author is learning a better use of words, that’s good. But I do agree. Balance can be too rigid. Harmony is more malleable. So I like that a lot, very good. So how can people get in touch with you Rochelle?

31:44 Rochelle Miller: Yes, absolutely. So Tasha’s gonna have my QR code for my LinkedIn page, and for my Instagram page, come follow me. I share content, that’s about leadership, and development, and personal growth, as well as financial things is also, you’ll see the puppies, you know they’ll come into play or you know just email me straight, right? I’ve got Tasha will have that in the show notes Rochelle.Miller2@Gmail.com.

32:09 Tasha Eizinger: my friend and for being here and Thank you so much Rochelle for being teaching me a better word to use than that. I love it. I love you girl.
32:20 Rochelle Miller: Every little bit. Love you, too. I’m so happy to be here.