Welcome to the Money Mindset Podcast. Well, you'll find a judgment free zone to help you free yourself from overthinking and the fear of doing things the wrong way. It's time to shed yourself of the mom, guilt, procrastination, and perfectionism so you can start doing the things that you really want to do with your money instead of just working to pay bills.

I'm Ashley Patrick, ex detective turn debt free CEO of my very own business and stay-at-home mom of three. Not too long ago, my dreams of staying at home with my kids seemed impossible. I thought I'd have to stay miserable in a high stress and demanding job just so I could retire someday. After gaining the confidence in my own ability to manage my family's finances and a simple step by step plan to make it happen,

I was able to pay off $45,000 in just 17 months, which then allowed me to finally quit my job, stay at home with my kids and build a debt free business. Now my mission is to help moms like you conquer debt and free themselves from the mental load of handling their family's finances. If you're ready to shed the guilt and shame surrounding your past money mistakes and tackle your debt,

this is the place for you. Let's get started. Today's special guest is Kimberly Hamilton who has actually been on the podcast way back in the day when I first started this October, 2019. Can you believe that? Episode number eight. And now she has written a book. So we are going to talk about building wealth on a dime. Now her new book does cover,

you know, debt pay strategies, different scenarios for managing your finances. And she uses like realistic examples in different scenarios across the country depending on where you live in different situations. So we talk about student loans and all the things and you know, getting started on building wealth, even if you don't feel like you have a bunch of money to invest, it's all about building wealth on a dime over time.

So go check out her story on episode number eight about how she paid off over $40,000 in student loans in three years, a little over three years I believe. So now is an update and oh my gosh, three years later, can you believe it? She has written a book and I don't even think she had like social media and all the things then,

and now she has a book deal. How exciting is that? So let's dive into Building Wealth on a Dime. Hello Kimberly, I'm so excited to have you back on the podcast. You actually shared your journey way back at the beginning of when I started this podcast, number eight. You've gotta go, go back and listen to that episode because she's gonna give us an update today.

Now can you just give us a little bit of background about yourself, especially, you know, cuz not everybody's going all the way back to episode number eight, your story. So just kinda give us a recap and then let's in Absolutely excited to be here too, Ashley. So thanks for having me. And number eight really makes me feel like a,

like a OG podcaster here. That's awesome that I'm excited to be back. My name's Kimberly Hamilton and when I was back on your show, that was sort of the end of 2019. You know, my really money story there and how I got into the personal finance world, so to speak, really grew out of my own experience struggling and overcoming my student debt.

So my, you know, money story really started in my early twenties when I moved to Washington DC and had more in student loans than my starting salary. Had about $45,000 worth of student loans, which I, I talk about in my book Building Wealth in a Dime. We'll get to that in just a bit here. But my process of of learning about money and being able to pay off those loans on that starting salary in a little over three years and then progressing,

being able to double my income through investing in about four years in buying my first home before my 30th birthday in DC which is a pretty expensive real estate market, really Just sort of propelled me into this world and, and realized that there was a huge gap for relatable personal finance advice. Yes. And so after all of that is when I started my company Be Worth Finance where I have online courses and coaching,

I've worked with a variety of really awesome partners like Capital One Cafe and ladies get paid on various personal finance topics. But fast forward, I'm really excited to be here today to talk about my book that that'll be coming out soon in mid-December called Building Wealth on a Dime. And I'm just really excited to share it with your audience. Yeah, I'm excited to read it because you're just telling me about like how it's different stories and it is very relatable,

which is what I try and do around here with the money mindset podcasts and budgets made easy because there's not a lot of relatable financial education. It's all quit spending money at Starbucks and just invest all your money. But in real life that doesn't work for most people because that's not what they're struggling with. And so I love that in your book you have different situations and scenarios and different parts of the country because that matters too.

And how different strategies for them to pay off debt and build wealth depending on different situations, which is relatable to other people because they're struggling. Like they're struggling with mindset, they're struggling with overspending and the traditional advice for financial education and it just doesn't apply to them most of the time or it doesn't, it really doesn't help where they're at, which is why we have the podcast.

So go back and listen to her story about how she made off student loan debt. I forget the amount in three years, a lot of student loan debt. And so I love that you gave us an update. You have your first rental property, like that's so exciting and now you have a book like I'm just so excited for you. So why don't we dive into one of the stories in your book because I know my audience can relate to them with just,

you know, I haven't read it yet, but you're kinda giving me the recap so, or the highlights of the book and I just really love the format that you have done this. And so why don't you give us one of the examples and we can kinda dive into that. Sure. And just so I have, because different chapters sort of focus on different scenarios,

do you think your audience would get most of a kick out of like debt pay down or maybe the investing side of things or student loans is obviously a hot topic now. Paying off debt student loans, you know, I do have some people with the investing, but most of my people have debt and they're focusing on that. Sure. Yeah. So let's go with that because I think that's,

that's also part of my story as well. And and you'll, you'll find that in the book also, just to give your audience a little bit of a background and, and building wealth on a dime. It was really important to me from my own story of making that information super relatable but also like not so boring, right? Like I really didn't want it to be another book just filled with jargon about the Allen method and compound interest and all these terms that really tend to make people's,

you know, eyes glaze over. Yeah. And so that's why I pinned a lot of the book to these moneymaker stories, their detailed budgets and, and through that I sort of demonstrate how they overcome a variety of financial challenges from money mindset to learning how to budget with the weekly spending cap. So that really reduces your financial stress and things like that.

So to give you all a little sneak peek, but you'll, you'll have to go out and get the book for the full rundown. One of the characters in my book, Claire lives in New York City originally from Cleveland, Ohio and just really, you know, has a well paying job in, in environmental consulting but is really just struggling to make ends meet.

New York is a really expensive city and I think that can be underestimated by a lot of people. And so her story of debt paydown really comes from, she has existing student loans but she also, part of her story in the book is she gets in a bike accident and has to get a surgery even though she has health insurance is still met with a medical bill that she decides to put on her credit card.

Now a lot of people don't know that that's, putting your medical debt on a credit card probably isn't the most advantageous way to go about it because the interest rates on credit cards are so high you're better off usually if you can't afford the payment, working out some sort of payment plan with that provider. But I think just weighing those types of situations or what happens in real people's lives and I was reading,

you know, just the other day that medical debt is now the number one cause of bankruptcy in America. I think Covid has really compounded a lot of that as well. And then student loans are also tough and we're really, you know, being, some people are really being, I think dragged along a little bit that the pause on repayment has been wonderful for a lot of people,

but it's not clear whether that pause is going to stick around forever. Whether this 10 to 20 k debt relief from the vitamin administration, whether that's going to go through or not, cuz there are two rulings currently blocking it. And so I think weighing those types of situations, that's what real people have to deal with and demonstrating those strategies. So the book does still talk about things like the snowball method versus avalanche method and strategic ways you can go about paying down that debt.

You know, the pros and cons that you want away when considering refinancing student loans as well is huge because if you have federal loans, there's some risks associated with refinancing through a private lender and, and, but couching that in the stories of people is something that I think makes my book hopefully a lot easier to digest and just a lot more fun to read.

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, you've called the book What Building Wealth on a Dime. So how can people, you know, without a lot of free money to invest, how would you recommend they go about starting to build wealth? Sure. I think obviously the, the income piece is tough I think for a lot of people. And you know,

the question I get when it comes to my own story a lot about how I paid down my debt was, well you had $45,000 worth of debt. You couldn't have possibly paid that off in, you know, a little over three years with your 40 k starting salary. And that's, that's true, right? I did a lot of side hustle work,

I did a lot of side jobs. I constantly tell clients that I work with that no one's going to be a better advocate for yourself than you. So trying to negotiate your salary or maybe benefits when the salary or or razor promotion isn't in the cards. There are other things with your employer that you may be able to work out that have some type of financial benefit,

whether that be retirement benefits or more PTO to, you know, give you more time to, to start a side hustle or insurance. A lot of all these things that cost money that you might not think of separate from the salary component but separate from the stories in my book I also have these, I call them million dollar habits. So there are $6 million habits that I talk about in my book and these are the things that I feel have really accelerated my wealth building journey more than any salary I've ever made or any amount of debt I've ever had to pay off.

These are just sort of principles, if you will, habits to stick through that. I think regardless of what I've made or what I've owed along the way have really had more of an impact. And so I'll just rattle off two, two of them here, but one is, one is start small, dream big. So when you're talking about investing,

I think a lot of people get intimidated and, and think that they, they need to have a lot of money, you know, or it's only for people that already have money or come from money, what have you. But, but the truth is their technology is more on our side now than it ever has been before. And so investing's really a lot more accessible if you're willing to learn the ways to go about it.

You can have an app on your phone and you can start investing with as little as $5. So don't think that it has to be, oh, I need a thousand dollars or $10,000 to get started. You can really get started with a lot less. And the other thing is people tend to not consider like saving for retirement investing, but a lot of people do that even if it's a small amount and so you're already doing it.

And so it's just thinking about like different ways that you can level that up. If you have an employer and a 401k, especially if you get an employer match, that is a perfectly acceptable, effective way to build wealth over time, right? You don't have to be picking your own stocks and you know, using all these apps and, and Robinhood and things like that,

if you, if all you did was put as much as you could into your 401k, that's a, that's an amazing way to build wealth that works for a lot of people. You're probably going to be working with what's called a target date fund. So that's a basket of investments that is already pinned to an age that you're expected to retire and those investments are pre diversified so that lowers your risk and those investments will change over time based on what's called a glide path.

So a lot of the works there is done for you. All you need to do is make that contribution from your paycheck to that 401k. So the, that's definitely one way to go about it. A lot of people are working independently these days as well, so they might not have sort of the standard nine to five. You can use an individual retirement account or an ira.

There are multiple versions of that. The two most common are traditional and Roth ira, but if you're self-employed there are additional options as well. So I break those down in the book and I think to sort of sum it all up, don't think that you have to be like this investment guru Wolf of Wall Street guy, you know, sort of the slow and steady way to go about that is perfectly acceptable and really effective as well.

So don't, don't think just because you, you only have a 401K that you necessarily need to be doing more. Yes, absolutely. And I love that you mentioned that because when my husband and I started our careers in our early twenties, you know, we didn't have a lot of extra money so a lot of times I just had like $25 going into my 401k.

I think we did a percentage on his, but it was like really low, maybe 2% or 3%. And I think we changed it, you know, depending on our bills and things like that, we would adjust it at certain times and you know, because we started investing even a little bit so young, we technically don't have to invest another dollar and we will retire multimillionaires because of that.

Yeah. And so it doesn't have to be a lot of money. I'd love that you mention that you just have to start early, but of course if you, if you're already, you know, past your twenties, then just start now and it doesn't have to be like right a lot of money. So I love that you mentioned that. Now as we wrap up here,

what is something that you really want people to understand and take away from this episode And to take away from the episode? You know, I think a lot of people coming to your podcast, they're already at least willing to learn about money. So they already have that first step there. I love podcasts cuz they're this, this free resource for people, right?

And so it's an incredible opportunity for them to learn more and, and I really hope my book, building Off on a Dime is an extension of that. It's not free until, at least it's in local libraries. I'm hoping it'll get there as well, you know, to help other members of the, the community who maybe aren't willing to to pay for the book.

But I think doing everything you can to educate yourself now will really help you let yours in the future. And, and to your point, you know, times are hard for some people, so they may not, they may use a retirement calculator and see that they should be putting away a certain amount and just not be able to do that right now.

And that's okay. I think starting now as soon as you can with whatever you do have can really make a huge difference, like hundreds of thousands of dollars difference when you're closer to retirement or when you're later in your wealth building building journey. And so just, you know, don't wait to start, learn as much as you can and hopefully my book provides some more strategic ways that you can put all this information that you're learning into.

Awesome. Now how can people find your book? When does it come? So my book ships mid-December. I'm not exactly sure when, when the episode is gonna come out here, but ships December 17 to be specific so it'll get there just in time for the holidays. Pre-orders are super important to authors. That's what sort of signals to bookstores, what their in-store author should be.

So if anyone's looking to, you know, support a female author talking about money, that's a great way to do it. The book is currently being sold on Amazon, Barnes and Noble Target. If you wanna support your local bookstores, you can go to a website called indiebound.org and you'll be able to purchase through local and independent bookstores as well. But all of those are compiled on my website@beworthfinance.com

slash book. So you'll have all the links you need there to learn more about the book, learn more about my story, and hopefully get a copy for yourself. Awesome. Thank you so much. Now go and listen to her story as well with episode number eight. To get a bit more background on her story as well was a great, great story,

great journey to share as well. I always love debt payoff stories, which reminds me I haven't done one in a while, so I need to do that again because those are my favorite thing to do. So thank you. Yes. The triumph is amazing. Yeah, Exactly. So thank you for coming on and sharing your knowledge with us and updating us on your journey.

I hope that the book launch goes well for you. Thank you so much, Ashley. What an awesome update to a debt payoff story from three years ago. If you have a debt payoff story or you just wanna share your journey to help inspire others, it doesn't have to be, you know, a crazy amount of debt in a short period of time because you know that's not gonna happen for everybody.

And I love sharing stories. So if you would like to come on the podcast with me or if you're just struggling with something and you wanna get some help with something that you are struggling with in your finances, go to budgets meet easy.com/strategy and come join me on the podcast. I would love to speak with you and help you along your journey. Have a good week.