What Is Your WHY with the Happy Hour Ladies
Today is the last Friday of the month and my regular listeners know that on the last Friday of the month, I host the happy hour on the podcast where I gather great friends with me to drink cheap drinks and talk about money topics.
As you may have heard last month, one of our regular happy hour attendees,
Tonya has decided to step away from recording the show and I’m excited today to introduce you to her replacement, Joy Liu. Long-time listeners may remember Joy from my Financially Naked episode or the military money episode. Joy has been a valued trainer at Financial Gym and an active podcast listener for four years now. Her focus at the Gym is around mindfulness and the experience she has had guiding hundreds of people through major life and financial events over the last four years is truly in a league of its own. I’m excited for you to get to know Joy even more and hear what she has to bring to the show. On today’s episode, we’re going to tackle a topic that I think many of us need to tackle right now and that’s focusing on what is our why. Given the Great Resignation and many people feeling like they need change coming out of the global pandemic, is quitting your job the right move? What is the right move? I think it all comes down to the why and we’re going to discuss ours and how you can connect or reconnect with yours.
What are we drinking?
Melanie – Iced ginger tea w/rice vinegar & cinnamon
Kassandra – Green tea w/lemon
Joy – Rosé
Shannon – Rosé
Podcast Notes
Shannon makes reference to “The Great Resignation” where a larger than usual portion of the workforce is considering (and acting on) moving on to other jobs, companies, etc. This poses the question of what is your “why” or more to the point… “what gets you out of bed in the morning?”
Kassandra is in the process of reevaluating her current situation but is not in a hurry to make any decisions nor has any wishes to follow the herd.
Melanie feels the freedom of diversifying her projects and revenue streams due to being self-employed has continued to be her why. Helping others with their money and mental health has always been important to her and these last 16 months has even strengthened this call. She notes that we’ve been constantly reminded of our mortality during the pandemic and this has kept her focused on the important things.
Joy reminisces of when she first started at the Financial Gym, she likes to shake people from their “status quo” thinking and get them to see things outside their day-to-day routine mindset. She feels personal finance is a great way to do this. She found this aligned in ways to life coaching. She has discovered that silent meditation has helped her clear her mind and help her clarify her why. She wants to help others live the best version of their life.
Shannon tells her story of finding her why and how it led to the genesis of the Financial Gym, along with the trials and challenges her and the Gym faced throughout the pandemic. Her why (and the Gym’s mission) has remained the same throughout, to change the financial health of this and future generations.
Joy makes mention of how time, in general, has been less available. Work and home life dominate what time we have so it is important to make the work time as efficient as possible and to get your why from additional parts of your life, and not just work.
Kassandra retells her experience of leaving a high-paying job for the sake of her mental health. She notes that it’s hard to function in a society that doesn’t value slowing down. Her why is doing more of what’s important to her right now.
Melanie mentions how finding your why through non-work activities (hobbies, volunteering, side-hustle, etc.) is good as well. She feels that finding your why may not be paramount, not finding it isn’t a failure of sorts. Life is to be experienced and if certain boxes are not being checked, don’t let it necessarily lead to anxiety or depression.
Shannon talks about a book she had read which was on Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations (Author- Ainslie MacLeod, Psychic, Book- The Instruction: Living the Life Your Soul Intended) where it spoke of every soul having a purpose in this life. She read that almost every soul’s purpose is to live in community, there is an intrinsic need amongst the human race and we’ve been lacking in this the last 16 months.
Melanie stresses to take the time to weigh your potential outcomes before jumping out of your current job. Mental health is a very important consideration but worst-case financial should also be an important reflection.
Kassandra feels it’s important to get to the bottom of what is making you unhappy at your job. Is it the actual job, a co-worker/boss, the culture, how it affects home life, etc. Utilize whatever resources you have available to make an educated, objective decision.
Shannon made the point that if an employee has made it this far with a company and is still working, you are important to the company and don’t just assume they wouldn’t be willing to work with you through these times.
Kassandra suggests that even if paid leave is not available, see if an unpaid leave is available from your employer. In addition to working on yourself, it will also give you an education on how you are when money is not coming in; seeing if you have the fortitude to make it through a loss of steady income.
Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is that your why is not only something that is unique to you but is something that can change and it’s important that as life changes that you continually check in and remind yourself of why you’re doing what you’re doing and if it’s continuing to serve you as you hoped it would.
If you have any topics you would like for me to cover on this podcast, I encourage you to email me to shannon@fingyms.com or join the private Martinis and Your Money Facebook group and let me know what you want to hear.
Typically at the end of the show I talk about ways you can work on your finances and work with my company Financial Gym. I’m so excited to share with you that other than monthly memberships, we have so many other ways you can support Financial Gym’s mission. We have recently launched a series of courses ranging from basics of personal finance to investing, first time home buying and family planning. These are truly amazing and you can buy them for yourselves or your loved ones. We’ve also launched our BFF affiliate page. If you’re looking for a new credit card, personal loan, or investment account, check that out and support the Gym at the same time. In September we’ll also be launching a starter Gym membership at $35 a month. At that price, there’s really no reason not to prioritize your financial health. So if you’d like to support the Gym and our mission, go to or send friends to Financial Gym.com.