Getting Financially Naked with Alyssa
Getting Financially Naked with Alyssa
At the Financial Gym, we call the first meeting you have with a trainer, the “financially naked session”. In this meeting, you share everything about yourself financially so the trainer knows where you’re starting so that he or she can make the plan for how you can get where you want to go. Above all other meetings, this one scares clients the most because they are afraid or ashamed of their financial situation. A year ago on this podcast, I shared my financially naked session and it led to a request for more. Now this is a regular series on this podcast.
Getting in the hotseat today is Financial Gym client Alyssa with one of the most unique jobs I’ve ever heard. Alyssa joins me today to share about the low point in her life that led her to the Gym and what her digits look like now.
What Are We Drinking?
Alyssa — Coffee with Coffee Mate cream
Shannon — Black Cherry Schweppes
Podcast Notes
Alyssa is a professional opera singer, which is a freelance job. She went to school for this and earned a Master’s degree. This is standard for an opera singer, because to make it, it is all about networking. IG: @alyssa.martin.sings
She went to an out-of-state school, and she ended up with $160,000 in debt, in her 20s, and no real promise of a salary.
There is no average salary for an opera singer, because there are some that make over $200,000 a year and others that make $20,000 a year. It depends who you are and how many jobs you get. You could make $150,000 this year and $30,000 next year.
This time of year is when opera singers find out if they have jobs next year and what those jobs are and how much they pay. Every year is different.
The other part of your education, after you finish your formal education, is called young artists programs, which is essentially unpaid labor. For about five years, Alyssa bounced around to different programs. She was successful, but she didn’t have money to pay her rent.
Alyssa won money in competitions, but she would have to use it to pay for the audition. To apply for a job, she had to get on a plane to New York, pay someone to play the piano, and pay a fee to audition. Now she lives in New York.
Opera is a very costly career to get into. At the beginning of her education, she was told it is a hard life and you have to be tough. That is not even close to what it is actually going to take.
It is more difficult for women to get jobs, because there are more roles for men. Alyssa is singing Cinderella at the Virginia Opera, and she is one of only four outside principals that were hired, not in the young artist program, and the only female.
When Alyssa was 28 years old, she had over $35,000 of credit card debt, in addition to her student loan, and she had to buy a different car, because her car died. She wasn’t able to get to auditions without a car. Before she came to The Financial Gym, Alyssa decided to file bankruptcy.
Alyssa’s mom was a financial advisor a long time ago for MetLife. Her mom had always worked in finance at banks and other institutions and she recommended that Alyssa file for bankruptcy, because she would never be able get on top of the other debt.
Alyssa experienced a lot of fear and shame, but bankruptcy can be a great start if you change your behaviors.
Alyssa thought she would qualify for Chapter 7, which means your debt will be wiped out, but the court decided Chapter 13.
At this same time, Alyssa and her boyfriend had a roommate in New York who violated the lease and bailed on them and they were getting evicted because of the lease violation. The landlord wanted the apartment back, because it was rent controlled and this was the excuse to evict them.
Alyssa had to figure out how they were going to move, because the new landlord required six months’ rent upfront, which came to $20,000. Her dad lent her half of the rent. They had the certified check, they signed the lease, and the next morning, the realtor said it was illegal for the landlord to charge six months of rent upfront, since it is a rent controlled apartment.
Alyssa deposited the $10,000 in her account to send it back to her dad, since they no longer needed it, which was the same day her attorney filed the Chapter 7 paperwork. The court said she had $20,000 in her checking account.
Her only option was to pay $6,000 to a trustee to settle her case in a Chapter 7, or they could convert it to a Chapter 13, which is a payment plan.
Bankruptcy does not discharge student loans and those accounted for 92 percent of her debt. In Chapter 13, your payment is calculated in percentages of how much you owe to whom. After her original obligation to her attorneys are fulfilled, 92 percent of the money she is paying goes to her student loans, while she gets a break on having to pay her other bills, like her credit card.
Alyssa is now six months into her payment plan. You can choose to do this in three years or five years, and Alyssa chose to do it in three years. At the end of those three years, her car will be paid off, her credit card will be paid off, and she will only be responsible for her student loans.
Alyssa started at The Financial Gym right at the beginning of Chapter 13, which is a year after she decided to file for bankruptcy. Victoria is her Financial Trainer.
Alyssa does warm up calls for The Gym as a side hustle. She is not compensated extra if people sign up.
After she started with The Gym, it got worse before it got better.
Questions from the financially naked discovery questionnaire:
Birthday: 9/21/1989
Job: Freelance Opera Singer/Self Employed; Temp work while not singing
Pay: $40,000 singing (2020); $20,000 (2019); $25,000 temp work (2019)
Checking: $350
Business Checking: $1,700 (will be $10,000 more within the next two weeks)
Marcus Travel Savings: $10
Marcus Student Loans Savings: $10
Marcus Emergency Savings: $200
Student Loan Debt: $165,000
Credit Card: Included in 36-month payment plan
Car: $10,000 included in 36-month payment plan
Monthly Chapter 13 Payment: $565 per month
Credit Score: 585
Rent: $2,550 total; $700/month each
Health Insurance: $165
Auto Insurance: $900 total for nine months
Disability Insurance: Talking about this
Average Monthly Expenses: $1,500/month
Will: Not yet
Children: None
Goals 1-3 years: Savings account and retirement account; have enough money available to have freedom to choose which jobs she takes
Goals long term: Home ownership outside of New York for rental income; Dogs
What’s important to you (sacred cows): Opera career
Connect with Alyssa:
IG: @alyssa.martin.sings
TAKEAWAY: My biggest takeaway is that no matter how bad you think your financial situation is, everything is always fixable. Sometimes you just need a little help along the way to get to the other side.
Random Three Questions
What has been your favorite role to perform?
What is the best show for someone to experience who doesn’t like opera?
What is your favorite thing to do, when you aren’t traveling for work?
If you’d like to get financially naked with my team, and drop any fear or shame you have around money, I hope you’ll reach out to us at The Financial Gym. My trainers have literally seen it all so nothing will surprise us. We don’t care how you got here, we just care about getting you where you want to go.
April is Financial Literacy month and, because we are going through a global crisis, we’re offering the best membership deals that we’ve offered in a long time. If you are ready to get your financial life in order, head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get set up today.