Getting Financially Naked with Jen
Getting Financially Naked with Jen
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 and 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. Over two years ago now 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 Jen, a listener who has had some life challenges we haven’t tackled during a naked session yet. Jen joins me today to share her journey through infertility and starting a family later in life while also trying to achieve a goal of financial independence.
What are we drinking?
Jen - Hot chocolate
Shannon - Black Cherry Schweppes
Podcast Notes
Jen started listening to the show about a year ago. Her husband was searching online for personal finance blogs and came across the Frugalwoods. Jen was introduced to The Financial Gym because Liz was on the Happy Hour episodes.
Jen listened to some financially naked episodes and decided that she wanted to be on one and her husband was onboard. She is now starting at the beginning and working her way forward with the podcast.
Jen is originally from Iowa and now lives in Southern California. She had two associate degrees when she moved to Ohio for a job. She applied to Ohio State to finish her engineering degree and that same week she was laid off due to 9/11. She is naturally a saver and decided to go back to school full-time. She was 25 at the time.
She was able to get a lot of small scholarships and grants and they added up. She looked for scholarships that weren’t as popular. Jen took out student loans, but because of her savings and her part-time job she was able to pay for her living expenses and finish her degree with just over $19,000 in student loan debt. After graduation, she was able to consolidate her loans at 2.875%.
After she graduated from Ohio State in 2005, she was recruited by her first employer in Southern California, but she wasn’t familiar with a few things in that state. In the other states she lived, when you renew your rent it doesn’t go up that much, but that is not the case in Southern California.
Her first raise at her job was 3% and her increase in rent was the same amount as her raise. She started looking at what she could afford and she bought a condo. She rented a room to her friend to help pay the mortgage.
Over time, Jen switched companies and earned her MBA, and her employer paid for it. Her roommate convinced her to try eharmony, and Jen met her husband. This was 12 years ago.
They were married in 2011 and in 2012, her husband wanted to buy a house. They were under water on her condo, so they decided to rent it to her old roommate.
When they applied for their mortgage, she found out that her husband had no credit history. He was in his early 40s at the time and was very surprised, but he hadn’t had a loan in over seven years and he didn’t use credit cards. After Jen added him as an authorized user to her credit card, they were eventually approved for a mortgage.
During that time, they were going through fertility treatments, but they weren’t having any luck getting pregnant. She switched doctors and was able to get pregnant after about four years of trying.
They eventually decided to sell their house. The new house required renovations, and it took about a year to finish.
In April 2018, they did their first IVF transfer, and now they are proud parents of twins, a boy and a girl.
The twins were born at 32 weeks. Her daughter was 3lbs 8oz and her son had stopped growing and was only 2lbs 13oz. Her daughter was in the NICU for a month and her son was in there for a month and a week. Now her kids are two years old and they are doing great.
The kids were in daycare for about six months before the stay-at-home order, and that order ended up being the best thing for them and their health.
Since listening to the podcast, Jen left the job she had been at for 14 years and was hired with another company with a significant pay increase and the option to work from home.
Jen’s husband was originally looking at Frugalwoods, because he wanted to quit his job and stay home with the twins. They were paying more for daycare than their mortgage, between $3,500 and $3,600 per month.
Questions from the financially naked questionnaire:
Age: 44
Employer: an engineering firm
Annual Income: $185,000 (previously was making $146,000)
Biweekly Paycheck: $4,399.43
Husband’s Checking Account: $400
Husband’s Investment Account: $35,000
Husband’s IRA: $100,000
Jen’s Checking: $3,494
Jen’s Savings: $2,000
Joint Savings Account (bills): $650
Emergency Fund: $30,030
Joint Investment Account (moving fund): $9,637
Jen’s FI Account: $12,917
Jen’s Pension: $113,400
Jen’s Old 401(k): $392,131
Jen’s New 401(k): $1,569
Jen’s Roth IRA #1: $21,642
Jen’s Roth IRA #2: $10,089
Jen’s Rollover IRA: $50,289
Rental Income: $1,525
Primary Home Value: $698,000
Condo Value: $450,000
House Mortgage: Owe $356,000 ($2,100/month; 2.875% interest)
Condo Mortgage: Owe $160,000 ($1,070/month; HOA $337/mo; 3% interest)
Student Loan: Paid off April 2020
Car Loan: Paid off March 2021
Credit Card Debt from home renovation/fertility treatments: Paid off in 2020
Credit Score: was 842, now 812 after she paid off her car loan
Health Insurance: Yes, HSA
Life Insurance: Yes, through work
Will: Not yet
College Savings: Soon, $644 to invest
Average Monthly Expenses: $2,300 plus mortgage, total $4,500
Current Retirement Savings: 6%, company match is 5%
1 - 3 year goals: Live on one paycheck and save the other; switch from saving in a retirement account to an investment account;
3 - 5 year goals: Work is optional; moving out of Southern California, possibly to the Northeast; no mortgage or very little
Shannon’s recommendations: Focus on FI savings versus retirement savings; think about selling both properties and invest the money versus renting; look into a disability policy; get a Will (if you leave California, you will need a new one); look at a home equity loan to help buy the next home
Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is the value of developing a saving mindset from an early age. Jen had no way of knowing the different twists and turns her life would take, but she was able to say yes to her dream of starting a family, because of the savings she had built up.
Random Three Questions
What do you do to relax?
What is something you binged during the pandemic?
If this is your last night on earth, what is your final meal?
If you have any topics you would like me to cover on this podcast, or if you’d like to get in the financially naked hot seat, 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.
2020 was a challenging year, and if money was one of those challenges for you, please don’t let 2021 be more of the same. Despite a global pandemic, we witnessed Financial Gym clients achieve amazing goals all year long. We’ve worked with over 6,000 clients at this point and we’ve literally seen it all and would love to help you achieve your financial dreams in 2021. So if you’re ready to get started, head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get set up today.