More Money Podcast - 022 This Is How You Make Your Budget Sexy - J. Money, Blogger at Budgets Are Sexy

Episode Date: October 14, 2015

J. Money from the popular personal finance blog Budgets Are Sexy and I talk about making money online, getting fired, giving away $90,000 and making budgets sexy again. Long episode description: J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy and Rockstar Finance has been in the personal finance game since 2008, so he knows what’s going on when it comes to talking money. In this episode, we discuss how he became a blogger, why getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to him and how he’s been able to give back in a big way.  Not only is J. Money just a super cool, genuine guy — I owe him a big one because talking to him for this episode was the kick in the pants I needed to move forward with my rebrand and future money coaching business. You know when you have an idea, but are just too scared to take action because it’s not perfect yet? I’m a big perfectionist, and it’s definitely held me back from trying new things and taking risks that could help me in the long run. But J. Money is such a an inspiring guy with everything he’s accomplished, I’m gonna take a chapter out of his book and just do it! So thanks J. for motivating me to start my next chapter. You rock and it was a pleasure having you on the show! We mentioned a few things in this episode, so I’ve listed everything below. I’m also including J.’s side hustle story series even though we didn’t talk about it because it’s just too cool not to mention on here. Submit Your Side Hustle Story Got a unique way to make extra money outside of your day job? Submit your cool side hustle story for a chance to be featured on Budgets Are Sexy. I even submitted my story about teleprompting! Notable Blog Posts by J. Money I Got Fired The Lifetime Wealth Ratio 7 Things I’ve Learned After 7 Years of Blogging Shownotes: jessicamoorhouse.com/22 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello and welcome to episode 22 of the Mo Money podcast. I'm super, super excited to introduce my next guest. Most of you probably already know who this is because he's kind of a big time personal finance blogger. And he also has the best blogging name that kind of I secretly wish it was my name. I feel like when I was just, you know, trying to figure out a blog name and I, you know, eventually landed on my money, my houses. I'm like, oh, man, that would have been a great name. But it was already taken. Who am I talking about? Why am I being so mysterious? I'm talking about Jay Money from Budgets Are Sexy. He knows what's going on when it comes to naming things

awesome things so i'm pretty darn excited we're going to talk about his journey how he's able to make a living full-time just blogging which is super super impressive to me and some of the really cool things that he's been able to do, including kind of being one of the first crowd funders. He did this really awesome thing about raising money to help underprivileged families. So we're going to get into all of that and more right now. Well, thanks, Jay, for joining me on the program today. Hello, hello. Nice to be here. Yeah, thank you. So

you have a very interesting story. So let's kind of get to it. How was it growing up for you? Were you always pretty money conscious? Or was that something that kind of came when you grew up? No, I mean, I was always okay with money, but I kind of just floated by and I never really got in debt but I never really saved. I was just kind of like even all the time. I grew up in the military household so we traveled a lot. My parents were really frugal and they had us kids really young. So they always taught me to be like go to yard sales and thrift shop and that kind of stuff.

Thank God. So that saved me and then once I got into like college and graduation, I started getting a little, little loosey goosey with my money. Um, it wasn't really until I, you know, pretty much like bought a house on a whim, you know, spent like $350,000 and didn't really know what I was doing. And I said, Oh, let me, let me Google and budgeting and stuff and see what there is. Oh, my gosh. What did you go to school for, if you don't mind me asking? Yeah, I went to school for graphic design.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I actually started an international business because I love to travel. My dad said, oh, that's a good, solid job going to international business stuff. And I was in it for a year. And then I had a friend that was like, oh, this is a cool design class. Come design class come take it and i said okay but i couldn't take it unless it was your major and i thought well i'll just switch i'll be sneaky i'll switch my major to take the design class um and then i'll switch it back to get back into business so i don't get in trouble with my parents you know um but i loved it and i was like I'm not switching back. And I know it sounds way more fun than international business, in my opinion.

But I'm an arts kid. So I. Yeah. So what did you become a graphic designer after school or. Yeah. So I graduated and I thought I'm going to move to New York City. That's where all the actions happen. Awesome.'m gonna design all these billboards and i moved up there and i was like oh my lord like like i thought i was good i wasn't like these people were just blowing me out of the water and like i was like that's where all like the the major people go like not saying that you're not a good designer but yeah it's like the competition must be fierce yeah and i was i couldn't even get like an internship like the people applying for like free jobs like had crazy portfolios and I realized like I was in a way different world um and so I went back to the drawing board and I said well what

do I like to do travel and started working for the airlines and traveled the world pretty much on you know 10 bucks or something um the problem was I had no money when i got to all these places so eventually i had to like get a real job oh my gosh so what was your kind of first real job my first real job was working for e-trade back in the day before yeah like around the internet was starting bumping um and that was good that lasted a year or two and then i started finding some small startups that were into, like, ringtone technology when that was big. You know, and then I kind of – once I was in the startup world, I was like, oh, my gosh. It was like you don't have to work for, like, a job job. You know, there's, like, people starting them.

It was weird to me. And then I started doing that, and then I started blogging and said, well, maybe I can do it on my own. And here we are seven years later. It's pretty crazy. on my own and here we are seven years later yeah i'm wondering um what inspired you to start the blog and why did you call it budget sursex because that's a great name i love that name uh well i started because i really needed to get my own money going um and i also was just fascinated with money um and so and i've read other people's blogs and I thought, man, I can tell my story. I mean, I've been crazy besides buying that house.

But I can just write and I didn't spell check and I curse. I just did whatever the hell I wanted to do and it felt good. And then people started reading and commenting and I was like, oh, wow, this is kind of cool. It's starting to take off. And so as far as the name, it was right when Justin Timberlake's I'm Bringing Sexy Back song. And I thought, man, that's just so badass, you know. And I love the word sexy. And I thought I first wanted SavingsAreSexy.com.

I was taken. And I thought like this is like back when blog roles were really popular. And I thought I need like something closer to the top. Like it thought, like, this was, like, back when blog roles were really popular. And I thought, I need, like, something closer to the top. Like, it's so lame, right? I was, like, totally strategizing. And so I thought, budgets. Yes, those are sexy. Yeah, you get confidence.

Yes, let's do it. It's a B. I could be at the top of blog roles. It was available. Oddly enough. Amazing. And it's a fun tongue-in-cheek. And, like, I remember when I first stumbled across your blog and saw that. I'm like, oh, it's a fun tongue and cheek and like i remember when i first uh stumbled

across your blog and saw that i'm like oh that's a good name damn i wish i thought of that thank you it's been fun you know it's been like yeah people either really like it or like ah this is like too like childish or just too like not serious enough for me um and then some like you know some people work can't read because like sexy is blocked and sometimes my email goes to spam. So there's a lot of problems with it. But I like just the general feel of it. It got me to pay attention to money and hopefully it's getting others just to stop and think too. Absolutely.

And so you started your blog in 2008. So you've had it for a long time. Longest I've ever done anything in my entire life. Yeah, that's quite the commitment there. I know. Yeah, it's the only thing I've stuck with. I think it's just because of the community, you know, like people, you know, leave comments and they share and then I read other people's blogs and then I get inspired and it's just,

I don't know, it's just such a nice, engaging, like positive thing, you know? Absolutely. Yeah, everyone's just trying to help each other, really. Like, I mean, there are some, you know, mean people out there, but for the most part, everyone's pretty much trying to help each other. Yeah, it's really cool. I mean, if the community wasn't there or no one was talking, I probably would have stopped.

But this is like, it's kind of addicting, as you know, after a while. Absolutely. And so you had the, how many years did you have the blog before you, you're like, maybe I can make this a full-time gig. And like, how did you, like, how did that come about? You're just like making a good enough income off it already that you're like, I could probably just do this. Well, at first, like I, so I blogged, I had no idea you could make money. I just, I didn't know any, I didn't even know what a blog was until like a month before starting mine. I just, I think I got lucky. And then, you know, we talk about money, which is big for marketing. So I didn't even know what a blog was until a month before starting mine.

I think I got lucky. Then we talk about money, which is big for marketing, so I think we got lucky there. I just started blogging and after about six or seven months, I had advertisers say, hey, here's $100 if you put this ad up. I thought, what? That's crazy. I'm doing it for free. So that started rolling.

I really wasn't making like all that much maybe like a thousand a month that's pretty that's substantial I'd say yeah it's about not like to live on you know right like at least me in the DC area I mean that like gets me nowhere and so um then I started having some probably like a year and a half into it I started having some friends they're like you know what I'm done blogging. But it's making money, so it's a business. Like, do you want to just buy it for me? And I was like, what? Like, you can't do that.

Like, who buys blogs, you know? And so I looked into it, and I'm like, okay, well, let's give it a shot. And I ended up buying a couple blogs, and then that, like, you know, I could now advertise across three sites instead of one. And after probably about two and a half years into it total uh my job was getting shaky i started saving money in case i wanted to go full time you know and it was like the end of december christmas time i said you know what i think i'm gonna put my two weeks in because i was making like less than i was making my full time but

without commuting and stuff it kind of made it easier, you know, and I thought, well, I could probably make more too, if I spent more time, um, went in to give my two weeks notice and they fired me on that same day. Really? Oh my God. It was fate, I guess. I love it. Yeah. I, I hate big decisions like that. Like that just sealed the deal. You know, I was like, I can't back out. Cause all morning I was like debating, should I wait until the new year, blah, blah, blah. You know, so I probably made like 80% of what I was making at my job. And then I kind of broke even. And then I started like losing some money. Then I made some.

Then I broke even. And after a couple of years, I started, you know, being able to save again. That was the biggest transition, you know. And were you kind of interested in, you know, working for yourself because you, you know, do have a family and that kind of gives you more flexibility, you know? And were you kind of interested in, you know, working for yourself because you, you know, do have a family and that kind of gives you more flexibility, I guess? Well, back then I was still, I was married, but no kids or anything. Yeah. I just thought it was fun and I wanted to know what would happen if I did it full time. And so I told my wife, I said, look, why don't we just, let me do this for three months. If I'm not working out,

or I'm losing a lot of money, or whatever, I'll start looking for a job. And she said, all right, so that was a good deal. So then I did it three months, I was fine six months. And then I think after a year, we stopped talking about it. It's been about four, four years now, maybe. Yeah, so I just did it just to see what would happen. And because I got fired, too. I wasn't like't like you know it was an easier decision at that point um you know and I traveled and I I said well let me start I wanted to start like a philanthropy project so I started that so I did a lot of the stuff that was like you know piling on and then once I had kids like wow this is like a big difference except you know kids take

your time and we work from home you know so I'm in this weird bunk now after having two kids but but yes yeah it's a hard balance that's for sure a hard balance right um yeah you you mentioned uh that philanthropy project i did want to ask you about that because i i don't think i actually knew about that that sounded really cool it's something that's over now but you yeah you did it what do you want to kind of talk about that oh yeah sure so when i started paying attention to money i realized that i was um I guess selfish like I kept hoarding it myself I'm not really good at like giving back financially I guess let's put it and I had a friend that was into philanthropy and he wanted to do something cool and I said you know what I need if I give money I want to be able to see the person we're affecting and I want to I don't know I just want that connection you know um and

so we said well why don't we raise money online like people donate a dollar two dollars it was like I think we call it micro giving whatever the term is um and so we'd raise money in the beginning of the month and we say this month and people would nominate people to help like we wanted to help just individuals or families no like big organizations um because I'm very like person to person um So people nominated people to help, we picked a person, we said, Hey, this month, we're helping this family. At the end of the month, with all that money we raised, we would literally fly or drive or however we got to this place, everywhere around the country, we'd get there and then show up and

surprise them with all the awesomeness that our community did money gifts people handmade like sweat like people were just so generous um and so every month we helped one family traveled around the country and by the end of the year and we filmed it all so that way if you like even if you gave like money or a gift on the 15th of the month come the first of the next month you can actually see the person receiving your gift your your money because we're filming it. So you can see their reactions. You can see the person you're helping directly. And that was like a huge – I don't know.

We just really liked that part of it. Amazing. Yeah, we raised – like we gave someone a car one month. We gave this family with autistic kids like a dog to help keep them safe, an iPad so they could talk, you know, do that for the first time. I mean it was crazy. A lot of work, and I think we raised like $90,000 at the end of the year. Really fun, but just overwhelming. And, you know, it takes a lot out of your heart, too, to see all that pain.

And so we took a break. I was having a kid, and my business partner needed to get a real job. That's an amazing project, though. That's an amazing project to start off. It sounds kind of like crowdfunding before crowdfunding was a thing. Yeah, it was cool. We even did a whole mainstream makeover or whatever. They're like, move that bus.

We'd hide this thing. We gave away this washer and dryer set on a truck and uh we like hit it and then we said move that truck so we could like surprise them we thought that's amazing it was cool it was a cool project and one you're able to do a lot when you're not you know having kids running around get groceries delivered across the gta Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started.

And another thing that you started, I guess, was it 2013, was Rockstar Finance, which I love because it's a great resource for just like what are kind of the most interesting personal finance, you know, articles in the blogosphere. Yeah. Yeah. You've been featured on it a couple of times. Thank you for that. FYI. That's awesome. Yeah. So like that was the thing, like as you know, you do and I do, a lot of people read so much content online, especially on money and all our you do and I do, a lot of people read so much content online, especially around money and all our friends.

And I thought, you know what? It would be cool to have it all in one spot, like the favorite articles or the ones that resonated or different ideas because we all have our own different hacks and lifestyles. So I thought it was a general idea to showcase three new articles a day that was curated. And people would go to the site see it and click and you know it's the opposite of everything i'm used to doing because you're supposed to like keep

people on your site you know and yeah it's like really good but like i literally click and you go right away so you know it's kind of weird but it's great you don't really have to create new content which is great and you get to just curate it and you know get known for that yeah and in the beginning it was i have a helper now kate from um blonde on a budget spot oh i know kate and so after a while read like i mean it seems easy in theory but then when you're reading like i would spend two hours reading like or skimming like 200 articles and after a while it's like oh my gosh like all this is like the same it's really like it's really crazy when you're consuming so much um so eventually it took so much time i had her helping and now it's been fun because she reads i read we help each other and uh yes it's been fun

project definitely so i'm curious so now you you know are kind of an online solopreneur. That's kind of like the term I like to use. And it's flown around. I think it's a fun word. And what do you kind of see for yourself moving forward in the future? Like do you see yourself maybe buying more websites or what do you think? No. So yeah, when I was buying websites, there was a point where I was probably making the most I'd ever made online, which, you know, we're a money crowd, so I can say numbers. I was probably making $160,000, I think, at the peak. I thought, this is great, but I was working 20 hours. I had no life. Then once I had a kid, I was like, well, this isn't feasible. I started really looking like, what

are you trying to do here you know um and and I wanted to slowly like at one point I had like 10 sites going um I've sold and or or yeah pretty much sold or shut down all of them except budgets are sexy rock star finance like the two that I started myself and only wrote for um or managed um and so I realized like the more I'm focusing on projects that I actually care about you know surprise surprise like they grow more you know and your time isn't scattered um so I actually got a I took a big cut like I think a year or two ago I made like only 60,000 which is still good but again family of four this is all the money you have like it's different

right um and so I kind of went from like you know all these side projects making a lot then by myself i kind of broke even then i made a lot and now i'm back to lower and now so now that i focus more i'm starting to to earn a little bit more um so because the point of all this thing is like if you get going like it's so easy to be wrapped up in all the hustle and all this potential and opportunity and money. And I think it's good to sometimes take a step back and be like, is this making you happy? You know, I was not much happier when I was making 160 or 60. Like as crazy as that sounds.

Yeah. No, I've heard like, I mean, you've probably heard this too, where it's like there's a certain amount of money where everyone is like comfortable. And the average is like 70,000 if you're making 70 000 and obviously this depends on i guess what city you live in and the cost of living everything but it's like once you kind of reach that peak if you make more you're not going to be more happy than at that moment so so maybe you've just got you kind of reached that level you're like or i'm good here and i'm you know no more happier and you get it's easy to get greedy too like every time i made more i thought nope i want, you know, no more happier. And you get, it's easy to get greedy too. Like every time I made more, I thought, nope, I want more.

You know, it's so crazy. It's crazy when you go from like making nothing online to that, you know? And that's why like I've seen bloggers and, you know, be really great sites. It was all awesome. And then all of a sudden it was like money, money, money. And the whole sites change.

And then like shady stuff is going on. And then I'm like, oh gosh, like I know what happened over here. Someone got caught up in it. Yeah, right. Like it all depends on your goals. Like I go to the community, keep myself accountable.

You know, I'm like 50% pleasure, 50% business. And you know, once you go like super business or super pleasure, like it's just your sight changes because there's things you do or you don't do. Exactly.

Did you, I'm curious, did you find or you don't do exactly did you i'm curious did you find that when you were starting to you know make more money and working for yourself that you're spending and your budgeting was changing did you feel like oh i've got more money to play around with so maybe i'll buy this or this or or did you kind of were you just a frugal you know being i was pretty much frugal for the most part, but, but the only change is I started like, um, I get, no, I guess I did spend more than normal. Like instead of like, like I would just think that like I deserve like better quality stuff. So I would just buy it without ever thinking, you know, but, but, but I also knew my spending

for the most part. So it fluctuate by maybe $500 a month. Um, and so I knew for the most part i'd i'd bounce around in there um you know but my brain i started you know especially when i was making you know the upper 100s i started you know i don't know i didn't like the person i was i was starting to treat money it was just weird yeah yeah you didn't like your relationship with money as much yeah i did so yeah it's really evender to hear me say it out loud too because like, No, it makes sense though.

Yeah, no, I agree. I almost sometimes think like, you know, after moving to Toronto to kind of get a better job and better salary, and I've managed to do that. But I kind of look back at the girl I was when I first, you know, finished university and got my first job, and it was super low paying huh I almost kind of prefer the relationship I had with money back then because I put so much like I just was very careful and really respectful with it whereas now sometimes I'll catch myself be like why do I feel like I deserve that just because I make a salary you know it makes no sense no it's very very odd yeah yeah i think that's it too like it just goes

so like as your income fluctuates because i mean even crap even what we're talking is only the last five or seven years so if we have like 70 more years hopefully to live like i'm sure we're going to fluctuate all over the place so the more we can like figure out like that happy medium or at least with that with the budgeting part keeping somewhat on track is good totally i know i kind of i'm curious because yeah i've only really been interested in like the personal finance world for maybe five years i've had my blog for almost four and i think i was interested in it before that yeah maybe five years and like okay i'm like 29 now what i'm really curious how i'm gonna deal with money and my relationship will be when i'm like 40 50 60 like will i just be like i hope i just don't become one of those bitter people on the internet just being like well back in my day i really hope

not i know oh gosh well thank you so much for joining me on the show. Is there anything else you want to add before I kind of, you know, wrap things up? No, you know, we got everything. You know, I guess for people that is, that are listening, just pay attention to your money and, and man, I'll tell you this, like, you know, it's just so much, once you figure it out, like it's so, it's just so much once you figure it out, like it's so

it's just so easy. Like it seems so hard in the beginning, even when you screw up that when you've got it figured out, like it's just it's just so natural. And you don't even think about it for the most part over time, you know, so for anyone like, like going back and forth, or, you know, as soon as you figure it out, like you're set, like forever, you know, even I agree. Yeah, I agree. And I think once you kind of, you know, put it in your mind that, you know i agree yeah i agree and i think once you kind of you know put it in your mind that you know i'm going to you know organize my finances or really you know pay down my debt or whatever it is in your life it just money the whole concept becomes less scary yeah for me like i'm i'm more you know i think no matter how much money i've had in the

past five years because i've been so interested in and researching it and just became more knowledgeable about it. It wasn't such a scary thing. Like I've never been afraid of, Oh, if my landlord kicks me out of my rental, I'm screwed. It's like, no, I'll just, I'll figure it out. Like, I'm okay. Like, that's not a worry in my mind though. It should be, but you know, I I'm, I'm conscious of like, okay, well, if that happens financially, this is what I'll do yeah and i'll say too for like the people that like don't like that aren't like nerds like us at low i'm not a nerd i'm just kidding i'm totally a nerd but like because so i started doing like like blog coaching and money coaching and the yeah money coaching i mean again it's like a one-on-one thing. Like people say, oh, I need like this budget

and this and this, but really all they need to do is like figure out like what they wanted out of life and then kind of backwards. And it's lame. And I guess you read that everywhere. No, but it's so true, isn't it? It's like, unless you know what your goals are,

like, so what's the point of you doing all the things that you're doing? Yeah. And even like when making money, like if you start making a lot, it's like, well, this is great, but there's never there's never an end. Right. So like, you have to figure out like, what, like, what's the point? You know, like some people love to travel good, like make money to then travel, you know, like, I think for me, the goal is, is this whole like early retirement financial freedom thing, right? Like having enough where you don't need to make money. I'll still blog and still do fun stuff. And maybe it makes money. Hopefully it does. Cause that's

cool. You know, but the point is like, that's like now like my thing to reach for. So, you know, hopefully that keeps me on track and for other people, maybe it's just buying a house or whatever it is, you know? Um, so the, the, the goal of money is most important versus the money itself, I guess. Absolutely. I totally agree with that. Well, thank you so much, Jay, for joining me on the show. I really appreciate it. And thank you all for listening to this episode. This is episode 22.

So make sure to check out the show notes for this episode. It's at momoneymohouses.com slash 22. And for all of my episodes that I've done up until this point just check out momanymohouses.com slash podcast and uh one kind of just a random funny thing that i thought i mentioned at the end this uh podcast i just remembered was before i uh hit record i was talking to jay and he said that i had an accent do i have have an accent? Do I have a Canadian accent? I couldn't tell because when I was talking with him, like, no, I don't. You sound just like me.

He's like, no, you have a bit of an accent. I'm like, I don't. I don't hear it. Please let me know. I'm just curious. Do I have a Canadian accent? I'm just curious. So if you think I do, I would appreciate a tweet from you letting me know that.

Yeah, girl, you sound like a Canadian full on. I don't say a boot or a that much so i don't know what he's talking about so anyways thank you again for listening to this episode i appreciate you i appreciate you choosing my podcast there's a ton of podcasts out there i listen to a ton so you taking the time to download this episode and listen to it and keep giving me feedback is super super appreciated um and on that note before i let you go i am going to do just a few shout outs from some awesome itunes reviews i've received recently thanks so much guys i i can't believe i've gotten so much feedback it really means a lot to me. All right. So the first review I got is from the TSB Solver.

They say, great job, Jessica. I love your podcast. Keep up the awesome work. Well, thanks so much. I appreciate your review. Next one I've got is from JB378. She says, I started listening right when I needed it. As a female in her late 20s, I can really relate to the topics covered.

Great podcast. Woo! Well, thank you for being awesome and listening. Next, I got from Carmi M. Thought-provoking and entertaining show. A great new personal finance podcast everyone should try listening to. Well, thank you so much. And last but not least, I've got one from Nina Bena.

Love all the different stories I've been featured so far. Each episode gives you a new perspective on how to handle things like budget, savings, and debt. I think so too. I think the cool thing about this podcast is I'm not just giving you tips or how-tos, but it's all about sharing other people's stories so you can learn from their successes and their mistakes. So thank you so much again for giving me your reviews. Let me know what you think. I'm super pumped for next Wednesday's episode. I've got Carrie from Careful Sense. She'll be on the show. And so I will leave it at that and I will see you next Wednesday. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.