More Money Podcast - 065 Listener Series - How Sharifa Balanced Paying Off Debt with Going Back to School

Episode Date: October 13, 2016

For this Listener Series episode, I chat with Sharifa Samuels who is originally from Ontario but now lives in my hometown of Vancouver. She shares how she was able to travel, pay for her wedding in cash, buy a place in one of the most expensive cities in the world, go back to school, but also aggressively pay down her debt and help her husband to do the same. Long description: Sharifa's Awesome Financial Advice for Others in the Same Boat? Write all your debts down, including interest rates and minimum payments Pay yourself first the entire time Choose your payment strategy: highest interest first or smallest balance, based on what makes you feel good Cut expenses! Automate as much as possible Write down and look often at your “Why?” Enrol those closest to you Read Her Original Blog Interview with Me: 4 Women Who Will Inspire You to Crush Your Debt Check Out Some of Sharifa's Best Blog Posts I Quit My Job Today! Grow Up Decision - To Buy or to Rent? When Fear Prevents You from Taking Action Got a story that you think would be good to share on an episode on of Listener series? Please email me! For more podcast episodes, check out the Podcast page. Shownotes: jessicamoorhouse.com/65 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, and welcome to Episode 65 of the Mo Money Podcast. Thanks for joining me for another listener series episode. And this one features Sharifa Samuels, who lives in Vancouver, my hometown. And she was also featured in the blog post I did a little while back, which I will link to in the show notes, of inspiring women who are going to inspire you to crush your debt because they are rocking their finances. So make sure to check that out in the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 65. So me and Sharifa talk in this episode about her personal finance journey and what she's done to be able to pay off her debt, live the life she's wanted, and also afford a home of her own in the very expensive city of Vancouver.

So we get into all of that in this episode. And also, and she reveals later on in the episode that she has a blog of her own called Maturish Life. So you can figure, you can find out more about her and her story and what's going on with her at maturishlife.com. Thanks, Sharifa, for joining me on the show. I'm excited to chat. I'm so excited to be chatting with you, Jessica.

Yay! Yeah, I'm super pumped to kind of talk to you because you shared your story with me for my blog post, and lots of people got a lot out of your story, so I'm glad that we can kind of dive deeper and really get to know you. So let's kind of start from the beginning. So you're actually originally from Ontario, but you now live in Vancouver. Yes. So I moved to Vancouver almost five years ago after teaching English in South Korea for two and a half years. I met my boyfriend, now husband, while I was there. And then we decided to initially was the plan was to live in Vancouver for a year, test it out, then move back to Toronto, then decide where to go. And five years later, we're here. Yeah, Vancouver's pretty great.

It took me a while. I'm a little bit of an anomaly. It took me a while to get used to it. But then, you know, once I did, it's hard to think about going back. What did you find that was like the hardest thing to get used to when it came to Vancouver compared to Ontario? People are very, they don't really, they're not very open, I find initially, like I'm a big talker. So I'll start a conversation over anything. And I found people here were a little bit more reserved than I was accustomed to. So the first year, luckily, I was working at Lululemon. So I had like instant friends in the store. I was also a student. So I

was at school. So I met a lot of people through school and work. But outside of that, it was it was a little bit different. So it was a bit of an adjustment. No, I totally get that. And I think that's kind of one of the reasons that Vancouver gets a bad rap. It's kind of like no fun city, people call it, but it's also like very clicky, you know? Like people, I even had a hard time. Like I'm from Coquitlam originally,

but I moved to Vancouver after I graduated university and, you know, moved out of my parents' place and just living in the city. I'm like, well, thank God I have, you you know friends that live in the city that i know from university because i found it very difficult just to meet new people and honestly i find vancouver lots of people don't like going out they like staying at home which is very different than toronto where people go out every single night so i totally get that but it seems like you've kind of figured out the Vancouver scene. Yeah. And now we live on the North Shore, so North Vancouver. We're very close to downtown

Vancouver. But I like being outdoors. So that definitely helps too. Yeah, you're in the right spot. That's for sure. Cool. So you lived in South Korea and taught ESL for two and a half years. And you did that as a kind of a way for travel, but also to start help pay off some of your student loan debt, right? So I graduated in 2008, right in the middle of the recession. And I didn't at the time, I was maybe 22. I didn't realize how bad it was. I had been invited to come back to do my master's in business. And so I knew that I wasn't ready to go into that program. So I wanted something to do for a year. And a girlfriend of mine was in Korea, and she loved it.

So she was like, you really should come out here. And I applied, I didn't tell anyone, I didn't tell any of my friends, my parents, anyone, I just applied to the interview. And I applied, I didn't tell anyone, I didn't tell any of my friends, my parents, anyone, I just applied to the interview. And once I got my ticket, that's when I told my parents I was moving to South Korea. And after six months, I knew I wasn't going to come back. At the end of that year, I was loving it so much. The cost of living was so low. So I was able to travel and save. I paid off quite a bit of debt while I was there. But I also felt like I got to see a lot of Southeast Asia. I met my now husband. So that was awesome in my second year there. And it was just the memories I have are unreal.

Absolutely. That was actually something that I thought about doing after graduating university, but I didn't end up doing it. But I really I know friends who've done it and they absolutely loved it. And I think one of my friends is still there. And I feel like that was like seven years ago and he met his wife there. And I think that's probably why he's still there. Guys on my softball team met their spouses and are still there. So it's easy to stay. Absolutely. Absolutely.

So you eventually, you know, decided to, uh, kind of come back to Canada. And at what point did you decide to move to Vancouver? Was it right after? It wasn't right after it was, um, I, so I stayed on for another half year after my boyfriend, now husband at the time, um, now, uh, after he left and I was trying to decide what to do if I wanted to stay for a third year, if I wanted to move to left, and I was trying to decide what to do if I wanted to stay for a third year if I wanted to move to Toronto, because I was living with my parents. Prior to moving to South Korea, I was at the University of Guelph. But the you know, the intention was for me to move back in with my parents and kind of figure out what to do. But my husband and I were like,

we should probably try living in the same city in Canada and decide what part of the country wanted to live in. So I decided to go back to school. And while I was thinking about that, I was still in Korea and I was looking at different programs. My degree was in business marketing to be specific. Uh, and I just found my degree was somewhat irrelevant when I was looking at jobs. I'd only been away for two and a half years, but so much of the industry had changed.

Social media was now a thing. And I needed to know a lot about digital marketing. I had no clue what that was. And so I thought, okay, well, I will move to Vancouver. I'll be close to my boyfriend. I can go to school. I can explore another side of the country I'd never seen. And then, you know, once I was done school, we can move back to Toronto. And then while I was

here, I just made connections. And, you know, I started to like it, we got engaged. And then it was like, Oh, do we really think we're going to uproot our life now that I have friends and a place here? It was a lot harder to walk away from. So we're here. We're here for now. Yeah. Yeah. I know it's hard.

You always say, oh, we'll just stay for a few years. But then each year passes, you're like, ah, now we've got roots here. We've got friends here. We've got a life here. It's harder and harder. And I know that because I did the kind of the reverse of you where I'm from Vancouver, me and my husband moved to Toronto, and we've been here for three years. Every year we're like, are we gonna move back? I don't know. Let's just take it year by year. Yeah. That's too funny. So you went back to school. So that must have meant that you had to kind of incur some more debt, I guess. So I did. So when I came back from South Korea, I paid almost all of my debt off. So I

think when I moved there, I had like $18,000 left of around $28,000. So while I was in university, I had like, I took advantage of bursaries, I was a resident assistant. So I got free accommodation one semester, I did a bunch of different things to keep my debt load down. So when I went to South Korea, I worked full time, and then I had a part time tutoring job. So I was able to save quite a bit plus the cost of living was really low so by the time I came back to Canada I had paid off most of my TD line of credit almost all of OSAP um and I had a pension too which um some countries don't honor it but Canadians and Americans I believe they get access to this pension when you leave South Korea so I in theory I could have taken that money and paid off the last of

my student loans, but I had decided to go back to school and, uh, I would need to get another line of credit in order to pay for it. So I took on another, I think it was $12,000, um, in student loans and that would have been in 2012. So instead of being debt free in 2012, I ended up acquiring more student debt, but I need to go back to school. I just felt like I didn't quite understand this new industry. And I wanted to build on my, my current degree. Exactly. It's a tricky situation where you're so close to being debt free. But you also know that maybe incurring debt for your education could help your career, which would in turn help your income down the road. So I personally never think that education

is necessarily a bad investment if you're very strategic about it, which you clearly were. You're going back to school for a specific program that would help your career. I think it's always just dangerous when you don't know what you're going to do and you end up doing a degree you're never going to use. So, but I think you kind of clearly made the right choice. I hope so. So that was 2012. And then after graduating, I started working at a private school. I was part-time initially, which I was a little bit hesitant about because my salary was really low and living in Vancouver. Um, it, you know, and also having now acquired debt, I was like, Oh, this is, this is dangerous.

Um, so I kept my part-time job at Lululemon and worked there part-time and then worked at my full-time job. And after a few months there, they asked me to go full-time. So I was full-time as a marketing assistant doing all kinds of like really fun stuff at this private school, making more than I was making before, but I still held on to my job at Lululemon because I wanted to pay off the debt I had acquired while I was in school. So that was about two years after school was done. And then I then moved on to another job because while working at the school was awesome, it wasn't really driving my career path. So I decided to go into a job that was definitely more digital and would use my post-grad work and then did that for two years and then moved on to my

current job as a digital producer working at an agency producing websites. Nice. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. So a lot of a lot of different steps. Yeah. I mean, that's that's just kind of life. It never it's never a clear path. You never kind of know where you're gonna end up but then you end up someplace good if you make the right choices which yeah you've definitely done i think you you've done an amazing job so from the director of the greatest showman comes the most original musical ever i want to prove i can make it prove to who everyone so the story starts better man now playing in select theaters um since this blog post has been up for a few months now what's your kind of debt status now and do you have a date to be completely debt free yeah so um i was telling you that uh last year last october actually last year 2015 so happened. Um, my husband and I got

married at the beginning of the year. That was congratulations. Thank you. Um, we, we chose to have a long engagement long being like almost two years cause we wanted to pay for our wedding in cash. Um, so we were able to do that, which was awesome because the day of our wedding, you didn't have to think about paying anybody. We were able to enjoy that, which was awesome because the day of our wedding, we didn't have to think about paying anybody. We were able to enjoy our day and walk away from the day completely debt free. But because of that, we had to, you know, decrease the amount of money we were saving towards our house. So we decided that my husband was making more, would handle saving for the wedding more, and then I would continue saving for our house. So we got married and then like two weeks later, we flew to Napa for another friend's wedding. And then a month later,

we flew to another wedding, but this time in Ireland. All paid in cash. We saved up for these trips. But it was a lot of money to spend in a year that we had just gotten married. Uh, but in order to do all those things, we, we were very strategic. Uh, we, while we were saving up for our wedding, my husband had a car loan or fiance at the time, he had a car loan, uh, he was leasing a car and it was such a waste of money I found. So we broke his lease and then we bought a used car that was like an excellent condition, had one owner and it was only $1,800. So then we had no car payment. We just paid insurance and gas.

And we looked for other things in our life that we could get rid of. Like we got rid of cable. We cut all the things out that we didn't feel like we needed. And we went through several months where we didn't buy anything didn't feel like we needed. Uh, and we went through several months where we didn't buy anything. So I only bought the essentials. Um, and another really cool thing that happened is, um, I went to a sample sale with a friend and while we were there, I bought this mid-century modern sectional for $700. And I didn't even think about it cause I was so in love with the couch. But my husband's friend was like, if you're, if your husband doesn't like, he can always sell it. Uh, so two weeks later,

um, my husband was like, you know what, Sharifa, this is not a comfortable couch. Like I, I'm not liking it. I want our old Ikea couch back. So we put it on Craigslist for $2,800 and we sold it in two days. So, yeah, so we got very creative with how we, you know, were able to cut down on a lot of the debt that we had acquired and also to save up for our house down payment because I was always in the back of our mind. So we took advantage of RSP matching, we maxed that out. I was really adamant about paying off a certain amount of my debt by the end of the year. And all of this from last year, really started as soon as I started listening to your podcast. Oh, that's why I, it was funny, I was listening to some of your old episodes. And I found

an episode where you at the very end, you read um, my rating or like my review of your show. Oh, I gave you a shout out. You did give me a shout out. And, um, I was just so like, I'd been good about managing my money, good ish, but not seriously focused. And I was on my way to work one day. I just started listening to podcasts. I came across yours and you were talking about being debt free and smart with your money. And, you know, the weight on my shoulders was there, but like I had gotten used to it. And so just listening to you and all the people you interviewed, I was like, I am done with this. I want to be free. So I just got super creative, like anything I could do to make a little extra money or to, you know, flipping that couch was awesome.. Anything I could do to make a little extra money or flipping that couch

was awesome. But anything I could do to decrease our debt load before we went into buying a house, I really tried. So my husband had a MasterCard balance for like, I don't even know, I think he said he had it for like 10 years. And we crushed that by the end of last year. We just focused really hard on paying that off. And now we've moved on to tackling his student loans. And the funny thing about all of this, Jessica, is that he makes way more than I do. But he wasn't managing his money correctly. So at the end of the month, he had all this extra cash that he couldn't account for. And when I sat down,

I looked at everything. I was like, you have all this extra money that you can play around with after you take care of all these other things. Um, one of the big things was his hockey fees. Like he was paying a lot every quarter towards, um, paying his hockey fees. And he knew this amount was coming up, but it would come up all of a sudden and then he'd be out $800. And so I said to him, like, why don't we just break that amount down and put it aside every month so that when your hockey fees come up, you don't have to like, you're not short at the end of the month. It was such a simple concept, but by doing that, it just made things so much easier for him. So we really kind of sat down as a couple and we looked at each other's finances and just found ways that we could optimize every dollar. And

we're not perfect by any means. I listened to some of the people you've interviewed and they're like way better at this than me. But we just tried to be very strategic where we could be. That's awesome. I love that you helped your husband. Like I try, I mean, I try to do that too, but that's awesome. That it's like you, um, took the initiative to fix, um, your finances and then you're like, hi, I have all this knowledge and I know what to do. I have the tools. Now I'm going to help my husband. So I'm excited to hear when both of you are completely debt free. Please let me know. That is so cool. Now life as normal always changes. So I was supposed to be debt free by June of this year. And then part of home ownership is

things that come up. And one of them was we bought a condo in Vancouver and we have to replace our roof. So luckily our strata broke it into four payments over a course of like six months. But instead of putting aside that money to pay off the last of my student loans, I had to put it on our roof. So I went from in total, I would say last year, January, I had about $14,000 between a line of credit and OSAP, Ontario student loan. And now I'm at $2,800 just on my OSAP loan. So I see the money in my savings account that I've allocated for the roof. And I really want to like put it on the student loans just so I can be like, yes, I'm debt free even for a day. But, you know, responsibilities. So I have to delay that for a little bit.

Yeah. But yeah, just like you said, life happens. And that's kind of the crappy thing about homeownership, especially with the condos. People always tell you, okay, just get ready. Once they have to repair the roof, it's going to be, it can be expensive. So, but I mean, you'll deal with it and you'll reach your target of being debt free after that. What's, you know, it'll eventually get to the goal. Like that's the thing. I think sometimes like the problem that lots of people have is when these life things come up, it will kind of throw their whole debt repayment plan out of whack. But I'm glad that it hasn't done that for you. You're still kind of like, you know, it may have kind of delayed the plans, but of go through, I'm not sure if you remember these,

but I asked you for the blog post, what are some bits of advice you would give other people in the same boat? And you actually gave some really freaking great ones. So, you know, the first is write all your debts down, including interest rates and minimum payments, which is such a simple thing. But I think a lot of people wouldn't even think of doing that. They might just have it in their head, but it's like the physical act, writing it down or putting it somewhere that's visible that you can kind of look at it every day to be like, I'm going to crush you, you know, like have that kind of motivator. I think that's so helpful. The next one is pay yourself first, of course, no matter what. I think that's so important. Second or third,

sorry, is choose your payment strategy, whether you're going to go with highest interest rate first or the smallest balance, whatever makes you feel good, which I totally agree with. Usually people say, you know, go with the highest interest rate first, which makes sense. But I think just choose like I remember I did an episode with the personal finance blogger, Catherine from Plunged in Debt. And she's like, you know, people always say do the highest interest rate, but I just do the one that kind of nags me the most. And that's how I get it done. I'm like, you know what, then do it. Whatever makes sense to you, right? Fourth would be cut expenses. Fifth, automate as much as possible.

And then write down and look often at your why, which I love. And then last, enroll those closest to you. Those are freaking great pieces of advice. So thanks for writing all those down. Like those are, I think people need to definitely go to that blog post and read those and maybe write all those down and put it somewhere in their house. It's so important. And it's so simple. But I think we've never been taught this in school, right? And my parents are awesome, but I wouldn't say they ever told us what their mortgage was or what their expenses were every month. So a lot of this has just been trial and error and learning from their mistakes and from mistakes I've made too.

But some of those tips like automating, such a simple idea. You don't have to think about it. I do that with my investments. I do that with myating, such a simple idea. You don't have to think about it. I do that with my investments. I do that with my savings, with paying our mortgage. So we know what day it's coming out in our calendar. We send alerts so that we know when it's coming out. But just takes, that's one less thing you have to think about. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Last, before I let you go, you have your own blog. And I love the concept. It's called Mature-ish Life. And it's about adulting, basically, right?

Exactly. It's about adulting, which I think is something that I don't think existed in our parents' time. But I need a guidebook on adulting. And I think all of us do. So I'm excited to check out your blog. And I encourage people listening to check out your blog at maturestlife.com because it's a, it's a lifestyle blog, but it also has lots of personal finance stuff in there too. Yeah. Just, you know, it's literally just sharing my stories of just navigating adulthood. And it seems like you're, you're doing kind of all the, like you've checked off a lot of the adulting things. It's like, okay, you traveled.

You, you know, went back to school. You got married. You're a homeowner now. What's next? I know. I sometimes ask each other, though, like, are you an adult? Do you feel like an adult? Because, like, when does that happen?

You know? I don't know. I couldn't tell you. I don't know. Could not tell you. I still, yeah, me and my husband are all the time. We're like I don't know. I couldn't tell you. I don't know. Could not tell you. I still, yeah, me and my husband are all the time. We're like, this is crazy. Like, what are we doing? Sometimes we have these weird out of body moments. We're like, are we doing this right now? This is a real adult thing. Like just like little things where it's like going to see like your financial advisor, the bank. I'm like, this is such a weird adult thing to do. Sit up straight, you know? Yeah. So crazy. Well, thank you so much,

Sharifa, for joining me. It was absolutely a pleasure chatting with you. And I'm excited to hear when you're totally debt free and when that damn roof is paid off. You will definitely get an email from me, Jessica. Okay, great. Fabulous. Fabulous. Thanks again for joining me. You're very welcome. And that was episode 65 of the Mo Money podcast and another episode in my fabulous listener series. I want to thank so much Sharifa for joining me on the show and sharing her story. And she has her own blog. So make sure to check out her continued story and her life and everything that's going on with her right now at matureishlife.com. And if you were listening and you're like, hey, I have a story to share with Jessica, get in touch. I am always looking for new people to interview for my listener series.

I absolutely love doing these. I'm getting a lot of great feedback from people. So get in touch with me. My email is Jessica at JessicaMorehouse.com. Or you can tweet me or get in touch with me. My email is jessica at jessicamorehouse.com or you can tweet me or get in touch whatever way you like. I'm also on Facebook and pretty much every social platform out there. So thank you so much for listening. Check out the show notes at jessicamorehouse.com slash 65. I'm going to link to the original blog post where I interviewed Sharifa and some other fabulous ladies who were inspiring with their stories of paying off debt

and working towards a financially free life. So make sure to check out the show notes, jessicamarose.com slash 65. And if you haven't already, send me a review. I know lots more people have been giving me reviews on iTunes and I super, super appreciate it. I love getting feedback so I can make this better and better and do new awesome things. So make sure to subscribe on iTunes. And besides that, just have a awesome rest of your week. See you here next Wednesday. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.