More Money Podcast - 160 How to Avoid Student Debt with Scholarships - Jocelyn Paonita, Founder of The Scholarship System

Episode Date: May 23, 2018

You don't have to get into debt to go to school. Even though it looks as if everyone has student debt these days, there are actually people out there that go to go to school for free! And no, it's not because they are trust-fund kids, it's because they applied to scholarships and were able to secure enough funding to pay for their tuition. I was able to get my first year paid because of scholarships, and Jocelyn Paonita, founder of The Scholarship System, was able to get her degree paid from scholarships too. Now, she's on a mission to help others prevent themselves from getting into student debt by teaching others about scholarships through her online community, courses and book. Long description: I met Jocelyn Paonita Pearson over 2 years ago at FinCon in San Diego. And ever since that first meeting, I remember thinking that I needed to interview Jocelyn on my podcast. Well, it took me a while to finally get around to ask her, but I’m so glad I did wait because she has been able to accomplish so much since that first meeting. Now, she’s running her own successful company called The Scholarship System, has a best-selling book (also called The Scholarship System), and has a popular online course focused on helping parents and students find scholarships. As mentioned in our interview together, right up until now her company has helped secure $1,000,000 in scholarships for students. In other words, that’s $1,000,000 of debt those students just avoided. That’s major! In our interview, we chat a lot about how to prevent getting into debt through student loans by getting scholarships, and I want to share the 3 top tips Jocelyn shared with me about how to up your chances of getting scholarships to pay for college. Start Local Don’t start big when it comes to scholarships, start small by researching local scholarships you’re eligible for. The logic with this is that even though these scholarships may not be big money, there is less competition because most people don’t know about them. Jocelyn herself had some great experiences applying (and getting) local scholarships for her own degree. One degree she mentioned only had 4 applicants, and the it was then decided that the scholarship would be divided evenly amongst each applicant so everyone came out ahead! Pitch Companies to Start their Own Scholarships If there’s a company you like, pitch them the idea to start their own scholarship. Not only would there be some potential tax benefits, it could also be used as a marketing tool or a way for them to recruit future talent. All You Need Is One Great Application Kit Yes, it will take you some to get your materials together to apply to a bunch of different scholarships, but here’s a great tip. Just focus your energy on creating one awesome application kit, that should include things like a personal statement, then tweak those documents just a little bit to customize them for each application. Most students think they need to create unique documents for each application, but you can actually just duplicate what you’ve got by making small changes to each. That’s what you do when you’re applying for different jobs, so it’s the same thing for scholarship applications. For full episode show notes, visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/160 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to episode 160 of the Mo Money Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse. Thanks so much for listening to another episode of mine. And I can't wait to share this episode with you. I've been looking forward to sharing it all freaking season because I think this woman is just amazing. I just look up to her so much. I think what she's doing is fabulous. I'm talking about Jocelyn Paonita. I met her in person a couple years back at FinCon in San Diego. And when I learned more about her and her business, I was just like, wow, she's got it going on. She's got a really great idea, really great business model. And also she's somehow figured out that kind of magic recipe of

creating a money making business so she can, you know, kind can do what she wants and follow her passion, but also help others. Sometimes it seems like you've got to pick one or the other, make money or help people, but she's been able to create a business that's all about helping people. Her business is called The Scholarship System. It started with a book that she wrote that she put out and then kind of morphed into a website and online courses. And it's all about educating parents and students on how they can basically get scholarships to help pay for their post-secondary education so they don't have to rely on student loans and then start off their real adult life, their post-grad life buried in debt, which is a huge concern with young people today. It's one of the things that I kind of wish I learned a little bit more about when I was in high school. I did take advantage of a couple

scholarships I knew about, but I'm pretty sure I could have optimized it more. She was able to pay for her whole degree. There's a lot of other people I know that were able to do the same. And I kind of wish looking back, wouldn't that have been nice if I was able to do the same, get a bunch of scholarships to pay for more of my degree because then all the money that I would have earned while working and going to school, well, I could have saved that money. I could have maybe even started investing it. I don't know. So there's lots of things that I think is really cool about this. It's really educating people about, hey, you don't have to go into debt if you want to go to school and get a degree. There are so many options out there. And her whole business and platform is all about teaching you how to find these scholarships and grants and this money that is available.

And the thing is, honestly, like, and I know this from talking to, you know, a lot of people, too, in this business or, you know, who help people with scholarships. There's so many available scholarships and grants out there that just people don't know about. So they don't apply. And it's like leaving money on the table, basically. So anyways, we get more into that, all the specifics in this episode. So I'm super excited to share more about that with you guys. But before I get to this interview with Jocelyn, here's just a few words about this episode's sponsor. It's spring cleaning time, but I'm not talking about decluttering your home. I'm talking about taking this opportunity to organize your finances. If you want to prevent a headache next tax season

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You can even link your bank account so your business expenses are automatically added to FreshBooks. You see, there's a reason I've been using it for the past few years, and that's because it's simple and it works. And FreshBooks is offering MoMoney podcast listeners a 30-day unrestricted free trial when you go to freshbooks.com slash mo and enter Mo Money Podcast in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Once again, go to freshbooks.com slash mo and enter Mo Money Podcast in the How Did You Hear About Us section. Thank you, Jocelyn, for joining me on the Mo Money Podcast. I'm so excited to finally have you on the show because literally when I was emailing you, it's been on my list for you to be a guest on my show for way too long. And it's my fault for just not getting my stuff together and reaching out

after we met at FinCon a couple of years back. Yeah. Well, thanks for having me. I'm really excited to be here. Yeah. But yeah, I remember meeting you at FinCon San Diego and I just was so inspired by what you were doing, the course that you created. You're just like, I'm like, yeah, I want to get to that level. That sounds amazing. And then you reached another level when you were able to move to a beautiful paradise-like location and live there full time. That sounds nice. How is it there? You know what? It's lower 80s today. So and it's lower 80s to mid 80s all the time. So it's quite nice. But no, I appreciate the kind words. When I met you, I was so impressed. So all of the feelings are likewise. I completely disagree that you need

to get to my level because there's so much I want to learn from you. So I do appreciate you saying that. You're welcome. Well, so let's kind of, I guess, go back a little bit so people can know what I'm talking about, because where you started to where you are now is a pretty incredible leap or journey that you've been able to do for yourself. But let's kind of go back. Your story kind of starts with you wanting to go to university. You have four siblings. Am I right? That's a lot. Yeah. One of five. Yeah. One of five. And so you weren't exactly, it's not like your parents had a bunch of money floating around to be able to pay for your school. So how were you able to kind of figure that out on your own? Yeah. So when I started, when I'm the oldest of all of us. So when the college discussion came about, my parents broke the news. They said, you know, there's a lot of you. So even though we'd

love to pay for college, there's just no way that we can. And for anyone that knows, college is expensive everywhere, but it's especially insane in the U.S. Just out of curiosity, how much on average is a year of university these days in the United States? I want to say the average is now over $30,000 a year. Ooh! That is so crazy. It's a six-figure investment. It's a mortgage for some people.

And that's on the affordable side. If you go to, you know, Northeast, uh, United States schools, you're looking at 50 K a year. Some, some of them, their tuition is 50 K a year. Yeah. Wow. That's crazy. So how, how did you pay for school? So, so I was just to, to tell them why I'm even bringing this up because a lot of people go to school. I was able to not only go to college completely free, but I got scholarships to pay plus some. So I even had a little bit left over every semester to help pay for living expenses. But you know, that wasn't an overnight thing. It was a very long, painful, drawn out process of trying to figure out how to get scholarships to help pay for college. So that and really it was a gradual approach. But in the end, I didn't have to borrow a single penny of debt. And because of that, I've had so many opportunities, you know, to start my own business where I'm helping other families do this now, and even to be able to move to an island like what you insinuated earlier. But yeah, I was able to get scholarships to completely pay for that six-figure degree. How did you know to even kind of go down that

route? Because I feel like everyone knows that there's grants, there's bursaries, there's scholarships. They're available, but most people don't take advantage or they don't even know where to look. Or it does sound like a painful process, like you mentioned, so they don't bother. They're like, I'll just get a job and try to save up and maybe I'll get a student loan, but I'll be able to take care of it. How did you know that, no, I'm going to really pursue this route and see if I can make it work for me? Sure. So I completely understand all of those feelings because when I first heard about scholarships, I thought the same thing where I was like, there's no way this is real that you can get a free ride. But one of my friend's parents, she said to me, she said, Jocelyn, if you make applying for scholarships your job, your senior year, you can get paid for four years. And like most 17-year-olds,

that sounded pretty nice to work for one school year and get paid for four years. So, and that's not exactly how it worked, but in the end it is. Now, as far as knowing where to begin, I didn't, I really didn't. It started off, I was sucked into scams. I got so many junk messages from it. I submitted so many applications to the wrong places. So really, the first year was me just trial and error in a lot of error. Yeah. And really not seeing any results. So I didn't have any guidance like what I do now helping students. I had to figure it out the hard way. So when did you start, I guess, looking for scholarships? Was it in grade 12 or was it even earlier than that? So fortunately,

I started the year before my last year in high school. So that's my junior year, grade 11. And that was the entire year that was wasted by applying to these scams, the sweepstakes scholarships where they're based on luck. And then towards the end of my junior year, I actually did finally win one small local scholarship for 500 bucks, which isn't that much. But, you know, some people are probably like, geez, my books are more than that. But what it did for me was it showed me that, Hey, don't quit because there actually is money out there. You just need to know what you're looking for. And so come my senior year, I was able to take everything I learned from and tweak my

process. And that's when I started seeing the money roll in. Now, did it have a lot to do with how well you did in school? I'm assuming it had a lot to do with like your academics. You know what? A lot of it. So academics, I, my SAT score these days is below average. I didn't get anything.

No, my university only gave me $2,000 a year, I think. So it wasn't like I was some merit scholar or something like that or got the Coca-Cola or anything like that. It was a lot of local scholarships that simply, you know, you needed maybe a 3.0 to apply. So actually, believe it or not, I was a pretty average student. It's just that I was one of the few that actually did the work to get the money. And that's kind of what I hear from other people who were able to kind of do similar to you, get some scholarships to pay for school. They said just some people just, you know, if three people apply, then you have a one in three chance.

And I think there is a big misconception that you need to be a straight A student, have that 4.0 to get these scholarships. Because I did pretty well in school, but I was not a 4.0 student at all. But I got, yeah, I got scholarships because I was one of the few people that actually took the time to figure out how to apply or what can I do now to get a little bit of money, you know, in the future. Did you, so I know we kind of talked about it a little bit, you looking for scholarships while you were in high school, were you able, like, this is a question I just don't even know, while you're in university, can you still find scholarships while you're a student or does it have to be all before you enter university? That's a fantastic question. So I got enough money to cover my first year in college during

high school. But then once I got to college, I had to get more and more and more for each following year. So actually, I kept on applying. And each year, I would end up with even more money than the year prior. So to answer your question, whether or not you have to have it by the end of high school, that's completely false. You can and should apply as a college student. If anything, it's actually almost easier to get money once you're in college because you're showing them that you're actually doing it. You're probably proving with good grades and involvements that you are actually doing it. You're probably, you know, proving with good grades and involvements

that you are going to graduate, you are going to make the most of this degree, and that makes you more competitive. And does it depend, like, does, is there any, I guess, are you favored or do you have a better chance of getting these scholarships depending on what you're majoring in? Like, will they, like, you have a better chance if you're in business where instead of, like, fine arts or something? So some majors, I would say some majors have more options for money than others. For example, we hear STEM majors, right? There's a shortage of people in STEM degrees, science, technology, engineering, and math. So naturally, there is more money out there for that major. I do think that majoring in the arts, those seem to be more competitive. I think students are

willing to do the work because they know that the chances of getting a salary out of college are a little bit lower. So major, you know, it can dictate what they're eligible to apply for. But the thing is, major is just one of so many different topics and characteristics and purpose, you know, reasons that you can get money. And so major, none of my scholarships had to do with major. Yeah. So, so, and that's part of what we work with students on is to think outside the box. Okay. Yes, we can start with major. That's a great place to start, but what else can you possibly get money for? Are you passionate about something? Are you involved in something? Did you accomplish something unique? Those are different, you know, just to start to

write off a few that you could get money for. Wow. Yeah, I had no idea. So what are some other things like, so, you know, you said starting with your major, great starting place. What are some other things to think about? Is it like extracurriculars or? Yeah. So if you were to begin, I would, you always want to look for local, right? So the first and foremost, you want to look at local foundations. You want to look at local businesses because a lot of times their criteria won't be necessarily based on major, but it'll just say, if you live within this, you know, city, state, region, whatever it is that, that, you know, province, that will be the criteria. So local and naturally by having that criteria, it's going to be less competitive because only people that live there are eligible

to apply. So, you know, looking local that, and oftentimes universities or universities, if you're a college student, but especially high schools, they will have information on those. We have, and I'm not sure about in Canada, but I would imagine there's like Rotary Clubs, Elks Clubs. Okay. Yeah. So exactly. Kiwanis, all of these, and those have local chapters. They also have national chapters, but that's another example of a local place that you can look. And my last one is, you know, one of my favorites is to think about businesses that they frequently visit or use and ask. Ask if they have a scholarship or if they've ever thought of having one. I've seen students get one created for them.

Yeah, because I guess so is the benefit for a business to create a scholarship is like tax benefits. So there's some, yeah, that's why they would want to. So that's like a reason to, if you need to convince a business, Hey, have you ever thought of this? It'd be, you know, good for tax purposes. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, some people are doing it for marketing now and, you know, and also some people who do base it on major, they do it to find potential employees. So different businesses have different reasons. But there are so many. Every day I get emails.

I wouldn't say every day, but multiple times a week I get an email with someone that's launching their own scholarship to share with students. Yeah, and that's a really proactive way to think about it. It's like, okay, if I can't find scholarships for me, maybe I can make someone make a scholarship for me. I've never even thought that was a possibility. That is so interesting. Oh, wow. So I love that. By the way, what did you study in school? I did international business. Oh, okay. Makes sense. Living internationally. Yeah. Having your own business makes sense. So what, I guess, because you spent all of your

school learning about this, and it does seem like you, from anyone I've talked to, you have the most knowledge about scholarships specifically. Is that what kind of eventually inspired you to, instead of go off in the corporate world and just do that path, to be like, hey, maybe I should make my own business because I have all this knowledge and there's not a lot of information about it out there. Yeah. So it was actually an accidental kind of process to getting to where I am now. So to give your listeners a little bit of a background. So now I'm running the scholarship system. It's a six-step system. We have an online course that we take families through to get scholarships. But that wasn't

the initial idea when I graduated college. I actually went into the corporate world and was in finance. And I just had a lot of people asking me, how did you do this? How did you do this? And I kept, I realized I sounded like a broken record. And so what we decided to do was put it in a book and self publish it. And it did very well. It became an Amazon bestseller. And what's that called? It's called the scholarship. Okay. Good to know. And that's what we turned into our course. So, so, you know, that's kind of the natural flow. So it was while I was in the corporate world, I wrote the book and I just went back to my job and that was supposed to be the end of it. But then I kept seeing more and more interest. So what we

did was we took the book and elaborated on it, made it way more intense and more, you know, step-by-step implementable and turn it into an online course that students now use. Wow. And so even though you have this business background and what I've been learning, just having your own online business, I mean, doing all these kind of digital products is so new. How did you even start to figure out,

like, how does one make a course? It took me forever to figure out. I had to take a course to figure out how to make a course. It was so hard to figure that out. How did you get started with that? You know, believe it. So this is two, two and a half years ago. Wow. So it took some time. So this was, well, yeah, well, but two and a half years ago, there weren't courses on how to make courses. There wasn't software like Teachable and Thinkific and, you know, pre-made solutions for this. It was kind of new. Yeah.

So a lot of what I did. So now we're getting into kind of the entrepreneurial side. Yes. You know, which I love. Which I love. It lights me up. But it was challenging. I can tell you right now, you could ask my husband.

There were nights where I would just be crying because some software crashed my site and God knows what. But really what I was doing was I was watching people that I found impressive. I was watching what kind of Facebook ads were working on me, what kind of funnels were working on me. And I tried to dissect those and I took my favorite parts of all of them and I put them together. And March will be two years now with the course as it is today. So, you know, we were kind of early in that process before a lot of people were doing it. Yeah. But it seems like you clearly did kind of figure out a good recipe for yourself. Cause like, just looking on your Facebook, you have like 16,000 people on there.

And it seems like whenever I'm on there, you get a ton of engagement. Like people just love what you're putting out. Yeah. And I think, and, and I appreciate that because, you know, as an entrepreneur, you're always looking at the horizon and the next thing and the next thing. So you forget how far you've come because I do remember posting stuff on Facebook and it just being crickets. Yeah. And you know, that's the worst feeling when you put in so much effort behind all of this and then you don't get any kind of feedback. But you know, that was a gradual process. And what I found, and I hate to be cliche or repeat, keep hearing, but we just started putting out topics that we knew they were asking. We were literally going through and saying, what questions are people asking on this topic?

And believe it or not, we primarily work with parents. So parents are the ones who are kind of, they're the ones that are terrified about the bill and the ones that are trying to get their kids to really get moving on scholarships. So a lot of our audience is parents and, you know, they're passionate about this. They don't want their children buried in debt. And so we know what kind of answers they need at their fingertips to be able to help their child. And that's what we put out there. And it's just been a slow and gradual process of getting where we are now. Yeah. But I remember reading on your website that, and maybe you have an updated number, but you've been able to help so many parents save like $700,000 or something like that. Yeah. So our number is quickly approaching a million dollars

in scholarships. So we haven't tallied it in a while, but we're over 800,000, which is amazing. It's just so rewarding. Yeah. So that's people getting free money to get their advanced education so they can live, not have these crazy debt burdens that we're all struggling with. That's amazing. Yeah. Thank you. And I was actually talking to someone about this yesterday, you know, it's, it's fantastic to have a business that's working and that's profitable and that's growing, but even more so this business specifically, it's a feel good business. It feels amazing when you get that email saying my daughter just got $4,000 or $2,000. I mean, I, I, that's, that's, you can, they can probably hear it. I'm smiling, you know, it just feels so good. Yeah. Heck yeah. Like I, cause I know, you know, what a lot of you teach is US based. Hopefully

maybe you can create something for Canada. Cause I feel like so many people listening who are, you know, from Canada, they're like, yeah, heck yeah. I want to figure out how I can help myself or my sister or my brother or my future children. Because for me, it's been like, I know I started on a really good path financially because I didn't have a big debt burden. I had a very small $5,000 student loan. I was able to crush that in nine months, even when I wasn't working full time. I just had gigs and just put everything to the loan, but was basically debt-free when I graduated. Whereas most of my friends had like $50,000 that they were on the hook for. And when you have this big debt, you have to make different choices. You won't take as many risks. You might be stuck in a job you hate for longer because you need to pay off this debt. It's just, yeah, I'm all about trying to avoid debt if you can. And the first, you know, kind of experience with debt a lot of people have is student loans. Well, and it's funny you say that. So I see so much stuff about getting out of debt and that's amazing. But there's not, there aren't that many conversations about how to stay out of it in the

first place. Yeah. Like just don't do it. Right. Exactly. Like just don't let your kids sign up. Don't. And I know that that's terrifying to say, you know what, you're not going there, but sometimes it's, it will pay off by not having them go to this six figure debt school. Yeah. Maybe go to a little bit of a lesser university, but still get the experience they need and actually be able to stay afloat when they graduate. That, that will, I mean, actually, um, have you read the book, uh, millionaire next door? Yeah. Yeah. So I don't know if you remember where it talks about how, you know, lawyers and doctors, actually it's the blue collar workers that are millionaires because the lawyers and doctors, actually, it's the blue collar workers that are millionaires

because the lawyers and doctors, first off, it takes eight years of study. So they don't even get started until they're almost 30 years old. And secondly, they have all this debt. And so they're at such a disadvantage. They don't get to start until way later in life. And so in the end, those without the debt actually come out ahead. And it's true because honestly, me and my husband, like my husband's friends that he has from high school, all of them work in the trades, you know, electricians and so on. And they're all the ones that were able to buy, you know, properties to invest in and rent out or whatever. They are all the ones doing very well. They did not get degrees. And it's kind of one of those things you're like, okay, I always thought the path to, you know, financial security and wealth was getting that four-year degree. But maybe not. Maybe there's definitely another path, you know, first avoiding debt altogether. Or like there's an absolutely, I don't know why more people aren't talking about the benefits of, you know, working in trades and having kind of a more practical job than, you know, working in an office somewhere. Right, right.

And so that is the whole discussion itself. And I'm all about trades. Yeah. And so now what we're doing is we're saying, okay, if you have decided it's right for you, let's at least do the work so that we can get scholarships to pay for it. A hundred percent. Yeah. Because still with those trade jobs, you still have to go to school, unfortunately. But still, it's a different path that I feel like, yeah, just my generation, our generation rather, like we were just really sold this idea that university was the absolutely,

if you're smart and you want to get a good job and be successful, you have to go to university and you have to go to the best university. And then, you know, now so many years later, I mean, I've been out of school for like seven or eight years now. Like, oh my gosh, that is, maybe that was true like 15, 20 years ago, but now like everything's changed so much. And I mean, now, you know, I've had a lot of jobs in my career and not a lot of them care what university I went to. Like, oh, you got a degree. Great. And then they just care about what your experience is. Right. Yeah, exactly. And then so many of us are doing side hustles or online businesses or, you know, everyone has this other stream of income anyway, these days, you know, with the internet, we're able to test an idea in a matter of minutes and, and monetize whatever it is that we can do a value. So I think that's shaking it up a lot too.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Before I let you go, I just, we talked a lot about like some of the great strategies for getting scholarships, but before I let you go, what is maybe one or two tips that you would like people listening to know that maybe they weren't aware of? You definitely had some really good ones before, but like, what's like one tip that maybe, you know, a parent listening that wants to look more into this, like it could even just be like, what's the first place to look for more information? Yeah, sure. Great. So with scholarships, we first and foremost know that, especially as a parent, you're going to hear from your child, it's going to take so much time and work and effort, but know that if they can get really good materials, fine tuned, they can actually reuse them. And that's what I was able to do.

So I was able to create a core personal statement essay and I was able to use it across so many different applications. So I think the first, the first thing there is, you know, if you need to sell your kid on this, um, or if you're trying to understand yourself, if you're looking for money out there and understanding the time commitment, I'm not saying it's fast and easy, but there are, you know, economies of scale that you can get by having quality materials at your fingertips. Yeah. And the second thing I think that I could share is, you know, earlier we talked about how sometimes there were only three applicants. So we actually offer our own scholarship and we have one for our members only. We have one for non-members and the one for non-members, we only got seven applicants and it was shared. I think

it was shared like 2000 times or something like that, like something crazy. And we only got seven applicants. And one of my scholarships that I applied for, there were only four applicants, two awards. So what they decided to do was split it among all of us. And so we, it was literally a 100% success rate. So all that to say, you know, find these smaller dollar scholarships. Okay. Don't worry about the hundred thousand dollar ones. Find the smaller dollar ones that are less competitive, that are more local, because you never know. You might be the only one that applies to it. Absolutely. Yeah. I feel like some people think that these scholarships are even like a bit different, but similar like contests that are out there. Like, oh, there's no point in applying.

There's going to be a million people. Well, yeah. If you're like applying to win the lottery for sure. But sometimes those small scholarships or contests, there's like no one. Like I just did a podcast contest too. And it was just like, fill out these five questions to let me know what you think about it. Seven people did it. I'm like, okay, well, I'm giving away a couple gift cards. So you have a very good chance of winning. and it's just like, it takes two seconds. Right. So yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Well, okay. Before, uh, we say goodbye, where can, uh, people learn more about you and the scholarship system? So if they want to learn more, they can go to the scholarship system.com. We have tons of helpful information on there. Um, and honestly, a lot of our strategies, they apply to Canadians too, you know, learning how to search.

And a lot of our tips are regarding skill sets to compete for them. So they can go to thescholarshipsystem.com and find it all there. Well, thanks again, Jocelyn, for joining me on the show. It was so awesome talking to you. Thanks for having me. And that was episode 160 with the lovely Jocelyn Paonita. Make sure to check out her website, thescholarshipsystem.com. You can also buy a copy of her book on Amazon.

Again, it's also called The Scholarship System. Super easy to find in Google. But again, I'm going to include a lot more information about stuff that we talked about in the show notes. Check those out at jessicamorehouse.com slash 160. And yeah, yeah. Isn't she awesome? Yeah. Scholarships, guys. Come on. We need to get on it. Let's stop the cycle of, you know, getting buried in student debt and just like having like $50,000 to pay off after 10 years. It just, I don't know. It really grinds my gears, guys. Just the whole student loan debt thing.

It really bugs me. Anyway, so I have a few more important things to share with you, so do not go away. But here's just a few words about this episode's wonderful sponsor. Track your hours, format the estimate, work out taxes, capture your expenses, chase that late payment, prepare the invoice, work out taxes, capture your expenses, chase that late payment, prepare the invoice, submit the proposal. Welcome to the worst part of being a freelancer, otherwise known as paperwork. The good news is that the good people at FreshBooks have created a ridiculously easy cloud accounting software for freelancers that turns tackling these time-sucking, never-ending tasks into no big thing.

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importantly, no more wasting your precious time. To find out all the ways FreshBooks will transform how you deal with your paperwork and to get a free 30-day trial, go to freshbooks.com slash mo and enter a MoMoney podcast in the how did you hear about us section. Once again, that's freshbooks.com slash m o and enter momoneypodcast in the how did you hear about us section. Alrighty, so first things first. Of course, I mentioned a couple of past episodes. If you are looking to get rich and fit or rich or fit. Does that make sense? It is what it is. Anyways, while me and my business partner, Jacqueline Phillips, have split our Rich and Fit Bootcamp into two. So if you want to create a solid financial foundation for yourself and want

to stop making excuses and start taking action, then you'll definitely want to sign up to Rich and Fit Financial Foundations, a six-week course helping you create a solid financial foundation for yourself so you can start saving money, paying down your debt, being better with your money, and stop this endless cycle of anxiety and fear and feeling bad about your financial situation. But if you're more interested in getting fit, as in physically fit, you may want to check out Rich and Fit Fitness Foundations, which is actually, this is like the perfect time to do it. I mean, I've started since the sun has come out and feels like summer now. I started working out a lot more using the workouts in our program, as well as going to

some classes and stuff and spicing it up. Um, cause I want to get fit. Um, if that is something that is on your mind and you really want to, you know, stop complaining about how you feel and how you look and just actually get some results and work hard and don't mind feeling sore every day, uh, because no pain, no gain, um, then definitely check that course out. You can find all the information about our three courses. So that's Rich and Fit Bootcamp, Rich and Fit Financial Foundations, and Rich and Fit Fitness Foundations at our website, richandfit.co. Of course, I will include more information in the show notes, jessicamarines.com slash 160. But as a little incentive for the rest of the month,

I will be offering Mo Money podcast listeners a special discount 20% off all of our courses with the promo code Mo Money. Again, this promo code is only going to last for the rest of the month of May. So take advantage while you can 20% off, not too bad. And also with the, this is probably, you know, a really good incentive as well. When you sign up for the financial foundations course, you also get a free one on one coaching session with myself after you complete the course, which is valued at $150. So it's actually a very good deal. Anyway, so that's that. So that's the little self promo. Okay. Now some good, good, exciting, you know, contest times. I'm giving away some books, some books that inspire me and hopefully will inspire you too. So I am giving away a copy of

all the books that have been featured on this current season of the podcast. There's a ton of authors that have been on the show this season, and they're all amazing. I read them all, love them all, want to share the love. So make sure to go to jessicamorehouse.com book giveaway or check the show notes to enter to win a copy of one of the books. This is also a really great time just to grab a book, go outside in the sunshine, get a little picnic going on and read, read a nice old personal finance book. Maybe that's just my happy time, but it could be your happy time too. So that is really it for me, guys. I'm going to be back here next Wednesday, as always. This season is actually going to be wrapping up pretty quick too. It's May now,

but it's going to be June, June very soon. And the season is going to wrap up at the end of June, then I'm going to take a little summer break, a nice deserved summer break. So yeah, anyways, that's enough from me. I will see you back here next Wednesday. And I look forward to seeing you back here next Wednesday. Okay. All right. See you. Bye. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.