More Money Podcast - 231 Her Husband Died Suddenly at 34, Here's How She Came Out On Top - Keisha Blair, Economist & Author of Holistic Wealth

Episode Date: March 11, 2020

Keisha and her husband at a young age were very focused on early retirement and nurturing their brand new family. At 34, Keisha and her husband welcomed a brand new baby into the world and becoming an executive was just in sight for Keisha. When their baby was eight weeks old, her husband became very ill and died suddenly.  They later came to the conclusion that he had a very rare disease. This disease was so rare that a year after her husband died, an international medical team had to get together to diagnose the disease.  This series of events shook Keisha’s world and drove her straight into writing. There she was able to share her struggles and deepest thoughts surrounding the tragic experience she went through.  In this episode we talk about her new book, Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons To Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity, and Happiness. Keisha walks us through her financial journey and the types of teams she worked with, in creating a healthy financial future for her children and herself as she did not have a will or estate plan in place when her husband passed suddenly.  I am incredibly moved by the major financial moves she has made out of a tragedy she wasn’t prepared for. If you or someone you love is not prepared for a sudden passing, give them the tools to get a plan in place so everyone, including yourself, is safeguarded for the longterm.    For full episode show notes visit https://jessicamoorhouse.com/231 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome back to the Mo Money Podcast. I'm your host, Jessica Morehouse, and this is episode 231. And boy, do I have an amazing episode for you. I feel like this is actually almost perfect timing just because there's a lot of craziness going on. I mean, it's been a crazy 2020 already. It's just like, can we relax for a minute? Can we just take a breath? Apparently not. But for this episode, I have the wonderful Keisha Blair on the show. She is a trained economist and she's the author of the recently released and bestselling book, Holistic Wealth, 32 Life Lessons to Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity, and Happiness. Now, her book is actually based on a viral article that she

wrote and then published on Thrive Global. I will link to that article in the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 231 if you want to check that out. The article had a crazy title too. Of course, you're going to read it. Of course, it went viral. It was called My Husband Died at Age 34. Here Are 40 Life Less I learned from it. That article was viewed by more than 50 million people globally, which is insane, and was voted the best personal finance article for millennials for February 2018. And Keisha is also a Harvard-trained policy expert and was even part of the Prime Minister of Canada's delegation to the World Economic Forum in 2018, and she is based out of Ottawa. So we're going to talk about some of these life lessons that she wrote in her article and in her book to, I think, give us all a little bit of perspective

as we freak out about what's going on in the stock market right now. Because I think we need to kind of take a beat, take a second to remember that life can be short. It can also be long. And we need to, no matter what, we need to prepare ourselves. We need to protect ourselves. We also need to make sure that we're living our lives with more intention. We're being mindful. We're not taking what we have, what time we have for granted.

So you're going to love this episode because I absolutely loved having Keisha on the show. But before I get to that interview with Keisha, here's just a few words about this episode's sponsor. This episode of the Mo Money Podcast is supported by YouFile. It's that time of year again, you know, time to file your taxes. So how are you going to do it this year? Why not join over 1 million Canadians who put their trust into Ufile's 20 years of experience helping taxpayers get it done? No matter if you've got a simple return or your situation is a bit more complex,

like you're self-employed, have lots of investment income, or have rental properties, Ufile can help. Moreover, if you're a student or filing return for the first time, or have a very simple tax return to file, or if your family's income is less than $20,000, you may be eligible to file your return with Ufile absolutely free. Ufile also offers the triple guarantee, meaning you get their assurance of accuracy, satisfaction, and the best tax result. To learn more and to get your taxes over and done with the pain-free way, visit ufile.ca. And as a special bonus, get 15% off when you use promo code

MoMoney. Once again, that's ufile.ca and make sure to use code MoMoney to get 15% off. Well, thank you so much, Keisha, for taking the time to chat with me on the show. I'm so excited to share your story. I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me. You're so welcome. So you kind of became well-known because of this article that you wrote that has such a, it's kind of a heartbreaking title. If I'm honest, my husband died at 34. Here are 40 life lessons I learned from it. And it went viral, I believe in 2018. How did this article come about first? Like, how did you decide to write this article? And then it just kind of, you know, caught fire to,

so to speak, and that everyone just kept on reading it and sharing it. Yeah, so I was working on a memoir. And I was pitching that out to publishers and, you know, getting the type of feedback, you know, oh, you know, memoir is hard to sell. And, you know, you have to be like a celebrity. And so I sat down and, you know, I I was turning 42 that year and and I sat down and I was like, well, you know, I've been writing for for a long time. You know, and I've been through this transformative experience. What are the lessons, you know, you've learned from this? And I just started writing that. And I kid you not, I don't know if it was because I had the manuscript and I was working on the memoir, but it just came out and it didn't take me much time to put the article out. It was like in a day. And yeah, and I was very surprised. But what I knew, which I also say in the book, is it was the most vulnerable piece of writing I had done.

I felt like I had buried my soul so much so that I felt like if nobody read it, it would have been fine because it was almost just very soul bearing. And, you know, a lot of the lessons in the article and the book really stem from that experience, you know, even the financial ones of walking into the hospital ER with my husband living and breathing to walking out three hours later with a white plastic bag with his things. And so that was like the crux of it for me. And I still have that moment when I, you know, remember that. And it grounds me a lot because when I think about that prescient moment, it, you know, it puts life into perspective for me. So that's kind of how it started. And yeah, like it's really started out of a lot of thinking and writing done because I had this memoir and it was kind of shaping up through that process and just getting those lessons down. Yeah, absolutely. So can you

share a little bit about the background? You kind of shared that you've been writing for a long time and also, I hate to ask this because it seems like such a personal question, but you did write about it. It's like, what happened exactly? This big, you know, life-changing event. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So he had a very, very rare illness. It's so rare that most doctors, it's called pheochromocytoma.

Most doctors will never see it in their lifetime because it's so rare. They'll only see it in textbooks. And that was why that night when he went in, it was so hard for them to discover it because they don't even know from a biochemical perspective how to test for it, most doctors. And so it's likely that, you know, it was a tumor on the adrenal gland and it was growing, getting bigger until one day it erupted. His family doctor didn't pick this up before. They had to assemble a whole team of international experts and pathologists and the chief investigative coroner for Ontario into a team to really diagnose it. so bizarre, the circumstances, someone so young, so fit, he ran in most of the marathons and half marathons here, and showed no signs of illness, apart from like a headache now and again. And, and so yeah, it was it was something that was really one for the books in terms of, you know, how this unfolded and the circumstances.

Wow. That's just, yeah, incredible. And I mean, I can't imagine going through something like that, but it sounds like it was sudden and that's part of what was so, I guess, kind of life-changing is you, there's no time to prepare mentally or otherwise. Exactly, exactly. No time to prepare. And I had just given birth eight weeks prior to my second child. The first was just three. So I had a three-year-old, an eight-week-old, and then suddenly this happens out of nowhere. And so like you'll see lots of the life lessons, you know, like in the book and in the article really surround the type of planning that we all need to do, because it really put things into perspective for me. And luckily we had done a lot of that.

He was a CPA and a CGA and I was a trained economist. But even then, you know, I felt like, oh, my gosh, like these things not only need to be done, but need to be planned way in advance for. And I just felt like it was my mission now to help spread this message to people that it's so important. Yeah. What were some of those things that you wish you could, you know, could have been more prepared for, or maybe you were prepared for and you're like, thank goodness we had that in place. Yeah. So there were things that we were prepared for, but not fully, you know, like we, um, we didn't have a will because we were young. And so we just didn't think of that. You know, we were just having young kids and we were more thinking of, you know, we need to put the RESPs in place and making sure we have the RRSPs and making sure like those, you know, those things that you plan for when you're just expanding a family. But we didn't have a will in place. And so that's one

thing that I look back and I'm like, wow, yeah, we didn't. But thankfully, we had all, for some reason, we had all joint accounts. And so I was able to access funds that, you know, like were tied up in elsewhere that I wouldn't have been able to access otherwise. And luckily, I had a financial advisor in place. I had lawyers. It's so amazing when these things happen, the types of teams you need behind you. It's like a whole infrastructure. And so that's the whole thing, too, is that making sure that you're connected to who you need to be connected to just in case you need to. And if you're, of course, you know, like developing a will, then you would have a lawyer in place or you might have your financial advisor in place. And so luckily we did because

I had always had this, and I don't know if it was like a premonition, but I always had this need to be prepared and to have everything in place. So that's kind of an example of an area that, you know, we don't think about a lot like wills and estate planning, but it's so important. So important. Yeah. And I think that's like a big common thing I hear from people, especially, you know, young families. They're like, well, we're just getting started. We're just starting our lives. But I mean, no one plans, you know, for that to happen. So you got to plan for the, you know, what could possibly happen. You just never know.

And I guess besides that, you were inspired. I think it's like really commendable that you took this, you know, kind of tragedy and turned it into something kind of beautiful to also help people. Why were you inspired or motivated to write down some of your thoughts and feelings and then share it with the world in terms of like, here are some things that I learned to improve my life after this, you know, terrible thing that happened to me. Yeah. So they're, they're, they're have, you know, like in, in terms of like my goals and my life, I've, I've always, always, and I don't know why, I don't know if it was just this fair of not having enough, but I've always, you know, had the objective of being financially independent. And that started as soon as I started working. So as soon as I got out of university and started

working, it became my goal. And we worked towards it even before he died, you know. And for me, though, it was just like, yeah, early retirement, early retirement. It was never about estate planning, estate planning, just in case somebody dies. And so it dawned on me after he died that that helped to save me in a big way because I was like, well, you know, we were almost there in becoming financially independent, even at that point. And I was just like, well, thank you, because we were not only still young, still starting a family. But my career was just getting off the ground and, you know, building up to something that would have been like, I say it in the book too, in terms of, you know,

becoming an executive. And I was just on the cusp of that. And, you know, when I wrote that article, all of these things came to bear for me because it was like this, this aha moment where I said, oh my gosh, it was because of this foreplanning and this insight and the foresight to be able to think long-term and to think ahead and be aggressive at it, even at a young age, saved me from this tragedy becoming even more tragic. And it would have been more tragic if those things weren't in place and if we didn't have those goals. And that's why I started to put pen to paper because I felt like I had to tell everyone. And like, I've, I've written several articles since then where I've talked about for women,

especially becoming having the goal. Cause I know it's not, it's not like a, you know, it's not an easy goal. It's not something that happens overnight, but I think we all need to have that goal because, you know, I talk about financial resilience and financial resourceful and being able to plan ahead to have those two things in place. You can take the time you need to bounce back, take the time you need to recreate a vision in your life. It's very important when these things happen. And that was kind of front and center for me when I wrote that article. Absolutely. And just like going through the article and the book, of course, there's so many things that I think is probably why it's such a good book. They hit home. They're very things that I feel like a lot of us have thought about before. Just lots of the things

that you share are just so, I don't know, they're probably personal to you, but personal to so many other people and things that I think we should all try. Like, I know there's so many things that you wrote down. I'm like, these are things I've been trying to do for so long, such as, I know, you know, ignore the naysayers and, you know, take time for yourself and life is short. One thing I feel like a lot of people struggle with and myself included is how to actually put some of those, you know, great pieces of advice into action. How do you find the strength or the motivation to actually live your life along those lines? Yeah, no. And it's hard. Especially when you're in the midst of like a setback or a transition into something new. It's hard. And I think that's why I had to take

a step back. You know, after he died, I really had to take a step back and really rethink what I wanted for my life and for myself and for the kids and to kind of recreate that mission. And like I talk about that, you know, a lot in the book about defining a mission for yourself. Cause I, I, you know, for me, it was a whole process of re-emerging and like a rebirth. And I, I had to do that in order to, to move forward. And so that's a big part for me in terms of, you know, finding a path forward. And it has to be aligned with values, with our values. And after that happened to me, my values, you know, became clear to me in terms of how I wanted to live, how I wanted to spend my time. I did not want to be forced into a situation where, you know, I had to be forced into a job or in something that I was happy with. And,

and so in, in, in that mission, then that becomes the forefront. And so that's helped to ground me a lot and, and also taking that step back to think. And I mean, you know, I could talk about the sabbatical and the article in the book, but it was a lifesaver for me because, you know, we get caught up in the motions of life. We get caught up in our day to days and we never take the time to reassess unless, of course course something like this happens where we're forced to do it. But I think even in the absence of that, it's also good to take that step backwards, just to reassess, okay, am I at the place I want to be and how do I get there? Yeah, absolutely. And I feel like a lot of us, yeah, like you said, we get caught up in the motions and just the busyness of daily life. And sometimes I feel

like the people that I know in my life who have made a big change or pivot in their life, it's because something, a big event like something like this happened. I mean, even in, you know, my personal life as, you know, people have passed away, my grandparents, it's made me kind of rethink things. And, you know, my husband, his dad passed away when, you know, he was in his, uh, when my husband was in his twenties and we were together and that, that made a big impact on the direction that we took in our own lives. Like that, I think was a big trigger in us deciding to, to leave our hometown and, and kind of do something crazy and move to Toronto and, and just pursue kind of a different life.

And, you know, it's, it's, I think it's yeah. Important for, even if some big significant thing doesn't happen to you, like it has for lots of others taking time to think, I mean, this is something me and my husband have started to reintegrate now is actually taking our weekends off where we don't work because we're both self employed. So we work a lot and it's so important to have that clarity and that time to think. And also, like you said, reevaluate or just evaluate for the first time your values. So many people I talk to have never really taken a good shot or maybe they just, they haven't had time to reassess what they want in life because they've been going through the motions for like 10 years. They're like, Oh,

what am I doing here? You know? Yeah, no. And the worst thing is to, you know, reach a point in your life when you're looking back with regrets. And, and that's what we don't want. I think we want to look back on our lives thinking, yeah, you know, this is what I carved out, and I was intentional about it. And so, you know, in the first part of the book, you know, you'll notice that I've kind of called it like intentional life design. It's really purposeful and it has to be intentional and not necessarily just by, you know, by accident, but it has to be intentional in the way we live and the goals that we set. And that sounds like too, because I've been hearing a lot about that. And I love that. I think a lot of people are talking more about intentionality, which I think is important. I guess that kind of goes hand in hand with the idea of

taking responsibility and ownership too for your actions and your choices, which I guess kind of gives you power too. Because I think, yeah, a lot of people that are unhappy with their lives sometimes don't take the responsibility for how their lives have become the way it has become. Right. Exactly. Um, so there's another part, uh, of course you talk about, um, in your article, handle a stressful event or personal crisis with dignity, which I think is also very powerful. Cause I think a lot of us don't know how we'd act or react in a situation like that. What do you mean by handle those events with dignity? Yeah. So I had, you know,

at the time he died, I was managing maybe a group of, I don't remember if it was like a team of six to eight analysts. And I had to navigate coming back to work, you know, after a tragedy like that and, you know, knowing how and when to discuss it, thinking about my own personal barriers and my own emotions and how to navigate that in the workplace. And, you know, whether it's a setback like this, or it's a divorce, or any other sort of family type setback, it's always difficult to

sometimes know how to react at work and how to deal with it. And so that whole point, there are that life lessons dealing with that because it's hard sometimes to manage and to juggle both the personal and the professional. And in having a team, you know, watch me go through this, I felt like I had to really step up to kind of set the example. And I worked on a case study with the Harvard Business Review on this. And there was an article around the case study called Handling Crisis at Work. And those were the things that we worked through. Things like, you know, just seeking help if you need it, talking to your HR department, knowing when you feel like you can undertake these types of conversations,

and really communicating that to those around you, and being intentional about that, and setting boundaries for yourself as well. because it can be very difficult and nobody wants to have a breakdown at work. But it can be very difficult to go back to navigate this and with your life upended and having everybody coming and saying, oh my gosh, are you okay? How are the kids? And that continuously throughout the day happening. Yeah. So, and, you know, you'll notice from the chapter in the book that I cite examples of others who've been through something like this and how they've dealt with it in a professional setting, which I think is very important for those of us who, you know, in our professional lives, you know, want to become more successful. But something

like this happens and you're like, oh my gosh, what do I do? Well, that's kind of speaking to that. Yeah. Well, that's really important. And I feel like, yeah, most people wouldn't, yeah, know how to act in that. So I think that's a very important lesson for people to learn. And I know you also talk about, and I think this is also very important in this day and age, not comparing yourself to others, but I think it's really important that you mentioned why it's key. We talked about values, but also having a personal mission, which for me, that speaks to me very personally just because I've always tried to, from a young age, and I have my own story I won't go into, but I've always had

a personal mission. And it's shifted throughout the years as I've grown, but I've always had kind of like looking back, what do I want to have achieved? Or what do I want my life to look like? But having a kind of a raison d'etre or like a reason why I'm doing what I'm doing, which I think is also so, so important. Do you want to kind of speak a little bit about why you want to share that? Yeah, no, that was very important, especially coming out of the tragedy. So I, you know, in life, especially, you know, for women, sometimes we kind of base these milestones on, you know, whether or not things are going well. Like, for instance, when we get married, we have, you know, like, or we have a baby or we buy the first home. And when you go through a life-changing setback, like I've been through, especially at,

like, I was 31 at a very young age, it almost feels like an amputation. And I remember seeing that in the book because I remember one of my late husband's friends saying to me, he's like, wow, it's like you just started the race and you just got like one of your feet just got cut off and you can't run the race anymore. And that's exactly how it feels. It feels like for some reason you're going to have to now drop out, so to speak. And, you know, I remember days thinking, wow, this is how it feels. And how do I move forward? I mean, how do I build back a life? Like, forget even the race. How do I even emerge from this? And that was the only thing that could, that really spoke to me was

this having this personal mission. And the other thing about it is, and I talk about this in the book a lot is, you know, we all take detours. We're on the road and a detour comes up and we have to take this other path and leave that path that we were once on. And for a lot of us, we look back on that path and we wish we were still on it. And it becomes like the coveted path because it's the path that's linear without disruption. And it's the path that everybody else seems to be on. And you look at it and you covet it and you think, yeah, I'm on this detour. That sucks. And, you know, you want to get back on that path, but you can't. And embracing that detour is what got me through it because I had to own it.

And I had to say to myself, well, you know what? I was put on this path for a reason. And there must be a lot of good that can come out of that, given my age and the stage I was in. And how do I, you know, conquer that detour? And I talk a lot about being a detour conqueror in the book too. And that's why that chapter on not comparing yourself to others is so crucial. It's because you will have detours at different times and you'll probably look back on that path and think, yeah, you know, I wish I was on that path still. But you know what? This path opens up opportunities and there's so much to be learned from that detour. How do I make the best of it? And whether it's with business or it's with a

career or it's with some other form of setback or tragedy. It's learning how to make the best of that detour and that not comparing yourself to others is like the crux of that whole lesson. I know. And it's so difficult because I feel like we are trained to compare ourselves to others in that it's a way to gauge how we're doing. Are we doing well? Are we not doing well? So in some circumstances, it can be helpful. But in general, it's for my for myself, it's like sometimes I either feel like I'm not doing good enough. Yes. Or usually that's what it feels like. It's usually never a positive. Yes, exactly. So we need to kind of eyes on your own paper, really focus on your own personal mission, I think is the key

thing, which is harder said than done. But I guess it sounds like you've kind of also developed a way to integrate that into your kind of daily routine or ritual. Like how are you able to kind of stay so focused on a day to day? It can be very hard to not get distracted or not lose motivation. Yeah, I know. That's a good question. That's why I wanted to put forth this framework in this book because, um, you know, I, I had the time and, and to be honest with you, Jessica, like I did not want my story to be, you know, um, just grief. I wanted my story to be, here's a framework that you can use to overcome any obstacle. And that has kind of

been my guiding inspiration and passion since this has happened. And that's what's kept me in focus. And of course, like I have, you know, I have different projects like you do. And I started, for instance, this website called The Modern Widow and another one was Aspire Canada for mentorship that came out of this experience as well. Because when, you know, my husband died, I remember going to my kid's pediatrician and saying, OK, I have two young boys. What do I do now? Like, seriously, there are no male role models. I, you know, close to me. And I remember he said, you know, like, just find some male role models. And that's when the whole mentorship idea arose. But these things in my life are part of like my personal story. And they're so organic in the way they came about

these projects, because it was just linked to what was happening to me at the time and trying to fulfill that need. And so that helps to keep me grounded as well, because I've, you know, put together this framework in the form of the book and now the personal workbook that's out. And as well in my personal life, doing these projects where that spun out of kind of this story and this tragedy and also having young kids and trying to kind of shape them and mold them in a way that I would want to, even in the midst of them losing their father. And so as you can imagine, like it's a day-to-day thing

and it keeps me grounded because there's not a day that goes by that I don't get questions from them in terms of, you know, like, what was he like? What did he sound like? What did he? And for each life stage that they're going through, I get those questions. it comes up all the time and, you know, your mission and, and which is something I see in the book too, is, is, is grounded in your story of self. And that story of self is your life experience. And, and, and whether it's the highs and the lows, it's all a part of your story of self. And that story of self helps to really inform your mission. And because it's you and your lived experiences, then it's so organic and it's something that you continue to live

because it's something that you've lived with and you continue to live. So it's, and the way that, you know, in the book and how the mission unfolds aligned with values is very organic to who we are and embracing those experiences. Yeah, absolutely. So when did this happen? Like several years ago? Yes, this was several years ago that he passed away. Okay. So where are you at right now? Because it sounds like, you know, you have this book out, which is great. You're spreading your kind of your mission, your personal mission. I think people might want to know how are things different for you now? Things are very different for me now in terms of, you know, it's so amazing that when this happened, I didn't think about this amazing framework that would come out of it. I didn't think about this viral article. I didn't, none of this,

you know, like was on my radar. It was just all, okay, how do I even get through the next day? And so these things have happened that have helped to kind of give me the self-confidence to go forward. But, yeah, it's the books. And I see this developing, you know, into more because I've gotten questions from people on parenting and I've been doing, you know, as I do the podcast and I do the AMAs and different, with different learning communities, then I see, you know, opportunities for this type of thing to be broader and to help different types of people in different stages and life events. And so that's kind of where I see this going. And, you know, in terms of my family life and in my professional life, because I still have a professional life, and you'll see that too, is that everything kind of gels together nicely in terms of

kind of, you know, my mission in terms of what I want to do with, you know, issues with financial empowerment, especially for women, which is really organic to my story, you know, and kind of this message around holistic wealth, which came out organically through that article too, when my editor read the article and read the first round of the manuscript, that's what she said. She said to me, this is what I'm seeing. Like, I didn't even come up with the title. She said, Holistic Wealth is what I'm seeing through these life lessons. And it's just because of, you know, the times we're in and that whole need to redefine what wealth means to each of us and kind of what we mean when we talk about wealth. And this is kind of the mission I'm on

now and kind of helping others to see how they can realign their own lives so that, you know, they're not burnt out and they're not feeling exhausted and they're not working in a way that respects their values, but that they're feeling holistically wealthy in terms of both balancing their professional and their personal lives. So yeah, so that's kind of where things are at. Awesome. Amazing. And I know a lot of listeners listening are going to want to grab a copy of your book to learn more and take some action because I feel like it's so, so helpful. And what I love most about it is it's, yeah, it is like holistic wealth. You talk about finance

and protecting yourself and, and becoming, you know, finance, being financially independent or going on that route, but also all these other really important things that are so key to living a good life. Because at the end of the day, money is just part of life. Just one element. Yes, just one element. Exactly. Where can people find more information about you and grab a copy of your book. Yeah. So I'm at Keshablair.com. And that's my main website. And people can, you know, reach out to me there. Check out the resources there.

There's lots of resources in terms of, you know, book discussion guides for book clubs, things like that. And on social media, I'm at Keshablair for Instagram and Twitter and K and Keisha Blair author for Facebook and I'm also available on LinkedIn and it's easy to find me there too but like I love hearing from listeners and I love hearing from readers and and and especially for those who embrace that path of living holistically wealthy it's great to hear from people on how the book has changed their lives. And I've been hearing from people as far as South Africa. So, oh yeah. So I would love to hear from readers for sure. Yeah. Awesome. Well, I'm sure you'll hear a bunch more coming soon from this podcast. Thank you so much for sharing your story and taking the time to chat with me. It was really, really amazing. Yeah, no, Jessica, thanks for having me.

And I'm hoping to come again as soon as I guess. I hope I can. And it was great being here. And that was episode 231 with Keisha Blair. Make sure to check her out at keishablair.com. Also, make sure to check out the show notes for this episode uh jessicamorehouse.com slash 231 and of course pick up a copy of her book holistic wealth 32 life lessons to help you find purpose prosperity and happiness and of course i'm giving away a copy of her book because

i'm awesome i'm actually giving copies away of all the books that have been featured on season 10 of the momenty podcast. I'm going to share how you can enter to win in just a moment. And I'm also going to share some other exciting things in the queue. So do not go away. I just want to share a few words about this episode's wonderful sponsor. This episode of the Momany podcast is supported by Ufile. There are only two undeniable truths in life, and one of them is we've all got to pay taxes. So why not take the pain out of it and join the over 1 million Canadians who choose to use Ufile to get their taxes filed online with ease. To name a few of Ufile's most notable features, they've got Autofill My Return, in which you can automatically

download information from your tax slips directly from the CRA to save you time and avoid mistakes. most notable features, they've got Autofill My Return, in which you can automatically download information from your tax slips directly from the CRA to save you time and avoid mistakes. They also have Carry Forwards, in which you can import your previous year's information and pick up right where you left off. They also offer free telephone and email support if you need help or have a question. And since they are CRA net file certified, when you file your return with them, you can get your tax refund in as few as eight days. To learn more and to get your taxes filed sooner so you can enjoy that tax refund, visit ufile.ca. And to get a special 15% off, make sure to use code MOMONEY. Once again, that is ufile.ca and make sure to use code MoMoney to get 15% off.

Okay. First and foremost, let's give you a little reminder in case you haven't been around the podcast for a little bit. I'm doing actually several contests. So highly recommend you just check out the show notes, jessicamorehouse.com slash 231, because they will all be listed in the show notes. First, of course, I'm giving away a copy of Keisha's book. You can easily enter to win her book or any book that has been featured on season 10 of this show by going to jessicamorehouse.com slash contests. But I'm also giving away a scholarship to my Investing Foundations for Canadians course. Also a scholarship to my friend Cara Perez's

debt management course. I'm being very, very generous. I don't know why I just feel like I need to share the knowledge, the good, the love. I want to just share the love basically. That's what I want to do. So just check out the show notes, jessicamorouse.com slash 231 to find out how you can enter to win. As I've also mentioned in previous episodes, very, very soon I will be actually heading out to Edmonton for a work trip. But while I'm there, I'm actually there for a night and day basically. And so I thought, Ooh, while I'm there, it'd be kind of fun if I can meet up with some folks. And I've already got a ton of people who have sent me, you know, DMS or emails that said, Oh yeah, I'd like to hang out with you. And you know, why not? I'm a fun

time. I have a good time. I promise. So if you're in the, if you're in Edmonton, I'm talking about like downtown Edmonton, that's where I'm going to be. Shoot me a DM or a message. If you want to hang out with me on the evening of March 17th, I'm going to figure out, is that St. Patrick's Day? That is what it says in my calendar. That seems crazy. Maybe that's true. I guess it's true. That's weird. Is that true? I don't know. That's what it has in my calendar. I did not put it there. So maybe it's St. Patrick's Day. If so, that's hilarious because I didn't plan it that way. But anyways, if you want to hang out with me, Emmington, hit me up, and I'll give you some more details all about that. Lastly, so you may remember if you've

been a longtime listener of the show, if you're on my email list, in January and February, I did something that I've never done before. And it was actually so much fun. I launched my course called the six week Fix Your Finances Masterclass. It was a live masterclass. So I did a live weekly video session with all of my students for six weeks. And well, that is now done. It wrapped up and I'm going to be turning that into an on-demand class. And what that means is I'm going to soon open enrollment again and you will be able to sign up at any point. All of the course materials will be in there the same as the one I just did. But all the videos will be pre-recorded because as much as I love to do a live masterclass, girl, it lasts to

work. And it is very hard to actually be there, you know, to do a live presentation every Wednesday at 8 p.m. for six weeks. And I mean, I was on vacation for a little bit, so I had to do one of the sessions when I was palm strings. So anyway, I want to make it more accessible because also there's a lot of students who, you know, they work night shifts or they work kind of crazy hours. And so it just didn't work out. So I'm very excited to be releasing it. I'm hoping it's going to be, you know, ready to launch next week. But how you can kind of stay in the loop is to get on my email list, go to jessicamorehouse.com slash subscribe. Just go to my website, jessicamorehouse.com. next week. But how you can kind of stay in the loop is to get on my email list. Go to jessicamorehouse.com slash subscribe. Just go to my website, jessicamorehouse.com. And you can also,

if you go to jessicamorehouse.com slash courses, you'll be able to also just sign up for notifications for when that course will be live. But just long story short, get on my email list. That's when you can find out when it's available. And if you're wondering what the hell is this course all about? Great question. Basically, I want to build a course to kind of replicate the program that I offer all my financial counseling clients, which is essentially how to build your own financial plan, everything except for, you know, investing. Basically, I've got an investing course for that called Investing Foundations for Canadians, where you can learn all about that. So this is really about if you don't really have a good financial foundation, or if you maybe do, but aren't sure if you're doing right, this goes through everything.

It goes through setting financial goals, budgeting, tracking your spending and your net worth, practicing money mindfulness, which is probably one of my favorite kind of modules in the course, making sure that you're protecting yourself and your family properly and a whole bunch of other stuff. So make sure to get on the email list to find out when it is available. I'm very excited to open it up, open up the doors because I've gotten some really great feedback from the current students. So yeah. And also the best part too is even though it's an on-demand class at least for now uh it also has a component where you are assigned homework and you get to submit it to me and i give you

feedback so we are in this together you will be hearing from me and it's it's kind of cool i think different version of an online course um anyways that is i feel like everything that's happening at the moment of course my life is crazy. So I'm sure there'll be some new stuff going on next week. But actually this Friday, I have another Money Minute episode for you that you're not going to want to miss. So hopefully I will see you back here on Friday. If not, I will see you back here next Wednesday with a fresh new podcast interview on the

Mo Money Podcast. Thanks for listening. I will check you later. This podcast is distributed by the Women in Media Podcast Network. Find out more at womeninmedia.network.