• 53 minutes 50 seconds
    Episode 486: Single Mom Takiia's Amazing Story: How She Went From $100,000 in Debt to $500,000 in Savings

    Getting rid of six-figure debt is no easy feat but Takiia Anderson is proof that it can be done. After graduating from law school, Takiia had accrued more than $150,000 of debt. As the single mother of a 2-year-old little girl making only $34,000 a year, she knew that something had to change.

    Takiia went on to save over $500,000 and pay for her daughter's college education at the prestigious Spelman College. She shares all of her tips, tricks, and personal finance advice on her blog, The Frugal Bitty.

    In this episode we discuss:

    • The overall steps Takiia took to go from debt to having a large savings today
    • The things that she gave up to pay off her student loan debt
    • Her decision to save for her daughter's college costs while still being in debt
    • Takiia's plan for investing when she first opened her daughter's college saving account
    • Why she stopped investing in retirement to save for her daughter's college education
    • The money lessons that she taught her daughter
    • Passing on generational wealth and not generational debt

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including:
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with me:

    8 July 2026, 9:00 am
  • 41 minutes 16 seconds
    Episode 485: How To Take Control Of Your Life, Make Big Changes & Reset Your Money With Jill Schlesinger REWIND

    Jill Schlesinger, money and media legend, joins the Journey To Launch podcast to discuss how you can reset your life, her new book, "The Great Money Reset," and how to use her Fab Five framework to discover where you really want to be on your journey to financial freedom.

    We discuss events that shaped Jill's impressive career, why everyone should have a pink notebook and how life is about so much more than money.

    Jill is a CFP and Emmy and Gracie award-winning business analyst for CBS News. Her career is focused on translating complicated finance into understandable, relatable topics for everyday viewers and listeners. She covers the economy, markets, investing and anything else with the dollar sign. Jill also has her podcast, "Jill On The Money," which won a Gracie for best national talk show.

    In this episode, you'll learn more about:

    • What the "Fab Five" questions are and why you need to implement them in your life
    • Why people are afraid of change and how to move past your fears to reset your life
    • Actionable advice on how to advance your career and "keep the faith" + more

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when y
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet
    1 July 2026, 9:00 am
  • 39 minutes 27 seconds
    Episode 484: Life Lately: Working Less, Living More & Embracing Uncertainty

    Financial independence isn't just about reaching a number, it's about designing a life you actually want to live. In this solo episode, I'm taking you behind the scenes of what life looks like now.I share a candid life update on everything from my current workout routine and newfound hobby of gardening to navigating one of the busiest parenting seasons of the year with three kids. I also open up about the intentional trade-offs I'm making by working less, earning less, and embracing a slower pace, because the flexibility I've gained is worth more to me than maximizing income.

    Plus, I reflect on some exciting milestones, including Journey to Launch turning 10 years old, winning a Plutus Award, the evolution of the FIRE Calc, and what I'm still exploring as I think about the next chapter of my work and life.

    If you've ever wondered what financial independence actually looks like after the milestone is reached or how your priorities can shift once you have more freedom, this episode is for you

    In this episode, I share:

    • How I'm currently splitting my time between personal life and work
    • What it means to live in the Commander stage of financial independence and why I would not trade it
    • Honest reflections on parenting, birthday season spending, and the concept of lawnmower parenting
    • An update on the FIRE Calc, Journey to Launch's 10-year milestone, and what's next for the platform + more

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including:
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with me:

    24 June 2026, 9:00 am
  • 59 minutes 46 seconds
    Episode 483: Fibroids, Endometriosis, and Financial Loss: The Real Cost of Untreated Womb Conditions w/ Dr. Kemi Doll

    This week on the podcast we are joined by Dr. Kemi Doll, a physician, surgeon, researcher, double board-certified gynecologist and oncologist, and founding director of the Gynecologic Research and Cancer Equity Center at the University of Washington. After 16 years of training and over $200,000 in student loan debt, she turned her personal and professional experience into a mission to change how Black women are treated in gynecologic care.

    In this episode, Dr. Kemi breaks down how conditions like heavy menstrual bleeding, endometriosis, and fibroids are not just health issues; they are career and financial ones. Women with endometriosis can miss up to 60 to 65 days of work a year, while women with heavy bleeding often show up to work functioning far below their capacity, a phenomenon called presenteeism.

    She shares the clinical signs that your period is not normal, the exact language to use at your gynecology appointment to be taken seriously, and how to find a provider who will actually listen. We also get into her own story of resilience, how she used the NIH Loan Repayment Program to eliminate her debt while building her research career, and why she started a coaching company after discovering she was being paid 30% less than her colleagues.

    In this episode, Dr. Kemi shares:

    • How untreated womb conditions like fibroids and endometriosis silently drain Black women's productivity and earning potential
    • The clinical signs that your period is not normal and what you can do about it
    • How to advocate for yourself at a gynecology appointment, including the exact phrases that get doctors to take your symptoms seriously
    • How she paid off over $200,000 in student loans using the NIH Loan Repayment Program while building her research career + more

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonus
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with Dr. Kemi:

    Connect with me:

    17 June 2026, 9:00 am
  • 46 minutes 18 seconds
    Episode 482: How He Retired by 30 Through Side Hustles, Real Estate & Intentional Living w/ Cody Berman

    In this episode, I sit back down with Cody Berman, entrepreneur, real estate investor, and author of the book Retire by 30. Cody first came on the podcast in 2018 at 22 years old. By 25, he had reached financial independence through scalable online businesses, strategic real estate, and intentional spending.

    He quit a corporate banking job after seven months, tried over 30 side hustles, and grew his income from $96K to over $400K in three years, all while keeping expenses under $24,000 annually. His new book lays out a menu of approaches for reaching financial freedom, not a one-size-fits-all formula, but a roadmap built around your own values, income, and life stage.

    In this episode, Cody shares:

    • Why defining your values and aligning them with your spending is the foundation of a truly free life
    • His four-bucket framework for thinking about side hustles and which type created the most wealth
    • The exact income, savings, and investment numbers that got him to financial independence at 25
    • How he and his wife kept lifestyle creep in check while still traveling and enjoying life

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including:
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with Cody:

    Connect with me:

    10 June 2026, 2:37 pm
  • 44 minutes 1 second
    Episode 481: The Money Rules That Never Change (And the New Traps You Need to Avoid) w/ Beth Kobliner

    Most people learn about money the hard way. In this episode, I sit down with Beth Kobliner, personal finance journalist and New York Times bestselling author of Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your 20s and 30s and Make Your Kid a Money Genius (Even If You're Not), to talk about how to build a strong financial foundation before the real world hits.

    Beth shares her journey from ghostwriting for pioneering personal finance columnist Sylvia Porter to writing for Money magazine, and why the core principles she has taught for decades still hold up today. From avoiding credit card debt to grabbing your 401k match, the fundamentals matter more than ever.

    She also breaks down the new threats facing young people, from buy now pay later traps to online gambling and social media money influencers, and shares her current passion project bringing a free financial literacy curriculum to New York City public schools.

    In this episode, Beth Kobliner shares:

    • Foundational money moves for young adults, including high-yield savings accounts, index funds, and 401k matching
    • The biggest updates in the new edition of Get a Financial Life and why the basics still win
    • How to protect yourself from modern financial traps like gambling apps, buy now pay later schemes, and crypto hype
    • Why financial literacy education in high schools is more urgent than ever and how to bring it to your school for free + more!

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with Beth:

    Connect with me:

    3 June 2026, 9:00 am
  • 53 minutes 19 seconds
    Episode 480: What Full Financial Independence Actually Looks Like: Island Life, Time Freedom, and Living on Your Own Terms w/ Ericka Barnes

    Ericka Barnes first appeared on the Journey to Launch podcast in 2019 to share how she reached financial independence in her mid-30s. Since then, her life has looked nothing like a straight line; divorce, layoffs, a new marriage, and a second retirement later, she's back to share the full story.

    In this brand new episode, Ericka walks us through what she's been up to since our last conversation, from rebuilding financially after a divorce, to reaching chubby FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) in 2023. The financial foundation she had built; real estate, index funds, and a prenup, turned out to be more than a wealth strategy. It was the infrastructure that protected her when life got complicated.

    Today, Ericka and her husband are fully work-optional, house hacking in St. Croix while splitting time between Atlanta and the US Virgin Islands. This episode is a powerful reminder that financial independence isn't just about retiring early, it's about having the stability and options to navigate whatever life brings, rebuild when necessary, and ultimately design a life on your own terms.

    In this episode, Ericka shares:

    • How she rediscovered her love of creative writing and the two books she is publishing this year
    • How a prenup protected her financially and emotionally through divorce and why every couple should consider one
    • Why she went back to work after lean firing, what chubby FIRE actually feels like, and the key difference between the two
    • The case for geo arbitrage in a US territory and how she and her husband bought a home in St. Croix with a built-in tenant to offset the mortgage

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including:
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with Ericka:

    Connect with me:

    27 May 2026, 9:00 am
  • 55 minutes 40 seconds
    Episode 479: Why Women Get Penalized for Their Ambition & What We Can Do About It w/ Stefanie O'Connell

    Doing everything right at work and still getting passed over is not a personal failure. It is a pattern, and the data proves it. In this episode, I sit down with Stefanie O'Connell, award-winning journalist and author of The Ambition Penalty: How Corporate Culture Tells Women to Step Up and Then Pushes Them Down, to dig into the data behind the very real costs women face for simply being ambitious.

    Stefanie spent years reporting on personal finance stories where people did everything right and still came up short. That pattern led her to a deeper investigation into systemic bias, and what she found is both eye-opening and infuriating. From salary negotiations to promotion pipelines to the way overwork culture is weaponized, the research reveals a compounding bias that plays out quietly, day in and day out, across the full arc of a career.

    Rather than placing the burden on individual women to work harder or ask better, Stefanie makes the case that the most powerful response to systemic inequality is collective action.

    In this episode, Stefanie shares:

    • What the ambition penalty is and how it quietly derails women's careers through modern, hidden forms of bias
    • How race, ethnicity, and motherhood intersect with gender to shape who gets penalized and how
    • Why trends like the Trad Wife and the Soft Life share the same flaws as the girl boss era
    • Why collective action, not individual optimization, is the real path to closing pay and leadership gaps + mores.

    Watch the video to this episode, here.

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including:
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with Stefanie:

    Connect with me:

    20 May 2026, 9:00 am
  • 1 hour 1 minute
    Episode 478- Overcoming Financial Trauma: Breaking the Cycle & What Healing Actually Looks Like w/ Rahkim Sabree

    There is a reason you know what to do with money and still struggle to do it. In this episode, I sit down with Rahkim Sabree, financial therapist, accredited financial counselor, and author of Overcoming Financial Trauma, to talk about what is really driving our money behaviors and why the answer goes much deeper than budgets and spreadsheets.

    After more than a decade in the banking industry, Rahkim walked away from it all to build something on his own terms. That leap eventually led him to the financial therapy space, where he now helps people understand that our relationship with money is shaped by six distinct sources of trauma, from generational and observational influences to workplace, systemic, and societal pressures. He also shares what happened when a house fire destroyed his home just weeks before his book launched, and how he used his own frameworks to navigate the loss.

    His core message is that most financial education skips the emotional and physiological roots of why we behave the way we do. Once you understand where your money behaviors come from, real change becomes possible.

    In this episode, Rahkim shares:

    • The six sources of financial trauma and how they show up differently for each person
    • Why our nervous system responds to money as a threat, and what that looks like in everyday behavior
    • The difference between a scarcity mindset and a scarcity reality, and why that distinction matters
    • How he navigated his own financial trauma after a house fire destroyed his home just weeks before his book launch

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including:
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with Rahkim:

    Connect with me:

    13 May 2026, 9:00 am
  • 53 minutes 27 seconds
    Episode 477: How to Design a Life of Time Freedom Now & Not Wait for Retirement w/ Brian Herriot

    Most people spend their entire careers waiting for the day they can finally stop working. In this episode, I sit down with Brian Herriot, author, speaker, financial advisor, and entrepreneurship coach, to dig into the concept of time freedom and what it really means to build a life on your own terms.

    Brian spent 14 years in corporate consulting, chased the early retirement dream, and hit the $1 million savings mark right before COVID wiped out 35% of it. In that pivotal moment, his wife asked him a simple but life-changing question: "What would you do all day?" That question launched him on a completely different path, one not about accumulating enough money to stop working, but about designing flexible, intentional work that funds a life you love right now.

    Rather than sacrificing your best years to reach some far-off finish line, Brian makes the case that you can build toward a "free date" rather than a retirement date, a model that works for employees, entrepreneurs, and minimalists alike.

    In this episode, Brian shares:

    • How the Time Freedom Formula works, balancing lifestyle expenses, investment income, and flexible work to fund your ideal year
    • The three money personalities (money manager, money maker, money minimizer) and which one drives your path to freedom
    • The "Look Back, Look Ahead" lifestyle design exercise that helps you build a vision for your next 10 years
    • Why contrast, not constant leisure, is what makes time off feel truly meaningful

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freedom:

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you purchase the paperback, including:
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with Brian:

    Connect with me:

    6 May 2026, 9:00 am
  • 51 minutes 32 seconds
    Episode 476: Redefining Success After Building Wealth & Navigating A New Season of Life w/ Tiffany "The Budgetnista"

    What happens when you've achieved the financial success you once dreamed of, but something inside you starts asking for more or different? In this episode, I sit down with Tiffany Aliche, also known as The Budgetnista, for a real and layered conversation about evolution, grief, purpose, and what it looks like to transition into a new season of life.

    Tiffany shares her journey from being in deep debt and rebuilding her life from scratch to creating a multimillion dollar business and financial legacy. But more importantly, we talk about what comes after success, how grief reshaped her priorities, and why she's being called to explore something entirely new beyond money.

    In this episode, I discuss:

    • How Tiffany rebuilt her life from six figures of debt into a multimillion dollar business
    • The difference between survival-driven hustle and aligned, intentional work
    • What it looks like to step back from being the face of your brand without letting it go
    • Why following a calling is possible at any stage even without financial stability

    What's New in the Paperback Edition of Your Journey to Financial Freed

    • A bonus chapter: When Life Happens: Staying on the Path to Financial Freedom Through Setbacks, Shifts, and Uncertainty
    • A book club and discussion guide with prompts, exercises, and action steps
    • Updated corrections from the original hardcover
    • Exclusive bonuses when you purchas
      • The Fire Starter Course
      • The Find Your FIRE Number Worksheet

    Other related blog posts/links mentioned in this episode:

    Connect with Tiffany:

    Connect with me:

    29 April 2026, 9:00 am
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