Elle Martinez: Couple Money

Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with the support you need to finish your book. Best part is, after you finish your book, they take care of the entire publishing and marketing process 100% for you. So if you want to become a successful author, make sure to check out authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Elle Martinez with us. She is the creator and host of Couple Money, a community focused on helping spouses get on the same page, dump debt faster, and get on the path to financial independence. She's also the author of Jumpstart Your Marriage and Your Money, a 4-week guide for couples to become financially free. So, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much, Tyler. I'm really excited about this.

Of course, excited to have you on, and we'll dive right in. Now, the first one I have for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

I honestly, and it's not just because I write for A Couple Money, but I think for me, what's been most helpful and then hopefully encouraging for others was the process of getting debt-free except for the mortgage. That was something I struggled with like a lot of people, Tyler. When we got married, my husband and I discovered very quickly that we had totally different views about finances. And it was a wake-up call for us, and we realized while money itself wasn't important, what we could do with money, you know, create the life that we want, um, the value that came out of it, that was important. So we had to get on the same page with that, and it took a lot of conversations, a lot of what I like to call now money dates, where we sat down and we defined, well, what do we want to do? I grew up in a family, um, like many, where I felt like debt was kind of the thing you always have with you. Like, I, I've had friends say, well, you always have the mortgage, or, eh, car payments are part of life. And so I came from that mindset of if you could afford the payments, then you were good to go. But like a lot of people, I've also had times where I've made pretty long-term, I would say, like, poor choices in terms of, like, I did not get any joy out of it and staying with a bad job or, you know, pursuing a certain career degree because money, specifically that debt that was looming over me, affected my decisions. And so it took, I would say, a good, like, year and a half of really having these deep conversations and discovering, well, what kind of life do we want to have and what do we want to do? And I came from a background where one of my parents was an entrepreneur, and I— you kind of know fairly early if like that's more your speed, like you're, you're willing to take some risk, you're, you want to try something new, you just don't want to go by the book. And I could not actually do that when I had the debt. And so we kind of laid out step by step this plan, and we were able to like snowball this and pay off over $35,000 of debt, which I have to say is a huge relief.

That is awesome. Congratulations.

Thank you. And for me, like, that's actually how I started Couple Money. We started it because we needed it. And when we were sharing our journey, a lot of people were chiming in like, oh, we're going through the same thing. And some of the biggest, takeaways that I got, people in the community got, was that you don't have to be a rocket scientist. It's kind of like when you're trying something new, there's this expectation that you have to be the best in your field to succeed. You have to, you know, be the smartest person with this specific thing if you want to be top of your game. But what I learned, not just with paying off debt, but In business and life, it's a matter of skills, and you're not born with it. You might have a certain aptitude, but it's developing skills and building it piece by piece. So, like, if you know anything about the debt snowball, it's where you pay the minimums on your bills, on your debts, except for one, and you put all the extra you have on there, and that way it snowballs. Once you pay that off, it goes to the next one. My initial, like, little extra debt was like $25. That's all I could spare in my budget. And it could easily be discouraged. But by developing that skill and almost becoming a muscle, we were able to snowball. At the end, it was like $500 extra a month we were putting towards debt. And so starting off small but building that skill is more important than trying to get it perfect.

Totally. Yeah. No, I think this is You know, especially with the college debt that a lot of, you know, most of people are in, at least in the US, I think it's a really important conversation to be having, you know. So, so I'm excited for your answer on this next one. Again, because this is very important. The next one is, is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Again, I think this I mean, this is notorious for personal finance, but I think this is a huge thing for anything that you want to do in life. I know we hear over and over again, it's willpower. You know, you got to have the willpower to sit down and do something. And I do think you have to make a decision internally, like, this is a priority for me, this is important. But the truth is, to follow through, you really have to focus on creating a system that by default you're moving towards your goals. And with finances, that was actually automating all of those debt payments, making sure we were saving towards retirement, and then we got used to it. So basically, like Tyler, we would see what's left over at the end of the month. That was our guilt-free spending because we made those extra payments. We have something socked away in the 401(k) and the IRA and stuff like that. So I think you definitely have to have the mental mindset. But as soon as you can put into place a system that is sustainable, that will help you reach your goal by default.

And it could tie in, but what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.

I would say design things in a way that even your failures are productive. And I'll give you an example with the podcast I had. No experience. I started the podcast because the community asked for it. A lot of couples are busy, they want to do the right thing with money, but they just don't have time to read the articles. And I try to be as thorough as I can, but I understand it's a reality. So what I tried to do is to get over that fear of trying something different, something new with a podcast. I said, how can I design this podcast that even if it was let's just say the beginners, it's always bad. But even if it was a bad podcast, it would be very useful, it would be helpful. And so I designed— I said, well, how can I do this? Let me tackle one question within the time of an average commute, because a lot of people in my community, they commute to work in a car, you know, they take public transportation, whatever. So in that time frame, what is, you know, a question that I can design an episode for. And then I just asked the community, like, again, failure. What's the worst I can do? I only answer a few people's questions. So I put it out to them. What is your biggest money questions? What are you struggling with? I put our personal experience, what we struggled with and how we were able to work through it. And so even if you listen to the first season, which I'm kind of embarrassed about because I was learning everything, I feel proud in the sense that you can listen to it and still come away with something to encourage, to help couples get on the same page and become debt-free and eventually, you know, get on that path towards financial independence.

And if you can give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

I definitely— I'm a daughter of a teacher, so educating yourself is number one in terms of any skill, whatever you do, you know, educating and learning is number one. But to my younger self, I would say don't obsess with just consuming all the books, all the magazines, all the websites, but set aside time where you're digesting what you're reading or what you're listening to. So if, you know, you, you read a book in a week, you know, take some time, a couple days, even a week if you need to What are you going to use from that book? What are you going to use from that podcast? Think about it, come up with a plan, and then execute it. And I think that makes the difference.

And in kind of going a little bit down a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

Oh, I mean, that's a deep question, Tyler Wagner. I think, again, it's fulfilling a need for me personally. Fulfilling a spiritual need, fulfilling, you know, our purpose. Why are we here? What's, what's going on? And then building from there. You don't have to have all the answers, but I think that's a good starting point, finding a self-fulfillment within that.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Again, there's so much. I would say the, the most helpful recently in the last couple of years that I've read is The 4-Hour Chef from Tim Ferriss. I know a lot of people go for The Workweek, but what I loved about that book was how he kind of peeled back and showed how he learns, how he processes things. Because like I mentioned before, it's all about the skills, whether you're talking about being a better husband, wife, better business owner, you know, better in your field as an expert. It's about how good you are at learning and not just taking in information, but using it and practicing these skills. And I felt like that was fascinating. I mean, there's so many takeaways on that, but the two big questions that he had mentioned on his process trying to figure out what to do is, is this method effective and is this method sustainable? I think sometimes we focus on the effective. We're always about, as a business owner, What's efficient? You know, how am I optimizing? And the second question is really deeper, like, what's sustainable based on my values and my goals? What kind of lifestyle do I want to have so I can, you know, grow my business or I can be a better partner, better parent? It comes down to just focusing on those skills, learning them one by one.

I like that. And what is your favorite quote and why?

I don't know if you call it a quote. I saw something from the Good Life Project that stuck with me, and it was developing— develop a community over competition mindset. I think, like, as a podcaster, and you've probably seen this too, there is so much growth you can get learning from your guests, having a conversation. I mean, you can just pull so many life experiences and takeaways from that. And if you have like a competition mindset, you're really missing out on that, whether you're a podcaster or not. And in life, learning from other people's experiences really kind of helps you level up and skip some of the heartache or some of the headaches and start enjoying and having results faster.

I love it. Thank you so much for coming on. The last one I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find you online?

Sure. Well, right now my main hub is at couplemoney.com. I love helping couples just work together as a team. I think that's a skill— keep going back to that— that we're not taught at school. And many times we're not even taught growing up, like, how do you work together and define what you guys want and create something that respects both of you and what you value? So couplemoney.com is the main place to be.

Perfect. Thanks again for jumping on.

Thank you. The podcast you just heard was made using Anchor. Ever thought about making your own podcast? Anchor makes it really easy for anyone to get started. It's a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Sign up now at anchor.fm/new. That's anchor.fm/new to get started.