SOS: Wanna TRaVeL The World 🌍? Meet Toni Razz

*LONG POST ALERT 🚨*

Enjoy the first of our Speak Out Series (SoS) where we’ll feature young adults on this journey of financial freedom.

If you want to be featured, DM me! 📥📩📨

Join Toni (@Tonirazz on IG) as she shares some insights 👇🏾

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When I started my first real job and received my first real paycheck, I thought I was a “big-shot” and that I had made it. By the time I started working, I was still living at home, had only a small amount of student loans (thanks to some scholarships and attending a state school), and I was given a paycheck every 2 weeks in amounts unimaginable just months before. I thought to myself that after 4 arduous years of college (I was truly a book worm and did not go out or party), I deserved to have a little fun and that I was certainly able to do so since I didn’t have many looming expenses.

Well, let’s just say I took that mentality to a whole new level. I signed up for an expensive gym membership, I went out for dinner and drinks regularly, Starbucks iced caramel macchiatos were part of my daily routine, and I had developed a newfound expensive taste for clothes, shoes, and bags. Not only that, but I also began planning multiple vacations because, why not (disclaimer: I still have the belief that travel is a worthy expense and is doable very inexpensively, but more on that later). So, here I was, working at an investment bank, making more money than I needed, and having minimal expenses, yet I was carrying a balance on my credit card of about $5k per month. The voice in my head telling me to get this under control wasn’t as loud as my desire to be the “yes” person and spend my money that I worked hard for. This went on for about 2 years until I moved out of my parent’s house and into Manhattan. I had saved a little bit, but not nearly as much as I could have if I was being more responsible with my finances. However, my savings all but depleted as soon as I moved out due to the exorbitant rent prices, broker fees, security deposit, and furniture I needed to purchase. I did have to make some adjustments with all of these new expenses, but despite cutting back on a few things, I still carried a giant balance on my credit card and was paying credit card fees (just thinking about this now give me heart palpitations) each month. This went on for another year before I realized that I had next to nothing to show for my 3 years of working.

At this point, I had a new job – one that was extremely stressful with 15-hour days. After about 6 months of this, my boyfriend and I decided that it would be really cool to travel for a year – he wanted to work on an app he created and I wanted to rid myself of the 80 hour weeks I was becoming accustomed to and see the world. However, in order to do this, you need to have money saved, and a lot of it. At this point, I did not have anything close to the amount I would need for a year of travel, but we had 18 months to plan for it (I wanted to stay at my job for at least 2 years before leaving). So, I took a good, hard look at my lifestyle and what I found wasn’t pretty, but it was a necessary exercise that truly opened my eyes to how irresponsible I had been over the years.

I downloaded Personal Capital, an app that allows you to aggregate all of your accounts in one place (e.g., checking, savings, retirement, brokerage, other assets, etc). The app also takes each purchase (debit) and categorizes it for you, the raw data of which is then exportable. I created a budget of how much I was actually spending in each “category” and then how much I could spend in each category in order to reach my financial goal in 18 months. I had to significantly cut back on spending – I stopped buying take-out and going out to restaurants unless it was absolutely necessary and instead, cooked all of my own meals; I stopped drinking coffee unless it was available at my office for free; I cancelled my gym membership and started a program I could do at home with no equipment; when hanging with friends, I would suggest grabbing a (cheap) bottle of wine and hanging in their apartments instead of going out to a bar; I did not buy a single article of clothing, pair of shoes, or anything of the kind for 18 straight months; I would take advantage of CVS coupons and would buy toiletries only when I had an available coupon or when things were on sale; I deleted my Spotify account and used Amazon music which was free with my Prime account; I started to sell things in my apartment that I just didn’t need on apps like Let Go and Offerup and clothes/shoes/bags I never wore on Ebay (I made about $2k doing this). In short, I didn’t spend any money that wasn’t absolutely necessary and didn’t keep anything that didn’t have a functional purpose. If I needed to buy a gift, I would use e-bates to get money back on my purchase and I signed up to take surveys on a few websites – some of these surveys will give you an amazon gift card once you accumulate enough points, some give you points toward an airline (I racked up enough to get a free flight on Jet Blue) and some actually pay you in cash to participate in a focus group in person. Any money I received from this went toward practical expenses like groceries and the subway. I moved all of my “savings” into a Goldman Sach’s high yield savings account which has an APY of >2% right now (most banks give you .1% which is laughable) and had 20% of my paycheck automatically deposited in there where I could not touch it. I also opened a Charles Schwab brokerage account (which is free) and invested in a few ETFs (an easy option for someone who is scared by stock picking). Despite making massive changes in my life which, on paper, sound limiting, I had never felt more free. A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and this debilitating stress that I had been subconsciously ignoring all these years had disappeared. I also loved living a more minimalist lifestyle and realized that stuff only adds more burden to your life and that you can get by with much much less. Soon, saving became somewhat of an obsession. I would have competitions with myself to see how small my credit card bill could be each month, and this brought me true happiness.

Fast forward 18 months and not only had I saved enough for my year long travel trip, I had significantly surpassed the goal. Today, I am writing this from my AirBnB in Santiago, on my second month of this travel adventure, and I couldn’t be happier that I changed my ways and mindset and got my finances under control (for those of you curious, I am still working part time/remotely so that I do not deplete my savings). All I have with me is a carry-on suitcase which goes to show how easily you can live on only a few necessary material items.

With that being said, I am not naïve to the fact that everyone has different obstacles and difficulties that prevent them from saving money. For example, this past year, I had knee surgery and had to pay $1000 for an MRI and $150 per week for physical therapy that lasted 3 months. However, I just had to adjust things accordingly to make room for those extra unanticipated expenses.

If you are lucky enough to not have massive student loans, family emergencies, and medical expenses, it seems that the biggest obstacle to save for people my age is peer pressure and social media. The fear of missing out and desire to have fancy “instagrammable” meals and go on trips that make you the envy of all your followers is strong, and it seems that people weigh their self-worth against how awesome their lives seem online. My advice here would be to just turn off the noise – delete the app or unfollow any account that makes you feel bad about yourself. Sometimes it isn’t as easy as deleting an app; my roommate would often tell me that I am lame and boring because I never went out to eat, but my peace of mind knowing I didn’t spend $100 on a mediocre meal and couple glasses of wine was way more important to me than what anyone else thought. Just block out the noise and focus on the goal at hand.

If you feel like it is impossible to be financially responsible and meet your savings goals, just know that it isn’t. It takes a change in mentality and a lot of changes in your lifestyle, but trust me, it is a worthy challenge. To everyone out there starting on their journey to freedom from financial burden, I am excited for you and believe in you.

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