"Wealth is Giving Myself Options": How Marisa Gained Financial Empowerment

What would having wealth mean to you?

Maybe it would mean enjoying more experiences like concerts or nights out, supporting causes you care about, staying in nice hotels, or working whenever you want to.

Time and time again, we see women+ inside Wealth Building Accelerator uncover an entirely new lease on life when they step into their financial power.

Like Marisa.

As a chef of 20 years, Marisa was used to just getting by.

She started out making only $10 an hour while owing $52,000 in culinary school debt AND living in San Francisco – consistently rated one of the 10 most expensive cities in the US.

As she progressed in her career, she got a job with better pay and benefits. She wasn’t making bank, but she could pay her bills and still have money left over. She contributed money to her Edward Jones account every month. Sometimes she and her husband had a rainy day fund and sometimes they didn't.

She wasn’t in dire straits, and everyone kept telling her she was doing the right things, but she knew she could be doing better.

“I wanted to learn how to make our money work for us instead of having to hire someone to do that,” Marisa said. “I just wanted to be more empowered and knowledgeable.”

That's when she found Dow Janes.

Gaining Confidence in Wealth-Building

The idea of in-depth teaching about investing drew Marisa to Wealth Building Accelerator. Not only did she want to learn how to grow her money passively, but she also loved the emphasis on ethical investing and the idea of voting with her money -- being conscious of environmental issues and knowing how to make investments that support a better world.

Having a roadmap relieved a lot of the stress and uncertainty of wealth-building.

“Every step of the way, I'd finish a lesson, and then the next lesson was the next step.”

Even though she doesn’t identify as a “planner," working through the program helped her think through what she wanted her lifestyle and retirement to look like so she could set goals and actionable steps to reach them.

But most importantly, it helped her pay off damaging debt.

She had been paying her student loans since 2004 and since it was low-interest, she accepted it as a part of her life. But as the Fed has raised interest rates, the interest on her student loans has inched up to 8.5%.

Thanks to her new financial education, she recognized that this pushed it into the realm of bad debt – the interest rate on her debt was so high her investments were virtually worthless.

With help from the Wealth Building Accelerator coaches, she managed to ramp up her student loan payments and pay it off 6 or 7 years sooner than she had expected to.

As she progressed through the program, she began to feel confident in her financial decisions.

When she was making changes to her retirement account, she was able to tell her advisor exactly what funds she wanted to buy and how much of them.

“Having financial knowledge is invaluable to me,” Marisa explained. “Being able to take a course and ask those tough questions and come away from it having the answers is big, especially in this day and age where you could take so many different classes or hire a coach or a consultant who just kind of holds your hand and cheers you on. You're just not going to get as much information as you really want. And I felt like I really learned a lot taking Wealth Building Accelerator.”

‍

"Wealth is Freedom"

Since completing Wealth Building Accelerator, Marisa feels more empowered than ever before.

Before Wealth Building Accelerator, Marisa’s retirement plan was – essentially – her husband, an idea that didn’t sit well with her.

Now that she’s gained financial independence, she feels like she and her husband are more empowered to take big financial steps together, even while she builds her personal wealth.

Financial empowerment has opened a whole new experience of life.

Every year, on the anniversary of their dad’s death, she and her sisters take a trip together. No husbands, no kids, just the three of them.

This past year was the first time Marisa was able to pay for the whole trip herself!

“We got a nice Airbnb, and I bought a really nice pair of $375 boots, which I've never done. And just knowing that I could do that, and knowing it's not going to break my bank, or I'm going into debt, and having that freedom to enjoy myself when I want to…that’s what wealth means to me.”

“Wealth is freedom,” Marisa said. “Wealth is giving yourself options.”

Are you ready for financial empowerment?

Picture what it would be like to have a roadmap, comprehensive playbooks, and a team of financial experts to help you achieve all of your biggest money goals.

Wealth Building Accelerator is the highest level of support we offer, and it's for women+ who are seriously committed to making the necessary changes to build real wealth.

If that sounds like you, then follow this link to learn more!