In today’s episode, Cody and TJ interview Jillian from Montana Money Adventures. Join them as they dive into Jillian’s financial backstory and learn how she overcame substantial adversity. Now, Jillian spends her time blogging, life/money coaching, and running a Mini-Retirement Course.

Episode Summary

Jillian grew up in poverty
From a young age, she knew that money = options… she was always looking for chores to earn an extra 25 or 50 cents.
She attended a bible college after high school and managed to save $8,000 during her time there
Got married at 19 and adopted her first child at 21
Bought a camper for $5,000 and lived in it for a year
Moved to Germany for several years
Came back to the U.S. and bought a rental property
Eventually bought two more rental properties
Adopted 3 more kids and had one more kiddo with her husband
Reaches financial independence at age 32
Allows children to make mistakes with money while the sums are small
Only allow for a finite number of “cares” each day
Jillian’s 5-value system and 3-by-3 principle
“Do what you love and expand your impact”
Jillian talks about her life coaching, online courses, and day-to-day activities
How to overcome your sticking points
Find the source of your problems. Instead of swatting at the spiderwebs, try to kill the spider

Key Takeaways

Start your financial journey as early as possible! Money mistakes hurt a lot less when you’re young and the sums are small. Jillian allows her children to understand the power of money by making money mistakes. It’s never too early to start learning about personal finance!
Conserve your “cares”. Jillian only has a finite number of “cares” each day. She saves each “care” for the things are truly important. Don’t let the minutia bog you down!
Design a life that is so aligned with your passions and values that you never want to retire. After Cody asks Jillian when she plans to retire, she responds by saying that she never plans to “retire”. She is so content with her life because she has aligned her passions and values with her daily activities. If you study yourself and understand what your purpose and mission are, you can do the same!
Stop swatting at spiderwebs… kill the spiders. Often times, we misdiagnose our own problems and end up fighting the wrong battles. Jillian describes these misdiagnosed problems as “spiderwebs”. Instead, we should focus on killing the spiders!
Your time and energy are the most scarce and limited resources in your life. Some people think that money is our scarcest commodity. Jillian flips this ideology on its head and explains that time and energy are actually much more scarce than money.

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Links from the Episode

Jillian’s Mini-Retirement Course

Contact Jillian:

Montana Money Adventures | Twitter

Three-by-Three Principle

Jillian’s Five Values

Fly to FI (Cody’s Blog)

Half Life Theory (TJ’s blog)

James McCourt: Queer Street