My husband and I are going to become millionaires. Here's what we're doing. — Money EmpowHER (2024)

Guys here’s my declaration: My husband and I want to be millionaires by the time I’m 40. That’s in 9 years. #powercouple

f*cking crazy right? Sure but maybe not. Millionaires are made all the time but here’s how we’re going to do it.

Step 1: Set our specific goal and rules

< Make 1 million dollars combined income by March 1st, 2026. >

Rules:

• This is before taxes.

• The million has to be made in a way that doesn’t restrict our freedom or take away from our family, and we also have to make the money either doing things we love, enjoy, or that we don’t mind. (for example: working 3 jobs outside our home is violating the rules)

• We will also be having 2 children within this time AGGGHHHHHHH.

• We will also purchase 2 homes..AGGHHHHHHH.

• 1 million is combined income, so not 1 million a piece but wouldn’t that be awesome?

If you’re interested in doing this with your spouse, I suggest planning out a real specific goal like this one.

Come up with a time deadline and the rules for hitting the goal.

One thing my husband and I started doing was having Financial Fridays.

Every Friday we sit down go through our You Need a Budget accounts and look at where we were are for the month and how close we are to reaching our goals.

I know…. it’s not as sexy as date night, but it’s really made us closer for talking about our finances together and I feel like we’re on the same page together when it comes to money.

Step 2: Getting real clear about money beliefs, money issues, and money blocks. (This one was mostly for me)

My husband has for most of his life always had a great relationship with money, he seriously never had a lot of issues like weird feelings or emotions around money.

His biggest stumble he had to get over was tracking his money. We talked about how he had a month when he made a good amount of money but had no idea how much or where it went.

He was the one who introduced me to entrepreneurship, his family is full of entrepreneurs, and he has been financially independent, making money in any ridiculous way he can. He’s got a history of making money from creating avatars on poker sites, selling guitar glue, or writing short freelance stories. He really believes that owning 2 houses will be cake for us and whenever he sets out a money goal he achieves it.

My story with money is a lot more complicated. I grew up with money being a huge source of tension within my family.

I was raised by a single mother and we were poor. Food was always on the table, and we always had a roof but things were hard.

When I was little, our first house was in a real shady area, with shootings and a murder happening a block away.

The house I grew up in as a teenager was in a much better area but there was 4 of us in a 2 bedroom house with my mom sleeping the couch.

Money for me was something that felt elusive, it felt like it wasn’t meant for me.

For most of my teenage years, I really had no idea I was poor, I knew I always had to work for anything I wanted, and some things were harder. I had friends who had more money than me, so naturally I thought we were all the same.

(This is why it’s so important to have friends that are making more money than you! It really is a game changer. )

Having friends that were middle class made me totally forget that I wasn’t until I went away to college.

That became obvious fast but I worked through it, made it through college working always working over 30 hours, sometimes working 2 jobs, just to pay my bills.

But woof, money felt like a struggle, even when I got a 9-5, the student loan payments came in, and life felt hard.

Money felt hard and I felt back into a trap of establishing not helpful money beliefs + habits.

Here’s some beliefs I had to break, some I didn’t know existed until I dug deep either:

1. Money is hard to make

2. Only men make a lot of money

3. I was born poor I’ll always be poor

4. I can’t have a lavish life because I had a really hard beginning

5. Oh this person is only rich because their parents were rich or her husband is rich

6. Money isn’t fair

7. People who make a lot of money are assholes

8. I don’t need a lot of money

9. I don’t care about fancy cars

10. If I make a lot of money my friends won’t like me

11. If I make a lot of money I’ll feel guilty that my mom had to struggle

12. If I make a lot of money then my husband might not like me

13. If I make a lot of money I probably won’t be a good wife or mom

14. Making a lot of money means I’m working all the time

15. Making a lot of money means doing things I don’t want to do, like working all the time

This was a first step for me to establish a better relationship with money and uncover some real sh*tty subconscious beliefs I had that I didn’t even know existed.

If I left those beliefs there, I might work hard all my life and spend it all, or sabotage having a savings account, there was a lot dark, ugly stuff under there.

Wondering what type of ugly money habits you might have that are keeping you from making more money or having more money?

Step 3: Where is our money going?

If you’re anything like us, you probably have a vague idea of where your money is going (bills to pay, things to pay for ,etc) but by the end of the month or week or paycheck, your money is gone.

It probably feels like:

WRONG. Guys you actually have a lot more money than you think and if you give every single dollar a direction, you can save a sh*t ton of money!!

Here’s how to start managing your money:

1st) Register for You Need A Budget, this sh*t is changing our lives:

(affiliate link included)

It seriously saved me $500 the first month I used it.

Read #2 for further explanation how it works.

2nd) Give every dollar you have coming in for the next month, a place to go, every single dollar. Include big expenses you need to save for.

Like for example, I have A LOT OF HAIR and my hair appointments are $450, seriously. I know.

Every couple months when the appointment would come, it would just be okay on the credit card it goes and I’ll use my next paycheck or I’ll use a big chunk of my current paycheck to pay for it.

Now I set goals in my budget for that next hair appointment and put a little bit of money into the hair category every month.

If you’re familiar with the envelope method which Dave Ramsey is a huge fan of. This is really similar to it but with this one you can move money from other categories.

For example: this month I was going to an expensive brunch with a girl friend I took some money from my clothing budget.

The first time we set up our budget my husband was dumbfounded at how much we spent at the grocery store and eating out.

Most people are shocked at how much they spend on food, we were included. He had budgeted money and we figured out that for the past 3 months we were spending about $1200 on ordering out, not even including groceries, we spent that much ON FOOD. We could have gone on vacation or put that towards our mortgage!?

Believe me, I’m totally embarrassed but all these little trips to the grocery store, Starbucks, ordering pizza, chinese, really added up.

We’ve been doing YNAB for about 2 months now and we have saved so much money, our food budget is now cut in half, I cook a lot of healthier meals at home and we’ve been putting a little savings aside for our vacation to Iceland, we almost have our savings goal hit ($20,000), and I will be paying for my next hair appointment in dolla dolla bills! I haven’t done that in YEARS.

We also use YNAB for our businesses!

Our YNAB for business is totally separate from personal.

I also don’t know any millionaires that don’t know where their money is going, seriously even Oprah has said she knows where every dollar of her company is going and coming in.

Step 4: Stepping into abundance

Have you ever been somewhere and thought about how nice it would be to be able to do or have that little extra thing?

• Maybe it’s doing the gel manicure instead of the regular manicure?

• Maybe it’s getting a massage monthly?

• Maybe it’s getting the latte instead of the coffee?

• Maybe it’s buying the dress you truly want instead of getting the one that’s cheaper?

But I know you’re not doing it, because you can’t afford it right? Or else you would.

What I’m learning is that the more I say YES to those small little desires, the more money I make.

The more I step into abundance, the more abundant I become.

I know that sentence sounds ridiculous as I type it, haha, but it is SO TRUE.

I mean think about it: when was the last time you treated yourself to something nice?

Now imagine: that for the next decade you’re going to continue that pattern.

UPDATE: AUGUST 2019:

Hey guys! quick little update since I wrote this post.

I’m adding in a bonus 5th step that has really helped us sky rocket our income in the past 2 years:

BONUS STEP #5: MULTIPLE STREAMS OF INCOME!

Since writing the post, the DePalma’s have been up TO BIG THINGS GUYS.

#1) My husband started an Etsy business making video game art work and it’s been doing amazing!

Currently with that business we get to travel around to different states going to Video Game cons, here’s some shots:

(The logo is me, him, and our 2 cats 😍😍😍😍)

#2) I OWNED MY WORTH in my business and charged appropriately!!!!!

I raised my coaching prices to $10,000, booked myself out, and had a successful mastermind launch

2018 was a game changing year in my business.

#3) We bought a dream home, paid off debt, and paid for an addition to our other home!

I can’t share pictures YET we’re doing some updates but it really is such a dream home.

We paid off all student loan debt.

We also paid for a new addition to our other home which was around ($65K+).

I can’t wait to share more with you guys!