Building Holistic Wealth W/ Keisha Blair

and I'm sorry for you. Thought you were getting the Frugal Friends podcast, but it's been replaced with the Fancy Friends And so we're gonna be talking about building holistic wealth in things that you have, in things that you want, and in things that you may not need but should have because they make you look wealthy. But first let's get into our highly paying sponsors, our new show, Fancy

Friends podcast. Sick of all those Frugal Friends advice to stop spending on stuff you don't need or truly want. Are you ready to give up on simplicity and cash in on opulence, then our new show Fancy Friends is for you. And if it's not for you, I'm sure you can think of the name of somebody in your head right now who this should be really good for.

To celebrate the launch of our new show, Fancy Friends, and it's after show Whiskey Women and four years of hosting Frugal Friends, but like mostly the other stuff, we are hosting Eleanor and Penelope. That is, we are hosting a party on April twenty three in St. Petersburg, Florida. So if you are in the area, in the Tampa Bay area or want to be on April, then had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash party for more

info because we're just mooching off of that. You are l for now, you know, like before we get fancy friends podcasts don't buy that. Leaves were just thought about that. So come join us Eleanor and Penelope on April two if you're listening to this in if you're Fancy Friends on April one. Especially oh, on that April Fool's Day when Jen and Jill get replaced by Eleanor and Penelope,

we thought of those names on the fly were really good. Yeah, not to dig at anybody, actually Penelope, but they do sound a lot more high end than Jen and Jill. Am not gonna do. We were actually gonna if we had a daughter, we were going to name her Eleanor. My my very good friend's daughter's name is Eleanor and she is a gem and she has fancier than me. She's one fancier than me for sure. Yeah, I I

have expected with a name like Eleanor. But in all seriousness, we are hosting a party in St. Petersburg on ap Please if you were in the area, we'd love to see you. Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash party and this is from Actually Gen. This is and actually Jill. We'd love to see you celebrate with you so much to celebrate. Yes, we have so so much to celebrate. We have over two hundred episodes. It's our four year anniversary, so please come out and celebrate with us in the

only way fancy friends would. Yes, all of the fancy frugal things. Absolutely. Let's get into holistic wealth because we are actually talking about that with Keisha Blair today, but not in the ways that Eleanor and Penelope might lead you to believe. Holo stick wealth is. We're talking about it in not just terms of money, but like the

wealth you keep in your life. And Keisha Blair is an economist, she's the best selling author of the book Holistic Wealth, and she just offered so many ideas that really echo and build upon what we have been talking about for two hundred plus episodes, So if you want to queue up a few of those to listen to after, we think episode one paying off debt and your mental health with Melanie Locker that's a really good one, and also episode one, which is creating healthy financial boundaries with

family and friends, that we think would also be a good one to queue up. It is a really beautiful conversation with Keisha. So thank you for bearing with us on our April fool's joke because we couldn't help ourselves. And we hope you're still here because Keisha brings so much great inde knowledge wisdom, so we're excited to get into it. Kishow, Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast. We are so happy to have you here. I'm elated to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Jen

and Jillian is great to be here. Oh, we're so thrilled. We had so many technical difficulties before we started, which says to me that this is going to be a fantastic episode. And I know our listeners always like hearing the holistic part of our personhood and how we are so much more than just the financial decisions that we make and all of us, ever, part of us goes into even those decisions. So excited for another perspective today.

Thanks for coming on, absolutely, so let's dive in. Tell us Kisha a little bit about the viral article that inspired your book, Holistic Wealth. Absolutely so you know, as many readers will see once they start diving into the book, I went on a sabbatical after my husband died. So my husband died when I was thirty one, just eight weeks after I gave birth to my second child, and as you can imagine, it was sudden, it was tragic.

It was a very rare disease that most doctors will never see in their lifetime, only in textbooks, so most doctors will never see a living case of this disease. It was so rare it took them one year to do the autopsy, to get the autopsy results, and they had to assemble an international team of pathologists and experts like this was like a medical mystery. So you can

imagine dealing with that and then getting the results. I had to take a pause, and I had to take a break just to figure out how to move forward, how I wanted my life to look, and just to you know, process everything and just to take care of my needs and the needs of my two young sons that I had. And I when I came back, I you know, thought about all the lessons that I had learned from the experience and how I could distill that in an article for anyone and for everyone, even those

who had not been through this type of experience. But we're looking for life lessons, and so I wrote that article. Honestly, I wrote that article so quickly. I wrote down those forty life lessons and a matter of about half an hour to fourteen minutes, and I published it on Thrive Global and I published it and left it, and I thought, you know what, it was the most vulnerable piece of writing I had ever done. I really bared my soul in that article. I really hoped no one would read it,

and I was just scared. I was just like, I just hope nobody reads this because it's so vulnerable. And it happened that everyone read it, and that the you know, the editors at Medium emailed me the following day and said, this is our one one of our favorite pieces for the entire year. Can we do a voice over? So can we get like a voice artist, and I said, of course, and they you know, it just went wild.

It you know, was picked up by several different outlets and just went viral, and over a hundred I think, yes, I saw there over a hundred, yes, yes, several like over a hundred either featured or linked to. It was actually a hundred and sixty. And it was just unbelievable, the outpouring, the response, and I genuinely did not expect to get that. I had family members from Florida call me and, you know, said it's on MSN, like, did you see it? And I'm in Canada's you know, I

didn't see it. And they had to send us the link because the firewall was blocking it. But we had family members sending us links from all over and it was you know, if you've ever had a viral article, it's something you you never see coming, you never expected, but when it happens, it's unbelievable the response and and people started reaching out on Facebook and social media, other women and young women and you know, older women everyone

and started saying how much this impacted their lives. And I showed it to an age and she said, you know what, this is the book you should write you should turn this into a book so that it's accessible for everyone, you know, expand on these lessons, and I did that, and my editor was the one who said, you know, I see holistic wealth in this article. This is what holistic wealth is. And at the time, I was just like, Wow, that that is just amazing. And

that's how the name of the book came about. That's how the journey started from those life lessons because in those life lessons, those forty less since, there's lessons on money and managing your money and planning for financial longevity, and lessons on having a personal mission in life, lessons on you know, the important things like spending time with loved ones and all these things that you know, um, sometimes we forget, but through COVID nineteen, I think many

of these things have been brought to the force as we think about our mental and or emotional health and and really living a life of meaning, you know, beyond our jobs and beyond or you know, our careers and our businesses. And that's what you know this book is about. And and that's how the journey started. Wow, Keisha, as you reflect back on that article going viral and even saying I actually didn't want anybody to read it, and then it went viral. What do you think it was

about that particular article that really resonated with so many people. Yeah, so I think the title in and of itself, my husband died at age thirty four. Here are forty life lessons I learned from it. Like I know, the title was very compelling, and in the beginning in the intro of the article, I said, I walked into the hospital with my husband living and breathing, and walked out with my husband dead three hours later, and with a white

plastic bag in my hands. And I'll never forget that line, because every time I think about it, I envisioned me walking out of that hospital with that white plastic bag with his belongings, and the crooks of it. I think for many people was that this could happen to someone so young, so suddenly and so dramatically. Right, And then

the money lessons were another thing. So I had many money bloggers featuring the article on their websites, like they featured it, and many of them, you know, ranked it as the top article for millennials for that entire year. So we went out. I went out with the article in December seen and in January was when you know,

from December to January it started the momentum. And so it was this article that was being spread all over the internet at the beginning of the year when people are looking for this type of motivational type of information. And several, as I said, several finance websites, several money bloggers named it the best article of the year for millennials.

And and I think that ship a nerve as well, especially for millennials, because in the article, of course I speak about debt right and not, you know, and how to manage that and why it's so crucial that we not get into a lot of debt, because like this can happen at any time, right at any age. And

and I think that's what struck a chord. I think it was several different things in addition to the money lessons that were shared that really struck a chord with people, and just the the kind of depth and breadth of the article and the subjects covered and the raw emotion in it because you could feel it coming through and I wrote it with you know, all those feelings and everything, and and yeah, it was just one of those things

that really touched on nerve at that point. I think I can feel the feeling when it, like when I read the article I because some of the forty are are very like long and then some of tho is just like one sentence. It's like this is And when you're like writing with feeling, it comes out different than

writing like with an outline or something. And so like, I just appreciate so much seeing that difference, like as as a writer, and and it does come like you say different things when you're writing through feeling, and it

is really raw and like inspired. This whole like holistic wealth movement that you are pushing forward, which is essentially kind of the same stuff we're talking about in our membership in the in the course we have and trying to get people away from like climb the corporate ladder, make as much as you can, save as much as you can focus only on you know, investing and growing your net worth to like that's there has to be a balance. There has to be that, Keisha, it's so

striking to me. I mean, of course we have questions about the specifics of your perspective, but I do want to acknowledge just to me, it's striking just the tragic loss that you walked through and how you chose to navigate that, and and the way that that's connecting with other people. But I also I'm not it's not skipping over me. The fact that this is a deeply vulnerable part of who you are and your experiences that so many people did connect if. How has that been for you?

Just the fact that people are connecting to this one of the worst I would imagine things that have happened in your life when you didn't want them to read it, and here they are reading it and connecting to it. How has that been for you in this process? Yeah? I know, it's been amazing actually because throughout the whole process.

You know, even after publishing that viral article, I didn't expect that type of outpouring, Like I knew how vulnerable, I knew how tragic the situation was in terms of um, you know, just the suddenness and and the circumstances UH surrounding it, which was just unbelievable that you know, it's

basically a medical mystery and so rare. But when people started reaching out, I knew that this was needed by so many, especially women, and so many of them that were reaching out had just gone through either similar situations or or just another type of life altering setback, and it just really helped me to realize how much this is needed. And this was pre COVID, right, so you can imagine now. But that's what drove me to really work on capturing all of this in a book and

in a message that would help people. And I didn't want the message to be just grief and pain and tragedy. I really honestly didn't want to be known as like the grief lady or the woman who went through this whose husband died. So even though I wrote that viral article and that was the title, I really want to be you know, I want this message to be one of hope for people. And that's why I love Holistic Wealth so much, because it's not just one of grief

and pain. It's one of hope, and it's one of yes, you can live a holistically wealthy lifestyle even after a life altering setback. So I love the fact that so many people reached out because I knew there were so many others out there that we're going through this like I was, and that I could use my story and my skills and experience, not only as a writer, but

as a trained economist to actually help women. And it's unbelievable when I think about my journey that it so happened that I was a trained economist, that this happened to that it so happened that I had the type of training and skills that I had built up, and it just so happened that I was one of those women who was always on top of my finances and always pushed to invest and to invest young, like I started investing at twenty one, And so I felt like

I could use this to actually help other women, you know, realize what they need to do and how they need to put things in place. And I kid you not, like I train my certified holistic wealth consultants now in terms of the story of self, and it's amazing how you know your unique skills and experiences and what you go through in life you can use to help others. So when they started reaching out, it became clear to me that this was honestly now my purpose. That's excellent,

And so let's talk about that. What are the four parts of holistic wealth that you highlight that are so important? Absolutely? Uh so In the book, I define holistic wealth as financial independence coupled with financial savvy and having different parts like your emotional health, your mental health, and even your spiritual health as pillars off holistic wealth. And combined with that too, are you know your relationships that helped end

rich you and having a life purpose. And in the book, I say all of this combines to give you the tools that you need to basically overcome any life altering setback. So this is not just, you know, a nice to have. This is critical in an age of disruption, and this is the toolbox that we need to be able to

master the art of recovery from disruption. So you know how you mentioned earlier that yes, in the finance world we talk about our net worth a lot, and it's all about tracking your networth, tracking your net worth, And yes, it frustrates me a bit to see it too in the finance world, and um, probably more than you know. But and that's why I think that the whole concept of coolistic wealth is so important, because, yes, you know, having your finances in place is a great thing, it's

an amazing thing. But I realized when a tragedy hits and you don't have the other killer is in place. It's hard to recover, it's hard to get over that. I mean, money is one aspect of it that enables you, of course to live and to eat, and have a roof over your head, and have savings and not be bogged down in debt, which all helps, and it's unbelievable.

But what really got me through it was building my resilience was these other pillars that are needed to overcome that type of tragedy and to even overcome or even to kind of live in this disruptive world that we're living in right now, and we're seeing it with the great resignation wave to where you know, so many women have left the workforce, so many people have left the workforce as they're looking for more meaning in life. And

it's not just about climbing the corporate ladder anymore. And people are realizing right that that's not necessarily the best path forward. And all of that is also encapsulated in the book and in what I talk about the message in the Holistic Wealth right because I realized I was on a corporate track. I was in the executive track when my husband died and I had to give it up. Like I literally had to walk away, just like how women have had to walk away through COVID nineteen from

that corporate life. I had to do that. And it wasn't because of just like just thinking well, yeah, you know, I'll just do it. Was out of need. You know. At the time. I had two young kids, as I said, and it just wasn't working. I needed to find that balance. And that's what everybody is looking for now and every you know, that's the kind of focus, and that's the essence in the book, you know, and and with the message, and and I think that's what so many people are

seeking right now. We're seeking just a life where it's not just all about climbing the corporate ladder, building up this um, tracking this network, which is also important, but not just about that, but about how we can really build our lives in an authentic way, you know, to do the things that are important to us. It's really resonating with me this concept of like having a we talk about having an emergency fund, and it's hitting me, this holistic emergency fund, not that we want to constantly

be waiting for the shoe to drop. Although we are living in a time. I love how you're describing that that this disruptive world, disruptive culture, but recognizing it is going to happen. Why we have an emergency fund because we know emergencies, crises are going to happen. And it's not just about how much money do you have in the reservoir, but how connected are you with other individuals, What life giving opportunities do you have that aren't dependent

on having a set amount of wealth. How is your spiritual life, how is your emotional, emotional and mental health. Of course we're not going to be hitting the brass ring every single time and all of those categories, but what an awesome concept to get on board with and to align ourselves with, not just the emergency fund, but the emergency reservoir of holistic health. It's it's really resonating with my Kisha. I appreciate what you've said there. I love that. I love that it is a wealth, that

it's not self centered. I feel so much of the content we see is self centered wealth, like how much I can earn, how much I can save, how much wealth I can build. But this is a life centered wealth, so it is not just those things, but it it doesn't isolate them but it includes them with like it's like an intentional life purpose, So like what can I be doing that's greater than me? And like even physical like you even include like physical wealth and like being

a good steward of good will and stuff. So it's like a it's people, it's environment, it's life centered wealth, and that is what's going to make us like truly happy. Like we are not designed to just be like isolated individuals with fat bank accounts. We are created to be

like people in community. And this holistic wealth really does like bring that to life absolutely, And that's exactly it, Jen, And that's what helps you to recover from disruption too, is knowing that you are contributing to the greater good to humanity. And our purpose is always and I said this on another podcast recently, our purpose is never actually justice, be at this or a particular net worth or figure or yeah, when we get to a million dollars, we

would have achieved a purpose in life. That's not exactly how it works. So our purpose is to drive humanity forward in whatever way that we can use our unique skills and experiences to do so. Yes, if you hit that you know figure and you can use it to then drive humanity for and then that's great, but it's I just never ever look at tying my identity just a particular net worth or a particular job title or

a particular uh company or um. It's it's just greater than that because I think in doing that, and I talk about money blocks in the book too, and that's that's a criticulal money block actually when you tie yourself worth to your net worth, and it's something that I honestly don't want us as woman to get to bog down in because it can be a recipe for failure, for disaster if you never meet it, right, if if it never happens. And does that mean now that you're

a failure? Does that mean that you haven't done what you're apposed to do? No? So I love those points that you've brought forward because like Deep in the Weeds and the book that's that those are some of the things that I want, you know, women to as a trained economist and and and someone who has written federal budgets, someone who has you know, like I've been there, done that. Like it's it's when once you hit this very hard period in life where you have to really look at

recovering from some form of disruption. Those things are not necessarily the things that are going to get you through it,

you know, in its entirety mm hmm. Absolutely. So for any of our listeners experiencing or who may experience intense grief, I know you don't want to be like the grief person, but I just feel like you're too valuable to have here and us like not dive into this because like I know, for me personally, my mom, well I lost my dad when I was sixteen, So my mom was with like without at when I was sixteen, and so she the grief was really intense and she made a

lot of poor financial decisions while in grief. And I don't want that for anybody else. And so as someone who's trained in this and has experienced this, like, how can somebody who's experiencing intense grief like be pursuing holistic wealth? What should they pick up which they lay down? Like,

what would your advice be for them? Yeah? No, absolutely, And thank you for bringing that forward, gen, Because I at the Institute on Holistic Wealth, we're actually releasing our Trauma of Money course today and it's a certification called the certified Trauma of Money consultant. And you know how you mentioned your mom being widowed, you know, when you were younger and making bad financial decisions. Well, that's one

of the effects of trauma. And it's unbelievable what can happen to the brain during trauma that allows us to meet these decisions. I mean, there's cognitive bias, there's cognitive overload. The risk taking can go either way. It can swing to being extreme, or it can cause paralysis. With money, I've heard widows talk about money as as blood, money as something that is just horrible and something that they

can't even begin to wrap their minds around. So that's a very important point and something that is so important for people to realize. And so in terms of, you know, being in this intense period of grief and looking to

craft a life of holistic wealth. You know, there's so many lessons laid out in the book, but I would you know, speak about one or two that are very important in the In the in the weeks and months after you suffer a loss, when you feel so overloaded, right, and you feel overwhelmed, and and you're not sure what to do, and I know in the moments after. For me, I had to take a step back. I had to take a step back to exercise self care and to take care of my mental health. And in doing that,

I had to establish boundaries. And you know, I talked about saying no in the book, and there's an entire chapter on that. Well, that is actually one of the ways that we can fill our holistic wealth bank accounts with saying no. And the word no is used in

this sense to fill your stores of energy. Saying no in this sense is used to fill your stores, show up your emotional well health, show shore up your you know, your mental health, and to show up that spiritual day to day practice that you need to get over it in the first couple of weeks and months when you need that time to meditate and to think about how

we're going to craft a life for it. And you know, genuine mentioned the case of your mom, and I know that's the case of a lot of widows where you know, you don't take that time to think about these things. You keep going, going, going, going, trying to kind of you know, set it to the back of your mind, and then sometimes you can make the wrong decisions. And

so in saying no, in establishing boundaries. That's one of the ways that we can you know, craft that time to kind of just think about and to get over and to heal and to think about what we want going forward. The other thing is is is outlining. And this isn't something to do in the first week or month after, but at some point, you know, I know many people going through a loss think about, Wow, how

do I honor my loved one's legacy? And that's something that comes about pretty quickly when you go through something like this, and so I you I always tell my consultants start writing down or women I co start writing down a mission for yourself, start writing down your personal mission,

what you wanted to look like. And then within that mission, of course, part of that is a legacy and your legacy and combined with the legacy of your loved one, So that also helps to kind of put things in perspective to kind of give you that personal GPS going forward the direction of your life. You know, we talked about intentional life design, and I always say holistic wealth

is intentional by design. It's unbelievable the intentional steps that I had to take, Like everything had to be intentional and methodical which phone calls to take in the first week, you know, someone had to be screening my phone calls.

I mean, it's that it's that you know involved, right, And so you know, when I talk about the holistic wealth method, where you think of things that are additions and depletions to your holistic wealth bank account, we're talking about things like this where it's time and boundaries and relationships around you that enrich you and things like that. Of course, in the first few months of grief, those

relationships are key. Those loved ones around you who support you and in ways that you can't even imagine, you know, and and really lift you up. So that's a critical part of it in terms of first steps and trying to think through especially when you're in a you know, a position of deep grief or you're in in in

that mode and moment where it's so overwhelming. I appreciate the kind approach that you're advocating for and how much of this speaks to you having walked through it and now being able to walk others through navigating financial decisions and holistic wealth, whether going through grief or not. But I think any time there's an acute transition, tragic loss, grief of any sort, there can a lot of times

be guilt and shame attached to that. It's almost like, you know, I counsel a lot of people going through grief and transition, and there's always some component of feeling as though I'm not doing this right. And I know I'm not doing this right, but I don't totally know how to make all of these massive decisions. And and like you said, I can highlight it's that reservoir of the holistic that hopefully is present, and if not, that's

what we can be aiming for. Of who do I have around me, who's trustworthy, who's in my court that I can be leaning on and receiving from, and how can I be kind to myself in the midst of that. I think it's okay to say I made some really awful decisions in like the week month following this tragedy, but not staying there, and how can I move towards the things that are going to be life giving, beneficial

for me for my family. But I can just affirm with what you've said, Keisha, that those first couple of weeks following a tragic grief and loss, I don't think we can expect too much from ourselves. We don't exactly know how it's going to hit us or how we're going to navigate it. But my goodness, where there's community, that's the reservoir. I think we can tap into overall kindness absolutely, Jillian, and just to pick up on their really quickly. And this is something that I also, you know,

tell women. The other thing is you don't know how it's going to hit you too, and how it's going to change your relationship with money, because then it gets complicated. It gets complicated, especially if you're in receipt of a pot of funds tied to that loss. Then we're talking about a whole new different ball game of survivor as guilt and financial guilt and a whole new slew of

issues start to arise. So absolutely, it's it's great. You know, when you're in a state of happiness and your your and everything is going well for you in life, and and you know you're loving everything about your money and your funds, and then everything falls out and even though you might have those funds available, it's it's not happy. It's not tied to happiness. Now it becomes tied to utter grief and sadness, and that's why this holistic wealth

perspective is even more important. That's why I'm trying to drive it home to people, because you have no idea how you're going to see the money. We know of millionaires every day who are committing suicide. They're not necessarily happy or holistically wealthy, but they're taking their lives. So this is something that I just want, you know, people to be just aware of and and the points that

you raise are are very important. I think this holistic wealth, whether going through grief or not, because you're describing both and of recognizing when you're going through grief how connected those finances are with mental and emotional and relational and spiritual health. And when we're not going through great loss at at any given point, it's still connected. No matter what season of life we're in. This matters to be

considering our whole personhood. But that being said, so to move a little bit out of the grief and loss component for those at really any stage of life wanting to recognize this that okay, not anything has promised to us or to our loved ones or those around us. Not each day is a gift, and yet we hope to live long lives and plan responsibly and intentionally for that.

What what advice would you give for finding kind of the tension of holding both recognizing crisis, emergency, tragedy can happen, but we also want to plan for a life fully lived for a long time. How do you recommend holding

that tension? And that's a great question, especially with everything that we've discussed so far, right, And so that's kind of the center and the focus of the work we do at the Institute on Holistic Wealth because when I train certified holistic wealth consultants and training them to develop

or to help clients build a holistic wealth portfolio. And this holistic wealth portfolio is you know, comprises the pillars that we talked about and really resolves that tension that you mentioned about balancing the finances with the other pillars in our lives, because you know, when you know when

you have a financial advisor. And I trained financial advisors with NBAS with their own firms, and they said they came forward to me and they were like, there are too many gaps in the market where yes, we're giving women financial advice, but we're not tapping into the holistic perspective that you outline in your book, and so that's

what we're doing. One part of the portfolio is a financial independence portfolio, right and within that, you're planning on taking the breaks you want to take, You're planning on retiring at the date you want to retire, and you're planning on all the bits of your financial goals within there. And then we have the rest of the portfolio that balances out all of the other, um, you know, money

focused goals. And of course, as I said, like women are looking for um a life of freedom over their time, freedom over their money, so they're looking at crafting a holistic wealth portfolio that looks completely different from one or or portfolio is that we're used to sing. So I just wanted to make it clear as if you you know, if you look if you google holistic wealth, you'll see a lot of financial institutions talking about holistic wealth. And

what they're talking about is something completely different. They're talking about within the suite of instruments that we have available at this bank here is holistic wealth. Now I'm speaking beyond those things. So absolutely you need to have an emergency fund and it needs to be I'm recommending nine to twelve months. And absolutely you need to have your insurance policies in place, and absolutely you need to have some investments and all of that. Right, you need to

be investing. But beyond that, we have some other life goals, right like I might want to retire in the next three years, I might want to retire in ten years. How am I planning for that? And how am I planning for the life that I want to live in retirement. And let's say I'm financially independent now, but I don't want to retire yet. I want to keep working or I want to build my business. How do I plan for that? And how why balance that with all the

goals that I have? And so that holistic wealth portfolio is unique to your goals, It's unique to what you want to accomplish in life, and it has everything in there. You know, we talked about the trauma of money. We talked about the fact that you might have gone through a setback. How can we build a holistic world portfolio that is resilient for you, that helps you to bounce

back even better than before. Because when my husband died, that was one of my main pet peeves it was like, oh my gosh, am I going to be set back permanently in life? Now? Luckily I had started investing at twenty one and was financially independent by thirty one, so when he died, I already had a multimillion daughter portfolio of investments. Right, But I was still thinking about, Okay, we're now it's you know, one person, and I'm just thirty one. Now what about when I reached fifty or sixty?

What is my port folio going to look like? And I was concerned about that still. So I still kept investing, and I still kept doing things. But honestly, if I had had this holistic wealth portfolio before my husband died, some of the things that I would have done I would have done differently. And the sabbatical I went on would have been planned for. Every step that I would have been planned for. And that's what we help women do.

So that's how we kind of get over that tension between um, you know that finances and living a life of joy and aligning and and what about the other pillars? And then you can see where you're weak, right, you can see where in the portfolio where you're lacking, where the gaps are how resilient your portfolio is. If we plan for two life altering setbacks per decade, can you overcome be setbacks? And are we planning for that properly

within your portfolio, because if not, there's a problem. And these are things that are happening at the bank or you know. Like, so this is something that a solution developed from my perspective based on you know, what I know was needed in the industry. And I'm coming at it as a female economist, as someone who knows, you know, in terms of budgeting and being don't dead and all this type of thing. Um, you know what it is

that I think women needed. M You love that you refer to it, yeah, as a portfolio, and I think other nerds will like resonate with that. Not non nerds may be uncomfortable by it, but like, it's a portfolio that has all the things in it. It's not like a spectrum where you can choose you're like money or

living your life. It's not a spectrum. It's a portfolio and we put all of them in there, and we can change it should be diversified, but we can change the ratios at any time we need or like and I love kind of shift in mindset on you don't have to balance. It's not a seesaw, it's a portfolio that you that you create an adjust Absolutely speaking of diversification and shifting in this podcast, that's how we diversify

this podcast with the Bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage, maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. Duck bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton. This is the bill of the week, Kisha. Every week we invite one of our listeners, are our guest, to share with us their bill of the week. And you have thought about it.

I know you've thought about it hard, and you've got one for us. Yeah, So I honestly, I think it's interesting the bill of the week concept. And you know that. I, for instance, I'm the host of the Holistic World podcast as well, and that was launched over a year during COVID, and of course, like that podcast has brought so much inspiration and joy into my own life. So I'm going to say that that bill that surrounds. My podcast is my bill of week because it I think about it,

and it's not much. Honestly, it's not a big bill, but I I'm happy paying it because of how it fills my holistic wealth bank account. Having this podcast us where I've interviewed so many amazing women and men and it's brought such joy. So I'm happy peeing that. So that's one bill that I'd say actually feels my holistic walk bank account. Oh, it's so beautiful, Keysha. We know that bill, and we also love that bill. Oh and I love how you've positioned this and the perspective of

this podcast brings life to you and to others. And how that is a reason that you don't mind paying in how how lovely? Well, if you all who are listening have a bill that you want to submit, whether it has to do with a bill, you don't mind paying a bill that's life giving a bill that is paid off, you don't have to pay anymore, you know the drill. Visit Frugal Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill, and now it's time for the

lightning round. So today in our vulnerable section of the podcast, we are all going to share how we are currently choosing the holistic wealth lifestyle right now, because it's not something you like reach and then you're just like perfect at you continually have to overcome some of the things that society tells you should want, that your family and friends tell you should want, and you have to consistently choose to pursue holistic wealth. So we're all going to

share how we're doing that currently. So Keisha, as our guest and expert, we would love for you to go first. Yeah. Absolutely, So I've chosen this past so many times, like in in big decisions and in small decisions every single day. And then this new and uh expanded version of Holistic

Wealth that's coming out in March. You will see there that I suffered a back injury and that's an injury to my spine, and I've had to choose holistic wealth every single day as I think about my own personal health and how I deal with my every day given this new injury. And it's amazing. When I wrote the

first book, right, I didn't have that injury. Um, it happened during COVID and I've had to make serious lifestyle decisions and lifestyle changes some of the things that I would do on a daily basis I can't do, and and some of the things that I would otherwise take up, like different projects in my life for you know, um, different things that people would expect me to do. And you mentioned the expectations of society and family and friends that I've chosen not to because of this. And so

that holistic wealth perspective is also critical as well. And I mean it. It has to do with balancing priorities to right and balancing the way you live on a daily basis. So every single day I think about what activities and things represent a deposit or a withdrawal from my holistic wealth bank account because now I have this injury, especially to in light of that perspective, right, I think about what I eat and how how much I have to rest and and how much I can't overextend myself.

So yeah, so that's my you know, answer to that question. And and it's amazing how as you said, Jen, it's not this point that you reach and you put it down. We're constantly going through disruption and we're constantly having to navigate changes in our life. That makes this framework and this this holistic wealth concept even more relevant, and it's a thing that we need to think about on our

day to day. I love what you said. They're considering what represents a deposit or withdrawal from your holistic wealth bank account, something that we talk about in the mental health space, or at least within my role as a mental health practitioner. Right, I guess you'd say that is

understanding emotional and relational and mental currency. Like sometimes it can help us to look at these aspects of our personhood in light of having it's not unlimited that it can be depleted or added to, and so you're just giving me more vernacular. Thank you so much. I love that deposit or a withdrawal and something that we can be at different stages of life even more aware of what is this doing. Is this depleting me or is this giving me life? In all aspects of of our personhood?

And yeah, what that means when you're navigating a back injury, it's going to mean different things than when you're not physically injured. So amazing. Yeah, I love that too, because it's okay to make a withdraw as long as we're making more deposits than we are withdraws. With with anything. I think sometimes people can get caught up and be like, I can't live this lifestyle because it seems like self centered,

which is the opposite. We think, oh, we should only be doing things that align with our values, but it is a given take. There are withdrawals and deposits, and I think that's all they. I also love how you use the word disruptions because I think people are used to using like the word challenge or setback or fail but life I mean, so I think we need to like get rid of those words from vocabulary because so

often they're actually just disruptions from our life plan. They're just being They're just disruptions, and they're still that does and diminish how like the magnitude of whatever it is. But it can make you feel less like a failure to use a like a word like that than to use fail or setback or something that like puts you back again. Viewing it like a spectrum versus a portfolio

where we're taking withdraws and making deposits. So I think it's I think we're making really cool, hopefully making really

cool mindset shifts here for people. What about you, Jen, I am so we're kind of like still in this investing in real estate back and forth, and it's just a very very hard in the location that we're in, and we're very stubborn and we're only looking in this location and and that's us that's the path we are choosing, but it's still really difficult, and so we are having to make kind of like choices to kind of figure out if we are going to continue down this path

or choose something else, because ultimately Travis wants to own his own business or be doing his own thing, and so that's kind of where we're at. That's why we're not maxing out for one case and stuff, because we're stalking money for either real estate or some kind of other venture. And so that's a choice that's not very popular when your personal finance expert, to not be like maxing out of four O one K. And then also some of the things we're doing real estate investors probably

wouldn't do either. So we're just we're making choices that are right for our family and our families finances and future and like taking the wisdom of experts, but not following in their footsteps just because they were successful for those people. So that's kind of how we're That's the most current example I can give for choosing holistic well my chin for me, I think referencing back to COVID.

I know you mentioned it a couple of times, Keisha, and probably similar to many people around the world, it really threw me for a loop in a lot of ways, and not just because there's medical concerns, but it hit every part of my personhood. It changed a lot. It was a disruption. It changed a lot of the way life looked for me emotionally, relationally, spiritually, mentally, and it

really wiped out nearly every part. And so I think I'm slowly recognizing that each of these aspects are non negotiable. Where I kind of thought I'll just put my spiritual and relational health on the back burner for now, it was almost an epiphany recently of that's actually non negotiable. I need to be caring for myself in all of these areas, and not just me doing it all, but connecting with those that I feel are going to be helpful in that process, and not just receiving but giving

in that too. So some examples of shifts that I made in the midst of that and I'm continuing to make I've not arrived by any means, but I'm seeing improvements and my whole personhood of making sure that I'm connecting with friends, even if it does have to mean zoom and I moved in the midst of the pandemic, so that didn't help much. But still staying connected with those people who are really meaningful and valuable to me. I have Also, Jen's probably so tired of hearing me

talk about this. This is like the new and improved vitamins conversation. But I started a garden which is so incredibly life giving. I can't even put it into words, for I don't have the words to describe how unreasonably excited I am about this garden. She's a proud plant mom. Alright, my babies, uh for me? This podcast similar to what

you're saying Keisha about the podcast. It's it's not a big bill and it's one aspect of who you are, but you're able to engage in these conversations like this podcast has and continues to be something separate from the work that I typically do, but another expression of my personhood that I think is necessary for me. So it's just I'm kind of like collecting, like I'm just collecting on these like little eggs in my basket that helped

me to feel alive. That's that's the goal. I want to feel fully alive, whether I'm walking through really deep pain and trauma or really celebratory times in life, I want to engage in it fully alive. And I'm starting to feel that coming back as i Oh. I also started exercising, just YouTube exercises. Don't get it twisted. I'm

not that strong, but it's helping. So I have I cannot say enough about our whole personhood and looking how can we make deposits in every single aspect because there is always going to be things taken and withdrawing out of it. Yep. So that's that, ye yeah, Kesha, thanks so much for coming on and allowing us to have this conversation. Where can people find more about you and Holistic Well, so, my personal website is Kesha bware dot com and uh, you can also check out the institute

on Holistic World website too. That's ww dot Institute on Holistic World dot com. And I'm on social media. I'm at Keisha oh Blair on Instagram and on Twitter and Tashaware author on Facebook, and yeah, I love connecting with people, so you can connect with me through my website or on social media. And of course the book is available for pre order everywhere online right now, know so uh that's also right, So yeah, you can connect with me

through different um different channels. Beautiful Keisha, thank you for the strength factors that you share, the real tangible, low hanging fruit that we can be anchoring ourselves in, and for motivating us with the resilience that you have intentionally built. I so appreciate your perspective and what you've shared today, absolutely, and thank you so much again for having me on the show. Oh Penelope, what did you think about that?

Looking back on it? Eleanor It's beautiful. I think what we've talked about here with Keisha is for all people, whether you're frugal or your fancy. I think she brings so much sage, advice and perspective at we would all do really well to begin implementing on but not just for the purpose of a goal, but life long, similar to how frugality is a life long aim. I think what Kisha is describing here is that as well. So

I am so thrilled to have had this conversation. I have so many of my own personal takeaways and we hope that you all listening do as well and feel

free to share them with us in our community. Absolutely, it's finding that balance between or again, I don't love the word balance, but finding that spot where you are thinking about the future but also thinking about the present, and it's so easy to get caught ip in one or the other, and it is a lifelong journey of figuring out what it looks like for you to think about both because we're so wired and it it is better for us, like simplicity, goal simplicity, goal singularity is

so much easier for our brain to focus on, and it's great. We definitely promote goal simplicity and goal singularity, but it's finding in while pursuing that singular goal, thinking about both the present and the future, because it's very easy two become a radical convert to either side, and that's not what we're about. And I just Keisha has such a profound story that's that illustrates why it is important to think about both. Yeah, thank you guys so

much for listening. We hope you got as much as we did. Out of this interview, and if you did, we would love for you to leave us a review that helps people know what they can get out of listening to this show, kind of like this from Degon's eighty nine eighty nine Babies. Yes, I hope that means you're born in eighty nine, because we were and it happens to be. Five stars, says my Get Out of Debt support group. I started listening to Jen and Jill a few months ago and they instantly became part of

my get Out of Debt support group. They are funny, practical, and motivating. I look forward to their episode each week. Can't wait to pay off some debt and submit my bill of the week. L O L L How I want to be described for the rest of my life. If the banner over me can be funny, practical, and motivating, I'm I'm set. Thanks to literally everything we're hoping for, so thank you. We also want to thank our friends

who share these episodes on social media. When you share the latest episode on Instagram, we're adding you to our monthly draw. Alling for every five tags and reviews we get each month, we're giving away fifty dollars for you to spend in the Frugal Friends shop. Yes, so keep leaving us reviews wherever you listen to podcasts and send the screenshots to reviews at Frugal Friends podcast dot com. And don't forget to tag us on social We do see it, See you next week. Frugal Friends is produced

by Eric Syrian. Oh, eleanor what do you think that you will do this coming weekend? Openelope? Probably take a right on my yacht and we'll bring some cheese and fine wine. Um, yes, it will be it will be an okay time, it will be average. Certainly say yes, how about Penelope? Oh? Yes, Eleanor thank you for asking if you're returning the gift of a question. But I

don't care. But I have a light. I appreciate your so s younger races, and I will probably take take the horses out of the stable for a little bit of a gaunt through the through the woods. But but it's manicured woods, don't wear there's no leaf to be seen on the ground. I love, I love. How how do I say it? Rustic or middle class? You are that you would take your own horses out? It is so sobering and grounding to me. To see you, and I just wanted to encourage you in that is is well.

I like to say, you know, connected to the middle class. Is that how you say at mid middle middle class? I think you've got I can't really see it. My mouth does not make the throats. My throat keeps me. Sorry, it's difficult for me. Well, and then after that, I will soak in the hot tub. Oh how many people does your hold? Oh? Just one? It's just for me, very very fragile bones, fragile muscles from a life. So I was soak in the hot tub. Mine holds thirty seven.

But it's not it's not important. How many more people might hat to uphold signors, that's not important, but it is is well. It is better to do to keep it to yourself, though I don't know. I do not like to bathe with others. Well, that's so common of you. I did not go to the school the same school you want to to be educated Illinois. I think I know a little bit more about hygiene, apparently than than you do. So well, it's fine. I paid seven times

a day, so one bathe bathe with them. Well, there's not thirty seven people in my hot tub. But I don't want you to get the wrong idea of Penelope. I was so flustered. Now i'm going, I'm leaving. We're such good friends of the North. You and I were such good friends. I'll talk to you in six months when I recover. Okay, so long