In 2006, I started college at Linfield University where I would eventually graduate with a degree in finance. I started out as a political science/communications major, but all of that changed when I wandered into an into a personal finance class. The professor had a formula on the board showing how $5,000 invested would grow to a Million $$ retirement and my life was changed forever. I immediately became obsessed with learning all I could about building wealth determined to not only play but win what had traditionally been a “man’s” game.

In 2009, I graduated from Linfield and promptly moved to LA to attend grad school at the FIDM majoring in Product Development for Apparel. This was the first of many huge leaps of faith I would take in my life that brought me incredible adventure, hard lessons and wild stories. If you ever get to play two truths and a lie with me, my time in LA gave me an unfair advantage at this game. I learned so much from this period of my life about grit, taking risks, going after what you want and not letting anyone put limits on what you can do.

My time in the apparel industry was nothing short of incredible. I started out as an executive assistant and by the time I left I was running product development. This job brought me friendships that are still dear to me, taught me all there is to know about trade shows, managing an outside sales staff (hugely important to the business I own now) and brought me experiences I had once only dreamed about. My first job at 16 was working at Nordstrom, and now I was designing clothes sold there…talk about a full circle moment. You might be thinking hang on, this sounds amazing! Why would you ever leave that?! Well…

My daughter was born in 2014 and turned my world upside down. She is the most challenging and absolute best thing that has ever happened to me. Kids have a funny way of putting things you thought were forever truths into a wildly different perspective. All of a sudden my dream job would mean leaving this tiny baby for 12 hours a day and working to make just enough to afford the wild childcare costs of living in LA. I started doing business consulting for female owned startups, but I was only one person with limited time and even less childcare. I loved helping female owners scale and thrive, but I was burning myself out. Something had to give…

My husband and I had always wanted to buy a house, and while we understood the basics I never viewed real estate as a life changing tool. We had both spent the last years of our lives saving, investing and growing our net worth as quickly as possible. It was time to put all that to money to work in another way. We took a wild chance on a house we could barely afford, and put that money to work in our first home. That first house would over time lead us to a 7 figure real estate portfolio. I had found the holy grail, a place to take my love of design and make some SERIOUS money.

Here I go again taking a leap of faith. In 2018, we sold that house and moved back to my home state of Oregon. We had spent the last three years fully remodeling the house and when the market was at the perfect spot we sold it and moved. Now here is a part to pay really close attention. We could have taken the money we made on that house and bought a big beautiful home when we moved, aka the “dream home”. We were full on adults by that point with one kid and another we knew would come sooner than later. We deserved the dream home didn’t we? Not so fast….

When we moved to Bend, we moved into the most affordable rental house I could find. I knew I wanted to build our real estate portfolio AND bring in cash flow by owning rental properties. Less than 2 months after our move I stumbled upon a dilapidated property, bought it and became a full blown real state investor. If you hear me say one thing about real estate investing hear this, HGTV is a fairytale land and not a real place. Ripping out urine soaked carpet and crawling under houses doesn’t make for very good tv but it makes for a major return on investment.

I know 2020 was a hell of a time for all of us, but it also brought me some incredible moments. My son was born (the day Oregon locked down, yay!) and the opportunities created by Covid birthed the business I own and run today - a large commercial finance company that does financing for business owners nation wide and employs 15+ people. All of those past experiences, risks, lessons, accomplishments, struggles prepared me to be ready when opportunity came knocking.

And here we are!! Life is wild ya’ll. I didn’t set out to find this little corner of the internet and be writing to all of you but here we are. I did set out to build a life unlike most. Taking charge of our budget, savings, and investments, I ensured that every hard-earned cent worked for us, rather than us only working for our money. Achieving a million-dollar net worth is within reach for the average person. My husband and I, working mid-income jobs, paying off student loans, living in a shitty apartment, and driving our paid off vehicles, embarked on our wealth-building journey. Women are powerful forces, and building financial stability is an important part of that power.