80 How to Avoid Pilling up Debt for Grad School and Make the Right Choices with Jolene Blackbourn

“I have never allowed my creativity to flow, I was so practical. I don’t think I came into myself until I let that creativity to flow.” – Jolene Blackbourn

Overview of the Episode

How to make wise financial decisions to make business profitable and become wealthy?

In today’s episode 80 of Meaningful Work, Meaningful Life podcast, I am excited to have on the show Jolene Blackbourn, a senior Attorney who left her job at a Fortune almost-100 company to become a full-time life counselor to pre-law and law students. She helps them avoid as much debt as possible and make the right choices.

She teaches her students how to be able to see where their path may lead & then decide whether or not to embark on that avenue.

Jolene helps her clients with their legal journey, advise them on saving money, and also helps with to deal with their choice of becoming a lawyer and how it will fit into their life goals.

In this conversation, she shares how she went through her legal career, ended up representing companies, which she thought was totally against everything she had set out to do. Jolene’s purpose is to help people save them costs on their litigation.

Here’s a snapshot of a few things we talked about

Anybody going into higher education should sit down and speak with a financial planner to get advice on how to afford better things.
Law students are often surprised by the fact that when they graduate, there’s another loan waiting to be taken out.
It’s hard for people who have hindered something their whole lives to let the desperation come out. But it’s possible.
When planning your financial freedom once you start looking at the numbers and start playing with those, the ideas start to flow. So just play around.
There are so many ways students can save money, but they are not always aware of them as schools don’t always share the information.
There’s a high depression rate amongst doctors and lawyers. A lot of that is tied to their debt load as they can’t work part-time because they need to pay back the loans.
It changes your whole life and dynamic when you’re stuck with student loans that are just overwhelming.
Even when we didn’t grow up discussing money, we are indirectly taught through examples.
It is always a good idea to have different income streams
Find a professional that can give you the right advice to make sure that you’re on the right track.

Fire Questions and Answers

When you travel, do you select your flight by the cheapest flights or by the duration?

Duration.

If you had just one laptop and a hundred dollars to start making money today, what would you be doing?

I would make money through my courses and things like that. It’s already what I do, but that is just to help me bump up a bit.

What is financial freedom for you?

I think that it is being debt-free, or just at a good balance where it’s not a hindrance. Financially free to me means that my bills are affordable and that I can afford to do fun things and they don’t have to be a trip around the world or anything like that. But to be able to take a vacation and attend other people’s important events.

What is your definition of Meaningful Work, meaningful life?

Anything that makes you happy is meaningful work and lead you to a meaningful life. A lot of people put way too much into their work and forget the self-development part. If you’re not happy at work, it’s going to be hard to make up for it in your spare time. And if you don’t do anything in your spare time, it’s going to be hard to be a full and happy person. So you need both. You could be doing something that’s not exciting to most people but if you love your co-workers and you’re happy with what you’re doing, that’s meaningful.

The last piece of guidance to do more meaningful work and live a meaningful life?

We have a lot of influences from our past, our parents, and we may not realise it. We also have our internal influences. I was going to be a lawyer when I was 15 and then I felt stuck and didn’t even think to look around.

So my advice is: be aware if you know your influences are from your parents or yourself and think about why you’re doing what you’re doing and whether you need to do it so urgently. So just really think about life before you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Quotes by Jolene Blackbourn

Listening to yourself and trying new things is what enriches your life.
Anything that makes you happy is meaningful work and lead you to a meaningful life.
If you’re not happy at work, it’s going to be hard to make up for it in your spare time.
You could be doing something that’s not exciting to most people. But if you love your co-workers and you’re happy with what you’re doing, that’s meaningful.
Think about life before you spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.
You can make a better plan of attack. You can’t predict things like September 11, or COVID. But at least you’ll know where you stand.

Action points

What is your key takeaway from this episode? What are you committed to doing today to find more meaning in your work and live a more meaningful life? Share your thoughts on my Facebook page.

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