Julien Saunders - Cashing Out: Win the Wealth Game by Walking Away

In 2017, we stumbled upon a statistic that stopped us in our tracks. It was from a report that was making the rounds in the media because of one startling prediction: median Black wealth in the United States was on track to be $0 by the year 2053.

The report painted a grim picture of the shrinking Black American balance sheet and offered historical context for how we got here: the legacy of slavery; disadvantaged school systems; housing discrimination; the racial wage gap; unfair hiring practices, credit scoring, and lending practices; and even domestic terrorism. We were familiar with all these forces individually, but this was the first time wed ever seen a dollar value and date assigned to the impact of their combined weight.

It was utterly heartbreaking, but it confirmed much of what we suspected to be true: despite outward appearances and a few comforts here and there, most people we knew were flat broke.

Sure, most of them were college graduates who had good jobs with salaries that allowed them to live in beautiful homes and drive luxury cars. But they were completely missing the bigger picture. To earn the big salary, they had to take on huge amounts of debt and embed themselves in workplaces they didnt feel entirely comfortable in. To maintain the appearance of success, they were in significant amounts of revolving credit card debt. And at home, with the little energy they had left after pretending to be someone they werent, they found themselves exhausted, unable to recognize themselves. Something didnt add up.

At the end of the month, there was little if anything left over and almost nothing going toward saving for the future. After housing, transportation, food, student loans, insurance, and childcare, theyd find themselves questioning whether they could afford to get a side of guacamole with their burrito. Theyd wonder where all their money went, whether college was even worth it, and why they didnt feel as good as they thought they would after landing the job of their dreams. It was clear there was a growing disconnect between the pride they felt when they were on the job and the challenges they experienced measuring their overall progress.

In essence, our friends, family, and co-workers were working their butts off to keep their heads above water, proverbial hamsters on a wheel, yet they were going nowhere fast. Even those we knew who had well-paying jobs didnt have much to show for it, because they took on massive student loan debt to get there, sometimes well over $100,000. Wed ask them, Whats the plan? and their responses were all the samea collection of flippant, defeated, or wildly optimistic one-liners that were great for pivoting out of uncomfortable conversations but did little to explain how they planned to dig themselves out of a ditch.

Just gotta keep grinding.

It is what it is... right?

If I get into this program, my debt will be forgiven after twenty years of service.

None of these instilled much confidence. Even more concerning was the number of people who believed going back to school and incurring even more debt was the only path to financial freedom. Despite being some of the smartest people we knew, they werent thinking critically, or at least werent being honest with themselves. Rather, they were all reading from a script, playing a character in a television drama. You know the onethe friend who projects bravado but underneath it all doesnt like the person they see in the mirror and is deathly afraid of what the future holds.

You may have someone like this in your life. And if youre being completely honest with yourself, that someone may be you. To get ahold of people who have all the intellect but seemingly little courage to act, you need a wake-up call.

Before we dive in, its best if we pause for just a moment to introduce ourselves. Were Kiersten and Julien Saunders. After meeting in 2012, we set out on a path to learn as much as we could about money and apply it to our life. In the next five years, wed go on to achieve complete debt freedom, including paying off the mortgage on our primary home, student loans, credit card debt, car loans, and tax debt. We took it a step further by choosing to self-manage our investment portfolio instead of using a financial adviser, boosted our saving rate, and built a small rental property portfolio in addition to working our corporate jobs. Through frugal living, simple investing, grit, and creativity, weve amassed a net worth that ranks us in the 90th percentile of families in our age-group in the United States.

But our goal has never been to build wealth simply to benefit ourselves. We have a deep love for our community and understand the critical role money plays in helping families build better lives. So through our award-winning blog, podcast, video series, and more, were focused on inspiring, educating, and empowering as many people as possible to achieve their financial goals.

As you flip through these pages, well share everything weve learned with you; youll learn more about who we are as individuals and as a family. You should also know that for the majority of this book, well be speaking in the first person and from a plural point of view. On the few occasions where we do change it up, well be sure to let you know so you dont get confused.

One night as we were lying in bed preparing to go to sleep, the phone rang. It was Juliens mother, and the strain in her voice indicated something was wrong. She said she was in the emergency room because her blood pressure was high. Even after taking her medication, she hadnt been able to get it down to a normal rate. This wasnt the first time shed gone to the hospital for this reason, so we were worried.