The Weight Of Money Podcast

Financing Your Future Ft. Linda Grizley CFP

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Money gets real when rent is due, tuition lingers, and your friends want that last-minute show. We brought on certified financial planner and money coach Linda Grizzly to help us cut through the noise with a plan that respects real life. Together we dig into lifestyle creep, the early power of compound interest, and a simple twist that lets you enjoy today without sabotaging tomorrow: Me Money, a guilt-free spending bucket that protects your goals.

We talk about what it’s like to be 23, chasing creative work, and trying to help peers who think money talk is boring or judgmental. Linda makes it practical: capture a slice of every raise before lifestyle expands, use a high-yield savings account to build momentum, and decide fun with intention by comparing options inside a firm Me Money budget. That single change makes tradeoffs visible, so you can choose the show now and the shoes later, or flip it—without touching rent, bills, or debt payments.

We also explore the sting of college costs during COVID and how to reframe school as one of many paths to opportunity. If you’re eyeing financial services, Linda breaks down why the CFP credential often matters more to employers than a master’s, what the exam really signals, and how to get started with entry-level roles and smart licensing. Then we tackle debt head-on: why paying more than the minimum shrinks timelines, how avalanche or snowball methods can fit your personality, and how weekly check-ins turn fear into progress. The through-line is mindset and community—small steps, daily consistency, and building name equity that opens doors long after the paycheck hits.

Hit play to get practical, human money strategies you can use this week. If this conversation helped, subscribe, share it with a friend, and drop your money personality in the comments—are you a Saver, Spender, Avoider, Security Seeker, or Risk Taker? Let’s earn together.

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SPEAKER_01:

Welcome back to the Way to Money Podcast, and I'm your host, Dante, and today we are making history, you guys. We have our first guest, Miss Linda Grizzly. That's how you say your last name.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01:

Alright, I got it right. Okay, we have her to be able to spread some financial some financial knowledge and some financial longevity speaking to you all how we do on our podcast. You know, our number one goal is to earn to is to earn together, not separately. Let's put our that's why we have different people to come with different perspectives, not in even in just story form. A lot of times she won't be, uh hopefully this won't be her last time coming. She can spread, it'll be more people in this same vicinity to give you all, to give you all that same encouragement if you are feeling down about finances or you are feeling underdeveloped in finances to grow and show your um and show your potential. And Ms. Linda, I wanted you to, for the people that don't may not know you, my listeners, tell them a little bit more about yourself.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I am a certified financial planner. Um who also I have a master's degree in financial sources, and I used to be uh a financial advisor, and I've left financial advising to do uh financial coaching, money coaching, and also public speaking on financial wellness. So I'm helping people get comfortable talking about money, helping them understand how bringing their personality, their own self into their financial picture can help them be successful with their finances.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing. And me even being, you know, by the way, I am 23, and me looking over, trying to going into this content creation field, I always wanted to kind of spread and influence people in the right ways instead of just having that negative connotation of using um so the social media aspect of life just as in to spread negative propaganda and stuff like that. So it's always been a pleasure for me to help people in this way. But you know, I'm 23 by the way, so I I am fairly young. So a lot of times when I uh the problem that I run into with people my age is that they don't quite adhere to situations and stuff like that of finance. They may say it's boring or it's oh that's taboo. I don't have to do that, or you know, I have my own life going on. But it people look at it as when you do bring up finances, they look at it as I'm trying to um they they look at it like I'm trying to basically come at them when it's not even like an attack or anything, but when you do try to give people the better route, it may be for like people of my age group and community, it's kind of hard for them to and it's kind of hard for them to kind of intercept to take in the information instead of like, oh, I can I just automatically shunning in the way. So what are you able to give advice to those people who may not be able to grasp the concepts of financial literacy just yet? And like what are your tips for just opening people up to the idea of financial leadership?

SPEAKER_00:

I think that a lot of people like you're describing are feel like they're not able to save or not able to do anything because they're just living from what money they have coming in, right? They're not at a point where they can start putting some money away because they need everything that they have to live on. And that's okay. But it's important for them to understand that as they start to grow and as they start to get better jobs, higher pay, that it's important to not just have your lifestyle creep at the same rate as your income increases. Meaning that as you get a raise or you get or you get some additional income or a better job, you want to be sure that you're taking a part of that and putting that into savings and start saving while you're young because of the power of compound interest. Meaning that the longer you can keep doing that and the longer money sits and builds interest, even in just a high-yield savings account, um, the, you know, the better off you're gonna be in the future. And if you start those habits young, they'll stick with you throughout your life and you'll really set your future self up for, you know, an easier lifestyle, right? So you'll be able to retire sooner, you'll be able to feel comfortable if there's if you do lose a job someday, like you have that emergency fund set aside for things that might pop up. So it's it's super important to when you get those increases to not just increase your lifestyle, to match them and to take a part of that and set it aside.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I totally, and I totally do agree with that. But you know, another problem that I run into when I do try to advocate for these type of points and stuff to the generate, like my generation is that a lot of times, even I don't think it's it's even singled out to my generation. I think it's just people in general. But when you tell people they have to cut out the things that they enjoy, such as spending money on purchase or going out to concerts and stuff like that, it's like a wound to their pride because it's like, well, I work so much and this is the only time I'm able to enjoy myself. Why should I take my fun away for the future that I don't know what's coming? I don't know what's uh what's the liability going on in the state of the world right now. Look at it, it's a bitch. So I might as well just, you know, just live with uh just live a YOLO lifestyle, just go out there and just do anything I want to. So it's kind of so the same stuff basically that that you're saying, and and that and I even put it to them like that. But I literally had a conversation with a friend of mine. She went to she went to college, she went to Fix, Fisk University, she graduated periods ago. And we kind of have like a certain conversation and stuff like that. I don't even, I don't want to get into like a uh a trauma, uh, I don't want to just put like a trauma dump session or whatnot. College wasn't, I say preferably, I say college wasn't preferably like helpful to me in a way, as far as then it's been more egregious than helpful in my area. The reason why, because even when you um that's what taught me how to be more conservative with my money, because I knew in the extreme circumstances, um they really wasn't it it was a point in time because I went to school during COVID. I went to college and during the spike of COVID. Because it was a time before all the hell grants and the the different type of grants and stuff was like that put out there, you pretty much was like the little tuition that they did give you, you had to make do with that. And then on top of that, they literally made you have to pay for everything. If you was online, you literally had to pay for e-courses, you had to pay for the book, and also when they were trying to take a test, if you've been taking on campus, like if say for instance, we were just trying to do it at home, you literally had to pay$45,$50 to literally take a to literally take the same test online. And I just found that outrageous. So, how do you feel about the the current economic, like when it comes down to like the economic situation when it comes down to just being in school and how stressful they can be when you like maneuvering through college? Because I know I remember I uh reiterating on the point where you said you did get your master's degree, so I'm pretty sure you went through your fair share of troubles with yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So in let me say, in my experience, I went back to school late. So I didn't I didn't get my bachelor's degree until I was in my late 40s, and then I got my master's degree over 50. So I didn't have the opportunity to go to school when I was young. So um I and I never thought I would be able to go to school. I didn't think that that was something that would happen for me. But then then when I was older, I just made it happen. When I decided that I needed to make it happen, I made it happen. Um and yeah, it, you know, I guess the idea behind it is is like when you're paying for those things, like you said, you're paying for online stuff and and you're, you know, you have to remember that all the colleges, some a lot of them are nonprofits, and some of them are for-profit. So I don't know where he went to school. But either way, they have expenses and overhead that they need to cover whether or not they're using those things. So, like all of those buildings that they have where they would hold classes, they're still paying for those buildings. They're still paying, you know, to maintain them, to do whatever. And so there's still overhead involved that they still have to pay for, even if they're not currently using it. So COVID was just a weird time as far as that goes. Um, you know, they're still paying people behind the scenes to keep everything running. So you have to remember that that's what you're paying for. Um and if you look at college as like an investment in yourself, in the idea that in the future it's going to open up more opportunities for careers and jobs for you, which it can. It doesn't always, but it can. I mean, that's the reason I went back to school was because it would open up more doors for me just by having a degree. So um I think you just have to reframe how you're looking at that. But I mean, yeah, it's difficult. Going to college has been has always been difficult for many people that are working their way through it on their own, you know. And it's just you have to take whatever, you know, whatever your life brings you and make the best of it, you know, be grateful for the things that you have and the thing that you have that opportunity. And remember that there are other people that don't have that opportunity.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And before, um, and like I don't I don't wanna, I'm not a person that even though I did have the the trouble experiences in college and stuff like that, even you know, pre and well, not during COVID and after COVID, I'm not an advocate of like, oh, don't go to school. This it's a scam and all that. I'm not the person that feeds into their stereotype. The reason why, like, even if you can look at one of my previous episodes, if school for you, I'll basically give people the rundown. I I tell you the good and what possibly can come of this. So you so people can basically be prepared because a lot of times we do, I feel like a lot of people don't um, a lot of people don't just give the examples and stuff like that of what they need to give as far as in they tell you is this, it's fun, and a lot of stuff like that. They a lot of people, when they do give examples of school, it doesn't pertain to education or basically the the elevation of your character and how you build relationships and build build your brand or however however you may see fit. So I feel like it does because a lot of times we gotta understand too people like, oh, you gotta look at them, they may be young-minded or this and it. But as I tell, I have a little brother, he's in currently in high school at the moment. I told him, like, it's not always about looking to see who uh sitting beside the the smarter person and stuff like that, or you have to actually do your work and be diligent in your process of what you're doing, because if you don't, it's gonna affect you in the long run to the point to where when you do get hit with these uh assignments back to back, and she not the policies is not gonna hold your hand either. So that's why I said a lot of times I feel like they get less publicized more than you know, you get the education and you do this and do that, but a lot a lot of times it don't get expressed the the what can come of it if you don't take it seriously. So that's what I um so that's what I gather from my college experience. But as of right now, I'm going into real estate. So per se, it has swung me into because I always been a part of like learning about finances, learned about the tax codes and self-employment taxes and stuff like that, because I do want to kind of own my own furnace later on in the future. Because eventually I wanted to go to school for psychology, but sometimes life doesn't swing you into the you never know where life may pull you in, because it can pull you in different sectors of life. So yeah, it's been a journey though, but I'm enjoying the process, and I feel like once you fall in love with that process, you'll be able to elevate further because you know where you've been, and by you keep growing and excelling, it'll make you it'll make you uh drive hard and focus on your just focus on yourself in general.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, absolutely. That's a great mindset to have, you know, just keep focusing on that personal growth, and there's always gonna be setbacks and things. Like life is not easy, it's not always perfect. And if you just keep in mind, you know that that you just keep you know persevering and and and thinking bigger, great things are gonna happen, right?

SPEAKER_01:

And I did take the uh the personality quiz on your website as well. The money personality quiz on your website, and I did come out to be a saver, the saver, as they call it. Frugal, frugal. Um always the basically just keeping my money in, be careful on what I spend it, don't spend it unless I need to. And that's one thing I can say I did I did learn from college is how to be frugal with my money with the first. You really don't, because you're sometimes when you're getting that much money at one time, frugal that is not on your mind. Frugality is not on your mind at all. Because you just looking at it, okay, I got$3,000. I can go buy clothes or buy this. Then you got then they hit you with that uh the account summary. Hold on now. This is my actual bell. I got computer fees, classes, and everything the whole nine. So it it kind of grew me up. I say financially. It did grow me up financially because now it's me, okay, now it's time for me to actually I have to I have to be cautious on how I spend my money. Now I can't just throw money at the wall and expect it to come back to me.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yeah. You you you took the quiz and you came out a saver. And you know, with a with a saver, so there's a money personality quiz for those people listening that I have on my webs website. And I identify five different money personalities, and there's no wrong money personality. So there's a spender, a saver, an avoider, a security seeker, and a risk taker. And a spender is someone who, you know, is is aware of their money, and they'll a lot of times feel guilty when they spend money on themselves. So I don't know if that if that's the way it is for you, Dantees, but um that's typically the saver is the one who who does have some sort of, they might not actually even be saving, but they have the feelings of guilt or remorse when they do buy something because they think they should have saved it instead or they should have been spending it on something more responsible. And I have this concept called me money, um, which is about putting aside money for you to spend on yourself. So when you talked earlier about people, you know, wanting to go out and do things and go to shows or buy shoes or whatever that is that they want to do, and being like, I need to live my life, I need to have a life. And that's fantastic. This me money by setting aside an amount that you can spend on yourself allows you to do that. But it puts you budget just for that amount that you're spending on yourself. And then you don't include responsibilities in that amount. And you give yourself that amount to spend on anything that you want. Could be shoes, could be shows, could be, you know, whatever it is that you like to do. But you have to stay within that budget. You have to live within that means so that you are being more intentional about how you spend your money. And it helps you to place value differently on things that you're doing. So let's say that you give yourself a set amount and you have a show that you want to go to, but you also have a pair of shoes that you want to buy. And you have to decide. I only have this much set aside. I can buy the tickets to the show or I can buy the shoes, which is more important. And you might say, Well, the show because I can't go to the show later, but I can buy the pair of shoes later. Right. Right. And so then you wait to buy the pair of shoes till a different time because you want to go to the show now. Or you might say, like, nope, I don't really need to go to that show. Yeah, I want to, but I don't really need to. And I just would rather get the shoes. And so you're making a decision and you're deciding and you're thinking about it rather than spent than just spending money on both things.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I totally understand that. And that's the concept that that you just said that I tried to instill into my friends and family that may not be accustomed to it. Because a lot of times when they when people talk about getting into the whole finance, the financial part of life, it's basically it's not even a part of management. I feel like the main focus is to grow income, but I feel like the problem with that comes with. the the lack of their the lack of the knowledge and the strategies tactics that actually keep their money and that's one thing that I agree with you with I like your whole me method because it basically it it entails everything that a person that may need to you you can set aside um you can set aside funds with yourself without having to go over and reach over into other sectors of your money say for instance you may have bills uh credit card debt student loan debt so therefore you can set aside but I but you know understandably the more debt that you have coming the more debt that you have the more less that you'll probably be able to spend for that day spend like not in that day but in that pay period as a whole because you have other priorities and stuff taken over yeah so I feel like oh go ahead no I was just gonna say that's I mean and that's the thing like you have to you have to pay attention to your money and it's hard for people to do because they don't want to right they don't want to and it feels scary and but the more you pay attention to it and you understand what's coming and what's going and how it's working the better off you're gonna be right because even just seeing it um because I feel like now we live in a culture where you know it's social media it's social media propagate it's it's very heavily influenced on social media and then we do have people that's even my age or even older oh don't worry about that I got 50k in debt I'm just gonna go on this trip and just say forget I'll think about it later on when I get back or having people use the misinform people misinforming people basically on how that worked because a lot of times too even going back to the sector of when when people could play pay off their student loans and the when the when paid student loans had stopped from that from them for the years and for the I think it was two to three years of time it was it was a I had seen the uh a lady she paid off 80k and student loan did therefore she was able to lock in on her lock in on what she knows she need what she had to do she paid more than the minimum payment because I feel like there's a criteria as well when you do when you are paying on uh huge amounts of debt if you have to pay more than what you owed for that month that monthly minimum payment because if you keep just trying to just pinching off of paying the monthly minimum payment you'll be paying for that way longer than you're supposed to and I feel like when it's time for people to take accountability they kind of like so knee deep in the mud as you just said before it's horrifying for them to actually sit with that and understand like I can't keep doing this no more. So it's easy to keep applying for credit cards or keep spending or just say you know just trying to throw that all that all that negative energy that you may have in you write all that to the back of your head and just say I'm gonna turn my brain off I'm gonna go out and do whatever I want to do to cope with this.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah that happens absolutely and it's like and it's it's been a joy like talking to you though it's like because I feel like even though from even though from your experiences I feel like for a person that kind of because I also wanted to become a CPA as well I did have the interest it was either going to be a CPA or become a real estate um appraised a broken sales person and stuff like that around that field.

SPEAKER_00:

So could you tell the uh could could you talk about your experiences just as being a major uh may having a master degree in finance yeah I think that um for me in the in the financial services field the CFP designation is more highly looked at more highly regarded than actually a master's degree is so if somebody's looking to go into a career in financial services um you can get a you have there's different licensing tests that you have to take in order to be able to qualify uh to to do financial services now I'm not currently licensed because I'm doing financial coaching instead of financial advising at the moment but they can start with taking like uh just some basic finance courses and learning about that. In order to get your CFP right now there's a requirement that you have a bachelor's degree but it doesn't matter what that bachelor's degree is in. So anybody with a bachelor's degree can take the courses for the certified financial planner and there's a test that you take at the end of the courses that you that that's pretty intensive test. And that I think is why it's so high really highly regarded because of because of that test. So for someone who is looking to go into a career in financial services I would say you know start looking for an entry level job into the financial services field. Learn about the different ways that financial advisors get paid because there's so many different ways that they do there's so many different business models. So that's important to know from the beginning. And then you know if you don't have a bachelor's degree I would start working towards one and then eventually the CFP designation is the thing to have um I have a master's degree it's something that I wanted to do as an achievement for myself and it does help me with with you know in some instances like it gives me credibility and and things but really that CFP designation is the thing that that employers are looking for. And then as far as like the CPA like a certified public accountant that's similar. I'm not sure what all of the the requirements are for that but again there's you take a bunch of classes and there's a really um intensive test at the end that gives you that designation that CPA designation and both the CPA and the CFP are required to take continuing education classes throughout their career in order to keep that credential alive. So there's a lot that goes into that but both are great credentials to have and look you know very good on a resume.

SPEAKER_01:

Right and I and that's and that's another thing too a lot of a lot of times where that draws back to what I was saying a lot of times people look into these financial service fields to build income but they don't understand the type of work and time and sacrifice that you have to put in in order to be able to obtain and just not even with just longevity in these fields.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I know it's more to it than just looking up the information and and you know doing your research you have to apply these to your everyday everyday life yeah yeah absolutely and I think that's the thing is as you as you grow you know mindfully grow and you start to learn about really what personal growth and positive mindset can do for you, you can achieve anything you know and if you start there's all kinds of stories out there about people who've had that and things have have really worked out for them where they they just stay positive, they stay focused on the future they take small steps daily sometimes bigger steps daily and really you just keep focusing on you know a better life building a better life becoming a better person all of those things that go into becoming your best self and that's how you truly find your place in life and yeah and I feel like when people start honing in on that I feel like people have a as you just said a more better sense of self and not look into everything just about the money and the just the money and issue of it.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I feel like growing okay being a part of something like this and building a foundation in it to where your name is to where you have a credible name is way more is way more um like sensible to me than you actually getting a job and they may know you for doing it a certain certain people may know you but when your name holds weight it provides a different type of level of opening doors and I also seen like you've been on uh CNN different networks and like that telling people about your me method so this is a highly decorated person that we have on the podcast today. She's not um even in her own faction even though she said she's I even though I also looked into her you've been doing this over 20 years um she has been she's been propagating herself up to to be in certain positions and also even said she even went to school to you know get a master's degree and actually become more of something so as she as you go down your career you it's no telling of how many doors they can open up for you if you just push and persevere and you know move with intention as a whole so I wanted to give you you know your flowers on that and I appreciate you for just taking out your time with us today and just showing my audience you know everything doesn't have to be so surface level when it comes down to you and your financial future and with that people we'll end this episode off it was a pleasure having you miss Linda and I hopefully this won't be your last time coming back uh oh thank you so much Dante's I I would uh I would love to have another conversation sometime all right and you make sure y'all go follow her at Linda Grizzly that's L I N D A G R Z G R I Z E L Y go follow her on YouTube go subscribe to her page go like her videos and come and you know we have to do that's the that's the YouTube protocol so so thanks huh yeah thank you for that yeah no problem and also make sure you subscribe to our YouTube like and comment and share to your friends too because we all trying to build we are trying to build something together I don't want to I don't look at y'all as an audience I look at y'all as a family in the community and I want to build together with y'all we earning together because we we are the future millionaires and the future billionaires so as I always say let's earn together. See y'all in the next episode

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Dontese Burtin Jr

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