0:00

Hey, Dream listeners, it's me Jane.

0:03

Did you forget about me? I

0:05

have not forgotten about you. There's

0:08

something I've been wanting to tell you for a very

0:10

long time. The Dream is coming

0:12

back. We'll be releasing new episodes

0:15

right here on this feed in

0:17

just a few months, and maybe someday

0:19

I'll tell you why it took so long. In

0:22

the meantime, we've been working on a new show called

0:24

Other People's Pockets. It's

0:27

hosted by may Allow, a former

0:29

investigative journalist for the La Times.

0:32

Other People's Pockets, or OPP

0:34

as we like to call it around the office, it's

0:36

about other people's money, but unlike

0:38

a lot of other money podcasts that give

0:40

advice about how to make more of it, Maya

0:43

just wants to know how we spend it and how

0:45

we save it, and most importantly,

0:48

why we all get paid different amounts

0:50

compared to the same person sitting right

0:52

next to us, with far less experience. OPP

0:56

is full of real numbers. We're

0:58

talking salary, net worth,

1:01

net worthless, all the good

1:03

stuff. In each episode she

1:06

goes there, it gets uncomfortable, which

1:09

is fun. And today we're turning

1:11

the tables on our host. I'm

1:13

taking over Maya's show, and I'm going

1:15

to be asking her everything she puts

1:17

to her guests, and she has to

1:20

answer because she said you would. So

1:22

without further ado, Maya,

1:25

welcome to your own show. Thank

1:28

you, it's great to be here.

1:31

Tell me a little about yourself. What you do.

1:34

I created and also

1:36

host this podcast

1:39

that you're listening to called Other People's Pockets.

1:41

And I am a

1:44

journalist and a researcher

1:47

and have done

1:49

many things, but now one of the main

1:51

things I'm doing is this podcast. One

1:54

of the main things. What else are you doing? I

1:57

also have a company and I do financial

1:59

investigation type research

2:02

through that. So I was

2:04

a journalist an investigative reporter

2:06

for many years and then left

2:09

that. And I only mentioned that because a

2:11

lot of the skills of reporting

2:13

are the same in other industries,

2:16

and so now I've applied that to this

2:18

whole world of financial

2:21

investigations. So, like, one of my clients

2:23

is an investment firm, and I helped

2:25

them research different investments,

2:28

different people behind investments,

2:30

like trying to get to the heart of like

2:32

understanding a company or something like that.

2:35

Okay, and how much do you make doing that?

2:38

So last year that

2:42

was one of my main sources

2:44

of income, and I made

2:48

around two hundred thousand dollars a

2:51

year last year. I

2:54

don't know that I'll make that much this year,

2:56

just because now the podcast is

2:58

picking up and I have you know, like yeah,

3:01

I need to dial up and dial down different things.

3:03

But yeah, and then on this show,

3:05

how much do you make? So

3:08

on this show, I my

3:11

contract is for thirty

3:13

five episodes. That's how many

3:15

episodes are in a season, and we

3:17

do a weekly show, so that

3:20

that's really less than a year. But so if per

3:23

season I'm being paid

3:26

I think around one hundred twenty two thousand

3:29

dollars as a base payment,

3:31

and then I

3:34

get revenue share, so

3:36

I make twenty five percent of any

3:38

ads, subscriptions, if

3:40

we do events, merchandise,

3:43

anything like that, and then there's you

3:47

know, separate This hasn't happened,

3:49

but like separate percentages

3:51

for if I were to ever do a

3:54

book or a TV show or anything

3:56

based on that. But so the derivative works or IP

3:58

stop. Yes, can I tell you a secret?

4:01

Yeah, you make so much more

4:03

money than me, Like

4:05

so I mean overall or for the

4:07

podcast. I mean I probably

4:10

in a year maybe make what you make on the podcast.

4:13

Uh yeah, maybe, but

4:15

I don't know you make so much more money than

4:17

me. I don't. I don't know that I'm going

4:19

to make that amount

4:21

again, you know, like because just because

4:23

of like how much do I want to work? Or

4:26

like how much can I work? How much

4:28

do you want to work? I mean, I I work full

4:30

time, but I don't I don't

4:32

like hustle and grind the way I used to. So

4:34

like right now how much I work is is

4:38

how much I want to work? Um,

4:41

but I just don't. I don't want to like be

4:43

like, oh my god, it's nine pm and I need

4:45

to like work for two more hours to finish

4:47

something. I mean, I

4:50

there's obvious reasons why not.

4:52

But can you tell me why not? Was

4:54

there a moment where you were were you I

4:57

don't know, brought it up in therapy or like wrote

4:59

it in your plan or like I'm not going to do this anymore?

5:02

Well, I mean, I had a child

5:04

three years ago, and that

5:07

has been a huge shift in my life,

5:09

and I just don't. I mean, I you know, taking

5:12

care of a child is kind

5:14

of another job. You know. It's like when she comes home,

5:16

then I have that job. And my

5:18

husband does too, But like you

5:20

know, that takes a lot out of you, and so by nine

5:22

pm, I'm completely exhausted.

5:25

And I think I just have a different

5:28

outlook on grind

5:30

culture. Like I think it was probably

5:33

necessary for me when I was younger

5:36

and had to prove myself and I had more

5:38

energy in my twenties, and I loved it, like I

5:40

loved that I stayed at the office

5:42

until eight pm or whatever. But

5:45

yeah, now I'm just like you know, I

5:48

really want to work smarter, not harder,

5:50

and like, I

5:52

have a life and I

5:55

just don't have the

5:57

energy that I used to and I want

5:59

to Like now I feel kind of I'm

6:02

equally ambitious, but now I'm more ambitious

6:04

about achieving

6:06

quote unquote work life balance. Like that

6:09

feels like also

6:11

a hard thing to achieve, so I

6:14

might as well be ambitious about that. Will

6:24

you would take me back to your first

6:26

job. I

6:28

think my first job I was in middle

6:32

school. I don't know when, like child

6:34

labor, this began, but I think

6:37

I was in middle school. Maybe I was in early high school.

6:39

I worked very

6:41

part time at this local

6:44

gift store, wrapping presents,

6:47

and it was only in the holidays that I

6:49

did that particular job, but when they had

6:51

a bunch of people buying stuff and needed help

6:53

wrapping presents, I would do that. How

6:56

much money did you make rapping presents? It

6:59

would have been been own wage, which I don't remember

7:01

what that was. And what year

7:04

was this? This was in

7:06

the late nineties.

7:09

Okay, yeah, so you're

7:11

wrapping presents. What's your next job? The

7:14

next job I had was at Bernini's

7:17

Bistro in Lahoia, Lajoia,

7:20

the town of Doctor SEUs. Is

7:22

it? Oh? Yes, yes, How do you know that?

7:25

Oh? It's famous for being that it looks like a

7:27

Doctor SEUs book, like

7:30

you know, like all the crazy trees and the weird

7:33

houses on cliffs, and like if you read

7:35

any of the Doctor Seuss books, that looks just like

7:37

the walruses

7:41

and weird or whatever those seamed lions are,

7:44

like the houses up on the cliff, and like

7:47

weird topiary looking bushes

7:49

and dolphins and stuff. I don't know. And

7:52

just for our listeners who are not familiar with

7:54

southern California, aside from Lahoiah

7:56

being the home of Doctor SEUs, Lahoia

7:59

is so yes,

8:01

it is very fancy, rich

8:04

people town. It's where the Kardashian's grandma lives.

8:07

Oh that I didn't know, you know, all

8:09

this Lajoya trivia that I didn't know.

8:11

So, yeah, Lahoya is a very

8:14

it's all right on the water. Um, Lajoya

8:17

Shores is one of like the best beaches,

8:20

considered one of the best beaches, and it's in you

8:22

just because it's very clean and and like the waves

8:24

are nice and it is a very

8:26

Yeah, it's it's a very kind

8:29

of ridiculous but

8:31

beautiful um area.

8:34

I'm assuming you lived near by Lahoya.

8:37

I lived probably a twenty

8:39

minute drive on the freeway

8:41

to the east. Yeah, I lived

8:43

in it in an area that was like

8:46

a suburban. It

8:48

was like upper middle class, but

8:50

definitely not like so.

8:53

I actually went to church in Lahoya. That

8:55

is why I

8:58

was even like in that area,

9:01

and like meeting the like

9:03

Lahoya High kids, like

9:05

they're like there was like a different a

9:09

different um level of

9:11

like wealth and water polo noss

9:14

um. But yeah,

9:17

do you remember having feelings about the rich kids.

9:20

Yeah, I mean I think that then I felt

9:23

like a lot of envy around stuff

9:26

like that. But in high school, when I had the

9:28

job at the restaurant. I think

9:30

I felt kind of like those

9:32

kids are just really different, like I,

9:35

I just didn't identify with them. I didn't

9:38

identify with the

9:40

water Polo crowd. I

9:42

was a little bit more like alternative. It's

9:45

very specific, by the way. I don't think a lot

9:47

of people I want

9:49

to pull across crowd. So

9:51

I think I just kind of was like, okay,

9:53

whatever, But I was. I was aware of

9:55

it for sure. Will you tell me a little

9:58

about your upbringing around money, Like you

10:01

told me that you guys were upper middle class. Yes,

10:04

And I that sticks in my head

10:06

just because I remember asking my mom

10:09

what class we were at some point growing up, and

10:11

that's what she said, and so I just take

10:14

it as fact, like, yeah, okay, that's

10:16

what we must have been at the same

10:18

time. For us, there was a lot of

10:20

treading water that went on to maintaining

10:23

our upper middle class status, especially

10:25

after my parents got divorced when I was around eight,

10:27

and you know, one point, my mom

10:30

had her own business and was not bringing

10:32

in much money and we barely

10:34

held on to our house. You

10:37

know, my mom really worked

10:39

her ass up, and really both my parents

10:41

did to maintain what

10:43

we had. My mom was putting absolutely

10:46

everything on credit cards at one point. So

10:49

there was just a lot that was kind

10:53

of holding up the appearances

10:55

and kind of keeping it all going even

10:57

when it wasn't always going so well. So

11:06

my parents were both retired, but my dad was

11:09

an architect and a construction

11:11

manager, and my mom was a

11:14

public television producer and then later

11:16

a university administrator.

11:20

Yeah, I definitely remember there

11:22

being one point where there was this

11:25

road, this big road that we

11:28

were near, and if you crossed to the other side

11:30

of the road there was like

11:33

these like McMansions and like bigger

11:36

houses. And I had a friend over there and

11:39

I was probably, I want

11:41

to say, I was like nine or something, and

11:44

I went over to my friend's house and played there,

11:46

and she just had this huge house. It

11:48

was just amazing. And my dad

11:50

was driving me home from the play date, and I was kind

11:53

of like, oh, like, why can't

11:55

we live over on that side of the road. And you

11:58

know, at so and so's house

12:01

we did this and this and this, and he was

12:03

so stern with

12:05

me and like, Maya, like,

12:09

you have no idea the

12:11

sacrifice as your mom and I have made to have

12:13

the house that we do have like don't

12:16

you ever like I don't ever want to hear

12:18

this conversation again. This is absolutely ridiculous,

12:21

And he's right because it

12:23

was fine. Yeah, And I feel like everybody,

12:25

no matter what status they had, like

12:28

they always have some story about like, well, like

12:30

I wasn't like these other

12:32

people that I knew growing up, and it's like, yeah,

12:34

but you were also fine. So that's also me.

12:36

Like I felt growing up,

12:39

certainly when I was in high schools like oh this is so

12:41

vanilla and like so boring, but

12:45

I would not say it was like Truman

12:47

showy or like it

12:49

wasn't I don't know. Also,

12:51

like, so the celebrity from my neighborhood

12:54

is Kyle Mooney, the comedian,

12:58

So I would love like maybe

13:00

he needs to like I need like

13:02

another perspective because like, let's get him

13:04

on the show. I want to call le money right now.

13:07

Love. I would love his take on

13:09

he like has some comedy about growing

13:11

up in Script's Ranch, which is the name of the neighborhood

13:14

and the whole YouTube

13:16

channel. Yeah, it was like exactly about

13:19

growing up there. Yeah, so

13:21

like like reporting live from like the taco

13:23

shop. Yeah, that was very much my childhood and

13:26

it's time. I'm Todd. What up? Eric? And

13:29

this is inside Socco. We give you the inside scoop

13:31

on SoCal Live Style. Now

13:37

for our financial report, we're gonna go to our boy Nate.

13:39

What up dude? Um? Yeah, So

13:41

like in financial news, Um, Sean

13:44

and I worked for my dad last weekend doing like landscaping

13:46

and shit, and we got paid like two bucks

13:48

each step. If

13:51

your daughter who lives in Mexico City,

13:53

huh, and who's gonna reach consciousness

13:56

and gonna form core memories?

13:59

Yeah, if you're our work to go from where she lives

14:01

now to the what's it called

14:03

scripts Rand Scripts Rand? What would

14:05

her assessment be? Um? We

14:08

we joked by the way that there should be

14:10

a strip club they're called strips

14:13

Runch, but that has not opened yet.

14:15

Um, what would her assessment

14:17

of it be? Yeah? Um yeah,

14:20

I mean she would probably be like she

14:22

would the one of two things. She could,

14:24

on the one hand, be like this is freaking

14:26

awesome, like you

14:29

know, there's places to swim

14:31

and walk and play, or she

14:33

could also be like this is really boring

14:36

and why do I have to drive

14:38

everywhere? So I guess it depends

14:40

on which age she's at. Yeah.

14:42

Okay, so, um, you grew up

14:44

in this um

14:46

inside so called inside SoCal. Okay,

14:48

so you grew up inside SoCal. Yes.

14:51

Yeah. If anyone wants

14:53

to know how I grew up, just Watchcal.

14:57

Yeah okay, you grew up there you are.

14:59

Then you go to La Joya and you work at

15:02

a as a hostess because you're pretty

15:04

at a restaurant. Oh wow, that's

15:06

what it is, isn't it? Like

15:08

the girls are always the hostess? Well?

15:10

Also, I didn't have any skill, so

15:13

yeah, I didn't have any like waitressing

15:15

skill. You only had to work one day a week

15:17

all through high school. Um

15:20

yeah, wow, what did you

15:22

get to do with your money? Um?

15:25

I mean I think I was probably like supposed

15:27

to save x percentage of it,

15:31

but you didn't. You just spent Wait what did you?

15:33

What did out? When I was sixteen? So I spent it on rent?

15:35

But before that I had to pay my own lunch.

15:38

My mom wouldn't pay for my lunch. Um,

15:41

cigarettes, beer, those are good

15:43

things. Um what else? I

15:45

didn't have a car, bus tickets,

15:48

you know, to get around. Acid.

15:52

Acid was like the most my biggest

15:55

extents in like ninth and tenth grade

15:57

because it was like seven dollars. If

16:00

a pack of cigarettes is one dollar an acid seven,

16:02

it's kind of hard to like justify it,

16:04

but I would just skip meals. So seven

16:06

dollars per what

16:09

what do you call it? Like per square,

16:11

per tab, per experience? Yeah, okay,

16:14

that was very expensive, especially because when

16:16

I was working, it was like the minimum wage

16:18

was like in the two or three dollars range, right,

16:21

so I would have to work for two

16:23

or three hours to afford

16:26

one hit of ascid one. Yeah,

16:29

budgeting anyway,

16:37

get us up to where we are now. If

16:39

you just want to like list off the jobs that

16:41

you had and what you remember making. Yeah,

16:45

So after college, I

16:47

had a job at a law firm in New York.

16:50

I thought I wanted to be a lawyer, and I thought it'd be good

16:52

to work at a law firm for a while. Ended

16:54

up definitely not wanting to go to law school

16:56

or be a lawyer. But I why

17:00

part of it is the dress code. I

17:02

just was like, I can't

17:04

wear these suits every day.

17:06

Like I remember there was somebody, some

17:09

other lawyer who's not from our firm, who came

17:11

in and she was like in

17:13

the kitchen or something of the office,

17:16

and I was just like she

17:18

had like this colorful, cool,

17:22

offbeat like still

17:24

professional looking, but like colorful,

17:27

like scarvy kind of like

17:29

maybe she could also have been an art

17:32

professor. Like it was like just

17:34

not And I remember being like where did you

17:37

get your like what And

17:39

we talked all about like the dress

17:42

code of law firms and like how stifling

17:44

it is. And anyway, I

17:46

think I just was exploring

17:48

a really different side of myself.

17:50

And it had been a thing

17:53

that I had said to everyone I was going

17:55

to do, and so told myself like I'm

17:57

gonna go to law school, and so

17:59

it actually became kind of fun

18:01

at some point to be like I'm

18:03

not even going to do the thing that I told everyone

18:06

that I was going to do, Like whoops, Like I

18:08

don't know. After that, I joined the Peace

18:11

Corps and like during that time, I just

18:13

really reevaluated things. And there are so

18:15

many things about your life. I got

18:17

to say, Maya, that makes you sound so rich,

18:20

like

18:25

like joining the Peace Corps,

18:27

how do you pay for life when you're in the Peace Corps?

18:29

You don't, so you get to put all your loans

18:32

on hold when you're in the Peace Corps nice,

18:35

like you get to literally press pause,

18:37

you don't, they don't accrue interest, and

18:41

then your expenses are covered when you're

18:43

in there. Yeah, all of your expenses are

18:45

covered. Where did you go?

18:48

I was in Senegal in West

18:51

Africa. So if

18:54

you don't have a need to

18:56

like bring in a lot of money for

18:59

two years, like, it

19:01

is definitely a privilege

19:03

to not like have to bring in a

19:05

certain amount to support your parents or

19:08

somebody else. Do they pay you in the

19:10

Peace Corp at all? Yeah, So

19:12

technically you're called a volunteer, but

19:15

you do make a small stipend

19:18

and it's enough to like

19:21

survive in whatever country

19:23

you're in. Are we talking hundreds

19:26

or are we talking thousands a month? Gosh,

19:29

I think it was a hundred

19:31

dollars a month or something like that.

19:33

Yeah, So then you get out of the Peace

19:36

Corps and then I

19:38

got a job at the New York Times. As

19:41

one does, as one does,

19:43

And I'll tell I could tell you, like how that happened,

19:46

to tell me. So, when I was

19:48

in the Peace Corps, I was really interest

19:50

started to be interested in writing and

19:53

in journalism, and a

19:56

really smart friend

19:58

of mine in the Peace Corps because I was. I

20:00

had so I had lived in New York before and I was talking about

20:02

going back to New York after and I was like, oh, I guess

20:04

when I go back to New York, I'll like start networking

20:06

in journalism. And she was like,

20:08

what are you talking about. You should network here

20:11

in Senegal. And I was like, who

20:14

is there to network with here in Senegal? And

20:16

she's like, there's journalists all

20:18

over the world, like international journalists

20:20

based into a car. Yeah. I would

20:23

reach out to people, and I ended up

20:25

reaching out to the person that was then

20:27

the New York Times bear chief for West Africa

20:29

and he lived in a car. Yeah,

20:32

So like through that connection is how I ended

20:34

up getting a job at the New York Times.

20:36

How much was your salary at the Times?

20:38

Fifty thousand dollars a year. Do

20:41

you get any benefits with that or is it like a contract

20:43

thing? No, I was staff, so

20:45

I got health benefits and stuff. Then what So

20:48

then I really wanted to try

20:50

to be a reporter, and it was very hard

20:52

to move up with the New York Times. So I

20:54

had some mentors tell me like, you

20:56

should try to go be a crime reporter in the South

20:59

and So I got a job at the Shrewport Times

21:01

in Louisiana, and I think my salary

21:03

was around thirty eight thousand dollars a year there,

21:06

And then how long did you do that? I

21:09

was there for a little over a year, and then

21:11

I went to the Advocate in Baton

21:13

Rouge, Louisiana and made forty

21:15

two thousand dollars year. I

21:18

did get raises there up

21:21

to I think I got up to like fifty thousand

21:24

dollars there and then significant Like

21:26

if you're talking starting at forty, that's pretty

21:28

great. It's not like a two percent

21:30

three percent raise, you know, that's a that's

21:32

like a merit raise. Yeah,

21:35

And also like looking back on it,

21:38

it was kind of amazing that I was able

21:40

to get raises because then later at the La

21:42

Times that was a job

21:44

ahead. After that it was really hard to get a raise

21:46

really at all. Yeah,

21:58

I want to be more like your parents as a but

22:00

like your parents couldn't be more different from my parents.

22:03

Like my parents have a lot of ideas about like um

22:06

morals and money and ethics and money and

22:08

like you know, like the prosperity Gospel ship and

22:10

like if you're not working really hard all

22:13

the time, you're not going to appreciate what you

22:15

have that kind of stuff, and

22:18

that no one should get a hand out all that crap. I

22:21

don't I don't agree with it now, But can

22:24

you just talk to me about like what your

22:27

parents taught me about

22:29

money? Yeah, and what did they get

22:31

taught about money? I

22:34

feel like I grew up feeling

22:37

like money was not

22:40

something that should be your

22:42

main goal in life, and that you

22:46

know that the people who did really

22:48

prioritize money or want to make a lot of money

22:50

were like lame and stupid

22:54

and like didn't have any culture,

22:56

and like, you don't want to be like that.

22:59

You want to be someone who changes

23:01

the world or like at least like tries to make the

23:03

world a better place. Isn't trying to

23:05

like take resources from other people. And

23:08

you should want to make like enough

23:10

money. But but that's

23:12

kind of where I

23:15

have now interrogated that further because I'm like, what

23:17

is enough or like what like

23:19

you should just want to make like an

23:23

amount that sort of maintains

23:25

sort of your current standard

23:28

of living, which now

23:30

I believe is actually a lot

23:32

of money. You know, my

23:36

ideas were very like you

23:38

should study hard

23:40

and then like hopefully

23:43

you'll get to do something that

23:45

you really love and that's really cool and

23:48

you know, like you're not going

23:50

to be not making any money, but

23:53

but the paycheck is not something that you

23:55

should be thinking about. Like that's kind

23:57

of I think the mentality

24:00

that I grew up with. I

24:02

guess they probably saw themselves as like intellectuals

24:05

or whatever. Like they kind of felt

24:07

like if you're doing something that's really

24:11

interesting and impactful,

24:14

like that is like that has the most

24:16

cachet. Yeah.

24:18

I think my mom had had a similar

24:21

mindset, Like she went to a school

24:23

that was very social justice oriented.

24:26

She felt like the people who

24:29

you know, they just like maybe they own a home

24:31

and they have their little yard and they

24:33

have you know, just like the things

24:35

they need, like that that's like honorable. That

24:38

it's like actually honorable to not make a lot

24:40

of money. That's like

24:42

what she believed.

24:45

I wish that was like true

24:47

still, I know, and like that you

24:49

didn't have to be a millionaire to have a

24:51

little tiny house. Yeah,

24:54

and that's why I kind of am like I

24:57

think that it's a little maybe simplistic

25:00

to be just like, oh, you know, like

25:02

you don't need you don't need anything and

25:05

just you know, put your head down and save

25:07

your pennies. It's like that's not gonna

25:12

Yeah, You're gonna have to like be pretty

25:14

smart about what's happening

25:17

and be really honest with yourself about what kind

25:19

of life you want. Tell

25:26

me about your move and

25:28

how that like the money decisions

25:31

around your move. So

25:33

we were in Seattle because we

25:35

really didn't like the place that we were living

25:37

in in la which was like surrounded

25:39

by barbed wire and not great.

25:42

Um, So we moved to Seattle

25:44

to be near my sister, whose kid is

25:46

the same age as ours, and then

25:49

we decided to move to Mexico City, which is where

25:51

we are now. You know, that was basically

25:54

an opportunity that came up because of my husband's

25:56

job, and it was not

25:58

like a mandatory thing, but it was like you

26:01

can, like you could live in

26:03

Mexico City and continue to

26:06

expand your portfolio of work in Latin

26:08

America, and so it

26:10

was just an exciting thing. I think we

26:12

kind of also felt like we have a

26:14

few more chances maybe to move before

26:16

our kid turns five and

26:18

needs to go to kindergarten. I

26:21

think in terms of the money considerations, I

26:23

think that it did feel attractive

26:26

and interesting to move

26:28

to a place where we could save

26:31

some serious money and

26:34

also just be living in a really interesting

26:36

international city. And I mean it should

26:39

also be said that, like, it

26:41

is very colonialist

26:43

to decide as an American

26:46

that you want to live in Mexico. Like, there's

26:49

a lot of people around the world that

26:51

would love to just decide to live in the US

26:53

and they can't. So it's not

26:56

something that I take lightly.

26:58

And like it is very complicated

27:00

to just move somewhere like this. Is there anything

27:03

that since you've been there where you're like, wow, this

27:05

is so much cheaper. Oh

27:07

m, we have a personal trainer. Oh

27:09

we Jesse and I go together and it's twenty

27:11

five dollars a session for both of us.

27:14

Wow, that's so good. Now

27:16

you're living in Mexico City, you're living

27:18

off of his income. Ye, you're

27:21

saving your income. Yeah, what

27:23

would you say you're not worth is right? Now? Do

27:26

you own anything? No, we don't

27:28

own anything. Okay, we

27:30

don't own cars. We sold both

27:32

of our cars before moving here. Do you

27:34

have debt? No, we actually

27:37

just paid off Jesse's

27:40

and mine, well mine, we're technically paid

27:42

off a bit beforehand, but

27:45

we just paid off Jesse's maybe

27:49

a year or two ago. The student

27:51

loans. Yeah, oh

27:53

my god. He's forty

27:55

forty eight. Oh my god, and he's just paid off

27:57

his student loans. That's amazing. That's criminal.

28:00

Yeah, I know. So

28:03

I think together we

28:05

are net worths like four hundred thousand dollars.

28:07

Wow. So it's basically a yeah,

28:09

retirement and then I

28:12

guess some savings and cash.

28:20

I feel like we've talked about this before, but if you

28:22

just want to refresh me, like the choice

28:25

to have one or two or more kids

28:27

for you really came down to money.

28:31

I mean, in part we've decided

28:33

to have one kid just because we really don't think

28:36

we can handle too. Like our

28:38

one is she's

28:40

amazing and she's just

28:42

a huge personality, and

28:45

she's three, so I'm like, we can't

28:47

have another, Like I'm just getta how people do

28:49

this again. But it is also

28:51

partially like we're like

28:55

in a good place now and I

28:58

don't want to go backward. I want

29:00

to feel like we're like putting

29:02

money away and I don't know, moving

29:04

forward and maybe going to be able to buy a house

29:07

one day. Or something that you may feel like purchase

29:09

that you're looking forward to. I

29:11

would say that's the main one, although there's

29:14

this part of me that is like,

29:16

maybe we're just not those people, Like

29:20

is there another part of you that's like we'll take the savings

29:23

and then not really have to work

29:25

much and live in an RV. Not

29:28

in an RV? Why? Um, but

29:31

I want an RV because

29:35

I don't know, like I've never liked personally.

29:39

My thing is more like maybe

29:41

we are just the type of people

29:43

that are just going to keep moving around to

29:45

cities and yeah,

29:47

to like cool cities, yeah,

29:50

or like I mean I would love

29:52

to live in Europe one day, Like yeah. In

29:54

terms of the money savings, like

29:57

yeah, it's just it's m to

30:00

me, it kind of represents like freedom

30:03

and stability and knowing, like

30:06

even having an emergency savings

30:08

account. Now I've

30:10

I've found how freeing that is

30:12

to be like, yeah, we're going to be Okay,

30:16

what is enough money? Is

30:19

it? Are you there? Is that the feeling you're having right now?

30:22

I mean I'm one of those people who there's

30:25

like different categories of

30:28

enough, like you

30:30

know, there's enough, Like I

30:32

haven't always have had more than enough, you

30:34

know, like I

30:36

I have food,

30:39

and I have people around me who

30:42

I love who love me, and I have

30:45

like a life and that's

30:48

enough. And at the same time,

30:51

like, are there other

30:53

things that I really want that would

30:55

feel even more like oh

30:57

okay, like now

30:59

we're good, or like, you know,

31:02

I just really want to get to that place like

31:04

yeah, like there's still I recognize

31:06

that I don't need those things. Do you know

31:09

what that place is? Like a dollar wise or

31:11

like possessions wise. I

31:13

mean, like I think possessions

31:15

wise, it's having

31:20

like a like a

31:22

soaking tub or like a bathtub

31:26

that I feel like everywhere, not

31:28

everywhere, Um, I think you could

31:30

probably do that right now, a soaking

31:33

tub. How much is it soaking? Like? But I can't

31:35

like I rent, like I can't like bring in

31:38

sure you can. Maybe

31:40

there's no room for it though, because there's like an existing

31:44

I feel like everywhere I live, I can't

31:47

have a hot bath because it

31:49

doesn't doesn't work like it

31:51

like there's only so much hot water and

31:54

then it starts to go cold, you

31:56

know, And so like that's one of those things where I'm like one

31:59

day day I'm going to have like

32:01

a piping hot bath and

32:03

like a huge stoking tub. You can come over

32:05

to my house next time you come to

32:07

La, I'll let you soak in my tub. Yeah,

32:10

we can enjoy the drought. Yeah.

32:16

I know it's fun and kind of voyeuristic

32:18

to dig into other people's finances.

32:22

How does it feel having the table turned?

32:25

Yeah? I think as of a few years

32:27

ago, I would have been like, oh, I don't think

32:29

I could do that, Like these

32:32

are conversations that I have a

32:34

lot. There's always a risk

32:37

when you talk about how much money you make

32:39

that somebody's gonna

32:41

like have a judgment about

32:44

it, like you sound so rich.

32:46

Like that was like interesting feedback

32:49

to get because it's like that's

32:51

your reaction. Like I think I

32:53

wonder like if it

32:55

makes you not like me

32:58

as much or like think something about out

33:00

me. I think that is why people

33:03

are uncomfortable, is like

33:05

they're worried about like not really the

33:07

number almost, but like what

33:09

what's the like added thing

33:12

that someone's going to say? You

33:14

know? Do you feel like it's important

33:17

work? Yes, I really

33:19

do. The more

33:22

I talk to people about this, like

33:25

and the more just I learned for myself,

33:27

like oh, this is how much someone makes like

33:30

it's just information and it's transparency,

33:33

and yeah, so I think it's really

33:35

great to learn, like, oh, that's an amount

33:38

that is you can make if you

33:40

want. And so I think for that

33:42

reason it's good. And I also just think, yeah, just

33:45

the questions that inspire

33:48

the most anxiety,

33:50

like sometimes just that is that

33:53

says something that says there's something that

33:56

needs to come out, or there's something there that's

33:58

worth exploring. So yeah, I definitely do feel

34:00

like I wouldn't like pat myself

34:02

on the back and be like, I'm like, you know,

34:05

saving the world, But

34:07

I do think like there is I

34:09

hope that there's good being done.

34:17

Yeah, Maya, I would love to have

34:19

you back on this show anytime. Oh

34:21

awesome. I would be an

34:24

honor. It would be an honor to be able to

34:26

do this now. Thank

34:28

you so much though for being so open.

34:31

Sure, thank you. Thanks

34:39

for listening to Other People's Pockets And

34:42

hey, this is a new show, so if you like

34:44

it, please leave us a review on Apple

34:46

Podcasts or wherever you listen. It really

34:48

really helps us out. Other

34:51

People's Pockets is written and hosted by

34:53

me I Allow. It's produced

34:55

by me along with Joyce Sanford and Dan

34:57

Galucci. Production help from Angela

34:59

van Our. Executive producers

35:01

are me along with Jane Marie and Dan Galuchi.

35:05

Other People's Pockets is a co production

35:07

of Pushkin Industries and Little Everywhere.

35:10

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35:36

Maya Law, or on Instagram and TikTok

35:38

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