
Young and Profiting (YAP) with Hala Taha
Tori Dunlap, How to Fix Your Money Mindset and Unlock Financial Freedom | Finance | YAPClassic
Fri, 03 Jan 2025
After graduating from college in 2016, 22-year-old Tori Dunlap started an entry-level job in corporate marketing. But she set herself a goal: figure out a way to make $100,000 by the age of 25. She reached that goal three years later and quit her job. In doing so, she realized how money and personal finance are tools you can use to shape your life into something that you love. In this episode, Tori will offer some wealth-building tips and share how to set financial goals and invest mindfully to create a strong financial future. In this episode, Hala and Tori will discuss: (00:00) Introduction (01:35) Money as a Form of Protest (03:59) How Tori Made $100K by 25 (06:41) Growing a Side Hustle Into Millions (08:29) The Weaponization of Altruism (12:58) The Freedom of a $100K Safety Net (14:52) Why Financial Education Is Broken (19:07) The Psychology of Money (23:50) Why Women Are Shamed for Spending (27:21) Reframing Your Money Mindset (34:56) Spending Without Guilt or Shame (40:06) How Much to Save for Retirement (45:53) Side Hustles That Aren’t Sexy but Work (49:34) Investing for Financial Independence (53:35) Automate Your Way to Wealth Tori Dunlap is an internationally recognized money and career expert, seven-figure entrepreneur, bestselling author, and top podcast host. CNBC called Tori “the voice of financial confidence for women,” and TIME said, “Tori Dunlap is on top of the personal finance world.” She is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree and the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Financial Feminist. Her First $100K is a feminist-first platform, using money as its medium and committed to fighting the patriarchy by making women rich. Resources Mentioned: Tori’s Podcast, Financial Feminist: https://herfirst100k.com/financial-feminist-podcast Tori’s Book, Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy’s Bullsh*t to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love: https://amzn.to/4fmAe2v Sponsored By: OpenPhone - Get 20% off 6 months at https://www.openphone.com/PROFITING Shopify - Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://www.youngandprofiting.co/shopify Airbnb - Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at https://www.airbnb.com/host Rocket Money - Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to https://www.rocketmoney.com/profiting Active Deals - youngandprofiting.com/deals Key YAP Links Reviews - ratethispodcast.com/yap Youtube - youtube.com/c/YoungandProfiting LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/htaha/ Instagram - instagram.com/yapwithhala/ Social + Podcast Services: yapmedia.com Transcripts - youngandprofiting.com/episodes-new All Show Keywords: Entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship podcast, Business, Business podcast, Self Improvement, Self-Improvement, Personal development, Starting a business, Strategy, Investing, Sales, Selling, Psychology, Productivity, Entrepreneurs, AI, Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Marketing, Negotiation, Money, Finance, Side hustle, Startup, mental health, Career, Leadership, Mindset, Health, Growth mindset. Finance Finance, Financial, Personal Finance, Wealth, Stock Market, Scalability, Investment, Financial Freedom, Risk Management, Financial Planning, Business Coaching, Finance podcast, Investing, Saving,
Chapter 1: What is Tori Dunlap's financial journey?
I literally can picture 65-year-old Nana Tori with her cute little handbag and her little wrinkles, but she's just so excited to be alive. I have to save money in order to get her to that place. On the flip side, I'm 28. I will never have to work another day if I don't want to because I have saved enough.
I have the option to burn all of HFK to the ground tomorrow if I wanted to and never work again and still be fine. Because I have saved and invested enough money from all of the money I've made. Now, I won't do that for many reasons. I love what I do. It continues to make a huge impact, right? Like, I won't do that. I will continue to make a lot of money.
The business will continue to make a lot of money. But I have the option as someone who isn't even 30 yet, to stop working. Work is now optional. There is something so freeing about that. So in the same way that it sounds like it is freeing for you to be like, I can just make more money.
I feel that way in some aspects where it's kind of cool to just be like, yeah, I could put something on sale and make 20K in a day. That's great. But I also get so much stability and happiness and excitement out of the baller ass move that is like, yeah, I don't have to work. So in terms of that mindset shift for me, I started reading about financial independence when I was in my early 20s.
And it was less like, especially in the early days, that 100K, it was less about how much money can I make or how much money can I earn and more like what can I put away so that I have options and I can save as much as possible or invest as much as possible while still traveling and going out to restaurants and having the experience that I want as somebody in their 20s.
So I think that that for me was the kind of shift, the ability to have this money saved that I, yeah, work is optional.
Yeah. And I think that we should all take this. What do you call it? Nana vision? Nana. Yeah.
I literally call it in the book like grandparent you or like Nana you. Like, what does that look like? And again, like we were talking about Ramit, your rich life, like your Nana version of you is going to look different. Right. I've asked people in workshops before, like, what does Nana you look like? And for some people, yeah, it's very similar to mine.
It's like adopting dogs and like not giving a fuck. And for other people, it's just like, I feel content. I have enough money. I feel content. I'm not stressed. And I'm like, great. That's amazing. That's amazing.
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Chapter 3: Why is financial education broken?
But Donald Trump got elected. So I graduated college in May of 2016, was trying to figure out the kind of person and the woman I wanted to be in this world. And five months later, the election happens and I'm coming into adulthood and really into womanhood. in a very different country than I think a lot of us expected. So I'm trying to figure out, how do I want to show up? What do I care about?
What do I want my life to look like? And when you're the friend all of your friends were coming to for advice, and when you're also starting to see that your own financial background... is the reason you're able to have flexibility. You're able to quit the job that feels toxic and find a better option for you. You're able to travel. You're able to donate to causes you believe in.
You start to realize, oh, maybe money is my form of protest in this world. Maybe money is the tool and the resource I need to not only build the life that I love, but also to start shaping a world that I want to see. And so...
I really became just so on fire about personal finance, but specifically, again, using money as a tool to shape your life into something that you love and to start shaping communities around you. So my work started as a side hustle.
Her first 100K, this now global multi-million dollar business with employees and a podcast and a book, was the thing I was doing on the side of my nine to five in marketing. And as I was growing my own confidence as a leader and as someone who was
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Chapter 4: What is the psychology behind money?
learning how to connect with people and educate them step-by-step about how to build wealth, I was also seeing in my own life, oh, when I have money, I have options. And so the rest is crazy now. I took it full-time after saving $100,000 at age 25, which was the origin story of her first 100K.
I was on Good Morning America, quit my job three weeks later, and now we have 3 million people who we're shaping and teaching them how to pay off debt and save money and start investing.
I love your story. And we have so many similarities. I also started Yap and Yap Media as a side hustle. And so from my understanding, the first thing you started was a blog. Is that right?
Yeah. So it was a blog in late 2016. That kind of era, like mid 2010s, was like the Tumblr blog era, if you can think back that far, right?
Chapter 5: How are women shamed for spending?
Yeah, I had a blog too.
Yeah. So that was what I thought was like, okay, I want to share my life as a 20 something woman, like how to navigate career, how to travel and how to do all these things. And I started to realize probably about a year or two in that I was like, oh, all of my topics have something to do with money.
Yeah, I would talk about traveling to Costa Rica, but I'd talk about negotiating our car rental or I'd talk about finding a cheap flight. Obviously, with a career, right, I'm working to make money and to hopefully have this sense of purpose or passion.
And again, I was becoming more political, becoming more educated about systemic oppression and the various aspects of personal finance that I was not seeing covered. You think about Dave Ramsey, Susie Orman, these very well-known personal finance experts, and very rarely do they talk about how racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia have anything to do with money.
Chapter 6: What are practical tips for reframing your money mindset?
Chapter 7: How can money be a form of protest?
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Now, while I'm busy finding myself a cowboy, you can go find yourself a co-host at airbnb.com slash host. Welcome back, young Improfiters. Today on Yap Classic, we're showcasing an interview I did about a year ago with the remarkable Tori Dunlap.
After graduating college in 2016, 22-year-old Tori started an entry-level job in corporate marketing, but she set herself a goal on the side to figure out a way to make $100,000 by the age of 25. And sure enough, three years later, she met her goal and quit her job. In doing so, she realized how money and personal finance are tools you can use to shape your life into something that you love.
Today, Tori is an internationally recognized money and career expert, seven-figure entrepreneur, TikTok and Instagram mega-influencer, best-selling author, and top podcast host of the Financial Feminist Podcast. which by the way, is in my podcast network, the number one business and self-improvement podcast network, Yap Media. And in this conversation from episode 245, Tori does not disappoint.
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Chapter 8: What is the impact of financial independence on personal freedom?
That was the promise I had made to myself, is I attached the number to a goal and to a feeling. I literally imagined, like, what would my life look like if I didn't have to make somebody I didn't respect rich? What would my life look like if I didn't have to ask to take PTO and get it denied?
What would my life look like if I didn't have to commute into a job that I didn't feel aligned with my passions or aligned with the mission and values of my life? What did that feel like? And it felt amazing. And so that 100K goal, yes, part of it was seeing the 100K, being able to see the headline, which I'm grateful that there are many, you know, how this 25-year-old saved 100K.
But really it was about how does my life change? So if you're out there and you're trying to get yourself motivated, how do I become debt-free, right? Or how do I invest enough for retirement? Or how do I make ends meet so that I don't feel panicked all of the time? Associate that with a feeling, right? What does it feel like to not have somebody
demanding that you send them money every month for your student loans. What does it feel like to know, oh yeah, I can buy this thing without guilt or shame because I've budgeted for it. What does it feel like to know that you're going to be set for retirement? That 65-year-old you is taken care of. What does that feel like? That for me was really the driving force of how does my life change?
And what does it feel like to use money as a tool to get me there?
I love that. I think that's really good advice. And I remember I saved my first hundred K at 28, I want to say, and the amount of freedom I felt and just agency over my own life. I didn't need a man. I didn't need my parents.
I didn't need all of a sudden I felt like, well, if I don't like this job, I could leave because I have a hundred grand and that's at least going to keep me afloat for four to six months and whatever. So it really did unlock a lot of limiting mindsets for myself. So I would encourage everybody to have some sort of a financial goal like that.
Well, and that's the feeling I want for every single person listening. That is the feeling I want, is I am in situations I want to be in rather than situations I'm forced to be in. Or I don't have to tolerate bullshit from a partner, from a company. I can do what I want because I have the financial means to do so. That is so incredibly liberating. And it reflects in every aspect of your life.
I show up differently in my relationships because I know that I'm not dependent on somebody financially. I show up different in my career. I show up different in my business. I show up different to myself in how I talk to myself.
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