When You Finally See the Light: A Listener Win

Five years teaching, then nothing.Laid off tutoring for less than $1,000 a month, your partner carrying the bills, you're back in grad school just hoping something, anything breaks open. Then it does. A job at your daughter's school, triple the income, zero childcare cost, and a schedule that finally fits your life overnight.Survival mode is over. Today we're celebrating a listener who made it through.And we're talking straight to everyone still in the thick of it, because if you're barely holding on right now, this show's for you. Hello and welcome to Financially Confident Christian. Now you can tell the tone of today is a bit different.Today we're not going to answer a question. We're celebrating a listener's win and we're going to unpack what she did right, so you can see the path forward in your own situation.So if you're stuck in survival mode, today's show is for you because I've got a listener that made it through and I want you to know how you did it. Let's get into her story. She wrote this. Hi, Ralph.I wanted to share a win because I've been listening to your podcast and it helped me get through a rough year. For five years, I was a full time teacher, but the child care costs basically kept me in poverty.My partner and I moved in together three years ago and I thought we were finally out of it. Then I got laid off and I couldn't find another teaching job. I'd been tutoring part time all year, making less than $1,000 a month.My partner covered all of our expenses while I started grad school and it actually worked out. I just accepted a teaching position at my daughter's school. The schedule lets me drop her off and pick her up so I don't need childcare anymore.The salary is two and a half to three times what I was making as a tutor. Now, Ralph, this past year was brutal. I got behind on all my debts and I put a lot of things on credit cards just to survive.But now I can actually start paying things off. My car only has a few thousand left to pay. I'm not all the way out of the woods yet, but I'm finally not in survival mode.I wanted to say thanks for the work you do and to share this case if it helps anyone else who's stuck right now. Thank you so much. Well, thank you so much for sharing what happened to you.You know, if you listen to the show, we talk a lot about questions, but I don't often get those wins Those triumphs, those, those congratulatory things and the thing that I want to take away from this, and the listener really said it clearly, survival mode doesn't last forever. It just doesn't. And those breakthroughs that all of us are working towards, they come from decisions made months ago, maybe even years ago.They come from patience or they come from both of those things. Now, right now you might be saying, ralph, I'm still in the struggle. But let me just tell you, there is a path forward.And I want to break that down on today's show by talking about some reflections. Here's the first reflection. She solved the actual problem, not just the income problem. Why do I say that?She had worked five years as a full time teacher. She made decent money, but she was losing it to child care costs. Basically, she was paying out whatever she was making in child care costs.That's not a money problem, that's a math problem. When child care costs are about the same as your salary, you're basically paying someone else to work.I've had to say that to many clients over the years. Husband and wife come in and they say, oh, our child care. I can't believe what people pay for child care sometimes.And I've had to have that conversation with a partner and said, you know what, it doesn't really make a lot of sense for you to work now. It's not always just the salary. So I don't want to make this generalization. Sometimes it's benefits, sometimes it's other things.But really take a look. And what she says here is her and her partner moved in together. That wasn't casual. They restructured decisions so that the math could work.And then all of a sudden she was doing the right things and got laid off. But rather than chasing any teaching job, she looked for the one that actually solved her problem. And when she did that, she went to grad school.She found a position at her daughter's school. And I love about this part, the schedule lets her drop off and pick up her children, and there's no child care cost. And here's the best part.She's making three times what she would make tutoring. But that's not even the real win. The real win here is her salary isn't being eaten by someone else's salary anymore.She's not just paying money for childcare. She was able to fix the equation and now she can start to build instead of just surviving. You're going to hear this a lot moving forward.Money is emotional before it's mathematical. And that one why step she took beat weeks of other avoidance. Here's the second reflection.She didn't pretend survival mode wasn't real, and now she has a plan. When you're in survival mode, that's a real thing. It's a stressful thing. It will wear on you. Yeah. She was tutoring, making less than $1,000 a month.She said it. My partner was carrying the household. That, my friends, is survival mode. See, some people pretend that's not happening.They try to make it look good on paper. She didn't. She was very clear about it. She said to me, I got behind on my debts, Ralph. I used credit cards.I went to grad school as an investment, and I let my partner carry more of it. Well, that's what humans do. In survival mode, she survived. She didn't shame herself for doing it. She took the courage not to shame of that.Now she's not starting her, she's paying off her car. She said it. I've only got $1,000 left. And.And when she gets that paid off, she can start to redirect that money towards paying off the rest of that debt. Now, that might not sound exciting. You don't hear her saying, I'm going to go buy a new car. We're going to upsize our house.It's not some quick fix, but she's in a direction. She's breaking out of survival mode. She's going to get that debt paid off, and that's going to lead to progress.She's not living in shame of being in survival. She's living in truth and developing a plan. She's building a system that works when the willpower won't work. Here's the third reflection.If you're still in the struggle, you might be listening right now, and you're like, ralph, I'm still in the struggle. Hear what she said here. Her breakthrough took three, four, or five years. It didn't happen overnight. It wasn't like some boom magic.She started teaching, and then she lost her job. So she pivoted. She went to tutoring, she went to grad school. Her partner was covering her expenses. And then she found this new rule.It wasn't instant, but it was there. And she found it. So if you're in survival mode right now, hear me on this. You're not broken, you're not behind, you're not failing. You're human.You're facing a real situation. And unfortunately, sometimes real situations take time, and you got to have patience. But most of the Time, they don't last forever.And this listener just proves that to us. And I love about this, think about this. God can use even your mistakes to build your wisdom.And there's another part of the story I want to highlight. She didn't get the breakthrough all at once. She didn't say, well, this happened, this, and boom. No, that's not what she said.She made a decision to move in with her partner. She started grad school while barely surviving. What does she do? She kept showing up.She kept showing up even when work was tutoring, was making less than $1,000 a month. And then one day, I don't say magically, maybe God put this in front of her, an opportunity opened up that fit everything she needed.That's not magic, my friend. That's faithfulness. And that's not the kind that makes everything easy, but it's the kind that keeps.When you keep showing up, when you keep looking, you keep hoping, even when progress feels slow. And my big takeaway from this is when you're faithful in those small moves, that big breakthrough doesn't feel like luck.It feels like something you were already building toward. And this listener is the definition of that. They were moving towards freedom the whole time. She just couldn't see the finish line.So if you're in your struggle right now, you might not see that finish line, but that finish line might be closer than you think. And the fact that you're still fighting, the fact you're still listening to this today, you're still moving towards something better.So here's your win for today. If right now you find yourself in survival mode, I want you to name just one thing you did right last month. Write it down.Just one decision, one boundary, one honest conversation, just one step forward. And write it down because you don't realize how those little steps, those little decisions you made will add up to that breakthrough.And that's what the listener found. How many small decisions that led to her breakthrough. That's how it works. You don't need to see the whole path. You just see the next step.So what's yours? That's what I'm going to encourage you today to do. What's your next step? Well, let's get to our Bible verse for today.It comes to us from Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verses 8 and 9. It says, we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed. Perplexed, but not in despair.Persecuted, but not abandoned, struck down, but not destroyed. This listener today was hard pressed. She was laid off underpaid in debt, but not crushed, not destroyed. She kept moving forward and the path opened.And that is what trusting through the struggle looks like. Trusting when you can't see the finish line, but trusting anyway. How about we pray together, Father?God, I'm lifting up everyone listening right now who's in survival mode. I just see that single parent working two jobs. I see that couple, that couple juggling childcare costs. It don't make sense.The person who just got laid off and doesn't know what's next, the person right now who's using credit cards to survive and now carries that weight, Lord, you know, they're not broken. They're still fighting, they're still surviving. And Lord, we know that survival takes strength. So Lord, today help them to see the small wins.Help them to make decisions that move towards freedom, not just temporary relief. And help them to find courage to ask for help when they need it.And Lord, if their breakthrough comes suddenly like that listeners did today, help them remember it didn't come out of nowhere, Lord. It came from faithfulness in the small things.And you've said it in your word that if we are faithful in small things, we will see big things, Lord, and we just ask this in Jesus name. Amen, friend. If you've got a story like this one, I'd love to hear it. This story just drove me today.It's not about validation for me, but your win might be exactly what someone else needs to hear. Someone listening right now is where you were a year ago or two years ago and they need to know the path is possible.So do me a favor and email your story to me. You can go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com question.But even better than that, I want to encourage you today if you've never done this, go to and leave me a voicemail about your story. Tell me what's going on. It doesn't have to be a question. It could be a win. You had some triumph you had in your life.I want to play those on this show. Maybe we'll put together a whole show of just wins. You can go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail.We'll put a link in the show notes to that, but again, it's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/voicemail. Share your wins.And to today's listener, I just want to thank you so much for sharing and thank you for reminding us that the struggle is temporary and the breakthrough is real. And right now, if you're in that struggle, don't lose hope, my friend. Keep moving.The next season is coming, and I just want to encourage all of us to stay financially savvy. May God bless you, and you have a truly blessed day today.