Money & Career Mastery: From Overwhelm to Ownership

106. Financial & Time Freedom // with Jesse Ernst

• Laura Sexton • Season 3 • Episode 5

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Are you chasing financial freedom but still feel trapped by time constraints? In this episode, Laura sits down with Jesse Ernst, owner of Ernst Financial Solutions, to discuss how to intentionally create both financial and time freedom.

Jesse shares his journey as a coach, entrepreneur, and dad, revealing actionable strategies to align your work, money, and family life. You’ll learn:

  • Why financial and time freedom are inseparable.
  • The power of mindset shifts and intentional choices.
  • A simple action to start reclaiming your freedom this week.

🌟 Ready for more? Check out Episode 38 for additional tips on a strategic time audit with Suzanne Scullion

📲 Connect with Jesse: Instagram, Facebook, YouTube:

https://www.instagram.com/ernst_financial_solutions/

https://www.facebook.com/ernstfinancialsolutions

https://www.youtube.com/@NineToThrive



Learn more about working with Laura Sexton

· Become a master with your money. Learn more here!

· Checkout the resource library here!

Want to ask a question Laura can answer on the podcast? Connect with her here!

Send an email to Laura@AccelerateYourLegacy.com or send a DM on Instagram @accelerateyourlegacy

Elevate your coaching with daily devotionals and prayers from 'Seasoned with Salt.' Get your copy HERE!

Laura:

hello and welcome to money and career mastery from overwhelmed to ownership. I'm Laura Sexton, your abundance and legacy coach here to help you navigate the world of money, debt payoff, and career growth with confidence and clarity. In this podcast, we'll tackle the financial and career challenges, holding you back, optimize your income and build the freedom that comes with true ownership. If you're ready to break free from overwhelm, create a budget that aligns with your values and design a legacy that empowers future generations. You're in the right place. Hello, accelerators. Welcome back to the podcast. We have a really special guest for you today. This is owner speaker coach and my friend Jesse Ernst at Ernst financial solutions. And I'm, I'm very excited. I'm so excited. I can't speak to have you on today to talk about intentionally creating financial and time freedom, which is something that everybody really wants. But before we get started, Jesse. I want you to introduce yourself to everybody. And then I have a one special question that I'm going to ask you

Jesse Ernst:

special question, not just a question, but a special one. What you gave a great intro owner, speaker, coach, financial solutions, doing personal finance business, small business and career coaching which is a new thing that. Both you and I are in a mastermind group together and seen some pretty cool things going on there. My wife and I also own a crepe shop in central Florida and that's been going on for just over five years. So we had the good fortune of opening that four months pre COVID survived 2020 and are still here. Yeah. Great time to open a food food shop. We have a daughter who just turned two on Sunday and so that's an adventure. Just the one. And we've been married for 13 and a half years.

Laura:

Wow. Congratulations.

Jesse Ernst:

Yeah. Also fun fact I grew up in Mexico as a missionary kid, so I'm fluent in Spanish. A lot of other coaches send me there and they're like, I can't talk to this person.

Laura:

It's perfect. actually that is incredibly beneficial. And I wish that I had that skill. I do not. So Jesse, here's a special question. Can you think of one person whose legacy you would like to emulate?

Jesse Ernst:

Their legacy. You know, the first people that come to mind are obviously my grandfathers who really led the way in a lot of ways for our family spiritually. And for multi generation prior generations I, of course I don't, No, many prior generations, but just from some of the family history and prior generations were not, not all a spiritual bunch beyond them, but both my grandfathers were very godly men have multiple generations of, of pastors and preachers and, and, and everything in our family. So. Just shooting from the hip and gut reaction is, is immediately thinking of my grandpa's my dad for sure he always refers to us. I'm one of four boys. The third third time was the charm, you know, but they they did one more. I'm sure that one was

Laura:

an accident.

Jesse Ernst:

Well, it was 12 and a half years later than me. So but also a great kid. So yeah, he always refers to us and says that we are his legacy. And so I think about that. And I think about the legacy that I've received that I want to continue to pass down from my own family. I'm sure there's, I could list off dozens of people, but those are the ones that immediately come to mind.

Laura:

I always think it's important. This podcast used to be called accelerate your legacy. That is the name of my business. It is something that I focus on a lot because why are we doing this? If not to leave a legacy, why care about your money? Why care about your career? If it's not to leave an impact both for the people that we touch today, as well as the people that are going to be in our future generations. So I think these are always very important things to think about. So I wanted to put you on the spot. I want to ask. I know people came here because they're looking for freedom. So I'm going to ask Jesse, you help people create both financial and time freedom. Can you explain why you see these as interconnected and why it's crucial to pursue both intentionally?

Jesse Ernst:

So I believe that financial and time freedom are like Siamese twins. You can't have one without the other. And the reality is if you do have financial freedom without time freedom, what do you do with all the money? If you don't have time to enjoy time with your family, if you have a ton of time and you have no finances. Well, you're stuck at home. So when I launched my, my coaching practice four and a half years ago, I decided I was going to work Monday through Thursday and intentionally be a four day a week entrepreneur, which meant that I was going to grow slower than other people. And I had to sometimes check my ego and check my Motives when I, when comparison creeps in, but the amount of freedom that we experience is bar none. Now, 4 and a half years later. A lot of coaches reach out to me and like, how do you do that? I'm like, you go into your calendar and you hit delete on Friday and you just don't do it, which allows me to take my daughter with me to the bank and do, daddy daughter stuff on Friday and run errands together. With long weekends with friends. Friends invited us to a long weekend, starting on January 31st. And we're like, cool. Yeah, let's go. And I didn't have to shuffle a bunch of work things around, which does mean some of that financial growth and business growth happens a little bit slower, but it's very, very intentional. And has honestly been some of the reasons why people have hired me as a coach because of the boundaries that I've set. What it also does is it just magnifies the time with family, right? Oh, we do have a lot of 3 day weekends. We also have another business that Friday and Saturday are the busy days. So we, paying back and forth whenever we're needed, but we do have a great team there. Other than the Christmas season and festival time. I'm not behind the counter very much. So we wanted to find the right balance. If we're going to open a 2nd business and run 2 businesses that simultaneously, how do we do that? How do we do it while maintaining our freedom? And so those, those things are things that I'm very passionate about, but again, with some financial stability, financial freedom to do those things with, if there were student loans and car payments and mortgage and credit cards and all that, all those payments, I would have to make a higher minimum, right?

Laura:

Absolutely.

Jesse Ernst:

And so. With the financial freedom side, the lower the bills, the lower the minimum, the less we have to work. And I'm not lazy. I work my tail off, but I shut it off at 530.

Laura:

But you work when you're at work, and then you're home when you're at home.

Jesse Ernst:

Yes. So Yeah, be where your feet are.

Laura:

Yes, I feel like it's a Christy Wright ism. Sounds

Jesse Ernst:

like it.

Laura:

It's, it's something that I have learned from her where she talks very often about plant your feet and be there. And so for me, this is really important. But I also. because I have a very similar situation. You and I started right around the same time. And I have gotten better at my boundaries with my time because of you. So thank you. Appreciate that. I have gotten better about my time and I think it's really interesting. I had accidentally booked myself with clients and I had meant to have that day off because my kids and I were going to go to Knott's Berry Farm. And I had bought tickets because it was the day our school didn't start, and the public schools all went back. And so I was like, well, we're going to go when there's going to be fewer people there, because I have four children, and it's a madhouse to have four children anywhere. You take them to the grocery store, and they're all running all over the place. Imagine, you know, adding in the carnival like atmosphere. So I was like, we're going to go. I booked four clients on that day and I called them all said, Hey guys, I'm so sorry. I have double booked myself. You're going to have to move. What day would you like to move to? And I can do that because I'm not bogged down by the need for the money. I'd like the money coming in. It's nice. Let's be honest. I've got big goals. We got big things. But if I have to refund their money, Because I messed up and I rescheduled. It's okay. But also the ended up being one of my best days. So I, I actually, because of systems and processes that I have put into place, I actually booked. new clients while I was at Knott's Berry Farm without having to touch anything. So I'm going to push back on your, your growth has to be slower cause you're not working five days a week. Maybe it's going to grow without you, Jesse.

Jesse Ernst:

It's funny because now this much time into it, in four or five years into a career is not a really long time, but in the coaching world, it actually is a long time. Which There's some statistics about the longevity of the average coach, but I had somebody scheduled themselves on my calendar and I was like, I don't know where this person came from. I've never seen this name before. And it was the brother of, of another client. And it's, they said, we've noticed the impact that she and her husband have had. And so we want to, we want to talk about that. And also I'm Spanish speaking coach and they're from Puerto Rico, so,

Laura:

you know,

Jesse Ernst:

and Double, double. I'm beginning to watch other people experience some of that financial freedom, which also plays into the time freedom and then their family see it. Right. So kind of tying in the previous question about legacy, some of the legacy will not be that we get to leave is doesn't run in our bloodline. Right. Although that's where my mind immediately goes when I hear the word legacy is, is bloodlined. But with coaching, we get to help people work on their legacy and work on generational wealth and change what their generation is. Change what their what wealth means to them. And for me, wealth Some of that is the one asset we never get back or never get more of, which is our time.

Laura:

Yes, I think that sometimes we look at money as the only thing that we should focus on, and There's always a way to earn more money. You can never earn more time. You and I are not go out and get money just for the sake of getting money. We are go out and get money so that you can live the life that you want to live. Yesterday I had a fabulous call with a gentleman where our whole conversation was God calls us to live abundantly. He said, I came to give you life more abundantly. That is literally what he said about your life. So we have to live that way. We have to live in the abundance and abundance again, doesn't just mean money. It's a full, rich, flavorful existence. And I think that's one misconception that people have. but speaking of misconceptions can you think of one particular misconception that keeps people from achieving financial freedom? Can you think of something that makes them go, Oh, I, I can never do that. Or I don't want that or something like that.

Jesse Ernst:

Yeah. I mean, I think it's mindset, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm always pushing mindset. My clients are probably tired of hearing the word mindset, the words mindset and intentionality. The consultation with a couple in Puerto Rico the other day they're like, well, you know, here, money just doesn't reach far enough. I was like, you're making a good income. Your expenses aren't astronomical, but there's some choices that has been made that you're now you're paying for, you know, for paying for a 50, 000 car, it's going to take some time. If we have combined 185, 000 in student loans. It's going to take some time, right? It's not that in Puerto Rico, there's not enough money. I could be like, well, look at the cost of living in Florida. You're in California. Like look at the cost of living. Math, still maths, California, New York, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, math, still maths. But many of us accept that must be nice mentality. So back in 2018, my wife and I went to Croatia and Macedonia, we hosted international students for six years and we went, we intentionally set money aside to go visit all of them in their homes at their, in their countries, see where they grew up. And I was talking to some, some family members about it. And one family member says. Oh, it must be nice. And they were implying that it must be nice because my wife was a full time nurse at the time. I was a full time student pastor at the time.

Laura:

Mm. Oh, yes. Making lots of money doing that. Nice.

Jesse Ernst:

Right. And I said, hold up. I said, well, for one, yes, it was nice. That we made the choice to set the money aside to buy the plane tickets far enough in advance. We figured out the cost of the trip and we realized this is something we want to go to. That person at the time was choosing to smoke. And so I started saying, well, this, if a pack of cigarettes costs this much, he's like, oh, don't go there. I was like, we're going, you

Laura:

gotta go there.

Jesse Ernst:

And what I, what I guesstimated was that what was spent on cigarettes that year was equal to our plane tickets to Europe for a 12 day trip. Absolutely. That we will never forget. So the must be nice mentality or the little man can't get ahead. If we, if we accept those mentalities, they will be true. It will be nice for other people. The little man won't be ahead if I choose to be a little man. But if I choose not to be that, if I choose to say, well, just cause my family, blah, blah, blah with money. Okay. But I'm the head of my household.

Laura:

Absolutely.

Jesse Ernst:

I believe. Besides people who've paid for 30 years that I'm the first person to pay my house off early. We set a goal to pay it off by my 35th birthday. And then when we got pregnant with my daughter. My wife said the free spirit came to the nerd and was like, can we pay it off early? And I was like, give me an hour. Let me do a spreadsheet.

Laura:

Yeah. I got this. Hold on. Where's my amortization schedule? Where are you at?

Jesse Ernst:

Right. That word has been banned at our dinner table. I'm not allowed to say it. Oh

Laura:

boy. Okay. Don't, don't, don't tell her I said it.

Jesse Ernst:

And so we got to work and we upped that timeline and we missed my daughter's birthday by three weeks and paid it off on my wife's birthday. I was like, Hey, I'm physically going to the check to write, write the final check.

Laura:

Yeah.

Jesse Ernst:

Happy birthday. I'll be right back. It was super, super cool. Which was nine months before I turned 35. And so I could say, well, this is what my family always does. You know, you're just never going to pay this off. Always going to have a car payment. I've never had a car payment and we did pay our house off and we are investing for the future. And we, I mean, if the market tanks and values of everything goes down, then we won't be millionaires, but whatever we will be those self made babysit millionaires, whatever term we'll want to put on it at a relatively young age. Because of the intentionality and because of the mindset piece of determining I'm not a victim, but I'm also not going to work six days a week for this. And so that's where I've found for us. We've found that balance between four days of intentionality work while I'm at work, pick up the phone and do the work. And then at five 30, I can close the computer and say, I've done enough for today. I'm good.

Laura:

I want to, I want to go back to something you just said a second ago. You said, if the economy tanks, we may not be millionaires. And I, I recoiled at that and I was like that's not true. But yes, I mean, I guess if, you know, home values drop and the stock market decides it's never going to come back, which would be catastrophic and I don't see that ever happening. But the financial principles that you and I live by. And that you and I teach other people are financial principles that work in good times and in bad times were things to go belly up. You don't owe anything to anybody, so it doesn't matter. You're not going to have a house payment. They're not going to come take your house from you. And if that's not freedom, I don't know what is.

Jesse Ernst:

And the only reason that I say that is because that's a big fear that people face.

Laura:

Yeah. Absolutely.

Jesse Ernst:

What if the market should, I don't want to invest in the market because of this, because of this, because of this, I'm like, Hey, let's look at the 97 year track record of the S& P 500. And yes, I'll be the nerd. And I have that, that webpage bookmark continually has the data. And I'm like, I'm going to go based off of long term history, not short term blips on the radar. Yeah.

Laura:

Right. Anybody that took their money, anybody that took their money out of the stock market in 2008, when everything dropped, they missed out on the exponential growth that happened immediately after.

Jesse Ernst:

Yeah, well, even, even the people panicked in 2020.

Laura:

Yes.

Jesse Ernst:

First two quarters of 2020, my IRAs, mine and my wife's IRAs, looked very, very sad. But by August, they were back to where they were and just above where they were in January. Interesting thing is that was about the time. So a little bit of a rabbit trail. We don't buy gifts for every birthday and every Christmas, Christmas for all of our nieces and nephews. We put money into an investment account and on their 18th birthday, they're going to get a check. Well, you have to have a minimum to buy into the mutual fund that I wanted to buy into. We had that minimum of March of 2020 and by March of 21, it had doubled. Amazing. Wait, and I wasn't trying to time the market. It just happened to be the timing of the market.

Laura:

Right.

Jesse Ernst:

And it's, and it's incredible. You know, good times or bad times. If I was so Fear based making fear based decisions during that time. I would not have put that money in the market because it was terrible time.

Laura:

You say it's a terrible time. No, everything was on sale Everything was on sale! All joking aside, there are people that are listening to this podcast that feel overwhelmed. That is why the tagline of the podcast is From Overwhelmed to Ownership. Okay, so for those that are overwhelmed by their current financial situation, what is one small but powerful thing that they can do and implement this week to start moving towards that financial time freedom?

Jesse Ernst:

Yeah. As coaches, predominantly financial coaches, we talk about a budget for our money. You need to do a time audit and a budget for our time. I mentioned that from what I can tell, I mentioned it in passing to another coach that you and I both know. And he said, he said it completely changed his life. I was just like, what are we doing with our time consultation? I did with a couple the other day. He's on salary. He's working 50 hours a week. I said, are you salaried for 50 hours a week? Are you salaried for 40? He's like, well, I'm salaried for 40. I said, okay, we'll just walk into your boss's office and say, Hey, I've been giving you guys 10 extra hours a week and our money's not going far enough. So I need to either need y'all to pay me for those 10 hours or I have to go work those 10 hours somewhere else. Time audit. Okay. I noticed that in the 90 something he said in 90 seconds. I said, Hey, here's a suggestion because they said, well, we don't have time for this. We don't have time for that. The year leading up to my wife and I getting married, I work three jobs. I work 90 hours a week for one year. And that one year sucked, but I've never had to work 90 hours a week since. So when we do a time audit and we have clear goals. You and I were talking about goals before we jumped on our on the podcast and sharing some personal goals We have clear goals It's easier to say well, this might be painful. This might suck This might be uncomfortable for one year two year three years But the amount of freedom that it will create one two and three decades Is worth it.

Laura:

Absolutely.

Jesse Ernst:

Right. What happens is people get comfortable in their discomfort. This is the discomfort that I know. And so I'm going to stay here and then I'm going to continue to complain and moan about it instead of going and making a difference. Or I can embrace a different discomfort knowing that there's an intentionality and there's a time limit on that discomfort and then the end is going to be so worth it.

Laura:

I had a conversation with a client this week and she kept saying, I just feel trapped. I just feel trapped. I just feel trapped. And I looked at her and I said, you're in a box of your own making. And you're the lid. Take the lid off. Like, the only trapped that you are is because you have put yourself in a situation where you have decided it has to be this way and it can't be any other way. Said you were the lid. Take the lid off. Anybody that wants to Look into time auditing. I did a podcast back in 2023 So it's one of one of the oldies but goodies episode 38. It's the value of time shaping your legacy with Suzanne and you guys need to check it out You guys need to jump on that and check that one out because that will give you some more practical tips on how to do a time audit Because we we hear all the time budget your money What Jesse is telling you right now is that you need to budget your time. By doing that, by, by being intentional, putting your family on the calendar first, you are going to enjoy the things that you want to enjoy in life. That's the freedom. That's the freedom that we're after. That is the legacy that we are chasing. Jesse, I think that that's a, an excellent, Task for our listeners to do this week. And so I'm going to leave it there because we've given them a wealth of information, but if they want to reach out and they're like I have Spanish speaking friends. I just really need to talk to Jesse or I really liked his style and I'd like to, reach out and chat with him. How can they find you on the interwebs? Jesse?

Jesse Ernst:

Yeah. On the interwebs it's Ernst financial solutions. com. That's E R N S T, not Ernest. I do know how to spell my last name for anybody wondering. It's a German last name, and they're stingy with the vowels. So Ernst financial solutions dot com email is Ernst financial solutions at gmail. com. Instagrams

Laura:

Ernst underscore financial underscore solutions. Maybe.

Jesse Ernst:

That, that's it. Yep.

Laura:

Okay. I'll put it in the description. People can scroll down to wherever they are listening to this and they can click on that. I have your Instagram, your Facebook, and your YouTube. You do YouTube?

Jesse Ernst:

I, myself and another gentleman are in beginning stages of launching a podcast. We have a lot of recorded time where we're figuring out our format but that podcast is called Nine to Thrive. And most episodes are only nine minutes on purpose. We stick with get a nugget and get out of here, right? And we talked about all kinds of different things. We recently had a guest who was in the insurance, the health insurance industry, and he breaks down a lot of what's going on in the health insurance industry. And very interesting conversation. And that one will not be nine minutes.

Laura:

You would need more than nine minutes for that ball of wax, I think. Yeah.

Jesse Ernst:

Yeah. So there may not be anything or much on there yet, but that is a, I figured I'd go ahead and include it and start promoting that, that we're working on that.

Laura:

It's very cool. I think YouTube is definitely a space where this little nuggets are, are gonna be so valuable. But we like to keep these podcasts around 30 minutes. We wanna keep this nice, short and sweet. So Jesse, thank you so much. They're

Jesse Ernst:

doing a time audit, so they've got a maximum time now they have to do

Laura:

a time audit. They got to figure out what they're doing.

Jesse Ernst:

So podcast while you're at the gym, two birds with one stone.

Laura:

Absolutely. All right, Jesse. Thank you so much.

Jesse Ernst:

For sure.

Laura:

thank you for spending time with us today on Money and Career Mastery from Overwhelm to Ownership. Remember, your legacy isn't just about financial freedom. It's about living with purpose, taking action, and building a foundation that lasts for generations. Don't just listen, implement what you've learned and share it with someone who could use a financial or career breakthrough. If you found value in today's episode, help us grow by rating, reviewing, and sharing the podcast. I'll be back next week with more strategies to help you master your money and career. Until then take ownership of your future and build your legacy with intention.