April Peer Profile: "I've Had To Get Rid of My Timeline...It's Not Worth Any Number To Not Be Okay."

Last year, we started a feature on Hello HENRYs called Peer Profiles - a series in which we interview millennials about their approach to money + what has influenced the way they manage it. We think there is SO much value in having conversations with friends about money! It shouldn’t be taboo + we guarantee that you can learn something new, even from your most financially clueless friends. We hope that our conversations inspire you to break the ice with your own peers! 

For this month’s Peer Profile, we met with Georgie Bullock, a 27 year old elementary school teacher turned entrepreneur living in Portland, OR. Georgie recently left teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic which has given her the opportunity to explore other passions in education and consulting. In addition, this has offered her the flexibility and emotional space that she was missing as a teacher. We were excited to hear how Georgie has managed her transition from a stable, consistent income in teaching to the potential instability of entrepreneurship. In true COVID fashion, we Zoomed with Georgie for one of our most open Peer Profiles to date!

Hello HENRYs: Always our first question for any Peer Profile, what is your go-to drink? 

Georgie Bullock: Bubbles - which I know you’ll both appreciate! My MIL drinks champs like it’s water - it’s basically on tap at their house. In quarantine, I’ve started drinking my champagne out of a normal stemmed wine glass and it makes me feel like I’m wine tasting! 

HH: Love that! We were actually just watching Somm on Hulu, and learned that serving champagne in a wine glass actually helps the wine to open up more fully, release all of the aromas/profiles and improve the overall tasting experience. Flutes just help to show off the bubbles and change the aesthetic, but for tasting, serving in a normal wine glass can actually be better! So you’re drinking it just like the experts! 

Georgie, I’ve had the pleasure of knowing you for almost 4 years now and you have such an interesting background. I feel like Lauren and I can connect with you in many ways. Before we dive right in, could you give a little background to our readers?

GB: Yes! I was born in London and lived there until I was 8. I’m the oldest of 3 and we were all born in London. When I was in 3rd grade, we moved to the Bay Area. That experience was super transformative. 

I went to college at University of San Diego, became Catholic, met my husband, and later taught in San Diego. I started teaching first in special education as an inclusion specialist. When I got engaged, we moved to Seattle for my husband, Alex’s, law degree at University of Washington. At that point, I decided to go back to school because I wanted our future children to know that Alex and I had the same level of education. No one in my family had gone to grad school either, so I really wanted to challenge myself. I then taught 1st grade in Seattle for 2 years, before we eventually moved to Portland. Alex’s whole family is from Portland, so we kind of moved with no plan, but knew that we wanted to be near family.

HH: That’s amazing!! So unique to have been able to live and work in so many different places. Happy that you’re settled near family now! That brings us to your decision to step away from teaching and move into entrepreneurship. How did that come to be?

GB: I returned to teaching 1st grade this year when the pandemic started. Teaching during the pandemic really rocked me. We were doing a hybrid model, where I was in person with half of my students and the other half were online. I felt like I had no support, so I ended up quitting in December with no plan. Thankfully, over the summer I had started consulting with Beautycounter as a fun summer project. It ended up becoming an unexpected financial support after I made the decision to step away from teaching. My husband, Alex, had also started his own law practice a few months earlier in the pandemic, so we both found ourselves self-employed at the same time making my side hustle even more helpful.

(We LOVE a side hustle. For more info on ideas for a side hustle and why they can be so great, check out a previous post HERE.)  

HH: Wow! I can totally relate and just feel for you for trying to navigate teaching during the pandemic. Do you feel like this switch away from teaching is temporary? Or do you see yourself maintaining a hybrid between teaching and consulting?

GB: I truly don’t see myself going back to teaching in the classroom. As I started to process my 6 years of teaching, I felt drained and unaligned with myself. It wasn’t something I could sustain. When I left the traditional classroom, I started homeschooling and tutoring, which has given me a flexibility and fruitfulness that I wasn’t feeling in the classroom. As for BeautyCounter, I didn’t realize I would be good at and enjoy consultancy. I see myself growing both. It leaves space to be able to pour my energy into both avenues and grow, where I felt trapped and limited within teaching. It’s inspiring and terrifying. I have all of this choice and agency, but I don’t have stability and consistency. At the end of the day though, it always is the right decision for me. 

HH: Your positive outlook and self-assuredness is inspiring! With both you and your husband opting to be your own bosses, what do you think gave you the confidence and optimism to make this decision?

GB: My parents are both self-employed and they’ve been their own bosses since my senior year of high school. My dad was let go of his traditional role and then pivoted. My mom was a teacher and became a life coach and nutrition specialist. I’ve seen it modeled and seen it be okay in a way that I don’t think many people have as an example. Most people see the example of staying in the same job, having the benefits of retirement contributions, but I’ve seen it work in an nontraditional sense.  

HH: We love how you described your transition and feel it’s something so many people can relate to, but it’s totally scary at the same time! We can definitely see how having your parents as a model could show you that it will be okay. We really believe that our family shapes a lot of our early money memories and beliefs. What was your parents’ attitude toward money and how do you think that’s influenced you?

GB: We always felt comfortable and money wasn’t really talked about. I think that created this space that we were always okay and that there was nothing to worry about. Truly we were well off. We immigrated because my dad became the VP of Dolby. But I never, and maybe this is sheltered, but I didn’t know how well off we were. I remember when he came home and we all sat down and were told that Dad had lost his job. I was nervous for the first time ever and immediately my parents said “We’ll be okay.” He had this beautiful year where he was really present in a way that he hadn’t been prior. My senior year he was at all of my dance recitals, everything related to the family.

Growing up, we were always given what we needed. We didn’t have an allowance. We didn’t have to have a job, but we could. My sister and I babysat and I got a job at Nordstrom, so that I could have the discount. If we asked for things that were reasonable we were granted them. 

I think college was a bit of a shock for me. It was really inspiring to me that people had gotten themselves to the same space as I was without the same help. My parents had always said they would pay for our education. I was surprised to get to college and realize that people were doing it on their own and had student loans. My parents paid for me and my siblings’ private college education and our grad school. 

Now that they’re self employed, it’s a more open conversation, and maybe this comes with age, but all of my siblings and I are at different stages, so we are now having conversations as a family about what works for us all financially. For example, this year, with the pandemic and my husband and I’s new job situation, we decided not to do any gifts at Christmas.  

HH: It’s so interesting to hear you talk about your childhood and acknowledging the privileges you had, but something that stands out is how you described the shift in your dad after he was let go. Do you think that experience has shaped what is important to you in your life? 

GB: In some ways, yes. When my husband, Alex, decided to create his own law practice that was a really intentional decision, in contrast to being a really successful partner at a firm and not being present. Growing up, when we lived in England, my dad was in an international role and would travel for 3-4 weeks at a time and come back for little snapshots. When he was let go, my brother and sister got him at home a lot more. It showed me the value in both. I look at what the decades of my dad’s work was able to create for us as a family. But I also see the value of being present and being home. It’s hard not to start with a financial foundation. All the content I’m absorbing on entrepreneurship is to create a foundation, to create a plan, THEN leave. What if circumstances didn’t create a plan for you to do that? What if the leaving was thrust upon you? I have faith that it will all be okay. 

HH: That’s so interesting and an important point to make. Having that strong foundation is really impactful, but you can also recognize the benefits of being present. It’s not always possible to have both the foundation and presence at first - or it takes years to build. Now that you’re navigating the world of entrepreneurship, where do you feel like a lot of your financial knowledge has come from?

GB: It’s actually interesting, and as both of you know as well, when your parents were raised in a different country, things happen so differently. In England, they learn in high school a lot of basic finances/life skills in a way that is not taught here. My parents expected that I would learn these skills in high school. I think it was an unfortunate situation that we had a different experience of financial literacy. What my parents did, that I realize now was a gift, is that they set us up with a checking account, specifically for young adults, and it had a credit card attached. My dad told me “only buy your gas with this and always pay it off each month” and it’s so ingrained in me. Because of that, it’s ludicrous to me that people put things on a credit card knowing they won’t be able to pay it off because that was the one rule I was always told from the beginning. We had a checkbook, any money we earned was ours to do what we wanted with. I was the spender, my sister was a saver. Because of that first account, I’ve now had a credit card for years and years and I didn’t realize what a gift that was to be able to build that credit responsibly. 

HH: Totally! The things we learn from our parents are so formative and can really make or break our financial foundation when we’re getting set up. We’re curious since you’ve mentioned your husband, how has it been merging finances and money mindsets with someone who might have been raised differently? 

GB: Alex and I have been together for 10 years and we knew we were going to be together forever super early, so we were having those conversations at the beginning of our relationship. I remember him saying “I’m here on loans.” 

It made me realize that families do and can prioritize finances so differently when wealth is involved. I think at that point it was like “Okay we’ll be fine,” but then he went to law school on loans too. To which I again said “Okay, we’ll be fine; you’ll get a big job, and make money.” Which wasn’t the case. It’s been bonding to see what we have and what we can do. It’s made us be open with both sets of parents. To navigate finances with in-laws can be sticky but we have these conversations. 

When I quit my job, there was a conversation with my parents that there may be a point where we need their help and they were okay with that. To watch different models handle wealth is interesting and helpful. It’s made us put our priorities together and know that we are not walking into that same lifestyle or wealth that we both might have been accustomed to and that’s okay. Education is a priority and spending time together and traveling is a priority. 

I think we’re still truly in the midst of this conversation and I’m still in the midst of processing and understanding that this is “ours,” this is our debt. We had really strong premarital counseling with our priest and money was a huge conversation because he saw it as one of the biggest reasons why relationships don’t survive. 

We have established a routine for a weekly check-in and every month it includes us discussing finances. Alex was a finance major, so he’s in charge of our finances which was an adjustment for me, but I make a point to check-in on them. Having that monthly money question is helpful so we can adjust and say “Okay no take-out this month” or “There’s a trip coming up in May, let’s keep that in mind as we spend this month.” 

(If you’re looking for resources to help navigate money with a partner, check out our Money + Relationships e-course available for download HERE.)

HH: We think so many people can relate to that - blending finances and families can be challenging. It seems like you and Alex have established such great routines and communication. We’re curious how you feel that impacted your decision to leave your teaching job? 

GB: It snowballed, I was not doing well, my mental health was suffering, I threatened to quit 3 times prior and no changes were being made. It was really affecting us and Alex saw the strain and deterioration. We’re in a 1 bedroom apartment with no doors, there was no hiding. The weekend that it all came crashing down it was not a conversation. It was, “I have to stop” and Alex’s response was “yeah, we’ll figure it out” that’s just his heart. We rely on our faith together and we had journeyed already twice through seasons of not knowing what was next so we had already done really hard shit together. It was just so worth it and it wasn’t really a conversation of “What’s the next step, will we be okay,” it was “We’ll figure it out.” It’s been a few months and I’m so proud of him. He’s gaining momentum and gaining clients. He started his practice in June, so he’s super fresh still. We’ve just been trying it together and making sacrifices.

I’m a different person and a different partner. I had a lot of guilt and had thoughts like “I can’t quit because I’m the constant income, I have our healthcare” and I had a lot of shame. But the decision to step away and protect my mental health outweighed everything. Now we pay for private healthcare and that’s a huge expense, but we know it’s not forever. It’s not worth any financial number to not be okay. It’s helped us realize we can live simply, within our means but still enjoyably. We’re still going to celebrate and enjoy things but paring back - we’re still going to buy the champagne! 

HH: That’s so understandable, there can be such fear and guilt around leaving the stability that certain careers offer. But like you said, it’s not forever and mental health is far more important than any job. And we love what you said about the simplicity. It’s so true - you can find joy in the little things that make life full! Would you say that’s your biggest financial takeaway or advice you’d share? 

GB: This balance of living within your means and living your life. I think we hear the live your life part and it’s sometimes made fun of and thought to be frivolous. But it’s okay to enjoy yourself and that sustains you to be able to do work to gain an income. It’s kind of this cycle. 

Don’t compare yourself to other people. You don’t know what someone else’s bank account looks like. Just because they’re traveling or have all the latest clothes, you don’t know what their credit card debt looks like, student loans, etc. To be really confident that I can take care of myself and I don’t have to explain or prove myself to anyone else. 

HH: Yes! There’s no way to know what another's financial picture looks like. Why do you think it is that people don’t talk about finances or find it taboo? 

GB: I think it involves a lot of hurt. There can be so much pain and shame. That’s just the culture that we’ve been soaked in. Alex and I talked a ton about this when I was the only one making income. There are so many gender norms around finances and being a teacher puts you in an interesting position. Especially as your friends start to be in different levels of income. A friend was doing so well in tech and was telling me all of her perks. She was trying to figure out how to spend her monthly gym stipend. It blew my mind that friends and people of the same childhood experience and education would suddenly be in such different financial positions. I watched her and other friends be in those positions and spend so much. It kind of leaves you in a really lavish environment. It taught me to have to really hold my boundaries. 

HH: It can be really hard to have those conversations and hold boundaries with friends, but it certainly feels so much better once you do! Looking forward, what would you say your financial goals are? 

GB: We want to be out of student loan debt. I have to keep changing in my mind how long that will be. Our biggest goal is to start a family and it’s hard for me to know there’s a financial barrier, but it’s motivating to work towards a space where we are stable to have a family. I used to think we needed the house and the car to have a family and I’ve had to get rid of my timeline. It’s really hard for me, but also a really good lesson. I think it’s so different for everyone. Comparing myself to my sister who is younger and having a baby next month. Her cost of living is so different. She’s a social worker and her husband is an editor, but, living in the South, those things are more accessible to them. Because of where we live and loans, that lifestyle is not as accessible. But staying here gives us the benefit of being near family and being in a place that we love. That goal looks different to everyone. 

HH: Exactly!! Such powerful words and perspective. Thank you so much for your vulnerability and transparency, Georgie. We know there are many HENRYs out there who will really resonate with your journey and experience. Cheers to you and this next chapter!!

If you or any of your friends are interested in participating in our Peer Profiles series, please let us know!! We are always looking for a fresh perspective!! Comment below with any questions or topics that you’d like us to be sure to cover in our next Peer Profile!