Hi! I’m Mariah!
I am a physical therapist and financial independence fanatic living on the Central Coast of California with my dog Bernie.
I graduated physical therapy school in 2016 with a doctorate, 100k in student loan debt, and literally no ability to manage money.
Embarrassing fact...when I received my student loan money in grad school, I actually had to take out enough cash from my checking account to cover rent for the semester and give it to my dad so I wouldn’t spend it. I blew through money like it was my job (except I didn’t have an actual job). In PT school I didn’t really care about my loans piling up because I knew that when I graduated I’d be making SO MUCH MONEY.
Fast forward to graduation day...
And my first job and “SO MUCH MONEY” was just...not that much money.
Like $60k a year. Combine that with zero understanding of money, $100k in debt, bills, and the real world, and you’ve got one giant slap in the face called reality.
Not only was my financial situation not great, I realized pretty quickly that my career was significantly more emotionally, mentally, and physically exhausting than I could have ever imagined. Burnout hit me early in my career and it hit hard. I felt trapped in my career. How else was I supposed to pay off my loans? What else could I even do? My training was very specific – I could work as a physical therapist and that was about it. I accepted that I’d work as a PT until 65 and hope I learned to tolerate it because I didn’t know what else to do. The end.
Except that wasn’t the end. THANKFULLY, one day changed everything.
THANKFULLY, I had given my information to a travel recruiter in school that started aggressively emailing me. One day at work, during my “lunch break” (that I obviously used to write notes off the clock), I took a call from said recruiter, and I realized how much money I could make as a travel PT. In a pretty impulsive move for me (I was not a risk taker AT ALL at the time), I signed on with the company that day and in a few short weeks was thrust into my next (and arguably first) big life adventure.
Once I started making more money as a travel PT, I realized I could pay off my loans faster, which led me to start figuring out what the hell to do with money. It gave me the breathing room I needed to start saving and gaining traction financially. It triggered my semi-obsession with personal finance, which introduced me to the financial independence retire early community and the entire concept of financial independence.
And life got a whole lot more awesome.
I finally grabbed the steering wheel of my life.
My entire mindset around money and my relationship with work had changed. I no longer accepted the idea that Iād work as a PT until I could hopefully retire at 65. In the 5 years since graduating PT school I have:
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Increased my net worth to the mid 6-figures
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Paid off $72k in student loans
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Grown passive income streams through investing in the stock market and real estate
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Eliminated my dependence on my full time jobĀ
I now have the freedom to explore other careers and passions without having to worry about taking a pay cut.Ā
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