How do we afford to take a family vacation every year—without being rich, bougie, or living the “vineyard mom” lifestyle?

We just got back from an 8-day Mexican Riviera cruise, and for the second year in a row, we came home actually feeling rested. Not exhausted. Not needing a vacation from our vacation. Rested. That alone felt like a miracle.

In this episode, I’m breaking down exactly how we budget, plan, and prioritize travel with kids—from Disney on a shoestring, to cheap Mexico trips, to why we now plan about $5k a year for bigger family vacations. I’m sharing the real-life, not-glamorous strategies: old cars, simple hotels, grocery store meals, souvenir budgets, and why rest days save both your sanity and your money.

We also talk about the idea from the book Die With Zero—that money isn’t just for saving, it’s for building a life full of memories while you’re healthy enough to enjoy them.

If you’ve ever thought, “Must be nice… but we could never afford that,” this episode is for you. You don’t need a luxury budget—you need a plan, priorities, and a little creativity.

EQ Privilege isn’t about who works harder—it’s about who starts with a foundation already built.

In this episode, we unpack emotional intelligence through the lens of time, trauma, money, image, and family systems. Using Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and real-life examples, we explore why some people seem to “have it all together” while others are just trying to survive.

This conversation challenges the myth that everyone has the same 24 hours, calls out performative success, and invites you to intentionally divide your time, energy, and priorities to build the life you actually want.

Because sometimes the most successful life doesn’t look successful at all.

Some people grow up wealthy in ways they never realize — not in money, but in emotional safety.

In this episode, we unpack the quiet, invisible privilege of being raised in an emotionally healthy family — and what it actually gives a person: regulation instead of reactivity, boundaries instead of fear, confidence instead of constant self-doubt.

We explore how emotional intelligence is formed in childhood, why it becomes one of the most valuable assets a human can carry into adulthood, and how far behind someone can feel when they were raised in chaos, ridicule, addiction, or chronic emotional abuse.

This is a conversation about:

• The hidden head start of emotionally mature parents
• Why emotional intelligence shapes relationships, careers, and mental health more than raw talent
• The grief of realizing what you didn’t get — and the strength it takes to build it anyway
• Why surviving dysfunction is not the same as being supported

If you were raised in emotional safety, this episode may change how you see your childhood.
If you weren’t, it may finally give language to something you’ve carried for a long time.

Because emotional intelligence isn’t loud.
It doesn’t announce itself.
But it may be the greatest form of generational wealth there is.

**“We grew up in a world where everything felt black and white—honor or dishonor, grateful or ungrateful, loyal or rebellious. But real emotional growth happens in the gray areas. In this episode, we unpack the powerful idea that two things can be true at the same time.

You can love your parents… and still be hurt by their actions.
You can forgive… and still want an apology.
You can honor them… and still need accountability.
You can share your story… and they can share theirs.

This episode is about finding the freedom and maturity to hold both truths with compassion. If you’re navigating complicated family dynamics, healing childhood wounds, or trying to build healthier patterns for your own kids, this conversation will meet you right where you are.”**

**“We grew up in a world where everything felt black and white—honor or dishonor, grateful or ungrateful, loyal or rebellious. But real emotional growth happens in the gray areas. In this episode, we unpack the powerful idea that two things can be true at the same time.

You can love your parents… and still be hurt by their actions.
You can forgive… and still want an apology.
You can honor them… and still need accountability.
You can share your story… and they can share theirs.

This episode is about finding the freedom and maturity to hold both truths with compassion. If you’re navigating complicated family dynamics, healing childhood wounds, or trying to build healthier patterns for your own kids, this conversation will meet you right where you are.”**

**“So many Enneagram 2s are absolutely convinced they’re 8s… until something deeper clicks. In this episode, we unpack why it’s so common to mistype yourself as your opposite—especially if you grew up carrying emotional weight, navigating trauma, or stepping into strength before you were ready.

We dive into how behaviors can look identical while motivations are polar opposite. We explore what a ‘hurt 2’ looks like, why the 2-to-8 stress line confuses everything, and how to finally tell which type you truly are.

If you’ve ever thought, ‘I’m strong, independent, and I take no crap—how could I be a 2?’ this conversation is for you. You might just discover the real reason you built that armor in the first place.”**

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