DNP Ep. 91: Mindset Series: Redefining the Nurse “American Dream” with Stacey Stegenga, BSN, RN, FN, CPEN

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Dr. Nurse podcast, fam, welcome to another episode of the Dr. Nurse podcast today on the show. We’ve got Stacey Stegenga. She is a BSN RN and she was raised in a small town in Michigan, and joined the Air Force to see the world. And then after 14 years decided to move back closer to family in Colorado and she’s been a critical care nurse for 11 years.

Despite that, she ended up. Getting her salary cut in half when she moved from states. I’m assuming when you move from one job to the other upon relocating. And she read this book that changed her life. It’s called set for life by Scott trench. And it’s a book that pretty much was teaching her about real estate investing.

And it just set her brain on fire. And she’s like, I’ve got to get involved in real estate. She owns four duplexes working on getting her fifth one so that she can. Completely replace her nursing income and get what we’re all looking for, which is time freedom. She’s also an investor in a syndication. She just loves real estate.

She loves teaching people about getting free, letting them know what they can do. And she has a really big heart for improving healthcare and advocates for legislation to change the harmful work environments that so podcast.

Stacey Stengenga: Thank you. It’s such an honor to be here. Yeah. So tell I’ve introduced you to my guests, but tell my guests a little bit about how you see yourself, what it is that you do in day out as a nurse. And yeah, just kind of set the stage for what you’re involved in.

Yeah, so I’ve kind of had a unique experience. I’ve worked in every area of critical care. And that was part of the burnout. I was just kept searching for something that I loved or something that didn’t upset me or hurt me as much started in the ER. So say less. It’s a thankless job. Thought that going to pediatric trauma would help and it sure did pink my heart up a little bit more.

But unfortunately, when I moved to Denver, my income cut in half. So I sold my soul for a critical care float job, which I do love ICU. However, it was for that certain corporation, the massive one we all know and love. And unfortunately it just. Did my mental health in. And so I was so grateful to find Scott trenches book set for life because that’s where I started learning about financial independence and budgeting and just business growth investing in general.

One of my favorite things about his book is that it actually talks about how we’re going about the American dream all wrong. We basically set ourselves up for failure by maxing out our entire life, buying expensive houses and cars, and then strapping ourselves. To these nine to five jobs that we all have, obligating us to work hard for our income.

So just learning all about that diversifying and that’s how I got started.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: That’s incredible. And so you start working as a nurse, you take this big pay cut, and this cut is because you went from a one, one state that paid really well to another state that didn’t pay super well. Well, yes, kind of. So I did go from California to Colorado, but the other thing is that Denver really truly is grossly underpaid, especially for the cost of living.

Stacey Stengenga: I know. Yeah. And that’s what I personally attribute it to all of the tech that moved in. And then when marijuana legalized, they had a massive influx in the population. So I think it was just that increase in cost of living. But then the hospitals here, we’re not unionized. And so they’re all in cahoots.

And so when they give us market raises, it’s based off of what the other hospitals are doing so they can control how much we’re making. So yeah, it’s, it’s kind of heartbreaking. Are you seeing a change since you’ve been there or not so much? It has, but then, you know, when you compare it to inflation and the increases in cost of a living, like I, I can’t say that it hasn’t brought it up to.

a tolerable level that people can even afford to live. So it’s certainly not where it needs to be. So,

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Gotcha. So here you are this big cut, same work, same workload, same acuity, and not the same pay. So you start looking and going, this doesn’t work. No. And now you start investing in real estate. Is that kind of what you decided to do? So you budget, you get down your expenses as tight as you can get them, where you can put money in to start. putting down payments on duplexes. Is that kind of walk me through how you got started on your side hustle?

Stacey Stengenga: Yeah. So the first thing that I really want to tell your audience, because this is what I appreciate about your podcast the most is that I for two years was frozen in what we call in real estate analysis paralysis.

And it was truly because I was crippled in fear of learning. Losing my hard earned nursing money. But then the other component was that I just didn’t have that business mindset or investor mindset. I was so used to being a nurse and I was so fulfilled in our work and taking care of patients that I was like, Oh, that’s for rich people.

That’s for successful people. You know, I put it on outside of me. And I was like, that’s not heartfelt. That’s not who I am. Until I learned how to do real estate in a way that I’m purporting, providing safe, affordable housing to tenants. And so I found a way to do it in an ethical way that feels good to me.

But yes, to answer your question, the first biggest thing that I had to embrace was frugality. I had a studio apartment when I first moved to Denver, I was paying like 1, 600, something insane for a studio. Yeah. And so I had to downgrade my living because it was my most expensive expense. And so by moving into again, what we call a house hack in real estate it’s just a house.

They rent out the rooms. So I just basically had a bunch of roommates. I did that so that I could save on my rent. So that’s one of my favorite things to start out with giving people that piece of advice is don’t worry about cutting out the Starbucks. Don’t worry about the small things that bring you joy.

Focus on minimizing the big expenses because that’s what’s going to move the needle the most.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: So you are able to. By moving down, like decreasing your rent, save a lot more money and start investing in real estate. So you’re not married, no children. All on my single nurse income. Oh my goodness. This is awesome. This is incredible.

Stacey Stengenga: And I am super proud of myself, but I just. Really want to emphasize that for other people too, because again, it was just that mindset that this is for rich people. This is for people with all these resources or access or, you know, whatever. And it’s possible for us too. It’s possible for anybody.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: So with this newfound possibility and realizing that you can do this on a single nurse income by yourself. Grinding because there is a certain amount of that. When you are a single, a single woman, you just think like, I kind of have to play small. I’m not married yet. Like, you kind of have this like mindset of like, you know, I, I remember this as a nurse by myself.

Like, I can’t own a home. Like, that’s so much work for me. Like, I can’t like sustain that. Like, it’s fine. And you push off this financial freedom that I think you and I really, I think the Well, you know, not just not even just financial freedom, time freedom that you could be investing in yourself in these years where you’ve got nobody that needs your extra income to eat or live or soccer practice or any of these different things, you’re able to invest in yourself, invest in your freedom so that if and when you do want those things down the line.

You’re, you’ve got the time freedom and the money freedom to go do them. And so this is the time to do it. And I love that you see yourself as capable and ready and eager, and you’re using your nursing career to set yourself free. So tell me. Where are you now? Like, are you able to like completely step away from the bedside? Tell me, tell my guests, my listeners, like where you are.

Stacey Stengenga: We’re almost there. To be exact, I was 743 away from finishing replacing my income. The, and I say I was only because, and this is something important for everybody to realize the marker can move. And what happened was the Insurance crisis that’s happening in Florida.

My policies doubled, and so it cut into my cash flow. So I’m still a little further away. However, I am very hopeful that it will still happen by the end of the year. But still emphasizing the importance that. This is all happened within three years for me to replace my income. So for somebody to even buy one or two properties, like this is a very secure investment to diversify your income, give you freedom to choose what specialty, what department, where you want to work.

It just helps you show up as. The your best version of yourself and gives you the freedom of choice. So not everybody needs to have that like massive goal of having 500 doors or be a millionaire, all those things. There are other ways to do it and still find joy and get what you need from investing.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: So what I love about what you’re saying, Stacy, is I’ve been reading this book by it’s called the psychology of money. And I had one of the girls on my podcast, April, she’s super bright doing something. I love her. Yeah. She’s so great. So she kind of introduced me to this book. I was like, never heard of this book.

So I decided to download it. I’ve been listening to it. And it’s absolutely blowing my mind because that statement that you just said, and what I love about that is. Yes, that is the key to financial freedom is to determine when are you, when is there enough? Yeah. Not keep making this big million dollar, I need to be here, I need to be there making these huge what we call expectations, right?

\ the goal of being happy is reality. minus your expectations. Right. How do we find that? And you’re saying it right now. It doesn’t need to be this big number. You could just say, what would it look like for me to be happy? And then how do I go? I don’t really need to look like those people.

I need to find that for myself. Yeah. That’s something that you did to kind of get you to that space to figure out what does it look like for Stacy to be happy as a nurse?

Stacey Stengenga: Yeah. So it was actually just by chance and some of my mentors that helped guide me to realize that the initial strategy that I was pursuing in real estate.

They helped me see that it wasn’t aligned with what I was trying to do at the time. I was just so burnt out in nursing that I really wanted to be part of the political aspect of passing legislation, getting these laws passed for safe staffing ratios. And so they pointed out to me like you’re looking for cashflow.

So you need to focus on a market that does that. But In those two years that I said I had the analysis paralysis, it was because I was taking on other people’s goals. Everybody was like, Oh, be a millionaire, be financially free. And they were like these buzzwords that meant nothing to me. And so I had no passion or correlation to what I was trying to achieve.

And it wasn’t until they rephrased it, like, you need to replace your income so that you can do the things that you want to do to help change healthcare, that I was like, Oh, and then I was on fire, like you can’t stop me now because it’s a relatable goal. So it was kind of just like that reframing. But also my favorite book that talks about this same concept is called the gap in the game.

If you haven’t heard of it, it just basically talks about how we set ourselves up for being unhappy because we’re always focusing on the gap. Yeah. So you set a goal and you’re always comparing. I am not there. So therefore I am not complete. I am not good enough. I have not succeeded. But if you focus on the progress that you’ve made and where you’ve come and what you’ve accomplished that’s where your happiness comes from and then adding in that mindfulness of finding goals that are Fitting for your life, fitting for your life, right?

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Fitting for your definition of happiness and what it would look like for you to feel like you were living your rich life. Absolutely. And I talk a little bit about this in my part time NP series as well about why part time because You’ve got to figure out what your rich life looks like and so I know now you work part time as a nurse, which is another huge game changer in opening up and setting up yourself to be able to pursue these other things and invest yourself in And just invest in yourself.

If you are working full time and you’re just tanking yourself with burnout, with overtime, because you’ve got to live a certain life. You’ve got to pay for that car. You’ve got to have that 1, 600 studio apartment. You’ve got to live your life. So you have to work for your life. What you find is that you are not.

Free and that and that time freedom is what really is begetting priceless happy happiness because now you’re like my time’s free I can go and pursue the things that I really want to do And so you can actually begin to have the life that you really want and it’s Pretty incredible to hear you say these things and to see what you’re doing.

And I know you’re also wanting to bring other nurses on to teach them the same thing. Am I, am I right? Am I wrong? I think it’s part of what you’re doing, right?

Stacey Stengenga: I’m, I just want nurses to diversify their income and invest in any way that makes them happy. If it’s not real estate, that’s totally okay. My Instagram account, I share all of my information for free.

I think it was Andy or Ed Milet that said you get my lessons without the scars. And so I’m just like sharing all of the hard lessons because we do, we work so hard for our money. And so if another nurse doesn’t have to fail or have the same hiccup as me and they can just skip that, I’m happy to provide that.

But yeah, I, I just want to encourage everybody to embrace that mindset that we can do so much more with our degrees than just be a nurse. And there’s also nothing wrong with continuing to work. And I love again, that what you are really advocating for is allowing nurses to have the time freedom because that really is in my opinion, the symbol of wealth.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: I don’t care that you drive a BMW. Are you free to do what you want? Now you’re rich. Now you’re rich because you can do whatever you want with your time. And so we’re fortunate enough that nursing gives us a lot of money, right? We make good money for the most part that we can quote unquote live a certain life status that.

We think is being propped up as this is living and I was in that in that rat race Oh totally the clothes the shoes the car. I mean I bought a BMW I was it was but now looking back. I’m like, I wasn’t free. Yeah, I was poor I was so much more interested in showing people that I had money Yep But the truth of the matter is that nobody really cares and when they see you in those positions With those things nobody ever looks and goes.

Oh, man. Look at that person Yeah. They say, how do I get those things? How it’s an immediate reflection back on them, which just goes to show you, no one’s looking at you thinking, oh, you’re so great because of these things. They’re not thinking that at all. So it’s one of those things that when you start to get in your mind and you start to shift away from this, you actually begin to realize.

Oh, I’m chasing the wrong carrot.

Stacey Stengenga: Yeah, and I do love to just highlight that that is almost like a societal expectation. Like, these are things that are just insidiously implanted in us through advertising and TV and all of those things. So it’s no one’s fault to be intrinsically motivated. That’s absolutely okay.

But what I like to encourage people to do is work for the priceless moments. It’s so random, but one of the things that hit me when I was working in the ER, a nurse had to come off of her FMLA for maternity leave at the six week mark and come right back to work. And she was going through all of the healing that your body would, and I was equally as impressed with her and her.

Amazingness to do that, but then also equally heartbroken that she was forced to come back to work because she needed the income and those are the priceless moments for you to be able to stay home with your newborn baby because you’ve diversified your income. So whatever, whatever those priceless moments are for you, find those and chase that because it’s forever going to be more important.

Those are the moments you can’t get back and it’ll always be better than that car house, the whatever.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yes, I love that. And that is honestly snaps. That is, that’s it. So if you could give an advice to a nurse starting off in her career and she’s like, okay, I got my first paycheck. This is the most amount of money I have ever seen. This is so exciting. What would you give her as a piece of advice of what to do with her money? As she is. Starting off her career.

Stacey Stengenga: Yeah. So the first thing that I love to do, because I wasn’t even doing this, I was literally 33. It sounds so trivial, but budgeting, it is so insidious how much we live outside of our means and without budgeting, you don’t even realize that you’re overspending.

So starting there and then realizing how much. The percentage of your income that you’re actually saving and not spending and then focusing on that first because getting in the habit of saving the same percentage every single month again and again, that’s what compounds and that’s going to help you whether you put it in real estate or the stock market or wherever.

Just starting there and knowing where your money is going, you can’t, the goal setting thing, right? Like you can’t measure something that you don’t monitor. It’s the same exact thing for your finances. So starting with that most basic thing, if you can’t manage money when you’re just starting out, you’re not gonna be able to manage it when you’re a kajillionaire.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Yeah, that’s so good. And it made me think about what you what you were saying when you were talking about the compounding Warren Buffett and reading about how the most amount of money he made was actually like in the latter half of his year, like it’s the compounding that he did from being such a good saver all those years of time and saving that then it was like, Kaboom.

Like it just exploded on him because he actually had that compounding effect from all the little saving that he was doing. So I agree with you. The best thing she can do is to set a budget to really get, again, those big expenses down as cheap as you can. And then really begin to diversify your money in, in investments.

And again, I’m not an investment provider. So please don’t go and say, Santa’s going to do this. Neither one of us are, but no friend to friend, sister to sister, brother, sister. Hey guys, like start doing this with your paychecks because if not. You will be stuck at the bedside, burned out and exhausted and not have any options.

And then if, and when you aren’t married right now, and you don’t have kids when you do have your children and you want to stay home and you want to go, Hey, listen, I only want to work to one day a week because I want to keep my skills up. It’d be nice to kind of get out of the house. I don’t necessarily want to spend every single day out of my home.

I want to be more present, whatever, whatever. You’ve got that option because you were preparing for the long game. Absolutely. You were preparing for the long game. You weren’t just looking at right here. And I think sometimes, especially for me, I can always speak for myself that I was so focused in on just right here, right now.

And I wasn’t focused in on this other part that then when I got there, I was like. Oh my gosh. I’ve been so unprepared. Oh my gosh. Yeah. You know, and so again, like you said, I want you to learn from my mistakes and my scars and see, whoa, this is not what I want. I want to course correct now. Do it now. Do it.

Do it now. Today’s the day. Exactly. That’s all you have control over. So that’s really, really good. You talk a lot about mentorship. So what is something that, how did you find mentors in your career? How did you cultivate that? Because I think that’s really neat that you were able to really hone in on what you were needing to focus on and to kind of develop in yourself.

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Dr. Sandra Pagenta: What mentors did you find along your path? How’d you find them? Kind of give advice for the nurse that’s thinking, okay, so I need help. How do I figure this out?

Stacey Stengenga: Yeah, so I will say that I was extremely blessed to be able to tap into my veteran community. So the one that I was referring to is a military community that also does real estate investing.

So I was very like I said, blessed to be able to have that resource of information, but Got to love the statistics of the military. When I joined the group, I was the only female in a group of 33 males. I think it was when I joined which is totally fine. I love being the only woman in the room.

It’s a blessing. However, I was very much craving that connection with people in person and with women. And I feel like there’s a larger mental hurdle for women to start investing for multiple reasons. So I started going, I looked up on meetup. com. If nobody’s heard of it, it’s a great place to find groups that are usually free to go to and network.

So I started attending a group that was already formed and it was a women’s group for real estate investing, and I found most of my mentors by. Offering free value and just contributing to how can I help you grow this community? How can I get other people here? How can I get a speakers things of that nature?

So just offering free value and tell how people and then they typically get back in return.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Wow. So you reached out to this group and then somebody kind of came alongside of you and helped you kind of narrow down. Yes. We hear you want to do this political thing. Your hands are a little tied when you’re working at an institution to say the things you want to, why don’t you work on. getting financially free. So you can do that. Yep. So you said something about barriers to women investing. And I think that’s really interesting. It kind of goes back to something we were talking about earlier about kind of that mindset where you don’t think that you can because you’re a woman. And I think a lot of women. Are kind of programmed and it’s one of those things that we’re taught as children, like you need to look pretty, you need to like dress a certain way, look a certain way and all that stuff takes money to keep up with. And so that’s something that I ended up putting a lot of money into and time into is absolutely those things.

And again, the real move would have been to put all that money and time into something that would have set me free and investing. What are some barriers that you noticed?

Stacey Stengenga: Yeah. I mean, it’s kind of the same thing. It’s the intimidation that real estate specifically seems to be pretty male dominated. So I think a lot of women are intimidated by going to these meetup groups that are all males and they’re afraid to say the wrong thing or look stupid.

I just love embracing that there’s no dumb questions. And so I just love taking up space. It’s not for everybody. I know a lot of women are super, fearful of that. So that’s why I became so passionate about growing those women’s communities. But another big one that I’ve seen, and even with healthcare people are.

or women that don’t have the time or the blessing from their spouse. And so one or the other person being on board with that, and that’s more of like a relationship dynamic. I know some people are more risk adverse than others. But a lot of those components are some of the issues that I’ve seen just being a single mom, too busy. All of that stuff.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: So, so, How did you overcome the barriers for yourself in this whole space? Because I know that you had huge imposter syndrome, all these things that you were like, okay, what am I doing? What am I doing? Two years of being stuck. So how did you get unstuck? And how would you recommend another nurse that’s like, I’m a little stuck by fear too. Like, what’d you do to get over it?

Stacey Stengenga: And just to be clear, I do not want to minimize this. I was crippled. I was so burnt out that when I finally saved enough money for my first investment, it felt like I wouldn’t survive if something happened to that investment. Like I was going to cry because it was all that OT, all the call, everything that I picked up and did extra.

So trust me, the pressure is there. The fear is crippling. And what I recommend to people is in real estate, it’s all about the numbers. The numbers help remove the emotion from it. So when you practice and practice and practice and you analyze, there’s no reason to be emotional or fearful when you’re sure the numbers work.

So spending the time knowing how to Analyze those numbers, what works and what doesn’t people get into trouble when they’re trying to build wealth rapidly, anybody that tells you a get rich quick scheme, or this can happen overnight, or I’m going to double your income in one year, anything like that.

Wealth is always the long game. And so anything in short, you just need to realize you are on a rollercoaster of risk. If you’re okay with that, then by all means hop on. But if you’re not slow and steady wins the race. And so that was really what changed things. I bought my first one, the interest compounded, I’m sorry, the equity compounded, my property appreciated, and it was cash flowing.

And I was able to reinvest that and then get my next one. And then that’s how you continue on.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Wow. That is really cool. Really neat. Let’s talk a little bit more about the time freedom. And that’s one aspect that I think you and I really connected on. And when you found that you had all this surplus of time and extra time, what did you do with it?

Right? So that’s one of the things you’re a single lady. You are, you have real estate properties. You’re now able to go part time at your job. So now what are you doing with the extra time? I mean, what are you investing yourself in?

Stacey Stengenga: So I’m always continuing to grow both my education in real estate, but then also working on things like public speaking. I started my Instagram, which is a lot of work, but I love it. It’s been such a blessing. It’s so much work. I just, Oh, I needed to recognize that. for a minute, but talk about fear. I was fearful of that too, because I was afraid of the trolls and like just everything, and thank you to all of the nurses that have already connected with me on there because it is so beautiful to be able to support each other this way.

But yeah, so aside from growing my Instagram, being on podcasts, I’ve started speaking out a lot more and getting involved in helping to change that legislation. I’m extremely passionate about educating the public specifically because to me, that seems to be where the. biggest gap is in lack of education because they’re getting the politicians view and they’re not understanding why nurses need safe ratios.

I am currently pursuing a commercial acquisition, which means I’m going to buy an apartment complex. And yeah, I’m partnering with a few other healthcare workers. So it’s super special for all of us to be able to do that together.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: So is that like a syndication? Is that what you guys are going to be involved in? Or similar?

Stacey Stengenga: It’s almost exactly the same. One step below a syndication is called a joint venture. So it’s just where a bunch of people come together syndication, you sell off the shares to outside investors. So we’re going to buy it together with our money and then manage it.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Wow. Yeah. That’s incredible. How many, how many doors?

Stacey Stengenga: We’ll see with the total purchase price. The market’s a little crazy right now. Sellers have not humbled themselves with these interest rates yet, but we’re hoping a five to 30 unit apartment complex.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Wow. Fantastic. Well done. And so what I love about what you’ve been able to open up with your time freedom is an investment in who Stacy is and what you’re passionate about and being able to change the world because we live in the best country in the world.

And you fought for this country and thank you for your support for this country and putting your skin in the game to keep us safe here in America. Thank you so much. In the best country in the world to be able to do exactly what it is that you want to do. And we have the benefit and the blessing of one of the best careers to go all out full time to go over time if you need it to then back it all the way back down to part time to be able to do what you want to do because our job allows us if we used wisely.

Yes. Time freedom. And that is the truest sign of wealth. It’s not the stuff that your job can buy you. How many shifts you have to work so you can buy those shoes or whatever silliness. I’ve been there. This is not from a place of judgment. I have been there right with you buying those shoes, but it is to find, and again, if you buy shoes, fantastic.

That’s what brings you joy. Like that’s, that’s not what we’re here to talk about. We’re here about, Hey, listen, you actually don’t think that you have the money. Okay. To invest, but you do, because if you look at what you’re doing on your budget, you’ll start to see, Oh, whoa, like I’m spending a ton of money here that if I just made one single small change, I would set 800 free and then I can actually go out and be doing what Stacy’s doing.

And then I could actually go do the thing that I’m passionate about, which is oddly birdwatching and Brazil. And so I want to go do that for, I don’t know what it is for you. I love it. You come back to work. And you take care of your patients and you tell them about how you went to Brazil for two weeks.

Yes. You are now full as you take care of people because we have the most important job in the planet. We can never be replaced by AI. You can never replace a nurse at your bedside, helping you out, taking care of you when you’re sick. By our computer. And so we’re not going anywhere. So guys get smart as you go to work so that you can go do that.

And I love that you have such a passion to help us out at the bedside and keep us safe when we’re working so that we don’t make mistakes so that we don’t hurt people. Yes. So that we’re happier on our jobs. Right. We want to come. You want to come to a job.

Stacey Stengenga: And that’s really honestly what it is. Like I just want healthcare professionals across the board to be able to work in a way that they want and that’s fulfilling.

There came a very clear point in my career where I was actually afraid to go to work in the ER in America which 33 countries deployed. I was overseas for five consecutive years during my military service. And it is insane for me to feel more afraid in my country in a hospital. Than I ever did in the Middle East.

And that’s where my passion comes from. We have work to do. We get to go to work and feel safe. We get to go to work and feel taken care of or cared about. So yeah.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: I think I read something about how healthcare workers now are more at risk from violence than some law enforcement. And I was like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, like the guys that literally their title is like protect and serve, right? Like that’s what they do. Like, I’m going to go to crime. Yes, I’m going to go to crime, like I’m going to go to crime scenes and like protect people. Our job is equally as dangerous. And again, working in the ER, I’m sure you saw some stuff that was bananas. Yeah. Yeah. And do you think that. And I’ll just ask you this, just straight out does your work as part time and pursuing the things that you’re pursuing. Do you work better when you work, like, do you feel like you’re different at work in this new space and

Stacey Stengenga: yes, yeah, it’s, it’s mostly because I’m able to go in my fullest my fullest self. So I, like I said, work for that corporation that I cannot stand. And so I was able to leave that job and work in a specialty, work at a very specific hospital that brings me the most joy.

And it is because I had to take a pay cut that I was so apprehensive to do that. But now because I’ve diversified my income, I can go do what brings me joy. And. Loving it. And then I get to exercise all these other parts of myself that I’ve developed because of investing. And that’s, what’s so cool about having the duality is that now when I’m investing and I’m an entrepreneur, I’m like so inspired by other people.

And they’re like. Ideas and dreams and all of these things that we don’t necessarily have conversations about in healthcare. So it’s just expanded so much for me. And then I get to go back to healthcare and be that light and mirror for other people and wake that up in them. So it’s, it’s a really special thing.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: I mean, it’s, it’s one of those things that they say. When you use your brain and you expand it into different fields that like that neuroplasticity that ability to go like, oh, yeah, I’m not just a nurse. I can put a, you know, a fully in and I can put an IV in and then I’m not just a nurse practitioner where I can like diagnose and treat and like write prescriptions.

And I can like, follow this whole path. Like, I also have this other skill set where I can do. Real estate. And I know what to do whenever you buy, I don’t even know yet what to do with an apartment complex. I’m about to figure it out. My brain’s about to grow even more. And that is one of the secrets to a long life, a long, healthy life is doing stuff that challenges your brain, grows your brain, you’re growing new skills.

And I think that again, this is the secret. This is the thing that I have found in this podcast and speaking with all these nurses that are doing exactly this, just going like, all right, work full time, get what you need. Figure out how to diversify yourself, step back part time, do this little part time thing, do it.

Would you do this other thing? And so you feel safe enough to be able to leave. And then you can leave if that’s what you want to do. Or if you still want to be a nurse, you can, and you can do it in a capacity that doesn’t burn you out, that you can still love your career. There’s a solution to this. Yes.

People aren’t talking about it. And so Stacey, thank you for coming on.

Stacey Stengenga: Yeah. It’s my pleasure. Yes. Oh my gosh.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: It’s a total blast.

Stacey Stengenga: It’s so good. I love this. Thank you so much for having me.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Oh, you’re so welcome. So tell people where they can find you. And kind of where, yeah, where you are.

Stacey Stengenga: Yeah. So I’m all over Instagram. My handle is invest for freedom, underscore RN. I love connecting with all healthcare professionals, so please reach out, ask me anything. I’m happy to support you any way that I can.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Love that. Love that. And so for the last part of our, my podcast, I always do rapid fire. So awesome. I got to go through it. Cause she’s like, kind of like get your blood pumping. Let’s do it. You ready?

Stacey Stengenga: Okay. Yes.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: What was your very first job ever?

Stacey Stengenga: Ooh very first one ever was working in a nursing home feeding residents. Yes. Really? Mm hmm.

Dr. Sandra Pagenta: Wow. So is that what sparked your love for nursing? Like starting there and kind of seeing that? I’ve always loved helping people and just like giving back. So it’s like that heartfelt work that always has brought me joy. Yeah, so what would you do play board games at all? I actually don’t I do play euchre.

What is euchre? I don’t even know what that is. It’s a card game in the Midwest. Yeah. Okay. You guys say soda pop in the Midwest. I do know that. Yeah. No, I got I. I got converted in nursing school. They made me convert just a soda. My classmates will be so proud. Okay. Okay. So what would you, based on where you are today, what’s your favorite age, if you could pick an age that you thought was just like winning?

Oh, 33 was my best. That was my glory year. That was your glory year. I was able to work per diem. I took a travel contract. I was doing flight nursing at the time and I worked 10 months and then traveled the other two. And that was like, I had made it. So. Oh my goodness. That sounds awesome. Yeah. And then if you had to give a book to someone, what book would you give?

Set for life. It changed my life. Yeah. Set for life by Scott Trench. That’s the one that changed my life. If nothing else, it changed my perspective on literally we’re doing the American dream all wrong. But yeah, changed everything for me. It’s a really good one. You know what is so funny? One of the things we were talking about and I want to finish on this, this note was that and or like wealth is the combination of paranoia and what was the book that he said?

He said paranoia. Yeah. And. What did I text you? I texted you earlier about the frugality frugality. That’s what it was. Frugality and paranoia is how you get to wealth. And I thought it was so interesting because I never quite understood that what’s, what’s not synonymous with frugality is just useless spending.

Right. And just. Just waste. And then also the other part is the paranoia, paranoia and the humility to believe it came easy, it can go easy. And so you’re never done, you’re never finished, you never relax, and you never, I mean, to a certain extent, you relax, but you don’t necessarily Yes, cocky about where you are, because you realized one, it took you so much to get there.

How many shifts, how much time, like kind of like what you said, like that grind that you did. And you forget the grind when you get to the point of success, sometimes you forget what it took you to get there. And so that’s another thought that I had, and I wanted to bring that in because I think we don’t really talk about it.

I thought it was so interesting too, because I got like the verse of the day that comes into my phone and I love the Bible and it’s one of, it’s a Christian podcast. I’m a Christian, so I guess it makes you a Christian podcast, but it said the reward for humility and the fear of the Lord is riches, honor, and life.

And I thought that was so interesting that that was what was on my phone after just like reading that and then just realizing that it’s the humility. It’s just realizing where it all comes from. Realizing where. You know, where we get it all is from above, is from God, and it is such a blessing to be able to live in a country where we have the ability, the opportunity to just be free and to do the things that we want to do with our lives.

So Stacey, thank you for your time today. Thank you for coming on. It was so much fun. Thank you for having me. Yes. Thank you so much. Again, guys, don’t forget to enjoy the journey of your career and thanks for hanging out with me today. Yeah. All right, lady.