A few weeks ago, I did a Facebook Live making Pumpkin French Toast. I was excited to try a new recipe and it turned out SO delicious!

But one of the first comments I got was, “That sounds disgusting.”

This immediately made me pause…

Should I pull down the post??? Was everyone else thinking it sounded gross, too?

And then it hit me: this is how it often is with life. We are going to make choices that not everyone will like, agree with, or understand. And that’s okay.

Don’t let the loud opinions of others dictate your decision-making.

I thought back to when we made the decision after Jesse graduated from law school to not buy a house. We kept on renting and saving and living on way less than we were making because we had set an audacious goal to pay cash for our first house.

People thought we were pretty crazy and really making a mistake. Why would we keep renting and living on beans and rice when Jesse was working as an attorney and we were making three times the amount of money we had been (which was still a very modest income by most people’s standards since he was fresh out of law school, but it was WAY more than we had been making while he was in law school!)?

I look back and see how those counter-cultural choices we made — that almost no one understood — became the foundation for the financial freedom we experience today.

Maybe you are feeling similarly right now. You’re choosing to live on less than you make, buy used, pay down debt instead of going on a vacation, drive an older car, live in a house that you’ve outgrown, take your lunch to work every day, cook from scratch, or just make choices that most people around you don’t really understand or support.

Don’t let the opinions of others — no matter how loud they may seem — dictate your decision making!

It’s okay to go against the grain and be the only one making the financial decisions you are.

It’s okay if no one really gets the path you are on and thinks you are a bit crazy.

Keep going! Keep making those sacrifices. Keep taking those baby steps. It will be worth it! And maybe other people will think you’re weird, but keep making and eating your metaphorical Pumpkin French Toast knowing that it’s actually really delicious, despite what others may think!