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Ron Mona

@ron.mona_

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Christ-centered husband and dad of 4. Documenting simple systems for busy dads to get stronger, stay grounded, and lead at home.

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Sounds a LOT like the lottery to me 🥹

mom entrepreneur, motherhood and business, women in business, ambitious moms, building a business with kids, work life integration, female entrepreneur, business owner mom, entrepreneurship for women

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Did I mention she gave that entire speech in Spanish? 🇲🇽 Get it, Mami. Never lose that fire!

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My man always has been and always will be my #1 Fan 😘

Follow and say 👋 if you’re a hardworking woman working to build a better future for you and your family, too. You’re totally in the right place and I’m SO happy you’re here.

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We moved to China a week after we got married in 2008 with no jobs, no apartment, and about $1000 to our names.

We lived off street food and in the tiniest apartments EVER for years, too broke to even buy a block of cheese at the grocery store.😅

Flash forward 18 years, 4 daughters, 18 homes, 2 countries, 4 cities, countless arguments, seasons of real hardship, outrageous joy and more love than can be measured, I look back on it all with gratitude.

Yes, we are in a bit of debt now but MAN HAVE WE LIVED!!

And we’ve chosen to love one another through it all. I’ll take the debt for the memories any day. And I look forward to when it’s gone so we can continue to make insanely awesome memories together and with our girls for decades to come.

Life abroad, marriage, expat kids, Americans overseas, debt repayment journey

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Women used to cross the street away from @ron.mona_ when we lived in China - especially when he was in gym gear, traditional Samoan tats in full, glorious display. Truly, he looks scary as hell if you don’t know him.

But the MINUTE he had one of his sweet girls holding his hand, calling him “Daddy”, he was suddenly smiled at and revered. 🧐

It used to bother me. Like, REALLY, really bother me to see my loving husband be so mislabeled, judged and misunderstood.

But I’ll tell you one thing I’ve grown to appreciate over time as a strong-willed woman.

While this man may be gentle and KIND, don’t be mistaken: I would hate to be on the receiving end of his wrath if someone chose to hurt me or his babies. And I’m 💯 ok with that. Keep ‘em guessing, my love.

Marriage | interracial marriage | parenting girls | expat living

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Today, we took Gracie to see her cardiologist, went out for lunch, ran a few errands, paid for parking, and met with a child psychologist I’m considering for our whole family.

The entire day cost us just $103.

That included two appointments with highly trained specialists.

As we share our debt repayment journey, I also want to talk honestly about geoarbitrage, because where we live has a massive impact on what our money can provide for our family.

Living in Mexico means that many services cost considerably less than they would in the U.S. For us, that creates access to a kind of support system I value deeply.

I don’t want to wait until one of our girls is struggling to begin searching for someone trustworthy. We’re raising four daughters through adolescence, identity questions, friendship changes and all the complicated parts of growing up. Adoption and navigating serious medical needs add complications too.

I want a child psychologist who knows our family, understands our daughters and can step in when one of them needs more support than Ron and I can provide alone.

As expats, I’m fully aware that our family needs a village around us.

That village includes friends and community, but it also includes cardiologists, psychologists and other professionals who bring expertise we simply don’t have.

Paying off $42,186 in debt requires us to examine every dollar, but today reminded me that stewardship isn’t always about spending LESS.

Sometimes it means recognizing what our location allows us to access and choosing to invest in the people who help us care for our family well.

$103.92 bought much more than a day of appointments and errands.

It helped us strengthen the village around our girls, and that is something I’m deeply grateful we can afford here.

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Entrepreneurial couples hear the phrase “behind every successful entrepreneur is a supportive spouse” so often that it almost becomes background noise.

But what does that actually look like?

For us, it looks a lot less glamorous than people imagine.

It looks like a daddy getting four girls ready every morning before heading home to work his own full-time job.

It looks like school drop-offs and pickups.

It looks like managing WhatsApp groups in his second language, organizing birthdays, coordinating cheer schedules, paying tuition, feeding the dogs, scheduling car maintenance, grocery shopping, cooking dinner, and making sure our home keeps running while I build.

Most people see the entrepreneur.

Very few people see the operator who makes entrepreneurship possible.

And that’s 💯 my man.

I’m responsible for closing a $42,186 gap.

He’s responsible for protecting the foundation that allows me to do it.

Neither role is more important.

They’re simply different.

Writing our operating agreement didn’t divide us.

In fact, it made us a better team because we stopped asking, “How can I help by taking over your job?” and started asking, “How can I remove obstacles so you can do your job well?”

And that one shift is changing everything 🥹

If you’re curious what it actually looks like to build a business, stay married, raise four girls, and pay off $42,186 of debt without pretending we’ve got it all figured out, I’d love to have you here.

Follow along. In the next video I’ll share the responsibilities Ron and I intentionally own together, because those are the ones that require both of us to show up… even when we don’t want to ❤️

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For years, Ron and I carried around this awful, hidden guilt.

I’d look around and think, I should be helping more with that.

He’d look at my side of life and think, I should probably be doing more there.

Neither of us really knew where our responsibilities ended and the other’s began, so we both spent a lot of energy feeling like we were dropping the ball somewhere.

As an entrepreneurs#, I’ve signed operating agreements for businesses before.

So one day we asked ourselves…

Why have we never written one for our marriage?

So we did.

For the next six months, every major responsibility has ONE owner.

That doesn’t mean we don’t help each other.

Quite the opposite.

Our job now is to remove obstacles so the other person can succeed in the responsibilities they’ve agreed to own.

If I’m responsible for earning the extra $42,186 to get our family out of debt, Ron is asking, “What do you need from me to make that happen?”

If he’s responsible for something on his list, I’m asking the exact same question.

The guilt is gone.

As is the guessing game that had us feeling oddly guilty for things we shouldn’t have.

Now we both wake up knowing exactly what we’re responsible for and how we can support each other.

Tomorrow I’ll show you Ron’s side of the operating agreement, because his list looks very different from mine.

If you’re into honest conversations about marriage, money, and building a life on purpose, I’d love to have you here. Follow along.

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One of the biggest reasons we’re documenting this journey isn’t just to pay off $42,186.

It’s to change what money conversations sound like in our family.

I don’t want our girls to grow up believing money is something you avoid talking about.

That’s how we grew up. You didn’t ask questions. You didn’t look at the numbers.

You quietly figured it out… or you didn’t.

So we’re trying something different.

We’re showing them the budget. We’re telling them the truth. We’re inviting them into the conversations instead of protecting them from every hard reality.

What surprised me most wasn’t that Jojo asked how we’d pay it off.

It was what she didn’t want us to sacrifice.

Not school.
Not cheer.
Not healthy food.

She understood something that took me years to learn: some things are expenses, and some things are investments.

Will we make cuts? Absolutely.

But we’re also trying to teach stewardship, discernment, delayed gratification, and the difference between saying yes because you planned for it versus saying yes because you borrowed for it (enter the dreaded credit card system…)

My hope is that one day our girls won’t inherit our debt.

They’ll inherit better habits.

If sharing this journey helps even one family have more honest conversations around money, then the vulnerability is worth it.

Follow along as we pay off $42,186, rebuild our finances, and try to raise four girls who are wiser with money than we ever were.😘

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We spend about $1,000 a month on groceries for six of us. That’s not a number I was ashamed of until I realized I’d never actually looked at it.

I just accepted it. The girls need to eat, so we buy. It felt like a necessity, so there was no room to question it.

But here’s what I’m learning while paying off over $42K of debt: necessity doesn’t mean you get to stop thinking.

We assumed Costco was the cheapest. We never checked. We assumed our grocery budget was what it was. We never asked if there was a better way.

We just kept doing what we’d always done because, well, the kids have to eat.

Except that’s exactly how you end up with $42K in debt while making good money.

The shame isn’t in spending $1,000 a month on groceries for a big family. The shame is in never choosing to care enough to look at it. In treating it like it’s just what happens instead of what we’re actually deciding.

Ron said something that stuck with me: a lot of times, extra spending simply comes from wanting convenience.

And I’m absolutely sure we aren’t being called to a life of ease and convenience at the expense of excellent stewardship.

So now we’re learning that every line item—even the ones that feel like necessities—needs special care and attention.

And it’s not about deprivation.

Instead, it’s being ready to finally ask the question we should have been asking all along: is there a better way?

That’s the real shift. Not cutting back. But waking up to the fact that we make entirely too much money to be in this position.

If you’re enjoying following along as we overshare our way through paying off $42,186 of debt, rebuilding our finances, and learning these lessons in real time, I’d love to have you follow. There’s plenty more to come.❤️

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People keep asking us what we’re cutting to pay off $42,186 in debt.

This isn’t it.

Brie’s HS tuition is staying.

Could we find a cheaper option? Of course.

But we didn’t spend years living overseas, learning new languages, and building a life outside the traditional path just to stop investing in our kids when things got hard.

People also think it’s funny that even with a BA and an MA, I don’t believe a college degree is the only path to success. I really, REALLY don’t.

I believe character, grit, and the ability to create value matter far more.

But I also know the world doesn’t always work the way I wish it did.

A degree still opens doors in many countries. It gives our girls options. And I never want money to be the reason those options disappear.

For us, this isn’t just paying for high school.

We’re paying for the bridge.

PrepaTec gives Brie the academic foundation, language skills, and opportunities that position her for the universities she may choose later.

Whether she becomes an entrepreneur, an employee, or changes her mind ten times before she’s 30, we want her to have every door available to her.

So tuition stays.

Ron’s alternative solution was… OnlyFans. 😂

Hard no.

We’re keeping our dignity AND the tuition.

We’ll find another way.

That’s kind of the whole point of this journey.

We’re not trying to shrink our life.

We’re building an income that supports the life we’ve intentionally chosen.

So this one?

KEEP.

Now we just have to figure out what does get cut. 😅

If you like content like this, I’d love for you to hit follow and come along the journey with us! I promise transparency, oversharing and as much fun as we can possibly have along the way.

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