Julie Piatt On How She Stayed Sane Through A Bankruptcy Scare — Before Building A Successful Career As A Creative

With an estimated 67 percent of Americans at least a little anxious about paying the bills, and 58 percent worried they won’t have enough money for retirement, it’s becoming increasingly clear that being financially well is an integral part of overall wellness. Of course, money management isn’t one-size-fits-all, so we’re talking to people from all walks of life to find out how they achieved a healthy relationship with their finances. We hope it empowers you to live a life Well Spent.

Julie Piatt is one of those rare people who has made a career out of her creative passions—but it hasn't come easy.

Julie realized that she had a knack for all things music and art at the age of 28, so she pivoted from a steady job in the fashion business to embrace her creative pursuits wholeheartedly—refusing to let anyone's perception of what was "normal" or "responsible" get to her. Her husband, Rich Roll, went through his own dramatic career shift years after, leaving behind his job as a successful lawyer to chase his athletic dreams. "We could get barely any work, either one of us. I was in my 40s creating my first album, and he was in his 40s doing triathlons—both of which make zero sense," Julie says of the time.

Looking at Julie and Rich today, you'd never know they teetered on bankruptcy for years. Rich is the two-time top finisher at the Ultraman World Championship and host of the mega-popular Rich Roll Podcast; Julie is a renowned spiritual figure, musician, and author of This Cheese Is Nuts; and together they've penned best-sellers The Plantpower Way and The Plantpower Way Italia.

I worked in a garment center fresh out of school and actually did quite well in sales and found out that I was very good. One of the things that was horrifying to me was that at 28, I found out that I was a natural artist. It had taken me my whole life up until that point to find this out. No one had ever suggested that I try.

If you look at the reason for life, why are you alive? You're alive to know yourself. A good financial portfolio is not going to do that for you. It might make your life more comfortable on a certain level, but it gets to a point where, what else do you need?

I thought I was going to have to file bankruptcy in my life, and when I went in to see the bankruptcy lawyer, I said to him, "I have no shame, idea, attachment, or emotional connection to this experience. Just tell me the scenario. Is it A, B, or C?" He was shocked, and he said, "None of my clients are saying what you just said." I said, "Well, that's because we have forgotten that we are not our credit score."

It's interesting. My kids went through the financial collapse with us—we didn't hide it from them; we were very honest and up front. I took my daughter to the pawnshop on her sister's sixth birthday so that I could have money to have a party for her. We really lived in it. Nine years in a child's life is a lot of years. So they saw me be supported time and time again by the Universe when we were down to the last potato or when someone was supposed to come and take our house from us, when we got our cars repossessed.

During that hard time, all of my appliances broke. I didn't have washing machines, dryers, vacuums, and I had five kids living with me—four of my own and my nephew. I loathe housework because I suck at it. I was just so overwhelmed, but I decided I would approach house cleaning as a spiritual practice. With my heart, I would go into devotion and imagine when I was cleaning my house that I was infusing her with my energy and that this was going to allow us to go on this path and get a modification and keep the house.

Well, Rich and I committed to nurture that seed that was inside both of us. I committed to it not only for me but for my husband as well. I did it because I knew I was connected to my divine design. I knew that if he went back to law, that it would be un-amazing. We would live an un-amazing life. That's not why I came here.

So we risked. And everybody thought we were insane, by the way. If you choose to do this, you threaten other people's safety, and they get angry. They take a stab: "Well, I pay my bills, and you're a loser, and that makes me better than you." It was not an easy thing. In our case, it bonded us like a tribe. My relationship was deepened by this experience rather than split apart.

I didn't pay property tax or insurance for five years. It makes no sense. But first of all, I did a lot of ceremony. In the eleventh hour, when I thought it was going to get auctioned, I wrote a love song to my house. As stupid as that seems, it was like "OK, I'm defeated. I tried everything possible, I made it four years, so I can sleep now and know that I did everything that I could.” Then I was in meditation and I thought, “Wait a second. There’s something I could do that I haven’t done. I’m gonna write a love song to her.” And I did. It’s the title track of my album, “Jai Home,” which means victory. It’s a victory home.

Ritual is natural to humanity. It's been torn away from us, and we're reawakening to it now. It's super cool. It's super fun for me to be in my 50s and to see the fruit of all this ceremony. Now it's like it never happened.