Hi, I'm Janet!
A FINANCIAL COACH
“We make good money. So why does it still feel so unclear?”
If that question has ever kept you up at night, I get it. It kept me up too.
I made a promise to myself when I graduated college: by age 55, work would be optional. Not necessarily retired. Just free to choose. So I did everything I thought would get me there. Built a 25+ year career in software engineering. Earned a good income. Paid the bills. Saved consistently. And still, I couldn’t shake that quiet, nagging question: Are we actually on track?
So we kept doing what felt safe. No vacations. No splurging on the nicer option. No purchases we couldn’t fully justify, because what if that money was needed for something else? We weren’t stressed, exactly. But we weren’t free either.
I spent years feeling financially responsible but not financially confident.
The turning point came when we stopped managing money by feel and started building a real system around it. In seven months, we paid off all our non-mortgage debt and built a four-month emergency fund without overhauling our lifestyle. We just got intentional. A few years later we paid off our home and started taking the trips we used to talk ourselves out of.
That journey didn’t just change our finances. It changed how we live.
The same instincts that make me a good engineer make me a better financial coach. I’m wired to understand a problem fully before building a solution, build systems flexible enough to handle real life, and automated enough that you don’t have to keep thinking about it. I built and am living the system I now teach. When your finances run quietly in the background, something shifts. Spending stops feeling guilty. Unexpected expenses stop feeling like emergencies. And the life you kept putting off starts to become a reality.
I’ve seen it happen with my own clients. A couple who paid off more than $190,000 in six months, and another who faced a major income change and said, “So… we’re going to be okay.” That second one still gets me every time I think about it.
I’m Janet DeJager, a financial coach who helps professionals ditch the debt, find the margin, and make work truly optional. And if you choose to work, make it work that means something. I’m living what I teach. Because we built a financial system that created real margin, we could afford for me to bring home a smaller paycheck. By stepping back one day a week at my 9-to-5 and moving back into an individual contributor role, I’m energized by doing hands-on software work again. I have more time for the things I love, like quilting and time with friends, and more energy to pour into coaching.
Have you been doing everything right? Are you ready for your money to align with the life you really want? Not just spreadsheet clarity, but the kind where your head, your heart, and your gut are all in agreement.
If you’re ready for a real conversation about your situation, I’d love to connect one-on-one.
What if your reaction to receiving money matters just as much as how you spend it?
Most financial advice skips this entirely. Your behavior when money arrives is the pattern that shapes everything else.
You earn good money, you're responsible, and you're not reckless. And yet most months you're not exactly sure where it all went.
That's not a discipline problem. It's an awareness problem.
Your relationship with money starts the moment your paycheck hits. Recognizing how you interact with money — not just where it goes — is what finally creates confidence in your decisions.
Start there. It's free.
The Paycheck Personality Guide reveals the pattern behind your money behavior, and what it means for your path to financial clarity.
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