Essential Habits For Financial Success (Bestie Ep) #1002

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Had to Money. I'm Joel and I am Matt,
and today we're discussing essential habits for financial success.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
All right, Joel, you know this is going to be
a great episode, in particular a great episode to follow
up our conversation that we had on Monday with economist
Katie Milkman. During that convo, she dived into the science
behind why it is that there are certain decisions, certain
changes that we're able to make that we stick with,
and why there are other changes that we make and
when the first bump in the road comes along, we

(00:47):
just immediately fall off that wagon.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Throwing the towel exactly.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
But the fact is, when it comes to some of
the larger financial goals that we have in our lives,
there aren't a lot of folks that have like this
grand tenure plan. They're like, I don't know even know
what I want to do by the end of this year,
let alone at the end of ten years. Yeah, but
they do know that they need to make some healthy
changes in their lives when it comes to how it
is that they handle their money. They don't know exactly
where they want to go, but they know they need

(01:12):
to start taking some positive steps, you know, And this
is exactly where this episode comes in. This is this
episode is especially for the folks who are saying, like,
just tell me what to do, Like I don't exactly
know what it is I'm pursuing, like the big things
are going to bring about happiness in my life, but
I do know I need to be smarter with my money.
Tell me what I need to do. I think this
episode is definitely going to connect with those folks, but

(01:33):
just for everyone out there who is looking to get
better with their money as well.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
They might not have like a big, hairy, audacious goal
of achieving fire by the time they're thirty three or
something like that, but it doesn't mean that they don't
want to make progress and leave themselves more options. And
so we think these these habits, implementing some of the
habits that we're going to talk about today, are going
to help put you on the right path, even if
you don't know where that path is going to lead exactly.
But before we get to that, Matt I wanted to

(01:57):
mention something that one of our listeners told us about
the other day via email. Thanks thanks to listener Nate
by the.

Speaker 2 (02:03):
Way, Yeah, a listener who has some inside knowledge when
it comes to how the insurance industry works.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Yeah, and so he is an independent insurance agent himself,
and you and I we've talked about how great independent
insurance agents can be for individual consumers because they're not
beholden to a specific company. And so instead of saying like, yeah,
let me quote you prices from Progressive only or all
state only or whatever it might be, they say, no,

(02:30):
I'm gonna I have the ability to shop with eight
or nine companies on your behalf, and I'll tell you
what the best prices are, which I think is super valuable.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Including a bunch of companies you've never heard of. Because
they don't put any money towards marketing, right, they're also
able to offer sometimes the best rates.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Yeah, they don't have a cute green gecko or something
like that, which means they can offer you better rate
sometimes because they're not spending so much on marketing exactly.
And the website that Nate mentioned, I've not heard of
this website before. We've talked about finding an independent local
insurance agent, but he mentioned site trusted choice dot com,
which is a great site for finding a local agent
where you are. So if you're like, hey, one of

(03:06):
my goals this year is to save money on insurance.
I know, like, my insurance cost just went up big time.
How am I going to be able to lower that
cost in a meaningful way? Well, one of the easiest
ways to do that is to find a local independent
agent and so, yeah, we will link to that site
in the show notes for this episode. But finding a
local agent having them shop on your behalf is one
of the easy things that you can do to potentially

(03:27):
save hundreds or maybe even one thousand dollars or more
in the coming year on insurance costs and stuff without
giving up a ton in coverage in order to do so.
About yeah too, exactly. That's where we don't want you
to cut corners in order to save There are other ways,
and one of the reasons he pointed out to local
agents oftentimes they know the specific nuances and the laws
associated with the state where you live, and so they

(03:50):
oftentimes can provide better coverage because they know exactly what
it is that you are going to be required to have,
but then.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
Also what you don't necessarily need to have, yes, and
they'll probably ask more about your specific situation, sometimes exactly
and I think that's helpful totally. All right, let's introduce
the beer that you and I are gonna enjoy during
this episode. This is a liquid hop Magma. This is
our last beer donated to the show by Mutation Brewing.
A big thanks to Jack and all of our friends

(04:17):
over there at the brewery. But I'm looking forward to
enjoying this one and we will share what we think
about it at the end of the episode.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
For sure, we like hoppy beers. We'll give our thoughts
on this one in just a bit. But Matt, let's
get onto the subject at hand. Let's talk about the
essential habits for financial success. And it just makes me
think of high school for some reason that like, remember
we were always told.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Back to school essentials, right right.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Remember well, kids are going back to school for the
second semester in just a couple of days. But like
in high school, we were always told that we needed good,
good grades. But it always felts a little arbitrary to me,
like nobody was connecting the dots and so I was.
I personally was more than happy to trade like hours
of studying for a solid bee instead of like busting
my butt to get in. It always felt like the
gap in effort needed between getting a B in an

(05:01):
A was significant, so I was just always content to
get a slightly lower grade, but it was still solid right,
And I think that chocked it up to the fact
that I had no desire to attend a prestigious school
like the IVY leagues were out of the question for me.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
No, No Yale for Joel Little High.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
School, Joels.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
No.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
I wasn't thinking about Yale or Harvard or Stanford or
any of that stuff. But it turns out, though, I
think there were good reasons that my parents were pushing
me to try harder, even though I wasn't planning on
going to Colgate or one of those nice schools. Right,
and better grades meant a wider range of options and
the potential for more financial aid too, no matter what
school I went to. It makes me think recently, I

(05:39):
was talking to my wife Emily one of her cousins,
and he told me about getting a thirty two on
his ACT. He took it three times and he just
couldn't get past that mark. But if he'd gotten a
thirty three, he would have gotten all his housing paid
for at the school he went to. Now, so it's
just like one point man cost him a lot of money,
but he said, man, just I couldn't stomach taking that

(06:01):
test again at that point in time. And I don't
think he realized at the time, when he was eighteen
how much it was going to cost him. And so
both his parents and my parents, I think, could see
past our lethargy, my you know, lack of focus and
dedication and his lack of wanting to take that test again,
and they knew that that trying just a bit harder
would have long term positive financial consequences for both of us,

(06:23):
not to mention a stronger work ethic right that would
provide dividends for years to come.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
So, yeah, your parents wanted to see your full potential, Joel.
They knew that you were capable of so much more. Yes,
But what you're saying though, is like, I mean, you're
not just going to focus on getting good grades because
you know that you have to achieve a certain GPA
to get into a specific school, Like that is not
the only reason that you're doing it. And you know,
when it comes to like the big financial goals that
we have in life, it can be overwhelming, you know,

(06:48):
like when you hear life gurus out there saying that, like,
you've got to start with the end in mind, and
I'm pretty sure that that's something we've even said before,
even though we don't at all consider ourselves gurus. And
the reason though that that can be overwhelming, as think
is because sometimes you just have no idea what end
it is that you're actually pursuing. And plus, you know,
we think this is also a great way to tackle

(07:08):
the new year, because you know, you may not even
know what you want to accomplish by the end of
twenty twenty three, let alone by the end of the decade.
You might not have a specific crystallized goal yet, and
that's okay, but it's about moving in the right direction.
It's about getting that momentum started, getting that ball rolling,
even if the end goal is subject to change.

Speaker 1 (07:28):
And so just like with you, Joel, so.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
You didn't know exactly where it was that you wanted
to go to college, but by having a good GPA,
by giving it your best shot on the SAT, that
was going to open up the potential for you to
go to some different schools that you might have changed
your mind to down the road. And developing the right
financial habits. We think that that will similarly help folks
to start moving in the right direction, even if you

(07:50):
don't know what your ultimate destination is going to be.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
Yeah, And the truth is that most of us have
goals that are subject to change, right. None of our
goals are very few of our goals are set in stone.
This is and we know them on like a multi
decade long timeline, and life throws us curveballs and we
have to adapt. That doesn't necessarily mean that you've failed, right.
It's often that as you grow up and evolved as
a person that what you want out of life changes,

(08:14):
which is totally fine and totally understandable, and it's actually
a good thing. What it feels like you live a
new life, something like every seven years, we're turning over
a new leaf. Matt. There are certain things that people
might have told me three years ago but pre pandemic,
and they would have said, Hey, you're gonna end up
doing this, this and this, making these choices. You're even
going to move from the neighborhood that you can love
so much right now, and you're gonna end up in
a new place. And I would have been like, you're crazy,

(08:35):
Like there's no way, yeah, out of your mind. Ye,
but life and here we are throws us curve balls.
We have to react accordingly. And you and I we
moved our families right last year, but we want you
to have the financial ability to be able to make
those changes without freaking out. And the earlier you adopt
the financial habits that we're going to cover in today's episode,
the quicker, you're going to be on your way to
increased levels of margin and financial flexibility, which directly equates

(08:59):
to the likelihood that money isn't going to be the
thing holding you back from the lifestyle you want to
lead and the changes you want to make. Matt, it
would have been so much more stressful if we felt
like we wanted to move our family somewhere else, but
we didn't have the financial backstop to make that decision exactly.
And so that's what we want for people. Like as
goals start to crystallize, you're like, Hey, the habits I've
been implementing you have gotten me to the place where

(09:20):
I can now achieve that without having to fret, without
having to like freak out that you don't have the
financial wherewithal to make those decisions you want to make.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
That's right man, Yeah, I could agree more. So let's
get into it. Where do you start? And we would
argue that gathering the facts that that is step number one,
and that means tracking your spending. We think that this
is the number one habit that folks who handle their
money do without fail. Last month, actually we talked about
how people underestimate what it is that they spend on

(09:51):
their monthly subscriptions, and not just by like a little
bit of money, like almost always it was by at
least one hundred bucks. And so the reason I bring
that up is is if you don't know where your
money is going, it becomes really easy to let those
precious dollars slip through the cracks, and that makes it
harder to actually reach whatever goals it is that you
are either currently pursuing or that you might end up

(10:12):
pursuing at some point. Every dollar counts when we're looking
to make changes, and if you don't track where those
dollars are going, it's like you're on a ship with
a perpetual leak. You got to fix that leak in
order to get where you're trying to go. It makes
me think of that. So the conversation we had with
Katie on Monday. One of the things she wrote about
in her book, she one of the similarities between Benjamin
Franklin and Jerry Seinfeld was that they were incredibly disciplined

(10:35):
in tracking their progress. There were changes that they both
i would say probably very different changes that they both
wanted to implement in their lives, and they were both
able to basically chart their progress and that allowed them
to achieve the results much faster. And specific to Jerry Seinfeld,
one of the things she said that he would often
do is that he would maintain these streaks, and so

(10:56):
I think maybe it was something like every night he
was trying to do like an open mic nights somewhere
in order to just hone his craft, and once he
got that going, he didn't want to stop, specifically because
he didn't want to break the streak that he had
going to like in a sense, he was almost kind
of gamifying it. And when I read that, I realized
that's one of the reasons why I track my spending
every single penny, every single month, and I've done that

(11:17):
since two thousand and seven, like literally for I'm on
like a fifteen year streak where every single month that
that is something I've been able to maintain. There's no
way I'm going to break that streak. I'm not going
to let a busy month allow me to not do
this thing that I've done for so long that has
allowed me to achieve the financial progress and the financial
success that I have.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
And you're living up now to the moniker that everyone
has for you, which is the Jerry Seinfelder personal finance.

Speaker 2 (11:41):
If only I.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Would love that. No, I think you're right. I mean,
I think those things, those things matter, right, and the
longer we do something, the more habitual it becomes. But
something as simple as tracking your money is crucial. It's
like the first building block really in personal finding so
many ways, and if you're not doing that basic thing,
the likelihood of you being able to achieve bigger goals

(12:03):
that you've set out for yourself becomes a lot more
unlikely if you're not willing to do the small stuff
right exactly, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
I think I mean that's worth sharing too, because I
think they're gonna folks are saying, oh great, how the money, guys.
They're talking about tracking or spending, But like, this is
something that folks who have accomplished a lot in their lifetimes.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
This is what they do. This is where you start. Yeah,
and it sounds basic, but the realities most people don't
do it, and so they don't know where the leaks are,
they don't know how to go about plugging them. And
the truth is there are lots of ways to track. Right.
You can go old school spreadsheet like you do, Matt,
and we can link to your budget spreadsheet that people
can copy and use however they'd like. In the show
notes for this episode, if you're like, hey, I do

(12:40):
like the Matt's grandpa approach to budgeting into tracking, that's cool.
Feel free you go use it, or you can use
the software like mint or wineab. If you're like, I'm hip,
I'm with it, then go for that, like sign up
for one of those sites Mint free, wineab costs money.
But whatever system works best for you is all good
with us. But if you opt to avoid tracking your spending,
your progress, it's just it's going to be stunted. Just

(13:01):
like if Jerry Seinel wasn't if he wasn't tracking those
open mic nights and he's like, I think I've done it,
like the last thirteen days, but I'm not one hundred
percent short there's something about, yeah, documenting it that helps
keep that progress alive. And then the next step after
tracking is budgeting, And once you know you know where
those funds are going, it's so much easier to then
tweak your spending to better align with your values, and

(13:23):
you start asking questions like do my current expenses make
sense for what I care about? How do I feel
about the money that I'm spending? Do I feel good
about it? And if not, it's time to redirect where
those dollars are going. And again, like, they're excellent software
packages to help you out with this, but you don't
need software to help you do this either, pen and paper, right,

(13:44):
it could be as simple as that. But yeah, tracking
and budgeting are like two unavoidable peas in a pod
if you're doing those things consistently. We actually we have
a new article up on our website at how to
money dot com. There's like different budgeting methods I think
that work better for different personality types, and so willing
to that so you can hopefully find a budgeting method
that works for you how you think about money, and

(14:06):
then kind of like, yeah, how you personally handle it.
It's not necessarily it doesn't have to be a one
size fits all approach. That's right.

Speaker 2 (14:13):
And I will say I'll give a slight caveat because
I said that this is something that everybody who's successful
with their money, this is something that they do. And
while I think it would be helpful for the majority
of folks, I will say, there are folks out there
who don't budget as much. I mean, I think you
would even kind of fall into that CAMPU Lee.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
That's actually the fourth budgeting style in that article I'm
referencing is people who don't budget.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
But they're like, my favorite budgeting style is to not budget.
But what I wanted to say though, is you, I
think initially it is incredibly helpful. Yes, like maybe in
the day to day, like the month to month, you're
not you know, you're not doing like a zero sum
budget where you're tracking every single penny.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
Which it's one of the other ones in the art.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
But I think initially, at least at the very beginning,
like you got to face the facts, you know, like
you got to face the music and be shocked with
the reality of your spending, because you might think that
you've got a certain level of spending, you know, going
on in your life. But guess what, lifestyle inflation happens
in conjunction with actual inflation, which has caused a lot
of our spending to increase. And so I think it's

(15:10):
so important to truly face the facts, and at the
very least doing that once at the beginning can help
you to get sort of like I almost like a
tune up, like when you go in to take your
car in. If you take it as somebody who knows
what they're doing, they're hopefully able to give you a
good diagnosis. And I think that that they can even
tell you what you can do, what's coming up with
your car, Like, hey, in maybe like a two thousand miles,
those front breaks might need to be looked at again,

(15:32):
and I don't know, maybe you're gonna need that ninety
thousand mile check up, or we do this, this and
this prepare for it. Yeah, exactly, start thinking ahead, which
is great, and I think that's what kind of tracking
and budgeting can do for you.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Absolutely. It's also true that somebody like Jerry Seinfeld doesn't
need to do an open mic night every single night
at this point because of all the work he's put
in throughout the years. So exactly if you're that far along,
you don't need to necessarily feel guilted into continuing a
system that helps set you up for success, and it
might continue to help you be successful, but he also
might not need it in the same way that somebody's

(16:03):
just starting.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah, I mean it's trade offs because like simultaneously, like
even the best coaches out there and the best players,
they're watching tape, you know, like they are reviewing and
looking back over their performances and like, and so I think.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
Even making a sports reference, Yeah, I don't to do that.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Often, but I get I think even the folks who
are crushing their financial goals would see an increased level
of performance were they to track and budget. It's just
it just kind of comes down to whether or not
that that is enough of a priority for them to
want to do that.

Speaker 1 (16:30):
I remember seeing a Kobe Bryant interview where he talked
about just outworking everybody else, and he's like, let's say
the average athlete works out, has two good workouts in
our day. Well, what if I wake up earlier in
the morning and I'm getting somewhere between three and four
workouts in every single day. He's like, it doesn't matter
if they work their butt off over the summer because
for the last five years, I've been doing an additional
workout or two more than they have for years now,

(16:52):
which in compounds. Yeah, and it's like those the kind
of things, those actions really matter, Right, That's a that's
a habit that he got into that paid massive dividends,
making him one of the best basketball players of all time.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
But you gotta you gotta let your body rest though, too, right, Like,
aren't you faced with like the reality of science? Yeah,
I think that now that I've been working out, I mean,
the guys the wrong guy to work for Covie.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
I'm gonna trust it.

Speaker 2 (17:11):
But there's certain guys that work out every single day.
I'm just like, how are you not sore the next day?
Like when I work out, I can't. I feel like
I can't do Jack Squad the next day. But we
definitely don't need to turn this into physical fitness sports
metaphor of an episode. We're going to continue to talk
about the essential habits for financial success, and we have

(17:31):
a handful more of different habits that we are going
to cover right after this.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
All right, Matt, let's keep going. Of course, you and
I we want everybody listening to this. We want them
to be financially successful. We want them And that doesn't
mean and you and I have to talk about this
all the time. That doesn't mean having like Bill Gates
levels of wealth. That doesn't mean being on the four
one hundred list or something like that, like that is
uber insanely rich and wealthy. That we don't care about that.

(18:07):
But we do want people to have more choice in
their lives. We do want people to have more money
in their bank account to allow them to have more
choice over the years.

Speaker 2 (18:15):
More autonomy over their lives and the decisions that they're
able to make in the future.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
And so that often means having better habits, making better choices,
even if the end goal isn't and for most of
us probably isn't going to be to be, you know,
to become one of the uber wealthy elites. But another
habit that successful financial nerds partaken is to regularly assess
and cut their spending. And so this kind of aligns

(18:39):
with tracking your spending, but it's a little different because
this is like when you're actually not just seeing the
holes in the boat, but you start plugging the leaks
and you make it a habit, we would say to
institute a waiting period before buying something, something like a
forty eight hour rule. Where you're shopping and you see
something and you're like, oh, I need that. Well, if
you have a forty eight hour rule, you don't buy it,
and maybe you forget about it, or maybe you come

(18:59):
back to it knowing, hey, that's actually something I really
want to buy. Or if you're shopping around for items
that you're definitely going to purchase, you know you want
that thing, you've been thinking about it for a while,
Compare prices before you actually take the plunge and buy
that item and add it into your life as well. Also,
you know, work to spend less on recurring expenses. These
are all habits that you're going to want to develop

(19:21):
in order to grow the gap in your life between
incoming and outgoing. So we would say start with those
big expenses, right like housing. What are some ways that
you can keep this one to a minimum. Do you
really need a big, fancy apartment for all the stuff
you're tired of keeping up with. Or let's say you
own a house, maybe it's time to start house hacking.
Can you can you rent out a room in your

(19:41):
house to turn that expense into less of an expense
or maybe maybe even into a little bit of profit.
How can you trim what you're spending on transportation? Can
you get rid of a car from your life? Matt?
How are big advocates for this? If there's a lot
more people who could afford to ditch your car than
think they can. And the average price of owning one
single car for a whole year is something like ten
thousand dollars, that's insane. That's a lot of money. Can

(20:03):
you cut that back in your life? Also? Like shop
insurance rates, we talked about that at the beginning of
that episode. They're all of these little leaks that are
in our lives, these ways that we can address them.
But the habit that's important to develop is to regularly
assess and cut. Assessing and cutting spending is going to
go a long way when it comes to moving the needle,
creating more margin, more financial margin in your life.

Speaker 2 (20:24):
Yeah, but don't forget about the all those little leaks
as well, you know, because like the successful money habits,
like saving in small ways, that is also going to
propel you down the path of financial success as well.

Speaker 1 (20:35):
It's starrying to sound like Ben Franklin. A penny savers
a penny earned.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
You know, I feel like me and Ben Franklin we
would have gotten along. But like you know, just like
the small tweaks that we're able to make right like
as we adopt, say, a more positive view of frugality.
I think that's the cherry on top. As we're working
to optimize our money, and these are moves that most
anyone out there can do. We're talking about things like
biking more often as opposed to getting in the car,

(21:00):
Like that's one of the ways that you are able
to downsize the second largest light item on the American's
monthly budget. But then something as simple as saving, storing,
and actually eating your leftovers. I'm I'm like the King
of leftovers, man.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
Don't just scrape it into the garbage can.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
No, Like, literally today my leftovers I had, there's just
like too much brown rice in there. And so I
like the pork and the mushrooms and the spinach, But
I scraped the rice back into the container. I stuck
that back in the fridge because now I've got leftovers
of leftovers, and later this week I'll be able to
bring some vegetables, some protein and complete that meal. But

(21:38):
you know, even something as basic as we're using as
the pluck bags, financially successful flks realize the value of
a dollar and like they're just always doing just the
little things that add up and you kind of you
touch on this a little bit, but like finding ways
to keep those smaller recurring expenses minimal is important as well,
because you're not looking to bring in new expenses into
your life just on a whim, right, because those that's

(22:00):
how those small expenses really add up when you multiply
times twelve and you get us you kind of get
used to the action of doing those little things and
not thinking a thing of it, and they grow. Like
it's not just the one ten dollars subscription, but it's
the fact that, like you're the kind of person however
many years yeah that you did that, you maintain that subscription.
But then just what you're talking about, Yeah, the frame
of mind that you enter into as a consumer.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Yeah, and it's like, now cool, Yeah that's not if
ten dollars isn't a big deal. The next time, the
twenty dollars decision isn't a big deal, And we need
to make them big deals in our lives exactly.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Yeah, keeping ye, we want you to basically keep those
recurring payments as low as possible because that's going to
open up the widest range of financial possibilities for you
in the future, and that's what we want for you.
And plus, you know, keeps your stress levels lower, which
is massively underrated. We're not even going to talk about
stress and mental health. We're just talking about like then
nuts and bolts today, but keep that in mind as well.

Speaker 1 (22:49):
Yeah, it's like these habits do have a ramification on
your mental acuity right on the bandwidth that you have
to tackle other more important things in life. That's not
the focus of this episode, but it's one hundred percent true.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Yeah, it literally loads your ikey points right.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Having a lot of debt on hand, right, there's like
studies to show that it's something like a twelve to
fourteen point IQ drop. And we want you to avoid
debt because we want you to be smart and happy.
But another habit that you're gonna want to adopt is
to avoid high inter straight debt like the plague. And
so yeah, when you when you take on debt, what
you're doing is you're giving your future self fewer options.

(23:24):
And so you want to be darn sure that the
debt you're taking on is fueling the future you want,
not preventing future possibilities. And the problem is most debt sucks, right,
Personal loans, revolving credit card debt, car loans like these
are the kind of things that allow you to consume
more now, leaving future you though on the hook for
those payments potentially seven, eight, nine years in the future.

(23:47):
When you're talking about something like all those kinds of debt,
but specific say car loans, there's a lot of people
taking out eight to nine year car loans now, Matt,
and so like, yeah, by the time that's terrible, you're
done with that car, hate it. You're halfway through, there's
car payments, and that's setting you up for the opposite
of financial success. And so, yeah, savvy financial folks, they
make it a habit to avoid all the above debts.

(24:07):
They don't want to mess with any of them, and
they don't want to play with fire because they don't
want to get burned. So we also stress on this
show that not all debt is bad. It's possible to
use debt wisely to give yourself more options in the future.
If we're talking about like a smart mortgage or a
reasonable amount of student loans to get a degree that's
going to improve your earning potential, those things, you know,

(24:29):
those aren't bad versions of debt. But avoiding the worst
debts and keeping even the potentially helpful debt in check
is a wise habit to get into.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
And not honestly another reason too that it's good to
avoid debt. And we've talked about this towards the end
of last year when we were talking about pursuing happiness
in all the wrong ways. We're just poor predictors of
what it is that is going to make us happy.
We think that this is going to be something that's
going to make us happy, it's going to make us fulfilled.
And when those items oftentimes that we have to purchase,

(24:58):
when we finance them, we are stick our future selves,
like you said, Joel, with those payments. We are like,
I don't trust myself today to make some like the
right decision on when it comes to taking on debt
oftentimes to still be something that I think is going
to be worth it down the road. It's I mean,
that's why student loans and mortgages are typically the only
things that we like to see financed. If there's one

(25:19):
thing I feel like I've learned about myself over the
years is I change my mind sometimes and again I've
had this one path in my mind and I think, Oh,
this is going to make me happier. Oh, this is
going to make life easier. But then as time progresses,
as I'm mature, as different events present themselves and the
facts on the ground change, well, oftentimes that warrants a
change to the game plan as well. Yeah, and anytime

(25:41):
you are looking to take on any serious amount of debt,
we think you should probably think long and hard about
bringing that debt into your life.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Yeah, I think the habit of reflexively avoiding debt is
a good one to get into. Sure, it's not that,
like we said, occasionally, some kinds of debts and small
amounts aren't you know, they're not too able for you.
But kind of not buying into the popular American notion
that taking on debt isn't that big of a deal
is a good thing.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah, we're saying no, is probably like a good knee
jerk reaction when it comes to taking on debt. So
I feel like that we've kind of covered the like
the frugal portion of our episode where we're just talking
about cutting expenses and saying no to yourself. And but
that being said, we're not opposed to splurging occasionally, right,
finding your craft beer equivalent, and finding ways to amplify

(26:29):
the joy that you receive from certain expenses in your life.
Let's move on from expenses and shift our focus to investing,
because another habit that financially successful folks implement in their
lives is to invest with regularity, right, Like, they don't
care much about what the market's doing with what it
did yesterday with what it's doing today, but they want
to take advantage of the market's wealth generating capabilities over time.

(26:53):
And so with that mind, they sock money away with
each and every paycheck into an employer sponsored retirement plan
like a four to one K, or by contributing without
fail to their own retirement account, their individual retirement account.
They're IIRA, and doing that regularly means that they're often
opting for the dollar cost averaging approach, which ensures that

(27:13):
you're doing the right thing on repeat, no matter what
the current micro trends are going on in the financial world.
And so when it comes to the specific types of
investments that we once you invested in, we're not talking
about single stock investing, we're not talking about crypto. We
want to make sure that you're invested in widely diversified,
low cost, if not free, index funds that represent the
entire market, or something like the S and P five hundred,

(27:35):
which is where like ninety eight percent of my all
my investing dollars are in are in different indexes that
track the SMP.

Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yeah, and I think it's important to make investing a
regular habit, and that is what is going to lead
to financial success down the road. As those dollars compound
on top of each other, that's what's going to help
you build Well.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
Just like Kelby, it's the small lens constantly over time.

Speaker 1 (27:57):
Well, it's going to do a whole lot more. Not
that having money in the same these account isn't important,
but it's going to do a whole lot more because
your money's going to grow at a much more a
much quicker pace being invested in the economy as a whole,
as opposed to just sitting there in static savings.

Speaker 2 (28:12):
All right, Yeah, we want we want to move you
beyond being a saver and instead of taking those dollars
and actually investing.

Speaker 1 (28:17):
Yeah. Yeah, but automating your investments is one of the
most surefire ways to actually be able to achieve that success.
And so I like this, we going going back to
referencing our episode with Katie on Monday, But I mean,
you're able to take action one time and then you
don't really have to think about it again or revisit
that choice, really like you set it and forget it.
And so automation helps us do the right thing without

(28:38):
having to continue to decide to do that thing, which
I think is really important. It makes us less reliant
on our own discipline, It sets us up for success
when we'd otherwise be much more likely to become our
own worst enemy. Automation is just crucial on the investing front,
so that you don't have to Like, habits are great,
but a habit that you can set and forget so

(28:58):
that you don't have to teamually have the willpower to
push yourself in the right direction is massively important too, exactly.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Yeah, And that's where setting that percentage of your paycheck
that comes out every two weeks to go into investments
is definitely the easiest way to go about it. But
then for all the folks who don't have a work
sponsor retirement account, I think one of the best nuggets
of advice that Katie was able to give us on
Monday based on research is to make it fun and
that Joeld this is like one of the things I
think this was your big takeaway from that episode. Yeah,

(29:26):
but find a way to transform something that feels like
drudgery or even as like deprivation. Right, it's like you're thinking, oh,
this is money that I'm not able to spend on
the fun things here and now. Well, ay, remind yourself
that this is actually something that you are doing for
future you. But there are very small ways that you
can make investing that money fun in the here now,
where you are able to take advantage of that sort

(29:48):
of immediate gratification that you would realize. And like, one
of the things that Kate and I do is at
the beginning of every single year that like we don't
do dollar cost averaging, we save out.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
The previous year.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
That way we're able to release those dollars now basically
at the beginning of every single year. And we just
did that recently, and we marked the occasion by me
going out and buying an extra faincy beer, and that night,
after we put the kids down, we crack that bad
Boy open and Kate was just like, okay, why we
what's what's what's the special occasion? And I remind her that, like, hey,
this is renax out this or such a can. This

(30:18):
is what we just did, and it's just a very
small way just to mark the occasion. But also by
associating this fun thing that we do, it's not again,
just this thing that works in the background without us
realizing that it's happening. It's something that we are actually
enjoying and partaking into here and now, just via something
like a delicious craft beer.

Speaker 1 (30:37):
Yeah. I do think that attachment to fun is important,
and I think it's important to mention too that automation
it doesn't just apply to investing, like I think that
is one of the best easiest places to implement automation
into your life, but it also applies to paying your
bills on time so full as well, right, because if
you have to manually pay your credit card bill every month,
there's a chance that you're gonna forget right, which might

(30:58):
incur you penalties and intro and so for a lot
of folks, it's going to be best to set up
recurring payments that pay off the statement in full right.
And so the more we automate, the less we have
to rely on our flawed selves to make smart decisions. Habits,
they're important, but automation is just the best tool for
folks who think of themselves as weak willed, which I do, Matt,
I don't feel like I've got I'm the most disciplined

(31:19):
guy in the world. I certainly no James clear who
wrote the book Atomic Habits.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
And even for the most strong willed person, there are
always going to be times when they fail. Yeah, are
you just like that's just how it is forget right?
Which happens, Which is one of the things we talked about.

Speaker 1 (31:31):
As well on Monday. But while I'm all for cultivating
better habits in my life, off, I'm certainly I'm more
than open to taking those easy automation wins wherever I can.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Sure, But with that in mind, I think this is
going to sound like the exact opposite of what you
just said about automation.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
I'm nothing if not contrarian, I promise that's not. But
we also want you to revisit the things that you've automated,
and oftentimes on an annual basis, because we don't want
you to over rely on automation. And the reason for
that is because, like mostly so, they you can crank
up that savings in that investing rate, right and so,
for instance, going back to the work sponsor retirement account,

(32:07):
if you're contributing three percent automatically now and you're not
getting the full match, well, we want you to have
a plan to raise that in the coming months, in
the coming years. And so automation is great, but we
just don't want you to completely forget about it to
the point that you're never increasing those amounts, that you're
never challenging yourself to sock away more for retirement. That

(32:27):
being said, there are some four one K providers actually
that lets you schedule increases in advance as well, which
is super cool. You can automate your automation, yeah, exactly,
it's got this escalator built in.

Speaker 2 (32:39):
And so that's the downside of automation on the investing front.
But there's the downside when it comes to your expenses
as well, because if you have automatic payments you're also
to a certain extent, you're being insulated from fluctuations that
you might see in your bill. And this is specifically,
let's say, on utilities, which is something exactly. I still
have it set up on an automatic payment, but I look
at that bill every month because I want to know

(32:59):
my want to feel that pain. I want to feel
the pain even though I'm still auto paying it. I
don't just like forget that it exists exactly and forget
how much I'm spending. And this is kind of an
argument again for tracking and budgeting again because because I too,
all of my utilities are set up on autopay. That way,
I'm never going to get a late payment, any sort
of fee associated with not paying that on time. But

(33:22):
because I manually enter all my expenses into the budget,
that allows me again to kind of feel that pain.
And because of that, Like this is something I did recently, Joel,
like once it's started getting cold a few months ago,
and I was shocked to see the amount that we're
paying when it came to gas, our our energy bill.
And so since we've been in the new house, I'd
never programmed the thermostat, but you know what, seeing that

(33:44):
bill caused me to say, oh, it's time to fit.
And partly it is because it's not a nest thermostat,
which makes it so stink and easy to like schedule
the week. It's one of the traditional ones where you
have to like go to program at our yeah, wake
up time, leave home, arrive at home, sleep like that whole.
I hate that they don't make it easy.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
Maybe at some point you replace maybe, but.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
That they said that caused me to be like, you
know what, I want to spend a few minutes figure
the stupid thing out and guess what. The next month's
gas bill reflected that change.

Speaker 1 (34:12):
There you go. I like it. Well, okay, so we
talked about investing in automation here, but we say, like,
another habit that financially successful people partake in is investing
in themselves, right, which that would say that contributes to
a whole lot of financial success over time. And this
this doesn't mean that you've got to work over like
forty or fifty thousand dollars for an advanced degree. That

(34:33):
doesn't mean you got to go back to school for
three more years. I mean that time for that MBA,
I mean that might be what you ought to do
and that might be the best choice for you, but
we're also talking about spending the time, the energy, and
sometimes the cash to grow as a person and to
learn the skills that are going to allow you to
earn more money. Investing in yourself it's not just good
for your bottom line, but it's also super rewarding right

(34:55):
at the most basic human level. It feeds your thirst
for knowledge and growth and not to mention, it's fun
because it means often making new social connections, yeah, which
allows you to widen your network. And so we would
say make it a habit to find multiple ways each
year to grow as a person, and that can be
something directly related to your current career or the one
you want, or just embarking on a new hobby because

(35:16):
stretching yourself in new ways is a game changer for
us as humans. And this is the habit, this stretching
yourself habit and growing yourself and investing in yourself that
we think is something worth continually partaking in.

Speaker 2 (35:29):
And plus, I think folks would be surprised too at
what I'll call the spillover effect, which is they start
participating and like you said, like maybe a hobby that
they think is completely unrelated to their nine to five,
But then they find there are certain little lessons that
they're learning from their new hobby, or there's certain new
friendships that they're able to be made while they're working out,
Like there are all these additional, unexpected indirect ways that

(35:53):
ultimately it really can boost your bottom line. It really
can boost your income over time. But similar to investing
in yourself in order to make more money, we think
it's also important to prioritize financial education as well. And
so you know whether that's doing exactly what you're doing
right now, which is listening to a personal finance podcast
a few times a week, or like just picking up

(36:14):
one money book to read each and every quarter of
the year. But folks who are successful with their finances
are all about regularly upping their knowledge. It's interesting because
money is this fascinating space because it's not like there
are a bunch of like new rules, Like there's not
a bunch of new things that you need to learn
on an ongoing basis.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
It's not constantly changing or someone no, yeah.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
It's it's kind of like astronomy. It's like maybe every
now and then they're gonna decide that Pluto is not
a planet anymore, and then they'll change it back or
poor Pluto, I miss it. But you can go far,
you know, just by knowing and practicing the fundamentals. But
that doesn't mean that the world of personal finance isn't
isn't changing and involving in particular, whether that's like the

(36:52):
focus on like the behavioral psychology of personal finance. I
feel like that's something that's gotten a lot more attention
given to it over the the past few years. But yeah,
continuing education and looking at the different sources of personal
finance information out there, it'll allow you to just make
some subtle changes that will help you in your progress.
So we're dolling out all these different sports and analogy sports analogies, Joel,

(37:15):
But just like like sports go through different phases like
this as well, Like it makes in the NBA, like
back in the day, you're looking for these dudes that
could freaking dunk the ball, Like do you go down
the lane? Does it go up the lane? Is that
is that how it goes in the paint?

Speaker 1 (37:27):
Maybe? Yeah, But like I know, down photos were all
the rage twenty years ago, and now it's more of
the shooting guards.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
You're looking at the guys that can that can shoot
the three pointers.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
Well.

Speaker 2 (37:36):
Personal finance also has some similar shifts that we've seen recently.
For instance, for years, if you were a saver, it
felt like you were totally getting the shaft. But now
there are a lot of different places that savers can
put their money, and like, specifically I'm thinking about eyebonds,
the different high yield savings accounts that are available to
a lot of savers out there. Given the high amount

(37:57):
of inflation that we are now experience.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, spend less than you earn is like duh, right,
and that's like basic, the most basic of basic personal
times in the middle. Yeah, but you're right, as different
things change, as inflation soars in one area and not
as much in another, like it should influence our habits
how we buy things, and it should influence how we
save and where we save and stuff like that too,
So you're right. It's like it's not like the the

(38:23):
generic advice changes, but sometimes these specific actions that we
take do need to shift based on what's happening. So totally,
I think it's a good point. But there's some less
tactical habits that are worth implementing as well that are
going to help I think our listeners in massive ways
in the coming years when it comes to achieving their
financial goals. Let's get to those. We'll talk about that
right after this.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
All right, we are back, Juel, and you know, we're
continuing our discussion on the essential habits for financial success,
and so let's kind of keep that gravy train rolling. Man.
Another thing that financially successful folks do is they hang
out with like minded folks. And not only that, but
they also avoid comparing themselves to folks who they don't
want to be like. The folks we spend most of

(39:12):
our lives with are going to influence us more than
we think we are. We're social beings, and you know
what we think of just as normal day to day
decisions and our world views like they're often a construction
of what the like the four or five people that
we're closest to, what it is that they are doing,
what it is that they think about those things. And
so if our best friends are downsizing their car fleets

(39:33):
in order to save money, well, guess what that's going
to influence us in a positive way as well, helping
helping us to curb consumption. But on the contrary, if
they're buying a lake house that's out of their price range,
or they're buying a boat or something like that, if
they're draining their four oh one K in order to
make expenses like that happen, while, we're also going to
be more likely to follow suit, and so it's just

(39:54):
important to keep that in mind. Right, It's not that
we can't be friends with folks who think about the
world differently, who handle money differently than we do, but
just make it a habit to spend maybe more time
with folks who handle their money well and who will
also motivate you to do the same.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
Yeah. I just recently hung out with a friend who
hadn't seen in quite a while, and he has a
friend I know, right shock, but it's not allowed. But
he has a brand new Rivian SUV. We have talked,
we have talked on this show that there's like only
eight hundred and something of them in existence, and so goodness,
it was pretty impressive to see. Like I've been obsessed

(40:31):
with Rivians for ever since I heard about them. Basically,
I think they're now you're gonna get one, right, One
of the most beautifully designed vehicles in the world, and
so I was like, man, I'm excited to hang out
with him, but I'm also excited to see in this
car and they are dope. I got a chance to
ride in it, and I was like, man, if I
hung out with this buddy too much, I would be
so enticed to do to spend the money differently to

(40:53):
buy a fancy new car. But I actually walked away
from that being like, man, it's I'm not I don't
care anymore.

Speaker 2 (40:58):
Like like, I'm so glad that we're not closer, because
I'm so glad that I made a.

Speaker 1 (41:03):
Vow not to see him again for at least two more. Yeah,
got to get your ratios and check right. But it's
I mean, it's cool, but I get I totally understood
after that hang how just spending more time together would
lead me down this path. And so you have to
be cognizant of who you're spending time with because it
does impact the decisions that you make.

Speaker 2 (41:19):
And part of that.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Means I think we need to be we need to
be making it a habit to talk about money more
in general. And it is like it's obviously it's a
taboo topic. For a lot of people. Most people try
to avoid it. Most of your friends probably don't want
to talk to you about money if you try to
bring it up. But whether you're making it something like
a formal monthly conversation amongst friends over a.

Speaker 2 (41:37):
Beer, like a money club, Yeah, something like that. Yeah,
I mean, however you want to you can even use
that name that what we heard. It can be like
formal or informal, like however you want to tackle it.
But we would say like having money conversations is going
to move the needle for you over time. So you
offer it up an opinion, share a struggle, or discuss
the money goal that you're trying to achieve this year

(41:58):
with some people you care about, people that are close
to you. You might find encouragement, accountability, or insight that
you'd otherwise be missing out on. But I think that's
a habit that also has lasting impacts. The more we
kind of avoid this topic, the more it's like an
elephant in the room that we just like never ever
broach the subject of. The more we relegate it to
like and never being spoken of, the less likely we

(42:20):
are to make progress in our own lives. I think, yeah,
it just shows how uncomfortable we are with money as.

Speaker 1 (42:26):
A whole totally.

Speaker 2 (42:27):
Yeah, I mean, and while like, if you're listening to
the show, like there's a chance that you might make
pretty decent decisions when it comes to your money, if
you're not opting to talk about it with your friends
who aren't listening to our show, there's a good chance
that they're going to make poor decisions because of that.
They say that, like sunshine is the best disinfectant, right,
and so in that way, we want to bring these
financial conversations to light. And we I mean, we talked

(42:50):
a lot about this, like during the early days of
our podcast.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
And by the way, this does not mean beating your
friend over the head with the Cramcy book or something
like that, but it does mean, like, like I said,
there's all sorts of soft ways to get in discuss,
casual ways to go about it.

Speaker 2 (43:01):
And we just want folks to talk more about money
because the more you talk about it, the more interesting
is going to become, and the more you'll be able
to challenge each other to make wiser financial decisions. Like
there's a degree of accountability and honestly, just the ability
for you to provide a differing opinion. You know, like
somebody they might be surrounded by their four or five
people in their neighborhood and they're being encouraged to make

(43:23):
certain purchases in life because that's just what everybody in
the neighborhood's doing. But what they really need is that
frugal contrarian that you might be. That might be the
role that you need to play in their life, and
that's going to allow them to perhaps get much fur
their along with the different financial goals that they've got
in their life.

Speaker 1 (43:40):
Yeah, I mean, I think the truth is we're social beings, right,
and there's a reason that lots of folks have to
work out at the gym instead of at home. There's
a reason folks are willing to pay a ton of
money to go to a concert or to go see like,
let's say an NFL playoff game. Right, how much how
expensive our Super Bowl tickets every year? They're not cheap
of That is not just seeing the game, but it's

(44:02):
being around like a bunch of people cheering in the
same direction that you are, and that can be kind
of an experience. And I think the same is true
of money progress. Right, There's something magical about incorporating other humans,
even if we're striving towards accomplishing distinctly personal and unique
goals with our money. There's something about the accountability, but
also like being able to make progress forward together together.

Speaker 2 (44:24):
Yeah, dude, absolutely, Like I'm gonna butcher. I don't have
a specific quote here, but I think it's it was C. S.
Lewis who actually was speaking about friendship in this way.
I think it was him, And one of the things
he said was that, like, what is at the core
of a friendship is being able to stand next to
somebody and for both of you to look at something
and point to that and be like, oh, look at that.

(44:45):
Isn't that awesome to kind of have a shared interest
or passion about something you're basically both agreeing that the
thing you're looking at is lovely?

Speaker 1 (44:54):
Yea.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
And you know this sounds maybe a little too mushy
and poetic, but you can also do that about money,
Like that is something that you can do with your friends,
with your coworkers, And I think that's that's.

Speaker 1 (45:03):
Just super cool. It's just really awesome. And that doesn't
mean lording your four O one K balance over them. Yeah, well,
look at how awesome. It's a total gross way of
doing it. There's other way, better ways of doing We've
talked about that in the past. Maybe we'll link to
that episode in the show notes. But yeah, you don't
have to give even specific numbers. There's ways to have
that money conversation without being like, look in my income,
here's my pay stuff.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
Instead, you can talk about instead of specific numbers, percentages.
That's a great way of talking about the general habit
and the behavior without getting overlease specific sure.

Speaker 1 (45:31):
Or goals or maybe a piece of personal finance content
you've come across that kind of change your perspective on something.
Those are good ways to initiate the conversation without making
someone else who's not where you are feel like an
idiot exactly. But another financial habit we would say would
be important to implement this year in twenty twenty three
would be to write your goals down, because this habit
really can make a massive change when it comes to

(45:52):
actually taking the action. If you're putting pen to paper,
if you're outlining what you're working towards, the likelihood that
you're going to prioritize that thing goes up substantially. There's
something about like pen to paper, and how it affects
our memory, Like if you're listening to someone speak and
you're taking notes, you're going to retain more information. And
it's the same thing when you write down your goals,
like there's no waffling and guessing what you should be

(46:12):
doing when extra money comes into your account. Let's say
another stimulus check. More to occur, unlikely, but let's say it.
Let's say did or a tax refund that's kind of
similar for a lot of people. That's like an annual
stimulus check that comes along. A lot of people make
or get like a multi thousand dollars tax refund, and
that is a way for you to jump start financial
progress in your life. But being in tune with the

(46:33):
goals to the point that you have committed them to
writing is a method of personal accountability. It shows that
you take your own hopes and dreams seriously. And like
we said earlier, a lot of these habits can be
implemented even if you're unsure about your larger money goals.
But this one is a game changer. Once you've kind
of started to figure out those out and once you've
decided where it is you want your money to go

(46:53):
like writing that goal down and it almost ensures that
your money is going to follow suit.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
That's right, But you also want to limit the number
of goals that you're striving after as well, right, because yeah,
like successful financial nerves, they set goals, but not too
many of them, because it's going to be hard to
achieve thirty two different goals that you've got set in
twenty twenty three. In fact, the person I think who
sets a fewer goals is more likely to then accomplish
the goals that they didn't call out from the from

(47:20):
the outset, right. And so just simply by limiting your
scope by by narrowing your focus, that laser like attention
on just like one to three different goals that you
have on the you know, on the biggest wins that
you want to see that is going to translate to
a higher success rate, and you know, to doing it
more quickly, I think, so that you can then just
move on to the other goals that you have more quickly.

(47:42):
And one of the other things that Katie had talked
about was basically implementing a plan to achieve these different goals,
because we don't want you to just stop at writing
down your goal, but literally write out some of the
steps necessary in order to break down that big, somewhat
overwhelming goal down into small, bite size actions. Write those,
enlist those things, those steps out as well. So, for instance,

(48:04):
if you're thinking, by the end of this year, I
want to have a fully funded emergency fund set up, cool,
what does that even look like? That's a great goal
to have.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
I bet you can have five, six, seven steps. Oh
easily take absolutely work backwards to the big goal.

Speaker 2 (48:17):
Step one, track your expenses. Figure out how much it
costs for you to survive on this planet over a
thirty day period. Step two, multiply that by three or
four or five or six, depending on how many months
of reserves that you want to have. But then beyond that,
right like figuring out how much you need to sit aside,
Like divide that out by twelve so that you know
that each paycheck, I want to make sure I set

(48:38):
this amount of money aside. But figure out and literally
start solving the problems. Start cracking that nut now by
not just writing up the goal, but some of the
specific steps that are going to allow you to achieve
that ultimate.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Goal for sure, and like the truth is ultimately Matt
like habits make or break us, and it's it's not
the self discipline is dumb or a waste of time,
but thinking that greater level of willpower are going to
elevate us to where we want to be. It's kind
of naive, right. It's one of those things where I've
said that a lot over the years, like hoping that
I would rise to the occasion you.

Speaker 2 (49:09):
Can just will it into existence, right, like the emergency fund,
like no, like there are some very practical steps as
opposed to just being like I gotta figure that out. Yes,
this is like, well, well what does that mean?

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Like that is a response and we're all honest, we've
all had at different time, especially on the subject of money,
where it feels like we need more information, where we
can always say like we don't know enough, or there's
all sorts of excuses we can give for not doing
the thing that we need to do and for not
implementing the tactics that are going to help us get
where we want to be. But like we would say,
implementing just a few of these habits is going to

(49:39):
put you on the path to progress, ye, making it
so much more likely that you're going to take strides,
and you're going to take them more quickly. You don't
even have to have specific goals like at crewing a
million dollar net worth by the time you're forty five
or something like that. It doesn't have to be that
intense or that ridiculous. But those goals are going to
come into focus as you habitually make smart moves and
gain confidence. I think that's actually going to give you

(50:00):
the confidence to make and set goals that are bigger
and more audacious. And a quote that stuck out to
me about from James Clear actually he said, tell.

Speaker 2 (50:09):
It, Jimmy.

Speaker 1 (50:09):
Action relieves anxiety. And I think that the habits that
we choose to implement are directly they're directly under our control,
and implementing even just one or two of those could
really kickstart a financial transformation in our lives. So action
is the key getting these habits started, at least a
few of them. Is. You know, we might look back
at the end of this year and say, wow, those

(50:31):
three habits took me a long way. They took me
a long way towards the goals I wanted to I
wanted to reach.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
That's right, man, Yeah, hopefully folks have been encouraged to
take some practical steps, steps that lead to action when
it comes to their personal finances. Let's shift back to
the beer. During this episode, you and I enjoyed a
liquid hop Magma Austin Powers reference. Right, I go, what
were your thoughts on this beer?

Speaker 1 (50:55):
So this one leaned in the fruity direction. I would
say an ipa. That's definitely more fruit for it, even
though it doesn't have fruit in the making of this beer.
It's like, literally, that's what I'm all constantly amazed at
hops and have different combinations of those hops can can
create a completely different flavor profile.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
And it kind of makes me think of is it
the different jelly beans where they've got all the different flavors,
but by the different combinations of putting all together you
can make like different dishes. Yeah, that's right, that's kind
of what I think. So let's combine this hop with
this hop with this hop, and all of a sudden
tastes like a key line.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
That's true, I mean yeah, And that's that's what's crazy
about these little green They look like Brussels sprouts, but
somehow they make beers taste fantastic. And this one was
like more passion fruit notes that I'm getting.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
Way more citrusy. Yeah, for sure, So I will say
I liked it.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
It was fantastic. And this is probably even more up
your alley because you like the sweet.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
Sweet or Yeah, this is I mean it's not like
an orange cream sickle or anything like that, but it
definitely kind of had those smooth, creamy.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Vibes going on.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
And this is our last beer that we are going
to enjoy from Mutation. But more than anything, man, I
am just glad that we have yet another fantastic craft
brewery here in the city of Atlanta. The marrier the more,
the merrier, for sure. The guys over at Mutation are
doing a great job and we still look forward to
heading up. I mean they just opened up, yeah, just

(52:11):
a few months ago. Soon, it hasn't been that long.
I will say, we haven't been there yet.

Speaker 1 (52:15):
We need to make it a habit to go to
more breweries, but we've already made it a habit to
drink beer on the show, and we've had something close
to put five hundred beers on How to Money now
in our five years five plus years of existence. So
it makes it sound like ROMANIAX, but we're not. What
do you think, Well, that's the thing is like when
you break it down into smaller increments. That's two beers
a week, all right, guys. That's not intense, that's not overwhelming.

(52:35):
But we are thankful that we get to do this
job every single week, that we get to hang out
with each other talk about money. And really it's you,
listeners who make this podcast possible. So thank you and
we wish you the best of success this year in
forming solid money habits that are going to change your future.
That's what we want to see for you.

Speaker 2 (52:53):
That's right, and we would love for you to hear
our next episode, which comes out on Friday. So if
you are not already a scriber, mash that subscribe button
so you don't miss the next episode. But if you
are a long time listener and you haven't left us
a solid review yet, head over to Apple Podcasts or
wherever you listen, give us a solid rating, solid review
over there, and a big thank you in advance for that.

(53:14):
We'll make sure to link to any of the different
resources that we mentioned up on our website at howtomoney
dot com. Joel, It's going to be it Buddy for
this episode until next time. Best Friends Out, best Friends Out,

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Joel Larsgaard

Matthew Altmix

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